Thanks again to Killiktwilight and VaderLVR64 for looking this over.

Chapter 3

Obi-Wan watched in awe as Kyr'na swung the sword that she had found among the destroyed droids. Though she was standing rather than using a proper fighting stance, he doubted its lack was due to a deficiency in skill. Her movements were far too smooth and graceful. She appeared oblivious to her actions. Absent-mindedly she would perform slashes and parries and then seamlessly change hands. The sword would move from one hand to the next, all while she stared at the closed door at the other end of the corridor or periodically looked around.

Remembering his own lightsaber forms he felt clumsy and inept in comparison. Even when fully concentrating, he could never match the elegance and skill that she showed with her distracted swings. And now he never would. Wherever he was, whatever the year, he would never be a Jedi Knight. He had not been chosen. Instead he had been sent to join the AgriCorps to be a farmer.

"Focus on the here and now."

Kyr'na stopped swinging the sword and turned to face him. The look in her grey eyes was filled with determination and resolve. Why did he have a feeling that he was not going to like what she was about to say?

"Obi-Wan, I want you to stay here while I scout ahead."

"What! You are leaving me?"

"You'll be safe here. I will come back after I have checked the area."

No. Not again. Master Qui-Gon had left him on Bandomeer. She could not leave him, too. Not here. Not surrounded by the dead. What if he really was in the past? He could be stuck here. She had promised to help, promised to take him to the Council. Did she lie? Would he remain here forever with only rotting corpses for company until he died of dehydration? Or would he end up like these miners, killed by malfunctioning droids?

Again he was filled with a strong sense of wrongness. He was supposed to become a Jedi Knight, not a farmer. He was not supposed to be 'mined' by some droid in the distant past. This was not where he belonged. Why had Qui-Gon left? Why was he not good enough to be a padawan? He did not want to be a farmer. He did not want to die in the past. He should be home, at the Temple. In his own time period!

"Release it into the Force, Obi-Wan."

As with before, hearing the familiar command caused him to still. As he had been taught, he took a deep breath and than let it out slowly. After a few repetitions he was able to get a firm enough connection to the Force.

Breathe in. He released his confusion as to where he was into the Force. Breathe out.

Breathe in. His worries that he might be in the past were also banished. Breathe out.

Next he sent his grief and pain at Master Qui-Gon's rejection and abandonment.

In the following breath, his anguish over his shattered dreams of becoming a Jedi Knight was sent into the Force.

Finally, he released his fears for his and Kyr'na's safety. He took a moment to bask in the Force's comforting embrace. He knew that he would not be able to keep the connection for long. He never could. He savored the feeling of peace and security that he felt from the Force.

As he opened his eyes he said, "We should stick together."

"I am merely going to scout ahead. I will be back."

"There could be other droids."

"That is precisely why I want you to stay here. You will be safe from them here."

"But you will not be." Obi-Wan did not understand why she was being so difficult. "I can help."

"Your courage does you credit, but please think for a moment. What help could you be against droids firing energy weapons. You are unarmed."

"I have the Force." He sensed a brief surge of pain from Kyr'na at his words before it was gone.

"Yes, you have the Force, and it can be a powerful ally, but you do not yet have the skill to wield it under such conditions."

"But…" He looked around trying to think of something that would convince her. When he saw one of the destroyed droids he said, "I could use the Force to push the droids."

"Do you really think so?"

"Yes," Obi-Wan said firmly without hint of doubt.

"See that droid over there." She pointed to the droid that had been his inspiration. "Levitate it into the air."

"Do or do not. There is no try." He gained some comfort from Master Yoda's familiar refrain. After a deep calming breath, he reached out with the Force. He cast out his senses until he felt the floor and the air around the wreckage. It took a few attempts before he had a firm grip on the droid. Ever so slowly it began to lift, wavering as it did so. After the droid had been lifted approximately a meter into the air, he slowly brought it back onto the floor.

Wiping the sweat from his forehead he said once he was no longer out of breath, "I told you I could do it." He had never lifted something so big or so heavy before.

"Yes, you did well in lifting it. But you had difficulty. And that was when you were just slowly lifting it straight up into the air. In order to use the Force in defeating a droid of this type, you would need to slam it into some surface with a great deal of velocity. Given time and training, yes you would one day have the control and skill to be affective against such droids while unarmed, but you do not yet have such mastery. Padawans older than you would have had similar difficulty. And were one of those padawans here, unarmed, in place of you, I would ask them to remain here as well. Even with their greater control and experience. Obi-Wan, please. Do not fight me in this. Stay here. I will return once I've ensured the immediate area is safe."

"But…you could be hurt or killed."

"I will not lie to you, Obi-Wan. I might very well be injured or even killed. I will do my best, but there is always that possibility. But if you were to come with me, the likelihood of you or I being killed is far too high. That is why you must stay here. Promise me that you will remain in this room. I cannot afford the distraction of worrying about you while defending myself."

Not wanting to be the cause of her death he said in a whisper, "I…I promise."

He watched in trepidation as she went through the blast door. Would he ever see her again? When he heard the sound of weapon's fire shortly after she left, he started to head towards the door only to stop. He had given his word.

As he began to pace, he wondered if he had made the right decision to stay behind. His earlier calm seemed only a distant memory. A true Jedi would be in there with her. A true Jedi would be calm and serene as he waited. Was this why he was not chosen?

He could not help trying to picture what was happening behind those doors. Was she lying there dead like the miners in this room? What would happen to him if she did not survive? He wished he were back in the Temple. Things were so much simpler then. Nothing here made much sense. Was everyone in this facility really dead? What was their problem with the Jedi? How did he get here? Was he really thousands of years in the past? How would he get home? Would he ever see Coruscant again? Would he ever walk the peaceful corridors of the Jedi Temple? It all seemed so hopeless.

Staring hard at the door, it felt like he had been waiting for hours. He had lost count of the number of times he had started towards the door only to stop.

When he heard the door finally open, he sighed in relief as he saw her in the doorway. He looked her over closely for some sign of injury. Even though she appeared to be uninjured, he could not stop himself from asking, "Are you all right?"

She smiled reassuredly before saying, "I'm fine. And look what I found." She held up some type of weapon.

"A blaster?"

"Not quite. It's a hand-held mining laser, which under the circumstances is better than a blaster. It seems that the substance that they are mining here is extremely volatile. A shot from a blaster could accidentally cause an explosion that would blow up this entire facility. This laser can safely be fired here. Let's go."

Obi-Wan followed her as she quickly walked through a series of similar looking corridors. As they passed each destroyed droid, he wondered which she had found like that and which she had had to fight.

They entered a small room. There were lockers against one wall and a desk with a computer console in the center of the room. There were two other doors one of which was open. As Kyr'na walked over to the computer console, he peaked into the open doorway. There were three destroyed droids in the tiny room and a couple empty footlockers. There were five corpses in all between the two rooms. Though he was saddened by the unknown personnel's deaths, he could not help feeling relief that it was not Kyr'na nor himself lying there.

Back in the main room, he asked, "What is this place?"

"It's a security office." Stepping away from the desk she said, "Have a seat, Obi-Wan." As he sat down she continued, "I want you to stay here while I clear the Administration Center. You can watch me on the computer console."

Looking at the images on the screen before him, he exclaimed, "But there are SIX droids in there."

"That's just the ones that are within the field of view of the cameras. There could be more out of sight." What a comforting thought.

"You will be killed."

"Here." She handed him another mining laser before continuing, "If something should happen to me you will be able to defend yourself. I do not know what kind of capacity it has, so try to keep your shots to a minimum."

"I am not going to stay here and watch you get killed." He held up the mining laser and said, "With this I can help."

"You will remain here where it is safe." Her voice was firm and unyielding.

"But I can help." He had stayed behind before, but he was not about to do it again. Especially when he knew the dangers she was about to face, and he had a weapon to defend her and himself.

"You can help by remaining here. Look, Obi-Wan, there's no place in that room with sufficient cover and there are far too many of them for you to come."

"The odds will be better if I come." He thought that that much was obvious.

"It's too risky. It will be safer for both of us if I go alone. I've been in worse situations than this. Trust me."

"And if you die?"

"Than I die. Death comes to us all. It is only a matter of the time and place. I will do all that I can to see that that time is not now."

"If you die, I will be alone."

She placed a comforting hand on his shoulder as she said, "You can never truly be alone, Obi-Wan. Unlike myself, you have the Force. You will always have it to guide and comfort you. You need only to listen. Should something happen to me, trust your instincts. Trust the Force. And whenever possible, release your fears and anxiety into the Force…that being said, I have no plans to die today. Please, promise me you will stay here."

Looking at the screen he said, "I will stay." As she walked out the door, he whispered, "May the Force be with you."

Once again Kyr'na left him alone as she headed into danger. Was he making a mistake? He now had a weapon. He could help. But would he actually be of assistance or would he be in the way? Again he had promised to stay. This time he could only watch. He was unsure which was worse. Waiting with no knowledge of what was happening or watching unable to do anything about what he saw.

How could she possibly think she could survive entering that room? The computer console showed seven different images. Six of them showed the same large room from different positions. It looked as if the room was roughly oval in shape with a large formation of the asteroid going from the floor to ceiling in its center. Scattered around the room were six of those spider-like droids. The seventh image showed a man behind some form of force cage.

Obi-Wan watched the screen as the entrance to the Administration Center opened. He clenched his fists tightly as he saw Kyr'na in the doorway. In her right hand she held the vibroblade and in her left the mining laser. To the right of the doorway was one of the droids. He watched as she took a deep breath and then entered the room firing at the droid.

What followed was something straight out of an action holo. Whenever possible she would use the equipment in the room for cover. More often than not, she was in the open exposed to one or more of the droids. When cover was unavailable, Kyr'na was in constant motion moving in an unpredictable path towards whichever droid was her current target. She was faster than Obi-Wan had thought possible in a non-Jedi. She used the mining laser in her left hand to shoot the droids and when she was close enough she would use the sword in her right hand. Before too long all six were destroyed.

Maybe staying behind was the correct choice after all.