The Hunter and the Hunted (Adia)

[Spada Elhow]

The technological planet of Dorin was not completely tamed. Inside the city, buildings seemed to be built on top of one another, hanging over walkways and seeming to touch one another. The buildings were the pinnacle of technology, and were designed to put as many things as possible into a very small space. The constant hum of speeders and spacecraft zipping closely by the buildings and going about their business droned on endlessly, seeming as if it was meant to be. Between the crevices of the city, Kel-Dor and other humanoids alike walked about the pathways, like ants moving around their hill, each one having their own purpose. The city was a Coruscant of Dorin, and was perhaps a sign of things to come for the ever expanding planet.

Farther out of the city, buildings became less concentrated, and shrank in size, thinning out as the city disappeared in the distance. As the buildings passed by, they gave way to a wide, dusty field, the result of the modern world’s destruction. However, as the last of the buildings disappeared from the horizon, the first signs of nature appeared; shrubs, weed-like plants, gnarled trees, and the occasional noise from a nearby animal of whom no one would normally care about. The strange, gnawed trees grew in size as the brush grew denser and the noises of Dorins forest replaced the hum of the speeders. Buildings became replaced by trees, and the hard, cold durasteel was replaced by the rough, soggy bark of a tree. Nature seemed to continue uninterrupted from man, but this was not the case.

Near the border of the forest, just before the brush became too thick to walk through, a arched over and its top touched the ground, and between it was a small, half-spherical hut. The entrance to the hut was barely wider than two feet, just enough for a man or small animal to fit through. Inside was a cramped, low roofed room with only a bed and pit filled with various things, all under a single, very gently humming light. Apparently, the occupant was unfamiliar with most modern luxuries, and lived a life of utter solitude. But that was just how Spada liked it.

As midday approached on Dorin, Spada was sprinting through the forest, free from his mask which was normally worn on planets where he could not breathe the air. Spada’s face was now visible, as well as his penetrating, solid silver-colored eyes. As Spada approached a fallen tree, he jumped up, vaulting his way over the tree and flipping, landing on his feet and stumbling back into a run. Spada sprinted another short distance, and his hut came into view just as he passed a thick hedgerow.

Slowing to a walk, Spada climbed into the small entrance to the hut and looked around, walking to the pit and taking a metal canteen from it. He spun the cap off and took a deep swig, swallowing it slowly and reclosing the canteen. Walking outside, Spada checked the perimeter one last time and returned to the hut. Spada walked over to the bed and laid down, almost immediately falling asleep. He would need his rest for the evening, where the sun’s absence cooled the forest and the animals came out. This was when he went out to hunt his prey. Little did he know that as fate would have it, he would not be the hunter.

[Adia Issoris]

Adia made sure her rebreather was attached snugly to her face. The compact but weighty device fit over her mouth and nose, allowing her to talk with a degree of coherency. While Dorin’s atmosphere was not toxic to human skin, it was not breathable for oxygen species. Her green eyes and red hair made her a standout, even from the limited number of other aliens. There were not frequent visits to Dorin: twin black holes made travel dangerous, but the thick atmosphere reflected the vast majority of cosmic radiation back into space. Life thrived unexpectedly between these black holes, on a planet with only traces of oxygen.

The Empire’s foothold on Dorin was nonexistent. She did not have the luxury of explosives: the Kel Dor were not paranoid, but reasonably suspicious. Imperial agents had unsuccessfully tried attacks on the Dorin infrastructure. Adia only carried a disassembled electrostaff. The individual components did not attract attention, she recalled from her rental speeder. Unlike Cilpar, which was an Imperial world, where Adia could operate with relative impunity, Dorin was tricky.

Further, Dorin had fond memories of Jedi, and while they had no Knights or Masters anymore, the Emperor’s Hand wanted to make sure they didn’t have any Padawans, either. The last thing the Empire needed was a new generation of Jedi to combat and rally the Rebellion: Skywalker had been enough trouble. Skywalker. She wanted to spit, but it would be unwise. No matter. The last Jedi Knight perished with the Emperor and the Lord Vader on the Second Bungle, as it was known among Intelligence and the Navy. News had not really reached Dorin yet, and when it did, Adia would have made sure there was no Jedi to rally behind.

Evening had just fallen, and Adia’s secondary set of rods were active, giving her a somewhat colorless but sharp and nicely contrasted view of the forest. Soon the Kel Dor would start his hunt, and so would she.

[Spada Elhow]

Spada awoke abruptly and frantically-again...It was hard for Spada to get a good sleep, for more than enough reasons. Spada was in almost constant fear of discovery from the natives, which might attract the Empire's attention. He also was wary not to keep his eyes off the entry, where on some occasions he was attacked by animals. But deeper than the immediate threat was Spada’s emotional trauma. Spada looked to the entryway as he recalled his recurring dream, the last time he saw his master in the sparring room. In his dream, he would always spar his master and his master would say, 'someday, you will be a powerful jedi...'. Then, his dream would flash to something Spada had sensed as he made his way home from his last mission, which was of his Master suffering and dying. As he looked at the entryway, Spada’s mind recalled all of the fond memories of his master, and how he would never see him again.

He would never see his mentor again….

Spada spaced out, and when he once again took a hold of his surroundings, he realized that the sun was down. Looking around, Spada grabbed his cloak and checked his belt, feeling a cylindrical metal object and nodding in approval. Crawling out of the entrance, Spada threw on his cloak and put the hood over his head. Looking around and doing his perimeter check, he saw that everything was clear and silently jogged off into the jungle.

[Adia Issoris]

Adia stalked the Kel Dor Jedi as evening fell. She moved nearly silently through the brush, and had for the past hour.

Underfoot, an unseen twig snapped. The Padawn turned. The moonlight reflected off Adia’s eyes, glowing like a night predators.

So much for surprise. Her heavy electrostaff crackled, the tips glowing a faint blue. She inched forward slowly, expertly.

“Jedi.” Adia’s voice hissed from the mask. Even through it’s distortion, her disgust was evident.

[Spada Elhow]

Spada was no more than 6 miles into the jungle when he noticed something was not right. Usually, he was almost unheard as he ran through the underbrush but this time, he seemed to be making more noise. On a normal night, the noises of the avian animals and insects would drown out any louder noises he would make, which would help him to hunt. As Spada squinted out into the wooded endlessness, his Kel-Dor eyes adjusted to the darkness quickly and he noticed that there were no animals around-not even the smaller ones that he left alone. Spada thought to himself quickly,

What is going on here… the only time the animals act like this is right before I…

Spada did not have to finish his thought. Just behind him, The simple snap of a twig caught his paranoid attention. A few yards off, Spada could plainly see the glowing, soulless eyes of a predator in the night. Spada reached for his lightsaber, and as he pulled it out he could hear the animal hiss,

”Jedi…”

Spada grimaced at the word, distorting his face. This predator was no animal, it was humanoid. And it knew who he was.

The human’s body in the moonlight was a give-away that the person was a woman, and Spada realized that his worst fear had come true; he had been discovered.

As Spada ignited his lightsaber, the person’s features lit up with a green hue and could be more plainly seen. Before Spada could get a good look, however, she revealed a vibrostaff and Spada dropped into a very rusty lightsaber stance.

“What do you want with me?!?!” shouted Spada, glaring into the woman’s glowing eyes with his silver eyes “I do not want to fight you, but I will kill you if I must!”

[Adia Issoris]

She smirked beneath her mask. His words and threat amused the Emperor’s Hand. Kel Dor were agile, but not especially hardy. She could grind him if need-be, but judging from his sloppy footwork, it would not take so long to best him. It all depended on his muscle memory.

Adia said nothing, and closed the gap between them quickly. She tested him, jabbing her fifteen kilo staff at his midsection with blinding speed. Spada managed to evade the electrified vibroblade at the end, but barely. He counter-attacked, and Adia knocked his saber high, and planted a vicious kick into his mid-section. If he was lucky, the Kel Dor only had a few crack ribs.

“Where is your vaunted skill, Jedi?” She stood at the ready, waiting for him to rise to his feet. There was no need to corner him.

[Spada Elhow]

Spada was caught off guard by the woman's speed, even with the fairly heavy electrostaff. As he fought to keep the dangerous weapon from him, he struggled desperately to bring out the extensive training he had recieved during his time in the Jedi Temple, but his efforts were futile. It had been just too long ago for him, and was a period of his life which he attempted to bury deep beneath his emotions and could not unleash at a moment’s notice. Spada concentrated hard on keeping the 33 pound electrostaff away from him while looking for an opening. When he decided that he’d backed up enough, Spada tried vainly to counter the attacks with a move of his own, which the woman skillfully blocked by knocking his saber upwards and kicking him while he was defenseless. All at once, Spada’s breath left him and he felt a burning in his chest. One of his ribs was cracked, and might even be broken. Spada winced from the impact, which threw him back a bit and caused his left shoulder to crack into a tree as he fell. Spada stood as quickly as his wounded rib would allow him, and scowled at the woman as she commented,

’Where is your vaunted skill, Jedi?’

Spada replied, masking the pain in his ribs and the anger welling up in him,

“I guess this is what almost 23 years out of the loop does to you…”

As he finished this, Spada reached out in two directions, concentrating with all of his mind as a rock and large branch began to vibrate and lift. Reaching out beyond the pain, which made the concentration difficult, he focused on the two objects and looked up at the woman, who was probably beginning to realize what happened. Then throwing his arms forward, he launched the two projectiles at the woman, trying to time it so they both reached her at the same time.

Although Spada’s experience with swordfighting had lost most of its touch, Spada used his time in exile to practice his telekinesis skills which he sometimes used to scare animals into traps while he hunted. Spada smiled as the two objects headed towards the woman, but in the back of his mind hoped that they would do some damage to her.

[Adia Issoris]

Spada seemed to have forgotten that lifting such large objects made a terrible amount of noise. Adia leapt to the side after a brief glance over her shoulder, letting the branch and rock collide. She planted the butt of the staff into the forest floor, and levered off into a kick that should have broken the Jedi’s neck. Instead, he arched up, and hit the ground like a shot mynock.

“Your teachings are failing you.” She said coldly. Adia flicked the staff’s electrified tip against Spada’s saber hand.

[Spada Elhow]

Spada looked out as the woman skirted to the side, and his two projectiles uselessly collided. As he was trying to focus his mind on the battle once again, the woman planted a kick while he was off guard, which sent him roughly to the ground, but did not injure Spada like the last kick which had been hindering him for the whole fight. Spada shook his head, trying to regain his bearings, as the woman said,

’Your teachings are failing you’

As the woman tried to hit his saber hand, Spada brought his saber back and roughly knocked her staff aside, scuttling up as quickly as he could. By this point, Spada was frustrated and furious. He could feel the anger welling up within him, and forgot his Jedi lessons, which helped him to contain his anger. All at once, Spada’s adrenaline seemed to kick in, and he was hell bent on destroying the woman who was making a fool of him. Sticking his hand out, Spada concentrated hard and launched a force push at her as hard as he could. Then, not waiting to see what it did, Spada hopped forward and made a diagonal slash at the woman’s shoulder.

[Adia Issoris]

So he had not forgotten how to use the Force, even if he had forgotten how to fight.

Spada’s lightersaber found only air. His Force push knocked Adia over. She hit the forest floor, and flipped back to her feet, and smashed his leg with the butt of her staff while his saber was out of position.

The Hand decided to stop playing, as amusing as the Padawan was. She hit Spada in his free arm with all the strength someone who could deadlift 270 kilos could muster. A loud crunch echoed off of the trees, and Spada’s body impacted the ground meters away. There were questions she had for this Jedi.

[Spada Elhow]

Spada's blind rage left him open, since he did not realise that his push was as effective as it was. Spada's swing followed through unhindered and hit the ground, charring the grass and cutting into the earth. Before he could bring his saber around and swing it at the woman, who was now standing on his left side, she lashed out and her staff collided with the back of his knee, knocking him over. Before he could get his bearings, Spada felt as if someone took his Ulna in his left arm and snapped it like a twig. The impact caused Spada to spin as he was thrown, and as his broken arm impacted with the ground he emitted a half-moan, half-scream and rolled onto his back. He cradled his left arm in his chest, feeling the pain course through him and trying to concentrate his mind on something other than the searing pain of his nerves in his arm and ribcage.

[Adia Issoris]

Adia was on top of the Jedi, the sharp point of her electrostaff appearing in his field of vision first. He could feel the static from its charge on his neck. His silver pupils rolled upward. Red hair framed her face, and a pair of seemingly glowing eyes appeared to leech light.

“Who was your master, and what became of them?” The voice was stern and controlled. Adia knew she had the upper hand. If he attempted anything, she would shatter his limbs until he could not move.

[Spada Elhow]

As the woman climbed on top of him, Spada attempted to swing his lightsaber, and relised that he had lost it when he was struck in the arm. Turning his head and looking to his right, his lightsaber taunted him, about 4 meters from his hand. Spada looked back at his attacker, who asked him about his master. Spada grimaced and winced, roughly saying back to her,

"You-... you're nothn' but sithspit..."

Spada felt pressure on his broken arm, and his eyes rolled back in pain. The pain was almost numbing, and Spada fought to stay awake, thinking to himself,

'I can't escape this...I need to play dead or something.'

Spada looked around helplessly, awaiting the woman's reply to his insult. Even if it killed him, he would not give the woman the satisfaction of any information.

[Adia Issoris]

Adia’s eyes smiled smugly. “I wasn’t aware sithspit was apt at beating Jedi into the dirt. I’ll make note of that.”

She took a step back, and extended her empty hand at the saber Spada had left behind. She could feel it. Her whole body seemed to be making an effort. There was a clink of metal against root, and then the saber lept into her hand. Adia flicked the weapon on, which hummed warmly. She withdrew her staff, and slashed experimentally with her new saber a few times. Adia looked down at her Padawan prey.

“This is a well crafted saber. Did you make it?” The tip of the blade hovered inches from Spada’s neck.

“Because I fancy it.”

[Spada Elhow]

Spada glared into her eyes, for the moment forgetting about his pain.

"All you need to know is your hands aren't worthy of even touching it."

Spada's lightsaber was the only one he had ever made, and was his only posession of his previous jedi life. Spada looked around and searched for an escape from his current situation, saying,

"And I'll be damned if i'm going to let some two-bit Dark Jedi take it."

His eyes followed the his lightsaber's path up to her hands, and focusing all of the power he had left within him, he sent out a powerful force push directed at the woman's hand holding the lightsaber, pulling it from her grasp and sending it spiralling to the ground and luckily into a hole created by the root of a nearby tree. All at once, the pain which he held back with the force rushed upon him and he fell unconcious, losing all signs of life except for an imperceptible trace of the force.

[Adia Issoris]

The Jedi had passed out. He used his last exertion to try and hide a lightsaber. No wonder the Jedi Order had fallen so easily, if this Padawan was any example. Adia looked over the Kel Dor from her comfortable distance. He seemed to be dead, but Jedi were known for their ability to go into a coma-like state, and emerge very quickly.

Adia hefted her staff, and drove the bladed tip through his chest. Spada’s body arched up as voltage poured through it. She stopped when smoke began to rise off of his flesh. Satisfied, she wiped the blade on the lower leg of his pants.

She found the saber minutes later. Adia smiled as she collected the weapon. Her work was done, and she had a new tool. Perhaps Palpatine would let her keep this one.

[Spada Elhow]

Spada's body was battered and broken, but the force allowed him to cling onto life even after the volts of electricity coursed through his body, which normally would have killed him. Hours passed by and Spada still seemed dead. Spada's mind drifted beyond reality and was engulfed in the force. Then, very slowly, Spada's body rebooted. First, his heart slowly began to beat, sending vital blood to his body and giving him new life. His lungs were next, faintly breathing in and out. After what seemed like an etenrity, Spada was still just clinging to life. Spada writhed in pain for a while, all at once realising the damage done to his skin, bones, and entire body from the battle and electricity of the woman's staff. He immediately passed out, feeling sapped of his strength from his incredible revival.

Two days later, Spada woke up.

Spada's arms slowly thrashed about in his sleep as he began to wake himself. Peeling his eyes open, he saw nothing for a few minutes and his eyes hurt. As his vision cleared and his eyes became used to the air, he saw a small critter licking the dried blood on his chest. Spada gave a small shrug and the animal, frightened that its meal came back from the dead, jolted into the brush and out of sight. Spada worked his way into a sit and very slowly crawled over to the tree where he threw his lightsaber. Spada searched slowly and carefully for about an hour and could not find it. Feeling hopeless, he fell to the ground again and laid there for another hour.

As the hottest part of the day was about to arrive, Spada painfully climbed into the hut and sat down, taking a cloth and looking at his broken arm. Closing his mouth, he brought his hand to his broken arm and quickly set the bone. Spada yelped and grunted as he did this, tied a stick to the set bone, and tied up a sling to his shoulder, which still ached from the collision with the tree during the fight. Spada reached for his canteen and sipped it slowly. Pouring some on the wound in his chest, he grunted in pain and threw the canteen into a wall, putting his head between his legs.

'I have been gone for too long. I have been trying my best to hide from those Imperials all this time, and look where it gets me...'

Spada glanced down at his chest, where the broken rib left a dark bruise on his charred skin,

'I need to find a Jedi and learn what I've forgotten. After what I've just been through, I'm definitely rusty. That's it, I'm going to The Rebellion to help them defeat the Imperials, and they could help me search for a Jedi and get a new lightsaber.'

Spada laid on the ground, still in pain from all of his battle wounds. Closing his eyes, Spada forced himself into sleep. He had a long trip ahead of him.