To my reviewers...
frofgiffrog: Thanks. (grins) Glad you think it's really good...
Molly: I'm sorry... I just had to update. Really... (hugs Molly) Don't hold my chapters hostage on me anymore! (grins) Oh. Darth Snookums. Heh heh. But, yeah, here's the next chapter with the few requested changes. No more fangirls. Snrk. I have Chapter Eight started. I'll send it to you once I finish Obi &Kerian or Dane's and Eli... scene... (shuts up) Glad the evil scares you! I WIN!
Blackheart Syaoran: (grimaces at langauge) Heh. Er... just as an fyi, I've always seen Leia Organa-Solo and Mara Jade-Skywalker from what I've read, least to memory. (shrugs) I like it hyphenated better anyway. Now. I've read nearly every SW book in existence, and I would like you to take this into consideration. Maul was able to take down a Padawan and Jedi Master of the Old Republic Order. The only reason Obi won was because of Maul's ego. Read Audreidi's review for chapter seven. And besides, I was too lazy to write a long duel anyway. ;) I live for the melodrama. I'll try to get to reading your story. Why don't you check out my crossover forum if you like RPG and stuff?
Slayer rock chick: Er... nope. Not for a while. Anakin and Obi-Wan will meet soonish. But that's about it for now.
Audreidi: Yes, well, Master, my intent has lately been to improve. A lot. Hehe. Now, here's your update. I'll try to get you more stuff to read, but you know my focus is generally elsewhere. Snrk. Sorry if Padmé's too melodramatic. I wrote her after I had done an Ariane-Myrkr scene, so I was still melodramatically hiked. She probably won't change either. And I don't know Ani's char very well at all... long enough chapter for you now? (grins) Ten pages, size 12 Times New Roman. Like my OC? (grins) You should know him... well...
To Adrienne and Darth Aragorn: I know you didn't get to reviewing on but I'm really glad you likd my updaty. Here's another one for the sake of freaking you out. No battle, but... yeah. Snrk.
To the readers who have me on alert or favorites and haven't bothered reviewing: I hope you like this update:D Review someday to drop me a line, eh?
--Chapter 7--
They landed. The motion of hearing the ship hiss through the atmosphere and hum to a gliding smooth landing did little for Obi-Wan's mood. It was a relief that the young hotshot pilot Jaina Solo had a well used skill for landings, but it was also a feeling of distress that swept through him on realizing that he now had to face the reality of this impossible situation.
Impossible... but oh, so real.
He set his cup down half empty on the table, a slight jerk of the ship causing it to tip and slosh a bit of caf over the sides before he could stabilize it.
Eating... it had always been a good escape beforehand. Something he always wanted to do, as was observed by many a Jedi Master on seeing the Padawan viciously attack a plate of... well, anything really. Obi-Wan smiled vaguely at the memories that swept back for just a second.
I always was too nice, he thought distantly. I could never badger the cooks into second helpings like a couple of the other Padawans at the Temple. He could remember a few in particular, spoons waving wildly at the cooks as they went on with explanations about how their life would come to a short end if they weren't granted a second helping of whatever was on the menu that day.
Jaina had done well at piloting the ship through the atmosphere, though it had been a slightly jerky ride. The turbulence of the gas planet caused tremors in realspace, and he had been slightly nervous about the landing. The girl, after all, had the aura of a daredevil, one who would risk anything on a gamble if the need was there. Her emotions were strong, he had already noted. She carried a power about her that few Jedi he had ever met had.
He knew little about the moon. He knew it was a jungle-type moon that had once been inhabited by the Massassi who had built temples on the surface of incredible size, much like the Temple he knew quite well. Jacen had explained mildly how the Vong had attacked that moon as well, and how things were under construction to be rebuilt.
The whir of shutdown entered his ears. Obi-Wan blinked slightly and stood up to feel his blood rush back into his legs with a tingling sensation that spread throughout his lower body briefly before calming. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath to calm himself...
And was struck by the need to get off of the ship and out of the canned air into real air. He disembarked a few moments after Jacen, Jaina still checking over to make certain that he hadn't planted any explosives in the ship or anything else of the like. At least, that was the impression Obi-Wan had received, though he guessed she was only cleaning up a few things left behind. She seemed to be quite the suspicious type even still...
Obi-Wan wondered why he was continually thinking back to Jaina. The girl hadn't seemed to like him much, after all. To be honest, she didn't seem to really like anyone. Perhaps something had happened to her in her past? The darkside, losing someone?
The stimcaf was left to be picked up by Jaina a few minutes later and tossed out into the trash, as she had no use for cold caffeine. The girl quickly assumed no one else would either, unless it was a mold germ. She had no desire to host mold, though, so out it went.
He caught traces of conversation as he walked across the temporary cemented landing pad through his mind's turmoil. Wind rustled his robe around his feet and hood. Feet grazed the ground in a steady pattern, a chattery hum lilting up and to his ears for a moment until thoughts overtook for a moment, and the world swayed...
He took a deep breath, let the senses of the planet filter through his every being, drowning him in peace and existence, in light and in shadows, in the very embodiment of life. He released it, and with that the tension and fear and anxieties.
Luke... Mara... went out after... haven't returned... strange ripples...
Something seemed remarkably wrong within the feel of life within the Force, an eerie echo deep within the shadows it formed; somewhere upon the verge of a mountain, yet still masked by a valley there was a darkness. There was a rebound of power that grew in magnitude, yet eluded his touch no matter how hard he reached out. As if it were beyond time itself.
Found... on Coruscant... They were talking about him, then?
Obi-Wan knew he looked different; the heavy robes of the Old Republic hung heavily over his shoulders, the carefully tucked tabard and belt a far cry from what everyone else here seemed to wear. There were tunics of every color of the rainbow, leggings and trousers and skirts that hardly fit the common Jedi wear. Some wore utility belts, others a piece of rope around their tops to keep them from flaying open in the heavy wind. Some of the clothing was so unorthodox it seemed outrageous to think of a Jedi wearing such. And there was no sign of rank among hairstyle, no single braids trailing from behind the ears of apprentices, no longer hair on the Knighted men.
The changes time had wrought were certainly more subtle than he had first assumed.
Rebuilding project... Yuuzhan Vong...
Jacen had vaguely mentioned that, Obi-Wan remembered. But he had been so unaware of what was being said at that moment, so tangled up in thoughts he had been. Now pieces were beginning to filter into place. He stood in what seemed the middle of a crush of people, alone in the crowd, and stared up at the sky for a long moment. The nearby temple was half built, construction shells ringing the building with a skeletal frame and giving it a gaunt appearance. The trees around it had replenished themselves, presumably with the aid of the Force, sending a half cleared forest around the boundaries.
The stone and concrete underneath his feet was marred by blasterfire and time, some of it far newer in its existence than others, but it was firm and cool to the touch.
Jacen touched Obi-Wan on the shoulder lightly, and the Jedi Padawan turned, wind brushing his robe to trail behind him slightly. He jerked his shoulders to keep the heavy robe from falling back. The wind on the planet was rather strong at the moment. Unnaturally so, it seemed, as it twisted into their hair, setting those with slightly longer hair (not including Obi-Wan with his short buzz cut) into a tousled mess.
In the mass of people milling about (though it wasn't so many as it seemed within the Force and the blur) a figure paused for a moment, turning just for perhaps five seconds to gaze steadily at the two with dark eyes. A second's scrutiny touched his expression, then he turned to vanish again into the crowd as if it had never happened at all. It made no impression on the two Jedi's minds. The arrival of a famed Jedi had made enough of a stir that people did notice things, did stare...
"Master Skywalker's missing," Jacen said, his voice quite nervous. And perhaps there was more behind that slight quaver that hit his expression...
An element that should not have been in the young man's voice... and it didn't even appear to be coming from his voice. Obi-Wan filed it away in his mind to later recall, if the need was there.
Skywalker? That's Anakin's name...
"You're going to go out to look for him," Obi-Wan said calmly. He had regained control of his senses now, regained a smooth control of his voice.
A set of dark eyes gazed out from the mess of people, a single pair of piercingly black eyes that seemed to stand out of the whirling crowd twisting about. Obi-Wan found himself glancing briefly away from Jacen, turning his expression over to the crowd. And then it was gone, vanished into the mess again. Who are you...
Jacen nodded. "He's my uncle. I'll know where to find him." The unasked question in his eyes.
And was there a whisper in the wind that rushed through the courtyard attached onto the dock on Yavin IV. A wry tangle through the reeds, as if out there, someone was replying. You will... know...
If only you would open your eyes...
"On your own?"
Jacen nodded.
Obi-Wan glanced away from Jacen for just a moment, the tingling feeling that something wasn't right sending a chill up his spine. "Very well," he said, perhaps a bit reluctantly. "Just..." It intensified for a moment, making a tremble of anticipation take control of his limbs, then it vanished. "If I may be so bold to say I have a bad feeling about this?"
"Don't worry." Jacen smiled thinly. "I feel it too. Will you be all right?"
"I'll be all right on my own," Obi-Wan remarked, shaking away the sudden clamminess that touched his brow, "if someone would be so kind as to direct me to anywhere where I might find food."
Was there a distant stirring in the horizon? A flare through the Force... dullened by time and space that should not have even existed. Or was it only caused by the slightly pointed gazes cast, the whispers that he could almost hear touching the mouths of querying faces. Who... Are... You?
The Jedi Padawan found himself quickly redirected to the interior of the Jedi Temple on Yavin IV, and towards the cafeteria.
Sometimes things were centred, calm. Sometimes things could be held and grasped in the palm of your hand, and there was no emotion to that but ease. Sometimes, a person could reach out and it seemed as if the very stars were at their grasp.
For Jedi, it was often like that. They could close their eyes and reach out to the stars, sensing all the beings and small atoms that made up the very essense of the earth they stood on. The worlds were indeed at their control. They had that power, that ability to reach out and control what happened... though perhaps some took that far too seriously, dangling into darkness from an over desire to control.
Sometimes. It always rang around the possibilities.
Possibilities made up what was, what is, and what would come to pass. Possibilities made up the realms of darkness and light, the tiny wars within wars that always carried on, no matter how oblivious you were to them. In everything there is a battle, a time to live, to die. To love, to hate... to carry on at all things, and sometimes, to let go of the baton and pass it off to the next runner while you sit down and watch the rest go by.
It was impossible to centre yourself when the world around you was in chaos... at least, if you were a Jedi. It was even harder to centre yourself when all the world you originally knew was gone. Vanished.
From Qui-Gon's perspective, it seemed that the absence spread from Coruscant, that from the very heart of the galaxy there was a tear in the veil that held it together. The Force had gone out like a light, and all that could be grasped seemed to be the remnants of a candle lit and extinguished. Only the heat remained, dissipating in the tangled mists that made up the universe.
At one time, the Jedi could reach out, and a sixth sense could read that mist. At a time not so long ago, they could reach out into the Force and find the darkness within there, find their heart and very soul to control. They could levitate objects with merely the power of their mind, force the weakminded into a state where they were controllable. To some, the Jedi Knights were gods of a sort, wizards and masters of an unknown and almighty power.
But for Master Qui-Gon Jinn at that moment, he felt like anything but an all-powerful wielder of peace and justice in the galaxy. He felt empty, as if something had been torn from his soul. From that very heart of his being, there was a hollow where nothing remained. Obi-Wan was gone. The Force was slowly vanishing from the Jedi's perspective to another dimension that could not be grasped by them, at least in that state of mind.
Was the Force dead? Had something more powerful taken a blade to its heart?
Or was that possible.
Was everything they had believed in wrong? Was the Force no longer the all-powerful control within the galaxy? Had they been wrong to accept, to honor, to even condone the Force? Had everything they had ever believed in been the complete vision of all lies?
Was the Code in error?
What had they done wrong?
Had someone done something to them? It seemed so childish to blame it on a chemical, on perhaps something someone had put into the water that had made the Jedi drunken in the Force. But maybe it was as simple as that. Maybe he could sleep on it and it would return.
Had someone shot the Force? Had someone perhaps taken a blaster to its heart? Or was that impossible? If that's the case, his mind whispered, then everything you were told was a lie. If the Force can be destroyed, then it's not the complete power of the universe.
He stood up, realizing with a start he had sat down on the bulk of some protrusion from the interior of the ship. It was shaped relatively like a chair, he observed with a piece of his mind that wasn't going into a state of relative hysterics. Maybe that's why I sat on it.
He walked over to a proper chair nevertheless, sitting carefully down with legs crossed at the knees. His robe lay haphazardly over one shoulder, the other arm dangling behind him until he sat on it, crunching the thick material underneath his weight. For a long while his eyes only traced the roof, counting the tiles that made up the lines...
Were we wrong? his mind asked in a mild stage of fear. Without the Force, fear began to take over, and the chill rippling through his body seemed almost unnatural. Yet he felt it too clearly, the darkness that pressed over his heart, his mind, the centre that was empty. Was everything we believed in a lie? Why would they lie to us?
"Why not?"
Qui-Gon sat straight with a start.
"Does everyone not lie? Have you ever met someone who never lied to you? Truly, even your apprentice had to have lied to you."
The Jedi Master stood up, his robe slipping off unnoticed into a brown heap on the chair. His basic tunic was streaked with the grime of Tatooine, a dusty silt that managed to get into everything. It gave the already beige garments a very dull tone that managed to make Qui-Gon look very washed out and messy compaired to the being that stood in front of him.
Qui-Gon's first thought was: He wasn't there a moment ago.
His second thought was: Blast, he has a lightsaber.
His third thought was: What is he?
His fourth thought was: I have a bad feeling about this.
The man in front of him was tall. Slightly taller than the Jedi Master, placing him at around six foot seven in standard galactic measurements, they were able to look nearly eye to eye. And it was that that made the gaze so unnaturally painful. Whoever this man was, he had vividly purple eyes with a strange darkness that threatened to haunt their entire being. His hair was black, and his eyes seemed to glow in the slight darkness within the Nubian ship. A lightsaber hung loosely at his side, but one glance revealed more than met the eyes from the Jedi.
This was no Jedi...
"You have questions, I presume," the man carried on, as if there were absolutely nothing abnormal to walking into a ship without any notice being taken. "But that matters little at that moment."
"Who are you?" Qui-Gon asked dangerously, a hand dropped to his lightsaber. This man was the very aura of a tricky evil, a light tongued snake who would weave traps and danger at every turn.
Perhaps the slightest hint of a smile hit his face for just a second or two. The man blinked, looking almost offended for a second before he took a step back and bowed.
That caused Qui-Gon to blink. But the man rose up from the waist-deep bow (very carefully executed), examining the face of the Jedi Master with a startling ease. "You do not know me? How rude of me," he allowed. "I am Eliaith Vilanar, Master Jinn. Master Eliaith Vilanar."
"You're no Jedi."
"Nor Sith."
"What are you." Qui-Gon's eyes strayed to the ears. Slanted, yet the man still had a very human-like bearing.
"Nothing you would ever have heard of."
"Why are you here?" Qui-Gon didn't want to allow himself to be distracted by the banter, the endless twist of words that would lead nowhere. Perhaps at another time he would've played in, but he was tired, wounded, hungry, and his spirit drained.
Eliaith twisted his fingers together behind his back, staring at Qui-Gon with dangerously purple eyes. "You presume to ask answers."
"Yes, I do."
"I am here, because another is dead."
Qui-Gon allowed an inner sigh. The... whatever he was... Qui-Gon had no certain idea as to the race, the affiliation, or the motives of the being before him. Only that he was purely evil indeed. "That's..." he began. But Eliaith cut him off with a sharp wave of the hand.
"You immediately take me as evil?" he asked, slightly hurt. "Now, that's not very nice of you. Perhaps I have slightly different eyes, and pointed ears, and black robes, but that's no reason to assume I am evil."
"You also walked in here without a second thought..."
"Actually, I didn't walk in..."
"Whatever you did, then, it was certainly without permission!"
"Faugh! You Jedi are all alike. Presumptions, presumptions, presumptions. Never letting us different people have a moment to think to ourselves..."
"I've given you more than enough time to think for yourself. Who are you?"
"I'm Eliaith Vilanar. Who are you?"
"Qui-Gon Jinn," the Jedi Master shot back. "You are requested to remove your presence from this ship now."
"Very well." The alien-humanish person drew back, a slightly wounded expression on his evil face as he...
Walked through the wall and vanished!
Qui-Gon drew in a startled breath. Whatever you are, Master Vilanar, it is not someone that should exist in this world...
Jacen drew into the jungle and extended his awareness to include as much of the forestry as he could manage. The overwhelming feeling of all the semi-sentient life for a moment made him close his eyes and draw in a sharp breath. It always did. Around him, things lived. There was the sense of a circle that was. A pure and passionate will and desire to carry on, no matter what things happened.
But the jungle was disturbed. Something had happened. He could sense it around him, the clamor beyond normal perception.
The young Jedi Knight had a connection with animal life, an empathy to understanding their motives. But the cluttering jumble of emotions was overwhelming, overpowering. There was no beginning point that he could use to center his awareness, to draw off of one particular thing. Everything was trying to talk. It was as if he was within an animal committee. Every single creature with a sensitivity to the Force, an empathetic ability to speak to his mind, was babbling. Jabbering about things that made little pictures in his mind and made absolutely no sense whatsoever at all. Whispers of elements out of control, black shadows flickering through the mists...
The wind rustled a thick canopy overhead, sending a chirpy swarm of insects hurling at his face but Jacen ducked, letting the Force warn him. He knew the dangers of the jungle better than most. Within a thick green hollow of papery branches a small family of lizards dwelled. Across from him, a few meters to the south, a whistling bird swept over a tiny stream that had been nearly blocked off by a dam of leaves and mud.
A predator crept within the amber leaves of a thicket to the east, carefully trailing behind the Jedi. The clouds drew overhead, and he carried on... Jacen had the feeling that it would rain soon. The air pressures pressed down against the wind, creating a slight static in his hair. He reached up for a moment to brush it back from his eyes, his step halting for a second.
The life within the Yavin IV jungle was ongoing, ever changing. They could lead him to Luke through their clamor, their panicked din that read of wrongness, of death brought about too soon. Of the darkside. Though most semi-sentients were neither light nor dark, they still had a sense of right and wrong at times. They still knew when something was wrong. They knew far more than most people would ever see.
He let them lead him through to that. He let the feelings pass through his mind and the Force translate them into a path through endless sticks and vines and animals. Branches scraped at his hair, at his clothes: a sharper stick hit his face and drew blood and Jacen had to dab it off with his sleeve.
But as he drew in deeper, he was overcome by a sense of something wrong. Vines had been slashed through, and not by any natural means.
The gashes were caused by a lightsaber. Nothing else would leave the cauterized sear on the branches, the bleeding of sap stopped by a quick burn. In a few places a sticky dampness accumulated, but most were cauterized by the heat of the laser.
He again extended his being, and realized that he was nearly over top of Master Luke Skywalker. A few meters to the left...
Jacen knelt beside the fallen Jedi Master, pressing his hands to his temples. There was a bit of dried blood on his face, and Jacen glanced around to observe his lightsaber was missing as well. The ground was trampled in that clearing, and there were slight burns on overhanging vines that had seemingly been in the way of a lightsaber blade at the wrong time. He reached out with the Force further yet.
Mara Jade was no longer there, if she had been there to begin with. Jacen didn't know, but the footsteps pressing the grove were of various sizes, so he assumed she had been, at least at one time.
Luke stirred, groaning slightly, and made a feeble attempt to bat Jacen's hands away. Jacen tightened the pressure over top the Master's head, stretching out with the Force to carefully check his vital signs.
"Where..." he moaned in a weak voice.
"You're in the jungle," Jacen murmured.
Luke's eyes flickered open, a sudden blue light where only pale flesh had been a moment before. Jacen shivered. The eyes that Luke had were still so piercing that at times it was hard to gaze at them. But they were also dilated strangely, Jacen noted with a nervous shiver that was masked by a cool breeze that swept over the area a second later.
"Where's Mara?" he whispered painfully.
"I don't know. Was she with you?" Luke started to answer, then Jacen cut him off. "And, no, don't speak to answer that. You're hurt."
"Not badly," Luke muttered, and struggled to sit up, flinching as vertigo threatened to knock him out as surely as a swift kick to the head had. The pain washed over his face, focus not strong enough to keep him from showing hurt. No matter how powerful a Jedi is, they can never keep from showing pain or fear at the end.
Jacen pursed his lips. "No, not badly," he said dryly.
"Mara hasn't returned to the Temple yet?" Luke asked slowly, his voice dry and cracked. A flash of worry crossed his face, but it gave way to pain again when he struggled to stand up.
Jacen forcefully pushed Luke back down to the ground, pressing his hands to his head once again. "No, stay down. You're not moving until you can see clearly."
"How did you..."
"Your pupils are dilated."
Luke sighed, and gave in, slumping against the coolness of the ground underneath his back. The mossy softness felt a lot better than the tingling chill that was spreading up his feet and back anyway, contrasting with the shooting hot pain in his spine and along his cheek. But he was so worried about Mara...
Afraid. Luke was terrified, and he couldn't completely understand why.
