“I find that hard to believe,” Zora stated calmly, her voice firmly believing her own words.

Her lekku flickered in her movement as she twisted from the table, her figure forcing her to make a steady pace toward the exit. Each movement was controlled and trying to hide the anxiety she felt within growing over her experience with the Jedi. A Sith would never have allowed her to walk away this easily. While a part of her twitched at the Jedi’s words, she knew the chances of Nyiss falling at the Jedi’s hands were very slim. The Red Sith had too many connections, precautions, and more that would been set off before raptor like alien could’ve gotten close enough to attack. To even try was suicidal.

Keeping a tight grip on the small items in her hand, she edged toward the front to see if the Jedi was truthfully going to allow her to escape untouched. While ‘honorable’, Zora had spent years around other Sith and trust was a luxury, not to be expected of anyone. The war had changed many individuals… include some of those ‘noble’ Jedi.


Vebra snorted as the Twi’lek moved closer to the door. Vebra still trying to keep his cool and realizing Eyes was way out of position to intercept Vebra made a decision he hoped would keep containment tight . “Sweeper, Raj, move for secondary containment on the front door.” Vebra covered his mouth with his forearm as he spoke into the mic on his bracer. Just to help conceal what he was doing he even turned his back and kept trying to dance. He heard two pings from them signalling that they were moving around from the back of the building to the front. “Krem, Blitz, move on the door, don’t let the bantha leave, but don’t act like you're trying to stop it from leaving. Act drunk if you have to.” He heard two more com pings. “Eyes, Eli, back door. Let’s try not to spook it, they will panic if we mess this up.” Vebra without waiting for a response turned around and watched the Twi’lek approach the exit, hoping his team had enough time to move.

Krem and Blitz both looked at each other and almost laughed. Vebra was asking them to start a fist fight in front of the door. Krem slid his scatter gun back into his robe and Blitz did the same with his sonic blaster. “I get first punch this time, especially after the fast one you pulled in the mess.” Blitz sighed and reluctantly agreed. The pair of war hardened soldiers walked up to the entrance of the bar and Krem slugged Blitz in the stomach, then pushing him backwards through the front door. “Oy, ya Bantha tryin to make out with my creds ya sod. Take your mug out of here!” Krem had truthfully hurt his own hand more than Blitz, even light armor hiding under mercenary garb was still armor.

Blitz swung back at him, aiming for his head. But acting drunk he missed barely. “Good coming from you, ya Toydarian looking kath!” Blitz making sure to slur his words a bit. The two had managed to take up the space in the front door, leaving only a little room for them to try and punch each other over. Krem spotted what he assumed was the Twi’lek they were there for out of the corner of his eye approaching the pair. So the two continued hurling insults at each other and throwing shallow jabs at each other, waiting for Vebra or Fa to get closer so they could subdue the Sith.

Zora’s casual gait slowed. Her eyes peered at the drunken idiots in front of her, their timing rotten, as she came to a halt. Her arms crossed over her chest in debate on how to evade them without getting mixed up in the scrape. Annoyed by the fact her day was getting worse by the moment, she casually glanced over her shoulder and back at the Jedi with a brief wonder if this was part of Fa’s doing. However, Jedi didn’t work with thugs or other scum on this planet which caused her to toss that fact out.

Eli, who was sitting at the bar, shifted up as he whispered something to Eyes. Smoothly, he brought her up with him and pulled her toward the door. She abruptly pushed him hard against it as the two seemed to get a bit intimidate to block the exit in what appeared to be unintentional but natural way to block it.

Vebra seeing the Sith blocked up at the door and looking rather annoyed he figured it was time for him to move on her. He sort of mingled his way through the moving bodies so as not to disturb whatever it was they were doing, he didn’t want to look like he was set on doing something. He caught the Twi’lek look over her shoulder back at Fa, perhaps watching her to see if she would take advantage of the situation. Vebra realized as he closed in on her that he was banking on the fact that she wouldn’t see him as a threat. He also was hoping she hadn't pieced together what he was, afterall, he had no idea what Fa said to her. Vebra let an injector needle slide out of his bracer and into his hand. He held his left hand slightly behind his leg. Vebra made sure to keep his mind clear lest the blasted Sith be able to read his mind in all this degeneracy. Vebra finally stepped slightly behind her like he was walking past and lashed out with the needle as fast as he could. Hoping this Sith wasn’t much of a pre-cognizant force user.

With the Sith’s paranoid nature, Zora’s senses were already on high alert. Both her sixth sense and other senses of hearing and sight, looking for a way out of the bar. She wouldn’t have lived past her first year as Nyiss’ favored apprentice if she didn’t have a healthy dose of suspicion at all times. Being blocked the first time, she was frustrated at being kept here causing her to scrutinize anyone that came near. When Vebra, the one she recognized earlier as the one that Fa pointed to, she figure jerked back from him when she caught his arm move. Sadly, she had been far too relaxed with her combat training over the years and paid the price for it. The needle sank into her side just an inch from her figure’s edge. Her arm gripped about Vebra’s shoulder in shock at what he had accomplished.

Her fingers on her hand, closest to the floor, loosened and the alchemy ball simply began to fall onto the bar floor. On impulse Zora’s expression twisted into a snarl as her force collected and tried to shoot Vebra from her.


Fa, despite being calm on the surface, was entirely on-alert. Zora had a good portion of her attention on her, so she was not free to react to Vebra’s approach openly, but she was focused on every detail. In truth, Fa was surprised that Vebra was taking the approach that he was. He should have been aware that Zora knew he was connected to her, since she had pointed him out to the Twi’lek before. But, despite Fa’s doubts, he actually managed to accomplish his goal, at least from what she could see. Perhaps because of a mistake on Zora’s part, or a success on Vebra’s part to hide his intentions, he managed to jab what Fa recognized as a sedative into her. Without a doubt, it was a significant accomplishment, as Zora now officially had a time limit.

Just as Vebra had approached, Fa laid down a credit chip on her table: compensation for the trouble they were no doubt about to cause. The moment that Vebra injected the sedative, Fa jumped up, her hand on her lightsaber. It did not take any extra senses to see that the Twi’lek dropped something from her hand, but Fa still started her rather quick advance.


Vebra felt the rush of air as he was forced to stumble back from the Twi’lek. He felt the push not only physically but he could also feel her scrap his barrier. If she’d done that to anyone else it probably would have flung them across the room. Vebra stumbled into several other patrons who pushed him off of them. Vebra was just able to keep himself on his feet from the sudden outbreak of chaos. It didn’t matter to him, he had done his job. This Sith scum was going to come down either hard or soft, but she was now compromised. Vebra trying to regain his footing let Krem and Blitz the chance to move on her, however, he put his hand on his beskad, incase she pulled her saber.

Blitz and Krem noticed the sudden movement of the Sith and both of them quickly stopped their charade and clamped down onto The Twi’lek. Blitz flanked right and Krem came straight at her swinging his fist, hoping to bring her down. Blitz began pulling his sonic blaster out of the folds of his clothes, hoping to shoot her and keep her from using force powers. Blitz just hoped there wasn’t some race with really good hearing in the bar.

The moment the little ball hit the ground, it activated.

Smoke, thick and black, began to billow at her feet and filled the bar room at the moment Krem went for a swing at her. Her lips smirked as adrenaline flooded her system, her eyes narrowed on her attacker. Her head tilted back enough to let his fist merely skim above where a single hit might’ve made her faint. She pulled back a shoulder to add a few more inches as her arm back shot out, hitting at his when his punch followed through. When it connected, she adjusted her balance quickly then used her force to knock him toward Fa.

Not wasting much time she reached out the force to snag the sonic blaster then aimed to rip it out of his hands into hers. By this time, the smoke would’ve blinded everyone within the bar causing chaos. Many bar patrons had already shifted from their seats and raised their blasters at the group where the scuffle was happening.

Zora wasn’t wanting to be caught in the crossfire and bolted toward the exit. She reached for another alchemy ball, this one fire red, and tossed it at Blitz. It exploded on contact if it hit anything solid. As she did this, she held her now free hand out and catch her lightsaber now zipping to her hand. She was ready to cut down anyone that tried to stop her escape.

Even for Fa, the smoke cloud was somewhat of a surprise. She was farther away than Vebra or the others, but she still caught some of its effects. It was thick, and certainly obscured her view. She was not sure of what it was made, but she decided to avoid breathing for the next few seconds. Despite the foul concoction in the air, Fa could still react quickly. One of her men was launched towards Fa in the struggle, but she had little issue sensing him and evading to the side for only a small delay. Zora was certainly using the smoke to escape, so Fa knew her goal lay on the other side of it.

Fa concentrated a force push through the center of the cloud of smoke in an attempt to cleave a path through it that would give her better visibility sooner as she chased after Zora. Even if Vebra had not succeeded with his sedative, the Twi’lek would have a difficult time escaping her. While a humanoid such as Zora was much more efficient at endurance running than a Tiss’shar, Fa’s powerful, digitigrade legs were much more geared towards a sprint. Coupled with her own use of force speed, and Zora would not be able to escape on simple speed alone. If she wanted to get away, she would either have to find ways to be more clever, or it would be a fight.

Krem’s fist swung into the smoke cloud to no avail, all he got was a punch to the head. To make matter worse he felt his feet leave the ground and suddenly he was flying blind. He felt something fly past him and then he felt the nice hard ground. At the very least he was able to see again but being sent flying was never a fun thing for him. Blitz was slightly more fortunate. Blitz felt his blaster start to be pulled away from him and he gripped it tighter as the smoke began to engulf him and burn his lungs. Breathing heavily through gritted teeth trying to aim his blaster in the direction the Sith had been in suddenly he was swept off his feet and flung out of the toxic gas. He fell back first into a small group of people who were attempting to run away.

Both Blitz and Krem were scrambling to their feet when Vebra started yelling into his wrist mic. The gas was starting to seep into his lungs making him speak in broken thoughts “Target *coughing* moving out” Vebra paused a second trying to suck in air to give orders. “All.. pursue”. Vebra managed to choke out before he put his hands out in front of him and started running in the direction he thought the door was. The smoke choking him and burning his eyes he heard a bang off to his right side as he ran through the smoke. Vebra reached out and finally felt a wall and was finally able to see somewhat. He looked left and right for the exit, finding that he was actually very close to the door, so he began moving as fast as he could to get outside and out of the smoke. He managed to finally breach the thick cloud of smoke and began spitting up and sputtering on the walkway outside of the bar. Hands on his knees coughing he looked around and saw Fa and the Sith sprinting unnaturally fast away from him. Vebra took his hand off his knee and keyed his wrist comm again, “Elias, check Blitz, all others, target is moving west, assist Fa in capture, I stuck her good she’s on borrowed time.” Letting one more cough out Vebra busted into a sprint following the two force users. It was times like these he wished for some blasted implants.

Sweeper and Raj had moved off the door about a hundred yards, and luckily, the sith was running right in their direction. Sweeper was set up on a low lying roof with Raj waiting on the street below with his vibro blade. Raj had the benefit of having robotic leg prosthetics after he lost his real ones to a sith on Rhen Var. While he was still mad about it having the ability to keep up with force users was a benefit. Sweeper was painstakingly average compared to some of his other troopers but he was a good shot with a repeating blaster. They both knew the objective wasn’t to kill, they just had to slow her down.

By Fa had cleared a path enough to see, Zora had already darted through the explosion’s aftermath and through the door. Her skin was a bit singed but it wasn’t nothing that her alchemy couldn’t fix later. Ignoring the sting across her surface, she pushed her feet faster and jerked into the individuals crowding the streets on their way home. Meanwhile, several baster shots rang out behind her to nearly nick her on the exit. About three headed toward Vebra and two toward Krem before the panicked thugs headed out the nearest door away from the scuffle.

Zora continued forward as she used force jump to flip onto the nearest and smallest buildings’ roof. She skidded a bit to the left before her boots found purchase then continued to bolt away to attempt to evade Fa.

Once through the smoke, Fa had a much easier time tracking Zora, particularly since she was not doing much to blend herself into the crowd. In fact, Fa could not have asked for a greater mistake by the Twi’lek to jump up onto a rooftop. It was above the crowd, away from obstacles that might slow her down, and away from innocent bystanders. Not to mention, one or more of her team might have a line of sight on her.

Fa used the force to leap up onto the building right after Zora, gaining even greater height and distance on her jump. Since she was not wearing any hard boots, she landed more softly than Zora had, though the Sith would still have no doubt she was right behind her. The moment her feet touched the rooftop, Fa ignited the bright green blade of her lightsaber, then continued her force-assisted sprint after Zora. Since there was currently little risk of collateral damage, Fa also grabbed the blaster pistol she had been carrying in her other hand. With the weapon set to stun, she fired it as quickly as she could at Zora. Her shots did not even need to have an effect. Fa was already gaining on the Twi’lek, and having to dodge or deflect blaster shots would only slow her down even more.

Sweeper was caught off guard when both of the force users jumped onto his building, he hadn’t seen them approach. In a fit of quick reflexes, Sweeper pulled the trigger on his repeating blaster. This let loose a literal torrent of blaster fire, which he had to lead quite a bit so as to not hit Fa. While his weapon had a stun setting it barely worked, so just for solidarity he had it switched on, even if headshots had a nasty habit of killing people. The fire put forth by his cannon was some what inaccurate but that was sort of by design, Sith (and Jedi) had a hard time dodging weapons fire that even the operator had a hard time controlling. Holding the weapon of death at his hip Sweeper was trying very hard to avoid hitting Fa, which meant he had to aim off of his intended target even more. Thus his firing was rather ineffectual.

Zora’s legs pushed along faster than she was use to. Her eyes whipped about and skimmed over her shoulder to spot the raptor like Jedi hot on her heels, bend on letting her go. So much for a Jedi being true to her word, she thought bitterly. Her figure darted sharply to the left as suddenly a blaster bolt hit the spot she was just at. She glared in the direction of the source just to see another five shots about to head her way.

She clicked her lightsaber on and deflected the following three shots, sending them rocketing back to the soldiers and avoiding one. Unfortunately the last one wasn’t as easy to alter course. It skimmed the surface of her left Lekku, nearly taking off the end, causing searing pain in her mind and short of any serious brain damage. She glared at Sweeper with a look that promise complete violence if they ever meet again.

Not bothering to see if she hit them or not with her return volley, she gripped another Alchemy ball then whipped it at Fa. To ensure the raptor didn’t decide to return it, she added a bit of her force to make it faster and prevent back lash. It was the same color as the one she flipped at the soldier barring her path into the bar. This meant it would an explosive impact should it make contact.

In the meanwhile, Zora darted to the gap between the two buildings where she intended to slip into and vanish into street level once more.

Fa felt the impending danger, though she would not have needed the force to see that Zora was throwing something back at her. She could not know the exact function of the device that Zora was using, but it was certainly meant to be an impediment. Fa had already had to be mindful of the blaster shots coming from Sweeper on the other rooftop, which fortunately meant that Fa was just far enough back to be able to react. She felt the force acting on the small orb, so Fa leaped into the air instead in much the same way as she had to get onto the rooftop to begin with. It placed her high above the orb, though depending on the radius of the blast, Fa might still be caught in it.

If Fa was not sufficiently disrupted by the blast, then she intended to use her speed and momentum to attack from above, aiming for the arm the Twi’lek was currently using to hold her lightsaber.

Sweeper dropped down behind some unknown outcropping on the roof as several of his own blaster rounds were deflected back at him. He saw the Sith jump off the roof and after the blaster rounds finished impacting he began to run over to the other end of the roof to get a new angle on the Sith. Raj however, still trying to find a way to get to the roof swiftly, spotted the Sith go back down to street level and run between the buildings. Gritting his teeth in anger and barked out over the squad’s communications “She’s gone to ground, pursuing!” He broke into a sprint using his robotic legs, having had his original ones taken off by a Sith several years prior, barely surviving. Now though, it was an advantage. His robotic legs were similar to normal legs except his feet had been swapped for claws. This allowed him to grip deck plates when fighting Sith or hiding in unconventional places. For the time being though he was simply using them to carry him faster than a non-augmented person. He was going to beat this Sith down.

Vebra almost made it to the roof before he saw Raj speed down an alley, obviously following the Sith. Vebra was suddenly reminded of just how old he was starting to get. While it wasn’t much of an issue Vebra could feel his lungs burning a little more than they had a few years ago. All this running was not much fun for him anymore. Nevertheless, he followed his squad member down the alley, jumping over random rubbish that was blocking his movement.

Fa had just made it past from the blast radius to avoid serious damage, but not from being affected by the explosion’s force. Despite resembling the same ball type as the one used on one of Vebra’s men, its power was notably stronger and more dangerous. It scorched the roof it as it took off stone chunks which then toppled to the ground and toward Fa as well. Several individuals on the ground quickly leapt from its path and avoided being crushed, their eyes shifted upward to spy the source. Thankfully none of them could witness the Jedi Master or the squadron of troopers chasing after a Twi’lek sith.

Zora was starting to to feel the effects of the drug coursing through her system as her speed dropped notably, her vision blurred and danced. She had barely made it down to the ground floor when her eyelids become droopy and her shoulder scrapped the stone wall of the right wall. The Sith gritted her teeth in frustration, hard enough to nearly bit through her lower lip. Each step grew heavier while she struggled to remain upright before finally… she collapsed just inches from making out of the alley.

The force of the blast had been enough to disrupt Fa’s attack, and she had to take a brief few moments to avoid the stone that it had thrown around like shrapnel, or to use the force to deflect it. The bomb bought Zora a few seconds to put more distance between her and Fa, but fortunately, the delay ended up being irrelevant. As Fa dropped into the alleyway, she saw the Twi’lek’s figure collapsing onto the ground on the other side.

Fa wasted no time in removing any threat that the Sith might pose. Her lightsaber had deactivated as she fell to the ground, so Fa telekintetically pulled it to her and quickly slipped it into one of her pouches. It was only once the Twi’lek was disarmed that she switched off her own lightsaber. Raj had reached Zora at about the same time Fa had, so she motioned towards the Twi’lek as she knelt down beside her unconscious body to start going through her bags. “Help me search her. We need to get her secured quickly.”

Now that the chase had ended, Fa used her commlink to give her team new orders. “The target is down. The sedative did its job; good work Vebra. Raj and Vebra, help me search and secure the target. Everyone else, form a perimeter around the alley. Keep away any prying eyes. I want her secured, bound, and back on the ship before she wakes up.”

Sweeper peered over the edge of the now half collapsing roof down into the alley as Vebra ran up to the cluster of people in the alley. He then decided it was time to join them and he began making his way off the roof. Raj watched the Jedi pull away the Sith’s weapon quickly. Raj without even bending over began manipulating the bag on the Sith’s waist to search for items. He was finding pretty standard stuff, her credit chit, some food paste, until he ran into some of the Sith alchemy balls. These colors he hadn’t seen before. Not wanting to accidentally set one of them off Raj actually bent over and put his clawed feet back on the ground. He began shoving the small pieces of Sith corruption into his own pockets. Vebra arrived shortly after and saw the two going through the Twi’lek’s bags. It did look almost like looters, seeing as the pair were both dressed in common rags, though Raj’s metal claws poking through the bottom of his pants where there should be boots was a bit of a give away. Vebra turned around and looked back down the alley. He spotted a few kids peeking around the corner at them and he simply aimed his blaster in their direction and they ran.

“Looks like the bantha finally went down. Not sure I could have kept up with her much longer anyways” Vebra said in a half hearted tone. All things considered, the whole operation could have gone much worse. As far as he could tell no one had died and the target was going to be taken alive and mostly unharmed. “Saber-One to Saber-Wing, target apprehended, meet at entrance point for exfil. Ten minutes over.”

“Saber-Wing copies sir.” Vebra put his hand down when he heard the pilot’s response. Hopefully they could get something out her before Fa tried to turn her into a vegetable. His only real concern now was the fate of Blitz, he knew the nerf wasn’t dead but it didn’t mean the Sith’s vile sorcery couldn’t have put him in a Kolto tank for a few days.

“I think we’re clear, get anything obvious off her now and we’ll give her a proper search back on the shuttle. Looks a bit bad you know, could of shady folks over a Twi’lek.” Vebra turned around and looked out the other opening of the alley and simply saw a wall of people traversing the path. If the apprentice had gotten into that crowd Fa’s force ability would have become useless. Once again keying the comm on his left wrist Vebra spoke to the whole team. “All sabers, return to entry point. We got em.”

By the time the sedative had wore off enough for Zora to come to, she would find herself awakening inside a cramped shuttle, with armed Republic operatives on all sides of her, and of course, Fa standing directly in front of her. Fa had personally taken the Twi’lek back to the shuttle, stripped her of everything she had, and given her another set of clothes to wear. There would be no surprises from their prisoner, as Fa had made sure she could hide nothing on her. Even so, Fa had her hands on her lightsabers as Zora was awakening, with the Sith’s lightsaber secured in one of the pouches on Fa’s person. Naturally, Fa had also made sure to take every precaution possible to eliminate any threat that Zora could pose, the least of which were the bindings keeping her tied to the seat she was in.

“You will regain your bearings within a few minutes, but I will take the liberty of telling you exactly where you are regardless. Right now, you are in a shuttle, my shuttle, in the vacuum of space. You have been bound and secured aboard this vessel by trained professionals who, I guarantee you, have not made any mistakes that might let you get loose. If, by some miracle, you were able to escape your bindings, kill every soldier aboard this dropship, including the Jedi Master you are speaking to, then you would find that we are in the middle of interstellar space with an encrypted navicomputer. So, unless you have the patience to travel a few dozen light years at sublight speeds, then you should erase from your mind any thoughts of escape that you might be having.” Fa explained firmly, and without any particular emotion.

Fa stepped closer to Zora, baring her many, sharp teeth ever so slightly. “Now, since that has been said as clearly as I can present it, I think it is time now for us to resume the conversation we were having back on Nar Shaddaa. If I recall correctly, you were being most rudely dismissive of the very generous offer I had given you.”

Zora groaned as she gave the first signs of her waking from the drug induced slumber. The first thing she noticed was her neck was stiff and fixed in place by a thin, strong strap that tightly fastened about it to keep it in place. She felt lucky to be barely breathing currently as she tried to clear the haze in her vision. When she impulsively tried to lift her hand to assist, it caught and stopped in its tracks causing her to growl in frustration. On farther investigation she began to piece together her situation. Worst of all, her robes had been replaced with a simple shirt and trousers seen on Republic civilians.

That’s when the fear began to impale her common sense. Her heart stopped for a moment and seize in panic, unable to flutter in her chest as she was suffocated by it. She snapped her eyes open as she took in her surroundings. The first person she found within visual was of course the reptilian bitch that had lied to her.

When the Jedi master open her muzzle, Zora merely glared in outright hatred. She didn’t bother to interrupt as the Jedi lay down details she could likely have figured out later. The twi’lek’s gut dropped when the reptile leaned in closer with seemed to be a predatory display causing Zora to still on instinct. Her eyes narrowed on the teeth as the Jedi’s words echoed through her head while she inhaled, reminding herself that Jedi were weak pacifistic individuals. It was why they were nearly wiped out now. With that thought in her mind, she pushed down her fear and snarled to increase her courage.

“If I remember right, you also said you would let me walk away,” she tugged at the restrains to prove her point, her wrists still held firm, “This doesn’t look much like letting me walk away. It seems all Jedi aren’t as noble they like to pretend to be.”

For a moment the thought strike her as funny, causing her to chuckle and then settle down into a smile, “So what now?”

Despite her strong hope that the Jedi was more pacifist than the predator appearance might suggest, Zora wasn’t fully sure. So to be safe, she didn’t provoke any more than necessary until she could figure a way out of her binds.

Vebra was chewing on an unlit cigar waiting for the Sith to awake. The amount of sedative he had given her would kill most normal people so it was a bit of a game of chance with how long it would take for a force user to come to on it. Vebra knew that the ship's air recylcers could probably filter out the smoke from his cigar but he knew he would be imposing the smell of his habit on everyone else in the compartment. So he decided against it and was content with chewing on the loosely rolled carababba tabac. Vebra had been sitting off to the side looking over his wrist bracer, trying to refit it to be clipped back onto his full trooper armor. So when out of the corner of his eye he saw Fa and the prisoner move he placed his cortosis bracer back in his bag and stood up.

He almost laugh when the Sith spoke about Fa reneging on some sort of agreement about letting her walk away. Removing the cigar from his mouth with his left index and middle finger Vebra spoke to the bound Twi'lek. "Well girl, if it makes you feel better, she did let you walk away. But seeing as I wasn't invited to the little sit down you two had I wasn't so inclined to let you." Vebra smiled and basked in the fact that what he was saying was only half true. Had he sat down with them it is likely the outcome would have been the same, with her being sedated and captured. Vebra then walked over and stood next to Fa, who despite Vebra standing taller then her, appeared to be the less intimidating one. "If you would so kindly reconsider answering my colleagues questions we can likely spare you a firing squad back on Coruscant. Unless of course you would like such a thing, then we can get what we need another way."

Vebra would never torture an unarmed prisoner but he wouldn't need to. Fa had a rather "unusual" way of extracting information, which he wouldn't technically classify as torture. However, her methods were best not used but they did work. In all of his years working special operations he had found Fa one of the better extractors of information. Considering what information this Sith could have made it all the more important that they get it. He just hoped the implied threat was enough for the Twi'lek to reconsider her choices.

---

Fa’s expression revealed little in the way of her actual emotions, not that Zora would have any way of discerning what her reptilian facial expressions actually meant. Fa simply remained calm, but unquestionably firm in her gaze at the Twi’lek. She listened quietly to Vebra’s response, deciding that she could build off of what he said.

“Indeed, had you allowed my friend here to join us like I asked, then I might have been able to communicate my intentions to him. Once the…hostilities had started, I was obliged to intervene, lest you harm an innocent in the struggle.” Fa said before slowly uncrossing her arms. “But, any argument over what happened before is purely…academic. You are here now, you are our prisoner, and that is not going to change. I would prefer that you not attempt to escape, since I would like to avoid causing you any further bodily harm.”

Fa made sure that she remained the closest person to Zora. With how well she was restrained, It was unlikely she would escape, but she wanted to be ready to deal with any trouble regardless. “Now, to my question. It is the same one I asked before. Where can I find Darth Nyiss? It is my current task to remove her as a threat to this galaxy. I do not care about you. I am going to be incredibly generous and offer to uphold the initial deal I offered you back in the bar. Tell me what I want to know, and you are a free woman. Refuse me, and you will have, at minimum, a life sentence in a Republic prison. Depending on how sympathetic you are to your judge.”

Sounds of blaster fire and combat echoed through the walls of the Temple as the surprise Sith assault continued. Through a wide corridor, eight identically armored Sith troopers marched, almost in precision with each of their steps. Each of them clenched blaster rifles in their gloved hands, their faces covered with helmets. They were on the search for more Jedi, ordered by their superiors to find and capture them.

As they turned a corner they stumbled upon a single Jedi. Accompanied by two droids, they were not sure if there were more with the boy, or if he was just wandering around on his own. Still, just one Jedi, even young was still a threat. They leaned against the wall, as the highest ranking soldier in the group peeked at their new target. Then he shot his hand outwards and the eight troopers broke cover, rifles raised as they marched towards the Jedi.

“Halt! Give yourself over peacefully and no harm will come to you.” The ranking soldier shouted as he too held his rifle high, pointed at the Jedi, his finger hovering over the trigger.

“Sorry, but I can’t,” Xid cried out as he raised his hand, the droid at his right turned then opened fire at the men. It was the larger ones on a three legged base. The energy rippled through it causing it to brace itself and several bolts, about two sets of three, were sent into the trooper’s direction.

Meanwhile, Xid pulled out his lightsaber and started to rush to the other direction. He wasn’t about to stick around to fight a possibly losing fight as he still needed to find Shiri.

“Open fire! Take down those droids, don’t lose that Jedi, we need him alive!” The trooper leader hollered as two of the men went down with screams of pain, another was hit but stumbled behind rubble.

The others dashed for cover, then as soon as they had openings unleashed upon the droids, rapid blaster bolts kareeming out while a thermal detonator was flung at the three legged droid, hitting the ground but slowly rolling towards the machine. The leading trooper broke from cover as he ordered for covering fire, flanked by another trooper as they sprinted after the lightsaber wielding Xid.

Xid hadn’t bothered to pay attention to his droid ally until he spotted the thermal detonator, the small device tossed and immediately exploded underneath. The leg crumbled causing the machine to collapse on its side, its aim off. It whirled then grinded as it shoved up before it fell back down. A loud, metallic rumble echoed through the hallways when sudden its ‘skull’ was shot clean through. It twitched… finally becoming still.

As two shots came his way, Xid flicked his wrist and ignited his lightsaber. The blade came to life with a dull buzz as it batted away the fired shots. They hit the nearby walls while Xid came to a sliding stop, prepared to block any additional fired blasts.

The other droid had one of its arms popped off during the assault while it raise its other one and two more sets of four shots came out, directly aimed at the remaining troopers.

Another trooper went down with a yell of pain as a shot struck him right in the neck. The other troopers continued their assault, the remaining ones tucked behind covering continuing to hammer the surviving droid with blaster fire. Once they took down that machine they'd be able to focus solely on the Jedi, even if they had lost several men already.

The trooper commander and the other soldier tailing Xid kept their rifles aimed at the boy. Then they both squeezed the triggers and opened fire on the Jedi, trying to break through his defenses.

Xid gritted his teeth as his lightsaber whirled, the pain in his shoulder throbbed with each rotation. He was running out of stamina and was no wonder why. Between a fight just minutes ago and then he tried to chase after Shiri, he barely had any time for a single breath or recover. Now he was roped into another conflict.

His peripheral vision caught the droid go down under a rain of fire. In several moments, it was nothing but smoldering ruins. Xid cursed under his breath before he began to go on the offensive. His feet moved forward, cutting the distance between them, as his blade whipped out at the nearest two. With a right vertical slash from right to left, he severed the trooper to his right’s blaster thanks to his lightsaber.

Meanwhile his left hand reached out to touch the gun forcing it to malfunction shortly afterward. As the trooper shook and rattled it, Xid kicked his foot into the man’s gut flinging him into the wall. The other was still a bit shocked to see his own weapon useless giving Xid a chance to turn off the lightsaber then quickly smack the harmless end of his lightsaber into the ribs then followed up to the head side.

As the second droid went down the three remaining troopers switched their attention to Xid. Even now without their commander they still were focused on the task at hand. Each of the three soldiers opened fire at the Jedi, spraying blaster bolts towards him as they attempted to break through and find an opening. The sounds of blaster fire echoed through the room.

Something scurried across the chaos, small and ignored during the attack on Xid. It was a little six legged droid, Navi. He ducked and weaved through the rubble, his little cord trailed in his wake, just in the path of the incoming troopers. The moment the first trooper tugged the hidden trap, Navi tightened the cord. About three troopers immediately trip over their own feet and collapsed into a pile, their firing disrupted much to Xid’s relief.

Navi unmagnetized the end then snapped it back into his body before he began to rush toward the commander. His little body doing a zig-zag to avoid blaster coming his way as it leapt and landed hard on the man’s shoulders, its laser pulled from its slot.

The three shocked troopers struggled in their pile as they tried to untangle themselves and get to their feet. The commander fired at the small droid but missed all of his shots as it land on top of him. He swung his free hand at Navi, trying to smack it off of him.

Navi’s legs tighten and pressed deep in the skin, not caring for the human’s wellness obviously. His laser poked out then pressed to the man’s neck back as he continued to flail about in attempts to detach the determined droid. His hand brushed a leg causing Navi to slip down a bit and lose his grip before jerking upright to the shoulder again. It wasn’t easy for the droid to remain on the human who started to pull and tug, preventing Navi from actually putting his laser to use.

Upon contact on the skin, any skin, Navi activated his mechanic laser. It seared into the side of the neck, about several inches from its original mark, and took a chunk from the commander’s throat in the process.

The man, likely in shock, dropped to the ground while the droid promptly ducked under a semi propped up beam then vanished.

Xid had already knocked both his troopers out and was trying to reach Navi’s location in order to assist his droid ally.

From the same corridor the troopers had charged in from came another set of footsteps, much calmer and composed than the frantic ones of the soldiers. A figure in a maroon colored cloak appeared, an unlit curved lightsaber in her hand. As she walked into the room her eyes were upon Xid, having watched the battle from a distance. She had ordered the soldiers into combat, and now it was her turn up and she planned to finish the fight.

She rose up her free hand, motioning it towards Xid, then with an almost casual maneuver she lifted him into the air with the Force. Holding him there for a moment with a telekinetic tight grip on the boy’s throat. Vivithe simply stared at the Jedi as he choked in her grasp, breathing becoming harder and harder.

A devilish smile crept into her face, almost as if she was toying with the exhausted Jedi. Then she tossed him into the wall hard, dust lifting up as he collided with it. Then the Sith Lord strolled towards him, igniting her crimson red lightsaber as she continued her confident walk in his direction.

Xid felt his throat constrict only moments before the Sith Lord lifted him up. His arms gripped at the invisible fingers curled about his airway and tried to pull them away, in zero success. In moments, his lightsaber slipped from his grip and clattered to the ground, deactivating upon impact.

Upon tossing him, his figure balled barely in time upon pain filling his attention. He gasped after feeling his throat released causing him to cough and wheeze, his eyes watered from the experience as he tried to reach for his lightsaber. It twitched then shot toward his hand.

Navi, unable to keep hidden for long, shot from his hiding place. His cord dragged behind it and smacked the ground, a broken piece of metal in the magnetic grip, before whirling it at the Sith in order to distract her.

Vivithe blinked as she noticed the small machine break from cover, she had noticed the interesting creation before and knew when she entered the fray to keep her eye on it. As it flung a piece of metal in her direction, she reacted appropriately, contorting her body as the broken piece whizzed by her harmlessly. She then lifted Navi up with the Force, simply hoisting it upwards.

“So you have a talent with machinery don't you boy? I saw those other two droids accompanying you before as well. Quite an interesting contraption you have created here. But, I knew it was here.” The Sith Lord stated with another confident smile before she flung Navi across the room, far away from her and Xid. Then she focused back upon the young Jedi in front of her.

The moment Navi had flicked the metal at the woman and was sent flying, Xid had gripped his lightsaber. His eyes widened upon seeing the droid skid across the floor after an ear splitting crunch was made on landing. Xid’s heart stilled for a moment in shock at seeing his friend, his ally and creation laying limp there. He couldn’t see the damage but he knew there had to be some.

The spell was broken causing Xid to whip his head about to face the Sith, his teeth gritted and expression hardened. His feet found themselves underneath him before he realized as his lightsaber came to life. The blade came from a lower left point at his own hips to a diagonal slash toward her right shoulder, crossing over her chest, through his exhaustion seeped into his limbs during the action.

“Leave him alone!” He screamed.

“Now now, boy. Don't fret, he's probably just a little shaken. Perhaps I'll hand him over to the Empire’s technicians and turn him into a machine fit for the Empire.” Vivithe cruelly taunted as she expertly blocked the attack, her lightsaber waving up to deflect the tired Jedi’s weapon.

Then she went on the offensive, in her ever confident Makashi stance, her legs spread and exerting the smallest amount of strength needed. A rapid swing at the handle of Xid’s weapon, then back in same direction as she took a step forward with each attack. The Sith Lord attempting to disarm her opponent.

Xid jerked with the swing at his blade as it was nearly wrenched from his grasp. His fingers, tired and weak, barely held on while she advanced. Xid’s own feet moved backwards trying to increase the distance with very little effectiveness and blocking the next attack with even less strength than before. His head jerked quickly around for an escape route only to open himself on his left side, his attention averted and distracted for a brief second.

Vivithe moved with motion that betrayed her seemingly relaxed demeanor. Her free hand twinged as she focused the Force in the Jedi before she moved to throw him back into the wall again. Xid was almost beaten, she could practically feel it. She just had to keep up her assault and he would surely go down.

With the last swing, his lightsaber flew from his hand successfully disarming him. His fingers were completely numb as he stepped back from the Sith Lord baring down on him like predatory beast.

As Xid lost his weapon he bounced off the wall, more pain vibrating through his body. Vivithe showed no hesitation as she then swiftly kicked him right in the side of the head with her boot, knocking the boy out cold. Another smile was on her face, all the Jedi saw as he blacked out was her boot slamming into his head. The Sith Lord then flicked off her her weapon and used the Force to scoop up the Jedi’s dropped lightsaber, slipping it into a pocket of her robe.

She then signaled for more troopers to come to her location and take away the boy. She had wasted almost no energy and had more Jedi to hunt.

Zora’s attention flickered toward the entering Zabrak when he spoke, her head unable to wrench itself far enough to actually see him.

At his statement, the Sith laughed lightly. Her eyes narrowed on him with a razor edge to them as she spoke, “Oh, I’ve not been a ‘girl’ since my trials so you can stop with the pet name. I suppose it was coincidence that a drunken fight happen to break out on my way out and right in my path? Or the fact several individuals were already moving to my position before I ever managed to leave the building? You can insult a lot about me, if you don’t have to worry about repercussions, but never insult my intelligence.”

She let the words sink in for a moment while his figure emerged from the darkness. He came to stop beside the reptilian Jedi, his teeth gnawed on the cigarra in his mouth and the end unlit. Honestly a perfect waste of cigarra in her personal opinion causing her to roll her eyes. Seemingly unaffected by her reaction, he seemed to insist on her answering the question with the threat of a firing squad. Her smile widened as she leaned in against her restraints.

“You’re persistent in your desire to find the Darth, a fact that is too obvious. How easily do you think it will be in finding another sith with the same information you’re looking for and that won’t take years tracking down. The more time you waste, the more likely the Darth will eventually get word about you trying to locate her,” Zora revealed, seeming unaffected by what she considered idle threats.

When Fa mentioned hostilities, Zora shook her head, “Hostilities only happened after I was stabbed with a sedative. A lucky shot mind you and a fact not to twist since we both can’t deny that I was peaceful walking out. I would’ve been stupid not to react violently upon being stabbed with something I knew nothing about.”

Or a mindless, pacifist Jedi she thought. However, she was smart enough not to say this comment in her words for she was testing the Jedi’s boundaries which seemed rather vast.

When Fa once more made the deal, Zora shook her head in the limited space she had, “After the stunt in the bar, you’re expecting me to trust you? That’s sort of one sided isn’t it? Would you trust me not to bolt when given the chance after my first attempted escape? No, you wouldn’t. You might be a Jedi, but you sure don’t act like one and makes me wary of whatever word you give. What reassurances do I have that you aren’t just take my information and go back on your word?”

---

"One of the very few things that Jedi and Sith agree upon is that there is no such thing as luck." Fa answered back, crossing her arms as she looked down upon the Twi'lek. "Either it was the will of the force, you made a mistake, or my friend here is better than you think. Perhaps all of the above. In any case, you should not deny your shortcomings; it is quite a terrible habit to develop."

Fa let out a rather long, soft sigh, then leaned down, her face mere inches from Zora's. Her expression was suddenly much more intense as she stared into her eyes. "Do you know how many times I have been through this song and dance? How many Sith I have interrogated. All of you think you are special, exceptional even. You think you can last through anything that anyone can do to you. You all have that pride that you are the strongest or are going to be the strongest, that nothing can get to you. But ultimately, you are just another Sith. You are not the strongest, nor the fastest, nor the smartest. You have skills that place you above the average citizen, but you ultimately not that important. You do have information I want, and I would like to have it, but you are far from the only lead that exists. I have already captured and interrogated other Sith who did not have the information I needed, and you may end up being just another one of those. I may end up talking or yelling at you for a while, you say nothing useful, and I send you off for the rest of your life to a Republic prison. I keep on hunting Nyiss and never think about you again, much like the rest of the galaxy. Or, you accept my offer and perhaps get a chance to make yourself as important as you think you are. I can offer you nothing that proves I am being honest. But, you truly have no better choice. We...may or may not let the information leak to the Sith that you shared some valuable information, even if you do not. That, of course, would mark you for death by the Sith. Your only chance at having any life at all after this is that I am not lying."

Fa leaned back somewhat from Zora. "Now, I reason that it is probably about the time that you are preparing to carry out your daring escape attempt, so go ahead. I would like to get that out of the way sooner rather than later."

Vebra smiled as the Sith retorted back at him. Remove the cigarra with his middle and fore finger Vebra crossed his free arm and motioned at her with his cigar. "Oh? I thought you Sith were into that whole.... pet name thing. Regardless, drunken fights are always a fun distraction. They usually work on people that don't spend a lot of time at establishments like that one. So I would never insult your intelligence girl, just your... addictions." Vebra said with a laugh out of one side of his mouth as he placed the flavorful cylinder back into the other half of his mouth. Knowing that Fa would likely want to get on with it. He rather enjoyed when Sith would play his game, they were usually much more fun about it then a brooding captured fallen Jedi. They would usually just say how they were gonna kill them all when they got out of their chains blah blah blah. Sith would at least grant them rather specific explanations of how they were gonna kill him and his team in the most painful way possible.

Fa then shortly went on a bit of a monologue about the crushing unimportance of a single person in this galaxy. Which in Vebra's opinion was a bit overkill but he knew this was very much not the time to crack a joke. So he put on his rather solemn face and when Fa added that she should try to get her escape out of the way now Vebra decided to make her point a little bit further. "If you attempt to escape now I can promise only a broken hand. If you try later it will probably be a little bit more than that." Vebra said this without a hint of sarcasm or his usual jovialness. He was hoping that this wouldn't end with them having to dump her out an airlock but they would also have to rendezvous with a Republic vessel soon anyways so they would dump her there if she was cooperative. Though there was a certain simplicity to the airlock approach.

Location: Jedi Temple during sacking, Day 1: 11th hour

Jewel stalked through the smoke filled corridors of the Jedi temple in search of more living Jedi to capture. In one hand, her weapon was tightly gripped, but unignited. The other was stretched tense in a claw shape and ready to throw all manner of horrific Force attacks at any hostiles she encountered.

She was on the trail of a Jedi now - an elusive one to be sure, and not the most powerful if her reading of the Force was correct… Yet she knew from experience that raw power wasn’t always the best trait for a Sith. It was then she rounded a corner and caught sight of the Jedi. A small, fur covered thing that wouldn’t look out of place in the Dromund Kaas menagerie. Yet the Force was evident in it, and that meant Jewel would capture it, no matter how unlikely a recruit to the Sith it may be.

Talon quietly watched as her friend departed the room with the children. In a way the young woman was happy that the small group was out of her way. There would less chances of someone screwing up. Less of a chance of getting caught with her tail between her legs. The teenager’s tail flickered off the ground, ears pulling towards the back of her skull, as the fur on the back of the fox’s neck brushed upwards. Something wasn’t right.

The Amaran’s eyes glanced around the room in search of her uneainess. Unconscionably the woman knew why her fur was standing still though the girl wasn’t sure the enemy’s exact placement. Something that could mean life and death in any sneak attack. Talon shifted her foot to the right, the opposite paw dragging against the library’s flooring, as their eyes made contact. Instincts took over from there allowing the Amaran’s paws to pattern hard against the floor.

Her figure placed a paw upon on of the carts, pushed the object forwards in an attempt to block one of the two entrances, even for a few measly seconds.

Jewel broke out into a sprint as soon as her quarry was in sight. She reached the door just as the first object did, immediately leaping forward and igniting her lightsaber. The object was cut in two, the pieces flying to either side as Jewel rose through the air. The second object was close to striking her, but rather than be impeded by it, she used it as a stepping stone, leaping further into the air off it.

She somersaulted through the air, aiming to land just in front of the creature and bring her lightsaber down in a crushing blow upon it. It would be a killing strike, should it land - but as far as Jewel was concerned, if the beast was felled by such an obvious and telegraphed strike, it didn’t deserve capture, and would never be a good Sith anyway.

The fox sensed something coming down the hallway, aiming for her like some animal on the hunt, no pun intended on the reality of the Amaran’s own existence. She allowed her eyes to glance backwards and catch a glimpse of a figure jumping from an object. Most likely this was an attempted attack to finish the enemy quickly. Every person’s nightmare in this world. Though honestly the young woman wasn’t planning on departing from this world anytime soon.

A quick turn to the right would caught her off balance and possible death, a turn to the left without knowing exactly what was on the other side was dangerous too, granted that going forward would be a hazard for one’s health as well. Best option would be to shift to the right far enough to allow some sort of boost and then lead them into a different area. Maybe a place with small spaces to help give her some sort of advantage.

The young woman leaned to the right, far enough for her paw to touch solid ground, then used force speed for a boost hopefully dodging the attack completely. She then used force stun to provide some sort of cover or distraction. If there was still time the young woman would continuing running in the new direction.

As Jewel completed her maneuver and brought the Lightsaber down, the smell of singed fur and boiling stone filled the air. Her prey had only barely dodged, a slow and foolish reaction as far as Jewel was concerned, though she reevaluated when she felt a probing at her mind. The little thing was trying to stun her with the Force. Her reaction was simply to laugh and shrug it off. No Jedi she had ever encountered had the mental fortitude to overcome her mental barriers.

Raising her crimson lightsaber to the ready once more, she noted the Jedi turn to try to run again. “Are all Jedi as cowardly as you? Or are you just a pet rodent with a toy lightsaber?” She taunted as she leapt forward to give chase.

“A rodent? Really? You seriously need to up the name calling game. Actually use that brain of yours to come up with a better insult.” The girl remarked turning a right. The girl kept running, searching for some advantage point, while strategizing at the same time. In reality the young woman knew that running wasn’t going to last. She side stepped to the left and pulled out her light saber. “Well this is a bit of a predicament. Mind if I ask for a dance my lady?”

Finally, some spirit Jewel thought as she saw the creature’s lightsaber whip out. She transferred her forward momentum into a quick one handed diagonal slash towards her foes head. She was focusing on speed more than power - expecting not to need it against her smaller but more nimble enemy.

”Okay if she’s going forward then one of two things could happen. A slash to the right might be a bit predictable. Possibly to the left. So… Why not attempt a guard?” she quickly thought shifting a bit lower. The fox stepped backwards, placing the blade upwards in order to defend against a new attack. Her figure moved another step to where the woman was facing her enemy and slashed at her left.

Jewel grinned as her blade struck hard resistance. Red clashed with yellow, and rather than move for another strike, Jewel shifted from a focus on speed to a focus on strength, seeking to force down her enemies blade in a very one-sided blade lock. She was toying with her foe now, wearing the creature down.

Talon shifted the blade towards an angle when she began feeling her body being forced downwards. In reality the fox knew that her strength wasn’t even a match for her opponent. So what if they were forced to keep moving? The Amaran shifted to the left, allowing the blades to part, moved her left foot forwards, and jumped upwards to attack from above.

Jewel stepped back as her foe dodged away and, when the creature went airborne, did some things that were extremely unusual when compared to her usual fighting style. She took hold of her weapon with two hands and raised a simple Form I straight block. Once her foe had moved out of range, she shifted to make a two handed slash - equally as simple as the block had been - at the place she thought her enemy would land. All of this was done out of a realisation that in this particular scenario, her own acrobatics would be more of a detriment than a help.

The block wasn’t something that Talon had expected the woman to do but then again it was only natural. Something which she had seen day after day when her comrades were taken away from their guild. Now here was a different person in a thief's position and her as the ever violent guard. The young woman used the lightsaber to attempt to attack her. Beginning at the back right shoulder area and diagonally to the left side chest. When the guard came into contact with the attack she used the momentum to push away from the enemy. Giving a much needed space between the two.

As she finished deflecting the strike, Jewel wasted no time in hurling herself into the air in pursuit. Though she did not want to try and match the small foe in an acrobatic brawl, when it came to covering ground she could easily keep up. While she approached she began a telepathic assault on the Jedi, reaching into the darkness and the fury that filled her to hurl both fear and slowing energy through the Force. When she came close to her enemy her lightsaber flashed out again in another swift one-handed strike, this time aimed at her foe’s lightsaber.

The sudden attack was a big surprise. The enemy copying her jump wasn’t quite what the fox expected. At first the Amaran didn’t realize that there was a mental attack. If it hadn’t been for the tingling sensation beginning at the back paws and creeping upwards, just like it had when she was apart of the criminal world. The fox’s ears laid back in order to help her concertation, attempting to form a decent defense within a certain time limit, though when footsteps came closer things become a bit more tricky. Her blade went up, minutes feeling like seconds, inching until they once again collided blades. A growl released from the young woman’s throat and blood dripped from her jaw due to biting her tongue. A shift to the side making their sabers move as if for a kill shot. Only to to stop half way.

To be honest the girl really wanted to finish the attack but something had forced her to stop. Maybe it was because her morals were much stronger than originally thought. Or perhaps it was because the the memories for the guards violence had stopped her. All Talon knew was that even though her buttons had been pushed it wasn’t right to kill. Even the fox’s master would agree to this fact.

Jewel was forced to pull back as a counter strike from her small foe’s lightsaber came uncomfortably close to her midsection after having slipped beneath her guard. But even as she recoiled to preserve herself, she reveled in the backwash of emotion from the Jedi before her. There was fear - brought on by the telepathic attack no doubt - but something more, just for a moment. The strike had been fueled in its speed by the Dark Side, and Jewel’s keen perception picked up on that right away. Even if it had stopped short, it was a crack, a chink in the mental armor of the Jedi… One to be exploited at a later date.

Stopping like that, however, was also an unforgivable, unrecoverable mistake. Twisting her own weapon around, Jewel was able to bring it back and with a reverse strike cut towards the outstretched hand. She aimed for the weapons hilt seeking to destroy her enemies lightsaber, but would just as happily sever the hand that held it. The Jedi was fast running out of options.

Never in Talon’s life had something made her regret becoming a Jedi. That was until today. Not only did she have a taste of the dark side but in a way she enjoyed the preview. Something that the fox hoped never happened again. The cracking sound forced her focus back to the present. Talk about rubbing salt into the wound. There wasn’t really any other option than surrender.

Jewel completed the Sun Djem disarming strike elegantly, twirling her lightsaber by her side once before shutting it off. Her enemies weapon failed in a shower of sparks and she grinned with the elation of victory. No sooner had she done this than her left hand shot out to grip the small Jedi before her by the throat, lifting and squeezing. Not enough to damage permanently, but consciousness would not last. The beast reached forward and down with its mouth wide, biting at her armored gauntlet. Jewel admired the Jedi’s spirit, even if the attempt was futile. Eventually, her foe went limp and she threw it over her shoulder, to carry to the shuttle, only stopping to collect the broken pieces of the lightsaber on the way. Victory and a prize were hers at last.

As much as Zora hated it, she was right about one thing: she was just another Sith. In the eyes of the Empire, she was above a civilian and could do nearly no wrong. Everywhere she walked everyone who wasn’t force sensitive knew where she treaded as to either avoid her or gain a glimpse of her, believing she was worth something. This naturally fed her ego in the past until she was entered into the academy. That’s when everything changed and reality slapped her hard in the face. It was a dog eat dog world out there which meant if she wasn’t careful, she was bound to wind up someone else’s kill.

She still didn’t trust Fa’s offer because underneath the Republic’s banner, she was either vermin or a threat. The fact was, reformed Sith didn’t exist peacefully within the Republic and she wasn’t going to farther someone else’s career. To pretend otherwise that it wasn’t going to happen was foolish. Fa’s protection was useless since the Jedi was going on what Zora viewed to be a suicidal mission.

“You’re so sure your ‘protection’ would hold any worth even when you’re going on a suicidal mission. When you’re dead, and it’s high chance, the Republic will simply change their mind and I’m still dead,” Zora pointed out, then sighed. Her tongue pressed against her lip’s interior in thought before Vebra’s comment snapped what little resistance at making a snide retort.

“Oh, it’s very brilliant idea to attempt an escape with your captors watching. It never fails,” Zora snapped in a sarcastic tone then turned her glare on the Zabrak and added, “Fine since I have to trust, I’ll cooperate on three conditions. First, you let me go with my belongings. Second, you leave me on a civilized planet along the way and let me vanish. And finally, the Republic never knows where I was dropped off at or where I was.”

She didn’t give Fa a chance to push her advantage as the Twi’Lek’s peeved expression hardened. It was clear Fa would get nothing better without a risk of her lying, “This is the only thing I'll accept and actually give you useful information. I don’t care what you believe in when it comes to the Republic, they will kill me when they get a chance. Especially with you being unable to return and enforce that deal. Nyiss isn’t stupid and you’re heading right into her territory.”

Letting that sink in, Zora turned her hands upright in the shackles to indicate for them to release her, “Now, you can let my negotiations stick or just toss me in jail and waste time finding another source, one that might not be reliable. I’m pretty sure that public display of my capture won’t help you very much as the Darth has sources outside of Sith.”

Fa’s expression towards Zora turned to a toothy grin. “See, now we have an understanding. Once I have the information I desire, you can go on your way. In short, I agree. You tell me the planet on which you would like to be released, and provided it is not a Sith stronghold, we will take you there. Then, I will release you, you will share your information, and then you can have your belongings and go.”

---

Fa-Val-Kuul was, if nothing else, honest with her word. Though trickery and deceit was nothing new in her line of work, she did at least honor the agreement she had made with the Twi’lek. It was, of course, not particularly comforting to release a potentially dangerous Sith, but Zora was nothing next to the immense threat posed by her target. Darth Nyiss was her assignment, her prey, and if some sacrifices had to be made to reach her, then Fa would do what she must.

Zora’s information was not as comprehensive as Fa might have hoped, but it was at least everything that she needed to finally begin the operation. Fortunately, Fa had informed the Republic ahead of time that she was pursuing a promising lead, so they were ready to move quickly on the information. At least one of Zora’s warnings had rang true: Nyiss was not stupid. Hesitate for too long to act, and they might just lose their chance altogether. Fa had her Republic support, her supplies and equipment, and even a captured Imperial shuttle to take them into the firmly Sith-controlled space.

Within a few days, Battlemaster Fa’s strike team had mobilized to their destination: Feena. Initial reconnaissance did confirm a Sith presence in the system, but they did not have too much of an opportunity for scouting before they had to make their approach. Even using their captured shuttle for transport, loitering for too long in one place would certainly arouse suspicion.

The landing on Feena had been tense, but ultimately successful. Although, it still did not come without its complications. Most immediately obvious upon their approach was that their sensors were surprisingly ineffective, as if they were being scrambled to a degree. It was a development that was both restricting and enabling to them, in different respects. Fa had initially planned to set up their forward base fairly far from the Sith base, for their own safety, but in order to get any use at all out of their own sensor arrays, they would have to be closer. Fortunately, this also gave them more freedom to search the jungle for a suitable landing zone. Once they had reached the surface along their initially planned path, Fa made the call to scan an area closer to the base for a suitable site for their camp. They had kept their shuttle just barely above the trees, and made sure to remain far enough from the enemy base to avoid being spotted by patrols.

The landing zone had eventually been found in the form of a cavern within a valley that would be both defensible, and hidden. They had spent much of the night setting up their equipment, and masking any sign of their presence. They had their shuttle covered in a camouflaged webbing within an hour, and their generator and sensor array set up within two. The manpower they had available made it a relatively painless process. Although, much to the chagrin of Fa, she received orders to send the shuttle back for some other purpose, so they had to turn around and uncover it immediately. For this mission, they had called in the best they could get their hands on in the time they had. Half of their force was comprised of specialized Sith-hunters, personally trained by Vebra. They were elite troops, well-equipped and trained to deal with force users, and this was the most that Fa had seen deployed in one place, at one time. It spoke to the threat Nyiss posed, and the importance of stopping her.

---

Fa looked up at the clear sky above, taking in a deep breath as the sun warmed her scales. She walked along the edge of the river nearest their camp, taking in the sights of the environment around her. It was a sight that she expected to have to get used to, as this mission was not appearing as if it would be a quick one. As much as Fa wanted to make their attack sooner rather than later, they were facing far too much of a deficit in information to take such a risk. The intelligence Zora had on the Sith base itself was woefully imprecise, and there was no guarantee even that much would be accurate. They had to perform their own reconnaissance, and make their own plans based on their own observations. That was something that would take time, especially if they wished to avoid being detected in the process. So, they had to prepare to settle in. Fa knelt down at the riverbank and carefully filled up a small vial with a sample of the water. They would need to test to make sure it would be safe for their use.

The Trandoshan’s stance was firm and prepared for violence. Khan could see he was serious in his threat to kill the prisoner if they didn’t comply and surrender. Khan wasn’t sure what to do. Normally a hostage situation was supposed to have some room for negotiation between the two parties, but this was definitely not that case. If they gave in, they would be imprisoned by the Sith but...how were they supposed to just let an innocent die? Khan found himself agonized with indecision, but in times like these he only had his training and his nature as an Echani to fall back on and both were telling him to fight. The Trandoshan Sith might have been telling the truth about killing the hostage, but if they gave themselves up without a fight he could go on to kill as many beings as he pleased, right?

Khan glanced over at his Master, trying to pass the sentiment along and hoping he’d have backup when he made his move.

Khan had to try something, so he fell back on telekinesis. He was really skilled at precise manipulations, so maybe he could throw something without giving it away. He picked up a medium sized chunk of masonry and jerked it toward Sish with a jerk of his fingers, hoping to destabilize the Sith so his Master could attack.

Denso stared at the reptile as it has its claws around a defenseless temple guard. The Sith was dotted with battle scars and wore armor, it would be a tough one to take down even with the combined skills of the Kiffar and the Echani. The hostage was beaten badly as he stared with desperate eyes at both Jedi. Denso glanced towards Khan during the tense moment, his weapons clenched unlit in his hands. They would need to move precisely and with utmost speed in order to both free the hostage and take down the powerful looking Sith.

“You Sith are all the same, that man is not why you are here I would venture to guess, he is unarmed and of no threat to you. Let him go and take on someone your own size.” Denso stated aggressively as he glared at Sish, fingers hovering just over the switch on each lightsaber that ignite them. As he spoke, he noticed some debris slowly rising into the air behind the lizard. His padawan was making a risky move, but one that could pay off.

“Me and you, right now, Sith. You look like someone that knows how to fight, surely you’ll toss aside your prisoner and face me in combat. The other Sith were cocky and flashy but ultimately weak, are you any better than them?” The Jedi challenged as he walked slowly to his side, keeping his distance for now from Sish, but hoping to draw his attention. H continued to stare down the trandoshan as he was hoping to bait him into combat where then Khan could then help him, hopefully their efforts together would be enough to win the fight.

Sish grinned at the two of them, one trying to keep is attention while the other , or both, would try to use the Force to make him let go of his hostage. It was how the Jedi operated, and he would have been surprised if they had done anything else. Sish kept his senses alert, waiting for the slightest thing that would indicate an attack. His eye snapped to the Echani’s fingers as they twitched, a moment later hearing whistling as something was thrown through the air. He turned, holding the Temple Guard out in front of him as a shield, and blocked the masonry with his prisoner’s body. He quickly turned his attention back to the two jedi, not wanting to give them a chance.

If the Echani wasn’t able to move it out in time, the man’s arm and ribs would doubtlessly be broken. Regardless, Sish kept staring at his two opponents. “You Jedi are all the same as well. You see me with a prisoner, and you automatically try something that would both free him and keep yourselves safe. We all know that there are only two ways this could end. Either you both surrender, and I let him run free, or you look him in the eyes and tell him that you don’t care about his life as much as your own, and I kill him before we fight.” Sish brought the guard forward again, lightsaber poised to end his life. “Your choice.”

“Even if we lay down our weapons and surrender you will still kill him, you Sith are weak like that. Hurting and slaughtering those unable to fight back in order to feel some false sense of superiority. Why would I trust you not to cut him down? I’d rather trust a starving rancor not to eat a cattle. I’ll ask you once more to let him go and face me in combat.” Denso replied as he ignored the reptilian’s demand. His brow furrowed, eyes staring straight on at Sish. He continued his slow pace around his opponent, keeping a small distance from him.

Denso felt he was making the most tactical decision, he did not wish to see the guard die or get more hurt by this monstrosity, but if Khan and him did not take down the Sith lord then there was no telling how many more lives would vanquish under the Sith’s hand by the end of this surprise assault on the temple. Denso’s eyes then momentarily shifted towards his padawan, as he motioned with them for the young man to take up position on the opposite side of the room from him. His hope was that they’d be able to strike the Sith from two different sides in an attempt to cause an opening which they could then exploit.

Khan was barely able to yank the chunks of stone to the side before they would have smashed into the guard, cursing himself in his head as they flew wide of their target. Had he been a little more subtle or a little more precise, he could have either struck the Sith before he’d noticed or twisted the stones to strike around the hostage. As it was the Padawan had been lucky not to kill an innocent.

From the way His Master was standing, his response to the Sith’s ultimatum would have been clear to Khan even without a verbal reply: Resignation flowing into resolve. Khan did his best to mimic the emotional resolve needed, trying to ignore the fear written on every muscle in the unfortunate guard’s body. He read his Denso’s intentions well enough, moving as surely as he could to try and split the Sith’s focus and hemispheres of battle and readying to match speed with his Master when they began their attack.

Sish took measured steps backwards as the two jedi tried to get on either side of him. “I’m offended Jedi. I always keep my word. Just like I’ll keep my word to kill this man if you keep trying to circle me.” The Jedi continued, and Sish bared his teeth. “I see you’ve made your decision. You hear that friend?” He lightly shook the guard, still taking more steps back. “They don’t care about your life enough to risk their own. Quite the repayment for your sacrifice, hmm? No matter. You won’t care in a second.” The man’s eyes widened in terror. “No, plea-!” Sish’s lightsaber erupted through his stomach, turning his plea into a scream. The Sith tore the blade up through his chest, dropping the guard as it escaped through the man’s shoulder.

“Now that we don’t have any distractions, why don’t we begin?” Sish settled into a Soresu stance, grinning madly. “Your move first.”

Denso blinked, then shut his eyes for a moment right as the lightsaber went through the temple guard’s chest.. As the man’s now lifeless body slumped to the floor the Jedi knight flicked on both his lightsabers, the deep blue blades rocketing out of the handle and simmering with that familiar sound. He felt the Force flow through him as he calmed his thoughts. The guard had died valiantly, doing his duty. Him nor any of the others that stood in defense of the Temple knew that the Sith would launch such a brutal attack on their home.

The Kiffar could only hope that Khan understood his decision to not surrender, that would have done no good. It would have put both of their lives in harm. The Sith lord was wrong, they cared deeply about lives, each innocent life in the galaxy. Turning themselves in would do no good in preserving lives, vanquishing this cruel Trandoshan would do that. Denso couldn’t imagine how many others their powerful looking opponent had killed.

“You Sith are cowards, you’re no different. You prey on the weak and have no honor, no sense of duty or good.” Denso muttered as he quickly gestured with fingers on each of his hands, picking up medium sized chunks of rubble spread around the room and flinging them in Sish’s direction. Dust kicked up as the debris rose upwards then careened through the air. Then he dashed at the Sith lord, his lightsabers humming as he moved to go low with one blade, and high with the other.

Khan had no speeches prepared, no clever words like his Master. In fact he wasn’t sure how Denso had the strength to speak about good, justice, duty when the two of them seemed to be failing in all three at that moment. There was always a certain amount of moral math to fighting a war, Khan had been taught that at his mother’s knee. But here and now, faced with the reality of an innocent man’s death? The Padawan had to look away. He kept his eyes focused on the Sith’s feet though, he was too well schooled to take his eyes completely off a dangerous opponent. He could still see the guard’s feet as well, see them tense and shudder with the rest of him at the final, agonizing moment of his death.

The Echani tried to steel himself, find balance and tranquility before the impending battle, tell himself that all that mattered was preventing this monster from killing anyone else. He wasn’t sure if he succeeded. Regardless, the Padawan timed igniting his lightsaber so it was almost in sync with his master, slipping into an initial Ataru stance. Khan tried to study their opponent as his Master flung debris with far more skill than he had managed, read his style and his actions to come, search for openings. In the end he just rushed the Trandoshan in time with his master, pivoting in a whirl to strike from the side where his master hit from the front.

Sish laughed aloud as the first Jedi spoke, dodging the debris as they were thrown at him. It was amusing, the lengths some would go to convince themselves they were still good people. “That is very hypocritical of you, don’t you think Jedi?” He taunted, glancing briefly as Khan began his attack as well. The Trandoshan’s limbs filled with force speed, and he waited for them to reach him.“You call me a coward, but you just let an innocent man die because you were to afraid to sacrifice yourselves. You claim I have no honor or duty, yet you showed you have neither when I gave you a choice to save him. As for good, well,” Sish shrugged as he darted out of the range of the lightsabers swinging at him. “That is heavily based on personal. Don’t you think?” Lightning sparked from his claw and he threw it at Denso, before lunging towards Khan, lightsaber thrust forward to spear the Echani.

“Only cowards butcher people like you Sith do.” Denso snapped as his initial attacks missed, the lizard dodging the strikes. His opponent was clearly a talented combatant, though the Jedi knight had faced those before on the battlefield. As lightning sprung out from Sish’s claw, the Kiffar shot up both lightsabers to block it. He planted his feet and held his ground as the sparks flew.

“Khan watch out!” Denso hollered as the reptile launched himself towards the young padawan. He was not nervous about the boy’s skill with lightsabers, but the Sith lord was a ferocious enemy. As the lightning began to dissipate Denso charged at Sish, moving his body downwards as he lunged at the reptilian’s legs.

Khan had to throw himself into a wider turn in his pivoting spin to avoid the thrust of the Trandoshan’s blade, his own body reading abilities and his Master’s shout of warning giving him just enough time to avoid fiery impalement. He still carried through with a high counter-slash of his own as he avoided the Trandoshan’s attack, but it was awkwardly aimed from his defensive whirl.

Sish grinned as he heard Denso shout, quickly leaping away from the Jedi Knight’s swinging blades and Khan’s counter strike. Even he wasn’t arrogant enough to try and take on both of them at once. He tossed his lightsaber into his organic hand, waiting for the two to attack again. “My, my. Someone cares an awful lot about their apprentice. Isn’t that against the Jedi code? To have emotions that make you choose one life over another? It seems like it.”

“Compassion is not against the Jedi code, Sith. But an animal like yourself would not know that.” Denso shouted back as he twirled his lightsabers around.A smile sneaked onto his face, showing that he was totally composed and calm.

He stared at the Sith Lord as he tried his best to not let Sish’s taunts get to him. He briefly glanced at hi padawan, knowing that the boy was uninjured and keeping his composure. Then the Kiffar channeled the Force as he lifted scattered debris around him, then with a grunt tossed them in Sish’s direction with a grunt as he hoped to hit the Sith with something.

“That didn’t sound like compassion. You certainly didn’t have any for the man you let die. Or is sacrifice against the Jedi code as well? I think it is. It’d fit you Jedi so perfectly. Can’t actually die for the people you claim to protect can you? Just tell them that so they won’t expose you for the cowards that you are.” Sish snorted dismissively as more debris was thrown at him. He knocked aside some debris with the Force and dodged others. “Come now, you know that this won’t work. Stop giving in to your fear and face me.”

Khan waited for the last piece of debris to be thrown before charging in again, watching the Sith’s movement as he used the Force and dodged, trying to get a grasp of his speed and footwork. Then he rushed in at the highest speed he could push himself to, trying to take a sliding slash at the Sith’s legs, mostly as an attempted distraction for Denso “Shut up and fight already!”

“Fear is a path to the dark side, the Sith are the most fearful people in the galaxy.” Denso shot back as his eyes caught Khan starting to move.

As Denso’s brave padawan charged into combat, the Kiffar almost smirked. The boy had enough of the Sith’s taunts, and tried to surprise the reptilian. As soon as he saw Khan’s feet move rapidly, Denso shifted his own as he used the Force to accelerate his own sprint, charging Sish head on with both lightsabers raised. His apprentice was going low, so Denso went high. As he closed the distance between him and his enemy he swept both of his lightsabers at the chest level of Sish, the blades moving with ferocity and speed.

“You can’t know courage without knowing fear. We merely recognize and accept our emotions, rather than hiding from them and fearing them constantly.” Sish replied, grinning at the padawan as he charged. “I’ve just been waiting on you.” He blocked Khan’s slash at his legs, holding up his mechanical arm at Denso as he charged, grinning still. Flames spewed from his hand as soon as Denso was within range.

Khan’s speed alone wasn’t enough to give him an edge, though speed and technique were likely his only real asset in a fight against a Sith this obviously experienced in killing. But the Echani padawan wasn’t fighting alone and had even more faith in his master’s abilities than his own. He was irked at how Sish was able to block his lowline slash, but he just took the energy the Trandoshan’s lightsaber imparted as it shoved his blade aside and used it for himself as he whirled around, rising from his crouch to try and slash at the outstretched mechanical hand from the opposite direction as soon as the block pushed him off.

As Denso charged towards the reptilian, he was surprised to see the Sith raise his metallic hand and unleash a burst of flames. The Kiffar sent himself to the ground as the flames hit him, his armor taking most of the impact. He slide away from his target, and rapidly tried to douse the fire enveloping him. As the smoke rose into the air and the flames began to falter he let out a deep cough, then stared back at Sish. Letting out a deep breath he once more dashed at Sish, attacking the opposite side of his apprentice was.

As Denso doused the flames on his body Sish yanked his arm down to avoid Khan’s slash and responded with a horizontal slice towards the Echani’s chest. Regardless of whether or not it hit, he leapt backwards again as he saw the Kiffar charging, settling into a defensive stance once more.

Khan could fortunately react fast enough to prevent himself from being cut in half, using the momentum of his own rising, spinning slash as it was voided to twist and leap over the Sith’s blade. Trying to sail just over his opponent’s blade was a risky move, but made less so from reading the hesitance in the Trandoshan’s stance. As he’d guessed, the Sith had retreated immediately after that attack and Khan rolled to his feet unharmed, studying his opponent for openings and his Master for tactical opportunities.

Denso watched Khan react and spin upwards, dancing over the Sith lord’s lightsaber. His padawan rolled to his feet uninjured as Denso continued his charge. He spun both lightsabers and looked as if he was about ready to go full speed with another attack. Then at seemingly the last moment before he completely closed the distance between him and his enemy he paused in stride. Then he let the Force flow through him, and lifted up multiple small pieces of debris scattered around the room. Then he flung them rapidly, one after another at Sish.

“Go!” Denso hollered to his apprentice as he continued tossing chunks of debris at the Sith. He hoped this distraction would give Khan an opening to exploit.

Sish raised a claw, using his own force to bat aside two of the rocks at the last possible second. Shaking his head in seeming frustration, he brought his lightsaber to bear, slicing down the rubble he couldn’t dodge. It seemed that all his focus was on avoiding being knocked out by the flying debris.

Khan leaped out to an angle and rushed in again from the side, watching each of Sish’s defensive movements as he blocked and dodged, reading his shifting stances for an opening even as he closed the gap between them. Khan came in from the Trandoshan’s left side, running as fast as Force-enhanced speed could manage and kicking off of the ground in one last burst of movement as he slashed high and down on Sish’s arm.

Denso kept throwing every piece of rubble he could lift and toss at the Reptilian, noticing the frustration from his opponent as the Sith shook his head, slicing and dodging debris. From the side the Jedi watched his padawan take action, charging in as he searched for an opening. As Khan made his last surge of movement, Denso followed him in the attack, no longer tossing debris he instead went for a direct assault. He used the Force to increase his sprint, putting any feelings of tiredness behind him. As he drew nearer and nearer he rose his twin lightsabers upwards and sliced from both sides, aiming to carve right into Sish’s midsection.

Sish continued to focus on the debris, barely managing to stop them from hitting him, as Khan drew ever closer. When the padawan was coming down for his attack, Sish’s movements changed. He twisted to the side, dodging khan’s attack, and made a broad push with the Force at the rubble and Denso flinging the former far away from him. As Khan landed, Sish’s metal fist lashed out and caught the Padawn in the face, flinging him across the rubble strewn ground. Khan rolled to stop and remained unmoving; knocked unconscious.

Sish turned his attention back to Denso, leaping backwards once more, with a grin. “And now it’s just the two of us.” He shifted into Djem So, taking a step forward and swinging his lightsaber like a baseball bat towards Denso’s right side.

Denso watched as his apprentice was knocked out cold by the brutal Sith Lord. His eyes had shot open and he stared as the young Jedi went down hard, rolling on the ground before coming to a complete stop. He finally blinked once he saw Khan’s chest moving, realizing the boy had survived. The Jedi Knight would not have been able to bare losing his apprentice on this already terrible day. The Maker only knew how many friends and allies had perished in this brutal, desperate assault on the Temple. He let out a deep breath, and calmed himself.

“Are you more lizard or machine, Sith?” Denso chirped as he rose both his lightsabers upwards, then slightly bent his knees, catching the powerful swing.

“It’s about half and half right now, but more than enough to win this.” Sish replied, baring his teeth.

“So many robotic parts, is that where all your anger comes from?” He teased with a tension breaking smirk, then let out a grunt as he brought his left lightsaber down quickly, swiping at Sish’s midsection.

Sish’s lightsaber darted down, catching Denso’s and immediately slicing down towards the Jedi’s left leg. “No. My anger comes from the fact that the Jedi have weakened and ruined a large swath of the galaxy with their hypocritical ways.”

“A Sith speaking of others ruining the galaxy is most ironic. Considering all the planets your murderous Empire has left in ruin.” Denso replied as he shot one of his lightsabers downwards and blocked the slice. He then quickly swung both his blades at the Trandoshan, rapid flurries as he was hoping to land some kind of blow.

“The Strong Survive and the Weak die. If you recognized this as the natural order of the galaxy, there would be far less weak ruined worlds and far more strong planets to fight back.” Sish darted backwards, blocking what slices he couldn’t dodge out of the way of and using short blasts of his flamethrower to keep Denso from overwhelming him. Even still, the jedi managed to slice across his chest. Sish snarled in annoyance. This was going on to long. Suddenly stepping forward, he released a blast of his flamethrower at the Jedi and used the Force to yank a piece of rubble at Denso’s back as soon as the Jedi dodged.

Denso continued his barrage of attacks with both of his lightsabers. Forcing the Sith to backpedal as he kept up the assault. He was mindful of the spewing fire emitting from Sish’s flamethrower. His concentration was fully on taking down the Sith Lord, but just as it seemed he was gaining the advantage he failed to notice the chunk of rubble careening toward his back. Denso felt it connect hard in the back of his head. For a moment it seemed as if stars filled his vision
. Then he blacked out from the blow, collapsing into an unconscious heap on the floor.

Darth Nyiss stood on the bridge of her Harrower Dreadnought as it hovered above the surface of the ecumenopolis Coruscant. Below, fires raged and scenes of carnage played out as the last holdouts of defenders were slaughtered… But from her commanding position, it was all silent. Only the purposeful murmuring of the bridge crew to be heard, punctuated occasionally by an order from the captain.

Before the ship stood the Jedi Temple. The colossal edifice was aflame in multiple locations, and already one of its great spires had been toppled through indiscriminate turbo-laser fire. The hour of its final destruction was fast approaching.

Nyiss was looking forward to the spectacle, but did not want to experience it alone. Such a triumph deserved to be shared after all. Accordingly, she had summoned a guest - a Jedi who she had captured several weeks prior by the name of Lea. They knew each other well at this point - in so much as a torturer and the tortured could at least.

The troopers pushed Lea onto the bridge. Though she did not fall over, she did stumble, ending up very close to her captor, Darth Nyiss. “What sort of tortures have you planned for me this time, darth?” She quipped out the words while stubbornly ignoring the troopers that had escorted her in.

“Nothing but the finest.” Nyiss said, turning to look at her ‘guest.’ “A unique spectacle the likes of which has not been seen in the galaxy in hundreds of years.”

She turned back to the view before the mighty ship, motioning for Lea to come and stand with her. The prisoner wasn’t restrained in any way for this. It wasn’t necessary - Nyiss’ presence was all the restraint needed. And if the girl still tried something, the ship's crew were well used to her subterfuge by now.

“It will be a rare privilege for us both.”

All around her, both now and before she got to the bridge, she had felt death in the Force. Lives beyond counting ending. “What are you destroying this time, darth?” Lea said as she walked up to where the darth was, her eyes searching for anything she could conveniently filch. It was only when she got close to the viewport that she truly understood what lay outside. There were buildings everywhere. She had never seen this sight before, which is why it took her this long to realize exactly what it was.

“So. You’re destroying the Jedi temple. How very Sith of you. I suppose I should be surprised at this?” even as she spoke, another of the Jedi Temple’s towers collapsed and Lea could feel the raw fear and terror of the people still inside it, especially from the Jedi there.

She then reached out with the Force. Though she had not spotted anything useful to pick up, she had spotted the equipment belt on one of the troopers standing at attention near a side wall. With a quick gesture, she activated a stun grenade.

The soldier, expecting a nice, quiet bridge guarding duty, failed to notice the activation of one of his munitions. Nyiss, on the other hand, did. With a wave of her hand she deactivated it, then turned to Lea and wordlessly lifted her by the neck with a light Force Choke, rotating her so she would have no choice but to watch the temple.

“Of course you shouldn’t be surprised. This was an inevitability from the moment the war began. But if you are determined not to enjoy it, then at least you will believe that it is done when you witness it with your own eyes. Any moment now.” Behind her she picked out parts of sentences as the bridge crew coordinated with the fleet and ground teams. “-report charges ready…-” “-all ships acknowledge move…-” “expected blast zone marked…-” The anticipation was palpable. The fear from far below tasted of success and power. The expectance of a momentous event permeated the Force.

Lea was in fact not surprised by the attack on coruscant. Not because she had prior knowledge or that the darth had bragged about it, but rather because this sort of destruction was exactly what the Sith were wont to unleash. Nor, of course, was she surprised that the Darth caught her activating the stun grenade. But it had certainly been worth trying. Even so, she could not help but try to loosen the invisible force squeezing her throat, even though she knew perfectly well that her fingers would find nothing to grasp. It wasn’t the first time she’d been choked with the Force, and it probably wouldn’t be the last.

Fortunately, it did not last long. The Darth used it more as a means of chastising her and forcing her to actually watch the destruction below than as true torture.

In between the rubble of the two fallen towers, Lea saw the distinct black armor of imperial troopers moving about, as well as a number of Sith. The entire temple was surrounded, and she could even see what had to be Jedi either being forced to board imperial shuttles, or carried aboard while unconscious. “You won’t get away with this, Darth. The Order will hunt you down.”

“What order?” Nyiss said, then laughed lightly. “The Sith are ascendent. The Jedi are soon to be gone entirely from this galaxy. With them, the Republic will fall and all life will come under the wise rule of the Emperor. I have nothing to fear.” The multitude of troopers and Sith on and around the temple quickly boarded their shuttles, which wasted no time in moving away. It was the final part of the preparation.

Nyiss couldn’t help but smile as a moment of stillness came over the surroundings preceding the relatively small initial blasts. Then the main event arrived, a number of larger charges detonating in sequence, bringing the slab sided walls and remaining towers crashing down in a great cloud of dust and pulverised stone. From their position in the sky, they were spared the great rumbling as it all came crashing down, the vibration never reaching them and the low rumbling sound drowned out by the vessel’s engines. It was an expertly performed demolition, quick, efficient, and absolutely fatal for all those Jedi still trapped within. The dust cloud would linger for many minutes yet, but it was clear from the evening sun and fires now visible through the dust that the once grand edifice… was no more.

When the first explosions burst out of the temple ziggurat, Lea’s eyes widened in surprise. It was one thing to know, on a theoretical level, that the Darth intended to destroy the Jedi Temple. It was quite another to truly see it.

The following detonations of the much larger charges turned the entire Jedi temple into one large detonation of dust and debris, intermingled with fire. Lea felt the instantaneous deaths of the countless individuals still inside the temple as it all blew up. She watched in silence as it all fell apart.

Nyiss lingered for a moment, gazing at the destruction. Victory at last. And with it… peace. The suffering of the girl next to her went ignored as the Dark Lady savored the flood of unusual feelings that surged forth at the thought of real, true, peace.

She allowed herself only a short moment however. With an elegant flourish, she turned back to the captain and spoke, breaking the silence on the bridge with a clear command. “We’ve seen enough, Captain. Take us into orbit, and on to Feena.”

They may have achieved victory at last, but her real work was only just beginning.

“So,” Gar muttered to himself. “This is what they call peace these days…” clearly implying to the non-existing listeners that he did not truly agree. This so-called ‘peace treaty’ stank. The Sith could not be trusted, no matter how good terms they had negotiated for themselves. Not that surrendering all those star systems was a good thing in the first place. Still, he knew that they had had little choice. The Republic needed that reprieve. Sad, but true.

With that thought in mind, his ship dropped out of hyperspace above the just-liberated capital world of Coruscant. The disgustingly triangular Imperial ships had all left it behind, not a single Imperial was supposed to be left upon its surface. Not that he believed that for even a second. No doubt there were countless Imperial agents there. They’d be fools not to have put such in place, and while the Sith were many things, collectively they were not fools.

Now, of course, a significant portion of the Republic fleet were in orbit. Thousands of troopers were busy, doing their best to comb the surface, seeking to root out the Imperial agents he knew to be down there. But his duties did not lie there. He put his shuttle on the pre-programmed approach vector for the Jedi Temple. He did not know what would meet his eyes. He’d had reports from the recovery vanguard that it was in ruins, but had to see with his own eyes.

The sight was horrible. The towers, once pristine and tall, had fallen over. Turbolasers had cut deep gouges in the ziggurat itself. Massive explosions had torn it apart from the inside. The Sith had truly been meticulous in their destruction. As he got closer, he could see bodies, some of troopers, others distinctly Jedi riddling the temple grounds.

“Filthy Sith. Couldn’t even leave the temple gardens alone!” he spat out, disgust blatant in his voice, though he did not let any anger or hate affect his mind. He was better than to give in to such. Some of those trees had stood for centuries, now they were all dead.

He landed his shuttle at the center, then disembarked, ignoring the creaking of his bones as he got up. He did not hesitate in moving into what remained of the temple, an astromech following behind him as he did. He’d acquired that for downloading the temple security records, if they could be recovered. Something, a subconscious feeling, gave him the idea they were important. When he did get into one of the many security records rooms, he found that a Sith had clearly been through there, for the consoles had all been cut apart with a lightsaber.

Fortunately, he knew this room better than the Sith did. He knew that the room had what some considered ridiculous levels of redundancy. Ignoring the broken consoles, he moved to the wall directly opposite the door, punching it with his fist. “Ow!” he half-yelped when the wall did not give, when it did not reveal the concealed data port.

Then he moved to one side, repeating the punch. And then he yelped again, finding the wall just as stubborn. He moved further and repeated it all. After the seventh time, he decided he had had enough pain. This wall clearly had no intention of cooperating, and he knew the data port would be in there. It had to be. He pulled his lightsaber, igniting it. Then he reached out with the Force, trying to sense where it lay underneath the wall paneling. When he found it—on a completely different wall—he cut the hinges, revealing the data port to the astromech, which bleeped in indication that his method was highly irregular. He ignored its complaint and pulled it up with the Force, ignoring its immediate protests. It got the idea at that point and plugged itself into the port, downloading all available security recordings.


Exploring the rest of the temple ruins was hopeless. Rubble everywhere. Once he had the records, he’d had no choice but to go back out. The fact that he’d even gotten into the records room was almost surprising on its own. He’d withdrawn to his ship, using its systems to go through the recordings. They were full of holes, entire sections missing from where the temple’s destruction was most complete. But the image they painted was grim. He had found no evidence of any surviving Jedi within the temple. Numerous bodies of slain Jedi and Republic troopers could be seen—especially in the main hall—but there were no Sith bodies.

Unfortunately, someone—probably an enterprising Sith—had erased the records from the attack itself. But the more he watched, the more clear two things were. Firstly, the Sith had been thorough. Secondly, there were far too few bodies. Off-planet Jedi Order records had clear numbers on exactly how many Jedi were on Coruscant three days ago, and the numbers did not add up. They did not even come close.

Though he had a working theory, Gar needed to investigate this further. He took his ship back into orbit and onto one of the Republic cruisers there. From there he could access security recordings from the planet’s security grid. Hopefully the Sith had not been able to erase those as well.


Several hours. That’s how long it took Gar to get access to the footage that proved his suspicions. With each additional source, the piling evidence built up a clearer and clearer image of just what the Sith had done to the Temple. More importantly, what they had done to the Jedi within. Scores had unfortunately been killed in the attack, particularly many of those in the opening minutes. But footage from outside the temple itself revealed something far more dangerous: Not all the Jedi had been killed.

Gar had seen in that footage how a significant number of incapacitated Jedi were instead carried onto an Imperial shuttle, some of them barely more than younglings, others large enough to be fully trained knights. He knew very well that even a blind rodian could figure out just what the Sith intended to do with these captives. Not that he could allow that to happen, of course. It was bad enough that the temple had been destroyed. The Sith could not be permitted to turn their own against them.

It really was a fortunate thing that the Empire had somehow disabled the Coruscanti defense grid rather than destroying it, for that meant that even though the defenses did not strike the Imperial ships, orbital tracking systems were all running. Getting access to that system was pesky, but he managed it. That revealed exactly where the shuttle moved. Pulling a few strings with his various contacts in the Republic navy, he got the ship identified as belonging to a Sith bearing the name ‘Darth Nyiss’. Not one he was familiar with.

The captives needed rescue, peace treaty or no peace treaty. No matter how necessary, he knew very well that the Sith had no intention of letting peace stand long. Everyone with some knowledge about their kind knew they don’t believe in peace. If he gave them time to finish up whatever plan they had, then the Republic would die. Thus, he knew, there was only on logical option. He needed to save them before it was too late. There was no telling what the captives could teach the Sith.

With that in mind, Gar called in a few of the favors he had outstanding with the SIS. It did not take long to figure out that not only did they know where Darth Nyiss’ base of operations was, but that they also had a mission in progress to take her out, no matter the cost. With a Jedi like Master Fa-Val-Kuul in charge, the mission should have high chances of success. He knew her, and while they weren’t close, he couldn’t not respect her. Unfortunately, he also knew that she was a very mission-oriented individual. One who would not go out of her way to rescue prisoners if it could in any way reduce the chance of success for her mission. Thus, he would have to get there himself. Preferably with a small team of his own.

Another called-in favor let him get access to the shuttle used to resupply the strike team, and he was almost ready to head out. All that remained was gathering his own team and a few spare lightsabers just in case some escaped or he couldn’t rescue them all in one go. Unfortunately, if there was any intel on the Sith’s compound, none of his contacts had access to it. Going in blind like that would be dangerous, but he had no choice. Hopefully Master Fa would have more information.


Recruiting Jedi for high-risk missions was a challenge by itself. Gar needed trustworthy Jedi, which made it harder. Doing it covertly enough not to threaten the treaty with the Empire? Much, much harder. Still, he had a few hopeful candidates, though only two of them had been able to come on such short notice. Hopefully others could come later.

Right now, he sat in the back of the Imperial shuttle utilized by the Strike Team, listening to the chatter of the other people on the shuttle, including a number of technicians for the Team’s base of operations. All around them, crates of supplies and equipment were stacked high, giving him a clear hint of the number of troops at Master Fa’s disposal.

He looked over at where one of his fellow rescuers, Jedi Knight Astera Nalin sat, meditating. A curious species, Zelosians were. Outwardly, so close to his own, yet hardly anything similar on the inside. Proof of just how wondrous the galaxy could be. He had no reason to break her concentration. She needed to be ready for anything now. Disturbing her would have no benefit.

At the far end of the shuttle, he could just barely make out the other Jedi on his team, the considerably younger knight, Dai Kholoz. In spite of barely being into his thirties, Dai had proven a reliable knight, or so Gar had heard from the fellow Jedi Master who recommended him. Time would tell if that would prove to be truth.

At this point, he felt the shuttle begin its descent. They had not been challenged by any Imperial vessels. Not this time. ‘Good.’ he thought silently. The world below was blooming with life, yet tinged with darkness. The Dark Side was strong down there. If he had had any doubts about this being a Sith world—which he had had none—they would have been expunged now.

It would be fun to see master Fa’s eyes when he came out of the shuttle. He could hardly wait.

Darth Nyiss stood before one of the crimson-hued transparisteel windows of her quarters, looking out over her compound. It was a familiar sight, for she had had this compound for many years now, but now it all had a new meaning. Now she had other Sith here, to admire her creations. Even better, she had captive Jedi here. Jedi who would come to serve an important role in her experiments, one way or another. She could hardly wait to get started…

Off to the right, she could see where most of her apprentices currently resided. That structure, like the prison containing her future experiments, was a new addition. The apprentices were no doubt busy setting up their quarters, considering furniture and equipment requests. Below her, she could sense the Sith Lords currently in attendance. They too were new to their quarters here, but most of them had at least had the wisdom to get their quarters properly equipped before arrival.

Before her, on the main landing platform, she could see some of her troopers and workers moving around, busy performing their duties. Behind the tower containing the quarters for the compound workers and troopers, she could see part of the jungle. She had many fond memories from her days out there. So many wonderfully lethal creatures resided there. Even the plant life was a threat to those lesser than her. It was good to be back.

Over in the prison, the future experiments were all still asleep, having been put in artificial comas on the journey here. It was unfortunate that the Empire had not merely wiped out the people upon the Republic’s capital world of Coruscant, but then politics were often that way. That the republic had agreed to this so-called “peace treaty” showed how little they comprehended understood what being Sith truly is. Unlike so many others, she knew it to be the lie it truly was. With the tiniest gesture from her hand, she telekinetically pressed a button on one of the computer terminals here in her quarters, initiating the wakeup process for her captives. It was time to begin.


Nimm Deenia looked over her new quarters. They would do for now. She knew the quarters would only have the most basic outfitting, something she knew her master’s newer apprentices had not seen the wisdom of doing. “Their loss…” she muttered to herself. It had taken her no time at all to first acquire the design specifications for the quarters. After but a few simple commands, one of the ship’s engineers had modified them to her personal preferences. It was not as if a proper Sith should stoop to doing basic work like that on her own.

Only when the main design was amended did she begin tweaking his design, implementing the basics of her own security measures. Beyond expanding the lower floor dividing wall into a full-length wall and expanding the upper floor, she had gotten a full-fledged command console and a series of holoprojectors installed. Every other outward change was purely cosmetic, like wardrobe and display cases for trophies.

Just as she was about to ponder whether to change it up further, the primary holoprojector—The one in the ceiling—lit up, revealing her master’s visage. Since it was that and not merely her personal communicator, it was instantly clear to her that her master intended to speak to all the Sith, not just her. Presumably, things were about to become interesting. Good.

“Welcome, Jedi and Sith alike, to my little corner of the galaxy. No doubt you’re all wondering why I took the effort to bring you all here. It is simple. I wish to aid, in whatever small way I can, in refilling the ranks of the Sith. To that end, our Jedi guests will be turned to the Dark side and educated as Sith. All methods are permitted, so long as the Jedi are not damaged in such a way as to reduce their Force potential. It should be obvious, but do not kill the Jedi, unless you wish to waste my time.” Her tone here was threatening in the extreme. She paused to let the implied threat sink in. When she continued it was in a far more pleasant tone.

“Sith, whether you arrived here as one or join our ranks in the coming days, who win my favor will be granted access to my personal holocron vault, and receive personal tutelage from me. However, should a Sith meet their end here, I will not have the time to investigate it in any significant manner. I shall be forced to conclude, in all but the most obvious of cases, that the foolish casualty succumbed to the harsh environment of the planet and were not worthy of my notice.”

“Now, please, enjoy your stay. And for the Jedi thinking of leaping the wall… The jungle outside has many dangers, and the only medical center on the planet is right here, within these walls, and free for use.”

Nimm noted that the speech hinted at there being a number of rules in place, but also that not all Imperial rules would be strictly enforced. Nothing new about this to her, but still worth noting. Her master did not linger after her announcement, so a mere few seconds after the last word was spoken, the projector turned off. Nimm took one quick look at a nearby terminal and noted that it had been broadcast everywhere, even in the prison. “Interesting…” she murmured to herself. “It appears my master wants the new pets to know exactly what is in store for them. How deliciously devious of her…” There was no time to modify her quarters further now, for now the time had come to find a prisoner to… entertain.

---

The return of the team’s shuttle, along with what were apparently new arrivals, certainly threw a hydrospanner in all of their carefully-laid plans, but Fa was just as assuredly going to deal with it as best as she could. She had already called back Vebra’s scouting team out of safety concerns, in the event that the shuttle’s arrival happened to draw any Sith attention. When Master Gar emerged from the shuttle, he would find that Fa was not there to immediately greet him. Rather, she was in their camp outside the cave, giving orders and directions to her team. She made sure that her soldiers were covering the shuttle to make sure it was hidden the moment the engines powered down, as well as ordering a scan of all known Sith communication frequencies. It was a task made difficult by the propensity of the planet to seemingly jam sensors, but it was not a part of security protocols that Fa wanted to ignore.

Fa herself did not wear traditional Jedi robes, nor much of anything else. She did not speak nor carry herself with the kind of calm that was usually expected of Jedi. She seemed more like a military commander than anything else at the moment, making sure that each piece of the machine that was her team was doing everything necessary to ensure their safety. Were it not for the lightsabers on her belt, it would be difficult to identify her as a Jedi at all.

Once she finally had the time to do so, Fa did approach the old Human who had identified himself as Master Gar. Undeniably, Fa was not happy, but she did not want to let it show, at least not yet. There was no gain from starting out by berating this Jedi Master for his dangerous usage of their shuttle, and his unplanned arrival into enemy territory. Unless his business was exceptionally important, he likely did not realize how dangerous his arrival actually was. Even if it was important, there was still no guarantee that he would be familiar with how to operate behind enemy lines.

Even so, this was the situation that Fa now had to deal with. As much as she wished they had not shown up in such a manner, she did at least need to figure out why they were actually there before saying anything about it. “Master…Gar, is it? Excuse the lack of pleasantries, but if a team of Jedi is arriving here of all places, then there must be something important happening. I need to be briefed on what you know.” Fa said directly. Her tone did not display anger nor frustration, but it did convey the severity with which Fa was approaching the situation.

A shift towards the right didn’t even help lessen the sheering pain which seemed to claw at her throat. A single acting like swallowing was becoming a rather unpleasant experience, granted that in this case breathing meant the person was alive and well, though in a way the woman’s pride would ever be damaged. As if there was an opened wound which refused to close completely. The Amaran’s eyes crept open, allowing slivers of light clear the unsettling blurriness, and the details of the brand new environment to be absorbed.

Instantly her figure shot upwards, only for the blood to rush to the teenager’s head, and case her to fall right out of bed. To top off such a wonderful morning a rather annoying voice entered the enclosed area. Telling them about following rules and soon they would be apart of their little group. If not then only death awaited them. Go figure these people would take the whole ‘install fear to destroy hope’ route. A classic method shared with those who hungered power.

“Oh good. Looks like someone has finally passed their ‘How to be a bad guy’ lesson. They even added their own touch which we’re all very proud of. Now then since their little speech is over I’m going to check things out. Help people escape since there’s strength in numbers and this dump is much worse then my old home.” The woman whispered to herself.

She walked over towards the door and began to fiddle with the lock.

“Oooo...my head,” Xid mumbled under his breath. His tongue stuck to his mouth roof like cotton, the organ slowly pulled away and formed his words with difficulty. Vision wasn’t much better. A hazy film clouded his eyes enough that his surroundings were nothing but blobs and disjointed shapes. Seeing it gave him a headache on top of what he already had, forcing his eyes to shut tighter.

Gradually the last memory he had surfaced. It was the Sith Lord delivering a brutal kick to his face before his world went black. Upon recalling it, his temple gave a harsh throb again causing his right hand to slid up and tenderly touch the sorest spot. He brushed a scabbed wound. Xid frowned, upon further exploration through touch, to discover his bangs were also crusted with dry blood to it. This motivated him enough to attempt to rise. He almost immediately regretted it.

First the vertigo hit him hard and threatened to topple him. Impulsively his legs spread to catch his wobbly balance and his arm snapped out, the hand pressed down on the table. Every inch of him screamed from the strain it took to rise. The muscles had become stiff due to the long comatose state as the joints creaked and popped from the overdue movement. It was enough to make Xid raise his hand to his mouth and muffle his imagination at the ache.

Still struggling to keep upright, he gradually wiped away the last of the grit and sand from his eyes. When his vision cleared, he took stock of his surroundings. It was a simple set up. To his left was a table, the right held about four cubbies, and behind him were two bunks for sleeping. Neither looked appealing or comfortable to him.

Cautiously he made his way to the exit causing the door to hiss open, revealing more of the prison he found himself within. He could sense others there as well, but the pain made it difficult to be sure.

“Anyone there?” Xid’s voice cried out while he made his way to the center of the room.



Eli was quiet. He had been that way since the capture and release of Zora Nox into Republic custody, his thoughts drifted back to Eyes and the whole chase. The woman had a severe reaction to the alchemy smoke that even the Sith could not have predicted. Despite the threats, there was little Nox could do or she claimed.

This caused a small bud of hatred to blossom within his core. Rather than risk being jerked from the mission, Eli kept his thoughts to himself and held his tongue for most of the trip. When they arrived upon Feena, he quickly volunteered for the scouting party for the area. As expected and mentioned by the Sith, the planet was teeming with dangerous wildlife. Even the nerf, harmless creatures on most planets, were not to be trusted. One teammate had a serious encounter that left him with some minorly injuries. So orders were that no critter, big or small, were tolerated in camp anymore.

As Eli strapped on his gear and prepared to head out, delayed by the earlier pest control, when the shuttle arrived. His head snapped into its direction as he cursed under his breath. His figure moved with the other men, called back by the head Jedi. Muttering under his breath, he jerked back to assist the other men in both rapidly directing the shuttle and then hiding it. When the last of the tarp was flopped over and secure, the gruff man spat his chewing tobacco upon the ground in the arriving Jedi’s direction.

“Passive idiots, are they trying to alert the Sith that we’re here?” Eli grumbled.