"Please, don't do it, Nal," came the calm voice of the Chiss Jedi Knight Val. He spoke just loud enough to be heard over the sound of the crashing waterfall. "Our orders were to bring them in."
"Not dis one, Val!" the green-skinned Nautolan female replied, holding her lightsaber inches from the neck of the blond Sith woman. "Mastah Taisun only said it was important dat da others were captured alive."
"We were to bring them all in if possible... and right now that's still possible," the big blue Jedi replied calmingly. He lowered the unconscious body of the Sith male from his shoulder to the ground and walked slowly and carefully across the small clearing. "We're supposed to be bringing all four of them to justice."
"No!" Nal raged."Dis one will be brought to justice here and now. She's murdered hundreds dat we know about and probably more. She murdered Nylan!"
"If Nylan were here, she'd be the first to tell you that she wouldn't want this," Val reminded her. "Search your feelings... you know this to be true."
"Nylan isn't here. Dat's da whole point," the Nautolan said, tears beginning to flow. "Dis one murdered her before my eyes, and I was helpless to stop it!"
The Chiss put his hand on Nal Talla's shoulder and looked down on the pitiful human. Anya Tachi was curled up, holding the stumps where her fingers used to be, wimpering as tears flowed down her face. "It's not justice for Nylan you seek, it's revenge for yourself.
"Killing her may be what she deserves, but that is not for us to decide," Val said, continuing. "But if you do, you'll have started down the path of the Dark Side. And the Dark Side will be the only thing you have to fill the empty hole left by your revenge."
He waited several heartbeats before he continued. "She isn't worth it, Val. Your soul is to valuable to be sacrificed for the likes of her."
Several more moments went by before Nal looked away from the cowering Sith and down at the object touching her arm. Val was handing her a set of energy binders. Finally, she switched off her lightsaber and clipped it to her belt. She reached down and roughly snapped the binders on her prisoner, then yanked Anya to her feet.
"Tanks," Nal said.
Val smiled. "I knew you'd do the right thing... Come, the shuttle should be waiting for us at the mouth of the canyon by now," he told her, picking Tyr up once more and slinging him over his shoulder.
She looked at him as she shoved the Sith prisoner in front of her. "You're not going to tell Mastah Taisun, are you?"
"I won't need to."
----------------------
A few hours later on the Republic Hammerhead-class star cruiser Unity, the two Jedi sat in Captain Wash Moklam's ready room just off of the bridge along with the Captain and his First Officer. "Captain, I know the crew is elated to have captured these two Sith, but shouldn't we put an end to the celebration? There are still two more out there that we're looking for, and they're the more elusive of the four."
"Let them have their momentary victory, Lieutenant," Moklam replied. "It may only be a small victory, but it's still a victory, and we haven't had many of those lately."
"Yes, sir."
"Now, Jedi Nal, Jedi Val, I think we owe you two a big thanks as well," the Captain continued. "Without you two, we may never have been able to capture these two alive so they can stand trial for their crimes."
Nal and Val glanced at each other, hesitating before Val spoke up. "I'm afraid we have some bad news in that regard, Captain."
Moklam raised his eyebrow. He had a bad feeling about where this was going, but he kept silent and allowed the big Chiss Jedi to continue.
"Our orders are to bring these two to the Jedi Enclave on Dantooine," Val informed him. "Once you check in with your superiors, you'll find that your orders will coincide."
Moklam closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. Typical Jedi nerf goh-se is what this was turning into. Instead of standing trial in a Republic court of law for their murders, thefts and crimes against not only the Republic, but against Moklam and the Unity itself, these two villains were going to be cubby-holed away by the gorram Jedi. Instead of the reply he wanted to give, he suppressed his anger, burying it deeply. "I don't suppose you'll be able to tell me why, can you?"
Nal and Val had anticipated this reaction from the Moklam. They knew he was a good man, but like most non-Jedi, he didn't understand the ways of the Order. Nal did her best to explain. "We have come to suspect dat dese two are merely decoys, pawns to keep us running around instead of looking for da other two," she explained.
"We also suspect that they know where the other two are hiding," Val continued. "No Republic interrogation is going to break a Sith. At least they never have before."
"I guess that makes sense," Moklam agreed. "But Republic Intelligence is relatively positive the other two have teamed up with Diana Kingsdoom and her pirates. She was with them when we unknowingly captured them some time ago, and during the hijacking of the aurodium shipment, several ships matched the description of those known to belong to the Kingsdoom Pirates."
"Except dat da Republic doesn't know where her base of operations are," Nal pointed out.
"Worst case scenario, Captain, is that we don't break the Sith and they are turned over to the Republic to stand trial," Val explained. "The best case scenario is that we break them. Then not only will we have the other two Sith responsible for the Coruscant Massacre, but we put Diana Kingsdoom behind bars as well."
Moklam smiled. Maybe this wasn't bad news after all.
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