Jedi Knight Archie Ilaiah
I creep through the sewer, covering my nose as the stench gets more rotten the more I walk. The clones I walk by are dead, and I can tell the emotion is reaching Chess. Rounding the corner, we see a clone with their helmet off leaning against the wall.
"Trooper," I ask. "What's your name?"
"H..." He struggles.
"Help him up." I call to Kiddinks. He moves forward and holds his brother up, linking an arm around him.
"I'm...Heart..." He breathes in, clenching his teeth.
"That's a nice name. Where does it hurt?"
"Stomach. But it's not too bad. I'm not dead...yet, at least."
"Well, at least we can save you. We're looking for more survivors. Are you up to walk?"
"Yes, Sir."
"Please, just call me Archie."
We trek past more bodies, turning more corners. Now and then, I hear water dripping and mistake it for footsteps, but we don't see anything threatening. Sometimes, the stench goes down and then it's pretty bad. I place Heart's helmet over his head so he doesn't have to smell anything foul. The helmets are designed to block out smells, but not toxins. We shouldn't have any trouble with gasses on this mission though.
We turn a corner one more time and I pause.
A clone's head is lowered. His breathing is shallow.
"Ezo..." I scramble to my knees and kneel beside him. He has a huge wound in the middle of his stomach. Blood seems to have stained his armor.
"They're...here..."
"We can help you." I choke up. It's bad—the stench makes it way worse. "Ezo, don't go."
He points at my lightsaber, trying to grab it. I push his hand away gently. I'm not watching anyone die this time. "No."
"...Can't...can't go on." He shakes his head in shame.
"We're taking you back! Ezo! Ezo. Hey, wake—"
The dark sense is in my head again.
"Cowards." I whisper to myself. "Show yourself."
"...Finish the mission, brothers." He gasps. "General...I'm sorry—"
There's the sound of a lightsaber igniting. I see a red glow in the distance. I yell at everyone to get down, but then I look down when I hear a small sigh. There's a familiar hum and familiar cyan glow out of the corner of my eye. My heart sinks.
He killed himself with my own weapon. Ezo's gone and so is the red glow.
But laughter in my head has materialized.
Failure. Razer whispers.
Then, the distant sound of blaster fire is heard.
"We'll come back." I exhale.
---
When we get there, Ahsoka has locked blades with Maul. He stands back, considering us both.
"Ilaiah..." He snickers, his yellow eyes glowing. "Still not Kenobi, but you will do."
"Oh?" I cock an eyebrow, igniting my lightsaber.
"It was foretold that you would be here. Our long awaited meeting has finally come."
"I'm glad I gave you something to look forward to." I shrug.
YOU ARE READING
Archie Ilaiah's Star Wars Quests: Book I: Vengeful Entity
Action"War is old men talking and young men dying. Don't think otherwise. This whole Clone War is worthless. Everyone was almost revealed to be a true tool of Palpatine's until your little Chosen One killed him." While the Jedi Order and Galactic Republic...
