In the shadow of the great stairway into The Queen's Arms Hotel on the Royal Boulevard of Theed, Naboo.

Ozymysc emerged from the wellspring of the Force like someone climbing out of deep water. He felt the ripples as the corpse of their erstwhile enemy turned to dust and blew away in the breeze in a matter of seconds. He stared at the empty robe on the pavement; its hem moved slightly in the freshening wind. Fear and anger like stinging sand in the Force peppered his perception as normal people, citizens of Theed, fled from the scene, running from the sight of lightsabers, from Jedi. Ozy's lekku twitched in disbelief. How could things have changed so much; how could the Jedi, the peacekeepers of millennia, have become hated symbols of treason and lawlessness? Apprehension scratched at the back of his mind, causing tremors in the hold he had on the Force. Out of the fight, out of the immediacy of the crisis, it was harder to hold back fear, to hold back the niggling little doubts he had about his ability. They kept whispering that he wasn't ready, he was too young, that despite the crucible these last months had been he had no business being here and being responsible for carrying on in the face of outrageous defeat. He didn't think the others felt this way.

Certainly not Zon or Gal, they seemed immovable despite their youth, and indecision seemed unable to get any hold on them. He comforted himself with the knowledge that since the blessing of Mujhar Din, his insecurities became something he could put away on a back shelf of his mind when necessary.  He looked around the rapidly emptying streets, then up at The Queen's Arms Hotel looming fifteen stories over the little band. They had to leave. There was no doubt given the antipathy he felt in the citizens that security forces would soon be on their way. Almost immediately the distant wail of sirens confirmed it.  He looked at Zon, who nodded grimly and started mobilizing the others.  The thoughts of the rest of the Drogha refugees were so palpable Ozy felt nearly a mind reader.

'Maybe,' was the common thought, 'we were a little too quick to reveal ourselves here'.

He shrugged mentally and at least in his mind the thought went away. To dwell on "should haves" was to fight against the living Force and, again since Mujhar Din, he could set such things aside much easier now.

Led by Zon, they trotted towards the alley running along the Hotel.  Ozymysc started to follow and then a strong surge in the Force bore down on him. The others stopped, looking around in alarm, but Ozy looked up and saw the figure leap across the gap above them. Shouting, he pointed up so the others saw it too; a man, humanoid at least, arcing gracefully across the gulf, arms wide and short cape fluttering, trailing a ripple in the Force like the wake of a speeder-boat. At least sixty meters over their heads, crossing an improbable distance, he disappeared over the lip of the building across the boulevard from The Queen's Arms. There was, they could see, an air-taxi platform up there.

The siren's keened nearer, but they all stared upwards, knowing in the pits of their stomachs who it was that had made the leap from the hotel. The killer. The man with the Bloodstone. The one whom they absolutely had to stop. The Force might be murky, clouded with darkness, but there was no question in Ozymysc the Twi'lek's mind that allowing the Bloodstone, and following that a Bloodsaber, to roam free in the galaxy would be a tragedy rivaling all that transpired in the preceding months. He stared at the edge of the air-cab platform; he could sense the Force radiating angrily from it like heat distortion. He felt Zon's hand on his arm as a cab screamed away over the rooftops of the towering buildings.

"Oz," Zon said softly, urgently, "we have got to get out of here!"

The platform blurred as Ozymysc's eyes lost focus; he searched far-flung and tenuous threads of the Force, seeking the answer to the air-cab's destination.

The Force stayed dim, however, and speeders both Royal and Imperial careened into view.

On to Part V

Back to part III

To be continued... AT ZARCON!