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Chapter 2
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The two medics unloaded their patients (Rol pushing Luke and Guy pushing Ben), making a beeline for the medical ward, that resided in the lowermost bowels of the Academy.
They entered the ward and were met with a mixed staff of five—two Jedi and three civilian medics. The five other beings crowded around the gurneys.
"Which one?" A Mon Cal healer asked, his eyes swiveling as he surveyed his patients.
Guy turned toward him. Gemi Staad was the Chief medic/healer at the Academy.
He said, "This one," pushing Ben forward.
"What do we have?" A female medic asked.
"Deep laceration to the stomach...Recently partially healed."
"Organ damage?" The Mon Cal inquired.
"None that we could see...But the patient's lost a fair amount of blood…"
He nodded and gestured for Guy to follow him, "Move him into the surgical area." He turned toward Rol. "And the other?"
"No signs of internal bodily damage..." Rol reported, letting two of the healers maneuver Luke to a private room. "Possible head trauma…Though we can't be sure. Most likely it's just fatigue, Sir."
"Very well, we'll attend to the boy first."
Kol watched from the doorway as the staff converged upon the surgical room; suiting up and scrubbing down. Staad was washing up his arms all the way to the elbow and turned to face him. "Master Skywalker." He acknowledge with a brief nod. "You found them."
"My boy."
He nodded once more.
"We'll see what we can do." Staad murmured. "Most likely he'll need a transfusion if he's lost as much blood as Guy says. Do you know of anyone who could provide blood for the boy?"
Kol looked back toward the private room where the boy's father rested.
"His father…"
The Mon Cal shook his head. "No good."
Kol remained silent for a moment. "If I could be of assistance, I'll provide the blood for the boy." He offered.
"Provided you're a match."
"I will be." He replied confidently.
Staad examined him curiously. "Very well…" He turned toward the surgical room, uttering, "Don't go anywhere…," then vanished beyond the doors.
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Luke awoke hazily to a pounding pain within his skull, he gritted his teeth and rolled over, his head feeling as if it would split open. He clutched his hands to his head and slowly opened up his eyes. The room was bright but barely so, the only illumination coming from the overhead panels. He flopped back onto his back, staring up at the panels over his head. He squinted his eyes, straining to listen to the sounds around him.
Where am I? He thought wearily.
He could faintly hear the steady rhythm of an intermittent beeping to his right. He turned his head to observe what appeared to be medical machinery monitoring life signs. Or to be more exact….his life signs he surmised noticing the small device clamped on his right index finger. Luke frowned and reached over for it to pull it off.
When he did the machine beside his bed let out a shrill beeping noise. He ignored this and began pulling off other monitoring devices, suctions cups that were placed on his head and chest. He threw his legs over the side of the bed, determined to get out of it.
Suddenly, the door to his room slid open and two beings came in.
"Sir, you shouldn't be up," One of them chided, a female with brown hair. It was braided neatly and thrown over her right shoulder. She crossed over to his side cautiously.
Luke looked at her uneasily.
"It's all right." She assured. "You're in the Academy's medical ward. You had a fall…banged yourself up a bit."
"Where's Ben?" Luke blustered past her petty assurances.
The two medics exchanged glances.
"What?" What aren't you telling me?"Alarm played over the man's face. "What's wrong with Ben? He's not...is he?" Luke's voice raised several octaves in panic.
"Sir," The other, a male Devaronian approached him cautiously. "Please calm down…you had a bad fall…we don't want you to strain anything..."
"DON'T TELL ME TO BE CALM!" Luke hollered, his eyes frantic.
Luke watched the exchange between the two and reached for his side, but found it bereft of the item he was looking for.
"I'm going to ask you two questions…" He said in a slow, measured voice. "And they better be answers I like…" He paused for affect. "Where am I and what have you done to my son?"
The woman made a slight movement, and Luke could see a flash of red appear from behind her. He narrowed his eyes.
Another being entered the room, a small rodent like creature. He snuffled and bringing up a syringe commanded, "Hold him still..."
They weren't seriously thinking about sedating him!
Using the Force, Luke knocked the creature back a few pace and attempted to advance for the door. The two medics were on him like slime on a Hutt, holding him back.
"Sir, please," The Devaronian pleaded. "We don't wish to hurt you.."
"I want my son…I want Ben now." He demanded.
His emotions were rushing and Luke couldn't help but feel swept away with them. Despite all of his calm and training, the thought of his child in true peril set his heart into overdrive.
"You've got to let me see him." He argued, fighting against them. "I need…"
Luke suddenly felt a prick on neck and within moments could feel the sedative working its way into his system. He tried fighting it, but it was useless. He felt his body become heavier and his legs threatened to give out from under him. And he could have collapsed straight to the floor if the two medics hadn't been holding him up.
His vision wavered and he soon found himself going under once more.
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"So, he should be all right, now?" Kol asked Staad.
A young healer backed away, finished from bandaging his arm around the spot they had drawn blood from. Surprisingly to them—and not so surprising to Kol—he had the same blood type as the boy: A-.
"That I cannot t say…" Staad said. "We have begun he transfusion now...But it will be up to the boy if he is to survive…He is stable at the moment, but whether his body accepts the blood and allows it to do its job is anyone's guess…We can only wait and hope."
Kol nodded.
Yes, the healer was correct, but he couldn't help but pray the boy pulled through. If he didn't what would happen to his son… or the galaxy for that matter? He frowned. Kol didn't care much about his own life, but for Cade to live….and the galaxy to thrive, he found it at the utmost importance for Ben Skywalker to live.
Force watch over him.
"Very well." He said finally. "I leave him in your care, Gemi. " Kol turned to leave, "I'll be meeting with the Council. I'll be back later to check in on them both." He looked toward the private rooms.
He'd been informed Luke had awoken and tried to make a break for it. The man had been frantic and so the staff had given him a sedative to calm him down. He was told that considering the amount he was given, his great-grandfather should be asleep for a good two hours—enough time for him to rest without having the staff worrying about him.
He'd leave the staff to worry about him anyway, Kol decided; he had to speak to the Council immediately—and was going to be late.
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He made his way to his private chambers and entered a large room, done mostly in pastels. Its walls were of a dark grey, its floors done in fine marble, a large oval conference table situated at the middle of the room with recessed lighting positioned above it. Off to the sides of the table, two matching credenzas were pushed against opposite walls; the flat surfaces done in the same material as the floor. Beyond the credenzas were two doorways that led into adjacent rooms, and a steel shuttered window at the far wall.
Kol made his way around the shining, steel table and took his place at the head of it. He activated the holo-receiver by a button hidden underneath the lip of the table's edge and waited as several holoimages materialized into view. A crew of three additional beings sat at various points around the table—all prominent, fellow Council members. The number of beings sitting on the Master's Council had greatly diminished from Old Republic and New Republic times; reduced to four instead of the vaunted twelve. Kol looked at each Master in turn—T'ra Saa, a Neti Master of the Old Republic, K'Kruhk, a Whiphid Master, another survivor of Order 66, and Tili Qua, a Chadra-fan Master.
"Is there some reason you have called us?" K'Kruhk inquired, his voice guttural, with words spoken past great tusks protruding from his lower jaw.
Kol turned to meet his gaze. "Yes. There has been an occurrence which warrants the Council's attention. "
The Whiphid Master looked upon him expectantly. He sported a long equine face with a wide cranium, broad forehead, and long narrow snout. His eyes narrowed, waiting for Kol to speak once more.
"Thirty standard minutes ago, my boy and I had been outside in the forests of Ossus when he sensed something in the Force."
"Something," Tili Qua repeated, ears flapping curiously, her snout wrinkling, "What is this something, young Skywalker sensed?"
Kol turned his head to the Chandra-fan, aware that T'ra Saa, the Neti Master, and K'Kruhk held their equally interested gazes on him.
"Yes, Master Qua." He turned to address the Council as a whole once more, "As I was saying, my boy sensed something in the Force. He took off running; I lost him briefly in that time period. When I had finally found Cade, he was located on one of the far slopes ledges; the ones situated to North." He paused. "What Cade found were two individuals—a boy and an older man.
"The boy was found to be severely wounded, a stomach laceration, and has since been admitted into the Academy's medical ward. The man though was not in as bad shape as the boy, though he appears to be showing extreme fatigue from whatever encounter he and the boy had. "
He glanced at each in turn in.
Kol continued, "It is the man who is the subject of this meeting. I can state, that without a doubt—and hopes that you won't think I've gone mad—that the being that we found is…my great-grandfather."
T'ra Saa didn't miss a beat.
"Luke Skywalker?" She gasped incredulously.
The Neti looked about wildly, stunned by Kol's revelation, her brown tendril like hair whispering around her dark face, gazing at him expressively through yellow-green eyes.
T'ra shook her head, inquiring, "How can that be? It is common knowledge that his existence has been gone from his galaxy for two decades. Once a being has returned to the Force as he did, there is no way it can return to corporal form."
"That maybe true, Master Saa, but it does not dispute that fact that he is here and very much alive, although I can hardly believe it myself."
"Indeed." K'Kruhk concurred. "This is…quite a unique happenstance is it not?"
"Quite."
"Have you had the opportunity to speak with this man?"
"I have not. He has been in and out…and is currently incapacitated due to the sedative he was given—though I did get to speak with him very briefly when he awoke during our ride back to the Academy when he expressed concern for the boy."
K'Kruhk looked thoughtful for a moment.
"You say he had to be incapacitated."
"Yes, according to one of the staff, he became frantic when inquiring about the boy."
T'ra and the Whiphid Master exchanged glances. "If he was distraught over the boy...does that mean…" She probed.
"Yes, I believe the boy to be his son, Ben Skywalker."
"Another mystery." Tili commented. "Most unusual. Not one…but two." She shook her head, "I question the implications of such an occurrence."
"As do I." Kol said agreeably
"We cannot however overlook it no matter how dubious it seems." T'ra pointed out.
K'Kruhk snorted, "Agreed." He turned to Kol. "Now, you spoke of the boy being injured. A laceration, you said?"
"Yes, it was a deep horizontal wound over the abdomen. From what I noticed upon my first look at it, and from what Gemi tells me, the laceration cut through several layers of flesh; these including skin, fat, tissue, and muscle…The abdominal wall was breached, causing the innards to spill out—though the wound looked partially healed… When I left the medbay the boy had just received a transfusion and was proclaimed stable by Master Staad, though he is far from out of the woods I believe.
"However, I suspect the father will make a full recovery in a short time, since his condition is not as dire as his son's. Both of them, though, warrant further observation and hospitalization until Staad says otherwise.
"In conclusion, until we are notified otherwise about the situation, I believe it is our duty to decide what must be done. So I bring this matter before you and come to seek the Council's judgment on how we should proceed given the current circumstance."
T'ra ventured, "I believe our first course of action would be to glean as much information as we can from the situation—and that can only be done by either speaking with the boy or his father. Given the boy's current incapacitation, that is a moot point though."
"Yes."
"Then our next logical choice is the father—Luke Skywalker." She seemed hesitant to refer to him as such; all of them had in fact. Including himself, Kol realized sourly.
He could hardly blame them—it was a hard pill to swallow.
"Yes," K'Kruhk began. "Given the nature of the circumstances, I would advise that we meet him as soon as possible and confer with him on this. Hopefully, if he is who you believe he is, he can perhaps shed light upon this matter. We can then move onward from there once we have the desired information. "
He turned to look at Kol.
"Do you believe that to be possible, Master Skywalker?"
Kol thought for a moment then said, "Yes, and no." He paused. "His health is less severe than the boy's as I have said, so there would be no question of him being able to meet with you—provided he is given enough time to recover, of course—however, there is still the matter of the boy, and I do not believe he would leave the boy's side, not until he is either completely recovered or at least out of danger."
He could feel the disappointment lingering in the Force. He didn't care for the fact either, but there was nothing to do aside from forcing the man. And Kol could not bring himself to subject a father to such an act.
Because while Kol knew that he could never truly grasp the true reality of what the man was going through, as a father he sympathized with him.
"Very well then," Master K'Kruhk murmured. "We will meet with him as soon as he feels ready to do so. Agreed?"
"Agreed," resounded the remaining Masters.
Kol looked around and moved to stand. "Now, if you all have no further questions, I must attend to my duties."
"None."
He nodded. "May the Force be with you," he offered with a raised hand.
"May the Force be with you, Master Skywalker." They said in return.
Kol then pressed the button again and the holoimages winked out, leaving him once more alone in the room. He turned toward the back wall and pressed another button, this time on the chair's arm, and watched as the shutters rose from the window, illuminating the room. He made his way toward the viewport and looked out of it, eying the tree tops from his fourth-floor vantage point. He stood there for a while, weighing his options and contemplating what he should do himself given the current situation.
They had settled the matter of meeting with Luke until the man was ready, but that didn't negate the fact that something had to be done until then. Kol too was curious as to his great-grandfather's presence in their time period—his being there broke every law of physics and time. It completely destroyed reality. He had to find out why the man was here and how it was that he came to be here.
But most of all, he longed to speak with him; just speak honestly and openly. He yearned to converse with the man who he held in such high regard all his life, a man who if he was honest he held on a pedestal. A man so respected in his own life time, his family name was heralded into the depths of history, and his descendants branded respectfully.
It was Luke Skywalker who encouraged him to be who he was; it was the late Grand Master's life that inadvertently shaped his own.
And now, after all his wishing and yearning, he finally had that chance to know the man whom he'd modeled himself after—the man whom he sought Cade to emulate as well.
Kol drew a breath, gave the scenery one last look, and turned back toward the door, closing the shutters as he exited the room. He proceeded back to the turbolift lift, and instead of hitting the button for the med level, he opted for the dorm level.
Inwardly, he knew he should return to the med-ward to check up on his unexpected visitors, but decided that his time was best spent elsewhere until his great-grandfather awoke.
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Cade sat upon the lone chair in the room, staring upon the patient that lay in the medbay bed. He hadn't really examined the man before, but now he had a greater chance to do so. The man was much older than his father that much was obvious—the boy surmised he must've been in his 80s. His face was worn, but amazingly still looked young for a man of his assumed age. He had mostly graying hair with a hint of blonde streaked through at various intervals. He was still dressed in the clothes he'd been wearing when Cade initially found him.
He wore a sandy-colored tunic over light grey trousers. A utility belt, which he'd probably been wearing, was laid on top of one of the few shelves in the room. Cade fingered it, looking over the man's appearance. Given the style and cut of the clothing one might assume that the man who lay before him was a Jedi—or at the very least had ties to the Jedi community.
He got to his feet, hovering over the slumbering man. "Just who are you?" Cade whispered.
The youth had seen the way his father reacted at this old man's appearance. There was no way that it was nothing as Kol said. His father had acted as if he knew this man.
He leaned over and touched the man's cheek, examining him. Cade frowned. He didn't like this, didn't like it one bit. He then withdrew and plopped back down in the chair.
He'd get some answers, and he'd sit here until the man woke up if he had to.
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Luke moaned audibly, coming awake for the second time, his head no longer splitting as it had before. He slowly opened his eyes and was granted with the view of a gangly youth. At first he thought it was Ben and his heart almost leapt with joy, but then he realized it was not his son. This boy was average height at the most and had the same build as Ben and even strangely bore a striking resemblance to his son, but this was not Ben. This boy had blonde hair instead of red and green eyes instead of blue. His skin was light and his face reasonably the same shape, but that was all that connected the two boys together.
It was also apparent to Luke that this boy was several years his son's junior.
The blonde youth said, "Hey…" He got to his feet, leaning over Luke. "You doing okay? You're…not going to freak out again, are you?"
The older man moved to speak, but found his voice coming out on a croak. His mouth felt dry and stuffed with cotton. He moved his jaw.
"Oh, do you want some water?" The boy asked.
Luke nodded his head weakly.
"Okay, I'll get you some. I'll be right back, don't move." He took off.
Luke struggled to upright himself, looking around the area. He was situated in a 12 x 8 room with two pieces of furniture besides the one he was currently occupying; a small dresser and a chair which the youth had been sitting. The room was sparse, sterile and white just like any other private med room he'd had the privilege of being in.
The bed he was occupying was of a better quality and certainly above the standard of any normal med-ward bed. To his left and right an array of medical monitoring machines stood, most of which were hooked up to him as if he was some experimental test subject.
Among them were, a heart monitoring machine, whose device was latched on to his left hand this time and a neural activity monitor. He lifted a hand to touch the electrodes which were suctioned onto various places on his head. He winced feeling a slight uncomfortable feeling in his arm and looked down to examine an IV drip which flowed from the needle embedded in it to the bag hanging up to his left.
He was still examining his state when the boy walked back into the room with a glass in one hand and a bottle of mineral water in the other. He was much taller than Luke had first guessed, though the rest of him appeared to be about the same. His dark green eyes which lurked beneath neatly trimmed, short blonde hair seemed to fixate on him as poured the water into the glass. He then handed it to Luke, eyes still tracking him.
Luke took it graciously, whispering a "Thank you," before taking a long drink of the cool water.
When he was finished he handed the glass back to the youth.
"Thank you." He murmured once again, his throat feeling raw.
"Don't talk…" The boy set the glass and bottle aside.
Luke examined the boy once more. Yes, he was taller than anticipated, but not by much—certainly not average though—and he was certainly not taller than Ben.
Ben…
"Where's Ben?" He blurted out fearfully.
The youth frowned, looking confused. "Ben? Oh, you mean the boy who was with you."
"Yes…"
"I think he's been moved to the other side of the ward. He came out of surgery a little while ago… When we brought him in he was banged up real bad, had this giant gash on his stomach. Master Staad wasn't sure if he was going to pull through..." At the look of horror on the man's face, Cade quickly reassured, "But he's fine now, he's out of surgery as I said and Master Staad says he's stable and believes the worst is over…"
Luke was silent.
"Are you okay?" Cade gingerly sat down on the man's bed, hoping not to startle him.
"Yes…You say he's stable."
"That's what I hear." He looked around.
The old man's jaw worked and he looked as if he was mulling something over in his head. "But…he lost a lot of blood."
"They did a transfusion."
Luke opened his mouth.
"My dad gave him his blood…"
"I-uh…thank you."
The blonde shook his head and laughed, "Don't thank me, I didn't do anything, thank, Dad."
"Why?"
"Why not?" Cade responded, sounding slightly baffled. "That's what Jedi do…That's what any decent person would do period, right?"
"Jedi?" He echoed.
"Yeah, Jedi."
Cade peered at him, noticing how the man's face had paled visibly. "Are you sure you're okay? 'Cause you don't look so good. Kind of pale…" He got up. "Maybe you better lie back down and get more rest."
It was then that Luke noticed the boy's facial structure and skin color weren't the only thing that Ben and the boy had in common. The boy was clad in a familiar tunic and trousers and wore black boots and a small utility belt; all of which vaguely reminiscent of a Jedi's attire.
"Sir?"
Luke held up his hand. "I'm fine," He drew himself up further, resting his back against the headboard. "Now, you said…you were Jedi…"
"That's right." The youth frowned. "Is something wrong?"
"No, no, of course not." Luke dragged a hand through his hair; he was still trying to process what was going on. After a moment of looking at the blandly pattern med sheets he said, "I don't believe I caught your name."
"Oh, it's Cade…Cade Skywalker."
Luke stared at the boy, stunned.
Recovering, he murmured, "What did you say?"
"I said my name is Skywalker."
Skywalker? Dear Force, where am I?
And with that, the Jedi Grand Master fainted dead away.
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A/N: LOL Well, I enjoyed that part too much… Make sure to review if you liked it…I'm curious as to what my readers think…