"Between two worlds life hovers like a star, twixt night and morn, upon the horizon's verge." (Lord Byron)
I
The afternoon was one of Coruscant's more magnificent displays; light streamed in the windows of the southeast tower of the Jedi complex, filling the circular room with ribbons of gold. Shadows of multiple vehicles sped rippling past the tinted, secure windows and played across the designs woven into the carpet. Beings of all shapes and sizes were seated in a semi-circle listening to the holo-image of a tall, dark-skinned man speak. Each chair in the chamber was elegantly moulded metal lined with deep lush red, positioned and spaced away from the others to give the impression of thrones, encasing the power and wisdom of those who sat on them. Thrones in secure a kingdom of equals where calm and balance reigned. Or at least should have. Chaos and darkness had battered the Jedi on every side since the beginning of the Clone Wars. Black and white had been replaced by an increasingly complex maze of grey that they were still struggling to find their way through. Obi-Wan's burrow furrowed deeply as he rubbed his forehead. Who knew being a member of the Jedi council would be such a headache?
Things were not going well. The Republic forces led by their Jedi generals had recently begun to make serious headway against the Separatist incursions into certain sectors. But somehow, inexplicably, those gains had been turned into losses. The Senate had demanded in no uncertain terms that this needed to be turned around, and it had been – at a cost. Millions of dollars had been spent, thousands of clones in the Republic's Grand Army had been sacrificed and hundreds of ships had been destroyed to retake those sectors. It was the price they paid so the Republic could deny it was losing.
Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi Master and ranking member of the Jedi High Council, winced subtly and glanced around the semi-circle at the other members. It seemed no one was enjoying this particular meeting. A few of the council were missing, scattered around the Republic engaged in battles with either ships or words. Others were on missions that could not be ignored for a simple council progress meeting.
The headache he had been trying to ignore seemed to be making its own steady progress. He sighed softly and unconsciously pinched the bridge of his nose. Yoda's quick glance obliged him drop his hand as if he'd been scalded and fix his attention again on the holo-image in the middle of the room were Master Mace Windu discussed strategy. Hopefully no one noticed this little problem and he needed to ensure no one did. A near impossible task when surrounded by some of the galaxy's most intuitive and observant beings. He had just returned from the front lines and he really didn't need to show any signs of weakness – otherwise he'd find himself in the infirmary again. Seriously, Obi-Wan huffed mentally, the amount of time he spent in that place was starting to make him feel uncomfortable, particularly as he'd began to suspect that there was an underground betting pool based on the time and lengths of his visits.
He had been fine when he'd first arrived on-planet. Obi-Wan had received the call from the council in mid-campaign and left Anakin to clean up what was left of the Separatist forces in that particular area of space. He'd given his report and now were listening to Mace Windu's via the holo-projector.
Or at least trying to listen. The throbbing in his head was getting progressively worse. He shifted his shoulders uncomfortably. Perhaps his automatic avoidance of the infirmary was a little over the top. He could conceivably pop by for a quick visit after the meeting – but to voluntarily go to the med ward for a headache, when his usual visits were for things of a more terminal nature seemed a little silly. His head hurt, fine. He took the pain and tried to release it back into the Force. When, after several deep, calming breaths that he found didn't work, Obi-Wan tried to distract himself by focussing on the other council members. Kit Fisto gazed impassively at Mace (what was the man talking about?), but his left head tentacle had the slightest twitch and one of his hands was unconsciously curled into a clenched fist. Coleman Kcaj, normally one of the most determined Jedi, looked unfocussed. His eye-stalks moved almost randomly, and his skin had taken on a sickly yellow.
The war was taking its toll, Obi-Wan acknowledged. The constant bloody and almost purposeless conflict was wearing on the most resilient of them. He shifted again in his seat, his robe curiously tight and restricting. A sense of wrongness began to nibble at the edges of Obi-Wan's awareness. Perhaps that was why, he would reflect later, it wasn't until Shaak Ti clutched at her head and moaned softly that he began to suspect something was wrong.
The pressure in the chamber increased suddenly like the signal to an approaching storm. Obi-Wan glanced again at the faces of the other council members and saw his own dull agony reflected in their expressions. Another sudden spike and Obi-Wan was not the only Jedi to gasp aloud.
"Councillors, a problem have we I think," began Yoda, but whatever he was about to say next was drowned out by the sudden groans of Kit Fitso and the others as they sank collectively to their knees with their heads in their hands.
Obi-Wan tried to stand up, but his muscles were no longer under his control and he too sank to the carpet, the pressure drumming against his temples. It continued to build and build into a swirling dark undertow of sickening pain. Obi-Wan raised his head from where it had been pressed into the floor and saw each of the councillors had been similarly struck down. Even Yoda lay curled up in a foetal ball, his claws convulsing in agony.
Something moved on the edge of his vision. Lifting his head and fighting the nauseating inrush of pain, Obi-Wan raised his eyes to the ceiling where lights swirled rapidly and it took him a moment to realise the lights weren't caused by the pain crushing his head, but were actually filling the council chamber. Each pulse of the orbs was echoed by the throb in the skull of every Jedi in the room, which continued to build until soon it was agony.
The spheres of light spun faster and faster, coalescing to form a long narrow line, as though the air in the centre of the council chamber was being ripped apart from the inside. Obi-Wan couldn't believe his eyes as sharp tapered talons pushed through the tear and widened it even further. Shaak Ti lay unconscious on the floor and as the agony in his head continued to rise, Obi-Wan refused to allow himself to black out. He had to do something. Drawing his lightsaber was impossible, but he began to crawl doggedly towards the door. Perhaps he could get help. Perhaps…
A sound ripped through the room as the gash in the air was torn even wider, sending waves of acoustic pressure bearing outward and downward. Obi-Wan rolled onto his back and stared upwards in shock at what was forcing its way through the constricted portal. His first response was to try to reach for his lightsaber. The second was to throw up. A creature emerged, covered in a wet purplish slime, which looked like the product of someone's vile drug-induced fantasies. The creature that wiggled and squirmed out of the pulsing slit in the middle of the chamber was a nightmarish concoction of ape, scorpion and lizard.
Someone distantly was shouting. Obi-Wan guessed it was Mace and the others who were attending via the holo-projector but the sound of the tear in space drowned them out. Movement was beyond him now between the pressure from the portal and the slicing pain in his head.
The beast's forearms bulged as it grasped and wrenched to stretch the gash wider, making the air on both sides shake and split apart like the skin on a Brillanten custard and the creature grunted and moaned as it slammed itself through the tearing opening. Its own heavy sounds mingling with the high-pitched shriek of the portal.
One final shuddering heave and the thing slithered out completely. It was at least twelve feet long, Obi-Wan marvelled, the abdomen broken into segments with skin that was human-like, a mixture of grey and yellow and hardened as if it were one entire callus. A segmented tail six feet long whipped around the room then arched upward over the creature's back, its stinger glistening with poison. Four legs, two either side of the massive body attempted to balance the beast, but it was clearly disoriented. Despite this, there was something in the way the creature moved that suggested it would be just as comfortable racing after prey on six legs as on four. It leaned down, using the two upper appendages of its torso to assist in its balance, and Obi-Wan saw enough to make his gorge rise. A narrow waist lengthened and swelled out to a barrel chest and dauntingly wide shoulders. The torso was that of a human; stomach, chest and shoulders all normal – except for their increased size and the corpse-like colour. Hand the size of his head had three claws tipped with dark, vicious talons were at the end of each arm and its face…Obi-Wan swallowed deeply. A jawbone hideously distended, bones wrapped and twisted into a shape that may have once been human, but was resembled a psychotic crocodile than anything else. Eyes mad and unyielding burned in deep sockets. But this was not the most disturbing part of the creature. On its body, over it, under it and, he suspected, even through it moved a black mass of filament. The dark thing twisted and turned as it slid across the creature's shoulders making glughh sounds like a pocket of air breaking the surface of sticky tar. The sound seemed to be the noise of its movement across the creature's body. The black knobbed surface changed and stretched into long searching fingers. It reached and heaved in movements that were as liquid and completely separate from the monster it rode on. As the mass undulated it gave the impression of a sinister purpose and design, and Obi-Wan knew that if the dark side had ever been distilled into a single creature, this would surely be it.
The alien creature stepped forward hesitantly, moving as a babe trying its first steps then curved upright to balance on its hind legs and tail as it roared a challenge into the Jedi council chambers.
The beast lurched forward towards the unconscious Shaak Ti when it suddenly halted and stared behind it at the shrinking tear in the space at the centre of the room. It shuffled side to side as if uncertain, then with as extraordinary burst of speed threw itself through the window of the chamber and onto an outcropping ledge below.
Obi-wan rolled onto his side and stared at the now shrinking portal. He knew he had to do something – anything – but his mind was dull, slowed by pain and shock. He fought a bout of nausea as he pushed himself upwards, only to sink back down at another blast of pain and pressure from the portal.
A woman dropped into view. She slipped easily through the gash, which quickly sealed itself behind her. The silence that filled the chamber was almost as numbing as the sudden absence of pain. Obi-Wan gratefully welcomed the blissful relief.
He staggered to his feet and towards the woman who crouched in the middle of the room. "Who are you?" he demanded roughly.
"Commoden exsist qoietis. Me'us capute capites vulnerol," she replied.