Thanks again to Draconarius, Killiktwilight, and VaderLVR64 for looking this over.

Reminder- This is an AU. There will be changes both small and large. Those familiar with the game will notice some of those changes in this chapter. They were deliberate.

Chapter 2

Kyr'na Nim kept Obi-Wan behind her as she opened the door to the med lab. A quick survey of the room indicated no obvious threat, so she slowly entered. The lack of beings attacking them was a comfort. It was the lack of medical personnel or medical droids that was cause for concern. After all those stays in healer's wards and med labs around the galaxy, all those times when all she wanted was for the army of healers, nurses, and droids to stay far away from her, to finally have them no where in sight, was disconcerting. And extremely worrisome.

The med lab was in complete disarray. Flimsiplasts and boxes littered the floor. There was a large area of carbon scoring on the floor near the bed in the corner of the room. Remembering what Obi-Wan had said earlier, she asked, "Is this the room that you were in before?"

He stared at the large burn spot on the floor and the partially burned bed for a moment before saying, "Yes, I was sitting right there. What do you think happened?"

Laying a comforting hand on his shoulder, "I do not know. Why don't you check those cabinets and lockers and see if you can find our clothes or anything useful." After he went towards the cabinets on the far wall, she started examining the contents of the desk in the room. There was a half-full mug of caf next to a series of personal holos. In her experience it took an extreme emergency for medical personnel to leave even a drop of caf lying around, usually not even then.

Finding nothing useful in the flimsiplasts on the desk or the floor, she started to head towards the sole computer console in the room, when Obi-Wan exclaimed, "My clothes." He hugged them to his chest as if they were a great treasure. It would seem having something familiar in the midst of all this uncertainty was of some comfort to the boy.

"That's good. Why don't you get dressed? I am sure you will feel better once you are fully clothed again."

"I could not find anything for you," he said in almost a whisper. Seeing the look on his face, it was as if he believed that it was his fault that he had clothes, but she did not.

"That's all right. Get changed. I will manage." After ensuring that he was all right, she accessed the computer console. Unsure where to begin, she decided to use the id number of the kolto tank that she had been in. With the id number she was able to look up any medical logs pertaining to her. She skimmed through various transcripts of the holologs and med-reports hoping to find some clue as to how she ended up in a kolto tank or some hint as to where the medical staff disappeared to.

"Have you found anything?"

"Hmm. Well, it seems I was brought here on a ship called the Ebon Hawk. Strange. The last thing I remember was being on the Harbinger. Besides myself, they found a dead woman and two droids. That was three days ago." Kyr'na continued to search through the records. Having read the initial medical assessment from when she first arrived, she would have thought that she would have woken up sooner. Perhaps there were further complications. She was surprised to read that they thought she was a Jedi. Why would they think that? There was no sign of a midi-chlorian count being taken. Besides, this facility did not seem equipped to run the appropriate tests. Did someone recognize her from the War? And why would her being a Jedi be cause for concern? Was this an illegal operation?

Pushing aside her questions, she said, "There was some sort of mining accident the following day. Apparently it was not the only one they had had recently. The miners in the other kolto tanks were injured in that accident." Reading further she came to an entry about Obi-Wan, "It seems you were found on the floor of the kolto room a little over twenty-four hours ago….Hmm. You caused quite a stir…" Looking back at the youngling, she said in shock and surprise, "You asked them to call the Jedi Council."

"Yes, I did. They barely talked to me after that. They just put me in the corner out of the way and would look at me oddly from time to time, whispering to each other."

"You are a Jedi?" she asked. When Obi-Wan had mentioned a Council earlier, it had not occurred to her that he had meant the Jedi Council. A foolish lapse, but Jedi younglings his age are usually safe at the Temple or with their Master. The boy did not have a padawan braid and had never mentioned concern for an absent Master. Still, she should have asked what Council he had meant, if only because he had said that asking to contact them had upset the people of this place.

"I was. But…but…I was not chosen. I was not good enough…He left me…He left me." Rushing over to the distraught child, she held him tightly as he broke down into tears. As she whispered meaningless words to the quivering youngling, Kyr'na thought back to her own past. She vividly remembered the pain she had felt as her age mates continued to become padawans, while she had not. Her Braiding Ceremony was not until the afternoon before her thirteenth life day. She had come so close to missing her chance.

She continued to hold him for a few minutes before he finally quieted and said in a hoarse whisper, "Sorry."

"There is no reason to feel shame. You have obviously had a difficult few days." Giving him some privacy to regain his composure, she returned to the computer console.

A few minutes later he asked, "Why would they be upset about contacting the Council?"

"I do not know. There could be many reasons. Did they give any hint of what the problem was?"

"No. They were very careful not to talk where I could hear. But I did hear them mention a Jedi. She was in some type of tank…You are the Jedi they were talking about."

"You are a Jedi no longer." Pushing the memories to the back of her mind she said in a carefully controlled voice, "Yes, I am the person they were talking about. But they were wrong. I am blind to the Force."

"Oh." The disappointment in that simple sound was almost painful to hear. Clearly wanting to change the subject he asked, "Does the computer mention how I was hurt?"

Appreciating the reprieve from her own painful memories, Kyr'na said, "It seems that less than an hour after you were found in the kolto room, a droid mysteriously malfunctioned. The explosion knocked you unconscious and caused some minor burns and lacerations. Luckily you turned your back to the droid just before the explosion…Hmm. Interesting. It seems the mystery of the missing personnel is at least partially explained. Approximately one and a half hours after you were injured, there was another accident in the mines. The entry seems to blame it on malfunctioning droids. It ended rather abruptly. Before it did, an announcement was partially recorded. It mentioned a 'fuel detonation in the mining tunnels'. An emergency lockdown was put into effect. All personnel were directed to report to their quarters." Of course, that did not explain why they were still missing after 22 hours. Nor did it explain the dead bodies in the kolto tanks.

Perhaps an investigation of the treatments administered to the kolto tanks would shed some light. After some searching, she found records that showed a lethal dose of sedatives being administered to those four tanks. She and Obi-Wan had also received a large dose but not at lethal levels. Checking the time of the dosages, she discovered that they were ordered forty-seven minutes after the emergency lockdown was put into effect. It took her a few minutes to attempt to backtrack the signal. Apparently, it was issued by remote from another console, but she could not determine which computer or by whom.

Finding all she could from this computer console, she asked, "Obi-Wan, can you hand me that datapad? It's on the desk."

"You want to use this? It looks like a piece of junk. Does it even work?"

Smiling she took the datapad from him and downloaded the information that she had found concerning recent events. Some government official somewhere would want this information in the future. While it was doing so, she said, "The datapad may not be whatever is currently on the market, but it is still perfectly functional. This model was popular during the Mandalorian War."

"Mandalorian War? But…But that is ancient history!"

"As with many things in life I suppose it depends on your point of view. To some it seems like only yesterday…To others…the War seems like a lifetime ago."

"But…the Mandalorian War was thousands of years ago."

Unsure why he would think that she stated calmly, "The War ended almost ten years ago."

"That…that is impossible."

"I assure you it is possible. I am quite certain. Perhaps you are confusing it with another war. You were rather young when the war ended."

"No. No, I am not." He started pacing. His voice became more and more agitated as he spoke, "There has not been a galactic wide war in a thousand years. The Mandalorian War was almost four thousand years ago. I had to memorize the date for a timeline of major galactic events in my history class two months ago. I am right. I know I am."

As she listened to him, she could not help wondering why he would believe this. Could his past have been so horrible that he created this reality in his head? One where the War happened long ago? Was he even a Jedi?

"I am NOT crazy!"

Kyr'na decided to at least confirm his Jedi training. Observing the near hysterical youngling closely, she gave a command that any initiate of the Temple would recognize, "Release it into the Force." His response was immediate. He closed his eyes and stopped pacing. The tension slowly left his body. He clearly had difficulty with the technique, but he performed it as well as any of his age mates at the Temple would have. He was Jedi-trained at least.

As Obi-Wan opened his eyes, he said firmly without the hard edge of before, "I am not crazy."

Putting a hand on his shoulder she said, "Whatever circumstances brought you to this place, no matter where or when you came from, you are here now. And we must focus ON the here and now. Things in this place are not right. We cannot afford to be distracted by matters that are currently outside our control. As soon as is possible, I will see that you get to the Jedi Council. Until then, focus on the present."

"Yes, ma'am," he said in a near whisper.

Seeing that the data transfer was complete, she quickly used the computer console to check the cameras that monitored the rooms in the medical wing. The kolto room was as she remembered it. The morgue had two bodies lying on tables waiting to be autopsied. She would find nothing of use there. The storage room had rows of barrels and boxes in it. The images showed none of the chaos that was in the office proper and no people.

Perhaps there was something of use within those boxes and barrels. She quickly skimmed through the inventory. "Hmm." Most of the supplies were useless. Looking at the dates, some of the medicine was well past its expiration date. Though, that might be deliberate. If she remembered correctly some alien races required the expiration of certain medicines in order to be effective for their physiology. The inventory did mention two small medkits, an assortment of pain killers, some extra bandages, and a package of kolto jell meant to be applied to minor injuries.

"Did you happen to find any type of bag in your search, Obi-Wan?"

"There was a dust-covered backpack in one of the lockers."

"Perfect. Can you bring it over?"

After unlocking the secured room, she logged out of the system and entered the storage room in the back of the med lab. Working quickly she put a small pile together of the few useful medical supplies stored in the room.

"Thanks," she said absentmindedly as Obi-Wan handed her a small brown backpack.

"What are you doing?"

"People may be injured. Better to have the supplies than to wish for them later and be empty-handed…Ah…here are the bandages." Stuffing everything into the backpack, she quickly put it on, moving her still sticky hair out of the way as she did so. Her hair could be a problem. During her exile she had let her padawan haircut grow out. Her usually silky black hair went halfway down her back. Her hair might get in her way if there was some type of trouble. Once back in the med lab, she grabbed the hair tie that was on the desk and put her hair into a simple bun. Just in case.

"All right. I think that's all we can do here."

Back in the corridor, Kyr'na took a closer look at the door barring their way. "The controls to the door seems to be damaged somehow."

"What about that door?" Obi-Wan asked while pointing to the door across from the med lab.

"That's the morgue. It only has the one door. I doubt we will find anything useful amongst the dead. Hmm. I might be able to hot-wire the door control." Though she was not the most technologically gifted, all padawans were taught the basics. "I think I got it. Stay behind me."

The door opened to chaos. Three dead bodies were in the small corridor. Two broken droids littered the ground. There were signs of some sort energy discharge on the walls and floor. Smoke was coming from some of the wreckage.

"It looks like a war zone."

"Not quite so large," she said softly as memories of dozens of battlefields flashed before her eyes. "But tragic none the less." Kneeling down she examined one of the corpses in the room.

"What happened?" he asked softly.

"At best guess, it appears as though they were attacked by the droids."

"What would battle droids be doing on a mining facility?"

"These are not battle droids. They appear to be some type of mining droid. I do not recognize the model. The logs in the med lab did mention that the droids were malfunctioning."

Looking at all the death and destruction, Obi-Wan said, "Some malfunction."

Some malfunction indeed. Remembering the murdered miners in the kolto tanks, perhaps the malfunction was in fact sabotage. Only time would tell. She quickly searched the bodies, hoping to find some clue as to what had happened to the droids. A datapad or datacard would be useful, or a commlink to contact any possible survivors. After searching all three bodies, all she found was a few credit chips.

She did find a vibroblade partially concealed by the wreckage of one of the droids. The blade was of inferior quality and badly cared for. Its recent use against the droids had certainly not helped its condition, but as the two droids would attest, it could get the job done.

She gave the vibroblade a few practice swings getting used to its feel. As she did so, she looked around the corridor once more. It was only four meters long with heavy blast doors on either end. Nothing else. There were no other doors. No equipment or computers filled the space. All that was there was uneven rocky walls with sporadic air vents. Corridors of this type were usually designed in sequence allowing certain portions to be sealed off in case of an emergency. It was a small confined space with nowhere to find cover.

Still swinging the blade, she looked at the blast door before her. Would they find droids behind those doors in a similar-looking corridor? She tried to envision it. One or more of these spider-like droids firing some type of mining laser. While probably not as powerful as a blaster, they were still dangerous. The three dead miners were proof of that.

No blaster.

No cover.

No lightsaber. Of course, she would be unwilling to use one had she actually had one in her hand. Such a weapon was too dangerous in the hands of someone unable to feel the Force. A part of her still grieved the loss of her lightsaber. There were times when she could almost feel the hilt in her hand, still hear its comforting hum, but it was gone, taken from her long ago.

She only had a simple vibroblade of poor quality to defend herself and Obi-Wan against one or more droids. Him unarmed and defenseless. It took years before a padawan could reliably call on the Force to aid themselves in dangerous conditions. He was inexperienced and far too young.

And Obi-Wan was not chosen.

Since her exile she had only had to defend herself once. It was years ago. A mugger had foolishly thought that a woman only 1.63 meters tall traveling alone would be an easy mark. He had learned how mistaken he was. But the weaponless techniques that she had used on that incompetent would-be mugger would be useless on these insect-like droids.

If only she could still feel the Force. With it she could attempt to push any droids into a rocky grave. She could monitor Obi-Wan's position in relation to the lethal blasts and augment her reflexes. Strength could be added to her slashes. She could hear the Force's warnings.

But her ability to feel it was suppressed. The Force had been taken from her by those who Kyr'na should have been able to trust. She would never sense it again. She would never feel its vibrancy and warmth. Never feel its comforting embrace. In its place only a gaping wound remained. It was a wound that would never heal. A lifelong companion had been ripped from her grasp and forever banned from her presence. A major sensory ability that she had used and felt since she was a baby had been ruthlessly crushed without possibility of restoration. There would be no reprieves. Her sentence was for life without hope of appeal. The Force was gone. Forever.

In the nearly ten years since her exile began, not a day had passed that she did not unconsciously try to connect to the Force. Again and again she was reminded of its loss. When her dreams were not haunted by the horrors of the War, they were filled with simple snapshots from a time when she could still feel its presence. Those dreams of the quiet moments were at times more painful than her nightmares filled with the chaos of War. For in her dreams she could still listen to the vibrant symphony of the Living Force. She could feel it surround and fill her as she performed lightsaber forms. She could simply meditate in one of the many gardens within the Temple. In her dreams she was finally whole, and then she would awaken to a world of emptiness and blindness.

"Remember Padawan, the Force is always present. It is in the heart of Coruscant. In the depths of the deepest rainforest. In the driest desert. Its presence is in a simple blade of grass. Amongst the smallest grains of sand. It resides even in the vacuum of space. It will always be there. Just stretch out your senses, and you will feel it." That lecture had been a comfort for so many years. But now its memory only brought her pain. The Force was there. She knew it was. But it was just beyond her reach. And it would remain so for as long as she lived.

"Focus on the here and now." Master Kole's words of wisdom were as true now as they were then. Pushing back her grief and pain, she focused on the present.

She would have to move in close to any droids that she should find beyond the closed blast doors. It was the only way to use the vibroblade. She would have to be quick on her feet in order to avoid the laser blasts. And if there was more than one? One or a dozen, with no place to find cover, Obi-Wan would be exposed.

Holding him after his breakdown flashed through her mind. He was just a scared and helpless child who was all alone. So young. She did not know whether he was from the future or not, but she did know that he was far from all he knew, inexperienced in the harshness of the galaxy. And here he was, in a place where miners were murdered while defenseless in their kolto tanks and people were "mined" by malfunctioning droids.

"Protect the defenseless, the weak." Kyr'na may be blind to the Force's voice. She may no longer be a Jedi, but she would not betray Master Kole's teachings or a lifetime of service in the Order. They may have abandoned her, but she would remain true to its ideals. She silently made a vow to herself that she would do all that she could to protect the boy.

Looking around one last time she realized that she would not be able to do so under these conditions.

Decision made, she stopped swinging the vibroblade and mentally prepared herself for the argument that was bound to follow.