There were a variety of reactions Nix could have chosen from on being confronted by Darsus Klex’s return. Most of them were violent, with a few of them also being explosive. Despite the seething mass of emotions roiling inside her though, Nix chose one of the non-confrontational approaches.

“Go peddle your nonsense somewhere else,” she said, casting about for a path which would lead them to safety-by-way of Rassi’s friend Solna.

“I’m not here to sell you anything,” Darsus said. “Quite the opposite. I’m here to collect.”

Except it wasn’t Darsus Klex.

It looked like him.

It was his body.

No.

It was a projection of his body.

And every path forward led through him.

Which was inconvenient.

“Who is that?” Rassi asked.

“A dead man,” Nix said. “Not an important one either.”

“You seem distracted. Perhaps I should clear your agenda,” the thing that wasn’t Darsus Klex said and stretched out his arm.

Nix felt the Force coil and surge, not quite in the soul destroying manner of the Expunging Rite, merely with enough malice sufficient to kill in a more standard manner. The killing blow flowed into Nix but passed through her, following the connection she’d forged with Rassi, the intent on twisting the young girl’s throat until it collapsed permanently. 

In the first instant Nix cast herself against the flow. The rage simmering in her rose to meet the attack, intent on tearing it and the false Darsus Klex to pieces.

But he turned out to be strong.

A lot stronger than she was in fact.

With a sickening dread, Nix felt the assault crashing over and around her rage like a tidal wave, far too large for her to stuff back to its source.

Fortunately, fluid mechanics was a field she was well versed in on both a practical and academic level thanks to her eclectic experience and reading habits.

Shoving a wave back was a terrible idea. Redirecting a wave to a more useful direction though? That was a winning strategy.

So she sent the killing Force towards Primus Dolon.

Despite being on fire and in a collapsing building, Dolon still had the presence of mind to resist the deadly blow as well.

Which was curious.

The Silent Enclave wasn’t supposed to know how to manipulate the Force.

The Expunging Rite was a rite because it offered a clear external mechanism for directing the Force to destroy someone. The resistance Dolon offered was that of someone who was used to manipulating the Force with an incredible degree of precision and subtlety.

Not really a surprise that the leader of a sect who swore off using the Force to influence their fates would in fact be using the Force to influence his own fate, but it did stoke Nix’s anger a bit higher.

Which seemed to please the false Darsus Klex.

“I wonder if I need to anything at all,” he said. “You seem to be understanding the true nature of things on your own.”

“I understand that I do not have time to deal with you,” Nix said. “And I understand that you do not have time to spare either.”

“And why would you say that?” the false Darsus said.

“You’re rushing things,” Nix said. “If you wanted to kill me you would have gotten down to that immediately, without this pointless banter. If you planned to corrupt me, you would be making a better effort at it than this half-assed attempt.”

“I’m wounded,” the false Darsus said.

“Not yet,” Nix said. “I mean, you’re dead, so there’s limits to what I can do to you, but I’m willing to get creative if that’s how you want to play whatever this is?”

“This is corrective surgery,” false Darsus said. “Your light is a cancer that needs to be excised. Darkness or death, either will serve.”

Nix could feel the malice hiding behind the controlled demeanor of the man in front of her. That coupled with the memory of his please at her anger against Dolon gave Nix the key she needed to banish the Force projection he was using.

“You know there’s a service charge for everything right?” she asked, allowing a deep breath to uncoil the tension that was locking her into violent reactions. “I usually charge standard repair rates if we’re going with an hourly approach, but I don’t think contracting an assassination on yourself really counts as a repair? There’s probably also ethical and legal restrictions I’d need to check on so, maybe we can circle back to that once I’ve been able to do some research on the local laws wherever you are? I can submit a standard bidding form, but I’m not sure how I’d break the pricing out. Maybe transport, custom fees, and cleanup when I’m done? We can work something out I’m sure.”

“Uh, what?” Rassi asked.

“He asked me to kill him,” Nix said. “I don’t usually do assassinations. I’m a ship’s mechanic, so fixing things is more where my skillset is, but, and this is important, he did just try to kill you about a minute ago, so I’m provisionally on board with taking this particular assassination job.”

“I don’t think…” Rassi started to say and then interrupted herself, “wait, where did he go?”

Nix chuckled.

“Ran out of stamina,” she said. “That Force Projection trick isn’t easy. Could you feel how much Force was just radiating off him. It was meant to be intimidating but once I stopped focusing on all the murder that was in the air, I could tell it was a sign of how much energy he was putting into showing up here.”

“I don’t understand,” Rassi said.

“I’ll explain more later,” Nix said. “Right now, we need to get to Solna.”

“Okay, she’s in the light sculpturing lab,” Rassi said and started leading Nix out of the lab.

“Is anyone there with her?” Nix asked.

“Ask her where is it too and I can touch down next to it,” Goldie asked. “Oh, wait, no worries, I’m in their net. Got the location.”

“I think she’s alone,” Rassi said. “Everyone else is out in the streets looking for you, or heading towards the burning building.”

“Good.”

“I don’t know how we can get to her though?” Rassi said.

“Leave that part to me,” Nix said, breathing slowly and regularly to get herself back to a state where she could speak to the Force without anger or fear putting jagged edges on her words.

They reached the door out of the far end of the building Nix had been incarcerated in and discovered that Rassi’s senses were entirely accurate. There was a tremendous amount of commotion and it fell into three categories; those helping with the partially collapsed building, those forming a defensive perimeter in case the enclave was under some greater attack, and, the most worrisome group, those who were hunting for Nix.

In regaining control of her emotions, Nix had been able to quiet her presence in the Force enough that those who’d been drawn towards her like moths to a bonfire were momentarily confused. That they were all within her immediate vicinity was something of a problem though.

“They’re waiting for us out there,” Rassi said. “They know this is the exit that we’ll use. How are we going to get out?”

“We’re going to walk,” Nix said, breathing in deeply and closing her eyes.

I am one with the Force and the Force is with me.

It was an old mantra, one Kelda had taught her, one which predated the Jedi, and one which was still able to fill her with the peace she needed.

When the Dark Side cloaks someone, it is a numbing of the senses. It wraps deadly intentions in impenetrable darkness and dims the awareness of those who might interact with those intentions.

Nix’s request to the Force came from a different place. She bore no hatred of the people who sought her harm. She wished for nothing to happen to them, no harm, no befuddlement, no terror at not being able to perceive their foe. She merely wished to pass by them in peace.

Silently voicing her wish to the Force, she gathered Rassi by her side, including the young girl in her wish by the bonds she felt with a child who needed to protected just as much as she herself had.

Together they left the building and calmly walked past the anxious people, and down the street filled with the shocked and terrified masses.

It wasn’t until they stepped inside the lab Rassi was leading them to that either spoke.

“How?” Rassi asked, looking at Nix with a wholly unfounded sort of awe.

“The Force can have a strong influence on mind’s which aren’t trained to think for themselves,” Nix said. “It helped too that we were giving them what they wanted.”

“They wanted to find us though, didn’t they?”

“Not really. They wanted to be able to say that they looked for us everywhere they could. That they followed their orders and did as good a job as anyone expected them to,” Nix said, following Rossi through the lobby and down a hallway. “None of them really wanted to face a Great and Terrible Jedi Warrior who’d cut them to pieces with her magic laser sword.”

“You don’t have a magic laser sword though?” Rassi said.

“Yeah. People are surprisingly confused by what a lightsaber is,” Nix said. “I mean, they look pretty, but a blaster will make you just as dead and can do it from a lot farther away. I’m also not particularly Great or Terrible, but you’ll get to see that for yourself I’m sure. Is this where she is?”

“Uh, yeah,” Rassi said.

“And she knows we’re here right?”

“Yes, she does,” Solna said, opening the door to the lab and blocking the entrance to it with her body.

Where Rassi was solidly built, Solna had the physique which suggested someone had found a pile of sticks and used them to assemble an overly bright and curious human being.

“And will she be coming with us?” Nix asked. The Force said Solna definitely had to leave the encampment with Rassi, but Nix wasn’t about to engage in double kidnapping unless at least the kids involved were in agreement with it.

“She will not,” Solna said. “Rassi, what are you doing? Have you gone insane?”

“No! Solna, I…I know how this looks, but we need to go. Primus Dolon? He’s going to kill you if you stay!”

“And he’s going to kill you, Expunge you, if you leave!” Solna said.

“I’d rather be expunged than let you die!” Rassi said, grabbing Solna by the shoulders.

Solna was half a head taller than Rassi but in terms of mass couldn’t begin to resist being pushed into the room.

So she grabbed Rassi’s shoulders and shook her instead.

“Don’t you ever say that!” Solna maintained her calm insofar as she didn’t move her hands from Rassi’s shoulders to her throat and start throttling her, and Nix admired the restraint. 

“I’m sorry,” Rassi said. “I don’t want either of us to die, but after today? I can’t stay here.”

“Why?” Solna asked and turned to Nix. “What did you do to her?”

“Swore I would protect her,” Nix said. “And you. No one is going to harm either one of you. Not without getting through me and all my Evil Jedi powers first.”

“What? That doesn’t make any sense. You don’t even know her. Or me!’

“I didn’t,” Nix said. “Not until the Force, or the Xah if you prefer, showed me something I can’t walk away from.”

“The Xah doesn’t do that though,” Solna said. “It doesn’t make us do anything.”

“It’s not,” Nix said. “I’m making me do this. I have to.”

“Why? What did you see?”

“I saw how her parents died. I was with them in the Force and I know their last thoughts were the hope the she be protected and love.”

Rassi and Solna were both silent at that for a moment.

“But why does that mean we need to leave?” Solna asked.

“Because I also saw who killed them.”