The Last Sith, Pt. Four

Welcome to Part 4 of my (so far) only foray into Star Wars fanfiction.

The disclaimers yet again:  Mara McCuniff is a a copyrighted character of Traci Briery.   Star Wars, Jedi, Sith, Yavin, Dantooine, Coruscant, Yoda, Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, Mace Windu, et al, are copyrighted characters and terms owned by George Lucas, Lucasfilm, and 20th Century Fox.  I ain't gettin' no money from this, folks.

Mara did not go into town as often as her master did, but she remembered the location of at least a few restaurants. After a brief verbal tug of war as to which one to visit (he insisted that she choose, she politely insisted that he choose), they found a place specialising in Twi'lek cuisine. Jeel ate a larger meal than she, since Mara had picked the cheapest meal on purpose, in spite of Jeel’s insistance that she "indulge herself."

The sun had just set, and the night air was just starting to cool as they made their way back to his ship. Mara briefly forgot Jeel’s own "rule" about not lagging behind him, and was now walking at his side. This was a less-traveled part of town, but Mara believed it to be a shortcut.

Above them, having followed them from the restaurant, were four dark figures hiding themselves in the shadows of the new evening. They moved along the rooftops in perfect silence, startling not even the timid, flying creatures perched along the edges. Three of the figures always followed the fourth, who never spoke, but communicated only to them with gestures.

Master Jeel and Mara reached a narrow, empty passageway between buildings. They chatted amongst themselves, or rather, Jeel chatted, and Mara responded politely as needed.

"Did we come this way originally?" he asked at one point. "This doesn’t look familiar."

They both stopped, and Mara looked this way and that, but never up, and rubbed the back of her head.

"Oh, no," she said. "I’m so sorry, Master Jeel. I’ve led us the wrong way. Please forgive me."

"Think nothing of it," he said. "We’ll just retrace our steps until we find some landmarks or someone willing to give us directions. Come-"

"Yes, ma-" she started, then was cut short as Jeel stopped and held up his hand suddenly. His eyes narrowed, and his right hand began creeping down to his belt.

"Is something wro-?" she started to whisper, but was shushed quickly.

"Do you sense something?" he whispered back so quietly that she at first wondered if he’d answered at all.

"Do you mean like a disturbance?" she whispered back in an equally low volume. "I sense no-"

Once again, Mara’s sentence was cut short as 3 figures dressed in black suddenly appeared from above, beams of red light flashing in their hands. Jeel was first to have his own lightsaber drawn, and barely in time to deflect the first blow of his Sith attacker. Mara only survived by dodging the attack, which bought her time to ignite her own blade and block the swing of her second attacker. The battle was joined. The Jedi Master had one opponent, the padawn, two. Whether or not these were apprentices or masters meant nothing to either Jedi. Their only thoughts now were to survive and to work out the rest later.

Master Orn had told his padawan more than a few times that he sensed potential to become a great warrior thanks to her attunement to the living Force. This was the Force of the "present," of the here and now, of instinct. It was the Force that gave a Jedi his or her reflexes and prowess in battle. Until now, no one was fully aware of just how strong Mara was with the living Force. Somehow the padawan rather than the Master had two opponents trying with all their anger and their hatred to cut her to pieces. But once the momentary feeling of surprise had passed, the living Force took over all of Mara’s thoughts, feelings, and movements until she became a being of pure instinct. There was no move the Sith made, no combination of attacks, no amount of teamwork they performed that she could not sense just in time to avoid, deflect, or block. They acted as one as they had been trained to do by their master, for they were the most keenly attuned to each other’s movements.

The narrowness of the passage that had been the Siths’ ally became their enemy when Mara claimed the first of their numbers. Sensing that their goal was to push her and Jeel closer together to hinder their movements, Mara made a sudden run straight for a corner. Surely she would turn and face them from there, greatly hindered in movement and an easy target. Unfortunately for them, she did not stop at the wall, but ran up it, then kicked away and flipped backwards to sail over the Sith. The one closest to her met his end as she brought down her lightsaber in mid-flip, slicing open part of his chest, neck and face. The first of their dark attackers fell dead.

Finishing her vault, Mara landed and instantly turned to face the other, whose back was to the corner she had just escaped. Struggling to turn his fear into anger and fuel his strength and skill, it came too late as Mara’s lightsaber flashed through the air too quickly for even the dark side of the Force to anticipate. The Sith fell to the ground in two pieces.

Behind her, Jeel was holding his own against his opponent, who was larger than the other two and just as quick. Mara watched for only a second, which was long enough to see his pattern of attack. But Master Orn’s years of training and tradition prevented her from cutting him in two from behind. A Jedi always faces his or her opponent. Even so, a Jedi Master was in danger, so there was no time to waste. Reaching behind herself with the Force, Mara felt a lightabeer of one of the fallen Sith, and willed it into her hand.

"SITH LORD!!" she shouted. Even Jeel was startled by the strength of her voice, and stayed in a battle stance as the third Sith turned to look. Now she was facing him, which was sure to satisfy her master’s training. The air was then filled with flashes of light blue and red as two blades of light spun before the Sith. Even Jeel took a few steps away from the deadly whirlwind of light. The Sith went tense with fear, and the battle was over in an instant.

Suddenly Mara was still. Only the pulsing of her two lightsabers made any movement, and she suddenly switched both off before putting her own blade back onto her belt. Jeel watched her in amazement a few seconds before sheathing his own blade.

"You’re…" he started to say, then shook off his trance. "The Force is… strong with you," he finished. "But we need to get out of here. NOW."

"Yes, Master Jeel," she said, and let him pass before following closely behind. Neither of them looked up to see the dark figure who had been watching them all. He let them move out of sight and out of earshot before dropping silently to the ground, where he stared at the lifeless bodies of his apprentices for a few moments. They were not his only apprentices. He had more - many more - but they had been his best. And all three of them beaten not by a Jedi Master, but by a padawan. A padawan! A female padawan!

The Sith Master held out his hand and called one of his student’s lightsabers to him, where he switched it on. It hummed and pulsed and bathed his dark countenance in a pool of red light. He gripped the handle tight enough to make his hand shake before letting out a cry of rage and slicing open the steel wall closest to him like a laser beam through butter. The Jedi… would… DIE!!

* * *

"Master!" Mara shouted into the ship’s transmitter. "Master, come in!"

"Let’s see of this old crate will live again," said Jeel from the pilot’s seat. He flipped some switches, then inserted his power card into its slot. Lights turned on and the engine hummed. Jeel looked over at Mara and smiled. "Thanks to you, I think it might!" he said over the roar of the engine.

"Master Orn, this is Mara!" she said, not hearing Jeel’s comments. "Please come in!"

"This is Orn," his voice finally sounded over the speakers. "You sound excited. What happened?"

"We’ll be taking the quick route to your place in just a moment," said Jeel. "Mara, sit down and strap in, please."

"What’s happening?" said Orn. "Are you in danger?"

"Not anymore," said Jeel. The ship began rising from the ground. "But our suspicions were confirmed. There are Sith here."

"Sith?" said Orn. "How many? Where were they seen?"

"We’ll be there in a few minutes and can discuss all the details," said Jeel. "Just checking now to see if my ship is working again."

"Mara, were you injured?" said Orn.

"No, master," she said. "I’m… all right."

* * *

"Three of them attacked us," said Jeel. He and Orn were seated at the dining table while Mara stood nearby and paced nervously. Jeel’s ship was situated just at the edge of the woods behind Orn’s domicile. "One against me and two against Mara."

"Two?" said Orn, looking at his padawan. "And you escaped them uninjured?"

"Escaped?" said Jeel. "More than that. She killed them both, then finished off my own assailant. I can’t say that I’ve seen such… prowess in combat in a long time. Perhaps never."

"You defeated three Sith in combat?" said Orn in barely disguised surprise. "Mara, stop pacing. Is this true?"

"I’m… sorry, master, I… Yes," she said. "Or two, really. I only assisted Master Jeel with his attacker."

"Don’t hide behind the truth with modesty," said Jeel. "The Force has made you into a warrior of exceptional skill. But as for the Sith - I don’t think they were all defeated. During the fight, I could still sense another nearby, hidden. Watching us. Perhaps their master. He could very well have sent only a few of his apprentices against us, to test us."

"I was thinking the same thing," said Orn. "Mara, I will not tell you again to stop pacing."

"I’m sorry, master," she said. "I will stop now."

"Go to your room and meditate," said Orn. "You cannot allow yourself to become unnerved by this. We may be facing many more Sith than those three. Many more. And we must remain calm."

"Yes, master," she said, bowing quickly before leaving the room.

"Her skills in battle will be sorely needed soon, I sense," said Jeel.

"As do I," said Orn. "But it is her difficulty in controlling her feelings that concerns me."

"I suggest that we contact the council and explain what’s happened here," said Jeel.

"Agreed."

"Perhaps send others to assist."

"Er.. let us ascertain their true numbers first," said Orn. "We know that the Sith are becoming bolder, and gathering on other worlds besides this one. Before we spread our numbers any thinner, we should make certain they’re needed."

"I… won’t debate you on this, then," said Jeel. "Agreed that it’s too early to tell. But I offer to stay here and help you discover and defeat the Sith."

"Your generous offer is accepted gladly," said Orn. "Please… take Mara’s room as long as you’re here."

"No need. I’ll stay in my ship."

"But we insist," said Orn. "Out in your ship, you could get cut off from us if the Sith found us first and attacked."

Jeel considered his words a moment. "All right," he said, rising from his seat. "I accept your hospitality. But I’ll take the room only if she doesn’t end up sleeping on the cold floor."

* * *

The extra blankets from Jeel’s ship made the cold, hard floor less cold and less hard. The Jedis’ days and nights were now filled with searching, planning, viewing maps and blueprints and any other documents they could obtain about the surrounding area. Jeel carried a hover vehicle in his ship that he used to scour the countryside while Orn and Mara investigated the urban areas. The Jedi had lived here for years and were known to most, but it was doubtful they were loved by all. Orn cautioned his padawan that, although officially welcomed by the city government, there were those who mistrusted and even feared the Jedi because of their "mysterious" powers and ways. There might even be those working with the Sith to destroy them, perhaps because of false promises of wealth or power.

They all knew that the dark side was difficult to see, so it was not with total disappointment and frustration that they met their failure to discover the lair of the Sith. Still, the council was grateful for their reports. It turned out, though, that they could not send more assistance even if needed. The Sith menace was indeed growing, as large populations were found on different planets. But if their efforts were being coordinated towards a single goal, no Jedi had yet learned. Skirmishes such as that on Zeelan 4 were becoming more frequent, and the Jedi were not always victorious. After their last report, the council cautioned the three that they themselves might be called away to assist their brothers and sisters.

"I am not convinced there is no longer a threat here," said Orn after ending their last transmission. "They are out there, and waiting. They are hiding well. And yet… And yet I sense something familiar out there. Soaked in darkness, and yet known to me."

"A fallen Jedi?" offered Jeel. "One of our own, taken by the dark side?"

"I don’t know," said Orn. "The feeling is not clear enough for me to grasp, else I would follow it to their lair. Mara."

"Yes, master?"

"We have not yet explored the ruins far to the west of the city," said Orn. "We will go there tomorrow. Go and pack light provisions and supplies for each of us."

"Yes, master," she said with a quick nod of the head. "But… if I may… Do you mean the ruins by the mountains?"

"Yes."

"But those are hundreds of miles away," she said. "Would even the Sith not wish to stay somewhere closer to food and drink?"

"We will not assume anything about them," said Orn. "And we will search every possibility. We’ve already searched everywhere nearby."

"Yes, master," she said, bowing again before disappearing into the inner chambers.

"Good point," said Jeel. "We’ll take my ship, then."

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