Hi everyone! Here's the next part and I'm sorry for the delay in posting it. I hope you like it and thanks for reading!  Oh, BTW, Cerasi5, don't worry about not reviewing for each part, I'm glad you like the story so much. =D  Thanks for the FB!

My Place is at Your Side

~ Part Ten: A Voice in the Dark ~

Obi-Wan:

The meditation was exceedingly helpful, and I couldn't help but feel a fool for the things I had been saying, and the way I had been acting. Qui-Gon was a Jedi Master, why in the world did I ever think that I should be as skilled as he was when I was only eighteen? Now that I was calm again, I could think about things clearly and I understood two things: first, I was much more skilled than I had been giving myself credit for, and second, that I would no doubt feel that way again. After all, mood swings sure came rapidly. Too rapidly. It was something I was going to have to learn to deal with. One of the many things I was going to have to change and improve upon.

Right now, however, I had other things to do. As much as I had wanted to stay with Qui-Gon and be there for him, I knew that I had to find Revelc Citanul. Despite the fact that we had ended up in the hotel room that didn't have the bomb, he had nearly managed to achieve his goal. Whatever he had planned next would no doubt be even more insidious, especially since he had failed to kill my Master.

I had to stop him.

~~~~~~~~~~

Knowing that Revelc Cainam wanted Qui-Gon to die before me, so that I would have to live with the knowledge that I hadn't been able to save him, I debated with myself as to whether or not I should stay at the hospital and make sure he was safe. Eventually I had decided that since Qui-Gon was supposed to have died in the hotel, the saboteur wouldn't have anything planned for killing him at the hospital, and it would take him a while to reorganize and strike again.

That would give me enough time to return to the Complex of Administration and search his rooms for anything that might help me locate him, or give a hint as to what he might do next. In my place, I had left four guards in the hospital room. I didn't think there would be any problems, at least not before I returned, but one never could be too careful.

~~~~~~~~~~

Mostly, Revelc Cainam's office was filled with papers regarding security and things that concerned his job at the Complex. There were also a few books – mystery novels mostly – and some holovids that I had never heard of, but nothing unusual or suspicious, and certainly nothing that would help me.

It wasn't until I located a secret vault, hidden under the floor panels of the room, that I found what I had been looking for. The safe was relatively small, but inside it I found detailed schematics of the ship Qui-Gon and I had arrived in, as well as charts showing exactly what he had done to sabotage it. Most of it was technical babble that I couldn't understand, but it made me realize how truly complicated his changes had been. The man must have spent hours conceiving them, and another few days actually putting them into practice.

There were also diagrams of the hotel, as well as a list of many different places a bomb could be hidden. Force, he had even considered the pros and cons of each location until finally settling on the master suite, in the air vents. Catalogs of thousands of different types of explosives were attached to the maps of the hotel, and with a sick feeling I realized he had chosen to construct one of the smallest, most powerful bombs ever created.

Placing the piles of papers on the floor next to me, I caught site of a pair of micrel seatbelts. They were dull grey, just like…just like the shuttle! Force, it couldn't be, could it? These couldn't be the seatbelts from the shuttle? I had made some joke about the shuttle having been made without them but it had never occurred to me that they had been removed. And they had been. Revelc Cainam had thought of everything.

Suddenly it dawned on me how much he had put into this little scheme for revenge. I had known that he had planned it all out, but this…this was beyond anything I could have imagined. He hadn't just planned it out, he had considered every option and nuance. He must have spent months going over everything, wasting his life away because he believed that the Jedi Order, with its many rules and regulations, had kept him from being with the woman he loved. It was…chilling to think about all the trouble he had gone to. It was chilling to realize how deep his commitment to this was.

"Hey Tiont!" a loud man's bellow distracted me from my search, sounding like it was coming from down the hallway "A Tarcalian ship has been found hidden in the old abandoned transport station, and at least four of the monsters have been seen in the surroundings. The Directors have ordered security troops to detain them, we have to go!"

"Be right there, chief," another man yelled back, and a few seconds after his words I heard loud footsteps as he joined his companion and the two passed the entrance to the office I was in. Soon, their voices dwindled back into silence and I turned my attention back to the vault.

There was only once paper left inside.

Gingerly reaching forward, I grabbed the sheet and turned it over to see what it was. On the paper I saw that our saboteur had drawn out the schematics for another building. At first glance it didn't seem familiar to me, but when I saw the scribbled labels that marked the rooms as 'intensive care units,' I felt my blood run cold. It was a diagram of the hospital…the hospital where Qui-Gon was.

Force, I was a fool!

I had assumed that it would take him a while to plan his next move and had never considered that he would have already plotted what to do if one of us ended up in the hospital. Not once of us, Qui-Gon. He was the one who had infected Qui-Gon with that disease; he had no doubt considered the possibility that he would not stay in the hotel room, but go to the hospital for treatment. He had probably been ready for him at both places from the very beginning.

What if he had a second bomb there? The thought nearly made my heart stop. Not only would Qui-Gon be killed, but countless innocent people who were being treated there would also die. Only now I had no vision to help me save them, no dream to tell me whether it was a bomb or something else, and no way of knowing whether he had already struck.

I ran my fingers over the cold, smooth paper and an electric shock seemed to buzz through my hand and up my body. It wasn't truly electricity, I wasn't being electrocuted, it was like the Force was literally shocking me with its warning. I could not only sense the dark tension creeping through it, I could sense it hunting and consuming me.

Instantly, I was on my feet and running from the room. I had to get back to the hospital.

~~~~~~~~~~

The hospital was in walking distance, but not close enough that it wouldn't be a waste of precious time. As soon as I had reached the street, I had flagged down an airtaxi to take me there. It would take less than five minutes to reach the hospital, but I wasn't going to spend that time sitting nervously, thinking about how I had saved Qui-Gon only to abandon him back to the mercy of the saboteur within less than a half hour. Instead, I decided to do something I never before had done in the middle of a crisis.

I decided to meditate.

I knew, first hand, that remaining calm and in tune with the Force was a Jedi's greatest weapon – one I had used to land the shuttle and save us from the bomb – and it was time to take that knowledge to heart. For Qui-Gon's sake, as well as my own.

~~~~~~~~~~

As soon as I set foot in the hospital, the foreboding cry of the Force became a scream. I could feel the tension within these walls, could sense how the very essence of the Force, and every fiber in my body, was telling me to go faster, to go to Qui-Gon's side as quickly as I could.

Responding to its silent demand, I quickened the pace of my jogging until I was all but sprinting down the hospital corridors. Everyone – all the doctors and nurses – heard me coming and moved out of the way before I could plow into them. Soon I was turning the corner into the ward where Qui-Gon was.

I could not stop the surprise or worry from stabbing at my heart when I saw that the guards I had posted at the entrance of Qui-Gon's room were gone, but my connection to the Force was still singing from my meditation and the emotions quickly filtered out of me.

Revelc Cainam had already been here.

I stepped forward and the motion triggered the doors to slide open, allowing me access to the room. Throwing my senses outward, I could sense Qui-Gon's Force signature, but it was very weak. Not weak because he was dying, but weak because it was only a remnant on the man's powerful presence.

Even before I entered to confirm with my eyes what I had already felt, I knew that my Master was not there, but even still, I looked about the room anyway. The place had been ransacked. Medical supplies lay scattered across the floor, and the empty bed had been turned over, leaving the once clean white sheets tangled around the upward pointed legs.

The tubes that had connected my Master to the machine had been thrown to the floor, and the machine itself was still active, so trickling drops of different liquids were spilling out onto the tiled floor. All of the cabinets had been opened, and the supplies that had been stored in them decorated the floor in shattered pieces of glass and other materials.

My eyes darted to the corner of the room. Doctor Marcof was slumped down against the walls and floor, his white coat stained red with the blood that dripped from the side of his mouth. A crimson colored concussion wreaked havoc on the right side of his forehead, and his eyes were closed.

I didn't have to check his pulse to see if he was alive. The Force told me he was merely unconscious.

Worry mingled with disbelief to penetrate my composure. I couldn't believe that in the short time it had taken me to go to the office and return, he had kidnapped my Master. He had obviously been waiting for me to leave, but where had he taken Qui-Gon? What had he done with him? I could feel through the Force that he was alive, but I could also feel that he was in grave danger.

Force, how would I find them now? With our bond blocked at his end, there was no way I could track Qui-Gon, and I had absolutely no idea where Revelc Cainam would take him. The capital city was huge and there were countless places where he could keep my Master, and…kill him in whatever fashion he pleased without me ever coming close to finding him.

Fear gripped my heart. I had told my Master that I wouldn't let anything happen to him, and now he was at the mercy of an insane man who had brought us to this planet for the sole purpose of taking pleasure in causing our deaths. If I lost him now I would never be able to live with it, I would never be able to forgive myself for allowing this to happen.

A pulse of familiarity shot through the Force. I sensed a…presence nearby. The hospital was full of patients and doctors, of course, but it wasn't them I was sensing. No, what I was sensing was dark, angry, and hateful. What I was sensing was a creeping, insidious, danger in the Force. What I was sensing was Revelc Cainam.

My lightsaber was drawn before I was even aware of grabbing it. Gripping it tightly in both hands, I slowly turned in place, almost expecting him to jump out at me from the inky shadows that lay scattered about the room.

Everything was completely still though.

Breathing deeply, I closed my eyes and touched the Force again. I could sense him nearby, but I couldn't place him, nor could I feel Qui-Gon's presence with him. Had he really had enough time to take my Master somewhere and return in the little time I had been absent?

The thick blanket of silence was momentarily fractured by a noise that could have come from behind me, assuming it had come from anywhere at all. Had I really heard something, or was my mind playing tricks on me?

Every muscle in my body tensed, and my heartbeat quickened, pumping adrenaline through my system. I felt the calm peace of my meditation slipping away, and my ability to feel the Force wavered slightly. I was jittery, uneasy, and jumpy. Not a good combination.

The soft pitter-patter of footsteps, followed by the loud crunching of glass, told me that someone had entered the room. It was him! My heart seemed to jump into my throat, tightening it and making dread pound in my chest. I had to do something! My intense desire to capture this man and be done with it, as well as the fear and adrenaline that filtered through my body, combined to make me react without thinking.

Rapidly turning around to face the intruder, I released the lightsaber from one of my hands and gestured purposefully ahead of me. At the same time, I gathered the Force and released it in a rippling wave that sped forward to send the person flying back. A loud scream shattered the silence and was abruptly cut short by a groaning thud as the figure slammed into the back wall of the room, sliding to the floor, unconscious.

Fixing my gaze on my enemy, I let out a startled gasp. Then I grimaced and closed my eyes, horrified to see that I had just assaulted a young nurse, probably no older than I was. In my distraction, I had overreacted and probably scared the poor thing half to death. Some Jedi I was – I attacked innocent bystanders, thinking that they were insane revenge seeking madmen out to get my Master and me.

Striding over towards the crumpled figure, I deactivated my lightsaber and knelt. Then, feeling incredibly guilty, I did a quick examination to make sure she was unharmed. Which, fortunately for my ego, she was. "I'm sorry," I whispered, pressing a gentle hand to her forehead, almost glad that I had mistakenly knocked her out so that I wouldn't have to try and explain why I had flung her across the room.

I froze, my fingers still lingering at the girl's head, and felt every muscle in my body tighten. Something was different, something sounded different. Everything was silent, but somehow, it was too silent. It was as if something was missing, but I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was…

Wait, that was it! There was no soft whirring sound in the background. The gentle purr of the power generators had died down into nothingness. I cocked my head, and frowned. The sound had stopped but a few moments earlier, but that meant that any minute now the lights…

As if on cue, the lights buzzed loudly, flickered menacingly, and then died down. Surrendering to the opaque veil of darkness, they left the room completely shrouded in impenetrable obscurity. With the fleeing light, and my shot of rising panic, the Force also receded from my touch, leaving me completely blind and feeling utterly defenseless.

"You Jedi are always so calm, so collected," a guttural voice sneered in the darkness, "I've had the dubious pleasure of seeing quite a few of you pathetic knights in action, and you're all the same. You're all cut off from emotion and trapped in your own prison of regulations. It wasn't until today, when I stole your Master away, that I even knew you were capable of feeling pain. He cried out to you, you know, just before the ghost of agony tore at his face."

Those words, spat out so viciously, clawed at me. I had failed Qui-Gon, had left him helpless to face this man's fury when he was in no condition to even walk. Some apprentice I was. If I wasn't careful, my stupidity would get him killed. I should have stayed with him. I never should have left his side. Now, he was in peril, and I was cowering in the darkness.

"Then, as I watched, fascinated, the venerable scum seemed to whither before my eyes, and I heard his strangled whimper of pain. And you know what I discovered, boy?" he paused now, either for dramatic effect or to chill me, most likely for both.

I couldn't see him, but then again, I didn't have to. I could feel his hatred slamming into me, and it made me tremble. Everything about him, from the coldness of the air around him, to the more malice that dripped from his voice, spoke of his sheer and absolute loathing towards me. I had been confronted by such volatile emotions before, but never in this magnitude, and it was sickening to know all of that anger was directed at me.

Eagerly grasping tentacles of terror crept up my body to wrap themselves tightly around me. When I had been reading his report I had been detached but now, now that I could feel his rage again, and knew its cause, I felt fear bounding in to claim me. This man was literally insane, unpredictable, and worst of all, extremely intelligent. I didn't even want to think about what that meant for Qui-Gon, or for me.

"That I liked it!" he barked out suddenly, his words lashing at me. Even though I hadn't heard him enter, he was somewhere in the room. I tried to use my sense of hearing to locate him, to hone in on his position as he hid in the night, but it was useless. Without the Force, all I could do was blindly guess, and that simply wasn't good enough.

An unbearably bright stream of light shone in my face, burning at my eyes with a ferocity that mocked the gentle warmth that bathed my skin. Shielding my eyes with my hands, I clenched them shut against the stinging invasion of light. However, even though I could block out the light, the claws of pain were not so easy to fight.

Daggers of fire pulsated within the waves of red light. I could feel the light hitting me, but I could also feel something else, something within the light, churning straight through my body. My skin tingled warm, and an inferno was growing inside me, reaching out and spreading within me.

My insides were burning. It felt like someone had literally lit a fire inside me. Acid shot through my veins like sparking electricity. Throbbing agony consumed every part of my body, everything I felt was red-hot and excruciating. I couldn't think, I couldn't breathe, all I knew was pain.

A scream built up within me, threatening to spill through my open lips until I clamped the noise down and emitted something close to a high pitched mewl. Strangled as the sound was, I heard Revelc Cainam laughing. It could have been a normal sounding laugh, except that it lacked everything I would normally associate with laughter. There was no mirth in that sound, only a sadistic enjoyment that was born of hate and anger.

It made my skin crawl.

Desperately reaching out to the Force, I tried to release my pain into it, but I couldn't concentrate enough to even touch it. The exploding balls of flame in my head, and the slithering, snatching talons of thudding, vicious anguish obscured my thoughts. My heart was beating two things into my body: fear and pain, and I felt completely and totally helpless to do anything about to save myself, or the man I cared for the most in the entire galaxy.

Dimly, I became aware of the fact that I was on my hands and knees with my face inches away from the floor. Broken shards of glass cut into my palms, but that was like a prick compared to what my mind and body were aflame with. I could hear my coughing gasps, I could hear the thudding of my heart, and then, out of the darkness, I could hear his thick, callous voice.

"I'm actually glad you and your precious Master didn't die in that explosion," he informed me coldly, "because I have waited too long to let my revenge just quickly pass me by. Before I am through, I will enjoy this, Jedi." Again, he spat out the word 'Jedi', like it was a curse.

Half formed thoughts reeled through my head. I couldn't understand him. I simply couldn't understand how he could harbor such dark, deep, loathing and fury within him. I didn't understand how his mind could work that way. I didn't understand how he could have loved this woman so much, but instead of accepting her decision, turn to…this. I didn't understand any of it, and maybe I didn't want to. Or maybe it was impossible to understand the way his mind worked. He was insane, after all.

"This is an interesting device," he spoke almost conversationally, "it looks as harmless as a flashbeam, but it actually causes great amounts of pain in the victim."

Yeah, as if I couldn't feel that for myself.

The world was going dark around me. Not visually – my eyes were still closed – but physically. My body was shutting down. The pain was so unbearable, that it was slowly killing me. My thoughts seemed to slow to a crawling pace, and for a few pulsating moments, the agony was pushed away from me. It was still there, but second by piercing second, it was slowly drifting away. Not because the man had turned the infernal contraption off, but because my body functions were withering away.

No! If lost consciousness that Qui-Gon and I would both surely die – I could feel that in my heart. I had to stay awake. I had to fight this man. I had to…

"You know what's even better?" he questioned, and then answered his own question, "the fact that I can set it on automatic."

The sound of his voice hadn't even faded into silence when I felt the sharp toe of a boot come slamming into my stomach. If I had thought I couldn't possibly have felt anymore pain than I was already feeling, I had been terribly wrong. Pain flared in the spot where his shoe had hit me, and quickly became a sore, pulsing torment that added to my already existing agony. Then, as the air was sent whizzing from my body, I was coughing and sputtering, and trying to refill my lungs.

I had barely managed to swallow a mouthful of oxygen when he kicked me again – in the same spot – and then again and again and again. My stomach flared up in protest, my nerves screaming at me louder than the pain that was still tearing through my entire body, and I couldn't breathe. My lungs were empty, stinging, blazing, and making my whole chest tighten. Every time I tried to suck in some more air, it came out of me in a rush with the merciless onslaught of the lunatic's kicks.

Like some distant dream, I could hear my grunts and groans. I could feel that I had been knocked from my hands and knees and was lying on my side, on the cold hard floor. I could hear my coughing and gasping, and, more frighteningly, I could feel the man's callous enjoyment of seeing me suffer. But all of this was just in a corner of my awareness. The pain was too distracting for me to truly focus on any of it.

Once more, darkness encroached upon my mind. Only now it was more insistent, and I felt that it was eating my energy to fight it. I didn't have much time. My senses were become blurred, my hearing was distorted and my feelings eased away from me, taking some of the pain with them. I was losing consciousness.

Force, what was wrong me with me? Why wasn't I fighting back? Why wasn't I doing anything? I could beat this man. I had faced dozens of destroyer droids. I had defended myself against troops and blasters. Why was I doing so poorly on this mission? The Tarcalians had captured me so easily, and now this one man was about to take me out single handedly. I couldn't give up…

The Force… It was my only hope. The pain and fear had shattered my connection to it, but it was still there. I had had to reach for it and use it. Gritting my teeth, I ignored the pain, ignored the fact that my lungs felt like they were about to explode, ignored everything but the living blanket that cloaked and imbued all living things. I focused on letting it wash over me, on letting it fill and guide me.

The first thing I felt within the Force was a dark, bitter rage. A cold hatred that sent a shiver down my spine. I forced myself to ignore it though. I felt past Revelc Cainam's emotions, past the way they were clouding the Force, and instead touched the light. The light that was always so brilliant. As soon as I felt that marvelous peace again, my fear melted away. My emotions calmed, and I was able to release some of pain into the Force.

The agony was still there, but now I could think and act again. Now I could 'see' again – even without opening my eyes. I could sense where Revelc Cainam was standing in relation to me. I could sense the movement of his leg as it pummeled into me. I could sense the speed at which it was moving. I could sense everything I needed to gather all my strength and reach out, with a Jedi's reflexes and determination, to grab his moving ankle in an iron fist.

His leg was moving fast, and I almost lost my grip, but I held tight and as soon as my arm had absorbed the impact, I twisted his ankle forward and to the side.

There was a startled gasp from the darkness that surrounded us, and then I felt the swirl of air and heard the hiss of sound as he lost his balance and came toppling to the ground. Fortunately, I also sensed how he in the process of falling on me, and I quickly released his ankle and forced myself to roll to the side, out of his way and out of the searing beam of light that was shredding my nerves

Sweet bliss!

As soon as the hideous light of the contraption was no longer hitting me, the pain stopped. There was no gradual fading; it just abruptly and completely vanished. Everything suddenly felt normal again, and it was wonderful. It was like a wash of light flooded through my body, chasing away the agony. I felt light and giddy, like I had been liberated from a horrendous dungeon or prison.

I felt almost wonderful enough to ignore the stinging of my stomach. Almost. He had hit me countless times in the same spot, and it hurt. My skin felt tight, and the muscles of my stomach seemed to be quivering and pulsing in pain. Gingerly, I touched my fingers to where he had hit me – above and to the left of my bellybutton, and grimaced, releasing a hiss of air, at how sore it was.

Taking a deep breath, I did my best to release the pain into the Force. Then I opened my eyes.

Most of the room was still pitch black, except for this red streak of light that emanated from a point about three feet away from me and six feet up in the air. The device, whatever it was, was probably attached to some sort of probe. I had to destroy it before Revelc Cainam could get his hands on it.

With a flick of my hand and a touch of the Force, the…thing went whizzing back through the air until it hit a wall and the light went out, leaving us completely in the darkness, which was all right with me. Unless this man had super night vision, it would give me the advantage because neither of us would be able to see, but I would have the Force on my side.

At some point I had dropped my lightsaber – probably when he first pointed that thing at me – and so I extended my arm and brought it flying into my hand. Just then, I sensed Revelc Cainam jump to his feet, noisily kicking aside something he had previously knocked to the floor.

Instantly, I pushed the button that would activate my weapon. Then I watched as a beam of white-blue light shot up from the hilt, only to pulsate and fizz into darkness. What in the world? I had had my lightsaber malfunction before, but never quite like that. What was wrong with it?

"A lightsaber is a most deadly weapon indeed, but not if you know how to stop them," he sounded like he was toying with me, like he was the epitome of confidence, but something had changed. He was nervous. I could feel it. He had been ready for me to come back, but he hadn't counted on me not being rendered completely helpless by his device. Now he wasn't sure whether he could win, he was even a little scared.

It made me very happy to know he was frightened. So far he had been ready for everything we did, but now I had turned the tables and he wasn't so sure that he would succeed in his little quest for revenge.

I tucked my weapon back into my utility belt. He was probably using some sort of magnetic field to make sure it wouldn't stay activated.

A fluctuation in the Force warned me seconds before it happened, allowing me to get ready to defend myself. He now knew where I was – he had seen the lightsaber glow – and was going to attack. There was whirl of sound and movement, and I saw a wild face with vengeful eyes emerging through the darkness as he sailed towards me.

We were only standing about three feet apart, so he quickly reached me. His forearms and chest came pounding into my upper body, and I yielded to the force of his momentum and allowed myself to be easily knocked over.

Having expected me to resist, he was moving way to fast to even try and slow down, so the impact sent us both tumbling down to the floor. Just as I wanted. My back hit the tiles painfully hard, and I could feel the jagged edges of broken flasks pressing into my skin, but I ignored both things and used Revelc Cainam's momentum against him.

Waiting until he had fallen nearly on top of me, I crunched my legs up against my stomach and chest and kicked upward with all my strength. As intended, my feet hit him solidly in the abdomen and that, in combination with the speed at which he was falling, sent him sailing a few feet over and past my head, where he landed with a groaning crash.

Pushing against the floor with my hands, I easily rolled to my feet and spun in the darkness. The saboteur was sprawled on the floor, facing upward, and breathing rapid shallow breaths. The wind had been knocked out of him, and he was probably slightly disoriented.

Pressing my advantage, I stayed extremely still so as not to make the slightest noise. That was he wouldn't be able to find me, even though I could sense exactly where he was and what he was doing.

Extending my senses outward, I searched within the Force for something I could use against this man to defeat him without greatly harming or killing him. For some reason I felt myself drawn to the flasks that lay shattered on the floor. Actually, now that I reached further into the Force, I could feel that not all of them were broken. One was intact.

Even though I didn't know what was in the flask, or why I felt compelled to take it, I called the small glass container to my hand so that I could grab and use it. The Force was swarming around this container, pushing and pulling me towards it. It was as if it was shouting at me, with sensations and mental touches, to use it.

So I did.

Revelc Cainam was just stumbling to his feet when I jumped forward and broke the flask over his head. It was too small to knock him out, but the fractured pieces of glass fell to the floor, letting whatever liquid contained inside flow down the man's face.

No sooner had I dropped what remained of the flask, did I hear Revelc Cainam's startled yell of pain. "Aarrh!" he screamed, in a rather high-pitched voice, "my eyes!" Through the Force I could sense that he had pressed his hands to his eyes and was clawing at them, as if they stung so bitterly that he wanted to pull them out.

He suddenly extended his arms and stepped forward, as if searching for me in the darkness, but quite abruptly, his knees buckled and he fell to his knees, where he continued to rub and paw at his eyes. For a few moments he persisted that way, until he started to shake and then convulse. The liquid in that container had done its duty, I could feel the saboteur's mind slipping away into the void of unconsciousness.

"Live or die," I jumped when he spoke it a harsh, angry whisper, "I still win. You're too late to save your Master, boy, but if you hurry, you may be able to watch him die."

Then, he fell forward until his face was smashed against the floor, and lost consciousness.

As I stood there staring into the darkness, all I could feel towards this man was pity. There was no fear anymore, no resentment or anger, just pity. He has wasted his life on seeking revenge, and what had it gotten him? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. He has fed on the darkness within his sole, until anger turned to rage, and hatred to loathing. Now, now that he had gone after Qui-Gon and I, he had nothing left.

With a soft hum, the emergency lights came on.

Blinking to adjust my vision, I looked around and nearly smiled. Everything was as I had sensed through the Force. Despite everything, I couldn't help but feel a little proud. I had never done this well in the darkness, not even in lightsaber duels. Usually I could just sense position and movements, but this time I had been able to 'see' everything around me. I truly was learning and growing, and it felt good to realize that.

A soft groan drew my attention to the young doctor. He had regained consciousness and was pressing a trembling hand to the concussion on the forehead. He whimpered again, and opened his eyes, squinting, and peering dazedly around the room.

I rushed to kneel at his side, "Will you be okay?" I whispered.

He grimaced and rubbed his face. "Y-yes," his voice broke, "I'll be…fine," his eyes were bloodshot, and he seemed to be having trouble focusing. When he reached out to grab my arm, his grip was weak. "Obi-Wan," he rasped, "I-I'm sorry…I tried to fight him, but he-he came out of nowhere! He…has Master Jinn."

I smiled, trying to reassure him, "Yes, I know. It's all right, I'll take care of it."

Doctor Marcof shook his head, "When you find Master Jinn, he's going to be in pretty bad shape. He's very…weak. The disease gets stronger the longer it lasts, and…the second shock of being…disconnected from the drug will be w-worse than the first… You have to find him…soon."

Anxiety stormed through my body. The immediate threat had distracted me from my worry for Qui-Gon, but now that concern came back in full force. If before I had sensed he was in danger, now I sensed that he was close to something ten times worse than that. If I didn't do something – soon – he would die. Not because of the shock, not because of the disease, but because of whatever Revelc Cainam had done before returning here to find me.

The door slid open and a group of paramedics and police officers walked in.

Rolling my eyes, I sighed. It was so nice of them to come and lend a hand. Why did the cavalry always have to arrive after the excitement ended and there was nothing left to do?

I jumped to my feet. "Take that man into custody," I pointed to the saboteur, "and keep him under heavy guard," then I turned to the doctors, "make sure Doctor Marcof is taken care of, as well as the young nurse."

Everyone nodded, and I waited until I saw two officers step aside and electro-cuff Revelc Cainam before I turned and speeding out of the room. I may have defeated our foe, but the danger lived on. Qui-Gon life was still at risk, and I didn't even have a clue as to where he was.

TBC… (on Monday)