Tempted (Kotor Novelization)

Chapter 4

"Of course, I am. I'm not leaving without becoming Champion. Just give me a few moments to refresh myself first," Alexia told him. The Hutt said something else and Alexia nodded before walking away from him. Alexia took her coin purse (which was already fat with credits) out of a small pouch on her utility belt and stuck her stack of credits inside. She put her coin purse back in, took out a flask of water and took a huge gulp out of it. She put everything away and I walked up to her. "Are you insane?" I hissed at her. Alexia beamed a radiant, cocky smile at me. She had a beautiful smile. It's not just her smile you find beautiful, a little voice at the back of my mind said. I mentally scolded myself for thinking that way.

Get a grip Onasi! She must have had something to do with the crash. It's no coincidence that she was brought onto the Endar Spire just before the attack, my mind was saying. Besides you can't betray her memory. You can't.

"Relax, Flyboy. I'm on a roll and getting paid a lot of credits. Credits we might need for, oh, I don't know, getting out of here, perhaps?" I thought about what she said. We did need all the money we could get our hands on. I just realized that I had a concussion grenade in my pack. I took it out and gave it to her.

"Here," I said as I passed her the concussion grenade. "Take this since you're going to go up again."

"That's genius!" Alexia exclaimed excitedly. She jogged over to the Hutt, her long messy blonde hair bouncing against her back as she moved.

"Hey, are concussion grenades allowed in the duelling ring?" Alexia asked the Hutt. I didn't know what the Hutt said to her, but her smile got bigger and much more confident. I guess that she was allowed to use the grenade.

"Great. Then I'm ready to go up against Twitch."

The Hutt made a call on a holo-communicator. When he finished speaking to the wild looking Rodian in the holo, the Hutt looked at Alexia and spoke to her. Whatever he said, it invoked a look of complete determination on Alexia's face.

"So am I," Alexia replied. She went to the door that was blocked by a red rope. The Rodian guarding it let her pass. I went to one of the view screens and watched the fight.

The announcer introduced the two contestants. The Mysterious Stranger (it seemed Alexia was smart enough not to give her true name), and the Rodian known as Twitch. I now knew why Twitch was called that. He couldn't stop fidgeting and looked borderline insane. He looked way too trigger happy to me and I started to fear for Alexia's safety.

Don't worry, this is Taris. Nobody dies in these duels. There are special shield generators that stop weapons from killing the duellists, I told myself though I was still unconvinced.

The match began, and Twitch shot at Alexia almost immediately, but she was too fast. She dodged the shots by jumping away from the spot where he was shooting. Typical skill for an explorer who had been pretty much everywhere in the galaxy. Nothing too Jedi-like about that. He kept shooting at her and all she had time to do was vault out of the way. She raised the blaster in her right hand and shot at Twitches head a couple of times, each of the shots he dodged, but Alexia quickly aimed for the knees. Twitch fell to the ground and Alexia activated the concussion grenade, the blast from it stunning Twitch and he eventually passed out.

"The fight is over!" yelled the announcer. "Twitch is down! You know what this means, folks! The Mysterious Stranger is the new champion!" The crowd cheered, and the view screen faded to black. Alexia came in from the arena and got paid more money by the Hutt. The Hutt seemed very excited as he spoke to Alexia. At first, she looked a little disappointed at first, but something piqued her interest.

"Bendak Starkiller huh? Sounds like a Mandalorian. I'll think about it," Alexia replied. "Where can I find him?" The Hutt said something else to her.

"Alright then. Thanks for the credits," Alexia said before her emerald eyes met with mine and she walked up to me.

"What happened?" I asked her curiously.

"Well, none of the duellists want to go up against me now but there's a Mandalorian named Bendak who could fight me. He only does death matches though," Alexia explained.

"Tell me you aren't going to get into a death match. What if you get hurt, or killed?" Alexia smiled that beautiful smile again, but I could have sworn I saw her face turn pink.

"That's sweet. I didn't know you cared, Flyboy." I was speechless. I tried to counter her but all that came out was a bunch of Uh's and Err's. Really smooth, I know. I eventually found my voice after a few moments of me being embarrassed at not finding something to say and Alexia looking so damn amused.

"Can we just... get out of here. Please?"

"Sure." With that, Alexia and I finally left the duelling room.