Thanx fer the review! Yea not to talkative n e more am I? Oh well… read on.
Leads and Fears
Mace stared Garn down. The assailant had been quite cooperative until he had become fully a wake. Once he was up he became very uncooperative. Any questions that he was asked, he refused to answer them. He just stared the Jedi down never saying a word.
"What does Showdow want with them?" The Council member asked him for the fifth time. He tried desperately to keep his voice calm, but not getting an answer he spat out an exasperated sigh and flopped down into a chair behind him.
He watched as Qui-Gon stepped forward with menacing eyes. The vulnerable Master kept his voice calm, but he got his point across. "Whether you tell us or not Showdow is going to want you dead. You know that just as well as we do."
Garn sighed in defeat. "OK, I will tell you what I know, but that's not much." Seeing Mace quirk an eyebrow he went on hurriedly. "Look if you want detail by detail talk to Showdow's friend Dev. That stupid Carver never does anything with out telling him."
"Just get on with it!" Mace spat his patients well beyond shattered by now.
"Wait a second Mace." Adi said leaning forward in her seat. "You said Showdow. So it is definitely the blood carver?"
Garn nodded.
"Go on…" She pressed.
"He wanted the three young ones to get back at three of you for killing his family or something." He shrugged. "I am not sure exactly what he is doing with them, but form what I have heard it some form of torture. Or knowing him different forms."
"What do you mean from what you have heard…" Sage asked trailing off. Fear crept into her eyes.
"Over communication system's when I've been talking with Dev." Garn shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "I could hear a scream in the background."
"Force no." Sage whispered. She sat back and shook her head. Mace could feel her anguish fill the room as she took a deep breath.
"Is there anything else?" Mace asked standing up.
Garn followed suit. "You were very close to Showdow's place lab or whatever he calls it."
At this Adi sat straight up in her chair. "How close?"
"I am not completely sure, but I know the entrance was in the area we were before." Garn began to pace nervously. "That was why Showdow had us attack you. He did not want you to find the door."
Unable to think of anymore questions Mace sat back down and stared at his boots. "Thank you. You can go."
Garn nodded and happily went to the door. "Good luck." He said lightly. The door shut quietly behind him and Mace sighed.
"He was not telling us everything he knew." Qui-Gon said throwing his arms up. "Why did you let him just leave?"
"Cause he wouldn't have told us anything else otherwise." Mace said coolly. The Council member looked up at Sage who was pacing back and fourth in the middle of the room. "Sage." He warned.
Ignoring him Sage just shook her head.
Reaching up Qui-Gon caught the fidgeting Master by the wrist and forced her into the seat next to him. "Sage please."
She pulled her wrist away roughly and put her head in her hands. "I lost her once Qui-Gon. I am not going to loose her again."
Mace looked at Adi and raised an eyebrow. He suddenly jumped up as Sage fell forward onto the floor. "Sage?" He asked kneeling by her side.
Sage just shook her head and tried to get up. Once on her knees she put her hand to her forehead. "I might have hit my head harder than I thought." She said weakly.
Mace helped her up and over to the couch. "Maybe you should stay here and rest." He suggested standing over her as she laid down.
"No." She said sternly. She quickly kept Mace from saying anything as she cut him off. "Nothing you do or say will keep me from getting to Zae-Non. Not some bump on the head."
"Sage." Adi said in a flat tone. "That is not just a bump on the head."
"And do I care?" She shot back.
Her friend sighed and shook her head.
"Didn't think so." Sage said a smile playing on her face.
Sage stood up slowly and wavered for a second.
Mace shook his head. "Sage please-"
"No." came the stern cut in. "I am going with you."
Sighing the Council member gave in. "If you fall down on us one time you are coming back here. Not only hat your going to get that checked out. No questions asked!"
"Well then." Sage stared out with her vibrant teal eyes. "I guess we won't have to worry about a second trip back here then."
Opening the door Adi looked back at Mace. "Lets hope not."
Mace nodded. He felt it too.
A dark disturbance.
A warning that something was coming.
One of them was going to be returning…
But not on their own…
*****
Showdow walked into the white lab and looked around. The boy's curled up feature made him laugh. Obi-Wan shivered slightly from being barely clothed and his breathing was barely visible…
But there was something about him…
Putting down the walls around Obi-Wan the carver approaching the apparently sleeping figure. Hovering over him he saw the boy's new wounds were still bleeding and that the youth was laying in a puddle of his own blood.
Smiling Showdow lifted up his boot and kicked the Padawan in the leg. Getting no response he planted a harder thrust to the limp forms stomach.
Still no reaction.
Is he even breathing?
Bending down with an unsteady out stretched hand the carver checked the apprentices pulse. It was there, but barely.
Obi-Wan had slipped into a coma…
A small laugh projected from the alien's smiles lips. "My work is done." he mumbled to the sour air.
All his work.
His planning.
It all worked out in the end.
Just as he had planned it.
He go to see the young Padawan's suffer just as he did. He got to witness the Master's desperate search to find nothing.
Now a grin curling onto his face Showdow went to the put the walls back up around then boy. All he had to do now was wait for the Padawan to die…
To lazy to get his remote control he walked over the main control panel on the wall. Reaching for the switch the carver looked down as his comlink went off.
"Hmm." He said lazily into it. He was too happy to be irritated right now…
"Umm Showdow?" Dev's nervous voice floated to him.
Well that happiness was short lived. Showdow thought to himself rolling his eyes.
"What did you screw up this time?" He asked crisply.
"Our little raid didn't go as planned. About four guys retreated and the rest are either dead or still knocked out lying somewhere out in the desert…" Trailing off he hesitated. "And the Jedi have Garn. I… I think they got him to tell what he knows."
"You idiot!!" Punching the control panel in a fit of rage Showdow did nothing to calm himself down. "That means they are going to come back!"
"Hey kill Garn not me! It was his fault."
"I will." Showdow said his eyes narrowing. "You can count on that. And those other four that wimped out as well."
Silence on the other end.
He carver's fury gained at each passing second. "Dev get down here and when those damn Masters arrive, stop them!"
"By myself?!" Came the astounded reply.
"Yes!"
Before Dev could protest Showdow cut of the communication and turned back to the control panel. Seeing that he couldn't get the wall back up due to the dent he made the carver merely shrugged.
The boy would die soon anyway…
Heading out of Obi-Wan's lab he jogged to the girl's lab down the hall. Bursting in he looked at the two girls laying on the floor.
Siri's broken form twitched as she saw him come in and since Zae-Non was long since able to know what was happening around her why bother to glance at the girl.
He turned to Siri who stared put with an iron gaze that was mixed with pain.
"Well, it's time I leave." He whispered. He put the walls down around the two girls. "You two won't be going anywhere anytime soon anyway. But let me leave you with this…" He crossed to the door and slipped out with his last good-bye. "This won't be the last time we see each other."
Running down the hall towards Obi-Wan's lab he smiled. One last ingredient to finish everything off…
For later.
If the boy lived that was.
*****
Siri sighed as the door slammed shut. "No I wont be going any where." She murmured trying to move. She gasped as her broken bones shifted. "Damn that carver!" She shouted in rage. Tears streamed down her ace at the overwhelming pain.
As un Jedi like it was to have resentment like hers she didn't care. He had done things to her and her friends that she would never be able to forgive him for.
Yet through it all Siri felt a wave of relief sweep over her. The carver would only leave at such fast notice if there was a threat to him. A person or persons coming to discover his hide out…
They are coming.
Siri smiled. "Z," she whispered to her still friend. "You were right all along. How could I doubt it?" A tear traced its way down her cheek to the floor.
All these years she never would have doubted that Adi would come. When she was kidnapped with Obi-Wan years ago or on any other mission. But now… now she had lost trust. She could not lose it again.
She had lost her friend to mistrust as well. If she had only believed in what Zae-Non had. It would not be like it was.
It is not you fault. Came a weak voice through the Force
Siri's eyes widened in surprise. "Who…" She gasped. "I thought…"
Keep your faith up.
All that was left was silence that rang out in a deafening quiet.
That's all fer now… what ya think? Till Later~
Peace out
