fan fiction scrollVenomous, Part 1

 Exile (Female/Light Side)Revan (Female/Light Side)Star Wars

Mandalorian Wars, Battle of Dxun.

To know one’s target is the most important thing, Valia Renn thought; understanding and knowledge of an enemy is crucial to carrying out a successful assassination. As a rule, she prided herself on knowing her targets, on exploiting their weaknesses, the cracks in their defenses. She read her enemies more fully then they could read themselves, and this had always given her a feeling of power. Once she read her enemy, it was only a matter of time before she ended their lives. In the course of her time in the Jedi Order–and even before that–she had killed dozens in defense of all she held dear. Her target tonight, however, was different.

Valia, had she the option, would have passed over this assignment to kill General Revan. She was no great friend, but they had been through much since the time they first met on Dantooine. Valia held some amount of grudging respect for her target. If one could not respect their target even a little, then one could not respect themselves. Valia had wrestled with herself in the days before to free herself of any lingering bitterness she held towards the beautiful Jedi Knight below. Such work was not for settling personal vendettas, but for protecting the Order from its most powerful members.

In many ways, Revan was little different from the other lives she had taken, she was blind to the consequences of her actions and insufferably self-righteous. She was also quite intelligent, not to mention the fact that her Force strength was almost inconceivable compared to the other targets she had dispatched.

From the moment Valia had ‘joined’ Revan, she had kept the Knight’s growing power and influence under close, clandestine supervision. As Revan had grown in prominence, so, by necessity, had Valia, always watching from the shadows. Enduring public humiliation and banishment had been worth it to maintain her vigil and make certain that Revan’s army would be dissolved by the end of the war to keep it out of her hands. Valia’s scarred lips pursed bitterly at the thought of all the non-stop work, the under-the-table dealings, the sickening levels of back-stabbing behind the curtains of military politics meant to undermine the almost deified Jedi General. All so she could eventually cut the strings of the paper doll that was Revan.

Even if Revan had no intention of using her army against the Republic–something both her masters’ found highly unlikely–Revan had openly defied the Jedi Order, betraying her masters’ commands. For that alone the mark of death had been placed on her, as well as Alek and Bandon.

Thus they could receive no mercy or pity by her hand, whether or not she truly agreed with the decision to kill them.

She watched from her vantage point in the rafters of the large command building set deep in the jungles of Dxun. The drowning overhead rain pinged loudly on the thin steel roof a few feet above her as Valia let her good, bright green right eye drink in Revan’s stunning beauty. That straight white hair that went down to her ears, that fine, icy pale skin, and glassy ruby eyes caused a needle of sharp pain in Valia’s stomach. Most mistook Revan for an Echani, at least until they delved into her past. But Valia knew the truth. Revan had come from the unknown regions.

Valia knew this because she was from there herself.

The ruby eyes were a dead giveaway. Valia was intimately familiar with that red sheen of her irises. She had looked into dozens of pairs of identical eyes as she had cut down their owners those many years ago before fleeing her home in defeat. It was not a failure she intended to repeat. Though none of them had been anywhere near Revan’s level of power, she always had a trump card for these sort of things. Valia also drew comfort from the fact that despite her target’s power, she knew that Revan had invested her knowledge in only underachieving Jedi art forms, instead of some of the more lethal and exotic disciplines found on the outer rim. She did not have Valia’s skills. This battle was already decided.

Valia’s mind had been set from the very beginning. The three of them, Revan, Alek, and Bandon, were all going to die. The deaths were to be painful, violent, and gruesome–and were to send an irrefutable message to any Jedi who might think to disobey their masters in the future. It would also teach the Republic a lesson not to constantly draw Jedi into wars that were not their business. In a way, they were as equally culpable in the current situation.

As she stared at Revan, that same sharp pain in her stomach occurred again. Valia wondered why it happened whenever she stared at Revan for too long. Then she realized that the pain in her stomach was one of regret.

It was not a feeling that was foreign to her. Valia’s life was one marked by it. Tonight would be no different, it seemed. She checked what few weapons she had, tightening her cortosis-strengthened gauntlets, and pulled on her Echani demon mask, a mask with a frightful looking face contorted into a perpetual snarl, a bronze scorpion fixed to its forehead.

The time to fight would be soon.

***

Alek entered the drab, sorry excuse for a command building first, grateful for a chance to be out of the never-ending rain. His compatriot Bandon entered next, and both took off their dark cloaks and wrung them out just outside the door. Water poured from the fabric as Alek flexed his powerful arm muscles beneath the flexible layers of his red armor. He tossed the still-damp cloak to the floor, his glistening bald head reflecting the ruddy light fixtures above him.

“Hey, Rev, our camp sensors picked up a couple of Mandalorian scouts on the perimeter, probably getting a feel for our defenses.” Alek said in a conversational tone.

The distant and distracted Revan gave him only a cursory response. “Send Jaq and Cariaga, with a detachment. It should take two hours to find the scouts at the latest,” she replied, barely glancing his way.

Alek finally worked up his courage to say something. He had been trying to work it up for weeks, but seeing that distant, confused look in Revan’s eyes had finally done it.

“Rev,” he began slowly, gesturing a much chagrined Bandon to leave and wait outside. Bandon cursed under his breath, but did as his friend asked and left.

“Yes, Alek?” she inquired.

“Is something wrong?” he asked, his tone now greatly concerned. “I’ve been getting really worried about you. You’ve been acting strange and your presence in the Force has been different these last few days.”

“Does it truly show that much?” she asked, her velvet soft voice betraying nothing. “I’m sorry Alek. These days we have enough to worry about without adding me to the equation. But you’re right. I feel….different, like I’m changing inside, and I know not how or why. The Force also feels different. I don’t like this.”

“Bandon always did say Kreia was bad news–”

Revan shook her head. “I don’t mean Kreia. She has nothing to do with this. I’m…seeing things before they happen. I heal faster.” Her chest tightened with anxiety. She did not like what was happening to her, and she had no idea how to stop it. She did not know what could have possibly triggered the changes she felt inside of her. All she had done was escape the constantly prying eyes and smothering dictates of the Jedi Council, especially that fool Vrook, who had always been poking his nose where it was not needed. During her time on Dantooine and Coruscant, it seemed to be his only purpose.

It did not seem to matter which Jedi master she trained with, they all told her she was an unusual and strikingly powerful student of the Force. These days, it seemed to be an understatement, that sentiment. Even Kreia, the greatest master of Jedi lore she had ever known had admitted she no longer knew how to help her, that she did not possess the knowledge required to guide one of Revan’s power.

She knew Alek was only trying to help, but she did not know how he could. The most he could do seemed to consist of noticing the change. She rued the day that would soon come when even he, her best friend and future husband, would no longer know how to help her.

“Maybe you’re just becoming more in tune with the Force.” he managed feebly. But even as the words left his lips, he knew it wasn’t the truth. The Force was surely playing a part, but it alone could not account for what was happening. It would have been like saying he wasn’t bald. Revan’s unreadable expression gave him pause before continuing.

“Look Rev, maybe you should leave. Maybe you should go find those groups of Force adherents on the fringes of the outer rim. I spent a lot of time in the Archives and there are several groups I know of who might be able to help you more than the Jedi can, at the moment.”

Revan turned away from the sincere concern in his eyes. It pained her too much that he had to worry about her. “Why do you think the Jedi even want to help me?” she scoffed, putting on a show of confidence.

Alek wasn’t fooled for a moment. “We may even find out what race you are!” he blurted in a mix of anger and bewilderment. “For almost as long as I could, I searched every database I could find, and I can conclusively say that you don’t come from any race that is even remotely near the core or mid-rim!”

Revan crossed her arms, staring out of one of the windows as lightning flared outside. She sighed. “What does it really matter what I am, so long as what I do that counts?”

“I suppose you have a point there,” Alek conceded. “I know you still have responsibilities to the Republic, with the war and all. But look at what it’s doing to you! There has to be something for you after the war. This conflict is eating you alive!”

“The ‘something’ you speak of is the Jedi Council banishing me, exiling me…”

“Don’t say that, Rev!” Alek pleaded. “They won’t be able to stay mad once you’ve handed the Mandalorians their own heads on a stick! I bet even Vrook won’t be able to stay mad!”

“Vrook is always mad,” she joked, the humor not showing in her voice. “Alek?”

“Yes?”

“There is…something else. Lightsaber crystals cause me terrible pain when I am exposed to them. I can’t be near them ever again.”

Alek’s eyebrows perked. “That is certainly not normal. I have never heard of a lightsaber crystal being lethal by itself.”

“Tell me about it.” she answered wistfully. She unhooked her lightsaber from the belt of her scarlet robes. She activated it, giving a swish. The corona of the blade was pink.

“Where did you get that crystal?” Alek asked, fascinated. “I’ve never seen one like it before.”

“Bandon, if you can believe it.” Revan replied, a small smile creeping up the corners of her mouth. “Apparently, he’s been experimenting with artificial crystals. He just didn’t like how the final color turned out.”

Alek laughed a little. “It would have been damned funny to see him using a pink blade.”

Alek’s smile vanished when he watched Revan suddenly toss the lightsaber upward, holding her arm out as it fell to the floor.

His jaw dropped as it failed to cut through, its blade bouncing off her skin as it clattered to the floor, when by all rights it should have severed her arm at the elbow. He could only stare in astonishment.

High up above them, however, Valia Renn had tensed at the sight. The reason she had come here tonight, as opposed to waiting for all her carefully wrought plans to destroy Revan after the war, was to assess how powerful Revan was becoming and indeed if the impatient orders to destroy Revan tonight were truly worth following. Valia’s fears had just been confirmed. If she did not kill Revan here, tonight, than she would eventually become too powerful for even one such as Valia to stop.

Their stealthy enemy watching, Revan and Alek turned to the harried figure of Bandon as he burst through the door, wet and dripping. His dark fiber-armor seemed to suck up the light around him and he wiped some of the water from his shaggy beard, his dark eyes blazing.

“We have a problem. There’s an intruder in the camp.”

Alek’s face was still pale from witnessing Revan’s feat. “Mandalorians?” he asked shakily.

Bandon shook his head. “Too silent. A soldier just led me to the body of General Hokar. There was not a bone on him that was not broken.”

Revan cursed loudly, forgetting her own troubles momentarily. “Dammit, he was one of the best! How could he have been beaten to death?”

Alek finally shook himself out of his shock. “More to the point,” he interjected, “is who could be that skilled? Even Mandalorians need at least a knife.”

In the shadows, Valia cursed herself. She had been hoping Hokar wouldn’t be found for at least a day. He had found out the truth–and had been dealt with.

Deciding the time had come, she dropped from the rafters, flinging shuriken at Alek as she landed. Alek sensed the deadly blades flying towards the back of his skull and barely had enough strength to nudge the projectiles out of harm’s way with the Force.

“What the frack??!” Bandon cursed as all three beheld the sinister figure standing before them.

Her short, dark brown robes and slacks were covered with stitched emblems of scorpions, as were her white tabi boots. The frightful countenance of the mask was made all the more demonic by the lightning flashing outside. She looked both beautiful and barbaric, her hands made into a pincer shape.

Bandon’s twin blades sprouted outward in an instant. He roared, lunging at her. She reacted in blazing fashion, evading his blades and launching a lightning-fast boot at his face. He toppled to the floor, spitting blood and a tooth out. But in less than a second he recovered, a fiery rage in his eyes as he drove his blue blade at Valia’s chest. Valia, in turn, made a skillful vault over him, delivering her knee with full force into his spinal column. He cried out in agony as his back broke under the blow, falling to the floor again.

Valia then turned towards Alek, who already was guarding with his lightsaber. Revan, however, a stoic expression on her face, crossed her arms.

“Interesting. I was wondering when you would decide to act. You mask your signature in the Force well. Almost perfectly, in fact, but not well enough. I took the liberty of having reinforcements for just this occasion,” she said without a hint of smugness.

At some invisible signal from Revan, a dozen Jedi she had personally trained streamed in through several entrances to surround Valia, who cocked her head quizzically to one side at Revan, who merely shrugged.

“Please don’t try to resist. I’d rather you weren’t injured. It would be a shame to see someone with your potential so pointlessly wasted.”

Valia did not flinch, her voice calm and matter-of-fact through the vocal synthesizer in the mask. “Even if you should, by some miracle, slay me, four other deadly venoms still oppose you.” she hissed.

Alek paled at her words. “The Five Venoms!?” He had heard of them, had even searched for some information on a whim in the Archives, but they were supposed to be just a rumor…..

Revan turned to Alek and led him away as the dozen Jedi closed in on the motionless assassin. “We can discuss this after she is subdued, Alek.”

Valia raised her hands and formed pincer shapes again….

***

Valia made note of her enemies. All of them were apparently Guardians. One was a female Twilek, the second was a male Togrutan, and the rest were human and male. She quickly noted the flaws in their stances.

The Twilek decided to make one last call for her surrender.

“Give up. Don’t force us to kill you.”

“I will spare you if you get out of my way,” Valia growled. “My fight is with Revan.”

“You’ll be killing the only hope the Republic has!” the Togrutan Jedi spoke angrily.

“You can find another hope–one that involves going back to Dantooine. This war is not your fight. It never was. Put down your swords. Go back to your masters. Disobey the Council’s orders no further,” Valia replied, uncomfortably detecting traces of pleading in her tone.

“We will not drop our oath to defend the innocent from the Mandalorians!” the Togrutan Jedi vowed.

“This is your last warning. I have no wish to eliminate you, but you are leaving me no other choice,” Valia said.

The Twilek readied her saber into a Djem So stance. “Then we will do what we must.”

The Twilek thrust her blue blade at Valia. Valia Force leaped out of the way and back onto the rafters above. The Twilek Jedi followed suit and joined her, balancing eloquently as the rest waited below, eager for a chance to chop at Valia should she make a mistake. The Twilek made another stab, but Valia parried it with her gauntlets, quickly grabbing her opponent’s sword hand and breaking it at the wrist. The Twilek barely had enough time to scream before a knife hand to her neck ended her.

“Talya! NOOO!!” the Togrutan screamed, his bond with his padawan severed violently and leaving him in a sort of shock. It was a shock Valia took advantage of and, producing a heavy blaster pistol, silenced the Togrutan in mid air as he jumped towards her with a moan of anguish.

Valia then dropped below and took advantage of the growing panic among Revan’s security detail now that their finest were dead. She evaded a human Jedi as he angrily made an overhead chop to her face and shattered his kneecap with her boot, rolling to his side in already cramped quarters and grabbing him by the neck, a shuriken at his throat.

The others backed off, thinking she was using him as a hostage. She instead shot him in the back and shoved him forward, ducking as three more swung madly, now clearly enraged. Valia swept one Jedi’s legs out from under him, burying a shuriken into his neck, making him gag as he bled out. She Force pushed another Jedi into a computer console, making him jerk wildly as he was electrocuted.

The remaining ones rushed her, their sabers thrust forward, and Valia gathered energy into her….

***

Revan and Alek waited outside with their sabers ignited, the rain hissing as it made contact with them. Revan was growing more concerned by the moment as she felt the death cries of her security detail through the Force. Alek grimaced as he felt one of the Jedi being electrocuted. The thunderstorm raged outside, as if to parallel the chaos they felt from the command building.

It was Revan who broke the silence. “I’ve never felt such fear from you before, Alek. Who do you think she is?” She had been looking at him out of the corner of her eye. He was terrified.

Alek was shaken from the fear growing in his gut long enough to answer. “She claims to be one of the Five–” His words were cut off by a chorus of screams through the Force. He gripped his lightsaber in anticipation, but in the next moment an explosion rocked the whole building, taking off half the roof and blowing carnage and debris into the camp outside.

Thrown back by the force of the blast, Revan and Alek found themselves amidst the scattered bodies of the twelve Jedi, their bodies twisted into unnatural positions by the explosion.

At the center of the carnage stood Valia, unharmed.

Alek reactivated his lightsaber.

“Run, Revan!” he cried. “I’ll try to hold her off! Go!”

“No, Alek, wait!” Revan yelled, but it was already too late. With the aid of the Force, Alek vaulted to his feat and leaped for the assassin.

Standing calm and cool, Valia gently lifted off the ground with the Force, bending her legs slightly in mid-air as Alek came flying at her. With incredible speed and force, Valia whipped her feet upwards, catching Alek underneath the jaw. He was catapulted backwards and fell heavily into the liquid mud beneath them.

Spitting mud, Alek picked himself up, his head feeling as though a tank droid had just stomped on it as Valia landed firmly on her feet. He cast a desperate look at Revan. “What are you waiting for?! Run!” he yelled at her. Twirling his lightsaber, he turned back to face the assassin.

Valia was gone, only a light wisp of smoke marking where she had been.

“What in the name of–?” Revan exclaimed, cut off in the middle of her sentence by the sudden reappearance of the assassin at her side, in the act of attempting to drive a shuriken into her skull, while also Force pushing Alek into the burning building.

Bending her body, Revan dodged and ignited her lightsaber in the same motion, just in time to face a deadly hail of the fiendishly sharp blades. The pink blade hummed as she twirled it this way and that, cutting down the deadly shuriken. Barely had she finished deflecting the blades when she was forced to leap out of the way of a howling red fireball the assassin sent her way.

Revan hit the mud as the roiling sphere of Force fire screamed past her, singeing her hair as it passed her. She scrambled out of the way of a blaster shot from the assassin, who then charged at her. Revan tried to swipe with her blade, but Valia twisted expertly to her left and threw a punch that sent her quarry to the ground. Revan spat blood and the world went slightly hazy. It was only instinct that saved Revan as she rolled away from a blaster shot from Valia.

Valia removed three shuriken as Revan staggered to her feet. Frustration poured from her quarry’s eyes. Revan grimaced and her eye twitched.

A warning in the Force made Valia somersault over a treetrunk Revan had ripped from the ground. She tossed her shuriken as she landed.

Revan yelled as two of the three punctured her left shoulder and the third one hit her right kneecap. She fell to her one good knee as Valia drew her blaster, firing.

Revan barely managed to deflect with her saber, reflecting the shot at the head of the assassin, who dodged. Sobbing, she pulled the shuriken out of her knee and shoulder with the Force, and hurled them away as Valia gripped Revan with the Force and dragged her towards her through the mud, trying to drown her.

Another warning in the Force reached Valia, and she let go of Revan as Alek landed beside her, this time managing to swipe viciously with his lightsaber, finally wounding a surprised Valia as the lightsaber made a trench of a wound on her right arm. Valia clenched her arm, momentarily blinded by pain as Alek kicked her in the face, sending her into the mud herself. He helped Revan up, now covered in mud just as he was.

“You okay?” he asked.

“I’ll survive.” Revan spat, anger swelling in her. She was clearly not used to being off balance like this. “Alek we have to get out of–”

A roar from the assassin that made Revan’s spine shiver cut her off. She quickly threw up a Force shield around her and Alek as the assassin raised her hands.

A massive Force wave, bigger than any Revan had ever seen, radiated out from the assassin’s body, throwing the two Jedi a good thirty yards as everything within the radius of the blast was leveled by Valia’s fury. The command building was finally reduced to rubble.

Back in the mud once again, Alek landed several yards away and Revan spat grass and insects from her mouth. She was flabbergasted by the enormous show of power from the assassin. She’d once thought only herself capable of such a display. A part of Revan admitted, however, that she was quite impressed. If only she could train just a dozen like the way her enemy had been trained–she could end the war tomorrow! Revan wondered what her top general, Valia Renn, might do in this situation. She then grimaced at the stupidity of the question as she lifted herself from the mud.

Valia would would do what she is good at; She would defeat her opponent, Revan thought. It was the one thing Valia had tried to stress to Revan as the war had dragged on.

“Forget trying to follow rules of engagement. Forget your plans as battle comes. Empty your mind of strategy or plotting. Such things are for those who fancy themselves as strategic. When you give yourself entirely to defeating your opponent, it will not matter what plans he or she has arrayed against you. When a warrior’s head is cut off during a fight, the body is still swinging the sword. Why? Because the warrior’s heart knows better than its head. Were it not for the fact it loses blood soon, the body would continue the fight. Therefore, it is better to be like a headless body in a fight. Your arms will know when to swing. Your legs will know when to jump. All the plans in the galaxy mean nothing to a headless body. In other words, don’t think. Do.”

Revan had never been able to accept that part of what Valia had tried to tell her. There would always be a need for her to think in a fight.

Guarding with her saber, Revan drew the Force into herself, regaining her strength as her body healed the wounds in her shoulder and knee quickly. She looked for a weakness in the assassin as she approached, noting the unfamiliar nature of the fighting style. Where had she learned it?

“You are strong, whoever you are,” Revan spoke as Valia came within earshot. “You demonstrate much skill. Your talents are wasted, however.”

“I would be making my peace with this life, were I you.” Valia snorted, readying her hands into a pincer shape.

“Killing twelve of my best without a lightsaber is quite a feat. Tell me, was it the Mandalorians who hired you?”

The assassin didn’t answer. Revan took a step back. “Someone of your talent does not belong doing the petty business of assassination. This is a work that droids should be doing, not a prodigy such as yourself.”

“You think to try and turn me? I’ll not be swayed. Shame yourself no further with these appeals of yours. You can have at least some dignity in death, can’t you?” Valia asked.

“I’m just trying to save the Republic!” Revan yelled, pointing her lightsaber at her would-be killer.

“That is not my concern. Nor should it have been yours,” the assassin scoffed. “No more appeals.”

Valia advanced towards Revan, but was knocked backwards by a Force push from an enraged Alek, who had dragged himself up. A black fire was in his eyes as he Force leaped to the assassin, swiping almost at random, any thoughts of strategy or patience gone from him as he recklessly slashed at Valia.

“Alek!” Revan shouted. “You can’t take her by yourself! She’s too strong!” Revan rushed forward, trying to help and giving up on the thought she would be able to capture her attacker alive.

Too bad, she thought. It really is a waste, even if she did kill twelve of my best.

Now both Alek and Revan attacked, trying to coordinate their attacks through their Force bond. Alek was aggressive, trying to use fast and powerful swings and drive Valia back as she blocked with her gauntlets while Revan tried to use mental attacks and throw her opponent’s reflexes off, attacking in sweeping, efficient strokes with her blade.

It wasn’t working. Valia fought like an animal in her mind to keep Revan out of it, and, displaying astounding speed and agility, she dodged both of their attacks expertly. On several attempts, she even managed to trick them into swiping at one another. Revan desperately tried to connect with her saber, only for it to meet air, rain, or mud.

Their combined assault was brought to an end suddenly as Valia unleashed a Force-enhanced kick at Revan who was sent tumbling into the mud a few yards away. Alek gave a roar, but that roar turned to screams of pain as he was hit by a bolt of lightning, making a barely conscious Revan spasm slightly as she felt Alek through their bond. She had no time to send comfort to him though, because another lethal hail of shuriken was sent flying her way. She desperately swiped with her saber, noticing that the blades were seemingly almost immune to any attempt to nudge them away with the Force.

The assassin’s hands once again pulled into that deadly pincer shape. Revan had no doubt it was meant to be a killing blow. Revan coiled her body and leaped up and away out of the assassin’s reach, holding her lightsaber out in a makashi salute to her opponent.

Unfazed, Valia pulled out her trump card, a small adegan crystal. It glowed brightly in reaction to Revan’s presence.

It felt as though every inch of her skull was being violently stabbed and every nerve was being set on fire. Revan dropped her lightsaber, falling to her knees, and then finally to the ground, clutching her head and releasing a savage howl of agony. As she screamed, her lips parted to reveal two gleaming white fangs.

Calm, unhurried, Valia stepped closer, holding out the crystal before her. Revan tried to inch her body away but even that small effort was not in her power.

“This is the end, Nosferan,” Valia hissed, pulling Revan’s head towards her, when she was finally close enough. “Your danger to the Order ends today.”

Sobbing against the brutal pain, Revan met the dark eye-holes in the assassin’s mask. “The–the Jedi!? You–you LIE! It’s impossible! Hiring assassins isn’t the Jedi way!”

“Who said they hired me?” Valia asked. She produced another shuriken. “Die without hatred, Revan. This isn’t personal.”

As she was about to plunge the shuriken into Revan’s neck, she was startled by a barbaric roar from her left. Alek charged like a bull, tackling her with Force-granted speed and his own broad shoulders, knocking her away from Revan’s prostrate and helpless figure. The adegan crystal slipped from Valia’s grasp, landing in the mud a few feet away from her–but still in the general vicinity of Revan, who continued to scream in pain. Alek and Valia grappled for a moment, trading blows, Alek’s powerful fist slamming Valia’s head into the dirt before she gave a snarl and kicked him off. Alek shot up again with renewed vigor, his lightsaber pointed at her.

“You will not kill her! Not while I’m here!” Alek bellowed. Valia rose up silently and gave only a rude hand gesture.

Both of them charged, each sensing this was the end for one of them.

The sound of Alek’s blade whirring furiously through the torrential rain at lightning speed was the only thing heard. Yet no matter how fast he swung, how hard, or how many times he tried to stab, cut, or even nick her anywhere, his lightsaber met nothing as she dodged all of his attempts.

Alek was tired, battered and his strength was ebbing as fast as his logic was dissolved by the fires of his anger. Valia proceeded to cut mercilessly into the gaps of his technique. Evading his lightsaber one final time and leaping to his side before he could react, she produced a blaster and jammed it into the side of his head. Unfortunately for both of them, she slipped in the mud as she landed, causing her aim to veer slightly as she fired.

The blast took Alek’s jaw clean off. He collapsed like a puppet into the mud, his strings finally cut, sobbing, gurgling noises coming from what remained of his mouth.

“ALEK!” Revan screamed as she saw him fall to the ground. The assassin scrambled out of the mud, marching toward Revan. Revan was so weakened by the merciless torture of the crystal that it was all she could do to keep conscious as the assassin approached.

A ghostly red sword appeared in Valia’s hand.

“Revan is dead,” Valia whispered, more to herself than Revan. “Long live Revan.”

Revan could only hope for it to be quick. She closed her eyes, tears still falling. Forgive me, Alek.

The blade came down.

***

Out of nowhere, an aqua green lightsaber blade blocked the killing blow. A figure stood over Revan, holding out the lightsaber over her prone body in protective fashion. “Get away from her!” the newcomer demanded. “Just who the hell do you think you are?”

Valia took a step back, appraising the scruffy looking fellow. He looked like he hadn’t shaved in a week and his hair seemed to have seen far too few trims. It hung in places over his eyes while the rest of it was plastered to his head by the rain. Judging by his combat fatigues, it seemed as though he was just another soldier.

“Step aside, non-Jedi!” Valia hissed. “This doesn’t concern you.”

“You’re about to kill the only hope the Republic has? You’d better damn well believe this concerns me!” he retorted, inverting his grip on the lightsaber, holding it with the blade pointing behind him.

Valia sighed, about to snap the meddler’s neck, when she realized that his stance wasn’t Jedi or even Sith; this man was no cast-off. He was in a league of his own. His stance was an ancient and dangerous style used by many independent Force users on the outer rim. Specifically, his stance belonged to a practitioner of Baiken family lightsaber combat.

“Hmm. A student of the rim ward provinces,” she growled, pacing a bit before turning to him again. “Interesting.”

The man raised a brow. “What are you talking about?”

Now it was her turn to question. “Are you telling me you didn’t train in the outer rim? That is the only place you could have learned that style.”

“It’s my business where I trained, not yours!” he growled.

Committing herself, Valia readied her weapon. She was well aware of the threat a Baiken-style practitioner posed. Baiken is a fighting method similar but unrelated to the Jedi method of reversing the grip. Highly dangerous and said to contain mystical qualities to it, it is a powerful form even for non-Jedi. When used by a Force Sensitive, as her new enemy seemed to be, it made them a force to be reckoned with.

He leaped for her, displaying all the skill, agility, and ferocity of an advanced practitioner of Baiken combat. For the first time that night, Valia found herself totally on the defensive, desperately blocking and parrying with her gauntlets and shin guards. His fluid strikes, each always leading into the other, made it impossible for her to dodge as she had with the others. He was making her defend instead of evade, and it began to sap her strength. She knew she could not fight by his rules, or she would not walk away alive. Against his technique, her advantage over normal adversaries was practically nullified, and they both knew it. To make matters worse, he was taller than her, and had leverage, as well as familiarity with a lightsaber style that she herself had never successfully combated on her own.

He could very well beat her.

Valia flipped backward, unleashing a blast of Force lightning. The man ducked under her powerful burst, momentarily giving Valia both a reprieve and the advantage, which she exploited instantly. She jumped on top of him, attempting to drive her sword into him while he was still trying to get up. He rolled to the side and twisted to his feet, chopping at her legs.

She flipped in place, and attempted to drive her sword into him again. He parried and smacked her in the face with his elbow, full force. He then managed to kick her in the gut, blasting her with some lightning of his own, and finally hurling her with the Force into a nearby tree.

Frustrated, Valia roared and unleashed another burst of lightning, just as her mysterious fighter did so himself. Each set their will against the other, coming closer to one another. Her opponent gritted his teeth in pain as he sent more of his will into the lightning, even sending some of his own life to fuel it’s power. The lightning hissed and crackled around them, lancing into grass, into trees, setting them ablaze as the two struggled for dominance.

Valia could fuel her lightning no longer. Her strength gave and she was blasted by the brilliant white torment and sent flying all the way back to where the fight had started. The man ran after her, anticipating victory.

Valia’s mind raced furiously, assessing her options, as she lay face up in the mud, part of her mask destroyed, much of her clothing burnt.

She could not win. She knew it. Her opponent knew it. She was here to kill Revan for betraying the Order, not to get torn apart by a Baiken practitioner. Her mission was a failure. No point in staying. She pulled herself up from the mud as the man came closer. She gave a bow to him, and then tossed an explosive-tipped shuriken at the ground next to him. He Force leaped away from the blast, but upon landing, did not find Valia anywhere, a faint wisp of smoke curling upward in her place.

***

His heart pounding in apprehension, the Lieutenant searched the rain-streaked camp around him, searching for any sign of the assassin. After several minutes of nothing happening, he relaxed slightly, deactivating his wife’s lightsaber and sticking it back into the hiding place of his sodden orange jacket. He quickly checked the two Jedi. His stomach lurched as he looked upon Alek’s face. His wound was ghastly, horrific, but he would survive if he got help.

“I NEED A MEDIC! MAN DOWN!” he yelled at the top of his lungs, hoping his voice would carry despite the thunderstorm raging.

He barely recognized Revan as she lay twitching in the mud. He was so used to seeing her all prim and proper so noble looking, so..so beautiful that seeing her covered in that sticky mud was a shock. He spotted a tiny point of light a few feet from her pulsating in rhythm with each spasmodic jerk of her body.

He grabbed the glowing crystal from the mud and hurled it as far and as hard as he could from them.

Revan groaned, the first sound he heard from her and sending waves of relief into him; the war was still winnable. He dropped down beside her, not daring to move her. “Ma’am, are you alright? How badly are you hurt?” he asked. She mumbled something about an assassin in reply.

“The assassin’s gone, Revan. She’s not coming back. Something must have scared her off,” he answered. The squish of rushing boots a few yards away alerted him to other Republic soldiers at last arriving at the scene of the massacre. Medics shoved him aside and quickly loaded Revan and Alek onto stretchers and hurriedly carried the two Jedi to the nearest medical tent. The Lieutenant caught up to them and and grasped Revan’s hand, attempting to comfort her. There was no way he was leaving after what just happened. He leaned over her and looked into her dull ruby eyes. “I’m Lieutenant Carth Onasi, Ma’am. You’re going to be fine.”

***

Revan did not know how much time had passed when she woke, sitting up in a cot. She scanned her surroundings. She was still in the medical tent. That Lieutenant Onasi had fallen asleep in a chair to the right of her, a blaster in hand. She was dressed in a pale green medical gown. The stinking Dxun mud had been washed from her body and her wounds had kolto patches. She no longer felt searing pain in every nerve either.

The encounter had been a frightening reminder of the truth of what she had done. She had always known that there would be some Jedi who would cluck in disapproval. Now she knew how bitter her departure with the Order had actually been. It was shocking that the Order whose ideals she held could snap like this and send a killer after her. What had made it almost a success was that she had never imagined that they would be capable of it. She noticed someone in the cot on her left.

It was Alek. His face was in bandages, his breathing shallow.

Her heart broke when she saw his jaw had been torn off completely. He would never smile, would never share a glass of wine with her, would never kiss her ever again. The wound was too great, even for someone of her power to heal. She put her hand to her mouth, the tears falling again harder at the shock and horror of last night. She finally broke out with a moan of anguish.

“I’ll make them pay for this Alek,” she swore between sobs. “For their ignorance, for their hypocrisy, for their double speak, for the way they destroy people’s lives, I WILL MAKE THEM PAY!!!” she roared, the volume of her voice as she made her oath making Carth jump awake.

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