Ami was blind.
No, not blind. Her eyes were closed, and sticky, heavy with swelling and pus. It took all of her strength and concentration to raise her eyelids, though she only succeeded in raising one.
The room around her was dull, cold, and dirty. The walls and floor were pale, grimy stone and littered with the bones of strange, exotic animals. There was a black, wooden door, and there was a window – or rather, a hole in the side of one wall where the stone had crumbled away. A particularly stubborn ray of blue-green sunlight shone through. From outside the walls there was a shriek, like a bird, and then all was silent.
Ami let this be her world. She was too tired, and in too much pain to question her surroundings. She felt the blindness creeping over her eyes again and did not struggle as she sank into unconsciousness.
It was a day before Ami fought the battle over her eyes again, but this time she opened two and was forced to admit that this was no dream. She was… somewhere, and in excruciating amounts of pain. She tried to move, to roll over onto her back, but her limbs were unwilling or unable to respond. Ami gave up on movement and decided to concentrate on eyesight. With her swollen, miserable eyes she focused very hard and discovered that the red, torn flesh a few inches to the right was her arm. She followed her arm up to her wrist and made another discovery: shackles. Chained, hand and foot, a prisoner.
The door opened, and Ami felt a wave of terror. Black, cold boots entered her vision, and then strong, merciless hands gripped her shoulders and hauled her upright.
"You will fear me," the Sith snarled.
The speech, the language was lost on Ami, whose home world was millions of light years away. But Ami did not need a translator to hear the malice or the cruelty in the guttural barking of the Sith. Her eyes tried desperately to focus on her tormentor, but his face was a dark void, or else she really was going blind.
Then, like a fire, the pain ripped through her consciousness. It was as though every cell in her body was bursting open, bleeding, dying. Ami may have screamed, but the sound seemed to disappear into the Sith's void. The pain stopped as suddenly as it started, and the Sith dropped her, holding instead a pulsating globe of red blood. He left.
Ami wept. She wondered how many times this particular exchange had happened. She struggled to remember a time when her world was not one of bones, blood, and blackness, but she could remember nothing. Even her name escaped her. She was weak, she was dying.
Death. As thick tears pulsed from her weary eyes, Ami thought that death would be welcome in this room – anything to escape. She closed her eyes and prayed for a way out. "Help me," she thought passionately. "Let me free."
There was a ricocheting snap, and Ami hurriedly opened her eyes, searching frantically for the source of the noise. It was her shackles, they had cracked in half, each of them. Her battered mind accepted this without question. Her eyes flew to the door, then the window. Could she escape?
With a violent effort she pushed herself to her knees, then her feet. The room spun and she fell forwards, towards the window. Unable to bring herself to a stand, she crawled on hands and knees towards the only freedom she knew, crawling through the bones and the cobwebs to get there. Once she reached the wall she ran a tentative hand up the rough stone and pulled herself slowly, painfully, to the opening. It the wall went barely waist high, but it took every bit of her strength for Ami to topple out into the dense vegetation.
Her body threatened to loose consciousness again, and Ami paused in the foliage, on all fours, taking deep breaths. The air was thick and heavy, and there didn't seem to be enough oxygen to breathe.
The Sith, of course, already knew Ami had "escaped." She had tried this pathetic pantomime once before, without even making it out the window. He remained hidden, focused on sensing the girl's presence. Let her run. She would not escape. She would only replenish her midi-chlorian count.
Ami fought to her feet. "I've got this far," she thought fervently, hugging her arms around her middle. "I will get further. Help me get further." She took a step forward, then another, until the footsteps came fast and in uneven succession. She could not run, but she stumbled, she fought, she fled the terror she could feel growing in her mind. The Sith was coming, he was following, but he had not caught her yet. "Help," she prayed. "Please, someone, help."
Thick palm frond and leaves whipped at her face. Thorns and branches tore at her clothes and Ami knew she could not run much farther. She took one last step and the ground fell away from her. She tumbled into the ditch – a riverbed really. The last remains of what was once a formidable river swirled around her hands and knees. The water was cool, at least. It might be nice to die here.
The terror behind her was growing. Ami could feel him coming closer, slowly, like a cat on an injured mouse. She could do nothing but wait.
And yet, slowly, in her mind, she sensed the approach of something good. Heaven, perhaps. A soft, white light entered her consciousness, and began to grow. She was dying, after all.
The Sith sensed it, too. A Jedi. He quickened his pace, thrashing through the forest towards Ami, knowing he must reach her before the Jedi.
Ami raised her head. There was a rumbling, machine noise and a giant flying bug – no, not a bug – a flying motorcar came racing towards her. There was a hiss, and a blaze of blue light.
The force had never called Obi-Wan Kenobi that strongly before. Mace Windu had been hesitant to turn their starcraft around and head for an empty galaxy, all because Obi-Wan had a "hunch." But when Obi-Wan jumped in the speeder and began heading for the abandoned midi mines, his hunch had turned into a full blooded call from the force. He didn't even wait for the speeder to land before he threw himself between the girl and the Sith.
Lightsabers crashed, sizzling and throwing the murky forest into sharp blue and red shadow. Ami watched in haze as the Jedi and the Sith fought furiously, seamlessly. Then there was one final sizzle, and a scream that tore through the night. The Sith fell, his saber extinguished.
There was a pause as Obi-Wan regarded the dead Sith, and silenced his lightsaber. Then the Jedi turned to the girl.
Her face, her lips, her body was swollen and bloody, humanoid but bruised extensively and barely covered by dirty, torn clothing. Her eyes were blue and full of fear. She tried to back away from him, splashing in the murky water but going nowhere.
Obi-Wan put away his lightsaber and knelt before the girl. He held his hands out to the front, palms up, and spoke calmly. "My name is Obi-Wan Kenobi," he said softly. "And I would like to take you away from here."
Again, language was lost on Ami, but Obi-Wan's soft voice was soothing. The fear in her eyes did not subside, but she stopped trying to back away.
"Please come with me," Obi-Wan said, catching her eyes and holding them. Ami swallowed visibly, then slowly held out one trembling hand. It was all Obi-Wan needed. He leaned forward, took her hand, and swept the girl up in his arms. She was thin, light, and nearing unconsciousness as he placed her in the speeder. Without a look back, Obi-Wan jumped in, threw the speeder into gear and flew for the starship.
Wind raced past Ami, and she fought to stay awake. Her stomach lurched as the ground left them, and the speeder shot past the tree line. She gripped the sides of the speeder, nauseous. The gesture was not lost on Obi-Wan, but he felt speed was necessary – the girl would not live much longer if she remained here. He didn't know how long the Sith had tortured her, but the force inside of her was flickering, struggling.
Mace Windu saw Obi-Wan's speeder approaching at full speed and opened the landing dock on the starcraft anxiously. The speeder made a smooth landing and Obi-Wan pulled the girl out after him. He tried to set the humanoid on her feet but Ami swayed, her knees buckling. Mace Windu approached, face set in a stern, worried frown. "Who is that, Obi-Wan?"
"I do not know, Master Windu," Obi-Wan said, still holding the fainting girl upright. He put two fingers to her forehead, attempting to probe deeper into her mind. "Her thoughts are so alien," he said. "And she is frightened senseless." Obi-Wan sent a strong sense of sleep into Ami. Her trembling limbs eased and Obi-Wan picked her up effortlessly. "Get us out of here, and quickly. Send a med-droid to me, I'll have her in the bacta tank."
Ami coughed, wetly. She rolled on her side and spat out the phlem, then took a deep, even breath. She opened her eyes. The walls were shiny, metallic, clean, with the occasional flashing button or computer screen. She sat up, her muscles protesting but working. White cloth sheets rustled around her as she swung her legs to the side and stood. She was dressed in a simple, white tunic, which felt soft and easy against her newly healed skin. The smooth tiled floor was cool against her bare feet. Ami stretched her arms and was pleased to see there weren't any shackles.
Shackles. The Sith. It all came racing back and Ami sat back on her bed, heavily. For the first time in months her brain seemed to be working, and she could remember. Where had it happened? Hadn't she been taking out the trash after dinner, when Fang came racing back from the field, his tail between his legs? "What is it, boy?" Ami asked, putting and hand down to grab Fang's collar. "Coyote spook ya?" And then the night had exploded, red gunfire everywhere, and Ami had screamed as the man without a face shot her, point blank with a black, wicked gun.
Lightyears away from Earth, Ami pulled aside her tunic and found a small, circular scar just above her heart. It hadn't been a nightmare, after all. But now where was she? This certainly wasn't the Sith's dungeon.
She heard voices, from down a corridor, and she turned to follow them, walking slowly and fearfully down the hall into a much wider, open room.
Obi-Wan and Mace stopped talking as she entered the room. The two Jedi were sitting at the table in the galley, and they stood slowly and bowed, but did not move, waiting for the frightened girl to make the first move. She took a step closer, but did not speak.
Obi-Wan put one hand over his heart and said softly, "Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan Kenobi." He then gestured to the Jedi Master beside him. "Mace Windu." There was a pause, and Ami licked her lips.
She put a hand over her own heart and whispered. "Amelia Peter."
"Amalyeh-piter." Obi-Wan mangled her name as he bowed. He straightened, and walked to the map-wall, which he activated. Ami took a step backwards as he did, but watched intently.
Obi-Wan turned to the girl. "Obi-Wan Kenobi," he said again, pointing to himself. He then pointed to the lower right hand side of the map. "Coruscant."
Ami understood. His hometown. She had never heard of Coruscant, though. She wondered what state it was in. She took a few careful steps forward to come closer to the map. And then she gasped. Coruscant wasn't a city. It was a planet.
The map whirled and twirled in front of her. Stars, planets, asteroid belts in animation wheeled before her eyes. There were galaxies, many of them in the double spiraled arm she knew must contain an average sun with an average solar system and one very tiny earth. She began to cry. She had no way of telling this strange man beside her which corner of the universe she was from.
"It looks as though she's never seen a star-system map before, Obi-Wan," Mace Windu said.
"Indeed," Obi-Wan said softly. Ami, crying silently, sat down on the floor without ceremony in front of the star system map. Mace approached and handed Obi-Wan a plate full of Banja cake.
"Get her to eat something. We'll be out of hyperspace shortly, but she should eat before we get there." Mace Windu retired to the cockpit to oversee the landing procedures.
"Amalyeh-piter," Obi-Wan said cautiously, to get her attention. The girl looked up at him through teary eyes. The Jedi took one of the small cakes and ate it meaningfully, then set the plate down beside Ami. She reached out tentatively, took a cake, and brought it to her lips for a hesitant bite. She swallowed, smiled, and began eating with a purpose. To Obi-Wan's amusement, the girl finished the entire plate herself and then accepted a warm glass of Bajjah, as well.
"Thank you," Ami said in her own language, feeling satisfied. She stood and watched the star map again. Obi-Wan kept his distance, arms folded. Obviously the girl was intelligent – he could see it in the way her eyes methodically searched the map from left to right, top to bottom – but it was also obvious from the worried, distressed look on her face she couldn't find her home world.
"Obi-Wan," Mace Windu said, entering the galley. "We've come out of hyperspace, and we're landing at the Jedi temple now."
Obi-Wan nodded. "How do we explain this to her, I wonder?" he asked. Ami watched his face, curiously.
"I suggest we open the hatch and let her see for herself."
Obi-Wan decided to do just that. "Amalyeh-piter," he said. "This is Coruscant." He activated the main hatch, and sunlight flooded the starcraft.