KGWrites

3979 BBY, Pyrshak System, Kolto Mining Rig, Manaan

Drejek Thek

Aches and pains were the first things Drejek became aware of, even before he opened his eyes. His shoulder gave a dull throbbing that spiked with a burning sensation whenever his burned clothing touched the blaster wound. The rest of him felt heavy, strained, like how he felt if he slept in a strange position, but all over his body instead of just a part. Slowly, sensation began to return beyond the pain, and he could feel cold splashes of water hitting his face. Rain he realised, I’m outside, in the storm.

That meant he was probably outside Ahto City, as much of the city was covered over to protect from the weather.

He shook his head, causing the grey fog that clouded his vision to recede, letting him view where he was.

He was sat back, propped up against something behind him. The space around him was cold and dark, the colour seeming drained away by the grey storm. Slowly turning his head to the right, he could see there were two waterspeeders docked a few meters away, rocking with the moving waves. Here, wherever here was, the storm didn’t seem as violent as it had before. Or perhaps so much time had passed that the storm was starting to fade.

Ahead of him was an open steel platform, surrounded by a low barrier intended to stop anyone from falling into the ocean beyond. One side of the platform was lined with tall tanks, stacked in racks on their sides. Through transparisteel viewports in each tank, Drejek could make out a bright blue liquid, bubbles rising through it in little streams. Kolto, he realised, recognising the liquid from the refineries and traders that carried it near the Ahto City spaceport. Kolto was Manaan’s main export, a healing liquid that could be mined and extracted from the depths of Manaan’s oceans. Such large tanks of it, out in the open on this strange platform, made Drejek realise that he was most likely on one of the Kolto mining rigs in Manaan’s ocean.

A pained groan to his left caused Drejek to turn his head around quickly, recognising the voice. Several figures lay in a rough pile, unceremoniously dumped on the ground, Selkath workers of the mining platform. All of them were dead, their big dark eyes clouded and unseeing as they stared out towards Drejek. He shifted uncomfortably but managed to ignore the sight, mostly on account of who lay near them.

Allana Thek was lying face down on the metal platform, facing away from Drejek. Her hands were bound in binders behind her back and her hair was already slick with the rain, spreading out around her in a soaking mane. Drejek’s breath caught in his throat, and he willed himself to move. He tried to put his arm out to push himself up only to find his hands bound together in front of him, a pair of cold metal binders trapping his wrists together. He stumbled and slumped, slipping and splashing down onto the cold wet metal, he could feel his clothes beginning to stick to his skin as they soaked in the rain. But still, he didn’t stop trying to get up and move. He couldn’t, his mom needed him.

Gritting his teeth against the pain, he pressed his wounded shoulder against whatever wall he had been propped up against, using it to push against as he struggled to get his feet beneath him. After a moment’s struggle, and a good deal of pain, he succeeded and was able to run over to his mother’s side, dropping back to his knees next to her.

“Mom? Mom, can you hear me?” He asked, trying to sound calm, to sound brave, but finding himself unable to keep a waver of fear from his voice. Allana groaned in response and rolled herself slightly, turning her head to face him and Drejek’s eyes widened in horror and his stomach flipped over, making him feel horribly sick.

A deep cut across the top of Allana’s eyebrow had clearly been streaming blood for a while, and with her face pressed to the floor, that blood had spread across her cheek, turning practically the entire right side of her face into a horrific scarlet mask. Her right eye was surrounded by a deep purple bruise and swollen shut. Her hair clung to her face in dark streaks, soaked in blood and rainwater. But still, her one good blue eye focused on her child and a smile curled her lips, a sigh of relief causing her shoulders to slump.

“Drejek sweetheart, are you alright? Did they hurt you?” She asked, her voice was hoarse, like even speaking was painful. Drejek shook his head quickly.

“M’okay. But you’re hurt.” He said. It was clear the lie didn’t fool Allana for even a second but still she nodded slightly.

“I’m okay too, don’t worry. It looks nasty but it’s not that bad.” She reassured him, wincing as she struggled herself backwards into a kneeling position. He didn’t believe her. Now that she was sat up, Drejek took the opportunity to lift his arms over his mother’s head, hugging into her despite the binders. He still held back from crying though, she needed him brave right now. Allana pressed her head gently into his shoulder, returning the hug as much as her position in the binders allowed.

“We need a plan.” She told him quietly. Her voice was still calm, but there was a determined core to it. “Have you seen a way out?” Carefully, barely moving his head, Drejek nodded into her shoulder.

“There’s some waterspeeders on the other side of the platform.” He replied, shifting his shoulders slightly to begin stretching out the sluggish weight that had come over them since the stun shot had hit him. He needed to be ready.

“Okay, be ready. We’ll make for those.” Allana said, working through her plan. “As soon as I move, you move. We’ll need to be quick and careful, it’ll be hard to control with these binders on, so we’ll need to work together. Have you seen any of them since you woke up?”

Drejek shook his head. “But the Selkath that work on this platform are dead, so they might still be around.” Allana hummed quietly, considering her options.

“There could be some still on the speeders, we’ll need to be ready for that. Trust the Force sweetheart, you might need to use it.” She said grimly. Drejek didn’t know exactly what that meant but he nodded at her words, hoping the Force would show him what to do if he needed it.

There was a mechanical hissing sound behind Drejek, and he turned to see two Mandalorian warriors step out of a small room that had been what he had been leaning on when he first woke up. He figured it must be some sort of control room for the mining platform. He recognised the two warriors, the big one that had stunned him and the one that had fought his mother with the sword. The big one still had the expressionless mask on his face but the other had lowered the hood and removed the mask to reveal a dark skinned human man, with greying hair at his temples and a stony face that would almost be as expressionless as the mask he had worn, were it not for the cruel look in his eyes.

Seeing the mother and son huddled together the man’s mouth curled into a grim sneer and he pushed past the other warrior, closing the distance between himself and his prisoners in just a few strides before his hand shot out and grabbed a handful of Drejek’s hair. A handful he then hauled at, causing Drejek to cry out in pain as he dragged the boy away from Allana across the platform.

“Mom!” Drejek cried out desperately, tears streaming openly down his face now as he was painfully torn from her. He reached out his bound hands in a feeble attempt to reach her, to hold onto her and never let go. But he was already too far away.

Allana acted almost immediately, her face twisting into a snarl of rage as she almost leaped to her feet, glaring at the man dragging Drejek.

“Let him go!” She screamed and a blast of energy flew out from her, following the scream with the force of a gale. Drejek felt the man’s grip slacken as the wind forced him back a step and he immediately rolled. His hair tore free, leaving a chunk behind in his grip but Drejek barely felt the pain as he scrambled back until his back hit the wall of the office space again. He stared in awe as the blasting air continued to wrap around the Mandalorian, forcing him to one knee. Then the air began to compress inwards around him, and he groaned in pain. With a crunching sound, a few plates of his armour started to buckle inwards, threatening to crush him.

But just as it seemed Allana’s use of the Force was about to kill the Mandalorian, the other one that had exited stepped forward and brought his armoured fist upwards in a brutal punch to Allana’s stomach that doubled her over into a ragged, violent, coughing fit. The blast of energy faded and slowly the fallen Mandalorian struggled back to his feet, though now he looked considerably shaken. Through ragged, laboured breaths that she sucked in past the pain, Allana glared up at the big warrior.

“You will not touch him.” She said simply. Her voice, though ragged, had a burning core of hard steel and fire. The Mandalorian laughed.

“We can and we will, Jedi. Nothing can stop us out here.” He reached down and gently pulled at Allana’s chin, pulling her head up to face his expressionless mask. “Not even you, and all your tricks.” Allana glared at him, pulling her head away from his grip.

“You’re wasting your time here. Gredun’s gone, he’s gone, and I don’t know where. There’s no prize for you anymore, I’m not even a Jedi anymore. I’m just a mother, trying to raise her son in peace. There is no honour in killing me now.” Allana told them, which brought a harsh laughter from the Mandalorian that she had just attacked.

“We know Gredun’s gone, he came home, he atoned for his mistakes. And as for who you are now. Yes, there is little honour in killing you as you appear. But the Mando’ade remember who you once were. And there is justice for many fallen brothers and sisters in killing you.” He strode over to the centre of the platform, producing a small puck-like disk from a pouch on his belt and placing it on the ground. “But before we do, someone wishes to speak with you.” He pressed a button and a hologram sprung to life from the little puck. Though it flickered where the rain passed through it, Drejek could see it clearly showed another Mandalorian warrior, wearing that same strange armour, though this one had a long ornate cape that hung over his left shoulder. He wore no helmet, giving a good view of his strong-jawed face. Short cropped black hair topped his head and a single dark eye stared out unblinking from sunken back in his head. A deep scar crossed from a ruined left ear to his left eye, which was pale and milky white, blinded. He looked down at Allana and tilted his head to the side, a smirk crossing his features that made Drejek’s blood seem to freeze in his veins.

“Allana Thek. My, how the mighty have fallen.” He said after a moment. His voice wasn’t as harsh as Drejek expected it to be, instead it was calm, and proper sounding. He spoke with authority without having to raise his voice.

“Cassus Fett.” Allana responded after a moment, raising herself up on her knees to be as tall as she could, not backing down before a foe she clearly recognised. “Even uglier than I remember. I knew I should have moved that cut a few inches to the left.”

The man, who Allana had identified as Cassus Fett, chuckled slightly and nodded. “You fought well when we crossed blades on Iridonia, came close to killing me. Shame that Jedi mercy of yours kept you from finishing the job. Still, it taught me a valuable lesson. We even redesigned the armour because of it. How do you like my Neo-Crusaders?” He spoke casually, like he was simply making a polite conversation with the woman held prisoner before him. He respects her, Drejek realised. Somehow that revelation comforted him very little.

“I think they look ridiculous.” Allana replied, looking over the two warriors stood on the platform with them. “It’s hard to argue with their results though.” She admitted, shrugging her shoulders slightly to emphasise her bindings.

Fett nodded. “They have acquitted themselves well as warriors, you are a formidable opponent, even out of practice and wounded as you are.” He was praising his soldiers, not Allana, Drejek knew, and it worked. Each warrior on the platform seemed to swell with pride at Fett’s words.

“What is this Fett? Revenge?” Allana asked, bringing his attention back to her. “I’d have thought someone like you wouldn’t care so much for that. You were always said to never let things get personal.”

“Not revenge, that’s just an added benefit. No, this is a test. A test of loyalty to Mandalore, of one who must prove himself worthy of being one of us again.” Cassus replied evenly, stepping to the side and out of the view of the holoprojector so that another Mandalorian could step into the view. This one also wore that strange “Neo-Crusader” armour, though in a darker colour than Fett’s had been. Reaching up, the warrior gripped the hood of the armour and the mask and pulled them back from his head. Drejek took a split second to recognise the cropped dark hair, stubbled square jaw and piercing grey eyes as Gredun Thek stood looking down at his wife and son.

“Hello Allana, Drejek.” He said simply after a moment’s silence, his voice showed no emotion at all. Like seeing the sight of the woman, he had once loved and his own child battered and wounded as prisoners was worthy of the same amount of attention as a holo-ad for the next season of swoop racing. Allana’s jaw dropped slightly, her eyes widening in surprise at seeing him.

“Gredun? But… I took your memories. How can you have remembered? How can you be here?” She asked, barely able to react physically as the confusion and surprise all but froze her to the spot. Gredun sighed.

“Yes, that took a long time to piece back together. But still, I managed.” Gredun replied. Clearly that was all the explanation he was going to give.

“And now what? You’re having some Mandalorian lap dogs kill Drejek and me so that Mandalore will go back to letting you have a seat at the big boys’ table?” Allana spat, all the hurt and rage she had buried away for the past two years coming immediately to the surface as soon as she saw Gredun.

The man barely reacted, stony faced and serious. “I burned many bridges here during my… dalliance.” He explained. The words stung Drejek far more than any blaster bolt to the shoulder ever could, knowing that’s all he would be to his father, a mistake made and now corrected once he was back with the Mandalorians. From the twist in Allana’s face, it was clear she felt the same.

“But this is about far more than earning me back my place with my people.” Gredun continued. “Soon Mandalore will lead us to further greatness than we have ever known. And my clan needs a strong leader for that crusade. This is how I prove that. By erasing the mistakes of my past.” Allana rose to her feet at his words, striding forwards to stand tall in front of the hologram, which still left Gredun far taller than her, artificially enlarged by the image.

“And yet you were too cowardly to come do it yourself!” She yelled at him, her voice rising clear above the crashing thunder and rushing wind of the storm. Then she laughed, a bitter, angry sound. “Or were you not permitted to? Were they worried you’d run away again?”

Gredun didn’t grace her accusation with an answer, remaining unmoving in the face of her anger. “There will be no evidence of your passing left behind. Our warriors have placed charges on the floatation devices of the platform, it will be lost to the storm. And of course, I now remember how strong swimmers you both are. So, I’ve had them deactivate the sonic emitters on the platform too.”

Drejek couldn’t help but turn his head towards the water and as if on cue, the long curving dorsal fin of a Firaxan shark cut through the water, giving a horrific reveal of the circling six-meter-long predator beneath the surface. His stomach dropped further, and he felt bile rise in his throat. There was no way he, or his mother, could outswim the monster, and he had heard stories from dock workers, city divers and Kolto miners about how brutally dangerous they were. A hunting Firaxan was death incarnate, and out here, so far from the city, there were likely many beneath the twisting grey water. Allana stared out at the fin for a moment, before turning back to Gredun.

“You’re a monster Gredun Thek, to even think of feeding your own family to the sharks.” Her voice was low, level, and cold. “When we get out of here, when Drejek is safe. I will come for you. Understand that. I will burn all of Mandalore for what you have done.” It wasn’t a threat, but a promise. And even Gredun seemed slightly taken aback, Drejek could make out muscles in his jaw tense.

“Revenge is hardly the way of the Jedi.” He replied after a moment, lifting his hood back over his head and sliding the expressionless mask back into place. Then he turned and faced the Mandalorian warriors on the platform. “Kill them, feed them to the Firaxa.” And with that, the hologram faded back into the little puck.

“See you soon Gredun.” Allana said quietly, lowering her head as the big Mandalorian stepped up behind her, raising a hand to grab her shoulder. Then she sprang forwards into the air, lifting her knees and twisting her shoulders around, contorting herself so that her arms, trapped in the binders, twisted to being in front of her. Then she spun, kicking the little puck and sending it spinning across the platform towards Drejek before coming up facing the big warrior.

Drejek had felt her gathering the Force to herself for the jump and had begun reaching out to it himself, so when she moved, he had too. He had rolled to one side away from the unmasked Mandalorian who swore as he overbalanced trying to grab the boy and tumbled on the wet platform. Then with the Force he reached out and gripped the holopuck, redirecting its spin to slam painfully into the warrior’s exposed jaw, cracking a few teeth and sending the warrior sprawling away. Giving Drejek the time he needed to grip his real target with the Force.

With a quick pull, his mother’s lightsaber came away from the Mandalorian’s belt and spun into Drejek’s hand. Rolling away from the man he raised it and called out to Allana.

“Mom! Here!” He yelled, before tossing the metal tube into the air, sending it on a graceful arc that Allana guided into her hand with the Force. Quickly twisting the blade back around towards herself, Allana keyed the control once and the blade sprung out, lighting the grey storm with a streak of brilliant green light. As soon as it made contact with the binders they separated, glowing orange and freeing her arms from one another.

The big Mandalorian warrior, recognising the danger he was now in, dropped low into a combat stance while the other one swore again. Clutching his wounded jaw he pulled himself back to his feet and yelled a quick command in Mando’a. The big man nodded and backed away from Allana quickly, moving towards the waterspeeders at the edge of the platform. Allana strode across the platform in a few quick steps, arcing her saber to slice the cuffs on Drejek’s wrists, freeing his arms while always looking towards her fleeing opponent. Looking past him, Drejek could see the other warrior that had invaded the home, still armoured, emerge from the speeder’s cabin holding a small remote. As the big man leaped onto the speeder, the other warrior pressed hard on the remote.

The response was immediate.

The platform shook with a rumble that Drejek felt through every fibre of his being and, as the big Mandalorian threw himself off the edge and onto the waterspeeder, it began to tip. The wet metal slid beneath Drejek’s feet and he slipped forwards, barely managing to get his hands under himself to steady his fall. The Mandalorian near him saw an opportunity and rushed forwards, raising his leg and placing a strong kick straight to Drejek’s core. It was less to hurt and more of a push, but still it knocked the breath from Drejek and sent him sliding away down the twisting platform, down towards where the twisting grey water, and the hungry Firaxa, waited for him.

“Mom!” He wailed, sucking in panicked breaths and flailing his arms wildly, desperately clutching at anything that he could hold onto but finding nothing. He felt freezing cold water envelop his feet and screamed again, his panicking mind only able to summon horrific images of the beasts waiting below him, hungry and ready. His flailing fingers found purchase on the railing of the platform, which was now listing terribly, beginning to sink in beneath the waves. He looked around, but could only see grey metal, white churning water and the dark sky, his mother and her emerald blade lost beneath the storm, leaving him alone.

But he wasn’t alone for long, and in the worst way, as something big, and fast bumped against his flailing legs. His heart leaped in his chest, and he whipped his head around. His fears were realised in horrific fashion as he saw the dorsal fin of the shark, a long-curved shadow against the grey, longer than he was tall, suddenly lance away. Then slowly, painstakingly slowly, the fin began to turn, bringing itself back around as the shark prepared to strike forwards at the prey it had found.

Then, faster than any blaster bolt Drejek had ever seen, the shark struck. It surged forwards, the momentum forming a wave that rose from the water ahead of it. Drejek tried one last feeble attempt to pull himself up from the water, screaming in panic as his legs simply bounced and slid off smooth, cold metal. He could see the shark now, so close to the surface he could make out the mottled brown splotches on its skin and see where the fin met the top of its head. A head that was split open wide in a tooth filled void. A void he could only wait to be consumed by.

It hit him with the force of the speeder and a lancing, white hot pain more intense than any Drejek had felt before instantly shot up his right leg as the jaws closed around his shin. They clamped like a vice and Drejek could feel the razor-sharp teeth stab into his leg. They pulled at him, and it was all he could do to keep his grip on the railing as his screams were cut out by a gurgle as the shark dragged him beneath the churning surface. But somehow, against the pain and the panic, one thought punched through everything else. If I let go, it gets me. If I let go, I’m dead. And so, he held his grip on the rail.

The Firaxan Shark clearly hadn’t been expecting its prey to hold fast and it quickly found itself adjusting, gnashing its jaw on his leg as it angled itself downwards, aiming to pull him away from the platform. Drejek meanwhile, found another burst of strength and hauled himself further, throwing one arm over the railing and grabbing its wrist, locking himself in place with a much stronger lock.

The shark, surprised by the resilience of the small prey it had grabbed, pushed through into another method of catching its meal.

Drejek’s mind, panicked and frantically searching for any way to escape from the shark that gripped him, suddenly felt the touch of something through the Force. Something that reached out to him and enveloped him in the same way that the shark had gripped his leg. It felt strangely calm against his panicking mind, like immersing the fires of his panic in cold, deep ocean water. The pain of his leg even seemed to fade as he found himself slipping into this feeling, like slipping into sleep. His grip began to slacken on the railing. He didn’t need to hold on anymore, he knew that now. Nothing could hurt him like this. He would simply float, in the embrace of the Force. He just needed to let go.

Reality came crashing back as he felt something splash into the water behind him, and light flashed through the veil of his closed eyelids. The feeling faded away and he redoubled his grip on the railing, suddenly becoming aware of what he was doing. His leg no longer felt stabs of pain, instead just a dull distant ache, and he couldn’t feel the pressure on it of the shark’s grip anymore. Looking around he saw the shark, bobbing gently on the surface mere inches from his face. The eyes were rolled back in its head and a gently smoking, already cauterised hole was stabbed straight into the top of its head. Drejek felt himself lift from the water and rush through the air, weightless.

He landed atop the sinking platform and immediately collapsed into a soaking, sobbing lump, clutching the knee of his wounded leg. He squeezed his eyes shut tight, willing all of this to be a bad dream, that he would wake up in a moment back in his home. But it never came.

Instead, he heard hurried, yet muffled and distant seeming footsteps and a hand shook his shoulder gently.

“Come on sweetheart.” It was Allana’s voice, his mother’s voice. She had come back for him. He opened his eyes and looked up at her. Allana was soaked from head to toe, having clearly leapt into the water to kill the Firaxa that had attacked him. The blood that had stained the side of her face was washed away and her hair was stuck around her head and across her face in long dark strands. Her look was grim, her eyes wide and active, flicking this way and that as she looked him over, looking from his leg back to his eyes, trying to hold his gaze but being drawn away to her son’s brutal injury. A spluttering mechanical stutter came from somewhere behind her and she whipped her head around, her mouth narrowing into a grim, thin line before she returned her gaze to Drejek. Her hand gripped his shoulder and began to gently pull him up.

“I know it hurts baby, but we have to move now. Just stay with me, okay? It’ll be alright.” Her words were slow, deliberate. Drejek blinked back tears again, swallowing the sobs. She needed him strong right now, needed him brave. And besides, his leg didn’t seem to hurt that bad. Gripping his mother’s arm and hopping slightly as he kept his weight on his unhurt leg, Drejek pulled himself to his feet and looked out at the scene.

They were stood on the side of the little control room the platform had had, with the whole platform tipped almost completely over to one side. It made the platform into a cold grey slide into black water, where Drejek could see the fins of more Firaxan sharks waiting for someone to slide into their waiting jaws. Only a shuddering feeling, and the churning of the water where it met the platform, gave any indication that their current position was sinking into the water, towards the circling sharks. Following his mother’s gaze Drejek could make out the distant lights of Ahto city, stretching in a long arc across much of the horizon. A ways closer than that were more lights, speeding away from them in a straight line towards the city. One of the Mandalorian waterspeeders that had been docked against the platform.

But it was what was just a short distance from the sinking platform that made Drejek smile, despite the pain and the fear.

The other Mandalorian waterspeeder sat bobbing in the water, smoke and flames billowing from one of its engines as the silhouette of the Mandalorian that had kicked Drejek into the water bent over it, one arm reaching deep into the core of it. Drejek understood what must have happened, why his mother hadn’t come for him immediately after he had been kicked towards the water. She must have damaged that engine somehow, stopped the Mandalorians from being able to simply drive away. And only then had she come and saved him from the shark.

“Try now!” The Mandalorian yelled back towards the speeder’s cabin and the engine spluttered, coughed, and then roared to life. The Mandalorian punched the air. “Alright it worked. Set the autopilot for the city and let’s get the hell out of here.”

“Damn.” Allana muttered, crouching low. Drejek could feel the Force gathering, like a strong wind held at bay. Though he felt it gathering beneath him. She looked at him and reached out to cup his cheek, forcing a smile as her soft hand ran along his soaked and tear-streaked skin. “Roll out the landing. I’ll be there soon.”  

Drejek didn’t have time to comprehend what she meant before she sent the Force forwards, tossing him into the air with a cry of surprise. He catapulted through the air in a wide arc that brought him down towards the deck of the waterspeeder. Out of instinct alone he gathered the Force around himself as he hit the metal deck, cushioning his landing as he rolled along it with a grunt before sliding to a stop face down towards the deck.

He planted his arms onto the deck and pushed himself back up, struggling to stand but finding his leg simply buckled beneath him, causing him to drop to one knee. With a moan of pain as the aches spread up his leg, he looked up.

Straight into the barrel of the Mandalorian’s blaster pistol.

“Persistent little shab you are.” He growled, spitting blood from where Drejek had slammed the holopuck into his face. Then he smiled a sadistic smile, showing off bloodstained and cracked teeth. “Still, this is where it ends. No mommy to save you this time.”

Drejek just looked at him and tilted his head. Then he shrugged slightly, pushing back the fear from the pistol pointed at him with another thought, one that came with an iron-clad certainty.

“She’ll be here soon.” He said simply, repeating his mother’s words back at the Mandalorian. The warrior’s eyes narrowed and he turned his head to look back at the platform as the last parts of it slipped beneath the waves. Seeing no Allana, he turned his face back to Drejek and grinned again before beginning to laugh, a horrible, sadistic sound.

But one that didn’t last, as with a spray of white water, Allana Thek sprung from beneath the ocean. Her emerald blade moved with her as she landed on the deck between Drejek and the Mandalorian, passing with barely a sound through the joint at the warrior’s elbow, moving between the Beskar plates. His forearm, blaster still in hand, dropped straight down, trailing sparks and smoke, perfectly severed. But Allana wasn’t done yet, and before the Mandalorian had even had enough time to understand what had happened, let alone react to it, she had stepped close and shifted her grip. Her saber came around in another sweeping arc that passed gracefully across the Mandalorian’s shoulders, sparking off the Beskar until it hit his unarmoured neck. With his hood pulled back and the mask removed, the warrior’s head was completely undefended and Allana’s saber made a clean pass. The body clattered to the ground in a heap, cleanly decapitated before the Mandalorian had even registered Allana’s presence.

Drejek’s mouth dropped open at the display. He had watched his mother fight before, even seen her use her saber to kill before. But the skill and speed she had displayed with that quick kill was a new level he hadn’t seen before. Part of him was slightly scared, but even more of him was filled with pride that his mother was able to perform feats like that.

The speeder’s engines growled, and it began to move, the pilot clearly responding to the earlier order to return to the city. They mustn’t have noticed Allana and Drejek’s boarding of the craft. Allana dropped into a low crouch next to Drejek, the blade retracting into her saber’s hilt with a hiss. She looked into his eyes.

“I’m going to go and deal with anyone else on board, okay? You stay here, nice and quiet. We’re nearly out of this. You’re doing so well.” She said, nodding to make sure he understood. When he nodded back and shuffled back towards a corner, Allana smiled and pressed her lips to his forehead in a long, loving kiss. She seemed to struggle to pull away and Drejek almost wanted to beg her to stay. But she eventually straightened up and crept around towards the cabin door, keeping her lightsaber unlit but held ready.

She reached the door and extended her hand for the keypad when it suddenly flew open and the big Mandalorian warrior charged through the gap. He collided with her and gripped her wrist, forcing her arm sideways and slamming the back of her hand into the metal of the speeder’s hull. Her grip slackened and the hilt of her saber slid from her grasp. Then he twisted her around and slammed her against the wall, the hand that wasn’t gripping her arm finding purchase around her throat.

“Wretched Jedi!” He yelled, bringing his knee up into her stomach once. Twice. Three times. Each blow elicited a cry of pain from Allana and force the air from her chest, causing her to gasp for air. But she was unable to through his vice like grip on her neck, strangling the life from her. He squeezed her throat and her the whites of her eyes began to turn red as blood vessels burst across them.

Then she slammed her free hand against the wall behind her, throwing out the Force and causing a blast of air that threw both of them hard into the low metal barrier that edged the open deck of the speeder. The Mandalorian was taken by surprise, and he lost his grip on Allana who scrambled away as he struggled back to his feet, sucking in air and coughing violently.

He came at her again but this time she was ready, kicking out at his knee when he got close. He stumbled as the impact came off his armour but threw off his charge and she pushed off him, flipping gracefully into the air and landing on her feet between the two large engine blocks at the end of the speeder. There was no barrier behind her here, clearly the speeder had been designed to be quickly loaded and unloaded from the rear end. The fins of Firaxan Sharks, still hurrying along behind the speeder, were visible in the water behind her. If they were keeping pace with the craft, the damage to the engine Allana had done must have slowed it down significantly. The sparks and smoke still billowed from the engine, framing Allana as she raised her fists in a defiant combat stance.

With a roar of anger, the Mandalorian charged at her and Allana stood, still as a statue, watching him approach. Drejek wanted to scream at her to move, but he could only watch as the towering warrior closed in on his battered mother. Allana took a long deep breath, and in the second before he would have impacted her, she threw the Force out in two directions, her arms splayed wide.

The first blast streaked out the side of her, slamming into the damaged engine and causing another sudden flash of sparks and flame to streak from it. The wave hit the charging warrior and washed over him, blinding and burning him.

The second blast Allana threw at the place she had been standing just a second before as she sidestepped. As the warrior reached the spot where she had been, the blast hit him in the side of the legs and he stumbled, overbalancing and falling forwards with a terrified scream, disappearing into the oceans of Manaan with a splash. A few of the Firaxa’s fins disappeared beneath the water, chasing and claiming this new prey. Satisfied her foe wouldn’t be returning, Allana flexed her arm and began to turn back towards Drejek and the speeder.

BLAM!

The snap sound of the blaster seemed louder than any sound Drejek had ever heard before. The bright red bolt seemed to pass him so slowly he could reach out and pluck it from the air before it slammed into Allana’s chest, leaving a burned, smoking hole. She made no sound as she doubled over, her gaze travelling down herself to stare in seeming disbelief at the wound. One hand moved to cover the wound as her head slowly turned back upwards to stare at her attacker.

The last Mandalorian, the one that had used the blaster back at the house, that had detonated the explosives on the platform, stepped from the cabin. Their blaster rifle, the barrel smoking gently, was levelled straight at Allana. Drejek couldn’t breathe, his blood felt frozen in his veins, leaving him frozen with it. The Mandalorian squeezed the trigger again.

BLAM!

The second bolt leaped forwards, catching Allana in the right shoulder. Her arm windmilled backwards uncontrollably, like a ragdoll, and she stumbled with it. Drejek could only stare, horrified, unable to act, as Allana’s footing gave way, and she tumbled backwards off the speeder.

The dark water splashed up around her, like a maw coming up to consume her. First her legs disappeared into it, vanishing from view. Then it slowly ate its way up her body. Taking her chest, were Drejek had cuddled into so many times to hear her tell him stories of the galaxy and listen to her calm breathing as he drifted to sleep. Next it took her arms, that had wrapped him in tight hugs and held him close to her, the hands that would run through his hair to comfort him. Then, finally, the great beast that was Manaan’s dark oceans, took Allana’s head, with her kind eyes and smile that Drejek had always felt were meant just for him.

In a heartbeat, his mother disappeared. And he could only watch the Firaxan sharks’ fins fade beneath the surface as they claimed their new prize.

Nothingness washed over Drejek in a wave, empty and cruel. He could only stare at the spot where Allana had stood just seconds before. He didn’t even breathe.

And then, something else replaced it. Blooming through him and spreading with the fury and twisting rush the storm he had reached out to had held. But this was different, this wasn’t rushing winds and waves. This was hot. This was burning. Like a raging inferno of fire.

Not even fully aware of what he was doing, Drejek reached out to it. The heat didn’t hurt him, even as he gripped it like a vice and with a scream of rage and pain, turned and threw it outwards towards the Mandalorian.

The warrior hadn’t spotted the boy, huddled in the corner, and so at the sudden sound and movement, whipped their head and rifle around towards him in surprise. And so took their eye away from the threat.

The fire that had been spluttering in the engine leaped forth in a burning stream, guided by Drejek’s hand. It followed his will, his anger and hate and suffering all balled up inside it and engulfed the Mandalorian in flames. They screamed in shock and agony as their armour melted and bubbled beneath the heat, burning into their skin. The sound only got further high-pitched as the flames continued, growing ever hotter.

Then the flames stopped as Drejek’s rage consumed all of the fire that had once been contained in the engine. Leaving the Mandalorian a smouldering, screaming creature, barely alive from their immolation. And yet, they still lived. And could only watch as Drejek reached out his hand with the Force and the thin metal tube of Allana’s lightsaber flew into his grip, the blade emerging from it.

And then Drejek charged, bearing down on the suffering Mandalorian and slamming the blade down over and over and over. Every blow was punctuated with a sobbing scream of rage. Some bounced away with the whine of saber on Beskar, others sliced through and deep into the deck, leaving long scars in the speeder.

He didn’t know how long he attacked the Mandalorian for. Or exactly when they died. But he did know that it didn’t matter. That his mother was gone. And that she wouldn’t come back.

Eventually, even the rage and adrenaline wore off and his leg gave out again, causing the boy to collapse onto the cold deck. As the autopilot slowly carried the limping speeder back towards Ahto, Drejek crawled into the cabin and curled up beneath the control desk. There, he could only hug his mother’s lightsaber to his chest, and weep uncontrollably.

***

Drejek was unsure how long exactly had passed, so lost in a cloud of tears and radiating pain from his leg, before the speeder started blaring an alarm and the cabin flashed with red light. At first, he didn’t move, sniffling slightly as he slowed his breathing, his mother’s voice piercing the veil and grounding him in the present. Breathe, keep your mind in the here and now, let the Force keep you strong. The words were distant, fogged over, as if they too were beneath the waves, but they were a piece of her, something to hold on to.

Wiping his eyes, Drejek lifted his head to look at the source of the light. It was flashing from the control console of the speeder, but from this angle he couldn’t read it. Slowly, he uncurled from the ball he was in and emerged from the space beneath the deck, pain shooting up his leg as he stood. He tried to take a step, to lift himself up into the command chair, but moving his leg felt like sticking it in hot fire and he almost collapsed to the floor again, crying out. He caught himself on the chair and steadied himself, taking deep sucking breaths.

Then he moved again. Groaning with pain and effort he hauled himself into the chair, letting his good leg dangle and taking the opportunity to swing his wounded one up and bracing it on the console to check it. He felt sick as he looked at it properly for the first time.

The Firaxan Shark had bitten down on his leg at the shin, miraculously missing his knee with the teeth. But still, it had left a row of ragged, bloody holes that almost ringed his leg. Still, despite the grisly nature of the injury, something further felt off about it. It should be bleeding more than this. He thought after a moment of looking at it in confusion. And it should definitely hurt a lot more than this.

Drejek thought back to the shark attacking him, how quickly the pain had faded afterwards and also that strange feeling that had almost overcome him through the Force. Had the shark been using the Force? Trying to get him to let go? Drejek wished he’d paid more attention when he had been taken to a class for young visitors to the city on the dangers in the water, including the sharks. But he’d been too frightened imagining them to focus. It had taken weeks of convincing from Allana to get Drejek to even think about going back in the water, even within the protection of Ahto City’s sonic emitters.

Another blaring alarm joined the earlier one, causing Drejek to snap back into the present. Annoyed at himself for forgetting to check, Drejek dropped his leg from the console and leaned forwards to better read it. Autopilot failure: docking and braking system non-functional. Collision Imminent, brace for impact.

Drejek’s head snapped up to look ahead out of the viewport, no longer being greeted by the sight of rolling waves but instead by a permacrete ramp that ran down for watercraft to slowly emerge from the water. At the top of it was the other Mandalorian watercraft, its crew slowly unloading, oblivious to the other approaching craft. A craft approaching far too fast.

Drejek’s eyes went wide in sudden realisation and he rolled from the chair, slamming painfully down onto his bad leg but managing to push out the pain enough to drag himself back beneath the console and curl up into an even tighter ball than before. He squeezed his eyes shut, gripping his knees and tucking in his head.

A second went by.

Two seconds.

Then, with a horrific screech that sounded as if the oceans of Manaan had birthed some new great monster, the speeder hit the ramp. Drejek felt the impact tear at the speeders hull, tossing him upwards so his shoulders slammed into the console above. For a strange second after that, he hung weightless in the air as the watercraft bounced off the ramp and flew further upwards.

Just as suddenly, he was dropped like a stone back to the floor with another cry as the speeder bounced again. Once. Twice. Three times. Then finally, it impacted the other Mandalorian speeder with a crunch of crumpling and shearing metal. Drejek, still rolled up into a ball, clasped his hands to his ears to shut out the deafening screaming sound.

A second later, the sound had stopped, and the speeder had stilled.  

Cautiously, Drejek uncurled himself from beneath the desk, ignoring a throb from his blaster bolt scarred shoulder. Using the command chair to keep himself steady, he stood again and for a second, simply listened.

The Mandalorians were still outside, yelling out to one another. And from the little Mando’a he could make out, Drejek realised that only two were still alive and that the other had apparently still been inside their waterspeeder when the impact had come.

But that still left two trained Mandalorian warriors against one badly injured eight-year-old boy with a lightsaber he had no training with. Breathe, his mother’s voice came again, this time bringing a strange calmness to it as the feeling of the Force flowed through Drejek’s mind. Stay calm, the Force is always with you.

Taking a deep breath, Drejek took a shaky step towards the cabin exit, then another. Two more brought him up next to the door and he crouched down against the wall, out of immediate sight of anyone coming through the door. His mother’s lightsaber was extended in front of him, his finger hovering over the ignition key.

It took a moment before the door finally opened, with a Mandalorian stepping through into the cabin, blaster rifle raised. Drejek pounced.

Springing forwards off his good leg, he keyed the saber, causing the emerald blade to leap out and catch the warrior at the vulnerable spot between the plates on their leg. Quickly, he brought it upwards and felt it pass through the warrior’s leg, severing it just above the knee. The Mandalorian fell back with a cry and Drejek landed atop them, landing with his knees either side of their chest as he brought the blade up above his head and arced it downwards again, cutting deep into the top of their hood until it hit the Beskar mask and bounced back. The warrior beneath him fell still, dead.

But the second warrior, an olive-skinned human woman who had removed her helmet at some point, didn’t hesitate to act as she saw her ally cut down. Darting forwards from her position shortly behind her fellow warrior, she gripped Drejek’s wrist with one hand and slammed her fist into his head with the other. The blow sent him sprawling backwards into the cabin again and left his vision swimming.

He could no longer focus on the Force like he had been, and fear took hold as his doubled vision showed two of the woman step in through the cabin door. He scrambled backwards, pulling himself to his feet as his back hit the far wall. Shaking his head to try and clear his vision, he brought the lightsaber in front of him, preparing to swing it again if she got closer. She tilted her head slightly and laughed, a harsh sound, before she reached down to her belt and drew a short, sharp knife. Then she stepped forwards and Drejek swung.

His blow didn’t even get close.

Instead, he felt her grab his arm in a vice like grip and twist. His grip went slack and his mother’s lightsaber fell from his hand, the blade already retracting with a hiss. The Mandalorian woman stepped right up to him, her eyes locked with his and the shining silver blade of her knife held up between them.

“You’ve cost me a lot of brothers and sisters today chakaar. I’m going to enjoy this.” She spat, drawing back the knife. Drejek squeezed his eyes shut, not wanting to see it coming. At least I’ll be with mom soon.

Instead, though, the snapping, hissing sound of a lightsaber igniting rang out in the tiny space of the cabin and Drejek felt the Mandalorian’s grip quickly tighten, and then slowly slacken. Opening his eyes, Drejek expected to see the green blade of his mother’s saber. Maybe she’d gotten away, managed to use the Force to escape somehow. But it wasn’t green light that greeted him.  

Protruding through the Mandalorian’s chest, stabbed through from her back, was a bright golden yellow blade, spitting sparks where it had been forced through the thin gap between Beskar plates. The Mandalorian still tried to hold onto Drejek, her mouth seemingly working to try and form words, but unable to make the sound.

Then the golden blade retracted and the Mandalorian dropped to the deck with a resounding thud that seemed to take away all other sound from the room. New hands reached out to Drejek, soft hands that ran across his arms before coming up to cup both his cheeks, guiding his gaze to meet the eyes of his rescuer.

Green eyes, like the forest. Freckles across a pale face framed by slightly plum tinted hair. Tumise Thanewulf, the Jedi that mom had said was like a sister to her. Slowly his hearing returned, and he could make out her voice, quiet and sure.

“Drejek honey can you hear me?” She asked, and he nodded. Tumise breathed a sigh of relief and she sat back slightly, leaning back and calling out to the dock outside the speeder. “It’s all clear Captain, you can bring you men in now.” Then she turned back to Drejek.

“Drejek, where’s your mother? Where’s Allana?” Drejek’s gaze lowered to the deck, staring at the thin metal cylinder of Allana’s lightsaber lying there. His mind swam with the vision of the blasts hitting her, of her disappearing beneath the waves and he choked out a sob, stumbling forwards to warp his arms around Tumise’s shoulders, the tears and gasping sobs coming thick and fast.

Tumise made a soft gasp of surprise when he hugged her, her gaze following his to the abandoned lightsaber. He felt her tense for a moment, before she took a long, slightly shaky, breath and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him to her.

“It’s alright honey. It’s all going to be alright. I promise.” She said softly, shifting to pick up Allana’s saber and tuck it onto her belt. Then she stood, holding Drejek to her, still sobbing into her shoulder.

Through the tears and choking cries, Drejek couldn’t see who she spoke too outside the cabin, but he heard the words.

“It would seem Mandalorian terrorists are responsible for the theft of the watercraft, and for the destruction of the mining platform. I hope that will satisfy the tribunal?” A voice responded to her in Selkath and he felt Tumise’s head shake firmly.

“No, the boy stays with me. I’m going to take him somewhere safe and get him the treatment for his injuries.” Then he felt her walk onwards before stopping and turning, clearly looking back at whoever she was talking to. “Oh and captain? We were never here, you and the Ahto City constables caught these terrorists, no outside Jedi help, and no injured kid in the wreckage. All the glory, none of the uncomfortable questions. Agreed?”

The Selkath made a noise Drejek recognised as a yes and he felt Tumise nod again. Then she turned and walked away, still hugging him to her chest. He took a deep breath, shuddering with barely held back sobs. She still smelled like the forest too, it was calming.

“It’s okay Drejek, you’re safe now. It’s over.” She said softly, striding onwards. Then quietly, as if to herself. “I’ve got him Allana, it’s alright, he’s safe. You can let go now.”

Drejek suddenly felt very tired, ready to fall asleep on the spot. But he still had one question, one he pushed past the crying with a quiet, scratchy voice.

“What happens now?”

“We leave here, you and me. And I’ll take you to my home. We’ll fix your injuries and then…” She paused, thinking carefully about her next words. “And then you’ll train, like your mother and me. You’ll be a Jedi, just like she was.”

Drejek tensed at that. His mother had always said she didn’t want him to be a Jedi. But she had been one, and that had made her strong, able to fight, to protect him. And now she was gone, and he would need to protect himself. Firmly, he nodded his head against Tumise.

“Okay.”