The Color of Truth: The Places in Between

Chapter Twenty-Six

Not a soul was moving. It seemed as if even the wildlife in the woods beyond the buildings had frozen in time. It was a tense stand-off and one of us was going to have to make a move sooner or later. Most eyes were on me while the rest were on Jaxson. Qui-Gon didn't seem willing to interfere at the moment, though I could sense Voss was getting jittery and would no doubt enjoy taking the boy out. I had the same inclination, but I wasn't going to risk injuring Padmé in the process.

"What's your next move?" I asked the young man, leaning forward in my seat.

"You haven't left me much of a choice, have you?" he responded, his eyes darting about the table to prepare for an attack from any direction. "I'm getting off this rock and this old lady right here is my ticket. As soon as that transport arrives, I'll be taking her with me. That way, I know I'll be able to board without you interfering."

Not likely, I determined in my mind.

/Let him take me,/ Padmé said with calm determination. /Better me than Leia. Once he takes this knife off me, I'll show him what this old lady is capable of./

/I have no doubt,/ I replied /but it won't come to that. I'm not letting him leave this table./

/Be careful, Obi-Wan./

/Aren't I always?/

Overhead, I heard the boom of a ship entering the atmosphere and realized the transport had arrived. Jaxson was going to leave soon and if I was going to do something to stop him, I had to do it now!

"There's my ride," Jaxson proclaimed smugly while he tugged on Padmé's sleeve, motioning for her to rise.

So far, Leia had been stunned to silence, but when she noticed her mother wasn't going to fight, she stood as well.

"Jax, don't do this! I'll go with you! We can be together like we talked about."

Instead of considering Leia's plea, the young man chuckled. "Did you really believe I cared about you? Perhaps I missed my calling. Instead of studying the ways of the Dark Side, I should've gone into theater."

He claimed it. There was no doubt now, though one question remained.

"Who's your Master?" I asked him seriously with a touch of the Force behind my question.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Jaxson chuckled cynically once more. "Someone who wanted Dooku dead, I can tell you, but that's all I'm going to say. Come on," he added, pulling Padmé along with him, the knife still held against her throat. He seemed confident of his escape until suddenly becoming aware of a wave of power coming against him.

I quickly glanced at Leia, watching her incrementally becoming angrier than I'd ever seen her before.

"Don't even think about it!" Jaxson screamed at her. "You attack me, then I'll slit her throat! I swear!"

Obviously, the young man had no idea who he was dealing with and little by little the metal blade in his hand began to glow. Within seconds, the metal had gotten so hot that he had no choice but to drop it. This gave Padmé the chance to get out of harm's way and me the opportunity I'd been waiting for.

"Leia! Let me go!" I requested just before I made a giant leap the length of four long tables, lightsaber in hand, only to discover I'd been unable to intercept his next attack.

/Obi-Wan!/ Padmé shouted at me.

In an instant, Jaxson had pulled a dart from his robe and had jabbed it into her back. She couldn't reach it to pull it out, but little did that matter, because it had already emptied into her body.

"Leia, tend to your mother!" I exclaimed before engaging the young man to fight.

The hilt of a lightsaber smacked into the young man's palm, its red beam clashing against my blue one.

Whoever had trained him, had done very well in such a short time and he easily parried each thrust of my sword. He was even able to counter an additional two more blades as Qui-Gon and Quinlan joined in. He was outnumbered and realized we had the upper hand, until everything came to a screeching halt.

Into our midst, Leia stepped forward and powered down each one of lightsabers. Not only had she taken away our weapons, but we were once again unable to move. Apparently, she wanted Jaxson all to herself.

"Sweetheart, what are you doing?" I whispered harshly at her while she slowly approached the young man.

"I trusted you," she said to him softly and with a deadly tone. "Even when nobody else did. I believed in you and I was going to go with you. You probably think I'm naive and young, but I was in love with you. I would've done anything you said and you took advantage of that."

The young man appeared to be trying to speak, but apparently, Leia had taken away his voice as well.

"Before you go, I wanted to say thank you for teaching me such an important life lesson."

With tears in her eyes, Leia turned toward me and smiled. "I should've listened to you Dad. You were right. I'm sorry."

"It's okay, honey," I assured her before she returned her focus upon the helpless young man who was angrily fighting against her control of him. Every vein in his head and neck was bulging and his body was twitching uncontrollably.

"You are a danger to my family as well as the entire galaxy, Jaxson Mor-Ta. You are of the Dark Side and guilty of murder. I hereby sentence you to death."

For the first time, fear was revealed upon the young man's face just before he winced. Something was happening to him which was hidden from anyone else and he then began to jerk all over as if he were in a great deal of pain.

In less than a minute, it was over. He collapsed onto the ground in a lifeless heap. Leia collapsed herself, sobbing into her hands. Dela was the first to hurry over to console her, while I checked on Padmé.

"I'm all right," she reassured me with a smile, having been frozen in a kneeling position all this time, "although I do feel a little strange."

I had a bad feeling about what she'd said and I quickly took inventory of the bond, only to discover that it no longer existed. With her drastically lowered M-count, the Force could apparently no longer connect us.

"Leia!" I shouted, calling over our daughter while helping her up. "It's the vaccine. Can you do something about it?"

I watched helplessly as our daughter placed her hand over the injection site. She concentrated mightily for a few seconds before tears once more rolled down her face.

"I can't!" she sobbed. "It's already gone into her cells."

Leia threw herself into her mother's arms while Padmé caressed her head and hair. "It's okay," she cooed. "I'm fine. Your father and I are going to be fine."

With her other hand, Padmé reached out to draw me closer. I responded immediately and embraced my family while looking more closely at my wife. She appeared content, although everything had changed. I could no longer read her thoughts or emotions. I could no longer communicate with her through the bond. But did that really matter? Did that diminish my feelings for her in any way?

The answer to that question was an adamant no. I loved her more in this moment than ever before. She was right, as she usually was. We were going to be just fine.