15:09, Planet Azure, 20 BBY
"Take this, Obi-Wan," Siri whispered, a warm stone sliding into his hand. Involuntarily the Jedi's hand closed around the familiar shape, and tears stung his eyes as he took in Siri's wound. Her Force presence was ebbing, and Obi-Wan struggled to hold back his grief.
She was dying. It couldn't be. But here they were, him kneeling and holding her, and the man who shot her at gunpoint some few yards away.
"Siri, you'll be okay - " Obi-Wan managed, but then cut off by her familiar smirk as she saw through the lie. How soft that smirk had always been toward him. By the Force, how he had fallen in love with that smirk…
Her eyes glazed over, then closed, and a sob was expelled from Obi-Wan, cast from his body as emotion took him. Overwhelming sorrow and grief, interlaced and bound with anger.
Rage. He'd felt this before, when Qui-Gon had been stabbed by the hooded Sith. That one time Obi-Wan had given into the dark side – kill him. Kill him. KILL HIM.
Magus cowered suddenly as Obi-Wan abruptly stood, his lightsaber snapping to life. The docile Jedi Master, the Negotiator, turned suddenly and deliberately and headed his way. And then Magus knew fear.
Obi-Wan's eyes narrowed as Magus began to back up hastily, then fell on his rump and continued his retreat from that position. Feel fear. Be terrified. DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'VE DONE?
Fry stepped to the side involuntarily, cold terror clutching at his own throat. Something was terribly wrong with Obi-Wan. He was suddenly sinister, and continued his advance on Magus with dark purpose. Obi-Wan was about to commit cold-blooded murder, and Fry suddenly realized it wasn't going to be slow.
Obi-Wan. Don't.
The words shattered the cold veil that had settled over him, and Obi-Wan paused in confusion. Siri?
Don't do it, Obi-Wan. I couldn't live knowing it.
I can't live without you.
You can. Don't do this, Obi-Wan. Let your love for me sustain you.
We are forbidden to love—
And I stand on the brink of Death, Obi-Wan. I can see the Force – and it blesses our love.
Both Fry and Magus backed up suddenly, as Obi-Wan gasped and dropped to his knees, lightsaber clattering away but still switched on. For the Jedi, he could suddenly sense the Force like he never had before. In his mind's eye, he saw Siri, beautiful and perfect, about to enter the Force.
You see, Obi-Wan? Siri laughed, and it echoed through the Force, warming Obi-Wan. He could see, he could feel it, he could grasp the assurance the Force had for their bond of love.
What is this place?
I don't know, but it seems wonderful. Goodbye, Obi-Wan – don't forget me.
No!
The words were uttered, a cry of desperation to Magus and Fry, and suddenly Obi-Wan was back at Siri's side. The two watching blinked – they had never seen Obi-Wan move. One moment he had been before them, and the next he was twenty feet away.
On a different plane of existence, Obi-Wan seized the Force and Siri, and pulled. The Force responded, pulling her the other direction.
Obi-Wan! Siri struggled slightly. What are you doing? It is my time!
The hell it is, Obi-Wan replied, bending first his mind, then his will, then all of himself to claiming her. Steadily he pulled her backwards, a tug of war in the Force. Then it rebounded again, and she was suddenly closer to the brink.
Fry looked on, open-mouthed, as a glow suddenly began to permeate the air around the two Jedi. Cradling Siri, Obi-Wan's forehead was touched to hers, one hand cupped behind her head, the other clutching a rock and supporting her back.
You cannot have her! Obi-Wan screamed into the Force, but suddenly found his grip loosening. Had the struggle been physical, Siri would have been torn in two – but here she was still strong and alive, and gods, he loved her. No! His grip was almost broken, and on instinct he called on the Force to supply new and greater strength.
To his shock, it came – and in abundance. It poured into him, filled him and overflowed within. For a brief moment Obi-Wan was stayed by the sensation – every inch, every pore, every cell saturated with the Force, pulsing with the light side. Then he pulled.
She came. Bit by bit they retreated from the light, and Obi-Wan gasped as he came to the end of himself and the Force propelled him onward.
This is ridiculous, Obi-Wan's rational mind thought. No being could deprive the Force of its will; and if such a thing were possible, the Force would not so aid him in direct opposition. Unless…
Do you love her?
Immediately he was overcome with the love, and he poured it all into the Force to be seen, even as he still wondered whether the thought had been his own. Yes! With all that I have, with all that I am!
How bad do you want her?
She is mine! I will give all that I have – even my life! Obi-Wan screamed into the light.
"Very well."
The words echoed in their minds, and Fry blinked, hearing a deep voice but seeing nothing. Magus hesitated as well, then remembered his intentions and grabbed Obi-Wan's fallen lightsaber and charged.
Several things happened at once. Fry heard the footsteps and the hiss of the saber, and spun, bringing his blaster to bear. Siri and Obi-Wan gasped simultaneously, the former's eyes flying open while Obi-Wan blinked.
The first blaster bolt nicked Magus' shoulder, but he was too close and thrust clumsily with the unfamiliar weapon. To his surprise, there was practically no resistance to the energy blade – with a sizzle, it entered Fry's body just below the heart, then was dragged upward to exit via the shoulder as Magus stumbled.
One scream came from Fry's mouth as he dropped, dead before hitting the ground. Turning, eyes dull, Obi-Wan and Siri saw a man rushing them wielding a glowing weapon.
Threat.
Magus screamed as he was struck by an invisible force. The impact alone was enough to break his every bone – the impact against a building some three hundred feet away crushed everything that made up his body – bones, organs, capillaries, cells.
For a moment, Siri and Obi-Wan looked after the man, then both collapsed.
07:23, Outer Rim, hyperspace. A month after the rise of the Empire.
Blue-gray eyes blinked open and Obi-Wan gasped, feeling like he had been underwater for an hour without a breathing apparatus. For a few moments he breathed heavily, and as his body relaxed, his mind went into overdrive.
So that was what had happened on Azure. Neither he nor Siri could remember anything that had taken place there, up to the point where her eyes had closed. They had been found unconscious but healthy, Siri with no mark from the blaster wound.
Yoda had eventually been called in, and after spending time at the site, deduced that Magus had used Obi-Wan's saber to kill Fry. The Grandmaster also detected vestiges of a massive use of the Force, but the signature was completely unfamiliar to him. Magus' charred remains had been discovered some distance away near a building.
It had always been a mystery.
Sighing, Obi-Wan stirred as his control panel beeped a notice that the small ship was reverting from hyperspace – a moment later, the streaks of light returned to pinpoints of stars.
Immediately the Jedi Master could feel Siri's presence on the planet before. Jerne IV was part of the Outer Rim territories, and only maintained a small Old Repu—Imperial garrison there. Until now, obviously.
One Venerator class Star Destroyer was in orbit, and somewhere it's deployed clone troopers were hunting down Siri.
Obi-Wan? Her curious Force inquiry came to him, and he smiled.
It's me, Siri.
Get out of here! There are too many of them!
Obi-Wan smiled as his tiny ship dove through the planet's atmosphere.
Not for both of us.
2 weeks previously, Nar Shadda
E'taan picked his way through the debris and filth of the hallway. He and Valara lived in a small apartment located in the slums of Nar Shadda. It wasn't pretty, he thought wryly, and considering that Nar Shadda is considered a slum, that's to be expected.
His Force senses, though limited, were stretching out in every direction, trying to sense any possible threat.
There had been no hesitation when he had seen Luke. Sent to the Agricorps by the Jedi as a young boy, E'taan had a soft heart when it came to the abandoned. He and Valara had always wanted children – they would love this boy as their own.
Ahead he could sense Valara's familiar presence, and her eagerness to see him walk in through the door. E'taan shook his head as he thought of his beautiful wife.
He had rescued her and her brother from being sold into slavery, not six months after he himself had escaped the Agricorps with Obi-Wan's help. The rescue had involved the death of a brothel owner and the overseer of the slave auctions – the result was that the trio was immediately hunted.
He had picked up a few tricks and some real-world knowledge prior to that time – soon E'taan's eyes were fully opened to the underworld. He learned to shoot, he learned to fly, he did manual labor to gain food, he learned how to gain false credentials.
Valara's brother was killed four years later, when E'taan's blaster had run dry as they tried to shoot their way out of a trap. After barely escaping, he learned to use knives, to work the information networks, and became an accomplished slicer.
Eventually they tracked down and eliminated the ones obsessed with hunting them. Suddenly free of pursuit, he and Valara found themselves of age and in love. They had married three days later, and lived in the underworld ever since. It was what they knew.
The door hissed open as E'taan passed his key over the lock, and he entered with the lunch container held carefully.
"E'taan!" Valara came to him, her dark hair shining in the dim lighting. On the cooking unit was supper and it smelled delicious, E'taan realized again with amazement. His wife was dressed in pants and a comfortable shirt topped with a loose jacket – on her belt was a well-used blaster. On the table were their two places to eat, already set. Also accompanying these were stacks of datapads and datacards.
"Working late?" E'taan inquired, leaning in for a kiss.
She complied happily, then nodded as they broke. "I think we've almost got all the evidence we need on that spice team. Looks like we'll be moving in a few weeks."
E'taan nodded, placing his jacket on a nearby rack and the lunch container carefully on the counter. Luke had been sleeping peaceably for the past half hour since E'taan had accepted him from Obi-Wan.
"I've got a surprise for you, Valara," he said casually, trying to hide his broad smile. Occasionally he would come home with a trinket or a note he had written on break – flowers were not only expensive but practically impossible to find on the gangster world.
"What a coincidence, I've got a surprise for you," she responded, moving their meal from the cooking unit to the table. "Bet mine's bigger."
"I doubt that," he responded, bending down to wash his hands thoroughly. No matter what precautions he took, his hands were always grimy by the end of the day. "I could give you fifty guesses and you would never – oof!"
Suddenly finding himself hugged once more from behind, E'taan swiped at his hands with the towel and turned around. "We must have hit the jackpot on this bunch," he managed, before she silenced him with a kiss.
"Shush," she whispered, and E'taan nodded, looking at her with curiosity. For a moment she paused, and then the words came out in a rush.
"E'taan – you're a daddy."
"What?" For a moment E'taan was bewildered, then the news settled in and he whooped, before hugging his wife and whirling her around the room of their sparse apartment. Then the questions flowed.
"For how long? When did you find out? Boy or a girl? Are you feeling okay?"
"Shush," she repeated herself, clamping a hand firmly over his stubbly mouth. "Told you I had the bigger news — what is that?"
Startled awake by E'taan's joyous shout, Luke had begun to wail.
Laughing blissfully to himself over their good fortune (and the bewildered look on Valara's face), E'taan took down the container and opened it to reveal Luke's raging face. Hugging his wife to his side as her breath caught, E'taan smiled.
"Here's my news for you: Valara, you're a mommy."
07:54, Azure IV, present time.
The command center was a shambles. When the clones had arrived and begun scouring the planet's communities for her, Siri had taken a gamble and hidden inside the garrison base. It had almost worked, till a determined commander had pointed the turbolaser emplacements at the surrounding city and threatened to fire on a school for children, certain she was hiding there.
Unwilling to condemn the children to death for her own safety, Siri had revealed herself – by severing the main power conduit inside the command center.
Then the battle for her life had begun.
The command center boasted only a few platoons of clones and their officers, these she dispatched fairly easily – but not before an officer had discovered where she had jacked in to their computer system and had sent messages to Obi-Wan and Ferus, her ex-padawan.
Whereas the ones running the destroyer in orbit would have simply been content to level the command center to the ground, the opportunity to possibly collect the whereabouts of two Jedi from its computer systems was too much to resist.
Information was rare and valuable – clones were efficient, many, and cheap.
Then Obi-Wan had arrived, and it was all over.
Both of them had decimated the clones, Obi-Wan's tiny ship destroying two troop carriers before ground fire shot out his engines. Unhurriedly, he had aimed the ship for the nearest contingent of clones and ejected at the last moment.
I'm coming, Siri.
Too many. Get out.
A warning in the Force sent Siri glancing toward a wall that exploded inward, even as she cut down a pair of clones. More armored figures filed in, and as she raced toward them to close the distance, she saw the e-web.
Without thinking she threw up her hand and shoved, a desperate attempt to topple the cannon before it cut her down. To her shock, the Force blasted through the ranks, tossing clones into each other and the walls, the e-web and its stand sent tumbling across the grounds outside the command center.
What? For a moment Siri gaped at the damage she had done, but another warning in the Force had her spinning as clones closed in on her from behind as they rounded a corner. Then her saber was spinning, deflecting bolts into the walls as fast as she could.
Another surge in the Force tossed the clones down the intersection, and she heard distinctive crunches and cries as they struck the unforgiving walls. The one clone that had dared to enter the corridor and had subsequently avoided the attack spun on his heel just in time to see the sapphire blade that decapitated him.
"Obi-Wan!"
Siri found herself running, and the next moment she was wrapped up in his arms and was safe. A few seconds ticked by, and she pulled away slightly. "You're alive!"
"So are you," he responded, more happy than she was. "We've got to get out of here!"
"Obviously, Kenobi," she snapped out of habit, but with no maliciousness. There was something different about Obi-Wan, something she'd never seen before. He seemed too joyful considering the events on the past weeks. For that matter, he seems too happy to see me, considering what we agreed to put behind us.
"C'mon." Taking her hand, Obi-Wan led the way out. Soon the clones were on them again, but Siri discovered that Obi-Wan seemed to be more powerful in the Force as well. Most clones were simply batted aside like bugs.
"Siri! On your left!"
"Got it," she responded, spinning her saber to deflect bolts. Picturing the frame above the door, she wished she close off this angle of attack – then the ceiling collapsed, burying most of the clones beneath as she pulled down three stories of durasteel and duracrete with ease.
"What's happened to me?" she yelled, confused, as they emerged from the command center. The roar of a cannon filled the air, and she suddenly found an enormous piece of metal hovering before them like a giant shield.
"We're powering each other through our bond," Obi-Wan responded, dropping the shield suddenly as a break in the fire sounded. Ahead of them two rockets exploded from their ports on a Juggernaut tank, one of the Empire's most deadly ground machines. Designed to shatter armor, the rockets homed in on Obi-Wan instead.
Clones cried out in alarm as Obi-Wan batted the rockets away with the Force while Siri found herself acting instinctively to protect him. Suddenly the tank rose seven meters in the air and was torn in half, each portion slamming back into the ground.
"Bond?" She could feel it, though. Pulsing with their shared connection to the Force, she realized it had been there a long time.
She and Obi-Wan stood back to back now, calmly deflecting blaster bolts back to their senders as they spoke.
"You'll understand it all in a moment," Obi-Wan assured her. "Save that one," he added, nodding to the clone commander.
Unable to see the movement but able to sense it, Siri nodded. A split second later the surviving clone found himself seized by an invisible force and hauled in front of the two Jedi. The male, Obi-Wan Kenobi, looked at him simply.
"Call the commander on the ship. The Jedi are dead; request medical assistance and a cleanup crew. You will be departing soon in a shuttle to deliver the data to Darth Vader."
The clone nodded, eyes glazed over inside his helmet as he began to submit the orders.
"This is too easy," Siri observed, glancing around. Aside from the crackling fires around them and the speaking clone a few feet away, all was quiet. "What next?"
"We're getting out," Obi-Wan replied, leading the way to the shuttle. Five minutes later they were breaking orbit and Obi-Wan was punching in coordinates.
"What's this about a bond?" Siri finally asked. "I can feel it now – but when?"
Sighing, Obi-Wan placed his hand on her forehead, and suddenly she was swarmed with forgotten memories. Being shot, giving a rock to Obi-Wan – a glorious warm place, with lots of life. Obi-Wan confessing his love, devotion…
Her eyes snapped open, and she glanced around the cockpit groggily. It had been three hours. Sighing, Obi-Wan opened his eyes also, his hand dropping from her head to stroke her hair.
For a moment, all was quiet, and Siri glanced at their destination.
"Dac? We're going to visit the Mon Cals?"
"I have a friend there who will be able to conceal us for a week," Obi-Wan murmured. "He's also licensed to perform marriages."
"Hm." Siri laid her head against his shoulders. "Marriage, a week-long honeymoon on an ocean world – what's next?"
Obi-Wan smiled. "One thing at a time, darling."