The Senate building of Kreanon Prime: a three thousand year old piece of architectural genius, its slender spires rising majestically above pale green clouds, its sombre grey stone relieved by endless rows of bright windows.
The Chief Minister of Kreanon Prime: Kohhlius, a tall, wiry, red-skinned male with a shock of white hair, and a gentle, genial manner concealing a wit as sharp as a lightsabre. Intelligent, courageous, uncorrupt - the best thing to happen to Kreanon in centuries.
The Senate building, defiled, destroyed, glass exploding from its windows, spires crumbling to the floor, filling the air with dust that mingles with the green chemical smoke born of the explosion. The Chief Minister, lying dead in a mangled heap at the foot of what had once been the grand staircase, his lifeless yellow eyes fixed and staring, an expression on his face beyond horror, worse than fear...the face of a man betrayed by his own people.
Screams rending the air, cries of pain, fear, and yes, betrayal; howls of loss and grief. Amidst the confusion, two figures, their faces half-hidden by breathing apparatus, crawl among the ruins, searching for wounded survivors, bringing the terrified Kreanon Ministers and citizens to safety through the swirling grey and green smog. Two Jedi Knights performing the duties they were born to, but nonetheless, their thoughts not with the shocked strangers they assisted, but with the remainder of their party, missing somewhere within the wreck of the Senate. One young Knight and three Padawans trapped inside; two Knights attempting to maintain their serenity in the face of terrible loss.
It was the younger Knight, Obi-Wan Kenobi, who found his Padawan first. Fifteen year old Anakin Skywalker was sprawled unconscious upon what had been the first landing of the grand staircase; it had slipped sideways and tilted at a fearsome angle, some twelve metres above the ground. Kenobi, gesturing to his companion, Jedi Grandmaster Sendar Varen, to keep searching for survivors, steeled himself and began to climb the damaged stairs, stumbling as the staircase swayed beneath him, saved several times only by his Jedi reflexes. Anakin was still alive...but growing weaker. Although he could not even see his apprentice through the obscurity of the smoke, Kenobi sensed this much through the lesser obscurity of the Force.
Reaching the landing, Kenobi knelt quickly beside the injured boy. Anakin was pale, his short blonde hair full of green dust, blood caked on the smooth forehead where a piece of stone had struck him. As Obi-Wan touched the boy's hand and called his name silently, blue eyes fluttered open, and the apprentice tried to take a breath. Kenobi swiftly took the breathing mask from his own face and placed it over the boy's mouth; Anakin took several grateful, gulping breaths, gripping his master's hand. The staircase shuddered. Obi-Wan scooped up the boy in his arms and began the perilous descent to the barely safer ground floor. Step by step. Slowly and steadily. The staircase trembled again. It would not remain intact for long. Obi-Wan, struggling for air, clasped Anakin tightly to his chest, feeling the boy tremble against him even as the steps shivered beneath them. An ominous rumble, increasing steadily in volume...the whole staircase would collapse around them if they did not get clearly quickly. Five more steps...four...three...
The staircase collapsed.
Kenobi leaped.
Hit the ground, stumbled, landed heavily, threw Anakin forward and out of danger as he did so. Lay stunned for a moment, blue-green eyes open and fixed on nothing, filling with dust, until a strong arm slipped beneath his shoulders and dragged him to his feet. It was Sendar Varen.
"Anakin..." Obi-Wan managed to croak, his throat raw. For answer Varen jerked his head in the direction of the outer gardens, where a first aid station had been set up to help the survivors. Obi-Wan nodded, relieved, then shook his head as Varen tried to lead him out of the building.
"I'm...all right."
Sendar frowned, but there was no time to argue. Together the Jedi plunged back into the smog. The Kreanon survivors were largely accounted for now; the Knights could search for their colleagues.
Closing his stinging eyes, Obi-Wan reached out with the Force, feeling Sendar do the same beside him. He could sense the others - Lanna, Arik and Rayoo. At least one of them was badly injured, but all three were alive. Simultaneously the Knights broke their meditative trance and headed in the direction of what had been the First Minister's office.
Their senses had not led them wrong; dimly through the smog Obi-Wan could make out a tall, thin figure, stooped over something on the ground - Varen's Padawan learner, Arik. Drawing closer, Kenobi realised, with a sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach, that the 'something' Arik was bending over was Master Lanna - and that she was dying. Sendar gave a strangled moan and dropped to his knees beside the motionless Jedi. Lanna had been crushed by a falling beam; her eyes were open but unseeing, and a thin trickle of black blood dribbled from her lips. Beside, and partly beneath her mangled body was the unconscious form of her thirteen year old Padawan, Rayoo - clearly she had been fatally injured trying to save him. Arik, in between anxious glances at his grief-stricken master, was attempting to free the young boy without hurting him. After a struggle he succeeded, lifted the small body, and turned to Varen, his wide grey eyes speaking volumes...they should leave, nothing could be done for Lanna, it would benefit them nothing to sacrifice themselves. Sound advice, but Sendar was beyond understanding. Obi-Wan, unable to speak, gestured urgently to Arik, commanding the younger man to leave at once and get himself and Rayoo out of the building. After a moment's hesitation, gazing at his master, Arik did as he was instructed.
With the Padawans out of danger Kenobi could concentrate on Sendar, who was now struggling to lift the beam from Lanna's broken body. He would not leave without her, that much was clear. Obi-Wan glanced at the heavy piece of aged wood, but it was huge; if Varen, far taller than Obi-Wan and twice his weight, could not physically move it, the younger Knight was quite certain that he himself had no hope of doing so. Instead he grasped Varen's shoulder, trying to tell him that they should move the beam together using the Force; Kenobi could not even gasp out the words, his throat and lungs felt as though they were on fire. Sendar, thankfully, understood the wordless suggestion, and stepped back from Lanna. Once more the Knights meditated together, focussing their respective strengths on the beam...which began, slowly to rise...not much, but enough. Obi-Wan touched Sendar's shoulder again, signalling that he could hold the beam in place if Varen moved quickly. Understanding, the older man released his Force-hold on the beam and snatched Lanna's body from beneath it a split second before Obi-Wan's strength gave out and the heavy wood crashed back to the ground.
Varen placed his breathing mask over Lanna's bloodied face and, cradling her in his powerful arms, ran for the outer gardens, Obi-Wan stumbling dazedly behind him. The younger Jedi's strength was rapidly failing; he was desperately short of breath, and losing blood from a gouge in his arm he had not even noticed in the chaos. He slowed, staggered, losing sight of Sendar in the smog. Eventually he could go no further, falling to his hands and knees and finally collapsing completely into the blood-soaked dust. As blackness swept over Obi-Wan like a great swallowing ocean, his second to last thoughts were of Anakin, and what would become of the boy now.
His final thoughts were of Qui-Gon Jinn.
The Chief Minister of Kreanon Prime: Kohhlius, a tall, wiry, red-skinned male with a shock of white hair, and a gentle, genial manner concealing a wit as sharp as a lightsabre. Intelligent, courageous, uncorrupt - the best thing to happen to Kreanon in centuries.
The Senate building, defiled, destroyed, glass exploding from its windows, spires crumbling to the floor, filling the air with dust that mingles with the green chemical smoke born of the explosion. The Chief Minister, lying dead in a mangled heap at the foot of what had once been the grand staircase, his lifeless yellow eyes fixed and staring, an expression on his face beyond horror, worse than fear...the face of a man betrayed by his own people.
Screams rending the air, cries of pain, fear, and yes, betrayal; howls of loss and grief. Amidst the confusion, two figures, their faces half-hidden by breathing apparatus, crawl among the ruins, searching for wounded survivors, bringing the terrified Kreanon Ministers and citizens to safety through the swirling grey and green smog. Two Jedi Knights performing the duties they were born to, but nonetheless, their thoughts not with the shocked strangers they assisted, but with the remainder of their party, missing somewhere within the wreck of the Senate. One young Knight and three Padawans trapped inside; two Knights attempting to maintain their serenity in the face of terrible loss.
It was the younger Knight, Obi-Wan Kenobi, who found his Padawan first. Fifteen year old Anakin Skywalker was sprawled unconscious upon what had been the first landing of the grand staircase; it had slipped sideways and tilted at a fearsome angle, some twelve metres above the ground. Kenobi, gesturing to his companion, Jedi Grandmaster Sendar Varen, to keep searching for survivors, steeled himself and began to climb the damaged stairs, stumbling as the staircase swayed beneath him, saved several times only by his Jedi reflexes. Anakin was still alive...but growing weaker. Although he could not even see his apprentice through the obscurity of the smoke, Kenobi sensed this much through the lesser obscurity of the Force.
Reaching the landing, Kenobi knelt quickly beside the injured boy. Anakin was pale, his short blonde hair full of green dust, blood caked on the smooth forehead where a piece of stone had struck him. As Obi-Wan touched the boy's hand and called his name silently, blue eyes fluttered open, and the apprentice tried to take a breath. Kenobi swiftly took the breathing mask from his own face and placed it over the boy's mouth; Anakin took several grateful, gulping breaths, gripping his master's hand. The staircase shuddered. Obi-Wan scooped up the boy in his arms and began the perilous descent to the barely safer ground floor. Step by step. Slowly and steadily. The staircase trembled again. It would not remain intact for long. Obi-Wan, struggling for air, clasped Anakin tightly to his chest, feeling the boy tremble against him even as the steps shivered beneath them. An ominous rumble, increasing steadily in volume...the whole staircase would collapse around them if they did not get clearly quickly. Five more steps...four...three...
The staircase collapsed.
Kenobi leaped.
Hit the ground, stumbled, landed heavily, threw Anakin forward and out of danger as he did so. Lay stunned for a moment, blue-green eyes open and fixed on nothing, filling with dust, until a strong arm slipped beneath his shoulders and dragged him to his feet. It was Sendar Varen.
"Anakin..." Obi-Wan managed to croak, his throat raw. For answer Varen jerked his head in the direction of the outer gardens, where a first aid station had been set up to help the survivors. Obi-Wan nodded, relieved, then shook his head as Varen tried to lead him out of the building.
"I'm...all right."
Sendar frowned, but there was no time to argue. Together the Jedi plunged back into the smog. The Kreanon survivors were largely accounted for now; the Knights could search for their colleagues.
Closing his stinging eyes, Obi-Wan reached out with the Force, feeling Sendar do the same beside him. He could sense the others - Lanna, Arik and Rayoo. At least one of them was badly injured, but all three were alive. Simultaneously the Knights broke their meditative trance and headed in the direction of what had been the First Minister's office.
Their senses had not led them wrong; dimly through the smog Obi-Wan could make out a tall, thin figure, stooped over something on the ground - Varen's Padawan learner, Arik. Drawing closer, Kenobi realised, with a sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach, that the 'something' Arik was bending over was Master Lanna - and that she was dying. Sendar gave a strangled moan and dropped to his knees beside the motionless Jedi. Lanna had been crushed by a falling beam; her eyes were open but unseeing, and a thin trickle of black blood dribbled from her lips. Beside, and partly beneath her mangled body was the unconscious form of her thirteen year old Padawan, Rayoo - clearly she had been fatally injured trying to save him. Arik, in between anxious glances at his grief-stricken master, was attempting to free the young boy without hurting him. After a struggle he succeeded, lifted the small body, and turned to Varen, his wide grey eyes speaking volumes...they should leave, nothing could be done for Lanna, it would benefit them nothing to sacrifice themselves. Sound advice, but Sendar was beyond understanding. Obi-Wan, unable to speak, gestured urgently to Arik, commanding the younger man to leave at once and get himself and Rayoo out of the building. After a moment's hesitation, gazing at his master, Arik did as he was instructed.
With the Padawans out of danger Kenobi could concentrate on Sendar, who was now struggling to lift the beam from Lanna's broken body. He would not leave without her, that much was clear. Obi-Wan glanced at the heavy piece of aged wood, but it was huge; if Varen, far taller than Obi-Wan and twice his weight, could not physically move it, the younger Knight was quite certain that he himself had no hope of doing so. Instead he grasped Varen's shoulder, trying to tell him that they should move the beam together using the Force; Kenobi could not even gasp out the words, his throat and lungs felt as though they were on fire. Sendar, thankfully, understood the wordless suggestion, and stepped back from Lanna. Once more the Knights meditated together, focussing their respective strengths on the beam...which began, slowly to rise...not much, but enough. Obi-Wan touched Sendar's shoulder again, signalling that he could hold the beam in place if Varen moved quickly. Understanding, the older man released his Force-hold on the beam and snatched Lanna's body from beneath it a split second before Obi-Wan's strength gave out and the heavy wood crashed back to the ground.
Varen placed his breathing mask over Lanna's bloodied face and, cradling her in his powerful arms, ran for the outer gardens, Obi-Wan stumbling dazedly behind him. The younger Jedi's strength was rapidly failing; he was desperately short of breath, and losing blood from a gouge in his arm he had not even noticed in the chaos. He slowed, staggered, losing sight of Sendar in the smog. Eventually he could go no further, falling to his hands and knees and finally collapsing completely into the blood-soaked dust. As blackness swept over Obi-Wan like a great swallowing ocean, his second to last thoughts were of Anakin, and what would become of the boy now.
His final thoughts were of Qui-Gon Jinn.