September 22, 2009

522. Flight of the Decoy - Raezyr

Anya shut deactivated her lightsaber as the body of the dead shopkeeper crumpled to the floor. Clipping the hilt back to her belt, she bent over and grabbed his swipe key, then hustled to the back entrance. The door whooshed open quietly as she passed the card through the reader. "Quick, get him in here," she called into the darkness.

Tyr appeared from the shadows, with the arm of Kal Van-Dohr draped over his shoulder. Using the Force to support most of the smuggler's weight, he moved him effortlessly into the shop and set him down gently on the floor behind the counter.

Anya secured the doors and turned out the lights, then moved over to the dead Arkanian and attempted to drag him back out of sight of the window, in case any of the security commandos shined glow rods into the shop windows.

She struggled to drag the body for a moment, then attempted to lift it using the Force, but as usual, she couldn't lift anything more than tiny objects, and those only with a struggle. Anya turned to Tyrrazapon who was tending to his old acquaintance's wounds. "Tyr, stop messing with him, and move this body, I can't budge it."

Tyr stood up and looked over the counter at her. With a wave of his hand, the body effortlessly slid across the floor and under a shelf where it would be out of view from any of the windows. He then went back to tending Kal's wounds. "Doesn't look good, buddy," Tyr said. "You were hit pretty bad to begin with, and after the last couple of hourse, it's even worse."

When they had gotten out of Kal's headquarters, they had run into two of Kal's men. Over the next few hours they had worked their way through the city streets, trying to get to the spaceport and their ships, but they had run into trouble more than once, which resulted in losing both of Kal's men and Kal taking another wound.

Kal coughed, spitting up a bit of blood. "I'm so sorry, Tyr."

"It's not your fault you got shot, Kal, just hang tight. We'll get you out of this," Tyr replied.

"No... I'm not going to make it, but that's not... " he paused and winced. "That's not what I meant," he said, his breath coming in ragged grasps.

"What did you mean then?" Anya asked having ducked back behind the counter after the body had been moved. She was glad to have the rest, as they'd been on the move for quite some time now.

"I meant, this whole thing... they knew where to find you because of me..." Kal said.

"WHAT?" Anya said incredulously. She scrambled over to Kal, drawing one of her hidden daggers and putting it to his throat. "You turned us in? I should kill you right now!"

Tyr grabbed her wrist before she could go through with it. "Anya, wait! Give him a chance to explain."

Kal coughed again. "It wasn't my fault!" he began. "They must have been monitoring my communications, because shortly after you contacted me, they did too. They told me about the case they had been building against me, and that it would all go away if I just kept you two busy for a few days. They said the republic wanted you, but they want to capture you themselves. Having you two kill that informant was supposed to take you three or four days, and would have been my way of getting back at them.

"I had no way of knowing you two would just haul right out and kill her without any pre-planning. Apparently they decided not to wait for the Republic to get here..." he trailed off as he finished, wincing in pain again.

Anya's face was flushed red, as she began digging into her pack. "You DID sell us out," she commented as she began pulling out kolto patches and various stimulant injectors.

"I didn't have a choice, babe. It was..." he paused again, wincing once more. "It was either turn in two people I barely knew, or go to prison. You'd do the same thing in my place. Tell her Tyr," he reasoned.

Tyr ignored Kal and looked at Anya, wondering why she was pulling out medical supplies now, when they could have used them a couple of hours ago. "Anya? What are you doing?"

"I'm going to show the galaxy what happens to those who betray the Sith," she said calmly.

"Do what you want," Kal said raggedly. "I'm dead anyway."

"No. You're going to live, Kal," Anya said, ripping Kal's shirt off and applying the kolto to his wounds. "At least long enough to get my message across."

Anya shoved the shirt into Kal's mouth, then picked up her dagger again, placing the cold blade against his skin.

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

The Arkanian news team sneaked down the alley to the open back door of Alok Dang's electronics supply store. They had been caught and turned back twice by the Arkanian Security Force, but the anonymous tip they'd received said they'd find evidence of Sith activity if they arrived quickly and quietly, and they weren't about to be denied, even if this turned out to be a hoax.

"Alright, turn the holocam on, and follow me in, get shots all around, got it?" the reporter instructed her cameraman. He nodded in understanding, and shouldered the camera, thumbing the power switch to the 'on' position.

The reporter gave the signal and they entered the building. They looked around the back room for a few minutes, finding nothing. "I think this is bogus," said the cameraman from behind the holocam.

"Just stay with me. Let's go to the front."

The stepped through the door and into the area behind the counter, and instantly saw the body with the note on it. The reporter covered his mouth and had to look away, but through the lens of the holocam, the scene was surreal enough, the cameraman was able to stay focused, and zoomed in on the horribly mutilated corpse until the note was legible. This is what happens to those who cross the Sith, was the only thing it said. The cameraman zoomed back out to a wider view.

"What a horrible way to go. I can't believe what they did to him," the reporter commented, finally recovering a little bit.

Suddenly the corpse began to cough and gurgle. It's eyes flared open and it's head lolled to the side as it attempted to reach toward the reporter.

The reporter began to retch, and the cameraman even dropped the holocam. "How can that thing even be alive?"

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