Private Lost and Found

[Cenric Marus]

He perked an eyebrow. "I'm no ones master."

That was a simple statement of fact. It could be argued that he had the skills of some Jedi Knights, but even that would be pretty far-fetched. He frowned for a moment behind his mask, wondering if he'd made a mistake in agreeing to her request. Getting out would be much harder if they were caught, even they even got away.

Fingers tightened.

No going back now.

Without another word Cenric moved forward, his longer legs carrying him further faster than Kyra. Within just a few steps he managed to surpass her, motioning with his left hand for her to get behind him. If they were going to waltz through this place he needed to go in front of her. He was the one with armor, and an actual lightsaber.

As they reached the top of the steps Cenric pulled out his blaster.

"There's three halls." He told her. "Left, right, right, and then a set of double doors."

 

[Kyra Perl]

"Left, left, right... no," she cursed under her breath. She wavered for a moment, then stepped back and gestured forward. "Maybe you should just lead." It was hard to imagine how she might of preformed such a con on the Hutt with tendencies like this. But Kyra had a habit of stepping back to people that were older than her.

Call it 'youngest sibling syndrome', but her default to any situation was to let the older ones take the lead. Which also meant handling the brunt of the work, a scenario Kyra never consciously acknowledged she put people in. Yula never seemed to mind.

Why would this be different.

He claimed to be no one's master, but she clearly stuck him right in that role, the girl not moving until he did and she could fall in flank.

"Well, come on."

 

[Cenric Marus]

A frown touched his lips, but he decided to simply shake his head and not argue the point. He'd given her the directions in case something happened, though as they crept through the manor the two Jedi would find the place oddly...empty.

There was an unsettling feeling in the pit of his stomach. It formed as they moved up the stairs and took the first hall. Cenric could not mark what the sensation was, a blip in the force...something in his gut? There was no telling really. As they moved it seemed only to get worse, his fingers tightening around the hilt of his lightsaber as they rounded another corner and found still no guards. "Weird."

He said quietly as he motioned Kyra forward.

"Next hall is the doors." He peeked around the corner for a brief moment, spotting a protocol droid slowly wandering down the hall carrying a tray of drinks. Another frown touched Cenric's lips, but he motioned for Kyra to stay back. "Don't move."

Cenric ordered as the Procotol Droid came wobbling by.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra pressed into the wall, her breath held tight as it zoomed passed. She let out a heavy breath once they were clear, her fingers tightening on her blaster. "Whew, that was close." She stepped forward, pressing into his side. Her hair stood on edge on her arm. She looked around, squirming at the sensation of something looming in the distance.

"Do you... feel that?" She whispered, her voice growing high. She was more adept at the force than she was with her blade, so when a feeling her it left her more cautious than not.

She turned around, peering back the way she came. "...Is it me or..." Was this a trap.

 

[Cenric Marus]

He nodded. "It's something."

That was really all that he could offer her. Cenric had never been the best at using the force. He could throw out some power, sure, but it wasn't like he had any of the sensory abilities that some others had. He wished he did, surely, but...well it had never one that far.

Fingers tightened on his saber.

"Stay here." Cenric said softly. "I'll go into the Throne Room and look for your saber."

If it was a trap...best that they just capture him. "Shout if anyone is coming. If I don't come back..."

Cenric stopped for a breath, considering what to tell her. Lips thinned, and then he made a decision. "Run, and don't look back."

 

[Kyra Perl]

Trepidation caught inside of her, freezing the padawan in place. It was an expression that could easily be mistaken for unwilling compliance, and it was unfortunate that she did not find it in herself to work past the feeling until she was left alone in the hall.

Kyra took quick, panicked breaths, her palms sweaty on the blaster as she griped it closer to her. She looked both ways down the hall, the bad feeling growing in the force around her. This ... this wasn't just a warning, she began to realize, the sensation growing into that of something she had encountered before. ...Someone was coming. Not just anyone, either. But a sith.

Her eyes widened, the padawan kicking off into action immediately. She ignored direction and tore into the throne room after him, her motions almost wild as she tried to close off her force signature as she went. Don't want to get caught out...

She wasn't leaving him to this.

 

[Cenric Marus]

The Throne room was thankfully empty.

It seemed that Legukk had evacuated for the time being and his cronies had decided that being in the place was a bit much. Cenric couldn't blame them really, the place was as garish as a Hutt could make it. Animal heads and dozens of golden trinkets lay scattered on podiums and dozens of other stands. He peered around them for a moment, lips thinning as he shifted and tried to find the lightsaber hilt he'd seen Kyra carrying.

He remembered it well enough from their first encounter.

A frown touched his lips for a brief moment as he spotted what seemed to be the head of a Nexu. He remembered such creatures attacking him on Borleias, nearly cutting him to ribbons as he'd tried to run from a Sith. His stomach churned slightly, and his eyes pulled away to a small podium directly next to the Throne.

There sat a small metallic cylinder. "Great."

Cenric said with a small amount of enthusiasm, quickly cutting through the room and taking the saber up just as Kyra came crashing into the room.

"I told you to stay outside!" Shit, what happened if someone was on their way now?

 

[Kyra Perl]

"Sooooomeone's coming!" She slid across the floor, thumping right into his body with a little arm flail and a huff. "Oh, you found it? Great! Lessgo, chop chop, don't you feel it? Sith!" Her voice grew higher with each rambled word, the paddie snatching the saber from his hands and then grabbing his wrist in a demand. She tried to tug him out, her eyes wild with worry.

Basic criminal scum? Didn't worry her.

Sith?

Petrified. The fear vibrated off her and into the force around them, letting him know this was no joke. No overreaction. This was serious.

She couldn't see his face, but something told her red would clash with him complexion too.

 

[Cenric Marus]

Shit.

Cenric remembered exactly when he'd last faced a Sith. It had been when they found the Rebel Base, when everything had broken apart and gone to absolute shit. A pit formed in his stomach and the grip on his lightsaber became so hard his knuckles whitened in almost an instant.

A deep breath filled his lungs.

He tried to forcibly shove the panic in his stomach away, tried to keep himself from showing the emotions he was feeling in that moment. He wanted to scream, yell and just lash out about how foolish and idiotic this entire thing was.

They should have just run.

They should have just left.

Now that wasn't an option, now they were staring down the barrel of a blaster with nowhere to turn and nowhere to run. His breath caught, but finally he managed to eek out just a small few terse words. "Not through that door."

No, that would get them caught.

"There's another way out, help me Look." Hutts were the ultimate cowards. There was always another way out, always another door.

They had to find it.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra shied back from him, the sudden explosion of emotion from him rattling her senses. She knew it was bad if she could feel a master's calm get disrupted. "I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry!" She rattled back at it. She also didn't need his words to sense the unspoken regret in helping her.

Her relief at being rescued quickly melted into sheer panic, his mood reflecting into her.

"Another door?" She squeaked, casting a furtive glance over her shoulder as she ran into the wall. Literally. She began banning on the panels, feeling for a loose one to pry out.

"Listen, I know you're worried about getting made into a miniature sith and all but if you think about, it's not gonna happen," she tried to soothed, worried about being ditched. "I mean like-" knock knock knock-" What are the odds right?" The sensation grew thicker, the presence descending upon the building. She swallowed back a large lump in her throat, sliding the wall behind the throne and knocking there.

"It's never happened to us before."

The panel under her hand made a hollow thump. She gasped in shock, perking. "See!"

 

[Cenric Marus]

While Kyra blabbered on Cenric fell into a stark and stoic silence.

There was no need for him to talk or respond to her, not in that moment. Instead he copied her movements except on the other side of the room. Using the butt of his lightsaber he tapped against the wall, moving along the outside of the room at a steady rhythm. In his head he felt the growing pressure of a dark presence, its foreboding glamor creeping ever further and further towards them.

Then he heard the hollow knock from across the room. In an instant his head whirled and he moved to Kyra. His steps were practically a run, each one more hurried than the last as he quickly stepped besides. "There's a button or a lever."

Part of him wanted to cut through the wall, to simply get them into the tunnel as fast as possible, but he knew it would be a mistake.

If he sliced through the wall then the Sith would see obvious signs of a lightsaber. It would be a dead giveaway that not only Kyra had escaped, but that another Jedi had helped her do it. Cenric knew that, and he forced his mind to be calm and rational so that he would not do anything foolish. The flat of his palm moved around the wall, then he found it.

A small divet, slight but still there. He pressed it in, then gave a small sigh of relief as a door fell open besides him.

"Go." Cenric urged her, his voice forcibly even. "Go go go."

Some of the evenness fell.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra obeyed, a small squeak leaving her as she slid through and hit the ground running.

The passageway was dark once the door was closed back behind them, a problem quickly solved by the flare of her training saber brought out before them. "We coulda so taken them." She told Cenric as they ran. Despite her light words and chipper outlook, her fear was unrestrained. The pathway quickly led them deeper, depositing them into an old sewer system that seemed to have been outdated by at least a century. "Thank the stars this isn't in use," she breathed, casting her saber both directions as she tried to orient herself.

The dark presence still hovered in the back of her mind like a bad taste. She had the feeling that if she could sense them, it was always a possibility that they could sense her. She took off to the right, not pausing long enough to give them a chance to realize they needed to.

"Why wasn't the hutt there? Wouldn't he want to claim the bounty?"

 

[Cenric Marus]

"Probably greeted the Sith on the landing pad." Cenric said by way of explanation as he followed behind Kyra with his own lightsaber lit.

He had always found it somewhat funny that a weapon of war could be used as a flashlight. A lightsaber was meant to cut apart enemies, slice into starships and win entire wars. Yet here that weapon was, being used as little more than a torch to light the way through an old sewer. It was an odd juxtaposition, and exactly not the time to actually think about such a thing.

The former Padawan stopped suddenly as they reached a sudden crossing in the sewer.

"Hold on." Cenric said as he motioned for Kyra to slow down. His lips thinned, eyes wandering between the three different paths as he tried to remember the proper way. "We have to get to the spaceport."

He explained slowly. "Everywhere else they can cut us off."

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra jittered, her anxiety slowly making its way to her hands. Things had been doing so well! ... Until they weren't anymore. Now she just wanted to take it all back. All back.

In over her head.

Totally.

Regret.

The thoughts flashed through her head, distracting her from his statement for a spare moment. She looked around, resembling a cornered animal as she moved in closer to him. "But they'll be waiting for us there too, won't they? That's how they got me. They were at all points of exit. Do you have your own ship?"

Oh please do. She looked up at him with that same expectant gaze, full responsibility once again laid on his shoulders.

 

[Cenric Marus]

"No." His answer was curt, but he quickly followed it up so she didn't fall into a panic. "But I have a way off-world."

Part of why he had managed to survive for so long in the first place was because he'd always put contingencies into place. At every corner and every opportunity Cenric had made sure that he kept himself completely ready for pretty much anything.

A ship was expensive, way too expensive for someone like him to actually be able to afford. Yet he'd known that eventually all of this would come crumbling down. "I have a friend."

He told her, trying to keep his tone neutral so that she would not fall into the panic he could see on her face already.

"He'll take us off world." That much the Jedi was sure of. He hoped his words at least reassured the girl, she looked about ready to jump out of her skin.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra nodded sharply, accepting his words in a heart beat. If he said they had a way out, they had a way out! The padawan was never one to question, and certainly never one to challenge when it came to matters that felt out of her depth.

Escaping off planet with a sith on their tail? Certainly out of her depth.

"Okay," she agreed, her fear melting off her features. "Okay." She shook out her hands, clearly trying to jazz herself up. His reassurances were accepted blindly. She really didn't want to consider the alternatives.

"Leeeets go to your friend then! Andnotgetstabbedalongtheway~" She jumped to the left, about to take off without him. She stopped short and turned to him, brows high. "....This way?"

 

[Cenric Marus]

There was a brief moment of hesitation as he tried to remember the path that they actually needed to take. His eyes closed, and he tried to remember the map in his head.

He could see it for a brief moment, and then the path slipped away. Panic struck his heart for just a brief moment, running through him like a plague. His heart thundered in his chest, resounding until he took a deep breath and practically forced it to stop.

Cenric didn't remember the way.

His eyes opened and he glanced at Kyra, painfully aware that he had taken too much time to answer her. His lips thinned behind his mask, and then he slowly closed his eyes again. This time he did not reach out to his memories, not to some fold of his mind that he had forgotten long ago.

Instead he searched the force.

He muttered a few words, almost a prayer, a plea. The press of the Sith at their backs hanging in his mind. Only then did he finaly speak. "Right."

Cenric pointed in the opposite direction Kyra had gone.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra pointed right questioningly.

Then back left, then right-- her 'are you sure' unspoken and clear as day.

His fear resonated inside her chest, destabilizing the blind trust she had chosen to give him. She forced herself to push it aside, what other choice did they have? There was no room for doubt. No room for fear. Only the need to survive. So she nodding, breaking out into a run, going right.

Water splashed with each step, their breaths thick and loud in her ears as she ran and she ran and she ran. Suddenly, she was glad for all of JJ's forced morning runs. It hit her with a resounding sense of accomplishment that her side did not dissolve into stitches as they went. You know. Minus how there were broken ribs in them and all.

That pain didn't count.

 

[Cenric Marus]

Cenric moved quickly behind Kyra, the sense of dread and darkness filling his chest further and further with every step.

The Sith was pursuing them.

There was no other explanation for it. No other reason that could be had. Somewhere in the sewers behind them the Sith was hunting them. It was a disturbing thought, and one that he did not mention to Kyra. The girl was already in half a panic, and if he said anything of the sort out loud to her he was sure she would utterly panic. "Just up ahead."

Cenric told her.

"There's a ladder just to the right." His feet splashed through the muck. "Take it up and the spaceport will be right down the street."

He paused, his breath leaving him. "Once there, go slower. Don't draw attention."

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra obeyed without questions, half force jumping her way to it in a bout of desperate panic. "Stay close to me," she pleaded. She was not only afraid for her life, but his. Stranger or not, he was her friend now. She needed to protect him from the darkness she felt looming as much as she needed to get herself away from it.

She could feel the sith coming too. It was probably best neither acknowledged it out loud. She pulled herself up and offered him a hand out. Both padawans stepped into the busy street, the flood of bodies sufficing them. For once, Kyra welcomed the overwhelming buzz of emotions around her. It was a small yet present buffer against what she sensed below, but she clung to it like a security blanket none the less.

Before Cenric could protest she took his hand and dragged him into the thrall with her.

A subtle flick of her hand had the pothole cover slamming back into place once they were far enough away.

"Your friend. They are at the spaceport?" She asked briskly, her eyes peeled. She had already tried this way before, and the Hutt's men had headed her off. But they shouldn't know she was gone, yet. So theoretically...