Part 6

Chapter 14

Elena walked into a large stately room with Devic by her side not knowing what in the world she was doing. The various guards that had been posted around the place had let her walk past with no problems and had even bowed to her. Devic had told her it was a form of respect.

They had been led to this room and told to wait for the presence of the Empress. Who, Elena couldn't forget reminding herself, was the also her grandmother. Could these miraculous wonders ever cease?

"Your thoughts are too loud," Devic chastised. "You must remember that you are surrounded by individuals who don't need to try all that hard to listen to you. Either stop thinking along the path you are or close off your thoughts."

"I'm not ashamed of my thoughts." And there was no reason for her to be. Everyone here knew who she was and where she came from. They couldn't expect her to stand around waiting for the presence of royalty and not feel a little irony.

"Of course you aren't," Devic was a little exasperated. "But please - and this is one of the only times that you will get me to ask of you anything - but please just be a little bit respectful towards our liege. You may not care if you die today or not, but I do."

"She must not care too much about me if my life is so easy to throw away."

"We have rules and standards that we live by, young one," The voice suddenly intruding her mind made Elena jump back. She looked around the room until she spotted the matronly woman standing at the back entrance to this great room. "You are not above those standards. No one is."

"Oh yes, how remiss of me." Elena's chuckle was devoid of any traces of humor. "I almost forgot about the Forces small obsession with efficiency."

Katine's eyes narrowed. "I do not find your sarcastic behavior amusing."

"Why wouldn't you?" Elena asked with an amazing amount of seriousness etched in her tone. "My people have been nothing but one big joke to you for many years. Why aren't you laughing?"

"Your people?" Elena could tell by the emotion flowing from the older woman's thoughts that she had definitely hit a nerve. "You are one of us. Those things that live underground hold no claim to you."

"I'm guessing that you forget my father, no matter his many faults, is human. I was raised with Humans. I was taught by Humans. I was chose to lead the Humans. I was and am prepared to die for Humans." Elena had ticked each point off on her left hand. "And let's not also forget the Force enslaved me. The Force killed my friends. The Force made my life almost unbearable. It's not really a matter of who can claim me, now is it?" She didn't give a chance for the older woman to respond. "It's more of who I claim and I don't claim the Force."

"But you came here to learn. You chose to leave all your 'friends' behind. You chose to be here instead of with them."

Elena's shoulders sagged. The woman had a point. She had chosen to leave. "I did. But as you said, I came here to learn."

"And what have you learned?" The elderly Force woman smiled. "You have been here less than a full day, but I expect you have learned quite a bit. Tell me what it is you have learned."

Suddenly Elena felt like she was eight years old again standing in front of one of her tutors answering a question that she truly had no answer for. "I've learned that I'm the Force's lab rat and that somehow I'm causing Human deaths; along with some other minor details that hold no significant value in my life."

"You think it's insignificant that you are part of the royal lineage?"

"Be careful with your answer," Devic whispered harshly to Elena. "Do not offend this woman any further."

Elena took one long look at her bondmate desperately trying to decide whether or not she cared if she offended the great and mighty liege. She ultimately decided that she didn't. "I don't find it significant. I don't really care if I'm royalty or not. I don't care to listen to those who claim to be my family, because I know who my true family is."

After staring at the young women for a long moment Katine turned her back on them and started to walk out of the room. "Come with me." It was an order that Elena was reluctant to follow, but Devic didn't have the same hesitation and immediately began to follow the older woman making sure to grab onto Elena's shirt so that she could drag her bondmate along.

Katine took them through, what Elena would assume was a castle. She eventually led them to a door that was obviously sealed shut. From what Elena's inexperienced eyes could gather there seemed to be some kind of security mechanism on the wall beside the door. Katine reached out and placed her hand on the gadget making the door open with a loud hiss. She continued to enter the doorway and Devic hurried to follow, but Elena had planted her feet not willing to move another step.

She wasn't quite sure what was in the room, but it was in her opinion that any door that had some weird security gadget connected to it certainly wasn't a room she wanted to go in with someone she had just offended. Chances were that if she went in, she just might not be able to come out.

Devic still had a hold of her bondmate's shirt and tried to pull Elena along but the other woman wouldn't budge. She shifted her grip on the shirt so that she had her arm wrapped around Elena's waist and tried to move her that way, but the woman still wouldn't move. "What is your problem?"

Elena turned in a complete circle in an effort to get Devic's arm away from her. "I'm not going in a secure room with the Great Light knows what with a woman that I just offended. That doesn't seem to be the best move I could ever make."

Devic turned her body with Elena's so that she wouldn't lose her hold on the taller girl's waist. "If you don't go in there then she will kill you."

"At least I die on my own terms." Elena was still spinning trying to remove Devic's hold without much success; she was actually becoming quite dizzy.

Devic released her hold and took a step away from Elena's turning body. "Your own terms? Do you realize how insane you sound and how stupid you look?" She pointed both hands at Elena. "You're crazy."

Elena stopped spinning and, to her not so great relief, she was able to step outside of her body for a moment and truly evaluate what it was she was just doing. Now, not only did she feel like an idiot, but she looked like one as well. It would seem that she had officially lost her mind the second she had stepped foot on the surface.

"What's in the room?" Elena's voice was soft and controlled. "I think I have a right to at least know that."

Devic looked long and hard at Elena, and immediately noticed the change from her earlier behavior to the young woman who had been the Human's High Commander. "I honestly don't know, but we really should follow Empress Katine inside."

Elena nodded then turned to face the doorway. She straightened out her shirt and took a deep breath then went through the doorway with Devic close on her heels.

Once fully inside the room, Elena was greeted with monitors that showed all the underground tunnels that she knew very well. They weren't empty, like they should have been, but instead they were filled with armed Force soldiers and cowering Human slaves.

"This," Katine spoke as soon she could tell Elena knew what they were looking at, "this is our monitoring station. From here, we monitor what goes on underground and give our soldiers their orders. Right now they are ordered to find the one you call Ezra and terminate her."

Instead of getting hysterical like Katine had expected of her, Elena stood emotionlessly facing the screens. "By 'terminate' I'm guessing that you mean death," she stepped closer to one particular screen. "You don't have any footage of inside the Center?" The young woman took her gaze away from the screens and captured her grandmother in her gaze. "You do know that by not having visuals from inside the Center you're surely missing out on a really great show?" She smirked and turned her attention back to the monitors.

"A 'great show'?" Katine inquired of Devic.

Devic cleared her throat and her dark eyes shifted nervously. "The Center is the focal point for the uprising. Resistance to the invasion will start from there."

Katine focused on the monitors before her. No one, including Elena, didn't dare speak. They waited for their cue from the Empress on how to react to the information presented.

"Why are there no visuals coming from the Center?" The question was given to the room instead of an individual, but all eyes fell on Devic to answer. She only turned her attention to Elena.

"As primitive as you perceive, Humans to be oh Great One, we do have security precautions. We are capable of avoiding the Force's ever watching eyes." Elena sent, using her telepathic abilities for the first time to direct the Empress.

Katine raised a brow at her granddaughter and was going to respond to the woman's insolence, but a sudden beeping came from one of the consoles in the room. "What's happened?"

"Resistance." Elena answered shortly. "Simply resistance."

"You resist a rightful termination?" The Empress was intrigued. "Do you not believe in justice?"

"What do you mean rightful termination?" Elena's brow furrowed. "What could Ezra have done that justifies her death?"

"Because you carry only a link of two and are not part of the Great Link I wouldn't expect you to know this, but our link has been tampered with and it was your 'family' that was responsible." Katine's dark eyes sparkled with satisfaction as she saw Elena's body sagged and some of the fight left her body.

Elena took another look at the monitors that surrounded her. She didn't believe that Ezra tried to break the link. It had to be someone else, but Elena knew that it didn't matter who was the guilty party because the Force would always blame the one in charge for the actions of those they commanded. It was yet another one of the Force's little quirks.

"Why go after Ezra? Why not me?" Elena asked not taking her eyes away from the monitors in front of her. It actually seemed like the Force were beginning to lose the battle going on underground. "I am the one that is in charge."

"You handed over control when you left there. We can no longer prosecute you for their actions" Katine answered also paying close attention to the skirmish being fought out on the screens that surrounded them.

"Could you at least tell me who was responsible for trying to break the link?"

"Your father." The actual sound of her grandmother's voice startled Elena more than the answer she gave.

Elena took a deep breath and nodded her head. "How," her voice broke on the one word. "How," she tried again, "how did he try to break it?"

"By killing your mother."

***

Melissa concentrated on her breathing. Her lungs were burning with lack of oxygen and she was beginning to feel slightly disorientated. The Force soldier had hit her harder than she had ever been hit before. Being thrown into the wall hurt more than she imagined it would and she was convinced that if she were able to take a look at her back later when this battle was over she would find a painful bruise covering most of it.

The Force soldier that had thrown her stood no more than a few meters away from her now. He looked down at her knowing that he had beaten the small girl that was lying on the ground gasping for breath. He decided to grant this one a quick and rather painless death. He reached down with one powerful hand intent on snapping the blonde's neck, but was taken by surprise when the small one rolled away from his grip and plunged a knife into his chest. He looked down and saw his blue blood spilling onto the floor. He looked around him until he met the green eyes of his small adversary. This girl had beaten him. Against all the advantages he had in his favor this girl had beaten him.

Melissa looked into the Force soldier's eyes and was, for some reason, actually stunned to see fear in them. It wasn't the fear of death that she saw, though, it was actually fear of her. Later Melissa would take the time to contemplate what she saw, because now wasn't the time. She was still surrounded by soldiers intent on killing her. She reached out and took the knife from the soldier's chest then turned her back to the dying man so that she could face yet another battle in which all odds stood against her.

***

Ezra was on the other side of the complex fighting her own battles. All the soldiers were coming after her. A circle of her own troops surrounded her trying to keep her safe or at least divert the attention of the Force that surrounded them.

Luckily they had not yet had to fight hand to hand. Their weapons were still almost fully charged and seemed to be making a dent in the Force's numbers. Ezra aimed her handheld weapon carefully and shot at yet another Force member who was getting a little too close for her liking. She took a quick look around noticing that against all odds her side was winning.

Knowing that some of the other troops might not be fairing as well she took one last shot at a Force soldier that approached her and started running in the other direction yelling commands as she left. Her first stop would be to the Center's science labs where she knew the wounded were being taken. She wanted to make sure that the guard there was holding up before she went to help out anywhere else.

***

"My mother?" The words didn't come easy to Elena. It was a struggle to think of the words she wished to say. There were other questions she wanted to answer. There were other things she needed to know, but she couldn't form the words incapable of doing so both in language and thought.

For only the second time since entering the secured room Devic spoke and asked the questions she knew Elena needed the answers to. "What is the story behind this event?"

Katine looked closely at Devic. "There is no story behind this event. There is only the fact that my daughter is dead and our justice demands that those responsible are punished."

And with that Elena found her voice. "I'll give you justice. Let me return to the underground."

Katine could feel her granddaughter's rage. "What is it you think you'll do there?"

Elena stepped up to her grandmother facing off with the strongest woman on the planet. "I will end your war."

Katine studied Elena. Not quite willing to trust this person who held her in such contempt. "How would an ending come about? Which side would you be fighting for?"

"My own." Elena answered aloud. "I have fought for others since the day I was created. Today, I would like to fight for myself."

"And which side would that be for?"

"My own." Elena repeated. "I don't need to fight for a side. Those responsible for the death will be punished."

"You will terminate Ezra?"

"No." Elena shook her head. "I will terminate my father."

Katine again studied her granddaughter. She couldn't help but believe her. "And after that? After you have clenched your thirst for vengeance? Which side will you fight for?"

"Will your war end with the death of my father?"

Katine raised her brow. "My war?"

"Your war. Your guns fired first. Your soldiers invaded our home. By your will we are slaves. So I ask, if your war will end with the death of my father."

"A war does not end by the death of one." Katine spoke softly but her voice was firm. "Let that be the first lesson I teach you. The war did not end with the death of your mother and it will not end with the death of your father. Our differences are greater than those two souls."

Elena remained silent for a long time contemplating carefully how she could respond to her grandmother. She could have told her that the lesson that had so readily been laid out before her had been learnt long ago, and wasn't the first that this monarch had taught her. She could have told her that the war certainly could end with the death of one. It just had to be the right one.

"With all due respect my liege," Devic decided to make her thoughts heard again. "One soul can make all the difference. Our Sun Angel has taught us as much."

Katine could not help but sigh. "That's true. I fear, however, that circumstances in this case are vastly different."

"Right now I don't care about differences," Elena stated, "All I care about is the fact that my mother is dead. So please open the damn door to this room and let me go back underground so that I can at least make my mother's soul rest in peace."

"But you have still not answered me. When you leave and your father taken care of, what side do you choose? It would not be wise for me to let the best fighter those Human's have let loose to help them defeat my soldiers."

"And it would not be wise for you to keep me here."

"Are you threatening me, child?"

"No of course she isn't," Devic hurriedly replied. "She only meant that by keeping her here you may prolong the battle going on underground, which if you watch your monitors you can see we are currently losing. Elena can stop the fighting. She can pull back her forces."

Elena turned to Devic and narrowed her eyes but said nothing. The Empress turned to the monitors and realized that indeed her superior forces had been driven back.

***

Ezra heard the yells of those in pain and of those dying well before she entered the labs that now were acting as an infirmary. She stepped into the area and stepped into a whirlwind of motion. The doctors were giving their orders and the nurses were hurriedly carrying them out. All their training of an attack on the Center finally now bore fruition.

Ezra looked among the crowd for the face of the person she knew would be in charge of the area. When her eyes didn't immediately fall on their target, Ezra reached out and grabbed the arm of the nearest moving person. It happened to be one of the assistants in the lab.

"Where's Kournva? I need to know what's going on."

The assistant bowed his head unable to look into the eyes of his superior. "She's dead ma'am. We found her in here dead shortly before the Force arrived."

Ezra's grip on the assistant tightened. "What happened? Why wasn't I informed earlier?"

The young man's face distorted in pain and Ezra loosened her grip, but only slightly. "The Force came. We didn't have time what with the casualties and all."

"What happened?" Ezra asked again.

"Ma'am we don't know. We found her stabbed the weapon thrown down next to her body."

Ezra let go of the assistant and waved him away. She walked further into the labs knowing that Kournva's body would have been placed in one of the private rooms. She had to see the body herself.

Kournva was laid out on a metal table. A bright yellow candle was burning next to her. It was her understanding that the candle represented the Sun. The Force believed that the soul had to be protected by the fire, which was the sun, on its journey to some mountain. Ezra's wasn't to up on the details of the ritual. Her studies on the Force focused more on the tactical rather than the religious.

For the first time since the battle had begun Ezra turned on her communicator. "Melissa?" She spoke into it softly then waited. After a few moments there was the sound of static then the sound of Melissa's stressed voice. "Yes ma'am?"

"Kournva is dead." Ezra said evenly. "I suggest you make your way to the labs."

"What?" Melissa's shocked voice asked. "What do you mean Kournva is dead?"

"She was murdered. It seems the Force's unprovoked attack wasn't quite so unprovoked."

"I'm on my way." Melissa responded. "And I think we're winning out here Commander." She added quickly before Ezra's communicator went silent again.

Ezra stepped up to Kournva's body and looked down at the woman who had done so much for their war and so much for her personally. "May your soul rest in peace, ma'am. I'm sure your daughter, when she finds out about this will take care of everything, but I'll do my best to make sure everything's okay until she comes back."

Chapter 15

Katine watched her granddaughter carefully. She knew that Devic, despite her words being true, were not the words that Elena herself would have said. Elena had been threatening her, and according to Force law Elena's immediate death was called for.

"I don't feel like playing with politics at the moment," Elena said and before Devic could reach out and stop her she vaulted and grabbed her grandmother by the neck. The soldiers in the room immediately grabbed for their weapons and Devic cursed under her breath. "Open the damn door," Elena ordered the Empress. "Or I'll have to kill you and end the war right now."

Katine looked past the face pressing into hers and motioned for the soldiers to hold their positions. "You'll be dead before you get out of the palace. You'd be dead before you even left this room."

"Elena, please think about what you're doing! Don't be so damned stupid. Today is not a good day to die!" Devic yelled in her linkmates head.

"I find that I'm pretty good at fighting the odds. I've been doing it for a while. I've got practice. Open the door." Elena ignored Devic's yell.

"We actually had our faith in you, and you have betrayed us. You have betrayed your family and your people. Ordering your death will not harm my spirit."

Before Katine could give the soldiers their order to eliminate Elena, Devic punched the nearest soldier next to her in the face and relieved him of his weapon then opened fire on the rest. All the while yelling harshly in Elena's mind that she would kill her next and that her soul should be cursed to the Darkness for eternity. Elena ignored the screaming in her head and kept her attention on the shocked expression of the Empress.

"Please get the door open." Elena released her grandmother and took a step away from the angered woman.

Slowly, with as much dignity afforded to her in the situation, Katine walked over to the sealed door and placed her hand on one of the security panels. The door opened instantly and access to the palace was granted. Elena grabbed one of the weapons lying on the ground and moved over to the door.

"We'll make it out of here and my mother will be avenged," Elena told Katine as she looked carefully out the open doorway.

"You'll die."

Elena only shrugged then moved out of the room. Devic bowed quickly to her liege before she followed her linkmate out of the room.

"She's right you know? You're going to die and I'm going to die with you."

"Why Devic, I didn't know that you cared so much that you would lie your life down by my side."

"You know perfectly well it's not by choice. You're a damned fool."

A blast of phaser fire hit the corner of the wall they stood against. Elena returned fire and a grunt was heard from across the hallway. "You're right. I am a fool. But my mother was just murdered by my father. Technically, I'm probably temporarily insane. If that makes you feel any better."

Devic turned her eyes to the ceiling and sighed. "Great Light save me."

"Let's go," Elena grabbed the front of Devic's shirt and took off for the other end of the hallway. "You're going to have to help me get out of here. The only way I know out will most likely get us killed."

"And that's not your goal?"

"Devic, right now we don't have time for your witty quips and banter. I'm guessing a couple of hundred Force soldiers are going to be bearing down on us pretty soon. I'd like to get out of here before I'm forced to try and shoot them all."

Devic banged her head against the wall. "I'm really very unhappy with how us linking has turned out for me."

Elena raised her brow. "Devic."

"Fine. Just follow me and be sure to keep up and don't get shot." Devic stepped in front of Elena and took the lead. As part of the Forces elite army she knew the palace well. She could get them out of the palace, but she had no idea how Elena had planned on getting back underground. All access to outgoing transports would be secured and a nice little contingent of soldiers would be waiting for them. They were in a lot of trouble.

***

It took a while, but Melissa eventually made it to the labs. The Force had started to retreat and she had given the order to hold all positions. It was time for them to regroup and prepare for another attack. The Force would not give up. They would come again and again until all the Human's were dead or at least until the Human's were beaten so far into submission that they would never think of revolting again.

"Do you have a report for me?" Ezra asked as soon as Melissa entered the private room.

"Despite what we all thought impossible, we won." Melissa walked slowly into the room and kept her attention on Ezra rather than the body on the table. Melissa had seen too much death on this day, and despite knowing that she would inevitably be forced to see more, she just didn't want to see more now. She especially didn't want to see more by looking upon the body of one of the people who gave the Human's the most hope.

Ezra nodded and her attitude quite opposite of Melissa's couldn't take her eyes off of Kournva's body. She wanted to remember every detail of this death. She wanted to memorize it so that she would never forget who this person was. "They're going to come back and this time their attacks are justified. One of us murdered…"

Melissa wasn't quite sure how she could or should respond. "I know that sometimes violence is justified, but I'm just not sure this counts. They march an army in here because of the death of one? Doesn't really make any sense."

"She was important to them, Melissa. I don't think either of us know just how important. The only one of us that would know is gone."

"Do you think she knows?"

"Probably."

"What do you think she'll do? I'm pretty sure they won't let her go after today."

"I don't know."

Melissa nodded. "So what are we going to do?"

"We fight until we win or until we're all dead. That's always been the plan."

Melissa let out a derisive snort. "I think we need a better plan."

"And what do you suggest?" Ezra finally turned to face her friend. "We can't run away. We have nowhere to run to. Negotiation has never been an option because the Force don't negotiate."

"We should give Elena as much time as she needs," Melissa offered hesitantly. "She'll have a plan and probably a few answers too."

"And if she's dead?" Ezra took a small step toward the blond. "We can't wait forever. We didn't want the war now. We didn't need this war now, but the Force brought it to us now. So now, it's time for us to stop practicing and playing our games of war. Now, it's time for us to take everything we know and everything we've been taught and use it so that we can save our species."

Melissa cracked a small heartless smile. "So we just have a small task then?"

Ezra shrugged. "Yeah. Small."

***
"Elena get down!" Devic yelled as she jumped into Elena's body and forced her to the floor. "The tower snipers can see right into this hallway."

Elena grunted as her body made hard contact against the ground but didn't mind the pain so much after she saw the window shot in. "That's good to know."

Devic rolled off of Elena carefully and slowly peeked up over the window seal to see the snipers from above. "Do you think you can hit them?" She asked her linkmate knowing full well that Elena was the best marksman that she had ever seen of either of their species.

Elena sat up and looked out the same window Devic had. She assessed the distance of the sniper and angle. "Hurry up!" Devic nudged her arm. "We're going to get company really soon." Elena gave Devic an irritated look then raised her weapon and took aim. It took only three shots, one shot per sniper, for Elena to complete her task. "Are there anymore of them out there?" Devic only shook her head then took the lead again on their journey to a transport center within the castle.

They had made it past a corner before phaser fire was opened behind them. They quickly picked up their speed and ran around another corner for cover.

"There's too many of them." Devic yelled as she returned fire. "They're going to surround us. If we're going to get out of here, it has to be now."

"How far is the transport from here?"

"A few hallways down. Third door on the left."

Elena looked around quickly then took Devic's position forcing the Force woman ahead of her. "Go to the room. Clear it out. I'll be there as quickly as possible."

"And what in the name of the Great Light are you going to do?"

"I'll take care of the ones coming up behind us. Just go and get everything ready for our transport, because I'm sure they'll be very close behind me when I make it to you."

Devic stood defiantly not moving a single centimeter in any direction. "You're insane. There has to be at least fifty of them behind us right now. You can't stop them all."

Elena shrugged. "The best case scenario is that I make it to you, and the worst case is they give me a slow death. Either way, I'll at least know that I tried my best to get back."

"I swear, only you could be on the surface for less than a day and get involved in a war."

Elena smirked. "Yeah, I'm special."

Devic stared into her linkmate's eyes for a longer moment than they could spare. "I'm thinking that maybe you are."

Elena gave Devic a perplexed look then shook her head ridding her mind of any thoughts that appeared at the comment. "Go."

Devic's shoulders sagged. "Fine. If you take any longer than five minutes then I'm coming back. If you die my life means nothing."

"Go." Elena ordered again then turned and began opening fire on the incoming Force soldiers.

Devic spared Elena another glance then took off in the opposite direction of Elena's fire. She knew that Elena's chances against the Force soldiers would be very small, but to her surprise she actually had faith in the other woman. Years of living underground, working as a spy had let her in on how gifted Elena really was. If they got off the surface it would be a miracle, but Devic was starting to let herself believe that it would be a miracle Elena could easily accomplish. Elena was created so that she could perform miracles. Sometimes, Devic thought, people had no choice but to fulfill their destinies. Elena was just one of those kind of people.


To be continued in Part 7