Welcome back (to me)!!! I am so sorry it's been so long since I updated this, or even you guys. Things have been really rough for me irl... but I'm doing what I can to get to a better place and will actually be moving into my own place on the 1st!! I'm very excited and with that new freedom, I'll be able to do what I love more often. Like update and write more of this story... Anyways... hope you guys enjoy!! READ ON!!
"What ever happened to your desire to help me?" I snarled, eyes narrowing at the man that stood in front of Cody and I. "This doesn't seem like helping."
"I'm not helping you at this particular moment... I'm helping us." He explained as if it were obvious.
"There is no US! Now surrender." I ordered as I took a step forward, pointing a finger at the ground.
"No." He said casually. He raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms as he leaned to one side. "You're going to realize very soon that I'm here for our mutual benefit."
"How is trying to destroy my ship and all of my men beneficial to me?" I snarked.
"I wasn't trying to destroy it. I've only disabled it. And that soldier behind you on the ground? Stunned, not dead."
"And you think that counts for what? A favor from her? You've killed dozens of my brothers before!" Cody interjected aggressively, advancing slightly. He obviously wasn't believing any of the Sith's lies. "You've attacked her and the Generals several times before and we're supposed to sit here and believe that you're trying to help her now? Riiight."
"Simple minded clone... you don't know anything. There is a war coming. She'll be a part of it whether she wants it or not. I'm just trying to prepare her." The man in front of us sneered, his hands beginning to hold fire at his sides.
"What war?" I blurted, trying to keep him talking. Hopefully, Anakin and Obi-Wan would be here soon. "What are you talking about?"
"You already know. You just don't remember. But you will soon." He said in a low voice as he started walking towards us, his fire starting to get bigger.
"Cody." I whispered under my breath as we took a step back. Cody wasted no time in firing a quick succession of stun shots that the Sith dodged then quickly took out his lightsaber and dispersed. I threw my hands out in front of me and threw an icicle at the Sith that formed from the ground and raised as it got closer to him. He jumped up and landed on the ice and slid down it before leaping off of it and jumping at Cody and I. He kicked his feet out and pushed Cody to the ground while I brought my hands up and tried to block his kick. Only saving myself a little bit, I backpedaled and threw a blast of ice and snow at the Sith's chest. Waving his hand in front of his chest using his own abilities, he dispersed my attack with no difficulties. Cody was getting to his feet while the Sith advanced on me as I was still backpedaling.
Using the Sith's focus on me, Cody raised his blaster and took another few shots at the man attacking us and charged him, but the Sith dodged all of them. As Cody's body made contact with the Sith's, Cody was flung over his shoulder by his momentum and the Sith using the Force to throw him into me. We hit the ground hard and Cody rolled a little off me and I looked back up to see the Sith still coming towards us. His hands lit up in flames and he started making a throwing motion so I threw my hand up, making a wall of ice between us. The force of his attack broke my barrier and blew us off the ledge. In a flurry of desperation, I reached out and grabbed Cody's wrist with one hand and grabbed for the ledge of the walkway with my other. I managed to grab the edge and looked down to see Cody was hanging on to me with one hand. If I let go of the edge, we'd both fall to our death. Feeling the vibration of footsteps above me on the walkway, I looked up to see the Sith standing there. I scrunched my face in anger, but he didn't say anything or make any moves against us. He just stood there for a second, watching as we hung off the ledge. Then, without a word, he turned and walked out of the reactor. I couldn't pull us up, Cody was too heavy, I only had one hand, and my grip was slipping.
"Can you climb up?" I asked as I looked back down to Cody. It didn't matter, my fingers lost their grip on the ledge and it seemed like forever as we began our descent. A sudden grip on my wrist and the stop of our fall made me look up quickly. "Anakin!" I cried out in relief. Obi-Wan was right behind him as he knelt down and also took ahold of my arm. They pulled us up and I collapsed into Anakin's arms once I had my feet on the ground and Obi-Wan had a grip on Cody.
"I got you." Anakin whispered as he hugged me tightly. Anakin was in his cold gear as well so his hug was extra soft. Once Cody was on his feet, Obi-Wan knelt down next to Anakin and looked at me.
"Kemara, how did he get onboard?" He was stern, but gentle.
"I-I don't know, he must have stowed away while we were on Coruscant after he confronted me." I confessed as I turned to lean against Anakin and face Obi-Wan.
"Why didn't you come to us as soon as you saw him?" Obi-Wan asked, putting an arm over his knee.
"He didn't attack me and he told me where my lightsaber was. If I told you the information came from him, you wouldn't have brought me to Vandor. I was just so desperate to remember who I was, I'm sorry." I hung my head as I apologized. Anakin's hand on my shoulder squeezed and Obi-Wan put a hand on my arm as he addressed me again.
"Perhaps, but we would have been better prepared for traps." I took in a breath and let out a sigh. "But we mustn't dwell on the past. Did he say where he was going?" I looked up and shook my head at Obi-Wan as he stood up. Anakin let go and stood up next, holding out a hand to me to help me up. Obi-Wan turned to Cody. "Cody, get some men to the escape pods. Lock it down."
"Yessir." Cody got on comms and started barking orders.
"We need to get to the hangar. We're over Vandor and his only escape now is a ship." Anakin said.
"Right." Obi-Wan confirmed. "Cody, stay here and keep the reactor secure." Cody nodded and turned back to run to his soldier that was still unconscious. As we turned and ran to the hangar, I spoke up.
"He said his goal wasn't to destroy the ship. Only to disable it." Anakin looked back to me before speaking into his comlink.
"Ahsoka, come in."
"I read you, Master." Her voice filtered through the device.
"Give me a status of all the systems on the ship." Anakin ordered. Ahsoka's end was quiet for a moment while she checked on what he had asked for. We were almost to the hangar when Ahsoka spoke back up.
"Everything is operational except for navigation and the engines, neither of which are destroyed. Teams have been dispatched to start repairs." She relayed. "Wait, what's that? Why is it opening?" She asked, seeming distracted by something happening on her end.
"General Kenobi! He's breeched the hangar! He's fighting his way to a fighter! He opened the doors!" A soldier yelled through Obi-Wan's comms.
"We're on our way! Hold your ground!" Obi-Wan ordered.
"Ahsoka! Lock down the hangar! No ships get in or out!" Anakin barked into his comms.
"I can't! He set off a localized EMP! The entire area of the ship is down!" She responded. We ran through the threshold of the blast doors to the hangar as a V-19 fighter lifted off the ground. We wouldn't reach it in time. I threw a hand out and an icicle flew through the air and pierced one of the smaller engines on the ship. It started smoking as he exited the hangar and flew through space towards Vandor.
I watched it get smaller and smaller as it flew away while Anakin and Obi-Wan stepped away to take head counts and prepare for departure. I looked around the hangar. There was large scorch mark next to where the fighter had been sitting as well as a few unconscious troops around it. They all seemed to be moving. He really didn't kill anyone. What did he want? What did he mean by a war was coming? We were already at war. None of this made sense. I had to find my lightsaber. I had to remember who I was. I walked over to Anakin who was talking to Rex about getting a gunship ready for takeoff. Obi-Wan came over and crossed his arms. Rex walked off to get things done.
"Forward shields and topside turrets are offline now, but we haven't lost anyone." Anakin informed us.
"Yes, we're sitting ducks for now. We need to get a message to the Council and inform them of what has happened. We need reinforcements." Obi-Wan spoke up.
"He mentioned a war was coming and that I'd be a part of it. I asked what he meant, but he said I already knew, I just didn't remember. He wants me to remember who I am just as much as I do."
"That may be, but he's trying to manipulate you." Obi-Wan bent down ever so slightly to be eye level with me and put a hand on my shoulder. "Kemara, whatever happens next down there, you can't trust him." I took a deep breath and pushed my lips together in a thin line and slightly to one side as I nodded.
"Okay." I answered quietly.
"Good." Obi-Wan squeezed my shoulder and stood back up as Rex came back over.
"Sir, the gunship is ready." Rex relayed.
"Thanks, Rex. Stay here with Ahsoka, we'll be back soon." Anakin told Rex. He nodded and headed off for the bridge. Some cold-geared clones walked into the hangar, stopping to look around. When they saw us, they started moving again. One of them carried a coat towards us as we began to walk towards them.
"Commander Arundel, these are for you." One of the clones said as he handed the coat to me. Inside the coat were boot and glove covers for extra warmth along with a neck cover.
"Thank you." I offered as we turned and headed for the gunship. The pilots were settling in and starting it up as we climbed in. One last troop ran in wearing cold gear and climbed aboard before we took off.
"All set, Cody?" Obi-Wan asked.
"Yessir, we're ready to get underway." He answered before looking down to me. "Thanks for the save earlier." I gave him a tight smile and a nod.
"I think we owe Anakin for that one." I said as I looked up while I bent down to start putting the boot coverings on. They covered the tops of my feet and stopped just under my knees.
"I'm just glad I got there in time." Anakin said as he crossed his arms over his chest. I looked back down as I finished securing my boot covers and stood up. I threw my coat on and began clipping on my glove covers. They went over the ends of my sleeves and secured them down. Finally, I slipped my neck cover on before zipping up my coat. I felt the ship touch down and when the doors opened, we got a cold blast of wind to the face. We pulled up our hoods and tried to block the wind from our face. "Look." Anakin pointed to something in front of us. A couple hundred meters out, a crashed fighter was smoking. We began to make our way towards it as Obi-Wan, Anakin, and I pulled up our neck covers to protect our faces. As we approached the downed ship, Anakin spoke up loud enough for me to hear him, but quiet enough to where the others couldn't. "Remember, Kemara, we don't know what he wants from you or what he'll do to get it. No matter what happens, stick with us and don't listen to anything he tells you." I looked up to him and met his eyes. I furrowed my brows and nodded.
"There are tracks leading this way. He was dragging his feet, he might be injured." Obi-Wan told us, pointing away from the crash. Anakin reached around my back and held me by my shoulder as we walked. After a few minutes of walking, we came to a cave entrance where we stopped. I peered around Obi-Wan to see that it descended rather steeply. "He went in here. Stay on guard." Anakin and Obi-Wan went first side-by-side, igniting their sabers for light. I followed and Cody was right behind me, followed by the other troops.
My heart was pounding in my chest. What if I didn't remember who I was even after I got my lightsaber? That was the most significant thing in my life. It had to work. If it didn't, I don't know what I'd do. I'd have to leave the Order. I'd have to start over with no knowledge of my prior life. I shook my head. We weren't there yet.
Anakin and Obi-Wan stopped, forcing the rest of us to stop.
"The ground is thin here. We must spread out and go slow." Obi-Wan informed us. I looked between them and the part they were talking about went on for a few dozen meters.
"Kemara, you'll go after Obi-Wan." Anakin said. I nodded as Obi-Wan started crossing, slowly and with his arms out slightly, trying to disperse his weight. He was almost halfway across when Anakin gave me the go ahead. I went slowly, spreading my steps out a little more. Obi-Wan was almost across when the ground shifted. I heard and felt it crack. I froze as I saw the ice beneath my feet fracture. It went towards Anakin. He wouldn't be able to reach me and I couldn't make it back. Quickly looking up to Obi-Wan, I saw the rocks in front of him fall and block his path, knocking him back towards me. And they added more damage to the ground. I quickly turned and saw Anakin with his hand being thrown out towards us, but it was too late. The ground gave out. "Obi-Wan! Kemara!" I heard his voice ring out down the tunnel as we started falling and I lost sight of him. The ground beneath him was starting to crack as well so I made a split second decision and threw a flurry of my powers at the ground beneath him. It created a little more ice and supported the ground, hopefully keeping it from breaking.
We only fell for a few seconds before we impacted the ground. It knocked the air out of me, but I kept falling. No, sinking. When I realized I was underwater, I closed my mouth and opened my eyes, trying to get myself oriented. Looking around, my body finally realized it was sideways so I twisted myself and started swimming up. It was cold and my lungs started to hurt. A hand grabbed me by the hood and dragged me up quickly, pulling me above the surface of the water. I coughed, sputtering out the water I must have took in when I hit it.
"Kemara!" Obi-Wan yelled, trying to get my attention. The noise came from behind me so I twisted around and saw Obi-Wan letting go of my coat. A thundering crack from above us made both of us look up. More rocks came plummeting towards us. Obi-Wan hands flew up, trying to slow them. But that's all he could manage on such short notice. We pushed ourselves under the water to give us more cushion from the impact of the rocks. It helped, but only a little. I grabbed onto the sleeve of Obi-Wan's coat as a large boulder crashed down on top of us, pushing us further down into the water. I planted my hand and feet on the large rock and pushed off of it, dragging Obi-Wan with me. I hadn't been able to get much air back while above the water so my lungs started burning again. I looked at Obi-Wan as I started swimming back up only to feel myself be dragged away from the surface. Obi-Wan didn't seem to be moving. Twisting myself in the water yet again, I was met with a large crack in the wall. I tried swimming away, but with Obi-Wan's dead weight I couldn't get free of the current. Being sucked into the new tunnel, I wrapped an arm around Obi-Wan's chest under his arms with one hand and tried to keep us upright with the other.
It felt like we were thrown around in that tunnel for what seemed like eternity before we were spit out into another body of water. With my lungs on fire, I oriented myself upwards and began kicking as hard as I could. Using my free hand, I pushed it up and felt it break the surface of the water. Throwing it down, and to the side, I pushed us through the surface of the water as my vision started swimming. Taking in lungfuls of water, I made sure Obi-Wan's face was out of the water. With his head resting on my shoulder, I frantically looked around for somewhere to pull us out of the water. There. I started swimming toward the frozen ice that looked like it could hold both of us. Grabbing onto the edge, I started to pull us up, only for it to crack and breakaway out from under us. I lunged and grabbed onto the ice that was still intact and managed to get most of my body on top of it. I kicked my leg up and got it under me as I got fully on top of the ice and pulled Obi-Wan up with me. Grabbing his coat by the shoulders, I pulled him further onto the ice, to the more sturdy ground.
His coat slipped out of my grip and I fell onto my back. Scrambling to get my feet under me, I threw myself onto my knees next to Obi-Wan. I planted my hands on his chest, gripping his coat tight.
"Obi-Wan!" I whispered as I pushed into his chest, trying to rouse him. When I got no response, I took one hand and put it on the side of his face as I planted the other one on the ground next to him. "Obi-Wan, please, wake up." As I studied his face, I saw a large gash on his temple. Moving my hand down to his cheek, I saw the gash was bleeding down into his hairline. "No, no, no. Obi-Wan, no please." I begged, tears welling. I leaned back and took my hand off his face, looking to his belt. I went through his pouches, searching for a comlink. Finding one, I quickly stood up and tried to get Anakin on the line. "Anakin, come in, please. Anakin, are you there? Obi-Wan's hurt and I don't know where we are." I received mostly static and very indiscernible noise that sounded like words. I looked down to the comlink and saw it was draining water. "No, no, no, no. What do I do? What do I do?" I asked no one, dropping back down to the ground. I looked up and scanned the wall for any kind of escape. I saw a tunnel and immediately, my breath caught in my throat as I stood up. I didn't want to leave him here alone, but I had to find Anakin and get help. "Just hold on, Obi-Wan. I'll bring Anakin back and we'll get you out of here." I whispered as I began to run for the tunnel entrance.
Memorizing the turns as I went, I kept up my pace never slowing down. This was all my fault. Getting my memories back wouldn't be worth it if Obi-Wan died. I had to find him help. I would. I will not let him die.
I rounded a corner and immediately dug my heels into the ice to stop myself. "You." I growled. The Sith stood there in the middle of an open cavern with his hands folded behind his back. "I will not let you hurt my friends any more." I clenched my teeth together and my fingers curled into fists.
"You completely misunderstand my presence, Valors. I'm here to help you." With that, he slowly drew a hand out from behind his back and held it out to the side. He held a long hilted lightsaber in his hand. I stilled.
"Is that..." I couldn't even get the rest of my words out. This was it. I was going to remember who I was. He drew his hand back and let the lightsaber fly through the air. I held my hands out and caught it, squeezing my eyes, preparing for the flood of visions.
After several seconds of holding my breath and holding my saber tightly close to my chest, I let out the huff of air I'd been holding in. I looked down at the lightsaber, lightly running my thumb over it. I was about to accuse him of giving me something that wasn't mine, but he beat me to speaking.
"You never lacked the means to remember who you are, you just lacked the strength to do so. The ones you needed have been by your side the whole time. You've been blocking yourself, Valors. You need to open yourself back up. And you better hurry, because he doesn't have much time left." I looked up at the man speaking, feeling slightly dizzy. No. He can't die. He can't die because of me. I turned around slowly. I took a step forward, then another, and again. I stumbled for a second, caught myself, paused and grabbed the wall, pushed myself off the wall, then sprinted back to where Obi-Wan was waiting for me. I had to find a way to save him. I fell to my knees and slid to stop next to him. Leaning over him, I wrapped my arms around his chest and held him tightly against me, bowing my head into his chest.
"Please, Obi-Wan, please." I prayed. "I can't lose you. Not like this. Please." Whispering into his chest, I felt my eyes sting as tears welled. Looking up, I saw the man who has been doing everything in his power to get something from me standing over us. I didn't need my memories to know that I cared more about the man in my arms than most people. "How do I save him?" I asked the man who I had perceived as my enemy this whole time. My voice cracked and the tears that had been welling finally spilled.
"You can't." He answered as he knelt down next to us slowly. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly as I squeezed my eyes shut and bowed my head again. "But I can." My breath caught in my throat as I picked my head back up quickly.
Desperation getting the better of me, I blurted out, "How?" He let an arm rest on his propped up knee and his other hand laid against his leg that rested on the ground.
"He's dying of hypothermia right now. That water was too cold for his body to handle. Your body doesn't react to cold the way normal people's bodies do. Why do you think I chose this place for you? You have an advantage here." I'm ice. He's fire. He can warm Obi-Wan back up. He can save Obi-Wan. I bowed my head back into Obi-Wan's chest.
"What do you want?" My voice barely broke a whisper. Matching my volume, he answered.
"You know what I want." He paused leaning in a little closer. "I want you, Kemara." A choked sob escaped my lips.
"I..." I swallowed the bile rising in my throat. "I can't..." My heart wasn't in my words and he knew it.
"You can... and you will." Picking my head up slightly, I looked up at Obi-Wan's face. His bleeding had slowed and I could feel he was fading fast. I held him tight and pressed my forehead to his as I took my hand that was under his far side moved to hold the side of his face. I squeezed my eyes shut as a tear slipped out.
"I'm sorry, Obi-Wan." As I relaxed myself in the Force, everything came back and I fell into the darkness.
If you liked this chapter, let me know! I aim to please the crowds!! As always, constructive criticism is welcomed but flames are not.