Jedi Adept: A Path in the Dark Ch. 09

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Chase dropped from one level to the next, rolling to his feet, he looked around and saw a group of ferals scrambling at a building. Lifting his battered pipe, he watched the ferals. Their snarls and moans oddly echoed back at him, as some of them grabbed at the broken edges of the walls, trying to widen the opening that they were struggling to get through.

He frowned, he rarely saw that many, that intent upon getting into a structure. They were usually much happier staying outside of buildings, or at least as close to being outside that one could get while this close to bedrock level on Coruscant.

He took a hesitant step away from the ferals; there were a dozen he could see, and an unknown number inside the building. For a moment, he wondered what could be drawing them, urging them to go into the building.

He paused, and struggled to hear anything. Just over the groans from the ferals, he could make out an oddly pitched humming noise, and the cries of some small children.

The humming noise prickled at his subconscious, as he knew that he had heard that particular noise before, yet he could not place it.

The cries of the children were what prickled at his conscience. He could not ignore that. Looking around he found a large chunk of ferocrete; probably broken from the wall or ceiling of an upper level. Hefting it above his head, he threw it as hard as he could towards the closest of the ferals; who appeared to have once been human.

It slammed into the back of the creature's head. The feral went down, as brains, bone and coral splattered around it.

He lifted his piece of battered pipe and felt his lips twist into a snarl, as three of the ferals turned from the opening and started ambling towards him.

He jumped forward and slammed the pipe against the head of the closest feral, reveling slightly in the simple movements of battle.

Landing, he slipped on the ichor that coated the ground, and had to back peddle to keep a feral from grabbing him. He didn’t' recognize the species, but its head was raised on a stalk, and didn't look like it had enough room to have a brain in it.

He took a few more steps back away from the feral, creating a gap between them to give him some time to think before he had to attack.

He looked towards the hole which most of the ferals were still trying to get through, and saw a flash of white light. Then as the humming noise shifted its pitch, a feral screamed in frustration and pain.

He focused once more on the two ferals ambling after him: the unknown species and what looked like it was once an Acornian.

For a moment, he wished the Acornian was closer. He knew where their brains were at.

Feinting left, the unknown feral lurched in that direction. Chase dove to the right, bypassing the unknown, and coming up behind the Acornian. With a yell coming from his lips, he swung his pipe, striking the Acornian at the base of his neck.

The Acornian crumpled to the ground, and Chase raised his pipe and brought it down as hard as he could against a bump on the back of the unknown feral.

It convulsed and dropped to its knees.

Chase took a step backwards, and watched the feral, but it was unmoving. Giving an internal shrug, he turned back to the group of ferals, and raised his pipe once again.

As he struck the next feral in line, the humming noise grew louder. He noticed that the number of ferals trying to get into the building had thinned, while the number of body parts lying about the ground had gotten a lot higher.

He looked and saw the final feral trying to get into the building; a former Bothan. Closing the distance, he slammed the pipe into the head of the feral at the same time as a shaft of white light erupted from the creature's back. Instantly recognizing the type of weapon it was, he stumbled backwards, getting out of range of the lightsaber.

The blade's owner heaved, and it slid vertically, nearly severing the Bothan in two.

The feral fell away, and Chase could see the welder of the blade. It was a girl, maybe a year or two younger than him. Exhaustion and sweat shone on her face, her blonde hair, which had at one time been up in a pony tail now framed her face, almost appearing to be a halo. Her clothes were covered in stains and blood, and her chest heaved as she gulped air.

As her blue eyes lifted and met his, he felt his heart skip a beat.

He could barely believe that it was her. A thousand thoughts raced through his mind, everything from how pretty she still was, to wondering what she was doing in the Underworld.

Then her face lightened, brightened as her lips twisted into a brilliant smile.

"Chase!"

He felt his mouth open and close, but no sound would emerge and then the humming noise stopped as she shut down her saber.

Moving almost too fast for him to follow, she flung herself at him. Her thin arms snaked around his neck as she buried her face against his shoulder. Suddenly, she began trembling and crying, and he instinctively wrapped his arms around her, and began whispering nonsensical noises.

A babble of words rushed from her. He caught snippets of what she was saying: trouble on Ossus, Ben Skywalker, kiss, mother, Tahiri, family.

It was a rush of words that he didn't have time to fully process; especially while trying to comfort her.

He stroked her hair, trying to tame it somewhat, letting her cry herself out.

Finally her tears slowed down, and she pulled away from him. Her eyes were rimmed with redness, and had that puffy look to them that a girl's eyes always seemed to get when they cried. He smiled at her, and raised his hand to her face. With a flick of his fingers, he brushed away one of her tears.

"Feel better?"

She nodded slowly, and then hiccupped before saying, "I… I was worried there for a minute. There were a lot of those… those ferals."

"Why did you stop and fight then?"

She looked over her shoulders into the darkened building. "I was running from that pack, and darted into that building to hide for a moment and catch my breath, when I discovered that it had a bunch of kids hiding in it."

"So, like a good Jedi, you stopped to help them out?"

She tittered a bitter laugh, and glanced away from him again. "Something like that."

She took a step away from him, and went back into the building. He followed her; a mixture of joy and relief at seeing her again boiled through him. He frowned as he considered his emotions, wondering why everything just felt lighter now that he was with her.

He watched her. Her shoulders seemed slumped, as if there was some great weight upon them, while her movements, dancer-like before seemed more terse; tenser, abbreviated somehow.

He shrugged his shoulders, not really paying attention to what she was asking the group of kids; focused instead on the way her hair bounced against her shoulders as she shifted to look at the child talking to her.

He felt his lips curling into a smile, and wasn't certain why.

She cast a glance over her shoulder at him; her brows knit together, an angry look on her face. "These kids were here as bait."

His eyes opened slightly wider. "Bait? For the Ferals?"

Noelani nodded her head. "Yeah, and I want to get to the bottom of it."

He frowned, and looked around the area. "Who would want to use them as bait?"

A hoarse, gruff voice sounded from the hole in the wall. "That would be me."

Chase turned and saw an elderly human standing there. He wore what appeared to be the tattered remains of an Imperial uniform. Arthritis curled his hands into talon-shaped hooks, and he hunched slightly to the left. His greasy grey hair was long and straggly and despite its length from the sides, the top of his head was totally devoid of hair. Chase could make out jagged scar tissue running across the man's scalp. Folds of sagging flesh showed that at one time the man was close to being morbidly obese.

Chase frowned at him. "And who exactly are you?"

His eyes glittered and his mouth twitched. "Surely no one that you ever heard of, but for simplicity's sake you may call me Evir."

Noelani stepped forward, her eyes flashing as her fists clenched together into small tight balls. "Why were you using these kids as bait?"

He arched an eyebrow. "Why to study the Ferals of course. It's quite an ingenious disease, and one I'm hoping to cultivate one day."

Chase blinked his eyes, as he processed that statement. "Cultivate?"

Evir nodded his head, the folds of empty flesh jiggling obscenely. "Yes," he replied. Then almost as an afterthought, he added, "One can't cure a disease unless one is able to cultivate it."

Chase glanced over his shoulder at the kids clutched together. "But why not just capture the Ferals to study?"

Evir glanced over his shoulder, and Chase caught movement in the shadows out there. "Oh, I could have done that, and have done so in the past, but the point is to watch the progression of the disease from point of infection to where they become part of one of the Feral combines." He looked back at the two of them. "Now, how would you two like to assist me? I have fifteen men out here, and they assure me that the two of you killed the Ferals much more effectively than they could have done, despite that they are trained soldiers."

Chase glanced at Noelani for a moment, and saw that she was chewing on her lower lip. Finally, she looked up at Evir. "What's in it for us?"

Evir smiled at them. "Food, boarding, the chance to cure the disease. Maybe even figure out why there are more and more Feral attacks here in the lower levels these days."

She shot her thumb back towards the group of huddled children. "And them?"

His eyes flicked over her shoulder at him. "What about them?"

"No using them, or any other children, as experiment fodder, and make sure that they have food and a safe place as well, and the same applies to any other children we find?"

Evir rubbed at his chin as his eyes flicked between Chase and Noelani. "I think we can manage that. So you two will work for me; help me stop the Ferals?"

Chase glanced at Noelani who tossed a look over her shoulder at the children behind them. Finally she looked up at him, a light had appeared in her eyes, and he now realized that it had been missing earlier. Silently he nodded his head once.

She smiled at him, and then turned back to Evir. "I think you have a deal."

Evir's smile grew broader, and Chase had to suppress a shudder, as his imagination supplied him an image of Evir eating both him and Noelani; like a witch from those old fairy tales.

"Wonderful!" Evir exclaimed as he clapped his gnarled hands together lightly. "Wonderful. Now everyone follow me, and we'll go to where we've set up our combine."

He turned away and hobbled from the building. Noelani looked up at Chase. "Is this okay, really?"

He nodded and held his hand out towards her. "Yeah. It's fine with me. But… I need to apologize to you."

She frowned slightly. "What for?"

"For leaving. I… I should have stayed with you."

She smiled; a brilliant thing that caused his heart to pound harder in his chest. "You're here now."

Then she grasped his outstretched hand, and pulled him out of the building, trailing after Evir. Chase glanced behind him and saw that the group of children was following them both.

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