Chapter 14: Once Known as Coruscant
DATE: 5/11/45876 (Half Hour Earlier)
xXx ((Team B)) xXx
The door creaked open, a harsh sound that echoed through the air. He winced at the sound, muscles tensing as he scanned the surrounding area, expecting the inevitable wave of mutts to come rushing and clawing towards them like a typhoon; but the atmosphere remained just as deserted and undisturbed as it always was nowadays.
"Last chance to change your mind," Josh whispered, raising an eyebrow in the direction of the younger man beside him.
"Last chance for you to stay behind and guard Standards," Anakin countered, frowning. A thick silence followed, until Inya finally pushed her way between the two men. "C'mon boys, we've already gone over this," she broke in, rolling her eyes. "We've got to start moving." She didn't look back, but kept on walking as Anakin and Josh exchanged glances, and then followed.
It was hot. That was the first thing to register in Josh's mind as he immediately swept back short, greasy locks of blonde hair, wincing at the scorching sunlight that burnt his eyes. There was just the slightest breeze rustling through the air, and it carried with it a variety of smells that nearly caused him to pass out right then and there. He shot a look at Anakin Skywalker, and noticed that the younger man ha d also paled as the atmosphere around them seemed to close in. Even Inya had stopped dead in her tracks, and adopted a look of pure revulsion. "What is that smell?" the brunette woman whispered, and Anakin bit his lip, glancing across the street.
"Might have something to do with that."
They both followed his gaze; and immediately Josh felt something thick and rancid like bile rise in his throat as he eyed the three decaying bodies that lay through the shattered glass window of an old café. The place had once served food and refreshments for tourists and hospital staff; looking at the shattered doors, windows, and the three dead that lay strewn across it, Josh wondered how in the world that place could have once served 'the Galaxy's Greatest Subs', as the faded sign stated. The bodies were half-rotten underneath Coruscant's now-brutal sun, the open wounds of a mutt's bite still visible in shrunken, putrefied flesh that more resembled rotten gourds than living beings. Flies, once unknown in the luxury of Coruscant, now swarmed the corroded meat.
"Oh Force," Inya breathed, sub-consciously taking several steps back so that she was side by side with the others. A quick sweep with the eyes revealed five more bodies all within a yard of them. Then, with lack of anything else to say, she repeated it. "Oh Force."
The two men remained dead silent as they drank in the situation. Anakin was the first one to snap himself back to reality. To Obi-Wan and his rescue mission. "C'mon. We need to keep moving."
Josh nodded dumbly, the twenty-eight-year-old swallowing around the lump in his throat. "Yeah… yeah. I think Derek said they were going west. Yes, it was definitely west. And they said they weren't going far either."
Inya cast a look over her shoulder, back into the dark halls of Standards hospital. "Are you sure Central will be alright?"
"Do you want to stay?" Anakin demanded, pinching the bridge of his nose. "We have to go… now."
"Alright, alright." Inya held her hands up, and then stepped back as Josh and Anakin moved forward. "Let's move it then."
The doors to Standards were sealed, latched, and barricaded.
The streets were deserted, rancid, and soaked through with death. Bodies lay scattered here and there, remains of both humans, aliens, and mutts strewn across the ground. Scavenging animals were as rare on Coruscant as water was on Tatooine; but there were the occasional dog or other strange, unidentified creature that had once served as a pet for the, as Derek put it, 'Richie Riches' of the galaxy. They began to see signs of their teammates, empty clips from the standard arms given the Colony. Recent boot prints in the dust and grime, and the Force-presence of Jason and Obi-Wan on the ground and buildings all around. As the feelings grew stronger, Anakin's step increased faster, Jason and Inya not protesting as they kept up with the young Jedi.
Twenty five minutes later, when all three of them spotted their companions fighting over a dozen mutts, they ran into the fray. An explosion rocked the ground somewhere several feet away, an old speeder combusting no doubt, and Anakin jumped forward, knocking Obi-Wan to the ground, shielding him with his own body. But then, he was flipped over onto his back; and Anakin watched Obi-Wan's familiar face transform into something grotesque and horrid. It became the face of a demon.
Death.
He heard Inya's high-pitched scream as who she had thought was Jason beside her transformed into a ragged female mutt, one mangled arm flapping in the revolting breeze. Josh gave out a cry too as the arm he had believed to belong to Nathan was soon revealed as an elderly Twi'lek grandfather, wrinkled face contorted beyond belief, black bile dripping from cracked lips.
Anakin felt the pressure on his wrists and chest increase as Death pinned him down, tiny black eyes blinking from the sides, nostrils that belonged to a skull leaned down and sniffing him as a pointed, two-pronged tongue licked her bloody lips at his scent. "Oh, Chosen One…" she cooed, raising one clawed hand, the skin on it mottled and withered.
"…you were always so easy to fool."
Her hand latched onto his forehead, and Anakin felt himself slip back into that terrifying, black void of unconsciousness; just as he realized that the other scream filling the air was his own.
xXx
Josh felt his heart jump into his throat as Nathan morphed into some ravenous mutt. Giving a cry of shock and disbelief, he swung his rifle around and blasted the guts out of the monster, watching with sick relief as the creature fell to the ground, its skull bursting open like a watermelon as it hit the concrete. He turned just in time to see Anakin collapse, as if pushed by some unseen force, and begin convulsing on the ground.
Not now, not now! "Anakin!" He moved forward, shooting down there more mutts as he dropped to his knees near the younger man. "Anakin? Anakin, wake up! Inya! Inya, I need help!"
"I can't get to you!" He heard the woman's frantic voice, but couldn't see her. An entire wave of mutts seemed to swarm him from out of nowhere; and he noticed movement in the office building above him as well, through one of the forth story windows. He grabbed at his hair, scrabbled for the trigger on his gun, wondering if the afterlife, even hell, were similar or better than this screwed up life.
xXx ((Team A)) xXx
"Damn it!"
"Be quiet, Nathan!"
"Don't tell me what to do!"
"All of you sissies hush up!" Derek snapped, glaring Nathan and Lynn, wiping the sweat from his face with a filthy, gloved hand. They were all crowded into the back stairwell of the empty office building – why the hellthey were in here instead of an apartment complex or hardware store he still didn't know. "Nathan, why don't you just tell me why we are in here before I march us all right out of this toilet bowl and somewhere useful?"
"This building was headquarters for a series of chain stores and various shops," Nathan replied, voice back down to a low key since the 28-year-old had gotten over his fright of nearly falling down the stairs. "There could be maps and locations to where the nearest and largest supplying supplies stores and warehouses are. We get those, and we won't have to search all over for them."
"And how do you know all this?" Lynn demanded, the dark eyed 36-year-old screwing his face at the – in his mind – annoying military scientist.
"I commuted here from Yaazix-5 plenty of times," Nathan defended himself. "You know this Derek."
"Alright, alright, just all you stop you're hissy fits," the soldier sighed, shaking his head. "Kenobi, you ready for round four?"
Obi-Wan was in the back of the pack, cradling his heavy weapon while giving a thumbs up. "We're ready when you are." He made sure with his partner, and Jason nodded.
"Alright then. We do this just like we did the others – clear the floor, cover Nate-boy over there while he searches backup hard drives for the info we need."
"Got it," Jason called.
"Okay. Move it!"
Derek kicked the door in, and the team burst inside. Three mutts, all wearing fancy business suits and name tags came at them, jaws snapping, milky eyes crazy and wild with hunger. They were shot down easily, the rest of the area empty except for those three.
"Must've been a boring day when these guys were stuck up here," Derek mused, eyeing the door that had been locked from the inside. "The evacuations started, they thought they could wait it out up here in their comfortable little cubicles, until spouses or buddies came to pick them up…"
Nathan was already at one of the computers, cursing slightly as he moved from desk to desk. "Backup batteries were used up on almost all of these."
Derek nodded, pursing his lips. "Makes sense. Once they realized their pals weren't coming back for them, they probably sent off a million emails and texts a minute, trying to get to every emergency service available in the galaxy. Then the grid was knocked out, and the HoloNet channels were lost, and the radio went dead. They wasted the rest of the batteries trying to get a single reply on their stupid social sites or a reply from someone out there. Then, see that hole in the door over there? Near the stairwell? A mutt finally got through, and these guys couldn't fight, starving and hopeless. They probably ran right into that monster's arms, begging it take them out of this miserable fate…"
"Derek." It was Obi-Wan who quietly shut the ranting officer up with a single word and a look that he used to use on Anakin when the boy had been a loud-mouthed Padawan, and then a loud-mouthed Knight.
"Sorry, sorry." The other man adopted a look of sincere contrition, and moved over to help Jason inspect their surroundings. Ax stayed near the door, the military pilot numbly rubbing his rifle and actually looking bored.
Obi-Wan walked over to Nathan, watching the brown-haired 28-year-old fiddle with computers, extracting their hard drives, checking the system, trying to find what he was looking for. "If I can just find the right disk," the scientist grunted. "Then I can bring it back to Standards. I'm sure Anakin can hook something up and we'll be able to download the maps and locations and stuff."
"Hm." The Jedi watched him work a few moments longer before replying, "You're handy with this sort of stuff. I'm surprised you didn't chose electrical engineering instead of science."
Nathan smirked, rubbing one side of his thin whiskers in thought. "I always thought the system was too… fragile," he admitted. "Everything hooked up to one giant grid. And Coruscant was the heart of it all. The only reason I know all this stuff is because I had – still have – so little faith in the electrical complexity of it all."
"What do you mean?"
"Everything, and I mean everything, had been set up so that it ran on power," he explained quietly. "If the grid went down, as it did two months after this place was evacuated, we have nothing. Communications, the HoloNet, almost all appliances, power tools, stuff like that. Half our transports were recharged electrically, and those that aren't we can't fix just yet because all the parts were made in factories that ran on that system. Everything falls apart. You know what this is, Jedi?" He held out a small, metal object from his belt. "This is a can opener. All military utility belts have one. Simple – you put it on the can, twist, and can opens. These are military grade, because guess what civilians use? The electric can opener. Now what are those suckers gonna do without power? All that canned food probably stocked up in their pantry, and no damn way to open it." He shook his head again, returned the object to his belt, and sighed. "Look – I know your psychic friend thinks this whole ordeal is caused by some paranormal phenomenon that has to do with your Force stuff, but I'm liable to believe that it's us, the people of the galaxy, that screwed up big time. And now we're paying the price. Like the galaxy just hit the self-destruct button one day and unleashed hell onto ourselves."
A heavy silence followed between the two, and Obi-Wan found himself speechless. Because a( this was the first time Obi-Wan had heard Nathan Fox say something not only dead serious, but something that took deep thought and analyzing and with a deathly grave note; and b( because, somehow, those words made sense. So he was speechless, and when he finally spoke, all he could manage was a lousy, "Anakin's not psychic."
A huffed laugh. "Yeah, agree to disagree. The kid's got a sixth sense, Master Jedi. You just don't want to see it. What's the problem? Jealous?"
Aaaand the jackass was back.
The shrill shriek from the Force came sudden and without warning, nearly splitting Obi-Wan's head in two as the Jedi Master gasped and dropped his weapon in shock. All eyes were on him, and when he stumbled around to find Jason, he noticed the other Jedi too was doubled over, gaping. "I felt it too," the redhead 30-year-old managed to choke out, and Obi-Wan nodded, wincing. "What in the galaxy is that…?"
Just then, the building shook as an explosion, extremely nearby, sent flames and smoke flying up at the nearby glass windows.
Derek and Lynn charged to the pane, Lynn giving off a mere, "Holy crap!" as Derek cursed beneath his breath. "There's people down there!" the officer exclaimed, squinting in the hot sunlight that hindered his vision. "People and a damn whole lot of mutts!"
Nathan was the next one peering downward while Jason and Obi-Wan followed. It was him who recognized the blonde man in camo first down in the streets below. "Shit, guys, its Josh!"
"What?!" Derek's voice spat shocked venom as Obi-Wan pressed himself against the glass, noticing a certain lithe figure drop to the ground while Josh – yes, it was definitely Josh – ran towards him. "Anakin…" he breathed, a whisper that Derek heard immediately as he spun around and charged towards the door.
"Everyone, get down there, now!"
xXx ((Team B)) xXx
Inya Mari swore to the Force or whatever essence was out there that if she managed to escape this nightmare alive, she would never again doubt in its reality or existence. If only she were not surrounded by these awful, hideous things, she would believe the Jedi no matter how absurd the thought of the Force was. She'd believe them, and she'd believe whatever nonsense Anakin babbled about when he spoke of demons and a woman named Death and all that hubbub.
The bullets that saved her life came sudden and swiftly, just as she was cornered between a dumpster and an old salon. The five mutts around her dropped to the ground, and she noticed a black-capped man lower his pistol before turning to shoot down another group of ugly creatures. Derek. She pressed a hand to her breast, trying to re-catch her breath, as she noticed Kenobi, Jason, and the others all come pouring from the office building, guns blazing.
Adrenaline would not allow her to stay in her position, especially now that she was not cornered like some poor deer, so she bolted forward, ducking down to avoid bullets and mutts. She found Anakin and Josh tucked into a nearby alleyway, and flew towards them, finding solace in Josh's immediate, protective arm around her, his other keeping a dazed-looking Anakin steady and upright.
"Did you… d-did you s-see what… I saw…" Damn it! She couldn't even speak a single sentence.
She didn't have to. Both men nodded, Anakin's face darkening while Josh looked sick. "It wasn't really them," Josh said slowly, the soldier lowering his eyes. "It was a damn trick."
She kept near them, pressing herself between the concrete wall and Anakin. Even when the mutts screeches died out, and the bullets stopped flying, she didn't move. Neither of the three did. They heard approaching footsteps, and backed away.
Obi-Wan Kenobi appeared in the alleyway before them, his beard and hair covered in dust and grime, his face shocked and eyes wide as he stared at them. "What are you doing here?" the Jedi moved forward, shaking his head, frowning at them. "Do you have any idea what almost happen…?"
Inya wasn't aware Anakin had moved until the Knight had taken three long strides towards his mentor. And she was brought to the full face of reality when the young man pulled out his smaller hand pistol, cocked the safety off, and pointed it straight at Obi-Wan's face.
xXx
"Anakin?"
Obi-Wan didn't see the gleaming metal of the gun until it was too late. In fact, he didn't even realize Anakin was holding it until his former apprentice was pointing it straight at his face. He stopped dead in his tracks, sucking a breath as he felt all color leave his face. Anakin. Was pointing a gun. At his face. And he just now noticed Inya and Josh both had hands on their own weapons as well, though they hadn't taken them out or stepped forward. They didn't even reach out to stop Anakin from blowing his brains out.
"Anakin?" he repeated, voice slower and more wary this time as he noticed the wild look in the younger man's eyes. "Anakin, what are you doing?"
He heard noise behind him, and heard someone – most likely Lynn – choke on his own spit as the rest of them took in what was going on. He heard Nathan's breathed, "holy shit" and Ax's, "What the hell?" He didn't hear Derek say anything; most likely the man was just as shocked and dumfounded as he was.
He returned his focus to Anakin, who he could see was shaking now, a cold sweat covering the Knight's face and exposed skin. "Anakin," he tried again. "Anakin, put the gun down, it's me, Obi-Wan…"
"You're not Obi-Wan!" The cry was so violent and loud he jumped. "Get back! All of you get back now!" One finger moved towards the trigger, and that's when Derek got side by side with Obi-Wan. "Kid, cut it out! Josh why are you just standing there…?"
"Are you real?" Inya squeaked, biting her lip as her brown eyes grew wide. "A-Are you really them?"
"The hell you talking 'bout, girl?" Derek glared at them, and then as he turned to Anakin, his expression softened. "Kid, c'mon, gimme that gun, it's all over now…"
"How do I know you're really them?!" Anakin demanded, shaking his head. "How do I know it's not another trick?!"
"What trick?" Nathan called from behind. "You're the idiots that left Standards and disobeyed orders. Now you're gonna hold us at gunpoint and demand to know what trick? What the hell?!"
"Nathan, shut up!" Derek roared, and Anakin flinched as he swung the pistol towards the Yaazix-5 officer.
"Everyone needs to calm down," Jason cut in, stepping forward. "Anakin, what's going on?"
"We saw you guys before," Josh interjected, voice sounding unsure and cautious. "We came to save you guys! Because Kenobi told Anakin he needed help! And then you guys were freakin' mutts!"
Obi-Wan paled, and turned to Anakin, wide eyed. "Anakin," he whispered. "I didn't talk to you since last night."
Anakin took a step back as Josh shook his head. "No way! Inya and I saw it, you talked via Force-whatever and you needed help! We saved you, and you guys were all mutts!"
"Anakin, it was a trick." Obi-Wan was pretty much ignoring the others' conversation now. Instead, he focused on his partner, who was still holding the gun at him but looking unsure and less terrified. "Anakin, this really is me. I'm not a mutt. I'm Obi-Wan. Can't you sense it? It's me. Just me… what happened was a trick, Anakin." He kept on saying it over and over, adding a few words here and there, watching as Anakin's arms lowered more and more with each word. He made sure his mind was open for the younger man to explore, to search for proof that this was the real Obi-Wan Kenobi.
They were making real process, Anakin now pointed the gun towards Obi-Wan's toes while listening to his Master, when something caught the boy's eye. Skywalker looked up, past Obi-Wan and at a building several yards away; and his jaw dropped. His arms went completely lax at his sides by shock, and his eyes widened even more. "Holy Force…"
Everyone turned. Everyone. Guns clattered to the ground, all thoughts of the present predicament completely forgotten as swears flew through the open mouths of the soldiers. Derek blinked at the sight before him, trying to comprehend what they were looking at.
There, on top of an old apartment complex a mere two yards away, were around a dozen figures, at least half female.
Waving at them.