Noelani stood guard as Chase and Asyra'mata raided the weapon's locker. The other three children were hunched inside the small room as well, staying out of sight, and out of the way.
She knew that it wouldn't be long before the compound realized that she had already gotten her family out of the cells, what she didn't know was what was taking them this long in the first place; she hadn't expected the Ferals to put up that much of a fight against the Guard soldiers that Tahiri had in here.
The building rumbled slightly, and at the far end of the hallway, a plume of smoke came rolling towards her. Her thumb moved closer to the ignition switch of her lightsaber as she watched the smoke dissipate.
Another blast wave rolled towards her, nearly knocking her off of her feet, and she saw that the hallway now opened up onto the undercity. She frowned as she saw the first of the Ferals rush through the newly opened hole.
Laughing, she glanced back towards the weapons locker as Chase and Asyra'mata stepped out. Each held a blaster rifle, and had a blaster pistol attached to their hip. Strung across their chests were bandoliers of thermal detonators.
"What was that?" Chase asked as he looked down the hallway.
"That was my diversion escaping back into the city."
Asyra'mata shook her head. "For weeks we've been routinely killing those things, and you let that big group back out into the wild. There's no sense to you."
Noelani sighed sadly. "I didn't do them a favor. They're all infected with some type of disease which destroys their coral. Literally melts it off. It's not pretty, and appears to be entirely fatal from the samples I saw."
She glanced over at Asyra'mata, and saw the look of shock on her face slide to one much more malicious. She gave a very adult chuckle. "Oh, that's just delicious; and to think I used to worry about you being a goody-two shoes."
Chase sighed, as Noelani just grinned at the younger girl. "Glad to disappoint, are you two ready to move? I say we just follow the ferals out that big hole in the wall."
Chase nodded his head. "Sounds good to me."
Noelani beckoned the other three kids out from the weapons locker. "All right, I'm taking point, Chase right behind me. Jen, Prilla and Huff, you three stay with Chase, and Asyra'mata cover our backs."
They all nodded, and Noelani began to jog down the hall, heading towards the hole in the wall where the last of the Ferals had just disappeared. She grinned, and pulled the Force to her, opening herself up to it.
In surprise she stumbled, and caught herself on the wall. She shook her head, trying to clear it. Shock rolled through her, as she considered things.
The Force had changed.
Where before it had been warm and welcoming, now it had become cold and oily, tainted somehow.
She felt a hand touch her on her back, and then Chase whispered, "'Lani, you all right?"
Tossing a quick smile over her shoulder at him, she nodded her head. "Yeah, just a dizzy spell. Nothing big."
He didn't look that convinced but she faced forward again and started moving.
When they got twenty meters from the hole they were aiming for as an exit two squads of Gaurdsmen appeared from around the corner. As soon as they saw her, they stopped and the front row of them dropped to their knees in a low firing stance.
"Back!" Noelani screamed as she ignited her lightsaber.
Then she started falling back as a virtual wall of coherent light flashed towards her. She weaved her saber in a complicated sequence in front of her, letting the Force guide her actions.
She managed to catch each blaster bolt that came at her or the others, sending them back in various directions. There was just too many of them for her to aim. Then she felt Chase and Asyra'mata taking up positions on either side of her.
A quick glance to the left and right saw that they held their blaster rifles to their shoulders and were firing, as well as falling back at the same rate that she was.
Then the soldiers parted and someone new advanced. Someone holding a lightsaber with an indigo colored blade.
Noelani paused for a moment as she recognized her mother.
"Mom," she said, and she could hear the despair in her voice.
She saw a flash of silver twirling towards the Guard, and then Chase grabbed her shoulder. "Let's go!"
She allowed herself to be pulled away as she watched her mother. The thermal detonator stopped in mid air, even as the rest of the soldiers dived out of the way.
A few moments later it exploded, but Noelani could still feel her mother, so she guessed that the weapon had been tossed out of the hole they had planned on escaping through.
She focused forward, and saw that Asyra'mata was leading the way, the kids immediately behind her. Suddenly she darted to the left and entered a darkened room.
Noelani came in as well, and looked around.
It was some type of briefing room. Tiered rows of seats surrounded a simple lectern. Noelani went down the steps and found a door off to the right of the lectern. Opening it slightly, she glanced out at a hanger.
In it were three ships. Two single seat fighters, and then Tahiri's Stolen Star.
She grinned and closed the door. Glancing up towards the others, she beckoned them down. "Come on, I think I've found our next way out of this joint."
The kids scampered down, and Chase moved slower, limping slightly. She frowned as he reached the bottom. "What's wrong Chase?"
He shook his head. "Just got scratched by a lucky shot out there. So, what's the new escape plan?"
She gestured towards the hanger. "Out there is mom's starship. I say I steal it, and then we just fly away."
Asyra'mata frowned for a moment. "Where would we go? I've lived my entire life here--there's nothing for me anywhere else."
Noelani smiled at her. "I'll take you all home. My papa would be happy to have my family live there."
Chase nodded his head. "That sounds nice…."
Then the door at the top of the room burst open, and a squad of soldiers darted in. Tahiri followed a moment later and stood there looking down on them.
Noelani gripped her saber tighter as she looked around. She was too far from the kids to defend them, and if she jumped over there, then Chase would be defenseless as well.
Her lips pulled back in a snarl as she realized just how kriffed she really was.
"Give up," Tahiri calmly said from the top row of the room. "There's no way you can all escape, and I don't feel like killing every one of you."
Noelani took a step forward, one which moved her closer to the kids, but further away from Chase. She felt her heart breaking as she made the decision, but it was all she could do. "Why Mom? Why do this to us? Just let us go."
Tahiri shook her head. "I can't. I have my orders."
Noelani sighed. "Then you'll just have to kill us."
She jumped towards the kids, her saber igniting even as the soldiers up top pulled their triggers.
She landed and wove her blade in a quick infinity circle, sending three bolts back towards the top row.
She could feel the soldier's shock as their own blaster fire was hurtled back towards them. They dove out of the way, and Noelani turned to look to Chase.
Just in time to see the blast strike home in the middle of his chest.
In apparent slow motion he was lifted off of his feet and flung backwards crashing into the lectern.
Time sped up as the lectern exploded in a shower of splintered wood.
"Chase!" Noelani screamed.
"Stand down!" Tahiri yelled at her soldiers.
But Noelani didn't care. She was running towards Chase. He was slumped on the ground, not moving and she slid to a stop beside him. Asyra'mata and the kids hovered above her, and she could hear Jen and Prilla crying.
Her own tears splashed against his cheek, and she stared in amazement as his eyes flickered open.
They were filled with pain, and he smiled, even as blood leaked from the side of his mouth.
"'Lani," he whispered.
She gripped his hand tightly in hers. "I'm here, Chase."
He coughed, and she could feel the flares of agony with the motion. Reaching into the Force she touched his body and her worst fears were confirmed. The bolt had snipped one of the major arteries leading from his heart and punctured a lung.
His mouth was moving, and she pressed her forehead to his, straining to hear anything.
A single, last word came out. "Love-"
She tossed her head back and screamed.
Anger.
Hate.
Rage.
Revenge.
Suffering.
Despair.
Dark emotions slammed into her. Everything that she had been taught to avoid, every single emotion that as a Jedi she had learned to suppress, blasted past her emotional damns, and flooded into her; through her. She drank in those dark emotions, pulling them from the kids and Asyra'mata, savoring their taste, their feel.
She became a receptacle for those emotions, they swarmed her, eating away at her consciousness; at her very self.
With a start, she realized that she could release them.
Staggering to her feet she looked up and saw the squad and Tahiri. Tahiri's face was hard, but Noelani could feel her mother's sorrow and suffering. Just more Dark Emotions for Noelani to consume.
To Tahiri's left was the soldier who had shot Chase. Her rifle had been lowered. She was protected only by the standard Galactic Alliance Guard armored uniform.
Noelani snarled and raised her hand; palm out, fingers splayed and then she flung those dark emotions at the soldier.
She felt the hate roll through her and down her arm. The Force erupted from her outstretched palm and the air roiled around her. The positive and negative energies of the molecules in the air shattered, creating an imbalance between her and the soldier.
And nature abhors an imbalance.
Energy flooded the area, and then lightning, nature's vehicle for repairing imbalances between positive and negative charges in the air, ripped out from Noelani's palm to strike the masked soldier.
An electronic scream echoed through the briefing room as the soldier was slammed against the wall and pinned there by the energy. The putrid stench of burnt human flesh hung heavily on the air.
The sound of Jen gagging reached Noelani's ears and she clasped her hand into a tight fist pulling it back to her chest; drawing the dark emotions back into her heart.
She stared in horror as the soldier dropped to the ground and stayed there. The thick black smoke that came from the openings in the uniform left no doubt as to the soldier's state.
She shifted her gaze towards Tahiri. Her master. Her mentor. Her mother.
Horror shone on her face.
The pain of that look shattered her, and she stumbled back. The back of her legs hit the edge of the platform and she dropped to her butt.
Tahiri spoke again, though her voice was pained and low. "Please come with us. We need to stop this killing."
The remaining three soldiers moved forward, putting themselves between Tahiri and Noelani.
Noelani raised her palm and looked at it, seeing a circle of cracked, blackened flesh in its very center. She blinked her eyes and looked down at Chase.
Pressing her fingers against his lips, she whispered, "I'm sorry."
Then she stood back up, and ignited her blade again.
Tahiri shook her head. "Don't do this Noelani. Take the easy way, give up."
Noelani braced herself and began pulling the Force towards her. "You should know better than that, Mom. You're the one that taught me that easy isn't for Jedi."
"You're not a Jedi anymore, and neither am I."
Noelani felt her lips part in another snarl. "Doesn't matter."
Then she launched herself forward.
In that single, smooth movement, she had propelled herself into the midst of the soldiers. Her blade flashed and the first Guard fell away in two pieces.
The third one pushed Tahiri out into the hall, and closed and locked the door, as Noelani decapitated the second.
Before the third was able to bring her weapon to bear, Noelani had shoved her own blade through the soldier's heart.
She pulled it out as the Guard dropped like a rag doll. Then she pulled her elbow back, ready to cut a hole in the door.
Asyra'mata's voice cut through the room. "Mom, he's not dead yet."
She stopped and looked down, to find his eyes, pain filled as they are staring at her.
Relief crashed back into her, and she rushed down the steps. In moments, she was once again by his side, and holding his hands. "You… you, dummy! Don't scare me like that."
A weak grin flickered over his lips. "S'ry… no ch… choi… ce…"
A hissing sound started from the top of the room, and Noelani looked that way to see a saber melting through the door. She bent down to pick him up. "C'mon, we've got to get out of here before Mom makes it through that door."
He pushed her away. "No… I stay be… hind… slow... 'er down…."
Noelani shook her head, and he waved her on, even as he gestured for Asyra'mata's thermal detonators. The Twi'lek girl passed them over, and Noelani could see the tears in her eyes.
She leaned down and kissed his forehead. "I wish you could have been my father for real."
He grinned at her, and then she stood up and went to stand behind Noelani, herding the other kids with her.
Noelani leaned closer. "Please don't do this. Come with me, I… I need you. I love you."
He shook his head. "Can't… and no time…save… kids…."
Her tears falling once again, Noelani leaned down and kissed him. Then she stood up and walked toward the door. Her back was ramrod straight, each step mechanical.
She reached the door to the hanger, and placed her hand on its jamb. After a moment, Asyra'mata touched her shoulder. "We need to go. That Jedi is almost through the door."
Noelani looked up, and saw the saber complete its circle. A chunk of the door fell inward as Noelani opened the door to the hanger. She pushed the kids through as Tahiri once again entered the room.
For a moment, their eyes locked, and all Noelani wanted to do was to run to her mother and be held.
All she wanted was to be comforted by someone that loved her.
What she did was step into the hanger, and allowed the door to close behind her.
She began jogging towards the Stolen Star and a few moments later a thump sounded followed by a shock wave which rattled the whole building.
Getting back to her feet, she ran faster, reaching the starship at the same time as Prilla and Jen. She quickly punched in the access code, and let out a breath as the ramp dropped.
As soon as they were all aboard, she closed the ship and ran to the cockpit, and without bothering with a preflight check, she powered the engines and weapons. Within moments, she had lifted off of the hanger deck and spun the ship around, so that she faced the still closed hanger doors.
A twin blast from the turbolasers corrected that problem for her, and then she punched the throttle forward.
The starship rocketed out of the hanger as another explosion shook the building.
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