Desperation {allen}

[Rugs]

The afternoon sun burned brightly in the clear blue skies of Naboo. Were the times different, Locke Nemsee might have appreciated the beauty of the city that stretched out below his shuttle, and the rolling grandeur of the nature that stretched out beyond the city's limits. But the young Knight's mind was not even remotely focused on the beauty below him. No, it was a mad swirl of thoughts and emotions, and many of them were very worrisome.

A bad feeling had been haunting him for the past two days or so, though he only found the cause recently. The feeling intensified as he'd been deep in meditation. It was distressing, closing about him like some dark curtain, though he still hadn't a clue as to what the source of it was. So he pressed deeper, and it was then that a vision took him. It was vague, though Locke was able to piece the meaning together quickly enough. In it, he saw Jazen, his student, chasing after some figures, robed in black and shrouded in darkness. They faded away, to be replaced by images of a city on Naboo, one Locke had visited in the early days of his apprenticeship with his old master. Locke didn't know, couldn't know, all of the details, but he knew enough. Jazen had run off, chasing after some dark, dangerous people, and Locke knew as soon as the vision struck that he had to go find him. A small part of him was secretly proud of the boy's willingness to do his duty, but the rest was both enraged--and terrified--that Jazen would be so stupid as to run off on his own.

He left a message to the Council to explain the situation and left on the first shuttle to the verdant world he could find. Jazen's bravery was commendable, but his foolishness would get him killed. The boy was still young, and learning, and it wouldn't take much for him to get in over his head against some dark Jedi. Or, Force save us, Sith. Fear surged through the pit of Locke's stomach. Jazen knew the Sith were pushing into the Republic's territory, and he knew how powerful some of them were. Why didn't you tell someone, Jazen, he thought as he looked out over the city when the shuttle's path shifted to bring it down toward the ground.

And through it all, through all of the fear and worry that filled Locke, rose memories. Memories of Umgul. Memories of when Jazen flirted with the Dark Side of the Force, becoming so lost within his rage that Locke had been forced to fight his own student to force him back to his senses. And if Jazen was going out, alone and unprepared, after a dark foe that he had no knowledge of... Dammit, kid! Locke ran a hand through his hair irritably. What made you decide to be so hasty?!

The ship continued down, and Locke continued to occupy himself with his thoughts until they arrived at the spaceport. Locke wasted no time getting out and into the city, and the long ends of his coat flared out behind him as he moved hurriedly through the bustling area around the spaceport. He immediately stretched his senses out, looking for Jazen's familiar signature, hoping against hope that the boy hadn't already gotten into something that was too much for him to handle. Fortunately, the familiarity born of spending so much time with Jazen, along with the bond that was starting to form between master and student made it easier to find Jazen than it might normally have been, and Locke felt his student. The signature was weak with distance, but it was there. "And knowing my luck he'll be on the other side of the damned city," he muttered as he turned on his heel, hurrying off in Jazen's direction.

Of course, his searching did very little to hide his own presence, and it would've been remarkably easy for any Force sensitive nearby to feel Locke as he moved through the city. But he didn't care. He had to get to Jazen, and fast. And it was this urge that took him away from the main routes through the city, where crowds of people clogged the streets, pushing to get to their various destinations. Instead, he went onto a small alleyway that was, for the most part, abandoned. The lack of people allowed him to move faster, and Locke broke into a sprint, determined to reach his apprentice before the boy did something stupid and got himself killed.

Because he knew that if that happened, he'd never forgive himself.

[allenwalker]

Allen rose from his deep meditation he heard the captain of the shuttle annouce theyre arrival to Naboo. It had been many years since Allen returned to his homeworld. He rubbed his eyes and got up from his meditative stance. He felt the shuttle reenter the atmosphere of Naboo. The shuttle rocked violently and made him fall to the floor. Allen got up and scowled. He thought to himself 'hmm to kill everyone on board or not that is the question or should I just deal with the pilot.' After a few minutes of debating Allen decided to let everyone live for now he didnt want ot have any problems with the authorities right now. The ship finally began to smooth out on the decent and soon the shuttle landed on the platform of the docking station.

Allen rose from his chair and pulled up the hood of his cloak and made towards the exit. His lightsaber swung from his side inside his robes his and his fathers sabers swayed lightly. Allen exited the shuttle and quickly made it through the city. He closed his eyes and began to listen to the planets pulsing it was soothing to him it reminded him of the old days with his family. Then suddenly Allen felt multiple force sensitive people two were jedi and one felt like a fellow sith. There was a jedi not far from him but it seemed that the other sith had engaged with the other jedi. Allen gritted his teeth and tightened his hands. He soon relaxed his hands and began chasing after the jedi that was nearby. He managed to keep up with the jedi and followed him into a alley way. "Well well if it isnt my lucky day a jedi knight." Allens face was hidden except for his golden yellow eyes. "Why dont we let the kiddies play while we have ourselves a little fun."

[Rugs]

A sudden, dark presence started to close in on Locke as he ran. He snarled, knowing he'd have to stop and deal with whoever it was; he didn't want to, though. He wanted to be heading toward Jazen, and the other dark presence that he could just barely feel off in the distance where the boy was. That was, no doubt, the person Jazen had been searching for. He turned around a corner, feet sliding on the smooth cobblestone pavement as he turned around and came to a stop. "Hang in there, kid," he muttered. "I've got some business to take care of."

The part of the alleyway he'd come to was dark, and a place behind some buildings. There were a few garbage collection bins here and there, though, as would expect from Naboo, the place was still remarkably clean. Shadows from the buildings filled the alleyway, giving it a sort of darkness, though Locke could still see just fine.

It was into this alleyway that his pursuer appeared. Now that they were close and he was focused, Locke could feel the darkness within the man, and his face twisted into a wordless scowl when the man spoke. He wanted a fight, then, and he seemingly knew of Jazen and whoever that darker presence was. Does that mean there are more of them around? It didn't matter. Locke had to deal with this man, and he didn't have time to waste.

"I don't know if you're a Sith or a Dark Jedi, but you need to stand down and get out of my way." Locke's voice was hard as steel, and was matched by the look that came from his storm-grey eyes. Normally, Locke might've made some quip, but he was not in the mood, nor did he have the time. And, though this person might not know it, it was a very dangerous thing to catch Locke when he was in such a mood where his jokes went unspoken.

His hand took the hilt of his lightsaber from its place on his hip beneath his coat, and the yellow-orange blade exploded to life. "Or, if you want a fight, let's get it over with. I don't have time to deal with your foolishness."

[allenwalker]

Allen cackled as the jedi ordered him to stand down. His cackling died instantly when he called him a dark jedi or sith. "Don't you ever compare me to those dark jedi weaklings for i am Sith!" Allens closed his eyes and let the dark side take hold of him and his eyes changed to that of the sith eye color. Allen squeezed his fingers and his knuckles on his fingers cracked. "I assume that other jedi is your padawan how touching a master and a padawan bond." Allen tilted his head sideways as the jedi ignited there saber. "A fine saber I think Ill add that to my collection." Allen moved his cloak robe to the side and showed he had two lightsabers. he reached for his own and ignited it. the red beam glowed menacingly in the alleyway. Allen removed his hood revealing his face. Allen then twirled his saber and charged at the jedi. When Allen was with saber distance he jumped into the air and flipped around and was behind the jedi and swung his saber in a forward thrust to try to impale the jedi.

[Rugs]

"Don't speak of my student," Locke hissed hotly at the Sith. "He's none of your concern, Sith." The title twisted in his mouth, and he said it mockingly, disdainfully, showing how much respect he had for one who called themselves a Sith. But the man made it clear that a battle was exactly what he wanted. He moved his cloak aside, revealing that he had more than one saber to Locke, though if he wanted the Knight to be impressed, he'd be sorely disappointed. Instead, Locke sighed and shook his head, drawing the Force into him has he prepared to do what had to be done.

I need to make this quick, he thought as he eyed his foe. The Sith man was young, and looked to be a few years Locke's junior. That meant they should be fairly close in ability, at least in theory. Locke's extra years might give him an edge, but he'd have to act quickly if he didn't want to get pulled into a drawn out, protracted struggle here. He could not afford that. Jazen could not afford that. So he made a brief salute toward the Sith with his saber, and the fight got under way.

The Sith charged at him, leaping into the air to start an attack that Locke guessed to be within the style of Ataru. Of course, Jazen was a student of that particular form, and Locke had gained a great deal of experience for fighting it over the few months they'd been together. He shifted around gracefully as Allen went over his head and knocked the red blade aside with his orange. But he held the saber out to the side, and stepped in toward the Sith, lashing out to try to punch him in the stomach, and follow up with blast of the Force, to send him flying backwards through the air.

[allenwalker]

Allen growled in his throat at the jedi as hsi saber made contact with the jedi. "Not bad jedi not bad at all."Allen smiled evilly "All jedi are my concern be they jedi or dark jedi they will all fall to the power of the sith." Allens saber connected the the jedis and his saber was deflected. He saw the punch coming towards him and he caught it with his free hand. Allen stared into the eyes of the jedi and shook his head disappointingly. He then felt himself being pushed back by a force push and fell back a bit. he rolled over and hit a trash can knocking it down. Allen rolled onto his back and kicked himself back up onto his legs. he cracked his neck and looked at the jedi. He deactivated his saber and put it into his robe sleeve.he raised his fingers and pointed his hands at the jedi and the unleashed a blast of force lightning at the jedi. "When im done with you your student shall be next but I won't kill him oh no ill do much worse I'll make him fall slowly to the dark side."

[Rugs]

Locke's grey eyes widened with shock when his fist did not connect with Allen's stomach. No, the Sith was ready for his strike, and caught Locke's punch with his free hand. Locke strained against the other man's hand for a moment, trying to move his fist back, but he could not. So that meant either the two were fairly equal in physical strength, or that the Sith was stronger than Locke. Neither one would be anything new to Locke; he wasn't the strongest person around by any means. His strength was in his agility and speed. But the Sith didn't notice Locke's pushing or didn't care, as he shook his head, like he was disappointed in Locke. "Don't get cocky, Sith," Locke growled as a blast of energy exploded forward from his hand. That caught the Sith of guard, and sent him back through the air to crash roughly on the ground. To the man's credit he was back on his feet quickly, and Jedi and Sith stared each other down once more.

Locke's muscles tensed when the Sith put his lightsaber away, knowing that he was planning something. The Dark Side flared around the other man for the briefest moment, and then bolts of blue lightning erupted from his fingers, striking out toward Locke. The young Knight cursed under his breath and drew upon the Force, using it to construct a barrier in front of him. The lightning slammed into it, though it held strong for the time being. Locke was surprised to find that he had to strain to keep it up though. He's strong, he thought as he was forced to take a step back. Sweat was starting to form on his brow and he took another step back. Stronger than I thought he'd be. I don't know how long I can hold this up. Maybe he would have been able to keep the angry electricity away, but Allen, intentionally or not, brought his attempts to defend himself crumbling down around him.

The Sith spoke, and though Locke merely ignored the part about Allen defeating him. But he could not ignore the threat about making Jazen fall. Images from Umgul flashed through his mind, of the time when Jazen danced so dangerously near the edge of falling into the darkness. With those memories came a spike of fear, and with that fear, his concentration faltered. It was only for a moment, and if it weren't for the fact that he were trying to fend off an attack, it probably wouldn't have mattered. But he was, and it did.

His barrier weakened when his concentration slipped. It was only by a hair, but he'd already been pushing himself near to the limit of what he knew of protection, and that was all it took for it to shatter under the Sith's onslaught. Locke gasped in horror as it collapsed, and an instant later, the lightning slammed into him, pushing him back roughly into the wall. The pain of it coursing over his body was more than he'd been prepared for, and in spite of trying not to, he screamed from it. But mercifully, the attack didn't last long, and though it had been painful, Locke's injuries were very minor.

"You won't touch him," he said around heavy breaths as he forced himself to stand to his feet. He'd dropped his lightsaber in the attack, and he pulled it to him with the Force, letting it's yellow-orange blade flare to life once more. "I'll kill you before I let you come near him, Sith." With that he reached out with the Force, to pick Allen up and throw him back against the wall. Right after that he charged, running to get within saber range so that he could press the attack.

[allenwalker]

Allen began smiling as the lightning left his fingers. He scowledas he felt the jedi put up a protective force barrier around himself. allen spat on the floor and continued to lay on the onslaught of the lightning. "I can feel your fear jedi your barrier wont hold out much longer." Allen called upon more of the dark side to him and continued the lightning assault. He saw the barrier fall and the jedi get sent to the wall bby the force of his lightning. He watched as the jedi screamed out in pain. the screams sounded to Allen like sweet music to Allens ears. he stopped the lightning and stared at the jedi. "Soon your padawan and your saber will be mine and you will cease to be i can sense your anger you have fear and anger but you dont use them."

Allen felt himself be lifted up from the ground and there own. Allen swirled through the air and called upon the fore and used a a force push to straighten himself out and lessen the impact of the wall hit. Allen got back up and shook his head from the dizziness. He then saw that the jedi was charging towards him. Allen then grabbed his saber and activated it and charged at the jedi and parried the saber and jumped back. Allen brought his hands close together and channeled the force into his hands and began compressing his force push together. His hands began to shake at the force of it Allen couldn't hold it any longer and released it. The blast from it indented the ground around Allen and shoot towards the jedi.

[Rugs]

Locke ignored the Sith's taunts, focusing rather on lifting him up and slamming him back against the wall. The attack work, and he nodded with a grim satisfaction when Allen hit the wall and fell to the ground. Locke's charge started then, despite the lingering pain from taking the Sith's Force lightning only a few moments ago; he had to press the attack. He had to try to put a stop to this quickly so he could help Jazen in whatever fight he'd gotten into. But he wasn't sure if he could do it so quickly. The Sith was strong, Locke had to admit it. They were probably fairly even in terms of power, which was the last thing he needed. I've got to end this, and now, he thought as he closed in on Allen.

But the Sith was ready, and met him with a charge of his own. Orange and red clashed violently as the two fought blade-to-blade for a moment, and then the Sith jumped away. Locke growled irritably and ran at him once more, but the Sith had other plans. Locke could feel an attack building, and he was caught in a bad position. He didn't have the time to erect another barrier, but if he could just get within saber range in time. Allen had jumped just a bit too far back though, and Locke cursed when cracks appeared in the ground as the force of the Sith's attack grew. And then he released it.

It was a concentrated Force push, and the Sith launched it at near point-blank range. If Locke had only been able to get a lone step further, he would have been able to stop it. But he wasn't, and he took the hit. The blast slammed into his stomach, and he grunted as all of the air was forced out of him. He was lifted violently from his feet and thrown back into the wall, with enough force to leave thin little cracks spider webbing out from where he hit. It hurt. A great deal. Pain exploded over his back and he cried out when he impacted.

The orange blade of his saber died away as it fell to the ground next to him, the metallic clattering echoing faintly through the empty alleyway. Locke's breathing came hard and heavy as he sat there on the ground for a moment. His vision had been thrown out of focus by the impact, and a realization came to him as it returned to normal, focusing on the Sith that stood not twenty feet away from him. He was losing this fight, at least for the moment.

He groaned as he took his saber in hand once more and pushed himself to his feet. Come on Locke, you've got to focus. If you lose here, you will die. And if you die, then Jazen... Locke shook his head to clear his thoughts. He hadn't been fighting well at all so far. Worry for Jazen was clouding his mind, and though it might not have been without reason, he couldn't let it keep doing that. It was within his capacity to push the tide of this fight into his favor, but if he kept screwing up and making stupid mistakes, then the Sith would hold on to his advantage, and Locke didn't want to think about what might come of that. So, for the time being, he'd have to push Jazen out of his mind and hope the boy could handle himself. Focus was what he required, and if his mind was split on two things when it needed to be concentrated on one, he'd doom both himself and his student.

So with that knowledge in mind, he gave himself over to the task at hand, and set forward to do what had to be done. He still ached, both from taking the lightning and Allen's concentrated blast, but he pushed that pain away. "Alright Sith," he growled, "let's do this right. Let's see if you can actually take me blade-to-blade." One of those characteristic smirks of his grew on his face. "Or are you too frightened of that?"

He reached out with a claw of the Force, wrapping it around the Sith to pull him in within saber range. Once that was done, he'd launch out with a series of attacks, to press the Sith back, refusing to give him time to flee. Locke was determined now. He could not afford to lose this fight, and so he would not. He swore it.

[allenwalker]

Allen panted a few times to atch his breath.. the force push took alot out of him just to compress it. Allen looked up and smiled as the blast hit his opponent. He watched as his opponent went flying into a wall. Allen made a face like ooh that had to hurt as he heard a crunch of when his opponent hit the bricks. Allen growled as he saw the jedi get back up. Allens hand tightened around his saber when the jedi accused him of being afraid of him. Allen noticed that the jedi seemed more focused now. He thought to himself 'good hes finally focused now the real fight begins.' Allen placed his second hand on his saber hilt and felt himself being pulled towards the enemy. "Oh you wanna play ok jedi lets play." When Allen was within saber striking distance he saw his opponet attack him. red and orange blades clashed together violently as allen blocked the attacks.he however ended up in a saber lock with his opponent. his ear piece communicator beeped and Allen heard a voice saying "Sir we brought your ship to this sector were picking you up." Allen growled and jumped back and placed his hand on his arm "lright bring her down to my home we will rendezvous there." Allen stared at the jedi and shook his head "Well jedi it seems like todays your lucky day you get to live but we will meet again." Allen then used the force and brought down a side of a building cutting of the jedi for now. allen then spoke into his com and said "republics bane this is walker prep a shuittle to leave the ship on my word to pick me up." a voice answered on the com "yes sir right away."

[Rugs]

"You're getting in over your head, kid," Locke said when the Sith returned his challenge. But still, he moved on and met Allen's saber with his own, and the fight was on. Locke's smirk grew as he finally engaged Allen in blade-to-blade combat. Oh, the Sith had skill with a blade yes, but Locke was better. He could feel it. He was also faster, which was an advantage he'd be able to press later on, with planning. If he could just keep Allen engaged, the tide would turn, so he pressed the attack, cutting high, feinting low, thrusting out at the Sith's heart, quick as lightning. To his credit, Allen held on, and held Locke's attacks at bay, but Locke knew it was only a matter of time until something broke through.

His orange blade whipped out to knock one of the Sith's strikes aside, but Locke held the blade, forcing it around so that the two weapons got locked between them. Locke pushed against Allen's saber, muscles straining as they worked to move the sanguine weapon back, but no gains were made. Of course, he held Allen's efforts at bay as well, so perhaps they were equal in physical strength.

The Sith suddenly jumped back, and in doing so made the mistake of leaving his legs open. Locke took advantage of that opening and lashed out with a low cut, though it barely fell short. Allen went on to say that he'd gotten lucky, and that the two would meet again one day in the future. "Right," Locke said with a snort, "Sith talk for 'I'm scared so I'm gonna run away now,' right?"

The Force yelled a warning at him, and he looked behind him to see that a section of the building's roof was tumbling down, as the Sith had pulled a column out of place. Locke rolled out of the way, and when the dust cleared the Sith was gone. If he weren't in such a rush Locke might have given chase, but he had other things to attend to. So he clipped his saber back onto his belt and ran back off in the direction he'd been heading before having to deal with the Sith. He was still in some pain, and breathing hard, but he pushed that all out of the way as he focused on reaching out with his senses again toward Jazen. There he is! And I think he's still okay, but that other presence is still there, too...

Locke still had a good deal of ground to cover, though. He just hoped Jazen would hold on long enough for him to get there.