Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2044604" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 154: How Far We've Fallen“A cute little brat, isn’t he?” a voice echoed down the large chamber. All of their attention was immediately pulled away from the unmoving Alraxian child to the turn in the corridor. There was no one there. Just as empty as it had been before. But that voice hadn’t been from a comm system. It really had echoed from around that corner. And the Voorts were on it.    Ignoring the fact that there could very easily be more traps under their feet, the two humans ran past the Alraxians and to the corner. Around it, the columns spread out, revealing great glasteel windows that were starting to get a soft orange glow. The sun was rising. About twenty meters in front of them was a single desk and an empty chair behind it. The desk was clean and looked as if it had never been used. But past it, about another twenty or so meters, a set of small steps rose up to an open turbolift door that was flanked by two wide open windows. Standing there in the turbolift were two Alraxians.    The female was easily recognized as the clone, Delta Nine, standing tall and with an emotionless face. She watched them in a bored way, nothing like the male standing next to her. He was just as tall as Nine, broad shouldered yet he looked more like a planetary governor than a warrior. It was in the face. The short, neat black hair, strong lines in the face that reminded Jen of Titus, and two piercing, silver eyes. And he was smiling. Proudly. That arrogant smile that was always accompanied with some kind of ‘I’ve won, and here’s how...’ speech. The smile grew even more a moment later, and Titus knew why.    Shadow and Akan had caught up. From the looks of it, Shadow had been half-carried by Akan. Only half-carried because Shadow always refused such assistance. She’d probably only accepted it because of other variables that were in the situation. The main one being that Alraxian smiling at them. But when the two of them stopped and Shadow’s eyes fell on the Alraxians at the opposite end of the room, she seemed to gain a small surge of energy. Enough to stand on her own and growl.    Halpak laughed at that, sounding genuinely amused by the sound, “I am so sorry, my dear, but we really don’t have time to play. You must understand that it pushed our schedule to even wait and say hello...or goodbye, depending on your point of view, of course.”    “You’re not going anywhere, tail-less!” Shadow snapped back, taking a few careful steps over to the desk. The Voorts and Akan then noticed that her description of Halpak as ‘tail-less’ wasn’t just an insult. In fact, it looked like he had a simple stump for a tail.    And at those words, the amusement was drained from Halpak’s face, quickly replaced by a very dangerous look of rage. Viciously, he yelled back, his voice echoing through the chamber eerily, “Don’t think I don’t plan to return the favor!” silence hung in the room after that, before Halpak’s voice calmed again, though his expression did not, “I truly must apologize to you all. We must be going as the Mrrakesh are not the most patient of people.”    He then reached for a panel within the turbolift. He stopped, though, at hearing Shadow’s voice again, “So now you’ll sell your own people out and kill them too?! I should have taken more than your tail!”    Halpak laughed slightly, “My people? You actually can think of them as my people? When they take me away from my family and my life, treat me like dirt and turn me into some mindless assassin just because my eyes are a different colour?! You know as well as I do that they are not my people! They aren’t yours either, no matter what you may want to think! They’d throw you out in a second and call for your death if the people found out what you really are! Or rather, when they found out.”    But Shadow didn’t have another chance to speak. Footsteps caused her to go silent as she looked to the source. Jen. The woman was charged forward, past the desk and right up the steps. She had no weapon in her hands, but there was a soft glow growing from her fist. She got within a meter of Halpak before he took notice of her, simply reaching out with a hand lazily. A heavy wall of the Force itself collided with Jen, sending her rolling back down the steps. Halpak exchanged a look with Nine, then walked out of the turbolift, casually down the steps and in front of Jen’s unmoving body.    Reaching down, he lifted her up onto her feet again...but did so with only the Force. Her eyes were open, a maddening look in them and he just smiled to her, saying quietly, “I was right to watch you. I’m sorry I can’t stay any longer to enjoy the fun. I hope you enjoy it, though.”    Then, after a quiet word that even Nine didn’t hear, he flung her to the side, sending Jen flying into the desk hard. The force of her hitting it shattered the fake-wooden desk, and Titus finally found himself able to move again. Calling her name, he quickly ran to the mess she was buried amongst, kneeling down and trying to dig her out quickly. At the same time, both Shadow and Akan had started towards Halpak, but neither of them got close enough before he was in the turbolift, waving to them with a smile, and gone.    Titus didn’t care. He got a large piece of the desk off of Jen and was relieved to see she was still alive. Her eyes were even open. A smile reached Titus’ face somehow, and he did his best to help her up. But to his surprise, Jen batted his arm away roughly. It seemed like something clicked in her eyes and they were like nothing he’d ever seen in her before. Suddenly, she lashed out and kicked him hard in the chest. A moment later, she scrambled to her feet and back away from the three of them.    “Jen!” Titus called out instinctively, catching his breath and getting to his feet. There was a look of worry on his face as he carefully walked towards her again.    Quickly, Jen backed away from him, up the steps and off to one side, screaming at him, “Get away from me!”    But Titus still took a step forward, though it was slower and more careful time. He took a moment to find his voice, and it came out sounding as terrified as the look on his face, “Jen...its me...come on...I’m not going to hurt you...”    “Stay away from me, Sith!” she cried out, taking another step back and hitting the glasteel window behind her. She glanced at it in a moment of panic, looking very much like a cornered animal. Looking back to them, Jen’s eyes ran over the two Alraxians and then back to Titus, “You lied to me! You lied to me and I loved you!”    Titus opened his mouth, but no words came out. He could feel a change in her, yet couldn’t describe it beyond that it was wrong. Not able to find any words, he simply took another small step forward, reaching a hand out towards her. The look that this got from Jen was like venom. And Akan stood in horror as he watched it all with a sense of deja vu. Jen said something else...but he didn’t hear it. It was all a blur.     The next moment, Akan watched as the glasteel behind Jen was shattered by an unseen force. Distantly, Akan heard Jen speak something...and though again, he didn’t actually grasp the words, the feeling was enough. The feeling was also easy to describe. Hate. Anger. Everything he’d been afraid of from the very beginning. Without another word, Jen took a single step back, out of the shattered window and out of sight. And then there was silence. It was a silence that didn’t last lost.    “What did he do to her?!” Titus screamed, spinning around to glare straight at Shadow.    But she had no words. She didn’t know what to say...or to think. Jen was gone. Halpak was gone. Nine was gone. And she couldn’t help but feel that it was her fault. She shouldn’t have hesitated and let Halpak talk. She should have listened to Akan, no matter how paranoid his claims had been. And so Shadow just stood there, frozen with shock for the first time in her life.    “What did you do to her?!” Titus yelled, his face bending and twisting to match the rage in his voice. But still, he got no answer. And his hands were on his lightsaber again, taking the weapon from his belt and looking across the room to Shadow. His voice marred by anger to the point where it barely even sounded lie his own anymore, Voort growled, “This is your fault! You knew she shouldn’t have been here! She wasn’t ready! This is all your fault!”    And then, with a snap-hiss from the lightsaber, the orange blade came to life. It came to life in motion as Voort charged forward, straight to the still unmoving Shadow. And Akan watched. He watched in slow motion as Voort got closer and closer. He watched as the lightsaber rose, then began its fall towards Shadow. And he couldn’t move. His body was frozen with the same terror and horrible realization of what was happening...and yet Voort still charged. The blade still fell towards Shadow. And somewhere, Halpak was laughing to himself.((Sorry for the later than usual update. Net was down last night. Still planning on the usual timed update for tonight...hopefully.))</blockquote>

Verification