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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2323164" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 232: Hand OffOne day, there was going to be a point when these crazy ideas would stop working. One day, they would try again and fail. One day, this kind of thing would get Jyren and Shadow killed. And, as they plummeted down the however many meters from the top level of the central building on the Capital world to the street below, Jyren couldn’t help but figure this was that day. It wasn’t like he was reaching when coming to that conclusion, either.    Usually, he at least had a back up plan to get them out of whatever insanity Shadow dove into...or vice versa if Jyren was the one charging in first. If not, it was usually plainly obvious what the necessary course of action was...or the link was a flurry of activity as the two of them ran through any idea possible to get out of whatever problem had come up.    But this time was different. They fell silently...if one could call it truly silent as the air around them roared in their ears. But there was nothing else. The link was silent and empty, and no ideas came to mind as the street below continued to rush up.    [Morph. Now!] Shadow’s voice echoed through the link with a sharpness that almost made him react without thinking about it. But, thankfully, Jyren caught himself. He didn’t know the specifics of the Alraxian vulnerability to metal...and wasn’t willing to push it, even at this vital moment with only seconds left.    [It will kill us!] he yelled back, though yelling was in no was necessary through the link.    His arguing with her was probably not a good idea. Shadow was correct in thinking that it was only wasting the valuable few seconds they had, and so snapped back. [We’ll die if you don’t!]    Again, the tone of her ‘voice’ nearly forced Jyren’s body to act without his own approval. But, again, he held control and stopped himself. They were not going to die. They weren’t. And he wasn’t going to kill himself and Shadow just because it looked like the only possible thing to do. This was not going to be that day he continued to worry about. Not after all of this. Not after everything he’d fought through to get this far.     Jyren wasn’t about to lose Shadow now.    His eyes looked down to find that there was probably about a second left until he did lose her. Almost distantly, Jyren heard Shadow ‘yell’ at him again through the link. She had barely enough energy to run in the first place to make the jump, morphing for her was definitely out of the question...as was calling upon the Force for assistance. Both would require too much energy and concentration for her at the moment.    But not for Jyren. He was tired, injured, and morphing was pretty much a death sentence for him...but he was still being pushed on by something he couldn’t put his finger on. It could have been pinned down to the Force, but somehow it felt like more than that. At this speed, the force of the landing would turn the both of them into goo, and it would likely be a short moment of extreme pain.    The instant this thought finished in Jyren’s mind, an idea had sparked. But the idea had no sparked in his conscious brain. With that, it would require him to actually get himself to make the necessary actions...and that would have taken longer than the half second they had left. So, instead, Jyren found himself reacting without realizing what he was actually doing.    In a moment, he felt the Force gather around him...no, not just him. Jyren could also feel Shadow in his ‘grip’ through the Force. And in that instant where he concentrated and focused like never before, Jyren knew exactly what he was doing. With every ounce of energy and strength Jyren could manage without passing out, he pushed outward with the Force and allowed himself to flow into it...allowed himself to simply act as an extension of the Force itself.    And he held the two of them.    Neither Shadow nor Jyren actually felt it, but when Shadow realized that she also hadn’t felt the ground, she looked down. They were both about a half meter above the hard, off-white street, and hovering motionless. She quickly looked over to Jyren, seeing his eyes were closed but feeling the Force flowing from him stronger than she’d ever felt before...not that it was surprising. Shadow knew he was capable of it, but continually held himself back.    Then his eyes opened, and his concentration was broken. Shadow let out an involuntary yelp when the Force let go of her and she dropped to the ground, though she was able to land on her feet and stay on them despite swaying slightly. Jyren, on the other hand, landed on his feet and let out a painful cry(and Shadow almost did, too, as she felt the same pain from his leg through the link) before he hit the ground face first.    And he didn’t move afterwards. Through their link, Shadow immediately noticed that his mind had gone strangely calm compared to how it usually darted from this to that and back again a thousand times over every second. He was unconscious. Shadow still felt the urgency to keep moving, and so didn’t even take the time to roll her eyes or sigh at his typically Jedi-like actions. She’d do it later, when there was time to put the full effort into the necessary sarcasm, a trait she was slowly picking up and very much enjoying.    Instead, she was back to her old methods. Pushing back the current limitations of her physical body, Shadow moved over to Jyren and picked him up. He wouldn’t complain...couldn’t, either, so it didn’t matter. With both the Force and her own strength of willpower keeping her standing straight and holding up his considerably larger body, Shadow looked down the street to the east. That was where they needed to go...and that was where Ket would send his droids.    So Shadow ran north, hopefully away from the full force of the defense that would no doubt be waiting at the eastern wall. She would turn west when around the gigantic central building so as to avoid any other major defenses, and they could make their way around from there.    Jyren had done his job. He had gotten to her, and freed her. But now it was her turn. Now it was time to prove to him that she could save his tail just the same...typical that he was unconscious and couldn’t see it. But at least she was doing it, and besides, she could make it sound worse than it was and use that to her advantage later.    Shadow had made it around the main building and was heading west by the time the telltale sounds of strong, metal feet began to echo down one of the nearby streets. They were getting louder, and that meant closer. They were also, from the sound of it, all over the west, north, and south of her. She could go east and hopefully outrun them and then break through whatever defenses there were, or she could continue west and hope to either sneak through or encounter only a small amount of them. Shadow was in no condition to fight, either way. She could run, and she could carry Jyren, but anything more was asking too much and she knew it.    Shadow ran to the west.</blockquote>

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