A Tangled Web

[Mantic Dorn]

The strike came to a sudden halt as the lightning poured out from the sith lords hand. It enveloped Mantics saber and spread itself downward, spiraling its way over his hand and arm.
A droppled of sweat pressed itself through his skin as he slowly began to fight the dark power.

Grinning he found it hard and was pressed to the ground, knees touching the belly of the shuttle.

He was afraid, and he was surprised by all of this. [member="Darth Ferus"] was further gone down the dark side then anyone else he had encountered.

His fear was however centered around what would happen if no one stopped this dark lord of the sith. What would happen to [member="Lady Kay"] - [member="Fixx Kearney"] or the minister of Intelligence? What damage would he deliver should he have his way with them all.

The force lightning held his arm captive, yet he managed to halt its advance momentarily and with his left hand he pressed forth a push trying to press [member="Darth Ferus"] further away from the republic agent and their senatorial escort.

Never the less, Mantic was still not focused enough to assemble powers of a full blown jedi master and the words spoken to rouse even further doubt in the jedis mind had effect. Mantic was not in a balanced state, nor was he in control.

[member="Faith Balor-Organa"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

They weren't terrified of her, were they? Surely they would've been holding her far more securely than they were if that was the case. No. [member="Darth Ferus"] was just trying to make her question them and their intentions.

As [member="Mantic Dorn"] started his attack, she was surprised at how Ferus handled himself. He didn't seem to want to attack anyone. That in and of itself was a good thing as he was too strong for either of them to handle. But Mantic was just doing his duty and following orders given by the by the Prime Minister.

Kay kept in front of [member="Fixx Kearney"] as she spoke up, loud enough to be heard over the crackling of the Force lightning and hum of the lightsaber. "Stop! Please! There's no need to fight. Everyone stand down!" Whether or not they would was another question. But she had hoped that they would see reason.

[member="Faith Balor-Organa"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Force powers were a strange thing - something like magic crossed with science. The Sith demonstrated such a power as the lightsabers came to life; a bit of a primitive weapon compared to a blaster, but in the right hands could be very deadly. The lightning came from [member="Darth Ferus"] and lit up the hold, forcing Fixx to turn and shield his eyes, and make a move to protect [member="Lady Kay"].

Glancing over to [member="Mantic Dorn"], his one good barrier between himself and the Sith, it was a situation spiralling out of control that would get them all killed.

"Get down!" Fixx shouted to the Senator, trying to push her down to cover from the Sith.

He pulled the blaster from his side and thumbed a full charge, twisting his body and the gun at an angle towards the cockpit and fired three hard shots towards the head area of the droid taking over the controls. Going against a Sith was suicide; going against a piece of metal was far more his thing.

 

[Darth Ferus]

Twang.

The sound of [member="Fixx Kearney"] 's shot ringing off the droids head rang clear. The droid himself slumped forward, still. But quick as it went down, it came back up. Guardian's head slowly swiveled back, the DHK's red eyes narrowed.

"Statement: I am not here to fight, meatbag. Push me however, and I will proceed elimination tactics." The solid Phrik droid would turn his head back to piloting. It's just here for a needed pilot after all.

Ferus on the other hand found his right side thrown back from the push, the Force catching his shoulder. He stumbled back a step, a growl escaping his lips. Red eyes narrowed upon [member="Mantic Dorn"] as the Sith went back. But he was still here. With a swing of the same arm back upwards, Ferus would send out a massive burst of lightning, intent on not making a stream, but an explosive shot of the dark energy. The lightning strike was meant to hit like a bullet, with an electrified force behind it of course. An angry Sith was a strong one after all.

[member="Lady Kay"]

 

[Mantic Dorn]

Mantic barely got to his feet as the sith lightning seized. He needed to get his focus back and was going for a chance to use the sudden pause. But alas, the brief moment was not enough. The lightning bolt struck him in the belly. He had traveled to [member="Lady Kay"] as an adviser and wore no armor. The impact left a hole in the jedis soft belly. The following second Mantics eyes shifted toward [member="Fixx Kearney"]

"... flee...." he managed with hollow eyes, before he collapsed to his knees blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. Then he fell forward face down. Blood forming a red pool underneath his body which apart from the movement caused by the shuttle otherwise lay still.

[member="Lady Kay"] [member="Fixx Kearney"] [member="Darth Ferus"] [member="Faith Balor-Organa"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay had no choice but to duck down as [member="Fixx Kearney"] pushed her and opened fire. She had encountered assassin droids like the one [member="Darth Ferus"] had piloting the transport before, and they were not to be messed with. Especially in this type of situation.

And then the burst of lightning struck [member="Mantic Dorn"] hard, dropping him almost instantly. Did he tell them to flee?? Where to? They were trapped. The blood began pooling around the Jedi as he passed out. If only they had listened! None of this would have happened and everyone would be okay! But no, they all had to jump to conclusions and are now suffering for it. And it was all her fault.

Breaking away from Fixx, Kay ran over to Mantic and crouched beside him. She rolled him over towards her and used his cloak to help soak up the blood as she applied pressure to the wound. It had been a few years since she had to repair such damage. She hoped that she was still able to. With her heart racing, she ignored the others around her and focused on the Force that surrounded them. She entwined it's energy with her own and began closing up the broken veins first as bleeding out wouldn't be of help. Hopefully she would still be awarded time to work on his organs and tissue. But that was all up to how generous the Dark Lord felt like being today.

 

[Faith Organa]

No word from Fixx came he either couldn't answer or was risking disobeying her request. Things were moving quickly inside her head flipping her communications over she sent a request to communications to locate her agent using whatever method was possible.

She then left her office as Ana tried to find out what was wrong. The search of the building had turned up nothing they were not there. So. Transports. They had to if gotten on one. As she enter communication. "Bring up all footage from the building surveillance system and locate where they were last scene. Then coordinate with external surveillance to track them"

Faith could feel time was of the essence.

[member="Fixx Kearney"] [member="Lady Kay"] [member="Mantic Dorn"] [member="Darth Ferus"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Fixx hung back and looked the droid square in those hollow cyber-eyes and was thankful he wasn’t a programmed assassin droid at the very least. It had all been one big mess from arriving in with [member="Lady Kay"] and [member="Mantic Dorn"] in the transport.

Now, this Sith was taking them out and he watched with cold eyes as the Jedi was taken down, and he had little chance to stop the Senator from rushing to help. The transport rocked, and Fixx glanced to see the Sith - [member="Darth Ferus"] – holding all the cards. But he didn’t have the ace.

There was two ways out of this, Fixx knew. Certain death and losing Kay to the Sith, or doing anything else to try and get this transport down or buy them some time or gain the upper hand or SOMETHING other than dying.

Snapping his head back to the droid, who was now once more focused on piloting, Fixx moved forward and barged the droid as hard as he could using his back, and kicked out with his foot to the yolk, slamming it down towards the cockpit and doing the inevitable; sending the transport into a nose dive.

For a moment, he hoped [member="Faith Balor-Organa"] wasn’t observing the shuttle at all. She’d have a field day with him if they survived.

 

[Darth Ferus]

Red eyes went slowly from the Jedi to [member="Lady Kay"] . [member="Mantic Dorn"] to the Sith was dead now, with a massive hole in his stomach. There was no way anyone could survive that, in his mind at least. As she went to try to save the man though, a grin formed on his lips. So she was still so selfless, even in the face of death? She'd have made a good Jedi. A single had raised, meant to grip her by her throat and lift her into the air. He had things he wanted to say, but that quickly faded as he was suddenly throw back.

[member="Fixx Kearney"] kicked the ship into a nosedive, lurching Ferus back and into the wall behind him before the fall really began. There was a grunt from the Sith, and what ever he had planned quickly went out the window. Guardian, the droid Fixx had knocked away, didn't choose to assault the man. No, such a sudden drop on this sort of planet would be noticed. Mag gripped to the floor, the droid would walk over to the Sith Lord.

"Master, we must leave."

A silent nod was all the droid was offered before the door was opened. Quickly the pair would leap out the side, leaving a near dead Jedi, a senator, and an agent in a spiraling ship. Perhaps that would kill them for sure, but Ferus expected to see the Lady. As he fell towards the ground below, he knew that one day they would meet again, and he would not be as forgiving.

 

[Kay-Larr]

The sudden nose dive sent Kay and [member="Mantic Dorn"] sliding towards the wall. It pulled her out of her focus long enough to see [member="Darth Ferus"] and his droid exiting the transport. At least that part was over for the moment. Yet still there was a lot that needed to be done right away.

She did her best not to squish Mantic as she looked for [member="Fixx Kearney"] and spotted him by the pilot's chair. "Fixx pull us out of this and get us to a med bay, quick! We can't lose him!" Kay didn't want to have it happen again, to see someone die in front of her by the hands of a Sith Lord because she was defiant. Mantic was too good for the Republic and the Jedi to lose.

Now that the bleeding had stopped she refocused. If Fixx couldn't save them then everything she was doing now was worthless. But she was too stubborn to quit. So Kay centered herself and once again concentrated on the Force and the extent of Mantic's injuries. She found damage on the liver and kidneys and some on the large intestine. As Fixx did what he could to try to save them, she worked on saving the Jedi. It was the least that she could do...

[member="Faith Balor-Organa"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

The droid moved, without attacking, and Fixx pushed the hulking chunk of metal to the side to get into the pilots chair as the transport nosedived towards the skylane and bustling city below. He could make out speeders in flight and people going about their daily routine. His hands gripped the controls and he pulled back firmly but steadily, slowly levelling out and regaining control, as the gust of wind blew in from [member="Darth Ferus"] making his cowardly exit – not even finishing the job like a true man of decency.

Letting out a inaudible sigh of relief, Fixx glanced over his shoulder to see [member="Lady Kay"] and [member="Mantic Dorn"] – the Jedi bleeding out and the Senator doing all she could.

Turning back and scanning over the controls, he tapped into the signal for [member="Faith Balor-Organa"] from the dashboard.

"Sorry for the delay, Minister. Had a little trouble with a backseat driver. Medical team required urgently on the main landing pad at once."

He glanced back again at the Jedi casualty, before focusing on piloting the heavy transport up and around the skyscrapers of the city to return to their original destination; the Republic offices of the Minister where things had suddenly become a whole lot more sinister.

Touching down on the main landing pad after a few minutes of silent flight, the wind lapping over them from the side door still open, the med teams were standing by as Fixx brought the transport to a stop.

 

[Faith Organa]

They had watched it all play out. Faith's heart had jumped into her chest more than once but once the transport was righted some relief was available in knowing they weren't going to crash. Excellent.

She sent the medical team, and two platoons of guards one to search for [member="Darth Ferus"] and another to help once [member="Fixx Kearney"] docked. She stood back as she watched the transport approach something inside her something that set off a sense of foreboding she couldn't put her finger on it but she just knew something was terribly wrong.

"Agent Kearney we are on the platform and waiting." She did not say anything more she would question him on what happen once she knew there were no casualties. Had something happened to [member="Mantic Dorn"] or to [member="Lady Kay"]? She wished she had a magic 8 ball that would tell her the outcome.

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay noticed the shift of the weight in her body once the transport had evened it's flight. Maybe even [member="Mantic Dorn"] noticed it too. She couldn't tell. She continued to work on trying to heal the Jedi, but was stopped once the medical team had arrived. One had placed his hand on her shoulder which brought her out of her concentration, causing her to open her eyes and look up at him. "A Sith hit him with lightning. He needs surgery and a bacta tank and...." and an apology.

Swallowing, she got to her feet and moved back so that the med team could do their work. Kay looked to her bloodied cloak and bloodied hands before looking to [member="Fixx Kearney"] "Nice work. Thank you..." She clenched her fists feeling a large range of emotions, some directed at herself and some directed at others. But mostly it was towards herself.

As the guards came inside Kay just gathered her satchel and slung it over her shoulder. Now it was time to face the music and the situation had been made worse with this attack. [member="Faith Balor-Organa"] was just outside, waiting for them. This was not going to go well and she felt really bad for having to disappoint the Minister. After Mantic was taken out of the shuttle she followed, wanting to go away with him but knowing that she couldn't. So instead she stopped a few feet away from Faith, knowing that Fixx and some of the guards would be behind her. She kept her head and eyes lowered in shame,"...I'm sorry...I didn't mean for any of this to happen.."

[member="Darth Ferus"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Fixx blew out a breath, and sat in the seat for a moment looking out over the city as the medics came to help [member="Mantic Dorn"] out of the transport side, the evidence of the confrontation evident in scorched floors, blackened walls and punctured walls. It’s lucky the transport didn’t break apart.

He turned around, walking out, down from the hold onto the landing pad where he saw [member="Lady Kay"] and [member="Faith Balor-Organa"] waiting, the guards doing their bit to both escort the wounded Jedi away and to cover the Minister.

"I suggest you both get inside," Fixx said, walking behind them and nodding to the guarded door, "because it’s evidently not safe here."

He turned to the Minister as he began to walk.

"We have a Sith on the loose in the area with an assaisn droid – a [member="Darth Ferus"]. He tried to take the Senator and was responsible for Mantic over there."

 

[Faith Organa]

The immediate threat it seemed was the Sith [member="Darth Ferus"] Faith nodded, "Let us put out a description have all available personnel begin looking for him and the droid." Faith looked at [member="Mantic Dorn"] as the teams worked, "we need to get him the best assistance we have"

Mantic had been with her on a few trips, but what stuck out the most was that he had been the one who tried to comfort her on The Wheel. He deserved much for his actions then, and now. "We must inform the Prime Minister, and the Grandmaster of these happenings. A Full briefing detailing everything is needed." Full disclosure to protect everyone involved, and to prevent anyone else from harm. "[member="Fixx Kearney"] are you hurt?" He was her agent, she needed to ensure he was unharmed.

Faith looked at Kay, she did not know what to say at the moment was this a result of her clandestine activities? Or was this something else? She did not know, she only knew that her agent and a jedi had been placed in danger, but then again wasn't Kay a Jedi, why didn't she see this coming?

[member="Lady Kay"]

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

The Prime Minister was no less than perturbed to receive a report--or reports--like this. A traitor within her own Senate. She prided herself on clearing out the Sith vermin and, to the best of anyone's knowledge, destroying any possibilities of interior spying. This was her government. She did not take pleasantly to these sorts of games. She had been on the side of the spies once in her life, and while she was aware that at least one enemy might pass through the sieve no matter how intricately its straining wires were woven, to hear that a senator of [member="Lady Kay"]'s prestige was a potential breach in security was of utmost alarm.

An order was immediately dispatched to the faithful Minister of Intelligence upon Lasedri's receipt of her warning, requesting that the suspected traitor be brought in at once by any means necessary. An innocent politician, after all, would have no need to resist.

Faith,

Have your agents retrieve her by whatever force is deemed necessary. Keep the situation as quiet as possible.

[member="Faith Balor-Organa"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay furrowed her brows as she walked along with [member="Fixx Kearney"] and [member="Faith Balor-Organa"] . She was worried about [member="Mantic Dorn"] and hoped that he would recover. And she was worried about her future. Both the Grand Master and the Prime Minister were being called. Oh why did she have to see such top officials? She never gets an audience with them alone, nor would she ask for one. And now she was certain that the wrong conclusions would be jumped to, just as they were when Mantic had requested her arrest. All that she had asked for was their help and instead she was being taken into custody.

As they approached the secured building, Kay closed her eyes as she handed over her satchel to one of the guards when it was asked of her. The Senator's hands were still covered in Mantic's dried blood and she wondered if she'd be allowed to clean up first. Most likely not. She wrapped her arms around herself and almost wished that this was all a bad nightmare and that she would wake up in the Cartel's mental institution again. But no. She was living this nightmare and there was no running from it.

[member="Geneviève Lasedri"] [member="Darth Ferus"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

”No.” His response left no room for debate. ”I’m fine.”

He walked a step behind [member="Faith Balor-Organa"] and beside [member="Lady Kay"] as [member="Mantic Dorn"] was taken off. His boss should have known he’d never willingly be fussed over or treated when there was work to do.

It seemed his job had been done – just. The Senator had reached her destination, and now he would stay to ensure there were no other attempts on her life, or even the Minister. The building was guarded and secured internally, but moles came in all shapes and sizes and in these times there was never a moment where your guard could be dropped.

[member="Geneviève Lasedri"]

 

[Faith Organa]

[member="Geneviève Lasedri"] | [member="Fixx Kearney"] | [member="Lady Kay"]

Faith could hear a soft chirp that told her a message had come in she pulled out the small datapad she carried and accessed her messages, reading it she sighed heavily. Keep it as quiet as possible. Faith looked up and around at those with her, that advice may be a little late.

She had a feeling Fixx had just lied to her she would deal with him later, and that Kay was regretting all of this. And they were all concerned for [member="Mantic Dorn"] . They moved through corridors until they were near the cross section, on part would lead down to the holding cells, the other towards her office.

"My office, everyone" She did not wait to see any looks nor did she care to debate anything at the moment. She just led the way thinking of what to say to the Prime Minister.

As they neared her office, Ana was standing in the hall concern written all over her face. "Ana, I need you to send a message, please inform the Prime Minister we are in my office" Faith knew that once she knew where they were, she would show up.

This was not going to be easy. As she stopped to finish the notes for Ana the small group passed her to go into the office.

"Ana, call a medical droid please" Faith would show Kay a private room off of her office where she could wash up.

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay held her breath and then released it slowly as she entered [member="Faith Balor-Organa"] 's office. She let herself be guided to the private room and proceeded to wash [member="Mantic Dorn"] 's blood from her hands in the warm water. It was soothing in it's own way. She increased the temperature and just continued to let the water envelop her hands before then moving on to washing her face. She had to be calm if she was going to have any hope in this. She dried herself off and then looked in the mirror, staring at her reflection. It wasn't something that she normally did as she wasn't a vain person, yet here she was. Inwardly though she was chastising herself.

Before she thought that they would wonder what was taking her so long, Kay left the private room and then sat herself down on one of the chairs in front of Faith's desk. She wanted some tea, but then now wasn't the time to ask. This wasn't a social visit. Kay just kept her head down, feeling the weight of the world on her shoulders.

[member="Fixx Kearney"] [member="Geneviève Lasedri"]