I should have known better than to tempt fate like that.
Looking back, the signs were all there. The perfect extraction timing, the clean getaway, the sense that maybe this ridiculous rescue mission would actually go off without additional complications. The universe has a particularly cruel sense of humor when it comes to my life, and it loves nothing more than kicking me in the teeth right when I start to relax.
Arachnae had shifted position about ten minutes ago, folding herself into the docking slot I'd built into the tactical backpack. The modification had been a pain in the ass to engineer, but having her ride my back instead of my shoulder meant less visual profile and faster deployment if things went sideways. Plus asymmetrical weight distribution was one bitch I'd rather avoid for my growing body. Smart decision in hindsight. One of the few I'd make tonight.
We'd stepped out of that alley about thirty seconds earlier, and I'd made the tactical decision to blend into the crowd rather than stick to the back streets. More witnesses meant more risk, sure, but it also meant more cover. Harder to pick out two specific people in a sea of bodies moving through the neon-soaked chaos of Daiyu's night market.
The crowd was thick enough that I had to guide Leia with one hand on her shoulder, weaving between drunk spacers and exhausted workers heading home from their shifts. The press of bodies was actually working in our favor for once.
I was short, which was usually a source of endless frustration—unless cuddling with Vasha—but right now meant I blended into the crowd height-wise. Leia was even shorter, practically drowning in the sea of taller beings around us.
I'd kept my Force presence as minimal as possible, barely a whisper, just enough to maintain awareness of immediate threats. Broadcasting my position to every Force-sensitive in the district sounded like a terrible idea.
That's when I saw her.
About twenty meters ahead, cutting across the intersection with that distinctive aggressive stride that screamed "I have authority and I'm looking for an excuse to use it."
The Third Sister. Walking directly toward us through the crowd.
A bubble of empty space surrounded her as she walked, civilians developing that sixth sense for Imperial trouble and finding urgent reasons to be elsewhere. Some of it was the distinctive Inquisitorius armor. Most of it was probably the waves of barely contained aggression rolling off her that even non-Force-sensitives could feel on some primal level.
My brain did that thing where time slows down and you suddenly become hyper-aware of every terrible option available to you.
Turn around? Fighting against the crowd flow would draw attention, create a disturbance. People behind me would curse, shove, make noise. Movement against the grain always attracted eyes.
Duck into a side alley? The nearest one was fifteen meters back, and changing direction suddenly would be just as obvious.
I caught the moment her head turned slightly in our direction, just a casual sweep of the crowd, and I made my choice. Keep walking. Blend in. Pray to whatever gods weren't actively laughing at me that we could slip past without incident.
The rings on my fingers hummed with their constant bleed of randomized Force pulses, scattering my presence into background noise. She shouldn't be able to sense me through that interference, especially in a crowd this size with this much ambient chaos. If I couldn't even sense myself through it, fat chance she could.
I pulled Leia closer, keeping her tucked against my side. "Keep your face down," I murmured, my voice barely audible over the crowd noise. "Stay right next to me. Don't look up."
"What? Why—"
"Just do it, Princess."
For once in her extremely opinionated existence, Leia listened. Her head ducked down and she pressed tight against my armored side like she was trying to merge with the plating.
We kept walking. One foot in front of the other. Casual pace. Nothing to see here. Just another bodyguard escorting a client through the evening crowds.
Fifteen meters. Reva was still moving toward us, her attention divided between scanning the street and whatever internal dialogue was running through her head. She looked distracted, wound tight with that particular brand of focused aggression that suggested she was hunting for something. The crowd parted before her like water around a shark.
Ten meters. Close enough now that I could make out details. The red and black armor of the Inquisitorius, the way her hand rested near her lightsaber hilt in that casual-but-ready position they all seemed to favor. The empty space around her had grown to nearly three meters in every direction.
I dialed my Hyper Perception down to the absolute minimum, just a tight bubble around my immediate body.
At least Hyper Perception wasn't something people could feel unless I was actively probing their internals, and even then it took someone of Obi-Wan's caliber to actually notice.
Five meters.
Four.
She came into my perception radius.
Her Force presence was completely unrestrained, rolling off her in waves of barely controlled aggression and wounded pride. Zero subtlety, zero attempt at concealment, just raw power broadcast to anyone with the sensitivity to feel it. Stealth apparently wasn't a concern when you had Imperial authority backing your every move and a lightsaber to solve your problems.
Three meters.
Almost past her. Almost clear. Just a few more steps and we'd be in the crowd behind her, lost in the flow, and she'd never even—
Then my head throbbed.
D̵̠̣̟̞̫̮̂͠ě̷̩͑̂̂v̶̖̙̯͇̎͆ỏ̸͇̻͎̤͒̔͂͂̂ư̴̖͊̈ṛ̵̳̤̽̏.̷̗̤̺͇̭͂̽̈́͘͘͘ ̴̺͔̈́͜͝D̸̻̽̉͂ě̸͕̔̃̇͝͠v̵̦̬̣̄̈́̾̈́̕ͅŏ̵̥̱͔̜̋̅u̶̯͈͗͋͑̿͜ŕ̷̗̀̕͝.̵̥͚̗̹̟̓͐̊ ̵̹͚̙̯͋̊Ả̸̞s̵͚̝̗̟͊̉̏̅ş̴͚̦̩̻͖́̀̂̉͌̽i̴͓͔͎̱̿m̶̨̒î̸̦̪l̵͍̳͘ͅą̸͓̯͕̩̂̋͘t̴̰̳͒̓̉̽́̋e̷̞͍̓͗.̶̯͉͋̂̄
What the fuck was that?!
My concentration slipped.
Just for a second. Just a momentary loss of control over the carefully maintained dampening I'd been holding.
Fuck. Fuck. Please don't notice it—
"You two. Stop."
Her voice cut through the ambient noise like a vibroblade through flesh.
Around us, the crowd that had been pressing close suddenly remembered they had places to be. Bodies melted away in every direction, creating a rapidly expanding circle of empty space. Within seconds we were standing in an island of pavement surrounded by civilians who were very carefully not looking at the Inquisitor or her targets.
I didn't stop.
Terrible decision on my part, apparently, because her hand snapped to her lightsaber hilt.
"I said stop!"
The crimson blade ignited with that distinctive snap-hiss, and then it was swinging toward my back in a horizontal slash that would have bisected me at the waist if I'd been standing still.
I wasn't standing still.
My hand moved on pure reflex, and a crimson blade of light met Reva's strike with a screech of plasma-on-plasma that made my teeth hurt even through the helmet's audio dampeners.
The impact vibrated up my arm, rattling my bones, and I had to lock my elbow to keep from getting shoved backward.
Holy shit this woman swings hard.
Hasn't anyone taught her that lightsabers don't need strength behind them? The plasma does the work. That's the whole point of the superheated death stick.
My facial expression scrunched up like I was trying to pass a kidney stone the size of a gundark, but thankfully the helmet hid that particular indignity from public view.
The moment stretched.
My brain went into overdrive, running through options at light speed. There were many ways to handle this situation, but a very different idea came to mind. It was either going to land me in the hall of shame or straight to hall of fame.
It relied entirely on bullshit, audacity, and the hope that Reva was just unstable enough to buy what I was about to sell.
I shouldn't do it, but fuck it. We ball.
"And here I thought," I said, my voice filtered through the helmet's modulator into something deeper and more mechanical, "I could complete this damn assignment without another fanfare."
I pushed her blade back, gathering the full output of servo motors to assist the movement and then I stepped back, disengaging from the blade lock, and deactivated Hett's saber.
Just like that.
I was standing there with my back straight and my posture relaxed, the weapon hanging loosely in my hand like it was about as threatening as a glow rod.
Reva, who was mildly surprised at the sudden burst of strength and was preparing to engage back with ferocity, froze mid-swing.
Her blade stayed ignited, held in a guard position, but I could see the exact moment confusion started to override her initial aggression. Her eyes tracked from my featureless helmet to the deactivated saber in my hand to the small girl pressed against my side.
Perfect. Confusion was exactly what I needed. Confusion meant she wasn't attacking, which meant I had maybe thirty seconds before her brain caught up and she decided to resume the whole "murder first, ask questions never" approach.
I turned my helmet toward her, letting the featureless visor stare into her eyes for a long, uncomfortable moment.
"Follow me, Inquisitor." My tone left absolutely zero room for negotiation.
"Why should I follow you anywhere!?" Reva's blade didn't waver. "I don't know who you are. Give me one reason I shouldn't cut you down right now."
This dumb bitch. Give me one reason why you fucking attacked me before asking me that fucking question. Like hell, shouldn't you fucking investigate me instead of trying to cut me the fuck down?
If Obi-Wan hadn't given me the lightsaber for use in the most dire of situations, seeing how my vibro-blades had fared against Hett, this bitch would have nearly killed me.
Before, I was feeling slightly bad for what was about to come for her. Now I'm gonna enjoy it.
"Third Sister Reva Sanders, was it?" I let the name hang in the air. "You better get your goddamn ass following behind me if you don't want Vader choking you and throwing you back to the Temple to rot with the rest of the younglings."
The effect was catastrophic.
Emotional Damage even.
Reva's face went through about six different emotions in the span of two seconds. Shock. Fear. Rage. Confusion. More fear. Then a kind of frozen calculation as her brain tried to process what I'd just said.
The sheer combination of catchy words in my dialogue was enough to confuse her mind, since those were things that neither a Jedi nor a bounty hunter would know. The last part about the Temple was something even most of the Inquisitorius probably didn't know the full truth of, if I remember the wiki correctly.
The Temple where she'd hidden among the bodies of her fellow younglings while Sandhater Anakin walked through the halls with his new yellow eyes, spawn killing little shits.
How did I know?
I could see the question burning in her eyes, the desperate need to understand battling against the very real fear that maybe, just maybe, she'd stumbled across someone who actually had the authority to make that threat real.
Her lightsaber deactivated with a hiss.
"Unless you want to give a show to every lowlife on this street," I added, already turning my back on her, "we're going somewhere private."
I walked toward a narrow side street branching off from the main thoroughfare, one hand on Leia's shoulder, the other hanging loose at my side. My heart was trying to punch its way out of my ribcage but I kept my stride even and unhurried.
Leia whispered something that sounded like a very scared "what are you doing," but I squeezed her shoulder once.
Play along, Princess. Please, for the love of all things holy in this ridiculous galaxy, just play along.
Meanwhile my thumb found the small raised button on my wrist guard, and a hair-thin needle extended from the armor's underside. Just a gentle press against the side of her neck as I guided her forward.
"Ow!" Leia flinched, her hand flying up. "Something pricked me!"
"Probably a bug," I said, keeping my voice casual. "Daiyu's crawling with them. Keep moving."
"It really hurt though, and now my neck feels all tingly and..." Her steps were already slowing, her words starting to slur. "I feel really sleepy..."
"That's just the adrenaline crash," I murmured, catching her as her knees buckled. "Perfectly normal after a stressful evening."
By the time we reached the alley entrance, she was completely limp in my arms.
Sorry, Princess. But you really don't need to see what happens next.
"Execute Order 69," I sub-vocalized, the words barely a breath against my helmet's internal mic.
A tiny vibration from the backpack confirmed Arachnae had received and acknowledged.
Good girl.
Behind me, footsteps. Following me into the side street.
Phase 1 complete.
I stopped about halfway down the alley and propped Leia against the wall in a sitting position, her head lolling to one side. To anyone glancing over, she'd look like a scared kid who'd passed out from the excitement.
Then I turned to face the direction we'd come from and started methodically pulling the rings off my fingers.
One by one, the dampening effects ceased.
My Force presence began bleeding through, no longer scattered and randomized but building into something palpable. The accumulation inside me had been increasing day by day, held at bay just by constant waste of energy through the rings as well as using the Force to enhance my body at all times.
I let the energy flow out in the most extravagant manner it ever had, an utterly dumb action for someone trying to hide. Mimicking emotions in the Force was one of my few reliable talents, and right now I was painting myself as something old and terrible and completely out of patience.
I even cranked my Hyper Perception to full intensity.
The world exploded into crystal clarity. I could feel Reva's heartbeat accelerating, the tension coiling in her muscles, the way her hand kept drifting toward her weapon.
I scanned her body automatically, cataloging every piece of equipment. No in-ear comm unit. Nothing on her wrist pad. Instead, a handheld communicator sat holstered on her belt near her left hip.
Good. That meant she couldn't silently call for backup without reaching for it.
Reva walked into the passage about five seconds later, and I watched her steps falter.
The weight of my presence crashed into her. Her shoulders tensed. Her breathing quickened. Her hand went to her lightsaber hilt.
She opened her mouth to speak.
I spoke first.
"You low class Inquisitor, you actually have the balls to attack me on sight?"
Reva's face went through approximately seventeen different expressions in half a second, landing somewhere between confused, offended, and 'did this motherfucker just call me low class?'
Her mouth opened. Closed. Opened again.
"I—what—"
"After the clusterfuck you just created? The sheer fucking audacity!"
Reva's brain.exe has stopped responding.
___
A/N: We are still only haflway through our milestone goal of 500 stones. Hope you complete it asap to get the next chapter. Its an banger to be honest.
Support the cause and read advanced chapters on Patreon: www.patreon.com/AbstractoX
Thanks for your support guys!
(Advanced chapter status: 1 available, 1 to-be-uploaded-in-moments)
[Edit: Now available 3 chapters 97, 98, 99]