CHAPTER FIFTEEN: A CHANGE OF PLANS
Jacen removed a piece of debris and tossed it aside. He picked up another large piece of duracrete and did the same. He had been going through this repetitive mode of picking up rubble and tossing it aside for what seemed like hours now - and with nothing to show for it.
He knew his brother and Tahiri weren't dead, of that he was certain. He would have felt it if they were. But the fact that they had been most likely buried alive in the explosion and would be running out of air soon, did little to help squash the panic he was feeling inside. It didn't help that he could barely sense either one of them through the force.
He heaved a sigh and went to pick up another boulder, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him. He found himself face to face with Tenal Ka who was as equally sweaty and grimy as he was. She handed him a canteen of water and he took a drink from it gratefully.
She observed him closely. "If you want to take a break - "
"I'm fine," he said and handed her back the canteen more roughly then he intended to.
Without looking at her again, he went back to digging. He didn't need her to see how close to exhaustion he really was. And what kept driving him on had nothing to do with adrenaline. It was guilt. Guilt for his smug attitude towards his brother. Guilt for kissing Tahiri and enjoying it. And guilt for about a dozen other things he couldn't think of off the top of his head.
"Jacen, it is not your fault,"
"It doesn't matter whose fault it is. All that matters is getting them out of there,"
This time Tenal Ka's hand on his shoulder was not reassuring, but tight and strong as if she were forcing him to look at her. "This is about more then your brother and Tahiri being trapped, is it not?"
She was staring at him, unblinking, that he wondered if she could read his thoughts. There was a time when he wouldn't have minded that gaze, but she was the last person he wanted to share his feelings with right now. "Tenal Ka, please stay out of my thoughts," he said to her. "Unless you're going to help me dig," he said picking up heavy boulder and throwing it aside, "you should go help Baxter's men tend to the wounded,"
He hadn't said it to be rude, but he needed to focus on what he was doing. She was a distraction that Anakin and Tahiri could not afford right now.
She had opened her mouth, ready to speak, but was cut off by Baxter who was running towards them.
He greeted Tenal Ka as princess, much to her annoyance. Since he had found out she was heir of Hapes, he had begun calling her that and so had the rest of his soldiers.
"What is it, Captain?" Jacen asked him.
"A couple of my men found something on the other side of the debris that you might want to take a look at,"
He and Tenal Ka followed Baxter around the rubble that had once housed the military stationed on Trianna to where several soldiers were gathered around something. They parted to let Baxter through with the two Jedi. Jacen didn't realized immediately what he was seeing, but Tenal Ka did.
She was hunched on the ground, examining the tracks that had been made. "It looks as if at least one person has been dragged through here," she said out loud.
The trail started from somewhere beneath the debris, and the flattened trail of grass continued to lead into the forest.
"Then they may have gotten out before the explosion," Jacen reasoned. He wasn't sure if he should be relieved or not considering who had probably dragged them out.
Tenal Ka got to her feet and looked at him. "There is only one way to find out,"
It was the splitting pain in Anakin's head that finally drove him back to consciousness. When he opened his eyes, however, the pain seemed dismal to what was going on in front of him. Somehow, he was no longer in the exploding lab in the village. Now he was in a dark forest in the dead of night, with a single roaring fire glowing in front of him. The warmth it was giving off did little to comfort him when he thought of why he was still alive.
His hands and feet were bound together by some thick root, that didn't budge an inch when he tried to break free of it. He heard a low groan to his left and saw Tahiri coming around.
"Anakin?" She blinked groggily at him. "Where are we?"
"I think were in their nest," he answered her.
"I guess it beats an exploding building,"
"Not if that fire is what I think it's for," he said to her.
Tahiri looked at the flames and shivered.
Seeing that their captives were awake now, the creatures approached them slowly, keeping eye contact with the Jedi the whole time. They grabbed the two of them and dragged them closer to the fire. When they tried resisting, the filthiest of the altered humans – and that was saying something – removed a cylinder shaped object from beneath its rags. It fumbled for the switch on the side before a long violet beam shot out the end of it, nearly decapitating it's own foot.
Anakin recognized it instantly as his lightsaber. He wasn't sure if the altered human would know how to use it, but considering the threatening way he was aiming it at Tahiri and himself, he thought it best they cooperate for the moment.
They gave up on resisting and allowed themselves to be shoved within several feet from the fire.
"Anakin, now would be a good time for one of your plans," Tahiri said in a low voice.
He made no reply. He was busy watching the altered humans take a turn at handling his saber. One of them managed to graze the leg of another, and even though the wound looked superficial, the human cried out and attacked the one who had injured him. The rest of their captors made a circle around them and started yelling, as if they were encouraging the whole thing. Anakin decided to use their distraction to his advantage.
"Tahiri, can you reach the pocket on my leg?" Anakin said, careful not to move his lips too much.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her reach down and with her bound hands manage to open his pocket and reach in. She shifted enough so that her back was against his and begun cutting through the binds on his wrists with the mini vibroblade.
Several meters away, the creatures continued with their fighting and chanting, oblivious to the attempt at escape being made by their captives.
Jaina felt her knees trembling uncontrollably as she stared at the person directly in front of her. "Zekk," she uttered in hushed voice. It was totally impossible, yet he was standing right there. She wanted to touch him, make sure he was real, but what prevented her from doing so was that nagging doubt in the back of her mind that perhaps she was just seeing what she wanted to see. It didn't help that she felt nothing when she reached out to him.
"Of course it's me," he said, sounding rather miffed.
"I don't understand," she said, shaking her head.
"Obviously not, otherwise you would have waited instead of coming up with this clever escape plan of yours. Gods, Jaina, what were you thinking?"
"You're dead," she stated in an unwavering voice.
"What?" He was beyond confused. "What are you talking about?"
"I can't feel you,"
"Oh, that," he said. He closed his eyes and then opened them again. "Better?"
Jaina was shaking her head. "How did you – what's going on here?"
"Maybe we should continue this conversation somewhere a bit more private." He indicated to the guards nearby. "Follow me,"
Ducking low he led her passed the storage containers to a door on the opposite wall. He took out what looked like an ID card from his pocket and swiped it along the key panel. The door gave a low hiss and opened. It was a storage room. Piled around were crates of every size that did not appear to be stacked in any specific order. Once they were safely inside, Zekk tore off the control panel beside the door and ripped apart several of the wires inside.
"That should keep someone out for awhile," he said to her. "We can use the containers in here to climb up to the catwalk to get out of here." Still seeing the astonished look on her face, he said, "sorry, I guess I should have told you I can cut myself off from the force completely, and can appear that way even with someone force sensitive nearby. I would have thought Ganner would have said something. He knew what I was doing,"
This was becoming too much for Jaina. She found herself looking for the nearest storage crate and sitting down on it. "He said you were dead,"
"He did what?"
She could feel his fury hit her like a tidal wave.
"I felt you die – or at least I thought I did. One minute I could feel you through the force and the next there was nothing,"
Zekk had to take a calming breath, but he seemed to be handling the news better than Jaina. She looked like he felt: betrayed.
"Well, I'm not dead," he was happy to inform her.
"Thanks for the update because I hadn't figured that out for myself,"
She was trying to sound sarcastic, but Zekk knew better. She was trying to hide the hurt she was feeling.
"They've already captured Lex and Ganner," he said suddenly. "I was listening in on their comm frequency before I found you,"
She nodded her head in a business-like way, knowing they had more important matters to focus on. "So what do we do now? They'll still be looking for me,"
Zekk didn't answer her, but started pulling off the tops of crates one by one until he found what he was looking for. He tossed her some clothing and a cap. "Put these on. They shouldn't recognize you dressed like that,"
"What if they're not my size?"
"Funny, Jaina. Just put them on,"
"Do you mind?" She said, when he continued to stare in her direction.
"Right, sorry," he said, his face flushing slightly as he turned around so she could change.
She dressed silently, forcing Zekk to listen to the changing of her clothes until she said, "how do you do that? Make yourself as if you don't exist through the force,"
"It's something I've worked at for about a year now," he answered, "since my last encounter with the dark side. I thought if I could cut myself off completely I wouldn't be tempted. This is the longest I've ever kept it up, though. I needed to be sure there would be no way for my presence to be detected while I worked out a plan to break you out,"
"Zekk, to be able to do that, that's – that's amazing. You could be in a room full of Jedi and they would never know it," she said in awe.
"It requires an awful lot of concentration, and the more people there are around the harder it is to maintain,"
For the first time she could hear the exhaustion in his voice when he spoke. "I'm done. You can turn around,"
It was like looking at a completely different person. She was now donning the military fatigues worn by the soldiers around the facility, with her long hair was pulled up underneath the cap he had given her.
"What's next?" She asked him.
"I'm going to break Ganner and Lex out, while you head down to that laboratory you found earlier. We're going to free as many of those people as we can. You might need this," he said, removing a long, metallic object from his pocket.
She took her lightsaber from him, grateful that he had managed to get it back.
The two of them made a sort of stairway with the crates until Jaina was able to reach up and remove one of the ceiling panels. She pulled herself up threw the whole and then Zekk did the same.
He had obviously explored this place more than her, so she let him lead, all the while hoping the relief she felt at seeing him alive was not as evident on her face as it was in her heart.