Title: Heirs of the Jedi
Author: R. Lupe
Genre: Angst/Suspense
Summary: "I should be going with you," she said, peering at me hopefully. I smiled. "Not this time, Padawan," I told her. "You can last at the Temple for a few days." She looked unconvinced. "Yes, Master Obi-Wan." Oh, how wrong I was...
Rating: T
Warnings: Slight AU. While in movie-verse, Sith supposedly takes place three years after the Geneosis battle, in Heirs it has been five years. Anakin is 24, Obi-Wan is 40. I have yet to find a source that states the year Anakin passed the Trails to become a Knight, but most people are siding with a year before Sith. We'll stick with that. And, of course, the fact that Obi-Wan Kenobi has an Apprentice after Anakin is obviously AU.
Major Spoilers.
Heirs of the Jedi
R. Lupe
The Jedi Temple
Quame
The echo of the boots down the corridor pounded with my heart and my eyes continued to try to close themselves. My heart slammed in my ears and I felt my blood pouring through my veins, streaming from my wounds, and threatening my mind.
"Anything?" asked a voice, muffled by the mechanics of his uniform.
"Nothing," replied another, identical to the first.
I let my eyes close then, feeling the coldness of the wall at my back and the air moving in the hall I hid from. Just around the corner, if only they knew, I stayed hidden as the echo of their boots marched away. Twelve, I knew from the trailing vibrations of their soles. Twelve.
How many were upstairs?
My eyes opened and trailed to the ceiling. Beyond it, I knew what gruesome carnage lay. I knew the sightless eyes that stared and I knew the stale smell of the air that had be scorched with lightsabers. And I wanted to run from that and forget it - to wake up from this nightmare.
Something suddenly strung deep in my mind. A link hummed softly, calling my attention to it, calling my name to answer.
A breath filled my lungs slowly as I listened to the silence on the floor. I released the hold I had on my mind and let the reigns down, dropping my walls and opening the fields no eye could see.
The hall was empty as before. A droid was moving down the way and could easily be taken care of. One lift was blocked, another was being monitored.
The winding stairs were on emergency activation and would blare an alarm if unhatched while the open stairs were littered with probes and stunners.
I needed to get off of the sub-levels. I should not have been down here in the first place. I did not even have a lightsaber!
Above me, the A.I. cooling system sputtered and died away for the time being. My eyes lifted to the vents quickly, peering at the shaft in which they led.
The Force hummed to my beckoned call, swirling gently as if to comfort me before I found myself eye level with the vent portal; my feet dangling several meters above the ground and my body suspended with the Force I had called on.
Something moved down the corridor, startling me and shaking my balance on a weightless air. My hand shot over my own mouth, muffling my shock until I felt the invisible grip on the air I had.
A guard was returning to the level. Only one.
Did I give myself the chance to slip away and ensure his own survival? Or did I give my saberless hands the chance to kill him, or possibly me?
The portal opened under my hand and I pulled myself through.
Mahon
"Master?"
"Easy, Padawan," Master Risis said quietly as the legion of guards neared us. Their steps matched perfectly, thumping down the corridor as one unit from wall to wall.
Master Risis's hand gripped my shoulder tightly, so tightly it hurt, and pulled me slowly closer to him, shadowed by his large figure.
The Force was trembling, screaming at me to run while my Master willed me to stay.
The troops neared and we were reflected in their glossy helmet eyes. For a split second I saw us standing there before them. My master, tall as he was while his face wore an unstoppable mask of stoic arrogance. And me, standing at his side trembling because I felt his hand trembling and I knew he was afraid. Not afraid for himself, but for me. I could feel thoughts of my own apprenticeship passing through his mind.
Why was he so frightened for me?
"Mahon - No matter what you do," he said slowly, "never forget you are a Jedi of the Jedi Order. Don't ever forget that."
He drew his saber from his side with an invisible reach. His hand clenched my shoulder once more, passing with it a range of feelings from fear to pride.
"Do you understand me?" he demanded and I looked up to see he was not looking at me, but instead at the troops that near.
My hand went to my saber, but his stopped me.
"No. Not this time."
I looked up at him, seeing him looking at me with a grimaced face and a painful look in his eyes. "Do you understand what I told you?"
"Yes, Master," I heard myself whisper as the sound of the troops lifting their weapons reached us. "I understand."
"Good," said Master Plithe Risis. "Good boy."
His hand released mine near my saber and he stood tall again, away from me as he looked to the troops.
"Drop your weapon, Jedi!" cried one.
"Run, Mahon. Keep running," Master told me as he stepped forward. "Don't stop running."
Something quaked in my chest, shattering into a thousand pieces as I stepped back, away from him and felt the Force swarming to me; both called by me and being pushed by my master. It coiled in my muscles as Master Risis lifted his saber's hilt in front of himself and his thumb hit the ignition.
I heard the snap-hiss of its blade and saw the glow of the green against his face before I was gone, running as he told me to.
And I ran hard. The Force threw my feet back and forth faster than ever. I went up stairs, down stairs, through lift shafts and through the gardens, and finally scaled the walls into the Initiate grounds.
There I fell after that wall, among the shrubs and the trees of the Initiate Home Grounds, and the tears that had slid behind me now streamed down my face as I tried to muffle my sobs. Shoving my mouth into my hands, I wept bitterly.
And the bond in my mind did not offer me comfort or solstice.
It was dim and shadowed now - Cold with death.
Naquilla
"What are we going to do?" Jamen whispered to me, his voice trembling as we merely stood in the middle of the blocked corridor. It was dark with only the emergency lights on, giving the hall a green glow flashing with a blare of white every few seconds.
"Wait for Master Apalla like she said," I replied, glancing at the other children around me. None of them were older than me - no one. I was the eldest at the age of twelve and I felt the weight of their eyes on me, waiting for me to make a decision.
"She said she would be here by now," Jamen whispered and I glared at him even as tears were pooled in his big amphibious eyes.
"She'll come!" I hissed back.
We huddled in silence, spite our whimpering and weeping. Like a herd of animals, we stayed close to each other and as still as possible. If the motion sensors were on...
A shadow moved at the end of the hall. It grew and shrank again, and all of the children pushed close together.
The sound of boots reached us and, gingerly, I reached out with the Force to probe the presence.
"Sub-level two clear," reported a distant voice that made us all flinch in fear.
It was a trooper - no Jedi or ally of us.
He'd find us, all sixteen of us.
The saber in my hand was heavy and cold as I felt my body tremble.
"Hide," I whispered to the others. "Hide away from him and don't come out."
Their eyes looked at me before, one by one, they slid into the shadows of the hall. Plastered against the walls and hanging to the ceiling, they did as I told them to.
And I, with that heavy saber in grasp, stepped forward, hearing the echo of my boots, only to stand in the middle of that corridor.
They came around the corner, spotted me, and paused. There were six of them, far too many for my inexperienced skills to bring down.
But I would. I had to.
The snap-hiss of the pale saber lifted my chin and heat pumped back into my hands as I held it before me, ready to block anything they would do.
A deep chuckle reached me and I felt my tears slip down my face as one neared, his white helmet and glossy eyes reflecting the corridor.
"What's this?" he joked. "A miniature Jedi?"
He jolted, and I felt some spot of pity, as another saber hissed to life. It hummed loudly, like a pulse, as it whipped through the air, slicing through him and crumbling his body without even a cry of pain.
The saber returned faithfully to its keeper and I followed it to see Master Apalla's apprentice, Zika.
Blaster fire erupted, streaking the corridor with beams of red and blue. The lightsaber's humming wailed and whipping and a blur of pale light, springing back the darting fire of the blasters as it neared them with an unseen master.
The clones cried out, being hit by their own fire or being cut down by her blade.
Finally, all was silent spite that humming saber and her haggard breathing.
"Initiate?"
"Zika!" I whispered loudly, dropping the saber in my hands and racing towards her. I leapt into her arms. The Twi'lek embraced me long enough for the other children to come out of hiding, rushing to her as well.
"Zika, where is Master?" asked Yati.
The Senior Apprentice looked at my creche mate as her eyes shone brightly in the green hue of the corridor.
"Never you mind, Yati. We must leave the Temple now. Hold each other's hands and stay quiet - no sound at all," Zika whispered to all of us, putting me down and calling the lightsaber I had dropped.
Only in the dim light as she turned did I see the dark stain on her tunic.
I looked down at myself and saw the same stain. My hand touched it, feeling the warmth of the heavy liquid.
Blood.
"Naquilla," Zika hissed at me. "Come now." She held out her hand and I slowly took it, feeling the coolness of her green skin and feeling dread strike its way into my heart.
The stain did not belong to me - it was not my blood that smeared on my tunic.
"Until I find the others," she said quickly, "You must go to the Council Chambers. It will be safe there."
Obi-Wan
"Attacked?" The word ripped from my mouth before I even heard it.
"It was not only the clones of the outer planets that turned, Master Kenobi," Bail Organa replied, his image flickering in the holo. "Battalions entered the Temple as well. We are attempting to find any route to help the Jedi inside but nearly everything is blocked."
How could this be?
The question roared through my mind, battering on every shield I had up.
"My apologies, Master Kenobi, but I must go. I will speak with you in-depth when you arrive." His image reached for the control panel that held the communication link. However, he paused and looked at Obi-Wan again. "My severe sympathies, Obi-Wan," he added softly. With that, the transmission was cut.
I sat frozen for a moment, the bleeping questions of R9 fading distantly away.
"I should be going with you," she said, peering at my hopefully as I neared. Her eyes shifted behind me, waving briefly to Anakin above us before her attention shifted back to me. "How am I supposed to learn anything when you leave me here all the time?" She raised a brow, knowing I loathed classroom training for my students.
"Not this time, Padawan," I told her. "You can last at the Temple for a few days." She looked unconvinced and sighed.
"Yes, Master Obi-Wan."
I laughed slightly at her pitiful looking face. "Next time, I promise," I said, walking up the boarding ramp.
"That's what you said last time," Quame called after me. I turned.
"I didn't say I promise last time!" I replied over the sound of the wind churning as the engines heated. "Do I ever break my promises?"
She laughed, a once foreign sound, and shook her head. She bowed lowly before the ship shifted and hovered from the ground.
What did I leave you to, Padawan? You're still so young and you've had Hells of your own. What did I leave you to?
I frowned at my thoughts, slowly reaching to the link in the back of my mind. Gingerly, in a fear I would readily admit, I opened its gateway.
Silence replied; aheavy shield of silence.
Why was she blocking me?
I probed the wall as my hands darted over the commands of the small shuttle I was in.
She did not reply nor did the shield falter.
"R9." The droid bleeped a reply. "Take us to the coordinates Senator Organa sent." It whistled a reply and the engines immediately shifted.
My eyes lifted to the empty space that threatened to suffocate me. My worry faltered a moment when I wondered of Anakin's fate among the same battle Quame was in. The Knight was skilled - more so than any his age and many of the Temple itself.
Quame would be safe with Anakin. He would keep her safe, and in that I found some bit of peace. I needn't worry with Anakin so near.
The shuttle docked with the hyperspace engine and, within a moment, the stars streaked.
I hope you enjoyed well enough. I'm open for feedback and appreciate it greatly. The next chapter will be up within a few days. Also, I'm very aware that this AU has no lead-in. Never fear, it will come per chapter.