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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2348176" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 234: We Fight Alone...TogetherJyren’s eyes opened slowly. Considering how he remembered his last few moments of consciousness, this was not accurate. Unless death meant waking up in a lightly forested area with a somewhat heavy weight on one’s shoulder. He blinked and thought about the last part of that.    Then, carefully and for some reason unsure of what he was going to find, Jyren’s eyes turned to look down. They were immediately met by a mass of white coloured hair, with a black patch up a little higher...and one ear pointing up. Well, if this was being dead, Jyren figured things could have been much, much worse. But his body ached. All of it. And something about that just seemed to go against the very nature of death. One should not continue to hurt.    They were alive. They were alive, and there weren’t a few thousand war droids around them. In fact, there weren’t any. Jyren couldn’t even see the Capital anymore. How did they get out all this way?    “I carried you,” Shadow mumbled into his shoulder sounding annoyed and only half awake.    “...why are we not dead?” Jyren asked. It was a simple, yet somehow vital question, even if he wasn’t the best with choice of words.    Shadow shifted slightly, but didn’t move her head, making her voice still sound slightly muffled, “Because I was intelligent enough not to try and fight off a thousand of those droids?”    Jyren raised an eyebrow, well aware that she couldn’t see it, but also aware that she could catch the feeling and intent through the link anyway. His voice was as tired and exhausted as hers was when he grumbled, “You’re suggesting I would have stood and fought?”    She shrugged, which ended up not actually as a shrug, but more like elbowing him in the chest. Shadow didn’t say anything, though, and left it up to him to decide what she meant. He did actually try to find out through the link, but Shadow was one step ahead, as usual, and was blocking him as best she could. So, deciding it wasn’t worth it, Jyren decided to bring up the next vital question that came to mind.    “If you didn’t stand and fight...why are we not surrounded by war droids?”    At this, Shadow didn’t have a quick response. After a moment where she realized she hadn’t taken the time to think about that prior to passing out, Shadow shrugged again and said quietly, “I don’t know.”    Silence.    They didn’t need to say anything, as they were both thinking it. Neither of them knew. And they were just laying there against a tree(or against Jyren, in Shadow’s case) in plain sight without even a single attempt at being alert. Ears went different directions as they searched for sounds of droids marching their direction. When this revealed nothing, both of them stretched out with the Force.    Again, nothing.    There was something very wrong with that, and the both of them knew it. This city had been assaulted by war droids, Shadow had been captured, and it had obviously been a considerable effort to create the thousands of war droids necessary for the attack. And Jyren had entered the city with huge defenses, escaped pursuit only to barely get away from Ket...twice. Then, Shadow had also had to escape from the droids. But why had they stopped?    That didn’t make sense. Ket obviously wanted them both dead. He’d had multiple changes but not actually gone through with it on any of them.    “We have to go back,” Jyren said quietly, though it had actually been Shadow’s thought and not his.    She nodded, obviously agreeing with it, “Ket doesn’t care about this planet.”    “He’s going to Alraxia, isn’t he?”    Shadow paused a moment to really think about that. She sighed and nodded, “Its what I would do.”    “But why come here at all?”    This time, Shadow didn’t have to think about it, “To kill my mother. Without her, the Empire will lose its central point.”    Jyren nodded, “I’ve seen what happened...but there’s still something wrong with all of this.”    Sitting up a little, Shadow nodded into his shoulder, “The only reason I can think he has all those droids is to attack the Mrrakesh when he’s done with us.”    That probably should have mattered to Jyren. Probably. However, it hadn’t been an answer to the question he’d been thinking, so he outright asked it, “Why didn’t Ket kill you when he had you?”    Shadow sighed and shrugged again. Her voice went quiet this time, just barely above a whisper, “I don’t know.”    Again, they were silent. That was a very important unknown that neither of them had any clue on. If Jyren had known Ket better, he might...but it was something well beyond Shadow, despite how far she’d come from Faban Sunrunner’s Tam’Day’U training.    But Shadow was working back into her usual self, the short sleep having helped far more than even she had expected. And so she didn’t spend too much time trying to figure out motives. Instead, Shadow looked at the situation in front of them and said flatly, “I’m going back to deal with Ket before he leaves the planet. You get back to whatever you got here in and wait.”    Shadow actually tried to get up then. She made it a few centimeters before Jyren reached over and grabbed her arm to pull her back. Surprised, even though she probably shouldn’t have been, Shadow immediately turned to look at him and growl. But she didn’t make it to the growling before Jyren said in a stern voice, “You aren’t going alone.”    “Yes,” Shadow responded in just as strong a voice, “I am. This is my fight. This has nothing to do with you, and I can’t deal with Ket if I have to worry about you.”    “Then don’t worry about me,” Jyren growled, his ears flat and anger obvious through the link, the Force, and on his face, “We tried this your way already, remember? You needed me. I’m not letting you run off like that again. We’re in this together. We have been ever since you gave me this damned body and we always will be. I’m coming with you.”    She almost glared. Almost. Instead, she picked up on something else through the link. Something that Jyren was trying to hide from her, and was likely the real reason for his stubbornness. Something had gotten into his head since she’d left the first time. It surprised him how much her voice went from the stern, soldierly voice to an almost soft one that Jyren had only heard from here a handful of times, “What is it?”    Shadow knew she’d hit the right thing when he tried to look down at the ground. She didn’t let him, of course, reaching over and resting a hand on his face to force him to look at her. Immediately realizing that he was trapped and couldn’t get out, Jyren sighed. Then, after taking a deep breath, he said quietly, “I can’t lose you.”    That wasn’t it...he was trying to avoid the question. So, Shadow pressed harder, her voice still soft, but now with an edge to it, “That isn’t it.”    “Yes, it is...” Jyren whispered, closing his eyes and obviously telling at least a partial truth, “I can’t lose you again. Not after everything that’s happened. We’ve been through too much.”    Shadow nodded very slowly, but pressed again, “There’s something else you aren’t telling me.”    Though he was still caught, Jyren seemed to have given in finally. With a nod, he said, “I promised your mother and father I would protect you.”    It was the second time in barely five minutes that Shadow nearly glared at him. She didn’t need protecting. He should have known that! Ever since that damned night however long ago Jyren was so protective. It didn’t make sense. He should know she could take care of herself!    But those thoughts betrayed the simple truth that Shadow continually got herself in over her head, and every single time, Jyren was there to pull her out...even if he nearly got himself killed most times. Her parents were gone. She hadn’t seen it, but she could feel it. The last thing they’d told Jyren was to protect her. It was...typical of them. But something in Shadow allowed it all to pass over.    So, surprising Jyren, she nodded and pulled him to his feet with her. With a somewhat awkward hug when they were both on their feet, Shadow said somewhat uneasily, “Fine. We’ll do this together.”((Alright, sorry for the delays on this update, but I've not been home lately. After today, I should be able to get another update up tomorrow, but after that I'm off to the beach again and won't have internet access. Updates will resume as normal next Tuesday, definitely, but possibly earlier...don't count on that, though.))</blockquote>

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