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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2482636" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 263: It'll Be OkayThe control room within the large hangar was almost identical to those Jyren was used to seeing. Consoles everywhere, a few chairs attached here and there, and just enough room to allow for commanders and other higher-ups to move in and crowd the place. And despite the fact that this was scaled for the much larger Mrrakesh, it was still not designed for any kind of fighting. Even the corridors of the ship hadn’t taken the beating that the control room had taken in only a minute.    Two consoles were simply destroyed masses of burnt and smoking metal, and at least one chair had been reduced to half its original size. Another console took a strong hit, this time from Shadow’s fist and so only was dented(though severely) as Ket ducked under the swing at his face and returned the attack with a kick to Shadow’s gut. The force of the blow sent her back two steps before she hit the console covered wall behind her with a loud metallic thud.    Ket did not follow up on his attack, however, as his attention immediately reversed direction to parry a lightsaber strike from Jyren. Ket’s metal sword caught the bright glowing lightsaber before batting it up and out of the way(and, of course, it then cut across the ceiling and the top of one corner of the wall). But again, Ket was unable to press any kind of attack as Shadow had recovered and was after him again.    His arm was up to block another swipe at his face, and then he quickly twisted to the side to avoid a kick. This time, though, he did not turn to allow Jyren to distract him. Instead, Ket spun his sword around before swinging it inwards at Shadow’s extended leg. She did not have the time to avoid the strike, and then there was a sudden extremely sharp pain that shot up through her leg as the sword cut all the way to the bone. Even though she quickly remorphed the deep cut when the blade was removed, the shock of the intense pain was still there, and caused a momentary lapse in Shadow’s(and Jyren’s, due to the link, as he had nearly fallen over from the shock going through his own leg) actions.    Ket was not one to simple allow such an advantage to simply disappear. Not this time. He pulled his metal sword around again, and swung with all of his strength to take Shadow’s head off. It was the only surefire way to end this, and he had the chance...finally.    “NO!” the voice from behind Ket was so sharp and hate filled that for a moment, Ket swore there was a fourth in the room. Instinct jerked his head back to look, though the his metal blade still arced down towards Shadow’s neck. But it never reached its target. Ket had a short fraction of a second to see a mass of blue lightning explode out from behind him before he was hit and launched off of his feet. The lightning burned and tore at Ket’s flesh as it launched him through the glassteel(or something close to it) window overlooking the hangar below. There was a loud crack as his spine hit it and the entire thing shattered, and at least a few separate flashes and loud explosions from consoles that also had to have been hit by the searing hot energy.     And then the lights in the control room went out. Ket was still flying back from the impact of the lightning when he quickly realized he should have hit the hangar deck by then. He glanced down to note he had not actually dropped at all, then quickly realized that the artificial gravity had also been a casualty of the explosion of...whatever that was. But out of the darkness of the control room, there was movement. A blurry blue-green blade shimmered and spun around before Ket saw Jyren dive out after him, floating quickly and pulling his lightsaber back to swing with all his strength.    Unable to hold any footing, Ket simply reacted the only way he could and brought his metal blade up to parry Jyren’s strike. The lightsaber hit hard, so hard that it actually changed Ket’s direction and finally started to send him down. Jyren managed another quick and hard swing before he continued on in the other direction. Ket hit the deckplates fairly hard, but was able to right himself and turn to face Jyren’s direction. The young Alraxian had hit the wall at the same time Ket had ‘landed’, and had spun around to launch himself off of it and straight for Ket again.    Ket again blocked a vicious strike before Jyren’s entire body slammed into him. The momentum sent the two of them to the opposite side of the hangar, and in another second Ket hit the wall hard, with Jyren slamming the other Alraxian into it even harder for good measure. And out of the corner of his eye, Ket saw the blue-green light moving fast...too fast for him to be able to do anything about it.    “Jyren, don’t!!” Shadow’s voice yelled out from a position where she was floating in an attempt to get to them. But only Ket heard her. His eyes looked over Jyren and straight to Shadow in the last second before the bright lightsaber made his entire world go white before it became nothing at all. Ket Halpak felt no pain when Jyren’s lightsaber removed his head.    Shadow reached one wall and then pushed off of it to reach Jyren, doing her best to avoid looking over to the now free floating head. She stopped herself by latching onto Jyren’s shoulders, immediately growling into his ears, “What are you doing?!”    She then noticed he hadn’t actually moved. His arm was still across his body, lightsaber glowing after its finishing strike, with his other gripping Ket’s tunic tightly. And he was shaking. The sudden panic that shot through the link drowned out the anger that had risen in Shadow at Jyren’s actions. Part of her still wanted to scream at him...to yell at him for something he didn’t need to do. But another part that had been kept hidden away for a very long time resurfaced and she embraced him as best she could to try to calm him down. Quietly, she whispered, “It’s okay...it’ll be okay...it's over now...”</blockquote>

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