#cahira

Cahira pulled her laptop out of her backpack so she could properly type up the results from her current experiment.

  “I have to ask, why is your background Galaxy themed? I know you aren’t that into the space aesthetic. Why isn’t it an anime character or something?”

Lloyd had already finished with his part for today, and he couldn’t help but wonder why she never seemed to express her interests on her laptop. Even he had some stickers on his, and his background was of his family. It just seemed odd to him that she didn’t customize her stuff like everyone else seemed to.

  “So here is the deal. As much as I’d love to run around with half naked guys as my background, but come on, we both know that people are going to look at me weird if I don’t have something inoffensive.”

Lloyd laughed.

  “You aren’t wrong, but why that specifically. You could have just gone with the default you know.”

She minimized Excel to see the current picture. It was of a blue nebula surrendered and consisting of many bright stars.

  “I guess, but I love how soothing and pretty galaxies are. The fact that it changes sometimes makes me happy too. It is like a little break to see it in between assignments.”

She opened up her Spreadsheet as she continued to transfer the data.

  “That’s fair. And of course, you wouldn’t want to give the Professor the wrong impression about you when you are having those private lab sessions,” the GA teased.

She was a bit shocked. Was it that obvious to tell just how close she had gotten with Walhart?

  “Don’t worry, I won’t tell, but you two really should be careful. Just because he isn’t grading you anymore doesn’t mean you can’t get in trouble.”

Her face was on fire. How much did he really know? Was it possible that he knew the number of rules you had broken?

  “I don’t know why you think I’m interested in him, but I assure you its nothing like that. I’m sorry if you think he is giving me special treatment.”

  “Uh huh. Whatever you say Cahira. I’m sure that no one can tell just how intently you listen to him, or tell the fact that he likes to give you the more interesting parts for the experiments. Or that he likes to keep his hand on your thigh at conferences or how you are his plus one to special overnight events. I could go on, but this is all I have to say: just don’t fly to close to the sun. Icarus and I both know just how fucked up this can all get if you aren’t careful.”

The ground seemed like it was going to jump up and eat her with how much it shook and split beneath her feet. She shouldered her braid out of the way as she shot a look over her shoulder. A small team of evacuees, or that’s what they called a group of teenage Padawans, and her friend Nivon pounded right after her through the grounds to the eastern forest. They were escorting? Escaping? To a safe zone. As the anti-air batteries started rising from the ground, breaking and shaking like those imperial fighter ships were, Cahira couldn’t help but think no place was a “safe-zone.”

And what could they do about this? In all this panic and destruction what could they possibly do?

That’s right, they could save some lives that’s what they could do.

So, that’s what she was doing. She told those masters back at the Temple as much before she started running towards the woods with the little sparring class of 9 mini-Jedi she and her friend Nivon were teaching. Sprinting, catching branches on her face and robes as she had to duck back and straighten one of the teenagers up after tripping. The trees groaned before they just shattered with blaster impacts from the air runs of the Imperial fighters, some of the kids behind her were screaming, it was hard to hear over the chaos and her own ears ringing most of the time. She ran until her feet started to hurt, until their feet started hurting, until Nivon could finally stop shielding them from trees and earth exploding around them.

They were maybe just ten minutes out when they found their first landing party.

Landing squad?

The name didn’t matter, what did was the some 12 big, bad, Imperial troopers in full armor leveling blaster rifles at him as they got to a clearing. Years ago this might have been the end of her, this many guns with this little cover? Would have killed her a thousand times over. For a moment that fear took hold.

She felt her sabers at her hips and she tore off the fear as took the hilts in her hands, and stepped into the clearing.

The Imperials, though, didn’t fire. Not yet. A few moments of tense silence stretched between them.

“Put your blasters down!” she finally yelled, holding her arm out so the younger Jedi and Nivon wouldn’t follow her into the clearing. “Put them down, go back to your ship, and all of us might make it out of here today! Alive!”

To their credit they hesitated. Some of them looked to some woman at the end of their formation. She was tall, more red on her armor, better quality too, maybe. Their commander? Probably. There was a tense moment between them where maybe, just maybe, they could have listened. Their commander shouldered the rifle and, well, that was the end of that.

They opened fire.

There might have been something like “Jedi! Get them!” yelled but she was watching blaster fire, and striking it back at them as she made her approach. When she trained and fought other Imperials it had been smaller groups, the fact that she could catch and reflect as many as she was was testament to how far she’s come if she did say so herself. For every shot intended for her heart she sent it right back at theirs, their own violence would be their undoing – not hers. Not today. She found a calm, a singular moment where she could ignore her growing aches and pains. She fought through it.

They had twelve, they were now at seven, all of them had their own blaster shots back at their blasters or in their shoulders and arms. Sending one last blaster right back into the barrel of a rifle, destroying it and taking the soldier out of commission. And then there were six. She finally ignited her second blade and took to the offensive, rushing in under heavy, deflected, blasterfire. Through the hail of red she saw a singular, electric, dart coming her way. Spinning and sending it right back she watched as a soldier just beside their commander suddenly catch the barb in the seam of their armor and stiffened hard, choking out pained, strained, yells as they collapsed against the grass. Well. That gave her an idea.

She spun her blade, cutting through the rifle which exploded in an Imperial’s hands before she continued battering most of the shots away from her. She got caught in the thigh, in the shoulder, but she didn’t have time for pain. Not right now. Dodging and countering, but careful of the Imperials themselves she cut through their rifles and disabled the soldiers. Six turned into four which turned into one, those she had gotten up close with all of them and she was able to knock out five of them by flinging them into the ground, against a tree, or just hitting them with the back of her saber. The rest? … Well this was a war.

Their commander drew out a wicked vibroblade which crackled with a sickening red arc around it. She might not ever shake that sound from her head as it repelled her lightsaber - like metal falling into an idling engine wash. She couldn’t say it was much of a fight, she was repelled twice before she blocked an overhead strike high with her left and dropped her other saber. Using the Force to pulling that stun gun on the fallen soldier’s hand, she fired the stunning round at the Imperial. The crackles of electricity across the commander’s body almost matched her vibroblade as she eventually fell back into a stiff heap like her soldiers.

“All right! Should be g-” she felt, what was once a presence off in the distance now a massive cloud of bad news just about ten feet away in the treeline.

“You should be more aware of your surroundings,” came a sickening voice. It was all the warning she got before a blur of black and red was upon her. She barely had time to get her sabers up before she was parrying attacks. She heard a couple of the Padawans scream at the sight.

The Sith, their actual commander, she guessed, had that telltale sickly skin tone, the gaunt face, the intense red eyes. Ugly sonnuvabitch with slicked back blonde hair. She shoulder checked him and pushed him back to regain her footing and reset.  This wasn’t the first time she’s faced off against a Sith, but it was the first Sith she’s faced off here on Tython. No. Stay calm. Now’s not the time to lose her cool.

She readied her stance, one blade in a high guard above her head the other held not quite as high and at a forty-five degrees. The Sith held a high pointed to the side and fist brought up almost in a guard.

She was hoping he’d do that.

He rushed forward with a sudden, precise overhead strike. She parried it handily and already was countering with a saber to his side. He blocked down and struck again she caught it and caught him in the side. He backed up, surprise and outrage written all over his gross face. Oh, this was going to be good.

Honestly, she knew relative to the rest of the Jedi here and even most of the Sith that she was a newbie but she time and time again could prove she could hold her own. And it didn’t take a Master to remember that Shien trumped Juyo, like, most of the time. As fast and as hard as the Sith was striking she caught all of them handily, in one hand, and she was able to counter his attacks just as easily, with her other. Not easily, she was still fighting for her life, but it wasn’t as bad as it could be. She caught the Sith in the side, in the leg, in the arm, the molten streak on his armor showed every place she caught him. Despite the cuts, though, he just seemed to come back faster and harder. That’s Juyo for you. Shit.

Speaking of, she got her sabers knocked away and side-stepped away just in time to just catch a glancing blow across her torso by his own lightsaber. She hissed, maybe she wasn’t cut in half due to her armor but damn if it didn’t burn like a mother-

She caught his blade again with hers and locked it in a stalemate between their faces. She had to extinguish a saber to grab the one locked with two hands, ordinarily she probably could have held him off with one hand but him all hopped up on the Dark Side? Better safe than sorry.

“Your people, your temple, your planet will burn!” he snarled. It made her stomach twist, or maybe that was just the second degree burns there.

“You first!” she growled right back. Fuck this. She let go of her hilt with a hand once she held him to a standstill, got her other, and just stabbed him clean through his chest right through his heart - if he even had one. For a second he looked startled, maybe even afraid. For a second she was sorry for him, for the life she had to take. But in the next second he tried to retaliate, a swing she easily parried, and there was only malice and hate left in his eyes and in what she sensed even in his final moments. What a pity. A damn shame.

Either way he crumpled to a heap as soon as she pulled her sabers from him and disengaged. She grabbed at the still warm gash in her armor for a second before she remembered there was an audience of terrified little teens behind her. And Nivon.

“All right! Should be good, now!” She waved them over and managed a smile. It was a huge lie, but for right now? At least the immediate issue was dealt with. The teens started, hesitantly, going forward again without Nivon as he lagged behind. “Cahira, thank you, I know you would be able to handle them while I made sure the young ones were safe…” but with a glance off toward the forest and a hesitance in his voice, he didn’t sound too convinced or too sure of himself. She took him by the shoulders. “Hey, it worked out. We can’t start second guessing ourselves out here! We have to get out of here and to safety. Then we have time to go back and talk and everything, all right?” she affirmed and while the mask hid most of his features … well, he nodded. She’ll take it, even half-confidence was some confidence.  Nivon was certainly more of a healer than a fighter, same couldn’t be said for her. She was happy to fight while he looked after the little ones right then and also the next time this happened because there’s always going to be a “next time”. Her wound flared up and she hissed again quietly.

“Let me see to your wounds,” he said as he approached her with hands outstretched.

“We don’t have time,” she said as she gently put his hands down. The hailstorm of orbital blaster fire didn’t stop, wasn’t stopping, anytime soon which only meant more Imperials were on their way to scorch the earth; level the Temple just like that Sith said. She couldn’t worry about that, she had to at least save the survivors in her care then she could worry about the rest. She whistled to get the kids’ attention and then started running once again. They must have run for, she actually didn’t know, it felt like half of forever but was probably something like fifteen minutes. That firestorm was mostly behind them, now it was just up to making sure no outlying landing parties found them, and making sure no one got left behind. The route was easy to follow, they were just off one of the main rivers that flowed near the Temple and were following it away, which gave them thankfully soft ground to cover their footsteps. Some of the kids tripped on the underbrush and the lost precious seconds in getting away from the battle but as one more fell on a root into the tall grass of the forest Cahira felt a ping just at the edge of her senses. It was something her gut told her was trouble. She unceremoniously shoved the young Jedi she was helping up back into the dirt. “Shh! There’s something coming,” her heart was racing but, honestly it was probably from all the running. For a second she thought she was overthinking things until Nivon looked with unseeing eyes in the exact direction her senses felt that presence. She was ready to take on a whole other platoon if she had to. Dammit, she should have taken their stun gun. Giving a last check over her students she gave a motion for them to stay low in the brush.  Whatever it was it was coming at them from the direction they needed to go, and fast.

Her stomach turned if only for a moment, again - might have been the burns, she might not have as good of senses as others but she knew a bad feeling when she felt it. Her gut told her “Sith” but at least there was only the one. So far. She exhaled low and nodded to herself.

“All right! I got this,” she said and just as she was about to jump out of the cover of the forest to the bank of the river a hand gripped her arm.

“You protected us last time. This is just the one. Rest, be ready to move,” Nivon then leaned in to drop his voice, “they need you.” She was torn, she very nearly stood up to rush off but Nivon’s logic unfortunately made sense. She wasn’t quite over her fight with that troop of Imperials and Sith and this wasn’t about her. This was about the kids they were trying to save, not about her pride or ability. So she just, with a stony face and set jaw, nodded and sat tight behind a tree as Nivon gave her arm a squeeze. 

“Thank you, Hira. This will be over soon,” he assured and made his way down a small bank to a clearing where the treeline was thinner and the river’s edge was just some thirty feet away. Both of their heads snapped up as, further up stream there was a sudden burst of a presence on their radar, she’d lost track of it for a couple of moments there. A blur of black and red made its way across shale rocks that marked the edge of a small waterfall. Running, jumping, flipping, to reach their side, and as that laughter she heard? The knot in her stomach lessened if only a little as they made their way down the side of the falls acrobatically before landing high on a large, dead, withered tree. The tree itself started to crack and finally come free of the moss-covered rocks it had it’s gnarled roots tangled up in.

With a crash it fell scattered onto the riverbed and the person in black, had balanced themselves through the fall and just … stopped. Did they sense them? No way. They were still a ways off but from her higher-up vantage she spied them turning their face up in the direction of the sun. It was weirdly wrong to see, but no more wrong than them taking a full, deep, breath of air before jumping off what remained of the tree trunk with another flipping flourish. Was that Sith just sunning themselves and breathing their air? Weird to be possessive about air, but here she was.

The Sith seemed to be human, female, with thick black hair and tanned skin - she couldn’t make out more details beyond just how wrong her eyes looked from this far away. She felt better about Nivon’s chances now, she didn’t seem as corrupted as the first Sith so she probably wasn’t as strong.

What was weirdest though, was how the other Sith they saw was with a small incursion team. So, why was this one alone? Didn’t matter because from how fast she was running to her casual stroll by the river now, safe to say she didn’t miss them. Dammit.

“You know, it’ll just be easier if you come on out!” she suddenly called and Hira heard the scared shifts of the Padawans from their hiding space. Her senses might not have been as sharp as the others but - she didn’t seem so tough even this close. 

“You lot might be trained to have patience, but I most certainly have not,” she started walking closer, now more into the riverbank towards the treeline. She fought against that urge to go forward herself but she had to follow the plan, Nivon was in the best position to take this one on, not her. She knew even if he was weaker at dueling, Nivon was probably their best bet here.

Besides, she can’t risk the Padawans, she just couldn’t. Which is why Nivon presented himself, striding out with his chin level with the ground from the trees. Please be safe, she hoped, this Sith didn’t feel too tough but any Sith is dangerous.

“See? Not so difficult was it?” came the teasing, female, Imperial cadence.

“No need for me to tell you how grossly you are trespassing, Sith,” Nivon said, marching to face her. “I am just the tip of the iceberg for the resistance you have yet to face.” From this close now, Cahira saw the Sith grin and put her hands up before her shoulders.

“Well! I’ve come all this way, I might as well surrender and start learning All Stars Burn As One, shouldn’t I? Can you hum a few bars for me?”

What an asshole! Didn’t Korriban beat all that out of the Sith?

“If you do surrender, Sith,” Nivon continued on forcefully, the nerve of her, “you’ll be afforded every chance to heal, every chance at redemption.” Nivon drew out the hilt to his saberstaff.

“You talk peace yet draw your lightsaber, those are certainly some mixed signals,” the Sith dropped her hands and spread them, palms-up. “Nonetheless, I offer you similarly, Jedi. Put down your weapon, surrender, and I can assure you that may yet see the end of the day.

If you do not, your life is forfeit.” 

Nivon didn’t let that hammer drop any louder than it already had, good for him.

“You have a high opinion of yourself, how many full-fledged Jedi Knights have you faced?”

“Truly? I’ve lost count. But, I can assure you, I have never met a Knight I could not kill,” she seemed to smile “I am certain that, with all your Knightly prowess, you know I speak true. So, this begs the question: how is that false bravado of yours holding up?” Hira stiffened a little in alarm. Wait, what? Even before they fought, that SIth who ambushed her after the fight with the Imperials felt like serious bad news, not this one though. So, what’s she talking about?

“Enough! Your incursion ends here Sith, you leave me with no choice to fight in order to defend my home. You won’t get past me, you won’t get to the Temple, and you won’t get to the Padawans.”

“Now … who said anything about Padawans?” She drew her hilt. Nivon ignited his yellow saber and held it across his body while the red blade ignited and she held it low and away from her body leaving it open.

Her nerves just seemed to kick in and the hairs on the back of her neck suddenly stood on end. A shiver rolled down her spine and her hands twitched with a need. She wanted to fight this Sith, she didn’t know what it was but her words, her casual style just pissed her off all of a sudden. Her stomach burn didn’t seem all that important in the wake of this aggression. She almost moved out of her cover before she stopped herself. Where did all this even come from? This wasn’t like her. She looked toward the Sith, was this because of her?

“You want to protect your Temple? Bloody, get on with it then,” and she saw white teeth as she grinned at Nivon. Shit, this feeling really was from her wasn’t it? That’s scary and this wasn’t good. Ugly didn’t make her feel like this and when she focused inward to fight this she gulped, Ugly didn’t feel like this Sith did - Ugly didn’t even come close. She looked around her and suddenly had to concentrate to keep all the Padawans in their cover, keeping them down, trying to let her calm bleed into them with the Force since she heard them shifting - probably due to that same blood lust kind of feeling. Hell, it even felt like the earth was vibrating underneath them with all this adrenaline suddenly pumping in her system.

Thankfully Nivon giving off a yell might have kept the Sith’s attention away from the moving brush before there was a clash of lightsabers. Nivon probably had the advantage just by saberstaff versus the SIth’s single lightsaber, especially with how simple the Sith was parrying and attacking. Or at least she hoped, though she recognized the style when the Sith would extend a hand to push or pull Nivon away or towards her and he’d have to be quick on his feet and with his blade to deflect it. Nivon had a good chance at this. The Sith had to dodge a lot of the secondary strikes from the staff which was so good, maybe it tired her out faster. But then she would, instead of dodging fully out of the way, catch Nivon with a jab, with a knee, with a kick, and even a headbutt to send him staggering back a few steps.

She rushed forward at that and for a second Cahira thought this was the end of her friend. The Sith switched her grip to hold her blade backwards, it protected her body and deflected a blow as she sprung off the trunk of a tree, turned and caught Nivon in the side of the face with an arcing kick. It sent him to the ground and his lightsaber turned off as it fell out of his hand. Instead of administering the death blow, though, the Sith stalked away, walking to the far side of the clearing on this riverbank. As immediate the relief was to see Nivon wasn’t killed - this was just too weird.

“Get up! You said you wanted to defend your home then do so! Fight for it! I didn’t come all this way to be disappointed!” She stopped and faced him again, giving Nivon time to get back to his feet. “Unless that’s all your capable of.” She saw those same white teeth when the Sith grinned.

“Come on, Nivon you can do this,” she whispered as she watched her friend call his staff back to his hand and then clip it back to his waist. He stood at a shoulder stance and held his hands close together, like he was holding an imaginary ball. He may not be strong with a blade but he was strong with the Force. She felt the draw he was summoning to his hands as an almost windy distortion surrounded his fingertips. Oh, this was going to be good - Sith wasn’t going to know what hit her.

There was a wind up, then the pitch, and the distortion she saw covered nearly the whole of the clearing - the Sith couldn’t avoid it if she tried. She smiled to herself, it may have been dicey for a second but… The Sith didn’t try to hide, though or get out of the way. Um, what? Instead she adopted a wider stance and sank into it, brought a hand up before her, and chambered her saber further behind her back. With a yell she slashed high and horizontally in the air; the energy emitted wasn’t simply distorted, it was nearly visible. Crackling with lightning, tinted red with the Dark side, she chased after it. The two energies met, the Sith’s more concentrated slash cutting through the broad telekinetic push from Nivon. Cahira’s heart sank in an instant. With a spin and a jump the Sith, back facing the ground, found the gap made with her attack through the push, and vaulted through the attack. Unharmed.

The Sith made a three-point landing the other side of the attack, her own cleaved through a tree behind and above Nivon while the forest bent and broke behind the Sith - he hadn’t fallen any trees but that probably would have been nasty … if it had worked. That rush of anger and aggression Cahira had been fighting off abruptly ended as she watched the Sith pull herself up. Nivon panted softly, still hunched from the effort. Everything felt different now, that was a big gamble from Nivon that he lost out on. Still. It wasn’t hopeless. Not yet.

“Come on, stay up, you got this,” she whispered and tried to stand, her wound in her stomach making itself known again. She had to stay back in hiding, she looked around her as so many sets of young eyes were also watching this unfold.

“My turn,” Cahira heard and she looked back to the duel. The Sith wasn’t grinning anymore. She threw her red blade spinning toward Nivon, sprinted at him, and promptly vanished. Nivon drew his blade and deflected it up above his head. Which is where it was caught, which is where the Sith appeared, only now she with another saber in her hand. Cahira held her hand out and motioned for the Padawans to stay down and really, to look away. It was a flurry of red, the Sith moving so fast with now two lightsabers and a whirlwind of acrobatics it was hard for her to follow just what was happening. She had never really seen that style be used that aggressively or with two blades before.

She didn’t get a chance to see much of it anyways, it was over quickly and the Sith landed between her view and Nivon. She stabbed back and found purchase in his chest, she spun to unfurl herself and slashed high. Cahira looked away but heard the extinguishing of two blades after two thumps of Nivon’s body falling; she knew just what had happened. She clenched her eyes shut and braced herself against her cover. Dammit! She had to look back - if the Sith knew now that they were there? She had to be ready. But instead of finding the woman coming towards them to finish them off she had knelt by Nivon’s body, returned his saberstaff to his limp hand, and crossed it over his chest before drawing his own robe over his body to cover it and the fatal wound.

“No fighter should die without his weapon in hand. Be one with your Force,” being so close, Cahira heard the Sith murmur before standing, pulling some brush to somewhat cover his body before … walking away, walking towards the river. What?

The vibrating she thought was just her own pulse and heartbeat had steadily increased, and now she saw, across the river, small platoons of soldiers marching at double-time by the water and between the trees. Cahira dared to peek out from her tree. She saw the Sith by the water again, as a tall, black-and-white armored figure suddenly alighted beside her, shutting off his jetpack.

“Had your fun? Took us a while to catch up to you,” she heard a deep, male, unaccented voice intone before she held a hand up.

“And what was this about Padawans, my lord Darth?” came a different female voice, the shimmer of a stealth generator fell as a smaller human, Imperial accent, big ass rifle strapped to her back. Oh, shit, this was a Darth?

“Let me be clear that if we come upon any Padawans, young Jedi, or children, I want them unharmed. I will not waste an opportunity to bolster Korriban and rid the Jedi of their next generation of fighters,” the Darth ordered the Imperial who saluted at once.

“Quite the opportunity for them, my lord. Your forces will be notified,” she said. Cahira didn’t miss something telling in her tone and a suddenly casual nod before the brown haired Imperial turned and seemed to grab something like a handle before the stealth generator was engaged once more. The operative disappeared.

The man in armor had brought up a holo display on his gauntlet that was beeping far too much for Cahira’s liking. He tilted his head a little obviously due to his helmet.

“Every kid you come across, that right?” he shut off the radar and she nodded.

“They should be so lucky to be brought to and tested on Korriban rather than their blood, potential, and power be wasted on this planet with the Jedi,” the Darth said with finality.

What?

Alone and wounded she doubted she could stave off the Darth but now with her “forces” catching up? No way were they making it out of here - her breath caught and she held it suddenly.

The Darth had turned and looked straight at her.

She saw the intense, inhuman, glowing, fire tones of her gaze even as she held her there frozen and caught. This was it. She would wind up dead or going to Korriban where she’d be as good as dead. In a smooth motion the Darth turned from her and started walking back in the direction she had been heading, back where Cahira had just came from, back to the Jedi Temple. The armored man engaged his jetpack and followed suit.

What the fuck just happened?

The small army of soldiers, “lesser” Sith - probably, and war machines, all passed them unnoticed and after the longest twenty minutes of her life they were in the clear. They hadn’t been caught, or, well, revealed to anyone else and Nivon’s body remained as it was. She noted the place and had to hurry along the teens in her charge to get moving again. They still had quite the hike ahead of them to get to a safer zone and wait out the fighting. There’s no way the Empire could hold Tython, they just had to tough it out ‘til reinforcements came.