Chapter Three: Dagobah

Revii felt like he had been thrown around and stomped on by a herd of Banthas.

His body was basically unharmed as he had taken care to strap himself into his safety chair, like he so often had to remind his padawan to do.

Revii gulped and felt a lump in his throat – the last time he remembered seeing Azaria was as she flying through the broken front port, unconscious and bleeding from a terrible gash on her forehead.

Desperately he reached out to their bond and thanked the Force when he sensed her.

With joy she reached back out to him and their minds touched.

'Master, oh master! I couldn't find you, and I thought you were gone, oh, master, I'm sorry!'

Revii sent a calming wave to his distressed padawan, 'Oh, padawan, it's alright. None of this was your fault – I am fine other than being trapped in my seat.'

'I know, master. I am next to you – I am holding your hand. It is all of you that I can see.'

Revii hesitated, 'but I saw you being thrown through the duroglass – how could you still be alive let alone well enough to find me? Are you alright?'

'I'm fine, master. I landed in water – it softened my flight, you could say.'

'You know now why," Revii thought slyly, "I always get after you for not buckling yourself in when piloting near planet.'

He then felt a wave of sorrow emit from his padawan, "I'm so sorry, master. I'm sorry."

'It's alright, Shane. It's okay. Have you been able to find a working comlink? We will need to hitch a ride off of her or get parts to fix up my precious Sage Fox.'

There was a notable pause before Shane answered her master, and when she did, it was with a despairing edge in her voice.

"Master – the ship was totalled. It's rubble – it's a miracle that we both survived."

'So you found none?'

"Master, I only had enough strength to find you before I passed out again – I don't think anything could have survived this crash."

'So you are hurt! What has happened?'

The older Jedi reached out and found the injuries his padawan bore – she was like a broken doll. Several broken ribs, dislocated shoulders and a broken leg, massive bruising to her upper torso, cuts all over her body, and a slight concussion. Revii groaned; this was much worse than he had thought.

He was stuck and unable to move in the least bit, and Shane was so badly injured that she shouldn't be moving.

A thought then struck the Jedi. 'Padawan, how did you get to me with so many injuries?'

'I used the Force, master. How else?'

Revii grunted, his padawan was learning.

Mace ignored the protests of Eerth Koth and three other members of the council as he swung his bag into the cargo compartment on his personal shuttle and set the final preparations on the computers.

"Mace – you just can't fly off like this! You are a councillor – this isn't how Jedi Masters act! You are letting your emotions control you," Eerth clasped his shoulders in her hands and forced him to look strait into her eyes. "Emotion leads to the dark side – you are following so easily. You must calm yourself. Aelfhald is a great knight, you taught him well, and his padawan is as resourceful as he. If they need help they will send for it."

Mace shrugged her off and stepped back.

"I know what I am doing, Eerth. I know that they are in trouble – I could feel his pain and then nothingness. It is not emotion leading me, my friend, but they Force. I must follow its will, is that not what we are here for?"

Eerth sighed, knowing defeat when she saw it. Mace was too stubborn to convince otherwise.

"If you are going to go off in haste, you will need someone to make sure you don't get yourself in a fix."

Mace halted and turned back to his friend, "you wish to send someone to nanny me?"

"No, Mace, my friend," Eerth shook his tattooed head, "I wish to go along and 'nanny' you."

A small smile cracked Mace's composed face.

"In that case, there's room for more on my shuttle."

Eerth bowed his head lightly and smiled lightly. "It will be an honour."

Using all the strength both Jedi had, the pair of castaways desperately attempted to move the encasing shield of metal debris from around Revii.

After many hours and much groaning of both man and metal, there was almost no noticeable change in their situation.

Shane had long ago passed out, but Revii still pushed with all his might against his encompassing prison. The affects of such strain were reaping hard upon the Jedi – he was parched for fluids and was having difficulty breathing in such a tight space. Also, he was loosing circulation to his extremities. It was only a matter of time before the tissues died from lack of oxygen and then the rest of his body would start the process of shutting down. But he mentioned none of this to his padawan – she had enough worries herself.

He had helped her reset her broken bones and re-locate her shoulders, using the Force as a splint on her broken leg. During those procedures he noticed that his padawan was in worse shape that he had originally thought.

She had had difficulties breathing, and Revii had at first given it to that she was in considerable pain, but then was horrified to realize that the broken ribs had done much worse damage than he had suspected. One had punctured a lung and the others had caused tears in her internal organs that were now resulting in internal bleeding.

Revii used his weakening Force abilities to quickly heal the tears, but the youth was still in danger from the wounds that threatened to reopen.

The Jedi sighed in exhaustion.

This trip appeared to be their end – on some forsaken spit of rock known only for its Sith ruins and bogs.

Revii wanted to cry in frustration.

Then he felt it – a shaving of hope.

Mace?

The sudden trill through the Force perplexed the dying man.

There seemed to be reassurances from the Force that Revii's master was coming for him, to save him.

Using up the very last of his strength, Revii searched out and found his old bond with his master.

'Master?'

'Padawan! Are you okay, I am coming for you, Revii.'

'I'm sorry, Mace. I'm tired, and I can't do anything more for her.'

'Padawan, stay with me! What happened? Are you safe?'

Revii's signature in the Force wavered as he fought off another wave of darkness.

'I'm sorry – try and save her, she's hurt so bad…she…she… I'm sorry…'

He faded out of being.

Mace gasped when he felt a tug through the Force, like a child tugging on his sleeve.

It was Revii, and he was hurt. Badly, and maybe dying.

'I'm sorry – try and save her, she's hurt so bad…she…she…I'm sorry…'

'Padawan? Padawan? Revii, my son, are you there?'

There were no answers to his desperate callings.

He felt a sympathetic hand on his shoulder.

"I'm very sorry, Mace. Terribly sorry – I felt him pass."

Mace didn't answer, he didn't move. A tear slid down the noble master's cheek and fell to the metal floor he knelt on.

Shane awoke alone.

Her master's signature was all but gone – there were only traces of golden threads drifting as though in a breeze.

Grief overtook the young padawan, and she lashed out with all her strength with the Force – the efforts drained her energy and, again, she fell into darkness.

But she had been successful.

Her master's iron cage had been cracked and shifted enough that precious oxygen flooded into his prison and pressure was taken off his limbs, and lifeblood pumped again through them.

That night it rained, and the Jedi's thirsts were quenched.

The blood that had soaked the wreckage was washed away into the bogs… where hungry creatures hunted for food.

The smell of blood attracted many predators… and the search began for the source of the blood.