WHO: Jacen Solo and Alema Rar WHAT: Alema faces her death but the Night Herald doesn't want to give in. WHEN: 24 Hours after she started to slip WHERE: One of Alema's demon bar haunts RATING: High - Warning for Character Death STATUS: COMPLETE
Alema had finally given in, she'd woken up in the back room of a seedy demon bar draped over an even seedier demon that she'd known was good for one last fling and woken up to the Gorog. They were so welcoming to her, so forgiving of her misdeeds and Alema had missed them. She had told them so and known in that instant that Jacen would find her.
She'd considered running, hiding, but where could she possibly go, what could she do against him when even she didn't understand the depths of his power. He would find her, and end her and would do it because he felt he had to, because she had asked him to.
"What were we thinking" she cursed, an ever fading part of the broken mind that was Alema Rar knowing exactly what she had been thinking. It wouldn't be easy for Jacen, Alema had killed the demon bar owner, strangled him with a quick exertion of the Force and waited for Jacen, lightsaber in hand. She remembered crafting it after Luke Skywalker had taken her first from her, claiming she was not fit to wield it.
He had perhaps been right.
Her Force presence was slippery as ever it had been not that such things would deter Jacen. Maybe for minutes. It was a happy thought. Or was it.
Kriffing bugs
Weak, remember what we are
"We know well what we..."
The lightsaber fell from her grasp as the Twi'lek slid to the floor of the bar, chairs flying through the air above her head, crashing into the stage. It was the same bar where she had met and flirted outrageously with Obi Wan Kenobi. The bar where she had almost killed a male for touching her without permission before Kenobi had stepped in to ask her not to. And she had spared him, because it amused the Night Herald to play games with Luke Skywalkers old Master.
"Hurry!" she exclaimed to the air.
If Jacen didn't she would loose all of herself and she would hurt again. Hurt in the name of the Dark Nest.
It would be easier if everything was just in balance.
Thats what was missing from the Force after all.
Jacen was as good as his word, and exactly 24 hours after he'd told Alema that she had one more day, he went in search of her. He all but begged Tenel Ka to stay in the Hyperion, unsure of what state Alema would be in. Would she still be rational, still be her? Or would she have already fallen to be the Night Herald once again.
It was easy in this city really, easy to stretch out and sense the different Jedi, given how few there were. And the growing chaos that was Alema's mind was easy to pick out among them. It didn't take him long to find the bar, entering just as the chairs crashed into the stage.
"Alema," he called softly, his lightsaber in his hand if not activated, not yet.
She looked up, cricking her neck in an all too Joiner like way as another chair flew across the room,
"Nothing if not true to your word...at least on this..."
She stood up holding her lightsaber unactivated in a shaky hand, already hurting from old wounds at her shoulder that she knew given time would hurt more, wounds inflicted by his mother as it happened.
"We could...talk or...maybe if you let us...me..."
This was going to have to be soon, already her mind was turning to ways out of this.
"We did this to ourselves" she said, and weather it was Joiner speech patterns or otherwise she didn't say "You and me, we let ourselves get broken didn't we, I mean maybe the Scarheads had a hand in yours but you made the choice to become what you did and we...we knew"
She turned her head, an entire row of bottles behind the bar shattering, alcohol spilling from them all.
"I knew...I knew what Lomi would make us...Didn't care"
She could flirt her way out...
...which had never worked on Jacen before so why should it start now, and physically breaking past someone like him...There was a reason she had asked for him that went beyond old friendships. He could do it. That was assured.
"Yeah, we did," Jacen had to agree with her there. For as much as the Vong and Vergere, and later Lumiya had had a hand in creating him, ultimately he'd been the one to destroy himself. They just showed him the path, he'd been the one to walk it.
He didn't flinch as the bottles shattered, he simply stared at her, the lightsaber still deactivated.
"Are you planning on trying to fight me?"
Inwardly he prayed to the Force she didn't. He wanted to be able to fulfil his promise to make it quick, and as painless as possible for his old friend. He took no pleasure in this, as much as he wanted the kriffing bugs dead. They'd tried to hurt his daughter, and Tenel Ka, even if he didn't really blame Alema herself for that.
"Or shall we just get this over with?" He activated the red blade, the silence in the air broken by the soft hum of power.
"We want to, we want to fight but...we...I..."
The silver blade came to life, back in her hand and somehow, with whatever was left of her, Alema threw it far from herself.
"Keep it, might be useful if..."
She raised her hands to her ears, they hated her for doing it, for being weak, it was weak she was being, they wanted to hurt him, she wanted to hurt him,
"Jacen" she called, the last little bit of warning she could give before the lightning escaped her hands. Whatever of his friend was left she was sorry for what she was trying to do.
As Alema threw her own lightsaber away, Jacen held out a hand, using the Force to summon it to his own grip. It was a beautiful blade, and he had every intention of making sure it continued to be of use. And a second later he was glad he had it in his hand as the lightning came forth. In a quick motion he activated the silver lightsaber and held it as a guard, along with his own red weapon in his other hand. Between the two of them he caught the lightning before it could reach him.
"Alema, stop."
It wasn't just a request, he laced his voice with Force suggestion, as strong as he could make it, hoping it would be enough to reach not just his willing friend, but the bugs in her mind so desperate to stay alive.
She wanted to stop, with everything was left of her she wanted to stop, But there was so much pressure not to, it would be so much easier just to slip back. It was what she had done to herself after all.
"Broken" she finally muttered as the power overwhelmed her and finally gave out "...I just got broken, and that's okay...I knew...."
More glass broke behind the Twi'lek and she screamed.
"Just do it, Kill us" she cried desperately. "Better that way, I don't...we don't balance, you can though. Everything you are, you can make the Force balance here, you and..."
The lightning started again, but lessened, Force help her she was trying.
The lightning was less the second time, weak enough that Jacen could hold it at bay with just the one lightsaber, Alema's one. Inwardly he flinched at her talk of balance. It wasn't something he wanted, he just wanted to live his life quietly with Tenel Ka in this city, this place that had offered him a second chance. But outwardly he kept his face expressionless.
With the silver blade keeping the lightning back, Jacen was able to push forwards, the red blade held ready.
"I'm sorry Alema," he said quietly. "I promise I will remember you as you were. As my friend."
He looked her in the eyes, not shrinking away from it even a bit, before he sliced the lightsaber down, aiming for her heart.
Nothing was in balance inside her, not as she knew now was needed, but Jacen he could try, he could make things better. But for the safety of the city she had to die.
As the blade cut through her Alema slumped forward with almost a smile on her face. LA had been good to her, little that she deserved it. She had made new friends and rekindled her relationship with old ones, and for a while for a few months, she'd had fun
And flirted outragously with Obi Wan Kenobi, that couldn't be forgotten.
The blade reached her heart and with a final thank you to her friend, Alema finally gave up. It was quiet at the end.