Desperate Times/Part 5

"What a stupid policy," Narasi growled, slashing her lightsaber this way and that. "Padawans don't have access to Intelligence databases…we're the ones out there on the front…"

She spun into a brutal two-handed blow, but curved it off enough at the end to wheel it around for a block without losing balance. Slejux—and even Tirien—would want her to seek out one of the Temple's lightsaber instructors, and Slejux might even take Tirien's perspective and let her learn from any Knight who might help her, but she knew they would sense her frustration, and the unlikeliest thing to help that was a lecture on there being no emotion. She could meditate until she turned into a statue and it wouldn't bring Alecto into her grasp. Neither would lightsaber practice, in fairness, but it would prepare her better for when they met again.

She continued in her sequences, blue blade flashing and sweat beading her forehead, until a shift in the currents of the Force slowed her hands. It was something oddly familiar, she realized. She paused, saber held to a rear guard, and looked at the door a second before it opened.

"Narasi?"

Narasi felt her eyes widen as she closed down her lightsaber. "Zilq?"

The Myke grinned as she crossed the room and threw her arms around Narasi; Narasi returned the hug in surprise.

"It's been so long!" Zilq said. "The last time I saw you was…"

"After Taanab," Narasi remembered. After their side trip to Ilum, the Council had recalled them to Coruscant to send them off chasing rumors of Darth Alecto for a year. And now history was repeating itself… "How have you been?"

"Really great. I got chosen as a Padawan." She patted the lightsaber on her belt. "Master Ravaydi."

Narasi hadn't heard of the Jedi. "That's great."

Zilq cocked her head. "What's wrong? I sense you're…frustrated." When Narasi hesitated, Zilq frowned sympathetically. "Is it true, what they're saying about your master? They said he…lost the Force."

Narasi's hands balled into fists so tight her claws dug into her palms. "It's temporary."

"It is?"

It has to be. "When we catch Darth Alecto we'll be able to figure out exactly what she did and reverse it."

Zilq's eyes got wide. "You're going after Darth Alecto?"

"Slejux and me, yeah," Narasi said.

"He's your new master?"

"He's filling in while Tirien's…" Narasi searched fruitlessly for the right word. "That's temporary too."

Zilq nodded, but she let a moment of silence fall. Narasi sensed the silent invitation to direct the conversation, but she wasn't quite sure what to say. It was a pleasant surprise to see Zilq, who had been her best friend as an Initiate. But she had seen so much in the two and a half years since that it almost felt like another lifetime, and Darth Alecto cast her shadow over Narasi's every thought. She delayed so long that, by the time she found something to say, Zilq spoke in unison with her.

"Wanna meditate together?" "Wanna spar?"

They both blinked, then Zilq laughed, and Narasi forced a chuckle. "Gonna show off that Makashi?"

"Tirien's taught me a lot, but it's not really my style."

"I remember you used to be the best in the class."

"Tirien told me once that you only get better by sparring people better than you."

Zilq considered this, then grinned. "All right, let's do it. But some velocities to warm up."

They worked through the partner drills, and Narasi could see that Zilq had definitely improved from her Initiate days. When Zilq was ready and they launched into sparring, though, Narasi held her at bay easily. Zilq used a variety of techniques from all the styles Narasi had encountered, but didn't seem to favor any of them. When she attacked Narasi defended herself with the techniques Slejux had taught her, and when there was an opening Narasi broke Zilq's line of attack with a Makashi stab. She played mostly defense, though, and Zilq could sense it.

Springing back from a lunge, wiping her sweaty brow with one sleeve, Zilq said, "You're holding back."

"…I don't want to hurt you."

"Hey, Miss Top-of-the-Class, Only-Way-To-Get-Better, I've got some moves too," Zilq teased. When Narasi hesitated still, Zilq grinned. "How're you gonna beat Darth Alecto if you hold back?"

Lead filled the pit of Narasi's stomach. She swallowed and nodded, and this time when Zilq came in Narasi met her charge. She still kept her blocks small and tried for parries when she could get them, but she started incorporating harder attacks. Beat Darth Alecto kept repeating in her head like a mantra, when she knocked Zilq's attack aside so hard the Myke stumbled or brought down an overhead blow so ferocious that Zilq's elbows buckled in the block. Narasi kept up her attack, the momentum of success propelling her on, and as she knocked Zilq around the room, forcing her to give ground with every step, Zilq's look of challenge morphed to intense focus, then uncertainty.

Beat Darth Alecto. Zilq tried a two-handed stab just as Tirien's horrified face on Anaxes intruded on Narasi's concentration, and Narasi smashed it aside so violently that Zilq wobbled for balance. Narasi kicked her in the chest and Zilq's feet left the ground for a split-second before she impacted the wall. Narasi could have swung her blade and stopped it short, but beat Darth Alecto was roaring in her ears, and in an instant she was on Zilq, pinning her to the wall by her throat with one hand and holding her blade under her chin with the other.

"Solah! SOLAH!" Zilq croaked.

Narasi became aware that her teeth were bared, her eyes narrowed, and the hair on the back of her ears standing straight up. She recoiled, freeing Zilq to cough several times; she rubbed her throat, and Narasi saw the dimpled red marks where her claws had dug in. Zilq looked up after a moment, her eyes tight with wariness.

"I'm sorry," Narasi said as they deactivated their weapons.

Zilq rubbed her throat for another moment as her expression morphed to concern. "Narasi, are you all right?"

"I…" Narasi's feelings rattled against their cage inside, but she clamped it closed. She had broken down in front of Tirien; she couldn't afford a lapse like that again. "…yeah. Yeah, I'm just stressed."

"Maybe…maybe you're up for that meditation session now?"

Before Narasi could answer, Zilq took the beacon from her belt as it buzzed. "Damn, that's Master Ravaydi." She looked regretful. "I gotta go…maybe we could catch up later?"

"Yeah…if you're not about to be sent somewhere, comm me. We could have dinner or something."

"Yeah, I'd like that. And if I don't see you…be safe, Narasi."

Narasi swallowed. "Yeah. Yeah, you too.  May the Force be with you."

"And also with you."

When Zilq had gone, Narasi looked around the training room. Tirien, she knew, would want her to meditate even without Zilq, and no doubt Slejux would agree, but the sparring rooms were not the place for that. She left with the vague intention of finding a peaceful spot in the Room of a Thousand Fountains, but apathy overtook her as she walked the long way through the Temple, dwelling on the words beat Darth Alecto and the unease in Zilq's face. Narasi was ashamed of her slip, and she had no intention of hurting a friend, but if she could put that look on Alecto's face instead…

She passed other Jedi on the way, returning their greetings mechanically and politely sidestepping the voiced concerns of Knights and Masters. Some she had never seen studied her with interest—those Jedi, she suspected, who had heard the stories of the Zygerrian Jedi but never seen her for themselves. She picked up her pace, no more willing to be an object of curiosity than contempt.

The towering corridors and mezzanines of the Temple seemed to stretch endlessly into the distance; built from the inside out over millennia, it resembled nothing more than a thousand cathedrals, placed side-by-side and stacked atop one another. Narasi vaguely recalled one of her Initiate instructors saying that the treks across the Temple helped Jedi remain conscious of the long, slow process of becoming a Jedi and achieving the Force's will, in rejection of the quick and easy path of the dark side. After lightsaber training and four long halls through a Temple that could've housed an army, Narasi just found them long, and eventually she stopped and hopped onto the wide marble balustrade overlooking the next floor some twenty meters below. She watched her fellow Jedi pass through the patches of Coruscant's sunlight, swinging her legs in the air.

"Bored?"

Narasi turned to find Aldayr Nikodon leaning against a pillar, arms crossed. He had a new scar on his forehead above his left eye; it twisted as he raised that brow.

"When did you get back?" He had no gear with him, not even a robe over his Jedi tunic. "I thought you were fighting Aresh."

"We were. But when Mali heard what happened to Tirien, he said we had to come back.  Master Cazars finally caved and took over the campaign.  We got in a few hours ago.  You?"

"A week or so." Narasi tucked her legs, spun on her behind, and hopped onto the floor. "I like your scar."

"Dark Vanguard." Aldayr nodded toward her. "I like your earrings."

"Anaxes." Narasi shook her head in disgust. "Dark Vanguard…how many of them does Aresh have?!"

"One fewer, now."

"Did you get him yourself?"

Aldayr made a face. "Not really. Mali cut off both his arms, I just finished him.  And he was a gray cloak, anyway.  They're saying you took on a couple of them on Anaxes yourself."

"There were a bunch there, but I only fought one," Narasi corrected. "We…it was kind of a team effort too. Me, and Raven Kaivalt, and one of the Chancellor's guards all…"

Narasi faltered, remembering. She would have had no part in the victory—would have burned beneath a white shroud like Dijir F'rat—if not for the Chancellor. With what was probably one of his last breaths, he had interceded to save her, even as she failed in her duty to save him.

Aldayr rocked off the pillar, advancing with a curious expression. "What really happened on Anaxes? I kept waiting for a beacon call from you that never came.  The stories—"

Narasi crossed her arms. "I don't wanna talk about it."

"Aresh and the Dark Vanguard…were they collaborating?" Aldayr pressed. "Because if Darth Alecto—"

"I said I don't wanna talk about it!" Narasi snarled. She glared at him, fangs showing in her gritted teeth, but Aldayr looked unimpressed by her fury.

"Sitting on it doesn't make it easier to deal with." He raised his gloved right hand and wiggled the fingers; Narasi heard, faintly, the mechanical click-click-click. "Trust me."

She glared a moment more, then spat, "It was Alecto. The Vanguardians were there, but it was all Alecto.  She poisoned all those people—the Chancellor, a bunch of senators, Prince Taylo…"

For a moment Narasi was swept away in memory, her first waltz—Prince Taylo's last—echoing in her ears. Then she brought herself back down to the present. "She killed them all. She's got the Anzati with her now too.  And she…she gave Tirien…it was supposed to be the cure…"

"And instead he lost his Force powers?"

Narasi nodded, unable to confess her own part in it, not sure she could hold her composure if she spoke the words.

Aldayr shook his head. "Bitch. She killed Master Faltko too, and who knows how many other Jedi.  She's one who's living on borrowed time."

There was a dark undertone to his words, but Narasi couldn't help nodding in agreement. "But we can't find her! Slejux and I have run—"

"Slejux?"

"Tirien asked him to take over as my master, since he's…" She waved it off. "Anyway, Slejux and I have run three missions on Sith intelligence sites. There've been a dozen overall, and we can't find her.  How can nobody know where she is?"

"Maybe they just need…persuasion."

Narasi shuddered, and Aldayr frowned. "What is it?"

"I…" She had told no one what happened on Wayland, but the hard set around Aldayr's eyes had softened, and she found herself saying, "I almost hurt someone—a prisoner.  I came really close, Aldayr."

He did not back away or show the disgust Narasi knew many Jedi would show. Nor did he offer empty platitudes about divorcing herself from attachment. Instead he took a step closer and said, "It'll be better when we have her. You're stressed now, but when we take her down, the stressor's gone."

"We can't just kill her," Narasi replied, shaking her head. "We need her alive, so we can fix what she did to Tirien."

"Can it be fixed?"

The idea that it couldn't reared again in Narasi's mind, hideous and haunting, poisoning her from the inside. "Alecto will know how," she insisted, too forcefully. "But we need her alive to find out."

Aldayr considered it for a moment, drumming the fingers of his artificial hand against his thigh. Then his face cleared and he shrugged. "Then we have to catch her. And we will."

"Is that why you and Mali are here?" Narasi asked hopefully.

"Well, I don't think Mali came back just to give Tirien a hug. You gonna come with us?"

"If we ever find out where to go. Slejux hasn't said anything, and Padawans can't access the Intelligence database.  I guess Tirien could get me in, but…"  She thought of facing Tirien again with only the skeleton of a plan and had to keep herself from shivering in front of Aldayr.

Aldayr nodded. "Hard to explain why you didn't just ask Slejux?"

"Uh…yeah."

"Let me take care of it."

"It might be hard to explain to Mali why—"

"The thing about being Mali's apprentice," Aldayr mused, and Narasi was amazed to see him smirk, "is that you learn the value of making friends and connections. I…er…know a guy who knows a guy.  Just give me a little time."