—Chapter 22: Release—
"Are you ready? You've spoken to Malfi?" asked Temiri, visibly disturbed in spite of his efforts to look staid as he glanced from Poe to Finnie to Ren.
"She didn't have answers to all of our questions," said Poe, "but she prepared us for this little jailbreak, yes."
"Temiri?" uttered Ren, hesitantly, "Are you okay?"
"No," Temiri sighed, "I'm not. But I can't talk about it right now. Let's just go," he said, moving to Malfi's cell to set her free. "Malfi, wake up. It's time to—"
"—That's far enough, Whuhai," said a cold voice.
Everyone got quiet, listening, wondering if they'd imagined the voice. It had echoed strangely in the prison corridor, and they couldn't tell where it was coming from. All they could do was watch Temiri.
Temiri had frozen in his tracks. He had been caught, and his amygdala was trying desperately to take over. He stopped breathing. He wanted to disappear. After an age-long second, his eyes crept over his right shoulder to the other end of the slowly curving hallway, where Lonâm was just edging into view.
"I'm disappointed in you, Whuhai. I'd had such grand plans for you," Lonâm said. "You nearly fooled me, you know. With your grief. But that was a different grief, wasn't it…" he said, chuckling. "Yes… a deeper, longer-lasting grief. You put that pain to good use, convincing me you had actually decided to kill this girl. But I know that game all too well. I know how attachments can make us behave… irrationally.
"My Zrirus…" He said the name as though he was praying to it, sighing deeply, "I swore then, that I would make you pay." As Lonâm took his last slow steps toward the frozen Temiri, he smiled through his crooked yellow teeth. "But I suppose I've made you pay, all the same…"
Like that of an animal, backed into a corner by a predator who saw through his camouflage, Temiri's nervous system recalculated, and he turned from Malfi's cell to whirl on his attacker. He reached for the lightsaber tucked in his cloak…
…But found no purchase, as he'd reached with his phantom limb. He had, however, given away his intentions to Lonâm, who now held him in a Force-fueled vise.
"Oh, Whuhai, you really are a fickle one," he said. "How easily I was able to convince you that your master had cast you aside. That your 'family' wasn't your family. You threw them away so easily… And now you would turn right around again and betray me. What a rabid cur you are…"
Lonâm had been moving steadily forward as he tortured Temiri, twisting the knife that Temiri had planted deeper into his own heart with every bad decision he'd made. Lonâm stood before Finnie's cage, arm outstretched toward the helpless Temiri, sidling up close to his prey. The prisoners watched in anxious horror as they contemplated their options.
"Let him go!" shouted Malfi, terrified for her friend, unable to thwart Lonâm's aggressions. She pried impotently at the bars holding her captive, jerking and clawing herself sweaty.
"You," said Lonâm, turning to her. "I should've just killed you myself," he spat. "I got greedy though. I wanted to make him suffer—and suffer he has—but I thought if I could get him to kill you—or better yet, to turn you into a murderer as well—that he'd be that much more broken when the dam finally burst."
Lonâm looked from Malfi to Temiri, meeting his disappointingly blue eyes. "I thought perhaps her attachment to you would lure her in. That you could use her as a tool to kill the others… but you're both weak, weaker than I thought. It went the other way. She was too weak to escape, and you were too weak not to be sucked back in. And now I am back to being without an apprentice. Though, I suppose, I had never really planned to keep you. I just wanted to watch you dig your own grave…"
Temiri listened in horror. During his conversation with Malfi, he'd come to realize his critical mistake. He'd been manipulated, not by his teachers or by the Republic, but by Lonâm, and had committed sins he would never be able to forgive himself for. He had killed Simeon, his mentor, his protector, his father… and for no reason but his own stupidity.
This was the punishment Lonâm had chosen for him—a punishment worse than death. If he could regain control just long enough to see his friends to safety, then maybe he could let himself die in a kind of peace. If only Lonâm would give him that.
"Even if by some miracle, you'd succeeded in sneaking out of here tonight, I win. It's the only reason I let you live this long. To know that you'd come face to face with this realization eventually, and the pain that would never heal. Much like your arm. Much like my arm… And the loss you inflicted upon me when you stole my Zrirus away. But I can't just roll over and allow you to escape either. As gratifying as it would be to have you suffer your pain indefinitely, my master would never abide such selfishness. That pain… your regret. The sin you can never take back… I will relish knowing that you died awash in that pain—and that your comrades know what you've done."
Temiri's eyes filled with tears he was unable to wipe away. He had swallowed that grief temporarily so that he could focus on freeing his friends, but now his failure was complete. He was going to die. And so were his friends. And they would die knowing that Temiri was a monster.
He welcomed death. He shut his eyes, squeezing the tears loose, and let his grief consume him. He hoped the Force would not make him suffer more by keeping his spirit awake—he welcomed the death that Lonâm promised.
The captives watched in horror as Lonâm played with his food. Soon, he would end Temiri's misery, and then he would end theirs. Finnie closed her eyes, and could barely contain the swell of emotion she was feeling. She could feel Temiri's suffering, and Lonâm's glee. Ren's terror. Malfi's sad pity. Poe's anger. And her father…
…She felt her father's love for her. Even in his addled state, he knew that these were probably his last moments, and he was spending them focusing on his love for her. Finnie felt that love, and something inside her clicked. She looked through the bars of her cell as though, through sheer will alone, she could force them open.
Lonâm took another step toward Temiri. His was a satisfaction unrivaled by any spice, any sexual gratification, or any hedonism imaginable. It had been reckless, taking them all on alone, in the middle of the night, without the support of his dark minions. But he had been greedy for this moment, and he would not be disappointed.
"You never really did cut them out completely, did you… Your attachments—you couldn't sever them," Lonâm wondered aloud as he studied Temiri's tortured face. "You kept it…" he accused, reaching inside Temiri's cloak to test his theory. "You did," he uttered, seizing the lightsaber his failed apprentice had been unable to destroy. "You couldn't purge yourself of the last vestiges of your former master, I see… Fitting, I think, that I should then use those remnants to strike you down now," whispered Lonam. Igniting the yellow lightsaber, Lonâm approached the miserable boy held in suspended animation before him and raised his arm to strike.
Malfi screamed, and the next moments were a blur. Like a shot, a second lightsaber, Temiri's lightsaber, came shooting out from beneath Lonâm's robes. It found a hand no one expected, least of all by the person who'd claimed it, and with a fantastic blue arc, the bars of Finnie's cell fell away as she emerged from the shadows. She advanced on their cruel host with the resolve of a warrior, and with another swift stroke, Lonâm's other arm had hit the floor with a satisfying thud.
Lonâm shrieked, and his pain, his shock, reverberated throughout the halls in a clarion call to his forgotten comrades. His spell on Temiri, however, was broken, and with a fluid motion, Temiri summoned Simeon's lightsaber off the floor, igniting it as it flew through the air, through Lonâm's body, and into his waiting hand.
Without missing a beat, the two soldiers turned their weapons on the remaining cell doors. Finnie had freed Ren and Temiri had freed Malfi before Lonâm's two halves had even completely settled on the floor.
Malfi ran from her cell and right into Temiri, fiercely clutching him to the point that he couldn't move. Finnie liberated Poe and her father in a single broad slash, then reached down to see to her stricken father.
"I got him, just get out! They're coming for us!" shouted Poe, out of his cell and coming up behind Finnie in an instant.
"Which way?" yelled Malfi.
"Follow me!" cried Temiri as he ran forward, dragging Malfi with him as he passed the other breached jail cells.
They could hear the echoes of shouts and footfalls of the other Black Dragons who'd been summoned by Lonâm's shrieks. By the grace of the Force, they would make it to the exit before they were caught.
They had to run single file through the dark halls. Finnie stayed close behind Temiri and Malfi, following the glow of the yellow saber. Poe ran behind her, clutching Finn by the waist, who still struggled to see straight after his ordeal. Ren kept up, followed by Malfi and Temiri bringing up the rear.
"The stairs going out are just ahead!" shouted Temiri as they approached the intersection Poe had cautiously led them through just hours earlier. He stopped at the intersection to wait for the others, urging Malfi to continue on ahead of him. However, she wouldn't leave his side, staying put as the others raced past. Finnie took the lead, slamming into the wall at the bottom of the stairs as she struggled to control her momentum turning the corner. Recovering, she followed the cold draft up toward the exit, taking the uneven stairs two or three at a time.
Up the stairs, Finnie could make out the outline of the hidden door as light from the government office behind it peeked through. Looking at it, she felt like she was clawing her way out of a grave. As the last of them rounded the corner and began climbing the steps, Temiri and Malfi made their exit.
The staircase was long, and the steps uneven, so it came as no surprise when Ren tripped and fell. Crying out in surprise, Malfi fell over on top of him, and everyone ahead of them stopped and looked back, aghast.
The Black Dragons were nearly upon them, but had not yet reached the stairs. Temiri tried to help Malfi and Ren up off the steps, but with only one arm, still clutching his teacher's old lightsaber, he was having enough trouble just keeping himself balanced on the precarious steps. Behind him, the first of their pursuers had come into view.
Temiri turned back, and steeled himself to confront the acolytes. As his companions clawed their way up the stairs away from him, Temiri tucked Simeon's saber into his belt and drew the Force around himself like a shield. Reaching out with his hand, he pulled, and a column of rock broke free from the stone ceiling, crushing the acolyte and blocking the stairwell as it fell. There was no turning back now. The only way forward, was up.
Temiri exhaled, and continued up the stairs to catch up with the others. Finnie had reached the hidden stone door and threw it open as though it were weightless. Beyond, lying in wait in the office, were two Black Dragons, ostensibly performing their duties as night-shift security guards at the Hall of Records. Though the guards were prepared for an encounter, they were unprepared for Finnie, who carved through the first guard without flinching. Gliding from one movement to the next, she whirled on the second attacker, dicing him as he gaped.
The others pushed their way into the office and found themselves again under the placid eyes of then-Senator Sheev Palpatine. Poe spat on the likeness, and they headed for the exit.
As the foyer approached, Temiri slowed his pace, watching as the others ran ahead of him.
"We need to get a hold of Chewie somehow!" yelled Poe as they entered the front foyer. Their communicators were long gone, taken by the Black Dragons. They had to do something, because they'd have no chance running for their lives in the middle of the night in an unfamiliar city, dragging a semi-conscious Finn and two exhausted children behind them. How long could they survive like that?
But they didn't have to find out, because the Falcon was already there, waiting for them outside the Hall of Records. Temiri walked apprehensively up behind the rest of the group as they waited with their hearts caught in their throats for Chewie to lower the gangplank. And lower it did.
As the gangplank's hydraulics settled into place with a hiss, a delicate hand extended outward, beckoning them inside. In spite of everything they'd seen in the last day, they could hardly believe what—who—stood before them.
