Star Wars: Duality

CHAPTER FOUR: COLLISION

    Aedan had only ever used his lightsaber where somebody could see it once before. When he did, he had to choose between resigning himself to running from the Empire for the rest of his life, or to getting some serious blood on his hands.

    He wondered what it would cost him this time.

    When the catwalk snapped, Aedan did have a plan, he just needed to be very sure of himself to pull it off. Did he think he could fight off a whole gang of scrappers? Were the Stormies getting too close for comfort? Did he really put this much stock in those mystical feelings of direction that seem to have led him to this battlefield?
    Fortunately, he only had to wrestle with these thoughts for about one second before gravity said it was time to move.

    Aedan twisted so he could push off of the wall next to him and use the Force to fling the falling catwalk into the middle of the room. With supernatural accuracy, the flying metal blocked the storm of blaster bolts about to scythe the kid down. Aedan followed it through the air and landed gracefully between the awestruck gangsters and their target, taking only a brief moment of self-satisfaction before he looked over his shoulder.

    This guy looked like he could've walked out of any middle-class university in the galaxy: curly hair, young face, clothes that could've blended into any crowd... Aedan realized if the kid was a Jedi in hiding, that last bit was probably intentional. If he was also as stunned as his wide eyes made him look, then Aedan was going to have to do the heavy lifting in their escape.
    He pulled his lightsaber from its holster within his bantha-hide jacket and thumbed it on with a flourish. Aedan heard the Jedi take a sharp breath, and he saw the goons in front of him jolt out of their astonishment and scramble back to cover. For the first time since he got the damn thing, he was glad for his red blade and the impression it left on people. He reached out through the Force to summon the catwalk once more (with other scrap) to put up a wide wall of metal and give himself a moment to strategize.

    He turned around to see if the kid had anything to contribute, and found him in a crouch, trying to hide behind a speeder bike. Aedan rolled his eyes.

    "I wish I had time to tell you how dumb you look, but time is credits and we're both going broke here, kid," Aedan said, exasperated. "Check to see if any of those bikes still have any gas in 'em. I got a crazy idea, so work with me now and maybe you live to freak out later."

    The Jedi looked like he expected Aedan to be all malice and fangs, and he couldn't believe his ears hearing Aedan speak; but after a moment, he nodded and inspected the bike in front of him, which roared to life loud enough to make the gangsters redouble how much blaster fire they were pouring into Aedan's makeshift rampart.

    I'd get my ass in gear too right now if I was trying to kill me. At least I get another chance to disappoint them,  Aedan thought. He killed his lightsaber and lunged forward to mount the bike, and appreciated that the kid had enough wits about him to climb on as well.

    He could even speak, apparently. "What now? We're outnumbered, inside or outside of the building," the kid sputtered. Aedan just grinned, and spun the bike to face the oversized garage door on one end of the warehouse.

    "Hold on to your robes, saber jockey, and get ready to push!" he called out.

    "What!? Push what?" Aedan answered the Jedi's panicked question by cranking the speeder's throttle; they raced towards the giant garage door facing away from all the furious criminals. Aedan began to call on the Force, feeling the pressure building all around him, and he drove it at the door. He felt the Jedi join him (albeit with far less strength than Aedan would have hoped), and just as they would have crashed, the metal finally buckled and shot forward like the cork from a bottle of lum.