Before they reached the hangar, Corvus called Fang Zar over the comms.
"What is it, you've caught me at a good part." Zar snapped.
"There's little time for pleasantries, senator. The time for your freedom is at hand." Corvus spoke succinctly.
"Can it wait 15 minutes?" The senator growched back.
"Please don't tell me he's doing what I think he's doing." Tann muttered from the side.
"Oh! The Chiss! How was your date?" Zar said with great enthusiasm.
"Revan was a sweetheart, he cut up my enemies, and silenced an Umbaran that took a liking to him." Tann sarcastically remarked.
"Oh yeah?!" Zar replied in a steamy tone.
"Enough, Fang, release them." Corvus said, referring to the prisoners.
"Just five minutes is all I need, please, Tann was it? Continue!"
Tann looked quite mischievous, but when Corvus exited invisibility to place his hand over her mouth, she conveyed a 'pout' through the Force.
Corvus sighed.
The duality of women.
One moment, Tann wanted to murder every 'creep' that looked her way sideways, the next she wanted to press his buttons to see how he would react.
Then there was this perverted senator.
The Rebellion and CIS must be doomed with leaders such as this.
"...aand finished." Fang declared.
"That was fast." Corvus said in disbelief.
"Well, yeah, I had to finish the last page before the next chapter." Zar spoke in a frank-are you stupid-tone.
"...on the monitor in front of you, I've created a simple program that slaves all the cells/doors to open when activated. It looks like a Jawa, click it." Corvus slowly stated-as if he were speaking with his techno illiterate grandma-ignoring everything that had been said up until this point.
"It's done."
"Good, now make your way to the hangar, I'll be transferring my call to the prison PA system, so don't be surprised if you hear my voice through the loudspeakers." Corvus added, and then hung up.
"What message could you possibly have to share with those reprobates?" Tann spoke in a disapproving tone.
"You were one of those 'reprobates' for three years." Corvus remarked disbelievingly.
"Ah, but the difference between them and I, is that I am valuable." Tann stated like a princess that had just cosigned her nation into slavery with a smile.
Corvus stared at the nutcase in front of him, but he couldn't hate. There were a few more senators in the prison, both CIS & Republic, as well as a few high profile bounty hunters/gangsters. Any one of them possessed copious contacts, and credits. Yet on an individual level, Tann was correct, they held no value to Corvus whatsoever.
"You are one cold woman, Tann."
"Save the flattery for after I have dealt with this Grand Inquisitor." Tann sniffed, unimpressed with Corvus's choice of words.
"The Grand Inquisitor is an accomplished Jedi Sentinel, he is a dangerous opponent. While you distract him, I'll strike at him from behind."
"I am not above assassinating my opponent to achieve victory, but this isn't about victory, it is about pride, it is about establishing dominance. It's about sending a message." Tann heroically declared.
"You're jealous that I took all the kills in the executive boardroom, and held you back from finishing the job." Corvus simply stated, cutting the wind from her sails.
"Preposterous." Tann dismissed.
Corvus smirked underneath his mask, but decided he wasn't going to call her out on her bs, as he still had a call to make.
Connecting to the speakers spread throughout the prison, Corvus started to address the inmates.
"Greetings, this is Revan, your liberator speaking. You may have felt a little rumble a little more than an hour ago. That was the explosion I set off in the auditorium killing all the clones.
Now some of you may think this is some kind of sick joke, a set up, or maybe want me to shove it.
Well, that's okay, but I want you all to know one thing.
The prison. It is rigged to explode.
You have half an hour to flee to the hangar, and make a run for it.
The armory, and every door has been unlocked.
Have fun now, and remember, you owe your freedom to Revan."
Cutting the message, Corvus looked up to see Tann slow clapping.
"I hate to admit it Revan, but you have a way with violence. It is so casual, yet well thought out. I cannot tell if this is instinct, or methodical. What kind of Jedi are you?" Tann muttered.
Corvus ignored her, as she seemed lost in her own thoughts, and was more so speaking to herself, than asking him directly.
Besides, he hadn't actually rigged the prison with explosives. It was nothing more than a bluff to encourage the inmates. If they sat within their cells, and did nothing, than his escape might prove to be suspect.
However, should dozens-if not hundreds-of ships all left the hangar within a short period of time, then it would help obfuscate Corvus's retreat.
Additionally, on the off chance that the Grand Inquisitor was too much for them to handle, then the chaos caused by the flood of prisoners entering the hangar could be leveraged to create an escape.
It was simple logic. When a sea of fish swam together, and swarmed an area, it made survival easier on the individual.
But for now, he figured he'd try his hand at killing the pale pumpkin headed bastard.
Considering himself a Jedi, Corvus couldn't stand anyone who would willingly betray his organization, and willingly wished death upon any darksider that would hunt down the surviving Jedi.
Most Jedi were good people trying to do good in a rotten galaxy. Jedi in hiding were just normal everyday people trying to live their lives.
To Corvus, even if he had never met the Grand IInquisitor, there was a level of vitriol in Corvus's psyche that labeled the Pau'an as a dead man walking.
The Grand Inquisitor not only was a traitor, not only hunted Jedi, but also transformed innocent Padawans into cold blooded darksiders. It was as if someone turned an innocent happy go lucky kid into a die hard emo, one that psychically got off on inflicting pain, and would go out of their way to kill baby seals just because.
Tann may want to do her pride thing, and prove herself after Corvus had so convincingly decimated Sly Moore, yet he didn't care about her personal feelings of jealousy or own shortcomings.
If Corvus could remove this weed from the galaxy, he would do so with extreme prejudice.
"Let's go." Corvus gestured towards the door leading to the hangar, then reapplied his shroud of invisibility.
Tann boldly stepped forward, and projected an aura of confidence within the Force.
Following behind her, Corvus beheld a brown haired, cloaked man standing alone within the area.
He was radiating an oily aura marking him as Force sensitive.
Corvus frowned.
This was unexpected.
He had anticipated the former Jedi Sentinel to be waiting for them, not whoever this was.
How many Dark Adepts had Palpatine been nurturing during his rise to power?!
Furthermore, how arrogant could one person be? If Corvus had been waiting in ambush, he would at least scramble a battalion of troopers or two. Was this guy the type of darksider who believed in his own hype, or was he really that strong?
"So you are the Grand Inquisitor. You don't look like much." Tann belittled, and ignited her lightsaber.
"My fame precedes me, you, however, are unrecognizable. No wait, I recall reading some intelligence reports, they said a Chiss was captured during the beginning of the war. They said she was Count Dooku's acolyte, but I doubt you and her are the same. That alien was much too pathetic, afterall, she was captured in the first month of the war." The man deflected Tann's verbal jab, and parried with a burn of his own.
Tann's crimson eyes flashed red, and she began to stalk to the man's side.
"Those robes, you shift in them as if they are uncomfortable, the way you carry yourself, it is a pale imitation of the Jedi's poise. You are a fraud." Tann hissed as she prowled ever closer.
Corvus raised an eyebrow, as the man made an ugly face due to her assertion. If she had analyzed all that within seconds of their meeting, he wondered what she had seen in him.
'No wonder she frequently remarks upon the oddness of my actions. In fact, Tann had even asked "what kind of Jedi are you?" I had no idea her observational prowess was so keen.'
Thinking on her words, Corvus was stunned to discover that the Dark Adept was actually rather uncomfortable in the loose flowing robes that surrounded his body. It really was as Tann said, as if he were playing pretend.
Yet despite all this, what shocked him the most, was that he had confirmed the title of Grand Inquisitor!
They weren't dealing with the bald pumpkin head, no, this must be the Legends Grand Inquisitor!
The first Grand Inquisitor.
Pursing his lips, Corvus searched the recesses of his memories, and discovered he knew nothing about this guy.
Star Wars nerd, and minor autist he may be, but Corvus simply did not recall this darksider in any form of media. Which wasn't impossible, because while he had consumed tons of books, games, cartoons, etc, he didn't know everything about Star Wars.
This lack of knowledge really had him on edge, and Corvus forced himself to repeat the mantra of the Jedi Shadow to calm down.
Focusing himself within the Force, Corvus sensed several additional, near identical life forms within the hangar.
The feeling it gave him reminded him of the…clone assassins!
This man wasn't alone, it was a trap!
If Corvus was right, then a squad of ten of the famed killers were invisibility scattered all throughout the hangar.
Eyeing Tann and the Grand Inquisitor position themselves like roosters puffing their chests before a fight, he knew that the assassins would strike as soon as the two Force Adepts clashed.
Meaning he only had a few seconds to preemptively resolve this issue before they attacked.
Armed with sonic weapons, lightsabers, vibroswords, blasters, and possibly sniper rifles, they could come at Tann from any angle, with any kind of weapon imaginable.
Pausing, Corvus began to think of a way out of this dilemma.
From what he gathered, there were two assassins posted up waiting on top of spaceships a fairly decent distance away in opposite directions. It was safe to assume they were equipped with snipers.
Four more clones formed a semi circle behind Tann, and the remaining four stood on the Grand Inquisitor's left/right flanks.
The Chiss was surrounded.
In fact, it made sense now why the darkside male hadn't rushed to strike Tann. His strategy had been to lure her close, then strike her down whilst she had been drawn close.
Mentally grinding his teeth, Corvus direly wished he was dealing with cartoonishly evil darksiders such as those found in the cartoons.
But no, here he was, dealing with Legends monsters.
Couldn't someone deliver this bad guy the memo that stormtroopers couldn't aim?
After spending another five minutes raging at the unfairness of the situation, Corvus seriously began to plot out their victory/escape.
Now, of course he could leave Tann for dead, and wait for the prisoners to arrive, creating enough chaos to escape, but he had invested so much into her, it would be a waste. Furthermore, they had shared a certain level of trust up to this point. Corvus had already exhibited a deep hatred for traitors, and refusing to reinforce Tann now would be a betrayal against his principles.
He had to do something to help her.
The question was, what?
From where he stood, Corvus imagined he could swiftly deal with the four clones on her rear, and take them by surprise.
Then, he could maybe dash forward in time to block both bolts from the pair of snipers.
….no, that was stupid.
There was no guarantee he could have both the timing and skill to do something like that. Or maybe he would, but there was too much chance involved.
Perhaps he could [Mind Trick] the snipers. It was a long shot due to the distance, but as demonstrated with the prison gate guard, not impossible.
If he could trick the clones into believing Tann was a lawful officer of the Empire, then he would be converting them to his side!
Corvus had an evil smirk on his face as the plan began to come together.
This only left the remaining clones directly on the Grand Inquisitor's flanks.
'Force Lightning, perhaps?' Corvus mused.
It was an interesting idea, but with how close Tann was, he dismissed it due to the fact that he didn't want to electrocute the lady he was trying to reinforce.
Mentally scratching his chin, Corvus was stalled on this part of the plan.
Perhaps he could direct the snipers at these clones specifically, earmarking them as troopers that had gone A-wall?
Corvus internally frowned, not liking how flimsy this was, but he didn't really have much of a choice, did he?
He would love to do something like toss a thermal grenade, but Tann was already too deep, and mere moments away from pouncing.
Perhaps now would be the time to learn Saber Throw, however, it seemed like such a niche ability, and waste of a point. Ultimately, Corvus decided against it.
It was unfortunate, but he'd just have to wing it.
Right as he was about to un-Pause, and commit his plan into action, Corvus recalled the AOE feature of [Energy Resistance] and [Force Barrier].
'Fuck, it's genius.' Corvus thought to himself.
Resuming time, Corvus saw Tann begin her attack, and got to work.
'The blue skinned Imperial officer is under attack by a Jedi, defend her!' Corvus sent out, holding his left hand towards one sniper, and his right hand towards the other.
Then, as soon as he felt the [Mind Trick] take hold, he cast the complement of buffs: [Speed/Valor/Resistance/Barrier] on himself, and to a lesser extent, Tann.
A second later, Tann and the Grand Inquisitor's sabers met, and Corvus was homing in on the clones in the flank.
Everything happened so fast, that four clone assassins were cut to pieces at the exact same time that Tann had exchanged a dozen stabs, cuts, and feints against one another.
The remaining four assassins attacked Tann, dropping their invisibility in the process. Two were immediately taken out by the snipers, while the remaining two lunged at Tann with lightsabers drawn.
A sonic wave gushed over the Chiss, and a green saber smashed into her shield as she was forced to deflect the high speed blows coming from the Grand Inquisitor.
Pushed on the backfoot, Tann never once lost her cool, and her confidence sang in the Force.
The Grand Inquisitor, however, had grown dismal at the sudden turnaround, and his form had grown somewhat sloppy as a result.
Corvus ran to support her, however, at that moment, something lunged at his back, and he only just sensed it thanks to his Awareness.
Pause-buffering his movements, Corvus intentionally slipped into a forward dive dodging the jaws of a great wolf-sized alien monster.
Springing out of its reach, Corvus Paused once more to assess this drastic shift in the situation.
Looming behind him was a tall, tattooed Selphi (space elf) with black hair, and garbed in typical darksider attire. Wielding a double bladed red lightsaber, she struck an intimidating pose.
Yet for all her dangerous looks, she didn't feel particularly powerful in the Force.
But what did threaten Corvus was the beast that kept her company.
If he wasn't mistaken, this was the famed 'Jedi Hunter' beast. One that could sense the Force within others, and was an ambush predator.
The fact that Corvus couldn't sense this Selphi was likely due to the "dog's" abilities.
Taking in this new pair of enemies, Corvus once again bemoaned his fate.
Why couldn't the Imperials be incompetent Disney villains?