Guardians of Light

Reunited At Last

The empty streets provided no restriction to the speeding hovercraft that hurtled at breath-taking pace trough the darkness. The Jedi straddling the vehicle maneuvered the twists and turns with expert precision, not allowing anything to keep her from what she knew to be a life or death situation. 

An earpiece relayed the continuous stream of audio from devices that had been placed in the bar weeks prior to the meeting, a link that had recently echoed with blaster fire and screams of the dying, a link that now conveyed only fizzling static. 

Brave onlookers were tentatively peering out onto the street where the bar was located, drawn by the blaster fire and their own insatiable curiosity. The sudden presence of the ominous Jedi sent them scarpering back to safety.

Lexa dismounted swiftly and did not hesitate to stride directly through the front entrance, lightsabre in hand to combat anyone still lurking around. It turned out to be an unnecessary precaution; the only bodies inside the establishment were those of the dead. 

Carefully picking her way through the carnage, she headed for the back room where the long awaited meeting had taken place. There was no sign of the blonde anywhere which could mean one of two things, Lexa just hoped that she was safe but was aware of how wistful the thought was. 

The private rooms held a similar scene of destruction, however the face of one woman caught the Jedi's gaze, a face which had been memorised carefully on mission briefs and holorecords. Lana, the Republic spy, had clearly gone down fighting if the number of bodies strewn around the room was anything to go by, but it was not yet clear if she had passed on the vital information that this mission had been carefully built around.

An incoming transmission diverted her attention from the Republic casualty. An unknown caller was attempting contact and Lexa knew exactly who it was going to be even before the hologram shimmered into existence. 

'Kaan.'

Her icy greeting was only meet with a gloating smile, her brother knew that he held the upper ground. 

'I see you found my latest business venture sister. It's a shame that you weren't faster, I believe you missed your blonde friend by what must have been....ah, only a few minutes it would seem. How unfortunate.'

There was nothing sympathetic in the comment, only cruel satisfaction.

'What do you want Kaan?'

'I'm sending you my coordinates. I think it's time for a family reunion, that is if you want to see your friend again. The choice is yours.'

The Sith Lord terminated the connection and his image snapped out of existence. If anything, at least the bastard was always to the point. There was no doubt that he would now have Clarke in his grasp, and with that knowledge she was left with only one decision. 

She paused briefly to contact her crew, recalling them back to the ship before returning to the hovercraft and leaving the nightmare of the bar behind her with a heavy heart. That was for the Republic to cover now, there was nothing she could do. 

Her return to the ship was met with a flurry of well-meaning questions, but Lexa ignored them all as she went about readying the ship for departure, finally turning to the concerned faces as she entered the coordinates into the console. 

It took only a few moments to brief the team on what had occurred and, as expected, they were not entirely convinced by her decision. The main argument of course was the awareness that this was a lure with which to kickstart some abhorrent Imperial game plan, all of which Lexa had already considered in great depth. 

'Firstly, we will not abandon Clarke. The only certainty in this scenario is what will happen to her if we ignore the summons. Secondly, Kaan has been interwoven in our path for months now and that is no coincidence. It is time we faced him and learnt of his intentions for us and the Republic. There could be a lot at stake.'