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: 3791247" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 521: JediBoth Rulae and Adria were running as fast as they could to catch up to Rea, especially at hearing the last communication from her. There was a dim light ahead that pointed to her location, the single glowrod she had in her possession. Neither of them said anything, and the comm was silent. Finding a body was the first clue to what they were looking for...and not exactly one they wanted to find, either.    It wasn’t long before they reached the Twi’lek. She was kneeling in the short, slightly damp grass almost directly in front of them. As soon as they got close, a distinct smell could be detected in the air. It hinted at burnt flesh, and when both Adria and Rulae saw the body in front of Rea, they knew why.    Lying there, face up and slightly twisted from what looked to be a painful fall, was a human woman. She had likely been about thirty or so standard years old, and had dirtied blond hair that was pulled back out of her face. Across her body, from shoulder to hip, was a long, black scorch mark. It didn’t look to go deep, but it was definitely a burn.    “Its just like what we saw in the shuttle, sir,” Rea said quietly, dutifully not touching the body. From the way she was kneeling, it was likely she’d done her best not to disturb the area at all.    Rulae nodded as he looked down at the wound, “Lightsaber again.”    “Sir,” Adria started to move towards her left, then knelt down not far from the body and picked up a small, metal object, “I think there’s more than one Jedi here.”    She was holding a lightsaber hilt.    Immediately, Rea was turning to look to him for an answer. Sadly, Rulae didn’t really have one. This was all starting to become far more complicated than he liked. Getting the Jedi involved was one thing, but now there was a dead Jedi. That wasn’t going to help the situation at all. Tensions were high enough already with the Jedi thanks to them taking much of the blame for the failures in the war.    Quickly, Rulae made a decision, “On your feet, Officer Lor. We’re going to keep following this path,” he motioned to the fact that the grass still very easily revealed boot prints, “Harken. Take her back to the shuttle and see if you can find a medkit.”    “Commodore, I’m fairly sure she’s dead...” Adria trailed off.    The sentence was enough to cause him to stop and think. As a pilot, when someone was dead, they were dead. The ship exploded and they were gone. There was no body. They were just...gone. Here, though. Here, there was a body, and Rulae wasn’t exactly sure what could be done.    “Just find out whatever you can,” he repeated, then motioned for Rea to get moving, “I expect the Jedi will want to identify her as it is.”    * * * *    Run.    Catch him.    Get to him now.    Faster!    Run!    All of Tobias ached. His entire body from the short combat, his legs from the constant running, his face from the sudden stop he’d made earlier, and all of his mind as it watched Tokarr’s blue lightsaber blade cut through Venda over and over and over again. But Tobias fought through the ache. He fought through it thanks to the blue glow up ahead, never growing larger but not getting away, either.    But there were other lights, too.    It was dark, now, very dark. And off to the south, beyond the tiny blue glow that was Tokarr’s active lightsaber, was a faint collection of yellow and orange. It was a city. A city in the distance...a city with people. Thousands of thousands of people.    By now, nothing mattered but stopping Tokarr. He had completely lost his mind, that much was obvious. Driven mad by the Dark Side, by his own ambition, or simply the kind of person that was always right on the edge, it didn’t matter. What did matter was that Tokarr was prepared to kill anyone that got in his way...and, from what Tobias could tell, anyone Tokarr could see with his Force-based vision seemed to be considered an enemy. There was no rational thought anymore, only a hate-fueled determination.    And Tobias had to stop him.    Gods, this was insane!    He was just a kid! Most Alraxians his age were in school, still growing up and not even thinking about matters of life and death! They wouldn’t even be able to comprehend most of the things he was dealing with! Most Alraxians...    Tobias’ mind trailed off a moment, then violently latched onto a sudden, but extremely important thought.    Alraxian.    Working that together with a few other stray ideas, Tobias nearly screamed in laughter. But, thankfully for his own sanity, he didn’t. Instead, he began to morph, mid-run. It was an awkward process as one gained extra muscles that humans didn’t have, but he had gotten good enough now that something as simple as running could be combined with something as complicated as morphing his entire physical body without falling on his face.    And then he was running faster. Of course he was running faster! Alraxians were naturally faster than humans. They were built for speed and versatility! With the help of the Force, Tobias was sprinting even faster, and the light in front of him began to grow. Miraluka were definitely near human. It seemed that the only real difference was in the lack of eyes. Good. That meant Tobias would be able to catch up to him in just a few moments...    Now, Tobias’ sharper vision could see that the blue light was moving up and down as Tokarr ran. But then, almost suddenly, the movement stopped and the blade spun around. Tokarr knew he was coming..    Fine.    His own lightsaber in hand, Tobias raised the thrumming blue-green blade in front of him as he ran at full speed to the rapidly glowing light ahead. Soon, he could see Tokarr standing there, feet planted firmly and blade up and ready. There was even a smirk on his face.    But the smirk soon faded into a surprised expression. It took only seconds for Tobias to reach the suddenly, confused Miraluka, lightsaber already swinging in towards Tokarr’s left side. Instead of parrying the blade, however, Tokarr ducked completely under the strike and spun to his left, allowing Tobias to charge right past.    Stopping himself, this time without hitting the ground face first, Tobias spun around and kept his lightsaber up and ready. But Tokarr didn’t charge in and attack. In fact, the Miraluka was just standing there, eyeless face staring in shock in Tobias’ direction, with an intense focus of the Force around him radiating confusion.    And Tobias knew why.    “Not what you expected?” one thing Tobias had been told all his life was not to gloat, especially not in a fight. Marix had pounded that into him. Of course, Jyren had always quietly told him it was okay to have a little fun...and of the two, Tobias had a habit of listening to Jyren more than Marix. It wasn’t the smartest of things, but Tobias didn’t really learn.    “What are you?!” Tokarr sounded as shocked as the Force around him was radiating.    Tobias shrugged and his tail behind him flicked just slightly as it helped him to find his balance thanks to a slightly different center of gravity, “Not what. Who. And the answer to that is very simple. I’m the one who’s going to stop you from hurting anyone else.”    Despite the confusion surrounding Tokarr, those last words found a way of focusing him. Soon, Tokarr was unreadable, both on his face and through the Force. He adopted a much more experience combat stance that protect his entire body rather than just his front, and looked up at Tobias with only the Force, “We’ll see about that.”    Then Tokarr charged.</blockquote>

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