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A/N: Alright, you all are amazing and thank you so much for reading and reviewing. Notice the update? (Be impressed…be very, very impressed). Once again, I love you all and PLEASE keep reading and reviewing!

OH, and P.S. We're about ¾ of the way through this story. Notice it is now PART TWO: Bloom?

PART TWO: Bloom

Chapter Twenty Three

The plane was quickly running out of fuel, and the search for a suitable landing spot became far more frantic than it was before. The ship was a good 3000 feet off the ground, the beeping sound that indicated system failures was becoming faster and more urgent, and Anakin was on the brink of insanity from tension.

Obi-Wan gave an incoherent moan as the ride became decisively bumpier. The plane was beginning to shut down.

"Don't worry, Master, I'll get us through this," Anakin said, more to himself than to his unconscious Master. His teeth were gritted as he tried to steer the reluctant plane. Briefly he pondered at exactly how he was planning to keep his promise, but there was no time for self-doubt. He quickly shoved that particular problem out of his mind.

He checked quickly at the controls and saw the gas sign blinking a frenzied red. The word "empty" was flashing at him, and suddenly he felt the plane sputter and stall temporarily. The free fall that followed afterwards, even if only for a few seconds, was terrifying.

"Come on, come on," He murmured. "Don't give up on me now." Miraculously, as if responding to his words, maneuverability came back. They were at the treetops, brushing the dense forestry beneath them, and with each tree the violent shaking of the vehicle increased. Obi-Wan was clutching his leg, pale faced as he was knocked about fiercely.

One particularly large tree sent a nasty jolt throughout the plane, and Anakin felt the back of his head crack against something quite firmly solid in the whiplash. Reaching up to pat the wound (he was feeling rather fuzzy right now), he pulled his hand away to find it covered in something sticky. Blood. Suddenly the ship hit a tree on the right, sending it and all the passengers inside off balance.

He cursed silently, and tried to regain his grip on the controls. It was impossible to see—wave upon wave of branches filled with leaves was whipping into the front window, obscuring all view. The one good thing about such thick foliage stood in the fact that it would be hard to be caught if they were underneath it all. If they were alive at the end of this nightmare, that is. The plane sputtered again.

"Fuel tank empty," A female's electronic voice said overhead. "Fuel tank empty."

"I know, damn it," Anakin muttered. Obi-Wan groaned again. The plane stalled, and came to a complete stop.

"Fuel tank empty."

And so the two Jedi free fell the last two or three hundred feet, while Anakin tried to prevent them from crashing and dying on this mysterious planet.

A stunned sort of silence had befallen the Jedi Council, and at last it was broken by Mace Windu. He turned to the white faced young woman in the center of the circle.

"Padawan Tyri," he began soothingly. "Would you be willing to leave us with your Master for a few moments? We will discuss this new…problem and reschedule the meeting about your knighthood test."

Ali nodded numbly and walked out of the room. She was biting her lip so hard that it bled, fists clenched into balls by her side. Her face was pale, her thoughts muddled. She was so glad for the excuse to leave that terrifying room. She wouldn't have been able to hold back the flood of emotions swirling inside her head much longer.

She headed out of the hall, quite unsure of where she was going. All she knew was that she needed to be alone. She felt like she was going to implode—or explode, she wasn't sure which, from keeping it all bottled up.

"Ali?" A familiar voice said curiously. Ali looked up to see Kyla stopped, staring at her in a puzzled manner. "Are you alright? You look absolutely terrible."

"Fine," Ali said, and her voice came out much weaker and higher than she intended for it to. "Just fine."

Before Kyla could reply (and judging by the skeptical expression on her face, she was going to inquire further), Ali brushed past her and ran awbay.

Faster. Faster. Faster, faster, faster, faster. She felt her footsteps fall faster and faster, until she had burst out of the suffocating Jedi Temple, burst out of the doors, burst out of that cage. She was outside—with Nature, where she belonged. She was in her element. She began to run—to sprint—like she had never run or sprint before. She kept going, kept running, kept sprinting, further and further away, until she felt her heart might burst.

Maybe if she ran far enough, or if she ran fast enough, she could get away from this nightmare. Maybe if she ran far enough or fast enough, she could wake up from this hell of a life she was in. Maybe then she could forget the dreadful truth that had hit her stomach and heart with gigantic force in the Jedi Council room, when his voice came over the holodevice.

For now she knew, with the clarity of highly polished glass, that she loved him. She had always loved him. He was made for her, and she for him. They were built to be together, and no doubt existed in her mind that she had made a terrible, terrible mistake.

Faster. She had to go faster.

But Ali was only human. After about five minutes of this sprinting, she felt her legs turn to lead and her erratic breathing freeze up and a great pain swell in her stomach—only matched by the ache in her heart. So she took a few, last, stumbling steps before flinging herself onto the ground, grateful for the grass which broke her fall.

She lay there, gasping desperately for breath, wondering at why the world was so cruel and so heartless, for a good forty seconds. Then the tears came—both from heaven and from her.

The rain poured down from the skies—not a small, weak drizzle, but a passionate outburst. It was spring, the season for thunderstorms, and this was a magnificent storm. The skies blackened with thick clouds, the lightning flashed brilliantly and the thunder boomed. Ali huddled herself together and continued crying into her drenched arms. The salty tears mixed and mingled with the raindrops from heaven, and it was as if Nature were mourning with her for her loss. Anakin.

"We lost contact entirely," Lyra whispered to her Padawan when, three hours later, Ali returned inside. She didn't even bother asking where Ali had gone. The girl looked awful—her hair and clothes were wet, and her skin a pale grey. "Not just communications. We lost…their ship on radar."

"Meaning?" Ali asked quietly, although she knew perfectly well what it meant. What was she, sadistic? Why did she put herself through such torture?

"Meaning there's a good chance that they…didn't survive."

Ali nodded dully. It was what she expected, after all.

Anakin groaned and blinked the blood out of his eyes. His head was throbbing painfully, probably from that rather terrible hit a few moments ago. He opened his eyes blearily and looked about for Obi-Wan.

"Master," He croaked, tugging gently on his master's arm. The other man was knocked out cold, and a rather nasty bump that was bruising and swelling impressively was on the man's forehead. Probably from the crash.

Their plane would probably never operate again, no matter how much repair work was done on it. The walls were crushed inwards from repeated impact with trees, the windows had shattered, and the front windshield was cracked. Leaves and foliage lay tangled within the propeller, there was no gas left, and the front of the plane had crushed from the impact of a nose dive.

"Master, we have to move," Anakin said, more urgently now. They couldn't stay by the ship! If any searcher pilots were out looking for Anakin and his Master, they would find them immediately.

Cursing inwardly, Obi-Wan still out cold, Anakin opened the pilot door and slowly dragged Obi-Wan out after him. He grunted from the effort and tried not to bang the older (and quite heavy) man about too much. Once outside, Anakin shouldered the load and pulled the holodevice out of the plane. He'd have to try to fix it, and to contact the Jedi Temple to inform them of his whereabouts. Until then…they'd just have to find a place to hide.

Anakin paused and straightened to give his surroundings a good look. Every where around him there seemed to be massive amounts of lush green life. The floor was covered with it, and so were the rocky walls and bark on the trees. A stream of cool, clear looking water ran through the ground, just feet from where they had landed. If he weren't trying to escape from assassins after his blood, he would've appreciated the beauty of the place much more.

After about ten minutes of a staggering, pain filled walk, Anakin spotted a cave to their right. He gently lay his Master down at the entrance.

The cave was dark and deep and dank, covered slightly by a door of moss like leaves. Brushing this quickly out of the way, Anakin explored the hole thoroughly. Although it smelled musty, it was clean and comfortable enough. Finding it satisfactory, he placed Obi-Wan inside quickly before leaving to search for medication. His Master's cut looked nasty.

He began to search for plants to help to cleanse or numb their injuries. Anakin suddenly wished he had spent more time studying in Herbal Medication in stead of joking around with—but he wouldn't think of that now. Not now.

A bush that he spotted out of the corner of his eye looked vaguely familiar and promising. He came within ten feet of it before realizing what it was. He had to swallow rapidly and blink away the burning feeling behind his eyes. Memories, unbidden and unwanted, flooded into his mind.

He cursed, sucking at another cut from the prickly plant.

"Watch your language, Ani." Reproachful, like she always was whenever she acted like a mother. Which was quite frequent, actually.

"It's easy for you to say, you haven't even gotten a scratch." Resentful. She was Nature Girl, and all these things came easily to her. Stupid Elemental…

"Oh here, let me show you how. You have to be slow, and gentle. And if you rush it…well, you know what happens." A warm hand covered his and guided it gently through the bush, avoiding all prickles.

She looked up and smiled at her friend, eyes bright and sparkling. He forgot how to breathe.

A Yualta bush. From his punishment for disrupting class with…her. How long ago had it been? It felt like a lifetime, ages, years.

He closed his eyes and fought away the image of her, smiling, guiding his hand, to pluck the precious berries inside. There were more important matters at hand.

A/N: Angsty-ish. Depressing, especially the Alianne section. Truth be told, she's getting rather boring to write for me…moping and crying a lot. Icky. But he didn't die, did he? AND I UPDATED, DIDN'T I? AND IT DIDN'T TAKE ME THREE MONTHS, DID IT?

AHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA, success…now will you please please please read and review? It keeps me motivated and writing, you see…Please?

I promise I will try my best to reply to all reviewers. I love you all, and would love to take the chance to thank you personally. But see, I can't do that if you don't click that blue button to your down.