And Death Shall Have No Dominion

Chapter 1 - Back from the Grave

She moved casually, unhurried and seemingly wrapped up in the task of merging her scrappy little speeder bike into the flow of traffic. From the bag she carried and the logo slapped in gaudy neon ink on the speeder's prow, Suul guessed she was a local messenger. It was a good choice for a lone girl without any obvious relatives or friends. Many of the transient youth population took up messenger jobs and one more lonely spitfire wasn't going to attract undue attention, unless she wanted it. Clearly, she did not. Her clothes were practical, muted colours, the sort of unmemorable outfit suitable for hiding in plain sight. She had added some personal embellishments, but nothing unique- nothing that would cause the eye to linger, or question. Just enough to blend in, to look normal.

Suul followed her on his own speeder, half a block back and one lane over, eyeing her through the traffic as it inched along the congested downtown street. She had an advantage in the speeder, able to zip between hover cars, or go up on the sidewalk when there wasn't an obvious police presence. Suul doubted she would dare anyway. She might look like a brash runaway, out to prove herself to all the world, but she would draw the line at anything that might bring her into contact with the authorities.

She hung a hard right, making Suul struggle to push through the lane between them and follow. This street was much less crowded, though if he hung back and put a few vehicles between them, she would be oblivious. Probably. She sped up and Suul saw her head twitch to the right, checking her mirror. She knows I'm here.

Truthfully, Ahsoka had known for several days that she was being followed. For the past two years, she had been in a constant state of high alert, listening, reading, feeling and waiting for this exact scenario. Someone was following her with intent. Whoever he was, he was quite good. Ahsoka hadn't caught on to him until the third day when his presence in the wash of other Force-signatures had become familiar to her. He didn't broadcast his intentions either, which made her even more uneasy. There were two explanations for that, neither of them good: one was that he was a trained professional accustomed to tracking sensitive prey; two was that he himself had some amount of talent in the Force.

Still, Ahsoka clung to her pretense of normalcy. Even strong-minded private investigators could be put off by an obstinate teenager. She changed lanes, angled north, heading into the city's industrial district where the company she worked for had its office. She had moved planets five times now and each time she had sought employment with a messenger agency. It allowed her freedom of movement, to explore, to gather information and should the need arise, a method of quick escape.

She stopped the speeder in front of the office and dismounted, pulling the heavy messenger bag with her. She paused to set the anti-theft lock (which the company insisted she use) and leaned over, pretending to check on the aft stabilizer. From her inverted position, she caught sight of her pursuer for the first time. He was riding a non-descript speeder similar in year and disrepair to her own, wearing the charcoal uniform standard to Imperial officers and a helmet. She made her glimpse brief, just a wary girl checking on a stranger in a bad part of town.

Suul watched her enter the office. He parked the speeder and approached the business. A bell chimed when he entered and a young human woman looked up from the front desk.

"How may I help you?"

"Good afternoon," he said with a smile, "My name is Suul Reise. I'm looking for a Togruta girl, last name Tano."

The receptionist shook her head. "We do employ a Togruta girl, but that isn't her name."

"May I speak with this employee? Togruta are social people; perhaps this girl knows where the one I am looking for could be found."

"Certainly, detective. Let me fetch her." The woman spoke into the receiver she wore and nodded. "She's coming." She paused, then leaned forward. "What's this girl done?"

"Nothing terrible. Just petty theft, mostly. Breaking into businesses, taking everything in the register, stealing things from parked cars, that kind of thing." He could hear footsteps, two sets, just beyond the two-way doors marked 'Employees Only'. He inclined his head to the receptionist. "But she may be able to help us solve another case. We think she was the witness to a murder."

The woman nodded, interest piqued. "Well, Soshi does live in the immigrant section of the city, with some of her own people, I think. I know she'd be happy to help you. She's a sharp girl."

Suul smiled. The doors parted and he looked up. One of the figures was an aging human male; the other was Ahsoka Tano. "Hello Soshi," he said, "I have some questions to ask you, if you please?" He could read nothing on her face. She looked equal parts curious and confused, just like an innocent young woman faced with an officer would. "Can we talk outside?"

"Sure, sir. What's going on? I haven't been speeding," she said, glancing backwards at her boss in a convincing display of youthful self-preservation.

"Not that I know of," he chuckled. "I have questions about someone I hope you know. Anything you can tell me could help us solve a crime."

"Of course," she said with a shrug, apparently relieved he hadn't gotten her in trouble at work. They exited the building. Ahsoka sat down on the edge of an ornamental cement flower pot and looked up. Suul studied her for a moment. She betrayed not a hint of anxiety, no fear, no suspicion. She played the role she had built very well.

"I'm looking for Ahsoka Tano," he said without preamble, locking his gaze with hers. She didn't even blink. "I'm an agent of the Imperial Special Forces."

"Wow. What did this Tano girl do?" she said, impressed. Her voice was steady, her posture unflinching save for a care-free kicking of her heels against the flower pot.

"She's a Jedi," Suul replied.

"Really? I thought they were all dead," said 'Soshi' and frowned. "She's Togruta?"

"Yes," said Suul.

"Well I live in the Togruta quarter. I haven't heard anything about her. I'd totally remember a Jedi."

"How long have you lived there?"

"Oh, since I was eleven. I came here all by myself from Coruscant."

"At age eleven?" said Suul, clearly disbelieving.

'Soshi' nodded. "Yeah. I'm an orphan. My parents died in a shuttle crash when I was eight. I stayed with an aunt, but I got a little wild I guess and she kicked me out. So I stowed away on a carrier and ended up here." She paused and lowered her eyes. "You're not going to arrest me for being a stowaway, are you?"

"No, Soshi. I'm not investigating stowaways. How old are you now?"

"Sixteen," she said and for the first time, he saw physical evidence that she was lying. Her shoulders hunched inwards- just a centimeter- and her gaze turned distant for a moment. She was lying- she remembered being sixteen and she hadn't liked it.

"Soshi… You can't work as a courier until you're eighteen. Who are you lying to?"

The girl bit her lip and said in a small voice, "You."

"Why did you lie to me?"

"You're sorta scaring me. I thought maybe if I was... you know, unreliable, you'd stop asking me questions."

"Okay Soshi, I'll excuse that," said Suul, though it made him wonder. Why had she lied? She had been doing admirably well playing the role she had built for herself until then.

"So how old are you?"

"Eighteen," she replied.

"So you've lived in the immigrant quarter since you were eleven, seven years then?"

"Yes."

"And never heard anything about this Ahsoka Tano girl? She'd be your age."

"No, never. Nobody talks about them," she said. She wasn't kicking her feet anymore and all of the little motions she made, carefully planned misleading tells, had stopped. She was completely still.

"Ahsoka, you must have realized you can't run from us forever. You're not that good."

And she was gone. Suul had barely registered the fact she had leapt over him when he heard the speeder's motor roar to life. He cursed and ran for his own vehicle. She had a head start, though not by much. Time to call in the reinforcements.

"Wai, Isaac, I'm southbound on 263rd street, just past the Rathi-Rathi Industrial sector, in pursuit of our target. Cut her off."

His comm sputtered. "Yes sir, here we go," replied Wai. She was the more dependable of his subordinates, mostly owing to previous experience working together.

"I'm eastbound on 164th," replied Isaac, scrambling to keep up evidently. Isaac had never expected to actually be called into service, his specialty being what it was, and spent a good part of each day miffed at the machinations of the universe at large and the fore-sight of Geonosians specifically. "Are we supposed to be shooting at her?"

"Negative, Isaac. Do not fire on her. We need her breathing."

Ahsoka concentrated on her driving to keep herself from becoming completely scared to death. Fear was healthy but excess fear was not- not something she needed. She bit the inside of her lip. Four years ago, she wouldn't have hesitated to call herself a Jedi, much less think it. Now, the less she thought of it, the safer she was.

A red and white speeder, obviously custom built and painted, lurched into her path and she swerved to avoid colliding with it. She narrowly missed smashing into oncoming traffic and turned to flip a visual insult at the speeder driver only to see him closing in for another attempt. She spun the controls, whipping down a side street, heading for the space docks. This was a short-cut she'd taken several times before for legitimate reasons which was relatively difficult to navigate-

Unless you were Imperial Special Forces. Suul dropped out of the sky, nearly crashing his own vehicle as he wrenched around in front of Ahsoka's. She turned sideways to avoid him, launched her speeder over his complaining craft and landed with a crunch of repulsors on the other side. Sparks and flame spurted from the port repulsor lift but the girl was definitely very much in control of the speeder still. It zig-zagged and bounced through the sparse traffic, making for the distant spires of the space-port. Suul gritted his teeth and roared after her.

"I missed," he informed his accomplices, "Wai, she's coming straight for you."

"I'm going to fire an ion blast at her speeder," the comm crackled.

"Good. Slow her down at least."

Ahsoka saw the other speeder pull out into the intersection and stop. Traffic coursed around it, horns blaring indignantly. Ahsoka yanked her ailing craft into another hard turn but before she could complete the manouveur, the rider in the intersection fired. A circular web of power quickly over took her- and several hapless commuters- and the bike chugged, sparked and died beneath her. Ahsoka leapt free, rolling to a stop partway down the alley. She ran. She didn't have time to think, only to escape, lose herself in the crowds at the space-port, find a ship-

Suul careened down the alley behind her, amazed at her speed. She was determined, he'd give her that. But he had a blaster set to stun. He aimed over the controls and fired with masterful precision. The girl tumbled head over heels and slid to a halt.

"Got her," he informed his cohorts and stopped the speeder beside her prone form. She was out cold, slumped in a ragged pile face-down on the pavement. Suul poked her with a toe gingerly. He'd never actually chased down a Jedi before and he wasn't taking any chances. The last thing he wanted was the gruesome duo of his superiors holding him accountable if he failed.

Wai pulled into the alley moments later as Suul was snapping the binders on her wrists.

"You shot her?"

"I stunned her."

"I thought Jedi could deflect blaster shots."

"They can, if they have lightsabers," said Suul. "I hadn't seen her with one, even a cleverly disguised substitute for one. I assumed she either lost it or disposed of it at some point to hide her identity." He hefted the girl onto the back of his speeder bike. She was lean but surprisingly heavy. Tough girl.

"Let's get her back to headquarters before she wakes up. I don't want to know what she can do even without a lightsabre."

Wai nodded and took up point position. Isaac drew up behind them, looking exhilarated.

"We got her!"

"Yes, we did."

"No hideous crunching death for us!" he chortled with glee.

Ahsoka woke up sore. Her shoulders hurt. Her back hurt. The back of her hips hurt and she had cramps from her butt to her feet. Wincing, she struggled to sit up and calm her rigid muscles.

The room was not a cell as she had first assumed, but the cargo hold of a small transport shuttle. She was anchored to the wall by a length of cable, looped through the binders holding her wrists behind her back. She could move no more than a few feet in any direction, though the slack in the cable did allow her to lie down. Slowly, she got to her feet, rubbing her arms.

"Ahsoka Tano."

Ahsoka froze. She recognized that voice. It too was part of the things she didn't allow herself to remember, because that would lead to thoughts of situations and company she couldn't bear to think of. She turned around, eyes narrowed, one hand falling to her hip in an unconsciously confrontational posture.

"I thought you were dead," she said icily.

General Grievous towered over her, flanked by the Special Forces agent, Suul, and two other black-clad Imperials holding guns. He was, as she remembered, big, brusque and irritable.

"Your friend Kenobi carelessly left before he could finish the job," he growled.

"Maybe you just weren't worth the effort," she fired back. Predictablly, the General stomped forward and reached out for her with one skeletal hand, then stopped himself just short of throttling her.

"Mind your manners, padawan," he hissed, "Or you may find my hospitality somewhat lacking."

Ahsoka pretended to ignore the cyborg and turned to look at Suul. "You know I cut his hand off once," she said conversationally. Suul raised an eyebrow. Grievous rumbled wordless annoyance.

"You never passed the trials?" said Suul, turning his head a degree away from her, seeming somewhat confused. Ahsoka fought with every fibre of her being not to look at the floor in shame.

"No," she said evenly, meeting Suul's gaze, "I never did."

"Hmm," he said, then turned and left. Ahsoka turned her attention back to the General and his two silent lackeys.

"So what are you going to do with me? I wouldn't put killing an un-armed opponent below you, but I doubt you'd be gallant enough to give me a weapon."

Grievous cackled. "Your kind are few these days, padawan," he said, shifting his weight restlessly, "Killing you in a fair fight would be exquisite, but if I recall, you were rather disappointing in previous encounters."

"Why don't you release me and see what I can do now?" she challenged and something deeply buried rolled over within her and stirred. The General was pacing; big, decisive steps that radiated restrained power, a sharp twist at the end of the cargo hold and eyes flashing with greed.

"What did you do with your lightsabre?" he asked, pulling to a momentary halt in front of her. His eyes travelled up and down her ratty clothes, lingering at her empty belt. Something was off about his eyes. Ahsoka couldn't be sure since she hadn't given much thought to the General's appearance in their previous encounters, but she thought they looked more… artificial.

"I'm wearing it," she said, allowing a bit of mischief to slip into her voice. "And your peons never found it." One of the peons shifted, piqued by Ahsoka's description. The General stepped closer. Ahsoka debated between backing up and giving him the vestige of victory, or standing her ground and having to endure him in her personal space. She chose to stand resolute and locked stares with him when he leaned in.

"Show me," he said. His eyes were definitely not organic.

"No way," she said stubbournly, "you'll just take it away. If I'm going to die," she swallowed and turned her head a fraction, baring her fangs, "I'm going to die wearing it, like I should." The General straightened up and backed off. Ahsoka wasn't sure if that constituted a win on her part since she wasn't actually trying to intimidate anyone and he was probably impervious to it anyway, but she felt her confidence bolstered.

"Lord Vader will want it," he said slowly, letting his words sink in, "And I expect he would recognize it." His gaze fell to the leather thong looped around her neck. With one durasteel digit, he lifted the pendent free from her collar. "Even if it were in pieces."

Ahsoka jerked back from him, pulling the crystal out of his grasp, struggling to quell the up-welling of fury, shame, loss, grief, hatred- everything she shouldn't feel but did anyway.

The two guards looked at each other and the male one shrugged. "Hey, I'm not a cop," he said by way of defense. Grievous shot a venomous glance over his shoulder and the man wilted.

"Search her," he ordered and stalked for the door at the far end of the hold. Ahsoka glared at the guards. The male one- not a cop- directed his gaze anywhere but her.

"It'll be easier if you just hand over all the pieces," said the woman. She was human, short and stocky, with dark skin and masses of tawny hair caught in a messy ponytail. If it hadn't been for her smartly pressed Imperial uniform and her confident hold on the blaster, she would have looked civilian.

Ahsoka debated. On the one hand, if she were defiant and stubbourn she would feel better about herself being taken captive. Fighting back always made her feel better. And it wasn't like she was going to be treated any better if she did cooperate. If they really were taking her to Lord Vader, it was a one-way trip. On the other hand, if it were a one way trip, why bother fighting at all?

She sighed. "Fine. I'll give you the parts. But I need to be able to use my hands."

The guards exchanged a glance, then the man stepped forward and unlocked the binders. With the woman's gun inches from her face, Ahsoka sat down.

Slowly she began to unlace her boots. Their metal greaves were fashionable amongst the more rebellious, nomadic youth culture and went un-noticed on a daily basis. She slid them carefully out of the grooves in the leather and set them aside. Then she turned the boots over, unscrewed the false heels and emptied two resistors and a handful of miscellaneous parts beside the shin guards. Putting her boots back on, she worked the rivets on her pants loose, followed by the tongue of her belt buckle. Off came all of her jewelry: lip stud, rings, apparently tacky bracelets. Finally, she removed the leather cord around her neck and unstrung the crystal and it's casement.

"There," she said quietly. She didn't resist as the male guard re-secured the binders around her wrists.

"That's all of it?" said the woman, surprised. "Thought there'd be more to one of those things."

"Actually," said the man, gently gathering everything Ahsoka had shed into the untucked hem of his tunic, "lightsabres are fairly simple in design. Constructing one and then using it is the hard part. I've always wondered about the power source…" He held up the crystal and turned it curiously back and forth. Ahsoka watched him, detatched. She remembered picking out the crystal, that one specifically, the only one that felt just right to her, and painstakingly following the instructions given to her by her Master. She wasn't very good at making or fixing machinery and it had taken her days of frustration and meditation to construct it to Skywalker's expectations. It had never failed her, so long as she held it.

Now she was giving it away.

"What… what are you going to do with me?"

The male guard hurried for the door, blaster dangling hap-hazardly from his hip.

"Suul ordered us to catch you. He tracked you to this world," replied the female guard.

"That's it?" she said.

"Need-to-know basis. I don't need to know. You don't need to know."

"Yes I do! I'm the one something awful is going to happen to! At least let me prepare myself. Where are we going?" The woman shook her head, but didn't meet Ahsoka's pleading gaze. Something occurred to her. "Suul's the one in charge? Not Grievous?"

The guard grumbled something in the pit of her throat. "No more talking."

"Ha! So how'd he get demoted? Thwarted by Jedi one too many times? Or did he finally backhand the wrong person?"

In response, the guard flipped the visor of her helmet down and assumed a rigid military stance.

"Because, you know, I was off the map for a while there. That salvage freighter didn't get any inter-stellar reception beyond basic communication and that was if it was working. The last reliable thing I heard Grievous kidnapped the Chancellor- back when Sideous was still the Chancellor, not the Emperor- and then lost him. I guess that would destroy a career pretty fast. But I heard rumours he'd been killed somewhere in the Outer Rim." Ahsoka continued to chatter, hoping eventually to wear down the guards discipline. "I mean, no one knew for sure, with the Jedi going rogue and being hunted down and the Galactic Empire and the clone troopers supporting the Emperor and the entire Seperatist movement totally vanishing- huh. I wonder what they did with all the battle droids. You don't see those anymore."

Ahsoka nattered stream-of-consciousness until her mouth was dry but the woman didn't say or do anything else. Eventually, Suul came and relieved her. He leaned against the bulkhead across the hold from Ahsoka and appeared to be enthralled by the data pad in his hands. She could see his eyes moving back and forth over the text but every once and a while he'd cease. She was being evaluated.

"I need to use the 'fresher," she said abruptly. It was true, but more over, she needed an icebreaker. Wordlessly, Suul unclipped her cable from the wall and directed her to the restroom at the far end of the hold. Ahsoka debated asking him to unbind her hands but thought better of it. Thankfully, he stayed outside.

"Wai told me you mentioned being 'off the map for a while'," he said, voice muffled by the door.

"Wai mentioned something about you being in command, not the General," she replied.

Stalemate.

"Do you know why we captured you?"

"I assume it has something to do with- with my past," she said bitterly. "And I tried to ask that Wai lady but she said it was a 'need to know basis'."

"Wai doesn't need to know."

"Well I do."

"You already know."

"No I don't, no one's told me anything."

"You're smarter than that, aren't you?"

Ahsoka finished her business and came out of the 'fresher frowning. Suul asked her several more questions all along the same line, but she sat with her back against the wall and said nothing. Finally, she lapsed into sleep, still frowning and miserable.

"I like him better when he's switched off," wailed Isaac, stomping into the bridge of the small transport craft. Wai snorted.

"Oh grow a pair, Isaac," she said, "Can you do your job without all the complaining?"

"No. If I didn't complain, I would probably turn into a psychotic, life-threatening monster and you really don't need a second one on board."

"What did the General do now?" asked Suul, not bothering to look up from his data pad. Wai thought he was reading a debriefing; it was actually a thriller novel. He had some sympathy for Isaac- he was both the only person capable of doing his job and also the least suited for it. Back when the Geonosians had first constructed Greivous' body and wired up his few remaining organs, someone from on high- now identified as the Galactic Emperor- had insisted that a team of human cyber-technicians be trained to perform the General's repairs and upgrades. Sideous' blanket dislike of races other than human was no secret now, so this act didn't surprise Suul. The fact that Isaac, who was afraid of his own cat, had been designated to the General's upkeep did surprise him. On the other hand, fear of retribution from Grievous should he screw up- sometimes vague and ominous, sometimes vividly described- kept Isaac working at the top of his game.

"He took the girl's lightsabre from me!"

"He what?" Suul was sitting up instantly, book forgotten.

"Four hours ago!"

"What?!"

"I had all the parts on my bench and I left for like five seconds to download a schematic from the archival computer. I came back and he told me to get out."

"So you did?" said Wai sardonically. Isaac made frantic gestures.

"There's not enough money in the galaxy for me to try taking a lightsabre away from that guy."

"Four hours ago?"

"He locked the blast door in the corridor."

"Your comm?"

"It was in my work room!"

"Wait a moment- Isaac, you're supposed to be in the hold. It's your turn to watch the captive."

All three bolted for the cargo hold.

Ahsoka was not asleep. She was lying on her side, her back to the room, eyes focused moodily on the wall. What was she supposed to do? She had no friends any more, no allies, no awe-inspiring order of protectors and teachers and family. The months on the freighter hadn't been this bad because the crew had known what she was and didn't care. They liked her, lightsabre or not and when the Temple had been stormed and the HoloNet had broadcast images of fire and destruction and horror, they'd stood with her, just as appalled and baffled.

Being on her own, truly alone, was unfamiliar in the worst way.

"Padawan."

Ahsoka rolled swiftly to her feet, instinctively reaching with the Force for the General behind her to discern his intent. He was holding her lightsabre- her complete, intact lightsabre. Ahsoka's lip curled. She shouldn't have been angry, but she was mad at herself for giving it up so easily and at him for holding it just beyond her grasp.

"That's mine!" she said indignantly and shrugged her shoulders violently, rattling the cable.

"Prove it," he said and tossed the weapon towards her. Ahsoka whirled, visualizing the sabre's trajectory, its weight, the cold, comforting feel of the casing in her hands, and caught it behind her back, clumsily. But she didn't let go.

Ahsoka ignited the blade and sheared through her restraints just as the trio of Imperials burst through the door at the far end of the hold. Wai raised her blaster and took three shots in rapid succession. Ahsoka batted two of them aside without shifting her attention off Grievous. The General deflected the third.

"Oh crap," sighed Wai as the cyborg and Padawan lunged at each other, raining colourful sparks from their clashing blades. For several seconds, the trio stood rooted to the spot, Isaac in terror, Wai in shock and Suul with a look of grave disappointment.

"General!" he barked, "You will stand down!" Grievous, predictably, ignored him.

Ahsoka ducked under a furious swing and swiped at the cyborg's legs, then bounded sideways as the General turned his parry into a thrust. Wai shot at her again, firing stun blasts. As she wove her way cautiously sideways, she blocked the shots easily, old muscle memories shaking off years of disuse. Grievous had only one sword- abnormal for him in Ahsoka's experience- but that didn't mean he had only one weapon. She paid attention to where he put his feet, the reach of his arms and how he shifted his weight.

"General!" yelled Suul and unholstered his blaster.

"Good luck," chirped Ahsoka and had to make a hurried vertical leapt to keep herself in one piece. She somersaulted over the General's head, bringing her sword around in an attempt to decapitate him- or at least slice off one of those sensor panels. That might slow him down. He blocked her with lightning speed. She sprang forward out of the crouch she had barely landed, uncoiling full length as Grievous turned to parry her.

The General grabbed her sword hand, crushing her fingers against the lightsabre and making it impossible for her to rotate her wrist enough to lop off his hand as she had once done. Still, she kicked and thrashed, vainly yanked at his own blade with the Force and bared her fangs bravely.

Grievous dropped her abruptly and hooked the lightsabre away before she could turn it on him. It skittered across the decking, extinguished. Wai pounced on it. Then Grievous took two steps back and if an immobile, featureless face could look smug, he looked damned smug. Ahsoka desperately tried to keep from throwing a punch. Anger was not the Jedi way and besides, punching him would just hurt her and amuse him.

"General!"

Grievous was still ignoring Suul's increasingly-angry attempts to get his attention. "How disappointing," he said, flourishing the blade that remained lit within his grasp. "Apparently you still require training. Too bad there isn't anyone left to do it."

Ahsoka was dangerously close to discovering how to generate Force lightning without any training. Her breath hissed through clenched teeth as she strove to calm herself. Do not answer him, do not-

"General, now." Suul was fuming. He pointed to the door. "Unless you want this breach of conduct on your permanent record." The General huffed at Ahsoka one final time, tossed his cape back over one shoulder and strutted out of the hold. Suul followed him, jaw muscles twitching with rage.

Isaac approached Ahsoka carefully. "Let me put the restraints back on," he said. His voice was surprisingly gentle. He looked terrified to her, but he was consciously subduing it. She flicked her gaze to Wai, knuckles gone white gripping Ahsoka's lightsabre.

"No," she said, and folded her arms over her chest. There were only three of them- not counting the General, who she would deal with later- and none of them were remotely Force sensitive. Wai was a decent shot but even without the lightsabre, Ahsoka knew how to dodge blaster-bolts. It was a skill ingrained in her by relentless war. Re-acquiring her sword was just a matter of moving fast and unpredictably.

"No, forget it. You're not putting those things on me again," she said and charged at Isaac, hands balling into hard little fists.