They had been walking for almost 2 hours and were about halfway through the forest when Anakin first noticed it, pure, unnerving…silence. The trio had been quiet for almost 20 minutes and it was driving Anakin crazy. He turned around quickly, "Why can't you guys tal-" but the sentence stopped as he noticed there was no one behind him, no trace of Obi-Wan or Iella. Not even a Force signature, the dead forest was just dead. Anakin cursed himself for being so blind.

But he barely had a chance to think before he felt something cold hit his neck and everything went dark and quiet.

Iella awoke with a start. She sat up quickly and immediately scurried backwards. She was up on a cliff ledge perched 75 feet above the dusty ground. Her whole body felt sore and faint. She reached up to rub her neck and her hand found a sharp metal dart sticking out of her skin just above her collarbone. She carefully grasped it with her fingers, and in one swift motion, yanked it out. She bit her tongue as pain shot through her skin. Carefully she examined the dart, it was long and thin with one end, a barbed needle, to ensure the most pain and effect, the other end, a thin triangular tail like an arrow. On shaky legs, she stood up and held onto the rock face next to her as her vision blurred and twisted. She needed to find the others. Especially Obi-Wan. They had been walking through the forest, Anakin leading the way, Iella and Obi-Wan in the back. They were heading towards the structure that was allegedly the location of their missing data when suddenly, Obi-Wan fell, but before she could yell out to Anakin, she felt something hit her, and the ground rose up to greet her. Whether Anakin had been hit by the same thing or not, she didn't know. She checked the Bond, searching for any sign of Anakin but received only a buzzing sound, indicating that he was too far to reach or was incapacitated. She was on her own. She looked down at the cliff face below, it was entirely sheer, not a notch or jut to hold on to. Taking a deep breath and swallowing, she walked to the edge, and jumped. Just before Iella hit the ground, she summoned the Force and in one big push, stopped herself from a rather painful landing. She landed on her stomach, stood up, and brushed herself off. The sun was baking down on the dead planet, making Iella sweat beneath her heavy cloak and robes. She glanced up at the horizon and decided to start walking towards the trees she had seen before, hoping that those were the same ones they had been in before this whole incident occurred.

Obi-Wan didn't even remember what happened, all he knew was that he woke up in a hollow under a massive tree, and Anakin and Iella were nowhere to be found. The ground around him was cool but just beyond the ground was almost scalding. He stood up and immediately sat back down, nauseous. Instinctively, he felt his neck for a bruise, a cut, anything. Instead he found a single metal dart, punctured into his skin right on the nape of his neck. Tranquilizers, no wonder I felt dizzy. When he felt he had finally regained his balance, he stood up and looked around. There were no paths, no markers, no way of knowing where he was. The branches above prevented most of the light from coming through but the sky he could see was a bright cerulean which meant he still had a lot of day left. Good. He thought. I'll need a lot of time to find the others. Without any way of knowing where he was or the others, he simply decided to continue on the way to the stone structure. Maybe the others will do the same thing.

Iella reached the edge of the forest just as dusk was falling and the sky was a swirling pelt of indigo and navy with the shimmering glints of stars sprinkled throughout. She ventured into the dead trees, hoping that it remained light for a little longer; the forest was dark enough at high sun, at night it would be treacherous. Iella had barely made it 50 feet before a low rustling from ahead caught her attention. She snuck up behind a large tree and grabbed her lightsabre from where it hung on her belt. And in one sudden motion she leaped out from behind the tree and ignited her sabre. But the rustling figure, also had a lightsabre.

"Master Obi-Wan?" Iella questioned cautiously.

"Yes it's me, now can we put the lightsabres down?" The smooth yet wary voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi answered. The light from his sabre was casting his face in slim shadows and piercing angles. Iella extinguished her lightsabre first, returning it to its holster on her belt. She approached him calmly and silently despite the fountains of questions spewing in her mind. But the first one that both were thinking of:

"Where's Anakin?"

"I don't know. I didn't see him when I walked over here from the cliffs."

"Cliffs? Where were you? Wait hold on, let's start with what happened."

And once more, Iella ran through the story, except this time out loud and with added pieces from Obi-Wan they were able to piece together a timeline. After Obi-Wan and Iella were hit, Anakin was mostly likely hit with the same thing. Obi-Wan awoke in a random part of the forest, Iella on a tall cliff face. And while they could theorize that Anakin was dropped in the salt flats to the north, they had no evidence to support this. After many ethical and moral dilemmas, Obi-Wan and Iella finally decided that it would be best to retrieve the data chip and find Anakin later (they were relying on the Force telling them that Anakin wasn't dead or injured) or meet Anakin at the stone palace.

Once night fell in the forest, it was almost impossible to see the ground in front of you let alone, the path ahead. Both Jedi drew their sabres and used what little light they provided to help guide them. A precarious hour later, the edge of the forest was at last in sight. And thankfully for the Jedi, just beyond the forest sat the massive stone and mortar peaks marking the stronghold.

And since Obi-Wan believes that diplomacy is the solution to almost every problem, instead of trying to sneak into the castle, he simply went up to the soaring wood doors, and knocked. Unfortunately for Obi-Wan, diplomacy here was not graciously accepted. In fact, it was downright rejected. This became clear when the doors flew open and a guard wearing a tawny uniform bearing no insignia or marks stepped towards them and held in the guard's hands was a long, freshly polished phaser rifle.

Obi-Wan gave no indication he had even seen the rifle and simply turned to the guard and smiled.