Skip.
The faceless, corpse-pale creature attacked her relentlessly with a red blade, not seeking to kill, merely to wound, but Uri was too quick with her cane, warding off blows even as it redoubled its speed and ferocity. It was Niman, she reminded herself. A ferocious, unfocused variant. She could feel hideous, seething evil in the creature, as well as immense pain. Whatever had gone on when she walked in on it, it hadn't been going well. It was powerful, but it was lashing out without a thought for strategy. And the pain she felt from it seemed to be growing worse. It had cut her off from retreat so she was forced back and deeper into the dueling chamber, the small shoto-like green blades on her cane clashing against the crimson of the faceless monster, now cackling wickedly in her skull.
"Giiiive yourself to The Dark Siiiiiide..." it hissed as their sabers locked again, Uri struggling to control her fear of this unstable, monstrous aberration of the Force. The air around it was practically thick with wickedness.
"What the feth ARE YOU?!" Uri shouted shouted, fending it off.
"Your benefactor. Watching...sleeping and watching...such pretty green eyes...sleeping and watching and waiting..." it answered disjointedly, almost uncertain. "It is fitting we meet in darkness..."
Uri backed off and it charged again, slashing and slashing with an uncontrolled frenzy...the pain the creature was in was starting to overwhelm it. Uri retaliated, whipping the bottom shoto towards its neck, which it parried with a still focused swipe, and Uri spun in the near pitch black chamber, going low as she did so...
...and whipping the shoto built into her Cane's handle towards the monster's stomach. It parried again, but not before the tip grazed its side, causing it to howl in her skull in agony.
Purple lightning erupted uncontrollably over its body, and the uncontrolled discharge nearly hit Uri. That flare of the Darkness had to have woken everybody...surely they were rushing towards this chamber right this instant. Surely Uri would have back up soon...
The creature screamed louder as the lightning grew more intense, flowing off her body. The Darkness in it was staggering, Uri thought as she continued to back away as it stumbled, too dangerous to approach now because of the electrical discharge.
"No...I...I am...in...control..." it hissed, convulsing. Uri backed away from it, keeping its darkness from eating away at her will, though she did so with great struggle.
"I WON'T BE SUBMERGED AGAIN!" it shouted, before she lost sight of it completely as it was totally bathed in now purple electricity, and the intense presence of the Darkness caused her to faint...
Later on...
"Uri!" came the familiar voice. The voice soft but with a formal edge to it.
Uri woke, blinking as she stared up at Ursula Sandraven, the purple skinned Twilek carrying her own sabercane with a horse-head design, shining a flashlight attached to the shoulder of her hospital white combat suit on her former padawan's face.
"Where is it, Uri?" Ursula asked urgently, blinking piercing blue eyes at the weakened assassin. "Where did it go?"
"Don't...know..." Uri got out, laying on the ground of the chamber, its interior structures now haunting and forbidden to Uri. She'd never come back down here if she could help it.
Ursula sighed. "What was it?"
"No clue...it...claimed it knew me...said it was my...mother..."
Ursula's elegant face grew more serious. Almost a glare. "It was trying to mislead you no doubt. You didn't take it seriously, did you?"
Uri snorted. "Not a chance, Master Sandraven."
Uri pulled herself up, exhausted and disturbed.
"Everyone! I found her!" Ursula shouted, only looking slightly relieved. No more than she had to look...Uri was a long term investment in time and patience from Ursula. She was making sure her investment was still functional.
Uri saw the lights of her fellow Marksmen running up in the distance...
Skip.
Maple snapped out of it as [member="Matsu Ike"] began suggesting they search for intel about the Kanzer's whereabout. Maple frankly agreed...it was time to take the fight to them. They should have known to feth off the first time she and Matsu had gotten past them. But trying to blow up her home? That deserved an equal response...
Maple then remembered that the Kanzer Assassins were still alive, and still knocked out.
Maple knealt down to examine them, gesturing for Siva to follow. The curvy Twi'lek did so, and Maple said, "Wake 'em up..."
Siva got out an injector and pressed it to the muscular blonde woman's neck. The one she had nicknamed The Hammer awoke immediately.
"What do you want?" The Hammer asked, nose still bloody.
"Where are your bosses hiding? What where they after here?"
"Schematics...for something called a Shrodinger Box."
"What's it do?"
"No clue..."
Maple punched The Hammer in the stomach.
"Don't bullchit me. Don't you dare. I could have dropped both of you." Maple asserted. Skip. The Mind-Binder chased her through the fieldsof corn in the dead of night. Skip. The universe was blinking out due to the unexpected early death of all stars and Maple was slowly freezing to death, huddled next to Siva on a lonely mountain as the stars went out. Skip. Back to the citadel.
"What are you going to do if I talk? Stick me in some prison on some second rate rim world?" The Hammer sneered.
"Pfff. Like any prison holds our type for long. I suppose I could just pop you after I get the info, but that wouldn't be economic..."
The Hammer glowered. "What, then?"
"Easy. You work for me. Its the only way I let you out of here alive with Betty Broken-Nose here next to you. But you give up what you got on the Kanzer. You're embarassing yourselves, working for them anyway."
The Hammer laughed cruelly at this. "And what makes you think you can keep me loyal? Or my friend? How do you know I wouldn't stab you in the back?"
"Because I have defeated you before. At my weakest, I might add. I need not fear the result of a thousand of our battles. In any scenario, I have you dead to rights. And besides...you really want the gaze of The Golden Eye to focus on you...from a kilometer and a half out?"
The Hammer got the point. She gulped. Maple didn't need to ask if the nervousness she displayed was genuine.
"Okay..." The Hammer said slowly..."We work for you."
"Their location. Now."
"Haruun Kal." The Hammer answered.
Siva sighed. "Ugh...I hate that planet. Hate it."
"Their scheme with the box?" Maple asked, tone terse.
"I genuinely do not know." The Hammer answered honestly.
"Contact info?"
"My belt pouch has a holodisc with the information. It'll tell you everything."
Maple plucked it from the pocket.
"Wake your friend up and feth off for now. I'll contact you when I want to."
"How will you know--"
Maple rolled her eyes as she interrupted her. "I'll know where you both are, yadda yadda. You can't escape, yadda yadda. The usual promises of death, yadda yadda..." Maple asserted, ending her words with a cold stare.
She turned to Matsu. "We need to plan for an op on Haruun Kal."
"Hey, ain't you gonna cut me loose?" The Hammer snapped.
Maple eyed her. "You're a smart girl...I'm sure you'll figure it out."
"Oooo, snap..." Siva joked, high-fiving Maple.