Ask Naboo The Heretic

[Asuka Hino]

Men.

They did like their displays of bravado. But this... Something was off about Aleksander. Asuka's Master had taught her how to get business done, but there was a coldness to this Jedi that was never present in Rhonan Fel.

Whatever.

For now, she would play along. There was something unfolding here. If she was patient, the full picture would be unravelled. And yeah, it was probably best that she help him get rid of a few of these robes. She liked her odds better if it was just her, Aleksander, and the Apparat.

To their credit, not a single robe budged. Aleksander's little display should have convinced them they didn't have a chance. Instead—

Remember what I taught you about faith, came the voice of Fel. It is irrational. The faithful must believe something that they cannot see, hear, taste, or smell.

So, can't expect them to act rational either.

You're learning.

She unclipped her lightsabers from her belt and lit them. A brilliant white light filled the dark and dank cistern along with the subtle hum of the blades.

"Jedi," said the Apparat, a touch of a smile on his face. "I knew you would find us—eventually. How fitting. Do you know where we stand? What is currently above our heads?"

Asuka shrugged. "The rock and permacrete I'm gonna use to bury you, mostly."

The priest laughed deeply. "We're currently standing beneath House Palpatine. Lord Sidious, our Emperor, was born here over a century ago."

"Good. You can say hello to him for me when I send you to Hell."

"On the contrary, my young Jedi friend—" The Apparat dropped his robe and removed the long handle of a lightsaber from his belt. The rest of his men followed suit, pulling various virbo-weapons from under their robes. "—it is I who will be sending you to him. A Jedi blood offering to my god."

Asuka looked to Aleksander and to her surprise, smiled. "To be honest, I was hoping things would go this way."

She leapt into the fray.

 

[Alek Lantsov]

As weapons were drawn, Aleksander looked at his blaster, the men armed with blades, then tossed the cheap thing aside. By the sweep of his hand, he pulled out his own lightsaber and ignited. Dark violet filled the chamber against Asuka’s white as he stood with her, maybe not eye to eye, but back to back.

“You and me both,” he answered, then lunged.

He flashed a daring, almost crazed, smile as he slashed through an open throat, an exposed belly, invading inner guards like the Sith did planets. A storm of movement, Aleksander tore into the robed men without a single care in the world. Like he’d done with previous cells, he spared no mercy or expense, carving out a space for him to fight and a straight path for Asuka to the Apparat.

He would have much preferred fighting the man on his own, but he didn’t trust that he would leave him alive, or sane enough to answer their questions. Once he engaged in a battle, it took more than his own coaxing to talk him down. It took blood.

Is this the man you are? His master’s voice rang in his head. Is this what she’d want?

Aleksander grit his teeth. No, but it’s what I want.

He left Asuka the Apparat and two of his personal guards while he dealt with the remaining ten. Or eight by his last count, after he’d opened one man’s throat and another’s gut, leaving them broken on the ground. And although the numbers weighed well out of his favor, he was hardly concerned. They could have thrown him twenty and he wouldn’t have batted an eye.

If anything, he would have been thrilled. The more, the merrier.

 

[Asuka Hino]

Asuka's lightsabers were like fans of light in the darkness. These robes were better trained than the two she'd met at the bar, but they weren't yet good enough to fight a fully-trained Jedi Knight.

One lunged for her and she disarmed him with a flick of her wrist. Then, a swift kick sent him crashing into the roaring water, screaming as he was swept away with the current. Another rushed in to avenge his companion, but she ducked under his blow and cut a yawning chasm across his waist. He dropped with a single piercing scream.

Throughout the fight, she couldn't help but notice a humming sensation at the back of her mind. As the duel dragged, she realized it was the Force. Of course the Apparat was gathering the Forceful. It only made sense. And, yet, not a single robe she fought had very much skill with it.

She sent a cluster of them skidding backwards with a shove of her mind. Only then did she notice the Apparat had nothing between him and her. She jumped with the Force, flipped in midair, and landed behind him, blocking any chance for an escape.

"So eager," he mused, settling into a fighting stance, blade raised cautiously over his head. In the dark of the cistern, his lightsaber blade cast a bloody shadow across his features. "But I see you left your friend alone with quite a few of my faithful."

Asuka glanced over the Apparat's shoulder at Aleksander. Watched him carve up one robe after another with brutal flare. She shrugged again. "Doesn't look like he needs my help."

"And yet, you will need his. Lord Sidious is with me this day. You cannot hope to defeat me alone."

Her lip crawled up the side of her face in a terrible smirk and she switched her twin blades into a more comfortable reverse grip. "I like my chances."

They lunged at each other and crossed blades in the dark.

 

[Alek Lantsov]

Aleksander enjoyed every moment he was given. He’d since realized the guards he was fighting were more than ordinary swordsmen, drawing on pockets of the Force to enhance their blows, but when he struck back, he made sure to land. He may have had the training of a Knight, but his experience was that of a Jedi Master. None of them stood a chance.

But as the battle progressed and Asuka engaged with the Apparat, he was starting slowly to be pushed back. The eight men he faced spared him no opportunity to move onto the offensive, each lunging to strike after another, a relentless tide of attacks. Soon enough, he found himself near a ledge, smoother waters behind him.

“Make Lord Sidious proud!” shrieked one of the men, before he charged full force toward him. It would be his last mistake.

Aleksander's lightsaber screamed in an arc and, in a blink, he leveled the man’s shoulders. His head flew through the air and with a sinister plunk, landed in the water. The guard's headless corpse dropped and the remaining seven tensed, watching him, frozen in place. Aleksander answered with a devilish grin.

“How embarrassing. I hope he wasn’t watching.”

Like crows, they descended on him all at once, beaks and swords flashing. His renewed confidence, his bloodlust, filled every bone in his body and rage coursed through his veins. The first man to fall in his reach he greeted with a slash through his upper legs. Six. The next, a woman, he grabbed her neck with his fingers and crushed her windpipe. Five. Another, and he drove his lightsaber deep into their chest, boiling their insides. Four.

What fun.

 

[Asuka Hino]

They danced in the well of the cistern.

He would jab, and Asuka would swat away his blade. Then, they would part and do it again. A new angle, a new rhythm, like dueling lines of poetry. They were testing each other. Feeling out the other's strengths and weaknesses—the limits of their form.

Well, he was.

At first, Asuka thought her head was too big for its shoulders. Or perhaps she was playing into some larger game he was trying to weave. That he was pretending to be weaker than her to lure her into a false confidence. But the longer they fought, the more she was sure. He was better than his faithful, but he wasn't Sith. His moves were practiced, mechanical. They lacked the fluidity and grace of a confident warrior.

He smiled a confident smile at her, but only because she was holding back. So, she decided to test her theory. As the Apparat went to swing widely at her, she met his blade. And, as he'd done many times now, he began to follow up with a flurry of strikes. She batted each one away, so he swung for her feet. She flipped over it, landing on her feet with all the grace of a loth-cat.

His smile was fading. He needed only a nudge to fall over the edge. But Asuka always went overboard. So, she took him by the shoulder and shoved him off. "It appears your 'god' has abandoned you. You meant to sacrifice me to him, yet he serves you to me on a silver platter instead."

That did the trick.

The Apparat's smile vanished. He pounced at her, but over-extended his reach. She hooked her shoto around his blade and tore it from his grasp with the simplest of flicks. The crimson weapon winked out and spun into the roaring stream. Then, her weapons were crossed at his neck and her own smile had returned.

"Now then," she said. "What do you say you and me have a nice long chat, hm?"

 

[Alek Lantsov]

Aleksander was the eye of a storm, and anyone caught in his range, he swept away into nothing. Ten guards and he barely flinched. Four, and he was just playing with his food.

Like the robes he’d dealt with in the cantina, he could practically taste the fear coming off from the few remaining men. The only thing stopping them from running, he understood, was the pure, burning hate they had left. Good, he thought. Keep fighting. I want you to look at me when I blow out the fire in your eyes.

Like smoke, like a shadow, he moved between thrusts and parries, delivering strikes aimed to maim and then to kill. For one man, he carved apart his right arm and sent his vibro-blade flying into the water, and before he could have a chance to surrender, Aleksander scorched his throat open. Three. They hadn’t afforded Nina mercy, so why should he?

His next victim flourished a vibro-whip, the weapon humming as they twirled it through the air. Was the man seriously trying to taunt him? He almost laughed. At that point, he didn’t even deserve a proper death, so when he swung out his whip, Aleksander flexed his hand and with the Force, wrapped it around their neck. Unfortunately, it severed the spine before he could make a show of hanging the man. Two.

He mocked a yawn. “C’mon,” he said. “Let’s get this over with already.”

The two guards looked at one another. To his surprise, they still had some courage left in them, that or blind stupidity, but it made no difference. He cut through the two of them like stalks of wheat.

Bloodlust subsiding, Aleksander lowered his lightsaber. He never deactivated it, no—he wouldn’t until he had a word with the Apparat and the Jedi.

Quietly, he stalked to where Asuka stood. She had just disarmed the man, his crimson blade seemingly lost to the waters, and now had her lightsabers at his neck. Aleksander was surprised she’d managed to defeat him alone.

He wouldn’t underestimate her again.

 

[Asuka Hino]

"I'll spare you the effort," the Apparat said, clearly trying his best to keep his composure. "I don't know anything. There's nothing you can learn from me."

"Cut the crap," Asuka snapped. "I know you're part of a larger organization called the Alternative. Where are the rest of you?"

"Why would you assume—"

"I'm perfectly fine with dunking you in the river. I won't kill you, but you'll wish I did. Now, where are the rest of you?"

The Apparat was silent for a long moment. So long, Asuka was convinced he was cooking up some lie, so she held her blades closer to his neck. Close enough that the heat singed his skin.

"I don't know!" he shouted, panicked. "In order to protect the other cells, no one knows anything. I have no idea how big we are, how many other cells there are, or where they reside."

Asuka cursed beneath her breath. "An old Rebellion tactic. Then there must be someone coordinating the cells. Who is it?"

"I don't know that either—I swear! Just a codename. Fulcrum. But—"

"But?"

"There was this party—a ball, really. On Rhen Var in two weeks time. Fulcrum was supposed to pass on a new directive from the Grand Vizier."

Asuka stepped back and retracted her sabers. The Apparat stumbled backwards and fell on his ass. "Why would Fulcrum reveal his face? Surely he would want to keep his identity a secret—unless he's a Changeling."

"It's a masked ball. No faces."

That makes it easier to get in.

She glanced back at Aleksander. "Hope you clean up good. Balls aren't my thing, but we'll need to sell the part." She huffed. "Anyways, he's all yours. Got the feeling you had some personal questions for him. In the meantime—" She called the Force and tore a small data shard from the man's belt to her hand. "—I'll try to figure out exactly where on Rhen Var this party is being held."

 

[Alek Lantsov]

New names, new worlds. A year of searching and Aleksander was nowhere near the root of the Alternative, their leader, and the man responsible for Nina’s death. A cold trail on Eriadu, a sewage run on Naboo, and now, a masquerade on Rhen Var? Unbelievable. He couldn’t even be sure Fulcrum had the information he needed, or if they’d be willing to part with it. The Sith were loyal fanatics to the last breath.

But if they were anything like the Apparat, answers would come easy.

“Thank you, Asuka. You know me so well.” He came up from behind the kneeling Apparat and grabbed him by the hair. “Now, my turn.”

He smashed the man’s face into the marble floor, his nose making a nasty crunch. Blood gushed down his mouth, his neck bared as Aleksander pulled his head back. The Apparat screamed at the suddenness of the blow and his hands clutched at his face, trying to stem the bleeding. Whatever attractive qualities the man had were now gone.

“I told you what you wanted to know,” said the Apparat. “I told you everything!”

“Nina Hendriks,” he said. “Does the name ring a bell?”

Desperation was sawing at his voice. “No, I swear, I don’t—“

He slammed his head into the floor again. When he drew him up, this time his eye had swollen shut. The man was barely conscious enough to whimper.

“That’s too bad.” He sighed. “Well, you have a nice ride down.”

“Down?” the Apparat mewled, just before Aleksander kicked him into the cold, roaring waters by the ledge, swallowing him whole.

He casually ran a hand through his hair, then looked at Asuka. “What, cat got your tongue?”

 

[Asuka Hino]

She was waiting for him when he turned, weapons drawn and lit. The white points of each sword were pointed at him, serving as a serrated wall between them.

Asuka had just collected the information she had been looking for on the shard when Aleksander began smashing the Apparat's head into the cobblestone. Not how she would have handled it, but he seemed to have some demons to work out with the priest. However, her casual reaction ended the moment he shoved the man into the cold water. A fate that was almost certainly a death sentence.

Red flag, warned the voice of Rhonan Fel.

"I've got to admit, you kept the mask on longer than I expected," she said. "Admittedly, it was an ill-fitting mask. A crack here and there, too. Just convincing enough that I hoped I was imagining things. Alas, the stench always gives away the rat."

She tried to hide her frustration. By no means did she mourn the Apparat's death; but he still had a purpose to serve. There was probably more that he knew, despite his insistence that he had given her everything. Moreover, he was a chip she could throw down in front of the Council. Get them off her back for a few weeks while she sniffed around this ball on Rhen Var. Now, all of that was gone.

Unless...

A smirk traveled back up the side of her face. "No matter. If I can't bring the Apparat to the Council, I'll just bring them you instead. Consider it payback for robbing me of a valuable source of information."

 

[Alek Lantsov]

“My, Asuka. Such a pity. And we were getting along so well.” He pouted, though any semblance of disappointment turned into sinister delight.

“But a mask?” His laughter was an echo in the hall. “Hardly. You're just blind. In fact, you couldn’t see an ex-Jedi if I served one to you on a silver platter.” He ignited his lightsaber, dark purple clashing against white, and he closed the distance between them. Standing a head lower, she was practically a child against him. He could punt her with a single kick.

“And please, if we’re talking about stenches, think twice before you speak. I can smell the backwater trash off you from a mile away. Where are you from—Hays Minor? Jedha?” He tilted his head, baring a smile. “Corvus?”

Aleksander stalked closer to her, but not close enough to force an attack, to make her feel threatened to the point of lashing out. He wanted to play with his food first, savor it a moment longer, before he went in for the kill. “You can try and take me to the Council, but the only thing they’ll be seeing is what’s left of your body.”

He flourished his lightsaber, dramatically. “However,” he continued, “I like you, Asuka. You amuse me. So, I’m going to give you this one last chance. Turn around and leave, or join the Apparat.”

As much as he enjoyed taunting the girl, he couldn’t deny the help she’d given him. At the same time, he hoped she would ignore his offer. He was curious to see just how long a student of Rhonan Fel would last against someone like him.

Anything more than a minute would be pure luck.

 

[Asuka Hino]

"It's a pity," Asuka said. She was unflinching, focused, ready to strike. Even when he guessed her homeworld correctly, she remained unmoved. She would make him pay for it in just a minute. "I never particularly liked you." A lie, but she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of the truth. "And now I'm going to have to bury you under this permacrete instead of him."

She lunged.

She was shorter than him. Usually, her height annoyed her, but this time it proved advantageous—as did the twin lightsabers she used as weapons. With the longer of the pair, she swung for his legs. At the same time, she swung up with her shoto, anticipating that he would retaliate and swing down at her.

Just like I taught you, said the phantom of Rhonan Fel proudly.

Can you let me focus?!

A mental note. When she was done killing this traitor, his voice was the next thing she was going to kill.

 

[Alek Lantsov]

“Keep telling yourself that,” he said, spinning his lightsaber. “No matter how many times you say you will, it’s not going to happen.”

As she lunged and—predictably—dove for his legs, Aleksander simply took three steps back, narrowly escaping both strikes. A shadow retreating from the light, a demon edging the dark, he watched her lightsabers fly by with terrible amusement. He hadn’t expected so much venom from a snake, but there she was, eyes wide, fangs out, and so desperate to sink into flesh. He wouldn’t give her the chance.

With a sharp thrust, he drove his own lightsaber to her chest and with a force that demanded more than just a one-handed block. He required her full attention.

“Low blow, Asuka. I was expecting more from you than that.” A sneer. “Do better.”

Aleksander backpedaled a second time, wrenching his lightsaber from hers, before he spun it over his hand and swept it across her lower torso. If she didn’t catch it in time, he’d split her in two—which would be a shame, because he had so much more planned for her than a death as quick and simple as that.

 

[Asuka Hino]

Asuka blocked his first blow by crossing her sabers and catching his jab in the junction where they met. His strike had a killing weight to it, but she had met thousands of men who wanted to kill her on the Rim. Most of them hit harder on the first go.

Most of them had better comebacks too.

"I'm short and scrawny," she retorted with a half shrug. "What's your excuse?"

When he came around to swing at her torso, she was ready for him. It was obvious he couldn't let that comment stand. With her shoto, she caught his blade and forced it down; and, at the same time, she stabbed at his shoulder with the remaining long blade.

Atta girl, Fel added.

But the praise felt misplaced. She hadn't won yet.

 

[Alek Lantsov]

Together, they fought through the catacombs of the aqueduct, their blades cackling and hissing with every swing and strike. The sound was like music to his ears, a symphony to match the battle. He was starting to enjoy himself so much, that even at the opportunity of a fatal blow, or careful retreat, he resisted the urge. Let this play out. See how long her energy, her adorable quips, last.

When she forced his lightsaber to the ground, generating sparks and molten rock, then lobbed her second blade at his shoulder, Aleksander did the unthinkable. A trick he’d learned from his training days with Nina. With the open palm of his other hand, he let out tendrils of the Force and dragged Asuka's lightsaber to a stop. One hand, and he’d practically caught the edge of her blade with his fingers.

“You have excellent form,” he said, “but tell me, did Rhonan Fel teach you this?”

Unflinching, calling on what seemed endless reserves of the Force, he slowly pushed her lightsaber away. He bared his teeth in another smile, then suddenly, unleashed an invisible surge that aimed to throw Asuka back into the nearest wall.

“You might be good with a lightsaber, but you’re no different from the Apparat. Just a hollow vessel playing the part of a Jedi Knight.” He shook his head, disappointed. “Believe me when I say this, but playtime's over, girl.”

 

[Asuka Hino]

Asuka was annoyed at how easily Aleksander was able to get underneath her skin. Simultaneously, she enjoyed the challenge he presented. He was better trained than the Apparat. But that wasn't saying much considering how easily she had disarmed the priest. Aleksander was proving more difficult to accomplish this with.

But that wasn't to say he was unbeatable.

She couldn't decide whether the Dark Jedi was purposely toying with her or leaving himself open on purpose. Either way, he was the gift that kept on giving. Only, in this case, his offering wasn't purely rhetorical. He'd opened himself up physically too, and she could not help her own shit-eating grin when it happened.

"Finally," she said. "We are in agreement."

She pulled.

Asuka had promised to bury someone under permacrete, and she was determined it would be him. A single mental pull exploited a weakness in the aqueduct ceiling. A section that must have been centuries old came loose without much provocation and spilled down on Aleksander like a meteor shower.

She twirled her blades. "Got something else smart to say from under all that rubble, or do I need to throw a bigger rock at your head?"

 

[Alek Lantsov]

Aleksander stood there, the words sinking in just before the ceiling caved. Rubble and debris crashed down over him, a thick fog of smoke and ash that devoured him in the blink of an eye. His lightsaber winked out to nothing. From Asuka’s perspective, he’d been crushed, buried dead or alive, without a trace left of his presence. He’d make a fine addition to the bodies scattered around the aqueduct.

But not now. Naboo would not be his resting place.

With a mental push, he cleared the smoke, ash parting like water around him as he left remnants of stone and shrapnel hanging mid-air. He let them drop with the flick of a finger and, for what seemed the hundredth time, offered the Jedi a sly grin.

“My my,” he said, rubbing his hands together. “You sure have a lot of tricks up your sleeve. Are you a magician? Do you think you could show me one more?”

He spread out his arms wide. The Force swirled around him.

“Disappear.”

He brought his hands together in a shaking boom, and the air shrieked and walls trembled as the Force rippled out of him and toward the Jedi. It was not a killing blow, but if she tried absorbing the brunt of it, she’d sooner break every rib in her chest. Aleksander, after all, was not finished with her yet.

 

[Asuka Hino]

He is strong with the dark side, noted Fel.

I'm so glad you noticed. Any other wise insights you want to offer? she shot back.

Just one, Fel's voice said lazily. He sounded like he was yawning or stretching like a cat. You might want to move.

She did. But not away. No. She ran at the oncoming wave of Force energy. And, just at the last moment, before she was doom to be hit by a moving, translucent brick wall, she leapt. Not up, but to the wall above the adjacent running river of water. The Force carried her feet as she ran along it.

But just before gravity would have pulled her into the raging waters below, she made another Force-assisted leap. This time she jumped down at him, swinging both of her blades down towards his head. The blast he had tried to hit her with would not have killed her if it had. His mistake, because her blades would make mincemeat of him if he didn't throw up his own blade to catch her's.

"Afraid I never was good at disappearing tricks," she added through gritted teeth. "But cutting people in half? That I have some talent in."

 

[Alek Lantsov]

His eyes followed her every step: as she leapt over his push, as she ran against gravity on the cistern wall, as she pounced on him with both lightsabers out. Aleksander didn’t make a single move, waiting only until the last second to pull out his own blade, one-handed, to catch her own. For the short moment they clashed, her body hovering over his, his smile shined as he said, “We have a lot in common then.”

His free hand pulled out another lightsaber almost out of thin air, igniting and sweeping it across Asuka’s exposed legs.

He made no mistake assuming the strike would land. Instead, he expected her to narrowly escape, retreating out of his reach like a wounded dog, and when she did, he’d swing his new lightsaber across the ground, drawing sparks.

The blade burned red.

“You almost lost this,” he said, gesturing to the saber in his hand, “but I hope you don’t mind if I help myself to it. I didn’t think you, or the Apparat, would be needing it anymore.”

He moved into another stance, like hers, but far more offensive. When Aleksander had finished his fight with the guards, he’d watched Asuka disarm the Apparat, but the blade was not lost to him. It had practically called his name, and he caught its metal shine and felt its dark pull from the raging waters. Without her noticing, he’d taken it.

Now, he’d put it to proper use.

 

[Asuka Hino]

Asuka grunted, leaned all of her weight into her sabers, and used him as a spring board to push off and flip over to the other side. But the act did not come without cost. His new saber—the Apparat's, she realized begrudingly—singed her leg. The pain wasn't bad. The reminder that he could hurt her was. That knowledge burned her insides like acid.

Careful, little one, her Master's voice warned. Anger and pride are a path to the same darkness you see in him.

Maybe, she admitted. But I'd wear it better.

"It suits you," she fired back. She changed her form, even as he changed his, shifting into a more comfortable reverse grip on her weapons. "That blade already belonged to one failed Sith pretender. Now it's belonged to two."

She charged. This time, she preempted her swords by sliding towards him, kicking out her right leg in an attempt to mess up his footwork. Make him backpedal, jump, dodge, slide to the side, she didn't care. She would use the instant he moved to slash at him with her shoto. All while keeping the longer blade tight against her in the event of a retaliatory strike.

She was done letting him get under her skin. It was time to get under his.

 

[Alek Lantsov]

His laughter was almost maddening. Her words continued to amuse him, and it had been a long time since he’d felt so alive, so entertained, during a duel. It was an unfortunate shame that he would have to end it soon.

When she charged him, throwing out a kick to left ankle, Aleksander didn’t bother moving. He had no plans to engage in this little dance with the Jedi. Instead, he planted his foot to the ground and absorbed the shock of her blow. As she leaned in close, he came closer.

Mirroring her every move, he used his purple lightsaber to block her shoto and brought the red to her other blade, purposefully locking them together. With both their hands full, he spoke to her across the cackle of their sabers. “Maybe when I’m finished with you, I might pay your master a visit. I wonder, how do you think he will react when I show him your head?”

A strange feeling had possessed Aleksander, a darkness he’d never felt before. Was it the lightsaber, mingling its will with his own? Or was it Asuka, fueling his anger? In the end, it didn’t matter.

With their blades latched together, he raised his other foot and smashed his heel into her shin. If she didn’t move, the blow would snap bone.