Talis’ eyes were pinned to the Major’s lifeless face, the image seering itself into his subconscious. He felt the rage boiling up in his gut. He tasted bile in his mouth as he felt tears begin to soak his cloth wraps around his eyes. He pulled his gaze up to the Twi’Lek standing before him. He knew who this man was. He had seen this Sith Grand Inquisitor all over the Sentinel network. The taste of bile in his mouth dissipated as he began to pull on the Force and pool it into his legs and arms.
“Do you really think that you can take me?” the Inquisitor laughed.
“Easily, especially after a bottle of wine.” Ethan smiled, “But no.”
The Miralukan exploded forward with an upward swipe of his lightsaber. The collision sent the smaller statured Twi’Lek bouncing backwards on his back. After the second bounce the Sith kicked his feet up into the air and twisted his hips to bring himself to a sliding halt.
“Well now,” Nym laughingly stated through a forced smile. “Who do we have here?”
“Your death.” Talis’ voice caused Ethan and Hyle to stop in their tracks. They had never seen the normally fun loving Jedi like this. The look on Petth’s face was a mixture of awe and excitement. Tiriok came up behind her brother and spun her lightsaber in her hand.
“Let’s take her together Tal.” Tiriok stepped up next to her brother. Talis raised his hand to stop her from advancing.
“Remember our joint tactics training Tiri?”
“Yeah?” Tiriok looked at Talis curiously.
“Remember Tactic 67?” Talis turned slightly without taking his gaze off of Xaro.
Tiriok smiled and nodded before taking a position behind her brother. Talis took in another deep breath before striding in at the Grand Inquisitor. The Miralukan stepped in with the same upward slash but this time his Sith opponent read it and put his guard out to meet it.
The upward slash came from the Jedi’s right to his left utilizing both of his hands to generate follow through power. The Sith recognized this and braced himself for the attack. He understood that this was a physically superior fighter to the Jedi he had faced so far in his conquest for revenge.
Suddenly the area around the two combatants went pitch black. Xaro Nym felt panic rise in his gut for a split second before Talis’ amethyst blade slammed into his. It was not as hard as before but the strength of the Twi’Leks opponent was nothing to laugh at. The black orb dropped and the brightness temporarily blinded the Twi’Lek.
When his vision came back he was looking at the lightsabers locked together. Purple and Red creating a dazzling, flashing white and screeching at their owners. When Xaro looked up to smile he noticed that the other jedi was standing behind his opponent. With her hands held up to him.
Talis had waited for the inky black orb to appear before pulling his left hand off the hilt of his lightsaber and back into a hook. With his left foot forward and his right hand holding the lightsaber engaged with Xaro Nym’s. The Jedi created a fulcrum and used his amplified strength to turn his hips and throw his left fist into a tight hook, aimed at the Twi’Lek’s temple. Tiriok stood behind her half-brother, calling upon the Force to conceal the danger in her brother’s actions.
For a split second Xaro felt safe. He did not sense any danger. That was the last thought that ran through his mind as Talis put his fist through the side of the Twi’Leks head. The loud squishy thump echoed through the hangar as the Sith flew lifelessly across the chamber and slammed hard into the ground.
Hyle’s stomach could not handle the shock of the gruesome and grotesque noise and caused him to vomit and drop to one knee with Mauro in his arms. The blow caused Petth to release a surprised squeak and Ethan inhaled hard out of reflex.
“OOOoooh…that looked like it hurt.” Ethan stated flatly.
Talis strode over to the Sith whose body had yet to realize it was dead. He deactivated his lightsaber and stood over the dying Sith’s body and just glared at it. As if he expected it to pop back to life at any moment. Tiriok approached her brother slowly and grasped the robes of his back and buried her head in between his shoulder blades.
The shock of what had happened wore off quickly for Petth and Ethan. The human made his way over to Hyle to help him get Mauro out of there. Petth stayed rooted where she had been standing when the punch had landed. The look on Petth’s face was akin to the look a smaller predator gives to a larger predator when it takes down its prey.
“Petth,” Ethan yelled. Her lover’s voice snapped her out of the trance and caused her to jump. She turned to the Jedi who motioned for her to help before he looked past her at the siblings standing over the dying Sith.
“You did well Tal,” Tiriok lightly sobbed into her brother’s back, “now come back to me, come back to us.”
“Talis!” Ethan barked as he reached out with the Force. “We need to go! You need to calm down!”
Like a jet of cold air, Talis felt himself forcibly calming. He turned and stared at Ethan whose eyes shot around before returning to the Miralukan and his Mirialan half sister. The Jedi nodded and took a deep breathe before turning away from the dead Sith’s corpse.
Talis approached and pulled his cloak from his pack before wrapping the dead corpse of Major Silvia Tanos in it. He made sure to take great care of her. He knew how close the Major and Commander Wynter were. Tiriok helped her brother lift the Major’s body up and into a cradled carry between his tattooed arms. Talis took a deep breath as he followed behind Ethan and Hyle, who had seemed to gather himself back together.
The group exitted the hangar before Tiriok’s droid shut the blast doors behind them. The group made their way solemnly across the landing pads and into Skybreaches base. As they approached the bases doors Talis felt another presence. This time familiar to them all. The doors opened with a release of pressure and standing before them was Maximus Alvinius, and flanking him on his right, standing taller than Talis, was Chrome. The third member of their group was Jedi Knight Sia Thianos. Talis knew very little of the knight but it mattered little to him. They were comrades and she was one less person he had to fight. Maximus gave them a glance over before resting his gaze upon the covered form in Talis’ arms.
“What happened?” Maximus stammered out. Talis stepped forward and handed the lifeless body of the Major over to Chrome before walking past the group with his head down. Chrome stared at the covered body in his arms in confusion. He didn’t know what to do and exchanged glances with Maximus and Ethan. “Talis! What happened?”
“I’d leave him be Max.” Ethan put his hand on Maximus’ shoulder before he could pursue the Miralukan. Tiriok looked at her brother then back at the group before awkwardly waving and following her brother into Sky Breach Base. “I can explain.”
