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Chapter Sixteen

All these places smell the same.  

As Jae-Lee glances up from his drink, his eyes quickly, yet casually scan every table.
It is a familiar sight. Looking through the smoke, he can see a variety of species dressed in the fashions of a hundred different worlds.

Approaching the bar is a small gray furred creature of no more than one and a half meters. He is dressed in the sort of local attire commonly associated with the lower working class. With a violent shove to the lower back, he gets the attention of another patron, an enormous Gran. The much larger, three eyed creature seems to want no part of this, but the little gray one is quite determined. As the ruckus grows louder and the bartender looks around nervously, other customers begin to notice and with so many eyes turning to watch, Jae-Lee takes the opportunity to search again.

There you are.

From across the room, He locks eyes with another human man. Wearing a well-worn flight-suit, he is older, and his face is hidden behind a thick, dark, gangly beard. In a place built to intoxicate, his eyes are clear and alert, and with a slight nod he has surely caught Jae's attention.

"Break it up!!!!!!"  The bouncers yell as they close in on the altercation, trying to break it up with as little fuss as possible

Several customers pass between Jae and the bearded man, blocking their view of one another. When the crowd clears, the man is gone. With a slight smile to himself, Jae-Lee leaves his half full glass on the table and heads for the bar.  "Corellian Whiskey and an Antakarian Fire Dancer.”   

The bartender serves the drinks, looking much more relaxed than he did a few minutes ago, and Jae pays in coin. Walking back to the table, he takes one more look around. A small group of Trandoshans is coming through the front door.

Getting back to his table, Jae puts down his drink next to his now empty glass, and gives the Antakarian Fire Dancer to the man who is now waiting in the seat across from him.  "I almost didn’t recognize you Reig. You got something against shaving?"

"You should talk Reklaw. Except yours only looks about two weeks old. I've been growing this mane for years." Both men nod and laugh quietly.

Finishing a sip of his whiskey Jae-Lee puts the glass down, wincing slightly, and asks.  "Well, the whiskey’s no good. How’s the food?"

Looking up from his drink, Reig looks towards the bar. "Its bad." He turns back with a new, more serious expression. "But the food at the Whistling Mynock is horrible. I wouldn’t take my neek there. I'd steer clear of that place. You want a good upscale meal, go to the Wayward Wookie. They're right across the way from each other, at the end of this street."

Jae-Lee leans forward and his speech drops to a very low level. "Upscale? In this area? Who could pull that off?" He asks with a frown.

"Well..." Leaning in just slightly, Reig replies, "Some people have it made. There’s a lot of high-class money around."

"High-class, huh?" A sick feeling begins to swirl in Jae-Lee’s gut, but he is not sure why.  "Tryashoenu?"

Looking confused, then slightly surprised, Reig replies, "Yeah. How did-...  How long have you been here?" He then chuckles slightly, shaking his head.

Jae replies sternly.  "Long enough. So, what can you tell me?"

Shrugging, and looking almost disappointed, Reig responds, "Well, not much, but I know their operation isn’t as tight as they would have you believe.  Between the Mynock and the Wookie there’s a lot of talk. Some claim to have worked in the organization, but they won’t do much, but brag about what they managed to skim for themselves."

Loudly, Jae-Lee asks, "So the Wayward Wookie is the place for some good Nerf steak, eh?"

"Best in town! But it’ll cost you at least a thousand dataries.” Reig says happily. With a wink, and a bit quietly again, "I know this much; top to bottom, those two places have it cornered.  Y'know?"  Jae nods and Reig leans back in his chair, finishing the Antakarian Fire Dancer in a single chug.

Returning to a normal tone, the conversation continues. "So, what do ya think JL, you buying dinner too?"

"Sorry, no.  If it’s between the richest place in town and somewhere worse than this, I better pass on dinner."

"ROOOAAAARRRRRR!!!!!!!" Jae looks over to the bar to see trouble brewing once again. The Trandoshans are not only arguing with the other patrons, but amongst themselves as well. The bouncers arrive on the scene once more and the situation only escalates.

"Well, I think that’s my cue." Turning back to the older man, Jae-Lee realizes that he never looked over to the bar. His eyes were scanning the room in the opposite direction.  Always thinking. "Thanks, pal."

Returning to the conversation Reig replies, "Hey! Thanks for what? You bought the drinks."

As Jae-Lee rises from his chair he sets his half full glass down on top of a few hundred dataries.  The two men exchange a smile and a nod, and the younger man makes his way around the brewing brawl and out in to the street.

Recounting his conversation with his old contact as he walks, Jae reviews the facts, as he now understands them.  Let’s see, we have Tryashoenu acting like a possessive Nerf mother, money being spread around by underlings, independent pirates, crooked merchants and traders, and a Chandrillan militarist looking for help from some rag-tag mystics.  Sounds like a whole lot of nothing, that’s about to amount to be a great big mess.  How do you end up in these things, Jae? . .  Oh yeah, must be the women. Jae-Lee chuckles to himself as he continues walking.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As he approaches the Whistling Mynock, Jae is struck by a strange sensation.  It seems oddly familiar, but he cannot seem to place it. It was not danger...  But it could be...As he nears the entrance to the cantina, the feeling grows stronger and yet, more confusing.

Well, I guess my answer lies in here.

Attempting to regain his focus, Jae pushes open the doors and enters a scene eerily similar to the one at the place he has just left. Sitting down at a table, Jae attempts to scan his new surroundings. The customers did seem to have sunk down to another level from the crowd he had seen earlier, but his mind is not on the other customers. There was a feeling he did not understand and could not shake.

"Hey!"   

Looking up and realizing his waitress must have been talking to him, Jae mutters, “Lomin Ale.”

Apparently annoyed, the waitress turns and storms away.

NO!

Jumping slightly in his seat Jae-Lee is struck by feelings that are not his own. Anger. Frustration. Betrayal.

Surreptitiously rising from his seat he bumps into his waitress, who was just now returning with his ale.  As the Lomin Ale soaks the both of them, Jae is already tossing a hundred dataries on the table and heading for the door.

"Hey!" The waitress yells after him. Noticing her tip on the table, she picks up her money and looks towards the exit. The doors are swinging closed.

Jae-Lee is already half way across the street, heading for the Wayward Wookie.  Two armed and uniformed men stand on opposite sides of the entrance, and they exchange looks as the unknown man with the ale soaked shirt approaches rapidly.  Both guards’ hands fall to their blasters, and the one on Jae-Lee’s right moves forward to meet him.  A crash comes from inside the building & Jae frowns at the guard. “This is official business, degenerate.  You’ve no cause to enter here. Go sober up, off-worlder.”  The guard puts a strong shoulder behind the hand that holds Jae-Lee back.  The other sentry brings his blaster up to show he means business.

Jae-Lee is about to yield, when a voice appears in his ears, or is it his mind.  It is decidedly feminine and it is in terrible distress.  Spinning around in a single dashing move, Jae-Lee lands a devastating blow to the jaw of the loud mouth guard and rips the blaster from the second one.  He smashes him in the face with it and the guard crumples to the ground.

Bursting forth into the tiny shop, Jae-Lee catches sight of the source of the distress and is stopped cold by the sight...  Xana!

She is struggling, being held from behind at her elbows.  The man holding her is about a head taller than Jae, and about twice as thick. Saliva runs off his chin onto his already stained shirt, and he holds a sick smile.  He spits out, "Who are you?!"  As he speaks to Jae-Lee, he releases Xana, and she crawls quickly into a corner to the left, hiding her face.  Relief floods Jae-Lee’s insides and he draws his front lightsaber, preparing to respond to the big oaf in the dirty shirt.

"He's dead."  Comes a voice from behind Jae.

Jae-Lee ignites his saber and rolls quickly to the floor and to the right, away from Xana. As he begins to flip, he catches sight of:

one-two-three

 
uniformed men, and two of them have their blasters drawn.    

As he completes his roll, Jae rises and turns to his right.  Swinging his saber in a backhand motion he deflects two laser blasts. One finds its way back to the man who fired it, the other bounces off a wall, causing the second armed man to duck. He quickly regains his composure and fires twice at Jae-Lee.  Now set and ready, he deflects the shots smoothly.  The first one bounces off of the floor at the attackers feet, and the second strikes him full in the chest.  Jae immediately spins to the right while dropping to his left knee as he lunges his blade out and upward, into the big drooling man who had been left standing behind him.  A blue blade of light is now buried in the big man’s dirty, stained shirt.  Dropping to the floor, the man smiles slightly, and his eyes briefly focus on something behind Jae, just before he felt it.

Blackness.

Only for second, but when he opens his eyes, he is a little closer to the ground and his head hurts like it never has before.  A large stone hits the ground next to him.

"Oh, so now you’re not so tough, huh? I'll show you who's in charge here." The guard says.

Using his hand to steady himself and already on one knee, Jae turns slowly and looks up, to see Xana in a full fighting stance. The last guard finishes rubbing the back of his head and approaches her with his hands outstretched, apparently attempting to grab her. In one fluid motion, displaying tremendous grace and swift, smooth power, she grabs the outstretched hands and uses them to pull the attacker right into her foot, which she plants firmly in the center of his chest.  As Xana rolls onto her back, flipping the man over her, Jae-Lee hears several loud cracks, which were surely the mans ribs breaking.  Xana launches him into the wall with more sounds of breaking bones. Then, with a loud thud, he falls to the ground clutching his chest, gasping for air that simply would not come. In seconds, he was dead.  

Jae tries to crawl towards Xana while attempting in vain to bring the world back into focus.   

 "Do not move, Master Reklaw." Xana says with great concern. "You are hurt. You are bleeding." She starts to get up, reaching for Jae-Lee. Then, looking up, she froze.  

"Yeah. Don’t move." Came another voice. "Or you wont just be hurt. You'll be dead. You too Mistress." 

Jae managed to lift his head to see two more guards entering the room. Only one had a blaster, and it was pointed at Xana.  Jae's lightsaber lay on the floor, just out of reach.  

Good thing I carry two.

The newest armed guard looks horrified at the body of the third guard, now obviously dead on the floor. "No!" He yells, looking back and forth between Xana and the body of the guard. "You didn’t! You couldn’t have! This wasn’t supposed to happen like this!"

As Jae's left hand slips behind his back to unhook his second lightsaber, he notices the distinct resemblance between the screaming man and the dead man.  

He always drew this saber *blade down*. The on-off switch is located at the base of the hilt, so it only made sense to operate it upside down with his thumb, rather than right side up with his smallest finger.  Besides, this saber was not for everyday use. It was special. Besides, there were differences that could make this particular lightsaber dangerous compared to others. For example: this saber had no "dead-man’s switch" to turn it off when it left the wielders hand. That could be very dangerous. Even deadly...  

"Just kill her then!!!" yelled the unarmed guard.

As he levels his gun, Jae swings his left arm around revealing the lightsaber. With the blade extended out, he releases the hilt, throwing it and sending it spinning towards the two uniformed men. The blade slices through them cleanly. As they fall, in pieces, the weight of the hilt brings the lightsaber clattering to the floor. It leaves several scorch marks and ends up stuck cleanly into the wall. It stands there humming until Jae-Lee picks it up and turns it off.  

Reaching to collect his other saber, he notices blood. His own blood. Quite a lot of it. It runs down from the right side of his collar, covering his shoulder and most of his chest. The back of his head throbbed terribly and when he reached back to touch it, he found the area sticky and wet. Looking towards Xana, while still crouched on the floor, he spoke, "Are you all right?"  As he did, his head screamed in such pain that it left him swaying.

Slightly dazed and staring at the mangled guards on the floor, Xana returns his inquiry. "I'm...  I'm...  Fine. Are you? . ." Finally looking up, and seeing him about to collapse, she cries "Oh no!" Jumping to her feet, she rushes to his side. "Here, sit down." After leading him to a bench against the nearest wall, they both sit.  

"Thanks." Jae-Lee says, slightly embarrassed. He tries to focus his mind. To return to a state of awareness. He had been sloppy (once again) and rushed into a situation he knew very little about. What he needed now was to get them away safely. He was hurt, but after a few deep breaths, and several moments concentrating on what Mees might call "finding his center", he was ready to move. He turns to look at Xana and finds she is already looking at him. Mesmerized by her beauty, Jae is speechless. He thinks he sees a hint of a smile on her face and suddenly realizes that he may be wearing one of his own. They sit like that for a very long moment before she finally speaks, "Thank you.”  

Her eyes were nothing if not captivating and they made Jae-Lee forget for a moment that they were both still very much in danger.  He even forgot about his head, until he goes to cock it in one of his patented “Aw shucks, ma’am” poses.  He tries to recover before she can notice his wincing, but it is useless.  

“We must get you back to the Center where you can receive proper medical attention.”  She stands up, reaches down to take his arm and helps him to his feet.  

“Not the Center, just get me to the spaceport.  I can patch myself up once I get to the ship.”  Jae cringes with each movement, but he knows that he could never enter Tryashoenu’s place looking like this, and with his sister to boot.  

“But Master Reklaw, you are in dire need of attention as a direct result of trying to assist me.  I could not forgive myself if any harm were to come to you now.”  Her words are more intoxicating than a well aged Whyrren’s Reserve, and softer than the most expensive silks Jae-Lee has ever come across.   But, he knows that he has to get to the SkyDancer and comm Mees.  She could help him, and then he could tell her what he had found, before the pain sucked it all away.  

“Please, just get me to the SkyDancer.  There are medical supplies onboard.”  As they step towards the door, he peers out to see if anyone has taken notice of the recent melee.  Seeing no one, he stands as straight as he can, takes Xana’s hand in his and says, “We’ll have to make this look good, just in case I start to falter...  A wife taking her drunken husband home from the cantina...”  Eyeing her as closely as he can for a negative reaction, “Is that all right with you?”  He had not meant to sound so needy with his request, but in many ways, he is that needy.  

She returns his grasp and places her arm around his shoulder, “Come, my Dear Husband, we must get you home.”  She gives him a tiny wink.  At least he thinks that is what she does, but in his current state she could have given him the Corellian kiss-off and he probably would not have noticed.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Trying not to look behind them too much, Xana attempts to keep her cool.  However, the bleeding seems to have started again and she is worried that Master Reklaw will be unable to continue.  "Would you like to rest a moment?  You look quite weak."  She bites her lip in anticipation of his response.  

"We should keep moving. I'm fine, really." He can feel the wound again. A sickening feeling is creeping into his stomach, but as horrible as his head feels, holding Xana’s hand feels great.  

"If you are certain, then we should go this way."  She points a delicate finger towards a street that leads to the right.  "It will bring us to the spaceport without stopping by the shipping office."  Her apprehension sparks some interest in Jae-Lee's mind (battered though it might be).  

"You know this area well. I must admit I'm surprised." This draws a quick look from Xana.  

"Surprised at what, Master Reklaw?"   She cannot hide her shock at his statement, so she tries to steer the conversation.  "That I would know the streets of my own city?"  Her words are sharp, and they cut.  

"Well, this is not a very nice area, my Dear Wife." He says with a wink, trying to keep the mood light, but pressing on with his question, nonetheless.  "I would only wonder why such a well cared for woman would need to come to a place like this. Business, perhaps?  Or merely shopping?"  

Her guard lowers, his charm is undeniable, "There are many reasons for a wife to travel these streets, my Dear Husband."  He just smiles weakly at Xana’s response.  "Perhaps, if my Dear Husband did not smell of a distillery, so often, a wife might have no cause to know these streets?"  Her jibe causes Jae to blush a bit.  He had forgotten about the spilled ale.  

"Yes, dear." He replies with another smile.  With his head throbbing like the bass of a cantina band and his wound still bleeding slightly, he decides to drop this particular line of questioning until a more appropriate time. A feeling of danger is entering his mind and with a glance down the street he can just make out a small crowd in the distance.  

"What is it?  Trouble?"  Xana's concerned words pull him out of his thoughts and he looks around for an escape.  

"Yes...  C'mon. Over there." Still holding her hand, Jae-Lee leads her between the closest two buildings. Hoping for a way out to the other side, the pair is disappointed.  What appeared to be two buildings is actually one. A small recessed courtyard is where Jae-Lee and Xana now find themselves. The only place to go is back into the street.  

"I don't believe they saw us."  She notices that his breathing has become a bit laboured.  "We can hide behind this partition until they have passed.  We should be safe for the moment...  Please, sit for a while and let me get a look at that wound.  Perhaps I can stop the bleeding, in the very least."  Jae-Lee nods his head ever so slightly in agreement and moves to sit upon the retaining wall just behind the partition.  

 "Yeah, I think we're ok. They were still pretty far off." Xana’s hands feel very tender as she tends to his cut. "It doesn’t feel so bad anymore.  Ouch!"  

"I am so sorry, I was trying to be gentle."  She bites her lip as she leans over his head once more to try and tend to the wound.  

Embarrassed, Jae replies. "You're doing great."  

When she returns to face him, she is struck by his deep blue eyes.  However, they seem to be a bit hazier than she remembers.  "Are you all right?"  The deep concern in her voice shakes Jae from his momentary loss of focus.  

"Much better." Without realizing what he was doing Jae-Lee reaches out and takes Xana by her left hand.  "Thank you."  

"Are you certain, Master Rek-..."  Jae puts the finger of his other hand up to her mouth to stop her from speaking.  

Leaning in, Jae-Lee brings his face that much closer to Xana's.  With only a hair's breadth between them, Jae inhales her scent and gathers up the last bit of nerve he can muster before surrendering to the emotions that have been building since their very first meeting.  Slowly tracing his finger from her lips to her jaw, and then to her throat, Jae takes that final step and presses his lips to hers in a careful caress.  

Just as he is about to give himself over to the experience, the doors behind them swing open and four more armed guards come forth with blasters drawn.  "You'll pay for that, scum."  The leader of the group spits at Jae.  

Drop  

Jae releases Xana’s hand and attempts to raise his arms in a sign of surrender. Xana, looking deathly afraid, does likewise. Jae's head begins to droop forward.  Just as the second guard approaches and prepares to cuff Jae, he slips down from the retaining wall, apparently unconscious, and Xana cries out in terror.

Dropping to her knees, Xana pulls Jae-Lee up to cradle him in her arms, fearing the worst.  Burying her face in his chest, she is in complete shock when she raises her head once more to find all four guards lying lifelessly on the ground and Master Mussiri and Meesahran standing at her sides.

"We must make haste, young one. Please take my hand?" Master Mussiri extends his arm to Xana as Mees lifts Jae-Lee onto her shoulders.

"I'll go the back way, you get her back to the Center and I'll meet you at the landing pad."  Meesahran then disappears from the courtyard.

Creator: arrowheadpodracer (Josh)

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