One Day Remains
By Rhi
Chapter 5 – Crimson Regret
This chapter has a heap of angst in it, and it ends rather abruptly, which annoyed me, but hopefully it flows well for the most part.
Enjoy!
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No one knew what to say.
No one had to say anything, because at that moment, Obi-Wan heard his name being called, angrily. He cringed noticeably, his eyes closing tightly, before his face smoothed over, silently accepting his fate.
Obi-Wan turned around slowly, facing his father, who was striding angrily towards the group.
"Where have you been, boy? And don't give me that bantha-poo story that you were at the hospital!" Kovi growled.
"But he was!" Laini exclaimed, trying to stand up for Obi-Wan. "He saved me from Tion and the bullies and they beat him up-"
"Silence!" Kovi demanded, fixing the young girl with a nasty glare. "Do not lie to me. The boy is a coward, and would not do that."
Appalled with the way that Kovi was treating his son, Remy spoke up. "Sir, your son is not a coward, he is a very brave and selfless boy."
Kovi turned his mocking glare to Remy. "And who are you?"
"My name is Remy, I'm a Jedi apprentice-" Remy was cut off rudely by Kovi.
"Jedi?" Kovi said, and spat on the ground. "That's what I think of Jedi. You so-called peacekeepers who run around everywhere waving weapons around. You think you're so much better than the rest of the universe with your special Force. As far as I'm concerned-"
It was at that moment that the chaos began.
A four-armed humanoid man that Tahl and Remy both recognised as Ris Threm from the mug shots that they'd been given, dashed down the road towards them, followed by half a dozen CorSec personnel.
The two Jedi leapt into action, both drawing their lightsabers and activating them, showing Threm that they meant business.
Threm stopped and dodged to the side, where he took shelter behind a thick tree trunk. From his defensive position, he fired from all four blasters on the CorSec personnel and also at the Jedi, who deflected the blaster bolts harmlessly into the air.
Obi-Wan saw the scene as if it were in slow motion. The CorSec commander yelled for his men to find cover, and they scattered under the heavy fire that Threm was sending their way. The Jedi worked hard to deflect all the fire, protecting the bystanders from injury, their lightsabers shining yellow and blue arced through the air gracefully, performing a mesmerising aerial dance.
"Just like my dream." Obi-Wan said slowly, knowing exactly what he had to do next, partly through the dream and partly through his instinct, which was currently screaming at him.
"What dream?" Laini asked.
"The dream I had when I was in hospital. Follow me, I know exactly what to do." Obi-Wan said, pulling Laini towards his house.
Obi-Wan dashed into his father's shop, Laini following closely behind him. He went straight to the items he required, and picked two of them off the shelf, ignoring Laini's questioning look.
"Trust me, I know what I'm doing." Obi-Wan assured her.
Laini nodded. "I trust you. I'm with you the whole way."
The two five-year-olds, weighed down with the heavy task that had been set upon them, raced around the back of the houses, cutting through people's gardens, until they got to the huge tree that all the neighbourhood children climbed. The tree was deserted at the moment due to all the chaos, and Obi-Wan and Laini had a good view of the fighting that was happening. They had managed to work their way around the perimeter of the combat, and were now right behind the tree where Threm had taken cover. He had either not noticed them, or he did not think that two children posed much threat to him.
Obi-Wan slung the strap of the illegal MX1-5 TranqShot over his shoulder and swung himself into the tree, climbing up a few branches until he found himself at a suitable spot. He pulled the TranqShot cartridge out of his pocket. The small dart was filled with a very potent, very illegal muscle paralyser. Side effects of the drug were nasty, but the weapon was a popular choice among the more sadistic bounty hunters, who enjoyed the pain and suffering the victim went through after being injected with the drug.
Laini climbed up the tree after Obi-Wan and settled herself into position behind him. "You can do this, Obi." She encouraged. "I believe in you."
Obi-Wan flashed her a quick grin, before sobering and focusing on the task at hand. He brought the TranqShot up to rest on a branch in front of him and aimed it towards Threm, who was still oblivious to the action going on behind him.
Obi-Wan took a deep breath and breathed it out slowly, pushing every irrelevant thought out of his mind, focusing his whole being on the task at hand. He leaned forward and looked through the aiming mechanism, aiming it directly at Threm's back, where he had the least chance of missing.
"One shot." Obi-Wan murmured under his breath. "Don't screw this up, Kenobi."
Checking one last time to make sure the shot was perfectly lined up, Obi-Wan pulled the trigger.
The TranqShot's internal components clicked together, resulting in the miniature explosion that propelled the potent dart out of the gun. The dart sailed through the air, unbeknownst to any of the participants in the little skirmish. The distance between the dart and the target closed rapidly, until both met, the dart satisfyingly sinking into the target.
Obi-Wan saw the dart sink into Ris Threm's back and let out the breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding.
"You did it, Obi!" Laini cheered.
Obi-Wan turned and gave her a grin. Then all of a sudden, he felt a powerful urge to duck, so he followed his instinct, as he always did, and ducked. At that moment, a red blaster bolt sailed over his head and hit Laini directly in the middle of her chest.
The happy expression on her face soon changed to a shocked one, her eyes wide and full of pain.
"No!" Obi-Wan yelled, propelling himself forward, trying to catch Laini before she fell. He felt his hand grasp the material of her tunic, before it slipped through his hand and she fell, almost in slow motion, to the ground, her small body bouncing once before it lay still.
Oblivious to anything else going on around him, Obi-Wan pushed himself out of the tree, landing next to his fallen friend. He gently pushed her red hair away from her face.
"Please be okay, Laini." Obi-Wan said. "Please be okay."
Obi-Wan barely noticed Remy and Tahl arrive, the latter beginning to perform what healing techniques she remembered from her training.
"Is she going to be okay?" Obi-Wan asked, desperation lining his voice.
"I hope so." Remy answered Obi-Wan's question, not letting doubt creep into his voice. It was a bad wound, and she was quite young. Not the best combination, but then, he had seen people with worse wounds pull through. "Don't lose hope, Obi. Be strong for her."
Obi-Wan nodded as paramedics appeared out of nowhere, surrounding Laini's still body.
Remy pulled Obi-Wan back from Laini as the paramedics lifted her onto a grav-bed, which they used to transport her to a waiting speeder that took off in the direction of the hospital.
Now that Laini had been taken care of, Obi-Wan looked around the scene. The CorSec people had swooped in and arrested Ris Threm as soon as he'd gone under the effects of the muscle paralyser, and were currently loading him into a fortified speeder for transport back to a holding cell, in preparation for his trip to Coruscant. Tahl had gone to talk to Commander Deine Paq, to arrange a travel time for the next day.
All of a sudden, the ending part of the dream that he'd had when he was in hospital came to Obi-Wan. An image of Laini lying still on the ground projected itself in his mind, casting a new bolt of sadness infused with irritation through Obi-Wan.
"I could've stopped it." He said quietly, disbelieving.
Remy heard Obi-Wan's quiet statement. "No, Obi-Wan, you could not have stopped that. Don't put that responsibility on yourself."
"But I saw it in my dream. It happened exactly like my dream. How could I forget?" Obi-Wan asked Remy, his pain-filled blue eyes staring up at the Jedi.
Remy knelt down so that he was on the same level as Obi-Wan. "There are some things in life that happen for a reason. No one knows why they happen, but they just do. You have to learn from these experiences and keep them in your heart. Don't let it rule how you act, but let it be there to serve as a reminder." Remy said gently.
Obi-Wan nodded solemnly. "I will try."
...Rhi