Private A Simple Misunderstanding

[Jacen Voidstalker]

The rain had been heavy all evening. As Jacen was flung across the street he skidded through inch-deep water, sending a little wave towards the far curb.

Letting out a low groan, he planted one hand on the road and lifted his head. His vision swam, slowly focusing on the cafe built under the highway above. One figure emerged from the door. Other faces looked out at him from the smashed window. The window he had just been thrown through.

"Kark," Jacen swore, pushing himself up onto one knee.

Two more figures emerged from the shadows beneath the highway. The light was slow and lazy down here, barely reaching the corners of the streets. The headlights of the odd landspeeder crossing the highway above added a little more light. Not enough to really study those stalking towards him.

This wasn't a bar fight. They had been waiting. Jacen held up both hands, palms forwards, defensively.

"Look, I don't know what you want but take..."

His protest was cut short but a sudden blow. A gut punch through the Force itself that sent him reeling back into the wet road. These were not common criminals.

"I am too old for this," he muttered under his breath. A sudden sound focused his attention.

He sat up to see a single red lightsaber blade. The rain hissed as each drop was instantly vaporised by the blade.

"We know who you are," called the woman off to his right. Just enough light to see gender now. Also enough to see the black tattoo down the back of her hand.

The dark mark. Former followers of the One Sith Lord.

Jacen swore under his breath again.

 

[Amani Serys]

Amani had watched the whole thing unfold. From her corner seat she had a panorama of the entire cafe, and given how few other patrons were inside, there was little to distract.

Not that any distraction would have gone over the shattering of glass.

On instinct, she had planned to intervene earlier, but the underlying darkness in the strangers’ exchange had convinced her to at least give thought to her approach. They walked out front, and she walked out back.

From the darkness underneath the highway Amani waited, and with the sudden burst of red, all doubts were gone. Not longer after, they would hear the loud snap of an igniting saber, and a blade of white illuminating the shadows. The Jedi leapt into the fray with a display of acrobatics, putting herself between the Darksiders and their quarry. “You don’t want to do this.”

Jacen Voidstalker​

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

"It's quite alright," Jacen called.

He pushed himself to his feet and shook the rainwater from his hands. Dark streaks remained down the back of his wrists. The pooled water in the street was not clean.

Jacen stayed behind the acrobatic youth and her lightsaber. He didn't think he recognised her, but he had kept himself a long way from any Jedi enclaves for some time.

"It's just a simple misunderstanding."

When did a nasty fall hurt this much? He thought to himself. Age had snuck up on him.

"The Voidstalker has an apprentice," one of the sith hissed. If they were dissuaded, it did not show. The began to fan out around Amani.

 

[Amani Serys]

"Yeah, I can tell," She scoffed. There wasn't anyone left to fool with that explanation. Any simple misunderstanding that brought out red lightsabers demanded some intervention.

They began to circle like vultures, and one of the Sith made a comment that took Amani aback, "Uhh, 'apprentice'?" She glanced at the man she was protecting and talked out of the corner of her mouth, "They're not talking about me, right?" The Jedi warded off the nearest of them with a wide arc of her saber pike, but made no outward strikes. She was at her best on the defensive.

"What do you want with him?"

Jacen Voidstalker​

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

"Just a moment of his time," the woman replied. She looked down at Amani's blade with pure disdain.

Rain continued to fall. It was a soft patter on everyone's coat. It was a much louder hiss every time it struck a lightsaber.

The traffic thrummed far above. The ground shook as a heavy wheeled truck passed by on the highway.

"We're not letting Voidstalker's welp go!" added one of the sith slowly circling to get past Amani to the man behind her.

"Lightsaber down and we won't kill you." The sith before her raised her blade to try and keep Amani fixed so that the other sith could get past.

 

[Amani Serys]

Amani rolled her eyes at their first excuse, “Having a hard time believing that right now.” Everyone’s insistence on dancing around the reason was becoming grating, even if their more immediate intentions were all too clear. The Jedi found herself micromanaging her movements to keep them all at bay, shifting back and forth to ward off one, only for another to take a step forward.

Once the threat of death came, she scoffed a laugh, “Just a moment of his time, huh?” Amani then outstretched her hand, and abruptly channeled a burst of Force Light at the encroaching Sith. The power didn’t play well in contact with darksiders, and also served as a blinding surge of energy to give them an opportunity of escape. Once the distraction was released, Amani immediately spun around to grab the old man, then took off running, “Can you move?” She groaned, “Doesn’t matter, you’re gonna have to,” The healer attempted to channel some of her strength into him, for her own convenience as much as his, “Can somebody just please tell me what’s going on?”

Jacen Voidstalker​

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

"Somebody might," Jacen said, jabbing a thumb over his shoulder. "But you're stuck with just me and I haven't worked it out."

He kept pace with the mirialan but it was a struggle. Being thrown through the surface water had left his clothes heavy. They clung to him as he ran.

"Timely intervention though. Good work with the flash."


"Oriana, do we get the hunting squad?"

They were slow to get back to their feet. Force Light had tried to drive the darkness back and they had collapsed away from its brilliance.

"No, we don't need them. Varn go high and left and track them. I'll chase. Karrin you keep on a parallel path on the right. We're not letting this one go."

 

[Amani Serys]

"Oh, good, well by all means let me know if you do," And old man being pursued by a gang of darksiders, but without the slightest idea as to why. Just her luck of the draw, she supposed.

"We'll see what it gets us. They're probably gonna be back on our tails soon." Already Amani's eyes darted across their surroundings for signs of an ambush. Unlikely that their hunters would just let them run free after a single setback.

"They mentioned 'Voidstalker' back there. I think I met a Voidstalker once. You related?"

Jacen Voidstalker​

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

"They did, didn't they?" Jacen replied.

He'd had hoped she might not have heard that or that it would have been a meaningless name to a young jedi. It was several years since he had been a prominent Jedi Master in the Order, taking the fight to the One Sith Empire.

Worse than that, she hadn't even heard of his exploits. She must have crossed paths with Trextan. Jacen hadn't expected the lad to go near any jedi, not after everything that had happened.

"One is still behind us," Jacen said, after glancing over his shoulder. "Which means the others are going to try and surround us."

 

[Amani Serys]

Amani grumbled. Clearly nobody was intent on giving her much information for the time being, although to some extent his lack of an answer was revealing in and of itself. She only recalled meeting Trextan once, and it wasn’t exactly a social endeavor. Seemingly there was a bit more importance to the name than she had realized.

The knight rounded a corner with Jacen in tow, pulling them through another alley in search of an alternate route, “Okaaay. Don’t suppose you have any ideas?”

Jacen Voidstalker​

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

J A C E N​

"Ideas? Not really," Jacen replied.

He was getting out of breath already. A few moments of action in the last few years had not prepared him to run from a pack of sith. No one tended to run anywhere on Tatooine, not if they did not want to die of exhaustion within a few hours.

"After that fuss law enforcement might arrive within an hour if lucky, but..."

He paused to catch his breath.

"...that would just put them in danger."

Without warning he reached out towards Amani and shoved her hard. It sent them both stumbling towards opposite walls of the alley.

A heavy antenna landed where they had been running. Jacen looked up to see the Sith on the roof far above. They reached out and the metal ladders started peeling from the walls to tumble down towards them.

 

[Amani Serys]

“Last thing we need is- ‘ey!” Amani was cut off as the stranger hurled them towards the opposite wall. Her gaze followed his up to the Sith stalking from above. Metal debris came tumbling down, and she reacted quickly by slamming herself through one of the alley doors and pulling Jacen in with.

The twisted ladders hit the street with a loud clang, and Amani pulled the entrance shut behind them, leaving a momentary quiet as they considered their next step. She ignited her saber, casting a blue light in the otherwise dark space, apparently some kind of employee backroom. “Maybe if we can keep them separated, take them one at a time?”

Jacen Voidstalker​

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

Jacen took a deep breath. Stretching out, he could feel the three dark entities closing in around them. The mirialan had heard of the name before, so it was no good playing dumb.

"I am out of practise," he stated firmly. "They're closing in, so we need to go on the attack."

Jacen had been a teacher in the former Galactic Alliance. One of the founders of the New Jedi order after the fall of the Republic to the One Sith. He had rehabilited sith, he had shown exceptional patience with students.

Before that he had been a soldier. He hadn't won't fights by being exceptionally talented with the Force. His son, Trextan, had all the potential in the galaxy. Jacen knew how to fight.

"This way."

The rushed through the next door and the next. Through to the opposite side of the building and out into another street. He rushed ahead, the sith on the rooftop not seeing them leave the building. They went straight down the opposite alley until the flanking sith turned into the it ahead of them.

Karrin had been closing the net. He hadn't expected the two jedi to come at him. Before he could even raise his saber, Jacen struck him with a telekinetic blow that sent him tumbling over a pile of refuse.

 

[Amani Serys]

Amani threw up her hands in resignation, "Great, what are we waiting for?" It was a plan, at least. She followed closed, until the two of them burst through the buildings and into the alley, catching one of the Sith off guard.

Jacen threw them down with a gust of the Force, and Amani followed up by launching forward with a quick swipe of her saber, hoping to disarm the Sith and end the fight before it even started. She couldn't help but find her attention still split, on the lookout for any surprise enemies to leap into the fray.

Jacen Voidstalker​

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

Even without his lightsaber, Karrin tried to struggle back to his feet. Jacen raised his hand. The Force came crashing down like a small boulder.

The concrete cracked. The air rushed out of Karrin's lungs. He stayed quite still this time, deciding that it was enough fighting for one day.

Jacen slowly turned towards towards the mirialan who had come to his aid.

"Yeah, I'm slow," he apologised. He should have practised more in retirement. Jacen had started when he had realised he needed to protect Serya, but he was a long way from his best.

Jacen bent down and picked up the sith's lightsaber. He groaned as he bent over. He hated how much everything ached no matter what part of him he was moving.

"So which Voidstalker had you heard of? Heroic Marshal of the Alliance against the One Sith or whining teenager with authority issues?"

 

[Amani Serys]

Amani shrugged. He was at least able to fight, and that served them well enough here. The first of the Sith pursuers was taken down, and she flourished her saber back into a defensive stance before scanning the environment around them.

His question earned a sideways glance and a faint smirk, “Trextan.” Amani answered plainly, who she could only assume was supposed to be the latter of his options. “Can’t say I got to know him real well, but sure, we met.” It had been a lone mission. Come to think of it, she wasn’t sure they ever crossed paths after that. If they had, it was similarly fleeting.

“You don’t look like a whiny teenager, so, I’m assuming you’re the former?” A wry joke.

Jacen Voidstalker​

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

"Was the former, in a way," Jacen replied.

It was a long time since he had been a hero of anything. He wondered where his son had been recently. Since Trextan had visited Tatooine he hadn't kept in touch as much as he might have liked.

"Glad I don't look like a teenager, though you were rather quick to focus on me looking old rather than like an ex-Jedi Marshal."

"Oh dear. We stayed in one place for too long."

Red light reflected off the wet surfaces. The sith made no attempt to hide their approach.

"You should go. I can definitely deal with two of them," he lied.

 

[Amani Serys]

Amani gave a single, dry chuckle, "Sorry. Don't think on it too much." She didn't necessarily recognize all the telltale signs of a Jedi Marshal here anyway.

Danger sense flared and she turned to face the approaching red beams. They were confident. She took a step closer to stand beside the old Marshal. His suggestion to leave earned an incredulous side-eye, "No offense, but you just had to groan when you picked up that saber. How about we just see it through together, hm?"

Amani raised a hand, and from behind them, a dumpster raised into the air, and was thrown towards their Sith pursuers by the Force.

Jacen Voidstalker​

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

"I see," he said, laughing despite the pain. He had once continued to talk throughout an entire battle with the Dark Lord of the Sith. A running commentary did not detract from his skills.

A lack of practise did.

"The spirit of a jedi to stand your ground and defend those that need help.."

A metallic sound rang out as the dumpster hit an opposing telekinetic gesture and was thrown straight upwards. Jacen waved a hand and it sailed beyond the two sith.

"...but not enough to stop yourself from mocking an old man."

Snap-hiss

The red blade would have to do. His was still at his uncle's junk shop in Mos Espa. He lowered his weight into a defensive stance, blade taking up the space in front of his chest.

"Let them come to us," he murmured. The dumpster was a good idea. There were also emergency ladders hanging from the walls on either side of them.

 

[Amani Serys]

Amani exhaled and smirked again, “Just trying to paint things in a realistic light.”

The Sith continued to approach, and she silently acknowledged his strategy to let them be the first to approach. It worked well enough for her. Defense was where Amani thrived. Her own position was not too dissimilar from Jacen’s, deep set and rigid, with the blade out front.

Once they got closer, Amani would telekinetically rip off one of the escape ladders, and throw it at a horizontal angle to force them both to react.

Jacen Voidstalker​