Danse Macabre/Part 16

"Alecto, what have you done?" Tirien demanded. But as he coughed again, harder, his eyes went to the stick she had discarded on the ground, and he remembered the glitchy server droid, and he knew.

She asked, "The wine was good, wasn't it?"

Tirien suppressed a cough, but as he turned toward the door to give a warning, a wave of vertigo swept over him, and he had to spread his feet just to stay on them. He felt Alecto move at his back and sank into the Force, spinning to face her as his hand clasped his lightsaber. But she was across the balcony faster than he could turn, catching him by the wrist with one hand and hugging him around the shoulders with the other.

"Oh, don't do that," she breathed. "I'd hate to have to kill you."

She backed him up; his head was starting to pound, and only half a lifetime of Makashi gave him enough balance not to fall before she finally steered him onto a stone bench that curved one side of the balustrade. The night air didn't seem so cool now even as it brushed his fevered skin. Alecto patted his shoulder, then stepped away, freeing his saber hand. It was shaking, and he knew he didn't have the coordination to draw and strike her down. They gazed at each other in the quiet as the Force blackened beyond.

Then the balcony doors opened, unleashing the sounds of screams and mayhem. A man and a woman stepped onto the balcony, the man holding the doors closed as the woman in the backless scarlet dress advanced to Alecto's side. "We need to go, Master."

"Get it ready," Alecto commanded. The woman glanced at Tirien, but Alecto shook her head. "No. There's no time.  Hurry."

"I obey, Darth Alecto." The woman in red ran to the balustrade, unwinding what Tirien had taken for a belt from around her waist, knotting the cable around the stone. The man braced the door with his shoulder while Darth Alecto advanced on Tirien, stopping within reach.

She looked at him a moment, then drew the other stick from her hair. Taking his trembling hand, she laid it in his palm and carefully closed his fingers around it. Straightening, she gave him a wink.

"Wh—" Tirien started, but he hacked hard, clutching his chest with his free hand. He could feel the poison at work, and he tried to call on the Force to slow its progress even as it slithered through his veins.

"Sorry, T, didn't quite catch that."

"Wh…why…give me…?"

"A kindness for a kindness, Tirien." Alecto answered his blank stare with a grin. "You complimented my dress."

"You…" Tirien blinked, firming his gaze as much as he could even as sweat dripped into his eyes. "Alecto, you…know I'll…save the Chancellor…"

"Will you?" Alecto's eyes hardened too, and her smile twisted. "I wonder if Narasi felt like a drink."

Fear ran Tirien through the heart, and Alecto winked as she sensed it. "Good luck, Tirien."

She turned, got a grip on the cable, and vaulted over the balustrade, sliding out of sight. Her minions followed her, though not without hungry looks. Tirien sat on the stone bench, trying to find the strength to stand, feeling death from within the Citadel that presaged the death that was lurking inside himself.

A rope dropped into view, and a man slid down it onto the balcony.

He looked at the cable Alecto and her comrades had left in their wake, then looked at Tirien. His wild, hungry eyes narrowed, and he hissed, "Jedi."

He drew out two knives, and as he advanced his cheeks split, little tendrils poking out. Anzat, Tirien's fogging mind warned him. He raised his empty hand and rattled the Anzat with the Force, but the concussive blow that would have broken him against the balustrade did not come. The assassin skipped back and tensed, but then leered, advancing one step at a time as the poison sapped Tirien's ability to think.

He laid his hand on Mali's lightsaber to wait for the moment, and reached out with all his strength, Narasi!

The Anzat seemed to sense he had done something, because he started to charge, knives ready. He was only meters away when a shriek of metal and broken glass unleashed the cries from inside again and the doors burst open. Narasi stepped through, casting about until she saw what was happening. Fear and fury contorted her expression and she screamed, "GET AWAY FROM HIM!"

Where Tirien's focus and strength had waned, Narasi's peaked; she hit the Anzat with the Force so hard that he flew across the balcony and over the balustrade with an audible crack as his hip broke against the stone. He hissed in pain, but managed to catch a grip. Narasi leapt and cut, but the Anzat dropped as her lightsaber hacked through the stone, and Tirien watched the cable snug. Narasi saw it too, and she glared as she cut the cable.

"Narasi…" Tirien wheezed.

She turned to him, deactivating her blade. "Master, you have to help! Something's happening inside, they tried to kill the Chancellor, it's the Dark Van—"

When she got close enough to really look at him, Narasi fell silent at once, and her big blue eyes filled her face. "Master, what happened?!"

"Narasi…" Tirien panted; he tried to stand, but his free hand couldn't lever him up, and his trembling legs wouldn't bear his weight. He sank back, exhausted by even that minimal effort. Narasi reached for him, but stopped herself as if afraid to touch him and make it worse. He felt the poison spreading. "Narasi, did you…did you have any wine?"

"What?"

"Wine, Narasi…did you…"

"No, of course not!"

Tirien exhaled in relief so profound he shuddered under its weight; he thought the poison had turned his vision to a haze until he felt the wetness under his eyelashes. "Narasi…it's Alecto…she poisoned us."

"Alecto?" Narasi asked, looking horrorstruck. "She…she poisoned…"

She looked at Tirien again, and with all the tumult coming from inside, Tirien could barely hear her, "Oh no."

"Narasi…take it…" He tried to extend the vital little stick to her; his arm shook, and he braced it with the other. Narasi had to catch his fist with both of her hands to steady him. "Give it…to the Chancellor…"

She took it from his hand. "What is it?"

"The antidote."

Narasi stared at it, then back at him. "What about you?!"

Tirien shook his head, and this time it was his vision swimming as the world blurred. "We're here to…protect…you have to save him…"

"Master, I can't just leave you! I can't…"

Tirien lurched forward, catching her hand with one of his; his other hand missed her entirely. He tried to squeeze her hand as he met her eyes, to say in a gesture everything there was no time to say. "Save him. Be brave.  Be a Jedi."

She sobbed once, then turned and ran. Tirien sat back, calling on the Force as much as he still could, trying to hold on long enough that his death would not distract her. He could not find it in himself to be surprised that Alecto had killed him; he could only be grateful she hadn't taken Narasi too, that destiny had not put him to that test. Whether he could have had the courage to be a Jedi…he was grateful never to have to know.