Bound to Serve the Dark: 8/8

Author's Note:Kudos to djkauf for betaing this for me. Pic Credit: Darth Hell. Star Wars and recognizable characters from that universe belong to George Lucas et al.

There will be an Epilogue following, to wrap things up.

Warning: This one's violent kiddies. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Chapter Eight

Matt was sulking and I was tired of attempting to cheer him up, so I just went about my evening like nothing was wrong even though that guy at the restaurant seriously pissed me off. Perhaps when we got to the prom, Eric and Lyshaa could cheer us up.

When we neared the school, where the dance was being held, something felt off to me. In order to get to the school we needed to pass by the street in front of my house. It was much farther down the road, but it was a long street.

I naturally noted where we were in my head, but I couldn’t shake the feeling of wrongness.

“Matt…”

Dread dropped over me like a smothering cloak. A feeling of impending doom gnawed at something inside me.

“Stop!”

He slammed on the brakes making the car behind us laid on their horn.

“What?” he said, somewhat panicked. “What happened?”

I grabbed at the oh shit! handle above the window and squeezed, gasping for air.

“Aayla? What’s the matter?” Matt was entering into full panic mode at that point.

“Home… I need to get home. Now!”

“What do you mean?”

Snapping my head around to him, I gave Matt the full brunt of my stare. “Get me home as fast as you can.”

His face went slack for a moment and then he slammed the accelerator while spinning the steering wheel as far as it would go. Tires squealed, we hopped the opposite curb and came down hard against the pavement, but we were moving. As we hit the intersection, an SUV looked like it was going to T-bone us. I threw out my hand and caused both front tires to blow out.

Sparks flew and slowed it enough to make the SUV clip our rear bumper instead of hitting us dead on.

Matt had firm control though and straightened the car out as he raced nearly a mile down the road to my house.

The seatbelt tightened against me as we came to a screeching stop, half in and half out of the drive way, but I popped it off and opened the car door.

Looking at the house, I could tell something was wrong. Nothing looked out of place, but a sense of foreboding let me know that it wasn’t safe.

“What happened?” Matt was dazed, coming out of the suggestion that I gave him. “Oh shit; the car. My dad’s gonna kill me.”

I ignored him, instead focusing all my attention on my home, and as soon as I did, it was gone. All the feelings that were screaming at me, telling me that danger was near, disappeared as quickly as they’d come to me.

“Stay here,” I said.

My feet led me to the front door. I reached out with the Force and unlocked it, throwing it open.

The smell of blood hit before my eyes registered the scene in front of me. I looked down at the arm on the floor that wasn’t attached to anything else. My mom’s wedding ring was on its finger, but it still hadn’t connected in my mind as of yet.

“Mom?”

“Jesus, Aayla,” Matt said from behind me.

“Mom? Dad?”

Something was tugging on my arm. “We have to get out. Call the cops. Aayla.”

I tried to shrug the tugging off, but it was insistent.

“Aayla… Josh!”

I swallowed and then blinked, turning my head to Matt. “I have to find my mom and dad.”

My voice was calm, cool, and collected. I wasn’t going to lose control. Bad things would happen if I lost control.

Matt glanced across the room with concern. “Aayla, come on, baby. Let’s go wait in the car for the cops. They’ll find your mom and dad for you.”

My lips felt sluggish. “M…maybe Kenny’ll know where they are.”

He nodded. “That’s a good idea. Let me take you to the car and I’ll come back to look for Kenny, okay?”

I nodded and took his lead.

Everything blurred for the longest time until the world started lighting up with blue and red. Someone took my wrist and was saying something to me while I stared at the dash of the car.

“She’s in shock,” a girl said.

“How can you tell?” some guy replied. “Is she even human?”

“Don’t be a dick, Billings.”

It was then that I realized they were all talking about me. Something clicked in my head and I looked up at them: an EMT, and two guys in regular suits with badges hanging on their belts.

I blinked away the confusion and looked at a dozen or more people busily moving about in front of my house. Then I remembered the arm; my mom’s arm.

My stomach heaved and the EMT jumped out of the way as I tried to empty whatever was left in my stomach after lunch earlier that day, which wasn’t much. The muscles in my abdomen clenched over and over, sending blood pumping through my veins, waking me up from whatever comatose state I was in.

When it looked like I was through, the EMT tried to hold a mask over my nose and mouth.

“It’s oxygen. Just breathe in. It’ll help clear your head.”

Instead of listening to her, I batted the mask out of the way and stepped out of the car.

“You’re Josh Walker?” one of the cops said, but I ignored him as well, as I tried to make my way to the front door of my house.

The other one made a grab for my arm, but I caught his wrist in my grasp. “ Don’t touch me.”

The first guy came back with, “Miss Walker, we’re going to need you to sit back down.”

I looked hard at him. “You’re going to escort me inside.”

He blinked. “I’m going to escort you inside.”

The one whose wrist I held started to put up a struggle, so I centered on him as well. “You’re going to go sit down.”

He blinked as well. “I’m going to go sit down.”

The EMT was staring at me open-mouthed, so I had to deal with her as well. “You didn’t see anything. Go about your business.”

As soon as they were dealt with, I turned back to my escort and we made our way to the front door.

“You need for me to identify something,” I said.

I was somewhat surprised when he pulled out a sheet of paper that was in a ziplock bag marked, evidence . I only mentioned that as an excuse to get me inside the house. “I need for you to identify this.”

There was a uniformed officer at the front door looking like he was controlling who was coming and going. Before he had a chance to say anything I told him to ignore us as I grabbed the detective’s upper arm and erected a Force Cloak on us both.

I almost lost it when I saw the mess that was the living room once more. There was someone moving around taking pictures of everything, all the pieces of my family that were scattered across the floor, the couch, the windowsill, everywhere.

“Go to the basement,” I whispered.

Our movement was slow while we avoided the blood and one other person that was inside setting little plastic number tents and rulers next to the bits and pieces of my family for the photographer.

I locked the basement door behind me and followed the detective down the stairs. They hadn’t quite gotten to my portion of the house just yet.

The place was trashed. My clothes were half out of the drawers which were all open. My mattress was askew, pillows out of their cases and my comic box was turned over with my collection scattered nearby.

More and more, I was becoming infuriated.

After taking a deep breath I opened the ziplock bag and pulled the paper out.

It was a receipt for items taken into custody by the Office of Homeland Security. My eyes widened when I saw exactly what it was.

Holding up my hand I tried to summon the GH to me. Nothing. The other holocrons, my lightsaber, anything from my hideaway. Nothing.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I tried to keep the rage down, but it was leaking out.

“Who did this?” I said through clenched teeth at the detective.

He looked at me and then took the paper to scan it. “Lead investigator who signed for the items is Courtney Carter.”

Carter! American Dream killed my family so she could take my stuff?

“I’m gonna kill her,” I hissed. “Stay right there. Don’t move.”

A swipe of my hand and the floor was clear to the dresser. I pulled my dress down and tore off my heels before grabbing a pair of black workout shorts, a sports bra, and a tank. I needed maximum flexibility and that meant not wearing anything that I didn’t absolutely need. The knee boots went on next. As I was putting them on, I looked over at the washer and dryer. They hadn’t been disturbed.

Just a touch of concentration and they separated. On the floor, still in the charger, was the power cell and Darth Talon’s light saber right next to it.

“Missed one, bitch.”

In a second it was flying across the room into my hand. I inserted the power cell. The moment it hit, I thumbed the activation stub and the sword ignited with a snap and a low hum. I stared at the red shaft of plasma and my breath started speeding up. It felt so right in my hand. A few waves later and I quieted the blade as I looked up at the detective.

He was staring at me with anxiety on his face. His forehead was beaded with sweat and I could smell the fear almost radiating off of him. That’s when I stood and strode over to him.

“I’m not going to hurt you unless you give me a reason to. Are we clear?”

His head barely nodded.

“I don’t give a crap about you or the rest of the people here. I just want the person who is responsible for what happened to my family, and we both know who that is, right?”

He nodded again.

Lifting my hand up, I let my nails trail lightly down his face until my hand was at his throat. “Just so you don’t get any ideas about being a hero here, I can crush your heart in your chest with a single thought, but you’re one of the good guys. I’d rather not do that.”

His lips curled in a little, trembling.

“You have family?”

He nodded once more and my eyes narrowed.

“Imagine the scene upstairs happening to them. Would you let the person responsible get away with it?”

“No.” It was a whisper, barely audible, but I heard it just the same.

“Good. So, you’re going to help me, aren’t you?”

I could see the answer was going to be in the negative and I couldn’t have that at the moment. Reaching up, I let my hand move into a claw-like position. Blue lightning crackled between my fingers.

“There’s only one acceptable answer, detective.”

He nodded quickly.

“Good. Now, go upstairs and make up a believable excuse to leave. You’re following a lead or something. I’ll meet you in your car. If you tip them off, I’ll kill everyone here before I leave.”

He raced up the stairs as soon as I let him go. I grabbed my backpack and dumped the contents before putting the charger inside along with a change of clothes. After I was finished with what I had to do, I wouldn’t be able to come back.

Leaning against the basement wall, I tried to cool down, but it was next to impossible. I couldn’t hold back the rage and the pain over losing my family for something as insignificant as what I had hidden. They could have just had a search warrant and taken what they wanted, but Carter had to one up me. Being put in her place by a teenager obviously didn’t sit well with the All-American Hero.

Then she had to shove it down my throat by leaving the receipt.

Well, I had something to shove down her throat.

No, I still hadn’t gone dark. I was in complete control, just angry. I’d have it quelled down by the time I got to their base. Jedi did this all the time. They killed the bad guy, sliced them to ribbons with their lightsabers. It just wasn’t obvious to the layman as to who the bad guy was in this case, but I knew, and she was going to pay, her and everyone at that base.

~O~

Matt was standing by his car looking around, for me I assumed. Once I cleared the house I went over and stood in front of him. With the Force Cloak on, I was invisible, but I couldn’t drop it; not yet.

“Bye, Matt,” I whispered.

His eyes widened. “Aayla?”

“Shh. Don’t say anything.”

He covered his mouth with his hand. “Where are you?”

“I’m right in front of you. I’m invisible. I have to go, but I wanted you… I didn’t want you to think I bailed. If I get a chance, I’ll try to see you again.”

He started talking as I walked away, but I tuned him out. It was better to cut all my ties.

After I got in the car, I let the cloak go and felt the energy that had been sapped from me for holding it for so long.

“Go; Ellington Air Force Base. Turn your lights on. We need to get there as fast as we can before they figure out that I’m coming.”

The detective nodded and waited until he cleared the area before hitting the blue and red lights on the bumper of his car. When we got on the freeway I aided his progress by nudging the cars that were in front of us, out of the way. I’d only caused two wrecks by the time we were on the east side of town, but it was for a good cause. Jedi did this from time to time, so I didn’t feel too bad. Besides, insurance would pay for the damage.

“She didn’t kill them,” said the detective.

I turned my head slowly to look at him. “You really don’t need to talk.”

“She wouldn’t do that. American Dream is a hero.”

My left hand clenched the receipt the so-called hero left behind. “Then what’s this? Matt and I were only gone from the house for forty or forty-five minutes tops. Are you saying someone else that had the power to do what she can come in right after she left and tore my family apart for no apparent reason?”

He looked like he was about to say something, but couldn’t really get the right words out.

“Yeah,” I said. “You know that idea is bullshit too. I don’t have any enemies that have power, Detective. None. And the last time I met your little blonde hero, she had me kidnapped, taken to her base, and personally threatened me.”

I watched as he swallowed hard. “Then let me arrest her. You haven’t done anything bad yet. I’ll tell my boss what you told me. Metahumans aren’t above the law… um, no offense.”

I made a scoffing noise. “None taken. I’m not a metahuman.”

“But…”

Cutting him off I said, “And exactly how are you going to arrest her? I’ve seen her punch through brick walls on TV. No, the only way to bring her down is my way.”

We travelled another half mile before the detective responded. “If you kill her then it will be murder.”

I shook my head. “It’ll be justice. Jedi are big on justice. I’ll be fine.”

“Jedi?” He glanced at the lightsaber gripped in my right hand.

I nodded. “It’s real, Detective, and I’m a master, well, sort of.”

“I thought Jedi didn’t seek revenge.”

Throwing him a look out of the corner of my eye, I frowned. “Everyone’s an expert on Star Wars.”

He swallowed again. “I’m just a fan. I was there at the premiere of Return of the Jedi in ’83. They had an actor dressed up as Vader and when I went to take a leak, he was standing at one of the urinals making the woom woom sounds like a lightsaber, except it was with his… um.”

Swiveling my head around to him, I saw his smile. “Do me a favor and shut up. I’m not your friend and you’re not going to get me to back down by being my buddy. So just shut up and drive.”

~O~

For a supposedly decommissioned Air Force base, Ellington was a busy little place and to make the whole situation even more annoying, it was starting to rain.

We sat across the street in an abandoned convenience store parking lot, listening to the rain hit the roof of the car.

“It’s not too late to turn back,” the detective said in a calm voice. “I can have an arrest warrant for her in a few hours at the most.”

Without turning to look at him, I just sat there seething. The ride over did nothing to calm my disposition. “How many pieces?”

“I’m sorry?”

“How many pieces was my family in at the end, Detective? Were they able to find them all? I had a little brother. He was eight. He was annoying and got me in trouble every chance her got, but that was his job. How many pieces was he in?”

My stomach clenched again. I thought I was going to lose my lunch right there in the car, but there was nothing left in my stomach except for the knot that was getting progressively larger with each passing minute.

“You think I want to do this?” I said. “Odds are if I go in there this angry then I’ll go dark, but what about my family. Who’ll give them justice? If they manage to even bring Carter to trial, it won’t be enough.”

I heard him sigh in resignation. “It won’t bring them back. You’ll be turning into the very thing that killed them in the first place.”

He meant it metaphorically. There was no way for him to know that I really could be turning into a monster.

“You don’t think I know that?”

Slamming my hand onto the dash, I screamed, loud and hard. The plastic split so I hit it again until I could finally feel something instead of the ache that was gnawing away from inside me.

Pain, pain was good. It gave me focus and that focus directed me across the street. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.

“Go get your warrant, detective. You have two hours. After that, I won’t care.”

He blinked at me.

“What are you going to do?”

My eyes never left the front gate and the MP that was inside the little shack at the gate.

“I’m going to make sure she doesn’t go anywhere.” When I opened the door and dropped one leg out, I turned back. “If I see a dozen cars coming down the road toward me then all bets are off.”

I didn’t wait for a reply. Instead, I stepped out into the rain and closed the door behind me.

Did I actually believe that the detective listed American Dream as a possible suspect? Hardly. I wasn’t that naíve. He was sincere enough in getting the warrant, but I doubted that he’d bring her in for anything more than questioning for the sole purpose of avoiding a bloodbath.

That left everything up to me. I had questions of my own that needed answering.

How did she know to look for the Jedi artifacts and who set her on my family? She had connections to the Department of Defense and Homeland Security. She knew I wouldn’t be at the house to stop her. Who had all this knowledge? Who betrayed me?

I thought it might be Doomah at first, but he didn’t know about the prom and he was more than paid off with the cybernetics information.

She threatened that she’d be watching me. Maybe she was doing it all along and I was sloppy in not paying attention to everything around me.

The rain was cold and considering my mode of dress, I needed to find cover. Considering I needed to track down the superhero and recover my stolen artifacts, I chose the base. The building I was interviewed in wasn’t too far from the front gate, maybe five hundred yards at the most. I chose that as my starting point.

Throwing on a Force Cloak, I sprinted across the street and leaped over the fence surrounding the area. When I was a guy, a jump of that height was an impossibility, but with assistance from the Force, it was like hopping across a puddle so I wouldn’t get my shoes wet.

The ground wasn’t too soft yet from the rain, but the most direct route would be the street, so I poured on the speed and crossed the distance in minimal time.

Making note of the security cameras I dropped the Cloak and focused on the holocrons. Being in their presence for so long I’d grown accustomed to how they felt. The Sith holocrons were saturated in the dark side of the Force so hunting them down was easy enough.

Dialing down the length of the lightsaber, I ignited the blade and cut into the side of the wall to make a hole big enough for me to slip through. Gone was my amazement of how easy it was to cut through the side of a building. My training, that Talon gave me, kept me focused on the mission.

Once that was complete, I pushed on the wall and it collapsed inward with little noise as I stopped the worst of it with the Force.

The office was dark. No noise was coming from the hallway on the other side of the single closed door.

I dialed the blade back to full length and opened the door a crack, while I reached out with the Force. There were a couple of people in the office two doors down and the rest were beneath the floor, underground.

Spotting a security camera at the end of the hall, I grit my teeth. Using a Force Cloak all the time was draining me, but I couldn’t get caught that quickly, not until I’d recovered my stuff and hunted down Courtney Carter. Then all bets were off.

The closest stairwell was also monitored.

Down I went, two flights, until my senses told me what I was looking for was somewhere on that level.

From the looks of things, it was set up like a laboratory.

Of course, they would want to have the items classified in some way. That meant scientists and lab techs were putting their grubby fingers on my things without my permission.

I had a hard enough time letting people borrow my comics much less physically handle items that were so old and precious to me. The idea that some random college graduate was taking them apart and possibly destroying them by mistake made me even angrier.

The wall directly in front of the lab was entirely glass, enough to clearly see who and what was going on the inside.

Color me surprised to find Doctor Doomah dressed in his lab coat, watching the Holorecorder. Pieces of a single comlink were scattered in front of him, and on the table was the remaining items stolen from my house.

I was wrong. Doomah had given me up. He’d betrayed me. He was the one that set Carter on my parents so that he could have all of my knowledge. The thing was, it was all in vain. Only a Force Sensitive could activate the holocrons, so he wouldn’t have been able to garner any information without my help.

The time for hiding was over.

Dropping the Cloak, I ignited my lightsaber and cut through the electronic door lock. Sparks flew before I pushed the door open and looked at a now terrified Doctor Doomah.

“Miss Walker… it’s not what it looks like. They intercepted the notes you sent me… they threatened me with incarceration…”

“And you gave me up,” I finished for him.

I watched as his hand landed on the hilt of my other lightsaber, then I smiled.

“Go ahead. Pick it up. It’s charged now thanks to you.”

His hand snapped back as if it was burned. “Take it. Take it all. I won’t try to stop you.”

I scanned the table and saw most of the items present but not all.

“Where are the Sith holocrons?”

“The what?” he said, trying to be as helpful as possible.

“The red pyramid things.

His eyes ticked to the wall to his left and a security safe embedded within.

“Open it.”

He scurried over and punched in a code while I stopped the playback on the holorecorder and stuffed everything on the table in my pack. When I looked back up the doctor was holding a pistol up and pointing it at me.

“P-put your h-hands up.”

I froze where I was at, not moving a muscle and I concentrated on him. “Put the gun in your mouth.”

His face went slack. My attention was drawn to the safe and a red glow emanating from within. I reached up and called the holocrons to me. One of them was pulsing and it wasn’t Darth Talon’s.

“Military Police; nobody move!”

We had company.

I tilted my head toward the voice. There were four of them, more than I could trick at once with my powers.

“I’m just taking back what is mine,” I said. “This is your only warning.”

“Lady, I don’t give a crap what’s yours. Drop the thing you have in your hand and get on the ground or I will…”

With a thought and a gesture of my hand three of them flew back against the wall with enough force to elicit grunts. The third one pulled his trigger.

My lightsaber snapped on and intercepted two of the three bullets that were fired. The last one zipped by my lekku and hit the wall. Another Force Push and the last MP was unconscious on the floor. Of course I’d forgotten about Doctor Doomah.

The confrontation with the MPs was enough to break him from the suggestion I’d originally put him under.

He’d betrayed me to Carter, had my parents killed, my stuff stolen, pulled a gun on me, and at that point he was about three pounds of pressure away from putting a large hole in my head. I’d had enough.

Blue lightning blasted from my fingertips. The gun went off, missing me by a good foot or two, and Doomah slammed against the wall, screaming.

I looked down at him writhing on the floor, screaming his throat raw.

Energy and pleasure coursed through my veins while I watched in awe, the display of my true power.

“Hurts, doesn’t it.”

I cut off the Force Lightning and brought my blade around. He wasn’t done with his emotional outburst. Standing there, I watched as he cried.

“Were you there when Carter killed my family? Did you have a hand in it?”

A twitch of my blade and he screamed as I took off his right forearm. The scream was almost satisfying in a way. He grabbed at the stump, pulling it to his chest.

“That was for my mother.”

Another blast of Force Lightning and I could smell his skin burning. Blisters rose up from his face. I brought my blade down across his thighs.

“That was for my father.”

“Walker!”

Spinning around, I raised my blade just in time to intercept a bullet fired at me from Courtney Carter dressed up in all her American Dream finery. She fired five more times and I blocked all the shots effortlessly.

“You’re going to have to do better than that, Carter.”

Lightning lanced out a third time, grazing her as she dove to the side, out of my sight. While I had a chance I grabbed my pack and directed the rest of the gear inside.

“Did you have fun this evening at my home, Carter?” I said.

“Is that what this is about?” she replied. “I did what I had to do, Walker.”

After shouldering the pack, I secured it tight against my back.

“All part of the job, I guess.”

“It was all perfectly legal, Walker. Now why don’t you put your… lightsaber away and you can get a nice attorney to sue the government like every other normal person.”

I shook my head, even though she couldn’t see me from around the corner. “I think I’d rather just kill you instead.”

Since nobody was looking, I put on a Force Cloak and stepped out to the hall.

The right side, where I came from was filled with MP’s armed to the gills in their body armor and automatic weapons. The other side had American Dream with her back against the wall holding a pistol in one hand and a little camera doohickey in the other, trying to look around the corner.

“Where’d she go? Dammit! Move in! Base, she’s on the move.”

I pressed myself as tight against the wall as I could as half of the soldiers entered the room.

“Clear. She’s not here, Boss.”

“Christ! We need medical in here, right now.”

I guessed that someone found the good doctor. Making my way past Carter, I was tempted to cut her down right there, but the bottleneck was too much. Instead I chose to go the opposite way I came and enter the elevator that was waiting all nice and convenient.

I hit the ground floor button, but the doors never closed.

“Cute.”

The guy that was guarding the elevator stuck his head around the corner with a curious look on his face. I dropped the Cloak and grabbed the front of his body armor.

“Be quiet.” I pushed as much Force as I could spare at the moment to silence him. “Close the door.”

He inserted a keycard in the proper place at the top of the controls and shut the door.

“Top floor.”

There were only five levels so it would be too much of a Force assisted jump from the top if I needed to take a flying leap at any point in the near future.

After the elevator started moving, I pushed him up against the wall.

“Were you one of the people that went to my house?”

He swallowed and shook his head. “I’m just a guard.”

It was the truth.

Moving in close to his face, I could smell his fear. “I suggest you find another posting.”

Being that close to him, I leaned in and took in his scent at the neck.

“Mmm, you smell delicious. All that fear and a light sheen of sweat.”

Reaching down, I felt between his legs as I trailed my tongue along his jawline. He was hardening and from the look on his face it was involuntarily. That turned me on even more than his taste.

Before I had a chance to get down to business, the elevator dinged and I had a flash of prescience. Grabbing his body armor I pulled him in front of me. The doors opened and there were another five guards pointing their guns at me.

“You know, for a decommissioned Air Force base, this place has a hell of a lot of soldiers hanging around.”

“Release him and lie down on the floor,” the lead guy said.

“You lie down,” I replied.

He blinked at me and then shook it off, so I threw my hand out along with a fist full of Force Lightning taking all five of them down screaming to unconsciousness.

“Time to go, honey. Take me to the roof.”

I didn’t stop frying them on the way past, mainly because it felt so good. Why I had been fighting it for so long was a mystery. It may sound cliché, but the power I controlled…. Anything could be mine, anyone could be mine.

“You know, I’d like nothing better than to make a pit stop.” Throwing him up against one of the doors I said, “In here. Strip. And hurry, I’m really horny.”

A glance out of the office window told me they’d brought in a helicopter. When I looked back, the guard had his weapon pointed at me and he didn’t hesitate to fire.

I jerked away, but was still clipped on the shoulder. It burned, searing hot, and I responded in kind, Force Pushing him against the wall. He landed and wasn’t quite unconscious.

“Son of a bitch; that burns!”

He lay, face up, groaning from the impact. I straddled his hips and dropped down on him.

“Now you’ve gone and ruined the mood. And look, you’re not even hard anymore. Men!”

Slipping my hand around his throat, I leaned in. “For that stupid move, I have a special prize for you.”

There’s a neat little trick that was now open in my head, like it was hidden before and only revealed upon graduating to my true nature.

Blue trickles of light alit from my fingertips and coursed over his body. “How about something exotic, hmm?”

The Force blew through me and I delighted in its presence. The guard’s erection returned and then slipped away just as quickly as I watched his skin turn a dim gray color and his face thin. His body armor lifted off his chest.

“Whoops, somebody’s stacked.”

I couldn’t really see much of her skin, but her face was quite pretty.

“There, much better. If you can’t be of any use to me in one way, at least you’ll be a reminder to the others in the futility of dealing with me.”

~O~

The hallway was clear, but I heard groans coming from the direction of the elevators. The other guards were waking up.

“Come on, Carter,” I whispered. “For a superhero it takes her long enough to figure things out.”

The roof access was at the end of the hall, and I didn’t receive a kind welcoming upon reaching the top. Some A-Hole was sitting nice and safe in his helicopter peppering the roof with high-caliber bullets while I was making tracks for cover.

“That should bring her up here quick enough.”

The helicopter swung around and was starting to become quite annoying. Taking a bead on the pilot I concentrated and forced him to face his worst fear at that particular moment. The helicopter swerved. I could almost hear the screams. The pleasure I received from that almost made me miss the access door to the roof opening.

I spun around and ignited my lightsaber, batting away three more bullets from my enemy.

“Took you long enough,” I said with amusement.

“Someone locked the elevator.”

Bringing my hand up to my mouth I said, “Oops.”

“So what’s your plan, Walker? World domination?”

I scoffed. “Please. That’s so passé. Plus, I don’t do monologues. I just want you -- dead, sliced and diced like you left my family.”

Automatic gunfire erupted on the street below followed by what sounded like blaster fire from the movies.

She became distracted, but kept her eye on me. “Friends of yours?”

“You better hope not. You can’t even handle one girl by yourself,” I said.

Carter grimaced. “Put down that blade and we’ll see who can handle whom.”

I grinned. “What a fabulous idea, but I’ve got one better. How about I give you one of mine and may the best swordswoman win?”

She paused for a moment and looked like she was considering my proposal. Then she shot at me again. I let my blade intercept it.

“This is getting boring,” I said.

My prescience screamed out at me and I ducked, throwing myself to the side as a large red fist just barely missed taking my head off from behind. The roll I went through tore into my wounded shoulder souring my mood. When I came back up Carter shot three more times.

I scarcely had the chance to intercept those rounds when something stopped my blade.

“You’re starting to piss me off,” the girl said. At least I think it was a girl. It looked more like the devil in female form doing something that I didn’t think was possible, holding the bare blade of a lightsaber.

Without wasting any more time in shock, I called the second blade from my pack, ignited it and swiped it at her midsection. It caught the front part of the camel colored trench coat she was wearing as she let go of my red blade and stumbled back.

“Hey!” Someone else yelled.

This time I didn’t have a chance to duck and frankly it really wouldn’t have made much of a difference as a ten foot wide piece of concrete slammed into me. I pushed off of it with the Force and tried jumping backward, but it still hurt. I was on my back when I saw the thing coming back for a second hit.

Terra was standing on a large rock floating well above the fight, looking down at me.

“Alright, now you all are cheating.”

I shot a fistful of Force Lightning at her, connecting and knocking her off of the rock. Carter was racing her way and that left me with the Satan girl. Needless to say, I didn’t waste any time.

Lightning impacted her in the next second, and again I was stunned to see it being totally absorbed by that damn hand of hers.

“What the hell is that thing made of?” I was outnumbered and frankly I wasn’t expecting Terra this soon. “Screw this.”

Turning away I raced for the edge of the roof and took a Force enhanced leap to the next building over. I caught a glimpse of the battle going on below before I landed and kept running.

“There she is,” someone yelled. They didn’t even bother with a warning this time and just simply opened fire on full automatic.

With two lightsabers going at once, I didn’t have any problem shielding myself until I had a spare half second to throw more lightning their way. This time it didn’t connect, but it did make them take cover long enough for me to make it to the other side of the building and drop to the ground as I erected a Force Cloak.

There wasn’t anyone around the second building, at least not quite yet.

Making my way across the street I got a good look at the building I was fighting atop. That devil girl and Carter were pacing the roof, looking around. Carter had Terra in her hands and that gave me an idea.

I’d be done for the rest of the night, only having enough energy to escape, but what the hell.

Staying in the shadows, I dropped my Cloak and packed away the second lightsaber. Holding my hand out I concentrated on my anger, pulling in everything I could from the dark side of the Force. In my hands a red globe started forming, larger and larger.

I recalled the scene at my home and what Courtney Carter did to my parents and my little brother. Tears escaped from my eyes, trailing down my face. My mother would never hold me again. My father would never get the chance to say he loved me again. My brother wouldn’t ever annoy me again; the little shit.

“AAAAAARRRRRRRGGHHHHH!”

With everything I had I threw the ball of red light at the building. Soldiers were vaporized in its wake, until it connected with the face of the building disappearing into its center, leaving behind only a three or four foot sphere of emptiness.

All sound came to a stop at low-pitched WHOOMP! then the night lit up in brilliant red.

The resulting backlash slammed me against the wall I was near and I dropped to my knees, utterly exhausted.

The sound of concrete crumbling was delightful. The sound of metal screaming as it was twisted in ways that it was never meant to be was elegant. The aftermath was everything I could hope for.

I may not have been able to return Carter’s deadly gift to my family in kind, but I was able to deliver her a fatal blow nonetheless.

Pushing myself up, I took a step forward and swayed.

“Okay, gloat later; escape now.”

“Observation: Darth Talon, it is a pleasure to see you in action once again. Though your technique seems to have differed since last we met.”

I must have been too far gone not to have noticed the robot behind me. Only it wasn’t a robot. I had to shake off the exhaustion, but it was difficult. It was holding some ancient looking blaster rifle, loose in its right hand. If I didn’t know any better, I could have sworn it was a droid.

“Do I know you?”

“Introduction: HK-47 at your service. We have never met before, but I have seen holorecordings of your massacre at Lequan. It truly was artistic and inspiring. Query: Do you require the services of an Assassin Droid. I find myself between masters at the moment.”

End.

Epilogue to follow.