A collab between Gowi and Hex
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BadumpThe frantic beating of Charuri’s heart continued. Adrenaline coursed through her body, eyes dilated and senses heightened every nerve ending upon edge Not for the first time did she look behind her shoulder past her companions and into the darkness stretching before her. They had no light themselves but her own lowlight vision provided enough to peer into the unsettling silence. They had been lucky so far, since their first encounter with the clone squad, they had not been spotted since. Though if they reached out into the force, they could feel more and more bodies slowly filtering into the tunnels. They were caught in the middle of a net that was slowly drawing closed around them.
If Charuri had been alone she would not of been sure of her ability to make it of the chaos, but at the current moment at least the faint breathing behind her reminded she was not alone. Sure Jenner and Naat were both only padawans like herself, but they were both highly skilled and she wouldn't of been surprised if either of them had been promoted to knighthood. But.... now as the bombs fell above them and the smell of smoke and burning flesh slowly found its way through the vents and into the tunnels it would seem that their would not be any knighting ceremonies for awhile, maybe even forever. It was funny, one of the first lessons Feemor taught Charuri once the young Cathar had come under the venerable Jedi Master’s wing was the importance of change. As a practitioner of the Living Force it only made sense. She remembered his old sayings with melancholy know as she heard his voice in her head. As the seasons change so must you my young padawan.
Though this certainly could not be the change that Feemor had told her about. He had described something powerful and galaxy altering but at the same time gentle and warm— providing a cathartic release for the living. This, this felt nothing like that. This was angry and filled with hate, it was accented by the sounds of the dying and the shaking tremors in the force as hundreds of lives were silenced all across the galaxy. It felt less like a rebirth and more like an ending, a final denouement for the Jedi before a hand wrote The End on the page and would forever end their tale in the galaxy.
Trying to release the emotions from her body, to prevent the pessimistic thoughts from getting to her head, Charuri looked around. She remembered traveling through this service tunnels in her younger years and dominating them, knowing the passageways and the shortcuts like the back of her hand. Now it was several years later and in the chaos of the moment, caught in the dark her memory was starting to fail her. The featureless walls all were starting to look the same and the longer they pushed the less they seemed to move forward in time. Her worst fears came to light as they came across a familiar intersection as five separate tunnels stretched out around her she cursed under her breath and slammed a hand into the nearby wall. The gravity of the situation and her own panicking having caused more obvious cracks in her composure.
“Chaos take me...... I just lead us in another karking circle. Nice job, Charuri present a brilliant escape plan to live another day and you can’t even make it out of the tunnels. Why do you even try sometimes? ” She voiced out loud to her companion's, voice accented with a slight tremor, her back turned to them as she hammered her fist into the wall once again, clearly frustrated and still rather frazzled by the circumstances in front of her.
As Charuri lamented over the feeling of being lost, Naat didn’t seem to share in her frustration even though she very well knew that danger could have been very well approaching them. Her first Jedi Master had taught her to think on her feet and aggressively get to the bottom of a situation, a fact that recalled as she stood there as Charuri continued with her self-depreciative complaints. A smirk rose on the blonde-haired girl’s lips as she recalled something in the back of her mind about the teachings of Master Shen-Jon. That thought took her back, albeit briefly, to a situation she had been in with her master and the words he told her: ”Waiting afraid of the wrong answer will only lead to defeat. There is a time for contemplation but this is a time of action. Let us not dwaddle as enemies are at our heels.”
“Well, I’m not going to flop on my back and let blaster fire take us. My master said something to me once: there is a time for contemplation but this is a time of action. We pick one and move before this whole place comes down upon us. I will not meet ghosts so soon.”
“Easy for you to say, you’re not the one that is going to get us killed if you pick the wrong tunnel.” Charuri responded with a soft but noticeable tone of bitterness to her voice. But what was she supposed to suspect from Naat? She spent her days more focused on swinging her lightsaber. Faced all her problems with brute force.
“We go this way.” Naat replied bluntly as she pushed past her friend and fellow Jedi, taking the decision out of her hands.
"You sure about that? We don't have time for any more wrong turns." Charuri called after Naat nervously as she lead the group onward into the darkness. Slowly though the nervousness began to subside as she began to notice things, the air gradually became cooler and beyond the rumblings of the bombardments and the blaster fire above, they could hear a different kind of roar the roar of masses of life slowly coming through the force. And final clarification came in the form of an age old sign on the tunnel wall, rusted from the constant condensation in the tunnel but still barely readable.
Exit.
“Guess we're almost out of here. Hope one of you has a plan once we get out though. The undercity isn't the nicest place in the world.” She muttered, as she looked at the sign for a moment trying her best yet obviously failing to hide her signs of relief.
Naat nodded before she called back to the Cathar, “How familiar are you with Coruscant’s undercity?”
“Enough to not get us killed. But not much beyond that.” It was true enough. Feemor and her had done a few missions in the undercity, mostly to secure some ceasefires between the gangs that had ran rampant down there for years. The Republic had enough to worry about with the war going on, they didn't need to worry about a gang war starting.
Naat nodded, “With your familiarity I suppose you should take point again, then?”
“You sure you don’t want to remain upfront Ms. Battlefield Commander? You're obviously much better suited to a leadership position than me.” Charuri responded obivously not wanting leadership thrust upon her again, she casted a look towards Jenner who only shrugged in response obviously wanting to stay out of it.
“We can share, if you’d like.” Naat shook her head, nearly chuckling at the retort.
“....That would be ideal. I’ll make sure we don’t get lost and you do your fancy stuff with your lightsaber to make sure we don't get killed. Deal?” Charuri responded with something that almost resembled a grin, as somehow even despite all the prior events the mood began to lighten.
They pushed forward until they came to another intersection. This one was simple their tunnel continued forward towards the perceived exit and a large horizontal cross path disected it. As soon as they entered the intersection, Charuri felt it. Something off and something wrong and then suddenly life burst through the force. The sounds of footsteps in the darkness, she ignited her lightsaber looking left then right frantically. Dread filled her body once more as faceless white forms filled in the three tunnels around them. Of course the clones would have plans of the temple, of course they would know of simple exits like the supply tunnels, of course they would set up traps for any survivors. They had fallen right into the center of the net. But Charuri would not go easily, not without a fight. She could not die yet. As the clones surrounded them and moved in for the kill she reacted like a spring uncoiling. Reaching her hand out in front of her at the lead trooper she reached out into the force and pushed hard with her mind. For a second nothing happened but then she felt it happen, a sudden push as the lead clone was thrown backwards off his feet as if he just got punched in the chest. He tumbled backwards into his companions with a cry. They were preoccupied for a moment. A moment was all they needed.
“RUN!!”
Naat’s brows narrowed, in a sense of fight or flight… survive or die. Had she had not to worry about Jenner or Charuri perhaps she would have acted differently. Air left her lips as Charuri’s cry to run came out like thunder and Naat frowned as the situation’s intensity seemed to increase exponentially by the second. Her lightsaber had drawn and the flash of blue hued at the intersection as the shadows of the overcity made it seem like it was as dark as the night. Her eyes looked to Jenner who had choked in the stress of the situation. She was sure Charuri saw Jenner’s fear take him and if they were jedi they would not leave a comrade behind. Naat sent out a push of force with her free hand to give additional impact on their former comrades in arms… their current enemies. Eight. That was the number of the troopers around Naat Reath. But it didn’t really seem to affect her— she had dealt with worse odds and situations during her time serving as a Jedi Commander; she would not be afraid even in the shadow of death.
The world seemed to slow down around them as instincts began to take over. Seeing Jenner freeze up, without even Charuri thought reached out and grabbed the sleeve of his brown robe dragging him forward. She slashed out widely with her other hand her movements traced by a flash of brilliant green to keep the clones away. Ploughing her shoulder into one of the troopers she knocked him to the side as she dragged herself and Jenner forward. The other padawan's feet moving listlessly behind him.
A flash and a cry. Suddenly she felt her arm connected to Jenner begin to be pulled downwards. The pair stumbled to the ground as Charuri hit the floor with a thud. Rolling over she saw that a blaster shot had torn straight through Jenner’s calf ripping and sundering through flesh and bone. Frantically Charuri moved to her feet trying to pull Jenner up but now failing as the larger and heavier boy could not help her support his weight as his leg hang limp under him. She looked back desperately at Naat who was still deep in the fray.
“Charuri this is never going to work.” Jenner spoke as Charuri continued to try every method to be able to get him to his feet. She knew that he was right but she wasn't going to stop. She refused to try and stop, they were Jedi, they saved people that was what they did. Too many had died today, too many had died and Jenner would not be added to the list. Shaking her head she continued trying to pull him up only for his body to fall down. She was too weak and he was too injured to help. She felt as his hands grasped her shoulders stopping her motions as she began to try another attempt to lift him.
“Listen Charuri. You gotta go help Naat. They are all focused on her and even as good as she is. She can’t escape from that alone. She and you still have a chance. My leg is gone, not even bacta would save it now. You have to let go.” Jenner explained meeting her eyes. It was strange what was once filled with fear moments ago was now replaced with an almost ethereal calm as if he knew what the will of force know was. As if everyone suddenly made sense with a blindy clarity that one can only have moments before the end. But he was right the clones at least for the moment had forgotten about the pair.
“Jenner... I can’t. We are Jedi, we are supposed to preserve life. I can’t leave you to be killed by them.” Charuri pleaded her voice desperate and pleading as she fought back tears as she continued to try and get him back to his feet but at this point it was pretty much a fight that had already been lost.
“But sometimes the best way to honor a life is to let it go. Or at least that’s what Master Fora always told me.... And right now the best way you can help me is by helping me let go.” He responded to her trying to keep a straight face through the pain as he dragged her hand still clutching her now unignited lightsaber to the center of his chest. “I don’t want to give them the satisfaction of killing me. I want to die with my honor and dignity in tact. I don’t want to be put down like some sort of dog.” Charuri continued to shake her head even as in the back of her head and far away she could hear Naat talking.
“Why are you doing this? This is genocide.” Naat questioned as her blue eyes looked upon the troopers before her as the hue of her lightsaber guarded her form. The jedi padawan couldn’t understand the actions that caused such a camaraderie to turn into treachery. Sure, she had read the texts and read of several Jedi who fell to the darkness of the force but this was different. She had fought with troopers on Sarapin, Tatooine, Krant, and Malastare. A rumbling of force energy left Naat as she asked her question; her longing for an answer reaching out to the minds of the clone troopers before them.
“I...I can’t. That’s against the code Jenner, that’s against everything we stood for, everything we still stand for. The force decides who lives or dies, we don’t, we are not executioners. You don’t kill unless in self defense!” She protested even as his hands found hers and lead them over to the button which would ignite the saber. She was openly crying at this point, her body shaking as she continued to shake her head.
”Charuri please...”
As Charuri and Jenner found themselves distracted, back at the intersection a response came from one of the clone trooper’s that had turned their attention on Naat Reath… and an answer that just seemed to open more questions for the padawan. “Just following orders.”
Naat felt disgust at the answer as the troopers regained most of their composure; at least the one’s who were not aiming down at Jenner and Charuri, anyway. Naat’s eyes seemed to go ‘dead’ as she took in their answer; analyzing her enemies in seconds. Five of them were aiming down at the other two jedi while three were preparing to blast her like they were so eager to comply with. Naat was angry and she would not let this be the end. The padawan's thoughts went back to Master Windu and the way she held her lightsaber’s hilt shifted to a change in form. She would have to rely on a style that was fast but more importantly… unforgiving. But it would be the first time she would use such a thing in combat.
“I’m sorry.” Naat whispered before she moved— the force pushing her body forward with vicious speed.
There is no passion, there is serenity.
There was more blaster fire and screams… but none of them were Naat’s. The sound of bodies hitting the metal floor… and then a scream of frustration, a click as two pairs of hands moved together, a snap hiss, a gasp and then nothing. Charuri looked down at her hands as she pulled the lightsaber out of Jenner’s chest. There was a smile on his face. Legs shaking... no her entire body shaking, the sensation of wanting to vomit building in her stomach. She looked back down the tunnel where Naat stood alone, a silent figure of tranquil fury. She connected eyes with her. She tried to speak, she tried to say anything but as soon as she did she buckled over and emptied the contents of her stomach.
As silence overtook the intersection, Naat frowned as the hum of her lightsaber went dead as it whisped back into the tool. She said no words as she attempted to re-center herself as she began to walk away from the bodies before her, reaching down and grabbing one of the trooper carbine weapons from the floor. Naat could feel the darkness growing… looming; she wasn’t sure what to make of it.
“May the force forgive us both.”
