Operation Darkness: To Die, To Live....  To Avenge
By Alison Sky, Josh Cochran, and Sylvana Lorrdain

The room was dark on the ship. I preferred to sleep in darkness. Not only
was it more relaxing, but it gave me an edge in case someone tried to
sneak up during the middle of the night when I should be sleeping. 

When I did sleep, that is. Not that I had slept much since my recent
reappearance.

And now, it was happening. I could sense it. _Who needs the Force when
you have a gut?_

I lay still in bed, not moving... or appearing not to move. My arm was
slowly creeping along the side of the sheets to the bed's edge. There was
my sword, and if I could just make my fingers go the last three more
inches.

"Alison?" a voice whispered from the bed beside me. Instantly I
remembered that I had not gone to bed alone that night, and once again a
dangerous force was approaching and I had to protect someone.

I did not answer the voice beside me, instead kept creeping my fingers.
Two more inches now between death and my faithful blade.

_There's something in here_, the voice of my Jedi lover spoke into my
head. His voice did not shock me, I was used to hearing it in my head,
during times of danger, coordination of movement, and even during the
intimacy of the night.

_I know. One more inch until I have my sword_. I thought in my mind,
knowing he would hear it. The danger was getting closer.

_I have my saber in my hand_.

_Can't that wait until later_?

I got a nice mental thwap. _My lightsaber. Sheesh, can't you even be
serious_?

_I'd rather laugh at death then fear it_. My fingers grasped the cold
green emerald on the hilt of my sword. _I have it_.

Before my lover could respond, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck
tingle. As he screamed my name in my head, I rolled off the bed, pulled
my sword from its sheath and slashed out. I felt the sword cut through
flesh and bone like warm butter, and heard the top half of whatever had
attacked thump to the ground.

The snap-hiss of a lightsaber alerted me that the danger had not passed.
I turned my head to see a blade of pure energy come to life. The face of
Josh Cochran was illuminated from the shadows from his saber, the blue
light giving his skin the look that Obi-Wan had as the force-projected
ghost in the movies. I shuddered at the thought.

The fight between the two in the shadows was swift, angry, fierce. I
could catch glimpses of the enemy now. A twisted face scarred from who
knows what. There was no nose on the face, and it looked like an eye had
been gouged out as well. 

A scream and the smell of smoke filled the room, and my lover had downed
his foe. He used the lightsaber to scan the room. No more enemies were in
the shadows of our bedroom, but yet the faint sound of ship alarms told
us the danger had yet to pass.

Josh shut off his lightsaber and the room was once again in blackness.
"Get dressed," he told me in the darkness, and I heard his leg connect
with the side of the bed and his hiss of pain.

I grabbed the clothing beside me, wiping off a wetness from the shirt I
couldn't, nor wanted to explain where it came from. The pants were a bit
loose, but otherwise I was dressed almost instantly.

"I can't find my pants!" Josh yelled, and the lights in the room blazed
on as he triggerd the switch with the Force. My eyes adjusted to the
sudden light, then I started to laugh.

Josh gave me a curious look, then realized he was dressed in my "sexy
bitch" tight tee-shirt. He quickly whipped it off and threw on his shirt
that was tossed absentmindedly on the chair. "You need to clean your
room," he muttered, finding his pants on the opposite side of the bed.

"You need to remember not to tear your clothes off at night," I replied,
strapping my sword to my side. He gave me a lopsided grin and crossed to
where I stood. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed my lips
passionately.

"For luck," he whispered, and we exited the room. He grabbed my hand and
pulled me to the left, towards the hangars, but I stopped.

"Emily!" I shouted, going to the right where my wingmate was bunked.

"We have to get out of here!" he pleaded, genuine fear in his eyes.

"Not without Emily!" I broke his grip on my arm. "She's just a kid!"

Josh sighed. He knew he couldn't fight with me. He gave me one last
pleading look, then shook his head. "Be careful."

"I always am," I told him, and gave him a quick wink as I ran down the
hall in the opposite direction.

************************

I watched Alison run off down the corridor all alone and fought to
control the fear building in my stomach. _Fear is the path to the dark
side_. Why did I let her go like that? 

A slight whisper of a noise behind me caught my attention. In one motion
I dropped to one knee and spun halfway around, reigniting my saber as I
fell. The saber's bright blue blade ricocheted off the armored leg of a
Yuuzhan Vong warrior whose amphistaff had nearly decapitated me. I used
the saber's momentum to drive the blade straight up into the soldier's
armpit. The blade went straight through the weak point in the armor and
exploded out the top of his shoulder. I yanked the blade back out and
watched as the arm separated itself from the rest of the Yuuzhan Vong's
body. He collapsed to the floor in a senseless heap. 

I Force-leaped from my knees straight up into the air just in time to
avoid being cleaved in two by another amphistaff, which had been swung
like an executioner's axe. As I came down I pinned the head of the
amphistaff to the floor with my foot and drove the tip of my blade
through the eye and out the back of the head of the Vong who bore it. I
ripped the blade straight up through his skull, and he fell to the floor
next to his friend. 

The next warrior came in a bit more cautiously, standing back and sizing
me up for a moment while twirling his staff around like a baton. Not
wanting to lose my momentum, I advanced on him and quickly closed the
distance between us. He tried a straight, swift jab with his amphistaff,
but I batted it away effortlessly with my lightsaber. He lashed out with
a vicious kick that should have shattered my left shin, and would have
if I hadn't backstepped slightly. The kick connected and pain flared
through my leg, but the extra distance had weakened the kick and put the
Vong warrior off balance. Before he could get his foot back on the deck
and regain his balance, I spun-kicked with my uninjured leg and knocked
him flat on his back. I spun my lightsaber so that the blade pointed to
the deck and drove it straight down into the middle of the Yuuzhan Vong's
forehead. 

Sensing someone behind me, I spun around and lunged out with my
lightsaber at chest height. It plunged straight in to the hilt, and I
felt something warm and wet run over my hand. Two things occured to me at
that moment: I had felt my target approach, and the lightsaber had not
met any resistance at all. The fog in my brain cleared instantly, and
Alison's wide eyes met mine over the electric blue blade of my saber. 

We both stood there, unable to move, unable to breathe. Me, because I
couldn't wrap my mind around the sight before me and Alison, because my
lightsaber was run through her heart. Not quite knowing what else to do,
I stared into her deep brown eyes, now filled with more shock and
excruciating pain than I'd ever imagined existed. They pierced my soul
with hurt and accusation. I wanted to look somewhere else, *anywhere*
else, but the only thing I could see were her eyes, and the blue blade
protruding from her back. Her gaze locked with mine one last time. I felt
the betrayal pouring out of her and into me for a long moment, until a
dribble of blood flowed from the corner of her mouth and sizzled into
nothingness on my lightsaber blade. I watched helplessly as the last tiny
spark of life left her eyes. 

Finally the spell was broken and I shut off my lightsaber. Free of the
saber's grasp, Alison's body dropped limply to the floor. 


******* ******* ******* ******* ****** ******* *******


I continued my kamikaze run toward the hangar bay, hoping against hope I
wouldn't run into any more of those creatures, but that I _would_ find
more of our people making it.  Tears burned down my face at the percieved
loss of my brother, but I would push on, for his sake.  

In his memory.  

I ran until my lungs burned, and skidded around the corner of the second
to last hallway.

After a few strides I skidded to a stop.  Amid carnage of those nightmare
bodies, knelt Josh Cochran, with a redhead cradled in his arms.

I stepped closer.  

It was Alison Sky.

Another step closer....  

She was dead and, this time, she wouldn't be coming back.

I ran the final paces to crouch beside them, my heart breaking for the
second time that night.  Alison had been like another sister to me.  I'd
lost both my brother and my sisterfriend in less than a quarter hour.

The scent of charred flesh filled the air, the sound of Josh's bitter
weeping drowning out the klaxons in my ears.  My eyes widened, when I
noticed a hole through Alison that was unmistakably from a lightsabre.

"You fool!" I screamed, back-handing Josh in my anger.  He didn't even
wince, so lost in the shock of what had happened, most likely.

I looked up to see one of the nightmare creatures appear in the hallway. 
Coldly, without thought, I shot it in the face, and it dropped without a
sound.  _Efficient way to kill them, eh?_ I thought to myself. 

We had to get out.  There might be time to mourn later.  

I pulled at Josh's shoulder, "We have to leave.  She's gone, there's
nothing you, nor I, can do for her now."

"I'm so sorry, I didn't know, I didn't _see_...." he half whimpered.  

I cuffed him upside the head, "Snap out of it, or you're going the way of
the Blue-Aura-Club!" I yelled at him.

I looked to see his lightsabre lying, closed down, beside him.  I picked
it up, and pressed it into his hand.  "We have to leave, _now_.  You can
mourn later."

He shook me off, idly turning the lightsabre in his hand.  "I can't, it's
all my fault, I should die here with her...."  

I sighed, then did something I really didn't want to... but I had to.

I pulled Alisky out of his arms, and pulled her into a closet, shutting
the door and melting it closed with several shots from my blaster.  Then
I went over and dragged the much taller human to his feet.  "She'd want
you to live.  Now, come along, I'm not losing anyone else to those things
today," I growled.

The tone of my voice seemed to do what my hitting him had not.  He
snapped to, for the time being anyway, and nodded curtly.  "Right," he
said, his voice raw.

Turning, he grabbed her sword from the ground, and handed it to me.  "In
case your blaster runs out," he said dully.

"We'll make it out, Josh.  I promise."  I pulled him along with me toward
the hangar bay.  "You've gotta pull yourself together and fly us out,
because I can't."

He nodded absently as we ran along the miraculously, for the moment,
empty corridor.

_For you Arrek, and for you Alisky - we *will* survive...._