Run-on #4

[Participants: Battleteam Exar's Shadow and Aabsdu]
***

Anshar sat in at his desk, staring out at one of the rare thunderstorms that dotted Lyspair's landscape. Rain on Lyspair only came at night, the lightning flashes providing but brief glimmers of the land outside the Shadow Academy's walls. The night rain adequately reflected Anshar's present mood. In front of Anshar's desk a man, a failed initiate, stood trembling slightly. In front of him lay a pile of droid parts which only minutes before had been a whole, functioning droid. Without moving, or even turning the chair, Anshar had disassembled the droid with the Force, in front of the man. The door to Anshar's office slid open and Dranik entered, his cloak still wet from the rain.

"The book cannot be found," said Dranik, dispensing with the formality reserved only for public forums. "None of our ships were taken, either. Some conclude that the thief departed on foot, undoubtedly to a hidden ship. I've ordered a reviewing of all sensor logs for any possible ship launch. But, this weather makes that hard to clearly distinguish anything. Also, there are other options for escape." Dranik was the head of the Shadow Academy's defense and security, a role he had co-opted upon his arrival. The fact that the thief had not taken any of the Academy's numerous fighters or shuttles to escape meant he did have other plans; his own ship, hidden somewhere on Lyspair, was a logical explanation, though how the thief managed to get it there, Anshar could not fathom. Dranik saw the remnants of the droid on the floor, recognizing it as the droid librarian as Anshar spoke.

"And the security tapes?" asked Anshar.

"They reveal nothing," replied Dranik. "They were tampered with, very professionally. Even if we can figure out exactly what was done, the chances of getting anything useful are slim. Whoever did this was a professional, and it was not a spontaneous theft."

"It appears, Mister Pola, that you are in the clear," said Anshar. Dac Pola had tried to join the Brotherhood, but though he possessed a modicum of Force ability, he had never been able to make use of the Force. He instead had become on the Academy's security detail and his assignment that night had put him at the library when this happened. "Leave us." Pola bowed and exited the office, trying very hard to make it not appear as a flight driven by fear.
"I will begin hunting this thief immediately," said Dranik. Anshar turned his chair around to face Dranik.

"Under normal circumstances, I would say that would be the best," replied Anshar. "However, you, nor I, can cover every angle. I have reviewed the last flight log, and the star shuttle Sheeta departed with a load of apprentices ten minutes after the theft. It will be traveling to all the clans to deliver the new members to their assigned clans." Dranik nodded. He had noticed this, too, and it was his first choice for an escape as well. The hidden ship theory was virtually impossible, as one could only get through the shroud on board official Brotherhood craft. Anshar continued.

"I want the Dark Vault sealed," he ordered. "No one is to be permitted in without a strict guard, and their time in the Vault will be limited." The Dark Vault was essentially the Academy's library and it contained a great deal of information, ranging from the mundane to very rare items. "As we cannot cover this by ourselves, we will put a call out to the clans for volunteers."
"Should the clans send teams?" asked Dranik. Anshar shook his head.

"We haven't the time for clans to assemble special teams," he replied. "Any member who wishes to help us may come. As they arrive, we will assign them to whatever group we can and send them out. As much as the clans may hate one another, the individual members do need to get used to working together. I sense that far more trying times lay in the future." Anshar paused. "Dranik, put the call out to the clans for volunteers; make certain to mention that those members who help retrieve the book will be rewarded." Dranik bowed and left. Anshar pulled out a holo-recorder and began a mission briefing.

"Members of the Brotherhood, as you may now know, the Shadow Academy had a rare, valuable book stolen from the Dark Vault. The thief, whoever he was, is top rate and he could be anywhere in Brotherhood space or beyond. Given the urgency of this situation, most of you will be formed into ad hoc teams, working with members from other clans. Whatever your personal feelings towards the other clans, or their representatives, may be, now is not the time to dwell upon them. This mission you are about to embark upon is for the greater benefit of the Brotherhood.

Your goals are simple: find the thief, find his supporters if he has them, and retrieve the book. Anyone who stands in your way, or attempts to stop you, may be killed or otherwise incapacitated as you see fit.

You may make use of almost any of the Shadow Academy resources if you cannot get them from your clans. Simply clear things with Dranik first. The only ships off limits are the Mnemosyne and her fighter compliment.

Finally, the book you are seeking is bound in black leather, with gold lettering on the cover. This book is written in runes, and is slowly being translated. The only part of the title we have translated thus far is "bible." Those who succeed, and those who show great skill and courage, shall be rewarded.

{OOC: per Aabsdu's request, the posting order has been removed:


/OOC}

Dismal sat on a mat in his dormitory. He was meditating, as he usually did at night. He breathed slowly, in, out, in, and out. He was interrupted by his hologram projector. Someone was interrupting his nightly ritual. The young Jedi Hunter got up, sighing with annoyance. Dismal looked at the small disk lying on his bedside table. It was projecting an image of the Headmaster. “This must be important,” Dismal said under his breath. Anshar’s voice crackled, and some of his words didn’t get entirely through due to the age and wear of Dismal’s projector. He could, however, make out the words of the Headmaster. He had gotten used to the poor audio quality. Dismal quit thinking for a minute to here the shocking news that Anshar was saying.

"Members of the Brotherhood, as you may now know, the Shadow Academy had a rare, valuable book stolen from the Dark Vault. The thief, whoever he was, is top rate and he could be anywhere in Brotherhood space or beyond. Given the urgency of this situation, most of you will be formed into ad hoc teams, working with members from other clans. Whatever your personal feelings towards the other clans, or their representatives, may be, now is not the time to dwell upon them. This mission you are about to embark upon is for the greater benefit of the Brotherhood.

Your goals are simple: find the thief, find his supporters if he has them, and retrieve the book. Anyone who stands in your way, or attempts to stop you, may be killed or otherwise incapacitated as you see fit.

You may make use of almost any of the Shadow Academy resources if you cannot get them from your clans. Simply clear things with Dranik first. The only ships off limits are the Mnemosyne and her fighter compliment.

Finally, the book you are seeking is bound in black leather, with gold lettering on the cover. This book is written in runes, and is slowly being translated. The only part of the title we have translated thus far is "bible." Those who succeed, and those who show great skill and courage, shall be rewarded.

The Jedi Hunter shook his head. How dare someone break into the Shadow Academy and steal the important lore of the Dark Brotherhood! His nostrils flared with anger. He knew what he must do. Dismal quickly stepped out of his dormitory. The cool night air comforted him. He looked up at the star filled sky of Aerun. Dismal had always been at his best at night. He fought best, and he concentrated best at night. Dismal saw a landspeeder parked about twenty meters to the left. He jogged over to it and hopped on. He quickly started the engine, and he was off in a blink of an eye.

The landspeeder abruptly stopped outside the rest of the dormitories where the members of Exar Kun slept. He walked up to the entrance, and his eyes drifted down to meet a keypad. He entered the code that all Exar Kun members knew, and the doors opened quickly with a metallic hiss. Dismal stepped into the tiled floor, making a clicking noise as the heels of his boots met the floor. This was the building containing the dorms to Exar’s Shadow, the battleteam that Dismal commanded. He yelled in his most professional voice, “Get up, I carry important news!” Dismal waited impatiently as the various members got out of bed and walked into the lounge. “Today, Flight Members, we must go to protect the Shadow Academy. Anshar and Dranik have recently found out that someone has broken into the Dark Vault on Lyspair, and has stolen a very important book. This fine night, we must venture into space, and recover this tome of knowledge!” Dismal said. He stared as slowly, mouths began to drop in surprise.

"Um, Dismal," Laigerick said while trying not to laugh, "Look."

The entire team bust out into laughter as Dismal looked down to find that his pants had fallen to the ground, and only his underwear was left covering his up. His face turned bright red and he pulled them back up. Scorpius was chuckling softly, but staying calm. The same could not be said for the rest of the team, who were rolling around the floor busting out into laughter. Niman even started crying.

"Yes, well, um...," Dismal stuttered, still blushing, "Get packed. We meet at the Gamerunner in thirty minutes."

At that, he ran out of the room, his fellow members still laughing behind him...

----------

Bum, bum bum, bum, bum, bum, bum...

Sith Battlemaster and Consul of Clan Plagueis Aabsdu di Plagia Dupar al'Tor hummed as he walked down the halls of the Shadow Academy. He had come here on a quick errand to fetch a book from the Dark Vault that was needed for the writers back on Kapsina that were currently working on compiling the history of Clan Satal Keto. Sure, he could have sent a journeyman, but he loved the Shadow Academy. Besides, had he not come himself he would have had to sit through another boring weekly report from the house Quaestors. During times of war, weekly reports were good, but when there is peace, more or less, they are just boring. Who wants to hear about what younglings got in a fight last Tuesday anyways?

He turned the corner, still humming, walking casually and without a care in the world...

Bum, bum bum, bum, bum bum bum bum, bum, bum, bu...

He stopped abruptly as four guards suddenly pointed their blaster rifles at his head. Were he younger, he probably would have ignited his lightsaber and sliced them into tiny pieces, but he was not young anymore. He was Consul of Clan Plagueis, and as such, he simply stopped and looked at them.

They were all Shadow Academy guards. It was obvious by the emblem on their chest piece. They were also guarding the Dark Vault, which meant something was obviously wrong.

"Halt," the one that seemed to be the commanding officer stated, "No one is permitted into the room at this time."

"Is that so," Aabsdu responded casually, making sure not to sound threatening, since he was not, "May I ask why?"

"Um... well...," the guard stammered.

"No," one of his friends cut in quickly.

"I see," Aabsdu replied, looking each of the soldiers over, "Well, I'll be on my way then"

Without a second glance, we turned and walked back the way he had come. The four guards watched him all the way around the corner, obviously wondering why he had not persisted in trying to get into the Vault.

As soon as he was out of earshot, though, he pulled out his comlink and signaled Anshar, who, at the call of an EP and Consul, quickly answered.

Headmaster Anshar here

"Anshar, it's Aabs. I'm curious as to why four of your men just kept me from getting a rather important book."

Sorry about that, but we are on top-level security right now. A book was just stolen, so no one is allowed in until investigations have concluded.

This surprised Aabs, since it was thought impossible to steal something from the brotherhood, and the Dark Vault at that, and actually get away with it. At least for the time being

"Are you trying to catch the person responsible?"

We have called for volunteers to go after him

"Really? Anyone from Plagueis answer your call?"

Battle Team Exar's Shadow

Aabsdu grinned. His old battle team. Of course, if anyone were to try to help it would be them.

"Thanks greatly, Anshar"

No problem. Would you like me to send someone over to let you into the library?

"Not right now. Something else just came up that requires my immediate attention"

They said their goodbyes, and hung up. So, Exar's Shadow was going to go off in search of the thief. Well, this case was closely linked to Aabsdu. He was an Instructor of the Academy, not to mention the thief had made his life all that more difficult, which made it personal. Might as well join them. Besides, I would not want them to go and make a fool of themselves.

He made his way to one of the communications rooms and keyed in Dismal's ID. A few minutes later, a large hologram of the Sith Commander appeared before the Battlemaster. Dismal quickly bowed.

Yes, Consul Dupar?

"I understand you and your team have agreed to help the Shadow Academy catch a thief."

We have, Consul Dupar.

"I'd like to join you."

Dismal made no physical reaction, but his emotions were clear as day. Pure shock.

Of course, Consul Dupar. Where would you like us to pick you up? We were just about to set off ourselves.

Pick him up. Ha! Chances are Dismal was planning to just go after the thief, hoping to end it quickly. Well, if there was one thing he and the other younger members on his team was going to learn, it was that speed is not always something to look at when handling a mission.

"Come to Lyspair. Before we set off, I'd like to investigate a few things first"

Dismal seemed put off, but nonetheless agreed and ended the communication. They would investigate a few things, and then afterwards the team could have its fun in finding and taking out the thief. It would be fun, as long as they took it one-step at a time, did not rush it, and did not get cocky. He knew his members better then that, though, and knew that they would do everything they could to learn the most about something before actually taking action. He made sure that members of Clan Plagueis were the best there was, and it would be members of Clan Plagueis that caught the Dark Vault Thief.

----------

Three hours later

Aabsdu looked them up and down, examining everything. Scorpius, Laigerick, Jaden, Vasily, and Niman, his own student, were standing in a line at attention. Dismal stood off to the side, watching Aabsdu inspect his team. They were fit, smart, and should do the job well. Laigerick looked a bit trigger happy, but that could be dealt with accordingly. All in all, it seemed a fit group for the job.

He glanced at Dismal, who nodded. While he was Consul, and thus allowed to make any orders he wanted, he did not want Dismal to think that he was going to take command. If anything, he was going to simply watch them. He would learn how the team works as a whole, and how Dismal leads them. He would help here and there, but in the end, it would be completely up to Exar's Shadow as to what course of action they took.

"Ok. Well, one thing I will advise is not to rush into things. Investigate first. Dismal, I would suggest taking a team to the hangar bar and looking into the ship, Sheeta I believe, that left right after the incident. Talk to some of the workers, possible even find out where the ship is a send one of your members, I recommend Vasily, to go off after it. See if you can find anything else out about the tapes. How were they tampered? That could narrow down the suspect list, once we get one. I will also get Anshar to allow one of you into the Dark Vault to look around. If he agrees, Scorpius will have to do it, since he is the highest-ranking member. Look for anything Dranik might have missed. I, meanwhile, will go talk to this Dac Pola guy and see if he knows anything."

Aabsdu had spent the three hours in between talking to Dismal and them arriving catching himself up on everything that had happened.

"This is, of course, only a suggestion. What you do," this comment was directed towards Dismal, "Is completely up to you. I will still go talk to Mr. Pola, though. Follow through with my other suggestions how you wish."

With that, Aabsdu nodded, at which Scorpius nodded back, while the others bowed. He then turned and walked away, heading towards Dac Pola's office...

The Members of Battle Team Exar's Shadow followed behind their commander as they paced to the hanger bay.

"You heard what Consul Dupar said, men," Dismal stated. The flight members nodded accordingly. "Vasily, I am putting you and Jaden in charge of finding everything out about the Sheeta that you can, Scorpious, you heard what Aabsdu wants of you, head for the Dark Vault once you recieve confirmation."

"Yes, my Apprentice," Scorpious hissed.

Dismal continued, "as for you Niman, I am sending you and Laigerick to check the tapes of the Shadow Academy. Oh, and don't let Laigerick go berserk, will you Niman?" Dismal taunted.

Laigerick rolled his eyes and huffed.

"As for me," Dismal said, "I will join aabs in his... interrogation.

Dismal gave a devilish look as he said this.

"Sir, yes sir!" Niman replied, "...on with me, young Guardian Sithelhood!"

Niman changed into a slow jog and continued down the cooridor. Laigerick followed closely behind.

----------

When inside the security room, the two journeymen watched the security records of the suspected time of theft. The camaras of the Shadow Academy worked in a secrinized manner. They went in intervals. Each interval was of a different view from all over the campus grounds. Each view covered a span of six seconds with ten frames, so it was hard to dipict slight details. Laigerick just hoped that there was a file that the theif had missed in his tampering with the holorecords. In the first, it showed the hallway, then the hanger bay, then the Dark Vault.

"Stop!" Laigerick shouted. Niman paused the recording. Laigerick pointed to a blurred section in the Dark Vault. "Maximize that," Laigerick said.

Niman clicked on the selected area, maximized it, and smoothed out the image. It clearly dipicted what appeared to the theif. It was a male Clawdite.

"Not so stealty as you though, eh?" Niman asked retorically (this was directed to the theif).

Laigerick chuckled, "I guess not."

Niman fastforwarded through the cycle to see if he could find out how the theif escaped, but when static overwhelmed the screen.

"Damnit!" Niman shouted as he pounded his fist upon the security desk, "we were SO close!"

Laigerick paid no attention to Niman's cursing. He leaned over Niman's shoulder and plugged his datapad into the terminal, downloading the record. Once the sequence was complete, he closed up his datapad and heeled around.

"Come on," Laigerick signaled, "Let's get this to Dismal, I'll know that he'll want it."

Niman sprang up from the desk and followed the Guardian over to the door. Laigerick hit the 'Open' button on the keypad, and the door hissed apart. Laigerick looked back at Niman to make sure he was following him, but he saw a petrified Niman, jaw ajar. Niman looked dead ahead at the doorway.

"Wha..." Laigerick said as he turned around, but he couldn't finish his sentence because he was looking down the barrel of a blaster.

There was a man dressed in a Shadow Academy uniform, his black hair slicked back, grinning malevolently at the two journeymen, with his two blasters pointed right at their heads.

"Sorry, but I can't let you get away with those records," he said smoothly.

Jaden and Vasily slowly paced themselves heading towards the hanger bay. The two never really talk a lot but now this time would be better then ever. “So, what made you join the brotherhood?,” Jaden said as the two walked in motion. Vasily smiled, “Well, I joined a few years before, you…it’s been so long it is as if I can’t remember,” he said. Jaden smiled and nodded, “Yea, it seems you forget everything once you become a Dark Jedi Knight,” he said. Vasily chuckled softly and replied, “Yea,” and both of them turned to their right as they entered the hanger bay.

They then looked in front of them to fine non other then the Sheeta. The both raised an eyebrow as the well kept ship stood there. Jaden walked ahead of Vasily as he peeked in to find wires spurting out electricity, and parts of droids laying everywhere. Jaden, surprised, spoke loud enough for Vasily to hear, saying, “Hey Vasily, come check this out!,”. Vasily nodded and came and peered into the ship, the same shock that Jaden had. The pair walked in, doing there best to not be burned by the sparks, and began to salvage the ship.

Both Jaden and Vasily threw all the useless parts around looking for something of use. The ship was a wreck as it is, but Jaden, nor Vasily, were making it any better. They shoveled and shoveled until Jaden gave yup saying, “Therese nothing in this piece of junk,” he said kicking a droids head. The droid began to spark, as both Jaden and Vasily guarded themselves from the spurts of energy until a image showed up. In the hologram there was a male Clawdite speaking in it’s native language, to have it translate to him saying, “Damn! This stupid ship won’t work!,” with it slamming it’s fists on the panel and then destroying all the droids and cutting wires in stress. It then ran out of the ship, and by the loud steps you could tell he left the hanger. They then knew, that he was still in the building, for there was no other way for him to get out of here.

Vasily stared at it and spoke, “That’s him, he had the book,”. Jaden and Vasily both looked at each other, and then ran out the ship to have at least 10 human male mercenaries. The leader spoke saying, ‘Well look what we’ve got here boys, a couple of saber wielders, lets have some fun,” he said and they all chuckled loading there blaster rifles. Jaden and Vasily yet again looked at each other and smiled igniting their lightsabers. Jaden grabbed his communicator and spoke into it saying, “This is Jaden, we have some info, and we have company,” he said and then smiled evilly and prepared for the fight, as the mercs. began to fire, and the pair began there defense against them.

Dismal jogged down the corridor leading to Dac Pola’s office until he caught up with Aabsdu. “What are you doing here with me Dismal?” Aabsdu asked. “I gave away all the assignments to my team members, so I thought I’d help you,” Dismal replied. “Very well then,” Aabsdu said. They walked about another four meters, idly chattering. All of a sudden, Dismal heard a telepathic message from Laigerick.

Dismal, get down to the security office. NOW! We’re in sort of a bind at the moment...

Dismal opened his mouth to speak, but Aabsdu interrupted him. “I heard the message too. Get down there!” he said loudly. “Yes sir!” Dismal replied. He turned around quickly and sprinted back down the hallway.

The young Jedi Hunter arrived at the door to the Shadow Academy’s security office. He saw a man in a short, black robe with a large Shadow Academy crest on his back. His fine jet black hair was slicked back, and he stood with a blaster to the head of Niman and Laigerick. Dismal then sent a message to Laigerick and Niman.

Don’t move. Keep on acting scared. I can handle this...

Dismal gripped the durasteel hilt of his Rutilus Trucido, his custom Sith Sword. He unsheathed it as quietly as he could. He heard the man say, “So, it’s your choice. Either give me that datapad, or I will shoot you. You have about fifteen seconds.” Dismal quickly put the crimson blade of the Trucido to the man’s neck.

“Hey, what’re you...” the man tried to ask, but Dismal cut him off. “It is me who will be asking the questions around here,” Dismal said casually. “Drop the blaster, now!” Dismal exclaimed, while inching the blade closer to the man’s thick neck. “Okay,” the man said reluctantly. The blaster fell to the ground with a loud clank. “Laigerick, pick it up!” Dismal barked. The guardian did as he was told and picked up the blaster pistol, while Niman unsheathed his Genoharadan Poison Blade. “Now, the tables have turned. Answer all of my questions truthfully, or you will be punished!” Dismal bellowed. “Now, what is you’re name?” Dismal asked. “My name is Vaj Norduin, I’m a security guard for the academy,” the man said, starting to shake in fear. “Okay, why were you threatening my Flight Members?” Dismal said casually. “They were stealing some security footage, no doubt to hinder the recent theft investigation,” Vaj replied. “He’s lying, his pupils are dilated,” Niman said, staring at Vaj’s eyes. “Now tell me the truth,” Dismal said, making the smooth iron of his blade touch the soft flesh of Vaj’s tender neck. “Okay, okay. I work for a man named Io Dom. I was working the nightshift guarding the Vault. A man dressed in Initiate robes came up to the entrance. He asked for permission to go inside, and I said no that it was closed up for the night. Then, all of his skin started to turn green and wrinkly, and he got out a blaster pistol and held it to my temple. He told me that he was Io Dom, and he needed to get in to steal a book for some organization that had hired him. He told me afterwards that if he got that book he was going to get twenty thousand credits for the job, and that if I let him in and told no one about what he was doing, that he’d give me half of the profit. Ten thousand credits could let me buy a mansion on Chandrila. So, I let him in. He was in there fore about ten minutes, then came out with an old book with weird symbols on the cover. He left as soon as he got out,” Vaj said, his voice quivering. “Did you see what vehicle he was in?” Dismal questioned excitedly. “I followed him to the entrance, and I saw him get into an old X-Wing,” Vaj replied. “Good, thank you for your help Vaj,” Dismal said with a grin on his face.

“But, there still comes the matter of your punishment for almost murdering two Dark Jedi. Niman, give him a good scar on his back. One that will help him remember not to attack any Dark Jedi anymore,” Dismal said. He watched silently as Niman walked to Vaj’s back. He then slashed his blade down as fast as he could into the security guard’s back. His black robe split open, and flesh ripped horribly. Blood starting steadily pouring out of the wound, and intravenous lines started appearing on his back. “Whoops, I forgot to take out the poison cartridge,” Niman said. “I got it,” Laigerick said. He called upon the force, and the blood pouring out of the slash started turning a tint of blue, and blood started to flow less and less. Vaj lay on the floor, almost unconscious. “Now, lets get this information to Aabs and the rest of the team,” Dismal said, turning on his heel. He started to walk down the corridor, and Laigerick and Niman were quick to follow.

"As I told you before, I was not there at the time of the incident. I heard a ruckus outside, and went to investigate."

"A diversion that worked, Mr. Pola," Aabsdu sternly said back to him. The failed Dark Jedi had fallen for a ruse that gave the thief the exact opportunity to go in and steal the book. Perhaps is he was a bit more keen in the force he would have sensed that problem, but he was not. The young human was no more then twenty-five, but older then twenty. He was moderately muscular, fairly handsome, although this probably was not the best time to judge him. News of how the thief had stolen the book while he was on duty had traveled around, and he did not have the best reputation for the time being. For good reasons, though. He looked very sorry for his mistake, but that could not change the past. What happened had happened, that is all there was to it.

Aabsdu reached out with his hand and pulled a drink over to him, leaving an angry Bothan drink less. The Bothan started to say something, but stopped when he saw the Consul badge of the side of Aabs' robes. No one was stupid enough to mess with a Consul, especially one who seemed to be on duty at the time being. Not that a Consul was ever off-duty.

He handed the drink to Dac, who took it and sipped a bit. Thus far, Mr. Pola had told him nothing. He had gone out to see what the noise was about, found nothing, gone back in, and discovered that the book was missing. It was in a glass case that sat at the head of one of the rows of shelves, so as soon as he walked in he easily saw the perfect circle cut in the top of the glass, and the missing book. He had waited an hour to actually report it, which was what had made him the main suspect. He claimed he had been searching for it, but broken glass usually means something was stolen. Still, he did not seem to be guilty. If he was, he had more jedi skills then he was credited for, because he would be hiding his emotions very well.

"Did you tell Anshar this?"

"Aye"

He was starting to get a bit drunk, since this had been his third glass thus far. The problem, though, was that while getting the person drunk usually helped, in this case the person had nothing to say that would be of any use. Still, Aabsdu tried to stay very professional. Just sitting there and listening to his story as he told it once again. The Battlemaster was wearing his entire uniform, making him a bit frightening, which helped. Still, it only helped when the person had something to say.

"What was the noise you heard?"

"Like something was banging up against the wall"

Aabsdu thought. Dac on gone out through the back entrance, and yet no one had been there. How had the thief gotten in? Then, he suddenly remember something

"How many ways into the Dark Vault are there," he asked in a rushed tone, ready to end the questioning.

"Two"

"And you were the only one on guard at the time?"

"No, Vaj Norduin was also there. He was guarding the front entrance, and..."

"Where is he now," Aabsdu interrupted him.

"Not sure. After I reported the crime, I went to get him and he wasn't there."

Aabsdu stood up and turned to leave. "Keep him drinking as long as needed," he told the bartender before walking out of the cantina. As soon as he was clear, he got out his comlink and punched in the code for Dismal.

It would seem that someone had gotten Dac out of the way, and then in turn gotten past the guard who was keeping watch out the front entranced. So, they now knew how the thief had gotten in and out of the vault, but the new question was where this guard he had gotten past was. Thus far, it would seem as if there were two people involved, unless the guard was a part of it, which would make three.

Yes, Consul Dupar?

"Dis, where are you? I think I may have discovered how the robber got into the vault."

We already have, Consul Dupar. A guard here was bribed.

"Is he with you now?"

Aye, Consul Dupar.

"Stay there, I'm on my way."

What about Jaden and Vasily?

Aabsdu stopped. What in hell's name was wrong now? As if this mission could not be anymore mixed up. "What are you talking about?"

They are in the hangar, and apparently have run into some trouble.

Aabs curses to himself. Ok, he thought, let us try to figure some of this out. Scorpius should be in the Vault, since he had already gotten Anshar to allow him in for thirty minutes. Niman, Laigerick, and Dismal are with this guard, and Jaden and Vasily are in the hangar, apparently in some sort of trouble. Geez, this mission was starting to turn out to be one hell of a thrill ride.

"Stay with Daj, Vaj, Baj, what'shisface. I will go get Jaden and Vasily. In the meantime, make sure you have the security tapes. Meet me in Hangar C in thirty minutes with whatever information you have."

Yes, Consul Dupar.

With that, the communication ended, and Aabsdu made his way to Hangar E to find out just what was the problem with Jaden and Vasily...

Jaden and Vasily began fighting furiously against their opponents, as there volleys of blaster bolts came in more and more. Vasily, with a better understanding of deflection, stayed on the ground while Jaden, jumped from wall to wall until he came into close range with the mercenaries. He began to cut them down one by one until there were only 6 left, and then Vasily followed up joining Jaden. The two were doing great until there were only 4 left, and then he pulled out a grenade. Both Jaden and Vasily expected as much and disengaged there lightsabers and jumped back before they were blasted into smithereens.

They both landed on the ground, smoke surrounding them. The pair got up igniting there lightsabers doing there best to sense there opponents through the force, until the first blaster bolt fired, and was deflected by Vasily. But as things began to clear up, Jaden sensed a familiar person coming, and then finally he realized it was his master, Aabs. Jaden smiled and disengaged his lightsaber. Vasily, confused, gave Jaden a weird look. The Dark Jedi Knight just nodded at him, as the mercenaries all pointed there guns at Jaden as they got ready to fire. Soon the noise of an ignited lightsaber erupted them, as the turned to find Aabs and his silver lightsaber coming. He easily cut the head off of the first one and then killed the others with ease, as they were all in shock and had no chance to defend themselves.

Jadens smiled, his faced covered in smoke, “I thought you would show up,” he said. Vasily, his mouth wide open, disengaged his lightsaber and spoke saying, “But…how, why?,”. Aabs just laughed and spoke, “Well, I guess you didn’t hear Jaden ask for an ‘emergency rescue’,” he said with a smile. Jaden just laughed and retorted back in a friendly way saying, “Hey, I could have done it myself, but I just thought I could do myself a favor and not waste some of my energy, and let you handle it,” he said. Aabs puffed and just turned waving his hand for them to follow, as they began to walk out of the hanger, into the halls. The trio, were all happy to see each other again, but none of them were prepared for what was to happen next….

Aabsdu, Jaden, and Vasily walked down the halls of the Shadow Academy, quietly, thinking about all that had happened since they had first split up not two hours ago. So much had happened, and it was not even lunch yet. Vasily simply walked, while Jaden seemed to be very happy with himself, and kept looking over at his former master. If, that is, you believe a student actually gets rid of his master.

"Did you discover anything about those men that attacked you," Aabsdu asked, still looking straight ahead, as they turned a corner heading towards Hangar C.

"From the looks of them," Jaden started, "They seem to be mercenaries."

"Possibly hired by the thief to cover his track," Vasily finished, "and get rid of anyone who discovered the ship."

"If the apprentices were not taken off planet on the Sheeta, then where are they?"

Jaden could not answer his Consul's question, but Vasily spoke up with an idea, "It would seem they are still here. The shuttle was piloted by droids, and they were completely ripped apart. It could be guessed that the thief did something with the ten apprentices set to board."

Aabsdu started to comment on the idea, but stopped as they turned another corner and walked into Hangar C. The hangar was completely empty save for the Gamerunner, a modified corvette, and three young dark jedi standing at the base of one of the ramps leading into Exar's Shadow command ship. Aabsdu and his followers walked up to them, and they exchanged bows.

"Consul Dupar," Dismal started, and then led the way inside. The ship was not crewed by a large number of men, maybe twenty tops. There were engineers and some troops, but the only living beings on the bridge were Captain Jerry, First Officer John, and one other technician. The rest of the workers there were droids.

The ship itself was large, and had a good amount of arsenal. Dismal was lucky Aabsdu had not taken it for use by the clan, but had instead allowed the battle team to use it as their command ship. It had weapons, a cargo hold, and barracks. A good ship for the battle team to use.

They ended up in the conference room. The table in the center was large enough for each of the members to take a seat, as Vaj had already been placed in the brig with three battle droids on guard. Aabsdu looked around at everyone, sensing everything they had been through already, but also sensing a desire to get on with the mission. They wanted action, and Aabs could not really blame them for wanting it.

"Where is Scorpius," Aabsdu asked upon notice that his former master was not with them.

"Haven't seen him," Dismal answered, "He must still be in the Dark Vault."

Impossible. It had been two hours, and besides the fact that there could not be enough information in there to last that long Anshar would not have allowed him to stay there that long in the first place. Something had obviously gone wrong. Either way, Aabsdu was confident that Scorps could handle himself for the time being, and went on with the matter at hand.

"Ok," he started, "We know that last night Vaj and Doc were on duty in the Dark Vault. Perpetrator A made some sort of noise outside, causing Dac, who was on guard inside the vault, to leave to investigate. This perpetrator, what can we say about him?"

"He could he force sensitive."

"That would explain how he was able to cause the distraction without being seen."

"He is also probably still here."

Aabsdu listened to the members discuss the matter, thinking of his own ideas. He could be force sensitive, but if he was one of them would have sensed him by now, not to mention Anshar would've sensed him, so that was most likely not the case. He is probably still in the academy, though, since, according to Vaj, Io Dom had escaped in a one man X-Wing.

"Ok, so let us suspect that Perpetrator A is still here," Aabsdu continued, "Now, at the same time, Io Dom, who we can assume is the thief, bribed Vaj into letting him into and out of the vault. He escaped in an X-Wing, making sure to tell Vaj to guard the security tapes. Let us also assume that Perpetrator A is the one who wiped the tapes, so he is smart, and should be treated as armed and dangerous."

"Io Dom first tried to escape in the Sheeta, but was unable to due to the fact that only dark jedi can operate. Thus, it is safe to say that Io is not force sensitive. He trashed the ship, and went one to escape in the X-Wing. What we do not know, however, is what happened to the ten apprentices that were supposed to be transported off-planet. Meanwhile, we know that Io is only a pawn here, so we need to find out who he is working for."

Everyone continued to listen, most likely trying to come up with answers to the questions that had been asked.

"I recommend you all find these ten younglings. They may have seen something and have a clue as to where Io went."

"What about Scorpius," Dismal asked.

"I will find him. I'm sure he won't mind staying here with me."

"You?"

"I will be staying here. Perpetrator A is still here, so I will search for him. I trust you can handle your team without me," Dismal did not respond, "Once you find the younglings, go ahead and go after Io. Your goal is to not only find this thief and get back the book, but to also find out whom he is working for. The book is your main priority, but after you have that, feel free to discover the true hand behind this crime. No need to worry about me, I'll take care of our distracting friend."

With that, Aabsdu stood up, nodded and left the room. First, he would go and find Dac Pola again, then he would find Scorpius, and finally he would find this Perpetrator A, whoever he was. Dismal could handle Exar's Shadow for the time being. Besides, it should not take that long, so if all went well he would be back on the Gamerunner before they left the system. If, that is, they were able to get any useful information out of the younglings as to where Io had gone off to.

----------

Aabsdu walked down the hallways heading towards Dac Pola's dorm. Various younglings and instructors walked past him, going about their studies quietly. It was an odd atmosphere here, full of learning and education. Aabs himself enjoyed the history courses, but could care less for some of the other ones.

He turned the corner, only one more corner and he would be at the dorm. While it was true that there was nothing else Dac could tell him, there was a chance he could help him find the perpetrator. Either way, Aabs wanted to keep an eye on the man, just to make sure he did not have anything to do with the crime. One could never be too trusting in the galaxy, especially when dealing with dark jedi and those associated with dark jedi. You can...

Aabsdu stopped, listening, stretching out with the force. Something was wrong. Dac Pola was in danger. He turned his stride into a brisk run and made his way to Dac's dorm as fast as possible, using the force to increase his speed even more. He ran around the last corner and stopped in front of the open doorway to see Dac about to turn on his radio to listen to some news, most likely.

"Dac, NO," Aabsdu screamed, but it was too late. Even as Dac turned to look at him with a surprised expression he turned the knob on the listening device, and a quick beep sounded before it exploded in a fiery ball of flame.

Dac was thrown backwards, but in his small dorm, there was no way to escape the fire as he let out one last scream before being silenced forever. Aabsdu, however, was only standing in the doorway, and was thrown across the hallway into the wall. Alarms sounded as droids quickly appeared and started to put out the fire. Aabsdu slid down the wall onto his butt and watched the events unfold around his as his vision turned from color to gray, and then from gray to black.

Then from black to nothing.

Battle Team Exar's Shadow were congragated around the nose of the Gamerunner talking about there plan.

"...and so," Dismal continued, "I believe that it would be most beneficial for the mission, if we searched the Shadow Academy for the missing Apprentices."

The flight members all nodded in approval of Dismal's plan.

Niman questioned, "But where could they be?"

Silence overtook the room as the five dark jedi pondered this question. Finally Vasily spoke up.

"What about the vehicle pool, or the freezer?"

"No," Jaden replied, "they would have been found already if they were in those two places."

Dismal nodded, and began to speak, but Laigerick cut him off.

"What if they aren't in the Shadow Academy?" Laigerick stated, "What if they are somewhere outside, on Lyspair?!"

"I think that is as good of a lead as we have," Dismal countered, "but just in case, I want Niman to stay here and search the Shadow Academy from head to toe."

Dismal tossed the Jedi Hunter a communicator.

"Use this if you find anything useful," he said.

Niman said nothing, and took off to start his investigation.

Dismal turned back to his team, "Then let us get to work!" he shouted.

Dismal arched his hand, signaling his team to follow, and with that, Exar's Shadow left Hanger Bay C

--------------------------

The Battleteam decided to stop at the vehicle pool to get some speaders, so they could search more quickly. Dismal told the three remaining flight members to turn their speader coms to channel 7-32, so they could stay in touch. When everyone was ready, the four set off in different directions straight into the abyss of Lyspair.

--------------------------
15 Minutes Later

Lagierick sped over the rocky coastline of Lyspairs smallest ocean. His hand held the throttle tightly. It had been fifteen minutes, and he had seen nothing to do with the missing Apprentices, nor had he heard anything out of his peers. He was starting to worry. Finally, he decided to make sure that his comlink was working. He looked to see if there were any upcoming obstacles. When he saw that there weren't he looked down at his information pannel.

{[Speader 36]}


~~*active*~~

Channel # 7-32

Gas: 100%

Power: 85%

"Good," he thought, "It was working fine." When he looked back up, he was shocked. A bloodied boy had run out in front of his speader, his robe was tattered and he looked deathly pale, he was probably one hundered yards ahead. The light shone upon the figure, from the sun, reveal that he was one of the missing apprentices, but Laigerick was going too fast, he wasn't going to be able to stop in time, so he jerked the handle bars of the speader to the right, taking him out towards the ocean. His speader flipped over (caused by the inertia of the turn) and the Guardian was sent flying into the black ocean. The impact of the water hitting Laigerick's body knocked the air clean out of him. The speader landed right on top of him after he hit the water. His robe got snagged on the fuel tank. He tried to swim upwards, but the sinking speader pushed him farther down into the tide. If he didn't act quickly, he would certainly drown. He used the force to Remain Conciousness for a short time, he tugged at his robe, but he couldn't free it. His futile efforts did nothing but waste energy. As he ran out of air, he thought about how he had failed his Battleteam, and most of all, his Clan. Finally, he was forced to open his mouth, the thick water rushed into his lungs. He coughed heavily. His vision started to blurr, finally it went black. Right before he lost conciousness, Laigerick felt a hand gripping his shoulder. Then, nothingness...

"Halt, Archpriest. State your business here," demanded the liuetenant standing outside of the Dark Vault.

Silver eyes were narrowed into slits at the young guard as the Krath before him opened his mouth to speak. "I am Krath Archpriest Scorpius of Clan Plagueis, Eclectic Pedagog of the Shadow Academy," he said coldly. "I have been sent here to investigate the recent theft of an important tome. I have permission from the Headmaster himself to investigate the area for one half hour."

Scorpius withdrew a document containing Anshar's seal from within the folds of his black robes, holding it before the young man. The guard looked it over, eyes widened somewhat in surprise, before nodding and stepping back. He flicked his hand and the four other guards before the doors to the Dark Vault all stepped aside as well.

"Very well, sir. You have half an hour," he said, punching a code into the computer terminal on the wall. The thick doors creaked open, and Scorpius stepped forward.

The Chandrilan eyed the way the guard unlocked the doors carefully, and also took in the size of the door and walls around him. The Dark Vault was indeed protected, and would be incredibly difficult to break into. Scorpius could make the assumption that the thief had known the passcodes, but assumptions were rarely safe to make in these sort of situations.

It was just like them to send Scorpius alone like this. It did not matter if he were a battle team member or the Quaestor of House Exar Kun; solo missions were his thing. However, the last time Scorpius was sent on a mission alone had proven to have very serious consequences. During the Sixth Great Jedi War, when he served as Quaestor, not only had he almost been assassinated, but he had been sent on a mission into enemy space to chase the trail of a Sun Crusher. This resulted in him getting got up in an explosion and stranded on an asteroid with his former master, he coincidentally had a hefty bounty on his head from Jonaleth Isradia for betraying Clan Plagueis. All in all, Scorpius had been severely injured and his precious ship nearly destroyed.
But, this was the Dark Vault of Lyspair. Not a warzone...

Walking into the Vault, the Krath began his investigation. After about twenty minutes of snooping around and gathering information into a datapad he brought with him, Scorpius felt a disturbance in the Force. He did not even need to turn around to know that someone was behind him.

"I should have known they would have sent you, Scorpius," came a haughty voice from the shadows. "So tell me, my dear Krath... Have you found anything interesting yet?"

The Archpriest stood up straight, raising his hands slowly as he turned around. A calm smirk had settled on his pale face as those silver eyes fell upon three individuals, two armed with blasters aimed right at him and one standing between them, a lightsaber at his side. From his uniform, the middle man was an Obelisk Primarch. The smirk on Scorpius' face wavered slightly; he did not recognize the man.

"To whom do I owe the pleasure?" asked Scorpius. "You must surely be highly skilled to have orchestrated something like this."

"Oh, I didn't orchestrate it," the Obelisk returned smuggly. "And my name is unimportant at the moment. I am merely a link in a chain, waiting for my time. Much like yourself, Scorpius. Except we're pulling you out of your chain, and hopefully it will fall apart."

"I hoped you would say that," smirked Scorpius. In a flash his lightsaber flew to his hand and ignited just in time to deflect the blaster bolts flying towards him, killing one of the two with the guns. The Primarch ignited his lightsaber and flew towards the Archpriest, igniting a lightsaber duel between the two. The other gunman grabbed Scorpius' fallen datapad and made a dart for the door.

"No!"

Scorpius lifted his hand and used the Force to throw several books at the fleeing man, knocking him over. The Kunian turned just in time to deflect a swing from the Obelisk, managing to turn the attack around and kick his enemy into a wall. Scorpius got up and chased after the other man, who had crawled out into the antechamber of the vault, where the bodies of the guards had fallen lifeless. Sneering, Scorpius swung his lightsaber and beheaded the gunman, grabbing his datapad and stuffing it within the folds of his robes. He turned around, and felt another disturbance all too late. A stun blaster fired and hit him square in the chest, knocking him to the floor.

The Obelisk smirked, stepping into the antechamber, a stungun in one hand and a lightsaber in the other. Scorpius groaned, struggling to stand up. The Obelisk walked over and kicked the Krath twice in the stomach before leaning down and grabbing the datapad. He looked the device over carefully. "My, my... You certainly have been busy. Quite a lot of information here," he observed. "Pity."

The Primarch used the Force to crush the datapad. As he did so, however, Scorpius' eyes openned suddely and he withdrew his own blaster from his robes, shooting the Obelisk twice in the upper chest--nothing lethal. Leaping up--and stumbling slightly--Scorpius reignited his lightsaber and removed the hands of his opponent. He grinned darkly. "Who needs a datapad when I have a prisoner, hm?"

"I'll never tell you what you need," grunted the collapsed Obelisk. "I will n-"

A dart hit the Obelisk in the neck, killing up. Scorpius looked up to see several more Dark Jedi in hooded robes enter, their faces covered and weapons aimed at the Krath. He raised his lightsaber to fit but was thrown back against the wall thanks to a small grenade thrown. Groaning, Scorpius' vision went hazy. A masked, gloved form walked towards him and began speaking, but the ringing in the Krath's ears made it impossible to hear.

Despite his vision being blurry, Scorpius could make out a foot flying at a high velocity towards his face. Then he neither felt nor saw anything.

Dismal walked down the loading ramp of the Gamerunner slowly. He was accompanied by three of his battleteam members, Vasily, Jaden, and Laigerick. Niman, Exars Shadow's Flight Leader had stayed at the Academy to search for this missing associate of the theif. Dismal surveyed the small area of grassland that bordered the entrance to the Shadow Academy, and saw four landspeeders parked about twenty meters away. “So, do you think we should search together or separately?” Dismal asked.

“I think we should go our separate ways. We can cover more ground that way,” Vasily said.

“I concur,” Jaden responded.

“Very well then. Each one of you men grab a landspeeder, and search far and wide for those lost Initiates,” Dismal replied. “Oh, and take these. Attach them to your landspeeder, and turn them to channel 7-32 and message the group if you find anything,” Dismal said, tossing the group of Dark Jedi com links.

“Sir yes sir!” the group exclaimed in unison. With that, the three men hopped on a landspeeder, and sped off.

Dismal sped down the large grassland, a small breeze was caressing his cheek. The morning sun was starting to rise. He looked down at the small screen displaying the speeder’s critical information. The time was 5:57 A.M. He was up half the night, but the adrenaline rush of investigating the crime kept him far from tired. The Jedi Hunter gazed back towards the direction he was heading. A large lake invaded his view. He turned the information panel to the map feature. “Hmm, Lake Gaolai,” Dismal read. Dismal saw blaster bolts coming for him from out of nowhere. All of a sudden, the landspeeder exploded, and Dismal was blown about a meter away.

Eight men clad in tattered robes stepped out from behind a large boulder on the shore of the lake. Each one of them was armed with either a Relby blaster pistol or an E-11 Standard Rifle. Dismal quickly sprung up from the ground and brushed off the dirt and grass from his tunic. “Halt, state your name and your business here at Gaolai,” one of the men ordered in a deep, raspy voice. “My name is Hunter Dismal Visutor al’Tor, Sith Commander of Exar’s Shadow,” Dismal said, eyeing the group cautiously. “What be your business?” another one of the group asked. “I have been charged with the task of finding a group of Apprentices that have been found missing yesterday,” Dismal replied. Just in case these attackers were helpers of Io Dom and Perpetrator A, he wouldn’t inform them that he was investigating the loss of the book. Then, a realization hit him. “You men are the lost apprentices, aren’t you?” Dismal questioned.

Dismal had been surveying the group, and on one of his attackers robes, he saw a partially ripped Shadow Academy symbol. He decided to send a message telekinetically to see if they had mastered that part of the Force yet.

I don’t know if you can hear me, but if you can, step forward and pretend to interrogate me. We’ll talk in a hushed whisper so your captor can’t tell the difference.

All of the Initiates turned to one man. He was short, and young. He had a crew cut and was dirty, like the rest of the group. “Men, step forward, we shall um…question this man,” he said. He walked forward, with his blaster pointed toward Dismal. The rest of the group followed. The apparent leader of the group said in a faint whisper, “Greetings Dismal, my name is Karn Ando. These are my friends,” he said pointing to the rest of the group. “We were going to the Dark Vault to study one night. The front door was open and unguarded, the guard must have left to get something. Anyway, we just went in. We saw a green, wrinkly man. Clawdite I think. We tried to hide, but he saw us. He whispered something in another language, then a tall, muscular human came in and beat us until we all passed out.”

“Did you here his name, or see any distinguishing marks?” Dismal questioned hurriedly.

“No, we just saw he was tall and muscled,” another one of the group piped in.

"I see eight of you, what happened to the other two?" Dismal questioned.

"One of us, Nom Carvlinger, didn't survive the beating," the same guy said, on the virge of tears.

"And Dorak Norrison ran away. He was lucky to get away with it," the same man said. All of a sudden his face turned stark white and pale.

“What is it?” Karn asked him.

“I just remembered, that guy whose been watching us, he put us all in comlinks! He can hear every word we say!” he exclaimed.

“Oh no!” the group said in unison.

“Is this guy the same one that beat you?” Dismal asked.

“We think so, but he always wears this mask so we never see his face,” Karn replied.

Okay, go hide behind that rock again, I’ll get help Dismal sent out through the Force. He then grabbed a comlink from within the folds of his robe. “Guys, get here fast. Especially you with sabers. We need you! We’re in deep trouble!” Dismal exclaimed into the microphone. He would soon find out that a limited amount of people would show up for help.

Laigerick's eyes slowly opened. The Sith coughed heavily, and ocean water came rushing out of his lungs. He stared upwards. His vision was a milky blurr, but after several moments, he could make out some details, like sunlight. He ached all over, but most of all, the guardian's head throbbed vigerously, surging pain throught his body. The Corellian summoned his strength and sat up as best he could, supporting himself with his arm. He was on a sandy beach, near an ocean. The sun was barley above the horizon, so he concured that it was a couple of hours past dawn.

"Thank goodness, your up!" a squeaky voice said in a relevied manner.

"Wha..." Laigerick moaned.

Laigerick struggled to turn around, to see where this voice was coming from., but his neck burned with a firey pain.

"Ahhh!"

He collapsed back down onto the gritty sand, and sighed. He closed his eyes, trying to shut out the pain, but it was too great. Suddenly, a small boyish, robed figure appeared above him, casting down a dark shadow over the weak Laigerick.

Laigerick managed to mutter, "Who are you?"

The voice replied, "I believe the better question, my friend, is who are you?"

Laigerick breathed in deep, rhythmic patterns, once again trying to ease his pain.

"I have no time for games, son," he said irratably.

Finally, the figure huffed, and replied, "I am Dorak Norrison, Apprentice of the Dark Brotherhood."

Laigerick's eyes popped open with suprize. He tried to speak, but sputtered only coughs.

After his fit was over, he said, "Your... your one of them?"

Dorak raised an eyebrow curiously.

"...one of the missing apprentices?"

By now Laigerick's vision had improved greatly. Almost back to its normal state. He could now make out the details of the voice. He was a short, stocky teenager; probably no older than 15. He had a good muscle build to him, giving him an imposing look (for people his age). Dorak wore a jet black Shadow Academy cloak, with the Antei insignia and everything, except that it was tattered and he was covered in cuts and bruises. Laigerick's memory had returned also. This was the same bloodied figure that had drivin him into the sea. Laigerick wished that he could choke the 'shutta' for it, but he was an objective in his mission, and he couldn't afford to kill him.

"Yes I am," Dorak cockily replied, "but you have still failed to answer my question." "Who are you?"

"I am Guardian Lai.. Laigerick Sithelhood," Laig stuttered, "and I was sent here, to find you and your nine counterparts."

Laigerick once again tried to sit up. This time, it was a success. He looked around at his surroundings.

"By the way, where are they?" he mumered.

Dorak sighed heftily, "I'll just tell you the story straight up." "We were going to the Dark Vault to study one night. The front door was open and unguarded, the guard must have left to get something. Anyway, we just went in. We saw a green, wrinkly man. Clawdite I think. We tried to hide, but he saw us. He whispered something in another language, then a tall, muscular human came in and beat us until we all passed out.” I was taken away from the others. I was supposed to go to there 'base' or whatever on the far side of this moon, but I escaped my capture. I ran outside of the Shadow Academy all night through the woods. Finally, I saw you zooming your way down the coast, so I ran out to see who you were. When you flipped into the ocean, I dove in to save you. You had passed out, and I didn't know if you were going to live or not, but I managed to save you with CPR once I dragged you out onto the beachhead. And here we are now!"

After Dorak was finished Laigerick asked him if there was any details about the men that he remembered.

"Oh yes," Dorak said, "They were rugged looking Obelisk, and I believe, what I assumed to be, their leader, wore a dark mask on his face."

Laigerick stared grimly into the morning sky, "Do you have any communication item?"

"Yea, they gave me this com link," Dorak said, "so they could hear us, but I turned mine off a while ago."

When Dorak rummaged it out of his robe fold, Laigerick snatched it from his hand. He turned it to channel 7-32 and spoke into the speaker.

"Mayday, mayday. Guardian Laigerick Sithelhood requesting urgent assassitance. I have found one of the apprenctices, and we are in need of immediate extraction. I repeat, immediate extraction!"

Laigerick laid the com link down on the hot sand when he was finished.

"Have hope, young Dorak, help is on the way."

He laid back down on the sand, and shut his eyes.

Aabsdu opened his eyes only to close them again at the bright light he was welcomed to.

Beep.

He waited a second, and then slowly opened them once again, making sure to give his pupils enough time to adjust. Finally, he could see around him. He was lying on a bed; a small lamp was glowing above his head. He lifted his head and tried to look at his surroundings. Luckily, he was successful, and was able to sit up all the way. The Battlemaster looked around at the various droids rolling around the room. There were living organisms as well, but from the looks of things, they were all busy tending to one bed.

Beep.

It seemed as if he was in the Shadow Academy med-bay. He looked down at his body to see that his tunic had been left on, which was a good thing for them. His robe, however, was missing. Most likely, it had caught on fire after the explosion, and was of no use anymore. No worries, though, he would get another one.

Beep.

The explosion. He had been too late. He had not been there in time to save Dac, and now the man was dead. Who could have done it, though? Possible Perpetrator A, whoever that was. Well, on the bright side, now he would have one less person to look after. Although it also proved that Io Dom was covering his tracks, which would make it all the more difficult for Exar's Shadow to find him.

Beep.

Aabsdu thought about Exar's Shadow for a second, wondering rather they had been successful in finding the younglings. If they had, then they would most likely be on their way off planet by now on the search for Io Dom, without Aabs or Scorpius.

Beep.

Scorpius. He would still have to find him. He could sense his presence in the academy still, but it was so faint, so weak, that it was impossible to pinpoint exactly where he was.

Beep.

Aabs looked up, suddenly aware of the annoying beeping that kept sound by his ear. He looked to his right, and found a thin tube flowing fluid into his body. Yeah right. He pulled it out and got out of bed, surprised by how easily he was able to do so. His body seemed to have perfectly healed. It seemed as if the only evidence of the explosion left were the remains of his robe, if there were any. Strange, he would have had to have been here for a while for his body to completely heal like it had. At least a few hours.

He walked over to a nearby droid, "How long have I been here?"

Five hours, Master Dupar.

Five hours! That was way too long. For all Aabs knew, Scorpius could be dead by now. He spun around and made his way out of the med-bay; ignoring a nurse who ran up to him yelling that he was not ready to leave yet. The hell with her. Aabsdu had a mission, and he was planning to get it done as fast as he could.

He stopped after he had walked past three corners, and leaned against the wall thinking. Students and teachers alike passed him without a second glance. It was as if the murder and explosion had not happened at all. Obviously, Anshar was trying to keep things quiet. Surely, Aabsdu would have to report to Anshar eventually. After all, he was the only one there when Mr. Pola met his doom.

Pushing the idea away, though, Aabs focused his attention on more important matters. Exar's Shadow should be fine. If they had not found the apprentices yet, then they would soon enough. Then, they would hopefully be on there way after Io Dom, leaving Scorpius and him to tend with Prep A.

The problem, though, was finding Scorpius. Aabsdu could just barely sense him, but he knew that he was alive. He was in very poor condition, but alive nonetheless. Still, where was he?

Beep! Beep! Beep!

He would not get a chance to finish the thought as his comlink buzzed, and he answered it to find a young woman asking him to report to Headmaster Khan immediately. Oh well, he would explain things and then be on his way. Hell, maybe Anshar could help him find Scorpius. After all, he was much better trained in the force then Aabs. He turned and made his way towards the Headmaster's office...

----------

The room was dark and barren. They were in the underground water tunnels, one of the old systems, so no one would dare come down here. Water dripped from old pipes drop by drop, causing the noise of the liquid hitting the durasteel tunnel to echo. There were five tunnels, all of which led to the main chamber in the center. It was the perfect hideout.

Scorpius looked around slowly. He could only open his eyes slightly, so as to avoid his captors knowing he was awake, and thus giving them an excuse for hitting him again. He was pinned to a table, force cufflinks keeping him from escaping. His lightsaber was no one to be found, but was most likely hanging from the belt of the masked stranger who seemed to be leading the five Obelisks. The six of them had interrogated the Krath to the best of their abilities, but had gotten no information out of him yet.

At this time, they were sitting a little ways away, discussing something. Scorpius could not make out what they were saying. He was still too drugged to make full use of his powers. He could make out the masked stranger, though. Sitting there telling the other five what to do. The stranger was wearing Mandalorian armor, including the helmet, although Scorpius figured the chances of him actually being a Mando were very slim.

Scorpius wondered who exactly the masked stranger was. It could very well be the thief, but it was unlikely seeing as how if he did have the book he would have left the planet long ago. If he was not the thief, though, then who was he?

The group stood up, the leader walked over to Scorpius and looked at the Dark Jedi's closed eyelids. The stranger studied him for a second before standing back to full height.

"You're attracting a lot of attention, Jedi," he said. His helmet gargled his true voice, so it was impossible to figure out exactly what he sounded like.

"It seems there's a group of Jedi out in the wilderness. They have discovered the apprentices. Too bad they will not live long enough to get any information out of them. You see, these five men behind me, well, let us just say that there use to be twenty men. We did have more, but we lost ten trying to fight off that damn jedi with the white lightsaber. Speaking of which, I am afraid he is no more either. You see, when we killed Mr. Pola, it was his luck to be there when it happened, and thus caught in the blast."

Scorpius has responded to several of the things the stranger was saying. Not because they were surprising or alarming, but because he knew that they were all true. He could still sense when someone was lieing or telling the truth, and this man was definitely telling the truth.

"Don't worry, though," the "Mando" continued, "He survived, at least for the time being. Apparently, he has left the med-bay now. It should not be too long, then. You see, while he was asleep, I had one of my guys insert a poison into his bloodstream. Completely undetectable, since once it takes effect it dissolves. It stays dormant until the subject starts to move around, which is what he is probably doing right now if he is still trying to find you. It should be about three hours now. Then he starts to feel the effects. Sad, I was really looking forward to dueling him with the fancy lightsaber you've given me."

Scorpius opened his eyes all the way, reacting exactly as the stranger had wanted him to. Sadly, though, he was not lieing. Scorps knew that everything he was saying, from the fifteen men going after Dismal and the others to the poison slowing taking effect in Aabsdu's bloodstream, was all true.

The masked stranger laughed, as did his five counterparts. Then, the stranger moved his arms towards the seam of his helmet, and slowly removed it. Inside, Scorpius gasped in surprise, but showed no signs of doing so physically. As the helmet was removed completely, long black hair fell down past the stranger's body. Her face looked hardy and strong, and she had a cruel smile on her face. Perpetrator A was a female.

"Allow me to introduce myself formally," she said in a strong yet still feminine tone, "My name is Ferry, associate of Io Dom, and it is my job to make sure that you and your friends all die."

She smiled a dark smile again, and then, Scorpius felt a large object smash against his head until everything went dark once again.

As Dismal clutched his comlink, he sensed the presence of his Master, Scorpius. He then turned on the link once again, and shouted into the microphone, “Vas, Jaden, Laigerick, and Scorpius, get down to the shore of Lake Gaolai now!”

“It’s no use, we’re all doomed,” the same guy who revealed that they were all in comlinks said.

“What’s your name, young Apprentice?” Dismal asked nonchalantly.

“John…John Min,” he said, his voice trembling.

“Well, John, quit being so negative. We’ll get help, and myself and Exar’s Shadow will get you back to the Academy safely,” Dismal replied.

“I’ll try, sir,” John said.

“Call me Dismal,” Dismal replied. All of a sudden, there was a ruffling sound in the forest about twenty meters away from the boulder which the apprentices hid behind.

“Did you hear that?” Dismal asked, looking around cautiously, gripping his Relby blaster pistol. “Sounds like someone’s in the forest.”

“Oh no, oh no,” John said, starting to cry.

“Calm down John,” Karn said, comforting him. A chilling breeze came up, causing Dismal’s loose tunic and pants to blow around carelessly. A group of men, wearing tight black jumpsuits and onyx cloaks stepped out from the forest. They all drew either Krath War Blades or blaster pistols. A single man stepped forward. He was extremely athletic, and he had a lot of stubble as if he hadn’t shaved in weeks. His face was sunken in, and his beady dark eyes kept looking from person to person. He was obviously the leader of the group.

“What is your name, and what are you doing with these apprentices?” he asked.

“My name is Hunter Dismal Visutor al’Tor, hailing from Exar Kun of Plagueis. I am also Commander of Exar’s Shadow. I was charged with finding these apprentices which the Headmaster deemed missing. Now may I ask your identity?” Dismal replied.

“My name is Kel Velos, although that is not important at the moment,” the man replied.

“You still haven’t answered my question. Why did you ambush us? And why are you wearing those cloaks?” Dismal said, raising his voice in irritation.

“That is not important, Jedi. Although if you must know, I am an associate of Ferry. I was charged with the execution of you and your team. Men, surround the group,” Kel said.

“Who is this Ferry you speak of?” Dismal queried.

“Now that I have no freedom to disclose,” Kel replied.

Jaden Kyrath’s voice boomed out of the folds of Dismal’s cloak. “Sir, Vasily and me are on our way. Respond if you can.”

“Now whats that?” Kel asked in a smooth voice. “Sounds like a comlink to me. Sek, retrieve the link from Mr. Visutor.” One of the men in tight suits stepped forward. He was wearing a black mask, two dark lenses were the only things letting the man named Sek see. Dismal whipped out his Relby and pointed it to Sek.

“Halt. Come any closer and I’ll shoot. That’s an executive order,” Dismal said, staring at him. All of a sudden, another man grabbed John Min by the neck and pointed a pistol to his temple.

“As you can see, you are in no position to make bargains. But, I will not step forward,” he said. Sek reached his hand forward, and Dismal felt his comlink being lifted out of his tunic. It floated into his hand. He balled it into his fist, and squeezed it. He heard the plastic crush.

“Wait, you are all Force sensitive?” Dismal asked in excitement. “Who trained you?”

“We cannot tell you that,” Kel said from behind Sek. Dismal clutched the handle of his gun in irritation, accidently firing a round from the gun.

“Oh, want to get violent, do you?” Kel asked. “I guess we must get violent also. “Talon, shoot the little apprentice!”

“No, he did nothing wrong!” Dismal exclaimed. He heard a single shot fire, and John fell limp to the ground. Karn and Dismal almost burst into tears.

“Now, done being violent?” Kel asked, laughing maniacally. Dismal watched Talon, as a crimson blade appeared through him. He fell lifeless, revealing Jaden. “I heard you needed help,” he said smiling.

"Master Dupar.... Master Dupar! Sir," said a young student, "Are you okay?"

"Ugh... Wha-... What?"

Aabsdu shook his head. He was making his way to Anshar's office when he started feeling rather sick, and stopped for a moment to rest against the wall. He looked horrible as well, deathly pale and beginning to sweat profusely. And suddenly he was also having a horrible time trying to breathe. The Consul shook his head, trying to get the dizziness out of his eyes. This could not be happening. He needed to go to Anshar. He needed to fiind Scorpius. He needed to make sure the young members of Exar's Shadow were okay.

But he couldn't.

"Unh..." Aabsdu groaned and collapsed on the floor, clutching his chest in pain. He began thinking through the pain, trying to figure out what happened. It... must be poison...

The student who had stopped to help Aabsdu quickly ran down the hall to get help. He returned a few moments later with none other than Anshar himself, who had stepped out of his office to find the Consul. The Adept quickly walked over to the Battlelord and knelt beside him, looking him over. This was not good, and it was causing a scene. Anshar needed to keep things calm.

"Move him into that office," barked Anshar to a pair of initiates, who quickly picked up the deathly Sith and carried him out of the hallway. They set him ontop of a table in the office they had enterred, Anshar following them in with three other Equites.

Anshar raised his hand and one of the equites set a small case on his hand. The Headmaster, with his vast knowledge, had guessed by the symptoms of what was happening to Aabsdu and the inability of the MedBay to discover it exactly what this poison was. He quickly removed several vials from the case and began procuring a potion.

"Seal off the Academy Doors. No one in or out," said the Headmaster to one of the Equites behind him. "I have a feeling that the culprits are still in the building."

The equite bowed and ran out to deliver the orders while Anshar injected his cure into Aabsdu. The Adept placed his hands over the Battlelord and began Force healing him.


------------------------------------------------------------------

Dismal grinned and took the opportunity of surprise to raise his blaster and shoot Sek in the upper chest; the enemy fell back to the floor, writhing in pain. Jaden Kyrath removed his blood-covered blade from Talon's body and jumped towards another one of the men, striking his blade against the enemy's Krath War Blade.

Vasily leapt in behind Kel, an ignited lightsaber in his hand and held towards Kel's neck. The Sith Warrior glanced around, and noticed that Karn and Dismal seemed a little disturbed by the execution of one of the apprentices. They would need to be worked on; such things should not be allowed to disturb a Dark Jedi, particularly in the middle of battle. That was for later work, though! Vasily turend his attention to Kel, and smirked darkly.

"Tell your men to lower their weapons," spat the former apprentice of Scorpius. "And then tell us everything."

Kel sneered. "Do not patronize me, sithspit," he hissed. A Force push caught Vasily off-guard and sent him flying into a tree. Kel ignited, surprisingly, his own lightsaber--he was, apparently, the only member of this group with a lightsaber. He lunged at Vasily, and the two began a duel.

Dismal and Karn stood between Karn and Jaden, firing away at the enemies. "We need to find out where Scorpius and Laigerick are," he shouted in the middle of the fight. "They aren't responding."

"Hey, one problem at a time," grumbled Jaden, decapitating an enemy. Now there were only Kel plus two others left, and the two others looked quite intimidating.


----------------------------

"Sir! Sir! Someone's coming!"

Laigerick groaned and his eyes fluttered open. He sat up, clutching his blaster pistol. "See? I told you help would come," he said to young Dorak. The Guardian peered to see who it was, guessing it was probably a member of Exar's Shadow. He then did not recognize anyone in the speeder heading their way, and assumed it was probably individuals from the Shadow Academy.

The landspeeder pulled up to Laigerick and Dorak, and two men stepped out. Laigerick heard the apprentice beside him gasp in fear, and felt a disturbance in the Force. Just then the two withdrew blaster pistols. One of them also took out a small device.

"Did someone ask for help?" he smirked. Laigerick figured they had intercepted the communication.

"Sir! They're part of the group that took us," whispered Dorak, backing up.

Laigerick's eyes narrowed. This would be tricky. Moving quickly, he shot one man in the hand, making him drop his pistol, and then grabbed Dorak and dove down a small hill. He crouched down behind some rocks and took out the communicator again. "Battle Team Exar's Shadow, this is Guardian Laigerick. Need help immediately!"

He peeked his head over the rock and shot twice more at the assailants before crouching again. A voice then broke through the static of the communicator.

"Hey, Laig. This is Commander Dismal. We're a little tied up right now," said Dismal. "Try make it to us. Our coordinates are..."

Jaden looked at dismal and the others and sighed and then going into a back stance, he made his hands in an x shape. His lightsaber glowed brightly as he jumped over both who were in his way from attacking Kel. As Kel took the chance to try to finish Vasily off, Jaden stopped the blade countering it with his own ontop of the shocked Vasily. Jaden smiled as he pushed off the Obelisk, giving Vasily a hand up.

Kel, with a fury, began to yell at the sith saying, “You sithspit, I will kill you with ease!,” he screamed making a fist. Jaden laughed at the comment as Vasily got up and ignited his lightsaber, “Oh really so, you think you can handle us both?,”. They both grinned with pleasure as Kel gulped in fear as he faced them. Jaden and Vasily created a two on one lightsaber duel as Vasily came in and made a left slash as Jaden made a right, kel struggling to block them both. The pattern changed more frequently as both spinned there blades into a upper cut slash which nearly cut the dark jedis arms off.

As his eyes widened up with fear and pain, as Jaden ducked and cut his legs off, while Vasily cut his head off. The dismembered body fell and the pair turned and faced the combatant remaining, “Anyone else?,” they both said. The remaining one ran for his life in fear. Jaden and Vasily turned off their lightsabers and walked up to Dismal and the apprentices, “OK, how many apprentices do we have?,” he said with a sigh as he began to count the apprentices that faced him and knew this would be a long ride.

There was that stupid bright light again. Aabsdu thought this as he once again went through the process of slowly opening his eyes and adjusting them to the light around him. He had best not be in the medbay again, or things were going to get very nasty. It seemed like he was somewhere else, though. The light was not as bright, and it was not shining straight on him. There were no droids or nurses running around, and he was lying on a couch, not a bed. A very comfortable couch, too.

He sat up and looked around. It was an office, with various artifacts on the walls and a plant here and there. A large black desk sat in the back, a few feet away from Aabs, but it was empty for the moment. He stood up and walked around, looking at everything, trying to figure out what had happened. He has been walking down the hall towards Anshar’s office. Then, he would felt a sharp pain in his chest, and before he knew it he was stumbling down the hall, then everything had gone black... for the second time today.

Aabsdu was really starting to think that someone was trying to kill him.

He looked up as the door opened, and saw Anshar walk in carrying a datapad. He should have guessed that this was his office, especially since there was a nameplate on the desk that read Anshar Khan, Headmaster.

“About time,” Anshar said as he placed the datapad on his desk and sat down, “I was about to throw you out.”

Aabs walked to the front of Anshar’s desk and stood at attention, somewhat. The pain had gone, apparently Anshar had cured him, and it seemed as if once again he was good to go. Maybe this time he would be able to actually do some research and find Scorpius.

“Report,” Anshar said, and waited.

“Well, we discovered that...,” and Aabsdu told him everything they had discovered. From the way the thief had distracted Dac, to getting into the vault, stealing the book, trying to escape in the Sheeta, destroying the Sheeta, taking off in the X-Wing, the missing apprentices, Perpetrator A, the murder of Dac Pola, and so on. The only thing he did not tell Anshar was that Scorpius was currently missing. He also did not tell him that he suspected that Perpetrator A was still in the academy.

“Are you searching for these missing apprentices,” Anshar asked. He was trying to stay calm, but you could tell that the report had not been what he had wanted to hear.

“Yes. Dismal and his team are searching for them.”

“Very well. I will get the Sheeta cleaned up. You may leave now.”

Aabsdu bowed and left the room. Best not to be in there when Anshar let out all his anger. Aabs would be mad too, after all. Ten younglings missing, which would bring some angry Consuls after him, a destroyed ship, a dead guard, and there was a perp running around the academy, although Anshar was not aware of that fact.

Now, where to look for Scorpius. He had to be here, since Aabs could still sense him, but just barely. They would not be out in the open, but where could they be then? It would seem that the best place to look first would be the Dark Vault. Too bad he had not gotten permission from Anshar while he had been in there. Oh well, best not to interrupt him during his temper tantrum. He would find a way into the Dark Vault. After all, the thief had managed to get in...

----------

Aabsdu walked up to the entrance of the Dark Vault, and stopped as the five guards once again pointed their blasters at him.

“Halt, you are not allowed in here without...”

The leader never had a chance to finish his sentence as Aabsdu raised his hand, and the four guards behind him flew backwards against the wall, where they slid down unto the floor unconscious. The remaining guard raised his blaster at Aabs, but a youngling could tell that he was scared out of his mind.

“Let me in,” Aabsdu stated flatly.

“I’m... I... I can’t without... pro...proper authoriza... za.... tion...”

Aabsdu pulled back his robe just enough to where his lightsaber hilt was showing, and made sure that the guard saw it.

“I... well... I... um...”

He turned and entered in a pass code, and the door opened with a hiss. Aabsdu walked in, turned around, and pushed his hand forward again, sending the remaining guard flying across the hall into the opposite wall. All five guards lay limp on the floor. It would be a few minutes before they woke up and signaled for backup, but that was all the time Aabsdu needed. He waved his hand, and the doors closed shut. Then, he went to work...

Dismal stood in the grass, staring at the shimmering surface of Lake Gaolai. “Dis, we have seven apprentices,” Vasily shouted. He hadn’t even bothered to come over there.

“Anshar won’t like it that we lost three apprentices,” Dismal said.

“He better be glad we saved this many,” Jaden said. Dismal hadn’t noticed he’d walked up to him. “Where should we go?” he asked.

“Hmm…Vasily, escort the apprentices back to the academy. Find out what Niman and Aabs are up to,” the Jedi Hunter said. “Jaden and I will go find Laigerick and Scorpius.”

“Yes Sir,” Vasily replied, starting to walk the direction of the Academy, and the group was soon to follow. Dismal inspected their faces quickly, and saw that the entire group was extremely depressed. The death of John must’ve saddened them. Dismal had been a little shaken up by the death as well, but he didn’t want to admit it. A Dark Jedi shouldn’t be upset by something as simple as that. “So, let’s go,” the Sith said, walking to his land speeder.

Jaden and Dismal were off, at top speed. The wind tussled the Commander’s hair horribly. “Hurry Jaden, we gotta find Laig!” he yelled. “Laig, this is Commander Dismal, give us your coordinates!” the Hunter yelled into the comlink on the dashboard. “Dis, th-- is G--rdian L--geri-- Sith--hood, I‘m in a li--le tr--ble,” he heard Laigerick reply. The channel had bad static apparently. “We’re at,” was all the pair heard, followed by a loud explosion. “Laig, Laig do you copy?!” the Sith yelled.

----------------------------

Laigerick crouched as low as he could behind the boulder. The enemy had shot his land speeder. He spoke into the comlink, but Dismal didn’t reply. The explosion must’ve upset the channel. The Guardian reached to the side of his vantage point, and shot once more. He heard a quiet groan, and sand crunching. He’d apparently killed one of the men. “Good job, sir,” Dorak said. “You’ll learn one day,” Laigerick replied. “Hold on,” he said, reaching in the pocket of his trousers. He pulled out two thermal detonators. “Oh goody,” Dorak said, his face showing obvious joy. “Time for a little fun,” the Sith said, a grin creasing on his face. He chucked the two orbs over the rock, and heard electronic beeps. “Ah, detonators!” he heard one of the men say.

KABOOOOOOM! was what Laigerick and Dorak heard. The landspeeder the enemy had arrived on had been blown up. Probably by a stray blaster bolt. It had ended the battle, the exchange of blaster fire had stopped. “What do we do now?” Dorak asked. “We wait for Exar’s Shadow,” he said, sitting on the gravelly sand. He put a new clip in his blaster, and took a deep breath.

Aabsdu looked around the library. The countless shelves were filled with books upon books of various historical accountings of wars throughout the years, as well as other things such as lightsaber forms, training styles, and more. There were also many holocrons containing accounts of important figures, as well as not so important figures. It was a massive room filled with a massive amount of information. Right now, Aabsdu was the only one inside.

He had been in the Dark Vault for around five minutes, but had already searched through most of the area around the display from which the book had been stolen. He had reached out with the force and tried to sense anything of importance he could, but had been unable to. It was turning out to seem as if the entire ordeal had been a complete waste of time, and would not get him anywhere closer to finding Scorpius or Perpetrator A, although the latter was his main objective.

The Consul sighed and turned to make his way out the back entrance. Might as well avoid the guards for a few hours, especially seeing as how there were bound to be several more heavily armed guards there now. Chances were, though, Anshar would ignore it when he realized who it was. After all, he had much more agitating problems to deal with. With a destroyed ship, murdered guard, missing younglings, and so on. Moreover, the longer the book stayed missing the angrier he would get. This just made finding the book all the more important.

Besides, according to the guard that had let Io Dom into the Dark Vault, the clawdite was not the main hand behind the crime, but rather a pawn. Possible a bounty hunter in a slump, willing to take any job. Either way, knowing the fact that Io was most likely going to hand over the book made things worse, since if that happened the book may be all but impossible to track down. That was something Aabsdu just would not stand for.

He started to make his way towards the door located near the back of the room, but stopped when his gaze fell upon a slightly wedged open panel in the wall. It was not a large panel, just big enough to one or two people to squeeze through at a time, but it looked as if it had recently been removed from the wall.

The Battelord walked over and pulled the panel the rest of the way off the wall. However, instead of finding a solid wall of durasteel he found an opening into what looked like a tunnel. It may have just been him, but this seemed like a very good lead. He grinned, getting a little excited at finally finding something worthwhile, but quickly kept his cool. He had to keep his mind clear, always be on the lookup for enemies around corners. Especially now that he was about to enter the enemy's territory.

It seemed odd, finding a tunnel here. It had not appeared on the blueprints that Aabsdu had looked had earlier that day before Exar's Shadow had even landed. It was possible it was an old tunnel; possibly leading to old sewers or other systems of tunnels that had not been used in so long they had been taken off the main blueprints. Still, it was strange.

He opened up his mind to everything around him, constantly searching for any traps. While visiting Korriban, Aabs had learned his lesson about checking strange places for traps. He would not make the same mistake here that he had made on the desert planet.

After searching and finding nothing, he crawled into the hole and started to make his way through the darkness, keeping his senses alert all the way. It was a large opening, probably large enough to hold two people side by side. Still, one had to hunch to get through it. Aabsdu himself was leaning his head forward, and he was not a tall man of stature. The only light came from very dim slits in the sides of the tunnel, which seemed to be round. The lights did not illuminate the space around them, but merely provided a location to which to walk.

He walked through the tunnel for about ten minutes, noticing how it seemed to slope downwards after a while, and finally came out into an opening. The Consul found himself in an old sewer that looked as if it had not been used in years. There has was only a small amount of water resting in the tunnel, and only small droplets fell from the ceiling here and there. These tunnels were on the blueprints, but they had not been used in ten years, and Aabsdu had thought they were inaccessible. The only entrance was blocked by a cave in four years ago. Stupid of him not to think that Perpetrator could not have found another way in.

He searched the surrounding area with the force, just as he had done before coming here. There were six tunnels, all of which led to the center chamber resting around one hundred feet below the Shadow Academy. The six tunnels that branched off from it went thousands of feet outward, and were linked together by hundreds of connecting tunnels. It was a maze that gave the Perp plenty of places to hide, not to mention access to the academy and the land around it. A wonderful hiding spot. Too bad he had forgotten to close the door all the way.

After searching for a few seconds, Aabs easily picked up on the signature of a group of people a little ways away. He could not tell exactly who they were, but one of them was definitely force sensitive. He quickly made his way towards the center of the tunnel maze, where the signature was coming from. The Battlelord drew his lightsaber hilt, but did not ignite it just yet. He kept it in his hand as he rounded the corner and walked right into a large room filled with around ten people.

Aabs stopped abruptly as they all turned to see what the noise was about. Nine of them pulled out heavy blaster rifles and aimed them at his head, while the last one, a female, cursed. Aabs watched as she walked over to a table and pulled a body from it. Sure enough, it was Scorpius, asleep probably due to heavy drugging by his captures.

"About time you found me," the woman told Aabs as she put Scorpius over her shoulder. She was tall, blonde hair, and very strong. Yet, she still held all the qualities that made a person of the female race beautiful.

"I am Ferry. Just so you know. I helped Io Dom escape, although I am sure you have probably figured all that out already. In fact, from what I have discovered from my own investigations you know exactly what happened. The only thing you don't know is where Io went, and who he works for."

"I will soon enough," Aabsdu said with a grin. He was already studying the nine mercs standing with their guns pointing at him.

Ferry laughed, "If you plan on getting the information from me, you'll get nowhere. I'll tell you now that I don't know where he went."

"Everyone says that at first," Aabs replied calmly, "Just waiting until a few minutes into the interrogation."

"Interrogation? Ha! First, you will have to get through these guys, and I will tell you right now that these are the real soldiers. Not like those measly grunts your little friends killed."

So, Dismal and the others were alive. Well, that was good to know. Still, if Aabsdu was not careful Scorpius would not have the same luck. Ferry was carrying him, slowly walking towards one of the tunnels. She could easily kill him at anytime, seeing as how the Krath had no way of fighting back. He was heavily drugged, and his face was bruised up horribly. Yet he was alive, which meant there was still hope.

Sadly, and Aabs guessed she had planned this; the tunnel Ferry was making her way towards was only accessible to from the one entrance. That meant that if Aabsdu was to chase her, which he knew already was going to happen, he is have to get past her little minions first.

Oh well. He had not gotten a chance to fight anyone in a while. Might as well make the best of it. He ignited his white lightsaber and stood in a defensive position. Ferry turned and started running down the tunnel, Scorps still on her shoulder, obviously hoping her men would stall Aabs long enough for her to escape. She wishes.

Aabsdu watched the nine men in front of him, waiting for them to attack first. Five of them put away their blasters and pulled out lightsabers, three green and two blue. One even held two dual green sabers, while another held a double bladed blue lightsaber. They looked skilled enough, but Aabsdu could handle it.

Finally, one of the men still holding his gun fired off a shot, and Aabsdu attacked. He jumped high into the air, easily avoiding the shot, and twisted and turned his lightsaber to deflect the incoming volley of fire coming from the four men still carrying guns. He landed right in the middle of them, and in a quick 360 degree turn quickly sliced them all in half. He turned and came back up into a defensive position just as the five lightsaber-wielding guards attacked him... all at once.

Dismal gripped the handles of the speeder he was riding. “Jaden, if you can go any faster, do it. Laig might be seriously hurt!” Dismal yelled. The loud roar of the motor and the sound of the wind made it impossible for normal talking to be heard.

“We’re going so fast we’re about to bust the motors!” Jaden replied.

“Look, there’s a shoreline approaching!” Dismal exclaimed. The shimmering surface of a sea and a gravelly shoreline was creeping closer to the pair of Plagueians.

“Dis, there’s a landspeeder floating way out there!” Jaden shouted, pointing forward. The commander peered in the sea. He expanded his vision with help from the Force, and saw a beat up speeder and oil saturated water.

“Must be Laigs!” the Sith replied. I really hope that Laigerick took care of himself out there, Dismal thought. He turned his head to the Knight. “Think we should split up?!” Dismal asked.

“Dismal, lookout!” Jaden exclaimed. The landspeeder Dismal was on hit a boulder that he had not seen. The Jedi Hunter felt his head being hit really hard. Excruciating pain ripped it’s through his skull and body. His vision turned immediately black.

Jaden immediately pressed the break on his speeder. The vehicle stopped, but inertia made the Knight’s body fly fifteen meters away. He hit the shore where the water was lapping up on the sand. Cool sea water approached him, soaking his robes. He got up, a sharp pain erupting in his arm. The Sith looked at his right forearm, and saw a five inch gash, blood steadily leaking out. He used the Force to lessen the pain and close the wound. Jaden jogged to where Dismal’s body was sprawled out. “Wake up!” he yelled, using telekinesis to turn his commander’s body over, revealing his face. A cut across his forehead was very slowly bleeding. “Oh, wake up,” Jaden said quietly.

***

Dismal opened his eyes halfway. It hurt to even open his eyes. Jaden was sitting, using the Force to make a rock float in the air. “Uh…Jaden,” Dismal said, almost in a whisper.

“Dis! You’re awake!” he yelled, dropping the rock. He got up and ran over to Dismal. The Hunter’s eyes were heavy, but he used the Force to remain conscious. “Jadester, you should go find Laig. I’ll stay here and rest,” Dismal said.

“No, I’m not going to leave you here on the verge of passing out. Especially if some more mercenaries show up,” Jaden said.

“Well we can’t wait here forever. It could take up to two hours for me to be able to get up and walk!” the Sith replied, raising his voice slightly. “Try the comlink again, see if it’s back on,” he said. Dismal tried to reach in his robes, but when his arm moved, the pain made him wince. “Jaden, reach in the fold of my tunic, get out the link,” he said.

The Knight crouched down to Dismal. He guided his hand into his commander’s tunic, and pulled out the small comlink. He flipped on the power switch, and spoke into the microphone. “Calling Guardian Laigerick Sithelhood, this is Jaden Kyrath. Do you read?”

----------------------------

Laigerick heard the voice of his comrade, Jaden. “Calling Guardian Laigerick Sithelhood, this is Jaden Kyrath. Do you read?”

Dorak got a look of glee on his face. Someone had finally checked up on them. “Yes, this is Guardian Sithelhood,” Laigerick replied.

“Good, give us your coordinates,” the voice of Jaden boomed out of the comlink.

“We’re at a boulder at the far end of a beach,” Laigerick replied. “Hold on,” he said, walking over to the opposite side of the rock. A loud screeching noise filled the air as Laigerick cut the letters “ES” on the boulder. “I’ve carved E-S into the boulder we’re behind. Now you can distinguish it from the others,” the Sith Guardian said.

“Wait, I think I see you, but I had to enhance my vision,” Jaden said. “I’m coming.”

----------------------------

“Dis, I can see Laig,” Jaden said smoothly.

“Good, but how will we get over there if I can’t move?” Dismal said.

“Good question. I could put you over my shoulder and go slow,” Jaden replied.

“Anything that works. Now, lift me quickly. I know I’m not a light load, and it might cause me pain, but we need to get to Laig as fast as possible,” Dismal said. Jaden crouched, and put his hands and arms under Dismal’s back. He groaned as he strained, and slowly lifted the Jedi Hunter off of the ground. He carried the man for a few feet, and yelled in frustration.

“What is it?” Dismal asked.

“I forgot your landspeeder’s scrap metal and mines nowhere to be seen,” the Sith Knight said. He put Dismal on the ground slowly, and plopped on the sandy shore himself.

“Jaden, you go find Laig. If I get hurt, you’ll have Laig to help you get to Scorpius or Aabs. There’s also a possibility nothing harmful will come along. Now go, it’s for the better of the team,” Dismal ordered.
Jaden saluted and shouted, “Yes sir!” as he broke into a run down the shore.

“He better not get hurt,” Dismal mumbled.

Noise...

Flashes...

Silver eyes squinted open, seeing the blurry figures of individuals wielding lightsabers at each other. Weakly reaching out through the Force, Scorpius could faintly feel one of his long-time accomplices, Aabsdu, nearby. Probably one of the people with the lightsabers.

He tried reaching out to sense if his apprentice and the other journeymen were still fine, but he was too weak. It was at this point that Scorpius slowly came to realize he was not on his own feet, and the blurry images he saw were upside down. Furthermore, he was moving. This led the rather-intelligent Krath to realize that he was, in fact, slung over someone's shoulder.

He would have tried to help, but all he could do is groan again before fading once more into a near-unconscious state. He could faintly feel what was happening around him, but no more...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Niman Master grunted as his eyes fluttered open, a bright light engulfing his vision. Squinting, the Jedi Hunter slowly raised his hand to his head, which he noticed was throbbing with pain. "Ugh..."

"Hey, kid... Wake up," came a rather common voice. "Why the hell are you sleeping in a broom closet?"

Broom closet? Niman blinked, sitting up. A Zabrak in what appeared to be the garb of a janitor was leaning over him, a light in his hand. The man did not look very happy.

Broom closet!? What happened...

The Jedi Hunter closed his eyes and tried to remember what had happened. Exar's Shadow had split up. Scorpius was missing, and Aabsdu had gone looking for him. Dismal and the others went to explore the area outside of the Shadow Academy in search of the missing students. Niman had been ordered to stay in the Academy and search every crook and cranny for the missing, given a communicator from Dismal to keep in contact if he found any thing.

My communicator!

Much to the confusion and annoyance of the janitor, Niman frantically searched his robes for the communicator. "Oh no," he said dejectedly, his eyes widening.

The janitor arched an eyebrow at him. "Lose somethin', kid?"

Niman got up and scowled, groaning as he held his head again. He again tried remembering what happened. He had been searching the Academy, as ordered, and had ended up in this rather dark area of the large structure. He remembered being slightly creeped out by the fact that no one else was around there. As he was searching behind some large containers, he remembered feeling a presence beside him. Then there was a terrible pain in his head, and everything went black. Now he was in a broom closet, with an increasingly-agitated janitor shining a bright light in his face.

"Look, kid, if you aren't going to say anything then leave," grumbled the cleaner. "Some of us have work to do."

Niman glared at the zabrak before stumbling out of the closet and into a hallway. He looked around, determining where he was exactly in the Shadow Academy before proceeding down the hall. Aabsdu and Scorpius should still be in the building; he would find them. They should have a communicator so Niman could tell Dismal about the situation.

"Oh no," said Niman for the second time in a few minutes. If he did not have his communicator, then whoever hit him did.

And if someone else had the communicator, they could have been listening to anything Battleteam Exar's Shadow had been saying over their communication devices.

Niman picked up his pace, feeling out through the Force to find his master. He needed to get to Aabsdu fast and warn Dismal that the entire team was in danger.

--------------------------------------------------

"We're at the boulder at the far end of the beach...I've carved E-S into the boulder we're behind."

"We've got 'em now," smirked a man clutching a small communicator. "Their team is regrouping outside."

"Good... Send Jenson and Nujjum to the beach," spoke a cool female voice, that of Ferry, over a different comlink.

"You got it," returned the smirking man.


Moments later, two mercenaries--one human and the other aqualish--were approaching the spot where Commander Dismal Visutor al'Tor was laying, making their way towards the beach to intercept the tattered members of Exar's Shadow.

Laigerick peered over the boulder he and Dorak were behind. He had heard the scraping sound of feet on the sand, and decided to see what the source was. He hoped it was Jaden. He readied his blaster, just in case. Sure enough, as he looked over the rock, the shape of Jaden was outlined by the setting Lyspairian sun.

"Over hear!" The Corellian shouted.

Jaden waved his left hand as he picked pace up, from a jog, to a sprint. When the Knight arrived at the position of Laigerick and Dorak, he was greeted by over-joyous smiles.

"Jadester!!!" Laigerick said, "long time no see, eh?"

Jaden smiled. Laigerick always was the Battleteam's clown. He always brought humor to every situation, and never seemed to amaze him. The young apprentice, Dorak, seemed the most happy of all to see the elder journeyman. He smiled cockily, there was something awkward about it, but Jaden just assumed he had the jitters since he was in the presence of a true Dark Jedi. Laigerick changed his body position from a kneeling stance, to a cross-legged meditation-like stance. He holstered his blaster and closed his eyes, clearly meditating.

Smoothly, the Sith Guardian hissed through his lips, "What are we to do now, Jaden?"

"Dismal's just behind those rocks, 200 yards away, I think tha.."

Jaden was suddenly interrupted as there was a scream of bloody murder. All three of the journeymens' heads cocked towards the rocks where Dismal lay.

Jaden gasped, "Dismal...."

--------------------------------------------------

Dismal lay on the gravel-like-sand.

"He better not get hurt," he mumbled cooly.

Jaden had just run down after Laigerick and Dorak. Dismal thought he would save his energy by meditating. He centered himself with his surroundings, and started his ritual. Dismal knew not how much time passed during his meditation period. All he knew was that there was a steady breeze, with the rhythmic sound of the black sea waves breaking on the shore of Lyspair. It was enough to calm anyone, even a berzerk Acklay. He could feel the force slowly rejuvenating his body, refilling its hunger for energy, and peace, but this was soon interrupted. Gravel crackled under light boots. Dismal popped his eyes open wide.

"Jaden, 'ello?" he asked the sound

No answer.

"Jaaaaden..." he said softly.

Dismal did not show it very well, but he was terrified. He was defenseless and wounded, in desolate terrain that was infested with mercenarie scum, and for all he knew, alone. Suddendly, he felt a hot steam on his neck. Water droplets started to form on his caucasion skin, that sent goose-bumps all over his body. He turned around slowly only to be greeted by the black void of the eyes of an Aqualish, whose mandables were breathing roughly on the Hunter's neck.

"Serkesha yu menah jubishi," it gurgled.

Dismal said nothing. The aliean struck the Sith with a powerful slap across the face. Dismal wailed into the dusk. He turned back to face the creature. In its malevolent bug-like eyes, he saw his own reflection. His right cheek was rose red. Dismal's face intensified with rage as he hissed these words.

"Damn you, aliean scum, BITE ME!"

Then Dismal felt a sack being thrown around his face, and it was tied tightly under his chin. He was carried carried off.

Dismal lay on the ground in agony, it had seemed as if it were days since he saw his crew, but really was more like an hour and a half. The aliens had camped in the forest, feasting upon their meals by a small fire. They were laughing, making jokes of one another it seemed, and they were paying no attention to Dismal. Dis was still weak, but he called into the force to give him enough energy to crawl to the side of the camp. He then rested himself upon a log, taking deep but silent breaths as he called out into the force, reaching to anyone close, making himself a bigger target, calling to his fellow members.

Dismal stopped for a moment, letting out as much as he could and grabbed his chest in pain, it seemed he had wasted too much energy. He then turned to hear the aliens moving around, noticing he had moved around, and walked over to him. Dismal gulped loudly, as the leader began to speak angrily, coming closer, and closer, and closer….


***

Jaden walked into the forest, being the oldest and more experienced of the three dark jedi, he lead them to where they could move more easily and comfortably. Jaden sighed and slumped down in thought, “If only we knew where he was…,” he said sadly. The guardian and the apprentice looked at each other, both thinking they would never find him. The apprentice, being brash and bold spoke, “I thought you were supposed to be a Dark Jedi Knight!?,” he said. Jaden turned to face the younger one and just smiled, “Well, let’s see you try and do this,” he said. He always was kind to younger members of the brotherhood, like an envoy of some sort, and didn’t take stupid things they said to heart.

Laigy on the other hand smacked the apprentice and spoke, “Hey, give him a break, we all are having trouble finding him,” he said. Jaden still kept in focus until finally his eyes became wide open, “He has made a connection through the force guys, I know where he is!,” he said getting up and running, waving his hand for them to follow. They were not to far from where he felt his presence. They soon came to the camp site to where the aliens were. Jaden kneeled and kept his hand out for them to stop. He looked around to find Dismal on the side, bleeding and knocked out. Jaden waved them to walk silently, as they quickly grabbed Dismal. But as they began to walk away the apprentice stepped on a branch, and the whole group of alien turned in awe to find their prisoner being taken.

Jaden handed Laigy Dismal, “Here take him, I will take care of these mutts,” he said. Laigy nodded, he knew sacrifices must be made and took dismal and threw him over his shoulder, “Ok, good luck to you soldier,” he said running away, taking dismal and the apprentice with him. Jaden then turned to the aliens, as they grabbed their guns and prepared to blast Jaden to a billion bits. The Dark Jedi Knight ignited his lightsaber and got into a neutral stance for both defensive and offensive and yelled, “Ok bugs, who wants to go first!”.

Jaden stared the alieans down. They seemed scared, tense. They had only faced a wonded Jedi Hunter, not a fledging Dark Jedi Knight. A quirky grim spread across Jaden's pale face. This was going to be fun. He leapt towards the alieans and let out a ear-peircing warcry.

----------------------------

Laigerick lugged Dismal on his back. The Guardian breathed in and out, heavily, but in a steady rhythm. His Commander was not a light load. Dorak looked over at Laigerick with a grim expression on his face as they continued to run.

"What if they get Jaden?!"

"They won't," Laigerick replied. "Or at least they better not," he thought.

-----------------------------

Bolts flew bounced off of the Knight's lightsaber. One Aqualish had to duck as a bolt hissed over his head. Jaden took this chance to throw his saber, piercing the aliean through its twisted heart. It fell to the ground, making awkward clicking sounds from its mandible. The Knight then used the Force to choke the remaining thug. With a loud Crrrack the body fell motionless to the ground. Jaden retrieved his saber from the first corspe and went to catch up with the rest of the group.

------------------------------

Laigerick, Dorak, and the unconsious Dismal lay on the edge of the Lyspairian marintime forrest.

"Try it agian, Laigerick," Dorak said.

Laigerick clicked the comm link again and said:

"Hello? Hello? Does anybody read me? Any members of ES read me?

Static. No answer.

"See, I told you it woldn't work," Laigerick replied.

Dorak rolled his eyes. Just then, Laigerick felt something on his shoulder. He whipped himself around to find Jaden standing over him, with a satisfied look on his face.

"They're dead, aren't they?" Laigerick asked, but he already knew the answer.

"Yeup!" Jaden said proudly, and he sat down.

A sign of relief was shown from Laigy when Jaden had answered his question. Even though he knew it was guaranteed Jaden would kill them with ease, but you must always be ready for anything and everything. The Dark Jedi Knight looked at the two and then at Dismal, who was knocked out cold from the beating he took. Laigy had been struggling to hold the young lad the whole time, and Jaden felt he should relive him of his weight. “Here, give him to me,” Jaden said in more demanding tone then asking. Laigy happily handed over Dismal to Jaden who, right away, laid him on the ground. The Dark Jedi put his ear close to Dismals mouth, he was breathing, but with a little struggle. He then checked his pulse, he was beating hard, but he would live.

Jaden then grabbed the young Sith Journeymen, holding him by his shoulder and began their journey back to the other apprentices, whom Jaden and Dismal had left behind. Doing their best to keep on target and to get there before sun down, sadly, the odds were against them. Exhausted, they stopped for a breather, laying Dismal down. The apprentice, breathing heavily, spoke saying, “The suns going down? How are we going to find our way?,” he asked. Both the journeymen soon turned their heads to Jaden, expecting an answer to their problem. The Dark Jedi Knight stood tall raised an eyebrow at them both, but then thought of a solution, “Here, I will use my lightsaber as a torch, we will be able to find the group eventually,” he said. They both nodded and stood up tall. Jaden, once again, picked up Dismal and put him on his left shoulder, then ignited his red bladed lightsaber, and the trio entered the night.

***

After an hour or two of traveling, they finally found themselves in the camp of the apprentices, happy to know everything was going ok. As soon as they walked into camp, they all smiled with joy as the fellow apprentice return made their faces light up. Before they could all began their “hip-hip-hooray” union, Jaden spoke, “You two!,” he said pointing at one of the apprentices. “Go dig a hole and get ground water, while the rest of you go and find some herbs, I saw a few bushes not so far from here,” he said. The apprentices all were angry in a moments time, and the leader of the pack spoke, “But why would we do that!? We have no weapons and people are trying to kill us!,” he said. Laigy quickly intervened before Jaden had the liberty of cutting his head off, “I will accompany you and help you guys out, just stay close,” he said.

Jaden nodded and smiled, his way of saying “thank you”, and began to attend the needs to get Dismal back in good shape.

Due to inactivity, this run-on has been closed.