Hey guys, this is my Christmas present to you all.
Chapter 7
As Rowahn came out of hyperspace, he checked again the tracker. It was still on the planet. Over the course of the flight, he had checked it multiple times, and is still said it was in the same place. It had been over three days, and the tracker had not moved off the planet.
Something’s not right. I’m sure she knows by now that she is being followed, and even if she doesn’t, there is no way I made it here before Caedon did. She has to be gone by now. Rowahn thought to himself as he surveyed the planet below him. It was a sub-arctic planet covered in thick evergreen forests. There was a stretch of forest that looked to have been bombed fairly recently, all the trees were burnt, and many were laying down or completely destroyed. He didn’t need a large area to land his ship in, so he set it down in a little nook away from the bomb site.
As he exited the ship, and began walking towards the site, he noticed other signs of battle. Blaster fire, explosions, and more.
It looks like Ethan made it here. I wonder if he succeeded. As he continued to walk, he gradually came to suspect that Playn had failed. He could see visions of battle. Hear the shots being fired, and grenades exploding. Finally he came to the edge of the destroyed swath, and saw a charred body. He instantly knew it was Playn’s.
“So Caedon killed him.” He muttered with a shake of his head. Ethan Playn had been a good man. Angry, full of hate, but many were these days.
Suddenly he heard some sounds. They sounded like they came from an astromech droid. Spinning around, he saw an R4 unit back in the trees. Quickly moving towards it, he saw that there was a ship in a clearing back behind it a little ways. Soon he was close enough to get a good look at it, and he saw that it was Caedon’s Lancer-Class pursuit craft.
Once he caught up to the little droid, he asked, “Were you Ethan’s droid?”
The droid beeped his reply.
“Yes, I knew Ethan, he helped me recover from my wounds a few days ago.”
More beeps and whistles.
“Ethan is dead. Can I use his ship?”
Angry and annoyed beeps came this time.
“No, I didn’t kill Ethan, a bounty hunter named Caedon did. If you allow me to use your ship, you can help me get revenge on him.”
The droid seemed to like this idea, and replied in the affirmative.
“Good, I have to check something else out first, but you can have the ship ready for me when I get back.” Rowahn said. Once the droid went back into the ship, he returned to his search of Jord’s ship.
As he continued in the direction of the tracker’s signal, he slowly began to notice a bit of change in the landscape. Soon it was a very steep incline, and led down into a valley. As soon as he saw this, he knew then exactly what had happened. Caedon had removed the tracker, and thrown it into the valley. Probably replaced it with his own as well. So now Rowahn had no way of following Jord. His anger was growing, but he knew he still needed to remain in control for the moment. Walking around, he soon located the tracker. Caedon was far too good at this game, and he knew exactly how to beat Rowahn. As his anger and frustration began to boil over, he sensed a presence. At first he thought it was Jord, but then he noticed something. There was no song. It was as if they did not know about it, or could not access it.
They? How did I know it was a they? Rowahn thought as he stood up. They were coming behind him. He could feel their presence in the Force now. They were powerful, and he was sure they could feel him. They were coming.
He heard the whoosh of blades as they activated, and the two people jumped towards him. Waiting till the last second, and then quickly reaching over his shoulder, and grabbed his saber. Snapping the crimson blade into existence, and spun. The blue and silver blades of the large man connected with my own. I could see the surprise in his face as he must have realized I was not who, or what, he thought. Quickly, the smaller women tried to flank me, her purple blade coming towards me at the same time as the man’s two sabers attacked. With a smile on my face invisible because of my mask, I simultaneously blocked both of the man’s blades, and quickly back flipped out of the way of the woman’s saber.
Landing on an upturned tree root, Rowahn pulled on the ground. The dirt came flying up into the eyes of the two attackers. Just as I was swinging towards them, the woman recovered, and leapt in front of the man, deflecting my strike as she did so. These two were good, and Rowahn liked a challenge, but he would see just how good they really were. As Rowahn swung his blade in a high arc, coming down towards the small woman, he saw the man reignite his silver blade. The flash of light momentarily distracted him, and allowed for the woman to knock his blade out of the way. Neither of them was close enough to get in under his guard soon enough, but out of seemingly nowhere, a Force blast threw Rowahn back against a tree. As he slumped to the ground, and landed on one knee with his hand placed on the ground for balance, he looked up, and his smile broadened. This was fun. It had been a while since he had faced multiple highly trained Jedi.
Before they had even made it up to where he had landed, Rowahn was already recovered, and he could see the uncertainty and disbelief in their faces at his speedy recovery. As they both simultaneously attacked, the large man came barreling towards him, while the woman went off to try and set up a pincer.
These two have worked together for a while. Rowahn thought.
They are too coordinated not to have. The man attacked fast, but not fast enough. Rowahn quickly blocked them, and then swiftly kicked the woman. It was a surprise more than anything else, and gave Rowahn a chance to move. Spinning his saber to keep both sides protected, Rowahn moved forwards. He could sense the man moving into position to attack again. Rowahn headed deeper into the valley. It would give the man the high ground, but Rowahn liked a challenge. The man attacked again with renewed vigor, but Rowahn blocked all the attacks coming his direction. After blocking a high strike, Rowahn flipped his saber over his back, and brought the blade out in front, thrusting at the man. He avoided it, but it caused him to break off his attack.
Rowahn had taken his eye off the women for a split second, and she had managed to get in under his guard. She quickly kneed Rowahn in the ribs, causing him to stumble backwards. Before Rowahn could recover, she once again attacked with her blade. Rowahn barely raised his saber in time to block the woman’s blade. Though he successfully kept it from decapitating him, it did strike his shoulder. The one place that they had not put the cortosis weave, though it was a little bit thicker material. Rowahn felt the pain, but it was so dimmed from the adrenaline coursing through his vanes he barely noticed it.
Trying to take advantage of the wound, the man struck out. The three blades spun in beautiful arcs and clashes.
Reminds me of a Wookiee Life-Day tree. Rowahn thought as he watched the colors. Every strike Rowahn made, the man parried or blocked. Every strike the man made, Rowahn parried or blocked. There was not flaw in either of their guards. No opening, no way to take the other down without being wounded themselves. The woman was trying to attack again, but Rowahn was smart enough to keep some obstacle between him and either the man or the woman, so they would not have the advantage of numbers.
The woman tried to strike, but Rowahn’s blade parried it easily. Using the momentum from the swing, Rowahn reached out, and Force blasted the man a ways away. He didn’t see where he landed, but he knew he would be out of the fight for a little bit. The thought saddened Rowahn a bit, it wasn’t often that someone, or some two rather, could successfully keep him engaged in battle for this long.
Rowahn could sense the despair in the woman as she saw the man fly away, but she recovered quickly, and began a fierce attack. She was much better than the man was, and the attack was strong enough to give Rowahn a good challenge. She fought hard, and then with an opening he had not noticed in himself, she lunged. Quickly sidestepping, he parried the blow. However, he realized his mistake too late. There were many things saberpikes were good for, but close range was not one of them.
Quickly punching him twice in the stomach, the Force lending strength to her blows, Rowahn bent forwards, causing the woman’s hand to brush his skin. Instantly he could feel memories being pulled to the surface. It was as if she were stealing them from him. Pulling back away from her, Rowahn stumbled back. He could hear her speaking to him, but he couldn’t tell what she was saying. All he could hear was a single word out of everything.
“Song”. The song? What about the song? Do others know of it? Can she hear it? Can she sing is? WHAT DOES SHE KNOW? The thoughts echoed through his mind, deafening him to everything else. As he again took a step back, he struggled to clear his mind.
“What . . . the . . . Song?” He stammered. Then his mind began to clear. “No. NO!” he shouted.
His anger, and hate, and fury, and distrust, and fear, and every other emotion suddenly filling his heart, he attacked. Before he had just been fighting for the challenge, and because it was fun. Now, it was for another reason. His strikes were strength themselves, his swings were almost faster than the eye could perceive, and in his eyes, though unseen through his mask were on fire. The hate, the rage, burning within them. He was unstoppable.
Around them the air grew hot, the snow melting where their feet had touched. Swinging wide, his blade grazed her thigh, and her defense began to fail. There was no longer a smile on his face. This battle was no longer something ‘fun’ or ‘challenging’, he no longer had a challenger worthy of his skill. There was nothing that could defeat the berserker now.
Stopping now and raising his hands, a flurry of dirt and stones flew towards the woman. Some she knocked away or did little damage, but they were a distraction. Rowahn unleashed a powerful blast of Force lightning towards the blade of his saber, and then slamming the tip of the blade into the ground, he mingled the energy with a powerful Force blast, and released the shockwave outward.
The ground around him erupted. The once living plants now dissolved, and the woman was thrown back into the air with such force that when she hit a tree, there were sounds of breaking. Whether it was bones or branches, Rowahn didn’t know, but he didn’t care. Slowly walking towards her slumped body, Rowahn reached out his hand, ready to snap the neck of the woman.
Then Rowahn felt it. It was a disturbance in the Force unlike any he had ever felt before. He could almost feel the waves of anger coming off the large man as he wordlessly barreled towards him in an attack. So fierce was his wrath that Rowahn was driven backwards. Within moments, Rowahn could feel his arm burning from where the man had scored a hit, and there was a hole in his helmet where he had nearly taken off Rowahn’s head.
The attack had been raging for a while now, never breaking off, and still the brutal strikes struck hard. As their blades connected in a clash, Rowahn found himself staring into the eyes of the man. This is when he realized that he would not defeat this man with anger, for the man’s fury was greater even than his own. While it could be a useful force if controlled, this man did not have the experience or practice channeling his anger, and this made it a weakness. He could see the man struggling under his newfound determination. He was big, bigger by far than Rowahn was, but Rowahn had something the man didn’t. He had the song. Reaching into it, he could feel power coming through it. He could feel it lending strength to his limbs. Soon the man made a mistake. Jumping backwards, he left himself open to a kick from Rowahn. As Rowahn channeled strength and speed into his kick, he let it fly. The kick connected with the man’s hip, causing him to stumble backwards, and his silver saber to fly into the brush.
As he took on a defensive stance, Rowahn attacked. The man held his own, but only enough to keep himself from losing any limbs. Slowly, gradually, the man began to accumulate nicks and cuts. Then he seemed to realize something, and jumped in close, once again locking blades with Rowahn. As Rowahn again stared into the man’s eyes, he noticed something. A thin line. He didn’t know what it was, but he followed it down, and then saw that there were others. All leading to a single spot on the man’s cybernetic gauntlet. Letting go of his hilt with one hand, Rowahn reached up and grasped the gauntlet, applying pressure and the Force to the space where the cracks came together. As he did so, the gauntlet crumbled. As soon as it did, Rowahn saw something else. It was as if a memory from the man had come to him. He saw the planet. The one that seemed to fly on its own. He saw the warriors, and he saw a girl. A young togruta, the name flashed into his mind.
Jorya! Who was she, and what connection did she have to this man. Looking into the man’s eyes, Rowahn knew then and there that she was something special to him. Then the pieces of hand completely crumbled, and fell to the ground.
When the other man saw this, the terror was evident in his eyes. He quickly stepped away, and repositioned himself into a left-hand defensive stance. But as soon as Rowahn attacked, he knew that the battle was almost over. This man was good with his left, but not nearly good enough.
Rowahn saw that though the man was concentrating on keeping himself alive, his mind was also elsewhere. And as he watched, he once again saw the man’s anger flare, tears threatened to fall as the man stood there, then he charged. Straight towards Rowahn as fast and hard as he could. He saw the strike coming, and effortlessly knocked it out of the way. Again and again he tried to strike Rowahn, until finally Rowahn parried a strike, and quickly spun, planting the pommel of his lengthy hilt in to stomach of the man. As the man stumbled backwards, two things happened at once. Rowahn quickly lunged at the man, but because of the hastily aimed strike, the blade to almost miss the man, and barely hit him in the eye, while at the same time the man launched a Force attack at Rowahn. One Rowahn had never seen before. It was like a mixture of solid Lighting and Force blast, but had different properties. Once again, cracks appeared in Rowahn’s vision, and out of something akin to instinct, he filled the cracks with the Force. And the attack exploded throwing both Rowahn and the man backwards.
After a fairly quick recovery, Rowahn rose walked forward towards the man, it was then that he noticed that the man had been impaled by a branch. However, he didn’t care, he just wanted to know.
“Why did you attack me?” his voice sounded weird. Almost as if his breathing filter had been damaged, and was causing his voice to sound more like that of the Dark Lord himself. However, Rowahn was no longer angry. He genuinely wanted to know what reason they had for attacking him.
“. . . Thought you . . . were . . . Gaeta . . . someone else.” The man replied in a pained voice.
“Gaetana.” Rowahn mumbled quietly. It all made sense now. Gaetana had hired Caedon to set a trap for both these people and himself. She was scared of him, and she knew he could easily take her place as High Inquisitor, making her expendable.
As these thoughts went through his head, another one also came.
The song. “. . . What, do you know . . . of the . . . Song?” he asked. Than thinking differently, he raised his saberpike over the man’s head.
Jorya. He thought. Then standing there for a few moments more, battling within himself as to what to do, he deactivated his saber, turned and began to walk away. Then almost without thinking, he stopped. Turning, Rowahn realized what it was that had cause the man to let loose to his anger, then once again beginning to speak, “. . . I . . . I’m sorry. About your . . . woman. But she’s alive.” Than after a brief pause, he continued. “. . . Tell her . . . that Rowahn sends his apologize . . .” And in a quieter voice, but still loud enough to be heard by the man he added, “. . . and go home to Jorya.”
Then turning, Rowahn walked away, back towards Ethan’s ship.
Wordlessly, he made his journey, only stopping once to tell the R4 unit to get the ship flying. After making his way to the ships cabin, he flopped down. He needed to think. There had been so much that had just happened. So much that was revealed.