Jedi Adept: A Path In The Dark -- Ch. 20

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Tahiri watched as the crash foam was washed away from the insurgents in the speeder. He knew he was a dangerous one as he had single-handedly killed a number of her soldiers. She could feel the anger seething just beneath the skin, a festering boil of rage.

Even though she knew intellectually that Jacen had stacked her command with soldiers who bore a strong resemblance to Noelani in order to keep her off balance, she still saw each of those deaths as a strike against her daughter.

Even as the rage burned in her veins, she wondered if that was Jacen's purpose. To make her angry and filled with hate; and not for the first time she wondered just how Dark Jacen has become. Between the anger and the almost unconscious need she had been feeling to once more Flow Walk to see Anakin, she felt herself being wound tighter and tighter into Jacen's web.

A shudder slashed through her at the image of Jacen as a giant, bloated black spider; much like a purella.

She squeezed her eyes tight as the memory of that particular adventure. Tears burned at her eyes for a moment before she blinked them away.

Zora gestured that the last of the crash foam had been washed away and she stepped forward to look at the insurgent.

Shock raced through her as she recognized the driver of the speeder. Although it had been weeks, if not months, since she had last seen him, she knew him. He had after all, saved her daughter.

"Chase," she muttered under her breath.

"Ma'am?" Zora inquired.

She quickly shook her head. "Nothing, Zora." She glanced at the three children also rendered unconscious by the sedatives in the crash foam. "Take them all and place them in cells near the Twi'lek. Then make sure they receive some medical attention."

Zora saluted and made a gesture towards some of the other soldiers. They began pulling Chase and the children from the wrecked speeder, and just as they pulled Chase out a flash of hate and anger rolled through the Force.

Tahiri's back went ramrod straight at the sensation, her entire body tense and filled with adrenaline from her Danger Sense.

A twang sound reverberated throughout the landing pad, and Tahiri turned around and looked up at one of the windows of the compound.

For a second time, shock slammed into her. She felt her mouth dropping open as she recognized Noelani standing in the window, her fist planted against the plassteel plating--dead center of a network of cracks.

Their eyes met, and Tahiri could feel all the hate and anger just drain from her; leaving her emotionally empty and void. She felt no passions, no stirring of the heart.

The only thing she felt was regret and longing. She regretted not hugging her daughter, and she longed to do so.

But she knew that if Jacen felt either of those emotions, he would either kill her or Noelani if not both of them.

Quickly, she pushed her emotions deep down into her heart of hearts. Hiding them beneath the pain of Anakin's death.

As Noelani stepped back away from the window, Tahiri gestured Zora over. "We have a guest in the compound. We want to be on a level 2 alert."

"Level 2 ma'am? That means that we won't be able to send a status update to central."

Tahiri nodded. "I know exactly what it means Private, and believe it or not, there's a reason for it. Now, get inside and post a guard on the young man we just took to the cell."

"The newest prisoner ma'am? If you'll pardon my asking, but that doesn't make sense. We just brought him in; there should not be any type of jail break attempt this soon."

Tahiri shook her head. "Don't question the Force, Zora. You'll live longer. After you place the guard, come find me."

Zora saluted smartly; Tahiri ignored it and walked towards the compound, a heavy weight on her shoulders.

She reached to her utility belt and unclipped Anakin's lightsaber. She still hadn't built herself a new hilt to house her crystal, but before now she had been happy using Anakin's. Suddenly she felt unworthy to be holding his weapon.

She felt tainted. Dirty.

Arriving at her ready room, she went over to her desk and dropped the blade onto it. Then she went around it and dropped into her seat. It molded itself to her body, and she covered her face with both hands.

She wanted to cry, but the tears refused to fall.

Instead she reached down and opened the bottom drawer of her desk. From the very back, she extracted a bottle of Reta, the brand of Corellian Whiskey which Jaina's old boyfriend Jag had always preferred.

She grabbed the empty caf mug from her desk and splashed some of the whiskey into it. Looking into the whiskey for a moment, she swirled it about, then downed the entire contents of the cup in one quick swallow.

Fire burned down her throat and she coughed, even as she felt the Force automatically going to work at breaking down the poisons and alcohol she had just consumed.

She sighed and wondered why Luke taught his Jedi to do such things unconsciously. It made it hard for her to get drunk.

The door opened and Zora was standing there at attention. Tahiri looked up just in time to notice the frown appear and disappear from the younger girl's face.

She shook her head. "Go ahead and sit down, Private. Also, don't bother to include this in your report to Jacen."

Tahiri smiled, not surprised when the girl did not respond to it; outside of a slight hardening around her eyes.

"If I may ask Ma'am, what gave my mission away?"

Tahiri laughed as she poured a shot of the whiskery for Zora and another for herself. Pushing Zora's share towards her, she replied, "Nothing. I'm a Jedi, I just know these things."

Zora's eyes hardened again for a moment. "Do you mind telling me who the intruder is, and who that young man we arrested is?"

Tahiri watched her for a moment. "Off of Jacen's little record?"

Zora frowned for a moment, and then nodded.

"She's my former apprentice, and the young man is, well he rescued her from what would have effectively been biogenetic testing, if not worse things on Ambria. I assume Jacen filled you in on my previous missions before I left the Jedi?"

Zora nodded her head again.

"Good, then you know what I went through at the hands of BioTech Industries. That young man, Chase, rescued my d… apprentice from the same. Additionally, Chase is one of their experiments. From my understanding of the files, he's basically a living, breathing, human-equivalent of a battle droid."

Zora's eyes widened a moment. "Then, shouldn't I gather more people on guard duty?"

Tahiri shook her head. "No need. The guards are just there to be distractions. To make Noelani think we're serious about keeping Chase and those kids in. She'll come to me when she's finished."

Zora frowned, and glanced down at her datapad. "How do you know?"

Tahiri smiled, and stood up, walking around the desk. As she moved, Zora shifted and turned off the datapad on her lap.

"I thought this little conversation wasn't going to go to Jacen."

Zora smiled slightly. "I couldn't help myself. This type of information is why I am here."

Tahiri nodded her head. "I know, and really, once he reviews the security footage, there's nothing there that he wouldn't know."

Zora frowned. "Then why ask me to keep it off the record? Why reveal that you know about me?"

Tahiri smiled at her. "To see if I could trust you, despite you being Jacen's lapdog."

Zora bolted to her feet. "I'm not a lapdog!"

As the girl was rising to her feet, Tahiri's hand shot out behind her, and Anakin's blade slapped into it. She thumbed it on, and shoved it forward in a single smooth motion.

Zora doubled over where the blade entered into her stomach. She coughed, splattering blood all over Tahiri's desk.

She turned off her lightsaber as Zora collapsed to the ground, and then knelt down beside her. She picked up the datapad and used the Force to destroy the delicate electronics within.

Smiling down at Zora, she dropped the smoking datapad beside her. "Didn't you notice that I never did answer your question, as to how I know Noelani would come to me?"

Zora's eyes shifted to Tahiri, and she tried to speak, but all she did was spit up blood on the carpet.

Tahiri glanced towards the door, and then leaned down close to Zora's ear. "I know because, she's my daughter. That's the relationship that Jacen was trying to figure out between Noelani and myself. That's why you were down here. To protect her, that's why you had to die."

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Chase rolled over, as pain echoed through his head. His mouth felt like he had been shoving cotton balls into it. Smacking his lips, he tried to sit up, and was rewarded for his efforts with a headache and a wave of dizziness.

"Jena? Huff? Prilla?"

None of the children responded and he tried to stand. Another wave of dizziness washed over him, and he quickly gripped the edge of the sink to keep from collapsing back to the ground.

Sighing, as the last thing he remembered was the ground hurtling towards him, he assumed that they had all been captured. He stumbled towards the door, and began to beat his fist against it.

After a few moments of this, it snapped open, startling Chase and causing him to drop onto his butt. A girl, at most just a few years older than he was, stood in the doorway, irritation marred her features, but that's not what shocked him. What shocked him was how closely the girl resembled Noelani.

"What do you want?" the girl snarled at him.

"I just want to know if my kids are all right, and where they're at."

"Prisoner's don't get to know things like that."

He frowned and shook his head, reactivating his headache. "Please, let me know about them, and I'll not give you any trouble. I promise."

"You killed my friends."

He looked up at her, and realized that she would have been part of the same Guard Company that had attacked him. "In my defense they did attack me first."

"Not a reason."

Chase shrugged his shoulders. "I was protecting those kids. That's all the reason I need."

The girl continued to frown at him for a moment, and then she glanced behind her. "I didn't tell you, but the girls have a couple of bumps and bruises, while that Bothan pup is mute."

Before he could tell her thank you, she kicked him in the chest, sending him sprawling into the back of his cell. "Stay there and stop asking questions."

Then she was gone and the door slammed shut behind her.

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