Rage and Romance

[Eddard Thul Drast]

Was this a full blown war or was this just a surgical strike?

Eddard didn't know - all he knew was that he was both glad and annoyed that he had been on Onderon when it happened. He was annoyed because it meant he was in the middle of a firefight for the damned city, openly fighting when he was a Sith Agent. As an agent he was supposed to infiltrate, counter infiltration and assassinate people.

He wasn't supposed to be fighting in the middle of the streets with some Imperial troopers to his back and gods-damned Mandalorians trying to take his head as a trophy.

He had both of his lightsabers ignited as he stood with a cluster of Imperial Troopers holding down a position in front of one of the secondary gates within the capital city. He tapped one of the troopers on the shoulder.

"Keep up the fire - I'm going to go down that side street and try and flank them."

Beyond this secondary gate was the spaceport - the retreat point for the Imperials and a way to bring in fresh troops. It would be a boon for the Mandalorians to take and hell for the Imperials to lose. Hence why he wanted these Mandalorians off the front lawn as it were.

Sliding back behind the troopers, he let a nondescript Sith take his place marshalling the forces before slipping down the side street. Lightsabers still active, he began to make his way down the side street at a jog, hearing the sounds of battle all around him.

A small child open the shutter on a window to have a look - Eddard closed the shutter with the Force as he passed.

He had his two lightsabers with him and activated, a single blaster pistol strapped to the small of his back. He was wearing his regular Sith armour but he had forgone the typical mask, having taken a bit of shrapnel to it earlier that hadn't hurt him at all but had left him without the use of his mask.

As he was reaching a good ambush point he paused, suddenly feeling as though ice water had been run down his back.

Someone was coming.

@Sreeya

 

[Raz Solus]

They had given no warning and they had the jump on the Imperials as they began the assault. Other members of her clan had ventured off to hit other key targets while she was leading the attack towards the spaceport. Anger clouded her judgement just a bit, but storming into danger was a trait of her clan. She was fully geared in her black and red beskar’gam, the traditional honey badger sigil on her left bicep. She knew the implications of wearing this armor in Imperial space, and she wore it proudly today.

Blaster fire rained on the troops that stood in their way. Iziz was unprepared for this assault, and their numbers were rapidly failing. In order to buy time for her clan to complete their objectives, she needed to take out their means of supplying more soldiers. At present, they had no ships to work with, which meant they couldn’t attack from above. As a result, they would have to clear out everyone around the area and plant charges.

“Move in!” She shouted over her comms, her soldiers flanking her as they rapidly made their way towards the target. Raz activated her jump boots and crossed a great distance to land on the roof of a building, leveling her rifle to start picking off targets in the distance. She had a good line of sight now, and she looked through the scope to clear anyone out. For the time being, it looked empty and she had called for her unit to move in.

That was when she saw something at the corner of her eye, something that immediately enraged her. Lightsabers. She immediately aimed her rifle and fired a shot towards the figure, marking him as her own to take down. She wouldn’t endanger the rest of her men and woman to face a Sith. Using her jump boots again, she came flying down, landing in a crouch before she rushed directly towards the figure.

By now she had her blade drawn, charging in without fear and without care on if she died or not. This was what she lived for, and this was everything she hoped to accomplish – taking down another one of these bastards. Raz was almost blind with fury, and she began to bring her blade up in an arc to swing at the man. However, that was when she recognized the face at once. She skidded to a halt at once, coming to a stop in her charge abruptly across him. For a moment, she simply paused, a million thoughts rushing through her mind and blood pumping through her veins. Imperials and Mandalorians alike were there to witness this, and both of their kin were dying around one another. And yet she couldn’t bring herself to move, poised like a statue, a whirlwind of emotions flooding through her mind.

 

[Eddard Thul Drast]

Above!

Cursing himself for not being more attentive to above him, he was glad he already had his lightsabers raised and ignited so that he could bring one of them across his upper body to block the shot. It was a hasty block, leading to the blaster bolt slamming into a nearby wall, blasting a small hole in it.

Rather the wall than his head.

The mandalorian figure came down from on high to challenge him with a blade. He wasn't about to question these things - he wasn't questioning anything today. Today there was nothing but the motions, the violence that needed to be done. This Mandalorian, this woman, wanted to kill. If she didn't want to kill then she wanted to take and either way, he was a Sith of the Empire and he couldn't let her do either.

He charged in as well, his senses wide out as he thought about others - if she was here they might very well charge in while he was busy engaging her. So as he moved in he kept his senses stretched out until they were closer and he couldn't help but envelop her in his senses.

She'd been there when he was still spending his life pretending to be someone else.

She'd been there when he thought he'd crossed a line.

She'd been there on some random back water planet - just been there.

She'd trusted him to catch her.

She'd trusted him to carry her.

She... she looked like she was glowing.

He froze.

His feet dug in despite himself and he skidded to a stop still ten feet from her. There had been no conscious decision to stop, to just pull back as if stung. But his body tingled slightly from the unmistakable feeling of him coming to an immediate stop - as though the adrenaline that had been surging through his veins had turned to ice in an instant.

Lightsabers buzzed but lowered from attack position into an instinctive guard, his right covering his middle and his left covering his legs.

"Raz..."

He whispered her name and it felt... strange.

It felt like he was whispering something of greater importance than just a name. It felt heavy, weighted with significance. Like something a devoted man would whisper to a deity. No name should hold that much weight, and yet, in this moment?

Her's did.

@Sreeya

 

[Raz Solus]

She hated him for it. Hated him for uttering her name. Even most members of her own clan didn’t use her name. Her nickname, Ghost, was the name many had adopted. On top of that, as a running joke she was now Badger One on comms for missions. When he uttered her name, she winced, but she didn’t know why. He wasn’t moving either, and they were both standing in dead silence. The chaos all around her blurred into an abstraction and she couldn’t tear her eyes away from his. There was a helmet between them meeting one another’s gaze, and she was thankful for it.

Time seemed to slow down, and she forgot for a moment why she was here. As she gazed at him, she only thought of the look of horror he had on his face after wiping out that family. She saw the flustered look on his face several times, and then she remembered when he had laughed. Now they were here serving their true purpose, in their true element. Had all those other times been in a different reality? Why did it seem so far away? Raz was stuck, and she couldn’t’ make a decision either way. Her people needed her, and his needed him. She knew what he stood for, and so did he. Why was it difficult to simply act on those things and play they role they were meant to?

Raz paused for a few seconds longer before she took one step back, and slowly another. She was conditioned as a warrior all her life. She was raised on principles and virtues that were drilled into her mind. Those virtues were clashing madly against seeing him again. Raz couldn’t bring herself to attack him, but that didn’t apply to everyone else.

“I won’t stop, Eddard,” She finally said to him flatly, her voice just slightly distorted from the helmet, “I won’t stop this,” Raz repeated. For a moment, she paused as if to say something. That was when a bolt drove into the top of her shoulder, cracking the plating there and bleeding through to her flesh. Raz grunted in pain and whipped around to find an Imperial rushing at her.

She was suddenly engaged in combat, bringing up her blade to catch an incoming one. She hadn’t had a chance to draw a secondary weapon, having been completely taken by surprise. Raz ducked a blow and came up just in time for a second soldier to come rushing at her. She drew out her blaster, not getting the chance to fire it just yet. Raz was focused on fighting two attackers at once, both of them having flagged her as a key instigator in this attack.

 

[Eddard Thul Drast]

He hated that it was her at the same time that he was un-surprised that it really was her. Of course it was her. It was always going to be her and she was always going to be here, standing across from him in the middle of the Force-damned war zone. Because of course it was!

Because of course the Force would test him, test his devotion to his Empire and... and whatever it was that had caused him to stop in the middle of a charge just because he knew it was her.

Neither of them were moving to attack so it might even be mutual. He didn't know. He wasn't about to take the risk of sensing her emotional state when they were still in the middle of a battleground, when there were still Imperials and Mandalorians fighting each other around them. Their people were fighting and dying all around them and yet here they were, staring at each other, neither either able nor willing to harm the other.

For now.

This was one of those moments he savoured when he was about to enter combat - one of those moments where the rest of the Galaxy fell away and the only thing that was occurring was the moment. The Moment, if he was being poetic. The Moment where each breath was crystallised and pure, every movement was crisp, sharp and perfect. When in The Moment, everything seemed to fall into place normally.

But not this time.

No, this time everything else made sense. The battle, the noise and the smell of death? That all made sense and was distilled within The Moment, allowing him to experience them wholly and apart. But her? No. She didn't fit anywhere he knew - she was singular, distinct and so utterly different. There wasn't a way for him to categorise her, to think of her as the same as something else. Normally when it came to people and things like that, he would kill them, snuff them out. But...

She looked like she was glowing.

Gods be damned, Force be damned and everything else in the Galaxy be damned because it felt like he was damned, damned and plagued by some unnamed, unknowable, feeling.

"I..." he swallowed, cursing his weakness, "I can't let you."

He couldn't.

This was HIS Empire, these were HIS people - how could he just let her do it? He couldn't just let her harm the Empire and it's people but, at the same time, he still didn't want to fight her, to... to kill her. Just the thought of killing her made him sick to his stomach.

The Imperials attacked her, they were attacking her because they were correct in assuming that she was the leader of this whole attack, perhaps even the Clan? Who knew with Mandalorians. He saw them pouncing on her like predators on unawares prey, damaging her armour and engaging her completely. They pounced on her.

Like Acklay.

"No!"

He gripped her in the Force, grabbing her by the chest of her armour, and flinging her to the side. She would crash through a door into a building, into a large home, but she would be away from the Imperials. His... his first instinct was to... was to hurt them. For attacking their enemy - for attacking someone who was supposed to be HIS enemy!

So instead he claimed her, charging for the building he had thrown her into.

"She's MINE!" he snapped at the troopers, "Focus efforts on the gates - leave her to me!"

He burst into the building after her, lightsabers in front of him as he went because, well, he wasn't exactly sure she wouldn't try and kill him for that. But he had to get her away from the Imperials, had to stop her from... he had to stop her from being attacked by the troopers.

The irony that he might have to fight her himself was not lost on him.

"Raz... I can't let you do this. Leave. Run. Something!"

@Sreeya

 

[Raz Solus]

In a moment, she was right back to being the clan leader that she was. She remembered all those times the Sith harmed her people and threatened them with extinction. Anger and rage spurred her on as she whirled around and took on both her enemies. She dropped to the ground and swept the leg of one of the men, making him drop. Raz rose up and leveled her gun to shoot him, preparing to quickly bounce back over to the other man.

That was when she felt the Force coiling around her chest, almost enough to make her choke a bit. She was bodily flung through the air, crashing directly through a window and tumbling backwards. She flipped back and reoriented herself as she skidded backwards on the ground in a crouch, planting her hand on the ground to slow her motion. Raz growled in anger, glancing up as Eddard burst in shortly after. She was enraged now, and he had effectively poked the beast.

Raz slowly rose to stand as he stood before her, beginning to speak and suggesting for her to run. She scoffed at the thought, “I’ve never been in the habit of following orders from Imperials,” She said the word as if it were a curse word, venom dripping from her voice. Raz didn’t pause there, drawing her blade up. She hesitated for just a moment, but she remembered he had actively tossed her. The sentiment behind his actions was completely lost on her, and she only saw red.

Without another word, she dashed towards him, bringing her blade from her left hip up towards her right shoulder, intending to cut into him. Her left hand held the blaster at the ready. There was no denying that she was conflicted here, but she was reminded why she was here and who she was fighting. If he were going to stand in her way, she would treat him just like any other obstacle.

 

[Eddard Thul Drast]

She refused to run.

He wasn't even surprised - everything that he knew of her told him that she wouldn't back down, not from him, not from a fight and probably not from anything. So instead she was going to make the decision for them both and she was going to bring violence, visit it upon him with every scrap of her Mandalorian pride and her 'righteous' anger. He scowled and he for a moment he couldn't believe how anyone could be this stubborn.

It was only his momentary anger at her frustration that pushed past his desire to decline to fight, allowing him to actually respond to her attack.

"Why are you making me do this?" he hissed at her as she charged to attack, "I don't want to fight you!"

But it didn't matter - she did.

Seeing her slash coming, telegraphed as it was by her right hand being by her left hip, he swung his right hand blade to intercept her sword slash before it could cross her body. Stepping to his left as he did so, he kept her blade and his own between him and her blaster pistol. His left blade was free and he instinctively went in for a slash at her unarmoured right left. With her blade parried by his and her other hand's blaster blocked by two blades in the way, his left blade was free to swing in at her left thigh.

If it landed it would be a clean hit, a clean cut that would take at least one leg.

That would stop her fighting.

Instead he began the swing and instead his body reacted differently. Instead of following through on the slash of his left blade, he pushed back hard with his right blade, using the lock of their blades to push himself backwards, away from her. His left blade swung but instead it came up as if to cover her lower body.

... what.

His instinct had been to go for it, to cut her down and instead something had moved his body.

"Gods damn it!" he declared, scowling, "Why?!"

He pushed the attack himself this time, using the Force to point her blaster to the left, twisting it in her hand so it would point away from him. He thrust a stab at her upper left chest with his right saber... but pulled it back at the last second, slowing it down.

No! Why was he doing this to himself?

@Sreeya

 

[Raz Solus]

“I’m not making you do anything,” Raz growled, “You are doing this of your own free will. This is what it feels like when the people you subjugate don’t obey,” Her blood was boiling, “Get used to it,” She saw him coming at her and she was prepared for it. As their blades met, she purposely pivoted towards her own left to ensure her flank wasn’t going to be in range for him. She had fought enough Sith to know how to move light on her feet. She had the blink of an eye window of opportunity to fire a shot into his torso into his right side, and she did. But the shot went wide and right past him, very uncharacteristic of someone like her.

Before she knew it, he was pushing himself back. Raz glared at him through her visor, instantly leveling her gun once more to shoot. However, she didn’t do it despite the finger being on the trigger. That was when she felt the Force shove her hand aside, sparking rage in her. As he came back towards her, she jammed her blade to meet his despite him trying to pull it away. Raz didn’t stop there, abruptly dropping to sweep his leg and make him fall on his back.

If the attempted succeeded, she would complete the sweep and rise up to stand, glaring down at him as she pointed her gun. She heard his exclamation, and she paused, not pulling the trigger. She remembered the first time she shot him in the back, and she had no qualms about it. Why did it feel so difficult this time? Once again, the sounds of the fight raged outside, and it felt as the battlefield were planets away. This was a Sith, damn it. Her jaw tightened, teeth gritting, and she kept staring him down.

“If you want to stop me, you will have to fight me till one of us dies, Eddard,” She said quietly, “Because I won’t back down. I won’t stop. I have come too far. I will not let my people be kicked back to the corner they just crawled out from. I won’t, Eddard.”

 

[Eddard Thul Drast]

She was - she was forcing his hand because she was attacking, because she... because she meant something to him that meant he just didn't want to kill her. He didn't want to kill her and he couldn't even bring himself to fight her properly, to fight her like a Sith should fight a god-damn Mandalorian in the middle of a raid on his Empire, on his people. He scowled right back at him.

"Damn you, you impossible woman." he gritted his teeth, "I can't just let you kill my people - past Emperors and Empresses harmed your people, not the people you're killing! You're making people suffer for mistakes that aren't their own."

Gods damn it.

She was too skilled of an opponent for him to be pulling his punches like this and while she was pulling her's as well. Of course the fact that she had missed with her blast bolt at this range? He wasn't sure what to make of it. Of course he doubted he would make much of it during the time he was falling to the ground on his back. Grunting at the landing, he kept his grip on his lightsabers and they were still over his torso but it was clear he was at a hell of a disadvantage now.

He looked up at her for a moment and his expression relaxed slightly, some of the anger draining away from his expression as he looked up at her.

"... I don't want to kill you. You're killing my people. You're supposed to be my enemy. I'm supposed to hate you but... I don't want to kill you." he declared firmly as he looked up at her, "Tell me that you want to kill me. Look me in my eyes and tell me that you want to kill me Raz. Don't tell me as a Mandalorian to a Sith..."

He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly.

"Look me in the eyes and tell me... as Raz to Eddard... that you will kill me."

@Sreeya

 

[Raz Solus]

“Past?” She scoffed, “Figures you don’t consider the implications of something as devastating as Medriaas,” Raz shook her head, “Why would you? We are only savages to you. What’s it matter if a planet was glassed?” She still had her gun trained on him, and she still didn’t fire. Raz prided herself in killing Sith, and she was generally good at it. As he spoke, she wanted nothing more than to make him stop. But what was she going to do so? Shoot him? It seemed unthinkable.

She hated what he was saying. She hated what he challenged her to do. Raz looked at him, met his gaze, but her helmet was in the way. He couldn’t see her face, couldn’t see beyond the cold steel between them. However, he could sense with the Force. She had no way to guard the tumultuous thoughts in her mind and the back and forth tug of war she was battling. There was a fight going on inside her mind that mirrored what happened outside.

He had put her on the spot, and he was asking her to tell him she wanted to kill him. He didn’t move from where he was. Raz’s chest rapidly rose and fell from the fights earlier, and she was vaguely aware of the searing pain in her shoulder. There was one thing that was true – she truly was an impossible woman. She would never fit into the mold, she would never behave the way anyone predicted of her, and she would continuously infuriate others that tried to understand her.

And so, there was no word that passed between her lips. There was a whirling of emotions, and they were difficult to explain. Raz drew her hand back and whirled around, doing what she did when she was faced with something beyond what she could comprehend. She did something her clan would never forgive her for if they knew she had done in the presence of a Sith. She ran. Raz bolted in the direction she was thrown in through, leaping through the cracked window and darting out onto the streets.

She had no plans to call off the attack, and she would kill Imperials elsewhere.

But she wouldn’t face Eddard.

 

[Eddard Thul Drast]

She just... stood there.

She didn't say anything, she just stood there, breathing heavily while still pointing her blaster pistol at him. Of course the Mandalorian wasn't going to stop having him at her mercy just because she didn't have anything to say and didn't seem to want to kill him either. Or maybe she just wanted to let him live a little longer with the tension of what she might say or might do? That would be cruel even for a Mandalorian though.

He started to build the Force.

As much as he hated the idea of hurting her, he knew that he couldn't leave himself at her mercy like this. If nothing else, being on his back like this was undignified. He was preparing to use the force on himself, to propel himself upwards, when she started to run.

If he were thinking rationally, that would have been fine.

He had even told her to run before.

But as soon as she started running, Eddard used the Force to propel himself up and he was running right on after her. Because as much as he wanted her to leave the battlefield, he couldn't let her just leave. With that question still hanging over both of their heads? Never.

So instead he leapt straight on after her, sprinting through the streets on her tail.

"Answer me Raz!" he shouted after her as he shoulder barged a Mandalorian off of a downed Imperial trooper, more by co-incidence than any actual desire to help the Imperial, "You can't just run now!"

A Mandalorian saw Eddard chasing after Raz and assumed the worst - so he charged in from the side, ramming Eddard back-first into a wall. Gritting his teeth against the sudden blow, Eddard kneed the Mandalorian in the chest to loosen his grip on him. He didn't have time for this! He looked over the Mandalorian he was fighting and he could see Raz was far away now, perhaps too far for him to catch up to even as he grappled with the Mandalorian in his grip, arms locked around the man's helmeted head.

His heart was beating ten to the dozen and there was a pit in his stomach that grew as she fled from him.

"Look me in my eyes!" he shouted after her, his voice cutting through the din, "Look me in my eyes and tell me what you want from me! DON'T BE A COWARD!"

He roared in pain as the Mandalorian he was grappling stabbed him in the side with a hidden blade - the distraction of the stabbing motion was enough for Eddard to get the leverage he needed. He twisted up and to the side snapping the man's neck and killing him instantly.

@Sreeya

 

[Raz Solus]

Why the hell was he still coming after her? She used her jump boots to spring away, and even that wasn’t enough to keep him at bay. She wasn’t even quite sure why she was running. It wasn’t in her nature to run unless she was completely out of her depth. Even then, she, like was traditional of her people, was too bullheaded to back down. She would have faced several more acklay and rancor without fear over this. Raz darted off to the side, intending to keep her pace up.

She heard him call after her, and she ignored him. Raz had no answer for him, and she wasn’t going to give him one. Who was he to put her in a position like this? He was just a god damned Sith, and he was her enemy. Raz had no intention of slowing down. Perhaps this was the best tactic – if he were away from the city then her people could keep advancing on the spaceport. She would simply keep leading him on this goose chase and ignore his words.

And then he said something she couldn’t ignore.

There was a spike of rage, and it would ripple through her powerfully enough for him to sense. He knew what he said, and he knew very well what those words would do to her. Raz whirled around after she skidded to a halt, unbridled fury coursing through her. An Imperial began to rush towards her and she leveled her gun and shot him point blank in the chest without bothering to look. Another rushed at her from the side and she ducked and severed both legs, coming up to finish by taking his head off.

Blood still dripping from her blade, she began to step towards Eddard, cold silence hanging between them for a moment. She ignored the chaos around her once again, but she was prepared to react if needed, “I want you to stay out of my way,” She called out to him, “You call me a coward and you know what? You’re right,” She walked closer, “Because I don’t have it in me to murder innocent children. I don’t have it in me to go any lengths to devastate entire encampments of women and children. You’re right, I am a coward, but at least I can live with my choices,” Raz hissed, recalling once again the look on his face after he walked away from the house.

“Why do you hesitate?” She turned the question back around on him, “Surely it can’t be any more difficult to consider murdering me than small children.”

 

[Eddard Thul Drast]

She was coming back.

She killed two Imperials right in front of him even as she seemingly decided that she wasn't going to let what he had said stand. Well killing two Imperials wasn't going to change the sentiment behind the statement. Pushing the corpse of the Mandalorian off of him, he pushed himself back to his feet and called his dropped lightsabers back to his hands, igniting them again as she made her way to him.

Her blade was literally dripping with Imperial blood... And still be felt the deep seated hesitation in there. Deep inside of him he knew that he still didn't have it in him to kill her. He gritted his teeth, doing his best to use the pain from the stab wound rather than to ignore it. Pain would give him anger and anger, controlled, would give him strength.

After all, maybe that was the problem? Maybe he... maybe he just needed more anger, more strength?

She took the ion out of his engines when she said that he was right to call her a coward. It didn't fit with anything he knew about her and that causes him to take half a step back in surprise.

Then she explained why and Eddard recoiled as if slapped, staggering back a step. She... She had hit a low blow and they both knew it. Both knew that she knew perfectly well what he had done and how it had affected him. How he hated himself so utterly for doing what he had convinced himself was necessary. Most of the time he could live with it but There was that part of him, deep inside, that hated himself with a burning passion for the lives he had taken.

And she knew that and she had used it against him.

"... you really do use any weapon." He muttered, his grip on his blades tightening, "I don't know why I trusted you with that... with that moment."

He stared right at her.

"You're wrong." He declared bluntly, frowning, "It's the hardest thing I've ever attempted and I have no idea why. The idea of fighting you... of killing you? It... I can't do it. I can force myself to be a monster and do disgustingly vile things... but I can't bring myself to attack you."

He stared at her, blades still humming as the fighting began to move away from them, closer to the gate. Eddard looked at where her eyes would be behind her visor.

"The Mandalorian and the Sith. What a pair we make." He spoke before his voice fell as if he couldn't believe he was asking it. He whispered to her, his voice carrying, "What is this, Raz?"

He was beyond confused and he could see she was just as confused as he was. Maybe... Maybe it wasn't about strength? Maybe it was something they had to work together to understand?

@Sreeya

 

[Raz Solus]

Raz could tell he was hurt. She noticed it for the first time from the way he was carrying himself. He was wounded, and he was still making an effort to try and come after her. She knew she only added to the wound, adding emotional blows on top of the physical. Calling a Solus a coward was the best way to rile them up, and he had done just that. She struck back with the way she knew how, using weapons that would claw into him deeper than any blade ever could.

As he spoke, it only enraged her more. She curled her fingers tightly around her weapons, her jaw tightening as she looked at him. There was no reason for her to hesitate. She hated everything he stood for, and he felt the same about her and her people. Yet she couldn’t help remember when she last answered that question – that she stayed to ensure he recovered from her blasterfire because she saw him as his own person. As he struggled to explain why he couldn’t shoot her either, she realized they were both out of their element.

Raz was losing her patience, wanting to get back to the fight so she didn’t have to face this adversary she didn’t understand. When he whispered the last question, she paused. There was a chill that ran down her spine. Why was he asking her this? Why didn’t she have an answer? Raz hated him for it, her stubborn mind resorting to just anger and nothing more in the face of a scenario she didn’t comprehend.

As if on cue, there was a thunderous explosion that erupted off to the side and slightly behind Eddard. This told her that their objective had been accomplished – her people had managed to set off the charges as intended. Raz’s eyes flickered in the direction of the fires for just a moment before she looked back at Eddard. The explosion was exactly what was needed to break her out of the trap he had ensnared her in. She remembered quickly who she was and why she was here, and that she still didn’t have answer.

Raz moved in the blink of an eye, her usual reflexes taking over as she aimed and fired her blaster at almost point blank range. It was flick of a motion, the bolts slamming directly into the prosthetic leg he had - a testament to her skill and how much she held back with him. It was enough force to knock it right off and make him abruptly buckle. He would immediately topple face down on the ground, and she didn’t hesitate for a moment. Her chest rose and fell rapidly and she spun and once again darted away. She knew she wouldn’t be followed this time….at least he wouldn’t be chasing her physically. In the plains of her mind, it was a race she could never win.

And just like that, Raz Solus once again disappeared from his sight.

 

[Eddard Thul Drast]

He was bleeding quite a bit and he knew that the wound would need to be properly treated. It wasn't a flesh wound, it was deep enough that it would become a problem quickly if it wasn't dealt with. But he would be damned if he was just going to step back and let her walk away from him. He honestly didn't know where this determination was coming from, this need to have her look him in the eyes.

What was it that he was hoping to get from this? He wanted to understand why the two of them seemed to be incapable of fighting each other as they knew they both should be. Did he really expect to find the answer in her eyes or was he just trying to find an excuse to look into her eyes again?

If it was the latter... then why?

Every question he was asking her, and himself, just brought more questions. There were no answers and he wanted some god damn answers. He wanted to know why years of discipline, years of training and institutionalised hatred on both sides were being overcome. Why even their combat instincts were being pulled short when, by all rights, their bodies should be able to pull off those moves, those parries and strikes, almost without any conscious effort at all.

So he had asked her and she didn't answer.

Did she not know what this was either? Was this something new to her as well? Or did she know what this was... and just didn't say? Did she want to try and deny what it was? He wasn't to know because she didn't answer him. He was about to ask her again when there was a tremendous explosion to the side - in the direction of the gate. He turned to the explosion, mind racing as he pieced together that the attack had been successful.

Had...?

He spun back round to Raz, mouth open.

"Were you... were you a distraction?"

For him? Could they had really factored that in? It didn't make sense and was just an instinctive question - which would cost him. If he hadn't wasted time asking a question he would know to be stupid to ask in a few seconds time then he might have been able to react to the blaster bolt. As it was the blaster bolt slammed right into his robotic foot, blasting a chunk of it clean away and sending him sprawling to the ground as he was suddenly several inches shorter on one side than the other.

He had to drop both of his lightsabers to the ground to get his hands up in time to stop himself from slamming face first in the ground. Pushing himself up, he stared as Raz ran from him. This time he didn't say anything, he just pulled himself into a sitting position as he watched her run away from him and he just had to ask himself one final question.

Why did it make his chest tight to see her running away from him?

/End Thread

@Sreeya