Muroi took a pot shot at Lyonel, who threw up his arm, absorbing most of the blast with his thick hide. Muroi’s subsequent blast hit Lyonel in the side, which stung as he fell to the ground.
The Shistavanen walked over to Lyonel and began to take the bag, looking over to see that Bannamu was now restraining the semi-conscious Kroe. As he reached down to grab the bag and Lyonel’s holopad, the Togorian took hold of his arm and wrestled with him momentarily before the Shistavanen sliced at the Togorian’s face with his claws and brought the butt of his gun down hard into his skull.
Lyonel grew dizzy as he felt his grip on Muroi loosen, and the traitorous Shistavanen jerked himself away. “I’m sorry, Lyonel, I really am. If you had just told me about your mom sooner, I could’ve let you go and then finished off Kroe by myself without all of these elaborate extra steps… but you didn’t trust me enough to tell me sooner. And that’ why we’re here in the first place. You guys never trusted me. You never even liked me.”
He tossed Bannamu the bag, “hurry and fill it up.” The Patrolian just laughed as he removed his eye patch to improve his vision in the darkened room.
“Why Muroi? What did we do to you?” Lyonel asked, not entirely comprehending the current situation.
The Shistavanen snarled a somewhat nervous laugh, “I’m glad you asked, because I’ve been wanting to get this off my chest for so long.”
He glanced over to see if Kroe was still awake, “I grew up admiring you guys. You were the legendary team in our sector for years, and I wanted to be just like you. I spent my life training in combat, I built up my network, I got myself a nice ship, and then I finally met you. And what happened? Tell me Lyonel, what happened?”
Lyonel racked his brain, think of what he had done to Muroi in the past, but he could come up with nothing negative. He had always tried to be polite, and he made sure the Shistavanen got paid. He looked back up at his assailant as he realized blood was now running down his face. “I like to be informed on these things, Muroi, but I truly do not know…”
The Shistavanen’s expression of distress slowly changed into that of bemusement. “No, of course you don’t. You’re the good guy. The good guy who never let me help you on the field because I just wasn’t as ‘good.’ The good guy who forced me to sleep in a metal chair in my own cockpit every night because they were too important to sleep anywhere but a bed. The good guy who never actually treated me like a part of the team at all, but instead treated me like a pet. All I was to you guys was a ship and occasionally an extra gun. But what should I expect from two privileged mercenaries who’s families are so rich they literally only do what they do for the literal heck of it.”
He pounded his chest as his speech grew more passionate, “I had to work for everything I have. My ship, my reputation, my role as a part of your ‘team.’ But you guys can just fall back onto mom and pop’s money if things ever got rough, so I guess you’ll never understand.”
He looked over at the Patrolian as he continued to drop the silver lightsabers into the bag one by one. “Hurry it up, Bannamu. And don’t think I forgot about the stunt with the floor you pulled back there. If you try anything like that again, I’ll kill you, and with a lot less hesitation.”
The Patrolian shivered and picked up his pace, and Kroe began trying to speak, tied up near the door. “But why not kill us a long time ago…” he mumbled.
Muroi flailed his arms around in a frenzy, “because you guys are too good. Do you know how many times I tried to pull a gun behind one of your backs? But one of you were always either watching me, or in a position that if I killed one, the other wouldn’t let me live through the next millisecond.”
He continued, “I know there were a lot of things that could go wrong with this plan, but since you guys never let me in on any of the fun, I figured I’d try to have some for myself. This way, I get paid for the lightsabers AND I gain the reputation of being the only member of your legendary team to survive this perilous journey. I won’t just be kind of like you guys anymore, I practically will be you guys.”
Lyonel tried to stand to his feet, but he was growing weak. Had that blow been hard enough to give him a concussion? Muroi kept his blaster trained on Lyonel as he made his way over towards the door by ‘Kroe. He motioned towards Tabbane’s rotting corpse, “parts of his journal were true. There is something crazy stalking these halls, and he and Bannamu were able to trap it back here last time.”
He leaned into the door way and let out an enormous howl. A moment later, the faint sound of something scraping down the metal hallway could be heard. “I don’t know what it is, but hopefully it’ll torture and kill you guys slowly, the same way you killed my spirit.”
He grabbed the clattering bag from Bannamu and made his way for the door as the Patrolian kicked Kroe’s blaster down the hall towards the oncoming scraping sound. Muroi picked up Lyonel’s gun and took it with him. “Again, I really am sorry Lyonel. I could at least tolerate you, even if you did destroy half of my things in the Pride. You just thought you were a little too good for me, and I guess you failed to see what was brewing below because of that massive ego of yours. You’re not as good as you think. I honestly would’ve liked to see Kroe wallow in self pity and fall apart after you left him. I might have gotten just as much enjoyment from that. Oh well.”
Muroi looked around at the room one final time and sighed in relief. The door closed behind the two as they ran out of the room, and Lyonel heard the sound of a blaster singeing the door controls shut.
Lyonel leaned his bloodied head back against the wall as the sound of metal scraping on metal grew closer. Kroe was now fully aware of his surroundings again and also sported a nasty, swelling mark on his head. “You were going to leave? How come that filthy son of a gun knew before I did…?”
“I didn’t know how you would react,” Lyonel said somberly, still not moving.
Kroe paused for a moment, “you thought I would actually care if you left me? Yeah right. I managed just fine before I started partnering with you. How selfish do you have to be to think that I suddenly wouldn’t be able to survive on my own.”
Lyonel shook his head, blood and sweat peppering the dark floor around him. “I know, I know… I let my feelings supersede my better judgement. I would say I’m better than this, but I’m starting to doubt that I ever was. Muroi was actually correct in what he said. I am not everything I built myself up to be… if I was, we wouldn’t be in this predicament.”
There was a moment of silence as a red glow began to appear from beyond the damaged door. Lyonel wondered if it really was some vengeful phantom coming to take their forlorn souls.
“Why were you leaving?” Kroe asked.
Lyonel breathed out once again, “my mother is on her death bed… I wished to go see her one more time. But that was selfish of me. You don’t even have the ability to go back and see your family anymore.”
Kroe exhaled heavily as he flipped himself over and sat up, his hands and feet still bound behind him. “Hey… you know what, I’m sorry. And I don’t mean it like Muroi, I am really sorry. I… I know what it’s like to lose a family member, and while I might have grown numb to it, you haven’t. You have the privilege of being able to visit your family, and I guess you should probably take full advantage of that.”
Lyonel managed to smile, “it appears it’s too late now. Because of the distraction the news of my mother’s illness provided, I couldn’t focus on what was happening in the moment. And you know that even though I pride myself in my ability to foresee things like this, I’ve failed incredibly hard on this one. That was the only good I brought to this partnership.”
“Hey, don’t say that. You bring a lot more to the team than just intuition. You’re also the one with the freaking large muscles. In fact, maybe I should be the brains for once. I’m not just a walking, talking gun you know.” Kroe was quickly reverting back to his closed off, sarcastic self.
Lyonel thought back to what Muroi had said about just being valued for his ship, and knew that he had in fact brought other value to the team, although both he and Kroe had failed to recognize it. If there was some way to reconcile with Muroi, he had to try. But first, they needed to get out of here.
“Do you consider me a friend?” Lyonel asked the Drabatan, who was trying to figure out what was making that awful, scraping noise.
Kroe looked over at Lyonel with what almost appeared to be a jeering smile. “You know, I wouldn’t say I’d go that far, but we do make a pretty good team, eh partner?”
Lyonel smiled and shifted his body forward, “right partner. And as a team, we’re going to face whatever comes in from that hallway head on.”
Kroe inched his way over beside Lyonel, who had now pushed himself away from the wall and was sitting up on his knees. “You just sit back and watch,” the Drabatan said over the sound of the metallic screeching.
A moment later, something came crawling into the room that surprised the both of them. It was a droid. The upper half of it’s body was an EV unit by the looks of it, while the lower half appeared to be stitched together with the spare pieces of the droids they had seen in the room earlier, as well as an assortment of other random parts. It slowly dragged itself into the room using three of it’s arm-like appendages.
“Master, I’m so glad you’re back. Why did you leave me here for so long. I’ve been so lonely without you. Are you hurt, I’ve got some…” the droid said, trailing off in a voice that was nearly as annoying as Bannamu’s had been.
“Is that it?” Kroe asked confused as he looked at the seemingly harmless droid.
Suddenly, the droid’s voice became ten times louder as it began to emit a high pitched alarm. “You are an intruder! Intruders are the reason I ended up this way! You! Must! Die!”
Emerging from behind the crawling droid were two more humanoid looking entities that Lyonel immediately recognized as old Clone Wars era IG-100’s, although they lacked their traditional electrostaffs. He also noticed that all three droid were plugged into a power chord that extended back into the darkened hallway.
The EV-series unit suddenly activated a buzzsaw on it’s fourth arm, starting to slash at Kroe. The resourceful Drabatan did not hesitate in twisting his body around in a risky move, allowing the blade to sever the ropes that bound his wrists behind his back.
One of the IG-100’s began to approach Lyonel, who tried to stand while staring into it’s two ominous, glowing red eyes. It moved in a very usual manner, and Lyonel wondered how they had remained powered for so long. This place had clearly been abandoned since long before the end of the Clone Wars.
By this time, Kroe had loosened the bindings around us boots enough to allow him to lunge past the droids, grabbing his large blaster rifle that was now laying beyond the doorway. He fired at one of the IG-100 units, it’s head exploding in a fountain of sparks. However, it continued to react aggressively towards Lyonel. The Togorian punched his fist through the large, red, eye-like reactor on it’s chest, finally watching it collapse to the ground.
Kroe then fired back down into the hallway where the cables connected to their robotic assailants trailed off. Lyonel saw the vague outline of either a GNK or PLNK power droid light up in flames as the massive crimson blaster bolts from Kroe’s blaster cannon illuminated the dark hallway. A moment later, the other IG-100 collapsed to the ground and the EV’s saw blade began slowing to a halt.
As it laid it’s elongated head piece down on the ground, it tried to speak, but it’s voice box was quickly dying. “Where did my master goooo….”
Lyonel was curious as to who this fortress used to belong to, as well as how these droid had managed to attach themselves together to form such a monstrosity of parts and cables, but now was not the time to sit and ponder anymore. Like Muroi has told him when they had first entered the temple, he needed to take a page out of Kroe’s book and move without hesitation.
Kroe kicked one of the droids on his way over to Lyonel, who was still sitting on his knees. He extended out his hand, “We do make a pretty good team. But I’m going to need you to stay on your toes, because being the brain is exhausting. I guess you can keep that job for now, I’ll just stick to my guns.”
Lyonel took his hand and was hoisted to his feet as he smiled and pulled something out from underneath him. “Don’t worry, I wasn’t entirely useless.”
He waved Kyp Tabbane’s journal around in the dim light, “I used what Muroi thought was desperation to execute my strategy. Unfortunately, it cost me a bump on the head. But fortunately, us Togorians heal fast, so I should be ok.” He rubbed his head and tried to take a step forward but stumbled slightly. “Although I may still need some assistance walking for the time being.”
Kroe rolled his eyes, “fine. But as soon as you can walk, you’re on your own.” He propped the large feline up on his small shoulder as Lyonel turned on his torch and flipped through the journal.
He noticed that Tabbane mentioned his partner by the name Bannamu on a few select occasions, a revelation that made him wish he had been able to sneak a look at the journal much earlier into their expedition. If he had, it would have saved them a lot of trouble. Tabbane had detailed the entirety of their day-long expedition within the temple, at least up until he discovered the lightsabers, where his writing had promptly stopped. After that, the rest is scribbled in by someone else, detailing the quickest way to the vault as well as the best way to trap someone there. This is what Muroi must have actually been reading from.
Lyonel looked at the sealed door in front of them. “Bannamu may have been here before, but I don’t think they know the way out. He clearly didn’t know everything, because activating the trap floor in the statue chamber was clearly a mistake. A mistake that closed off the only route they had memorized. We just need to beat them to the ship. Can you blow open that door?”
Kroe smiled, lifting up his repeater, “I thought you’d never ask.”
Kroe and Lyonel emerged on the other side of the smoldering door. The illuminated droid part storage room was now eerily quiet, and Lyonel began flipping through Tabbane’s entries. “It appears that there is another open passageway stemming from the room with the large skeleton.”
Kroe chuckled maniacally, “let’s go get those rats.”
It didn’t take long for the duo to find the alternate route, and they shuffled down the halls as quietly as possible so not to let their captors know they had escaped. As they neared the base of the spiral staircase, they heard a voices.
Bannamu’s throaty vocalizations began to echo down the hall. “See, I told you I knew the way. All we gotta do now is go up.”
“Yeah, but you also almost incinerated me so you can see why I wouldn’t exactly trust you.” They heard the Shistavanen take a deep breath and his tone changed, “you have no idea how freeing this feeling is. It’s like I was being held back, but now I can do whatever I want with no competition.”
He let out a hybrid laugh howl, “I’m glad I didn’t just shoot them, because just thinking of those pricks suffering right now adds to this beautiful satisfaction. Justice at it’s finest.” Bannamu just snickered uncomfortably.
The two kept bantering as they approached the stairs, and Lyonel and Kroe could now see them from the other end of the hall. Their backs were facing the duo, and Lyonel pushed away from Kroe as he stuck his arm out, motioning to his partner to stay put. He no longer dared speak, for fear of triggering Muroi’s incredibly keen, canine-like senses.
Lyonel leaned down in a readied stance and swallowed all of his pride and inhibitions. He knew he was far too civilized to be charging in on all fours like an animal, but this was something that had to be done. He could not let them get away.
The large Togorian sprung forward, charging down the dull, brown hallway at full speed. If he could just pounce on Muroi, it would all be over without any need for an extended confrontation. Bannamu was no longer threat without the element of surprise.
The majestic, silent predator had almost reached his prey when suddenly Muroi swiveled around. In his hand, he was holding a lightsaber, and he flashed Lyonel a nasty grin.
“I could smell you from a mile away,” he swaggered, flipping the switch to ignite the blade and cut down the incoming feline. However, nothing happened…
Muroi’s eyes widened as he looked down at the metallic hilt, “Well shoo-“
Lyonel was forced to alter his path as he lunged past Muroi, although he was able to swing his paw in retribution as he flew by, leaving deep gashes in the side of the Shistavanen’s face.
Lyonel let out roar that echoed throughout the entire installation, and Muroi barked at him in return. He reached into the bag, grabbing a different lightsaber, but was met with the same result. “Are they all broken?!” he said, frantically digging around in the bag while keep his eye on Lyonel.
Just then, Kroe let off a shot, striking the Shistavanen in the leg. The Drabatan slowly limped his way down the hall as Lyonel used this opportunity to grab Muroi from behind, placing him in an iron chokehold.
Bannamu grabbed at the lightsabers on the ground, but Kroe fired off another round that just barely singed the top of the Patrolian’s head, sending him flailing back into the corner in fright.
While he was restrained in a head lock, Muroi’s hands were still free, and he reached behind him, digging his own claws deep into both of Lyonel’s sides and twisting them. The Togorian roared in pain, and waited for Kroe to put the savage wolfman out of commission. But Kroe did not shoot.
Lyonel looked up in surprise to see the Drabatan standing there, gun pointed at Muroi, but he was hesitating… his partner was frozen.
“Hurry, Kroe,” Lyonel said through teeth gritted from the pain, “shoot him.” Kroe just shook his head, “I can’t. I can’t get a good shot. If he moves at all, I might hit you.”
Muroi started ripping deeper into Lyonel’s flesh. “Kroe, you should never freeze. Remember your promise? Don’t break that for me.”
Kroe shook his head again, “you’re the only friend I have left, Lyonel. And you’re already injured enough. If I accidentally hit you with this heavy repeater, you might die. I can’t lose anything else…”
Muroi began to laugh, “friends, really? You have no friends, Kroe. I didn’t say this back in the vault because I wasn’t sure how conscious you were, but I hate your guts most of all. Just try and shoot me, you psychopath, I dare you. You know I’m faster and better than the both of you, and there’s nothing you can do.”
“We just wanted to reconcile,” Lyonel said into Muroi’s ear, “there doesn’t have to be any more violence.”
The Shistavanen howled in amusement, “no more violence?! That Drabatan over there is violence incarnate. And even if, for some odd reason, he doesn’t outright shoot someone, that personality of his will definitely make them want to shoot him.”
Muroi stared Kroe dead in the eyes and snarled, “just tell me this one thing before I kill you both, ‘Kroe? Lyonel and I are both similar species, with certain… animalistic traits. So why did you treat him like family, and me like I was a pet? Do I look like nothing more than garbage stuck to the bottom of your boot?”
“I- I…” Kroe lowered his weapon slightly.
Lyonel knew Muroi was just stalling, letting his apprehender bleed out and lose just enough strength to break free. And it was working. He was getting inside Kroe’s mind, while simultaneously weakening Lyonel. The Togorian felt his energy fading, and he knew if he didn’t put every last ounce of his strength into restraining the struggling lupine, he and Kroe would both be dead.
He tried to call out to Kroe to snap him out of it, but he could now only weakly grunt as he put his all into squeezing the squirming Shistavanen. Lyonel felt Muroi remove one of his hands from his bloody side and start to reach for his holster, and it took everything he had to keep him from grabbing his blaster.
“You are no better than any of the people we’ve hunted down or killed.”
Kroe held his hand to his injured head, “no, you’re wrong… I’m better than them. I exact justice.”
“You don’t know the meaning of justice, you murderer,” ‘Muroi barked, and Lyonel felt his grip start to loosen. “I don’t know everything that happened to you back on Pipida because you never cared enough to tell me, but I can tell you that you deserved absolutely everything that happened to you. If you really wanted justice, you would either shoot your self right now, or better yet, shoot me! SHOOT ME!”
Lyonel could take no more, and he knew Kroe couldn’t either. With one swift motion, he tightened his arms and twisted Muroi’s neck, snapping it as he let out one final whimper. Bannamu screamed and scurried back off down the hall as the Shistavanen’s lifeless body fell to the floor with a thud.
Kroe dropped his weapon and fell down on his knees. “I… froze. Again. Maybe… maybe it is better if you go back home and I work alone. I don’t think partnerships or friendships are for me.”
Lyonel slowly made his way over to his friend, “or, you could accept that together we’re stronger. We did just survive, after all.” He helped Kroe back up. “We’ve made it this far together, might as well keep the momentum going.”
Kroe rubbed the bruised skull and looked at Lyonel, who’s fur was now singed and matted down with his own blood. “Well, do you at least think we can forget this whole thing ever happened?”
Lyonel winked, “deal.”
He reached down to grab one of the lightsabers and wondered if the Empire would take them even if they were busted. But decided it would be best to leave them in these cursed halls for the next explorer who had the misfortune of stumbling upon the Vassek temple. He instead unclipped his holopad from the Muroi’s lifeless hip, and they took one last look at their old Shistavanen partner.
Unfortunately, it seemed Muroi had been a lost cause. Lyonel had wanted to apologize and possibly even reconcile, but the young wolfman had been completely consumed by a fierce hatred and envy. While he and Kroe may have egged the him on, the root of his problem had most likely stemmed from something much greater. A desire that had been festering long before he had come in contact with the duo. But Lyonel couldn’t help but wonder if he was just trying to justify a problem that he was solely accountable for. Either way, he would never let it happen again.
“What about Bannamu?” Kroe said looking around.
Lyonel shook his head in hopelessness, “it looks like he’ll get to be here with his precious relics for a long, long time.”
Kroe chuckled softly, “that is justice, right?”
Lyonel leaned on his friend as they began their ascent back up the spiral staircase. “It would seem that justice is different for everyone. And I think we need to be more aware of that from now on.”
Kroe just stared forward, and they remained silent for the rest of the climb.
As they emerged from the large, underground structure, it took a moment for their eyes to adjust to the dull light of Vassek’s pink surface. They walked along the cliff wall, and Lyonel instinctively glanced down at his holopad.
There was another message from his father.
The Pride of the Underworld was sitting where they left it, and ‘Kroe went ahead and boarded while Lyonel stopped on the boarding ramp.
He hesitantly opened his father’s message, and saw four words, just like the last. He read over it a few times and closed the holopad, looking up towards the pink clouds and taking a deep breath. He felt a tear roll down his furry face and experienced a different kind of confliction, but he knew that things could only get better from here. Kroe was his family too, and he had an obligation to keep him safe and make sure the Drabatan didn’t suppress his emotions and feelings any further than he already had. Lyonel would no longer ignore the smaller plights of the people around him. If he did, then he might as well retire now because he was undoing everything he and Kroe had worked for. A better galaxy.
He boarded the ship as the bay door closed, and a moment later they lifted up through the dense, pastel clouds and towards their next chapter in life.
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“She died very peacefully” – M’kango Merillion
Star Wars Fan Publications 