((ooc: Sorry about that. I was out of town for a while.))

There. Silus could feel them drawing closer. If they stayed where they were, he could reach them in a matter of minutes. Of course, if he could sense them, they could do the same to him. So they would have plenty of warning before he even came close. Unless...

Silus focused on hiding his Force signature, and the Jedi disappeared. Which, hopefully, meant they sensed the same about him. Nothing.

The Sith picked up his pace. He'd hunted people this way before he had even known he was Force sensitive. And he still knew the general direction they were in.

Only a matter of moments, and Silus hac the advantage.

Dolash was in a trance-like state of rest, huddled in an alcove in the star-port. Nearby, Fraktusk leaned against another wall. It would be some time before Silus could hope to track them down -

-Or so they'd thought.

Without even the barest forewarning through the Force, Silus vaulted into the star-port, bristling with energy. Dolash immeadietly came to conciousness and drew his lightsaber, but not fast enough. Silus was agile, and Dolash quickly had to flee in the face of his onslaught.

Fraktusk had his lightsaber half-raised when Dolash shouted "We must go! Make for the gate!"

Dolash knew they couldn't possibly hope to beat Silus in his current state, and so the two tried to put as much space between him and them as possible, but despite their best efforts he continued to gain on them.

It was as they were rounding a bend that Dolash got an idea. With all his energies concentrated on catching them, a little deception might just get by him. They quickly rounded another corner and were for a moment out of sight.

As Silus rounded the bend, he saw only a man of medium height, with short, black hair. He had rounded facial features and was pointing to a little viewscreen mounted on the wall. Some sort of civil disturbance was going on, and the man was repeating "Krokosia..." in various tones of concern. Silus looked this way and that, but could not see which way they had gone. He bounded off towards his best guess.

The man and the viewscreen shimmered, and became Dolash and Fraktusk.

"That wassa close-like." said Fraktusk. "Where you get idea for that sort of thingy?"

Dolash shrugged "I saw it in a movie once. Come on, we've got a little time, I can see a gate up there, they're boarding for it. If we can just get there, we'll be safe."

They bounded off.

...And they bounded some more. They ran through the crowd, bumping into Corellian after Corellian. Frakutsk tryed to apologize... "Pardon mesa!" "Sosa sorry!" "Oopsa!" "Beg yousa pardon!". However, there were really to many people to say something to all of them... seeing as he and Dolash were running full-speed through a thick crowd.

Frakutsk could sense Silus's anger rising not too far away as Dolash and he turned slightly and ran for a ramp that led up to a departing space-craft.
Silus was father to the side of the running Jedi...

The ramp up to the gate was still far away, It wasn't looking goof. Silus ran madly, fueled by anger. And since he knew where the Jedi were... there was a problem.

It was then that Frakutsk remembered a trick tha Cole Donovin had tought him long ago... Frakutsk slowed to a stop for a moment.

Dolash kept running, shouting back at Frakutsk, "What are you DOING?! Run!"

But Frakutsk didn't respond, instead he concentrated on the force as the azgaurdian put on a burst of speed. Frakutsk figured that Dolash figured that frakutsk would catch up, one way or another.... And he was right. Frakutsk allowed the force to flow through his body, concentrating it in his legs. Then, he ran!

The force aiding his speed, he reached the ramp quickly, and dolash was almost there too... Apparently, Dolash had been slowing down a bit to let Frakutsk keep up with him...

They reached the ramp, and not a moment too soon. They ran upward...

Frakutsk looked down below, to see Silus... Silus was staring maliciously at the Jedi as they were just about at the entrace to the star ship.

Then Silus jumped! What an amazing jump it was too, Silus flew a good 50 feet into the air, landing elegantly on the ramp, just before the entrance to the starship. He looked left, Looked right... The Jedi weren't there! He looked behind him...

He saw Frakutsk smiling a huge, Gungan smile as the doors to the starcraft closed, bringing Frakutsk and Dolash to safty.

Silus never caught them. The ship was out of system before anyone could reach it. From then on, it was child's play for a pair of Jedi to secretly make their way home. Dolash parted company with Fraktusk, to make his way to the academy alone, and muse on his discoveries.

He had wanted a vacation. But then, the Force apparently really does move in mysterious ways. He was meant to meet Silus, meant to fight alongside Fraktusk, and despite the unusual circumstances of the fight, he was meant to learn something from it all.

But what was he to learn? All he had seen was that a human, outnumbered, and certainly outclassed in physical strength, was able to win, evil over good, using nothing but the Dark Side and his own pool of rage. How could he be expected to overcome such obstacles, such power?

It took some time, but the answer came in, drifting between his minds in bits and pieces as each half considered it. Was hate power? No, it is an emotion, it has no more physical characteristics or influence then any other emotion. What about passion? Their foe's hunger for battle certainly was greater then Dolash and Fraktusk's. But that was not true either, for passion is just a word to describe devotion to an emotion.

And that was when Dolash realized it was devotion alone that gave him power. The target of the belief, of the principle, is not important - individual belief in it is. This is why a farmer who believes strong enough in defending his hearth and home can fight harder and fiercer then a paid mercenary, even if that mercenary is skilled and stronger. Silus had devoted himself to hate and rage, control and cruelty so strongly, that his conviction in this and his desire for it empowered him both through the force, and psychologically.

But, Dolash reminded himself, one way hate and rage differs from other emotions is in its' self-destructive properties. Someone consumed and devoted to them is trying to put their body into a state that it was only meant to use in times of stress and extreme crisis. The same effect has been seen in Azguards who spend too long as their second brain, their Draad, and they eventually expend all power they possess fueling this rage until they are utterly spent. One such as the Sith, however, faces a much greater risk, for the Force can take a much greater toll on them when used to feed the fires of the soul.

This, he concluded, was why the Jedi practiced a none-emotional belief. Devoting themselves not to an extreme, an emotion, but to a state of meditation and rest, they proctect themselves from the raging emotions that threaten to destroy them. Even amiable emotions like love and friendship are dangerous, although far less so then rage and hate, because these ones can still make demands on the body and the Force, and they are easily turned to other, darker emotions by disaster or misfortune.

Finally, Dolash understood. Silus had raw power, he could crush Dolash with it, but as he did so the power would sap him too, even more then it would Dolash. A Sith needs to strike fast and hard, win their battles early, for they are ticking time-bombs, and the slightest emotional imbalance, the slightest flaw, will destroy them.

Dolash opened his eyes, and realized that he was home.