Lying in a tent next to the one person he cared about more than life itself, Terrin Danner fought to sleep yet couldn't regardless of his weariness. That she was not asleep either, he was certain. But he held on to the moment, basking in the quiet comfort of being with her.

This was the reason he'd asked her to marry him; at her side, he felt strangely secure even in turmoil, and together he knew they formed something much greater than the sum of their two individual parts.

Suddenly, the comlink at his side beeped; a comlink that had a connection so secure the link was untraceable.

As Galen stirred, he answered.

"Terrin," Jasyn's voice crackled over the frequency, "there's a lot of air traffic around here. A small ship overhead, then another of those Sith ships."

"Entering the atmosphere?" Terrin queried back, suddenly becoming very alert.

"No, leaving it."

Terrin arched an eyebrow. "All right, keep an eye on things, and let me know. And aren't you supposed to be getting some sleep?"

"Yeah, gotcha Captain," Jasyn replied. "I'll keep one eye open."

With that, the connection fizzled, and all was silent again. Terrin took in the woman next to him, intent upon her demeanor, stopping momentarily to swim in the depths of her deep brown eyes.

Then he grinned, snagging something from her belt that he'd noticed before and hadn't had the chance to mention.

"Keeping...ah... souvenirs now, are we?" he quipped, looking the crumpled lightsaber hilt over.

Looking back to her, he suddenly sobered again. As soon as Jedi Master Mahoy was finished with the beginnings of the lightsaber that had been promised them, they would be on their way to the Sith Temple. There they would seek justice for a terrible crime that had been perpetrated upon Galen’s father, by one of the Sith who was now classified as nothing more than her ex-sister. Whether she was ever a sister to Galen or not, she was now apparently a very powerful and cruel person, and Galen sought retribution for the untimely death of her father at her ex-sister's hand.

What they would face, Terrin wouldn’t even dare to begin to imagine. How long it would take, he likewise had no idea.

Would they make it through alive? He had to believe that. He loved Galen; he’d like to think he would have a lifetime to spend with her; for the time he’d spent with her thusfar was enough to show him just how much more he never wanted to leave her side.

He would tread the rough waters ahead with her. They would find the Nar Khelba, and he would see to it that they succeeded, and that justice would be served...

[ 11-30-2001 10:42 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Terrin Danner ]

--------------------

The fire was an unholy mix of reds and purples and it seemed to almost sing a hidious melody as it danced with the darkness in the tent. A figure unfureled itself rising out of the flames stetching out a clawed hand to easily scoop up Galen.

"A child," the demon hissed through blacked lips carressed with deepley purple hues, "for a child!" He said the last with an unholy crushendo as the women was lifted easily onto his shoulder and they vanished within the flames. The fire made a final blast before it to vanished leaving a strateled Terrin ....alone.

--------------------

Terrin hoped to Hell that he was dreaming. Shuddering, he made a vain attempt to pull Galen close to him. The thing...the demon...whatever the Hell it was, just disappeared...and took her along with it.

A child, for a child! The words rang in his head.

A half a second later, Terrin was out of his tent, meeting up with his two startled men and one Jedi.

"What's...?" Jasyn started to ask, noticing that his Captain didn't look all too together at the moment.

"She's gone, taken," he moaned. "We're moving in, now. There's no time to waste."

"How...???" Jasyn queried.

"Don't ask," Terrin replied darkly. "I don't think I could tell you anyway."

Without further question, Matt and Jasyn collected up whatever they planned on carrying along. Terrin had to give the Jedi credit, he didn't ask anything, but merely packed up what he was doing and waited quietly.

As Terrin stood there numbly, his mind racing, Matt handed him a hiking pack. He slung it on his back without a word.

"Are we following something, or what?" Matt questioned.

"No...she was just...taken," he reiterated, having no other words for it.

"So how do we know where she is? Where to go? Terrin, we don't even know where the Temple is," Jasyn pointed out.

Terrin turned a look tinged with irritation and something else at the other man. "We follow the trail she started to take before. This planet seems fairly devoid of civilization, don't you have a sensor that can at least get us close?" he asked as he started to move, not really looking back to see if anyone else was following. After all, Matt and Jasyn would fall in after his lead. The Jedi, well, he probably knew better than to ask questions at the moment.

"Yeah, I can do that," Jasyn confirmed. "But if we get alot of readings, there could be a problem."

"Well," Terrin said, turning back momentarily to look at the Jedi, "I'm counting on Master Mahoy to confirm that our direction is correct. You Jedi can sense these things, right?"

Without really waiting for a reply, his mind locked on the task at hand, he proceeded forward as Jasyn fiddled with his sensor.

"Yeah," Jasyn muttered, "Seems to be only one patch of anything even close to 'civilization,' and it's small. Southwest of here."

Terrin nodded, calculating just how in the Universe they were going to pull this all together. Because Galen had been yanked right from under his nose and before they were truly prepared for it...how DOES one prepare for this sort of thing anyway?...she didn't have the lightsaber that they'd planned on her having before she went into the Temple. There were alot of unknowns, and alot of issues where Terrin simply had to resign himself to taking it one step at a time...

...And hope to goodness the Jedi could pull through for what he needed him for...

[ 12-03-2001 12:42 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Terrin Danner ]

--------------------

[ 12-02-2001 11:29 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

--------------------

Just let me die, dear Khaandon, let me die....

--------------------

The demonic figure...the horrified look upon her beautiful face...his futile attempt to do anything to stop the impending doom...

But this was the thing that they had been counting upon; that she would be of enough interest that they would grab her, that she would be enough of a distraction so that they could retreive the Nar Khelba.

But to be taken as she was...

Terrin shuddered unconsciously, slowing only a fraction as he continued to walk. Someone placed a hand upon his shoulder. He stopped and turned, looking down at Matt, who was looking fairly concerned.

"Should we stop a few minutes and rest?" he asked quietly.

"No," Terrin replied, nearly whispering. "How far?" he questioned, looking over at Jasyn.

"At least another couple of hours, probably more."

Terrin nodded. Looking to the Jedi, "Master Mahoy, a word with you?"

Beginning to walk again, he waited for the Jedi to join him. In only a moment, the other was there.

"I'd like your suggestions, Master," he said, turning his head marginally, "On how you think we should get into this Temple. And," he added, hesitating then stopping dead in his tracks, "Can you tell me if you can sense her at all?"

Giving the other an emotion-filled expression, Terrin managed to get himself moving once again as he awaited Master Mahoy's reply...

[ 12-03-2001 12:56 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Terrin Danner ]

--------------------

Trying to calm himself, he reached out in the Force, shook his head slowly. "I sense her...but too faintly...she is being hidden from me by a very, very powerful Dark Force User. Moreover, she's growing fainter by the minute. Which pretty much fits with the manner of her disappearance." Jeroc shuddered.

"I can but wish that I had finished more of the lightsaber, but with the Nar Khelba, I believe I am almost ready to put it together. As for penetrating the temple...let me think a minute." Danner waited for his word, tapping his foot slightly. Jeroc had to give the man a lot of credit for keeping relatively calm in the face of this awful...occurrence.

Then, Jeroc knew what he had to do. He saw the temple in his head...a dark wall, close to the jungle...stones on stones...and a gaping hole where those stones had crumbled with age and weathering. "I think I see a place that we can penetrate, but I don't think we have much hope of entering unnoticed, seeing as how there are two very powerful Sith keeping an eye on us. I can create a Force cloak to try to keep us hidden, but it will work best if there are only a few of us. Your team may want to act as backup in case...something happens." He gulped in spite of himself.

To his further distress and dismay, he could no longer sense Cella in the Temple, or even on the planet. She was still alive, but with the ship she was on effectively dead, she might not remain so for long...

[ 12-04-2001 11:09 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Rogue Angel ]

--------------------

But then that little obnoxious shoulder devil of his, always sticking his nose in where it didn't belong taunted, What else are you going to do? Knock on the door and wait for someone to answer? HA! HAHAHA!

Shaking his head to himself, not really caring if everyone else thought he was crazy or not, Terrin made a mental note to do something about that little shoulder devil when this was over with.

But the Jedi's idea...

...Hmmmm. Possibilities it indeed presented, but he wasn't about to believe that the first thing he would try would work. In shambles or not, this Sith Temple would be highly protected, and although Terrin wasn't too knowledgeable about Force-things, he was almost willing to bet that more than heavy stones and walls gaurded the fortress.

But then, what other choice did they have? It was true enough that they wouldn't just go up to the door and knock...

...They'd have to give it a shot.

Meanwhile, he'd ponder his own ideas, mulling over other far less desirable ways to get into the Temple...

[ 12-04-2001 10:55 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Terrin Danner ]

--------------------

Terrin turned to look at him, arching an eyebrow. When Jasyn or Matt said "Uhhh Terrin?" it usually didn't mean something good was about to happen.

How much more could go wrong in one stupid day?

"Is that what I think it is?" Jasyn continued, pointing up into a tree. Terrin looked up, wondering what the heck the guy was talking about.

Then he saw it. Ysalamiri.

Then something else dawned on him. The thing about going in the front door...

...ysalamiri...

"I think it's time we did some tree climbing," Terrin said. Jasyn arched an eyebrow at him like he was crazy, the Jedi just looked at him quizzically.

Thing was, if they went in through a mere rough spot in the Temple, they wouldn't know where in the Universe they'd be coming in. If they went in the front door...if they could GET IN that is...

...Okay. It was a long shot, but they'd have to try it.

"You," Terrin said, pointing to Jasyn, "Since you were so ingenious as to find this little thing, you get to go up and retrieve it."

Jasyn moaned. "Oh, allright. But what, praytell, are you thinking?"

Terrin grinned a bit. "I'm thinking we are going to go to the front door and knock."

Starting up the tree, Jasyn stopped a moment to frown down at him. "Yeah, right. 'Hi, we are the good guys. Give us Galen or else.' I don't think so, Terrin."

Terrin frowned. Sometimes his shoulder devil sounded alot like Jasyn...

"Maybe we can use this in conjunction with Master Mahoy's idea?" Matt asked, trying to come up with a compromise as usual.

"Yeah..." Terrin replied, his mind once again spinning through solutions. "Maybe..."

[ 12-05-2001 12:37 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Terrin Danner ]

--------------------

"Now what, precisely, are we going to do again?" Jasyn asked, carrying two of the little critters in his arms with a rather smug look upon his face.

"Okay, here's the deal," Terrin said, looking at the imposing Temple now within their view, surprised that they'd managed to get this close without any disruption. Quite frankly, he found that disturbing. "Master Mahoy and Matt are going to start digging in the spot Master Mahoy thinks is weak. Meanwhile, you and I are going to go check out the door to this place."

"I don't get to keep both the ysalamiri?!" Jasyn said sarcastically.

"No," Terrin replied, not quite in the mood for humor.

"Can I just say I have a bad feeling about this door thing?" Matt interjected.

"That's why we are splitting up," Terrin explained. "If the door doesn't work, and should one of us get...ummm...[i]taken[/i[, we'll still have a backup plan.

Master Mahoy seemed to nod in approval, ready to do whatever it took. Terrin meanwhile handed Matt a comlink. "Contact us in a little while. If we don't come back, we've gotten in...

...one way, or another..."

--------------------

With herrrrr these were, he told himself. Harrrrrrrm they mean.

Suddenly acting upon impulse, his Noghri pride somehow dampened by his recent loss of Graysith's prey, Leev decided to move in.

He belongs to herrrrrrr, he may draw her in...

Quickly, his small, dark form darted out, his size betraying the strength within him as the other two whirled to attack. Both drew blasters steadily trained on him.

Not thisssssss time, Leev thought.

His speed was hard to match, and neither of the two men could manage to shoot him down. In a few minutes, Leev had his prey precisely where he wanted him.

Moving in on the taller man, who was strangely resigned to letting himself be attacked, Leev positioned his spear sideways, jamming handle of it into the other's ribs, causing him to fall back.

Meanwhile, the other man fired, grazing Leev's shoulder. But it was not enough. He would not fail, not again. Taking the startled man's blaster from his hands as he fell back, Leev slammed him on top of the head, knocking him out.

Whirling to face the other, he lowered his spear on his head, leaving him down as well, seeing stars.

With that, he took his prey and headed for the Temple.

With him she shall retrrrrieve Her...

Matt nodded at him, his red head gleaming in the dim light, and the two quickly began working away at the wall, trying to make a gap large enough to squeeze through. Then it hit Jeroc. He gasped, looked at Matt in alarm. "Faster! Terrin and Jasyn've been captured."

"What?" demanded the other man.

"One of those Noghri," explained Jeroc. "The ysalamiri are blunting my sense of them, but I'm sure both of them are out cold. They'll be coming for us next, so we need to finish."

Matt nodded and in no time, the two had made a hole through which they could crawl. Jeroc led the way into what seemed to be a darkened corridor of the Sith Temple. The Jedi Master lit his saber only to see spinnerwebs and dust everywhere. Stepping out of his body for a moment, his spirit explored the cavernous corridors for a moment, and found what seemed to be a path to the center of the Temple. One area in particular had a strange and lethal shimmer in the Force, as if Jeroc's probes of Force were being twisted and warped by some unusual energy field.

"I think I've found the Nar Khelba," muttered Jeroc. "Let's just hope some more of those Noghri don't find us first." One of his best friends at the Praxeum was Noghri, and until now, Jeroc had considered them a noble race. Now it was obvious that there were some dissenters. How can sentients as honorable as the Noghri be party to such outrages?

Matt smiled tightly. "Between the two of us, we can hold them off more than likely. I've seen plenty of action, and I can take whatever those fellas can dish out." The two stole ever further into the bowels of the Temple, Jeroc continually covering the both of them with a Force cloak.

[ 12-06-2001 03:56 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Rogue Angel ]

--------------------

"Hey!" he panted, "Wait for me!"

With that, he slid into the hole and tapped the arm of a startled Matt. The Jedi had seen him coming from behind.

"You okay?" Matt said after he recovered from the initial shock.

"Yeah," Jasyn replied. "But let's get moving. They've got Terrin."

"We know. Master Mahoy thinks he knows where to lead us."

"Okay, but everybody be smart. Things aren't always as they seem..."

--------------------

Reaching out with the All, she sent her talents questing, seeking, searching...

Finding nothing. And yet-- there. No living sense, but a spot within the Temple, hidden far from the main entrance, near an outside vertex... the stones were sending out a strange pattern of harmonics, vibrating gently, almost as though someone were walking upon them...

For a moment the Glyph flared in heated rage as she realized that somehow, someone must have gained illegal entry into this hallowed place. Impulsively she raised an arm to direct the Noghri to go eliminate whoever it was creeping so stealthily within the corridors, trying to seek an unknown way....

Then a better idea came to mind, and she slowly began to grin.

So-o-oo... this unknown would creep in unannounced? Then so be it, this could be arranged....

Closing her eyes in concentration, she reached out with her senses, tweaking the very atoms in the stones that comprised the Temple walls through which the apparent intruders were sneaking along. In a strange and incorporeal manner, the corridors themselves seemed to come to some outrageous form of life, writhing and coiling insidiously until those that led to a definite destination... those containing the mysterious entrants, if indeed they were there...

...now joined end-to-end in a Mobius strip of moss and vines and rock. If indeed there were intruders, now no matter where they trod, they would end up back in their starting point... or so it would seem.

Drawing back with a slight giggle, the Chosen Daughter now assured herself that the Dining Hall, as well as other secret rooms in the Temple, would be absolutely secure from entry. Using the Dark to eliminate the doors not only leading in to this room in which she stood, but to her quarters and Shayla's as well, she then fortified them with the positioning of a chronotic shield of her own.

Then she directed Leev to join Nikk in watching over Aelvedaar.

She "looked" with her talents to where Terrin lay hidden with a sigh. No time now to keep him elsewhere; with intruders present it would be best if he remained in her direct line of sight. As annoying as it might be, she decided to send for him to "keep her company."

"M'wonBo'o!" she cried out, her hair flinging about as she whirled. In but moments she was rewarded with the clattering approach of the massive beast as he came from his feeding corner in the Dining Hall. He butted his head against her, a tendril twining affectionately about her ankle.

"Bring this one to me, and then see that he does not move, my pet," she smiled, pointing to the way in the tuk'ata's mind to where Terrin lay and opening a direct pathway to him by the use of the All. M'wonBo'o bowed his head, and disappeared from the Dining Hall, stalking through the opening to the place where Leev had secreted the unconscious man. Once there, he took his arm up in his lethal jaws, and raising his head, carefully returned to the side of his Mistress, bringing the trophy with him. There he took up a position, literally standing over the man, his eerie pupilless eyes glued rock-steady upon him.

He would not budge unless Terrin did.

Satisfied that all was a secure for the moment as she could make it, Graysith closed the pathway she had created and went once more to where Jinn was yet spouting data. There she stood quietly monitoring the unfolding of events, quietly awaiting the coming of her Dark Heart.

[ 12-06-2001 07:06 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

--------------------

Also... I PROMISE to delete these silly lil OOC posts when all is said and done....

))

--------------------