Chapter Text
The twin suns of Tattooine shine brightly during midday. Smooth seas of sand reflect the sun upwards, towards a Jedi’s eyes. Ahura narrows their eyes, trying to see past the bright light to find what they actually came here for.
“Are you sure that we got the coordinates right?” Kira, a Jedi padawan Ahura had been tasked with guiding, asks.
“I’m sure,” Ahura says, feeling unsure. All this talk of the super weapon – another super weapon – had them nervous. They’d just disarmed the Shock Drum, but finding what Czerka was after was still important. Even if the weapon was no longer operational – something they had no evidence of – it must stay out of the hands of Czerka. Nobody needed a super weapon. All they did was cause fear, death, and destruction. On a scale Ahura themself could scarcely imagine.
Another Jedi knight – Kalina – approaches Ahura with her traveling companion, Qyzen. “ I believe I’ve found something,” Kalina says.
Ahura nods, and lets Kalina lead the way to their destination. Ahura feels uneasy as the group approaches a complex. No wonder they hadn’t seen it earlier – its lowered into the sand, with a ramp going downward to a large entrance. Unless they’d been at the right angle – which they hadn’t – all they’d have seen was sand.
The quartet descends down the ramp, and Ahura cautiously tries to reach out with the Force, feeling for anything that could hold clues of the weapons whereabouts. It doesn't help. They can get a ‘view’ of the place, they can tell that there are people inside, but everyone in there feels equally trapped. There is no center to the chaos, no breaks in it. It’s just… all awful.
Ahura stands back as Kalina forces the large door to the place Czerka had sealed open with the Force.
“ Well, I’m not getting a bad feeling about this at all,” Kira says, sarcastically, but also unhelpfully.
“ What is it you feel?” Qyzen asks. At least, Ahura thinks that’s what Qyzen had asked. They have become aware, through the course of the mission, that they desperately needed to work on understanding the Tradoshan language.
“ The people there,” Kalina says. “They’re trapped. Ensnared by… something. But in their minds.”
“ So, let’s rescue them,” Kira says.
“I don’t know how,” Kalina says. “But I concur that we must try.”
As they enter the dark of the complex and step out of the sun, Ahura lets their eyes adjust. They could detect things with the Force, but they would admit to relying on sight at times. And, in a situation where danger could be anywhere, they’d prefer to have access to all their senses – not just the Force.
As their eyes adjust, Ahura sees cracks seeping through the walls, sand trickling through the cracks. They are not in a solid building.
The S hock D rum must have really done a number on the surrounding area.
“ Let’s proceed very c a refully,” Kalina says. Ahura wonders if she regrets having pulled the door out, but if so, she does not clarify.
“Yeah,” Kira says. “Don’t want the place to collapse on us.”
The four continue further in. Ahura thinks they can detect some of the trapped people nearby. Kalina’s hand is on her saber. Ahura follows suit. If she thinks they’ll be attacked – well, it’d be best to be on guard, at any rate.
“ Something is wrong,” Qyzen says. “Herald?”
“ I know,” Kalina says. “But we have to keep going.”
A group is approaching them – whether it can somehow sense them, or they are merely patrolling, A hura knows not.
Everyone keeps moving. Ahura does not know the place well enough to suggest hiding from the potential patrol, if they want to avoid combat. And it might be best to avoid combat, given the structural integrity of the building.
The trapped people turn the corner, and Ahura can see them clearly now. Four people dressed as Czerka employees, and two security droids that Ahura hadn’t noticed stand across from them. Ahura thinks something seems off about the employees’ eyes and mouths, but at nearly fifteen meters away, its hard to tell.
One of the employees says something in an alien language Ahura does not understand – nor even recognize.
Kira spares a moment to glance at Ahura. “You get any of that?” s he asks.
Ahura shakes their head.
Kalina holsters her saber, oddly enough, and spreads her hands out in a non-aggressive gesture. “We aren’t here to hurt you,” she says in Basic. “ We’re just looking for something.”
The Czerka employee responds again, in the same language as before.
Kalina reaches out with the Force, for what Ahura cannot tell. Again, she says, “We mean you no harm.”
Except whatever she did with the Force, the Czerka employees must not have liked, because they immediately all draw their weapons.
“ Nice,” Kira says, activating her double bladed lightsaber.
Ahura activates their saber too, as Kalina leaps from where she’d been, avoiding a hail of blaster bolts targeted right at her.
Ahura and Kira go on the defensive at first, covering Qyzen and Kalina, while she activates her own saber.
Deflecting the bolts, Kira and Ahura advance, and are soon joined by Kalina. As soon as Kalina joins the defensive, Ahura takes the opportunity to go on the offensive. Kira quickly follows suit, leaping forward and cutting a Czerka employee’s blaster in half in one fell swoop. Ahura blocks a bolt fired towards them, directing it back at their assailant.
The melee. They hate to admit it, but they’re in their element. Blaster bolt to saber, saber to flesh. Danger at every corner. They weave in and out of the fray, disarming opponents, blocking blaster bolts, all while keeping awareness of Kira and their allies.
It matters not, Ahura thinks. Kira has improved greatly since the two met. She moves in sync with Ahura, the two working in tandem.
The fight will be over in a matter of seconds, Ahura thinks. Until a greater feeling of danger – a feeling of doom – enters their mind. One of the droids has reached for a frag grenade.
Ahura leaps towards the droid, slicing it clean in half.
The grenade is still armed.
They attempt to fling it further away from the group.
It doesn’t matter. It goes off. And the cave in starts. And everything goes to hell.
***
Ahura stands up cautiously as the dust settles around them. The cave-in had happened so fast, they’d barely had time to dive out of the way, much less make sure the others were okay. And when the Jedi and Qyzen had split up, none of them had made sure to stick together. At least, Ahura thinks they’re just split up. They don’t allow themself to entertain the thought that the others had been killed.
At least, they try not to entertain the thought. They can still feel themself reaching out through the force, checking for Kira’s presence. Thank the Force. She’s alive and unhurt. In fact, they can detect all three of the others. No, scratch that. All six.
Six? Everyone else in the old Czerka base was either trapped or a droid. There should only be four of them, counting Ahura. One of the new ones is definitely a Sith. Ahura thinks so. The dark side of the Force does echo around one. Not as strongly as Ahura found usual for Sith, but it’s still there. Besides, they’d just fought Praven and saved the planet from the another doomsday weapon on it. And Praven didn’t sense as dark as a typical Sith either. Ahura is well aware that they should not leap to the conclusion they are safe, ‘typical’ Sith senses be damned.
Ahura feels Kira’s presence reach out to them, and they try to convey that they are fine to her. But they’re not sure it’d worked. They’ve never been strongest at communicating through the force. Ahura tries to feel where the others are headed, in hopes that will help them meet up, but, if they were to be honest, tracking someone’s exact location through the F orce was also not something they were amazing at.
… At times like these, Ahura wishes they’d given more attention in training to the Force, and less to the lightsaber.
They start walking off in a direction they hope is correct, or at least where Kira might go. It’s a total guess, however. They have been traveling with Kira for months now, but they still don’t always know what she’ll do when their plans intersect with reality.
Ahura walks through the old Czerka base. Parts of it were clearly unfurnished underground, and Ahura can’t even find themselves to be surprised by the cave in. The Shock Drum had been activated in the Dune Sea, where they group was.
Ahura stops, feeling a catch in their knee. They look down. So they had been banged up in the escape. They debate sitting on a rock to bandage it with their few first aid supplies, but quickly dismiss the idea. The force would carry them on, as always. And they really ought to find the others.
Ahura keeps going, and is not surprised to see another rock slide. They wonder how much of the area had been covered during the cave-in. It wouldn’t be too surprising if there wasn’t much of a doomsday weapon left to stop Czerka from finding. Still. Best to make sure. As they approach, they see someone to the side, appearing to be straightening a prosthetic arm they were… Ahura stops. And they’re a Sith, too. Well, a red one. The lightsaber by their side indicates they may be a Sith professionally as well, but Ahura doesn’t necessarily want to leap to that conclusion. Still, to their knowledge, while Sith did join the Jedi occasionally, they’d only known of themsel f and soon to be Praven as the red Sith in the order.
“Hello?” Ahura calls out cautiously, hand on their lightsaber, but leaving it deactivated. They take a few steps closer.
The Sith spins, apparently having been unaware of Ahura’s presence. Then Ahura sees their face.
That face. Even after seven years, Ahura can tell. It’s Zalk. It’s their brother.
Ahura’s breath catches. “Zalk?” they ask.
“Ahura,” Zalk says. But his voice is unfamiliar to Ahura. Its so full of hate.
By the time Ahura has registered that someone was trying to choke them with the force (and failing), they notice Zalk release his hand from a fist, and summon force lightning. His ligh t saber is already activated.
Odd. Ahura hadn’t even heard the familiar hum of one activating.
Ahura ducks and rolls forward as Zalk’s saber swings where their head used to be. Ahura isn’t even sure what happened to the force lighting, but they don’t question it at the moment. They just watch themse lf draw their saber s.
Zalk turns, lightsaber still drawn, but not on the offense anymore. He just laughs.
Ahura blinks, puzzled. Their saber s feels heavy in their hand s , and they can’t bring themself to make a counter attack. They hold the saber up, in a slightly more defensive position. Contrary to usual, it feels like they are moving through pudding.
Zalk laughs again, bitterly. “A true Sith!” Zalk says, “Now a Jedi? Is this how far our bloodline has fallen?”
Ahura does not respond. If they were honest with themsel f , they would admit they did not know how. Zalk is the ir little brother. How did he end up hating Ahura so much. Jedi-status be damned.
Ahura notices themself bring their sabers up to block the blow Zalk had started at some point. A few more strikes rain on Ahura’s guard, which shakes under the force of the attacks. Zalk is drawing purely on rage to fight Ahura. On hate. On anger. On all the Sith passions that the Sith idealize so much.
Ahura falls back, hitting the floor, hard. A small cloud of dust floats upwards.
Whats wrong with me? Ahura wonders.
Zalk swings down, attack ing still as if Ahura were upright and blocking, and does not press his advantage yet. The blow simply hits where Ahura was, saber embedding itself in the sand, heating it to glass, between Ahura’s legs.
If I do not do something soon, I am going to die. But the thought does not even alarm Ahura. It just exists. Ahura mechanically rolls backwards, landing on their feet again. The ground feels uneven beneath their feet. Their thoughts come slowly, like a thick lava.
Zalk swings his saber forward at Ahura’s midsection, and Ahura is surprised to find one of their own sabers in the way.
“You should thank me before I kill you where you stand!” Zalk says, face twisted with hate. “It is only out of respect for our past that I don’t bring you in to suffer as a traitor would!”
Ahura backs up, blocking Zalk’s blows. They stumble again, under the relentless assault. They fall to their knees, hitting the wounded one hard. Ahura is distinctly aware that they must be in pain, but it doesn’t register. This is my little brother. This is Zalk. He wants to kill me.
Ahura doesn’t even bother raising their sabers again. It’s clearly not going to help much.
Zalk raises his lightsaber high above his head, and it starts coming down.
Something hits Ahura’s head. Weird. For a second they could swear they were airborne.
Then everything goes black.