Star Wars Episode X: The Shroud of The Dark Side

Chapter 24: Finn

Finn was tired of waiting for Poe and the door and he ran back in. Poe ran over and grabbed him.

"We're in trouble, Rey is giving birth." Poe sounded a lot more panicked than usual.

"What, right now?"

"Yes right now!" Poe ran back over to the Chancellor and Rey.

Finn followed him and hurried to get them both into a secret room that Marie opened. They laid Rey down as best as they could.

Marie barked out orders fast and efficiently. "Finn, go help defend the capital. Poe have you delivered a baby before?"

Poe looked at her confused. "Uh no?"

"Too bad, you're gonna learn."

"Wait what??? Oh God, ok fine." Poe ran over to Finn and grabbed his shoulder. He whispered urgently into his ear.

"Call Ben. Tell him that we have it under control, it's not safe for him here!"

Poe nodded and ran away. He got out of the Chancellor quarters and helped the guards there defend the door as much as they could. He grabbed his holo com and called Ben.

"Rey is giving birth. We'll be fine here, there's a slight battle here but we got this! I'll keep you updated"

Ben hesitated on the com and then nodded. Poe ran into the battle with his darksaber ignited doing the best he could to help those who were not winning their fights. He knew that he had to find Darth Caedus to end this as soon as he could. Swinging through blasters and swords, Finn had never felt so prepared for battle. He knew that it shouldn't feel good, but damn it felt nice to be so fluid. Swinging through the crowd of fighters he kept his eye out of either of the two leaders of the opposing armies. Finn really wanted to go check and make sure that Rey was ok too, but he knew that there were bigger issues at hand right now. Rey would want him to stay and fight. He took a moment and closed his eyes. Taking a deep breath, he let the force flow through him and then continued to charge in battle. Finn started to make his way through the building, but looking at the fights around him, he knew that they wouldn't last too much longer without extra help.

Finn continued his trip throughout the hall and then got an idea. He grabbed his holo com and called the Jedi left at the temple and got them to come to help. The Jedi couldn't win the battle for the Republic, but they sure would help a lot. He knew that Alastor and Jackson were coming, and even though she wasn't on the call, Finn hoped that Delilah and her new apprentice would come too. That would put them at 6 Jedi including Ben, and would increase the odds of finding Darth Caedus and Tsavong Lah. Eventually Finn found the Yuuzhan Vong war general. It wasn't that hard to see which one was him because of his extra height. Tsavong had grabbed a Republic soldier and ripped his head off with one clean tug and then threw the body across the hall. Using his snake-like staff he stabbed another soldier in the eye and then allowed the snake to lunge at a soldier next to him and bite him in the neck. The bitten soldier grabbed his neck and hit the floor turning green and foaming at the mouth.

Angry, Finn charged Tsavong Lah and swung his saber at the giant warrior. For a big creature, he moved with surprising speed. He dodged to the side of Finn's attack and then grabbed him around the throat. Picking Finn up he grinned and threw him hard against the wall. Finn had the wind knocked out of him and slid to the floor. He stumbled to get up, but before he could a foot slammed into his back pushing him on the floor.

"Even where I come from, we know tales about the Jedi... I don't need my staff to kill you. I'll kill you with my bare hands. Then I'll frame your head as a trophy!" Tsavong Lah laughed which gave Finn enough time to push him off and scramble to his feet. He used the force to grab the darksaber from across the room and ignited it once more. They charged at each other and spent several minutes without anyone making any contact. Eventually Tsavong Lah pulled a sword out and tucked his staff behind his back.

"I made this out of the strongest material on my home planet. Do you think your lightsaber can break it?"

"I don't know, but let's find out." Finn ran at him and they clashed. To Finn's surprise, the sword did hold up to his lightsaber. They continued to fight down the hall and outside a door, which revealed the ships that the Black Sun and the Yuuzhan Vong had arrived in. There was still fighting out here, which relieved Finn a little bit. From across the landing pad Finn noticed Alastor fighting Darth Caedus and Jackson fighting some Yuuzhan Vong. When Jackson met eyes with Finn, he quickly took care of the warriors and ran to help Finn out. The two Jedi were doing fine against the massive general, until he snarled and whipped out his staff in one hand and his sword in the other.

"Fine. If you get back up. Then so do I!" Tsavong Lah roared and charged the Jedi again. He was much more of a match with two weapons, both of which could block sabers, even without the serpent part of the staff doing anything. He kicked Finn in the chest and sent him spinning across the landing pad. Finn looked up to see Jackson struggling against the general. Finn tried to get over there to help but before he could, Tsavong swung his sword and cut the young Jedi's stomach open. Jackson dropped onto his knees and then had he head cut off in one more motion. Tsavong Lah picked up his body and threw it off of the landing pad.

"NO!!!!" Finn screamed and sprinted as fast as he could to re engage the war general. They fought for several minutes until Finn got the upper hand. Swinging his saber wildly, he cut through the hilt of the sword and sent the blade flying. He took the opportunity to slash Tsavong Lah's face and slashed his right arm off. Screaming he fell to the ground and grabbed his face with his remaining hand. Before Finn could think of doing anything else, several Yuuzhan Vong warriors raced over and grabbed their injured leader and dragged him to the ship. Many of the Yuuzhan Vong had fled but not all had. Only one target remained. Darth Caedus had to be dealt with.