Run
"Once more, Bastila."
"I think you've gained all your strength back, Connan." Bastila threw down her sword and wiped her face with her sleeve. "We've been at this for days. You're still not fully recovered, and you're already throwing me down without a second glance."
"Well I'm trying to get to it without even looking." Connan spat, slashing her sword through the air. "Now please."
"Connan, you need to rest." Carth strode it, grabbing Connan's arm. She jerked it away.
"I do not need to rest," She snapped. She threw down the sword, leaving the storage room.
"Where are you going?" Carth asked, following.
"To look at the datapad." Connan answered. "And since when did I have to run everything by you?"
"Since you nearly died six days ago." Carth answered.
"Well I'm not dead and I'm not dying." Connan answered, clicking the button in the garage to open up the ramp.
"No, but you're worrying me." Carth said. Connan whirled around on him, a slightly annoyed look on her face. Carth raised an eyebrow.
"What's worrying you exactly, Carth? The fact that I nearly died almost a week ago, or that I've been gone for eight months in the future?"
"Connan, there's no way to prove that—"
"No way to prove it?" Connan repeated, shocked. "So you honestly think I took the time to sit down and type in eight months worth of entries on this datapad, explain whatever I was doing to Æliesha since she obviously agrees with me on everything, and then crack my own ribs all for pranks' sake?"
"No one knows what that dog's saying but you, Connan." Carth chided. Connan poked him, chuckling dryly.
"I'll remember that next time I decide I want to pull a ridiculously elaborate plot over your eyes." Connan turned and left the ship.
"Don't you walk away from me!" Carth warned, following.
Inside the main hold, Candorous and Jolee sat, chuckling.
"Bastila, they're fighting again. Go and make sure they're alright." Jolee called.
"Why me?" Bastila whined.
"Because Mission is out with Zaalbar somewhere and Juhani's asleep. Now go." Candorous answered. Bastila groaned, leaving the ship.
-----
"Where are you going now?" Carth called. Connan stormed off.
"Somewhere away from everyone." Connan spat. "I need to examine this."
"Again? You've looked over it twenty times in the last hour." Carth said.
"And I'll continue to look over it until I can make some sense of it." Connan jumped up onto a rock.
"At least come and look at it inside the ship." Carth negotiated. "It's burning up out here."
"I made it through four days; I can take a little heat now." Connan turned on the datapad, pulling her hair away from her face, and began reading.
"Damn it, Connan, just do it for my own peace of mind." Carth yelped. Connan looked up from her 'pad. "You almost died six days ago," he began. "If you die, I die." Connan's eyes softened as Carth held up a hand to her. "Come inside, please. I'll even leave you alone for a few hours. I promise."
Connan pulled herself down with the help of Carth and wrapped her arms around his neck. He whirled her around.
"Alright." She touched her forehead to his. "Let's get inside."
"Good, I came out here for nothing." Bastila was heard from the ramp. She sounded aggravated. She spun around and headed inside as Connan made her way to the ramp, Carth hanging his arms around her shoulders.
A pang of fear brushed Connan as a large purring sound emitted from behind her. She stopped walking.
"What's wrong?" Carth asked, pulling away from her. Connan spun around to look behind Carth.
The Byssual. It rotated around, scanning the area for Connan. She froze, paling. Carth turned around to find what scared Connan so much.
"Is that—"
"Uh-huh."
"Is it—"
"Uh-huh."
"Are you going to let it—"
"Nuh-huh." Connan reached slowly for her blaster. "Don't move." She yanked out the blaster and shot at the Byssual.
The shot fazed through the Byssual as if nothing happened. It locked its center on Connan.
"Uh-oh." She said. She fired at it again. It still went through it. "Run."
Carth took off, Connan close behind him.
"Why's it back?" Carth asked, panting to catch his breath.
"I don't know." Connan said, keeping pace with Carth. "And it doesn't hurt it if I fire at it. That's not strange at all."
"Well, it's gaining on us." Carth looked back. It was chasing them.
"Head for Naga Sadow's Tomb!" Connan called.
"But it's closed off!"
"I know that! Climb it!" Connan answered.
-----
Candorous looked out the window when he heard the blaster shots. He blanched.
"Jolee," He called, motioning for the old man to look out the window.
Jolee stood and sauntered over to the glass and watched.
"Oh, dear." He pulled on his skin.
Connan and Carth were making like shots toward Naga Sadow's Tomb, with the Byssual right on their tails.
"This isn't good." He said, leaving the med bay. "This really isn't good."
The ramp opened and Jolee ran out. Candorous followed.
"What isn't good?"
-----
Connan scaled the tomb faster than Carth, helping him pull up onto some of the larger rock forms.
"Well, now what?" Carth asked as they reached the top.
"Now?" Connan looked down at the Byssual, as it seemed perplexed at their disappearance. "Now we hope it can't leave the ground."
"And if it can?" Carth asked. Connan rubbed her chin.
"Then we run across the wall." She shrugged.
"What wall?" Carth gawked. "We're on top of a tomb."
"Does this not look like a wall to you?" Connan turned Carth around. "Look, all we have to do it jump across that, run through that, slide down that pillar and we're on the ground again! We can keep going in this circle for hours."
"Oh, yeah, that makes perfect sense." Carth groaned. He checked on the Byssual.
It was flying toward them.
"Get going!" Connan pushed Carth. "Let's hope all this thing can do is chase us."
"And absorb blaster shots."
"That too."
Carth leapt over a gap between the tomb and a fallen pillar, catching Connan as she came, too. Carth ran across the flaky tomb frame, Connan on his heels. The ground crumbled behind Connan as she walked.
"It was a good idea, beautiful, but we can't do it now." Carth admitted. "We'll have to think of something else." He slid down the pillar, catching her as she went.
"Well, let's—"
"Watch out!" Carth pulled Connan away from the pillar, as the Byssual stretched a long, stringy purple tentacle at them. The tentacle wrapped around them, surrounding them.
"Well, this isn't good." Connan shrugged. "Watch out." She unsheathed a lightsaber and sent it crashing through the tentacle.
The tentacle retracted.
The Byssual made a loud clanging noise, obviously in pain. As the tentacle went limp around Carth and Connan, Connan pulled Carth away from the tomb.
"If we keep it busy, it'll have to retreat sometime, right?" She asked him. He chuckled nervously.
"Right."
Another limb reached itself around Connan and Carth, halting them from turning to the left. Carth veered right, only to be stopped by another appendage.
"Okay, now we're trapped." Connan admitted. She attempted to strike at the Byssual with her lightsaber again. It wrapped one of its tentacles around Connan's hands, restricting her from using them. Screaming, Connan pulled back. Nothing happened.
She was caught.
"Not again," She whimpered. "Come on! Not again!" She pulled back again.
Carth grabbed the purple tentacle and jerked in the other direction.
"Carth, just run." Connan told him, heaving her shoulders to try and release her hands. "Run! Run before it gets you, too."
"You jump, I jump, Connan." Carth said, still pulling on the limb. It wrapped itself around his arms. "And besides, there's no escaping it now."
Sighing, Connan nodded. She stood straight and watched as the Byssual neared them.
"What can I expect when it hits us?"
"Last time it happened, I blanked out and woke up three weeks later on Coruscant, remember?" Connan told him. "But I might've just gotten lucky. We could end up anywhere, for all I know."
"Alright," Carth resigned, bracing himself. "Here it comes," He huddled behind Connan to brace her and so she'd land on him if they fell.
Carth blacked out as the large, purple blob engulfed him and Connan.
-----
Connan woke up, turning her head and opening her eyes. She stopped short.
Something wasn't right.
She was having déjà vu. She had to have been having déjà vu. She was covered in a thin sheet; only cover enough to keep her from freezing in the tiled room. She sighed, pursing her lips. Feeling around the room with her mind, shoe found nothing in particular which grabbed her attention. A countertop with her possessions on them, yes. Her lightsabers were placed carefully into the bag, set apart from her flute.
"This isn't strange at all…." Connan sat up. She looked around the sterile room. She was sitting on a small, white cot. Beside her, her vital signs beeped her pulse on a machine.
"Uhn…" Connan turned her head to the left. In the corner of the room Carth slept on a separate cot. Connan yelped.
"Carth!" She leapt up. "Carth, get up!" She shook his arm, sitting on his bed.
Carth coughed, sitting up and hitting his chest.
"Whoa, that was—"
"Carth, don't panic, okay?" Connan told him, feeling his forehead. "We're not on Korriban anymore."
"Where are we?" Carth asked, pulling himself up so Connan could sit on his bed, as well. "This looks nothing like the Ebon Hawk."
"Well…." Connan hesitated. "I know where we are, I just don't know when we are."
"When we are?" Carth sputtered. "You don't actually think that—"
"That we're in the future? Yes, I do. We're on Coruscant, Carth." Connan interrupted.
"On Coruscant? Impossible. Maybe, there's still a Dreshdae settlement." Carth answered.
"Not that looks like this." Connan countered. "And besides, look out the window. There's one big city." She pointed to the glass. A speeder whizzed by. "And—" She paused.
"What is it?" Carth asked. Connan held up a hand, calling her bag to her.
"There's someone coming." She said, opening her pack and pulling out one of her sabers and a blaster. She handed the blaster to Carth. "Stay still."
Carth stayed behind Connan, hearing the footsteps of someone nearing the room that he and Connan shared. He turned his blaster to stun and held it to the door.
With a shuck the large, white door opened and a man appeared. Connan turned on her lightsaber and held it protectively in front of her. Carth rested his arm on Connan's shoulder, his blaster next to her face.
The man laughed. His brown hair flowed to his shoulders and wiggled as he shook his head.
"Connan, you haven't aged a day." He said. Connan gaped, dropping her lightsaber.
"What?" Carth asked.
"Do I… know you?" Connan asked. The man stopped laughing, rubbing his chin.
"You don't recognize me?" He asked, tugging at his hair.
"I haven't aged a day?" Connan repeated. "What year is it?"
"That might help. The Republic year is nineteen thousand ten." The man nodded.
"Nineteen thousand?" Carth said, obviously shocked. Connan and the other man ignored him.
"Remember me now?" He asked, spinning around. Connan squinted.
The image flew into her mind, a boy with his hair cut short and a small braid tucked behind his ear. She gasped, dropping her jaw.
"O—Obi Wan Kenobi?"
-----
And that's where I end it! If I feel like updating before next Sunday (which I probably will) I'll do it. And still update on the Sunday! Anyway, thanks so much guys, for sticking with the story so closely. Please review!