The Jedi Tower, Taris, Friday evening [FT]
The Jedi Tower was huge, but Zayne probably shouldn't have been surprised that the first Mandalorian he found was in the Temple on the top floor. Where better to impose one's will over the planet than from the most sacred place in the Tower? The red Neo-Crusader commander caught sight of Zayne as he was packing up. "What, did you get left behind?" he asked.
"I'm... new," Zayne answered.
"You and everybody else. I suppose you lost your helmet while you were at it. Rookies." Zayne couldn't see the Mandalorian's eyes, but he had to have been rolling them.
"Are you... are you Cassus Fett?" Zayne asked.
"Color-blind too, huh?" the Neo-Crusader answered as he kept working. "Cassus has gold armor. He pulled out an hour ago."
"I thought this was his headquarters," Zayne said.
"We're nomads. We don't have headquarters. If you don't move around, someone will find you," the Neo-Crusader said. "The locals sure don't know that. Cassus studied their strong points in the Lower City and figured out where they're holed up. That's where he's gone."
"After the resistance?" Zayne asked, doing a poor job of hiding mild panic.
"What are you doing here again?" the Mandalorian asked, finally catching on that something was wrong.
"Sorry, this is a mistake," Zayne said, heading back toward the corridor. "I've got to go."
"Wait a minute," the Mandalorian said, stepping into Zayne's path. "What are you doing?"
Before Zayne could answer, a green lightsaber blade sliced cleanly through the Mandalorian's gut, cutting him in half. "Mandalorians," Raana said as the dead body dropped, leaving Zayne in her line of sight. "Mandalorians and Sith."
"Raana..." Zayne said, backing up quickly into the center of the room. "Cassus Fett has gone to attack the resistance! We have to get down to Shel and have her warn Gadon's people on the comlink before it's too late!"
"It's already too late," Raana said, stalking toward Zayne. "The Sith are here now. I can feel their presence below, and above. It's come to pass. I can't stop it... but perhaps I can atone by putting an end to the one who started it."
"You're... you're insane," Zayne said, backing up until he hit one of the Masters' chairs. Raana charged, leaping into the air for a strong downward attack. Zayne grabbed his lightsaber with two hands to block the blow as the yellow blade sprung to life. Raana kept up her assault, driving Zayne back into a wall with more strikes.
Seeing Raana's fury, Zayne knew he was about to die if he didn't do something drastic, so he reached for the gauntlet controls on his armor and rocketed upwards with his jetpack.
"No!" Raana yelled, using the Force to enable a great leap toward Zayne's position near the skylight. Zayne tried to block the attack, but his grip wasn't nearly as steady while flying, so she merely knocked his lightsaber away.
Zayne quickly unholstered his blaster pistol as she landed, firing three quick shots at her. Raana's reflexes were two great, though, and she deflected all three upwards. None hit Zayne, but some glass fell from the skylight above him.
"Raana!" Zayne pleaded. "Whatever's wrong, you're still a Jedi! You can remember your teachings!"
"I do! I remember that's exactly what you say in my nightmare!" Raana cried. "Every night! And I'm tired of it! TIRED OF IT!" She thrust her hands out toward him and then pulled down on the skylight with the Force, bringing thousands of shards raining down upon them both as Zayne descended. Raana ignored any glass slicing into her as she moved to destroy Zayne's jetpack with her lightsaber, with the resulting explosion throwing Zayne across the Temple floor.
Raana paused only long enough to call Zayne's lightsaber to her and switched it back on as she approached his prone body. "You see, Zayne, it's not just about the Rogue Moon Prophecy. I learned about it before you were born. I wasn't supposed to hear it. I had just shared in one of Q'Anilia's visions and I wanted to tell our teacher. I wasn't supposed to hear. The Prophecy of the Five. 'In the time of tribulation to come, there will be five. One for the Darkness and one for the Light. Another from the Darkness stands in the Light while one from the Light stands in the Darkness. The last one stands apart from all. And between them, all that has been built will fall.' Five who would see the Republic AND the Order collapse between them."
"Like five Jedi Masters!" Zayne pointed out as he started to sit up, his back still on fire. "Traitorous, evil Jedi Masters!"
"Little fool! Do you think we didn't probe to see our own place in this? No, you will set loose the destruction! My only hope is that I'm not too late. That you haven't done it already!" Raana closed in the final few feet, a sadistic smile crossing over her face along with the blood from where glass sprayed her. She didn't notice any of it. "It's funny. When I was little, Lucien always said I took more than my share at dinner. Now I've killed more than my share of Padawans. I think he'll forgive me."
Raana took one last step toward Zayne, bringing both lightsabers up as he turned away, unable to watch his final moment unfold.... But that moment persisted. He opened his eyes once he realized that he hadn't died and saw a beautiful blue light coming from a blade through Raana's stomach.
Even Raana seemed confused as she fell forward, letting go of both lightsabers, and revealing Shel standing behind her, holding Shad's lightsaber. Shel let go of the lightsaber and staggered toward Zayne.
"Shel! Shel, you did it," Zayne said, getting to his knees as she dropped to hers so she could embrace him.
"Zayne," she said, taking a good look at his bruised and bloodied face. "You didn't do it."
Zayne helped her up and grabbed both his and Shad's lightsabers as he spotted Gadon Thek's personalized swoopbike hovering above the Tower. A careful look showed Gadon and, surprisingly, Gryph aboard it. A rope dropped down and Zayne put a hand on her back to get her to go first. "Hurry, Shel! That's our ride!"
Shel wrapped the cable around her wrist as the swoop started to lift up. "This... this isn't finished!" Raana said, back on her feet and moving slowly, but fueled by her hatred for Zayne.
For his part, Zayne grabbed the cable and yelled up, "Go, Gadon! Go!"
Raana used the Force to leap after the rising fugitive, even making it to the remains of the skylight. But she was just out of reach of Zayne. More importantly, she had caught her hand on the jagged glass and couldn't get him now if she tried.
The swoop stopped climbing for some reason, with Zayne just a few feet above Raana, who wasn't moving after she landed. "Zayne, keep climbing!" Shel said as she continued upward. "What are you waiting for?"
It was a moment of truth for Zayne. And in that moment, he chose to be what he had always wanted. He leaned back and held out a hand. "Raana. The Mandalorians are coming! Hurry! The resistance has a healer, they can still save you!"
"No! You think I'll confess about the Padawans! I won't!" she said. "Not for you!"
"I... I don't care," Zayne said, arm still outstretched. "No one else is going to die in this building. Give me your hand!"
"You..." Raana started, looking up at Zayne with sincere surprise. "You would save me?"
"Raana, come on!" Zayne said as whatever problems Gadon was having were solved, and the swoop started to lift up again. "There's no time!"
In that moment, Raana decided to let go of what she had become and to accept Zayne's help. There was a problem, though. "It's stuck! My hand's stuck!" Knowing that she needed to act quickly if she were going to take Zayne's offer, she ignited her lightsaber and prepared to cut herself free.
From above, Zayne could hear the distant sound of Gryph yelling, "Zayne, look out!" He looked up in horror to see Gryph hitting the detonator to the bomb set up in the foundation of the Jedi Tower, then turned back to Raana Tey.
Accepting her fate and how her choices had brought her to this point, Raana called out, "Tell Krynda! Tell Krynda I'm sorry!" And in seconds, the Tower collapsed. And with it, the first of the Jedi Masters of Taris died.
Zayne pulled himself up and climbed the cable up to Shel.
"I'm sorry, Zayne!" Shel called out as they soared through the Tarisian evening, dangling from the cable. "I'm so sorry you lost your chance!"
"Maybe," Zayne said. "But I got something else. I got a name. Krynda."
[OOC: From Knights of Suffering Part 3 by John Jackson Miller and Dustin Weaver. Here endeth the Days/Knights saga. Thanks for sticking with me through this and I apologize for any flist spamming over the past few weeks! Don't worry, there's about a month before the next big story, so I'll be going easy on everyone for a little bit.]
"I'm... new," Zayne answered.
"You and everybody else. I suppose you lost your helmet while you were at it. Rookies." Zayne couldn't see the Mandalorian's eyes, but he had to have been rolling them.
"Are you... are you Cassus Fett?" Zayne asked.
"Color-blind too, huh?" the Neo-Crusader answered as he kept working. "Cassus has gold armor. He pulled out an hour ago."
"I thought this was his headquarters," Zayne said.
"We're nomads. We don't have headquarters. If you don't move around, someone will find you," the Neo-Crusader said. "The locals sure don't know that. Cassus studied their strong points in the Lower City and figured out where they're holed up. That's where he's gone."
"After the resistance?" Zayne asked, doing a poor job of hiding mild panic.
"What are you doing here again?" the Mandalorian asked, finally catching on that something was wrong.
"Sorry, this is a mistake," Zayne said, heading back toward the corridor. "I've got to go."
"Wait a minute," the Mandalorian said, stepping into Zayne's path. "What are you doing?"
Before Zayne could answer, a green lightsaber blade sliced cleanly through the Mandalorian's gut, cutting him in half. "Mandalorians," Raana said as the dead body dropped, leaving Zayne in her line of sight. "Mandalorians and Sith."
"Raana..." Zayne said, backing up quickly into the center of the room. "Cassus Fett has gone to attack the resistance! We have to get down to Shel and have her warn Gadon's people on the comlink before it's too late!"
"It's already too late," Raana said, stalking toward Zayne. "The Sith are here now. I can feel their presence below, and above. It's come to pass. I can't stop it... but perhaps I can atone by putting an end to the one who started it."
"You're... you're insane," Zayne said, backing up until he hit one of the Masters' chairs. Raana charged, leaping into the air for a strong downward attack. Zayne grabbed his lightsaber with two hands to block the blow as the yellow blade sprung to life. Raana kept up her assault, driving Zayne back into a wall with more strikes.
Seeing Raana's fury, Zayne knew he was about to die if he didn't do something drastic, so he reached for the gauntlet controls on his armor and rocketed upwards with his jetpack.
"No!" Raana yelled, using the Force to enable a great leap toward Zayne's position near the skylight. Zayne tried to block the attack, but his grip wasn't nearly as steady while flying, so she merely knocked his lightsaber away.
Zayne quickly unholstered his blaster pistol as she landed, firing three quick shots at her. Raana's reflexes were two great, though, and she deflected all three upwards. None hit Zayne, but some glass fell from the skylight above him.
"Raana!" Zayne pleaded. "Whatever's wrong, you're still a Jedi! You can remember your teachings!"
"I do! I remember that's exactly what you say in my nightmare!" Raana cried. "Every night! And I'm tired of it! TIRED OF IT!" She thrust her hands out toward him and then pulled down on the skylight with the Force, bringing thousands of shards raining down upon them both as Zayne descended. Raana ignored any glass slicing into her as she moved to destroy Zayne's jetpack with her lightsaber, with the resulting explosion throwing Zayne across the Temple floor.
Raana paused only long enough to call Zayne's lightsaber to her and switched it back on as she approached his prone body. "You see, Zayne, it's not just about the Rogue Moon Prophecy. I learned about it before you were born. I wasn't supposed to hear it. I had just shared in one of Q'Anilia's visions and I wanted to tell our teacher. I wasn't supposed to hear. The Prophecy of the Five. 'In the time of tribulation to come, there will be five. One for the Darkness and one for the Light. Another from the Darkness stands in the Light while one from the Light stands in the Darkness. The last one stands apart from all. And between them, all that has been built will fall.' Five who would see the Republic AND the Order collapse between them."
"Like five Jedi Masters!" Zayne pointed out as he started to sit up, his back still on fire. "Traitorous, evil Jedi Masters!"
"Little fool! Do you think we didn't probe to see our own place in this? No, you will set loose the destruction! My only hope is that I'm not too late. That you haven't done it already!" Raana closed in the final few feet, a sadistic smile crossing over her face along with the blood from where glass sprayed her. She didn't notice any of it. "It's funny. When I was little, Lucien always said I took more than my share at dinner. Now I've killed more than my share of Padawans. I think he'll forgive me."
Raana took one last step toward Zayne, bringing both lightsabers up as he turned away, unable to watch his final moment unfold.... But that moment persisted. He opened his eyes once he realized that he hadn't died and saw a beautiful blue light coming from a blade through Raana's stomach.
Even Raana seemed confused as she fell forward, letting go of both lightsabers, and revealing Shel standing behind her, holding Shad's lightsaber. Shel let go of the lightsaber and staggered toward Zayne.
"Shel! Shel, you did it," Zayne said, getting to his knees as she dropped to hers so she could embrace him.
"Zayne," she said, taking a good look at his bruised and bloodied face. "You didn't do it."
Zayne helped her up and grabbed both his and Shad's lightsabers as he spotted Gadon Thek's personalized swoopbike hovering above the Tower. A careful look showed Gadon and, surprisingly, Gryph aboard it. A rope dropped down and Zayne put a hand on her back to get her to go first. "Hurry, Shel! That's our ride!"
Shel wrapped the cable around her wrist as the swoop started to lift up. "This... this isn't finished!" Raana said, back on her feet and moving slowly, but fueled by her hatred for Zayne.
For his part, Zayne grabbed the cable and yelled up, "Go, Gadon! Go!"
Raana used the Force to leap after the rising fugitive, even making it to the remains of the skylight. But she was just out of reach of Zayne. More importantly, she had caught her hand on the jagged glass and couldn't get him now if she tried.
The swoop stopped climbing for some reason, with Zayne just a few feet above Raana, who wasn't moving after she landed. "Zayne, keep climbing!" Shel said as she continued upward. "What are you waiting for?"
It was a moment of truth for Zayne. And in that moment, he chose to be what he had always wanted. He leaned back and held out a hand. "Raana. The Mandalorians are coming! Hurry! The resistance has a healer, they can still save you!"
"No! You think I'll confess about the Padawans! I won't!" she said. "Not for you!"
"I... I don't care," Zayne said, arm still outstretched. "No one else is going to die in this building. Give me your hand!"
"You..." Raana started, looking up at Zayne with sincere surprise. "You would save me?"
"Raana, come on!" Zayne said as whatever problems Gadon was having were solved, and the swoop started to lift up again. "There's no time!"
In that moment, Raana decided to let go of what she had become and to accept Zayne's help. There was a problem, though. "It's stuck! My hand's stuck!" Knowing that she needed to act quickly if she were going to take Zayne's offer, she ignited her lightsaber and prepared to cut herself free.
From above, Zayne could hear the distant sound of Gryph yelling, "Zayne, look out!" He looked up in horror to see Gryph hitting the detonator to the bomb set up in the foundation of the Jedi Tower, then turned back to Raana Tey.
Accepting her fate and how her choices had brought her to this point, Raana called out, "Tell Krynda! Tell Krynda I'm sorry!" And in seconds, the Tower collapsed. And with it, the first of the Jedi Masters of Taris died.
Zayne pulled himself up and climbed the cable up to Shel.
"I'm sorry, Zayne!" Shel called out as they soared through the Tarisian evening, dangling from the cable. "I'm so sorry you lost your chance!"
"Maybe," Zayne said. "But I got something else. I got a name. Krynda."
[OOC: From Knights of Suffering Part 3 by John Jackson Miller and Dustin Weaver. Here endeth the Days/Knights saga. Thanks for sticking with me through this and I apologize for any flist spamming over the past few weeks! Don't worry, there's about a month before the next big story, so I'll be going easy on everyone for a little bit.]