Star Wars ; Silver Shadows

Corellia

"Run," Eri cast a sharp glance across the room at Gally. "Get out of here!"

Gally looked confused.  Nervous.  Terrified.  A twisted thought crossed Eri's mind: she should be terrified.

And she should have been.  Eri opened the door and shoved Gally out.  "GALLY!  Go home!  You can't be around when he's here.  YOU CAN NOT BE ANYWHERE NEAR HERE!" 

She looked offended, but was still at a loss of words. 

"Gally, it's for your safety.  He could kill you in a second."

The thought of the many ways the mystery man could murder Gally set her into motion.  She didn't look back, even as Eri yelled to her, "I'll come back, Gally!  I'll find you!"

She was in tears and her arms flung wildly as she hit the Corellian backstreets, paved only with dirt and cobbles.  She slowed to a stop, confident that she'd made it far enough.  She gasped for breath and sat down, allowing the tears to pour out.  What if he doesn't come back...?  What if he dies....?  What if... awful thoughts swarmed Gally's head like hornets.  

Eri strode with a purpose out to the field where Rejik was still training.  He had become distracted; he swung more slowly at the tree and looked at the sky frequently.  He looked nervous. 

Eri looked around.  He felt a dark force approaching.  He saw a figure on a catwalk, and heard footsteps.  Dozens of footsteps.

Eri became frantic.  He grabbed Rejik by the back of his head, pulled him in, and kissed him.

Their lips intertwined and their tongues began a duel of romance.  To Eri, it seemed to last for hours.  The Rejik, it was only a second before he shoved the smaller boy away.

"What the hell, Er–" Rejik's anger was cut off by the sound of choking.  From the ground where Eri had been shoved, he looked up and saw Rejik floating above the ground, in terror.  He was prying at his throat, gasping for air.  Behind Eri, Naga Sadow held a mighty fist aloft and gazed at the pitiful boys. 

The lighting was almost intentionally dramatic.  The sun was setting just behind Sadow's silhouette, allowing his figure to be almost entirely shrouded in darkness.  A mellow breeze swept his cape across the air.  Eri was afraid of the man before him.

Sadow's low voice bellowed across the field.  "WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?" 

Eri was not being choked, but he felt no words coming to him.

"Spit it out or I kill the boy."

Eri tried again to speak, but his throat was constricted.  He could not form any comprehensible sentences.

Sadow was not a good man, but he was a man of his word.  Rejik's body was tossed back to the ground and crumpled like a rag doll. 

Eri was not prepared for it.  He still couldn't form coherent sentences, but he could stand up, even if only barely.  He didn't need to rush to his fallen crush's body to know he was dead.  He held out a hand and retrieved the saber from Rejik's hilt.  He ignited it, wiped tears from his eyes and charged into the bastard in front of him.

- ~ -

Sadow didn't even know he was going to kill Haruuk.  He hadn't foreseen any circumstances under which Grail would have kissed the boy.  He had not foreseen the Haruuk dying in any of his premeditations.  The combination of the two events put Grail in a position for vengeance.   Sadow realized then why he was scared; Eri had a purpose to fight.  In all his visions, Grail did not fight just to fight.  Most fights Sadow found himself in would be half-hearted, and easily won.  This one would not be.

Blades were swinging wildly.  In the storm of swinging lights, Eri hardly realized the magnificent coloring in Sadow's blade, nor did he acknowledge the grace with which Sadow moved in despite of his age. 

For such an old man, he stepped with intent and haste.  He gripped his blade with just one hand, stepping backwards.  With his free hand, he signaled for his guards not to intervene.  It would be over quickly.  He recalled his premonitions and determined when to strike the admittedly powerful boy. 

Grail blocked an attempted head shot, followed by a sweeping hip strike.  He realized that Sadow was not trying to kill him with these strikes.  He was only trying to find the right time to strike.  He also saw in Sadow's eyes that he was thinking about something.  With such unmeaningful blows, why would a powerful man such as Sadow be so deep in thought?  He had to be examining the possible outcomes.  The only way to outsmart the future is to strike the present.  Eri slid his blade up the black blade of his opponent, forcing Sadow to take a weak grip.  Eri kneed the bottom of Sadow's saber's hilt, sending it into the air.  Eri followed up the witty move with a three-hundred-sixty degree turn and a lunging jab.  He felt a rush through his stomach as he realized he'd made direct contact with Sadow's abdomen.

Sadow looked down at his stomach.  This was not an outcome he'd predicted.  He looked up at his saber, flying into the sky, and allowed himself to collapse. 

Eri breathed heavily.  He looked around at the guards, who seemed to be in disbelief.  Rather than fight them, he said something far more meaningful.  "None of you wanted to be slaves to Naga Sadow," he said in a low voice.  "Be free now."

They reluctantly left and aimlessly wandered to the inner city. 

Eri looked down at his hands.  They weren't bloody.  They weren't broken.  He only imagined the blood on his hands.  He didn't like the feeling of killing.

Another thought struck Eri; they could send more.

Naga Sadow was the "head honcho" of the Sith organization, but he had an army of five sentinels, loyal to the last minute.  They would be after Eri.  They would find him and end him.  They wouldn't stop until they knew everything Eri loved was gone.  Eri had to leave. 

The Force guided him to the shuttle that had escorted Sadow to Corellia, shrouded in dark energy.  He looked back at his homeworld.  He heard Gally crying in some distant corner.  He missed her already.  He tried to be strong as he turned around and closed the ship's door.