To Hunt the Hunter [Zenas]

[Rossos Atrapes]

Imperial Centre was disconcerting to Inquisitor Atrapes. While he wasn't persay an isolated person, nor one who shunned contact with others (most of his contact with others came when he was murdering them for the unfortunate reality of their force-presence), he wasn't used to a lengthened sojourn amongst this degree of population. There were always people, and they were always everywhere.

What was more disconcerting to Inquisitor Atrapes, however, was the fact that most of his time was spent looking over reports, and notices, and statistics, and more reports, and more notices. To a man more used to travelling the galaxy looking for people to murder and ways to strengthen his abilities in the Force, being in one place for as long as he had been was slightly off-putting at best. To somewhat alleviate this disconcertion, the Inquisitor would, in his rare free time (mostly at night when he had finished his day's allotment of reports and notices), quit the Citadel and make rounds through massive city that was Imperial Centre. He'd been gaining a sort of reputation with the night-warders as to this penchant of his, in fact.

This night was no different in respects to the past; as soon as he had finished writing up whatever responses were necessary, and putting notices on notices, and organizing more reports, the Inquisitor made his way through the Citadel down to the 'lobby', and through the doors into Imperial Centre.

He usually had to travel a ways before large crowds of people would seemingly appear before his eyes. The area around the Citadel was of course shunned and avoided, and for the most obvious and sensible of reasons. No one wanted to disappear. It was in the plazas and the squares of the different buildings and areas that would ease Inquisitor Atrapes's sense of wander-lust and anonymity, if only for a bit, and then for but a short while.

Sometimes, to entertain himself, he would put Force Suggestions in the children that were around to be aware of the activities of the adults around them and to report any suspicious and potentially subversive behaviour. It was always fun to learn that the odd suggestion had actually borne fruit; who would suspect a child of being an informant but in the most obvious way? His favourite to date had been the boy who had snuck onto his mother's holoconnection and found several correspondences with a few suspected Rebel sympathizers. The Suggestion had worked then, and a day later, the older boy and the sympathizers had been 'picked up for questioning.' None had suspected the boy of telling the authorities, from all the information gathered from them. They blamed each other, or didn't blame anyone at all.

This night had started out much the same as the previous ones. As he drew further away from the Citadel, however, a feeling of unease settled on him, and he wondered idly what had brought it on. Still keeping a slightly lax awareness of his surroundings, the Inquisitor continued on, unaware, and possibly unable to even comprehend, that this feeling had been felt by many of his past victims.

For on this night, the hunter had become the hunted.

[Zenas Codrey]

It was as deep into Imperial territory as Zenas had ever gone. On Naalol, "Imperial Center" had been a pair of words spoken with pride and longing. A station on this planet was supposed to be the best a being could hope for. And wouldn't his mother, being the best woman in the entire universe, be here? The revelation had struck him like a lightning bolt, and now he was here, continuing his search.

The only problem here is that there are so many ruttin' people! They were almost exclusively human, and it made him stand out more than he'd have liked. It'd taken a lot of work, but he'd finally managed a way to sneak about without getting too much attention. It was serving him well; he was perfectly hidden in the shadows across from an Imperial building, waiting for a lone Imperial to come out. After hours of watching people leave in groups, a human man emerged and hurried off down the walkway. Zenas could feel a Force signature from him, stronger than the others who'd come out.

Zenas Codrey tracked Rossos Atrapes by his signature, through crowds of lesser beings, sometimes wading through the humans, othertimes, climbing buildings and following from high up, unnoticed to the oblivious citizens of the city-planet. Rossos turned down a quieter street, and Zenas made his move. He ran across a broad ledge with superhuman speed, leaping down between buildings until he dropped lightly to the durracrete in front of the human, drawing his lightsaber and smiling.

"Hello there."

[Rossos Atrapes]

If Zenas were hoping to surprise Rossos, he would not see any sort of emotion from his face, save studious indifference; a slight raising of the eyebrows were the most the shocked Inquisitor would allow this ... person ... to see.

His eyes flit quickly to the drawn lightsabre. Rossos felt a grain of anger begin to burn within him at the audacity this one showed. The Force came to him then, filling his body and spirit with the strength of his anger. He drew one of his lightsabres won from trained enemies, and thumbed the yellow blade on. It's hum filtered through the empty space between the two, and Rossos spoke.

"Release your weapon, and declare yourself to be no enemy of the Empire. I arrest you in the name of the Inquisitoriate and its Empire, with all the priviledges included therein. Should you become resistant, I will have to kill you." He held the long, curved hilt of the lightsabre in one hand and pointed away from his body and to the side.

"Surrender and your death will come swiftly after the interrogation, I can promise you that," he said, beginning to stalk toward Zenas.

[Zenas Codrey]

"Funny, Zenas retorted, bearing down on Rossos at a faster pace, "I was going to say something similar." He swung down at Rossos with a hard, fast blow. "You will beg for me to kill you, human, after I've beaten the information I need out of you."

[Rossos Atrapes]

The blow was powerful, and Rossos didn't even try to block it, instead sidestepping and making his own slash that lacked the power that the Dark Sider showed, but was quite quick in its execution. They were at an impasse for a short time, with Rossos drifting around the attacking Togruta, lightly parrying and dodging more attacks than he outright blocked. The sound of hissing and spitting filled the area around them as the lightsabres met and burned the very air around them into ozone.

Rossos deflected Zenas's lightsabre off to the side in a parry designed to allow him time to make a slash, and his eyes narrowed. This one was too skilled; far more skilled than most he had faced before. Rossos frowned, realizing that meant he had access to training; whether of the kind he himself had found only once in his lifetime (and was still learning from), or from another Dark Sider.

"You are quite powerful," the Inquisitor said conversationally, filling his voice with subtle reverberations of Force Suggestion as he made several quick slashes and thrusts at the Togruta. "Tell me, who trained you?"

His aim was twofold: to get the Dark Sider to break off the duel for a moment so he could himself leap to another position and from there possibly gain time to alert the Citadel and the Inquisitors still awake there, and to focus the Togruta's concentration on defense from the attacks, and not on what effect his words might be having.

[Zenas Codrey]

Rossos was using the tiny, needling style of Form II, one which had driven a prepubescent Zenas into howling fury when he'd tried to learn it. There was too much waiting in it for the impatient boy; he'd found his niche three forms later in Form V's Djem So. He made broad, sweeping strokes of his lightsaber, hitting quickly, cutting strongly, following every blocked attack with another to press the offense.

Rossos's voice sounded quiet alongside the hum, hiss, and crackling of their clashing weapons. It was filled with the subtle power of the darkside, one Zenas had never paid any mind to, except where he could apply it for stealthy movement. He answered the question freely, boasting as he continued to show his prowess.

"I was trained by a human man, old enough to be your father, who was betrayed by his unit in some past, god-forsaken war." He brutishly shoved against the Inquisitor's lightsaber as he made a counter attack. "Even as his apprentice I could knock him about the ship in duels, armed or not! And you think you can stand against me!?"

[Rossos Atrapes]

Despite the fact that he was now being pressed, Rossos couldn't help a smirk from making its way onto his face. The Togruta had been trained, by what sounded like a Jedi who had been killed in the Clone Wars. It wasn't much, and Rossos wouldn't settle for that little bit of information, either. It was time for him to control the pace of the fight. Rossos focussed for a few moments on weathering the Togruta's assault. He waited...there!

In a move blatantly against the form he was using, Rossos outright blocked the Togruta's downward slash -- he was strong; the Inquisitor had needed to use both arms to merely keep his own lightsabre from slicing his head in two -- and lashed out with a kick, square in the abdomen of the Dark-Sider; he had aimed for where the diaphragm would be on a human to gain a bit more time, but he was unsure of alien physiology. He didn't wait to see if his gamble had worked; he immediately jumped, first against one wall of the alley and then leaping to the other, unknowingly following Zenas's entrance into the alley. He only stopped when on a higher ledge that was difficult to get to, as the exertion of the act had tired him some.

"Oh come now..." his voice drifted down strongly, despite the fact he was speaking in a normal conversational tone. "I'd need more than that to believe you. A trainer defeated by his own unit?" He laughed here before continuing, "That does not say much for your trainer, and by extension, yourself."

[Zenas Codrey]

Zenas had enough time to let the air out of his lungs on his own, to prevent from being winded. He took the blow fully, staggering back into garbage bins, tripping and losing his orientation. By the time he was back on his feet, Rossos had made it to the landing above, and was taunting him.

"It says much that he survived!" Zenas began to leap back and forth up the alleyway, running straight up the walls in some places to gain extra height. "It took tremendous reflexes to deflect a constant barrage of blasterfire from fifty men! Incredible speed to elude them! And strength..." Here, Zenas made his final leap to Rossos' position, using his momentum to power his opening strike. "...to kill them!"

[Rossos Atrapes]

Rossos was now aware that the Togruta was stronger than he in the ways of Dark-Side (for the moment; he was willing to assume that the Togruta had no Dark-Jedi Holocron hidden away somewhere). And even though he was inarguably stronger with the Dark than the Light, Rossos had much practice in controlling his emotions and releasing them if necessary; even though the rush of the Dark-Side was a heady tonic indeed.

After he spoke, he released his frustrations and emotions, feeling the Light settle over him and granting a feeling of nebulous serenity. It seemed he would need to meditate after this was settled, as he wasn't as centred as he had thought he was. He settled quickly into a Soresu opening stance, and flowed with his feelings into a block of the Togruta's first strike. Now that he was not using the Force to speed his attacks faster than his enemy's, his strength was closer to Zenas's, if still not on par.

While not as concerned with information on the Togruta, Rossos still knew that he needed information, and so began to draw on the Force to augment his voice again. A swift retaliatory kick from Zenas brought him violently back to the moment, and threw him from the ledge, skidding across the roof of another building and off the edge into open air.

With a quick backflip to slow his momentum, Rossos found himself over a smaller, out of the way speeder lane, and the abyss of the Under-City stretched before his eyes. In what might have seemed an impossible series of events, Rossos aimed a Force Push at a passing speeder below him, arresting his fall, and then grabbed the side of another speeder as it passed by beside him.

"Hey man!" the driver cried out, "Are you frackin' crazy?!"

He pulled off to the side to slow down, but Rossos deactivated his lightsabre, clipped it to his belt, and then used his free hand to climb into the vehicle. He took a moment to gather in the surrounding buildings, and nodded to himself.

"What the frack was that, man?!" the driver exclaimed, "Is somebody tryin' to kill you, 'cause if they are, I'll drop you off, but I want no part in - "

"Quiet." Rossos commanded, and the driver's mouth shut with a clack of teeth.

"Turn around," he panted, and stood in the open-air speeder with his lightsabre once again in his hand. The driver's eyes glazed, and he followed the Inquisitor's orders without comment, turning around to return to the ledge where Zenas had kicked Rossos almost to his death.

Bringing up his mental connection with IMP, Rossos crafted a quick message on the alert frequency, and sent it in to the Citadel:

This is Inquisitor Atrapes. I have presently encountered a trained Togrutan Dark-Sider and am in the midst of subduing him. He claims training by a Jedi that survived the purge. I shall attempt to recruit, but it seems unlikely to succeed. My transponder is active, and I shall lead him to the Citadel. Bring out suppression teams, and prepare the interrogation chambers. Out.

With that, he focussed on the present once more, and found that they were nearing the building that he had fallen from.

[Zenas Codrey]

The Togruta watched smugly as Rossos was ejected out over the traffic, walking to the edge of the building to watch the man die while deactivating his lightsaber. Imperial Center was full of officers; he'd find another one easily. But...this Imperial was proving to be quite resourceful. Zenas's self-satisfied smile twisted into a sneer as the Inquisitor made a successful recovery and began to come back on a speeder. He reactivated his crimson weapon and held it at the ready.

[Rossos Atrapes]

It was quite scene, one would think. One right out of a holodrama even (In fact, unknown to the two there was a rather surprised looking writer suffering from writer's block right across the street).

The Inquisitor stood in the open-air speeder, which hovered a small distance from the roof-top where the Togruta stood. Both had activated their lightsabres once again, but for the moment the battle had lulled, it seemed.

The Inquisitor broke the silence. That wasn't odd in and of itself, but what was odd lay in how he broke it.

"Your teacher survived?" He asked finally, having gotten his wind back from the manoeuvre he had saved his life with. "Do tell," he continued, "What was his name? Perhaps he was one that I have killed."

[Zenas Codrey]

"His name was Milek Tomberlin," Zenas said off-handedly, gripping his lightsaber in both hands and gesturing at Rossos with the tip of the energy blade. "Whether you've killed him or not makes no difference. I came close to doing it myself several times." The car had drifted close to the edge of the building, and Zenas stepped onto the hood of it, noting briefly the driver's blank stare.

[Rossos Atrapes]

Rossos grinned nastily. "Oh, it might make a difference," he said, and lashed out at Zenas with a quick strike. "For does it not make myself the better of us if I defeated the one who trained you?"

It was blocked, as he had expected it to be, but the point of his strike was made clear as he jumped from the speeder into another that was passing by. Now to see if his baiting had borne fruit...

"To the Citadel," Rossos said of the unfortunate driver of this speeder. She didn't stand a chance.

[Zenas Codrey]

Better? A human better than Tala Cotri's little boy?

"Never," Zenas swore under his breath as Rossos made a fantastic leap to another speeder. "I'll show you," he muttered, leaping onto another car headed in the same direction as Rossos's vehicle. The ambient hate that had rolled off Zenas in waves since their duel began had been gradually sharpening, focusing towards the Inquisitor. With this verbal jab that the Togrutan had taken as a slight against his mother, Rossos Atrapes had sped the process, and now Zenas's power was focused like a pointed laser onto him. "I'll show you who's better you can't escape me I hate you I'll kill you I hate you..." Zenas leapt again to the top of a bulk speeder, ran along it's length and leapt off the front to a vehicle directly behind his opponent's. "I'LL KILL YOU! THEN YOU'LL SEE HOW MUCH BETTER I AM!"

[Rossos Atrapes]

..."I'LL KILL YOU! THEN YOU'LL SEE HOW MUCH BETTER I AM!"

Rossos looked behind him to see the Togruta make a leap from the back of a bulk speeder to the one directly behind him. An eyebrow raised as the result of that; and he stood, preparing for the next act of their little production.

"Can't see much when I'm dead, can I?" he murmured to himself. The slight chuckle of the woman driving the speeder drew his attention for a moment, so surprised was he that his humour had been not only heard, but understood. He turned back to the advancing Codrey, and grinned. He suspected that the Dark-Sider would be trying to take the fight much closer than before; a leap perhaps into the very speeder he was standing in. Looking behind him (in the direction the speeder was going), Rossos saw a turn they were going to need to take. 'Oh,' thought he, 'This is going to be interesting."

[Zenas Codrey]

Zenas leapt off the front of his speeder, holding his lightsaber before him and spinning his body so that he was like a drill. His lekku fanned out behind him, making a menacing whirl of white and blue color, and then--Rossos's driver made the sudden, sharp turn. Zenas heard, but didn't feel, the impact of his lightsaber blowing through glass as he landed inside an office. He regained his balance and orientation quickly as he ran back to the window he'd destroyed, leaping into the traffic. He could feel Rossos in the Force very strongly, feeling tension in his chest as the Inquisitor sped away. Zenas resumed his pursuit, feeling the tension lessen like a tether as he began to catch up.

[Rossos Atrapes]

It was quite a sight to see; the Togruta had actually plowed through a window, and was now hopping on the increasing traffic on this lane to get to him. The alien's anger, which had grown faint while Rossos drew further away, was growing more recognisable.

Rossos was not overly worried about what would happen as Zenas drew closer, as they were slowly but surely getting closer to the Citadel.

'A shame,' the Inquisitor thought to himself. 'Such strength would have made a good addition to the Order.'

But as it was, they were too far in the open for Inquisitor Atrapes's comfort. Thus when the Dark-Sider had almost caught up to him again, Rossos jumped from the speeder onto a walkway which connected a number of buildings in this area. From his remembrance of this section of the city-planet, if he managed to lead the Togruta through the winding maze-like platforms, they would eventually come within sight of the Citadel on the far end.

Landing with a small grunt, he ignited his lightsabre and waited for Zenas to arrive.

[Zenas Codrey]

He landed on walkway, watching the Inquisitor trace his movement through the air before he touched down. Zenas sprang immediately to the offensive, striking at the human's head and shoulders.

"Now, I'm looking for someone, a civillian working for your miltary," he stated, voice even, applying pressure as the lightsabers locked. "A woman who was transferred off of Naalol to here. What do you know about it!?"

[Rossos Atrapes]

The sabres made a number of popping and snapping sounds as Rossos kept himself in a firmer (yet still unnervingly nebulous) state of serenity, holding the Togruta off with the slightest bit more ease.

..."A woman who was transferred off of Naalol to here. What do you know about it!?"

The Inquisitor grinned, blocking several more slashes and attacks while moving backwards towards the door. Zenas continued forward, unrelenting in his attack. "Who is this woman you speak of?" he asked conversationally. The Dark-Sider's anger was more focussed now due to his needling earlier; it was a danger the Inquisitor was fully aware of, but the information the alien could give him could unlock his submission. "Many women are transferred from all over the galaxy to Imperial Centre, boy! Perhaps a bit more information is required, hmm?"

He hopped over a low slash, and kicked out at the Dark-Sider's head whilst he did so; at the same time, the door behind him slid open, and he stepped back through it quickly. His smirk stayed in place as the door began to close.

[Zenas Codrey]

Zenas leaned back, watching the boot skirt the tip of his nose, then came up to pursue Rossos. Zenas stepped forward and the doors halted, opening obligingly for him.

"A Togrutan mail clerk! What do you KNOW!?" He punctuated the question with a heavy overhead chop.

[Rossos Atrapes]

Rossos and Zenas moved down the hallway, past a number of branching corridors. It was quiet here; it seemed no one else was around. Zenas continued to push Rossos back with seeming ease, but Rossos had a fierce grin on his face. He was enjoying the fight...

"Oh, I'll need more than that, boy!" he growled, his grin still eerily in place. "A name, a company; and most importantly, who is she to you?"

By this time they had gone the length of the hallway, and were now about to go through another open-air set of of walkways. It took some fierce control to keep himself from utilizing his 'battle form'; if he did so, his enemy would be too focussed on the fight to answer. He needed to keep the Dark-Sider busy, but not so busy as to keep from answering his questions. As it was, he flowed from a Soresu overhead block to a swift one-handed attack from the Makashi form, hoping to put the Togruta off balance. The next few strikes, weaker than his previous defence but still blisteringly fast, were aimed at getting the offensive Zenas into a slightly defensive posture for the next few moments.

[Zenas Codrey]

Zenas was irritated that Rossos hadn't understood what he'd meant when he'd said she was transferred off Naalol, and made the immediate judgement that he wouldn't have such a slow mind knowing his mother's name.

"She worked on Valor Base, on Naalol," Zenas said, speaking with exaggerated slowness and clarity to mock the Inquisitor. He swatted aside his opponent's needling strikes with ease, taking the edge off his strength to match Rossos's speed. "Or do you not know of that either?"

[Rossos Atrapes]

Rossos grinned; this one had layers! It was talking now, not screaming in a powerful rage. This could prove to be more than interesting.

"An Imperial?" he murmured, but still loudly enough to be heard by Zenas. He flipped back an impressive distance and raised a single eyebrow in mocking amazement when he landed lightly with a thud on his boots.

"You are aware that there are people and droids you can go to for help in finding people. Why attack an Inquisitor?"

[Zenas Codrey]

"A what?" Zenas had never heard of the Inquisitoriate. There'd never been a single member of that organization on Naalol while he'd been there. At least, not one that had ever come looking for the post. Zenas shook his head to throw the distraction aside and answered the question.

"Civillians don't normally get access to military documents, do they? Of course not. I beat a code slicer into getting me access to the Valor Base records, but they purge their extraneous files often. By the time I'd been able to get any information, that woman had been long gone from the base, and her records there had been removed from the system. I'm assured that a full record of her employment exists, but on her current base. The snag, of course..." Here, Zenas began to once more close the gap on Rossos. "...is that I don't know where that is. And this is the center of the Imperial universe, is it not?" he asked, gesturing grandly around himself as they emerged onto the open walkway. "Surely someone here would know. Someone Imperial. And guess who's the lucky Imp I found first?" His face twisted into a sinister smile. "You." The Inquisitor's uniform burst into flame borne from the Togruta's anger.

[Rossos Atrapes]

The flames dispersed with a flare of his cloak and his sheer will. Force powers such as this were not beyond the Inquisitor, though he seemed to be breathing heavily.

"Indeed," the Imperial gave a feral grin, small streamers of smoke rising from his clothing. "Lucky me."

And then he did something rather surprising. He stepped off the side of the walkway, and...fell.

He landed on a walkway two stories down with a small thud, and shut off his yellow lightsabre. He smirked up at the Togruta, and began to walk down the path way to another door.

'Three...two...one...'

[Zenas Codrey]

Right on cue, Zenas landed in a low crouch, lekku trailing the motion as his legs coiled to absorb the landing and he sprang forward to Rossos. "Don't you try to flee from me! There's no way you can outrun me!"

[Rossos Atrapes]

With an almost preternatural grace, Rossos rolled underneath the slash the Dark-Sider swung, going back towards the alien. An elbow jetted into the Togruta's chest, and the Inquisitor spun gracefully into a defensive stance.

"What would I care of some mail clerk on Naalol, Togruta?" he asked. "But it seems it matters to you. While I may not know of this female being transferred, there might be a way that you can find her without attempting to destroy me."

His grin was now maniacal. Back-up Inquisitors and Agents were nearly upon them; just a few moments more, and they would be surrounding the two combatants, only to attack at Inquisitor Atrapes' word, or upon seeing his dead body.

[Zenas Codrey]

Zenas smirked.

"Well then let's hear it."

He kept his lightsaber on, his stance defensive, maintaining his focus on Rossos. He'd hear this plan, judge it immediately, and act accordingly. Though he was sure he already knew what he'd end up doing.

[Rossos Atrapes]

"Join me," he said. "Become an Inquisitor. With the authority of the Inquisitoriate, there are almost no military records you cannot access, or have others access in search of this...mail clerk. In fact, you may be able to summon her here."

He was breathing heavily, combative use of the Force tiring him and leaving a slight burning feeling in his muscles. He ignored it stoically; any distraction and he would very well be falling from the walkway in more than one piece. He still had much to do before he drew his last breath.

Inquisitors and Agents will be at your position in less than half a minute, Inquisitor, the IMP implant whispered into his consciousness.

[Zenas Codrey]

Factions always have grander objectives. The needs of the group always precede the needs of the individual. Even in the tiny mail office, Zenas had seen and understood this, as his mother had tried for years to be given a larger workspace to look after him, and been denied until he was the age of nine.

"I won't wear your leash, Inquisitor."

He stepped once, preparing the killing blow, when sudden noise drew him to a stop. Armed men on flying platforms, wielding weapons of such variety that Zenas couldn't identify them all. Every soldier had their focus trained on the Togruta. Even a wingpair of TIE fighters hovered on either side of the walkway. Zenas knew why they were there. He'd been winning. He was about to get what he'd wanted, but he let Atrapes stall with his "deal".

[Rossos Atrapes]

"I won't wear your leash, Inquisitor."

Rossos released a breath, sighing.

"Very well, Togruta," He said with an almost repentant look on his face. His eyes, however, glowed with satisfaction. "Then you must die."

His arm shot out, fingers and hand forming what military officers forever remember from Darth Vader. The Force coiled, and sprang to choke Zenas with a vengeance. It worked, for a moment, but Zenas merely flexed his will and Inquisitor Atrapes dropped his hand.

Two Inquisitors appeared from the shadows behind Atrapes, their lightsabres hooked to their belts in a display of security and arrogance. They moved to flank him on either side.

"Inquisitor Deshial," Rossos said almost conversationally as more Agents and Inquisitors moved down from behind the Togruta and behind Atrapes to surround Zenas. "It took you quite some time, too much time, to get these men ready and positioned."

Inquisitor Deshial took a step back, suddenly a bit afraid for himself. "You were moving quite a bit, Sir," he replied, sounding quite calm. "It was difficult to get a reading on you and where you were going--"

Rossos swung his still activated lightsabre without a word. Deshial's head hit the ground a second before the rest of his body did, his face still showing surprise at his own death.

"Kill the Togruta," he ordered. The other Inquisitor bowed and stepped forward. The Agents and Inquisitors on the walkway all began to press in on Codrey with emotionless expressions and lightsabres activated.

[Zenas Codrey]

Zenas felt his throat constrict, and with a flare of his own Force power broke the Inquisitor's hold. His lightsaber hissed back to life. He was surrounded by four other lightsaber wielders, if Rossos was to be included in the count. Agents of the Inquisitoriate raised their guns and fired from the platforms, their concentrated fire lancing in at Zenas's position, trying to pin him down to give the Inquisitors an edge. He jumped towards the building behind Rossos, feeling the heat of blaster fire pass his booted feet, landing on a ledge high above the Inquisitors. He looked down briefly to check their reactions, then started to climb at supernatural speed.

[Rossos Atrapes]

The lightsabre hissed as its blade retracted into the hilt. The two TIE fighters hovered quickly and began to follow the Dark-Sider, the occasional blast of their cannons sounding in the deepening night. The Agents quickly adjusted their aim and blaster fire was nearly ceaseless as they tried to hit the fleeing Togruta.

Atrapes didn't move, but merely watched the chase begin again, knowing that the Dark-Sider would escape, but not angry or frustrated. He made his way to the transport that awaited to take him back to the Citadel, the maniacal grin fading into a knowing smirk.

Be patient, the Force whispered, Be patient...

"The Many," Inquisitor Atrapes said as the nameless Inquisitor fell into step behind him, "will always defeat the One, no matter the talent and ability the One holds. The One will always lose. That is why the Sith have lost their Empire. Thus the best place for one to be, is among the Many."

[Zenas Codrey]

Zenas was thinking along a similar line as he leapt out into traffic. He caught the grill of a passing speeder, swinging his legs until he was able to flip himself backward onto the trunk of the speeder ahead. The TIEs were following, as were the military platform and Inquisitors. Only Rossos and the Inquisitor who'd stayed to accompany him were missing.

The citizens of Coruscant didn't break stride, having long become accustomed to the presence of TIEs and other military vehicles. They didn't have a lot of time to react to the Inquisitors either as they leapt from vehicle to vehicle in pursuit of Zenas. The Togruta clipped his lightsaber to his belt and gestured with both hands. The TIEs filled with fire as the pilots were superheated and charred to their chairs. The vehicles themselves began a slow, steady arc towards the lower levels.

Zenas and his train of Imperials followed them. The Togruta landed atop a TIE's octagon wing as it rotated, drawing his lightsaber in time to turn and meet the Inquisitors as they landed beside him. Fighting in such a close space was difficult, but Zenas had the edge. The Inquisitors had to be careful not to hamper each other, but Zenas was free to move.

He blocked the first stroke of a lightsaber and shoved it into line with the next attacker's. With the pair of them briefly locking weapons, Zenas was free to kick them off the wing with one motion. He ducked and spun to avoid the next lightsaber, leaping off the TIE as it continued to roll. The men on the platforms traced his arc with a hail of fire until it became clear where he was going. They made space for him and began to fire again, but Zenas laid flat and let them shoot each other into oblivion. The second platform hesitated, letting the third Inquisitor catch up to it, and in that time Zenas was gone, escaped to the cavernous lower levels of the city-planet.