Let the Games Begin (LD)

[Akasha Khan]

Klatooine. If it wasn't the farthest planet from the bright center of the galaxy, it was a close second - a contemptible ball of dust and rock that circled too near its contemptible brownish sun, peopled by a contemptible species muscle-headed simpletons who worshiped the Hutts, for Maiur's sake.

It had only taken a month for Akasha to decide that by rights the whole planet ought to be sterilized, terraformed, and converted into something useful. But no one was interested in the opinion of a castaway slave girl.

The black-furred Orryxian wrinkled her delicate nose at a particularly horrible stench curling out of a grate in the floor of the corridor. She tried to step around it, but one of the Klatooinian guards jabbed her in the small of her back with the butt end of his shockstick, and she gave him a baleful, green-eyed glare. It was ridiculous, really. Two armed guards to conduct a single, teenaged feline girl in binders to the fighting pits for the afternoon bout. But she took some perverse pleasure in the thought that they were actually afraid of her.

She stepped carefully over the grating and looked back at the guard's scowling bulldog jowls, this time with a demure smile. "You look awfully familiar. I put one of you dogfaces in traction last week. Was that your big brother?"

That earned her a jab from the other end of the stick. Akasha winced at the stinging welt but made sure her captors couldn't see.

As they approached the staging room, Akasha could hear the rumble of the crowd as some other match raged on the fighting sand. She'd been terrified when she'd come this way for the very first time - after all, her master had thought he was sending her to her death in the arena and was glad to be rid of her - but she'd disappointed him by breaking the Gamorrean's jaw and twisting it until he'd passed out from the pain. Now that she'd won three fights in a row, she was almost looking forward to her next one.

The little entourage spilled into the staging room - little more than a dungeon cell with a few tables and scant medical supplies, then a ramp that led out onto the pit floor - and immediately a mass of Orryxian flesh heaved to her feet from the bench at the wall, a matronly, dun-furred female shorter than Akasha but nearly as wide as she was tall. "How dare you!" she hissed at the guards. "Take those binders off my daughter immediately, you curs! She's no criminal!"

As one of the Klatooinians bent down to release the binders, Akasha smiled at him, baring her predatory fangs. But it was hard to be intimidating when Shiraga M'runhn was wrapping you up in a crushing hug.

"My dear, dear girl," Shiraga said, and to Akasha's chagrin, she got a kiss on both eyes. "Are you ready? You slept well in the night?"

"Yes, Mahra," Akasha replied through grit teeth.

"You haven't been eating as you should be, especially with this exercise," Shiraga chided. "How's your ankle? Healed from last time? Never mind. Sit down and let me wrap it."

With a sigh, Akasha lifted herself onto a table and let the older Orryxian swath most of her calf and foot in gauze. The woman chattered freely as she did so. "You know I don't like this, Akasha. If you'd just done as you were told and respected your master, you could be doing honest work - cleaning the palace, maybe, or even helping me in the kitchen."

Akasha tuned out the familiar tirade and tried to hear what was going on in the pit outside. She wondered who was fighting - it was a close match from the noise of the crowd.

"You've brought this on yourself, you know. You're a pretty girl, you could have been a dancer if you'd worked hard enough at it. You could be in the throne room now earning tips from Master Jaarhu's guests. But there's nothing to be done now. Ah well. We'll still make something back if you win today."

The girl's ears twitched in surprise. "Wait, make something back? You bet on the fight? But the buy-in was--"

"One hundred credits," Shiraga interrupted. "And I had to borrow half of it, so you'd better not disappoint me."

She snipped off the muslin with her claw, and Akasha tested it on the dusty floor - it was pleasantly firm and still suitably mobile. Smiling wanly, she asked, "And how much are we making when I win?"

"One thousand credits." Shiraga stood off the floor and set about stretching Akasha's arms.

"One thousand?" Akasha erupted. "They set the odds at ten-to-one? Just what am I fighting?"

The roar of the crowd thundered down the ramp - one of the fighters had gained the upper hand, and the match was about to be brutally decided.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

The Si'Klaata Cluster. You had to be a Hutt or know one of the oversized worms to be granted access to the Cluster and its planets. Lilaena wasn't sure, at this point, if all the trouble was worth it. Klatooine was a dry dustball of a planet, just barely more habitable than Tatooine.

Lilaena worked a bit of spit around in her mouth, and then expectorated it into the dirt. It was hard to see what Xim the Despot had found desirable enough to fight not one, but three wars over the area. She looked up, her green eyes catching the bright sunlight as the Chagrian majordomo of Jaarhu the Hutt beckoned her onward. She followed him, frowning in irritation at the dogfaced Klatooinians who bowed and scraped everywhere the Chagrian went. As the mouthpiece of the Hutt, the natives held him in reverence, as if he were a priest of some kind.

Perhaps he was. Lilaena tried not to glower at them from under her rough brown robe, but it was hard not to sneer at their blind servitude. A silly treaty signed millenia ago held them as virtual slaves to their 'gods' - but it was what such weakminded individuals deserved.

The roar of the arena grew louder as they walked through some cool stone corridors (cooler, not cool, she amended in her mind) and soon she arrived in the Hutt's private viewing box. Jaarhu had agreed to see her to discuss some business, but she'd had to meet him on his terms and on his turf. So she had to endure the indignity of waiting for him to have time to talk to her.

She had had some dealings with Jaarhu the Hutt in the past, before he had been set up on Klatooine. Before she had been set up on Onderon. Lilaena had spent several years fighting the Empire on her own, and Jaarhu had been one of her contacts for weapons.

The dark Jedi walked a few steps to the edge of the box, looking down into the sand filled arena just as the latest combatant had its head removed by a competent opponent. The crowd roared its approval as the sand soaked up the blood, and Lilaena felt bored.

[Akasha Khan]

The Chagrian came to stand beside her at the rail of the box and peered down into the pit. A Shistavanen raised his bloody arms in victory as a troop of guards removed the headless Weequay from the ring. The massive Hutt hmmmed cryptically and punched the result into an oversized datapad, calculating the match's impact on his winnings.

Lilaena caught the Chagrian's eyes, and he sensed her growing impatience. "Not yet," he said importantly. "There's still one match left on the docket - but, trust me, it will be short."

---

Akasha slowly advanced up the tunnel toward the fighting pit, and the rumble of the crowd grew louder and louder in her sensitive ears. She tried to look regal and composed, but she knew her frinetically bouncing tailtip was betraying her nerves.

One of the Klatooinians poked her again with his shockstick, and she glared balefully at him. Didn't he know anything about the importance of making an entrance?

There was no roof over the pit - just a few curved durasteel beams that spanned its width to hold lights and holoimagers to record the fights. The brown Klatooinian sun beat down on Akasha's black fur; after walking through Jaarhu's dungeons, it felt blisteringly hot. She tried to avoid the massive stain of blood-clotted sand as she stepped imperiously out into the pit, ears erect and chin held high.

"Eesoh mo pinku, ratta ha chinca Orryxiata, Akasha M'runhn!"

As the pit announcer introduced her, she was greeted with a round of boos from the crowd. Akasha had upset more than a few wagers over the last few weeks, especially when most of the lines were for how long she'd last before getting her head caved in. She located a box full of wealthy gamblers and flashed them a smile and a rude gesture.

"Sho patta ricoh, mahsa roh tatso, toh Barabel, Shaku!"

Akasha's left ear twitched. Had he just said Barabel?

One of the gates on the far side of the arena clattered open, and out charged a monstrous, predatory reptile with wickedly hooked claws, a grinning mouth full of fangs, and a swaying tail like a band of Mandalorian iron. The monster was at least two feet taller than Akasha and easily three times her weight. And she could smell its breath from all the way across the pit.

As the Barabel hissed and flexed for the cheering crowd, Akasha felt her jaw drop. Okay, so she knew that Chagrian sycophant wanted her dead, but this was getting ridiculous.

Of course, the Barabel may have been big, but he was slow - she could see that even now, cold-blooded, bad reflexes. She could circle around him and tire him out, win a battle of attrition if only she could keep her distance -

Something cold and heavy clamped around her neck, and she clapped her paws against it to find a metal collar there. The Klatooinian guards locked it in place, then brought out a long chain.

"Oh, no," Akasha said, putting out her claws. "Oh, no, you don't--"

Another two whacks from shocksticks subdued her, and the chain was attached to her collar. The only way this could be worse would be if...

She took the chain in her paw and gave it a tug. A length of it rose from the sand on a line that led straight toward the Barabel.

Shaku grinned like a Firaxan shark and tugged on the length of chain that ran from his own collar. Akasha lurched forward, nearly pulled off her balance.

Her ears sank. This was going to be bad.

Up in his box, Jaarhu the Hutt motioned to the game master with one flabby arm, a gong sounded, and Shaku yanked on the chain, sending Akasha flying toward him across the arena.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Lilaena raised an eyebrow at the last matchup, a small felinoid and a Barabel who looked big enough to fit two of the other inside him. The Orryxian female looked to be the much weaker opponent, and the Hutt seemed overly pleased at the match.

The felinoid was there for disposal, either for being irritating. When the gong sounded she was pulled off her feet immediately and it looked like the fight was half over already.

[Akasha Khan]

Akasha somehow managed to get her paws out in front of her so she didn't land nosefirst in the sand - thank the gods she hadn't wrenched any cervical vertebrae out of joint - but she still hit the ground hard and rolled several meters in front of the Barabel. Dazed, sore, and dizzy, she couldn't tell which direction was up, much less which direction her opponent was.

But then a sixth sense warned her of a hundred fifty kilograms of danger looming over her shoulder, and she rolled away from it just as a massive fist pounded the sand where her head had been moments ago. She tried to leap to her feet but flattened again as the Barabel's tail swept through the air at her with enough force to shatter bones.

Hastily, she scrabbled backwards and saw Shaku coiling up the chain in his huge claws, trying to eat up the slack so she couldn't escape from him. Thinking quickly, Akasha seized as much chain as she could carry.

Shaku pulled again, but this time she was ready and leapt along with it, flying overtop of him. She dropped her armful of chain, almost twenty kilos, as she passed overhead so it clouted him in the face. The big Barabel went down to the sand, and Akasha tumbled right behind him.

The Orryxian girl grabbed the chain and wrapped it around one of her paws, then brought it down with all the force she could muster on Shaku's jaw. There was a sickening pop - but it hadn't come from the Barabel. Akasha screamed with pain and dropped the chain, pulling her paw back to her chest. She'd just broken two fingers.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

The girl was outmatched, and she seemed to know it. Despite herself Lilaena found herself watching closely as the Orryxian worked with the heavy chain rather than against it, sending the huge Barabel crashing to the sand.

She clicked her tongue as the fighter tried to smack the scaled Barabel in the face with the chain, a small smile forming as the girl yowled in pain, clutching her hand to her chest. "The female - she is an experienced fighter? She seems young." Lilaena looked at the majordomo who was watching the proceedings with fervor.

[Akasha Khan]

"Young? Oh, yes," the Chagrian replied. "She is a new addition to the pits - a slave who didn't know her place. Still..." The horned alien licked his lips as Akasha rolled out of the way of another thunderous blow from the Barabel's tail. "She has been surprisingly resilient. It seems she can be quite an animal when it suits her."

Akasha had found her feet again and was trying to circle her opponent, trying to tangle his feet in the chain, but he was too canny for that. He spun with her and then snapped the chain toward her with brutal force.

If not for her quick reflexes, the Oryxxian girl might have lost some fangs, but she ducked the brunt of the chain - it snapped back and clipped her on the back of her ear, and she felt the sting of a fresh, bloody cut opening. If this was a battle of attrition, she was losing it.

Before she could recover, the Barabel tugged again - not hard enough to injure her, just hard enough to throw her off-balance. He had to know a single, solid blow would ruin her - why wasn't he just attacking? Surely he wasn't afraid of a few scratches...

And then she looked up at his stupid, saurian grin and realized - he was playing with her.

Akasha's venomous green eyes narrowed as she felt her rage rising. And then she moved faster than was physically possible.

She darted between the Barabel's legs, then around, tearing at him with her claws for what good it would do, seeking the cracks of soft tissue between monster's scales, stinging him like a swarm of wasps. Snarling, the Barabel swung at her with arms, legs, tail, trying to trample the little furry nuisance, but he couldn't lay a claw on her.

At last Akasha appeared in front of him again, sneering coolly at the big reptilian. With a grunt, the Barabel took a step toward her. But then the chains drew taut around his legs, and he crashed heavily facedown in the sand.

At once Akasha was on him. She threw a length of chain around his neck, twisted it, and pulled back with all her strength, bracing her muscular legs against his back. But the folds of skin at the Barabel's throat were too thick; he gurgled angrily, but she just couldn't draw it tight enough to cut off his air supply.

Back in the box, the Chagrian glanced nervously at the game master, whose hand was on the gong to signal the end of the match. But before he reached a point of decision, Shaku worked one of his legs free and suddenly heaved to his feet.

Akasha yelped but managed to keep her footing on his shoulders. And just before the Barabel could leap backwards to crush her against the nearby wall, she leapt up onto one of the steel beams spanning the width of the pit.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

The fight was stretching longer than Lilaena had thought it would. The felinoid was quick, very quick, and more resourceful than the Chagrian's description had indicated. Quite an animal, indeed.

Lilaena felt a surge of anger at the majordomo's unconscious xenophobia, but pushed it down. Not the time, nor the place. Callidus was slowly teaching her patience, if only by continually making her wait. "She almost bested your Barabel," she said, looking sideways at the Chagrian. "Something I assume you were not expecting."

He stroked his lethorns, his irritation showing on his face. "She does not have the strength needed. It is only a matter of time."

Lilaena inclined her head as though she agreed with him, but couldn't help but hear the crowd. There were those who were cheering for the diminutive Oryxxian. "She is not without her supporters. But the quicker the better, I am anxious to talk to your master."

[Akasha Khan]

"Yes, yes, I am certain it will be over soon," the Chagrian said with mounting impatience, and he pointed to the Orryxian crouching on the rafter. "She... she can't do that! Where's the official?"

Akasha was busy spooling up as much of the chain as she could on the steel beam; the last thing she needed was for her opponent to pull her down ten meters headfirst into the sand.

Meanwhile, the Barabel struggled to disentangle himself, but every time he loosened the chain around his throat, Akasha pulled up the slack. She looked frantically at the lengths of chain draped over both sides of the beam - if she could find a way to tether him there, take away what was left of his mobility, the game master just might, might give her the mercy of calling a draw.

Suddenly a couple meters slipped off of the beam, and there was a cheer from the crowd, and Akasha looked down to see, unbelievably, the Barabel, still wrapped in the chain, climbing up the cage that surrounded the pit to meet her.

Ears flat, tail puffed like a bristle-brush, Akasha slowly backed away as the massive reptilian hauled himself onto the beam. For a lumbering hulk, he seemed to have extraordinary balance--

The Barabel lifted his tail and swatted it down hard against the beam, setting the whole thing swaying, and Akasha fell to her hands and knees, gripping it on both sides to keep her balance. Then the reptilian leered at her and charged.

Akasha fumbled with the chain, trying to take enough of it in her paws to make a whip, but the Barabel stepped on it, leaving her only a few meters of slack. There was only one escape she could see.

She grabbed a hold of the chain and jumped off the side of the beam, swinging underneath the Barabel like a pendulum. The Orryxian grabbed at the beam again on the other side, clawing for purchase amid the piles of loose chains.

The Barabel twisted his head around, trying to see what she was doing, and thumped the beam again, and again - each impact sent agonizing vibrations through Akasha's injured paw. Her grip on the beam slipped, and she fell, screaming, certain at this height she'd break both legs.

But somehow she'd made a knot around the beam above her, and instead of plummeting straight down, she swung again, back and forth above the sands, like a bird on a snare, gripping the chain with her good paw to keep the tension off the collar at her throat. And then she felt herself ascending.

The Barabel was reeling her in. Struggle as she might, there was nothing she could do. A massive hand closed over her neck, raising her by the iron collar, and the reptile held her in front of his face with a serrated grin of victory.

She'd lost. This was it. And she was sure Shaku had been told in no uncertain terms to see she didn't leave the ring alive.

A part of her wanted to resign herself to her fate - hope it wouldn't hurt too badly, hope she'd pleased Maiur enough that she would merit even a humble berth on the Ship of Souls...

As the Barabel's claws slipped beneath the collar to close around her throat, another part of her welled up, a part full of rage and pride - this wasn't the way she was supposed to die, a slave and a pauper, losing a fixed match for the amusement of a slimy bureaucrat and his filthy worm of a master!

Akasha reached out with her own paw toward the Barabel's neck - a silly, useless gesture, since his reach was far greater than hers, but she imagined crushing it in her grip, piercing his windpipe with her claws, searing him with all the retribution for all the indignity, all the fear, all the pain she'd had to endure in Jaarhu's household...

The glint in the Barabel's eyes dimmed. He reached with his free hand and tried to loosen the chain around his neck. But against all reason, it tightened.

Akasha felt the blood pounding in her ears, but still she squeezed the air with her paw. The chain tightened by another two links, and blood began to seep from the Barabel's neck folds.

With a gurgle, Shaku grabbed Akasha with his other hand, determined to squeeze the life out of her. But he couldn't fight the mysterious force that was squeezing back. His eyes were dull now, and he began to sway.

He swayed just a centimeter too far. Both Barabel and Orryxian tumbled from the beam.

But the slack gave out first on the Barabel's side of the knot. He jerked to a stop with the crunch of snapping vertebrae.

Akasha rolled out of the Barabel's lifeless grip, rolled again as the chain caught her in the side, and swung freely at the end of her chain, a scant two meters above the surface of the pit. She fought feebly to haul herself up, to keep the collar from pressing in on her neck, but her strength was failing her. As she spun slowly, she saw a pair of Klatooinian guards rushing toward her. They hastily unclipped the chain from her collar, and she crumpled to the sand floor.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Her eyes narrowed as she watched the end of the fight, feeling the unmistakable tug of the Force being used. The slave girl collapsed to the sand as the Klatooinian guards unclipped the chain, and Lilaena turned to the majordomo. "Well, that was interesting." She smiled, enjoying the Chagrian's consternation at the result of the match.

"Jaarhu is available now, yes?"

[Akasha Khan]

The Chagrian's lethorns quivered, and he had acquired the look of a man who has just made a very expensive mistake. Lilaena's voice shook him back into the present.

"Oh... ah... indeed." He leaned over the box of the rail and cleared his throat. "Your excellency!"

The Hutt stirred as if out of slumber, rolling his huge, glassy eyes toward the Chagrian.

"Miss De'Ville to see you, Master," the majordomo reported.

Jaarhu hmmmmed again and turned his eyes back toward the ring, where a team of guards were rolling out a ladder to cut down the Barabel. "Ah, the anarchist," he rumbled in his native tongue. "The price on your head has gone up since we met last. You must be doing well."

On the sand below, Akasha groaned as the Klatooinians dragged her out of the arena.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"Yes, I have been quite successful, your Excellency," Lilaena replied, adding a thick slather of flattery. The little Orryxian was dragged out of the arena, and she couldn't help but follow the movement with her eyes.

"The fight was very entertaining," she added. "The Orryxian is quite resilient."

[Akasha Khan]

"And when Trakkin asked for Shaku against an Orryxian cubling, I thought he was arranging an execution," Jaarhu replied, eying the Chagrian wickedly. "I should not have underestimated your appetite for drama."

The Chagrian smiled plasticly. "A pity the Barabel slipped at the end. A fight like that should not be decided by chance."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"Perhaps it was fate that she should live to fight another day," said Lilaena. She smiled thinly. "I am looking to pay for your services again, Jaarhu."

"Oh, ho," he boomed, "Looking for some new and interesting weapons? I have a new disruptor rifle you might be interested in."

"Not exactly," she said, "But I am looking for a lot of guns."

Jaarhu's eyes rolled around, whether because he was high from whatever was in his hookah or because he was trying to read her, Lilaena couldn't tell. "Bulk sales, thats more of a Black Nebula thing..." His bulbous eyes settled on Trakkin. "Not that I mind dipping into their profits."

She raised an eyebrow, "I prefer to keep this as much off the books as possible. I've never gotten involved with Black Sun or Nebula and I prefer not to." And then, "I want to buy the Orryxian as well."

[Akasha Khan]

Trakkin gaped. "You what?"

"Oh?" Jaarhu dropped a rubbery hand into a bowl of live paddy frogs, which thrashed about trying to escape. "I didn't even know I owned her."

"Acquisition from a spice trader some months ago," Trakkin explained hastily. "She and her... mother, I believe. The mother works in the kitchens. But I'm afraid the younger one hasn't taken well to the domestication process."

"Slaves are Trakkin's business. Weapons are mine. Buy enough, and I might throw in the girl as a gratuity."

The Chagrian, completely flustered, blurted out, "Master, she may still be worth something in the pits..."

The Hutt waved dismissively and shoved a squealing paddy frog into his ponderous mouth. "Work out a price, then. It doesn't matter to me. Now, leave me. The next fight's about to start."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Why had she said that? She didn't want a slave - didn't approve of slavery - and certainly didn't want a wet nosed kid following her around. But as the Chagrian and Hutt talked, the more she felt that she'd made a good decision. It just felt right.

Trakkin's lethorns quivered, but with what emotion she couldn't tell. As he guided her away from Jaarhu, she said, "You wanted her dead anyway. I'll give you a hundred credits to take her off your hands." Before he could accept or protest she added, "I am going to be placing a very large order with your boss... I'm sure he would be upset if this Orryxian slave girl was the reason he lost my business."

[Akasha Khan]

Trakkin looked perturbed, but he clearly wasn't about to let a matter of pride override his business sense. A hundred credits was robbery for a slave, but he couldn't well demand a premium price after what he'd said about the girl. "Very well," he said. "But don't expect to get any good out of her. In fact, you may want to keep one of those guns at your side."

He led her down the causeway that ran between the arena and Jaarhu's opulent palace. The sun overhead somehow contrived to be dull and hot at the same time. "Shall I take you to the armory now?" the Chagrian asked.

---

Akasha tried to get her feet underneath her as the two Klatooinians hauled her back down the corridor to the dungeon, but at last she gave up and let them drag her - she was simply too exhausted to offer any resistance. They lifted her onto a table and left her there, and she lay silently curling and uncurling her limbs to make sure they all worked.

The door to the cell clanged open again, and an austere-looking medical droid wheeled in, but it was nearly knocked over by Shiraga, who was hard on its servos.

"Akasha! My dear, poor, precious girl, let me look at you!"

Once more Akasha was crushed in the older Orryxian's arms, and the best she could do was to hold her injured paw out of Shiraga's way - all her aching muscles burned from the strain, but she ground her teeth and bore it.

"Maiur's eyes, you're a sight," Shiraga lamented. "I'm so sorry, Akasha. I should never have made such a wager, I didn't know what that horned rat put you up against."

"The medic," Akasha rasped.

"What?" Shiraga released the girl and turned toward the droid, then to Akasha, and back again. And then she swept out a heavy paw. "What are you doing, standing around?" she snapped. "See to her, will you?"

With a longsuffering warble, the droid wheeled forward and began examining Akasha. It sprayed disinfectant and medical sealant on her open wounds and began wrapping a splint around her broken fingers.

"So what's to happen to you now you've lost a fight?" Shiraga asked mournfully.

"What?" Akasha's ears twitched. "I didn't lose."

"You... you didn't?"

"I left the Barabel dead," Akasha said irritably. And then there was a distant look in her eyes. "I... I killed him." The shocking finality of it settled on her aching shoulders.

"Akasha, you... won?" Shiraga grinned and clapped her paws mirthfully. "Ah, praise Maiur! A thousand credits, Akasha, just think of it!"

"Yeah..." Akasha stared numbly into a dark corner of the cell as the droid continued its ministrations.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"Yes," Lilaena said, following along behind Trakkins as he led her away from the arena.

Once they arrive in the armory, it was just a matter of placing the order for two hundred blaster rifles and a hundred vibroblade (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Vibroblade) long knives. She had her eyes on the DXR6 Carbine (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/DXR6_heavy_carbine), a heavy carbine model with a longer range than any other on the market, black or otherwise.

At a thousand credits a piece, the carbines were a huge purchase, but her credit chits checked out and the Chagrian was quick to help her make the arrangements for pick up and delivery. The slave girl would be sent along with the weapons, which would be ready in a few days time.

[Akasha Khan]

The days passed as slowly as ever on Klatooine.

Akasha had been given the rest of the evening to recuperate before she went back to whatever menial labor the head slave saw fit to give her - mucking out the eopie stables, sweeping the back corridors of the palace, whatever solitary assignments would keep her out of sight of Trakkin, Jaarhu, and their many guests. As long as she was far away, they really didn't care how good a job she did, so neither did she.

She was more sullen and less abrasive than usual. Any time she had a spare moment to think, her mind went back to that bloody struggle on the beam where she should have died. Her neck was still bruised under her short, black mane, and she could remember what it felt like as the Barabel's claws closed on her throat; she also remembered how it felt to reach out with all her fear and anger and hatred and will the chain to draw tighter on her enemy's neck. She couldn't explain it. But she knew it had happened, whether it was the grace of Maiur or something else... something else entirely.

It was three days after the match that she was summoned, unexpectedly, by the head slave and two of the house guards. With a sigh of resignation to what had now become routine, Akasha offered her paws for the magnetic binders and let the guards conduct her through the palace.

But when Akasha turned toward the dungeon corridor that led to the fighting pits, she took a swipe from a shockstick. To her surprise, they were driving her further into the palace - to the civilized quarters where she was rarely allowed.

They crossed into a marble corridor where the air was pleasantly cool and the walls were hung with opulent silk curtains; ahead Akasha could see what looked like a vacant dining room or meeting hall, and she could hear Trakkin's voice echoing from inside.

A strange, uneasy feeling fluttered in her chest as she stepped into the room. Trakkin sat conversing glibly with a human woman with dark hair and some kind of plain brown robe.

Trakkin turned toward her and gave her a slim smile she didn't like at all. "Ah, here we are. You may collect her at your leisure, Ms. De'Ville."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Lilaena stood, turning towards the short Orryxian slave and revealing a jagged black design inked over one eye and cheek. She looked at the girl, and held out her hand towards her. "I will take her now, thank you. The cargo is stowed and I don't want to miss my departure window."

Trakkin nodded, and the two guards prodded the slave forward. Lilaena could see a fire in the girl's eyes, mingled with confusion, but there would be time for explainations later. A slight Twi'leki female appeared in the room from a door hidden behind some of the curtains, walking quickly and lightly to the Chagrian's side.

She bent towards his ear, and Lilaena was striding towards her new slave, grasping her by the binders. "Lets go." The felinoid looked up at her, green eyes with slit pupils a contrast to her own, round ones. "And quickly," she murmured, for her ears only.

[Akasha Khan]

Akasha wondered for a moment whether she should try to resist - but the woman's grip on her binders was iron-tight, and there was more than authority in her voice; there was urgency. The felinoid glanced briefly over to the Twi'lek and the Chagrian.

"What - who are you?" she murmured.

Trakkin pulled away from the Twi'lek and started walking after them. "Excuse me, Miss De'ville... a moment, if you please."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She kept walking, not exactly sure what news the Twi'lek had brought along with her dancer's legs and skimpy clothing, half dragging the girl behind her. "You have my credits, and I have my merchandise." She could guess what he was going to say, however. She had a feeling that it wasn't good, and Master A'na Eldhil had always taught her to trust her feelings.

Trakkin spluttered, his pace quickening as he signaled the Klatooinian guards. "We do not have your credits, Ms. De'Ville! Your freighter is about to be locked down at the landing pad until this is put right!"

Ah. That. A shell game played with credits and a little bit of slicing had created the funds she'd used to purchase the weapons and the lucky slave. They were supposed to remain in her account, and thusly in Jaarhu's account, for a few days. Unfortunately some plucky stylus pusher at the bank must have located the 'clerical error' and corrected it. Ahead of the scheduled systems check in two days time.

The dog-faced and dour Klatooinian's didn't faze her, and she kept walking briskly towards the exit, pushing the girl ahead of her.

[Akasha Khan]

Akasha's mind worked feverishly. A ship. There was a ship. That meant she wasn't being transferred to one of Jaarhu's other estates, and this woman was certainly not one of his flunkies, which meant she was being... kidnapped? Rescued? Stolen?

If it meant leaving this gods-damned rock behind, she wasn't sure she cared.

"Don't let them leave!" Trakkin shrieked. The Klatooinian guards behind them charged after the two females, shocksticks crackling with potential, and more guards were on the way.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Lilaena's eyes narrowed, and she was forced to release her hold on the Orryxian's binders as the guards got too close. Whirling around, she thrust an open palm towards them, and they flew backwards, howling as they crashed into a heap on the floor. She turned back, pushing a hand in the girl's back and shoving her forward.

"That isn't very good customer service, Trakkin," she called over her shoulder as she bundled her new slave out the double doors. "One might think you don't trust me."

[Akasha Khan]

Akasha gaped at the display of arcane power. Who was this woman?

It didn't even occur to her to run. The firm hand on her back was more commanding than the shocksticks had ever been, and she'd never forgive herself if she abandoned this adventure to go back to Trakkin's lapdogs.

The next few minutes seemed almost surreal - a blur of unfamiliar corridors, the blood pounding in her ears, the sound of booted footsteps pursuing them but never catching up. Slaves and house staff scattered from their path; in one grand hall a Besalisk chef leapt out of their way and upset a giant tureen sitting on a hoversled, dumping gallons of steaming soup over the tile floor.

At last they rushed down a darkened tunnel Akasha recognized as hangar access, but when they reached the bottom, they were confronted by a line of Klatooinians, Grans, and Weequays armed with repeating blasters standing guard over a nondescript freighter. They turned their weapon barrels toward the two fugitives, and Akasha's feet skittered out from under her, and she dropped to the duracrete floor on her tail with a yelp.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

The slave fell on the ground as they reached the end of the tunnel, her bound hands unable to stop her fall. Lilaena's lightsaber was already in her hands, and she ignited it, tossing her commlink at the girl. Standing over her as the first brave guard opened fire, she shouted, "Tell the freighter to fire up! We are getting out of here!"

She deflected the bolts, and then the entire line of armed flunkeys opened up on them.

[Akasha Khan]

Akasha was already raising her cuffed paws in surrender when her mysterious captor stepped in front of the guards to oppose them with a tongue of purple flame. She was so awed she fumbled the communicator to the ground.

Swearing under her breath, the Orryxian twisted her arms so she could close one paw over the device and depressed the central button with her thumbclaw.

Lilaena's shimmering purple blade turned in sweeping great arcs, dazzling her. She almost missed the squelching query from the commlink.

"F-fire up the engines," she stammered.

"What? Who is this?"

Akasha watched Lilaena reflect a volley of blaster bolts, felling half the company. Suddenly she felt emboldened.

"You're to start the engines immediately, we're pulling out!" she snarled into the link - a haughty, imperious tone that expected to be obeyed.

The freighter gave a mighty shudder as the repulsorlifts spun up, and the aft engine ports began to glow.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

A Klatooinian male dropped his repeater rifle, yowling and running in fear back towards the freighter. He yammered, his jowls shaking, and he was so afraid of the demon with the purple blade behind him that he didn't notice the freighter's ramp lowering in front of him.

A helmeted and armored figure came into focus suddenly from where it crouched on the descending ramp, but it was the last thing he saw. The Mandalorian shot him in the head, then turned its attention to the shrinking line of guards.

Lilaena saw her backup, and was able to shout down at the slave, "Get up and stay behind me!" She started moving forward, just as the guards that had been chasing them caught up behind them.

[Akasha Khan]

Akasha scrambled to her feet, claws skittering on the duracrete pad, and hurried after the woman with her head held low. The remaining palace guards fell like water between Lilaena's burning blade and the crossfire from the armored soldiers in the freighter. Akasha didn't recognize the uniforms, but for the present, it didn't matter.

She ran until her feet were on metal grating instead of duracrete. Then she looked up and found two armored suits waiting for her on the ramp - she squeaked as they seized her by the upper arms and hauled her inside the ship.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She stormed up the ramp, disengaging her lightsaber and clipping it on her belt as the Mandos grabbed the slave and yanked her inside. The ramp was raising already, the potshots from the Klatooinians outside spanging off the hull.

"Get us out of here!" Lilaena stalked up the passage towards the cockpit, one of the female Mandolorians behind her pulling the slave into the small living area and setting her on the couch. "Don't take those binders off," she called over her shoulder.

"So, how is it...?" The Dark Jedi stood behind the pilot, Jeng. He was out of armor, a shock of blond hair perched on his head like a bird about to take flight.

"Could be better, Mandalore," he said, the freighter already lifting off of the duracrete. "We'll have to move fast if we're going to get clear before -" A warning light blinked, and then stayed lit as a claxion blared.

"...before they launch fighters," finished Lilaena. Perfect. From the looks of it, Uglies with a few Headhunters mixed in. Nothing but the "best" for Jaarhu.

[Akasha Khan]

Akasha bounced on the couch cushion, winced, and shifted so her tail wasn't caught underneath her. The cabin around her was little to speak of - more comfort than a warship, less than a pleasure cruiser. This was a working vessel, spartan and functional.

The armored woman laid a gloved hand firmly on the Orryxian's shoulder and pulled a restraining belt out of the back of the couch. With her paws still bound, the simple clasp was as good as a padlock, and Akasha gave the soldier a dirty look for tying her down like a common prisoner, but when the freighter lurched up off its landing skids and whirled toward the hangar exit, suddenly the Orryxian was glad she'd done it.

Akasha's ears flinched at the harsh noise of heavy blasters impacting the deflector shields. She tried to look out a viewport, but she couldn't see one from her seat. So she turned back toward the fierce-looking visor the Mandalorian soldier wore.

"Who are you?" she ventured. "Where are we going?"

The woman didn't answer - though she did reach down a hand. Akasha looked at it uncomprehendingly for a moment and then sheepishly surrendered the communicator, which she'd been gripping fiercely.

And then something slammed into the side of the freighter, jarring her to the bones.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Her grip tightened on the back of Jeng's seat as the ship shuddered under the assault of the fighters. "Keep flying, I'll take care of these."

He nodded, reaching up to boost the power to the repulsors, prepping the ship for the switch to sublights. Lilaena edged past Vason at the laser cannon controls, and made her way to the turret that housed the twin mounted blaster cannons. Climbing the ladder she slipped into the worn, but padded pneumatic seat, strapping in and adjusting the headset.

Pressing the comm button on the headset, Lilaena grabbed the controls and tracked as close to aft as she could get. But before she could tell Jeng to turn to right angles with their pursuers, she felt the ship moving, and the Uglies showed up on her scope. Hideous conglomerates of various fighters, the Uglies behind them appeared to be a mix of TIE and X-wing parts - eyeballs with spokes, and wedges between panels.

Fortunately they blasted apart just as easily as their pretty counterparts - easier in some cases. They usually had all the weaknesses of the ships they were cobbled together from, and none of their strengths, though there were some exceptions. Lilaena depressed the triggers, the blaster cannons tracing red plasma towards her target, which blew up spectacularly.

She heard the laser cannons firing, taking out a plucky TIE-wing that got too close to the front of the YV-100 (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/YV-100_light_freighter) light freighter that she and her Mandos had stolen for this little operation. The comm crackled in her ear as she swung the blaster cannons around, tracking another Ugly. "We're starting to outpace them. Leaving atmo in two minutes."

[Akasha Khan]

"Incoming signal from the surface."

The vidscreen to Lilaena's left filled with Jaarhu's bloated, quivering face, his bulbous eyes dilated with rage. "You've made a dangerous enemy, anarchist!" he thundered. "Even if you escape with your life, I'll put a bounty on you and your slave so high you won't be able to show your faces in any civilized system!"

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"Idiot," Lilaena replied, "You can't possibly offer more than the Empire already is." She smiled. "And yet, here I still am."

She blew apart an X-TIE with the blaster cannons, and then saw the blue haze of the atmosphere of Klatooine fading into black. The fighters, not equipped to deal with vacuum, fell back as the freighter punched through into space. "Good bye, Jaarhu," she said. "Its been a pleasure." Jeng cut the transmission for her, and she slid out of the turret and crawled back to the main passageway.

"Get us into hyperspace and make a few jumps before heading home," she ordered, and then walked up the passage to check on her new aquisition. The slave girl.

[Akasha Khan]

Akasha had given up on trying to make conversation with her Mandalorian keeper. She looked up sharply when the cabin door slid open, and the guard snapped to attention. There was no question where the power rested here. This woman breathed command, and even wind and fire obeyed her.

And Akasha had no idea where her place was here. She may have been a lowly slave, but it was the mistress herself who'd come to collect her. The Orryxian stared into Lilaena's poison-green eyes with an unspoken challenge.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Lilaena put her hand out, and Granoi relaxed. After a moment the Mando moved away, heading out and up to the cockpit as the YV-100 raced for hyperspace.

The Dark Jedi sat at a broken dejarik table, looking at the slave girl as the Orryxian stared back. "You probably have questions," she said, then braced moments before the ship stretched into hyperspace. The girl fell to the side, but was held in place by the restraint belt, and she managed to push herself back up with her bound hands.

"So," continued Lilaena when the ride smoothed out, "Ask."

[Akasha Khan]

Akasha had rather hoped she'd be set free by now. This position was just a bit demeaning.

But she didn't even hesitate with her first question. "Who are you?"

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"My name is Lilaena De'Ville," she said, brushing her chin length hair out of her eyes. It was cut raggedly, as though someone had paid a lot of money to get a haphazard look, or perhaps she'd just hacked at it with a knife one day. "I am a Jedi... Dark Jedi," she amended slowly.

After a moment of eyeballing each other, she added, "I am going to release your hands, but if you try anything you will live to regret it." Lilaena made a small gesture and the binders clicked open.

[Akasha Khan]

Akasha may have blinked once in the past minute. She broke her gaze with Lilaena only when her binders fell off of their own accord. She took a short, sharp breath, then rubbed her wrists where the binders had chafed them. She wasn't about to "try anything."

The Orryxian looked up again. "You're a mystic," she said. "Gifted of the gods. I've heard of those such as you, but I've never met one before."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"I am no mystic," she said, but didn't elaborate. Better for the girl to have some awe when dealing with her. Though the felinoid was projecting a challenge to her with her eyes, despite it all.

She would prefer not to have to break the girl's spirit, if it could be avoided. Not that she wouldn't, if she needed to. Lilaena did not look away from the slave, adding, "So you have not heard of the Jedi before?"

[Akasha Khan]

The girl's eyes flickered. "Only in stories," she said. "I... was taught they were a myth."

She'd almost said thought they were, but she didn't want this woman to think of her as ignorant. Of course, it was probably too late for that.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Lilaena looked at her, then got up, walking over to get herself a glass of water. After a moment she poured another. "What is your name, slave?"

She took her seat again, and floated the second glass with the Force over to the Orryxian, setting it down gently on the table in front of the girl. "And your age."

[Akasha Khan]

Akasha bristled at the word 'slave,' even though there hadn't been any particular malice in it. Somehow, she'd been entertaining the idea that buying her had just been a ruse.

She took the glass of water hesitantly, cautious in case it might start flying again, and sipped it to wet her throat, parched from the chase through the palace. Slave or not, she was going to maintain her dignity, and she comported herself like a young duchess.

"My name is Akasha Khan," she replied, glad to be throwing away the guise of her nursemaid's surname. She paused, fully expecting to see some flicker of recognition on Lilaena's face. But, to her disappointment, she never saw it.

"...and I'm sixteen standard years," she finished, a little lamely.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Sixteen. A little younger than she'd expected, but also older than she'd hoped. The younger, the easier it was to train. Hawkins, her estranged padaw- apprentice. Apprentice. He was Lilaena's age if not older, and quite mentally set in his ways.

It was good because he was never going to let go of his anger, but bad because he had taken off before his training was complete. She heard of him from time to time in Iziz, ingraining himself into the Onderonian underworld. With all that she had going on with Callidus and the Mandalorians... and the intrigues in the Palace...

Lilaena blinked, focusing on the slave again. "And you are Orryxian, yes?" The dark furred female nodded, sipping at the water again, almost daintily. It was a strange picture, overlaid with the desperate killer she'd seen in the arena.

"In your last fight for Jaarhu the Hutt, against the Barabel. How did you manage to finish it off?"

[Akasha Khan]

Akasha knew she was being evaluated. For what, she couldn't begin to guess, but a woman who could wield a blade made of burning light and cast her enemies aside with a stroke of her hand didn't fight through a company of guards to fetch someone to do her housework.

But at the mention of the fight, the flesh of her ears paled. She suddenly felt like a kitten caught with her paw in the ornamental ootee pond, and she wasn't even sure why.

"I... um... the chain caught somehow on the beam," she said uncertainly. "When we fell, there was less slack on his end, and I... guess I got lucky."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"There is no such thing as luck," Lilaena said. "Think, girl. You were being choked by him. What happened?"

Her eyes bored into the slave's yellow irises, willing her to have some sort of inkling as to how she'd beaten the Barabel.

[Akasha Khan]

Akasha blinked, startled by the force of the woman's eyes. She had to turn away to get the wheels in her head unstuck.

"I... tried to fight back," she said. "I couldn't reach him, but I... I imagined I could."

It sounded foolish, but she glanced back at her captor, and Lilaena's expression had not changed.

"He was crushing me," she said. "All I wanted to do was to squeeze back. I hated him. I wanted to destroy him. I imagined sinking my claws into his flesh, tearing him to pieces, pulling the chain tighter over his throat--"

She was back on Klatooine, struggling in the Barabel's grasp, dangling high over the fighting sands, her blood full of adrenalin and rage, her nose full of the stink of Shaku's breath and her own fear, her lungs burning and her ears pounding as if they would burst, and she saw the chain slip and shrink over the Barabel's throat, knifing through his neck folds and drawing blood--

"Maiur's eyes," she swore, and she stared wide-eyed into Lilaena's. "The chain moved! Just like..."

She looked down at the glass of water in her now-trembling paw.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"Yes, just like." Lilaena nodded in response to the slave's stunned silence. "You have the potential to do what I can do."

She paused and looked up from her concentration on the Orryxian when a pair of Mandos walked by, but then returned her gaze to the girl. "Has anything like that happened to you before? Like the chain moving when you willed it... or lucky dice rolls, or anything like that?"

[Akasha Khan]

"I... I don't know--" Akasha paused and took another sip of water. "There was a time in Jaarhu's palace, I... I was so angry at that worm, Trakkin, and a vase behind me suddenly shattered. And then..." Her lips crept upward into a smile. "I once imagined a light fixture falling on Trakkin as he walked under it. Missed him by a few centimeters, though. The other slaves said I was bad luck."

The enormity of it all began to kindle inside her like a fire. Suddenly, everything made sense. The fall of the Khan thane, her exile from Orryxia, her betrayal and enslavement - all of it had been leading to this moment.

"I'm like you," she said, fairly quivering with excitement. "Is that why you came for me?"

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"You might be like me," Lilaena corrected. "You certainly have the potential to wield the Force, but it takes great strength of character to do it on purpose, and not just have it come forth as part of a child's temper tantrum."

A Mando came up, and removed his helmet. "We are done with the spot check on the weapons, Mandalore. They all check out."

"Good," Lilaena said, "I'd hate to come away with inferior product."

The man looked sideways at the slave, but said nothing. She dismissed him.

[Akasha Khan]

Akasha's ears burned. Somehow she felt the comment about inferior product applied to her as well.

But she wasn't inferior. She was certain she could prove herself if given the chance.

"What do I need to do to learn?" she asked.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She was eager, perhaps too eager. But there was much about Akasha Kahn that could be molded into a perfect weapon. Lilaena looked at her calmly, and then said, "You must sit still and observe only. For now you are my servant, and I will train you in my spare time."

How would Callidus feel about this dark furred alien girl joining them on Onderon? Frell what he thinks. Akasha would be her project and Callidus had known that Lilaena was capable of training others when he'd taken her on as an apprentice. She'd had a learner at that time. Still did, somewhere. Hawkins would rue the day he'd left.

"Do you have any skills, anything you can do, besides fight? What did you do for Trakkins?"

[Akasha Khan]

Her ears sank disappointedly for a moment, but only for a moment. If she had to wait for the opportunity to fulfill her destiny, she would.

"I... Trakkin had me doing menial work," she admitted with distaste. "Cleaning, washing dishes, mucking the..."

Her nose wrinkled at the mere memory of eopie-stench.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Well. Not very impressive.

Lilaena raised an eyebrow. "And you have no other skills?"

[Akasha Khan]

Akasha tried not to appear flustered. There was a lot at stake here. Desperately, she tried to think of what would impress a Dark Jedi warrior.

"I learned to hunt back at home," she said. "I'm very good at moving quietly. I used to sneak through the palace all the time. Jaarhu's palace, I mean. I was also trained with a rakshi stick - it's a kind of staff weapon."

Granted, the training she'd received was more ceremonial than functional - but she was certain she could make the transition.

"If there are skills you want me to learn, I can learn quickly."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"I am sure you will," Lilaena said.

She got to her feet, and stretched a little. "Our flight will not be long. But if you are hungry, you may get something to eat." She indicated the kitchenette behind her. "Once we arrive, you will be quiet and watchful. And you are not to forget that you are mine to do with as I please. It pleases me now to take you and train you in the Force. But this may not always be the case."

Lilaena looked at the girl deeply, to make sure she understood. "There are people where we are going that are just as powerful as I am, and you need my protection. So don't go running off, because you will be found. And my warriors, the Mandalorians, will not be gentle."

[Akasha Khan]

If she was trying to scare her...

Well, maybe it was working. Just a little. This wasn't like being brought into Jaarhu's palace, where the master of the house had no idea what to do with her and was flustered by her sheer stubbornness. Akasha had endured floggings there, and she had the scars to prove it. But these people wouldn't send her to the eopie pens if she proved herself useless. These people would kill her, and unlike Trakkin, they wouldn't fail.

She knew better than to protest, wheedle, or sulk. But she would not be browbeaten. She nodded as if her new captor had merely been commenting on the weather.

"And where are we going?" she asked.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"You'll see," Lilaena said vaguely. The girl was holding up rather well, but she'd been a slave for a while. Slaves either grew hard rinds over their souls or were broken. And Akasha Kahn was not broken.

"Where are you from, slave?"

[Akasha Khan]

"Orryxia," Akasha replied. The corner of her mouth jumped ever so slightly toward a smile before the impassive mask returned.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Lilaena got up, took two steps towards the girl, and slapped her hard across the face. "Don't play games with me. What is your heritage?"

[Akasha Khan]

Oh, ouch, but it was worth it.

Akasha's eyes watered, but with effort, she looked back into her master's eyes and didn't cower under her like a frightened waif. She'd wanted to see what would happen, and now she knew. She also knew now how hard Lilaena hit. It was, um. Hard.

She licked some numbness out of her lips and said, "I am the firstborn daughter of Lord Akhira Khan, directly descended from the royal Khan Dynasty." Wincing ever so slightly, she smoothed out the fur on her throbbing cheek. "I could be queen of Orryxia if the right combination of relatives died."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"Interesting."

Lilaena sat back down. Royalty could either be weak, or strong, and it appeared that Akasha was built of the stronger stuff. "For now you are my slave, and if you do well then you may become my apprentice."

She looked at the felinoid evenly. "There is much I can, and will teach you. But you must put this 'right combination of relatives' out of your head. It is only a distraction." Lilaena raised an eyebrow, "Revenge can be a powerful motivator, but only when you are focused properly."

[Akasha Khan]

Akasha hated the idea of being anyone's slave. But an apprentice - that was something different. This mysterious woman held the secrets she needed to become powerful, and she would do anything, anything, to own them for herself.

She even found herself leaning forward hungrily as Lilaena spoke of revenge. She filed that away as her first lesson.

"I never really wanted to be queen anyway," she said. "But there are a few people I'd like revenge on. If... if you can teach me, then whatever you want me to do, I'll do."

She hesitated, and then, with some visible effort, added, "Master."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"Good."

Lilaena got to her feet again. "Remain here for the rest of our trip. Get some rest. You'll need it."

She walked out of the living area, motioning to one of the Mandos to go in. They would be arriving in the Onderon system shortly, and she had preparations to make. Tricking the rag tag 'fleet' in orbit would be the easy part, but getting the ship down in the Wilds without Callidus noticing... Probably impossible.

Didn't mean she wasn't going to try. Lilaena sat cross legged in one of the cabins, slipping into a meditative trance.