Duel In the darkest depths dwell

[Travot Ravenna]

Fear of the unknown tugged at Travot as he watched the creature emerge. While he was familiar with a large number of wild beasts from kicking around the Outer Rim or being forced to fight them by the Bryn'adul or Sith, this particular one was not one he was familiar with. But it didn't take a whole lot of intelligence to quickly figure out that it was bad news, from its aggressive behavior, sharpened tusks, and obviously muscled body. Part of him wondered at first if it was some sort of Sithspawn, genetically enhanced by its owners, yet he did not feel any obvious taint of the dark side on it. His brief analysis of the creature was interrupted by a string of unintelligible sounds from Darth Marras , but the pointing gesture told him enough.

I should have taken care of him before all of this...

Travot began to step to the side, simply slicing a apart a table that got in his way in the process. In doing so, he hoped to force the beast to choose between fighting either Travot or Darth Marras head on. Either way, the beast should turn his side or his back to the other force-user to make it more vulnerable to a flanking attack. With his free left hand, the man focused on lifting part of the already slice table, and brought it up in the air, ready to turn it into a shield or a weapon as needed. It all depend on how the creature or Darth Marras acted.

 

[Darth Marras]

The creature growled at Travot. Seeing the Jedi move was enough to target him. It was cautious as it moved. Fangs chattering, claws twitching with anticipation. And even though it was focused on Travot at the moment, Marras knew that he wanted none of what this thing was selling. He was cautious in his own movements, slowly stepping to the side further and further from the Jedi.

Once he felt he was in the creature's blind spot, Marras hopped onto a nearby table. Then, using the force, he hurled himself toward the tunnel.

He turned his head to Travot, and waving with his prosthetic, said, "So long, suck-"

Much to his surprise, the creature whipped around with blinding speed and leaped at him. It easily snatched him out of the air with one of it's claws. Almost like it had a reflex for intercepting cowards like him.

"(Oh, come on!!)" he yelled at the creature

The rabid beast roared at Marras. Raising the masked conman into the air, it proceeded to slam him into the hard ground, followed by chucking him across the room. Marras, of course, landed with a thud. Surprisingly, he was still alive and conscious. Unsurprisingly, he wasn't seeing all that well. Between the dim lights, and the room spinning, Marras was practically blind.

Growling once more, the creature hunkered down, and followed after Marras with much quicker steps than when it headed for Travot.

 

[Travot Ravenna]

How did that holo line go? Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal? Travot blinked as he watched the creature smacked down Darth Marras to the ground. That had to hurt...He could only imagine the pain the sith was in, and part of him felt some schadefreunde for it as well. But that was coupled with the very realization that he also likely wouldn't be able to simply outrun the beast. And having the sith around long enough to at least inflict some damage to the beast (or force the beast the expend more energy on him) seemed like a reasonably smart idea.

He flicked his left wrist forward, sending the table half flying through the air and into the beast's head, hopefully distracting it from immediately killing Marras. Keeping his left wrist upward and level, he fired his lanvorok. A trio of durasteel discs flew out of the launcher and roughly towards the beast. Wit his left hand still outstretched, he guided the discs to plant themselves into the creature's eyes - ironically a classic sith tactic - hopefully blinding the creature enough to make the fight a little more even matched.

 

[Darth Marras]

The creature was so focused on Marras that it had mostly forgotten about Travot. That changed when the table collided with the side of its head. It stumbled to the side, very nearly losing its balance. Enraged, it turned to roar, only to get a face full of durasteel discs. Two of them sliced up its face really bad, while the third went directly into its eye socket. Howling in pain, the Nydak began to blindly thrash about, knocking away another table to the side, and then clawing away the disk that blinded its one eye. Moaning in pain when its claws ripped small chunks out of its face.

Marras, on the other hand, was just starting to get his bearings back. That being said, he wasn't completely "there" either. He pushed himself back onto his feet, only to stumble forward, dizziness from being thrown like a ragdoll. He attempted to use his lightsaber as a guide. Pointing it straight ahead, he accidentally stabbed the creature just when it reared up in an attempt to chase Travot.

Howling in agony when the lightsaber pierced the left if its lower back, it whipped around and swiped at the dazed Sith. Marras had stumbled back in confusion when he heard the howl. Despite that, he hadn't completely escaped the creature's wrath. The back of the Nydak's claw collided with the side of Marras' head, causing him to spin before crashing to the ground. His grip on his lightsaber loosened, sending it flying to the side of the room where it turned off upon colliding with the ground.

Enraged further, the creature slammed both claws into the floor. Hunkering down with its face just a few feet from Marras', the monster roared at the Sith.

"(C-Can't see...)" said Marras, fumbling for his lightsaber with one hand, while he aimed his prosthetic at the monster's face

Just as the creature was ready to bite Marras' prosthetic, a slot opened up on the arm. A flamethrower nozzle popped out, and with a roar that rivaled the Nydak's, spewed flames into the creature's face. Though its thick hide was more resistant to the flames, its remaining eye was not. Clutching its burnt face, the creature stumbled backward before crashing onto the ground. Robbed of its vision the creature swiped at thin air desperate to kill one of the two people that blinded it.

Marras' flamethrower ceased after a moment, sliding back into the slot it came from. He tried to roll over onto his chest in order to get back on his feet again. He got onto his chest... but then his head felt so heavy from all the trauma that he could only lay there.

"H-Hang on... I'll help now..." he told Travot, trying to sound apologetic as he blindly tried to locate his lightsaber with both hands

 

[Travot Ravenna]

Travot winced as the durasteel discs tore up the creature's face. Though forced into combat time after time by the darker forces of the galaxy, he was not a man who yearned for blood or the thrill of a fight. Every single blow was a tragedy to him. The follow-up flame attack from Darth Marras seemed to have eliminated the creature's other eye, and with its vision now gone - the Nydak was both vulnerable and extra dangerous. The whole beast backed into a proverbial corner thing.

If I get close to that thing, I'll probably end up like my favorite person from Tatooine. Travot locked the activation stud on his lightsaber in place and chucked the saber towards the creature. It was an awkward through that slice through some arcane bit of laboratory tubing before Travot grabbed a hold of the saber with the Force and steadied it as it sailed onward into the creature. While his accuracy wasn't exactly perfect, the saber tore deeply into the creature's upper body near its neck - Travot's goal had been to give it a quick, relatively painless death through a clean decapitation, but his angle was off. The saber started to tumble and bury deep into the Nydak's flesh, causing it to roar in pain. Time to stop. He stretched out his hand, causing the saber to fly through the air back towards him. Keen not to accidentally slice himself, he managed to deactivate the saber's blade before the hilt clattered onto a nearby table, from which he quickly picked it back up.

Travot turned towards the Sith, "You feeling all right? I've got a couple of things in my medpac if you need them..."

 

[Darth Marras]

"(One minute!)" Marras shouted in Jawa

Despite the pain he was in, his vision was starting to return. Eventually, he found his lightsaber after crawling on the floor searching for it. With it, he scrambled to his feet. Activating it, he raised it high above his head and unleashed a battle cry... which quickly devolved into a sad, pitiful, disappointed groan.

"(Really...?)" he asked the dead Nydak in Jawa, then repeated his question to it in English, "Really?!"

Deactivating his lightsaber, he holstered it and angrily stomped over to the dead creature.

"(You scare the living piss out of me, chuck me like a stuffed toy, and for what?!)" he shouted at the creature, "(Can't even have the common decency to let me stab you a couple times before this yappy little do gooder killed you?!)"

Anger over taking him, he kicked the creature in the side of its ribs. The body twitched, causing Marras to hop backward and onto a table like someone trying to get away from a small rodent.

"I'm sore, but I'll live..." he told Travot after a bit, eyes locked onto the dead creature, which even though it was clearly dead, Marras wasn't convinced

 

[Travot Ravenna]

Traveling throughout the stars, Travot had heard all sorts of languages, few of which he understood but many that he could at least recognize. He had heard Sith chant in their ancient tongue and even crossed blades with a darksider who insisted on speaking and listening only in High Basic - the conversation between the two of them had unsurprisingly been short. But Travot sincerely wished he could at least identify, let alone be fluent, in whatever language that Darth Marras seemed to shout in. Travot eyed the sith cautiously as he went up and kicked the Nydak in its weakened state. He half-expected the creature to suddenly grab ahold of the other man and toss up him around like a rag doll. Yet he sensed that though grievously injured, the creature wasn't dead. But as long as it didn't present an active threat to them, Travot wouldn't have to kill it.

He deactivated his own lightsaber, fumbled through his medkit and tossed a small spray can of Vinchaine to the Sith, "Here, this might ease some of your pain. Just spray it on where it hurts."

And if I'm lucky, not only will ease some of your pain, but it might take away some of fuel to become a bit more aggressive and violent. Turning his eyes back to the Nydak, he stretched out a hand and focused on the creature's thoughts, attempting to shift them elsewhere. Not remotely a skilled mentalist, Travot doubted his ability to actually fully ease the creature's pain, but he could do a simple mind trick - It is time to sleep. Projecting rudimentary thoughts and visions of rest and slumber, he managed to lessen the creature's simple awareness even if it wasn't fully asleep, more in altered state of consciousness.

"You should come with me and get checked out by a medical specialist or droid."

 

[Darth Marras]

Marras held his hand out, snatching the spray can out of the air. Suspicious of it at first, eventually the Sith nodded in begrudging thanks and proceeded to spray the areas where the creature had dinged him up, which were numerous. Catching a glimpse of Travot doing something to the Nydak, which made Marras shudder when he realized that the creature wasn't dead as it seemed.

(Idiot... he should put it out of its misery...) he thought

He chucked the now empty can to the side... and proceeded to glare at Travot from behind his mask when he suggested seeing a medical specialist.

"That sounds like a great idea!" Marras said with mock enthusiasm, "And hey, while I'm there, why don't you take my fingerprints too so you can track me easier across the galaxy?"

Shaking his head at the Jedi, Marras said while holding up three fingers, "There's only two places I'm going: that other path back at that spoon in the road, and back to my ship so I can sell whatever that thing was guarding..."

 

[Travot Ravenna]

Perhaps not as stupid as he looks...or is he? Travot made a mental note to try and remember to retrieve the spray can that Darth Marras had just tossed away - after all, it might have fingerprints or some sort of biomaterial that he could potentially use to identify or track the man. Travot eyed the man up and down. The jedi himself had been fairly lucky in the fight, managing to avoid significant injury - he was fairly certain the sith hadn't been as lucky. He raised an eyebrow.

"That's assuming that we find something here first. Let's take care of that step first, and then we'll figure out where to go from there. Deal?"

 

[Darth Marras]

Marras gave the Jedi a long look from behind his mask.

(There's no way that monster is the only thing guarding this place...) thought Marras when he considered maybe ditching the Jedi, (Who knows what else could be in here... this guy really cheeses me off, but he's an actual Jedi... no doubt he'd be useful if anything meaner shows up...)

"Alright, fine..." said Marras, doing a little stretch, and wincing when a joint or two popped sending a quick jolt of pain throughout his body, "You lead the way... damn thing did a number on me..."

 

[Travot Ravenna]

Travot eyed Darth Marras intently as he spoke. The guy who tried to run away from the fight and almost shot me in the back wants me to get in front of him? It seemed a bad idea, even in the sith's weakened state. Part of Travot wanted to simply beat the sith down right here and take him in for questioning - that would arguably be the right thing to do in a legalistic manner, and it might feel so good too - but using aggression to solve a problem was also the siren call of the dark side.

He would try to keep to the kind truth.

"I don't think that either of us really trusts each other," started Travot, "even if we are managing to solve some problems together. I'm going to go over here and take a look at some of the items on this half. I'd recommend that you search the other half. No-one's back is to each other - at least not in a way that's easily exploited - and we can figure out what's been going on in this room."

 

[Darth Marras]

(At least he's making sense...) thought Marras

He honestly didn't blame Travot's suspicion. In fact, Marras would be lying if he said he never considered striking Travot when his back was turned. Still, the Sith didn't say a word. Merely, he gave a silent nod as he went over to the part of the room that Travot mentioned.

That's when he encountered the problem: he didn't know what he was to be searching for. Everything in the room looked like a pile of useless garbage, from the glass beakers, to the odd instruments scattered about. Reactivating his lightsaber, Marras glanced at one of the nearby tables. It didn't take long to find some papers next to a mortar and pestle.

Curious, he looked at one of the papers. It was written in some sort of language Marras couldn't identify.

(Ancient Sith crap, most likely...) he thought as he examined the papers closer after placing his lightsaber on top of the table, acting as a makeshift lamp

There were four papers in total, each one bearing that same language. All four had some sort of images or drawings accompanying the words.

The first page had four symbols, seemingly separated into two groups. The left symbols were... concerning. One was of a person surrounded by lightning bolts, while the other was of a person missing flesh. Then there were the two on the right... not ominous like the other two, but no less curious. One was of a person running, but their eyes were blank, tireless. The other was of an arm with a bone seeming to mend itself.

He looked at the second page, and was startled when he saw the image of the creature that attacked them moments ago.

The third page had an image of some sort of cube with an aura of some sort. A beam of light shot out from the top, displaying smaller, simpler versions of the symbols on page one.

And finally, the fourth page... which made Marras less than pleased when he saw what was on it. No words this time. Rather, it was a large drawing. A depiction of a large, cave-like room with a pedestal in the center. Atop the pedestal was the glowing cube. To the right of the pedestal was the creature that attacked Marras and Travot. To the left, much to Marras' dismay, was another creature. One that was seemingly larger, uglier, and meaner than the Nydak was.

"Hey, you-"

Marras froze in place when he turned to Travot. It only just occurred to him that neither of them had given their names. Now, normally Marras didn't care much for names because, well, he hated working with others. But, considering the Jedi before him was catching wise to Marras, Marras thought it best that he didn't start referring to the Jedi by way of expletives.

"What's your name?" he begrudgingly asked Travot, while holding the papers out for the Jedi to look at them, "I am Darth Marras... but call me Marras. I don't do formal crap unless I'm talking business."

 

[Travot Ravenna]

Travot sorted through his side of the room, taking note of a wide variety of glassware and ceramic pots with withered plants. None of it interested the man, though he doubtless thought it had great practical value to whoever used the room last. He eyed one particularly good example of the one of the plants, judging it the 'best' by the fact that it managed to have a whole three leaves that while obviously dry and long-dead, didn't appear to have any holes in them. I should probably take one of these leaves in for analysis by the Order...just to make sure there isn't something dangerous lingering about here...He snagged the crunchy leaf off, wrapped it on a mostly blank piece of paper he found on a table and placed it into his pants pocket.

There's got to be something more interesting here...should have a brought a droid to do some scans on things. His eyes suddenly caught a hold of a bolt of folded gray fabric. He began to inspect it, thinking that it might be some shimmersilk when Darth Marras called to him. Well, at least I have a name to run down and look up later...

"Travot," replied the man, "Travot Ravenna. I'm not much of a formal man myself. I'm guessing that you found something interesting?"

 

[Darth Marras]

Marras stood there for a good solid minute trying to get his tongue to pronounce the Jedi's name. Thankfully he had a mask on, because the faces he was making as he tried to pronounce Travot's name, and while he tried to process the name in his head would no doubt make it seem as though he were having a stroke.

Shaking his head, having given up, Marras told the Jedi, "I'm just gonna call you (Flap Lips)."

He placed the papers on a table near Travot, sprawling them out for the Jedi to see.

Pointing to the one with the cube and the tiny symbols, he told the Jedi, "I think this is what was hidden away in this vault."

He then pointed his finger to the drawing of the pedestal and the two creatures guarding it, "And then there's this... our friend here isn't the only one guarding this place..."

 

[Travot Ravenna]

That's close enough? Travot was not one overly picky or proud of his name - as long as the given name was functional and not overly insulting, he'd work with it. Travot eyed the documents carefully while he also looked for any sign of potential for deception, but he found none. The papers looked old - not something freshly made. Something about how the illustrations also suggested to him that Darth Marras didn't draw them either. Hard to fault him when he's being so open and honest. Perhaps there is a chance for him yet? But there's always the chance that he's just being honest enough, and hasn't revealed anything either...He eyed the other creature depicted on the paper more closely.

"What kind of creature does that look like to you? Let's not say something dangerous, because that's a given at this point..."

 

[Darth Marras]

"What kind of creature does that look like to you?"

Marras analyzed the drawing. It didn't take long for him to figure out what kind of creature it was. He opened his mouth to answer-

"Let's not say something dangerous, because that's a given at this point..."

And thus Marras' analysis went straight out the window, leaving him without an answer. (Typical Flap Lips...) he thought in aggravation

He looked at the drawing again. Little by little, the creature started to look vaguely familiar. Not that he had seen it before, but rather it seemed to match a creature he heard about.

"One of the elders back on the sand crawler had a friend once upon a time," He told Travot, "An explorer. Went to dangerous worlds seeking treasure. He told the elder one time about a creature called a Jotaz."

Nodding, Marras motioned to the large creature in the drawing, "I'm not 100% certain, but that drawing matches most of the guy's description of a Jotaz."

The Sith paused for a moment. A wave of nostalgia hit him. He remembered how much Bow loved the story of the Jotaz encounter whenever Elder Nikto told it. But after Nikto died, the only one who bothered to remember the story was Marras himself, because he knew how much Bow lived it.

"(Big teeth... strong arms... thick hide...)" Marras recounted in Jawaese, the story of Elder Nikto's friend came back to him in pieces, "(There are two types of Jotaz. Mean, and Meaner. The one my friend fought was the meanest of all the Jotaz. His blaster couldn't hurt it, and the few weapons he did have that could hurt it only made it angrier...)"

Snapping out of his trance, he returned his attention to Travot, "If this thing is a Jotaz, then we're going to have a real bad time."

 

[Travot Ravenna]

A Jotaz. That was a creature he actually had heard about from his own late master who had made an excursion to Zeffo. Yet that knowledge confirmed only what Darth Marras had already told him - it wouldn't be an easy fight. Hand to hand, without weapons or the Force, neither of them would likely stand much of a chance. Thankfully both of them had both, but he wasn't so sure he'd escape this one unscathed. He briefly hesitated.

"What if we were to set up a trap or traps for this Jotaz before we do anything else? That way, if it does show up while our backs are turned, we might be able to have a bit more of an edge, or at least a warning..."

 

[Darth Marras]

"Good idea, (Flap Lips)." Marras replied with sarcasm, "How about you summon up some Jotaz snacks with your Jedi powers while I pull a steel trap out of your ear?"

Motioning to the whole room they were in, Marras added, "The only idea I can see, aside from running the hell out of here, is coming back to this room once we've pissed it off!"

Marras shook his head to the notion of making a series of traps. (With what?!) he thought, (There's only sharp rocks, and even then, that thing can't fit in here! If anything that would trap us!!)

Thinking out loud, Marras crossed his arms over his chest, and gave a quick glance over to the Nydak, "Yeah, piss it off, have it chase us and trap us in here with... that... thing..."

He looked once more at the Nydak, and then over to Travot, who had put the thing to sleep. An idea suddenly came to him

"Hang on! Can you use whatever you used before to send that thing into a rage?!" Marras asked, pointing at the Nydak, "If so, then we could fight one furious creature with another!"

Looking at the Nydak, the gears in Marras' brain began turning. No longer waiting for an answer from Travot.

"We find the Jotaz, enrage it, have it chase us back to this room..." he said aloud, more to himself than to Travot, "You wake up that (freak of nature). Since it's blind, it'll go after the loudest thing it can hear, and then all we'd have to do is sit back while they kill each other, and finish off whoever wins! Ha-HAH!!"

Giggling with malicious glee he hadn't felt since he killed his master, Marras exclaimed, "(Then I'll be rolling in credits when I sell whatever that cube thing is!! AH HA HA HAAA!!)"

 

[Travot Ravenna]

Jedi training frequently hammered in the virtue of patience, yet Travot was not certain that it was one that Darth Marras was aware of - or perhaps he was, but he was trying to tempt him to the dark side. He eyed the sith coldly as he spoke, even though he briefly considered some of those thoughts. Most made sense from a practical, almost military perspective - there were obvious problems from a morality standpoint as a Jedi though - the idea of willfully enraging another creature to attack another one was a horrific act to him - he could easily put himself in the Nydak's position - forced to fight the death against what might have been a friend or at least coinhabitant of his for many years. On one level, he knew how ridiculous such thoughts would have seemed to the Sith, and even some non-Force users, but he knew pursuing that course of manipulation easily led to the dark side.

He waited for the sith to stop laughing before he swept a hand across the laboratory.

"I don't fully agree with you. There's a lot here that could be used to construct something that could at least temporarily contain a Jotaz. Those tables upturned and fused together with our lightsabers, or some rope and one of our weapons to make a booby trap. I think we have more options than you give us credit for, but I think you're right in that there's a chance that these two creatures might fight each other. Not something I have experience in though, nor would I desire to do so."

There are no good options here, are there? He would have to admit that even with the aid of a trap, he didn't like the end odds - especially if it did come down to a struggle between the two Force users. There's always another way...even if it offends someone, isn't there?

"But I'm going to go after another route," said the bulky man, carefully eying the sith even as the Jedi lifted his left gauntlet up to his mouth, "This is Jedi Knight Travot Ravenna, requesting back-up on my coordinates. I've discovered what appears to be an old sith laboratory being guarded by some beasts. I have temporarily subdued one, but there are signs of another."

A deep, almost monotone voice almost immediately wafted out of the gauntlet, "A squad is headed your way now. ETA is ten minutes. Hold tight, and may the Force be with you."

"And with you as well."

Travot lowered the gauntlet and stared at the sith, "You've got a couple of options here. You can try to find whatever you can here before the squad arrives - I won't interfere in your efforts, you have my word. You can fight us, and probably the creatures here if you want a more indepth search. Or my personal recommendation - you leave here now. I won't try and stop you, but I cannot guarantee that the soldiers headed this way won't, and I will help them if you fight them."

 

[Darth Marras]

On the one hand, he should've expected the Jedi to be hesitant about pitting two creatures against each other. Still, to think that the Jedi would be so against it that he'd rather weld some tables together to trap the creature... that was the very definition of what Marras would call stupid.

His jaw dropped when he saw Travot call in help from his friends in orbit.

"You've got a couple of options here. You can try to find whatever you can here before the squad arrives - I won't interfere in your efforts, you have my word. You can fight us, and probably the creatures here if you want a more in depth search. Or my personal recommendation - you leave here now. I won't try and stop you, but I cannot guarantee that the soldiers headed this way won't, and I will help them if you fight them."

Hands quivering in rage. Teeth chattering in anger. His right eye twitching involuntarily. If there was one thing Marras hated most in this world, it was when someone tried to keep him away from making money. But, he was still focused enough to not pick a fight with the Jedi.

Instead, he stomped over to the Nydak. Looking over his shoulder, he glared at Travot one final time before he activated his lightsaber and sliced through the Nydak's throat. The creature jerked from the sudden surge of pain, waking up briefly only to die seconds after.

Pointing his lightsaber at Travot as a warning, he told the Jedi, "You're just as dumb as my master... when he thought I wouldn't pay him back for killing my friend..."

With that, Marras proceeded to head out of the room, saying, "I'm not stupid enough to fight your friends, but you better stay out of my way!"

He headed for the fork in the road.