Chapter 5

Sins of the Mother

Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan and Inspector Arsene stood outside Senator Basilio's apartment. Arsene rang the door chime and waited for an answer.

 After Obi-Wan had contacted Qui-Gon and explained to his master what Kelilah had said to him in the diner, the Jedi Master told Obi-Wan to bring Kelilah back to the Temple while him and officer Kivi try to contact Inspector Arsene.

When the two were finally able to reach the inspector and explain the new developments in the investigation, She told them to meet her at the Senator's apartment where they would confront the man with what they knew.

The Senator seemed surprised to see the two Jedi and inspector at his door but he invited them in all the same. "Have there been new developments in the case?" he asked in a slightly shaky tone.

"There have been a few new developments, Senator" Arsene said as she walked into the apartment. "But we'd like to ask you a few questions."

"I have already told you everything I know." Basilio insisted.

"We have heard from another source that you are withholding information." Arsene shot back. The Senator grew silent. "If you are not telling us everything Senator you will be suspected in having a part in your daughter's murder."

"I can't!" The Senator cried out suddenly. Qui-Gon took the Senator by the arm and steered him to a chair then took a seat across from the man. The Senator placed his head in his hands.

"Senator," Qui-Gon said leaning forward, "Why can't you tell us?"

"Because he'll kill me. Like he killed the others and my daughter." Basilio said with despair. "Oh Gods you have no idea how much it hurt to know that monster killed her and I wasn't able to do anything about it."

"Who is he?" Qui-Gon asked The Senator looked up at Qui-Gon

"The man in the memorial hall, who attacked your apprentice and the girl." The senator sat back in the chair and stared down at his hands. "It's all going to the seven hells but he refuses to believe it." He began to ramble, "All those people died because they questioned him. Adara tired to run but he went after her. He was making examples of them."

"If you knew she was dead why did you request my help?"

The Senator stopped his rambling and looked up at the Jedi with a small ironic smile. "I thought you could do something." He then looked over to inspector Arsene with scorn. "Gods know they can't!" he said. Arsene was about to protest but Qui-Gon held up a hand and the inspector held her tongue. "Besides," the Senator continued, "You've done a good job keeping that girl safe all these years."

"Girl?"

"The one in the Memorial Hall."

"What does he want with Kelilah?" Obi-Wan asked as a bad feeling began to creep up his spin.

"He wants her because of what he believes she is."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Kelilah entered her new quarters she had just moved into. After Master Bodil died she was required to move into a temporary room in the initiate wing until she was assigned another master. Most of her things were still in the three boxes by the far wall.  

She lay down on the bed staring up at the ceiling. It was all becoming so complicated. It uses to be simple. Keep your mouth shut. Don't say anything about it. But after her master's death it became out of control.

Her master. It was so hard with her master gone. She never talked to him about any of it but it was just nice to have someone who cared about what happened to her, someone to protect her. Now she had no one.

Her comlink began beeping. Kelilah took out the small device and activated it. "Hello." She said in a miserable voice.

"Hello Kelilah." The voice on the other end said. Kelilah immediately sat up.

"What do you want?" She demanded.

"I'm disappointed in you Kelilah." She knew that she should end the transmission now but she couldn't his voice was hypnotic. "You've always been so good at keeping this little secret. You never even told your master—"

"The master you killed!" She shot back.

"The point is Kelilah, you told that boy things. Things that could endanger everything and you must be reprimanded for that."

Still holding the comlink in one hand, Kelilah felt herself stand up but it wasn't under her own will power that she did this. Some other force was controlling her motions. She walked into the fresher and up to the vanity mirror. The mirror began to shake in the frame that held it to the wall. It shattered into pieces that flew onto the floor and sink and others flew through the air, cutting the young woman who stood in front of it.

She reached down and picked up one of the larger pieces of glass. Her hand shook slightly as she tried to fight against the force that was making her do this. But she was so tired of it all and it would be so much easier to just end it. And she would be with her master.

By the time Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan had left Senator Basilio's apartment, after question the man for several more hours it was dark out. Inspector Arsene and officer Kivi had taken the Senator back to Security force headquarters to put him under protective custody. The Senator had no problem with this arrangement and practically insisted on it, convinced that the leader of the sith cult would come after him.

As the two Jedi began to once again make the trip back to the temple, Obi-wan was feeling particularly frustrated. From what Senator Basilio had said, Kelilah had left out many details from their conversation earlier. The first being that she had escaped form the same cult that the victims were all from, when she was three and that this man in black, who had attacked them earlier, had been after her ever since.

Qui-Gon parked the speeder on the landing platform. As Obi-Wan was stepping out of the passenger's side he spotted one of his friends, Drell Tre, signing out one of the other speeders.

"Hey Obi." Drell said as he walked towards his friend.

"Hey Drell, where you heading."

"Just got to pick up a few things." He said stepping into the speeder he signed out. "Hear this case you're working on is pretty tough."

"You could say that." Obi-Wan replied, and then began to tell Drell of some of the highlights of their investigation.

"I don't Obi, sounds a bit neat to me." Drell stated. Obi-Wan gave him a curious look

"Neat?"

"Well first there's Senator Basilio who comes to your master for help finding his missing daughter who is found on the exact same day. Then the sketches of what the tattoos on the victims look like show up. Two very big coincidences if you ask me." Drell began to explain. "I mean this case has been going on for two years and the security force can't come up on any leads? But when you and Qui-Gon enter the scene things began to happen. The security force on this planet may leave more to be desired but their not that bad."

Obi-Wan leaned against Drell's speeder taking a moment to think about what his friend had said. "You think there could be someone working on the inside?"

"Well I don't know all the details. It could really be just a big coincidence. You do have a knack for being one of the luckiest 3@#$% in the galaxy."

Obi-Wan smiled, "Thanks Drell." He stepped away from the speeder.

"Where you heading?"

"I thought I would pay another visit to Kelilah. I need to speak with her about a few things."

"You're developing quite an obsession with this girl. Have any other intentions motivating you?"

"Drell, not everyone thinks like you."

"Yes they do. You just can't admit it." Drell started up his speeder. "See ya later Kenobi. Hey when you get this case out of the way drop me a message and well have a practice duel." Obi-Wan waved after his friend as the speeder drove off into the airways.

Obi-Wan turned towards the temple and walked to the entrance to begin his search for Kelilah. He still was thinking about what Drell had said. He had never really thought about it before but now that it was brought to his attention it made sense.

As he walked the temple halls the calm and serenity of the surrounding cleared his mind and he was surprised at what he felt. It was a presence in the force but not one that he was used to feeling. It wasn't Qui-Gon's. Qui-Gon's presence had a confident feel to it. It wasn't Amaele's or any of his other close friends. This presence felt wounded and confused but still held a spark of determination. And then it came to Obi-Wan. It was what he felt coming from Kelilah whenever he was around her.

Obi-Wan stopped walking for a minute. How could he feel her force presence from here? He didn't have any close bond to her. He ignored the question going through his mind for a second. If it helped him find her faster it was for the best.

Obi-Wan followed the force presence to where it was the strongest. He became concerned when it brought him to the Healer's ward. The bad feeling he had earlier began to return as he walked in.

He found Amaele sitting at the same desk she was at the night before. "Amaele is Kelilah here?" he asked

"Yes. How did you know that she was—"

"That's not important." Obi-Wan said hurriedly. "Where is she?"

"The Mental ward."

"Mental ward?!"

"She tried to kill herself. Slit her wrist. Even did it the right way. Luckily for her she was holding that comlink and had enough strength to send a signal to the healer's. They found her on the fresher floor. Looked like she broke the mirror then cut herself with one of the pieces. They said—" Obi-Wan couldn't wait around for anymore of Amaele's explanation.

"What room?"

"Obi, you can't see her the council said—" but Amaele couldn't even get the words out as Obi-Wan ran off down the hall towards the mental ward. Looking into one room after another.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Kelilah was sitting up in the healer's ward bed. She wore the hospital gown and her hands where strapped with harness to prevent from hurting herself. She stared out o the window that gave a view of the temple gardens. She'd been in hospital environment enough she knew the routine down cold.  Hopefully nothing had changed since she was last here or the chances of her getting out where slim.

She smiled as she saw some of the healer apprentices come around with small carts with medications to distribute to the patients. One the apprentices came into Kelilah's room. She smiled as she said, "Good evening." Kelilah nodded back to her.

Outside in the hall two healer apprentices passed one another. Kelilah used the force to cause the carts to crash into each other and topple over spilling the medications on the floor. The healer who was in her room went out into the hall to help her companions, leaving the cart by the door.

Kelilah smiled to herself. She may be bad at the physical portion of being a Jedi but when it came to the powers of the mind that was a whole different story. She concentrated hard and the cart began to come over to her. She used the force and undid the restraints around her wrists. She looked over the various drugs on the cart. She saw a sedative and reached over and grabbed bottle and a syringe. She filled the syringe with the drug and placed the bottle back on the cart. She hid the syringe under the left long sleeve of the hospital gown. She then sat back and closed her eyes exhausted by the task.

The Healer apprentice returned. Se saw that Kelilah was lying down with her eyes closed. She left the pills the healer's had prescribed on the side table and left the room.

Once the Healer was gone, Kelilah opened her eyes and sat up again. She could hear him coming from down the hall and his healer friend protesting.

"Obi-Wan, you really shouldn't do this."

"Amaele, just give me five minutes with her." Obi-Wan said as he walked into the room. Kelilah looked at him with a blank expression on her face. Obi-Wan on the other hand had a look of utter disbelief.

"I honestly can't believe that you could do something like this." He said to her.

"I didn't mean to." Kelilah whispered.

"Didn't mean to?! You slit you wrists! How can you not mean to?!" Obi-Wan shouted at her.  

"It's complicated! You wouldn't understand!" Kelilah shot back

"Then explain it to me!" Obi-Wan waited for her to answer him with anything but she remained silent. "Forget it." He said and turned to leave.

She watched him turn "It was him." she said and didn't know why she said anything but she did. Obi-Wan turned back. 

"What?"

"It was him." She repeated looking down at her hands. Obi-Wan moved over to the right side of the bed and sat down waiting for her to continue. "His name is Nurgal. He's the man that attacked us in the memorial hall.  The man you saw in my vision. It's him. He's doing all this."

"Senator Basilio told us that he is after you."

Kelilah nodded. "When my mother was pregnant with me, she had left my father because his family disapproved of their being together. She had nowhere to go and some how Nurgal found her. He took her into the cult. After I was born and they discovered that I was considerably force sensitive, Nurgal became convinced that I was this fulfillment of a prophecy. That I was destined to lead their cult to greatness or something." She looked up at him "Does any of this sounds familiar?"

Obi-Wan nodded. "Reminds me of that chosen one myth."

"That's because it's taken directly from it. Only it's completely false. One of the older leaders came up with it to keep people from straying from the faith but Nurgal believe in it wholeheartedly."

"Why didn't you say any of this earlier?"

"Obi-Wan you have no idea what you are dealing with." Kelilah said looking at him intently. "When the Sith Shane was alive he never trained any of his followers to their full potential. So that way they could never over power him. After he died the followers didn't know what to do so they just continued with the way things were. A leader with the most power was chosen and they trained the way Shane had trained them. But Nurgal has some how taught himself to use the power of suggestion in a way that out performs even some of the most powerful Siths of the past." She looked away. "It's his voice you hear it and he make you do things, make your body do things. The first couple murders looked like suicides because they were! He made them do it to themselves, like he made me slit my wrists. The next few where just him showing off what he can do."

Obi-Wan was having a little trouble digesting all this information at once. "If he is after you, why did her try to kill you?"

"Obi-Wan, if he wanted me dead, I would be dead."

"Despite all that if you knew who the killer was, why didn't you tell anyone?"

"I know what they say about me." Kelilah said. "The other Padawans.  They say I'm a snob and I think I'm better then everyone else. Imagine what they will say if I let it out that I have visions of people being killed and a wannabe sith is after me because he believes I'm destined to become a leader for them." She looked back down. "Now that I think about it. It was foolish to keep it to myself. Many of the victims would still be alive if I had said something." Tears began to fill her eyes. She covered her face with her right hand and began to cry. Obi-Wan saw the restraints that were strapped to the bed and thought it odd that she wasn't wearing them. But he drove that thought from his mind and placed a hand on her shoulder and began to rub it gentle in an attempt to calm her.

Kelilah slide the syringe out of the left sleeve and into her left hand. Then in quick motion stabbed the syringe into Obi-Wan's arm. The young man gave a small cry of shock and pain. He looked down at the needle then up at her. "I'm sorry Obi-Wan but this is how it has to be. I have to end this one way or another." The drug began to take effect and Obi-Wan began to feel drowsy.

Kelilah got out of the hospital bed and went the closet and retrieved her clothes. After dressing she looked back at Obi-Wan who was now on the floor of the room. She was sorry for what she did but it was necessary. She had to do this and Obi-Wan would most likely go after her once he found out. 

She climbed out the window and made a not to graceful drop down into the gardens. The after recovering from the landing she made her way towards one of the landing platforms.