Sith and Jedi on the town (Kathrine, Open)

[Kale]

"That's the place."

It didn't look like much. Brick facade plastered with grafitti and bawdy posters. Only the double-doors at the corner and the flickering neon sign above them distinguished the building from any of the warehouses down the street.

The Red Dragon Tavern was one of thousands of houses of ill repute scattered throughout the Southern Underground; it was a haven to beings who liked their entertainment cheap and behind closed doors. The management didn't much care what its patrons did short of interrupting the steady flow of business. The food was barely sanitary, the drinks weren't so lucky, and the wait staff carried mace--but you couldn't beat the atmosphere with a stick.

Kale led Kathrine to the corner entrance and shoved the door open, and a blast of warm, smokey air rolled over them to the beat of an industrial drum loop. The room was sparsely lit by multicolored lamps mounted around the walls; the darkness of the dance floor was speared with rhythmically strobing spotlights, casting crazy, psychedelic patterns of light and shadow on the teams of exotic alien dancers on the central platform.

"This the sorta place you were lookin' for?" Kale shouted to Kate over the orgiastic thumping of the music.

[Kathrine]

Kathrine smiled as she bobbed her head to the insanely loud music that was blaring overhead, or under them. It was just to much to take in for her to be absolutely sure. She walked over to Kale and held him by the shoulder and tried to yell back over the music.

"I love it! This is the kinda place that I could live in!"

She smiled as she looked around and saw all the signs of the lower castes. Drugs, gangs, prostitution, and there was even what looked like the occasional murder, but the moment a person moved in front of the body and moved away it was gone so it was hard to say for sure.

"Where's the bar?" She shouted. He turned to look at her and shouted again, this time using the Force to carry her words a little more than she had planned and a few people near them turned their heads to look at her before shrugging and returning to whatever it was they were doing.

[Kale]

Kale pointed to a cordoned-off alcove in the corner underneath a bank of husky, yellow panel lights. The bar itself wasn't very large--most people wanted tables in view of the dance platforms--but it was busy. A multi-armed droid filled cocktail orders at breakneck speed while a heavyset humanoid wiped glasses and pretended to listen to patrons.

"If you're lookin' for drinks, the selection ain't that great. Coupla canned beers, cheap vodka, and a few hard liquors that were probably brewed in a bathtub--once in a while, they'll get something more exotic in stock, if you're willin' to pay. But they won't ask for ID--you got credits, an' that's all they care about."

[Kathrine]

"Then I'd guess a Breath of Heaven would be out of the question eh? Oh well," she yelled as she looked over at the bar. There would be plenty of time to get over to that. She had other things in mind right now. First off was what her limits were. "So where can I not go?"

[Kale]

Breath of Heaven?... Frell, what sort of cash was she packing, anyway?

He took a quick glance around the room--it'd been a while since he was here last.

"There are stairs in the back, an' they don't like customers goin' up there," he said. "That's where the offices are. There are also rooms behind those doors there--bedrooms. You can go there, but you have to rent 'em out if you wanna... y'know, use 'em. Of course, there's always a couple dealers sellin' fixes back there. You wanna go, that's your business, but don't get too close to anybody in line."

He shrugged. "Other 'n that, there are a couple doors marked "employees only," and they don't want patrons joining their menagerie on the stage there, but you've got free run of the bar, the dining tables, the dance floor, the arcade games in the back corner there... Pick your pleasure."

[Kathrine]

She looked around as he pointed out all the places. The back rooms are off limits. Definitely. So where to now then?

She smiled as the answer came to her. What better place to be the senter of attention than the dance floor? She turned to her host with a look of mischief in her eyes.

"You dance?" She asked jerking her thumb back towards the over crowded dance floor.

[Kale]

Who, him?

Kale hesitated--he'd tried his luck before on the dance floor a few times back when he lived in the Southern Underground, and he only remembered dancing with a partner once--an experiment in itself. That had been four years ago. The life of a subsistence pick-pocket didn't afford a lot of time to dance.

But he hated to disappoint his companion. "Little bit," he said wryly. "I'm a quick study. You wanna go?"

He reached underneath his cloak on his far hip and slipped the end of his lightsaber into his pocket so it wouldn't swing about.

[Kathrine]

"Good. Then let's go!" She said as she reached over and grabbed Kale's arm. She forceably jerked him towards her and the dance floor.

As they neared the people, she opened herself up to the Force and smiled as a bubble formed around them and they were able to squeeze by most of the people. Alot of the people look around and looked at the pair with an evil eye before going back to dancing, obviously annoyed.

[Kale]

There was a tingle at the nape of Kale's neck--the kind he usually got when his Force-connection was trying to tell him something. He didn't know what it was, though--anyway, it was small enough that he guessed it wasn't that important.

He stumbled after Kathrine onto the padded floor--it was slick underneath his sneakers, but firm. The dance floor was designed to provide complete sensory overload--the speakers thumped so loud he could feel the music pounding throgh his sternum; the fresnel lights above pulsated frinetically, turning the mass of dancers into a Fauvist rainbow, and a cool mist with a citric scent rained down from the ceiling. And meanwhile, Kathrine had taken on a new life, as if the energy of the club had reinvigorated her.

It had been a while since Kale had danced, but he started picking up the moves again rapidly. Kathrine's enthusiasm was infectious. And, frell, did she look good when she was having fun.

[Kathrine]

Kathrine kept up with Kale as he started to get into the grove and unfortunately had forgotten to take down the Force bubble and kept shoving people out of her way. She actually enlarged it a small bit so that she could go into a few of the more acrobatic moves. She came up close to Kale and winked before executing a small backflip.

When she landed though a small sharp pain shot up through her from her recent injuries. She quickly pushed the thought away and continued on dancing along with her partner.

[Luna Eclypse]

Leaning against a against the wall in the tavern called the Red Dragon was Luna Eclypse, ex-assassin. The place was little more then a giant party. Luna had always liked places like this. They had an atmosphere that was enjoyable.

Luna was taking a break from her search for the illusive man called Lancer. She'd been in here for a few hours now and had already consumed several alcoholic beverages. Her eyes where focused on a young couple that where dancing across the dance floor, while anyone else that came near them was mysteriosly knocked down. Luna dismissed the odd sight as a scruffy looking man walked up next to her.

"Hey babe, whats a sweet thing like you doing standing all alone?" He asked as he wrapped a hand around her waist. Luna could tell the man was drunk but he was flirting with death right now. "Maybe we should go have some fun somewhere a little quieter?" His hand slipped down from her waist and rested on her butt.

That was it for Luna. In lightning fast movements she reached her hand back and gripped the man's wrist in a steel hard grip and then jerk his arm and listened to the sound of bones breaking. The man was too shocked to cry our do anything. He only stared at the white knuckled hand that griped his broken arm. His eyes rolled back and he slumped to the ground.

The man's buddies who had been sitting at a nearby table saw the whole thing and got up from the table and stumbled over to her while smacking their fist against their palm in a threatening manner "Your going to get it for messing with Freddy" The biggest one of the bunch said.

Luna just stared him in the eyes and said "Bring it on" And with that said the largest man threw a punch and the other's where not far behind.

Luna ducked under the punched and brought her own fist up into the man's stomach. Her smalled form made it easy to dodge the other guy's attack's and she quickly counter attacked with her own fist and feet.

Two of them got a fist in the face, another got kneed in the stomach and the last got Luna's boot in her groin. They all fell over and lay o nthe ground holding their injured bodies. The largest one was still standing so Luna high kicked him right in the chin and he landed on a nearby table, spilling the patrons drinks all over their laps. Soon everyone was fighting. Lune ducked back and stayed out of the way for the moment.

[Kathrine]

At first Kathring didn't even know what was happening until something pushed into her Force bubble and broke it. She stumbled forward into Kale and fell, catching him by the hips to try and stay erect.Before she could even stand, he normal cocky attitude switched on.

"What? Who did this?" She demanded as she stood up and turned around to see what was going on. Her eyes widened in surprise as the fight filled them. "Ohh...now I see."

[Kale]

On reflex, Kale reached down to help Kate up by the armpits--the disturbance had caught him by surprise, too. But it didn't take too long to figure out what was going on, and, following the brawl to its epicenter, he had a pretty good idea of the source--the one person who was watching from the sidelines near the bar, unconcerned and slightly amused.

"Don't worry about it," Kale said. "These things usually blow over in a--"

Time suddenly ground down to within a few degrees of absolute zero, and Kale could sense the moment around him in crystalline, hard-edged clarity, particularly the massive, rocky fist that was swinging toward the side of his head with enough force to crack it open like an over-ripe canteloupe.

He dove forward, straight into Kathrine's back, knocking both of them to the dance floor. As his senses returned to normal speed, he heard heavy footsteps and brutish growls--two monstrous Acamars, a troll-like pachydermic species with a penchant for fighting, were barreling straight through the crowd, oblivious to dancers trampled underfoot, pounding one other with earthshaking blows. They probably didn't have anything to do with the original dispute--Acamars never needed much excuse--but they were spreading plenty of ill will around as the patrons scattered madly from their path.

Kale rose to one knee, glancing around frantically at the chaos framed against the still-pulsing lights. "Kate, we need to get off the dance floor!" he hollered. "Something's got this crowd riled!"

He didn't stop to consider that some of the agitation might have been from the Force-bubble she'd put up earlier.

[Kathrine]

She smiled as she ducked under a Wookie's furry leg. "What? And miss all this?"

The young Sith Apprentice jumped up only to be knocked back down as a large Rodian backed into her. She reached out with one hand and pulled on the Force to push the green skinned alien away from her. This time when she got up she stayed up.

She moved her body between all the fighters, to what seemed like her own beat. She threw a punch here and a kick there, but mostly it was just dancing. She emerged herself in the darkside and reveled in the chaos around her.

[Luna Eclypse]

Luna's first thoughts were to hide out until the fighting died out a little. But then again, she didn't want to miss the fun. She dove into the crowd, throwing punches and lashing out with her boot at anyone why stepted in her way. Noses broke, bone's shattered, and people dropped to the ground around her. She pressed on, bashing anything that moved and using anything handy as a weapon.

Her enjoyment started to fade when a large Barabel started bulling his way through people. People would break their knuckles before coming close to injuring him. The barabel saw her and started for her, his mouth opened to reveal his small sharp teeth.

Lune knew she had no chance against this thing. She reached to his belt and pulled both of her sais from then and twirled them around in his fingers. The barabel didn't seem to notice and continued it's charge towards her.

She stood her ground until the last second when she jumped to the side and slashed at the barabel with the sharp edge of the sais. His face opened up and blood dripped down his cheek. It stood there stunned for a moment as it raised it's hand to its cheek. Luna took this oppotunity to stab her sais into the center of the barabel's back. The creature fell over and Luna pulled her sais out.

She looked around the bar, things where getting dangerous now. People where pulling out knifes and hold out blasters. Luna headed for the door, stabbing anyone that tried to stop her.

She jumped out of the way of a wookie and bumped into the young man she had seen on the dance floor. Luna spun around and brought the sharp point of her sai against his throat "Don't move" She threatened.

[Alberto Pancrazio Gucchi]

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[Kale]

Kale had lost track of Kathrine--every now and then, he caught a glimpse of her weaving deftly through the fracas with a Cheshire-cat grin and a mean right hook. He had to assume she could take care of herself. Kale was concentrating more on removing himself from the dance floor. Once or twice he thought about his lightsaber, which had a nonlethal training setting, but he decided calling attention to himself right now would be a very bad idea. He wished he knew how to do that Force Bubble trick Kate was pulling earlier.

He dodged his way to the edge of the dance floor and cast a glance back--he couldn't see Kathrine any more. Frell, maybe she was down--maybe he should--

Erk--sharp thing at his throat now.

Kale's right hand clapped against the mass of his saber in his pocket--if he had just a split second, he could have it out and ignited. But he needed to deal with this psycho first.

What the frell? I was just leavin', lady, I ain't got anything against you, okay?"

[Luna Eclypse]

Luna glared at him for a moment "I shall spare your life today. I'd suggest you leave as soon as possible for the next time I bump into you in here I will not hold back." She said in a cold voice.

She pulled her weapon away from his throat. Movement behind the young man caught her gaze. There looming behind him where two very large barabels. They must have been buddies of the one she had killed "Or frell" She said under her breath as the barabels pulled out vibro knifes. The one in the front was bringing his knife down to stab the young man in the back.

She didn't know why she did it, but she grabbed the young man the collar and threw him down onto the ground, putting herself in the path of the deadly weapon. She jumped back and the humming knife missed her by inches.

The Barabel staggered and lost his balace from missing his target and fell over. Luna grabbed the young man by the arm and yanked him to his feet and pulled him away from the barabels and started to move through the crowds.

Luna glanced over her shoulder and saw that the other barabel was helping his freind to his feet. She turned her head back around and spotted the girl the young man had been dancing with. Luna let go of his arm and nudged him toward his freind "Theres your girl freind, I'd suggest you get out of here before I stop being a nice person."

[Kale]

OOC: Please don't use my character as a hand prop.

Kale had been about to disappear out of Luna's grasp, but then she threw him to the ground, disrupting his focus on the Force. And then she dragged him back into the midst of the crowd, precisely where he didn't want to be.

"Gee, I'm real obliged to you," Kale snapped back. "Stay outa my way next time, and maybe I can do just that."

He spun around and went weaving back through the crowd to find Kate--he figured she could take care of herself, but it gave him an excuse to get away from the grab-happy desperada.

The chaos was thickening. Kale didn't think he could navigate it without a weapon, at least to make himself a less tempting target. But he didn't want to risk igniting his lightsaber in mixed company.

He'd just have to make due with the sai he'd ripped off of Luna in the exchange.

[Kathrine]

Kathrine watched as the young girl grabbed Kale and brought him to the ground. For a moment a flash of anger, or maybe it was jealousy, passed throuh her until she found him nearing her. She waved her hand from over by the bar. She had made her way here and was enjoying a tall glass of Corellian Ale when he came over.

She was using the Force to push back most that came near her. She was doing fine, or atleast that was what appeared on the outside. On the inside she was a tornado of emotions. Anger, abandonment, jealousy, fear. They all flew inside of her as she watched on and realized this is what she caused. Maybe not this fight inparticular, but things like this and for once in her life, she felt small and insignificant, like she couldn't help herself or this. Southstar had been right as had all the Sith.

She sighed as Kale got nearer and put those thoughts out of her head, She smiled and haned him a glass of ale as well. "Well, buddy, you really know how to pick them." She said as she ducked to dodge a chair being thrown overhead.

[Kale]

Kale had slipped through the crowd with relative ease, hampered only when a drunk Ithorian took a swing at him with a crowbar--he sensed it fast enough to thrust his newly pilfered sai in the way and catch the shank of metal between the prongs, redirecting the blow and pitching the hammerhead off-balance. He quickly hopped over the cursing alien and hurried to the bar. He slipped the sai into the back of his belt and spun around to lean innocuously against the bartop next to Kathrine.

"Whew... well, I've never seen the place go to frell this bad before," he said, wiping a slick of sweat off his forehead. "Barkeep, get me a namana-and-rum. Got out just in time--looks like the enforcers are on their way."

A dozen or so bouncers from varying species had returned from the backrooms with blasters and stun batons to start breaking up the crowd. They were more interested in protecting property than clearing the place out. Kathrine and Kale weren't likely to be harassed--after all, they'd just been calmly sipping their drinks the whole time, sir.

[Luna Eclypse]

Luna had shoved her way to the door and was about to go out when she realized that she was missing one of her sais. She looked around for it but in the crowd it was impossible to see. Then it hit her, the boy, he took it With a low growl of rage she pushed her way back through the crowd as she searched for the boy. Some bouncers where coming into the room and the crowds started to thin in places, giving Luna a view of the bar.

She spotted the young man and woman sitting at the bar, sipping drinks and trying to look innocent. She stormed over to the bar, anger burning in her eyes and her sai held at ready. "Time to die little man!" She threatened as she neared them.

[Kathrine]

Kathrine looked at the woman closing in on her and Kale and issued a growl of her own. "And who do you think you are threatening?"

[Kale]

Kale tensed, fully prepared to stand his ground with Kathrine. He reached down to free the haft of his lightsaber from his pocket, just in case he needed it in short order. Luna could see he was reaching for something, but it was hidden underneath his cloak.

"You again--what's your problem, anyway? The fight's over."

[Luna Eclypse]

"Do you think I'm stupid little man?" Luna asked as she slowly moved forward "I've killed near a hundred men in my lifetime and I have experience a worm like you could never have. I know you took my sai you little thief. Either give it back or I'll take it from you."

[Kale]

Kale lowered his head. "Last time you had it, you were holdin' it to my throat, with no provocation from me, might I add. Do you think I'm stupid? Tell you what--why don't we head to the exit, and I can give you your sai on your way out the door, and then I won't tell the management's hired guns about your part in startin' the fight. Capisce?"

[Luna Eclypse]

Luna's eyes looked sideways at the thugs and then moved back to focus on the young man "I could kill them in my sleep" She said as she took another step forward, her remaining sai held firmly in her hand. "Now here is your choice. Either give me back the sai and I won't kill you or I will kill you and take it back and then I will kill your little girlfreind...And I'll be sure to make it quite painful.

If only I could rip out his heart and show it too him before he died. That would be a real treat if it was possible Luna thought as she took yet another step forward.

[Kathrine]

Now Kathrine stepped forward as she was becoming easily offended these days, not to mention the amount of intoxication she was feeling. "Now wait just a minute her chick. Who do you think you are threatening? Do you even have a clue who I am?"

[Kale]

Kale was about to say something--maybe something to calm Luna down and assure her that he didn't give a frell about her sai, as long as she kept it out of his face--when Kathrine broke in. So he kept his mouth shut, morbidly curious to see how this would go down.

And he tightened his grip on his lightsaber underneath his cloak, resting his thumb on the ignition switch.

[Luna Eclypse]

Luna turned from Kale and stepped up right in Kathrine's face "No, I do not know you. But I say you look like every other insect in this bar" She said, herself just as intoxicated as Kathrine "But the real question is: do you know who I am?"

She raised her hand and prodded Kathrine on the chest with a finger "Names Luna Elcypes. I was kidnapped as a child by a mad scientist and cut open and put back together differently and turned into a weapon. I've lost my past and I don't got much of a future but right now the present looks like it's going to get bloody."

[Kathrine]

"Wahh, wah wah. That's all I'm hearing from you sister, and if you poke me one more time I swear it will be the last thing you do!" She said emphasizing the point with a poke of her own.

[Kale]

Kale smirked at Kathrine's defiance--and then he remembered who she was, or who he thought she was, anyway, and decided it wouldn't be very Jedi-like to let her go tearing on a rampage. So he leaned back and held up his left hand--his non-saber hand--to try to calm both females down.

"Okay, easy, there. Listen... Luna, was it? I really couldn't care less about your sai, okay? It's served its purpose, and it ain't any good to me anymore. I mean, look, it's not even a real sai. It's got a blade where it should have a tapered metal rod--much better at gripping your enemy's weapon and twisting it out of the way. As it is, all you've got is a dagger, and it's not even a very good dagger, because the prongs keep it from penetrating that far..."

He cleared his throat and shrugged. "Anyway, whenever you're ready to leave, I'm ready to hand it over."

[Kyle Krogen]

Delete

[Luna Eclypse]

Luna was about to stick her sai into Kathrine's gut when Kale spoke. She looked sideways at Kale with narrowed eyes "First you take my weapon, then you diss it, and then you think you can force me to leave this place? I've been coming to this place for a long time, and I'm not about to leave just because some snotty nosed punk like you thinks you can make me" She said in a very angry voice.

If Bane and Lancer where here with her they'd help her slay this young man in a very bloody manner. But, as it turns out, Lancer and Bane where not with her. So she'd have to fight by herself. Luna turned from Kathrine and brought her sai up, wit the blade pointed at Kale throat. The tip of the blade was only a few inches from the young man's throat and a quick thrust would end his life in a second.

[Kale]

Kale wasn't going to presume upon her self-restraint a second time. As soon as he saw the light flashing off her other sai, he swept his raised hand, palm-forward, at Luna. A wave of the Force struck her in the midriff with the weight of a flying queen-sized mattress.

The seventeen-year-old Padawan's eyes hardened. "If you want me to trust you, you're not givin' me much reason. Now, you gonna settle down and let me give you your frelling sai, or would you rather frell with a pair of Force-users?"

[Kathrine]

Now Kathrine's eyes widened in surprise. "Pair of Force-users?! You're Force sensitive? But I've never seen you in the Pala..."

Then it dawned on her. Jedi! "You're a frelling Jedi!"

[Luna Eclypse]

Luna flew across the room and hit the floor, sliding across it's smooth surface a few yards. She lay there for a few moments, catching the breath that was knocked out of her. A bloody jedi. Why of all people does this little twerp have to be a jedi.

She got up on her knees while taking in deep breaths. There was no way she could go up against a jedi, especialy if he had a lightsabre. She waited and watched. It seems the woman didn't know he was a jedi either. Perhaps she would strike out against him, and if she didn it might give Luna an opportunity to kill the jedi.

[Kale]

Dang it... he was kind of hoping Kathrine wouldn't be able to connect those last few dots from Force-user to Jedi, but he guessed it was a longshot.

"And you're a frelling Sith," he replied quietly. "Keep your voice down, huh? Most of these people don't like Forcers of any kind too much."

And if they made too big a ruckus, those bouncers would be coming back, and they'd be packing more heat than a pack of nightclub enforcers had any right to. There were plenty of dirty little secrets that went on in the back rooms of the Red Dragon--Kale happened to know that one of them was arms dealing.

Trying, dangerously, to divide his attention between Kathrine and Luna, he carefully pulled Luna's other sai from his belt and held it, hilt first, toward the downed woman.

"Listen, I told you, I don't want your sai, and I don't want a fight. So I'm gonna slide it across the floor to you. That okay?"

As Kale bent down, he didn't realize he'd taken his hand away from his lightsaber on his right side--Kathrine's side.

[Kathrine]

Did he just tell me to be quiet? Who does he think he is talking to? She thought as she brought up her own hand to push him away with the Force. When she did, she happened to see a lightsaber fall to the ground.

"And a frelling lightsaber?! Any other secrets?" She yelled in her drunken stupor as she stumbled towards the weapon to pick it up.

[Luna Eclypse]

Luna saw her opportunity had come and she dashed forward. She picked up her other sai from where Kale had dropped it. She felt movement near her and, without looking, she brought her sai up and stabbed it into soft flesh.

She raised her eyes and saw that her blade was inserted into the young woman's gut. She had hoped it had been the man instead. She ripped the blade out and watched the shocked expression on the woman's face.

[Kathrine]

Shocked was an understatement as Kathrine fell forward and landed on her knees. She put her hand to her abdomen and stared at the blood as she brought it back up. "This...this can't be happening."

[Kale]

"Ungh!"

Kathrine's force-push had caught Kale utterly off-guard, and his head smacked a stool as he tumbled across the grimy floor.

He was scrambling to his feet when he heard the struggle--he looked up to see Luna pulling back her sai and Kathrine clutching her bloody abdomen in shock. Kale froze for a split second, mirroring Kathrine's look of disbelief.

Then he errupted. "You frellin' piece of dren!" He seized a metal barstool and charged at Luna, aiming to knock her across the jaw and pin her under it.

[Luna Eclypse]

Luna turned to see Kale coming. She sobered up instantly grabbed the the end of the barstool, her sais still on the palm of her hand and pressed against the barstool aswell. She was stronger then Kale and she pushed back on the stool, forcing him give up ground "This is not the wisest thing jedi boy." She had been created to kill. Her strength, speed, and endurance where greater then the average person. She was a killing machine with flesh and bones.

[Kale]

Luna was stronger than Kale--physically. And, in another life, the thief would have turned tail and run to leave Kathrine on her own with the madwoman.

But Kale wasn't a hard-luck streeter anymore--and he wasn't a floater hanging on to the Jedi name for the free room and board. He'd been trained to use the Force as his ally now, and it was his training that kept him from running, or from feeding the rage that threatened to drag him down Luna's path of dirty tricks.

But the wrestling match through the barstool--that gave him something to focus on. He was struggling not only for his own survival, but for a companion's. Didn't matter that the person he was trying to save wasn't innocent herself. Kale was focused now, and the Light Side of the Force was flowing through him like an open power conduit.

As he slipped backwards across the floor, he ground his teeth into a twisted grin. "Pissin' off a Jedi? I'd agree."

His legs were bunched up already as they strained to find traction--and then his feet hit a bare patch where the tiling had worn away to expose the bare plywood below. With a monumental effort, Kale leapt. His end of the stool began rising, and the force Luna was exerting gave it extra lift--he boosted over the top of the stool like a polevaulter, arcing gracefully four feet over the assassin's head, pirouetting in the air so he landed in a crouch between Kathine and Luna.

"Kath!" he gasped. "My saber!"

He'd lost track of it. He held out his arm, ready to catch it if Kathrine could slide it forward to him...

[Kathrine]

Kathrine looked up and saw Kale's lightsaber sitting right there in front of her. Jedi...I have to have a Jedi come to my side. Maybe Southstar was right all along. Maybe I'm not what a Sith should be...

She glanced at Kale and then Luna. "No...," she whispered. Then a little more forcefully. "NO! I am a Sith and I will not have a Jedi protecting me!"

She tried to raise up, but found she couldn't come up that far with out her stomach hurting. She slowly started to turn, hoping she could loose herself in the crowd. "I'll see you again Kale and next time it won't be as friends. And you Luna...watch your back from now on."

She was turning and then looked back at Kale's lightsaber. It twitched and then flew back beside the Padawan. "There, you don't owe me anything and I don't owe you. I'm leav-"

She stopped in the middle of her sentence as a barstoool crashed on top of her head and she dropped to the floor unconcious.

[Luna Eclypse]

The lightsabre was flying through the air toward the jedi. Luna ran forward hoping to reach the jedi before he caught the lightsabre. If she did she would stab some vital organ of his, perhaps the heart.

[Kale]

Kale's danger sense spiked--that was what took his concentration off the flying lightsaber and back onto Luna--she was fully extended in a reckless plunge toward him. No time to turn around, no time to cry out--he pitched himself spinning onto his side just in time to avoid getting spit-roasted. One of Luna's blades tore through his sleeve and gashed his right shoulder.

The Padawan crashed to the floor again, clutching his injured shoulder to keep the blood from seeping out, then disappeared.

It wasn't like a cloaking device that shimmered and faded, or even like a holovid where someone puts on a magic ring or a magic cloak and vanishes--you'd have remembered seeing that. It was more like watching a street magician make a card disappear--one moment you could see the card moving in his hand, the next moment you couldn't, and you couldn't for the life of you tell what had happened in between. Stealth was the one area of the Force where Kale truly excelled.

[Luna Eclypse]

Luna's eyes darted around the room. The bloody jedi was gone. He had made himself disapear. "Bloody parlor tricks" She mumbled as she took several steps backwards until her back rested against a wall. She held her sais up infront of her. That was why she haired for users so much. They had the force and allowed them to become better then a non-force sensitive could. It was cheating.

[Kale]

If Luna had been watching the right spot closely enough, she might have noticed a few drops of blood splashing on the floor from seemingly nowhere. But the light was never very good in the Red Dragon.

It never really entered Kale's mind to use his stealth to attack. He was more concerned with Kathrine. As soon as Luna backed off, Kale slunk back in the direction the Sith had headed, taking care not to get in anybody's way--oddly enough, people usually seemed able to sense him on a subconscious level and avoid him even when they couldn't consciously see him. It might have been a weakness, but, at the moment, he was grateful for it.

Once he'd put some distance between himself and Luna, he reached a hand back toward the bar and called his lightsaber off the ground and into his hand. It pretty much blew his cover, but he was hoping Luna wouldn't be stupid enough to try to attack a lightsaber with a pair of metal sai.

And then, from Luna's perspective, a voice came from the lightsaber hanging in the air around waist-height. "If it's worth anything, I'm sorry I took your sai," Kale said. "But I ain't stickin' around to chat; I don't have the time."

Then he dropped his invisibility and knealt by Kathrine's side to check her wound.

[Kathrine]

Kathrine moaned as she felt Kale's hand probing her to check her vitals. Her wound was deep, but she would survive, as long as she recieved medical attention sometime this night.

"Jedi...saved me...failure..."

[Luna Eclypse]

After a moment Kale looked to the side but Luna was not there anymore. She had simply disapeared without a sound and the front door stood wide open. Luna was half way down the street. More curses where being heard from her then heard in a mos espa catina. "I can't stand up to a lightsabre. That thing would cut the frell out of me. I'd stand no chance." She said when the curses stopped "But I hate running away." And the curses started again as she walked off into the night.

[Kale]

The wound was deep, all right, and Kathrine's blood was staining Kale's hands and sleeves. He needed to move her out, and quickly.

"Well, I'm sorry, but the Sith welcome wagon's been out of business in these parts for a while, now... If you know any pain-killing tricks, use 'em, 'cause this is gonna hurt."

Kale holstered his saber and carefully slipped his arms under her back and her knees, then lifted her off the floor and headed unsteadily to the exit.

The gaudy streetlights and neon signs of the Southern Underground turned the cityscape outside into one collective migraine. Kale squinted into the glare as he headed for the street. A cab... a cab... there!

"Taxi! Hey, you!"

The yellow-painted speeder whirred up to the curb, and the backseat door pivoted open. Kale heaved Kathrine into the backseat and quickly jumped in the other side.

"The clinic on West and Maple," he snapped. "And step on it."

As the speeder lurched into gear, Kale eased his saber back out of his belt and laid it on his lap, just in case Kathrine felt like doing something rash.

"Just relax," Kale told her quietly. "As soon as you're checked in, if you want me to go, I'll go."

[Kathrine]

Kathrine's mind was a collision course of thoughts. Everything was meshed together. Were am I? Who am I?

Her eye's flashed open and imeadiately closed them again as the artificial lights of the clinic washed over them. She had tried to pull her hands up, but found them restrained. "What? What's going on here?"

She looked around and noticed a nurse coming over to her. "Thank goodness you are awake. Sorry about the restraints, but we had to do it. You kept flailing around in your sleep and tearing the bacta skin on your abdomen."

"What? But where am I? Where is the Jedi?"

"Jedi? Oh! You mean the boy who brought you in? He left. He stayed with you to make sure you would be ok and then left."

Kathrine closed her eyes in calm and quiet thoughts as she went over what had happened and what she knew. Kale...a Jedi...I still do owe him, but I'll settle that score one day. For now though I need to get back to Corellia.

"I need to go now."

Four hours later...

Kathrine sat on a transport bound for Corellia just as she had planned. Just a few hours behind schedule. What will happen when I get back?