Assassin (A Star Wars Fan-Fiction) Book 4

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Rahm would've never said that Shendira was a bad person. In all the time he'd known her, in all the time he'd raised her from a newborn over the past fifteen years, 'bad' was never the adjective he'd add in regards to his adoptive daughter.

Stubborn? Hot-headed? Reckless? Bingo.

But 'bad'...that was another topic all together.

Yes, she had a conscience, along with good intentions as well behind each of her actions. In tight situations, Shen always put others' safety before her own and made sure that the cause never suffered from her strategies, only benefited. In the long run, her presence would be crucial to the success of the rebellion due to those heroic factors on her part. Shendira Dren was an important asset.

But within every good person is a darkness, just as within every bad person is a shred of light. It's rare and hardly ever shows itself when in the best of company, but despite a person's record of good deeds, all it takes is one moment to push someone to the brink of combustion.

To say that Shen was on the edge of exploding would've been an understatement.

"We've been played!" She hollered down to her master in the hold, still keeping the Duros man in check with the tip of her lightsaber. Cren gawked and spluttered at her words as Kota quickly climbed the latter up to where the scene was taking place.

"I have not! You lie, sleemo!" The blue-faced, red-eyed crook objected. Shen snarled and jabbed her weapon forward ever so slightly, evaporating the sweat dripping down the alien's throat. Cren gasped at the heat and stumbled backwards over his own feet, landing on the metal ground with a hard 'thunk'.

"The controls are busted," She told her master as he stood beside her, then glanced into the bridge where Shen gestured with her free hand. The smoke was still billowing out of the fried buttons and circuits; Kota had to quickly shut the door before the security sprinklers could sense the gas in the air and go off throughout the ship. "Not only has he destroyed our only way of steering the ship, he's alerted the Empire that we're here!" Kota's stern expression turned to one of anger and he knelt down to the Duros, grabbing him by the front of his shirt and hoisting the double-agent into the air.

"We had a deal, Dioni," Rahm growled and slammed the alien's back against the wall, pinning him to the flat surface with a grip of steel with one hand and drawing his own bladed weapon with the other.

"It wasn't my fault! I swear!" The Duros nearly shrieked in terror after his feet were lifted off the floor and he dangled in the air. Rahm's voice lowered and Shen watched, trying her best to mask her fear of the situation with a wall of anger, as her master glowered at Cren.

"You have two minutes to get us the hell out of here, or I'll pop out those giant red eyes of yours and have my men use them for target practice."

He didn't need to say anything more; as soon as he released the hacker, Cren ran face-first into the door to the bridge, not realizing that Rahm had shut it beforehand, then disappeared into the clouds of grey and black.

Neither of the force-users said anything in regards of his threat; there was nothing to say. Was it out of character for a Jedi to use scare-tactics? Would the Council have frowned upon his actions? Yes, and yes.

But the Council was dead.

And so were the Jedi.

"Make sure that moron doesn't do anything else stupid," He instructed the fifteen-year-old and she nodded curtly before following the Duros back into the turmoil, waving her hand to part the wall of smoke as her lightsaber glowed in the darkness. Although she put up a good front, Rahm wasn't stupid- he knew she was terrified. But he admired her brave face and a small swell of pride could be felt in his chest. He'd handle this situation and get them all out of this in one piece.

"General! What's goin' on up there?" One of his men asked from the hold below. Rahm sheathed his green blade and returned it to his belt before spinning on his heel to address his eager crew all gathered in the belly of the ship. "Are we going to bust in some heads or what?"

"Change of plans, we've been compromised," He yelled down to the men all suited up for a fight. "I need everyone to their posts and prepare for lightspeed; we need to be out of here as soon as Dioni fixes the controls to the hyperdrive." They all groaned in disappointment, but grumbled in reply and began to evacuate the room, returning to their jobs on the small ship.

Although saying the rebels were a bit trigger-happy would've been the truth, Rahm knew a certain few were most-likely relieved that this mission wouldn't be happening the way everyone else hoped it would have. He understood both sides of the coin, but didn't dwell on the topic long. He had other things to be more concerned about.

"How's it going in there? You're down to a minute and a half," Rahm called out to the bridge.

"I need more time! Things like this don't get fixed easily!" The Duros yelled back. But before Rahm could scold the hacker for complaining about the mess he'd made, the sound of metal scraping against metal began to echo and rumble through the ship, vibrating the floors and making the walls shutter. Rahm felt his heart jump to his throat as sirens throughout the vessel began to go off and red lights started flickering throughout the ship.

"Master, what is that?" Shen asked in an uneasy tone; Rahm could see her wide eyes thanks to the shining of her lightsaber and he forced himself to remain stoic, doing his best to mentally block off his emotions through the Force so his apprentice wouldn't be quite as scared.

It was a sound he'd heard plenty of times during the Clone Wars, every time he and his men needed to break through a wall or cut through a door.

"Stay here and make a force-field of oxygen around yourselves," He instructed to the young girl and her prisoner in the smoke-filled room. "I'll try and buy you as much time as I can. As soon as everything's been repaired, get us the hell out of here." Before she could protest, her own heart thundering in her chest as the worry of her master's safety rushed through her mind, Rahm sealed the door to the bridge shut and slashed the control panel at its side, locking it tight.

It was almost the moment he'd locked his apprentice in that an explosion rocked the entire ship and the docking bay doors were blown open.

They were being boarded.

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Hey guys, sorry this took so long. School and online classes have been insane and I've been working for my dad in his store so I haven't had much spare time. Plus I've been working with my editor to get an actual book published, so that's been taking up a large chunk of my time as well. Don't freak out, I'm not planning on deleting any books or discontinuing this series, the updates are just going to be extremely slow. I have some wiggle room in my schedule this week (fingers crossed) and I'll try to get another couple chapters updated before I really end up getting overwhelmed by work, school, and editing my book.

Thanks again for everyone's support and I hope you've liked the series so far! :D