AN: TRIPLE RELEASE TODAY. GO BACK to 16.
A beat passed, and Corvus knew he was on the precipice of convincing this dangerous beast.
During their staring contest, Corvus felt his arm begin to throb as a trickle of blood flowed down his robe.
Corvus instinctively moved to heal himself, however, he paused in his actions, and regarded the damaged Vornskr.
"I'm about to heal myself, if you really want to be friends, there has to be trust…if you lower all your barriers, I can heal us both."
Huego blankly stared at him, there was no shift in the alien hound as it stood still.
Ever so slowly, Huego opened his mouth, and mimed putting a paw in between his jaws.
Corvus pursed his lips.
It seemed if the Vornskr was to trust him, it would want a guarantee that Corvus wouldn't try to kill him as soon as Huego let his guard down.
"Okay. I'll do it." Corvus solemnly answered.
Clipping his lightsabers, Corvus approached the massive creature, and felt his heart palpate.
Mentally repeating the Jedi Shadows mantra, Corvus locked eyes with the beast, and opened himself in the Force.
Taking a knee, Corvus placed his arm between Huego's massive jaws. At the same time, Huego dropped all Force shields and barriers.
Breathing calmly and steadily, Corvus activated [Heal], closing the wounds on both of them.
"See? I'm not so bad." Corvus smiled, and reached out with his free hand to scratch behind Huego's ears.
The alien hound thumped its hind leg, and let go of Corvus's arm.
Corvus then scratched under Huego's chin, and tapped a finger against the shock collar.
"Let's get this off you, aye?"
Huego nodded his head, and pressed a wet nose against Corvus's palm, then gave it a lick.
"Alright, hold still, I'm going to cut through it, okay?"
"Grrr." Huego growled, and barred his teeth.
"Easy now, I wouldn't heal you just to kill you now, right?" Corvus reasoned, and held his hands out in calm.
Huego stopped growling, but he still eyed Corvus with a serious stare.
Corvus took a step back, and ignited a lightsaber.
"Hold still."
Swiping his blade, the shock collar easily came off the Vornskr's neck.
Huego kicked the remains of the collar out the window, then ran in a circle around Corvus.
"Auf, auf!" Huego barked excitedly.
As soon as he did, something shifted in the Force, and Corvus found himself entering a strange fugue. Shaking his head, Corvus realized he could feel, and share basic emotions between the alien dog.
They had formed a Force Bond!
'Friend!' Huego wagged his tail, and slobbered all over Corvus's hand.
"Alright, alright! Who's a good boy?" Corvus laughed.
'Hungry!' Huego emoted.
"Let's go, I'll see if Senator Organa will feed you a steak." Corvus rubbed a spot between the hounds ears, then turned back towards the hangar.
However, before he could turn back to the hangar, he heard a great ruckus coming from the other end of the hallway.
A ton of whooping, and hollering men were shouting, and errant blaster fire was occasionally sounding off.
Huego stiffened, turning towards a sliding door, and Corvus realized that these must be the escaped prisoners.
As soon as the door slid open, Revan was surprised to see that Fang Zar was at the front being carried on the shoulders of a few strong looking guys dressed in orange jump suits.
The prisoners pointed blasters at Corvus, but Fang Zar was quick to ease the situation.
"Stop, stop, this is my accomplice! He's one of us! You can put me down now, please, he'll take over from here." Zar shouted.
"Sure thing Senator." A rough looking tattooed man set Zar down, then ran into the hangar hooting and hollering.
Corvus pulled Huego along with Zar into the hangar, and moved to the side as thousands of escapees began pouring into the area.
"Are you okay, Senator Zar?' Corvus questioned.
"Oh, never better my boy." Zar beamed.
"Woo! Go Zar!" A prisoner cheered as he ran by.
Fang Zar waved at the prisoner, then turned back to Corvus with a satisfied smile.
Corvus figuratively had question marks hovering over his head at this development, but decided he would stay out of it.
"Go find your ship, and wait for us. Tann is currently engaged in a fierce duel, and I need to go to her aid." Corvus said, and then rushed into the hangar proper.
"The Stellar Envoy is right here!" Zar cupped his hands and shouted.
Corvus acknowledged the senator with a thumbs up, and began to pick up speed.
A feeling in the Force was telling him that the duel between Tann and the Grand Inquisitor was reaching a climax, but it gave no indication as to who was winning.
All he knew was that he had to hurry, because after putting in all this effort, there was no way he would lose the best living CIS General to some random darksider!
During his sprint forward towards Tann's last known location, Corvus saw dozens of ships taking off, and tons of prisoners hijacking impounded ships, personal cruisers or even the occasional LAAT.
Looking all over the place, Corvus realized that his plan to release the prisoners had somewhat backfired.
In all this chaos, he discovered that he couldn't find Tann!
It was then that he heard the soft paws of Huego on the metal hangar floor that he became inspired.
"Huego, can you find my companion?" Corvus asked.
Huego sniffed the air for a couple seconds, and then took off.
Chasing after the hound, Corvus saw the debris and carnage of tons of scorched/cut items. Based on the damaged items, Tann and the Grand Inquisitor seemed to almost exclusively use their lightsabers. A few objects were scattered, leading him to believe the only Force power they used was telekinesis or pull/push.
Following Huego deeper into the complex, they left behind the raucous whoops of the prisoners, and eventually came across the constant hum of electrical power.
All around them, there were huge three story tall generators, and tons of warning signs indicating that one should not go beyond this point.
The lighting began to dim too, and everything was lit by red bulbs, making this the perfect place to ambush someone from cover.
Isolated from the hanger, Corvus witnessed what felt like a final clash of blows.
Standing on a high rise industrial catwalk, red met red as their lightsabers pressed, and prodded at one another.
Tann's signature in the Force felt like a controlled explosion. As if all her fury was clinical, and precise. Each of her blows carried with it the potential for lethality, and much like how she was always testing him during their conversations, each of her attacks sought out a chink in the inquisitor's armor.
As for the brown haired Dark Adept, he was sweating profusely, and seemed like he could barely block the controlled stabs and slashes delivered by Tann. Fueling his moves by channeling his rage, he was faster & stronger than the Chiss, but also much more sloppy with his strikes.
From Corvus's perspective, the Grand Inquisitor didn't appear very confident right now, and appeared very novice-like. In fact, he reminded Corvus of himself!
It was only thanks to his system and abilities that Corvus could fight with some capability, but he couldn't imagine a Dark Adept under Palpatine having too many opportunities to fight or spar.
Whereas Tann was a direct disciple of Douku, a famed master duelist. Her training must've been extremely demanding, Dooku demanded nothing less than perfection in his students.
Watching her in action was like witnessing cinema.
Tann picked apart the man's defense one by one, and it was only until now that he realized something.
'She's playing with him.'
Like a cat toying with a ball of yarn, Tann was dancing around her foe, tripping him, and upon closer examination, had already nicked him thrice.
Tann must've noticed him, because she directed a small smirk in his direction.
"Augh!" The Inquisitor roared in rage, and struck at Tann with a fierce overhead.
Tann practically stood still, then moved just an inch to the side. Hot plasma passed by her face, and she swiped her lightsaber onto the Inquisitor's wrists, disarming him.
Stumbling forward, the man had a look of terror on his face as a knee met him in the ribs, forcing him to double over.
Gasping for breath, the man had his head held up by his hair.
"This is your Grand Inquisitor? Pathetic." Tann said as she glanced down at Corvus.
"Please, I worked in Republic Intelligence before the Emperor recruited me, my name is Malorum, I know things! Secrets that would shock anyone! Let me tell you about Project Star Dust, or the Spartan Prog-" The Grand Inquisitor spoke quickly and begged before Tann silenced him by shoving her saber into his jaw.
"Utterly useless. Trash like you give Force Adepts a bad name." Tann spat.
She then kicked him off the walkway, and jumped down onto his back, cracking tons of bones in his body.
Riding Malorum like a surfboard, and using the blood dripping from his face like a lubricant, Tann slid up to Corvus's side, then hopped off to stand next to him.
The Inquisitor ragdolled, and snapped his neck at an odd angle during her dismount, and his limbs were all bent at odd angles. It was clear as day that he had suffered an ignominious death.
All the while Tann maintained her smile, and locked eyes with Corvus.
Satisfaction oozed through the Force.
This was dominance.
'Goddamn!'
Corvus blinked as he found himself transfixed by the blue baddy.
During this brief stare off, Huego ran forward, and began to dig into the darksider's corpse.
"I see the dog has a new owner?" Tann raised an eyebrow and said in an impressed tone.
"Unfortunately the original master escaped, which is what we should be doing right now. There's been so much chaos, the clones are bound to be sending everything they have onto this location." Corvus gestured towards her, and turned to go back to the hangar.
He was going to call Huego, however, when he turned back, he saw that the alien hound was right behind him, and the spot where the inquisitor's corpse had been was nothing but a puddle of blood.
Hugoe lulled his tongue at Corvus, and looked at Tann with hunger.
"I see the dog follows after its master." Tann teased as she ran after Corvus.
"He likes chasing after what he desires, I can respect that." Corvus hit back.
"Hunger is natural in all things, as is desire. But it is important to note the distinction between who is the predator, and who is the prey." Tann darkly chuckled.
Corvus shook his head, this Chiss was too much!
"For someone who trained under the famed master duelist, Count Dooku, you took your sweet time dealing with your query. Don't think I didn't notice you playing with him."
"I was simply testing this Grand Inquisitor. After all, the enigmatic Revan spoke of him as if he were some intergalactic threat. I merely was waiting to be wowed. Afterall, the ambush was rather well thought out, why then, should I assume his sloppy form was nothing more than a farce to make me lower my guard?"
Corvus stared at Tann as she delivered all that with a straight face. On all accounts, she was technically correct. Malorum really could have been hiding his skills. However, they both knew why she really delayed her victory.
If the very blatant smug satisfaction singing through the Force was any indication, Corvus would say Tann was quite pleased with herself at the moment.
"Yes, well, that wasn't the Force Adept I was referring to. However, should you ever hear about someone named Darth Vader, don't you ever consider directly fighting him." Corvus warned in a dire tone.
"Is that a challenge?" Tann languidly stretched, and asked.
"A warning. He is Anakin Skywalker, and he has the power to murder a half dozen Jedi Masters by himself all at once, and he defeated your master in a 1v1. Trust me when I say he is the third strongest Force Adept behind Palpatine and Yoda."
"He killed Count Dooku? That is a shame, I had intended to do so myself. It is hard to believe that this Anakin Skywalker would grow so powerful in 3 years. But to become Darth Sidious's apprentice, one must be powerful. I will consider your words of caution, Revan." Tann nodded as she furrowed her brow.
Corvus sighed.
She had that look.
Tann would regret facing Vader, hopefully she could survive the encounter.
Shaking his head, Corvus saw that the Millenium Falcon was just ahead.
"Come on, let's go, our ship is in the hangar over there."
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AN: Read up to chapter 50+ at: patreon.com/KarpQQ
I update there Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
Publically on Fridays