New Age: 14

New Age: Learn

Chapter Fourteen

After that traumatizing experience, Jakuya and I rejoined the others, and my nose ceased to bleed. Jakuya told me that some Stormtroopers had found them on their way off the Death Star, but they were able to defeat them without any injuries.

    Which was why nobody could go and save me, the twelve-year-old noob Padawan, when I was being chased by a Sith Lord.

    In the group of Jedi, there were all five of the Padawans I came with, except for Rave. Kai was trying to contact her with the commlink in his helmet. And there were the Manabu Padawans. Ourdir was leaning against the wall next to the cell hallway with his left injured leg extended while Bryda examined it. Bryda had been studying healing for a long time, since her early childhood. Tundrr was leaning against the wall next to Ourdir, and Tundra was sitting next to Bryda.

Near them was Jusiko, Alfa, and a woman with blonde, greying hair that was Jusiko’s age. Jusiko was comforting her as the woman cried on her shoulder, and I wondered what happened.

I followed Jakuya to Kai, who was standing next to the door to the hallway with Avid and Kasumi.

“Kai, have you been able to contact Raverayn?” Jakuya requested.

He took off his Mando helmet. “I just did. She said she’s in the control room.”

“Can I speak with her?”

“Yes.” He handed Jakuya the helmet, and she put it on.

“Raverayn?”

Jakuya was silent. She nodded.

“Good. Are you alright?”

I sensed something was wrong.

“Are you sure? You don’t sound… Raverayn, we are coming immediately!”

Jakuya quickly took off her helmet then handed it back to Kai.

She turned and shouted “Alfa!”

He rushed over to us.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“The four of you are coming with me. Kai, take the others back to Avid’s ship. Do not leave unless I tell you to. I will contact you when we reach Raverayn.”

“What’s happening?” I asked.

“Raverayn is injured and trapped.”

--

Jakuya, Avid, Alfa, Kasumi and I made our way to the control room, while the others made their way to the Corella. It was eerily quiet on the way. The only sounds were our footsteps and the whirring of the wheels and the squeaks of the mouse droid we followed. Kasumi programmed the mouse droid to lead us to the control room, which was very useful in the moon-sized labyrinth.

We swiftly and silently moved down the hallway as we neared the control room.

    Which was actually useless, because anyone we’d try to sneak up on would first hear the noisy droid.

    Anyways, Jakuya and Alfa, who were in the lead, started to slow down as we neared a crossroads (or cross-hallways). The droid mindlessly continued onward and turned left.

Jakuya turned to me and asked telepathically Do you sense anything?

I nodded. Yeah, I sense danger. I replied.

She nodded and instructed Look around the corner and tell me what you see.

    I nodded, and did as she asked. I tightened my ponytail and pressed my back against the wall next to the corner. I pulled my ponytail away and started to move to peak at what was in the next hallway.

    No, Padawan. With the Force.

    Oh, right.

    I backed away with a nod and closed my eyes.

    What do you see? Jakuya asked.

    I see… six... six Sith. I confirmed. They’re wearing black robes and cloaks. They have masks on, too. The masks are dark red with T-shaped black visors. They’re guarding a door. There’s a label on the door that reads… Control… Control Room! And they each have one lightsaber. And… there’s something in the middle of the hallway. The length of almost a full arm. It’s a metal bar, I guess.

    Very good, Padawan. I also sense Raverayn inside the room.

My right arm below my elbow started throbbing. I lifted it to look, but I didn’t get why it was doing that.

Is something wrong?

My arm’s throbbing. That’s weird…

Jakuya hesitated, then said It must be from exercise. You are dominant in your right hand, right?

I nodded, looked at my arm again, and it stopped throbbing. But her explanation still didn’t feel right.

    Jakuya pointed to us, then the hallway. We nodded, and spun around the corner and charged at the Sith. We took the closest Sith to us, and the Jedi were already clashing blades with a Sith each by the time I got around the corner. So, that meant I took the furthest one. He charged at me and we both activated our lightsabers.

    I got this, I reassured myself.

    Our lightsabers collided with a loud crackling sound. Each swing the Sith took at me I blocked, and when I could, I found an opening to swing at him. At this rate, we seemed evenly matched, which I found strange, due to my low experience. Then I remembered Leia telling me one day that she noticed my dominant ability with the Force seemed to be my combat abilities. And the whole ‘way above average amount of midi’s’ thing...

    I heard the collisions and swings of other lightsabers, but focused on my fight. As I fought the Sith, I noticed something… odd. About the presences of all of them.

    They all felt the same. Cold. And empty.

    I was pulled back into reality as I felt the heat of a lightsaber blade in my face. I swung my own blade up to block just in time. Really gotta pay more attention.

    I pushed back and swung at my Sith’s face. He lifted his arms to block the hit with his red blade. And he left his torso open. I quickly retreated my lightsaber and stabbed my blue blade into his chest before he had time to react, and he was motionless.

    Right in the heart. I deactivated my lightsaber and stepped back. His deactivated, too, then his arms flopped down. His lightsaber hit the ground. It bounced slightly a couple times, and rolled a couple feet away. He fell to his knees, then the Sith fell to the floor face-down as I sensed his presence quickly fade away until it no longer existed.

    It felt weird. To kill someone. He tried to kill me first, but still.

    I wiped sweat from under my bangs with my sleeve and turned around to look at Jakuya, Avid and Kasumi. They had already dealt with the rest of the creepy Sith and just opened the door to the control room. I stepped forward towards the door, but something inside me was pulling me to my right. I looked, and saw what I thought earlier was an arm length metal bar. I’ll just say that the only thing I was right about that was the arm part. I was looking at an arm severed below the elbow. It was a left arm. It was covered in an armoured sleeve, and in it’s hand was a lightsaber.

Rave’s lightsaber.

    My eyes widened and I covered my mouth with my hands to prevent myself from… well, wishing the janitor was still around. I took a deep breath and let my arms back down. I felt a hand on my left shoulder and jumped. I turned my head and saw Alfa.

    We made eye contact and I asked frantically “Is she ok?”

    “She will be alright.” He said with a nod. “Jakuya is healing her wound for a minute, then we’re leaving.”

    “And what about the Death Star?”

    The space station jerked, and I felt, not with my body, but with the Force, that it was moving slowly. And when I say slowly I mean several hundred or even thousand miles per hour, but you get my meaning.

    “Avid is setting a course for lightspeed. As soon as she does, we’ll have half an hour to get out of here before The Death Star sets off into a sun.”

    My eyes widened.

    “No, not your sun. That system is small and abandoned. That sun is going to expire soon, anyways.”

    I sighed with relief.

    “And I saw you fight that Sith.” He added. I nodded, expecting praise, but he added harshly “Your form was terrible, I’ve seen better from a child. You were almost killed. You need to pay more attention and practice more! He nearly killed you!”

    I looked at the floor and felt like crap.

    “Oh.”

    “Good job.”

    I snapped my head up. “Wait what?”

    “You were almost killed. He nearly killed you. And you just starting using the Force a few months ago. You did a good job.”

    “Umm… thanks?”

    We heard Jakuya call out “Alfa!”

    As soon as she did, his hand was off my shoulder, and he was inside the room. I rushed over after him, and just as I reached the doorway Alfa was already coming back out, followed by Kasumi, Jakuya and Avid, carrying Rave. She was barely conscious, and her skin was pale. The end of her left upper arm was pinched between her right arm and her torso. I stepped back to let them through the door and followed closely by Jakuya.

    “What happened?” I asked her.

Jakuya took her eyes-- I mean eye-- off of Rave to look at me.

    “On her way to the control room she was attacked. All those Sith were too powerful for her to deal with on her own.

“She will be fine. As soon as we can, we will get her a cybernetic arm.”

“When will that be?”

“As soon as we get back to the Temple on Earth.”

“Sorry to interrupt,” Avid started, “but we only have thirty minutes until this place is in a sun, so we need to hurry.”

We nodded, then we started to run. I stopped and looked back at Rave’s severed arm on the ground and stretched my hand towards it, and her lightsaber flew into my grasp. I clipped it to my belt, then ran after my fellow Jedi.