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Survival of Hope- Shaak Ti

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   And so this is how it ends.

   Shaak Ti, Jedi Master and one of the last of the Jedi Council, stood just beyond the gaping
maw that was the mouth of the galaxy's only known Mega Sarlacc. She wore the clothes
made by the Felucian's, consisting of the old growth they had scrounged up. It was still
intact for the most part, save for the hole in her chest. The wound still burned, even after
exposure to the cool air.

   And standing opposite her, was the man who had plunged the blade into her. He was shorter
then her, with cut close brown hair and wearing only a pair of black pants with an assortment
of survival items on it's belt, including a comnlink and a hook for his lightsaber. His
bare chest exposed the many scars spread about both his front and back, some looking from
battle, while others bore the marks of torture.

   He approached, keeping his lightsaber in hand, unlit. Shaak Ti knew this was her final
moment, and she hoped it would count.

   "You are Vader's slave," she said, her arms falling to her sides from the numbness. "but
your power is wasted on him. You could be so much more."

   Her words of clarity didn't sink in. He never broke stride.

   "You will never convince me to betray my master." The man said, keeping his gaze locked
on her.

   Suddenly, Shaak's vision was consumed with moments of torment, pain, and betrayal. They
where visions, of the future, she figured. They where telling of the man before her's fate.
In one, he was looking out the viewport of some monstrous ship, standing next to the man
who'd destroyed the Jedi Order almost by himself, Darth Vader. The next was of the man
being stabbed through the back with a red lightsaber blade, wielded by Vader himself. More
and more came flooding in, dissapearing for the next one almost as soon as they came. One
was Vader standing over the man, lightsaber still ignited. Another was of an elderly man in
a dark robe talking of betrayal and and killing. The last, and longest of them all, made even
Shaak's stomach churn.

   Vader gripped the defeated man with the Force and threw him across the room in which they
where, making him slam against the bulkhead. Again and again, Vader repeated this process
until he finally brought him back towards him. The armored Sith Lord took a simple step to
his left, avoiding the man completely as he passed and crashed through the viewport. Shards
of glass blew across the room as the gaping hole to space stood, until a large sheet of thick
durasteel came down and sealed it, leaving only Vader and the black robed man. The last thing
she saw was the man's shocked expression frozen on his face as he floated in the vacumless
void of space.

   Her perceptions returned to reality, and now the man was closer the ever, but his lightsaber
was still off. Shaak's breathing became quicker, and more shallow. Her wound ached with the
decaying feeling of fire.

   "You poor boy," she tried one more plea. "The Sith will always betray each other, it is
thier way. But I suppose you'll find out soon enough."

   He lunged at her, lightsaber raised, but still off. But Shaak denied him the
satisfaction. She let herself fall back, and into a freefall down the massive mouth of the
Sarlacc.

   To her surprise, he did not attempt to follow her, or even use the Force to bring her
back up to finish it himself. Perhaps he, unlike Vader, had a sence of honor, and respected
a defeated enemy.

   As his body became a speck in the distance, Shaak Ti closed her eyes and accepted her fate
fully.



   
   What is that Force-forsaken smell?

   Shaak Ti opened her eyes to find she was somewhere dark, sticky, and had the worst of
oders. The fact that she was alive didn't hit her until a second later. How in the world
did she survive? And where, or what, is it that saved her? A terrible stinging sensation
came from her chest and traveled down both her arms. She tried to reach up to feel what
it was, but whatever goop that she was in would not allow her to move, no matter how hard
she tried.

   She reached out with the Force to see where she was, and was surprised when an actual
was given. It was the sarlacc, telling her to remain calm, and that she was taken care
of. Shaak figured she was in one of the lower parts of it's body, where the liquids of
healing itself lied. She began to pour the Force into her wound, hoping to speed up
the process, but the Sarlacc told her to stop.

   It told her to relax, that it would take care of her and make sure she would be protected
while inside. She gave the Sarlacc her eternal thanks as she closed her eyes and let the
disgusting liquids take effect.




   Over the following months, Shaak Ti stayed within the Sarlacc, never moving from her spot
in the liquid. Strangely enough, she never felt the need to eat, or drink. Her stomach never
growled in anger, begging for a scrap of food. It was as though being inside the Sarlacc was
like being in stasis, slowing down, even stopping, bodily needs and functions.

   She kept herself open to the Force, but was unable to feel anything beyond the Sarlacc.
Which meant nobody could sence her either.

   Then at last, her time had come. The creature reached out to her and informed her that
she was healed. Shaak gave her thanks to the creature one more time before sending herself
upward, using the Force to pull her out of the liquid and the sarlacc itself. Shaak flew up
and out of the Sarlacc, and landing just beyond it it's massive jaw's.

   And then, it hit her like a sonic drill.

   The grief and pain that filled the Force caused the air to be blown out of Shaak's lungs.
She fell to her hands and knee's, shaking and trying to make out what had happened. Finally,
the shaking ceased, and she stood to her feet. Something had gone terribly wrong on Felucia,
this is not how she left it. The last time she was out, it was a world of balance, on the merge
of peace even. Now, it just felt like a black hole, with her being a speck of light lost
among the darkness.

   She reached out with the Force, feeling for her apprentice, Maris Brood. She was nowhere
to be felt, not anywhere on the planet. Shaak assumed the worst, but decided that she would
mourn later. For now, she needed to find out what happened. But something was stopping her
from going any further.  

   Shaak looked back to see the green liquid she had become accustomed to changed when it hit
normal air. It was now a pale-green, sticky, kind of substance, that kept her pinned against
the ground. Calling on the Force, she cut it off behind her back and under her feet. She
wrenched herself free of it's grasp, then felt a slight breeze prickle against her skin,
causing goosebumps to pop up. Shaak looked down at herself to find that the healing liquids
had deteriorated the clothes made for her by the Felucians, leaving her bare and only with
what the Force gave her.

   She would worry about it later. Her first priority was to come up with a plan of some kind,
then get some clothes. She looked to her surrounding's, noticing that this was the exact spot
from which she fell, and where she battled Vader's assassin. The marks of their duel where
still etched in the ground and tree's. Remembering the battle, she looked around the area,
and was dissapointed, but not surprised, when she did not see her lightsaber.

   Over the next few minutes, Shaak decided that her first plan was to get to the Tookarian
Village. Stepping away from the Sarlacc, Shaak embarked west.




   She arrived at the village just over an hour later. Shaak reached the top of a hill over-
looking it, and took a short moment to look down at it. The layout of it was simple enough,
all the huts where lined up in the two rows, each facing the other. The main street is what
kept them apart, though it was agree'd that it was needed. The huts themselves looked basically
the same, all being made of the same kind of mud, twigs, and overly large floura leaves.

   Leaping forward, Shaak fell down the hill until she was at the bottom, using the Force to
cushion the landing. She progressed forward, stopping when she reached the first end of the
main street.

   To her horror, on the ground, under a thin layer of mud, where the scattered bodies of
Felucian warrior's and tribesmen and women. The sight made her want to vomit, but she controlled
herself as she advanced onward. The street's where littered with corpses, and the smell of
death and decay was strong.

   Shaak Ti's home for over a decade had now turned into a graveyard.

   A tear welled up in the corner of her eye, traveling down her cheek as she swallowed.
Shaak continued until she reached a hole between two huts on her left. She stopped and turned,
to find that a hut, her hut, had been completely leveled down and left crushed into the dirt.
She bent down and began to pick through it, collecting dirt in her hands and unloading it into
a small pile next to her. Eventually, she reached her personal item's that where in the
hut. And to her disappointment, there was no sign of her lightsaber. But Shaak did find
the blanket she had been using. Pulling it out of the dirt, she brushed it off as best
as she could, then followed by tearing the very bottom of the blanket off and putting it down
at her side. She then proceeded to wrap the blanket around her body, until the two ends met
at her chest. It only went down to her knee's, but it would do. She picked the torn piece off
the ground and wrapped it tightly around her waistline and tied the two ends together, forming
a make-shift belt.

   She continued through the town, gathering up all the bodies she could find and pile them
together at the end of the village. Then, after finding a large plank of broken floura wood,
Shaak called on the Force to levitate two stones in the air. Their side rubbed up against each
other, picking up speed as they went. Finally, sparks began to rain down between the stones
and land on the wood. The plank's end ignited in an orange and light blue flame that soon
began to travel down the rest of it, almost reaching Shaak's hand.

   But she threw the plank onto the pile of bodies before it could reach her. The flame
spread quickly amongst the corpses, consuming the entire pile in seconds. Shaak watched as
corpse after corpse was cooked. Their mask's didn't burn as easily as their body's, some didn't
even catch on fire, and instead only the paint melted off.

   She watched  for hours on end until the flame finally extinguished, leaving only a bunch
of mask's laying atop ashes. Grief filled Shaak Ti's heart. She knew almost everyone of those
Felucian's, having trained most of them in the art of combat. And the same question kept
popping in her mind.

   Who did this?

   It wasn't rancor's. She taught them how to tame and control wild rancor's, eventually
building a clan of them, enough to make all others stay away. Besides, racor's would eat
the bodies, not leave them. But what else could do this?

   There weren't any other kinds of creatures, at least kind that could do this kind of
damage, on Felucia.

   Her brain pondered the thought. It was then she noticed a path leading away from the
village, and it wasn't there last time she saw. It led to between two large hill, almost
mountains in their own right, and it looked man-made. Deciding it was her best option at
the moment, Shaak gave a final farewell bow to her old friends and left the Tookarian
Village, walking down whatever path this trail would lead her.




   By mid-day, she reached the end of the trail. It took her to another village, one that
was three times larger then hers. But it's size isn't what concerned her, it was the huts,
the streets, and the civilians.

   There where humans, and all the huts where made of wood and metal, not mud and leaves. But
what concerned her most, was the golden mausoleum standing atop a hill with a large, winding
staircase leading up to it. Shaak wanted to check that out first.

   As she walked down the center of three street's, Shaak's bare feet where pricked by the
loose rocks on the pavement. She pushed the pain out of her mind as she'd done more times
then she could count. People, both Felucian and Human, began to poke their heads out of the
doors of their homes, while some actually went outside. The Felucians had changed. Their
Mask's had changed into something more civil then ceremonial.Their clothing was less savege,
and more normal, with tightly knitted floura and wool dresses for the women and a simple handmade
pants and shirt for men. The Human's all wore the same green uniform and cap, with some bearing
small colored bars on their's. Strangest of all, some of the Felucian children that where
out didn't seem Felucian at all. They looked... mixed.

   I didn't even think Felucian's and Human's where compatible. she thought to herself.

   Strange enough, they weren't looking at her like an outsider. They looked at her with a
disgusted look on their faces. She looked down and realized why. Shaak was wearing
an old, mud soaked blanket for clothes. They probably saw it as a disgrace, a step backwards.
Maybe arriving naked would have been better. She was sure the men would have preferred it over
rags.

   Getting to the end of the road, Shaak paused at the foot of the stairs. She took in a deep
breath, then exhaled and began walking up the steps, counting them as she went.

   Reaching the top, the final count was 257 steps. She looked down at the town, which was
at this height, just three black lines and a bunch of dots. Shaak returned her attention to
the mausoleum. Towering twin steel doors stood between her and the inside. Shaak reached
out and knocked three times. The doors parted, sliding away from each other. Shaak walked
in, cautiously.

   The entire building had to be grounded into the hill if it was this big inside. It consisted
of one, very large room, with doors on the sides leading elsewhere. On the floor sat a long
red carpet, leading from the entrance to a golden throne at the other end of the room. The
throne was turned, facing it's back to her, but Shaak Ti knew someone, or something, was
sitting in it.

   She stepped in and approached the throne, drawing suspicious eyes as she went. Shaak wasn't
even halfway when the chair turned around to face her. A Felucian, male, and wearing exotic,
silk robes, was sitting in the seat, head resting on the head-guard of the seat and had his
hands cupped together. It took her a moment, but Shaak realized who it was.

   "Kh'lek?" she asked aloud.

   His hands uncupped, but he did not stand. "So you know me, impostor?"

   To the average sentient, it would have been just a bunch of strange sounds that might have
been a question, or even a sentence. But Shaak had spent so many years among their kind that
she was practically a native, or at least used to be. Kh'lek has been her advisor, her second
in command, and her closest friend, for almost two decades now. But something has gone wrong.
Terribly, terribly wrong. He had traded in the mask she had made him and the honor she
taught him, for power.

   "Impostor?" Shaak blurted out in disbelief. "No, it's me, Kh'lek, it's Shaak,"

   "Shut up, impostor," Kh'lek stood from his throne. "My Shaak died in battle, and my heart
with her."

   My Shaak? My heart with her?

   "Her presence haunted my dreams for months, until the Empire came. That's when we reached
our true potential as a society."

   "The Empire?!"

   He cut in. "So I guess the only question now is, how to deal with you, pretender."

   Kh'lek seemed to ponder for a moment, bringing his hand up and scratching the end of his
chin. "The choice is simple. For your crimes of impersonating a legend, you will be executed."

   Suddenly, three Felucian warriors, all in strange, almost glowing armor, appeared. Being
a Force-sensitive species, Shaak had taught them how to bend the light around them and to
basically become invisible. Guess they were really paying attention that day.

   They all charged, wielding their jagged bone swords over their heads. Shaak dropped herself
into a hand-to-hand style defensive stance. Surrounding three side of her, they all brought
their bone swords crashing down at the center of their incomplete circle. But Shaak stepped
forward just a meter, missing all three swords as their ends plunged into the wood floor.
The three warriors grunted as they failed to pull their weapons free of the floor. Reaching
out with the Force, Shaak sent the two on the sides soaring away from their swords and
slamming them into the wall's opposite each other, leaving one in a state of confusion.

   She wouldn't give him a chance to figure it out.

   She hit him with a telekinetic fist that sent the warrior back and out the main entrance
and crashing down the 257 stairs. The sound of footsteps on hard wood reached her ears. Shaak
threw herself back, landing in time to both dodge the two warriors rush at her, and to give
Kh'lek a quick glance. Their mask clanged against each other, stunning them for a moment.
Shaak grabbed the two warriors and threw them together, slamming their mask's against each
other repidily, with no pause or break. Dozens of times she did this, until Shaak finally
gave up and threw them back at the walls, harder and faster then before. They crashed to
the floor, unconsious and not moving. Shaak turned her attention to Kh'lek, bearing a small
smile of pride on her face.
    
   "Very well," Kh'lek stood from his throne and brought his personal bone sword to bear.
"I'll get my hands dirty."

   He approached, and Shaak was very aware that she was weaponless. Until she saw the bone
swords stuck in the floor. She grabbed the handle of one and, with help from the Force, pulled
the sword out and readied it infront of her. Kh'lek launched himself with the Force and swinging
his sword in a decapitating, sideways arc. Shaak knew that she wouldn't block it in time, so
instead propelled herself upward, missing the end of his sword by a hair.

   Looking up, she saw a large slab of wood, with an etched portrait of herself on it. Under
her read in Felucian; GODDESS OF BEAUTY, SHAAK TI. On a shelf below it sat two large candles,
their small flames burning in a combination of red and orange. And between the two candles
was a handle of some kind? Her lightsaber!

   She reached out with the Force and pulled the weapon to her. Shaak fell back to the floor,
landing on her feet and infront of Kh'lek. She flipped herself back before he could bring his
sword up to strike and stopped five meters from him. Shaak thumbed the switch, and the blue
blade flared to life before her. She readied both the lightsaber and sword in a common dual-
blade stance.

   "Ah," Kh'lek took a step back, letting his sword arm drop to his side. "So not just an
impostor, but a thief, and a cheat as well?"

   He did have a point, she did have too much of an advantage, leaving Kh'lek in the weaker
position. Shaak looked down at the bone sword in her hand, then tossed it out. It landed
inbetween the two with it's handle pointed towards Kh'lek.

   "Now, it's fair." Shaak readied her lightsaber at her side with a two handed grip.

   Kh'lek nodded, and charged. Passing the discarded sword, he stopped dead and using his
footing, made a complete circle, except that when he came back around, he was wielding both
swords. He resumed his charge a second after.

   This caught Shaak completely off-guard. She barely got her saber up in time to block the
first shower of blows. Strike after strike came at her with no pause. He used a technique she
had taught all the Felucians; to use the Force to create a kind of barrier, a shield if you
would, around your weapon to make it indestructible, even against a lightsaber. Shaak blocked
an overhead downward strike with both swords. Their weapons locked between them.

   "I showed you honor by throwing the sword! Why do you disgrace that?!"

   "I show honor to those who deserve it!" Their clash broke, and Kh'lek went on the attack.
But again, their blades locked. "You deserve only death!"

   "Is that how far you have fallen, my friend?" Shaak's eyes closed, her mind still trying
to accept her old friends betrayal. Not to her, but to his village, his planet, and most
importantly, himself. Her eyes opened, meeting his gaze. "So be it."

   Their blades broke off again, except this time it was Shaak who went on the attack. Her
blue blade became a blur, and even though Kh'lek was the best Felucian warrior she had ever
trained, he was still just barely able to block the blows. His advantage was gone, and her
one blade kept both the bone swords, and their wielder, at bay. Kh'lek was desperate to get
a strike in, but no matter what he did, he was always stopped mid-strike or stab and was
countered.

   Kh'lek let out a scream of annoyance, and stepped back three steps, breathing heavily as
he went. Shaak, on the other hand, was fine. She was not breathing heavy, nor was she sweating
or her strike become less crisp. A gain of fighting non-stop for three years, no doubt. Kh'lek
flexed the muscles in his arms, tightening his grip on the grip-guards of his bone swords. He
charged, closing the distance between them in two steps.

   He lashed out, bringing the swords around in a savage, decapitating arc at her neck. Shaak
ducked down, missing the jagged blades as they blew above her, creating a powerful whoosh that
made her tendrils blow slightly to the right. She thrusted her saber upward, aimed at his exposed
chest, and it met it's mark.

   The blue blade plunged dead center into Kh'lek's chest and produced out his back. A gasp
came from his mouth as the wind was knocked out of him. He lost grip of his swords just as
the acr completed, and they were thrown clear across the room, sliding on the floor, and
finally stopping when the bumped against the wall opposite of them.   

   Shaak pulled the saber out, and disengaged it as she stood to face Kh'lek. Kh'lek was
not fairing well. His legs were buckling, and he was holding the cauterized wound in his
chest, apparently trying to use his index finger to clog the hole. Finally, his legs gave
out, and crumbled to the floor. His arms and legs huddled close to his body, and he began
to shake.

   She crouched down to his side and rolled him over onto his back. His body was numbing,
demonstrated by his arms and legs falling from the feudal position and spreading out, almost
like a corpse. She hit him dead-on. Her lightsaber had plunged perfectly into his heart. He
should have dead now, but he continued to breathe.

   "Kh'lek," she whispered "Can you hear me?"

   At first, he didn't respond. She thought he might have died there and then, until he said
back, "Shaak?"

   She nodded "It really was you, wasn't it?"

   Again, she nodded, saying nothing. "I want to ask so many questions, unfortunately, I think
my time here is almost up."

   Shaak finally spoke. "I'm sorry, Kh'lek,"

   "No, I'm sorry, Shaak. But I know you did what you had to. I had to be stopped, and I
thank you for doing it."

   He groaned, sounding as if his mouth was filled with blood. He spoke, but it was quiet,
and Shaak almost didn't hear it. "Shaak, theres something I want to tell you, before it's
too late."

   She leaned in closer to hear. "I love you, always have, even from the moment we met."

   Shaak knew it. She had senced his feelings since day one, but always assumed that he would
get over it and find someone else to care for, but he never did. He cared for her, eve if he
tried to hide it. A smile formed in the corner of her mouth. "I know."

   "I know your a Jedi, but I always thought..." He coughed, and Shaak was sure that there
was blood behind that mask now.

   "In another life, maybe we could have, Kh'lek."

   "Guess I'll just have... to take that... and be happy."

   There was a long pause, and Shaak feared the worst. But he was able to say one more thing:

   "I am... happy."

   His entire body went limp, and the raising and falling of his chest ended. Tears fell from
Shaak's eyes before despair started to sink in. She did not wipe them away, instead allowing
them to fall and land on his mask. Minutes of silence passed, as people, both Felucian and
Human, began to pour in the outside and the side doors. They all huttled around Shaak and
Kh'lek, forming a large circle with them in the center. After seeing the Imperial officer's,
Shaak tucked her lightsaber into her sleeve.

   She was here too long, people would start to ask questions she couldn't answer. Shaak
stood up, gave one last glance down at her dead friend and walked through the crowd and
towards the entrance. Reaching the top of the stairs, Shaak looked at the town, and decided
she did not want to endure another walk of shame. She also noticed a lack of any kind of
hanger or landing pad, but then the sound of engines igniting erupted from behind the
mausoleum. She made sure no one was watching, then Force-lept to the top of the building, and
began walking. She reached the end, and after climbing to the tip of the hill, gazed upon a
large hanger base and supplies station.

   Beginning the walk down the hill, Shaak Ti was left to her thoughts. Felucia had fallen.
It took her almost two decades to achieve balance on this planet, and  the Empire had undone
it all in less then a year. She was sure, if given time, she would be able to return the
planet to it's balanced state, but decided not to. She wasn't getting any younger, and knew
that she might not have another two decades to give. Right now, her plan was to get away
from this place and the awful memories it holds for her, and hopefully she can find another
being, maybe another planet, that could use her help.

   She reached the bottom, and an engineer took notice of her a second after.

   "Hey!" the man yelled to her. "What do you think your doing? There is no sneaking-"

   She cut him off. Her hand waved infront of her face in the normal gesture of mind-influence.
"You want to let me pass."

   "I want to let you past," the man repeated.

   "You want to let me on the next shuttle out of here for free."

   "I want to let you on the next shuttle out of here for free of charge."

   She grinned. "Lead the way."




END.

   
The First Of A Series Of Fan Fics I'm Calling "Survival of Hope".
It Involves The Survival Of Jedi Who We Know Dead, If You Couldn't Figure That Out Already. :laughing:
© 2009 - 2024 Cindrollic
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