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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2037607" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 152: Tired and BrokenNine was pacing. She had been pacing in front of Ket’s desk for the last twenty minutes, having gotten bored of watching his toys. She was currently just as bored of pacing back and forth, however there wasn’t much else she could do at this point. And it was something at least. Though trying to ignore Ket’s constant giggles was becoming tiresome. Add to that a rowring and skittering sound down near the entrance to the column-lined ‘office’, and she was trapped between idiots. Seemed like the brat was entertaining himself back there. Sighing, she shook her head and stepped back over to Ket.    He looked up from the two holoprojections and smiled happily. Pointing to one, he announced, “This human woman is very interesting, indeed! Not much skill with that lightsaber, but she manages to wield it well enough anyway.”    “What level are they up to?” Nine asked, stepping around the desk to look at the holos properly.    Ket was still pointing to the same one, glancing over his shoulder to her, “Well, the human and our little toy are up to level fifty three,” he then pointed over to the other, “The males are at fifty four, though they’ve had a bit of an easier time. Somehow, they managed to sneak up behind one of the smaller groups of droids and took them out from behind.”    “I told you they would eventually,” commented Nine, more off hand than anything.    “Yes, of course,” Ket admitted, not really caring anyway, “There should be meeting up together again in two more levels. Well, one for the males if they wait...but there’s a few droids there to hold them until the females arrive.”    Nine raised an eyebrow, but still not surprised at how planned out Ket had this, “And then?”    “And then...” he glanced at her again, a proud smile on his face, “Then one more level and they’ll run into the last of that batch of droids. Then they’ll be here and we can say goodbye in person.”    “How many droids are left on that level?”    Ket took a moment to think about it, then waved his hand vaguely, “Seven or so. I don’t remember, exactly. Lost count watching these. Very entertaining. She fights so viciously. But its controlled. Nothing like...like...”    “Me.”    “Yes. You,” he rolled his eyes and poked the holo of the young Alraxian female, “It reminds me so much of Marix.”    Nine quickly changed the subject, “So you plan to wait until they get here to leave?”    He gave her a careful look, noting the quick change in both her tone and the subject, but nodded anyway, “Yes, I’m sorry, but it doesn’t look like those droids will be enough to take her down here.”    “She will figure out their purpose and follow us,” Nine stated flatly, not hinting at how much this annoyed her. She would probably never understand Ket’s need to play with his prey before just killing it.    “Of course she will,” he said with a chuckle, “But the brat should slow her down and give us time to reach our contacts. Then we can distribute the droids and by then she won’t even know where in the Empire we end up.”    “Until the attack,” again, a flat and simple comment from Nine.    “Obviously,” Ket rolled his eyes and looked back to the holoprojections. His understanding of Nine’s need to state even the most simple of facts was just as bad as her understanding of his need to toy with his prey.* * * *Shadow had never felt so tired in her entire life. Marix agreed. Fighter after fight with those damned droids and she was exhausted. The stairs didn’t help. Nothing helped. She was too tired to focus on the Force. Too tired to even morph anymore. She was no longer in that metal body, mostly out of worry she wouldn’t ever be able to morph back. There were cuts, bruises, and scars all across her body, a very uncharacteristic sight on Shadow. She needed food...rest...sleep. But they still had to go up. Always up. Damn Ket. Damn him and that clone.    “There’s the next stairwell,” Jen panted, pointing forward with the purple blade of Shadow’s lightsaber. Shadow nodded tiredly and walked as fast as she could with her. Jen didn’t look any better. She was as bruised and beaten as Shadow was, and her right arm had a long, vertical slash across it that they’d attempted to patch up three levels down. Those metal blades on the droids’ arms were very, very sharp. At least it was her left arm, which meant she could still wield the lightsaber effectively enough. Sure, she wasn’t as quick with it as Akan or Titus, but she could cut and defend herself. The Force assisted in that so much that she was thanking it with every step she took. The Force was probably the only thing keeping her standing at this point.    And yet again, the two of them began to climb a steep flight of stairs. Each step was harder to take than the previous one, and Shadow was feeling the weight of her fatigue in a way that Alraxian rarely ever did. It was worrying to her, and if not for Marix, she would have thought she was dying. But thankfully, Marix at least understood fatigue and exhaustion at an intellectual level. Enough to reassure them that they weren’t dying, instead that they needed to eat badly. Eat and then sleep for a few days.    A noise echoed down the stairwell before they even reached the turn to head up the second half of it. The noise was familiar to both of them. It was a loud, sizzling spark of metal that was unique to a cutting lightsaber. Somehow, that noise ignited a new spark of energy within the two of them. With a quick glance between them, they managed to speed up their climb. They quickly rounded the corner to the second half of the stairwell, looking up to see the usual hallway at the top. But unlike each of the other times, the dim lights were accented by vaguely coloured flashes.    Reaching the top of the stairs, they looked straight down the corridor to see the backs of both Titus and Akan. Adding to that, there were two orange blades and a blue-green one, flashing and slicing at the remaining droid in front of them. Behind them were the usual pieces of droid limbs and even a couple of other body parts littering the floor. There was a loud thud, and in a moment, the droid in front of the Akan and Titus was down. Their heavy breathing echoed loudly through the silent corridor, and Shadow realized it was probably not the best idea to sneak up on them at a time like this.    [Boo.]    Akan jumped. In fact, he nearly fell on his face after tripping over a piece of droid. When he spun around, his wide eyed, surprised look turned into a glare. Shadow managed a apologetic look, though it was slowly being overtaken by a grin. Titus turned around and smiled at seeing them. Lightsabers were deactivated and there was a moment of greetings and score comparing. Apparently, they’d fought through the same amount of droids. And from the look of both Akan and Titus, it was believable. They looked as exhausted as Shadow and Jen did, with the same amount of bruises and cuts. Akan had his scruffy hair to add to it, making him look like something that even the local sewer spit out.    It wasn’t long before they were back to business, though, searching for the stairwell to the next level. There were two going down, of course, but this level proved to be more of a maze than the others and it took them nearly ten minutes to find the one going up. And as one group, again, they moved up together. By default of having found it first, Akan and Titus were in the lead. For once, even Shadow wasn’t going to complain about being in the back. Especially when they reached the next level. This one wasn’t a maze of corridors. This was a wide open chamber, and directly on the opposite side was another stairwell. But it wasn’t empty.    Around the center of the room were more of the droids. Eight of them, to be exact. Four of them held heavy, repeating blaster rifles. Weapons usually mounted on tripods for stable firing, and these droids were holding them like pistols. The four others were simply like the countless other droids they’d encountered. Bladed arms only. But did they really need anything else? Of course not...but obviously, need had nothing to do with this. Four lightsaber blades were activated and a set of sharp claws were unsheathed. A second later, the repeating rifles opened fire. Akan and Titus did their best to deflect the shots back, but four rifles that shot blaster bolt after blaster bolt in an endless stream every second was something that neither of them could keep up defending against in their tired states.    The first shot to get past either of them hit Akan in the shoulder. The force of the shot sent him stumbling back into Shadow, who was behind him. It also caused his right arm, which was holding the lightsaber, to fall to the side and leave him undefended, allowing more of the barrage of blaster bolts to hit. Shadow climbed over him, knowing there was nothing she could do right now but get in close and kill these droids. She pushed off Akan, sending him to the ground and, thankfully, out of the line of fire, while sending her diving at the nearest of the droids. Her claws dug into the droid’s skull and prying inward to destroy the ‘brain’ as quickly as possible. Though she got the skull plating open, an arm grabbed her and flung her across the room. Shadow hit the floor hard before sliding into the wall. As the ‘normal’ droids began to approach the two Voorts, one of the blaster equipped ones turned to Shadow, not even letting go of the weapon’s trigger.    She didn’t close her eyes as the staggered, red line of blaster fire arced its way towards her, which meant she actually saw the droid fly straight up in the ceiling at the speed of lightning. It hit head first, crushing it in violent sparks before the droid’s remaining pieces fell back to the ground. A nearby droid noticed this, and turned to Shadow in a run, preparing to dive at her with its bladed arms first before she could even get to her feet. But again, something happened. This time, instead of up, the droid went left in a flash, streaking off before shattering against the far wall. She then noticed that the blaster fire had stopped, and looked back to the main group to see only droids left standing. The remaining ones had been scattered across the room and were all in various shapes of disrepair. But all the skulls were smashed, and none of them moved.    The two that were left were charging at...Jen? Where was Titus?! Shadow’s eyes raced and she saw the man face first on the ground, not far from where Akan had fallen. He had likely been taken down in the same way. Just too much. But no, he was moving. Looking up to the two droids charging forward at the two of them. And then, Shadow watched in an almost horrified interest, as Jen yelled something unintelligible. One arm outstretched, and from it, violent arcs of blue lightning shot out. They went right over Titus, engulfing the two droids and causing them to spark and shake before the shimmering metal of their armor actually melted. Smoke suddenly exploded out from the skulls, and it all stopped.    The two droids fell, melted heaps of scrap metal. And Jen stood alone in the room. The only one still standing. Eight of those droids, all taken down by one exhausted woman. And yet she still stood. Shadow was crawling over to check on Akan, knowing he was alive but mentally nudging him back to consciousness. Titus had managed to sit up, and in a moment Jen was in his arms, clinging to him and sobbing violently. Through it all, Titus stroked her hair and held her close, saying quietly, “Its okay...its okay, Jen. Its almost over, now. Its okay...”    Through the sobs, she whispered an apology. She repeated it again and again as the tears slowly faded away again. But somehow, none of this got through to Titus or Shadow. Both were too caught up in the moment to step back and think. And the one of them who would be the one to actually stop and think about it was unconscious, with Shadow doing her best to wake him. They had to keep moving. She could feel Ket near. Yet even Marix didn’t realize how this was blinding her to what was really going on.</blockquote>

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