Everyx and Sarah blinked, and watched Qui-Gon's posture go from action to wariness. Their eyes were green again. Could he be sure he hadn't just seen what he was expecting?
"Master?" said Gillis. "What's going on, sir?"
Phenomenal. They started breathing deeply. Phenomenal power, all locked inside the mind, not the body. No wonder there's been so much conflict. But now I'm here. Master will say the word, and we will burn planets. We must return to him.
They looked back at Qui-Gon. First, we have some debts to repay.
Not here. We cannot do it weaponless, and this is not the setting. He should come to us, just as we came to him.
They smiled.
"Sarah," Qui-Gon said, gently, "I need you to come with me, and visit Master Yoda. I think the Quiet Room may have compromised your mind."
No fucking shit. thought Sarah.
No, we think together. Everyx pressed. Always together.
What? What is this? It itches.
They reached their hand to the back of their neck. Qui-Gon thought they were stretching, but then they started yanking. They were ripping the Tracker out of their skin with a wet sound, sending drops of gold blood seeping down their neck. The spidery wires were stretched taut, inching out jerk by jerk.
Qui-Gon ran to stop her, followed by Gillis.
Everyx and Sarah reached out, and set their fingers ablaze. The Force converged at the five tips, compressed so intensely that they blazed into white hot energy. The lightning hit Gillis and Qui-Gon in the chest, slamming them both into the wall. Their heads ricocheted against them, and they fell limp to the ground.
Everyx and Sarah tossed the Tracker aside, and walked past the bodies, stroking Qui-Gon under the chin as they went.
Until tonight.
….
Qui-Gon awoke to a ringing head and Master Windu's face. He immediately sat up, though his head spun.
"Is Gillis alright?" he asked. "Where is Sarah?"
"He was merely knocked unconscious." said Windu, as he stood. "The other is unknown. We're about to call the Temple to search."
That would include the most qualified padawans. Obi-Wan.
"No, Master, it's more dangerous than that. I have reason to believe she is possessed by a Sith spirit."
He told him everything, his clues, her eyes, the fact that she'd shot Sith lightning at them both. There was no fear in Mace's gaze as he received this, but something of the battle-field awoke in him. That much power, in the hands of a competent user? There would be blood.
"Gillis," said Windu, "Sound the alarm. All padawans must be safely confined. Only the Masters may join the search, and they should approach with extreme caution."
A massacre was inevitable. Qui-Gon knew his focus should be on stopping the destruction, but he couldn't help but be pained at the fact that Sarah was all but doomed. Everyone would be focused on bringing down this ticking time bomb, not in saving it. And her time was running out. No one had been known to hold out to a ghost in their mind for over ten hours. When that time was up, Sarah would have dwindled to nothing, and only Everyx would remain.
Sarah would quench stars before she hurt Qui-Gon, but that was all Everyx wanted to do. If I find her first, I will either make us or break us.
…..
The alarm reached Obi-Wan while he was still in Dooku's class, so quickly had this all occurred. It told them Sarah was on the loose, that she'd used Sith lightning, that the Masters should lock all the padawans and initiates in the classrooms, and join the search.
"Kenobi, with me." Dooku told them, stretching out his hand, and taking his very not practice, and actually lethal lightsaber from the wall.
Obi-Wan felt a flutter of fear and confusion. Last time he'd checked, he was very much a padawan. Qui-Gon would combust if he set foot out there. "Master?"
Dooku tossed him another actual lightsaber.
"You spend a lot of time with Sarah." said Dooku. "You know her, therefore you have a much better chance of finding her, and of not being harmed due to sentimentality. Do you really think we should risk lives by not using this asset, over protocol?"
All about protocol, but only when it suits him. Obi-Wan thought, in Sarah's voice.
But he's right. She wouldn't hurt me.
He followed Dooku out of the classroom.
….
Everyx and Sarah watched the Masters scuttling below. Their palms and feet stuck to the ceiling, bent at the joints like a spider. They looked to the side, and reached out. The Sith blade flew from the ceiling light into their palm.
A feeling like a breath of fresh spring air ran through the Force.
Obi-Wan. Ben! Sarah thought.
Qui-Gon's padawan. thought Everyx. Yes, that will do.
They clipped the saber to their waist, and crawled along the ceiling, turning a corner into the hall of doors where the padawans slept. There he was, by himself, lightsaber drawn and humming. A Master would keep it sheathed until a threat presented itself, but the boy was scared.
We must draw this out, else he be defeated instantly.
The blade flew to their hand, and they ignited it. The ruby fire growled to life. Obi-Wan looked up at the sound, seeing a monster stuck to the ceiling above him, eyes afire, with a weapon of blood. They dropped, and he sprang out of the way. The Sith blade swung out as they descended, Obi-Wan barely managing to deflect it in time, and red and blue lit up the hall. Hardly had he turned out of one parry before he was desperately lurching to catch another. Sweat was already sprouting on his brow. He realized he wasn't going to survive this on his own skill.
Obi-Wan leapt backwards so that he had just enough time to drop his saber, and raise his hands before she was on him again.
"I yield, I yield!" he said. "Please, Sarah."
Their lightsaber stopped just before it could cleave his forehead in two, and hovered there. The gleeful fury that had filled them before now sparked into a black, growing cloud that consumed. Obi-Wan was cheating them out of their satisfaction, refusing to fight so that they could no longer play, pleading to a friend who no longer had independent thought.
No sabers? Very well.
They pressed the release, and their blade receded into its pommel. Obi-Wan let himself breathe again.
Then the point of their shoe split the skin of his chin. His torso flew in arc, head slamming against the floor. As they bent over him, he shot his legs out to kick them in the chest. They jumped, head over heels, to avoid the blow, giving him time to stand. He reached through the force to grab their saber, and they let it go, adding speed of their own, till it was flying at his head as quickly as a bullet. He ducked, but it still managed to clip his head, sending his vision spinning. They lifted their hand, and he felt himself flying through the air till he was slammed against the wall. He slid down it, dazed, then used his bent knees to launch himself at them, sending them both into a roll. They caught Obi-Wan's blade as they went, pinned him underneath their legs, and cracked the hilt across his temple. He blacked out then, but that didn't stop them. They added the Force to the strength again, and brought it straight down towards his forehead-
And missed. Their hand changed directions in the middle, turning so they hit thin air.
Not Ben, Ben hasn't done anything, he's just a kid.
Everyx stood, and raised her foot to cave the boy's head in, but it stopped just before impact, as though she'd had hit a wall of glass.
Not Ben, not Ben, NOT BEN!
Sarah was fighting. Their thoughts were starting to split.
Alright, alright, you're right, he shouldn't be harmed. Everyx said, soothing her. Of course we won't harm him. He had nothing to do with our griefs.
They knelt beside him, and lovingly swiped the blood away from his chin with their forefinger.
Besides, every trap needs some bait.
AN: Reviews bring chapters!