NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2448919" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 255: Another LifeIt was almost disturbing how many times in his life that Jyren had awoken from the black emptiness of unconsciousness. It was also getting to the point of being annoying. Sometimes he couldn’t help but wish he would either die, or just not pass out in the first place...usually the latter. And so, yet again after doing something completely stupid, the blackness gave way to a fuzzy an incoherent thing that he had come to learn was called reality.    Slowly, the world around him came back into focus. There was a blurry thing in the way of the blue-ish coloured sky...a thing which he eventually identified as Shadow thanks to the black and white hair and a little help from the Force. Detecting where the annoyance was coming from was a surefire way to find Shadow whenever Jyren was involved. He blinked.    When he blinked, it seemed to kick in the rest of his senses. Namely, his hearing. He could hear a voice that was definitely Shadow’s, but she was speaking words that made absolutely no sense to him. The Alraxian language, then. Another voice responded...sounded female, too, but much younger. Almost how he remembered Shadow’s voice before the whole growing up ordeal. Which was, quite definitely, an ordeal more than anything else.    Jyren’s eyes finally finished focusing as a smaller Alraxian left the...courtyard. Still outside. Shadow then turned down to look at him with an expressionless glare, something only she was capable of, “This is why I don’t let you go off on your own.”    He couldn’t help a tired grin as he searched for his voice. Finding it didn’t make sense rationally, but he did, and spoke in the usual voice of someone who was just coming back to consciousness, “But it was fun...”    Shadow rolled her eyes, “Oh, yes, fun. One day you’re going to get it through that thick skull of yours that anytime you think ‘fun’ you really mean ‘stupid’.”    Jyren shrugged weakly before doing his best to sit up. Staring at the world from up and down was getting very tiring. Shadow reached over and helped him to sit up, idly keeping an arm around him as he tried to forget the dizziness, “I thought you’d be around earlier...”    “I had to make a stop on the way,” Shadow said quietly before nodding off to the side. Jyren slowly looked that direction, seeing a couple of young looking Alraxians that had a vaguely familiar look to them. They were leaving the courtyard slowly, and it was suddenly driving Jyren crazy just what was odd about them. He finally figured it out a few moments later.    It was the way they were walking. Or rather, stalking. There was a predatory bent to the way the two of them were moving. And that thought immediately triggered the positive response from Shadow through the link. Jyren turned back and raised an eyebrow, “You picked up some friends?”    She nodded, a hint of a smile tugging at her lips, “They don’t deserve to be kept locked up in that station...not only that, but you know as well as I do that they’re the only ones other than us that can fight.”    “How many of them?” Jyren asked, his eyes turning back to watch the two Tam’day’u disappearing into the palace.    “All of them,” Shadow responded quietly. When Jyren tried to figure this out, she immediately picked it up through the link and added, “About twenty five.”    Jyren nodded, but it made his head spin and so he nearly fell over again. Shadow quickly caught him a second time, this time helping him to rest his head on her shoulder. She started to idly scratch his ear while they sat there, but eventually Jyren mumbled, “How long was I out...?”    “Its almost been an hour,” she said softly.    Jyren nearly jerked up at that...of course, he couldn’t without passing out again, so instead his eyes darted up Shadow’s neck and to her eyes as best he could, “Ket.”    “Has not left the planet,” Shadow said a little too quickly. When this brought a confused feeling to Jyren, she sighed quietly and decided he was going to need to be updated on everything, “The Tam’day’u are clearing the Palace of those droids. They’ve been at it since we set down and they’re about a fourth of the way through the whole pace. The fleet of ships is still up in orbit, so Ket hasn’t left yet. No more transports have come down yet, but we’re expecting it to happen soon.”    Instinctively, Jyren nodded into her shoulder as she talked. When he found a break to cut in, though, he did, “He doesn’t care about the Palace...he did all this to separate us and kill me.”    “I know,” Shadow said with a nod, then tilted her head to glance down at him, “And he nearly did. But Ket isn’t just going to run. He’ll try again...and its no doubt there are hundreds more droids up there waiting.”    “Then we should go up and get him before he attacks again,” Jyren grumbled.    “That was my plan,” the words almost shocked Jyren into unconsciousness again. Shadow picked up on this and grinned, tapping his ear gently, “Why do you think I’m here waiting on you and not in the Palace?”    He nodded at that. It did make sense. Which brought up the next comment, “There are fighters up there...we should take the X-Wing since Loki doesn’t have any weapons.”    At that, there was a pause and the air itself seemed to hold still. It was only broken by the slightest of nods from Shadow, one that Jyren only noticed from feeling her chin touch his forehead gently. The feeling that rushed through the link suddenly worried Jyren as much as Shadow was, and he asked very quietly, “How is Loki...?”    Shadow took a deep, somewhat shaky breath before shaking her head and whispering, “I...I don’t know.”    Slowly, Jyren sat up and rested his hands on her shoulders while looking into her eyes, “What do you mean?”    Shadow’s eyes looked down at the ground, “He was...unconscious when I found him. I didn’t try to wake him up because he is...hurt badly. It was a miracle I could manually fly him in the first place...his wiring and neutral network have been tampered with and I don’t know how to fix it.”    Jyren bit his lower lip, “Someone does though, right?”    She nodded.    “Then he’ll be alright,” Jyren said, this time pulling Shadow into a hug. It was her turn to lay her head on his shoulder. But in the short moment of silence, another important question darted into Jyren’s mind. After spending some time working out how to go on with it, he just asked, “Nine...?”    Shadow just nodded again. But it was slow, and again Jyren knew something else was wrong. It didn’t take a genius to get to the next question.    “...Kyren?”    When Shadow seemed to freeze up, Jyren had his answer. He did his best to hold her close and to comfort her, but knew there wasn’t much he could do...and that he wasn’t all that good at it in the first place. So Kyren was dead. Jyren didn’t have to link the other Alraxian to realize how hard this hit Shadow. And it angered him. Yet another thing that Ket had done to harm Shadow. And Jyren was getting tired of it.    Ket was going to pay for all he’d done, and he was going to pay with his life.</blockquote>

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