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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2330274" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 233: One Step at a TimeTwo blocks and Shadow ran into trouble. While for most citizens of the galaxy, that would mean a problem was staring them in the face from a few feet off. But Shadow was unique among the inhabitants of the galaxy. She quite literally ran straight into the trouble, which was currently in the form of ten or so of Ket’s war droids. But ran into wasn’t completely accurate. That implied she hit a droid and then hit the ground hard. But, again, this was Shadow.    Instead, it was more accurate to describe her actions as running through trouble...through, and a little over, as she barreled around a corner to slam into a large war droid and then, just as it was hitting the ground, step onto its head and jump over the two quick slices from the weapon-arms of the other droids that flanked it. And she didn’t stop. She knew what these droids were capable of, and knew that even in a normal state of health, she couldn’t handle this many of them on her own. Especially holding Jyren draped over her shoulder and just adding more weight.    So Shadow just kept running as fast as she could make her legs move, ignoring the droids that she had quickly bolted past before turning down another, thankfully empty, street. But they weren’t stupid enough to let her run off that easily. A few seconds later, Shadow heard blaster fire behind her, and had to move in a much more random, zig-zag path down the long street to avoid being shot as the droids ran after her. She truly hoped they didn’t have any kind of communication that would bring all of the droids down on them.    There was close to half a kilometer to the edge of the city, and it wasn’t going to be a straight shot either. The Capital city was much like the central building in that it wasn’t made of straight lines and sharp corners. Instead, it was designed like the living organism it had been before Ket’s attack. Truthfully, there was no real logic to why some streets turned where they did or how some of the buildings were shaped...it was simply how the city had grown. And while Shadow appreciated this as much as any Alraxian compared to a place like Coruscant, she couldn’t help but wish for a straight run out of the city at this point.    It wasn’t just the turns and curves of the streets she ran through that caused this, but the feeling of the city itself. Dead. Literally. The attack had killed the city, and it was plainly obvious through the Force. All around her was an empty nothingness, almost like a void in the planet which was teaming with life. It was sickening to think that Ket was actually capable of such destruction. Even Shadow, who had been both trained as Ket had as a Tam’day’u and also turned into a weapon for the Galactic Empire, wasn’t able to kill like Ket had done. This simple truth was the only thing that held back the part of her that wanted to talk sense into Ket. If he could turn his back on both his people and their love of life itself, then talk was truly useless.    Her wandering thoughts were suddenly ceased by the inevitable. Rounding another corner, Shadow encountered another group of war droids. These, however, looked to be ready and waiting for her. If the way that the six of them stood in a line blocking the street didn’t give this away, the sudden barrage of blaster fire that shot out the second her foot was out from around the corner definitely did. Thanks to the Force and her own naturally quick reflexes, Shadow ducked back behind the building next to her as the blaster fire shot past and hit the walls of buildings opposite her.    And the second she had gotten out of the way and taken cover, the attacks stopped. No surprise. These droids were far too well programmed. Shadow didn’t even completely understand why. It wasn’t like there was any kind of resistance to encounter here beyond her, a handful of other Tam’day’u that were still recovering from their own situation to fight, and a small group of the Empress’ Knights that weren’t nearly well trained enough to deal with the droids. There were no actual soldiers or an army to speak of. Which meant there was still at least one more layer to dig through to find the real truth to what Ket was up to.    Quickly pushing the thoughts back for later, Shadow returned her focus to the moment. And it was a very good thing, too, as her ears swivelled around to pick up the sound of approaching metal footsteps. Reminding herself this was no time to fight, as there was still the heavy weight of Jyren unconscious and on her shoulder, Shadow retreated a few steps and looked around quickly.    Her eyes found a relatively flat looking rooftop nearby, to which she quickly jumped up to, again calling on the Force to push her exhausted body onwards more. Shadow hit the rooftop running, and only took three steps before leaping down to the street below again. Even if it was stupid, she risked a glance over her unoccupied shoulder to see that the war droids had already caught on and were turning to charge after her.    Never a break.    But Shadow didn’t stop moving. She wasn’t an idiot. And she was running as fast as she could as the droids charged after her, blaster arm’s blazing again. Thanks to the Force flowing through her limbs and keeping her from getting the both of them killed, Shadow was much faster than the war droids. And in a matter of moments, the curving and white streets and buildings gave way to the lightly forested land surrounding the city.    She didn’t turn back to see if she was still being pursued, but continued running until the tree cover grew thick and made it hard to even walk in. Finding a large tree and a patch of ground that looked at least partially comfortable, Shadow set Jyren down before collapsing next to him. She wouldn’t have left any tracks to follow. They were safe for now. Rest...recover...then move from there.    Yes, the escape had been a little too easy. Yes, the fact that the droids had probably stopped at the edge of the city was worrying. And yes, the strong feeling that something was very out of place remained. However, for now at least, Shadow felt they would be safe. Hopefully it would last long enough for her to be in good enough shape to stand up straight, because her drawing on the Force for so long had drained her in more ways than one. After resting her head on Jyren’s shoulder and b efore her thoughts became an incoherent mess of a thousand things, Shadow finally drifted off to sleep.    And sleep was still sleep...even if it was two days late.</blockquote>

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