Out of Time [Star Wars Story]

8. Hands of the Past

Lorash scrambled to reach the cargo bay, wriggling up the small ladder in only a few seconds and then stepping out onto the lowered door as Eso came running past her. There were only three crates left in the hangar, as he'd gotten all the rest.

"Seia, get in here!" Eso shouted over the radio.

Their sith hadn't even ignited her lightsaber yet, but she watched the oncoming hooded figure like a hawk.

"Give me the girl, rebel scum, and perhaps I will let you live." It wasn't the voice Lorash remembered from the bar on Hutta. The hood fell back to reveal a young human man with a shaved head, dark red tattoos in strange lettering across the left half of his face. He seemed older and more experienced than the zabrak, but not by much. "I am Dren Organa, apprentice to Szorda Zul."

Lorash realized then that he probably hadn't realized what Seia was. She also recognized that name, however. Few would hear the name of the Alderaanian royal house and not recognize it. Master Vori had spent time guarding Senator Bail Organa, though that was several years before fleeing the destruction of the Jedi Order.

Dren was the man's nephew, who had been taken from his home as a very young child to join the Jedi Order, at Vori's own recommendation. Apparently the boy was not as dead as everyone on Alderaan believed. Lorash knew that her master would be crushed at the knowledge that the young padawan had fallen to the Dark Side, whatever joy the knowledge that he had survived the massacres brought him.

Seia's lips curved into a smile. "You have mistaken your situation, apprentice," she rasped. "How much is the girl worth to you?"

Lorash's heart started to pound, but she forced herself to stay calm. She grabbed her staff, praying Seia would only step aside and not turn to join the other sith's side.

"Alive and whole, she is worth more to me than your life, mercenary."

Apparently his grasp of sense was not honed enough to realize what he was dealing with when he looked at Seia. Lorash wasn't certain if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

"Seia!" Eso shouted over the comms. "Get to the ship!" The engines were powering up rapidly, but their pilot was waiting.

"Give her to me or I'll have them shoot your ship out of the sky, mercenary," Dren said, face given a fiendish cast by the glow of his lightsaber.

Lorash gripped her beskar staff tightly and advanced out of the cargo hold. "Let them go. I'm right here."

"Lorash, get back in the ship!" Eso shouted over the comms. "Any promise he makes is a lie!"

The moment his gaze flicked towards Lorash, Seia made her move. She cleared the distance between her and Dren in a single, Force-empowered leap, her lightsaber smashing into his parry with enough force to send him flying. The stunned shock on his face as he rolled brought a wicked, contorted smile to the female sith's face.

Seia gave him no time to collect himself. She advanced swiftly enough that the blaster fire from the remaining storm troopers had to avert, for fear of striking their own ally. Her next lightsaber blow swung at his feet, but she kicked high savagely the moment he parried, hitting him so hard in the ribs that he staggered despite the armor under his robes.

Every motion Seia made was a savage attack, hounding him at every turn. If it wasn't a lightsaber strike powerful enough to almost dislocate his shoulder when he parried, it was a battering from her fist or limbs. Here in plain view, it became obvious how relentlessly brutal Seia was as a combatant. Even if his lightsaber techniques were perfect, she would beat him into the ground and then to death, never allowing him the opportunity to gain the upper hand or even his balance. He was undoubtedly a powerful sith warrior, but Seia was the Dark Side unleashed from its chain.