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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2230180" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 213: Bigger, Stronger, Faster...But Still InsaneChaos was putting it too simply. The bombardment...or at least, what Jyren assumed was a bombardment, didn’t let up at all. He followed Shadow through the hallways, running as fast as they could and trying to find someone. Anyone, at this point. It took two long, deafening minutes before they found a small group of Alraxians who were heading towards their left.    Quickly, Shadow grabbed one of the male’s arms and looked him in the eyes, “Where are you going?”    The Alraxian stuttered a moment, obviously still in a state of shock. When there was another explosion that couldn’t have been far off, he jumped and then found his voice, “W-why aren’t you off the planet by now?! We’re going for the last of the ships!”    Shadow and Jyren exchanged a quick look and an identical thoughts. It had only been a few minutes, and there was only one ship left? To Jyren, this was more of a surprise. He didn’t know there were so many all around, but it was still amazing to think how quickly most of the Alraxian’s had gone.    “What exactly is happening?!” was Shadow’s next question.    Again, the Alraxian stuttered, but didn’t take as long to find words this time, “I-I-I don’t know! They say it’s the Mrrakesh attacking! Probably the only one’s who know for sure are the Empress and the Knights.”    The Knights. Quickly, Shadow asked a third question, “Where are the Knights?”    “I saw a group heading towards the south end...” the Alraxian pointed down from the direction Jyren and Shadow had come from.    She sighed, but nodded and looked to Jyren, “Go with them to the ship and get out of here.”    Two steps past him to head for the Knights, and Shadow was stopped by Jyren grabbing her arm. She turned to look at him, seeing the expression on his face she’d been dreading. He knew that she had to go. She did, too. And it would have been easier if she had just gone and nothing had been said. Pretend it wasn’t happening. But Jyren had stopped that from being a possibility now.    “I have to,” she whispered, the words drowned out by another explosion. Not that Jyren didn’t know what she was saying, of course. A few more seconds passed before he nodded, squeezed her arm, and then let go. She actually hesitated for another second before turning and heading the other direction.    Jyren would have stood there and watched her run the other direction if the other Alraxian didn’t grab his arm and say, “Come on, we’ve got to go.”    He turned, and the two of them took two steps towards where the rest of the group had run off to minutes ago. Then, there was another explosion. This one, though, they only half heard. The second half was so loud that their ears couldn’t pick it up, and even if it could, the roar of the ceiling collapsing in drowned out everything else. Large pieces fell, and Jyren barely managed to get them both out of the way .    But it wasn’t the ceiling collapsing in that provided the real danger. It was what fell in with the ceiling. In the hole made by whatever had happened, Jyren watched two slightly shining forms drop down. He recognized them immediately. Two of Ket’s war droids. And they were down in a second, dropping on top of the chunks of the ceiling that had fallen between them.    And they weren’t dropping and standing there like in all those holodramas. They were moving right for Jyren and the other Alraxian, the large bladed-right arm already in mid swing by the time they’d landed. Quickly, Jyren pushed the Alraxian back and out of the way of the first droid’s slash, while at the same time ducking and rolling away from the second’s.    Getting to his feet, his lightsaber was already in hand, and he was still thanking the Force that he had it with him. The snap-hiss of the blade echoed through the corridor at the same time as another, distant explosion. The blue-green light reflected off the two droids as they focused on what was obviously a threat to them. And Jyren was confident. Last time he’d fought with these things felt like years ago...he’d been shorter, weaker, and didn’t have the advantage of knowing what the droids were capable of.    Now, though, things were different. He was no the same height as the droids, and so they no longer looked nearly as intimidating as before. It was amazing how much that helped to be able to look them in the...well...where their eyes would have been if the faces weren’t so skeletal. But there wasn’t much time for thinking, as the droids weren’t the kind to stand around and let him destroy them. They were going to kill him, and in their little droid brains, there wasn’t any other outcome.    Thankfully, the Force allowed for more possibilities than droid circuitry. With a quick , vertical slash, Jyren took of the blade-arm of the first droid, while sidestepping the second’s swing to cleave him into two. Drawing on the Force, he reached out and extended a hand towards the one-armed droid as it began to reform. But before a new arm replaced the old, an invisible wall hit it and crushed the metal against the wall behind it.    Which left Jyren to duck under a strike from the remaining war droid before lopping off its head without any trouble. Breathing heavily, he realized how easy it had been compared to last time. Deactivating his lightsaber, he turned to see that the other Alraxian was staring at him with a shocked look.    Jyren couldn’t help a grin, though the constant explosions didn’t exactly help. The Alraxian said something about going back to the ship, but for some reason Jyren didn’t actually hear it. Something was bugging him. Something was wrong. The droids? They had been easy...but no. No, that wasn’t it. Shadow, then? Maybe...she was alright. He could feel that. But...still, that didn’t feel right.    What was it?!    For some reason beyond his understanding(which he would later attribute to destiny or something mystical like that), he checked his pockets. Nothing. Nothing. Why was nothing bad? He wasn’t wearing the suit anymore so there shouldn’t be anything in these pockets...    That thing the Jendari had given him! It was still in his jacket pocket. His suit’s jacket pocket. His eyes widened. Quickly, Jyren looked to the Alraxian and pointed towards wherever it was they were originally going, “Go on without me! Tell them to wait if they can, but don’t wait on me if you have to!”    When he turned and started running back towards the room(and, ironically, the same direction Shadow had gone), Jyren heard the Alraxian yell in his direction, “Wait! What are you doing?!”    Turning the corner and already out of sight, Jyren yelled back the only answer he could think of, “I have no idea! Now go before my insanity spreads!”</blockquote>

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