Chapter Nine: The Blue Shadow Virus
"Kida," Padme whispered to me, my eyes opening slowly. I became aware of my surroundings suddenly, my arms tied behind my back and my body sore from sitting on the hard ground. "Kida, are you alright?"
I cleared my throat, letting out a small cough. "Yeah, I think so. What...what happened?" I became aware of the mask still over my face, my breathing labored within it.
Padme, who was tied to the same post as myself and Representative Binks, went to answer, but was cut off.
"Ah, she awakens!" the scientist cried with glee, steepling his fingers as he moved to examine me.
"What did you do to me?" I asked through gritted teeth. While I felt relatively normal, I knew something was wrong. Something deep inside me, whether it was my own body or the force, was telling me that something terrible had happened.
"I am performing an experiment," the Faust said, holding up his spectacles to peer at me. "I infected you with a small dose of my virus. Contained to your mask, of course."
"What have you done," Padme gasped. "You've murdered her!"
"Have I?" the doctor asked rhetorically, his hands pulling my head to the side in thought. "She's been infected for over an hour, yet despite initial loss of consciousness at the potency of the dose, the specimen shows no signs of infection."
"What?" Padme breathed, shocked.
I wrenched my head to the side, pulling free of his grasp. "I guess your little virus doesn't work as well as you'd hoped, Doctor," I mocked.
He steepled his fingers with a smile. "I assure you, it does. Though I admit, I am excited to watch what my virus does to your biology. There were rumors that your kind once held certain...immunities."
"My kind?"
"What do you mean when you say 'her kind'?" Padme asked for me, her brows furrowed.
The Faust let out another strange laugh, his head thrown back. "I wonder if the process will just take longer. That would be more painful," he mused, ignoring our questions. "But I'd love to watch."
"I'm Correllian, you dinii," I spit. "My biology is human!"
He held up a single, slender finger with a smile. "Part human."
I opened my mouth to demand clarification when the entire bunker rattled, the echoes of an explosion racing down the halls. The Faust rushed to a panel as the room rumbled.
"We have a breach!" he cried, sirens sounding. "All droids to hatch number one!" I glanced at Padme, the force rippling with a familiar presence. Feisty. Strong-willed. Intelligent. Ahsoka. "Friends of yours, I assume," the doctor continued, snatching up a bio-helmet. He pulled it over his head, the air filtration systems engaging with a hiss. "They arrived quicker than I would've thought."
The bunker continued to rumble as I felt more force signatures enter the area. A noble presence. Wise. Cunning. Sarcastic. That must be Kenobi. A third familiar signature arrived that billowed strength, the force practically rippling around him as he neared the area. I'd recognize Skywalker's presence anywhere. It was hard to miss, frankly.
Ahsoka's presence drew closer. She was in the bunker. And someone flanked her. A presence I hadn't felt in months, but could recognize at the drop of a pin. Kind. Curious. Noble. Strong. Determined.
Rex.
The sounds of fighting echoed through the halls, the Faust locking down his control room and calmly pacing as he waited. The powerful presence of Skywalker approached, the jedi soon appearing behind the translucent door and cutting through it with his lightsaber. The door fell in, Skywalker immediately halting as he saw us all tied up.
"Padme!" he called, clearly panicked.
"Take another step," the doctor, clad in his bio-helmet, threatened. "And your friends die!" He pulled a lever, the pillar we were attached to electrifying. Padme and Jar Jar screamed in agony, my teeth clenching against my own yells. It wasn't like I hadn't been electrocuted before. I could handle a lot of pain, after all.
Of course, it still hurt like hell.
"Drop your weapons," the scientist demanded smugly. The clones didn't seem ready to comply.
"Wait," Skywalker stopped them, his gaze intense on our writhing figures. "Do as he says."
As the electricity stopped coursing through my body, the doctor moved about the room, leisurely storing away some of his virus as the droids lined up the clones and the jedi. "I realize I won't be able to hold you for long, Jedi," he said casually. "That is why I'm going to give you a choice."
"Fine with me," Skywalker spit. "As long as one of the options is killing you." I breathed heavily, my body sore and tiring. Was that the virus taking effect? Still, nothing could keep me from thinking how un-jedi-like Skywalker often acted.
"How about," the Faust returned, approaching the lever again. Oh boy. I braced myself as he reached for it. "Capture me, or save your friends?" He pulled the lever, the electricity sparking back to life immediately. The doctor ran from the room as Skywalker rushed forward.
The jedi dove between the droids, all of them opening fire immediately. I tried to watch as he pulled his lightsaber to him and began to destroy the droids, his soldiers jumping in to help, but my vision was beginning to blur.
Suddenly, the pain stopped, Skywalker having thrown a destroyer into the control panel. "Are you okay?" I glanced up through hazy vision to see him gently holding Padme's cheeks. His eyes were wide. Desperate. Afraid.
"Ani," Padme sighed. "How about the next time you rescue me before you kill all the battle droids."
He scrunched his nose, but was clearly amused, gently rubbing his knuckles over her cheek. "A little 'thank you' would go a long way."
"Thank you," I butt in, tilting my masked head to see him fully. "But could you get me off the pole of death now?"
Anakin severed the chains that held us with his lightsaber, helping Padme to her feet. "Grab your blasters," he said to his soldiers. "We need to find that doctor."
"Anakin, wait," Padme argued softly, touching his shoulder. "Kida…" She paused, making them both look at me, still clad in my mask. "She's been infected."
"What?" He seemed shocked. "How?"
"The mask," I answered, tapping the side. "He put the virus inside the mask. Said he was running some experiment."
"What do we do?" Padme asked. Anakin didn't look like he knew an answer that would please her, so I stepped in.
"For now, nothing," I said curtly. "I keep the mask on so no one else gets infected. We can't have this getting loose. For now, I'm okay. So we find the doctor and stop him from hurting anyone else."
"But you-sah-" Jar Jar went to argue, but I held up my hand.
"We can figure out me later. Right?" I looked at the jedi, who nodded his head with determination.
"Let's go," he said, leading us all out of the control room. Still, as we ran through the labyrinth, I could feel Padme's mix of emotions. Anger. Anguish. Fear. I pushed it away so I didn't start feeling the same way.
Skywalker's wrist comm pinged, Kenobi's voice coming through. "Anakin," he said, sounding annoyed. "I'm guessing you didn't capture the doctor."
"I'm working on it," Skywalker said, equally annoyed. "Do you have the bombs?"
"I'm working on it," Kenobi returned with sass. "Doctor Vindi has remotely activated the bombs. They're counting down!"
"That's great."
"And on top of that," the jedi master continued through the comms. "One of them seems to be missing."
"Well, it's down here somewhere. Ahsoka, we've got another situation." He glanced at me. "Send all the clones to search the facility. We've got a miss-" he stopped suddenly as we slowed, nearly running into Ahsoka and her squad...who included Rex. I kept my gaze away.
"Master?" Ahsoka asked.
Anakin continued as if nothing changed. "We've got a missing bomb and the trigger-happy mad doctor on the loose."
"Senator," I whispered. "The servant droid." Her eyes widened before turning to Anakin.
"Missing bomb?" she jumped in. "We saw Doctor Vindi give a little droid a bomb."
"An LEP servant droid," I added in from behind the senator, giving Ahsoka a nod in greeting. She seemed confused at my current facial attire, but said nothing.
"You guys split up," Anakin ordered. "Find that droid." The jedi and his men ran by us, Padme and Jar Jar staying put.
"You heard him," Ahsoka shouted to her own squad. "Let's move!" I felt Rex's gaze stay on me for a moment before he followed his commander, but I ignored him. I was going to die. Why allow myself to further the strange connection I'd felt since I first met him?
"Might as well try and find that bomb," Padme mused out loud, gesturing for us to follow. We raced in the opposite direction the others had gone, my muscles beginning to feel sluggish. I pushed it away, not wanting to let the senator know that I was beginning to feel the effects of the virus.
Jar Jar slowed ahead of me as Padme kept running, but I was grateful for it. My body was tiring quickly. An excuse to stop was nice.
"What is it, Jar Jar?" I asked as he started sniffing around and entered a room on the side. "Senator!" I called, Padme turning to see we'd stopped.
"Ooo!" Binks exclaimed excitedly. "Something smells good in here." He entered a room filled with plants and I rolled my eyes. He stopped for a snack. Of course.
Still, as if the stars always wanted me to be mocked by Jar Jar, I heard a faint ticking before feeling a spike in the force from Padme. "Hey there, little guy," she said, kneeling to see below a table. Jar Jar and I approached from behind, spying the little LEP droid crouching with the missing bomb. "How about you hand that over to me?"
It seemed to contemplate for a moment before letting out a feral-sounding yell-something I wasn't aware a droid could achieve. Padme and Jar Jar backed away, the Gungan's leaping body slamming me backwards into a table.
"He's getting away!" Padme cried, Jar Jar leaping off of me and lunging after the droid. He wrestled with it, successfully pulling it away before accidently chucking it across the room. Thankfully, Padme caught it, her face victorious. "Ahsoka," she said into her comms. "I found the last bomb."
"Stay there," came the padawan's voice. "I'll get the bomb squad."
Padme placed the bomb down on the table, watching it carefully while Jar Jar went back to looking for bugs. My knees nearly buckled as a sudden wave of nausea came over me, but I fought it away, disguising it as casually electing to lean on one of the table opposite the bomb.
By the time Ahsoka and Rex raced in with the bomb squad, my breathing was getting more difficult, my body just wanting to sit down for a second. Especially now that it was over. That I didn't have adrenaline pulsing through my veins. I didn't have to save anyone anymore.
The thought donned on me that I might not be saving anyone ever again. I was going to die. There was no cure for the virus, and while it seemed the effects were taking longer to set in on me...for whatever reason...they were definitely happening. What if Vindi had been right? Would whatever my apparently weird biology was make this even worse? It would just be longer and more painful?
Typical. As all other things in my life had been.
"You alright?" Rex asked as the bomb squad went to work, his helmet coming off. "You look pretty upset for someone who just won."
I wiped the despaired expression off my face and gave him a forced smile. "Captain," I said warmly. "It's nice to see you again. How's your shoulder?"
He gave me a small grin. "Good as new. It's also been some time, you know."
"Yeah," I breathed, looking back as the bomb ticked down. "I know." I also knew we were making small talk to mask our nerves about the last bomb.
One of the clones-one from Obi-Wan's 212th division-revealed some wires and snipped them clean, the bomb ceasing in its countdown. "There," he grunted, looking back at us with relief. "And plenty of time to spare."
The room let out a collective breath of relief, Jar Jar even going so far as to collapse. Despite my rather grim situation, I couldn't help but smile gently.
"Ahsoka, are you there?" Skywalker's voice asked through the padawan's wrist comm.
"I'm here, Master. The bomb has been deactivated. Did you find Vindi?"
"Deactivated as well." He sounded smug. "Have you seen Padme?" I rolled my eyes. They were the furthest from discreet two humans could be. Still, I couldn't help but feel warm at the genuine smile that came to the senator's face when he asked about her.
"She's right next to me," Ahsoka answered, seeming disgruntled. "I'm okay, too. Thanks for asking."
They logged off, Ahsoka going about organizing her men to the cleaning up of the illegal lab. I assumed Skywalker and Kenobi would deliver Vindi to the Republic while Padme remained to watch over the operation here.
"Kida," the senator spoke softly, approaching me. "Maybe you should go with Anakin. Coruscant hospitals may be able to-"
"Padme," I said gently, cutting her off. She seemed surprised I used her first name in front of everyone. "With all due respect, you and I both know that they don't know of any cure for this." Some of the clones' heads turned my way in shocked curiosity. I found myself glad that Rex had left with Ahsoka already. "So if it's alright with you...I'd like to stay here with you. I'll serve you for as long as I can."
"You don't have to do that," Padme said, shaking her head. She sighed sadly, looking down before gently grabbing my hands and holding them between us. "Don't you want to go and...be with family? Friends?"
I thought for a moment. I thought of my club that was basically running itself now, since I was almost consistently somewhere with the senator. I thought about Boba...who hated me for letting his father die.
"I already am," I responded, wanting to stab myself for being so sappy and emotional. But hey...I was going to die. So who cared anymore?
Padme swallowed thickly before nodding, giving my hands a final squeeze, and putting on a brave face. Ah. Maybe now I could understand how she managed to be queen of Naboo. Jar Jar approached, gently touching my shoulder in attempt to be encouraging. While I thought he was a buffoon, he was a nice buffoon, so I smiled.
"Senator," one of the bomb squad clones called from the table. "You should see this. It's one of the virus bombs." He showed it to us, revealing it to be empty.
"It looks like the chamber that holds the virus is missing," she thought aloud.
"I bet I can guess what took it," I mused, looking up at the clone.
He understood what I meant. "That droid must have taken it!"
"Sound the alarm!" Padme called. The siren erupted through the compound as the clones split off to search for the damned droid. My senses began to spike. Something was happening. And it was very very bad.
The compound rumbled, the floor shaking below my feet. The green colored alarm shifted to red, my eyebrows shooting up. "Uh oh," I voiced. "That's a virus leak."
"Seal the room!" Padme ordered, to which I immediately reacted. I raced to the panel, locking down the botany room we were alone in. Reading off a computer, I sighed in relief.
"No contamination in here, Senator," I called to her. "But you two might want to put on your hazard suits." They both nodded, donning the suits on the walls while I tried to access the rest of the lab from the panel. "It looks like Ahsoka managed to shut down the lab. Nothing got out."
"Good," Padme breathed from inside her suit before activating her comms. "Anakin, can you hear me? Anakin?"
"Padme," he responded immediately. "I'm here. Are you alright?" Jar Jar raced around the room, panicking as he tried to find his helmet.
"Yes, for the time being." I grabbed Jar Jar by the collar and shoved the helmet over his head, snapping it into place for him. "Jar Jar and I were in a safety chamber when the alarm went off. We're wearing protective suits."
"The virus is loose," Anakin sighed, though I could hear his relief. "But Ahsoka has sealed off the entire facility."
"Yes, but any remaining droids will try to break out." Padme made a good point, my eyes immediately floating to my gear that one of the clones had fetched for me. "I'll do what I can to stop them. I cannot let that virus escape."
"Be careful," Anakin pressed.
"Don't worry, Skywalker," I finally said, speaking up as I donned my pistols. "I've got her back."
I heard the jedi hum. "How are you feeling?"
"Like I was infected with a deadly virus," I joked darkly. "But I'm not one to go down easy."
He was quiet for a second before sighing. "I don't doubt it. I'll do my best to find a cure." I didn't respond as they signed off, Padme leading everyone to the door.
"Come on," she called to the us. "We're going to find Ahsoka. We'll need her help to find those droids."
The doors hissed open, blue mist pooling in around us. I followed the senator out, one pistol drawn. We rounded a corner, a few droids clanking down them in a confused line. "Hi!" I shouted, making them turn before I opened fire. It took longer than usual. "Kriff," I cursed to myself.
"Are you alright?" Padme asked, her hand touching my arm.
"Fine," I breathed, despite feeling tired and worn. "I just can't see with this damned thing." I knocked the mask with my fingers a few times before realizing a terrible truth. I sighed slowly before removing the mask, breathing in the contaminated air.
"What are you doing?" Padme gasped.
"I'm already contaminated," I said aloud. "Might as well be able to see the damned droids, so I can shoot them before I die."
Sure, the humor was grim, but it was that or sit around in despair. And it got Padme off my butt.
"Is anyone out there?" Padme said into her open comms. "Can anyone hear-"
"Senator Amidala!" Ahsoka's voice called through the channel. "We're trapped in a safe room at the end of complex B."
"We'll be right there!" Padme responded, giving me a hopeful smile, despite the sadness in her eyes whenever she looked at me. Apparently my face gave her a thought. "Are you contaminated?" she asked softly, her voice dreading the answer.
It was silent for a moment before Ahsoka responded. "I'm afraid so."
MANDO'A
Dinii - lunatic