Star Wars: Scars

Part 2 - 9

Hours had passed before the heavy blackness weighing down all of his limbs and his eyelids finally passed and Creed managed to blearily crack his eyes open. He couldn't make out much besides deep shadows surrounding him, but he lifted his head at the sound of faint voices around him.

"Did Dunn want him alive?" a younger, more nervous sounding voice asked. There wasn't much spite in it, just a deep ingrained fear. Creed's attention quickly focused on the name, though.

Sergeant Dunn? How...how did he find me?

Creed heard the voices fall quiet as they seemed to become aware that he was awake, but they resumed in whispered tones not long after. They didn't seem aware that he could hear their every word. Or maybe they were perfectly aware, and they wanted him to hear it all.

"I don't remember. Originally I think he wanted him alive, but now...I can't remember if he changed that order," a second voice, equally as unsure, though more confident, chimed in.

"He wanted him dead." A deeper voice broke into the conversation, firm and dripping with hate. There was no fear in this man's tone, only determination to get the job done, and do it well.

"Well, do we kill him now or wait?" one of the younger Jedi finally asked. Creed shuddered a bit, remembering he was still a captive. If he had his hands free, he could probably get out of this, but even so, one assassin against three Jedi? He was trained to kill high profile targets, but not Jedi.

He didn't want to die.

Creed shifted his hands in the ropes and struggled to try and pull at least one hand free. His comm was missing, but if he could reach one of the Jedi's, a few quick taps and at least he could get a distress signal to Specter and the others.

"Kill him now, we need to finish this," the older Jedi ordered.

Creed almost froze, his breath hitching in his chest slightly. He forced the fear to stay off his face, but that was difficult as he heard the steps of the Jedi nearing him. Creed struggled with his hands, wishing he'd spent a little longer working with Haze on how to break out of ropes. Binders, cords, cuffs, he could do, but it was always the rope he got hung up on.

Creed heard the sound of a lightsaber turn on and his mind flashed back to Kamino, hearing the similar fizzing and crackling sound the droid's shock stick would make. He screwed his eyes shut a moment, trying to fight his way out of the memory, only to find himself stuck in the horror of the moment. He tensed up, expecting to feel the blade cut through him, prepared for the pain, and a hopefully quick end.

Instead, there was a muffled yelling among the Jedi in the alley and Creed's eyes shot open. He looked up in time to see a hail of blaster bolts raining down on the Jedi. Two more lightsabers came on, but only to block the tirade of fire.

"Creed," a voice whispered from behind the young assassin. Creed started around and recognized Specter's voice, and as his eyes adjusted he saw the older man crouching behind him, sawing through the rope with his knife.

"Move as soon as I say so, Skate has a blaster for you," the older clone whispered. Creed nodded, realizing his eyes were probably still wide in fear. A moment later he felt the ropes on his wrists fall slack and Specter tapped his shoulder.

"Go," he whispered. Creed darted up and looked around, spotting Skate's armored silhouette near the end of the alley. He darted back there, reaching to grab the weapon Skate was holding out for him, then he turned and stepped beside Skate, firing off a few warning shots at the Jedi as he saw Specter run towards him. Only then did he realize the size of his rescue party. It was all of them, Kuli and the kittens, of course. They were likely still on the ship, but Specter, Dawn, Skate, Tadem, even Sunny was here, fighting for him.