Chapter 2
Time seemed to slow down as Lorna stared in disbelief at the clone troopers attacking her.
Traitor.
The word thudded dully in her mind, its context so unexpected that she couldn't even process it. She couldn't understand it—these men had fought beside them, their loyalty unwavering until this moment.
Adrenaline burst through her body. Her years of training took over even as her mind reeled, her lightsaber moving on instinct to deflect blaster bolts just in time.
Trilla's voice cut through the chaos, her own saber deftly diverting laser fire.
"Stand down, troopers!" she commanded.
The clones only continued their assault, blaster bolts ricocheting off the turbolift walls.
Lorna gritted her teeth, drawing on the Force to fuel her movements as her body protested from its earlier exertions. She was finally able to direct a bolt back into the trooper on her left, just as Trilla slashed the one on the right with her blue blade.
"How can this be happening?" Lorna asked, her voice wavering as she dashed towards the fallen Jedi the troopers had been assaulting.
A Padawan whose name Lorna couldn't quite recall. She checked for a pulse but found none. His eyes stared blankly at the ceiling, face frozen in an expression just as shocked as Lorna imagined hers was. She shuddered.
Trilla's hand gripped Lorna's arm, her voice urgent and strained. "We have to locate Master Junda and Master Secura."
They pushed on, moving towards the Temple entrance where the sounds of a larger battle echoed through the halls. Lorna fumbled for an explanation in her mind. There had never before been an instance of a clone becoming hostile against his allies. Their very nature as clones made such a thing impossible. Or at least it should have. Lorna forced herself to breathe deeply, shoving her speculation aside knowing she would need to focus on whatever awaited them in the Temple entrance.
A door on the left suddenly slid open just as Lorna and Trilla were running past it. They readied their lightsabers in defense but it was Master Junda who entered the hallway, closely trailed by a group of terrified younglings.
"Trilla, Lorna. Thank the Force that I found you. We must escape the Temple now," Master Junda said, gathering the younglings closer to her protectively.
"Master, why are clones attacking Jedi?" Trilla asked.
"The clones appear to have received an order to execute all Jedi," Master Junda replied, her expression grave. "They are sparing no one. It is not safe here. I will lead you away from the primary assault."
"You mean this was a calculated attack?" Lorna asked incredulously.
"Yes, Padawan. I sense the Dark Side at work here. But there is no time. Come! Quickly!" Master Junda started down the hallway in the direction Lorna and Trilla had come from, younglings in tow. Trilla followed close behind.
"Where is Master Secura?" Lorna pressed, panic rising in her voice.
"She is leading the counterattack at the Temple entrance, but… there is nothing you can do to aid her, Lorna-"
"I must help her!" Lorna interjected. "If the Jedi are mounting a defense, I should be there with her to assist."
"This is not a battle we will likely win, Padawan. Live to fight another day and come with us." Lorna's throat tightened as the meaning behind Master Junda's words sank in.
"Come on, Lorna!" Trilla implored, "Master Secura can take care of herself. We need to get the initiates to safety."
Lorna looked from Trilla to Cere, then down to the children, their eyes wide with fear. It seemed to Lorna that it was not so long ago that she had been one of those younglings, seeking refuge and guidance from her Master. But she was not a youngling any longer. She had gone to war with her Master. She would not shy from it now.
"If my Master is holding off the assault, I should be with her."
Master Junda's eyes met Lorna's pleadingly, but she relented as Lorna set her jaw with determination.
"Then may the Force be with you, Lorna," she replied.
Trilla then pulled Lorna into a tight embrace. "Find us when this is over," she said.
Her voice projected courage but as she pulled back, Lorna caught sight of tears threatening to spill over her eyelids. Lorna's chest tightened as she reluctantly released her friend's shoulders.
Though she was fighting back tears of her own, Lorna watched her friends retreat down the hallway for only a brief moment before taking off towards the Temple entrance. Her Master needed her.
She passed through a tall archway into the main hall and came to a stop when she reached the marble walkway, flanked by towering stone pillars, that bridged the entrance level. Down below, at the feet of the bronzium statues honoring ancient Masters, Lorna saw dozens of Jedi engaged with an entire legion of clone troopers.
The peaceful Temple, her refuge, now filled with the sounds of battle and the acrid smell of smoke. The sight of the temple floor, littered with the bodies of the fallen, both Jedi and clone alike, made her stomach clench.
As her eyes scanned the cavernous room, desperately seeking Master Secura, she caught sight of a flurry of lightsaber blades at the opposite end of the walkway. There, she recognized the blue lekku of her Master as she and two other Masters dueled a hooded figure wielding a blue lightsaber.
Another Jedi.
Traitor.
The accusation echoed in her mind and took on new meaning as she witnessed the blue blade slashing callously at the Jedi.
Lorna dashed closer, her heart pounding in her chest as she sought to aid her Master and the others. But as she drew nearer, a wave of pure terror washed over her, rooting her to the spot.
The hooded figure's presence was a suffocating darkness that sucked the very light from the Force around her. And then, as if sensing her approach, the figure turned, at last revealing the face of Master Anakin Skywalker.
Lorna gasped as a chilling numbness spread over her skin. She stood bewildered as she tried to reconcile the image of the legendary Jedi Knight with the malevolent force that now stood before her. Master Anakin's eyes blazed a fiendish yellow hue as he fixed her with a cruel glare. The sheer malice radiating from him was unlike anything Lorna had ever encountered, a twisted, corrupted version of the Force that made her recoil.
She tore her eyes away from Anakin's to Master Secura, who had finally spotted her. When Lorna locked eyes with her Master, a silent yet forceful order was thrust into her mind:
Flee.
But Lorna stood frozen, her instinct to fight warring with her fear of Anakin and her duty to heed her Master's command.
Anakin seized the moment of their hesitation and swung his lightsaber, effortlessly cutting down the two other Masters. The unspoken plea in Master Secura's eyes was the last Lorna saw before Anakin's blade arced towards her mentor.
The Force narrowed to a point of searing pain that did not belong to her but cleaved her spirit all the same. The fierceness of it finally propelled her into action.
Lorna turned and sprinted down the walkway back the way she'd come. She didn't dare look back, fearing that Anakin's shadow might be upon her. She slammed her palm onto the turbolift call button. Her breath came in ragged sobs as she descended into the lower levels of the Temple.
Alone in the lift, she attempted to slow her breathing and her frantically beating heart. She reached for the Force to reel in her shock and fear only to find it too murky and turbulent to soothe her. Instead, she tried to take stock of the situation.
Her Master and many others were dead. Master Skywalker was leading a massacre in the Jedi Temple in command of at least one battalion of Republic troopers. The Jedi were now regarded as traitors. She had sensed the Dark Side of the Force enveloping Anakin like a toxic cloud. Why? Had Anakin acted of his own accord or was he following someone else's orders? She could not guess.
She desperately wanted to find Master Junda and Trilla, but they were likely already out of the Temple, if they had made it all. She had no choice but to escape and avoid Republic troops until all was sorted out.
The storerooms beneath the Temple's main floors contained docking areas for receiving goods. She doubted she could find a ship to escape off-world but she may be able to slip away on one of the automated airspeeder transports that delivered shipments to the Temple.
The lift came to its stop in the main docking area for incoming materials. Lorna exited the lift and began rapidly searching the storeroom for some kind of garment other than Jedi robes. The traditional attire of the Jedi made them immediately recognizable, especially to clone troopers. Metal crates lined the storeroom walls from floor to ceiling and she began scanning the labels, but most of what was here was food.
The thought that Master Skywalker could come pursuing her down the lift at any moment filled her with dread as her eyes swept over the room frantically. Finally, she found what she needed - a row of personnel lockers against one of the walls contained a mechanic's jumpsuit.
With trembling hands, she discarded her clothes and donned the jumpsuit, tucking her lightsaber into one of its deep pockets. Her cloak she kept, pulling the hood over her head to help conceal her face.
One of the automated transports was parked near an unloading port where an ASP labor droid was offloading cargo. She made for it, taking caution to keep her steps light in case there were clones nearby. As she crept towards the transport, she heard the high-pitched whine of 74-Z speeder bikes - favored by clone patrols - as they approached the docking bay. She ducked quickly behind some shipping crates, her pulse racing as she waited for the sound of the repulsors to doppler-shift into a receding howl. She observed, almost with envy, that the ASP droid went about its programmed routine, oblivious to the dramatic events happening around it.
When she was certain the speeders had passed, she approached the controls for the automated transport. They were straightforward - all she needed to do was choose from a selection of pre-programmed destinations. Most were warehouses in the Industrial District, but one was a maintenance shop in one of the lower levels. She tapped some buttons on the controls, selecting the maintenance shop. Once she was clear of the Temple, she hoped, she could disappear into the deeper levels of Coruscant to avoid detection.
She ascended the ramp to the cargo hold and hid herself among the crates there. From a small viewport in the hold, she watched the Jedi Temple shrink as the transport exited the hold and merged with the flow of Coruscant airspeeder traffic. Tears flowed freely over her cheeks as flames billowed from several points in the Temple roof, brilliant orange against the dark, smoggy night sky. The only home she'd ever known - destroyed.
The ride to the maintenance shop was not long. The transport descended into the labyrinthine corridors between the towering buildings, pulling into the shop's docking bay. Lorna palmed her lightsaber from within her mechanic's jumpsuit pocket and stood on alert as the transport ramp descended. To her relief the shop was uninhabited with the exception of a couple more ASP droids, which began performing checks on the transport. Any organic workers must have gone home for the day at this late hour.
Safe for the moment, she began quickly working to cover her tracks. After shutting down the droids and wiping their memories, she also deleted the travel logs of the transport. Finally, she disabled the security recording system and erased any saved footage. She opened the maintenance shop door cautiously and looked out at the Coruscant street.
In Coruscant's hierarchy of city levels, she was low enough that the environment started to show signs of decline compared to the more posh upper levels. Pieces of trash floated on the artificial breezes of the ventilation shafts, graffiti decorated alleyway walls, and more than a few structures looked to be in need of repair.
This level was not as busy as the main levels above, but it was far from deserted. A few pedestrians walked quickly past the shop door without giving her so much as a second glance, faces downturned in grim determination to get to their next destination. A weathered-looking Bith merchant selling what looked to be counterfeit holotapes was grumbling to himself as he packed up the goods in his small stall.
If what she'd heard was true, it got much worse as you went lower. Refugees and vermin were the primary residents of the slums and ruins of the parts of the city that pre-dated the Republic. Devoid of real light and clean air, the seedy undercity was home to the most unsavory gangs, criminals, and bounty hunters the galaxy had to offer. There were parts of the Coruscant Underworld that even Republic troops didn't dare to venture into.
That was where she had to go.
Lorna had steeled herself and was preparing to slip through the door when an air current swept her hair over her shoulders. Her Padawan braid, a symbol of her hard-earned status as a Jedi, drifted into view, a sobering reminder of all she was about to leave behind.
She ducked back into the shop, staying out of sight of those on the street. Swallowing the lump forming in her throat, she ignited her lightsaber.
As the green blade hummed to life, her grief and loss threatened to crush her. The Jedi Temple, the only home she'd really known, was gone. She didn't know if she'd ever see Trilla or Cere again. And Master Secura… while she had fought to the death defending the Temple, Lorna had run. The guilt tore through her so strongly that she almost felt it would sever her connection to the Force.
With a deep, shuddering breath, Lorna closed her eyes and made a swift, clean cut. The braid fell to the ground, the singed end still smoking from the lightsaber's touch. She delicately picked it up and tossed it into the shop's trash compactor.
Pulling up her hood, she stepped through the doorway onto the street. She allowed herself to get swept into the throngs of Coruscanti citizens, losing herself in the shadowy depths of the Underworld.