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Chapter 9

The Zephyrene guard was cursing under his breath for his partner had fled to warn Roga after he'd heard the final roar of the Rancor. Yes, the guard knew the Rancor was dead under the hands of the Jedi as his cowardly partner did, but so what? That hideous beast had been noisy ever since it arrived, so actually, he was a little glad that it'd been killed once and for all. And about those Jedi…well, they wouldn't be able to get through that force field, no matter how gallant they'd been with the Rancor. Now he wondered where that coward of a partner was – he had left for a while until now, but the way from the dungeon to the ground level of the fortress where he could find Roga was rather long.

Therefore, when an arm suddenly strangled his neck from the scrutinizing hole on the metal door behind him, he had no foreboding since he'd loosed his guard benefited from the eyes. He lost conscious instantly and fell to the ground.

Qui-Gon heaved a sigh of relief and levitated the key card from the unconscious guard's belt to the lock beside him on the wall. He Force-inserted the card into the split on the lock. With a click, the outer gate was unlocked.

Virgille hailed quietly, Obi-Wan sighed in relief. Finally, the three Jedi escaped from the jail successfully.

Qui-Gon checked the passed out guard quickly to make sure he was still unconscious. Then he gave the blaster on the guard's belt to Obi-Wan and picked up the electrostaff lying near the guard, who was originally holding it.

"Obi-Wan, you and Virgille go look for our lightsabers, and I will try to suspend their scheme as long as possible, before you two arrive." Qui-Gon said, and Obi-Wan and Virgille all nodded immediately.

"Yes, Master."

"Yes, Master Qui-Gon."

As Qui-Gon was beginning to leave, Obi-Wan called, "Um, Master?"

Qui-Gon turned to look at him questioningly, Obi-Wan swallowed, "Do be careful."

Qui-Gon smiled gratefully, then nodded, "I will." He squeezed his Padawan's hand reassuringly.

"And may the Force be with you." Obi-Wan whispered as he looked at their held hands, he felt as if there was flame in his cheeks.

Qui-Gon corrected him, "May the Force be with all of us."

Virgille looked up at him and nodded in solemn approval, "Take care of yourself, Master Qui-Gon, or Obi-Wan would cry his EYES out."

Qui-Gon rubbed her hair understandingly while Obi-Wan barked to her, "Silence, Virgule!"

"Virgille!"

"Whatever."

"How rude!"

After that, they departed to accomplish their tasks.

Obi-Wan held the blaster in one hand and took Virgille's in the other one. They ran along the metal-walled corridor carefully, trying very hard not to stir any other Zephyrene soldiers. But as they went, they discovered the corridor was almost cleared of Zephyrenes. They did encounter a few Zephyrenes, but they all managed to avoid them before the guards could feel them with their eyes. Obi-Wan had tried to use mind-tricks on them, but soon he was dismayed to admit that Zephyrenes were resistant to mind-tricks.

"Maybe they're all busy working up there." Virgille gestured to the ceiling wonderingly.

"Maybe, but that will only do us a favor." Obi-Wan answered, never stopping his footsteps.

Ten minutes late, Obi-Wan sensed the lightsabers were right behind a locked metal door. He used the Force to press open the lock inside the room and got into it without any difficulties.

Their lightsabers were placed in a small steel box on the metal floor not far from the entrance.

"Idiots…" Obi-Wan murmured arrogantly with satisfaction as he walked up to the box. But the moment his fingers touched the box, the alarm began to scream.

"Now you can see who the REAL idiot is." Virgille snorted sarcastically with the alarm being her background.

Obi-Wan didn't bother to reply as he opened the box to grab the lightsabers inside. He tossed Virgille's lightsaber to its owner, and clipped Qui-Gon's to his utility belt immediately. He then scooped Virgille into his left arm to ready to run for their lives again.

Calm down, Obi-Wan, calm down. He tried to steady his heartbeats, though the piercing sound produced by the alarm was only worsening the situation.

He stepped outside the room with his lightsaber in one hand, and Virgille in another. Hearing the approaching sound of the gathering Zephyrene warriors from one side of the corridor, he started to run in the opposite direction.

Virgille was practically watching Obi-Wan's back over his shoulder from her position in his arm.

"We've got company now!" she shouted as the pursuing Zephyrenes came into sight behind them, laser bolts began to be shot towards them.

Obi-Wan reached out into the Force to sense, and narrowly evaded some shots.

"To the left, TO THE LEFT!" Virgille screamed into his ears, and Obi-Wan followed her warning but was almost blasted by the warned laser bolt.

"No, YOUR left!" Virgille reprimanded him with chagrin.

"Stop warning me!" Obi-Wan chided, "You'll get us all killed!"

Virgille snorted, "Oh yeah? Duck!"

Obi-Wan reflexively obeyed, just in time to avoid another laser bolt.

"And you're saying?" Virgille arched an eyebrow.

"All right, you're still allowed to warn me to duck."

"Allowed?" Virgille grandma-snorted, "You arrogant fool, I won't waste my strength on you anymore – I will just deflect them."

Obi-Wan rolled his eyes: surely the youngling's deflecting skill was impressive and unquestionable, but it was obvious that deflecting cost more strength than just yelling and making his ears hurt. Maybe she's too stupid to understand, Obi-Wan thought.

Suddenly, Obi-Wan sensed more of the Zephyrenes were coming, and they were coming from their escaping route.

"I have a bad feeling about this."

"Oh, shut up and run!" Virgille was clearly annoyed by him, busy deflecting the laser bolts, "And exterminate those babbling words, of course we ALL have a very, VERY –"

"Shut up yourself, Virgule!" Obi-Wan scolded as his lightsaber blade encountered the first laser bolt from their front.

"It's Virgille!"

"Whatever!"

"How rude!"

Obi-Wan could see the Zephyrene soldiers before them now, but he didn't intend to stop – instead, he leaped to the metal ceiling abruptly and cut through the grate on it to let them both get into the air duct, with Virgille deflecting the bolts coming from both sides below them.

After they were both in the air duct, Obi-Wan grabbed Virgille's hand and led her to crawl through. As a matter of fact, he didn't have the slightest idea of where they were going, but he knew they must get away from those deadly soldiers as far as possible, before those Zephyrenes chose their comrades of the right size to fly into the air duct to pursue.

Suddenly a laser bolt hit the metal wall beside his ear, and he turned back his head, finding the enemies had returned. Virgille took out a thermal detonator from the pouch on her utility belt instantly and threw it right into the following enemies.

The thermal detonator exploded and Obi-Wan didn't spend the time in checking the result, but dragged Virgille to crawl forward.

"Where did you get that?"

"Remember that prison guard? I found it on his belt," Virgille answered smugly, "while you were bidding Master Qui-Gon farewell."

"Well, at least you've finally done something useful –"

Obi-Wan was stunned to find that there was no air duct before him anymore – he was now facing a huge shaft. And they were in an opening at the middle of the metal wall.

"It looks like an elevator shaft." He murmured.

"What do we do?" Virgille whined plaintively, panickedly looking back because the Zephyrenes were after them again.

Obi-Wan thought quickly and made up his mind, "Virgule, we'll have to jump."

"You mean 'jump'?" she gasped, "Okay…better to be killed by the gravity than by those Zephyrenes." She deftly deflected another laser bolt.

That was absolutely not Obi-Wan had in mind, but what he thought was merely trying to get hold of something after their seemingly suicidal jump. "So…" he took Virgille's small hand, "Jump!"

They jumped into the shaft together.

The Zephyrenes rushed to the edge of the opening and looked down, seeing the Jedi falling into the darkness below.

They narrowed their eyes skeptically, and spread their wings to fly down into the lift shaft a bit to use their eyes to feel the environment around them – they didn't feel any Jedi's presence nearby, apparently, the Jedi did fall off.

But they still suspected if they were truly dead. Then again, it was a lift shaft – if they were hiding somewhere below, the lift would take care of them.

Therefore, they left the air duct and went to report the incidence to Roga.

Down beneath the darkness, Obi-Wan was hanging against the metal wall with Virgille clinging to his back. His hands were holding a small ledge on the wall.

"So…" Virgille tightened her hold around his neck, "what's the plan?"

"Uh…"

"You don't have a plan!"

"Hey, I'm working on it, okay?" Obi-Wan said impatiently, then his eyes lit, "This is a lift shaft, right?"

"Right…" Virgille answered suspiciously.

"Then there must be a lift." Obi-Wan said excitedly, "Then we can step onto the top of the lift coming from below to let it carry us to the ground level, and before it stops, we'll cut a hole on the lift's top, and get inside the lift."

"Okay, sounds challenging." Virgille sneered a bit, "But what if the lift is coming from above?"

"Well…" Obi-Wan instantly realized the danger they were now in, "We can't be that unlucky…can we?" he swallowed.

"You never know…" she shrugged.

A sudden thunderous noise came from their top startled them both and got their attentions.

"Oh dear…" Virgille gasped as she looked up.

"Clearly, we CAN be THAT unlucky." Obi-Wan said blankly as they watched the humongous lift coming down from above. Finally, he'd got an idea, "Hold on, Virgule."

As the lift got near enough, Obi-Wan jumped from the original position to grab the wires under the lift. Those wires made an unpleasant squeak, but managed to endure the weight of Obi-Wan and Virgille.

Obi-Wan activated his blade and, in contrary to his plan, he cut through the bottom of the lift. As soon as the hole was complete, the two passengers in the lift began to shoot them with the blasters through the newly cut hole.

Virgille deflected the laser bolts immediately with her lightsaber in one hand, her other hand was still holding Obi-Wan's neck from behind.

A bolt was deflected back to its shooter and he died instantly with a high-pitched scream.

Obi-Wan took this chance to throw his lightsaber spinning towards the other Zephyrene, whose chest was cut through by the blue blade, then he screeched and fell to the lift floor as well.

Panting, Obi-Wan climbed into the lift eventually and let Virgille get down from his back and release his pathetic sore neck.

"Phew, that was close." Obi-Wan commented and picked up his lightsaber.

Virgille scowled at him, "I told you it could come downwards from the top, but you never listened."

Obi-Wan rolled his eyes, "Shut up, Virgule, I was the one who'd saved us both." He pressed the control button to make the lift go upwards to the ground level.

"First of all, it's Virgille, not Virgule. And you wouldn't be able to save us both without MY help."

"Whatever you say, Virgule." Obi-Wan paid no attention to Virgille's speech.

"Virgille!"

"Whatever."

"How rude!"

The lift slowed down gradually and stopped at the ground level. When the gate opened, one Zephyrene was waiting outside to take the lift. As the Zephyrene saw there were two Jedi in the lift, he was shocked, and before he could inform the others or take out his blaster, Obi-Wan punched him on the head to unconsciousness.

"You are really a cold dude." Virgille remarked grandmaly as she looked at the unconscious soldier on the floor.

"Am I? Then why don't you stay here to look after this poor fellow?" Obi-Wan sneered.

Frightened, Virgille shook her head desperately and followed Obi-Wan's lead to search for Qui-Gon.

To be continued…

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