A/N Thank you everyone who encouraged me to keep writing this. All I can do is offer heartfelt appreciation with this quick A/N and long overdue update. It hasn't been an easy road, and I'm still unsure where everything will fit together yet but I hope that regular updates will be within reach.

Chapter Nine

Their land speeder barreled down the winding back road kicking up a brownish dust cloud. Behind them droid skiffs closed in, whining in pursuit. The dense foliage gripping the dirt road gave little room to maneuver. Blaster fire screamed past.

"Can't you make it go any faster?" Cerasi yelled into the wind pulling her shoulder length hair.

"Get down!" Obi-Wan shouted shielding Nield and Cerasi with his body.

It was by pure instinct he managed to improvise a force barrier that scattered most of the bolts. The pilot wasn't so lucky. Her body was slumped over the control sticks with a smoking hole near the shoulder blades. Not a fatal wound but potentially deadly if not treated quickly. With force enhanced speed he hauled himself over the divider pushing both control sticks to the left to avoid a rather large tree, nearly sending the craft careening into another and lost part of the nose in a shower of splinters. I almost prefer flying to this.

"Bacta patch!"

Cerasi pulled one from the side compartment and handed it to Obi-Wan who placed it gingerly on the wound.

"Echuta," Sarna muttered. "Enomani... tulfas... aldux..."

"Stay with me!" He said stabilizing the pilot with the force. Sarna, weak and losing blood, remained lying face up, rigid and immobile, her violet eyes drinking in the sky. Lightly brushing her with his force sense, Obi-Wan saw a beautiful face free of regret; her expression bearing neither anger nor any trace of hopelessness.

Her eyes were fluttering, fighting to stay conscious. More bolts riddled the land speeder.

"Nield, we need to keep her awake, if she passes out now she won't make it." Just five more clicks.

Nield gripped the pilot's hand. "What's your name? Mine's Nield."

"Sarna. That's what my family calls me." She managed, coughing up blood on Obi-Wan's sleeve. Gritting his teeth Obi-Wan bit back a curse exchanging glances with Nield. That couldn't be good.

Nield pressed on, warmth coloring his words. "I have a cousin named Sarna but she's eight."

Sarna smiled weakly and gripped his hand tighter. "Promise me something."

"Anything."

"Noé, my baby girl, give her this locket. Tell her I love her, tell her mommy will see her soon. Tell her I'll always be with her." Sarna's eyes grew distant again, her memories scattered across the stars. She was dead.

The mantra There is no death, there is the force repeated itself through Obi-Wan's mind and he paused only to say a silent prayer before maintaining course to the capital city.

"Stop the speeder Obi-Wan!" broke through his thoughts. Nield most likely.

The shock on Nield and Cerasi's face was evident to Obi-Wan. From a certain point of view it was like they were his Padawans.

"It's not right, the dead should be buried." Cerasi added.

"I agree," Obi-Wan replied calmly, "and I share in this belief, but I don't think it wise to throw our own lives away pointlessly."

"Obi-Wan, do you know who is attacking us?"

"I'm not sure," he replied, letting doubt color his words. "Whoever it is I'm sure we'll find out soon enough." He said in an effort to change the subject. Deep down however, he knew exactly who was behind this invasion. Qui-Gon's former padawan, Xanatos de Crion.

He had seen with his own eyes the aftermath of Bandomeer and the shame he felt almost slipped past his masque of serenity. He knew one day, the miner's skeletons would finish rotting; turn to dust and be blown away by wind whistling between jagged peaks that loom far above the trinium mines. All because one of their own had fallen. All because they weren't there to catch him. It was not a story for children, even for children who were raised in civil war.

And so it was, on that foggy hilltop, a chill that had nothing to do with the cold ran through Obi-Wan's stomach.

Droid battalions swarmed the east and west gates. Red blaster fire set to kill peppered its targets without mercy, without reprieve. No longer a safe haven for travelers, Zahara burned; her narrow streets a maze of death. From the north, armored assault tank fire shook the city walls. From the tallest tower to the lowest archway rose a cry of never ending struggle that echoed on all four walls.

Amidst the panicked throng, a mother held her daughter tightly. The little girl would speak but mommy wouldn't answer. The steady chant of "Mommy wake up, mommy wake up," had no effect. The little girl squeezed her mother's face, shook her by the shoulders, and hit her with Wookiee-bear, but mommy wouldn't wake up. Undeterred she ran across her favorite bridge knowing mommy was just around the bend. The noise was loud, too loud for her tiny ears. She fell down clutching Wookiee-bear and lay there to slumber.

At the heart of the city, the sacred fountain of the water dragon spewed water tainted with blood of the victims. Droids don't bleed.

This was suffering, this was chaos, this was the way of the Sith, and once again the Jedi were nowhere to be found.

Xanatos appeared without making a sound, without warning. He held himself before the Jedi padawan, tall, confident, arms crossed against his chest, the weight of his cloak an extension of a warrior's body balanced on the soft grass. A position which, as Obi-Wan knew, allowed him to attack in a fraction of a second.

Until he remembered how his own padawan had fallen, it took every ounce of control to not strike Xanatos down where he stood. Letting his anger dissipate into the Force, Obi-Wan steadily approached the Dark Jedi hair unbraided, a symbol of his defiance. "Welcome to Melida/Daan, Xanatos. It seems the arrival of your droid army removes the possibility of civilized introductions. By now you are very popular in the worst of ways."

"Hello, Kenobi. Imagine my shock to discover yet another of Qui-Gon's pathetic lifeforms. Abandon you did he?" Xanatos took to Obi-Wan's appearance like a puzzle. It was biologically impossible but the Padawan seemed older somehow. Visibly, the baby fat in the boy's cheeks had diminished, but that was to be expected. It was the way the boy's eyes seemed to penetrate past his shields and into his soul. There was just something about him, an air of intensity missing from their first meeting on Bandomeer. Well, he supposed it would have something to do with Qui-Gon Jinn. That, he understood.

"My master is in possession of my lightsaber. You seek to dishonor yourself by killing a defenseless opponent?"

Xanatos smirked as if he knew a very dirty secret and Obi-Wan tried very hard not to roll his eyes.

"Jedi brat, your master won't be coming back. You see you were a bad Jedi, you broke Qui-Gon's code. You might think the man is punishing you but really, he's already forgotten that you exist at all."

But he is coming back. Obi-Wan thought. He didn't though, I had to call Master Yoda instead, and when he did, I was a stranger to him.

Xanatos continued, as if picking up on something. "If Qui-Gon didn't leave you here to die, he would have already been back to get you, so come with me and get on board my ship. We are the same, you and I."

"No I can't, I have to stop you. I cannot let the evil you have unleashed on this planet go unchallenged. So face me."

Xanatos laughed and used the force to float a lightsaber hilt to Obi-Wan. "If you still feel the urge to challenge me then this will be your first lesson my new apprentice. Resistance is futile."

Obi-Wan said nothing, drawn to a feeling of familiarity. Taking a deep breath he released the hot pink blade. He knew this lightsaber. More specifically he recognized Siri's force signature bound to the lightsaber's core. His eyes narrowed and his feet shifted into the aggressive Ataru stance Qui-Gon would have taught him. "You'd better pray to the dark side that Siri is still alive."

Xanatos shivered, feeling the intention of those threatening words hit him like a ton of durasteel. His red blade now shone under the moonlight. "Your anger is delectable, my apprentice. Let it flow through you, let it free you."

"I am already free, Sith." Obi-Wan spat, forcing Xanatos to counter a flurry of blows that arced through the air in a whip-like motion. His movement was like the branches of a bronze cedar tree. Powerful, but unbalanced. It wasn't long before he overextended his reach and Xanatos disarmed him. Before the world went black he felt the sharp crack of a cold metal cylinder.