YLU Part IV: Cats and mice (Saveer, Apollus, Skye)(Complete)

[Zereth Lancer]

"Come on Saveer!" Zereth shouted as he dispatched another batch of droids with his lightsabre. He turned and saw Apollus and Skye running, er, limping off away from the dock; A pair of droids where moving in to intercept them. "Come on Saveer, I know your packing heat, take them out" He thought projected as he finished off a third droid. He wouldn’t be able to get to the droids in time and he hoped to god that Saveer had an ion blaster on his person.

They’re objective was to disable the droids and take the renegades to a safe place. Zereth already had a place in mind but no idea as to how they were going to capture the young people. Jorshal and the others had run off after the other scattering youths and left Zereth and Saveer to go after the last two. Now all that remained was a dangerous chase through corellia’s streets. They would have to batter their way through assault droids and possibly the children themselves if they didn’t cooperate. Lets just hope they do…

[Saveeradeevaravaravee]

Saveeradeevaravaravee cursed silently as he emerged from within the panicked crowd. Of all the weapons he wore, an ion blaster was, unfortunately, the one weapon he had forgotten. He would have to make due with something else.

Reaching down, he pulled from its holster a small pistol - the MSD-32. He would have to be very careful - the disruptor pistol only had enough energy for five shots before he would have to replace the power pack, which he didn't have time to do. Raising the weapon, he aimed it carefully. A single shot, and one of the droids was gone, its molecules split apart, literally disintegrating the droid.

After the five-second recycle time had passed, he took another shot. Another droid went down in similar fashion. By the time he was ready for another shot, the threat had been eliminated.

Saveer casually replaced the pistol in its holster before running to where Zereth now stood, saber still humming as he looked down at his last kill.

"That's all of them." He glanced toward the two Force adepts. They appeared to be pretty badly injured. "I'll take care of them."

He ran over to the two adepts, pulling a few small herbs from a belt pouch.

"Here. It's no bacta treatment, but it works wonders on a blaster wound. Just be careful, it might sting a bit." This was perhaps the only case in which Saveer didn't ask for something in return for his kindness - the prospect of gaining a few allies for the Order was reward enough.

[Apollus Alexei]

Now his mind was a mess now. The droids were taken care of, courtesy the man with the lightsaber and the purple furry alien. He didn't know what think, should he run? Sudoku would kill him if he got captured, not that he said it explicitly to Apollus, but he had a hunch. On the other hand, getting taken in by the two who had saved them guaranteed he would never have to see Sudoku again. Apollus had suffered too much under the watch of Sudoku, now was his time to escape.

"Accept the help of the mangy thing and you'll get out of this fine. A nice bed to sleep in, Apollus. You haven't had one of those in ages, right?" The voice returned, but the image of the all too familiar dark haired woman was nowhere to be found.

Apollus didn't reply to either the woman or the alien as the offered herbs were held right in front of his face.

In the uncomfortable silence he violent fought inside his mind.

A swift kick sent the little creature reeling.

"Let's go Skye! Let's go!" He grabbed the hand of the woman next to him and began running at full sprint. In the corner of his eye he spotted the dark haired woman crouched and glaring from the postition just a step behind where he and Skye had previously been.

By following the illusion woman's advice had only resulted in disaster for him. Winding up under the guidance of Sudoku was not what Apollus called the good life.

As they ran, Apollus spotted signs directing them to the lower level subway system. Judging by all the options, there had to be dozens of trains down there. "Alright, Skye. Let's head for the trains. We can lose them there and meet up with Sudoku once we're safe." He said between breaths. "Sound good?"

[Skye Connan]

When the purple furry alien came to them, Skye could only gawk. She hadn’t seen anything like it before…it was certainly shorter than any other species she had encountered. It seemed friendly enough to her, when it offered to help with both Apollus’ and her injuries.

She was tempted by the offer but before she knew it Apollus decked the poor alien with a swift kick, causing the little thing to skid across the ground. Skye had been so stunned that she barely noticed Apollus yelling at her to get her butt in gear. He nearly gave her whip-lash; taking her by the hand and jerking her around like that.

Skye gave a small squeak, her shoulder still throbbed and Apollus half dragging her wasn’t helping in the least. The two of them must have been going fast than Skye thought, all she saw was a blur of lights and apparently they left angry yelling patrons in their wake. Skye used her free hand to gather most of her skirt making it easier to run with it getting caught in her legs.

She didn’t realize that Apollus was talking to her until he came to a sudden stop; causing Skye to nearly collide with him. Her head was a little messed up from the whole ordeal and the pain in her arm only got worse through out it all. She brushed her loose and slightly messy hair out of her face.

"Alright, Skye. Let's head for the trains. We can lose them there and meet up with Sudoku once we're safe. Sound good?” Poor Apollus sounded winded.

“Ah, yeah sure.” She glanced around the station. There were nearly 20 different trains. “Um…Which one, Tough guy?”

[Zereth Lancer]

Zereth deactivated his lightsabre just as the human sent Saveer flying with a savage kick. “They had to make things difficult, didn’t they?” He muttered as he charged forward, scooping Saveer up in his arms as he ran. “I hope you don’t mind the lift,” He said to the surprised furbit as they ran through the streets. But, like in most chases found everywhere, a heavily loaded wagon pulled out of a side alley, right in the Sith’s path. Without hesitation, Zereth jumped high into the air and over the wagon, landing softly on the other side.

He looked around in time to see the adepts turn a corner up ahead. “They’re heading for the train station,” He informed his companion before running on at inhuman speed that only harmony and use of the force could permit. He burned down the street and around the corner and towards the fleeing duo. He set Saveer down on his feet and reached his hand out, summoning the force to himself and pulling the Youth’s feet out from under them; sending them down into the dirty street.

“Would you happen to be carrying two pairs of stun cuffs among your equipment?” He asked his fine, furry friend, all the while keeping his eyes on the adepts, incase he needed to throw them down again. The milling crowd dissipated around them. No one wanted to share a street with a Sith, especially one as infamous and Zereth Lancer.

[Apollus Alexei]

"I don't know, tough girl" He retorted. "We don't want to take a train to the wrogn part of town..." What was he saying? There were two Sith chasing behind them; any train would do.

"This one looks about right." He said as he yanked Skye aboard the car. They had barely boarded it before the doors shut and the train shuffled into motion. Soon the car grew dark as the their car entered the tunnel, separating them from the Sith.

He was struggling to relax now. Sith, with lightsabers, had chased them and would likely have killed them given the chance. They escaped. But Apollus still couldn't shake the nervousness off. Realizing he still held Skye's hand in a tight grip he let it go quickly, clenched his teeth and folded his arms.

He wanted to say sorry for dragging her around like that, but the Sith... Lightsabers... Droids with blasters...

[Skye Connan]

Skye glanced around the train car; it was empty except for the two of them. Well at least they were away from those crazy Sith. But now the awkward silence made Skye feel somewhat uncomfortable. All she could do was wait… she had dropped her bag some where back in all the commotion.

Her shoulder had become numb; leaving a dull tingly feeling in the rest of her arm. She attempted to move it around, but no avail. She shook her head in frustration, she had been shot before but then she was thrown into prison for a year…at least she wasn’t on her way there right now. She gave Apollus side ways glance; well she wasn’t the only one hurt…he was probably sucking it up for all she knew.

“Hey, Tough guy, lemme look at that again.” She gently coaxed his arms to unfold and relax, with her free hand. The mark was crimson and lightly bleeding, it stained his shirt. She was just glad her shoulder wasn’t bleeding like his wound…hers was only swollen, red, and glazy. In the back of her mind she knew it wouldn’t stop bleeding for a while. She bent over and with effort tore off the hem of her skirt; she folded it against her side and caringly but firmly pressed it against his wound.

“Alright, just hold that there until it stops bleeding.” She couldn’t remember her family but even she knew the tone in her voice was caring and motherly. She half turned and took a seat on the bench beside Apollus. She had no idea what to say…there was too many things going, being chased and all.

“Um…so where did Sudoku find you?” She knew it was random but what else could she say…Hey isn’t this fun being chased down by Sith?. She didn’t think so.

[Apollus Alexei]

He winced as Skye applied her makeshift dressing to his wound. To his discontent, it stuck to the wound well. He would have to remind himself to change it once he got the chance or else his skin might heal over it.

"Thanks." He mumbled and whinced at the same time causing the gratitude to sound like a squeak.

She said, "Um, so where did Sudoku find you?"

Apollus thought back on the event after he had already decided the real story wouldn't do at all. His attempted suicide was embarressing since he was alive to tell of it. He would leave that part out.

"He found me on the streets after everything had gone to hell. I don't know how or why he found me, I guess its just his way. He approached me out of nowhere..." He smirked a little, yet couldn't forget the pain in his side. "Kinda wierd, huh? What about you?"

[Skye Connan]

“Sort of the same actually…” Skye flexed her fingers and to her half surprise she could move them freely without pain in her shoulder. “He saved me, I guess. Well he saved me from going to prison again.” She hated how that sounded…again…It made her sound like a wanted criminal. None of what she just said made sense; she might as well explain everything. Skye sighed deeply.

“When I was 12 years old, my family basically forgot about me. With my new baby sister on the way, my fathers’ homecoming, and my brother’s new wife, everything was abuzz and nobody notice the too small, useless, 12 year old girl. I thought it was only a stage of our lives, but when it didn’t end, I thought differently. Before I knew it I packed a set of old clothes and a bundle of my parent’s money…I headed for a transport station, found the earliest leaving transport and stowed away. The thing was I didn’t realize that piece of junk transport was headed for Tatoonine.” Skye chuckled at the memory of stepping off a transport at twelve years old and realizing that there was nothing but sand in all directions.

“Tatoonine was my home since then…and it was where I also went to prison. After I ran out of money, I turned to pick pocketing and stealing. It kept me alive. When I was 16, I started to get careless about concealing myself as a thief. Eventually I was caught and thrown into prison with a sentence of three years there.” Skye hesitated to continue, she hadn’t told anyone this but she had a feeling in the back of her mind that Apollus would understand.

“My three years didn’t come through, though. I was released after barely a year, most likely due to the fact that I was so young. The other reasons I’m not sure of, maybe it was fate or something but nonetheless I was back on the streets with no money and I went back to my old habits, except more careful this time. Somewhere between then and now was when I met Sudoku. I was on the verge of being caught again; he came to my rescue…” Skye paused unsure about what she said next. “And he showed me the Force again. Now I’m here, at 19, and getting chased by people I don’t know.”

Kinda weird…

[Apollus Alexei]

He chuckled a little, "Sometimes it seems like its the same old routine in a different place."

So she's a thief then... he thought to himself. Back when his life was normal he had been very condecending towards thiefs. One broke into his speeder once, took most everything he had in there. Since then he had always advocated a tough policy towards thiefs. But he couldn't help but feel bad for Skye, her story sounded sad. Whereas his was more, as it seemed, was more of misfortune and his failure to really deal with it...

She had just given him her whole story and as life turned out, someone suffered just like him, probably worse. His bad day lasted a single day. Hers seemed like it could have lasted years.

"Yeah, before Sudoku found me things were nice. You could say I was well off, I mean, we weren't rich but we lived better than some in the galaxy. But.... things..." He sturggled to find the word. "Bad things just ruined everything. A freak accident which I think a lot had to do with the Force." He silently wondered if she found any of his struggle to relate to. It seemed bad to him and he hated remembering it. Everyday since had been like walking in a dream for him. "It was my fault. Put simply, I tried to fix everything and got angry and ruined it. I'm sure you know how that feeling goes..."

[Zereth Lancer]

Zereth growled and picked Saveer up again, "Never mind, forget about the stun cuffs." He said angirly as he watched the train start up and pull away. "I don't care what the frell Jorshal says. I'm going to cut their legs off and carry them around by their necks!" He ran towards the departing train and threw himself up into the air and onto the roof of the very last car. "If you have something with a stun setting on it, use it."

They inched forward, jumping from car, to car, practically crawling along the metal roof. The speed the train moved at made the wind rip at their clothing and make it difficult to draw breath, but the two sith were to determined to let this stop them. They inched forward, slowly but surely. Until Zereth held up his hand and tapped the roof with his finger.

He pulled out his lightsabre and activated the silvery-white beam and plunged it into the rooftop and quickly cut a hole large enough for man to pass through. He picked Saveer up, "Shoot them!" He yelled over the wind before letting go of the furbit and lowering him safely to the floor inside the car, three yards away from Apollus and Skye. "Stun them!"

[Saveeradeevaravaravee]

Saveer nearly lost his balance when Zereth suddenly dropped him to the ground, but was saved from falling over by Zereth's arm as it again scooped him up. From his awkward position, he shot Zereth a stern look.

"I can walk, you know. I'm faster than you might expect."

Before Zereth had the chance to respond, Saveer was again on the ground, finally able to walk under his own free will. As Zereth moved forward, Saveer followed, making a show of acrobatics as he jumped from car to car - if only so as to prove to Zereth his ability to maneuver. As they approached the last car, Saveer drew his weapon - a Prax Arms Velocity-7 Dart Launcher. With his other hand, he pulled two small darts from a pouch on his shoulder strap.

Dropping through the hole, Saveer carefully loaded the weapon before launching the two darts, each filled with a paralytic toxin, at the two young adepts. While perhaps less humane than the stun setting of a blaster, the toxin in the darts would leave the adepts awake and able to answer questions without struggling, rather than putting them to sleep for hours. While waking up from a stun blast was a bit disorienting, a strong-willed individual might still find a way to escape.

Still, they were dealing with force adepts here. As the darts flew through the air, Saveer quickly exchanged the dart launcher for a Relby-K23 blaster pistol, setting it to stun with a flick of the wrist. If the darts missed their mark, as unlikely as that may be, a stun blast would be an acceptable alternative.

[Skye Connan]

Skye didn’t like talking about the Force; in fact she hated it, how it felt when she could control it, how it left her tired and weak after she used it. She knew the Force flowed through and around her but she just couldn’t control or use it when she needed it if she didn’t concentrate hard. Occasionally, she would have anger fits where she would unexpectedly grasp hold of the Force and lash out at anything she would see. Other times she would feel this strange prickling feeling in the back of her mind, as if something were wrong…

That’s what she was feeling right now. It was strange how one minute she was listening intently to Apollus and the next she was lost in her own mind; where a somewhat familiar feeling formed. It started soft; caressing the back of her head but soon grew in intensity as it spread. The feeling slithered its way from her head to her neck, into her arms, and down around her spine. Such a thing scared her; her hands began to tremble and a bright red warning light went off in her mind. Skye leapt off the bench nearly launching herself into Apollus; frustration building.

No sooner had she stood, a lightsabre pierced the trains roof. Seconds later the two Sith from earlier dropped in, one shouting orders that she didn’t hear through her zombie like state, the other Sith withdrew a gun-like device. Skye was forced into tunnel vision; her focus was on the armed purple alien. It fired two shots both with perfect aim; Skye watched as her hand rose instinctively toward the dart, with one quick toss of her hand both darts were slammed into the train car wall. Now she was pissed.

Skye was a puppet inside her own body; in her mind she knew she had lost control and now her anger and frustration fueled her actions. Never before had she lost total control of what her own body was doing…

She shifted toward the two advancing Sith; her eyes burned with a mix of helplessness and rage. The small creature had out a new pistol; Skye desperately fought for control of her angered emotions. She failed and once again she watched her trembling arm rise toward the two Sith; her wild eyes set on the pistol in the creatures’ hands.

[Apollus Alexei]

Apollus was speechless. He hadn't seen many demonstrations of the Force in his life, two of which he believed to be his own. He never really guessed that the quiet girl he'd been running with packed that much power. The gun fell to the train floor in pieces and seconds later a circle of the train's roof joined it.

"Um, Skye?" He asked, not sure if she was completely there. "We should run now." He grabbed her hand and yanked her away fromt he two Sith to the next train car. A few heads turned as they entered through the back door. Most other's weren't paying attention.

"There's armed men trying to rob the train!" He shouted as he pushed through the now stirred crowd, hoping that there was a marshal present to slow the two Sith and give Skye and him a chance to escape.

[Zereth Lancer]

Zereth cursed as Saveer's darts missed and let out another string of curses when his furry friend's weapon broke into a million pieces. To make matters worse the two children had fled deeper into the train and where shouting something about robbers. "Plan B," Zereth said before running forward, "Use any force necessary, just bring them down."

He entered the next car to find a few men in pansy uniforms and armed blasters shouting something about putting one's hands on one's head. Zereth really didn't want to be hindered right now. Without a work or twitch of movement; the three CoroNet security officers' guns flew out of their hands and through the window. Zereth lunged forward, light glinting off the knife that was in his hand. The first guard got his throat slashed, the second lost his eyes, and the third man lost something very valuable when Zereth misjudged distance and movement and missed his intended target, the man's heart.

With the guards dealt with; Zereth and Saveer moved down the narrow path and towards the fleeing youth. Zereth outstretched his hand and pulled several pieces of luggage off the over head baggage shelf and down unto the heads of the fleeing adepts.

[Saveeradeevaravaravee]

Saveer followed as Zereth moved through the train, but his limited size made pushing through the building crowd something of a difficulty. Reaching to his belt, he unclipped one of his lightsabers.

"I'm heading up. Less people there."

Without waiting for a response from Zereth, he jumped onto the baggage rack. The luggage was gone now, and there was just enough room for him to cut another hole in the roof. As the metal disk fell, he jumped out.

It was windy on top of the train - Saveer had expected this much. What he hadn't counted on, however, was that the upcoming tunnel would be nearly skimming the roof of the train. By the time he realized this, though, he was several meters from the hole he had cut. There was only one option.

Catching his breath, Saveer jumped. The idea was to grab the bottom edge of the car and swing under, holding himself between two repulsorlift generators and safe from danger. Again, however, fate was not on his side - the outside walls of the train were thoroughly flat, and there was nothing to grab hold of.

With a grunt of pain, Saveer hit the ground, rolling off the tracks and down a steep hill as the train faded into nonexistence in the blackness of the tunnel.

As he rolled on, he felt a sharp pain in the side of his head, and everything went black.

[Apollus Alexei]

In the front of his mind, Apollus knew that they only had so much space to run. The train was going to end in just a few short cars and then they would be faced with the lightsaber wielding man in pursuit. He struggled to think of a plan before time ran out.

The front door of the car slid open as Apollus crossed over to the next car, Skye groggily following. Something caught his eye. The trains were connected by locks that could manually be operated. He kept running regardless, except now he was pulling random pieces of luggage into the path, some of the looser seats came unhinged and fell into the path as well.

"Skye, go on ahead. I think I've got an idea."He said and in short time he had a sturdy roadblock that might stop any normal person. He could only hope that it was sturdy enough to stop a Sith. He crossed over to the next car where Skye was waiting and struggled to unhinge the car with the roadblock. A tiny switch presented itself and the struggle to unhinge the trailing cars ended with them falling behind as the train engine picked up speed.

"Hopefully that did it." He said quietly.

[Skye Connan]

Skye lay with her eyes closed on the nearest double-seated bench. Her breathing rapid and uneven; her mind gradually clearing from the previous events. The instant loss of adrenaline left her body shaking uncontrollably. She hoped that their run was over; she didn’t think she could continue running after the last experience. Once again her emotions had controlled her actions and her conscious mind was too weak to fight its effects on her. It was like she had two sides to her…

“I…I…Did it happen again? Did I lose control?” She must have sounded helpless; she still wasn’t sure what triggered her rage. The last thing she remembered before waking up in this train car was the small purple furry alien pulling out a gun and…then it blowing into pieces! Oh gods.

Skye covered her face with her hands; she was ashamed that she couldn’t even control herself. Worst of all Apollus had witnessed it, she hated it when people saw her weakness; it made her feel small and pathetic. Her body was the puppet and her emotions the famous puppeteer.

She turned her head away from Apollus’ direction. “I’m sorry you had to see me like that, Tough guy.” Her words muffled by her hands.

[Zereth Lancer]

Pushing and shoving; Zereth finally reached the end of the car and opened the door and stepped through, into thin air. He reached out a hand and managed to grab hold of the door frame before his balance was lost completely. He swore and then ran back inside as far as he could, turned, and ran through car, out the door, through the air, and onto the back of the train engine car. "Schutta!" He cursed as he banged his head against the train wall.

The door was locked, but not for long. Zereth placed his hand where the lock was located and slowly pushed the bolts back into their pockets. He punched the opening switch and the door slid open with a hiss.

So, there stood Zereth; Framed in the light of the doorway, his cloak flapping in the wind draft, his red eyes glowing like a lightsabre, and blood dripping from a cut on his forehead. He looked down upon the adepts and glared. He reached to his belt and extracted a glass vial that had miraculously remained intact when he had collided with the train. He tossed the vial at the feet of the adepts. The glass container shattered and a murky green gas escaped from among the fragments, "Sleep, dear children, sleep." Zereth whispered.

[Apollus Alexei]

"No." He protested. "It's fine. You saved our asses back there." He put his hand on her shoulder. "we all loose control sometimes." He thought back to his own personal experience that haunted him. "This time it was for the best. You saved us."

Something caught his eye and he turned his head to see the Sith they had worked long and hard to evade standing there ominously.

He turned to escape further into the train, tugging on Skye's shirt but he collapsed through a green mist to the train floor.

[Skye Connan]

Skye smiled at Apollus’ kind words, but it quickly faded as the bench she was laying on was engulfed within a thick cloud of smoke. She saw Apollus disappear in to the green fog engulfing the car; she found herself almost following him. The sound of Apollus hitting the floor made Skye herself flinch. She wanted that anger and hate back, but now it had dissolved and was long gone.

Her body lay tired; she was unwilling to fight now. The smoke now encased her body and she inhaled deeply feeling the effects immediately. Her body shut down and her earlier adrenaline was gone. Her eyelids grew heavy as she gasped for air.

She turned her head to the side and caught a glance of the Sith that had been on their tail since the hanger.

Her eyelids closed…and her head spun into darkness with her last words floating in the air. “Your dirty son of a bi-“

[Zereth Lancer]

Zereth looked down on the adepts; wrapped in the green gas as if with a blanket. "Victory Saveer..." He started and then spun around; looking around the train and then out the open doorway. He had completely forgotten about the little purple furbit. "Dangit." He cursed and then turned back to the sleeping youths.

He waited until the gas had dissipated or filtered out the doorway before bending down and binding Apollus and Skye's hands and feet with the stun cuffs he had pulled of Saveer.

He stood, pushed his way to the front of the train and had a brief and somewhat violent talk with the driver and twenty minutes later the train stopped at a station on the outskirts of CoroNet. Zereth stepped off the train with Skye thrown over his shoulder and Apollus flouting through the air behind him. He stole a hoversled from a shop vendor and laid the adepts down on its flat surface. He administered another does of the sleep gas to the children and then started for the secret hangar bay used by the sith and their star ships.

Upon arriving at the hangar bay, a good fifteen minutes later, Zereth pulled his "Luggage" inside and loaded them into the Star of Oblivion; a medium sized transport vessel that Zereth used quite often. He bound the youths to a suppost beam in the cargo area, after confiscating anything that looked like a weapon or could be used to escape, and then prepped the ship for launch.

"Time to go home, my pretties," He said as he sat down at the helm, opening a secure comm channel to Jorshal, "Jorshal, Zereth Here. I've got my prey but I lost Saveer, We'll have to come back and get him when we're done."