Chapter 29 - Didn't you know not to trust strangers?

She couldn’t hold in her anger anymore. She moved so fast past her attackers defenses that he didn’t even have a split second to block her blow. He fell to ground and Ash used her momentum to spring into a kick flip over to Broze’s attacker. The man fell to the ground and there were no more dark Jedi left. Ash saw Aero go to attack her sister, and Ash started to move, but Broze held her back. Then she saw why. Juno jumped in the way of his attack and blocked Echo from it.
“You’re not taking any more Jedi lives today,” Juno said with a hint of anger in her voice. She pushed his lightsaber and then aimed at his head. He blocked, but then both Broze and Ash stretched out there hands and sent Aero flying across the room. Ash saw him fly into the darkness and heard him smash against a wall. To make sure he would stay down, Ash aimed her hand at the ceiling in his direction and fired, making the rock fall down on top of him. She didn’t feel him die, which was kinda a bad thing. That meant he would be back, and angrier than ever. They had to get out of here quick.
Ash ran over to Echo and pulled her up.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“I’m not dead if that’s what you mean. Just slightly fried and baked til’ golden brown,” Echo said smiling.
Ash smiled and tried to laugh, but then she remembered Nya. They both walked over there and saw Juno hovering over her with tears in her eyes. Kali was hanging onto Juno’s shoulders. Tears started to come to Ash’s eyes as well.
“I let her die,” Juno said. “She had become like a sister to me and I just let her die.”
“It’s not your fault,” Kali replied. “If your going to blame anybody blame Aero,” Kali said hugging her.
Ash sucked up the tears and looked up to her friends.
“Don’t take this the wrong way guys, but we need to get out of here. Aero isn’t dead. He’ll be back.”
Ash looked to Broze who was standing just behind her.
“Broze, can you carry Nya back to the ship?” she asked.
Broze stiffened up and seemed to hold back tears. He and Nya were close as children, and Ash knew that this was hard on him, he just wasn’t showing it.
“Okay,” he agreed and walked over to where Nya’s body was and picked her up. They all hurried back to the ship, bruised and burned, and got on board. Ash tried to take Echo to the Med Bay, telling her that she needed to rest, but Echo refused. She apparently had to go check out the ship first. So Ash accompanied Broze to the Med Bay with Nya and Juno. Once they laid Nya in the room, they left to the cockpit, not wanting to look at her anymore.
They waited in the cockpit for Echo. It was taking her longer than usual to check the ship. Then she came bursting into the cockpit.
“Guys, we have a major problem,” she said.
“What?" Ash asked.
“The ship was sabotaged!" Echo practically screamed.
"How do you know?" Kali asked.
“The radiator panel wing is gone and-" Echo started.
“No need for boring technical terms, we believe you." Ash said. Although she knew all those terms, she didn’t want her friends to now she had memorized them.
“We can't go anywhere without that. What else is gone and messed up?" Broze asked.
Echo got Broze up and took him to the back of the whip while Ash stayed and waited with everybody else.
About 2 minutes later, she felt a disturbance from her sister.
“EVERYBODY OUT!” they heard Broze scream.
“THE SHIP IS GOING TO BLOW!” Echo followed.
Ash, Juno, and Kali all jumped from their seats and ran out of the cockpit. Ash ran past everybody and quickly got the back hatch open. She heard Echo telling Juno that they couldn’t waist time taking Nya’s body.
Ash opened the hatch and ran out. Everyone else followed. About 15 steps away the ship blew up in flames.
“NOOOO!” she heard Echo scream.
Aero is really pushing it, Ash heard Echo think.
Ash ran up to her sister. She was sitting so close to the flames than smoke and ash where hitting her face..
“It’s just a ship,” Ash said to try and calm her down. “No need to worry, we can buy another one.
Echo stared blaster bolts at her.
“Just a SHIP!? That took me YEARS to build!” Echo yelled at her. Ash’s mouth dropped.
“Anger…”Ash mumbled.
I’m going to slap her if she doesn’t shut up, she heard Echo think again. Her sister was getting to angry and couldn’t control her emotions good enough.
Kali walked up to them and pulled them away from the flames.
“Echo you can build another ship; and Ash, you knew it was important to her so I would keep your mouth shut.”
“So I’ve heard.”
“Just be glad we’re all okay,” Juno said walking up to them.
Ash sighed. “What are we going to do now?”
“I don’t know,” Echo said with a heavy voice. “Maybe we should get working on finding another ship you idiot!” she said yelling at her sister. Then she turned to everyone else. Ash was genuinely hurt by Echo’s tone.
“Maybe the local’s will help us get another ship,” she said calmer.
“I doubt they’ll let us, but we could try,” Juno replied.
They all looked around and saw another group of caves nearby, about a five minute walk..
“Look!” Kali said. “There’s some caves over there!” she sighed. “But just to let you guys now, they are very tacky.”
“Let’s go,” Broze said pushing past her. “Maybe if there’s anybody there they won’t try to kill us like the first welcoming party.”
They all smiled, and were all thinking the same thing. Hopefully this wouldn’t be another trap.
Ash and Juno took the lead with Echo and Broze following them closely.. Kali was in the back try to fix her hair.
The first couple of caves they came to were empty, but then Ash saw one that had lights in it.
“Hey guys, it looks like one of these is being used,” she said and started to run over to the cave. She ran inside the cave with her friends close behind to find a woman sitting on a rocking chair inside an almost apartment-like cave.
The woman looked startled. “Greetings. May I help you?” she asked. She was blonde and appeared to be in her mid-twenties.
Echo stepped forward to talk to the woman.
“Greetings. Our ship has been…damaged. Would you perhaps know anyone who would have one for us to buy?”
“I think so,” the woman said. Then she say the groups lightsabers and rethought her answer.
“Actually, I think my husband may be of more help to you.”
She turned around in her chair and yelled.
“David!” she yelled back into the cave. A man walked forward that was tall, skinny, and had chocolate brown hair.
“Yes honey?” the man said. Then he saw Ash and her friends.
“Hi. I’m David and this is my wife Breia. What can I help you with?” he asked.
“We need a ship,” Ash said plainly. She was tired of all this explaining every detail to people.
“I think I may be able to help,” he said and walked past them out of the cave. “Follow me. Breia, I’ll be back in less than 2 hours.” Breia nodded and got out of her seat and back farther into the cave.
“I’m sorry about my wife. She gets a little scared when she’s around people with lightswords. As you can probably guess, we don’t get very many visitors.”
David took them behind the caves and along a dirt path for about 20 minutes until they reached the ocean. Half of the planet was an ocean. There was a very small dock and a few paddle boats at the dock.
“Sorry about the paddle boats. We don’t have much technology around here,” David said. They all got into the boats. David, Kali, and Juno in one and Broze, Echo, and Ash in the other. Ash started to sense a little frustration and worry in David. She wondered if he could be trust or not. She glanced back at Echo and she nodded. Broze looked back to her and nodded too. They all must be thinking the same thing.
About 30 minutes later they got a small island in the middle of nowhere. They pulled their boats right next to the side of a cliff and got off.
Then they just silently stood there.
Ash then felt a danger sense go up her spine. Then she saw David get back into the boats and paddle off as fast as he could.
“David, what are you doing?” Kali yelled.
“I’m leaving!” he yelled back. “I don’t want to get killed!”
“Oh no, not again,” Echo said looking around.
“Fodder!” Ash mumbled. Then she looked to David. ‘Next time I see you, you’ve got it coming for you Davey!!!”
Then, out of nowhere, 10 people in hooded robes fell from the sky and landed in a circle around them. Kali and Juno started to climb up the cliff to get away and about 4 people followed them. Broze went straight for his attackers and jump into a flip over them and then started to climb the cliff. Echo didn’t have time to climb. A Kaleesh ran straight up to her and started to attack her. Then a Meerian behind the Kaleesh ran up and started to attack Ash. She jumped up and started to climb the cliff. The Meerian followed closely, always trying to slice her feet off. She finally got a ledge on the cliff and stood up.
“It’s over! I have to high ground!” she yelled at the Meerian. He didn’t care. He screamed and jumped up and tried to flip over and attack her, but Ash was too quick. As son as he landed she sliced off his arm and Force pushed him off the cliff. She looked around and nobody else seemed to bother her. All the other attackers were battling her friends. But she really noticed was a surge of adrenaline in her sister. She looked up and saw her fighter another Meerian closer to the top of the cliff. Ash jumped up as close as she could to her sister’s attacker and sat on the ledge. Then she reached her arm up and grabbed his leg. He screamed and she pulled him off the cliff.
“Thanks,” Echo said looking down at her.
“Anytime,” Ash replied. Ash climbed up the rest of the way.
There were two more dark Jedi coming towards them so they went back to back on the cliff. There wasn’t much room to maneuver but they were better back to back. Then Ash got an idea.
“I have an idea!” the both said in unison.
They both nodded.
“You ready sis?” Ash asked.
“Ready,” Echo replied.
They both aimed and fired. The dark Jedi’s lightsabers blew up in front of them. They were so startled that the fell off the cliff.
“Good teamwork,” Echo said. “We should do that more often.
There were only 2 people left and they were fighting Juno and Broze a little down below. At the same time they came up with the same idea and jumped off the ledge. The landed hard on the dark Jedi’s backs. They landed right in front of Juno and Broze.
“What do you say?” Ash said tauntingly. She knew how much Broze hated to say thank you to a girl.
“Ughhh…thank you for saving out skins!” Broze said.
Ash smiled then looked down where she heard some huffing and puffing. Kali was hanging on the side of the mountain by a tree branch.
“Are you okay?” Echo yelled down to her.
“Of course I’m not you idiot! Have you seen my clothes lately?” Kali yelled back.
Echo used the Force to bring Kali up the side of the mountain. When she got up she brushed off her clothes and straightened out her hair.
“Thank you,” she replied. “Now can we get out of here?”
“Sure! If we had somewhere to go!” Ash yelled back to her.
“Well let’s just get away from here,” Juno said. They al then started to climb back down the cliff. About half way there they realized that the one paddle boat was gone.
“Would you like to go for a swim?” Echo asked everybody.
“They all shrugged except for Kali.
“What? Swimming? In THAT? There may be sea monsters in there! Or worse, my hair could get all naughty!”
Everybody was getting tired of Kali and her prissy self, so Juno snuck up behind her and pushed her off the cliff.
“My hair!” Kali screamed as she fell into the water. When she came back up she had a huge frown on her face. “You guys owe me!”
Everyone else dived in and Echo took the lead.
“Oh man the water is cold!” Juno said.
“Why must you torture me?” Kali said.
“If you don’t shut up, I will shut you up myself!” Echo yelled back and everyone stopped complaining. Echo was starting to scare Ash. She must feel very bad right now.
They kept swimming for an hour. Ash’s arms and legs were killing her.
“Can we stop now!?” Kali asked.
“We’re almost to land,” Echo said.
In a few minutes they were back to dry land.
“LAND! I LOVE YOU!” Kali said.
“I agree with miss prissy-pants!” Broze said.
They reached the dirt path and they walked and walked for what seemed like hours. They were soaking wet and had cuts and bruises all over their bodies. Juno was still extremely upset about leaving Nya to her ultimate doom, but they didn’t have much choice at the time. Echo stopped the group and turned around to face Juno.
“Juno, I’m so sorry about Nya,” she said. “I’m sorry I made us all come here. It’s all my fault.”
Juno looked at her with sad eyes. “It wasn’t your fault. We were all fooled. I can accept her death, ad blame it on Aero,” Juno said with a hint of revenge in her voice.
“He will pay for this. I promise you,” Echo said.
What is up with you? Ash asked her through their bond. Echo was really starting to scare her.
Nothing. I’m fine, Echo replied.
“Okay, let’s get going guys. We don’t want to get into anymore trouble,” Echo said to everyone.
They continued walking on and on. Eventually, they ran out of mountain and it turned into desert. There was nothing around. It seemed like they walked for days before they reached civilization. Once they reached a mining colony, Kali collapsed.
Juno was immediately at her side. "What's wrong?" she asked.
"I can't go on. I need water...or something, and...a pedicure," Kali said.
Everybody laughed. Even in times of trouble, Kali was still worried about her looks. It was quite amusing.

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