Chapter 2: Tense Meetings

Obi-Wan Kenobi's chronometre bleeped once more, and he reminded himself to slow down his pace. At his side, his lover and companion, Siri Tachi, dropped into step with him. According to the chronometre, they had been following the informant for about three hours, through main streets and backstreets, moving further and further away from the Jedi Temple. He rolled his eyes. This informant had planned this meeting very carefully, almost too carefully. But, this was not the main thing that worried him, it was the fact that his Force-attuned danger sense was not sending a chilling prickle up and down his spine, it remained perfectly calm and silent. He reached out to Siri at the point, and felt her own anxieties were the same as his. Clever and sneaky informants were bad enough, but when they knew the Force as well, things could start to get more and more complicated.

He looked around, trying to see if there may be any of the informants 'companions' lurking nearby, ready to ambush them when they thought they were not alert. But, once again, he was unable to sense any feeling of danger anywhere. He was starting to get frustated. The street that they were in now was virtually deserted, a few beings meandering past, but he felt no sense of danger or unease radiating from them. He raised his wrist once more, and checked his chrono. Another seven minutes left, but that was not the thing that startled him. It was only 15:00 hours in the afternoon, and yet, a heavy fog was seeming to descend upon them, almost blocking out the shapes of the derelict buildings around them, and the glow of Corsucant's artificial sun above. He turned around, looking for any sign of industry that might be the cause of the smog before his eyes, but could not see past his own hands. In his right hand, he felt Siri's grip tighten about his fingers, and he looked in her direction, to find only a mere silohette of her form.

"Obi-Wan?" She stopped, bringing him to a halt at the same time, or so it seemed. Her bleak image came in front of him, and he could make out the shape of her hair and shoulders. "Why have you stopped?"

Why have I stopped? He looked at her head, trying to find any distinguishing features on her face, but failed miserably. "I...I can't see..."

"What!" She waved a silohette of what seemed to be her hand in front of his face. "You cannot see anything?"

He nodded, and tried to reach out and grip her hand, but fell several inches short and to the right of making contact with her. "No...not at all. Just a few blurry shapes."

He felt her concern and fear radiating through the Force. "This can't be good."

He nodded once more. "And without eyesight, I won't be much help if we're jumped."

Her head turned to the right, and looked away for a moment. "Good point." Suddenly, she snapped what looked like an arm down onto her utility belt, and withdrew a cylindrical object from it. She ignited the blade, screaming at Obi-Wan in the process. "Ambush! Defend yourself!"

He rolled his eyes, knowing that he would not be much use right now, but he fumbled around on his own utility belt and removed from it what felt like the hilt of his lightsaber. A lump started to rise in his throat, however, and he froze. His danger sense was still not tingling.

"Obi-Wan!" Siri leapt in front of him, and deflected something long and grey that came shooting towards him. "Use the Force to at least try and help me!"

He remained where he was, moving. "I...I can't move anything."

She gasped. "This is not going well!"

To his left, he saw something come flying towards him. Once again, Siri was there to block the shot, but then, got hit herself in the leg. She bent over double, and got shot another two times in the side.

"Siri!" He exclaimed, and suddenly found that his sight and movement returned in a flash. He danger sense re-awakened, alerting him to about three dozen hostiles all around them, all taking positions from the roof tops of buildings all around.

He dropped down to Siri's side, raising one single hand above his head to project a Force-Shield around them. "Siri! Are you okay?"

When she did not reply, he dropped two fingers down to the side of her neck and checked her pulse in desperation. It bumped steadily under his fingers, and he let out a sigh of relief. It was at that point that the fire subsided, and he looked around him uneasily. "I have a bad feeling about this..."

The muscles in the top of his arm started to ache, and a pressure at the back of his mind began to creep forward. He fell into the Force, trying to push it away, but found that the distance between him and his access to it was getting increasingly larger. As his vision started to cloud over once more, the fire sprayed down around them again, and he was struck several times in the chest.

Everything went black, and Obi-Wan Kenobi's body dropped down beside that of his lover's.