Chapter 4
Obi-Wan swam in a sea of fuzzy faces and dim lights. His wrists began to chaff from being tied up "for his own safety" but he no longer noticed. He could barely remember his own name with the drugs they had him on, let alone why he was there. He cried often, wanting his master, but whenever Qui-Gon visited he would flinch away, not remembering why.
Kyran crept as silently as a wraith into Obi-Wan's room and glanced down at the youth who was bound to the bed. "Obi-Wan," he said softly, touching the boy's face gently.
Obi-Wan heard a distorted voice calling his name and jerked. He blinked, trying to focus through the haze of drugs. The face was familiar...but he couldn't place the name. All he remembered was that this was a friend. He whimpered, "Get me outta here," though not entirely sure why he wanted out so badly.
Kyran gently undid the straps that bound him and lifted him in his strong arms. "I am. We're going after your master. Come on."
Obi-Wan sighed gratefully and let himself be carried out to a pretty young woman. She was glancing up and down the corridor. "Hurry," she hissed, placing one of her shoulders underneath his to support some of his weight. "The nurse will be coming back soon."
Kyran blushed slightly. "No, she won't."
Jayla glanced over at him. "What do you mean, 'no, she won't'?" She groaned. "What did you do now?"
Kyran blushed even more. "Nothing! I just put her in a healing trance." He said defensively. "She'll be very healthy when she wakes up."
Jayla smothered a laugh. "Well, someone will be by...I can feel it in the Force that someone is coming. Hurry." She helped Kyran support Obi-Wan all the way back to Kyran's quarters, ignoring the odd looks they got in the Temple since Obi-Wan was mostly nude. Gently, they set him down on the couch. "Now, what do we do with him? They've got him drugged to the skies!" She said, exasperated. "He's in no condition to go after his master this way."
"Get him something to eat first, Jayla, and I've got something that will help him." He blushed again. "I won't leave him here. If Qui-Gon's clone finds him here..." He trailed off and shook his head.
Jayla nodded and rushed to his kitchen. He was always good for an unhealthy snack or two right above the cooling unit. Ah, there it was. She pulled down an assortment of sweets and then returned to Obi-Wan. As she enticed him to eat, she called out to Kyran, "Get him some clothes while you're at it. Once he becomes fully aware he might get embarrassed around me like this." She chuckled.
Kyran arched a brow and handed the boy an extra pair of pants and a tunic that he'd stolen from the boy's room when Qui-Gon was out. "Already taken care of. Here." He handed the clothes to Obi-Wan.
She looked at Kyran like he was crazy. "What? You want me to dress him? He can't even stand in his present condition."
"Fine. Then leave the room for a moment while I do it. "
Gently he assisted the boy up once Jayla had gone and helped him pull on his clothes. "There. That's better."
Jayla decided to see what Kyran had in his medical cabinet. She pawed through a few bottles of medicine when she spotted something that she thought would help speed up Obi-Wan's recovery from the drugs. She stared at the label as she entered the living room again. "Kyran, what in the galaxy are you doing with a bottle of wixanthime?"
The faint blush appeared in his cheeks again. "I…uh…borrowed it from the Mental Ward."
She gave him a look that he knew from their experiences together meant that she wasn't exactly buying it. "Well, this will help him recover nicely. Find time to use it with Qui-Gon lately, have you? It's recent."
"No. I'm going to put it back when I'm done with it. I just knew Obi-Wan would be drugged. Now don't question me." He loaded some of the substance into an syringe and gently injected the boy in a place where he thought it would hurt the least—his stomach.
Jayla shook her head but held her tongue until after Obi-Wan was injected and then laid him on the couch. "How long until he's able to help us out?"
"Not long. An hour or so at most. He should be able to help us then. Maybe sooner depending on how well his body reacts to having the drug," Kyran responded.
She raised an eyebrow. "And how long until they figure out we have him?"
Kyran grinned at that. "Not until tomorrow if all goes as planned."
She rolled her eyes as she dropped into an armchair. "With you, nothing ever goes as planned!"
Kyran scowled slightly. "It's not my fault. Instead of berating me about my methods why don't you tend to Obi-Wan," he snapped, slightly harsher than he intend. "I need to check on Qui-Gon." He stomped off to his room.
Jayla sighed as he left. She had only been joking but with the stress he was under she should have known better. Curling up into a comfortable position on the couch, she watched Obi-Wan breathe.
~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~
Qui-Gon came too slowly after having been passed out for over an hour, wincing at the pain in his neck and shoulders as he moved. Force, it hurt so badly. Tears came to his eyes as he moved. //Kyran, where are you?//
Kyran, already deep in meditation, reassured his friend. //Right here, Qui. Did you find out where you are?//
//No. I…can't talk. So I can't ask questions. Lips sewn shut. Sith, it hurts....//
Kyran frowned. That would make it harder. And his friend's lips were...sewn shut? //Have you had anything to eat or drink since you were captured?//
//No. // He hurt so badly that he wanted to just pass out again, but he wouldn't dare let himself now while he was talking to his friend.
Kyran sighed. //Hang on, my friend. We have Obi-Wan now and he should be waking soon. Once he's up, we can figure out where you are and get you. Any idea who has you and why?//
//Syfo Dias. He's experimenting with clones. He silenced me when I said the Council needed to be informed of his experiments. All for a pile of credits. His own credit balance means more to him than my padawan's life.// Qui-Gon swore through their link, wincing at the deep pain as he moved.
Kyran shook his head. //Syfo Dias has been a wild card ever since the Council began to question his ulterior motives. But not even I suspected him of something like this. Well, no matter, I suppose. At least now I know where to find you. Syfo has a lab not too far from here.//
//Good. I'm not sure how much longer I can hold out. I'm so thirsty.//
Kyran's heart broke with the thought of how close his friend was to dehydration. //We're coming, Qui-Gon. Please hang in there.//
//That's all I can do.// He joked lamely. //Look after Obi-Wan.//
Kyran nodded, though he knew his friend couldn't see him. //I am. We'll be there soon...hold on until then. I'm going to go check on your sleeping apprentice.//
Qui-Gon exhaled through his nose as Kyran broke contact. His throat was parched from the earlier wounds and the fact that he'd had nothing to eat or drink in five days didn't help him much. Only one thing mattered to him at the moment and it was getting water. It was all he could think of. His face twisted slightly, remembering that even if he'd had a glass of water he wouldn't be able to drink it. Despair settled over him then as he wondered if he would be able to get out of this alive.
Lora silently stole into the Jedi's room and crept up to him. All night she had thought of what was being done to him just because he didn't agree with the creator. The creator, though, did not want him to die and humans expired after five days of being without water. He couldn't drink with his lips sewn shut so she had retrieved a syringe, filled it was as much water as she could get into it, and come here. Her eyes locked on his for a moment.
Tears flowed down his cheeks as he looked at the syringe, wondering what she was going to inject him with. He exhaled, figuring it didn't matter anymore. He was done. He wouldn't fight anymore.
Lora, being surprisingly gentle, took his arm and then stuck him with the needle. Without wasting any time, she squeezed the precious fluid into his system and then left to get more, certain that he would need it. She tried to ignore how his tears made her heart break.
Qui-Gon winced as the needle slid under his skin, and then he realized what it was as she left. Water. He wondered if she'd been acting on her own or under orders to give it to him.
Lora returned four times with water before she heard footsteps in the hall. She quickly hid the syringe in her sleeve as Dora stepped in. Her twin gave her a long look but refrained from comment except to say, "The creator is coming to talk to you again. He wants you to be able to speak this time." She produced wickedly sharp scissors.
Qui-Gon held still as she cut his lips where she had sewn them shut. It hurt like fire. He was close to the point of collapse. He screamed as she cut through the final strand that had been sewn, finally able to give voice to his suffering.
Lora winced at the pent up sound from his cracked and bleeding lips.
Syfo walked in and smiled. "Ah, able to speak again I see. How's your..." He glanced at him and frowned. "What are those acids burns for?" He suddenly scowled and rounded on Dora. "You tortured him without my permission! How dare you take the gumption to do something without my approval! I am most seriously displeased with you! Out of here now!"
Dora glared and stomped out without a word.
"My apologies," Syfo said.
Qui-Gon looked at him like he was crazy, then he winced at the pain from the burns. He cast his gaze to the floor, deciding that to face his tormentor wasn't worth the effort.
Syfo sighed. "Now I suppose you're mad at me. I just wanted you to join me."
Qui-Gon eyed him, but when he spoke his voice came out as only a weak croak. "Jedi do not seek revenge. I don't think I'll be joining you anytime soon."
Syfo sighed. "It's as I thought then. Well, I just don't know what I'm going to do with you. I need some time to think of it. I'll get Lora here to get you some food and water while I think. Lora, dear, see to it." He left and Lora glanced down, wondering what the Jedi would say to her now that he could speak.
"Thank you," he managed to croak out, knowing she would know what he was thanking her for.
Lora jerked her head up and tried on a smile for the first time since her activation almost two weeks earlier. "You're...welcome..." She said, the words having difficulty coming out, having never been used. "I suppose I should get you something to eat and more water."
"Please." He frowned slightly, wondering about how difficult it would be to eat with his bloodied, cracked lips, but then he decided it didn't matter.
Almost as if she had read his mind, she added, "I'll find something soft so that you can eat with minimal pain." Bowing, she left.
~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~
Kyran hurried through the Temple corridor with Obi-Wan, taking a side passage that he'd discovered in his youth with Qui-Gon that led to a secret exit. "Come on," he whispered. He tensed, feeling the strange presence of the clone close by. "Hurry!" He hissed.
Obi-Wan was still a little shaky from the drugs but he was mostly ok now. He forced himself to keep up with Kyran's longer legs. He was about to catch up when strong arms locked around his throat. He let out a cry. The clone had him. "Kyran!"
Kyran whirled and in an instant had his blade out and ignited. "Let him go."
The clone chuckled. "Are you serious? This boy is my ticket out of here, should anyone start to believe him besides you. Better beware, Kyran...I am not entirely the same as your friend."
"Let him go." Kyran held the saber at the clone's neck very aware that if anybody saw him threaten Qui-Gon like this then he could be locked away just like Obi-Wan.
The clone tsked. "Oh, I don't know. I like having a bargaining chip." He tightened his arm around Obi-Wan's throat and it became quickly clear that Obi-Wan was having trouble getting oxygen.
"Using a boy to further your ends? Tsk tsk. Fight like a man why, don't you?"
The clone snarled and suddenly thrust Obi-Wan at Kyran, catching them both unaware. Obi-Wan choked and gasped for air while the clone faced Kyran. "Better?" He mocked.
Kyran caught the boy before he fell into him and steadied him. He smirked. "Yep. Have a nice day." With that, he Force pushed the clone backwards hard, slamming him into the wall behind him. He grabbed Obi-Wan's wrist and pushed him down the corridor. "Run. Go. Don't look back. Go after Qui-Gon."
Obi-Wan nodded. He raced away, trying to keep in mind the directions that Kyran had rambled to him as he had woken up on where he thought his master was. A flash of light came from behind him, along with a cry, but he obeyed his master's friend and didn't look back.
