STAR WARS: Fugitive

Chapter 43

Chapter 43

Thera's jaw began to hurt worse than the rest of her body the longer she fought the electrified clench of her teeth. As the human Sith Lord began to growl louder, the pain from the barrage of his lightning began to grow as the energy flowed through her body with the dark side of the Force channeling into the dying Zabrak whose own howling was growing more faint.

Use the Force, she heard a voice in her mind tell her.

Don't fight the pain; use it!

She clamped her eyes shut, and then her teeth even tighter, making the pain intensify. She felt the lightning shooting through her body, and the Force filling her with something that at first felt like a taste of relief, but quickly grew into strength and something that felt like power. Suddenly she could sense the life of the Zabrak change and begin to fade.

Take her; use her, the voice commanded.

Thera willed herself to draw the energy of the Zabrak towards her. She could feel it begin to coarse through her body, which seemed to dampen the pain from the lightning. When the Zabrak's energy was gone, her pain slowly began to resume, until finally the lightning stopped, and everyone's voices stumbled off to silence, with only faint sounds left of fighters dogfighting in space, and then the collapse of the Zabrak's lifeless body to the deck when Thera released her arm, and then she noticed another familiar sound. Turning to look, she saw the Human looking amazed and disappointed at the same time, with a red lightsaber blade protruding from the center of his abdomen.

The blade extinguished and the Human fell like a curtain being swiftly drawn back to reveal the reclusive Sith Lord who had been a silent audience to Thera's battle with the other two.

Thera reached out with the Force, searching for clues of what dangers remained, and if Shyk was still alive – Shyk did not reveal his part of the mission. I can sense him, but not near – and what to expect from...

"Your thoughts betray you, young Tykos," began the Sith Lord. Thera recognized his voice as the one she had just heard in her mind. "Your Neimoidian cohort is carrying out his destiny; he will not endanger either of us."

Thera quickly retreated her thoughts, did not dare to review the rest of the plan. Be in the moment, Master Matthster had always told her, don't be distracted with what's next, unless you can use it to your advantage.

"Your extraction by your friends will fail, however; their extinction will occur shortly. Your saboteur, also, will soon be dealt with."

Saboteur... must be Lady A'pratti'ka's contact... part of her plan...

"Young lady," he added, "the universal reality is that nothing ever goes as planned. I apologize for my associates for their underestimation of your power."

The Sith Lord looked Human, but very pale, older, but not old. He stood staring at her for several moments, neither one of them moving. Thera could sense the immense weight of the dark side of the Force, but she could not clearly sense what sort of danger this Sith Lord would be, as she seemed able to do with all of her foes before. The Force began to feel calm.

"So it is you," he said smiling calmly at her.

"The 'catalyst,'" answered Thera, more with a questioning tone.

He smiled with an easy smile.

"I am Darth Durus, Dark Lord of the Sith," he began. She felt him probe her mind, the way her brother used to do. His tone sounded calm.