Chapter Seven: A Different Perspective

“Come on, we need to get you out of here.” quickly looking around and pulling out my lightsaber, I twist the knob on the handle; adjusting the length of it. After doing that, I ignite it and try to cut Darryl’s binders, only to have my lightsaber extinguish. “What the...” pulling his hands closer I see some sort of energy surrounding it and I grit my teeth. That bounty hunter must have known I was a Jedi. That means, Aydgage sent them or decided to go after the bounty Revan put out. Darryl lets out a low, pained moan. I look at his face, to gauge how much pain he is in. Sweat is all over his face and down his neck, his eyes have now closed and I can feel nothing but regret coming from him. “Darryl? I need you to talk to me.”

“I always talk to you. When I first found you, when I came to the decision to help you, when you did that weird Jedi trick to talk in my head and just barely. Although-” He coughs, tightening his jaw as he does. “Although, I think I was imagining that last bit. How many days has it been anyway?” gulping, I realize I’m not too sure of that myself since I started to just focus on following the tendril after three days of constant heat and suns.

“I’m not sure... I kind of didn’t bring anything with me except my lightsaber.” This makes Darryl bring his head up and open his eyes with confusion, but lazily.

“You didn’t bring survival gear?” he questions me. I bite my lower lip and start to search around him for something that might get him out of the energy binder cuffs.

“I... I didn’t know where to look and I could feel the pain you were in. I wanted to get here as quickly as possible.” Darryl grabs my chin with both hands and forces me to look at me.

“What do you mean?” now I can feel his eyes on me, scanning my face and body for wounds. “You’re dehydrated, aren’t you? And I can see your bruises from the crash.” He winces at some pain in his arm and puts them down. “You should have taken care of yourself first.” I scoff.

“And worry about you the entire time I search for a place that has medical treatment? No way.” He gives me a puzzled look.

“No, from the medical bay in the ship.” his eyes narrow now.

“I...” Oh mother of moons, he doesn’t know how bad the crash is. “ The ship... is half way buried under a sand dune... I was only able to get into the cock pit and my room. Barely even that.” He gives me a puzzled look again, then he frowns and grunts in response. “ let's not worry about it right now. We need to get you out of here first.” standing up, I grab Darryl under on arm, trying to help him up. Darryl is trying to get up, groaning in pain as he does.

“ Oh, that hurts. Haven’t stood up for a while.” He leans heavily into me as I put my arm around his waist. “You took care of the bounty hunter, right?”

“Um... no. I snuck in here. I’m hoping to sneak out.” I mumble under my breath. Darryl groans again, holding his side and falls to the ground. “Darryl!” trying to stay up, the fall slows so he doesn’t end hurting himself more with my weight.

“We can’t leave. She'll just find us again.” Darryl says through gritted teeth.

“What do you mean?” whispering now just in case the bounty hunter is nearby. “She?”

“Yeah...” Darryl sounds sluggish now. “Sh...” slumps against me.

“Darryl?” Shaking him, he looks at me shocked again for a second, then lazily closes his eyes.

“I’m kind of... cold. Huh...” He closes eyes again. No, no, no! I check his vitals hastily. They are slow but steady. I put a finger to his lips, they still feel hot, too hot, and wet. Why are his lips wet? Sniffing my fingers, I get a whiff of something... Tranquilizer ? I place my arms underneath Darryl’s legs and neck, starting to stand up; he’s heavy but I muster my remaining strength and start to walk out slowly.

“Where do you think you are going?” the voice is light and childish sounding. Looking around, I finally see a woman standing at where I came in through. Her armor is similar to a Mandalorians ’ including the helmet but doesn’t look Mandalorian; being short in stature, having pink short hair and bright gold eyes. The bounty hunter starts walking towards me and I back up. “ Gundark got your tongue?” She keeps walking towards me. “I thought Jedi didn’t have lovers? What makes this Chiss so special to you that you would risk coming out here alone? Battered and broken.” I back up into an old tanker droid and she stops a meter in front of me. “I didn’t actually think that you would be stupid enough to come here and get him. Honestly, I thought you would go and get help. Find a ship maybe, or leave and not come back but not come out here alone.” she pulls out a small gun, “I mean, Jedi are pretty strong, but they are also smart. Are you sure you’re a Jedi?” pointing the gun at me, she shoots me with something. I try to dodge but it grazes past my thigh and I feel my leg start to go numb. Kriff . Whatever that just was, it's meant to immobilize me. I try to force push her away, but it only makes her stumble a little. Holding Darryl close to me, I start limping away as quickly as I can. “Hmm, I like it when they try to run away. Go on Jedi! Make me have to chase you.” loud giggles echo throughout the yard.

My muscle scream at me as limp faster, looking around to find another way out. Come on, there has to be another way in and out. Sweat soaks the little clothing I have, and my lungs are starting to retaliate. I trip over something and fall with Darryl still in my arms; my head landing in his belly. Groaning, I push myself up and look around. Nothing put stupid piles of junk! Tightening my jaw and standing up, I hear foot steps behind me.

“Say nigh’ night Jedi.” A pinching feeling comes from my back and everything goes dark.

***

The scent is what hits him first; grease oils, coolant, and fuel. At least, he thinks it’s fuel, it has an odd smell about it. Almost like fuel mixed with a plasma conduit. Darryl brings his head up, blinking to get the fogginess away. A headache starts pounding and he groans, trying to stand up. He realizes quickly that he is bound to the ground and then remembers that he was captured. Darryl becomes alert now, thinking rapidly of way to get out of this situation when he feels warmth coming from behind him. He turns his head to see behind him and sees Mikacele , still unconscious.

“Cilla?” When did she get here? Jumbled memories flash by and he remembers seeing her battered body rushing over to him, thinking she was the delusion he had come up with after days of not seeing her. Darryl shakes his head and moves his arms a little, pain shooting up it. Holy mother everything that is horrible. I forgot that was broken. He lets out an annoyed huff, “Let’s go to the outer rim she says, it will be fine, she says.” mumbling to himself. It’s not her fault, it’s mine... I was fool for thinking that going to Telos was a good idea. Darryl slumps forward, “Dammit. How did this even happen to me?”

“Because she is a Jedi and Jedi are in a war with someone who is willing to pay a lot of money for them to be captured. Though, her in particular, is worth a lot more credits than any other Jedi that is captured.” The bounty hunter walks over to Darryl, cleaning her blade idly as she does. She squats in front of Darryl, lifting up his chin to look him over. “Hmm, you are quite handsome. I wonder, do you love this Jedi? And she loves you back? Is that why she came to get you? I was trying to ask her but she didn’t really have to answer my questions.” Darryl jerks his head away and she smirks. “Ah, emotions. Always get betrayed by the eyes. You do love her but you haven’t figured that out yet, have you?”

“I don’t love her. I care for her, but I don’t love her.” Darryl spits out. The woman just giggles, standing up.

“If you say so.” she walks over to Mikacele , and squats in front of her. “I’ve always wondered what is under the hood of a Miraluka .” she starts to reach out to lift Mikacele’s cloth visor.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Darryl warns, but she reaches to Mikacele’s face and moves the cloth visor aside.

“Huh. Not as bad I was told.” She pulls her hand away and stands up again, kicking Mikacele’s legs. “Wakey wakey Jedi.” Mikacele groans and slowly lifts her head up. Then she jolts her hands, sending pain up Darryl’s arm and he bites back a pained groan.

“What the-” Mikacele starts, then turns slightly to see Darryl. He nods curtly and she looks back at the bounty hunter.

“You are quite the catch missy. The normal going rate to capture a Jedi is a hefty price but to capture you?” She laughs, walking around them. “I was a bit shocked. I started thinking, ‘why is she so much? What in the galaxy did she do?’ but then I stopped thinking that. I mean, credits are credits. You were hard to find at first. Then, after an update on who your companion was, I finally found you on Telos. Oh, don’t think that your companion was an easy target, it’s just I was already hunting him to begin with for a different contract I have with a different client.” she stops in front of Darryl and pushes a button on her wrist, the binders falling off of both Darryl and Mikacele. “Oh, don’t think I am letting you two go. We are just going to play a little game I like to call ‘hunt the prey’. I like to play with my prey for a bit before I give them back to the client. Having a broken and battered person is easier to deliver than a rebellious escape artist.” A sinister smile comes to her lips and the pair stand up. “The rules are simple though: I get to keep your weapons and you guys run.” She starts pulling out her blaster rifle, clicking the gun to stun. Darryl grabs Mikacele’s hand and runs.

Pain throbs through his body as he is running with Mikacele, noting that they are no longer in the junk yard, but in a cavern of some sorts. A shot echoes out and the ring of a stun blast comes towards them.

“Duck!” Darryl yells, taking the chance to duck now, Mikacele doing the same. The ring barely goes over their head and they get up again, Darryl having a hard time. “We need to find a place to hide.”

“I know but she is right on our asses.” Mikacele comes over to help Darryl up.

“Can you use your sight?” her lips purse together.

“Oh, right.” She looks around slowly and points to a darker part of the cavern. “There. It has a system of dead-end caves, except for one.” She takes Darryls hand and starts running there. Darryl holds his side as they run, wishing that they had a med pac of some sort. Another stun blast rings out as they turn a corner.

“I can’t see anything.” Darryl complains.

“Oh, that must be so hard.” Mikacele teases.

“Shut up. You can all the time.” Darryl retorts. They slow down their running as they come up to the cave Mikacele had mentioned earlier.

“I can try to conceal us but we will have to wait until she is nearly here. It doesn’t last long.” She takes him to the further reaches of the cave to conceal them. “Hopefully she doesn’t take the chance to look down here.” Darryl is breathing hard due to the broken bones he still has and Mikacele keeps a hand on him as she searches over his body. “Where does it hurt the most?” He tightens his jaw to her touch, unsure of how his voice will be if he answers. Using his free hand, he stops her hand.

“Don’t worry about it. Save your strength to concealing us when she comes here. In the meantime , we need to come up with a plan.” he tries to slow his breathing but it hurts and he knows that this is why the bounty hunter did this. They would need to spilt up because he is too injured and would only slow down Mikacele . That bitch, she knew this would happen. Kriff . “ Cil-”

“No. I know what you are thinking. I am not splitting up with you. I don’t care if you do slow me down. I am not leaving you to that bounty hunter.” stubborn as always. Darryl smiles softly, using the hand that is still holding Mikacele’s hand and travels up to her cheek.

“I thought we agreed to no mind reading unless we were training?” he teases her. She moves her head away, making his hand fall.

“I may have forgotten while traversing a desert to find you.” A question crosses Darryl’s mind with what she said.

“How did you find me?” he blurts out. He chastises himself slightly after realizing that he should have thought about the question before blurting it out. Damn injuries. She takes a deep breath and sighs.

“I followed the force. Like back on Lothal and how I found that Jedi temple. Except I had to focus on just you and something unique about you.” Darryl tilts his head to the side. Something unique about me? Like what?

“Oh, I see. I made that great of an impression on you huh?” he semi teases, but also probs for questions. Mikacele only scoffs and then sigh.

“I’m not gonna tell you if you are gonna act like that.” she seems almost embarrassed .

“Alright, alright. I’ll stop talking.” There is a long stretch of silence and wonders if she fell asleep or really didn’t want to tell him.

“Your smile. Your real smile. Not that smug one you like to give when you tease me.” She finally says. He smiles without thinking about. “Yeah, that one.” he stops, being embarrassed for being called out on it.

“Oh, I see. Damn, I thought I hid that.” Darryl didn’t want her to see that side of him.

“Kind of hard to hide anything from a Miraluka .” He can just hear Mikacele put her hands on her hips and give a smug smile. Damn, what I wouldn’t give to see her smile. He shakes his head at the thought. No, I am not going over this again.

“ Let’s focus, shall we? How are we going to get out of this?” Suddenly Mikacele’s finger is to his lips and he is very confused. Then, he can hear it, a scanning droid. Shit, not good. Mikacele wraps both her arms around Darryl and holds her breath. He can feel the force flow from her through him, as he does when they train together. An odd sensation though; it feels more like when they were talking to each other through their minds and she used her sight to see where he was. Darryl can see a light come into their little cave. A small maintenance looking droid floats in and the light switches off, going to a scanner to scan the cave. Darryl holds his breaths as it goes over them, hoping he doesn’t set it off. The droid stops scanning after a few sweeps and turns its light back on, leaving back the way it came. Darryl lets out a pained breath and can feel Mikacele pull her arms away, leaving a tingling sensation on his skin and the warmth from her touch.

“I think we’re safe for now.” Mikacele whispers, breathing heavily as well.

“Are you okay?” Darryl asks, hoping she didn’t exert herself.

“Being unconscious and actually having sleep is a big difference, but I'll be fine.” Darryl bites his lower lip. Ah, that’s not good. I may need her abilities to get us out of here. Man, having a Jedi around makes things easier but when you are with them for a while, you tend to forget even the most simplist plans. Idiot.

“ Ah, now I get why you said only for a short time. Well, we need to come up with something quick then.” Darryl starts to come up with a plan. Cilla said that there was a network of caves. I wonder if the caves have anything in them... “ You said there was a network of caves, right?”

“Yeah? What of it?”

“What if we go to them and see if there is anything of use. I mean, you only took a quick look at them, didn’t actually see what was in them?”

“Hmm... Or I can use my sig-”

“No. We might need that conceal again and if you don’t feel up to your full strength then I don’t want you wasting your energy.” Darryl groans in pain, holding his side again. “Damn, that one hurt.” He hears shuffling and then feels Mikacele’s hands again.

“But you are hurt. I’m pretty you have an infection from all the broken bones you got and them not being taken care of.” he feels the force flowing through her to him again. Darryl tries to pull away but Mikacele keeps him there. “Stop. Let me help you at least a little bit.” The pain he has been feeling for the last however many days he was captured goes away, but not away in the sense of feeling renewed, but not feeling anything at all.

“What di-”

“I took away the pain and healed you a little but not much.” She groans as if in pain and he hears her fall to the ground. “Kriff, thought I could take the pain.”

“Dammit Cilla. That’s why I didn’t want you to do that.” Why is this cave so dark? I should be able to see by now. Darryl feels Mikacele’s hand on his arm and he helps her up to the sitting position she was in. “Now you can’t hide us.”

“ Yes, I will. I used your force energy.” Darryl now has even more questions buzz through his mind.

“ Excuse me? How?”

“Another time perhaps? When we aren’t being chased by crazed bounty hunter?”

“You’re right. Sorry. Come on.” He stands up, barely feeling any pain. Mikacele stands with him, seeming a little unsteady on her feet. Darryl puts a hand on her back and she gets her balance. “You’re gonna have to lead me out, I can’t see whatsoever.”

“Close your eyes.”

“Uh, how is that going to help?”

“Just do it.” Darryl grumbles a little and finally closes his eyes. Then, he feels the same sensation he felt all that time ago; he sees everything and feels connected.

“I said-”

“Shush. We are going with my plan this time.” He turns to look at Mikacele and sees a brilliant blue aura outlining her. Not only that but he can see through her, and see her broken bones. Broken bones where they were on him. Wait a minute...

‘just move forward.’ Darryl jumps a little at the sound of Mikacele’s voice in his head again.

Bu-

‘No. I’ve got this. Stop worrying about me and focus on getting us out of here.’ Darryl lets out an annoyed sigh and starts walking with Mikacele by his side. It felt odd to him, using the force. Darryl never thought he could feel the force, let alone use it. Well, not really use it. Mikacele stops and Darryl turns towards a noise. Footsteps fall to where they want to go.

Dammit. That’s where we need to go. Darryl tightens his jaw but then quickly look around. He kneels down with Mikacele following with him and grabs a rock; throwing it the opposite way from them. They stay crouched for a bit, waiting for the footsteps to follow the noise. Waiting for what feels like an eternity, the footsteps finally go towards the noise and they quickly go to a different cave. Mikacele wavers and the sight goes away. Darryl’s eyes fly open and he quickly puts his hand on her back to stop her from falling.

‘ I’m sorry. I got distracted.’ Darryl can see Mikacele shake her head and then feels her place a hand his back. ‘ Close your eyes again.’

No. I can see now. It’s fine Cilla. Mikecele purses her lips together.

‘ We need to find an exit. I don’t think she would have a cave system have anything to us aid in getting us out.’ Darryl sighs, wanting to punch a wall.

I hate being at a disadvantage .

‘I know, but we need to keep a cool head.’

You’re right. Okay, do it again. Darryl is about to close his eyes when he hears a noise behind him. He turns around but only sees a lizard. “What the...” he whispers, then gets hit with Mikacele’s sight at the same time; slight pain forming behind his eyes. Ow! Fuck!

‘I’m sorry!’ Mikacele cringes a little then she sees the lizard. ‘ Colbalt?’

You know this lizard? Darryl raises an eye brow. As he continues to look at the lizard, his sight feels different; enhanced almost. “Whoa...”

‘Yes. I made friends with him on my journey to you.’ She holds out a hand to the lizard and he crawls up her arm.

Huh. Had no idea you liked lizards. Darryl teases Mikacele.

‘ I like any creatures who don’t try to make fun of my piloting skills.’ Mikacele retorts back. ‘ Are you okay? You didn’t close your eyes...’

I think it’s fine. I remembering seeing like this when we talked after I got captured and it only hurt brutally for a moment. Darryl looks around, taking in all the enhanced features of the cavern and sees a possible exit. He squints his eyes and sees something off about the exit though. We have a problem. I’m pretty sure that bounty hunter trapped the exit.

“ Lovely...” Mikacele grumbles. Darryl smirks a little, recognizing the devices.

I know a way around them. Mikacele tilts her head a little and Darryl looks at her. He sees at how much her glow is starting to go away. He grits his teeth together. Shielding his worried emotions for her away. He also takes note of how beautiful she looks, even with all the bruises that litter her face and body. He shakes his head away from that thought and starts heading to the exit. I hate that I take note of almost everything.

As they make their way towards the exit, Darryl comes up to one of the devices and kneels next to it, Mikacele following his movements from behind. Unburying the device, he picks it up slowly and looks at it; clicking in buttons and it pops open. Darryl fiddles with the device for a minute then places it back where he unburied it from, standing up.

“There. Come on.” Darryl weaves slowly through the minefield of poison gas, Mikacele following behind him exactly. As they step out of the cavern, they see light and Darryl shields his eyes, Mikacele pulling her hand away.

“Sorry.” Mikacele shyly says. Darryl turns around and just smiles.

“It’s okay. Look, we made it.” Mikacele looks around and sighs a relief.

“Thank the stars.” she collapses to the ground before Darryl can catch her.

“Cilla?” Darryl quickly kneels and tries to shake her, then notices a small dart in her back. He looks up and sees the bounty hunter pulling her wrist back to load in another dart.

“Thought you could outsmart me? Ha, cute.” She smiles grimly and aims at Darryl. Dodging to avoid the dart, Darryl jumps back up and quickly grabs Mikacele . I need to find a speeder, a ship, anything to get us away from her! Darryl looks around and notices that they aren’t anywhere near the junkyard they were previously at. It is nothing but a vast emptiness of desert. Laughter erupts from behind him and he takes the chance to look. “You think I would bring a means of escape for you? That’s adorable!” the bounty hunter then aims at Darryl again. “Night night Chiss .” she aims her gun at them and a stun ring pulses out. Holding Mikacele close, Darryl glowers at the bounty hunter and attempts to dodge it.

Managing to dodge the stun blast, Darryl runs again. Muscles beginning to tighten with pain as Darryl sees something that looks like a ledge. Rushing over to it, he stops short of edge of the cliff. Darryl looks towards where the bounty hunter is coming from, seeing her aim her blaster again. Setting his jaw, he looks back over the edge; noting that it is a very long way down. Something tells him to do it, that they will be fine. Taking a deep breath in, Darryl looks back at the bounty hunter woman; her gun shooting another stun blast, and takes the risk of jumping off the edge.