Fane fell to his knees as the Sith dragged him along and into a circular room, where several other Sith sat with Awgro in the centre. It looked like a meditation chamber of some sort. Fane ignored the friction burn he felt on his knees. He took the time to catch his breath.
            Awgro stood, as did others, and walked towards Fane. Awgro scowled.
            ‘I thought you were going to bring back Talyc Kandera!’
            ‘He proved more difficult to capture than we anticipated,’ replied one of the Sith holding Fane.
            ‘More difficult to capture than a Jedi?’ Awgro snapped incredulously.
            ‘He had help! Shadie and Knarf arrived at the scene.’
            ‘Well, I suppose Fane will do. He’s not going to help me claim the Crypt, though, is he?’
            ‘We could use him as leverage,’ another Sith said. ‘We’re not going to claim or gain anything without some of that too.’
            ‘I suppose you’re right,’ said Awgro.
            ‘You know, for a leader, you’re awfully lenient,’ said Fane, defiance in his voice.
            ‘That’s because the Reformed Sith have no leader,’ said Awgro. ‘We work as one, and follow the dark side of the Force as it should be.’
            ‘What are you going to do to me?’ asked Fane.
            ‘That is a matter that is up for debate,’ replied Awgro.
            Fane frowned. ‘I’m more powerful than you, Awgro. I killed Relsor.’
            A masked Sith standing further back made a noise in his throat.
            ‘That you did, but we’ll see how powerful you are once the Force has been completely stripped from you.’
            Awgro ignited his lightsaber and grazed Fane’s arm, ripping his shirt in the process. Fane moaned in pain, putting his hand on the wound to cover it up and holding it there.
            ‘My best shirt. You certainly have timing, to plan this coup on my wedding night!’ Some of the Sith snickered. ‘But you know what? You can never fully strip me from the Force because I have the power of the Crypt and you don’t. I will always have a piece of the Force within me, no matter what.’
            Awgro crouched to look at Fane at hise eye level. ‘Maybe what you say is true, Fane, but you see, I will take your life away from you, I will take everything away from you. I want that Crypt and I will have it. And my companions want the galaxy they were promised, no matter how they get it.’
            ‘If this is about avenging Relsor’s death–’
            ‘This is not about revenge!’ one of the other Sith said firmly, a tall male Chagrian of a pale purple colour. He took Fane’s face and squeezed his cheeks hard. ‘This is about rectifying the error you made and correcting the course of the Force to balance it out towards the dark side.’
            ‘Balance? Pfft! You want to tip the scales!’
            The Chagrian narrowed his eyes and began to drain Fane of the Force again. He seemed to be the strongest in that ability among the rest of them. Awgro began draining Fane of his life. Then they both stopped.
            ‘Let’s lock him up,’ said Awgro. ‘We’ll figure out what to do with him later.’
            The Chagrian nodded and stood. ‘Take him away,’ he said.
            Fane was dragged by the arms out of the room and propped up. He staggered into a room with containment fields and was thrown into one of the smaller cells. The containment field came up. He observed how Awgro and the Chagrian seemed to have the most authority, though they claimed they had no leaders. This was odd, yet perhaps they decided things as a council but with spokespersons.
Fane watched the Sith leave. One of them, the one who wore a mask over his face and hood over his head, turned back to look at him for a moment. Fane tried to get a sense of the man who merely stood there watching him before he turned back and exited like the others.
Fane lifted his hand from the wound on his arm and looked under the rip in his shirt. He sighed in relief. Although he still felt remnants of pain, the mark was gone; there was no cauterization whatsoever.
            ‘Healed,’ he whispered to himself.
            He closed his eyes. Even drained from the Force, his body could regenerate. He focused and tried to muster the Force within him, however much of it that had not been drained, the little bit that was still there. He tried reaching out to the others, but he could not find them in the Force. He focused on Lian, but the Jedi healer felt too distant for him to feel him. So Fane turned his focus on the Sphere, he felt it searching for him, he felt it more strongly than he could feel the others, he assumed it was because of its own abilities. He let himself shine like a glowing beacon for it, ready to be found, calling out to it through the Force as loudly as he could, hoping it would sense him and find his location, wherever that actually was.

Continue reading Chapter Ten

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Seven months after Relsor’s defeat.

Talyc stood trying out his new suit. It looked strange to be dressed so formally. He was used to his armour or casual clothes, not anything this fancy. Fane whistled at him as Knarf kept pouring in the compliments. The ladies were eyeing him as though he were candy in a candy store.
            ‘I see the way you’re looking at me,’ he said to them.
            ‘I was just thinking Knarf should dress like that,’ said Shadie.
            ‘And so should Lian,’ said Nriwe.
            ‘And I can’t wait to see you both dressed handsomely,’ said Alegna. ‘Oh, but it is a shame.’
            ‘What’s a shame!’ said Fane.
            ‘That both of you are spoken for, of course!’ Alegna winked. Talyc shook his head.
            ‘Well, I’ve asked Lian to officiate and he accepted,’ said Talyc. He turned to Nriwe. ‘Are you certain he doesn’t feel left out? I mean, ceremony at the Crypt and party on Mandalore.’
            ‘He understands,’ said Nriwe. She walked to him and placed her hands on his shoulders. ‘He’s getting used to it anyway. Thera is going to stay with her father so that I can join you for the after-party. Void is probably going to stay at the Crypt as well. I don’t think he’s much of a party-goer.’
            ‘You think?’ said Knarf.
            ‘Lian knows you can’t have all the clans at the Crypt. He’s happy to be able to be a part of your special day in some way.’
            ‘In some way?’ said Fane. ‘He’s a major part of it!’
            Alegna looked at her datapad at then brought her eyes back up. ‘We have developments! A contact of mine on Nar Shaddaa, a dancer, claims that she overheard one of the Hutts discussing with a woman called Maranna via holocall, only audio. Apparently, this woman requires regular maintenance for her ship and picks up supplies from that Hutt’s cargo ships.’
            ‘This means that if it’s Maranna, then she’s never left her ship,’ said Shadie, ‘and that she probably jumps here and there like Relsor did to remain undetected.’
            ‘It’s good to know she has contacts with the Hutts,’ said Knarf. ‘Maybe affiliates from earlier in her life? Who knows what her story is.’
            ‘Yeah, well get this,’ Alegna continued, ‘the Hutt addressed Maranna by her name and told her that her payment was late and that if it didn’t come through, that next time she required anything, he would need her to work for him serving tables or dancing.’
            ‘I’m guessing she’s going to choose the former,’ said Nriwe. ‘Had I had the choice, I know that’s what I would have chosen, back in the day.”
            ‘So when do you think she might end up docking at Nar Shaddaa?’ asked Fane.
            ‘Beats me, could be next week like it could be next year,’ Alegna replied. ‘Should I go there, station myself with my contacts?’
            ‘No,’ said Talyc, ‘we want you at the wedding. It can wait.’
            ‘I can inform Storimbu and the others to keep an eye out for a ship arriving near Nar Shaddaa, or one that keeps making hyperspace jumps at random intervals,’ Shadie assured.
            ‘Let’s not forget it might have stealth capabilities,’ said Fane. ‘Even if our allies have used anti-stealth prototypes, she’s still managed to evade. She’s hiding and she’s good at it.’
            ‘Does Awgro know about the child?’ asked Alegna.
            ‘Unfortunately, chances are he does,’ replied Knarf. ‘Storm told us that a few remnant True Sith who decided to leave their former faction and return to Sith Space claim that the other remnant True Sith have joined Awgro. They’re calling themselves the Reformed Sith.’
            ‘Great,’ said Nriwe, ‘so he probably knows the kid’s Chiss too.’
            ‘These former True Sith,’ Talyc began, ‘are they allied with the Protectors of the Force?’
            ‘No, but they divulged some information one night when Storm got them drunk.’ Knarf chuckled.
            ‘In the holovid,’ said Nriwe, ‘the child Maranna was holding was too big to be a newborn. My guess is it was around one, if not a bit more. A child of a Force-user, a powerful one, if Thera is anything to go by, would develop more quickly than a non-Force-sensitive child. My guess is that child is perhaps two now, probably knows how to walk, how to talk, might even look a bit older.’
            ‘I’ll let Storimbu know what to look out for,’ said Shadie.
            Fane sighed. ‘It’s ironic, isn’t it, how we spent so many years trying to destroy this child’s father, and now we’re trying to protect it? That kid’s going to hate me.’
            ‘It’s not going to hate you, Fane,’ said Talyc. ‘That child will surely understand. Or at least will later on in its life. You saved the galaxy. You had no other choice. And that child will be a lot safer with us than with Awgro. If Awgro finds the child first, then chances are Maranna and the child will hate you and come after us.’
            ‘So it’s a race of who can convince the two of them to be an ally first?’ asked Fane.
            ‘We’re not going to force Maranna or her child to do anything they don’t want,’ Shadie reminded them. ‘I promise. We just want them to know they are being hunted, offer them our protection, but ultimately, if Maranna chooses otherwise, we can’t force her to come with us.’
            Fane shook his head. ‘It all worries me.’
            ‘Well, worry about it later,’ said Knarf, ‘because the two of you have a special day coming up. Focus on that, on your love, on your happiness. We’ll worry about the rest later.’
            Fane smiled; he looked so handsome. Talyc was grateful for his friends. He looked at himself again.
            ‘It’s missing a bit of a Mandalorian touch-up,’ he said, smoothing out the creases in his shirt.
            ‘Want me to put a blaster mark on it?’ Knarf said chuckling.
            ‘You know what, that gives me an idea!’

Continue reading Chapter Nine

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Catch up on previous Star Wars Fan-Fiction from the Protectors of the Force series

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