Chapter: 13



Lando paced in and out of the cockpit. Each time he came in, he looked at the holo-projection then turned and walked out again. Nein sighed as Lando came back in once again. There wasn’t anything that they could do until the padawans contacted them. Lando grumbled then turned to walk back out of the cockpit.

BX began making noise and whistling. “What?” Lando said. Nein said something and pointed at the holo-projection. Lando looked at the Holoprojection. It zoomed in on a ship that was descending toward the city. “It can’t be,” he said and sat down in the pilot’s chair.

BX whistled again. Nein looked at some other information on a different screen. He muttered something to Lando. “Well, poodoo,” he said. “Of all the luck to see them again.”

The hologram turned as the ship sailed overhead. The words Star Dust clearly visible. “I think we should contact them,” he said.

“We still have twenty minutes until they are overdue, Master Solo. They have held to checking in exactly on the hour mark. It would be better to not contact them if they are trying to be stealthy.” BX whistled form inside the console. “And BX is correct, even though our signal is on one of their own carrier signals, there is a chance we could give away our position by transmitting.”

Lando slumped pack in the chair. “Fine.”

Chapter 14



Rae was angry. She was playing very close to using the dark side of the force. She didn’t know if it was skill and some rare bit of luck, or if her former master was just playing with her, but he had been giving ground as they fought. Once he had even ignited his apprentice’s saber to block a strike that he couldn’t parry with his own.

Kylo was getting tired. In bleeding their lightsabers, he had taxed himself more than he thought he would. He was annoyed that he had to dual wield to keep her from breaking his defenses. He was also finding it hard to keep himself in the force to fight. He knew he was going to have to end this sooner than later as Lowbacca looked like he was about to join back in.

“You are still sloppy, Padawan. You are not relying on the force,” he said.

“Shut up,” Rae growled. “How long, how long have you lied to us?”

Kylo slid back to avoid a wild swing but was parried as he tried to counterattack. “Is it that important?” he asked. He could see by the anger and rage on her face, that it was. “Since before you and Lowbacca became my padawans,” he said.

“WHY!?!” she yelled.

He laughed, though it was a tired one. “Join me and find out,” he said as he overcorrected a parry.

“NO!” she yelled and lunged at him, saber out.

Part of him was disappointed that she never learned not to do that. A flick of his wrist and he parried her blade up, then he brought his back down and cut through her leg just above the knee, severing it cleanly. He brought the lightsaber back up before him preparing to strike a killing blow.

Lowbacca saw her move in and there was nothing he could do. Kylo took her leg and she crumpled to the ground. As he drew back, Lowbacca reached out with the force and grabbed her, pulling her back to him. The blade of Kylo’s lightsaber just missed her uninjured foot and sliced into the floor. Part of him was impressed that Rae had not dropped her lightsaber.

Rae was in shock. She was sure that she would have been dead if she hadn’t started flying backward. She locked eyes with Kylo as he snarled at Lowbacca for prolonging this. She forced herself to take a breath and could barely breath in. He wasn’t choking her again. She followed Kylo’s movements. He was moving so slow, but he was going to catch up to and kill them both.

Her mind raced as she tried to figure out what to do. She only had her lightsaber, the one he ruined. She could throw it at him, but he would just deflect it. He would raise his saber in his right and sweep from left to right swatting it away. Away into the wall beside him, the wall with the pipes.

Kylo felt the ripple in the force. It came from Rae. Did she just really find it now? The force was cruel with irony if that was the case.

Rae saw his eyes widen and knew that if she completed the throw it would not work, he would see it. She was already committed in her action though. She felt Lowbacca’s hand on her back as he caught her. The game on Lady Luck came unbidden to her mind. She bared her teeth and screamed as she let the lightsaber go, pushing her rage and pain out with the throw, though not letting the emotions guiding it.

Kylo’s instant of amazement that she found the force faded as the anger and pain radiated off her. Her lightsaber spun through the air at him. He swept his own in a move to parry it away from him. The instant that his blade touched hers, her anger vanished. He watched with detached fascination and horror as he pushed her lightsaber into the pipe that only a few minutes earlier he had stopped Lowbacca from cutting.

Kylo used the force to push himself backward, doing a flip as flame exploded from the pipe. Flames filled the corridor still coming at him. He pushed back further, staying just ahead of the flames. He could feel blisters rising on his face from the severe heat.

Rae had the satisfaction of seeing Kylo’s surprise as her lightsaber sunk into the pipe. She instinctively used the force to pull her lightsaber back to her, its blade extinguished.

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