Carvings In The Wall

[Nia Siroc]

As Aela had been examining the very old lightsaber, Nia had been deep in thought. There is no death, there is the Force. She wondered what good that had done those who'd died here. Had it given them comfort in their last moments, powerless to stop whatever it was that ended their lives?

What about those who hadn't been Jedi, perhaps thinking to settle here, protected by the Knights of legend. Had they realized too late how fallible and weak these beings could be? The more Nia had learned about the history of the Jedi in her months of training, the more she'd come to know the Jedi were in many ways just like anyone else. It had shaken her to come to know this because her child-like naivety had been lifted.

The universe way a scary place and the stories were rarely true. Arn calling for Aela finally broke her concentration and she followed after the three older beings. Her eyes shifted between the statues bracketing the wide and deep steps. Were these once actual Jedi or were they a stylized representation like the stories?

[member="Aela Talith"] @Adder

 

[Adder]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Adder was starting to feel like the scowl would never leave her face. Permanently entrenched into the nascent creases in her skin, the expression was a clear sign of her growing unease.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]She had a cop’s courage, once. Maybe she still did – she wasn’t exactly running away. Yet. But she’d also lost her arm to the job, and both her eyes, and her body had been a canvas for many enterprising criminals throughout the years. From small pockmarks to wide gashes, from knives to bullets to teeth. To [/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px]claws[/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px]. Even time, on occasion.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]The dull ache piped up right then in her hip. Another old injury making itself known as she climbed the steps after the rest of the group, stifling a limp. Being rearguard had its perks; mainly that others couldn’t see you grit your teeth in pain.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“The temple on Coruscant used to look like this,” she spoke, and immediately regretted it when her words echoed through the large antechamber. Afraid that the faint sound would dislodge the fragile stone and collapse the ceiling on top of them, Adder scrutinized the darkness above. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Nothing moved.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]A breath she hadn’t known she was holding slipped past her lips, and the redhead closed her eyes for a few moments.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]What a frakking mess.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]It felt like they were infringing on sacred grounds. Like one more step inside and they’d be trampling a mass grave for thousands of forgotten, restless souls. The statues lining the walls glared at the trespassers with their flinty eyes.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Adder quickly averted her gaze and squeezed Aela’s shoulder for comfort. Whether her own or the Jedi’s, she didn’t know. Didn’t [/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px]want[/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px] to know. It’d require answering some questions she never even thought about, let alone posed to herself out loud.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“What exactly are we looking for?”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px][member="Nia Siroc"] | [member="Aela Talith"][/SIZE]​

 

[Aela Talith]

They moved slowly through the massive corridor, her eyes wandering slowly from statue to statue. She felt an odd tightness in her chest, a feeling as though they were being watched. She watched how the others reacted, tried to see what they were thinking. Nia reacted bravely, though Aela could tell she was uncomfortable, Adder was much the same, though she was far more emotive about it than the padawan. Arn on the other kept his back straight, his spine stiff and his face passive.

They were all bothered by it, Aela could see that.

"Back of the temple." She said quietly, her voice still echoing despite it's near whisper. "There should be an archive back there, that's what we're here for."

Information was the most valuable thing in the galaxy, it could make or break wars, build governments or destroy entire civilizations. The Jedi had horded knowledge, and throughout key junctures in time it had been destroyed. The Sacking of Coruscant, the attack on Ossus, the entirety of the Great Hyperspace War. These had all been events that had seen tremendous loss in knowledge. Aela was hoping that this place would hold some of that lost knowledge.

One piece in specific. "Come on."

She started to pick up the pace, heading through the Corridor and into some of the smaller hallways.

As they moved deeper into the temple however something else began to stir. Something that had lingered for years, something that brought naught but malice. They awoke, sensing Aela and the others move deeper into the temple.

 

[Nia Siroc]

The back of the Temple, of course, she thought with a grimace. Let's go towards that ominous feeling. Nia had no idea exactly what it was but it was there. What could infest a place so strong in the Light side?

An archive of some sort, said Aela, but what information could be so important. She kept her head on a swivel as the feeling kept getting stronger through the Force. If anything, they should be going the other way. The feeling was purely malicious and it made her skin crawl.

It was watching them and her heart had begun to race. She drew in a calming breath to steady herself, remembering the exercises she'd been taught. Nia told herself she was with two experienced Jedi and she wasn't totally defenseless. Her hand was on her hilt and she was ready to use it, if it was something it might work on....

[member="Aela Talith"] [member="Adder"]

 

[Adder]

Was that the faintest flicker of concern on Aela’s face?

Adder couldn’t trust her eyes anymore. Just a second ago, she thought she saw one of the statues turn its head to follow their group with its dead gaze. It was dead, she had to remind herself. Rather harshly, at that.

Not that it helped. The place might’ve reminded her of the old Coruscanti temple but the resemblance began and ended right there. The stone was colder, webbed with spidery cracks that hid Force knows what. There was darkness lurking in every corner, its greedy fingers grasping after the advancing crew.

And, frak, the stench. The whole place stank of putrefaction and rot, like something foul had settled at the roots of the rock.

Adder loathed it. She inched a bit closer to the blonde Jedi, trying to find courage in the ever-rigid lines of her back.

Her lips parted, and she was about to say something embarrassing when her gaze fell on the worn letters in the wall ahead.

‘Archives’, it said, in an older and more ornate variation of aurebesh. The only reason she could read it at all was because her mother was a historian. Hundreds of texts and tomes and holos of the elegant writing had been a permanent fixture on every horizontal surface of her home for as long as she could remember.

“Through here,” she directed in a low voice and dismissed the unbidden memories.

This place felt like the sort where a second of distraction could cost you a lifetime.


[member="Aela Talith"] | [member="Nia Siroc"]

 

[Aela Talith]

The archives were bare. There were no books. No scrolls. No holorecordings.

Nothing.

They stepped into the hall seeing naught but empty bookshelves and bare tables. All the knowledge that had once been here, everything collected by those Jedi who had built this sacred city was gone. Aela stared at the empty room, her eyes growing wide, her lips thinning. She frowned slightly, that pit in her stomach momentarily forgotten was she wandered through the hall. The others were left behind, standing in the doorway unless they followed. Aela rushed through the Archive, nearly sprinting through it as she searched for some scrap of parchment, some piece of a book, something...something that would tell her what had happened here.

Panic grew on her features, and then suddenly she stopped. "It's gone."

Her voice was an echo, carrying through the empty Archives. Disappointment, anger showed on her features. Her head turning slightly as if she were still looking in desperation. Her lips thinned, and slowly she slumped back against one of the desolate book cases. Her head dropped, her eyes falling to her feet and the floor. Had they come all this way for nothing? Was everything she had done for the past months for nothing?

Aela frowned slightly, her eyes closing as a deep breath left her lungs.

What was she to do now? What was the next ste-

A growl interrupted her thought, a deep guttural snarl that carried on the same echo that her words had. Her head instantly snapped up, her eyes locking on the direction of where the noise had come from. Her eyes widened again, seeing the hulking bestial figure that stood in the doorway behind her team.

 

[Nia Siroc]

There was nothing there but dust and cobwebs. What Nia found most interesting about the whole situation was not so much why the expected materials were absent. It had been hundreds of years and any number of beings might have made off with them. After all, anything associated with the Jedi might fetch a high price on the black market.

No, what was interesting was the Master's reaction, her shock and then her panic as she rushed between the empty shelves. Then the anger and disappointment. It was not that she took pleasure in the emotions but they did educate her all the same. Even a Jedi Master might be wrong and she filed that away.

The Dark presence suddenly there in the Force caused her to look toward a side entrance. Whatever it was, it's shadow engulfed them from the archway. It was massive and Nia had never seen nor heard of anything like it. But she could feel the Dark Side coming off of it in waves.

She felt the thing's guttural growls in her stomach and wasn't sure if it was more than partially sentient. Nia felt the familiar ridged center grip of her hilt in the palm of her right hand, unhooking it without ever taking her eyes off of the hulking figure. She didn't activate it just yet but her thumb was an eye blink from doing so. It was strange how it made her feel afraid but she wasn't frozen in place like she might have been a few months before.

Nia didn't want to die and she wasn't going to today. It was as simple as that, in her mind. Whatever it was, it dwarfed her, but that didn't matter any more than the malice it exuded towards them. She was not going to die.

[member="Aela Talith"] [member="Adder"]

 

[Adder]

[SIZE=14.6667px]With hollow features, Adder watched as Aela stumbled from one rotten shelf to another. Unbidden, the image of a drunk looking for that last bottle sprang to mind. The redhead pushed it away with a snarl, quickly following after the Jedi as she collapsed.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Are you sure? We’ll look again,” she spoke, forcing her voice to remain level despite the panic rising in her chest.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]The oppressive atmosphere was growing thicker by the second, pressing in from all sides. It was becoming difficult to breathe, as if they were suddenly plunged underwater. Adder gasped for air with long breaths, eyes wide as a pang of fear lanced through her heart.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]She whipped around.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Years of drills had left their mark. Countless hours spent in the Underbelly of Coruscant had done the same, albeit with far more viciousness. And then almost a decade of the Galaxy’s lowest and scummiest.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Adder didn’t freeze; she [/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px]reacted[/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px].[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Though she’d always been a quick draw, nothing sent muscles into overdrive like gut-wrenching terror. The Westar was in her grasp in a blur, and she’d fired off two shots at its knees before the creature’s growl stopped ringing in her skull. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px][member="Aela Talith"] | [member="Nia Siroc"][/SIZE]​

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"] | [member="Nia Siroc"]

The ancient Lightsaber snapped into life as soon as Adder's twin blaster shots rang out within the air. It was instant, her hand popping up and her fingers scrunching as she pulled both Nia and Adder away from the massive creature. The force wrapped invisible chains around both of them, crunching inward slightly and then wrenching them both back towards her. Arn lurching away from the great beast with a single jump that threw him to the side.

The creature howled in pain as twin bolts from Adder's blaster struck it, reeling forward and smashing the ground with massive red fists.

Bits of rock and stone went flying as the Massassi smashed the ground before it, completely ruining the ancient steps and crushing the rock into little more than dust. Aela reeled slightly, her palm unraveling from the grip around Adder and Nia as the creature stood. In the distance she heard echoing howls of rage and anger, simultaneous roars that signaled a call of arms. A curse escaped from the lips of the young Marshall, her eyes falling towards Arn.

"Run!" She screamed towards the Chiss just as the Massassi pounced from the doorway.

The Sith was fast however, too fast.

It grasped the Chiss by the leg, reaching up and smashing the Jedi Knight against the nearby wall before either Aela or Arn could react.

 

[Nia Siroc]

As things tended to, it all happened very quickly. After [member="Adder"] shot the hulking brute, Nia felt herself be seized and pulled back. It was a fortunate thing as where she'd been standing was pulverized by two massive red fists. Scarcely did the apprentice hear the roars in the near distance when [member="Aela Talith"] screamed for the Chiss to run. But it was too late, the man slammed hard into a wall by the enraged abomination.

Her lightsaber came to life almost of it's own accord and she went to Arn's aid without thought. In hindsight, she would reflect on how stupid she'd been to do it. But Arn was her friend and she couldn't leave him to the red hulk. She came within range and slashed across the thing's meaty side with the tip of her yellow-hued blade.

It howled with rage as the beam scored it's flesh. Letting go of the man, it whirled to smash the annoying little gnat with a fist bigger than her own head. Apprentice or not, she'd anticipated the blow and dashed back thought she felt the air stir not ten centimeters from where she'd been standing. Now Nia had really done it, she knew, leaping back again as it went to grab at her.

At least it had forgotten about the Chiss, for the moment, it's snarling countenance focused solely on her. She thrust out her left palm and struck out at the powerful chest through the Force. It connected and sent it stumbling back into the wall, buying her precious breathing room. "Help him!," she cried, sparing the groaning Arn a concerned look before turning her eyes back to the infuriated attacker....

 

[Adder]

[SIZE=14.6667px]The next few seconds passed by in smears of red and creaking breaths. Her legs were slow, as if she were running through molasses, and it took [/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px]forever[/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px] to bring her aim back up again. Her heart was hammering, and her lungs felt several sizes too small for all the oxygen she needed.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Alarms were blaring in her head. So were the sounds of bones splitting. Of monsters roaring.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]...monsters?[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Her mind caught up with the flurry of action, and then for an eternity, her breath refused to come at all.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px][member="Nia Siroc"] was slashing at the towering beast with her saber. There was a girl not even of age, waving a toothpick at a skull-cracking giant. A glowing toothpick, but a toothpick nonetheless. A strangled noise escaped Adder at the sight.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]She couldn’t see the other Jedi, but [member="Aela Talith"] could take care of herself.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]The chiss… not so much.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Adder dove forward under a wide swing of the Massassi. She winced as her knees took the brunt of the landing, but the flood of adrenaline drowned out the pain in an instant. Skidding to a stop beside Arn’s broken body, the woman gasped as she took stock of his injuries.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]She didn’t have time for more than a cursory glance, and already the boy looked like a mess.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Frakfrakfrak[/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px]!”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Repeating her mantra under her breath, she scooped him up with another grunt, then stumbled away from combat. The short journey towards the cover of book cases sparked a new appreciation for the austere diet of Jedi. Short of breath, Adder deposited the limp body between two shelves, hiding the chiss from sight.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Another bay shook the chamber, and her heart sank to the floor as she saw another Massassi push through the doorway on the other end.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Despite everything – the blood matting her clothes and hair, the screaming, the raging beat against her ribs – her arm didn’t shake when she raised the muzzle of her Westar.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]And for the first time in a decade, Adder aimed at the head.[/SIZE]

 

[Aela Talith]

The shot to the head should have killed it, should have ended it, but Massassi were just as tough as they appeared. Thick skinned and heavy handed the Sith had been bred specifically to fight and kill. Aela had run into them before, a long time ago when she had gone on adventures to find things like the Titavian. There had only been one back then, and in truth the beast had been smaller than these, but Aela still recognized the threat at the time.

Here it was more evident than before.

"Adder!" She shouted as the creature roared, charging towards her friends. Aela gritted her teeth, her muscles flexing as she dashed forward. The Massassi disregarded her, seeing her as little more then a bug. That was the creatures first mistake. The Young Jedi Marshall dashed forward, the force pressing into every muscle and bone to allow her to move faster. In the span of a breath she crossed the room, dashing over tables and jumping across chairs that had long since fallen over.

She reached the beast, her lightsaber burning hot as it swept low and sliced through the Massassi's calf's.

A single long cut that burned through the creatures muscles.

The Massassi roared, screaming at the top of it's lungs as it suddenly fell forward, unable to sustain it's own weight. With a sudden lurch the beast crashed against the ground, smashing it's already injured head against the marbled floor and creating fissures within the rock.

 

[Nia Siroc]

Nia was vaguely aware that Adder had moved in to drag the broken and unconscious Arn to safety. She felt in that moment a grim sense of satisfaction as she backpedaled behind whatever obstacle she could. Her rash actions had actually worked out somewhat. However, she still had the issue of a blood red berserker attempting to smash her like he did the shelves, tables and stands before him.

She ducked and dodged flying splinters of wood and stone, cleaving others with her yellow blade. It brought to mind her training at the Temple, except now, the projectiles could kill her. Not to mentioned her very large and angry attacker who was at least thrice her size. The tomboy grimaced as a splinter grazed her cheek.

Then her back hit something solid which was possibly the worst thing that could've happened. A shelf from how it felt against her and her eyes widened as the Massassi drew in for the kill. A thought came unbidden, maybe today really is the day I die and her heart was pounding. Except that wasn't how it played out just then.

Somehow the clawed hand that grabbed for her hit the floor. She blinked as she realized her blade had come up to sever it seemingly of it's own volition. Nia looked up in shock as the blood curdling scream peeled from it's lips. The brute was just as shocked that this scared little twig had just cut off it's hand.

With lips peeled back in a hateful snarl, it lunged. Nia dropped to a knee and brought up blade up, squeezing her eyes shut in anticipation of the worst. The worst never came as the monstrosity slumped forward onto the empty shelf over her. As if in some training exercise, she deactivated her weapon and awkwardly crawled crawled out from the space the dead creature had left.

In that moment, everything seemed to hit her and she stumbled into a shelf opposite her. Her heart was thundering and she gasped for breath. Her knees buckled from the fatigue brought on by the rush of adrenaline and she sank slowly onto all fours. Too close, she thought, too karking close.

[member="Aela Talith"] [member="Adder"]

 

[Adder]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Someone called out her name in the distance. The sound reached her ears as a long, low-pitched keen, and nothing like the scream it actually was.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Everything else was moving slowly too; slogging along with lazy limbs and expressions seemingly frozen in time. It was jarring, then, to feel her own heart beat a hundred miles a minute, as if it were a bird ramming into the bars of its cage.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]In front of her, the red monster slammed into the marble.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Her daze broken, Adder looked up to find the archives in complete disarray. The only things still standing were the walls and the Jedi Marshall. Arn was still bleeding out in a corner, and the other Padawan was keeled over on the ground, shaking like a leaf.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]And it was [/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px]quiet[/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px].[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Two massive corpses lay sprawled on the floor, unmoving. Two roars. But Adder was good at counting, because catching the details was her job, and she’d counted [/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px]more than two[/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px].[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Aela?”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]She hated how thinly the steel lined her voice. She hated it, and couldn’t do chit about it, not while they were stuck in this hellhole.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“I don’t think we’re gonna find it now. And those things will come back. And there’ll be more[/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px].”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px][member="Aela Talith"] | [member="Nia Siroc"][/SIZE]​

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"] | [member="Nia Siroc"]

That much was clear now. "Yeah."

Her words were solemn, though not because of the potential they had lost. In truth, she had already forgotten about why they were here, she was far more worried about Arn. The young Chiss had been bloodied, beaten, and broken. The Massassi had managed to take him down faster then Aela would have anticipated, but given the creatures size ti was very likely that Arn had gotten off lucky in the end. The Marshall flicked her lightsaber to the right, shutting off the plasma beam for the time being.

"Get Nia up." Aela told Adder. "I'll get Arn."

Of the three of them that could still stand Aela was the tallest, and probably the best conditioned. She had half a foot on Adder and nearly half as much again on Nia. She was tall, and she'd been training one way or another for the last two decades of her life. Three steps took her to Arn. "Arn, This is going to hurt. If I knew how I'd heal you, but for now you're just going to have to take the pain."

The chiss nodded, his teeth clamping together.

Aela shifted slightly, smiling reassuringly as she slipped her arms beneath the man then pulled herself back. She hefted the Chiss, dragging herself to her feet and lifting Arn up across her shoulder.

 

[Nia Siroc]

By that point, Nia had grabbed ahold of the shelf behind her and levered herself to her feet. She knew that the worst that had happened to her was a cut on her cheek. However, it was hard for her to remain objective when not three meters away was the sagging corpse of a monster that had tried to end her. One that she'd run through with her blade by what amounted to luck, or perhaps the will of the Force.

It had begun to seem strange and surreal as she looked over to the Chiss supported by Aela. That could've been me, a small voice told her. She looked back to the slumped over brute and saw both his missing hand and the hole through his chest. Nia Siroc had done that, her, the scared little fisherman's daughter.

Instead of feeling the triumph of stories, she felt oddly empty. The hero had slain the monster but her friend was still broken and bleeding and more of the crimson beings were soon to descend upon them. Nia didn't know if she could bring herself to kill again this day. She looked to the older Adder as she rounded the corner to check up on her with a pale and bewildered expression.

This wasn't like the stories at all....

[member="Aela Talith"] [member="Adder"]

 

[Adder]

[SIZE=14.6667px]She just nodded, glad that all of them were still breathing. The world wasn’t tilting so much anymore, and her breathing was coming easy again.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Well, [/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px]easier[/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px].[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Wiping the sweat off her forehead, Adder willed her feet to move towards [member="Nia Siroc"]. The girl had pulled herself together physically. As she came closer, though, the redhead noticed the wide eyes and bone-white skin.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Chit.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“How are you?” she called out softly, trying not to startle the Padawan. The Jedi looked young, moreso with fear etched into her features. Was she even [/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px]of age[/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px]?[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Anger bubbled up in her chest at the thought, and she had half a mind to pull Aela aside for a few heated words. What business did she have dragging [/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px]children[/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px] into monster-infested ruins? It was a Force-damned miracle that only one of them had gotten hurt.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Later[/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px], she reminded herself, swallowing the lump in her throat. Later, when they weren’t in mortal danger or bleeding out all over the floor.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Here, take this.” She stopped a respectful distance away from the girl and offered her a bar of chocolate.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Any lingering rage dissipated completely as she raised her gaze and saw [member="Aela Talith"] half-dragging, half-carrying the Chiss along.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Chit.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Let’s go.” She grabbed the Padawan’s hand and led the way with her Westar, jaw set.[/SIZE]

 

[Aela Talith]

She shifted slightly, hefting Arn's weight on her shoulders as she stretched herself. "Don't use the doors."

This place was ancient, old, it should have stood as a monument of some sort, hallowed by herself and other Jedi, but there was no time for that now. There was no time to look into the ethos of history and preserve it all, they had to move forward, they had to make it out alive.

"Cut through the walls." It would be faster. "Get outside directly."

The ancient lightsaber once again blazed into life, the odd whirring hum that pulsed from the blade ringing out throughout the room. She took a step forward, shifting Arn's weight and then moving towards the eastern wall. Her lightsaber stabbed through the limestone rock, cutting it like a knife in butter. She carved a quick circle through the wall, large enough for all of them to fit through. Her blade retreated and with a quick push of the force Aela nudged the rock out of the way.

The Massassi would know these halls, they would have had millenia to come to know them.

She hadn't expected the creatures to be here, in truth, she had never expected to see monsters like that again.

It made sense in a way of course, that these things were what had wiped out the Jedi here. The Sith and Jedi had been often at war, and the Massassi had been a powerful tool during that wall. They had likely been sent here at one point to wipe out the temple and capture anyone that they could, those left behind were simply remnants of that force. Her teeth sunk into her lips as she stepped through the newly carved door, her head shaking.

 

[Nia Siroc]

It occurred to Nia that she must cut the spitting image of a frightened child as she looked at the proffered bar of chocolate. Managing a weak smile, she took the bar and pocketed it. "I'm alright," she said just above a whisper. Still, the youth was happy in that moment to be led by the arm.

Seeing her friend propped up by Aela sobered her and she withdrew her arm from Adder's. It was time to be a Jedi, if only just an apprentice, and she gave the older woman a small but grateful smile. Her hand rested on the hilt of her weapon as she took up position to guard the vulnerable Arn and Aela who supported him. Nia had to protect those who needed it because that was the way of the Jedi Knights.

[member="Aela Talith"] [member="Adder"]

 

[Adder]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Adder cursed under her breath. One of those juicy ones that go on to be remembered as the birth moment of a brand new insult.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]In this case, the target were the hulking beasts. They wouldn’t understand, and even if they could; they were dead. Deader than dead, thank the Force.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Refusing to dwell on their luck any more than necessary, the woman pushed forward. She nearly stumbled face-first into the ground a few times as she navigated the rubble and detritus, but Adder wouldn’t lower her gaze even for a moment.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]The red monstrosities were surprisingly agile for their size, and the redhead would get the drop on the bastards even if it killed her.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Somehow, they made it all the way back to the main hall with its towering statues and vaulted ceilings before another roar echoed behind them. Correction, [/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px]roars[/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px].[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Adder shuddered, the muscles of her jaw bunching up as tension drew her body taut like a cord. She was ready to snap at a moment’s notice, come whatever may. But damned if she would stop. No, not Ad Yrá Kyormenkaur Traficit. One foot in front of the other, the woman kept marching towards the small window of light, the window of salvation, the illusion of safety.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]A rational part of her knew that it was very unlikely the beasts would shy away from sunlight. It also knew their chances of survival were slim, and that there were many more of those creatures in the depths of the temple. It knew that Arn would die if they didn’t get him some help soon, and that even Aela couldn’t keep them alive if they attacked all at once.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]But she was still walking.[/SIZE]

[member="Nia Siroc"] | [member="Aela Talith"]​