Chapter Two
Kyran woke with a start. He had dozed off for a short nap while waiting on Obi-Wan to wake, but something in the Force had prodded him to full alert. His heart hammered and he was broken out in a sweat, yet he did not know what was wrong. The only thought he had was to contact Qui-Gon. After several frustrating minutes of trying to convince Anya to disturb the recovering Jedi Master, he was finally allowed to talk to Qui-Gon. "My friend, did you feel it?" he asked without preamble.
Qui-Gon was sitting up in bed with a worried and agitated look on his face. He nodded once to show he had. What was that?
Kyran shook his head. "I was hoping you could tell me," he said three floors below his friend as he began to walk back to the Healer's wing. Lana gave him a quizzical look. "I'm going to have Lana check to see if Obi-Wan felt it. I hate to disturb the boy but we need to make sure that all of us are safe."
I agree,Qui-Gon said as he laid back in his pillows. It was so frustrating to think there might be some danger lurking and be unable to do anything about it.
Lana ran off down the hall to where Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan's quarters were. She quickly skidded to a halt outside the door and knocked rapidly. There was no answer, but she didn't think there would be if the poor boy was finally sleeping after two days. She used her passcode to enter and strode to Obi-Wan's room. She stopped short when she saw his bed was empty, and worse, not even rumpled. A quick survey of the other rooms showed that Obi- Wan was no where in the quarters. Before she contacted her husband, she noticed a datapad blinking by the holonet. Feeling the Force prompt her, she scooped it up and ran out the door, thumbing her comlink on as she did so. "Obi-Wan's not in the rooms," she said quickly as she skidded into a turbolift and keyed for the Healers.
"What?" Kyran said astonished as he entered Qui-Gon's room. "He was supposed to go back to his room and sleep!" He glanced at Qui-Gon who had drifted slowly back to sleep from the anesthetics still lingering in his system.
"Well, he's not here," Lana replied a trifle testily. "He's bed hasn't even been turned down. I found something that you should take a look at." She stepped off the turbolift, closed down her comlink and raced into Qui-Gon's recovery room. She handed her husband the datapad. Glancing at the slumbering Qui-Gon, she whispered, "I haven't even looked at it yet. It might be a clue."
Kyran took the datapad from his wife and frowned a little as he turned it on. "Blast it," he said as he saw the letter with the request for aide on it. "He's probably not in the temple at all."
Lana shook her head. "He needed sleep! Where would he go? What does it say?"
Wordlessly Kyran handed the datapad to his wife. "You know how Obi-Wan is. Where do you think he went?"
Lana sighed. "One of us needs to tell Qui," she murmured, her eyes still riveted to the datapad.
Qui-Gon blinked sleepily. "Tell me what?" He croaked out.
Lana and Kyran glanced at each other. Kyran sat down beside him. "Qui-Gon," he said gently, "Obi-Wan's missing."
Qui-Gon frowned a little. His throat had hurt when he spoke, reminding him not to speak aloud. What do you mean he's missing?he demanded as he came more awake, sitting up in bed.
Lana quickly shut the door and barricaded herself in front of it to keep him from leaving. Kyran cleared his throat. "Lana found this message on your datapad," he said as he handed to his friend.
Qui-Gon clenched his jaw at reading the datapad, then he very calmly got out of bed, intending to go back to his room that instant to go after Obi- Wan.
"Qui..." Lana said warningly. "Get back in bed. Now." She glared at him.
He folded his arms very stubbornly across his chest. "No," he said hoarsely.
Kyran joined his wife at the door and raised an eyebrow. "You are not allowed to leave this room, my friend, until you have completely recovered. That's another two days. Lay down."
He glowered at the pair of them and tried to open his mouth to say something, but winced at the pain his throat. Kyran, move aside.
Kyran and Lana both shook their heads. "No," they replied in unison. Kyran hid his wife from view as she twisted her comlink on and tuned it to Apprentice Anya's. Loudly, Kyran stated, "We are not going to allow you to leave, Qui-Gon. I'll start the search, but you must stay here."
Qui-Gon frowned, his eyes pleading for understanding. But I'm fine! I just can't talk, that's all.
Kyran felt his heart wrench for his friend, but he knew Qui-Gon needed to finish recovering. "We don't even know really where to look right now. Lana and I will go to this address and see what we find. You rest here like you're supposed to. I..." Just then the door slid open behind them and Anya stepped in, surveying the scene. Lana quickly turned her comlink off and shoved it back in her belt.
Qui-Gon glowered at Anya as she entered, wondering which of his friends had dared pulled a fast one on him to call the Healer. He suspected strongly that it had been Lana.
Anya gazed coolly at the big Jedi. "And what do you think you're doing up out of bed?" she asked calmly, stepping around the husband and wife in the doorway.
"Leaving," he said shortly. He thrust the datapad at her. "My apprentice is missing."
Anya glanced down at the datapad, then back at him. "That is regrettable. But you are not going anywhere. Master Josel and Jedi Josel are more than able to start the search for your padawan as you stay here and rest." She crossed her arms and stood in front of Kyran and Lana.
He resolutely folded his arms across his chest. "I'm not tired."
"You're not going," Anya said just as firmly.
He glanced at her with a stony expression. He was going and she couldn't stop him.
Anya sighed. She had been warned about him. "Fine." Quickly, she planted an extremely strong Force suggestion into his already tired and drugged mind. "Sleep."
Qui-Gon tried to fight off the unconsciousness he felt, but between the drugs and the Force suggestion he fell into its blackness quickly.
Anya swiftly caught him and staggered slightly under his weight. Kyran and Lana helped her get him back into bed. "Well," the apprentice sighed. "That will hold him for a while. I might have to resort to medications to get him to stay put, though." She wrinkled her nose, then sobered. "So Obi-Wan is missing?"
Kyran nodded reluctantly. "Yes. We sent him to get some rest and apparently he went out of the Temple instead."
Anya frowned. "Doesn't sound like him. Sounds more like..." she glanced down at Qui-Gon's sleeping form. "Is there a reason?"
Kyran nodded. "Apparently there was a request for aide lying on his bed from someone. He decided to investigate. I have no idea why he didn't call one of us first."
"He was tired. Exhausted Jedi do not think rationally," Anya said wisely. She checked on Qui-Gon's vitals then motioned them all out of the room. She locked the door and keyed an alarm to it if the lock was forced. "Well, I do wish you luck searching for him."
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Lana crouched down low. She knew this section of Coruscant too well: this was the fringe where she had lived most of her life. And the building where she could see Obi-Wan's speeder was one of the worse places a young Jedi could be by himself, especially an exhausted one who was too tired to barely keep his eyes open. "Well," she murmured, "He's obviously not in the speeder."
"Obviously not," Kyran mumbled back. "Things couldn't be easy could they? Now what?" He rubbed his chin thoughtfully, a habit he'd picked up from Qui- Gon.
Lana sighed. "Whatever we do, be cautious. This is not a good area to be in if you're a law-abiding citizen." She shrugged out of her Jedi robe to reveal the skin-tight black outfit that she wore underneath her robes. She eyed him critically. "You need to change." She yanked off his robes, took off his shirt, mussed up his hair, then stepped back to eye him critically again. "It'll have to do."
"Hey!" He protested. "Now's not the time to get naked, Lana, we're in the middle of a street!" He pushed his hair back to a semi-normal state.
Lana rolled her eyes in exasperation as she rumpled his hair again and shoved his robes on the trash compactor where hers were. "You stick out like a Jedi. In order to get into that warehouse, in order to keep them from killing Obi-Wan on sight of us, we need to blend in. Now swagger, pretend to be drunk and abusive, and I'll get us in that warehouse." She smiled at him.
Kyran rolled his eyes, annoyed. He felt very self conscious walking around without the rest of his clothes. "Can I at least have my undershirt back? I don't exactly have a place to hide my weapon, you know."
She picked his undershirt back up and regarded it. It was a dark green color that brought out his eyes. She didn't see how it could be considered 'Jedi' so she gave it back. "Fine, but we need to get in there. The longer we delay, the more..." she stopped, not wanting to finish.
Kyran quickly put the shirt on. "Thanks. Well, go on, I won't stop you. I'll be right behind you."
Lana sauntered out of the alley and adopted a waver in her step to suggest that she had had too much ale. She sang discorded notes at the top of her lungs, giggled, then glanced back at Kyran. "C'mere, hun," she called, slurring her words. "Come to momma!" She gave a seductive wiggle of her hips and burst out laughing.
"Daughter of a mynock whore," Kyran said, slurring his speech to where it was almost unintelligible. He hiccupped once and stumbled. "Why would I" hiccup "sleep with a whore?"
Lana kept her face from showing her laughter at his impression of a drunken man as she adopted an air of hurt dignity. She stumbled slightly toward him, her chin held in the air. "I'm not a whore. I'm a pro----profesh--one of those who do it often." She walked toward the building again. "No one 'as to know. C'mere..." She was in the doorway now, her senses at high alert as she wagged a finger at Kyran.
"Same diff'ence," Kyran said, his words slurred as he slapped her, using the Force to cushion the blow.
Lana used the slap to roll smoothly into the darkened building, her lightsaber suddenly in her hands and lit. She sensed no one, though there was something... "I sense an echo...but what is it?" she murmured as she looked around the building that was made into a large house. "Can you feel it?" Her Jedi powers were nowhere as good as her husband's.
Kyran frowned slightly. "Obi-Wan isn't here," he said shortly. "But he was in this area. Perhaps it's the echo of his signature that you're feeling."
She shook her head. "Its...more than that..." She walked over to the side of the room and knelt down. Her fingers touched something wet. When she brought her fingers up, she saw that it was blood. She raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps an echo of his pain?"
Kyran hissed at that. "Yes, it could be." He sighed. "Qui-Gon is not going to be happy. If we're lucky, he'll still be asleep when we get back."
It took only a quick search to see that Obi-Wan or his captors were not in the building. Unfortunately, neither were any clues other than an empty syringe. Lana pocketed it. "I'll fly his speeder back." She eyed her husband. "It speaks volumes about whomever had their headquarters here that no one has stripped or stolen that speeder."
Kyran winced. "I suppose so. Well, I suppose that we best get back as soon as possible. The less time we hang around here the better."
Lana nodded. "Grab our stuff on the way out. I'll meet you in front of the Council chambers. They need to be notified."
Kyran nodded. "I love you. Be careful."
She smiled. "Always." Then she hopped into Obi-Wan's speeder to fly it back to the Temple.
Kyran smiled, watching her drive off. He jogged back across the street, grabbed their clothes from where they had stored them, then took off toward the Temple. Qui-Gon was not going to be pleased when he woke up.
Kyran woke with a start. He had dozed off for a short nap while waiting on Obi-Wan to wake, but something in the Force had prodded him to full alert. His heart hammered and he was broken out in a sweat, yet he did not know what was wrong. The only thought he had was to contact Qui-Gon. After several frustrating minutes of trying to convince Anya to disturb the recovering Jedi Master, he was finally allowed to talk to Qui-Gon. "My friend, did you feel it?" he asked without preamble.
Qui-Gon was sitting up in bed with a worried and agitated look on his face. He nodded once to show he had. What was that?
Kyran shook his head. "I was hoping you could tell me," he said three floors below his friend as he began to walk back to the Healer's wing. Lana gave him a quizzical look. "I'm going to have Lana check to see if Obi-Wan felt it. I hate to disturb the boy but we need to make sure that all of us are safe."
I agree,Qui-Gon said as he laid back in his pillows. It was so frustrating to think there might be some danger lurking and be unable to do anything about it.
Lana ran off down the hall to where Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan's quarters were. She quickly skidded to a halt outside the door and knocked rapidly. There was no answer, but she didn't think there would be if the poor boy was finally sleeping after two days. She used her passcode to enter and strode to Obi-Wan's room. She stopped short when she saw his bed was empty, and worse, not even rumpled. A quick survey of the other rooms showed that Obi- Wan was no where in the quarters. Before she contacted her husband, she noticed a datapad blinking by the holonet. Feeling the Force prompt her, she scooped it up and ran out the door, thumbing her comlink on as she did so. "Obi-Wan's not in the rooms," she said quickly as she skidded into a turbolift and keyed for the Healers.
"What?" Kyran said astonished as he entered Qui-Gon's room. "He was supposed to go back to his room and sleep!" He glanced at Qui-Gon who had drifted slowly back to sleep from the anesthetics still lingering in his system.
"Well, he's not here," Lana replied a trifle testily. "He's bed hasn't even been turned down. I found something that you should take a look at." She stepped off the turbolift, closed down her comlink and raced into Qui-Gon's recovery room. She handed her husband the datapad. Glancing at the slumbering Qui-Gon, she whispered, "I haven't even looked at it yet. It might be a clue."
Kyran took the datapad from his wife and frowned a little as he turned it on. "Blast it," he said as he saw the letter with the request for aide on it. "He's probably not in the temple at all."
Lana shook her head. "He needed sleep! Where would he go? What does it say?"
Wordlessly Kyran handed the datapad to his wife. "You know how Obi-Wan is. Where do you think he went?"
Lana sighed. "One of us needs to tell Qui," she murmured, her eyes still riveted to the datapad.
Qui-Gon blinked sleepily. "Tell me what?" He croaked out.
Lana and Kyran glanced at each other. Kyran sat down beside him. "Qui-Gon," he said gently, "Obi-Wan's missing."
Qui-Gon frowned a little. His throat had hurt when he spoke, reminding him not to speak aloud. What do you mean he's missing?he demanded as he came more awake, sitting up in bed.
Lana quickly shut the door and barricaded herself in front of it to keep him from leaving. Kyran cleared his throat. "Lana found this message on your datapad," he said as he handed to his friend.
Qui-Gon clenched his jaw at reading the datapad, then he very calmly got out of bed, intending to go back to his room that instant to go after Obi- Wan.
"Qui..." Lana said warningly. "Get back in bed. Now." She glared at him.
He folded his arms very stubbornly across his chest. "No," he said hoarsely.
Kyran joined his wife at the door and raised an eyebrow. "You are not allowed to leave this room, my friend, until you have completely recovered. That's another two days. Lay down."
He glowered at the pair of them and tried to open his mouth to say something, but winced at the pain his throat. Kyran, move aside.
Kyran and Lana both shook their heads. "No," they replied in unison. Kyran hid his wife from view as she twisted her comlink on and tuned it to Apprentice Anya's. Loudly, Kyran stated, "We are not going to allow you to leave, Qui-Gon. I'll start the search, but you must stay here."
Qui-Gon frowned, his eyes pleading for understanding. But I'm fine! I just can't talk, that's all.
Kyran felt his heart wrench for his friend, but he knew Qui-Gon needed to finish recovering. "We don't even know really where to look right now. Lana and I will go to this address and see what we find. You rest here like you're supposed to. I..." Just then the door slid open behind them and Anya stepped in, surveying the scene. Lana quickly turned her comlink off and shoved it back in her belt.
Qui-Gon glowered at Anya as she entered, wondering which of his friends had dared pulled a fast one on him to call the Healer. He suspected strongly that it had been Lana.
Anya gazed coolly at the big Jedi. "And what do you think you're doing up out of bed?" she asked calmly, stepping around the husband and wife in the doorway.
"Leaving," he said shortly. He thrust the datapad at her. "My apprentice is missing."
Anya glanced down at the datapad, then back at him. "That is regrettable. But you are not going anywhere. Master Josel and Jedi Josel are more than able to start the search for your padawan as you stay here and rest." She crossed her arms and stood in front of Kyran and Lana.
He resolutely folded his arms across his chest. "I'm not tired."
"You're not going," Anya said just as firmly.
He glanced at her with a stony expression. He was going and she couldn't stop him.
Anya sighed. She had been warned about him. "Fine." Quickly, she planted an extremely strong Force suggestion into his already tired and drugged mind. "Sleep."
Qui-Gon tried to fight off the unconsciousness he felt, but between the drugs and the Force suggestion he fell into its blackness quickly.
Anya swiftly caught him and staggered slightly under his weight. Kyran and Lana helped her get him back into bed. "Well," the apprentice sighed. "That will hold him for a while. I might have to resort to medications to get him to stay put, though." She wrinkled her nose, then sobered. "So Obi-Wan is missing?"
Kyran nodded reluctantly. "Yes. We sent him to get some rest and apparently he went out of the Temple instead."
Anya frowned. "Doesn't sound like him. Sounds more like..." she glanced down at Qui-Gon's sleeping form. "Is there a reason?"
Kyran nodded. "Apparently there was a request for aide lying on his bed from someone. He decided to investigate. I have no idea why he didn't call one of us first."
"He was tired. Exhausted Jedi do not think rationally," Anya said wisely. She checked on Qui-Gon's vitals then motioned them all out of the room. She locked the door and keyed an alarm to it if the lock was forced. "Well, I do wish you luck searching for him."
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Lana crouched down low. She knew this section of Coruscant too well: this was the fringe where she had lived most of her life. And the building where she could see Obi-Wan's speeder was one of the worse places a young Jedi could be by himself, especially an exhausted one who was too tired to barely keep his eyes open. "Well," she murmured, "He's obviously not in the speeder."
"Obviously not," Kyran mumbled back. "Things couldn't be easy could they? Now what?" He rubbed his chin thoughtfully, a habit he'd picked up from Qui- Gon.
Lana sighed. "Whatever we do, be cautious. This is not a good area to be in if you're a law-abiding citizen." She shrugged out of her Jedi robe to reveal the skin-tight black outfit that she wore underneath her robes. She eyed him critically. "You need to change." She yanked off his robes, took off his shirt, mussed up his hair, then stepped back to eye him critically again. "It'll have to do."
"Hey!" He protested. "Now's not the time to get naked, Lana, we're in the middle of a street!" He pushed his hair back to a semi-normal state.
Lana rolled her eyes in exasperation as she rumpled his hair again and shoved his robes on the trash compactor where hers were. "You stick out like a Jedi. In order to get into that warehouse, in order to keep them from killing Obi-Wan on sight of us, we need to blend in. Now swagger, pretend to be drunk and abusive, and I'll get us in that warehouse." She smiled at him.
Kyran rolled his eyes, annoyed. He felt very self conscious walking around without the rest of his clothes. "Can I at least have my undershirt back? I don't exactly have a place to hide my weapon, you know."
She picked his undershirt back up and regarded it. It was a dark green color that brought out his eyes. She didn't see how it could be considered 'Jedi' so she gave it back. "Fine, but we need to get in there. The longer we delay, the more..." she stopped, not wanting to finish.
Kyran quickly put the shirt on. "Thanks. Well, go on, I won't stop you. I'll be right behind you."
Lana sauntered out of the alley and adopted a waver in her step to suggest that she had had too much ale. She sang discorded notes at the top of her lungs, giggled, then glanced back at Kyran. "C'mere, hun," she called, slurring her words. "Come to momma!" She gave a seductive wiggle of her hips and burst out laughing.
"Daughter of a mynock whore," Kyran said, slurring his speech to where it was almost unintelligible. He hiccupped once and stumbled. "Why would I" hiccup "sleep with a whore?"
Lana kept her face from showing her laughter at his impression of a drunken man as she adopted an air of hurt dignity. She stumbled slightly toward him, her chin held in the air. "I'm not a whore. I'm a pro----profesh--one of those who do it often." She walked toward the building again. "No one 'as to know. C'mere..." She was in the doorway now, her senses at high alert as she wagged a finger at Kyran.
"Same diff'ence," Kyran said, his words slurred as he slapped her, using the Force to cushion the blow.
Lana used the slap to roll smoothly into the darkened building, her lightsaber suddenly in her hands and lit. She sensed no one, though there was something... "I sense an echo...but what is it?" she murmured as she looked around the building that was made into a large house. "Can you feel it?" Her Jedi powers were nowhere as good as her husband's.
Kyran frowned slightly. "Obi-Wan isn't here," he said shortly. "But he was in this area. Perhaps it's the echo of his signature that you're feeling."
She shook her head. "Its...more than that..." She walked over to the side of the room and knelt down. Her fingers touched something wet. When she brought her fingers up, she saw that it was blood. She raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps an echo of his pain?"
Kyran hissed at that. "Yes, it could be." He sighed. "Qui-Gon is not going to be happy. If we're lucky, he'll still be asleep when we get back."
It took only a quick search to see that Obi-Wan or his captors were not in the building. Unfortunately, neither were any clues other than an empty syringe. Lana pocketed it. "I'll fly his speeder back." She eyed her husband. "It speaks volumes about whomever had their headquarters here that no one has stripped or stolen that speeder."
Kyran winced. "I suppose so. Well, I suppose that we best get back as soon as possible. The less time we hang around here the better."
Lana nodded. "Grab our stuff on the way out. I'll meet you in front of the Council chambers. They need to be notified."
Kyran nodded. "I love you. Be careful."
She smiled. "Always." Then she hopped into Obi-Wan's speeder to fly it back to the Temple.
Kyran smiled, watching her drive off. He jogged back across the street, grabbed their clothes from where they had stored them, then took off toward the Temple. Qui-Gon was not going to be pleased when he woke up.