Chapter 1.
Cadena—
"Not fair, I was distracted!" Cadena shouts indignantly at Skyrela, who was smugly twirling her light saber around in her hand. "What would the enemy say to you then, Cadena? I don't think they'd give you another turn." Skyrela replies, laughing teasingly.
Cadena pouted and crossed her arms. "Just give me back my light saber." She says dully and Skyrela snickered once more before tossing back the lethal weapon to her fellow Padawan apprentice.
Cadena smiled to herself as she ignited the light saber, its green blade illuminating her face. "Shall we have another round? And play fair, please." She says.
Skyrela rolled her eyes and says impishly, "Oh, Cadena…what would your master say right now?" With that being said, she quickly thrust her own light saber to Cadena's side. Cadena's eyes widened, for she had not been anticipating the attack to come as quickly as it had. In a quick flash, her light saber blocked the blow and replies with the same amount of mischief, "And what would your master say, Sky? I doubt Master Kenobi would ever want to attack first."
Cadena ducked and rolled over to her side as Skyrela's blade came promptly back at her. "Lucky for you, I'm not like Master Kenobi…not yet, anyways." She says quietly. Cadena grinned and with a light, fluid motion, her light saber came down to Skyrela's forearm.
"Not so fast!" Skyrela says, smirking and with her hand extended, she allowed the Force to push Cadena into the wall of the empty training room.
Cadena stuck her tongue out indignantly at her friend as she was held steady against the wall. "Let me down!" She complains as her light saber twisted itself out of her hands. Skyrela pretended to cup a hand over her ear. "Was that a surrender I hear?" She asks lightly.
Cadena frowned and shouts, "Not fair! You're torturing me!" Skyrela smirked and says, "Your definition of torture is different from many others, Cadena." The younger girl blew out some air from her mouth, causing her dark strands of hair to flutter a bit. Skyrela, still laughing, lowered Cadena to the ground and handed her the silver cylinder of the weapon once more.
Taking it gratefully, Cadena smiles and stretches out on the floor. "Taking advantage of the peace?" Skyrela asks thoughtfully.
Cadena blinks and looks up at her friend. "Who, me? Kriff, no, I'm just relaxing myself." She said bluntly and sat up. "You know me, Sky—the word 'peace' isn't in my vocabulary."
Skyrela rolled her eyes and says, "And apparently, so are some other words."
"Hey!" Cadena says loudly, but a smile on her face showed the mocking annoyance.
The two girls burst into laughter but it was short-lived as two certain masters strolled into the room.
"Master Kenobi, Master Skywalker—what brings you here?" Cadena asked, slowly getting to her feet. "I would have thought that you two wouldn't have been back from your missions yet." Skyrela adds, confused.
It was true—or at least, as true as it was to Cadena's knowledge. Sadly, just because Cadena was officially an apprentice of Anakin Skywalker did not guarantee her the rights to join him on every single mission that was given to him. Cadena didn't exactly feel bitterness towards the Council and her master in the decisions of which missions she was allowed to attend to or not—more like it was a certain…how to put it?
A certain irritation, perhaps…yes, that was it—irritation in the Council and in her master for not placing enough trust in her skills and ability as a Jedi apprentice.
Cadena blinked and shrugged those thoughts away from her mind. Those ideals weren't supposed to be existent in her head—after all, distrust and anger lead to hate…and hate lead to suffering, as she had been told many times from Master Yoda himself.
"No, Skyrela…we didn't expect to come back so soon, either." Master Kenobi replies somewhat tiredly, pulling Cadena out of her own thoughts. "So…your mission was a success?" Cadena asked hopefully.
"In some ways…I am sure that Rex and Cody will handle the troopers just fine…after all, we have gotten the majority of the battle finished and…" Master Kenobi's voice quieted into nothing more than a murmur and with an exasperated sigh, Anakin nudged his former teacher with an elbow.
Cadena and Skyrela exchanged smirks. Seeing both of their masters in this way wasn't exactly rare.
"Ah, yes—" Master Kenobi says awkwardly, clearing his throat at Anakin's gesture towards the girls who were waiting patiently for an answer.
"We were called back to the Temple because something…suspicious had happened." Anakin says, crossing his arms. Cadena frowned and then rolled her eyes. "Master, in case you haven't noticed, something suspicious is always happening. It's wartime, for Force's sake." She says skeptically.
"Don't give me attitude, Cadena." Anakin says warningly. "There has been a murder in the slum district of Coruscant—"
"As Cadena has said, that's hardly unique." Skyrela said, crossing her arms. "Patience, Padawan." Master Kenobi says calmly. "Allow Anakin to complete his sentence."
Skyrela and Cadena both sighed in unison in response.
"As I was saying, this murder isn't a typical one—it was a murder of a Jedi Knight and will not go unnoticed by the Council." Anakin said in a hard tone. Cadena frowned. "What was so important about this particular murder?" She asked curiously. "Jedi die in the battle lines all the time."
She hadn't realized the harshness in her sentence until too late. Cadena's face paled and she winced. "I didn't mean to sound—"
"No, Cadena, you're right." Anakin said wearily, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "However, when Jedi authorities found the body, they noticed something odd—his belongings were taken out of his pockets. This murder was not accidental." Master Kenobi says in a quiet, deliberate voice.
Cadena felt a chill presently roll up her spine and she asks, "Who could murder a Jedi so easily? A regular criminal couldn't have just done it."
"Exactly." Master Kenobi says and Skyrela tilted her head to the side. "So, you're saying that we need to find out this…murderer?" She asks coldly, a hint of disgust carefully concealed in her voice.
"Yes." Master Kenobi replied. Cadena tapped her chin thoughtfully, a frown slowly etching itself onto her features but quickly slapped on a confident smile. With a small harrumphing sound, she squared her shoulders and slapped her hands together.
"What are we waiting for? Let's get going!" She says cheerfully.
•◊•
"Ugh. What do you make of this?" Skyrela asked, waving the foul odors of drink and vomit from her nose as the small group of Jedi travelled the streets of the slum district.
"Lots of unpleasant odors and dirty fingers." Cadena said in the most polite, prim voice she could possibly manage. Skyrela giggled into her palm and Master Kenobi turned to them. "Come now, you two. I would hate for another murder case to be in our hands." His tone was gentle, but there was a small hint of steel behind each and every word.
"Yes, Master Kenobi." Skyrela says obediently, rushing ahead to keep in pace with her master. Cadena let out a small sigh, remembering to breathe through her mouth as her eyes wandered the dimly lit streets of the small neighborhood of criminals, dealers, and runaways.
Covering her mouth and nose, she steered herself away from any drunkard that happened to stagger towards her way and with a silent curse under her breath, she ran to catch up with her own master. She couldn't walk into this part of Coruscant without feeling as though someone was watching her, after all.
•◊•
"This was where the Jedi was murdered." Anakin murmured quietly as the group entered a small bar. Cadena crossed her arms. "Why would a Jedi come in here of all places?" She asked incredulously.
"Same reason why he was in the slum district—maybe he wanted information." Anakin whispered back. "Information about what, exactly? It couldn't have had much to do with the Jedi Order itself—after all, we would have all known! Or, at least, the Senate would have known!" Cadena pressed on.
"Quiet, Cadena!" Skyrela suddenly hissed into her ear and with a jolt, she yanked on the cloak sleeve on her arm. "What is it?" Cadena asked as the two girls moved deeper into the bar. Suddenly, Skyrela stopped and the light in her eyes faltered. "I…I thought I saw someone…or heard someone…and…" She frowned. "What was it? I was so sure that something looked out of place…"
Cadena rolled her eyes. "Sky, remember that we're in the slum district. Everything looks out of place here." She muttered under her breath.
"No, but I was so sure! So…sure…" Skyrela's voice drifted again and Cadena didn't bother resisting the slapping of her palm against her forehead. "Honestly, now you can't complete a sentence! You know, I think you should take back what you said earlier today—you really are becoming more like Master Kenobi!" She says impatiently.
A halfhearted smile managed to appear on Skyrela's face and she finally shook her head. "Let's just go back to our masters. We probably need to stick—oh!" A small squeal escaped from her lips and in a flash, Cadena was dragged by the cloak sleeve once more.
"Sky!" Cadena cries out indignantly. "Enough of this stupid—oof!" Her breath was temporarily knocked out from her chest as she was slammed into a rather large person.
With a start, she realized that Skyrela was nowhere to be found. Cadena blinked in surprise. How odd—she had known that her friend was just next to her a minute ago…
"Sky?" Cadena asks out loud, trying to look past the man that was blocking her way. "Sky, where'd you go? Excuse me—" She tried to inch her way around the man but he blocks her view with a heavy step.
Cadena frowned. "Excuse me, I must really get—" She starts again but once more, she is blocked. Seething angrily, Cadena looked up at her opponent and says, "Would you like something, sir? I am in quite a hurry."
For a moment, the man doesn't say anything. Exasperated, Cadena turned her back to him. She would find Anakin and Obi-wan—they surely would know what to do!
Just as she was about to take her first step away from the man, his strong hand grabbed her shoulder and with a sharp jerk backwards, she was dragged away. Cadena cried out, but her mouth was quickly covered with a slightly sweaty palm.
Cadena felt her heartbeat accelerate and with a quick cry, she stomped on the man's foot and ran off into the crowd. She could hear the footsteps of the man nearing and her eyes frantically raked over the people in the bar. Where was Anakin? Where was Obi-wan?
Where were they?!
Cadena's breath came in quick, erratic beats and she finally catches sight of familiar brown haired and red haired men, standing close to the wall and talking in low tones to a man who appeared to look rather jittery and nervous.
"Ma—" Cadena didn't even get to finish her cry as she was pulled back once more. She struggled and kicked, but instead felt a small prick at the side of her neck.
She let out a low moan and thought drowsily to herself, This must all be another awful night mare…before sinking into darkness.