A/N: Well, it took me forever to write this chapter, but here it is! WOO-HOO! There aren't any good excuses for why it took so long considering I've been working on this story for months now, but honestly, I got kind of...stuck. And truth be told, I'm still kind of stuck. So any advice would be greatly appreciated. :)
This one's for my first reviewer, DoorsAreFun. Thanks for the review, it gave me a reason to finish this chapter. So, thanks :)
Enough rambling, on with the story!
Chapter 1: Coruscant
Master Qui-Gon Jinn of the Jedi order was walking along the path from the Jedi temple on Coruscant to the space port after being briefed on another mission. He and his Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi had just gotten back from settling boarder disputes in the Outer Rim and now they were off again.
Qui-Gon had hoped that he and Obi-Wan would be able to have a few hours rest at least, but no, as soon as they had arrived at the Jedi Temple, they had been given another mission. Or rather, Qui-Gon had been given another mission, it wasn't imperative that Obi-Wan go. That was why Qui-Gon was on his way to the spaceport while Obi-Wan was back at the temple getting some much needed rest.
Qui-Gon was so caught up in his thoughts that he almost missed the small, pained cry off to his left. He stopped and probed with the Force and he did not like what he felt. A small life form badly injured and almost dead, was lying in the brush some fifty feet from his position.
Slowly, quietly so as not to frighten whomever or whatever it was that was so badly injured, Qui-Gon walked to where he had felt the creature. He moved aside a final screen of leaves and looked to see…a robed and hooded figure sprawled face first in the dirt in a pool of blood.
Quickly Qui-Gon knelt down beside the figure to examine the wounds and to see what species he or she was. Qui-Gon pulled back the figures hood to reveal the face of a human child, a girl by the looks of it, who appeared to be no more than seven or eight years old. Qui-Gon saw that her small face was badly cut and bruised making it impossible to tell what she might look like.
She moaned and stirred slightly lifting her head up and opening her rich brown eyes for a second, but it was long enough for Qui-Gon to see how much pain she was in. then, her head flopped back down and the hood obscured her face once more.
Qui-Gon stood up and pulled out his com link to alert the Jedi healers that they should prepare to receive and treat the girl in the dirt.
When that was done, Qui-Gon called upon the Force to help him gently lift her, he wasn't sure how bad her injuries were and he didn't want to make them worse by moving her too roughly. As soon as he had her secure, Qui-Gon burst into a Force run back to the temple, his assignment could wait, right now he had to help this girl stay alive.
Dawn woke up on a bed in a sterile-smelling room with a bunch of tubes sticking into her left arm. Everything hurt especially her head which felt like a bantha had sat on it. Her eyelids hurt and were swollen so badly that she couldn't open them. It wasn't surprising considering the beating the Erasers had given her. The Erasers! The sterile antiseptic smell! Had they caught her and brought her back to the School for them to experiment on her? That could explain the tubes in her arm; it would never occur to her that anyone would help her heal just because she was hurt.
Probably, the tubes were pumping her full of things that would allow the White Coats to track her healing processes.
It was then that she became aware of how limp her arms were. Another spike of panic shot through her as she wondered if they had decided to splice fish DNA into her. No, she didn't think so; more likely, her arms were just unresponsive and numb.
Dawn willed her fingers to move and after an agonizing few seconds they did. Relief washed through her as she realized she was still her normal, mutant self.
With her right flipper-arm Dawn reached over and yanked the tubes from her left arm as best she could. If they're going to experiment on me, she thought, I'm not going to make it easy like I did before. Now that Dawn had gotten a taste of freedom, she was determined to be free again.
A loud beeping noise filled her ears and she blacked out again. The next time she came too, her wrists were strapped down and the tubes were back in her arm. There was no distinguishable difference in the way she was feeling except that she could open her eyelids a crack.
Dawn spent the next several days slipping in and out of consciousness. Each time she woke she was a little stronger and her head was a little clearer.
Finally, there came a time when she woke and was fully able to open her eyes. All but one of the tubes was out of her arm, but her wrists, waist and ankles were still strapped to the bed. Dawn spent the next few minutes flexing her wrists, trying to break the bands holding them to the table. She had little success other than chafing her wrists raw and figuring out that the bands were elastic to some degree.
While she was trying to escape, Dawn looked around the room where she was being kept and more likely than not, experimented on. It was sleek, silvery and unforgiving; it was just like every room at the School. She couldn't see a door, but that didn't worry her too much; the door could have been flush with the wall like so many doors at the School were. All in all, Dawn thought that this was ten times better than her dog crate or cage.
A few minutes later, a portion of the wall directly across from Dawn's bed slid up and three figures entered. One was a medical droid. The second person was a very tall man with long hair and clear blue eyes. The last and by far the shortest person was a green man with pointed ears and a cane which he used to walk. Both the human and the creature were clad in brown robes instead of the usual white coats that the workers at the School usually wore. The droid could have been from anywhere.
The tall human took a stool and set it down next to her bed. He sat and just looked at her for a long time. Dawn noticed that the green creature was also watching her, although he didn't sit. The droid stood in a corner and didn't move; Dawn guessed that it was there to pump whatever the others wanted into her to make her talk or keep her calm while they did experiments on her.
Dawn stared defiantly back at them until the tall man asked, "What is your name?"
Her name? What in the world would they want to know her name for? Of course, her name was Dawn, but she didn't want the Whitecoats to know that. Her name was the only thing that was truly hers…and her Flock's. Not for the first time, Dawn wondered what had happened to them. She hoped they had gotten out alright, but she couldn't dwell on that now.
So, her name; what was she supposed to say? She supposed she should tell them her identification number sense they would figure that out eventually or they already knew it if she was indeed back at the school.
In a shaky voice, Dawn said, "LR-27984-JK93-X."
"That's not a name," the tall man said patiently, "that is a number, and numbers aren't names."
Dawn frowned, what else was she supposed to say? Hesitantly she said, "Subject three?"
"That's not a name either," he said just as patiently. "My name is Qui-Gon Jinn and the guy over there is Master Yoda." He made it seem as if she didn't know what a name was, which she did know what it was, she just didn't have one.
Finally she said, "I not know what I called."
"Then, chose a name you must," Master Yoda spoke for the first time. He had an odd way of speech which made Dawn feel better about the way she spoke. But choose a new name, how was she supposed to do that? She was still reluctant to tell them her Flock's name for her.
After a pause, Dawn asked, "Where am I?"
The two looked surprised at that, though they hid it well. "At the Jedi Temple on Coruscant you are," Yoda said.
"So, I not at School?" Dawn asked hesitantly hardly daring to hope.
"No, you're not at school," Qui-Gon said and a wave of relief and joy washed over Dawn and she actually managed to smile a little bit. Qui-Gon and Yoda shared a look as if to ask "Why should she be so relieved she's not at school?" but neither of them said anything.
After another long pause, Dawn shifted uncomfortably. The bed was comfortable, but her wings were going numb. She thought she might just be able to squeeze them open, but she didn't want to reveal them to Qui-Gon and Yoda, however nice they might seem.
As if reading her thoughts, Qui-Gon asked, "Are your wings uncomfortable?"
Dawn froze, how could this outsider know about her wings? It just wasn't possible! And yet, here he was asking her about her wings.
"Umm…yes?" she said not sure why it would matter to these outsiders so much how her wings were feeling.
Qui-Gon nodded sympathetically and helped her sit up. It horrified Dawn that she was so week; even at the School she had been able to move on her own. Nevertheless, at least she could stretch out her wings.
As if sensing her irritation, Qui-Gon said, "You lost a lot of blood, so it will take a while for you to regain your strength." Qui-Gon was really starting to annoy her with his knowing what she was thinking all the time, but she shrugged and carefully extended her wings out to either side of her.
With some satisfaction, she heard gasps of awe from the two living creatures in the room; the droid of course didn't react. Her wings were brindled with several shades of brown ranging from the dark brown of her eyes to almost tan. She had often been told by her flock-mates that her wings were the most beautiful of them all. If only she could use them…
"Can you fly?" Yoda asked.
Dawn shook her head regretfully.
"Then learn you must," Yoda said sensibly.
Dawn shrugged as if to say "ok, sounds cool." As she shrugged, she shook out her feathers allowing them to sit more neatly.
After she had stretched her wings enough, Dawn refolded them to give the others more space. Just then, a protocol droid walked in with a heaping tray of food. Dawn leaned forward and tried not to groan with longing.
The droid set the food on her lap and left the room as quickly as it had come. As much as Dawn wanted to eat, she didn't trust them enough to be completely suspicion free.
"Is it poison?" she asked eyeing the food with suspicion even though her stomach felt like it was trying to digest itself.
Qui-Gon laughed gently and said, "No, it's not poisoned." But Dawn wouldn't touch the food until Qui-Gon reached over and took a bite of everything on the plate. When he didn't keel over and clutch his throat in agony, Dawn decided to trust them, at least for now. Dawn attacked the food like it had insulted her mother whoever she was. All too soon the food was gone and Dawn found herself staring at the plate as if that could make more food appear.
"No," Qui-Gon said gently.
"Please?" Dawn asked looking up at him with her large brown eyes.
"No," Qui-Gon said again, "you need to be careful, you are incredibly thin, and we don't want it all to come back up. That wouldn't help anybody. And besides, you need to sleep."
Dawn yawned; perhaps he was right she thought, maybe she did need to sleep. She settled back and stared at the sealing.
Qui-Gon motioned to the droid which came over holding a vial of something. Dawn panicked. She shrieked and strained against the bands holding her to the bed.
"No!" she gasped, "No, you not do this! I not let you!" Her eyes rolled as she tried to think of a way to escape. Of course there was none, Dawn already knew that, but still she had to try.
"Calm down, calm down," Qui-Gon said motioning for the droid to back off. "It's gone now, calm down." He put his hand on Dawn's shoulder to try and help her calm down, but she shrieked again and strained all the harder against the restraints. She even pushed out her wings a little bit to give herself more leverage. Of course all she did was chafe her wrists and ankles raw, and finally she collapsed back onto the bed breathing heavily from the exertion her thin frame wracked with sobs of terror.
"Look," Qui-Gon said motioning for the droid to leave the room. "We won't bring it back again, but you have to sleep so you can heal."
Dawn calmed slightly and her sobs slowed into hiccups. She looked at Qui-Gon with a heartbreaking mixture of terror and resignation. "Droid not coming back?" she asked her voice broken from crying
"No, it won't come back, not if you don't want it to." Qui-Gon said.
"I not want it to," Dawn said solemnly.
"Then it won't come back. Now, will you sleep?"
"Yes, I sleep now," Dawn said with a jaw splitting yawn.
"Then we will leave you to it," Qui-Gon said while getting to his feet.
With a nod to Yoda they left the room. By the time the door closed Dawn was already asleep.
When they were a few feet away from Dawn's room, Qui-Gon asked, "So, will you allow her to be trained?"
"Think on it, I shall," Yoda said leaning on his cane. "Too old she may be."
Qui-Gon was about to protest, but thought better of it. This was not the time or the place for that. "Very well," he said and bowed to Yoda before walking down the hallway.
