Obi-Wan launched himself over the railing after her.
There was less than a heartbeat's time between the two of them plummeting off the platform, but Emily was already several meters below him. Obi-Wan reached out, drawing the Force to him, wrapping it around the thin limbs and fragile outline of her body; a pale glint against the smoke blackened buildings she was hurtling towards. He called her to him; gathered and pulled at the Force that lay within and around her, twisted and weaved it to his own, until she was close enough that he could reach out and draw her into his arms. Emily tensed the minute he wrapped himself around her. Panic bubbled out around him; her hands scrabbled and grasped at the billowing cloak on his back, as she pleaded "No…no!" against his shoulder. Obi-Wan cupped a hand to her head, pressed his cheek to the raised scars, all of his focus concentrated on projecting the calm stillness of sleep on to her mind. Her body loosened against him; her head slumped as she slipped under.
He hated doing it. It felt like one more thing forced on Emily against her will - but they'd both end up red smears on a dirty duracrete rooftop if he had to struggle against her while trying to safely land them. It felt like they'd been falling for hours, but in reality, only a few seconds had passed; adrenaline sharpened the senses, stretching out each moment. Obi-Wan searched for a platform or port or any flat surface he could direct them towards, but the tower was smooth, curving lines all the way down. He fixed an arm around Emily's waist, reaching for the grappling hook on his belt. If he could stop their descent, then he could focus on finding a gap or break in the façade that he could pull them into.
Obi-Wan's body snapped to a halt in the middle of the air. It was like a hand had grabbed the back of his belt and tugged. "I've got you Master!"
He turned to see his padawan half hanging out of a small gap in the buildings' wall. He was clinging to a metal column with one hand, his other stretched out towards them, trembling with the tremendous effort of keeping them suspended. Obi-Wan added his own strength to the connection, buoying them up as Anakin reeled them in, tugging his shoulders through the split panel, as the three of them collapsed in a tangle of limbs against a stained metal floor.
"Master, are you alright?" Anakin asked. He helped Obi-Wan to his knees, both of them looking down at Emily's sprawled out body. Even the dim light of the recess, couldn't disguise the full horror of what had been inflicted on her.
"What did they do to her?" Anakin whispered, his hand reaching out to gently touch one of the overlapping sections of embedded wires on her neck.
Obi-Wan pulled off his cloak, easing it around her body. "I don't know, but we're going to find out. Where's Pei?"
"Master Pelri is still with the prisoner. I was on my way back to her position, before I sensed your fall, Master."
"Raise her on your comms," Obi-Wan said, carefully tucking Emily against his chest before rising to his feet. "We need to get back to the Temple."
Anakin pulled his comlink from his belt. "Master Pelri?"
"Skywalker," Pei replied, her voice tinged with the crackle of static. "Have you located Emily?"
"We have her Pei," Obi-Wan said, weaving his way through the rust bitten walls of the building. Anakin moved ahead of him, leading them out. "It's worse than we feared. I think they've been using her for some sort of experiment."
"I know," Pei said, the sharp bite in her voice coming through the receiver. "I've broken the encryption on some of the databanks here, and I'm forwarding everything I can find on to the Archive technicians. I'm going to stay until we have all of it. The two of you should get back to the Temple. I'll comms Doctor Nema, so she'll be waiting for your arrival."
"Do you know why they did this?" Obi-Wan asked, as they ran down corridors strewn with scattered droid parts. Anakin had obviously been kept busy.
"I have an idea, but until I can decrypt the rest of this, I can't say for sure. Just get Emily back to the Temple's medical bay, and I'll be there as soon as I can." The comlink clicked off.
It took them a few minutes to find their way back to the small dock they'd initially landed on. The underside of the air-taxi was still fizzing with exposed wires from where the floor had sheared some of the casing off.
"Is it safe to fly?" Obi-Wan asked, reluctant to put Emily down in anything leaking that much smoke.
"Yeah, it'll be fine!" Anakin said, jumping into the front. With no alternative vehicles in sight, Obi-Wan climbed in the back, settling Emily down along the seats. He pressed a hand to her cheek, felt the flutter of her presence in the Force. The airship lifted, tilting for a second as it shuddered and righted itself. Obi-Wan sent a glare to the back of his padawan's head. Anakin turned around to add a wide-eyed, "…I think?"
"Just get us back to the Temple in one piece," Obi-Wan said, crouching down next to Emily as they zipped out of the tower. Anakin weaved through the jutting spires and low, broken domes that dotted the Industrial sector, but Obi-Wan wasn't paying attention to any of it. He couldn't stop staring at Emily's face, noticing every new scar and mark, the thin blue web of veins now visible under her skin. All he could think about was finding her crumpled up on that walkway, the air around her trembling with such utter despair. And when she had stood, eyes hollow, that heartbroken little smile on her face, as she said she could take care of herself. He hadn't felt anything coming from her then - it was like she was empty.
"Master," Anakin called, "we're coming in to land, but uh, you might want to hold onto something."
"What? Why?" Obi-Wan said, looking up. They were heading straight for the Temple's roof docks, gunning at a faster speed than they should be on entry. Anakin was bashing at buttons and switches on the flight control panel.
"I can't reverse the thrusters," he said, looking back with a grimace. "I'm going to have to take us in hot."
"Oh, in the name of…" Obi-Wan threw himself on top of Emily, bracing for impact as the air-taxi slammed into the ground, the screeching rip of metal on duracrete filling the air, smoke billowing up through gaps in the casing. The engine panels blared warnings as they eventually slid to a stop. He heard the sound of feet running towards them.
"Where is she?" Doctor Nema said, her voice coming from directly above him. Obi-Wan looked up to see that she'd practically climbed up onto the side panels. He moved back, revealing Emily bundled up underneath him. The Doctor took one look at her and blanched, motioning over to the healers behind her.
"Put her onto the hoverbed," she said to Obi-Wan, before slipping back to the ground. He carefully picked Emily up - she was still unconscious and limp in his arms. A lurch of worry ran through him. What if he'd gone too far? It could be dangerous, pressing on someone's mind like that. Obi-Wan had always been careful when using the Force to alter someone's consciousness - but he had been falling through the air when he did this to her. What if she didn't wake up?
Obi-Wan pulled himself from his thoughts, jumping down from the vehicle to place Emily gently on the bed. The Doctor unwrapped his cloak from around her, eyes wide as she looked over the damage it concealed. "Run ahead and prep a surgical room," she instructed to one of the healers, before activating the hoverbed. They kept up a brisk pace as Doctor Nema pulled up an array of screens and bioscans.
"Access stents placed in both the superior and inferior vena cava, and in each side of the subclavian and femoral veins. Electronic nodes implanted across peripheral and central nervous system. Some sort of electrical matrix inlaid and linked to the bodies nerve fibres. A monitoring system perhaps?"
Another screen flicked up, detailing the internal structure of the tube in Emily's stomach. It showed three lines, branching out from a front access port, into Emily's body.
"What is that?" Anakin asked.
"Crude," Doctor Nema said with a scowl, "and utterly unnecessary. My scans indicate no damage to Emily's bladder, stomach or bowels. This was probably installed to bypass the need for her physical cooperation in whatever they were doing - barbaric."
They passed through the Temple's halls, their procession catching the attention of passing Jedi, who stopped to stare at the curious group. Had it really only been a few hours ago that Obi-Wan had walked down these same halls, nothing but a vague unease prompting him into action? So many times, he had tried to dismiss those feelings. What if he had been successful? What would have happened to Emily if he had followed his training and let go of his emotions?
Obi-Wan found himself stopped by Doctor Nema's hand on his shoulder. "We're taking Emily into surgery," she said, indicating the door he had tried to follow them through. "There is nothing you can do for her at the moment. If you wish - you may watch the procedure from the observation bay."
With that, she and her team stepped inside the gleaming white operation room, Emily's little form disappearing from his sight as the doors shut and sealed behind them. Anakin put a hand on Obi-Wan's shoulder.
"She's going to be alright Master," his padawan said. Obi-Wan turned to him. Wasn't it his role as a Master, to be comforting Anakin, and not the other way around? Obi-Wan patted Anakin's shoulder in return.
"Let's go up to the observation bay. Hopefully, it won't be long until Master Pelri returns, and we might finally get some answers to what's going on here."
As it turned out, he was summoned to the Council chambers long before Pei's return. He had been meditating in one of the chairs when his comslink buzzed with the message. Obi-Wan had stopped watching the procedure shortly after the removal of the access tube in Emily's stomach. It had been a grisly business, and with no compatible bacta, Doctor Nema had to resort to more primitive methods to close over her wounds, in order to prevent infection. It was due to the possibility of causing further damage, that the operation to remove the stents and wires from Emily's skin was still ongoing. Any injury to the delicate nervous system could cause permanent impairment, which meant that Doctor Nema had to carefully extract each one. Obi-Wan swiftly left for the Council chambers, letting Anakin stay under the instructions that he communicate immediately should anything happen during the operation.
"Master Kenobi," Mace Windu said in greeting, when he entered the Council chambers via the turbolift. "We were just informing the Chancellor of your discovery."
"Master Kenobi," Chancellor Palpatine said, his holo-image, in the centre of the Council floor, revolving to face Obi-Wan. "You have my sincerest thanks for your uncovering of this travesty. That Emily was taken without our knowledge, and subjected to such horrifying treatment, is something that I promise will be investigated both by the Senate, and the Coruscant Authorities. This grave injustice will not go unpunished."
"Thank you, Chancellor," Obi-Wan said, with a bow.
"Master Pelri gave us a brief summary of the situation via her comms message to Doctor Nema. We were hoping you could provide us with a full report on your unofficial investigation," Master Mundi said.
Obi-Wan did not miss the slight reproval in the use of the word 'unofficial'. But, given that he was about to start his report with, 'I had a feeling', it was unlikely to be the last one he'd hear this afternoon. The Council did not approve of actions based on feelings, and as just about everything he'd done since dawn was based on nothing else, Obi-Wan was about to be on the receiving end of some very judgemental stares.
With a deep breath, he launched into his report, starting from the conversation with Doctor Nema on his return from the Pijal mission. He described the confusion at the Institute where Emily should have been residing. Anakin's discovery of the comms source coming from the abandoned tower in The Works. The capture of the Gran seemingly responsible for conducting the experiments. Obi-Wan paused when he came to the part of finding Emily on the tower walkway.
"Master Kenobi?" Yoda prompted.
"When I had disabled the last of the security droids," Obi-Wan continued, reluctance sitting heavy in his chest. It felt like something too personal to share, without Emily's consent. "I discovered Emily on the bridge between two sections of the tower. When I approached her - she was incredibly distraught. It was…it was as if she had lost everything. I tried to convince her to return with me, but she chose to jump instead."
"She attempted suicide?" Master Windu asked.
"Yes Master. I managed to catch her, and thanks to Anakin's impressive use of the Force, we were able to get her back inside the building safely. At which point, we returned to the Temple."
The room filled with a contemplative silence. The Chancellor was the first one to break it. He had given Obi-Wan his full attention during the report, and it was to Obi-Wan he addressed his speech.
"What a heart-breaking situation," he said, shaking his head in sympathy. "I must commend you Master Kenobi, for the great insight and compassion you have shown throughout this. A compassion, I fear, we may have lacked when considering how best to proceed with so unique an individual as Emily.
"I see now that we were wrong to have her transferred from the Temple - and not only due to this deception you have exposed. I believe, even had she arrived at the most excellent research facilities we had arranged for her, Emily may have suffered greatly by being removed from the care and considerations of Masters Kenobi and Pelri, and the medical attentions of Doctor Nema. It is my request now that Emily remain within the Jedi Temple, in the care of Master Kenobi, where she can be protected from any external machinations on her person - and perhaps with time - her physical and mental wellbeing can be repaired in the care of her new friends."
More than a few eyebrows were raised around the Council chambers at this, Obi-Wan's included. While the Chancellor was always respectful and appreciative of the Jedi's efforts, it was rare for him to be so fulsome in his praise - unless it was towards Anakin.
"I'm not so sure that would be a wise decision," Master Windu said. "The Temple is a sanctuary and place of learning for the Jedi Order. Having someone, even as a temporary guest, who is struggling with such a strong emotional upheaval as Emily is, could upset the delicate harmony we have built here."
"Surely, the strength and unity of ten thousand years of Jedi traditions, would not be undone by one emotional young woman?" the Chancellor said, his amusement apparent in his voice. "If anything, the calm and serenity of the Jedi Temple, and the discipline of its inhabitants, is more likely to imbue her with your Orders admirable serenity. If she is unable to find peace under the care of the galaxy's peacekeepers, then I fear she will not find it anywhere. At least in the Temple, we can be assured of her safety."
"Agree with you, the Council does," Master Yoda said, though the frown as he said it, showed his misgivings. "Hope we still have, that Emily's home-world we will find. Until then, within our care, held she will be."
"You have my thanks," the Chancellor said with a smile. "Please keep me informed of her recovery." The blue hologram winked out, leaving only Jedi in the room.
"Master Kenobi," Ki-Adi-Mundi said, "You and your padawan will be assigned to Emily's care, until such time as she can be returned to her home-world, or more suitable accommodation can be found for her. You are expected to continue your efforts to establish communication and to aid in her recovery from this unfortunate ordeal."
"Yes Master."
"Master Pelri will be assigned to help you in this," Mace Windu added. "Not that we'd be able to convince her otherwise."
"Thank you Master," Obi-Wan said, a rush of relief running through him. At least he would still have Pei with him on this. He bowed as he left the chambers, his mind already racing with the enormity of the task ahead. It was all very well and good to assign her to his care, but Obi-Wan remembered, vividly, Emily's reaction to him when he found her in the tower - her fear and distrust of him tainting the air. Success in his new assignment now lay in winning that trust back, and Obi-Wan had a terrible feeling that Emily would not make it easy for him.