• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

"I had business here on Yashyyyk."

"Imperial business?" Jaina asked, and bit her lip as soon as she had said it. Her heart contracted painfully. 'What's happened to you, Zekk? How could you stay with the Shadow Academy? I thought we were friends."

He ignored the question, and asked two of his own. "Why are you here, Jaina? Why couldn't you have stayed awa3O I don't want to hurt you."

Chewbacca voiced a snarl of warning at these words, though at the same time he hissed in pain from his injury.

"Then don't hurt me, Zekk," Jaina said reasonably. She took a step along the branch toward her former friend. "I'm no threat to you. I'm your friend. I care for you."

"Step back and stay out of my way," Zekk snapped. "It's already too late for the others."

Jaina flinched and shut her eyes, feeling the blood drain from her face.

Could it be true? Had Zekk already killed Jacen, Lowle, Tenel Ka... even an innocent stranger like Sirra?

No, she decided at last, it couldn't be. She would have felt it. Her brother and her friends were still alive. They had to be. She couldn't believe that Zekk's heart had become so scorched and black that he could murder someone he had once called a friend.

In an effort to distract him, as she had done with Garowyn, Jaina tried her trick again. She used the Force to rffne the leaves in the branches surrounding him, as if a chill wind were blowing through the claustrophobic cage of the forest underlevels.

Zekk looked up, his green eyes bright even in the shadows. It took him only a moment to realize what she was doing. His pale lips curled in a smile, then he gestured with one hand.

The wind picked up, the branches cracked together, and a storin of dislodged leaves and twigs whipped through the air with the force of a small tornado.

Jaina shut her eyes, shielding them and shrinking back from the whirlwind. Chewbacca yowled, but Zekk paid no attention to the Wookiee.

"I'm not impressed with your tricks, Jaina," he said. "Don't play games with me." Then, with a whoosh, a sizzling brightness stabbed through her eyelids. Jaina opened her eyes to see Zekk holding the weapon of a Jedi, his face lit by its pulsating scarlet glow.

"Don't go for your lightsaber, Jaina," he warned.

She shook her head. 'I won't raise a weapon against you, Zekk. And I don't believe you'd kill me either."

ZeWs face distorted with warring emotions.

"Then stay away from the Jedi academy. If you ever get out of here, don!t go back. The Second Imperium will soon target Yavin 4-and I will fight as a loyal warrior for my Emperor."

"Emperor? Zekk, you don't know what you're saying," Jaina pleaded.

"Stop treating me like I'm an ignorant street kid!" he snarled back.

"You've always underestimated my abilities, denied me opportunities. But Lord Brakiss doesn't. He has shown me what I'm capable of." He tilted his head to look up into the dark nest of branches overhead, as if he could see the daylight far above.

"I've already sent a signal for a fast ship to pick me up. I believe our raid has been quite successful. Time for me to return to the Shadow Academy."

Zekk twitched his lightsaber from side to side as if shaking a finger in warning. 'For the friendship we once had, I'll spare you this time, Jaina. But don't ever test my loyalties again."

With a harsh laugh, Zekk swept his lightsaber upward, releasing a storm of leaves and twigs that showered down on Chewie and Jaina, knocking the phosflea light from her hand. Jaina ducked and covered her head. She couldn't see.

A moment later Zekk was gone, his hollow laughter ringing behind him as he left them in darkness.

- ---------------

LEFT ALONE AGAIN, Jaina shouted once more through the Force as the deep forest sounds grew thicker, more threatening around her. Predators, hidden in the leafy branches, cautiously approached, attracted by Chewbacca's muffled sounds of pain. They sensed helpless victims, easy prey.

"We need help!" she called. Her words quickly died to