Hi there.
It's so good to hear from you Lena Breeze. I stay away from the EU characters for a couple of reasons. First, there are so many of them that trying to include them all as more than cameo appearences just makes my head spin and I can never choose which ones to include and which ones to leave out. Second, I haven't read all the books, but I do own all the movies so when I feel I'm having a characterization problem, I can just pop a tape in and find an appropriate scene to clear up the problem. I also feel that the EU authors made the whole thing way too dark. I only read like one and a half of the NJO books and decided I didn't care how it ended anymore. Even George put in a joke now and then to lighten the dark parts. ("When he gets back, I won't stand in your way." "Han, He's my brother!") And as far as I know, he only ever killed off one character that didn't at least get cameo appearences in later films.
Anyway, I'll keep going all night if I don't stop now and go on to Relyan's comments. Patience is a virtue, you'll learn about the crazy old man soon enough. But not in this chapter. Probably not next chapter either. This is turning out to be the longest story I've ever written. I didn't realize just how long it was before I started posting it. As for Luke and Leia's behavoir, Jania and Jacen are much better behaved than that!
In respose to your comment about grown-ups acting like children, I don't know how old you are and I have no intention of asking, so please don't take this the wrong way, but I have some pearls of wisdom to share with you. First, John Mayer was right. There's no such thing as the real world, it's just a lie we have to rise above. Second, the smartest people in the world grow older, not up. Growing older means paying bills and buying cat food and eating vegetables on your pizza. Growing up means all of that plus forgetting what it was like when you didn't have to do those things.
Okay, this is a short chapter and this AN will be longer than the actual story if I don't shut up now so...
History's Keeper
Part four: Good Timing
When Neri awoke, it was to the sound of hysterical sobbing. It took her several minutes to orient herself in the pitch black and several more to identify the person who was crying. She rolled onto her knees, not an easy task since her arms were tied behind her back, and crawled toward the crying.
"Leia, what's wrong?"
The Senator tried to take a deep breath and stumbled out, "Its dark... (sob) My arms hurt... (sniff) I want my mommy!"
Neri reached the crying woman and examined her as best as she could. Apparently Leias arms were tied even tighter than Neri's and Leia was finding it difficult to even breathe. Just the other side of Leia, Neri found what turned out to be Luke, similarly bound. The girl found shaking him awake to be impossible without hands and thought desperately. Finally, she sat down and placed one foot against his side. She gave a hard shove, then another, all the time calling his name. Inside of a few minutes, he was awake.
"Neri? Where are we?"
"I'm not sure. I just woke up myself. You sound a bit more coherant than you did earlier." she was still wary. Leia had stopped crying and Neri thought she could hear the older woman shuffling this way.
Luke groaned. "I'm not sure what happened, its kinda fuzzy."
"You an Leia were acting like little kids, little brats to be precise. Leia is still a little off."
Luke sat upright and leaned against Leia who apparently wasn't done crying. "I think we were both drugged somewhere. I put myself in a healing trance as soon as I noticed that gas. That must be why the drug has worn off so quickly in me and not in Leia. It's okay, don't cry. We're going to get out of this."
That last was said to Leia, which was good because Neri wasn't listening. As soon as she'd found Luke and Leia she'd realised she had the best chance to escape from her bonds. Apparently the kidnappers had only planned on two, because they had brought manacles for the two adults, but Neri had been bound with some kind of rope. She was also bound rather loosly. The kidnappers must have figured that a little girl was no threat so they hadn't been careful.
After squirming for several minutes, Neri managed to slip her hands out of the thick rope an she stood up with a cheer.
"You're free?" Luke asked.
"Yep. I was only tied up. Can't you do that force trick with your cuffs?"
"No, I haven't been able to touch the force since I woke up or we'd all be free by now." Neri crawled over and bent down. With some dismay, she found her suspicions confirmed when she felt the familiarly shaped, force suppressing, collar.
She told Luke who nodded. "Thats what I had figured, though I've never experienced such a thing before. Look around, see if you can find a way out. You can go for help."
Neri was kneeling on the floor again. "Close your eyes," she warned. "I'm going to turn on some lights. There is no way I am leaving without you, you might not be here by the time I made it back." A light flared as Neri ignited a tiny glow rod that hung around her neck. She reached up and began taking off her earings while Leia watched and Luke said, "What are you doing?"
She began disassembling the tiny jewelry pieces and piecing them back together. "I'm getting us out of here." She told him as she opened the back cover on each earing. Each tube extened and became half of a cylinder. The tiny stones were replaced at the end of one half and several of the tiniest circuit boards Luke had ever seen were re-arranged inside. Neri then placed both halves of the tube together and held her construction up with a flourish.
Luke stared at her expectantly. "Now what?"
Neri clucked her toungue at him. "I thought you were Master Yodas student? He never taught you patience?" She gingerly held the small tube, which was no longer than her finger and slender as a stylus. With her other hand, she slid a tiny switch on one side and a sabre-like blade of light came out of one end. The inch long blade was purple and apparently as much like a light sabre as it appeared because, in moments, Neri had both the adults free of their restraints.
"I told you I had help cutting my mothers light sabre crystal into useable fragments? Well they werent just good for jewelry." Neri carefully extinguished the blade. Leia reached for it saying, "Pretty, pretty, pretty," and Neri carefully pocketed the tool, not willing to risk losing it or disassembling it just yet. "Sorry I can't help with the collar, most of them are very dangerous if improperly removed and I wouldn't want to risk blowing us all up."
"I understand. That's a neat trick, by the way. I take it the light is your necklace?"
"Yep. That one was Obi-Wan's idea. He said his master was always getting him into trouble and half the time it could have been avoided if he'd had a light. I think he was exaggerating, but it seemed reasonable to me. I designed the blade all on my own, but the students at the temple helped me build it." Neri started, as if she'd heard something and they both froze. When no more information was forth-coming, Neri stood and said, "but I can tell you about it later. Right now, we need to get out of here."
"I agree. Do you have any idea where here is?" Luke asked, standing and helping Leia to her feet.
"No but it feels familiar, somehow." Neri began inspecting the small room and Leia spread her arms wide and began spinning in circles. Suddenly, she collapsed giggling and yelled "Mommy!"
Luke frowned at her. He wished he could tell what she was thinking but with that collar on he couldn't even tell if she was okay. For years now his twin had never been far from his mind. Now, it was as if she didn't even exist and it was tearing him up inside.
Neri called out from the other side fo the room and Luke joined her. "This room has been sealed from the outside. See, someone blocked the doorway and left the door wide open.
Luke inspected what had to be the backside of a wall. He ran one hand down the side and it came away slightly dusty. "This door has been blocked for some time. It would take decades to build up that much dust in a closed room. There has to be another opening."
Together they searched the walls but found nothing. Stumped, they stopped in the center of the room and watched Leia, who appeared to be telling a story to the wall. She was gesturing wildly and had a big grin on her face.
"...and he hided up there and they couldn't find him They looked and looked and he was hiding right above them the whole time. Then the master came and took the boys out into the hall and he came down out of the vent and he walkeded right out and said hi to the master like hed been there the whole time. The door was still open then mommy. It was kinda funny, but kinda sad that they wanted to hurt him. Why did they want to hurt him Mommy? Was they like the bad man Mommy?"
Luke looked the way she'd been pointing. "There, the air vent. That must be how we got in here and that's how were going to get out." He jumped up and tapped the cover off to one side. He jumped again and latched on to the edge with one hand and pulled himself up to look inside. Dropping back down, he said to Neri. "Its plenty big enough. I'll give you a boost up, then send Leia up."
Neri took one last look around the room, still bothered that such a plain room could seem so familiar. The walls were plain white and the floor was plasticrete. There was absolutely nothing special or defining about it, but it seemed familar just the same. She could almost see the furnature that had once been in this room and the posters that had hung on the walls. She shook her head to clear the half images and climbed out into the vent.
She helped Leia up and only waited long enough to be sure that Luke had made it okay before heading out to find another vent. They passed several, but this must have been a very old system because most had been blocked off. They crawled for nearly an hour and Neri wondered if they hadn't gone the wrong way. When she voiced her fears, Luke set her mind at ease.
"If we did go the opposite way we came in, that just means we are headed farther from the kidnappers, and therefore toward safety. I don't want to because we can't see what's out there, but if we have to we could even cut open one of the vents with your little tool if we don't find a way out soon."
So they continued on and after a while they came to a steep drop off that apparently marked the end of the vent line for this floor. Neri tested the new direction, while Luke kept her from sliding too far, and decided that it wasn't too steep. "We can slide down it like a kids jungle gym."
Luke was a bit skeptical but they had very few options so they went. Neri noticed several sideways passages leading off their decending one but couldn't stop sliding to explore them and was forced to wait untill they reached the bottom of the incline. After a few more minutes, they were there. Neri slid to a stop suddenly and the much heavier adults slid into her, Luke with a soft "Hmmpht" and Leia with a giggle.
This set of tunnels was a bit taller and wider so they moved much more quickly. Apparently, this section of the building hadn't been closed off like the higher floor because they found an open vent in just a few feet. Luke lifted the cover off and they all climbed out. This vent was in the floor of the room and they all exited surprisingly easily.
As they dusted off and examined the room Neri had that feeling again, like she had been here before. On an impulse, she climbed back down into the vent and checked the opposite direction from where they had come. Leia protested the loss of the light and Luke called after her concerned but she was back before they could follow.
She came out holding a holo of a dark haired girl in tan robes. Luke asked what she'd found and she held out the holo to him. Leia took the photo and said, "Nice Lady," While Luke wondered who she was.
Neri was facing away from him, gazing idylly around the room, when she replyed, "She was my mother. Uncle Qui Gon put that in the vent where he first met her as a sort of memorial."
Luke reached out and squeezed the girl tightly, surprised when she cut the embrace short. "Come on," She said. "I know where we are and I can get us home from here." She started confidently toward the door and Luke followed her, dragging Leia along behind.
Leia seemed to be sobering some, but not much. She had stopped talking to the walls, but she was apparently still halucinating because she kept waving as if there were people in the halls whom she knew. Neri led them quickly through the halls. Occasionally the decor of the corridor would change suddenly and Luke knew that each time this happened they passed into a newer part of the building. He still had no idea what building they were in. He finally asked Neri and she gave him a wry grin.
"You know, its rather ironic that you, of all people, have never been here. So much of your past, and mine, is here and yet neither of us recognized it." She stopped to gaze around thoughtfully and Luke took a good long look at his surroundings.
"You don't think were... This isn't..."
Neri giggled and Leia tokk the opportunity to join her. Neri looked up at the Jedi and said, "Master Yoda would tell you to trust your feelings. It looks like it was gutted and then boarded up. I don't think anyones been in here in fifty years. Of course this was an old part of the Temple when I was here last. It was hardly used then... I'm not surprised it's not in use now." Neri was rambling a little, but Luke didn't notice.
Luke was still staring at the ceiling as if it might reveal all the answers hed been searching for all theese years. "I never realised that there might be parts that were boarded up..."
"They say the temple has its roots in Coruscant's surface. All the way down at the ground would be the very first levels. Rumor has it that they were built way back when no building on the planet was more than a few stories tall. I dont know anyone who's been all the way to the ground, but I've been down more than a hundred levels from here.
"Whats down there?"
"Lots of empty rooms." Neri told him, grabbing his hand to bring him back to the here and now. "I'll show you later, first we have to get out of here. Leia needs medical help and youll enjoy the trip a lot more if we get that collar off first." Farther down the hall, Neri stopped them at a door with thick bolts locking it shut.
"This leads to the outside." Luke observed. "Now, if only we could get it open." He examined the keypad for a few moments before Neri reached in front of him and punched in a code. The bolts slid back into the mechanism.
Luke stared at her as if she'd grown an extra head and Neri smirked back at him. "Amateur. This was the Jedi Temple, remember? Everyone inside was trusted, this door was meant to keep people out. All I had to do was tell it to open, there is no passcode from this side."
Luke shook his head and followed her out onto one of the lower streets of Coruscant. As they headed steadily for the nearest Turbolift, Luke said, "That was almost too easy."
"I know what you mean, but it has to be easy sometimes, though. Doesn't it?"
Luke pulled his sister along slowly and held her hand as they waited for the lift. "I suppose it does, but I'll feel a lot better when we get to the bottom of this."