The Way of the Mystics
by Tilt
(continued from Part 13)
Maul leaned against the crenellations of the walkway of his sanctum, peering idly down into the courtyard of his fortress. It was an iron-gray winter's day. Muddy slush and whiter untrampled snow piled several feet deep in the courtyard, steaming off the electrified hull plating of the black ship behind the force-shielded gates in the western corner. Below, half a dozen children of various ages played in the white cold under the indifferent watchful eyes of his steward and one of the female servants. Maul grimaced. Eight children he'd had so far. Two had died as infants. The rest were misshapen or mentally damaged. Once they reached puberty the girls would have their eggs removed, the boys would provide semen, and then they would be killed. Master Sidious only required the genetic material, not the actual children. Maul looked forward to getting rid of all of the worthless brats.
If all went well, if all was as he wished, Theri's child would be the heir he required.
"My Lord?" One of the female servants crept onto the walkway, almost grovelling in fear. "Lord Sidious--"
Maul nodded and uncoiled from his place. "Route the call to the sanctum."
"Yes, my lord," the servant gasped and disappeared back down the stairway as Maul paced to the north window and knelt.
"Lord Maul," Sidious said in greeting as the hologram resolved amidst a burst of static.
"Master," Maul replied softly.
Sidious watched his apprentice for a long moment, face invisible in the black cloak hood. The posture, the patient obedience laced with the waiting tension of a stalking tiger, the impassive red and black gargoyle's face, the gleaming metal of the double lightsaber in the carry-loops. No anxious asking after the Mystic whore. "I have information I wish you to memorize for an upcoming mission. It is being sent along with this transmission to your computers."
"Yes, Master," Maul replied evenly. "What shall be the mission and when shall I begin?"
"An assassination," Sidious replied. "I have Seen a possibility in the Force. To prepare for this, you will memorize the information I send you. Pay special attention to the blueprints of the hangar, power station, and melting pit room. They will be crucial."
"Yes, Master," Maul said, nodding once.
"There will be a possibility that you will encounter Jedi."
Maul nodded again, interest immediately twigged at that.
"The target of the assassination is to be the Queen of Naboo. She is a child, only fourteen. The Regent who ruled for her was recently assassinated." Sidious' voice dropped, the transmission shifting down into the bass ranges for a moment. "Killed in a very distinctive way, with a lightsaber."
Maul did not even blink.
Sidious was silent for several seconds, searching for reaction in his student and found none. Maul remained respectfully kneeling, silent and still as a watching cobra. Without close proximity to his student Sidious could glean no telepathic sense of what might be in Maul's mind. Therefore -- "Return to Coruscant immediately."
Maul nodded again. "Yes, Master. I shall leave within the hour."
Another three second glare, and the transmission terminated.
"Mistress Yaddle made a serious mistake here," Theri muttered darkly, staring up at the indicator dots over the classroom door.
Kylan snorted beside her and resettled his satchel-strap on his shoulder. [No she didn't, silly. You've just got stage fright.]
Theri turned at this to look at her family. Kee smiled down into her eyes and she felt the warm snuggling of his thoughts as he Sent his love and reassurance. Ben's grin was teasing and his hand squeezed hers in silent reassurance. Tas and Rhyon were smiling and Kylan was giving her a challenging look.
"There's probably no one here anyway," Theri said as she turned back to face the door.
The door opened at her touch and she was momentarily at a loss at the sight.
There were dozens of people in the small holotheater. Mostly apprentices from children to those almost ready to be confirmed. That didn't bother her. But there were at least a dozen Knights. Worse, Qualara, Mundi, and Depa Billaba smiled at her from the third row. Depa even gave Theri a teasing wink as Ben and Kylan caught both her hands and tugged in an unsubtle hint, Kee just behind her preventing her escape.
Theri gulped and looked down at the table at the front of the room beside the small holoprojector as Ben and Kylan all but pushed her up onto the low dais. Ben gave her hand another squeeze and tossed his braid back as he hopped down off the dais to rejoin Kee who was pulling his cloak around him as he sank down into a chair in the first row. Kylan stayed with her as he opened his satchel and began pulling out items. The Sra Yandra, Theri's cherished Mystic spiral disk, the graphicsdisks containing the holographic symbols for the Tandava and other symbols Inda had directed them to. The filedisks containing the Mystic teachings and several Jedi teachings Theri had found in the Archives. The graphicsdisk that now contained the holo message Inda had sent home to Yoda over five hundred years ago.
Theri swallowed amidst her nervousness and her fingers went to the cold duralanium of the Mystic spiral disk, remembering other times and places. "Theriyah. You must go. It is the only way. I will not have you hunted by the Demon Maul as I have been. You are the last of our people. You must survive so that the teachings survive," her Master had said, almost his last words to her. "I knew from the moment my first student, Jyp, came to me and asked me to teach him my Way, that there was no going back. He begged me to teach him. I didn't want to. But the Force brought him to me, and I couldn't say no. I used to feel like I was being driven around like a droid on remote control, that the Force was using me. Then I realized, yes, it *was* using me. And that was all I'd ever wanted, to be the vessel for the Force." Grief choked her momentarily as she remembered Inda that day, those words.
No. She had the will of the Force to teach what she knew. More, now she had so much more reason than that. She had loved Inda. She had loved her Master.
She straightened, closed her eyes, and relaxed her control, let the spiral take her soul and sweep it up into the whirling dance, that joyous tide that moved her as much as she directed it, perfect harmony, the endless spinning of the universe from matter to energy and back again.
"Hello, everyone, I'm Mistress Theri bel Kaitryn. I assume you're all here for the Rodian Cooking class?"
Laughter and smiles.
"This is one of my apprentices, Kylan Hellstorm, he'll be helping me teach this class. Some of you may have taken Sociology or Cultural Anthro from him over the years. We'll be using the Book of the Force as our primary text for this class along with several Jedi teachings I've found in the Archives. I've also included many other Mystic teachings in the file plus some Soritsu-ji philosophical writings that parallel both Jedi and Mystic teachings. Now, then, does anyone have any questions to make a start?"
Three and a half months later.
Theri hauled on her cloak as she all but flew out the door of the meditation room on the first floor of the Temple, Kylan only a step behind her. "Damn, Kyl, we lost track of time again. Hope we're not late."
"I'm surprised Tas and Rhyon didn't come looking for us," Kylan said as he swung his satchel and her book bag up onto his shoulder. "Hey, slow down, Ther!"
Theri gulped and nodded, remembering the Healer's words. Her usual energy had returned some few weeks since but she had to keep reminding herself not to go tearing around the Temple the way she had before her pregnancy. The growing bulge in her middle was a constant reminder that she must keep herself centered and balanced both emotionally and physically. More and more she was aware of the life growing within her own. More and more the meditations she did on set subjects centered on the different aspects of this life she was creating. At least now she was starting to see it as something she wanted and not as some alien thing that had invaded her body.
Of course Kee and Ben's ever-increasing curiosity and anticipation helped in that regard. If she was still ambivalent they were anything but. They teased her constantly with loony discussions on names, going through every outlandish permutation of "Qui-Gon Jinn" and "Obi-Wan Kenobi" they could think of. Then she happened to ask them what they would do if the child happened to be a girl, and that started a whole round of wildly improbable verbal twistings.
Still unspoken but never far away was the shadowed possibility that the child was Maul's.
Neither Ben nor Kee had yet asked her to allow Healer Danya to do the tests which would confirm who the biological father was.
Often spoken, every night she lay in their arms and every morning when she awoke there, was the promise and reality of their love for her and for the child that would be. One or both of her lifemates was at her side nearly constantly, and when they could not be Kylan and Tas and Rhyon were there.
She was never alone.
She and Kylan were halfway across the vast open space of the first floor, just skirting through a crowd of Arvalians who were here for the religious exchange conference, when she felt Ben's presence as he got off the lift somewhere in front of her.
[We're on our way, beloved,] she Sent to him, knowing he couldn't yet answer as she was outside his range but he'd hear her easily. [We lost track of time.]
She saw Ben nod in answer as he appeared at the bend of the corridor far ahead, outlined in the bright early summer sunlight flaring off his white uniform tunic and the gold of his tailbraid. One day soon, she hoped, they could relax the tight control they held over themselves and let the lifebond happen. They were still waiting, watching, she and Kee both determined that Ben would not rush into this. But it got harder and harder every day to resist that final bonding that they all wanted so very much.
There should be more, part of her kept insisting. They were so close now to the final bond that sometimes she could all but feel Ben's conscious presence in her thoughts. So close. It felt like she was reaching for something just out of reach, just being able to brush her fingers on it. It was worst when they made love. Having to deliberately and savagely wrench mind and soul back from touching too deeply gave both her and Kee headaches from the psychic strain. Oh well. Another couple months and all she'd be capable of doing was watching Kee and Ben.
And a frustrating thought that was already.
"Come on, take the back corridor lifts," Ben said as they rushed up to him. He caught her hand and brought it up to kiss it with a smile down at her. "Didn't you hear Kee call you to go up to class?"
[Oops,] Kee Sent meekly. [I forgot.]
[Shame on you,] Ben Sent with a laugh through Theri's touch.
[What are we doing today, Kyl?] Theri asked as they got off the lift on the second floor.
[The tree of life, the fifth point,] Kylan answered hurriedly as they paused just outside the door of the classroom to straighten cloaks and hair into some sort of order.
Ben kissed her quickly. [I have to go back up to the training level. Qualara's having me mind the third-levels today. I'll be back to get you after class though.]
[I love you,] she Sent swiftly as he gave her hands a squeeze and turned to go.
[I love you too. Be good!]
[Ha!] she Sent teasingly. [Aren't I always?]
The knowing grin he tossed her was answer enough.
"Mistress Kaitryn, may we have a word with you?"
Theri looked up from the stack of filedisks she was arranging two hours later as her class emptied, conversation already a buzz of sound. She handed Kylan the filedisks silently. "Yes, Master Mundi? How may I serve?"
"The Council wishes to speak with you tomorrow morning." The liquid crystal blue of Mundi's eyes seemed see through clear into her soul. "Fifteen minutes after second bell. Similar summons are being sent to Master Jinn and Jedi Kenobi."
"For what purpose does the Council require our presence?" Theri asked formally. The formal words gave her some slight satisfaction as they were ever so slightly challenging without being an insult.
Mundi's cold eyes flickered over her, and Theri had to keep herself from flinching at the appraisal. It was quite obvious now that she was pregnant. "The purpose of our summons will be spoken of in the Council. Present yourselves at fifteen minutes after second bell."
Theri bristled a little at this but nodded and gave the Council member a brief bow of acknowledgement. Mundi's answering nod was very small and he turned to go. Ben squeezed inside the door around him as the Councilor left without a word to him, watched him go with some puzzlement before turning back to smile ruefully up at Theri.
"What was that all about?" he asked as she shrugged into her cloak. His eyes were full of smiles as he came to her and straightened her cloak around her shoulders and gave her a gentle kiss.
"You haven't been summoned by the Council yet?" she asked, leaning against him for a moment before he began pulling her toward the door.
"No."
"Hmm. Guess I was the first then." [Beloved? Have you gotten a summons for us to appear at the Council tomorrow morning?] she Sent, reaching for Kee's mind across the miles. He was at the Senate today.
[A summons to Council? No, not yet,] came the faint reply. She felt his puzzlement and distraction, caught vague mumbles of spoken conversation and numbers. [What do they want?]
[They want you, me, and Ben, tomorrow fifteen minutes after second bell. Mundi wouldn't say why.]
A distracted pause from Kee then as he tried to deal with two things at once and Theri decided they could figure it out later. [Go, beloved, deal with those damned Federation toads. We'll talk about it tonight.]
[Agreed.] A warm snuggle of farewell and his attention turned away.
She looked up into Ben's thoughtful eyes and could sense his thoughts sifting through possible explanations. "Don't worry about it now, love. We've other things to do. It's lunch time."
Ben chuckled at that. "Tell you what, then, you find Tas and Rhyon and have them meet me at the lunchroom. You and Kylan go on out to the walkway and the kids and I will bring lunch."
"A good idea," Theri answered. "Uhm, can you get some of those sweetcheese pastries too?"
Ben snorted at her sheepish look and gave her a small push down the hallway toward the lifts.
Depa Billaba stood waiting for the three the next morning at the door of the Council chamber, giving a sunny smile to the three as they came from the lifts. To anyone else there was no outward signs of a lifebond between the Jedi Master and the Mystic, but Depa had her own lifebond and a lifetime of Jedi training that illuminated the signs. The way the two walked in step without thought, the way they seemed to speak without words or Sending constantly, almost a running conversation with body language. It was something the two could control or eliminate if they wished, they were both well aware of it. When there was no need for that level of control the bond between them was a whole level of communication and sharing that only another lifebonded person could detect.
And then there was Kenobi, and at this Depa was somewhat puzzled.
Jedi Kenobi walked on Theri's other side, all three holding hands. To Depa's eyes, there was *something* there between Kenobi and the other two. It wasn't a lifebond nor the slight bonding of Master Jinn to his former apprentice. There were only hints there, only the occassional note or two chiming with the harmony the other two enjoyed. A faint, erratic, unskilled counterpoint to their harmony.
Kee and Theri traded nervous swift thought-touches as they saw Depa's face change to puzzlement as they approached. Then the feel of a Sending passing by them, and Depa's face cleared again to smile in welcome.
[I have the feeling she just consulted with Healer Ghanivo,] Kee Sent swiftly to his mates. [Ben, you'd better shield.]
[Right,] Ben answered and the other two winced inwardly as the growing sense of Ben's presence in their minds and souls dwindled back to normal levels.
Depa put her hand to the door panel as they approached and led the three inside.
It was almost a full Council session. Koon had been given the command of the Justice as had long been planned and so was not present. Master Rancisis had gone with him to command a force of Republic troops led by Jedi in dealing with the remnants of Darth Niharn's armies gathered on various planets far on the Rim. Master Koth glowered from his place beside Depa, watching coldly as the two Jedi and the Mystic took their places in the center of the mosaic circle in the circle of bright sunlight from the skylight above. All three bowed to Master Yoda silently.
Yoda watched the three before him with a great deal of interest, a playful smile wreathing the wrinkled green face, his ears lifted alertly, his eyes wide. "Know you, do you, why you have been summoned?"
"No, my Master," Kee answered quietly. "Master Mundi did not see fit to inform us."
Yoda shot a glance at Mundi at this and humphed slightly. "Master Healer Danya, says she does, that all goes well with the little one growing in your lifemate."
Theri's lips twitched at this, but she managed not to grin and roll her eyes.
"Yes, my Master," Kee confirmed. "Theriyah and the child that is to be are both healthy and strong."
[Yeah, now that I can hold onto my breakfast without barfing half an hour later,] Theri Sent flippantly, openly. Several of the Council reacted with raised eyebrows and amused glances.
Yoda chuckled at this.
"Healer Danya also informs us of the due date," Windu said quietly, his face and voice expressionless in his "Council face" mode.
"And the conception date corresponds to the kidnapping incident with Darth Maul," Koth almost snarled behind them.
Kee, Theri and Ben all stiffened at this and the three turned to face the Zabrakan Jedi Master.
Kee stepped around in front of Theri and faced Koth directly, his eyes boring into the other's with equal intensity but none of the negativity that should have answered Koth's anger. "Koth, what happened between you and me years ago has no bearing on what happens here and now. Don't let your dislike of me color your objectivity or you will not be of use to the Council or the Jedi." He swept his gaze around at the other Councilors and then turned back to Yoda. "But, yes, my Master, the conception date does correspond to the dates when Darth Maul kidnapped Theriyah."
[Why did Healer Danya have to tell them when I was due?] Theri Sent narrowly to Kee and Ben.
[Standard procedure with all pregnant Jedi,] Kee answered quickly. [Since the children of Jedi usually turn out to be Force-talented, and there's the health of the mother to consider as well. Danya probably informed them the day she told us.]
They both felt Ben bristle at this. [And they've only now realized that it could be Maul?]
[Well, they *have* been busy,] Kee Sent in a deadpan mindvoice.
Yoda gave all three a raised eyebrow. [Backchat, children. Distraction, it is. Pay attention.]
Kee Sent a swift acknowledgment and all three focussed on the matter at hand again.
"Who is the father of the child?" Windu asked, pinning Kee with a steely glare.
Which Kee returned. He held out a hand and Ben automatically took it, stepping forward with him. "Obi-Wan and I will be the only fathers our child will ever know."
Windu raised an eyebrow at his old friend and the younger man who had been as much his apprentice as Torin. He was well aware that Ben had asked to lifemate with Kee and Theri, Ben's shields were simply not up to the task of containing such strong emotions and Windu had more than once to remind him to tone it down in the last few months. For some inexplicable reason Ben had not completed the lifebond with the other two yet. Windu wondered if it was because Ben was not strong enough as a telepath to form a lifebond. "Who is the biological father of the child then?"
Ben and Kee traded a nervous look. "We do not know yet."
Theri pushed in between the two and tucked her hands into theirs. "I have not yet requested that Healer Danya perform the neccessary tests to determine who my child's true-father is. I see little point in it. I will not abort this child if Darth Maul is the father. Many times on my homeworld the Master clansmen would leave Slave clan women pregnant, and many more times there were children that came as the result of a one night tumble. All are loved and cared for no matter who the father is." She shrugged delicately. "What matters to me is that my child will grow up healthy and strong and free, with a Jedi Master and a Knight for fathers. If this child is Maul's I doubt he would even wish to know of this child's existence."
"Considering your abilities and the years he has spent trying to acquire you, this is highly unlikely," Mundi said. "Republic law provides certain rights to the biological father of any child. Maul could demand visitation rights or even full custody of the child."
"Which no court in the Republic would grant him," Adi Gallia added as Depa snorted a laugh. "Given a choice of homes between a known murderer and criminal and two Jedi and a Mystic, which would you choose?"
"Nevertheless, we must know the child's biological father," Koth said coldly behind them. "Have Danya run those tests."
Theri stiffened and Kee felt the iron-walled shields drop over her thoughts, felt the icy cold of her anger begin to wash through their bond. He glanced up and saw Yoda shift uneasily in his chair, saw Mundi raise an eyebrow inquiringly, saw Windu's immediate interest and worry.
Theri turned around slowly to Koth again, faced him directly, staring into the red eyes of the Zabrakan, the narrow face and hidden triumphant glee. And knew this for the test it was.
The murderous anger was swept away in an instant, the calm of the Force bringing amusement at the recognition of the test. Well, the thoughts wouldn't be any different but the tone and the motivation behind them had changed. A polite smile that bordered on the saccharine as she bowed with Jedi correctness to the Zabrakan Master. "Whatever you and Darth Maul may believe, Master Koth, my body is still my own and I still have some say in what is done to it and when. Do not presume to order my compliance on this matter. It shall *not* be given. When I wish to know the true-father of my child, I shall know." Until then, keep your damned nose out of our lives, she wanted to add. But she would not be caught in the trap of anger this time.
Kee caught her hand in the folds of her cloak. [Well done, beloved.]
Ben's hand fumbled for hers as well and she felt him squeeze once, felt his amusement and approval.
"Why do you fear this knowledge?" Master Piell said quietly.
Theri turned slightly to face the diminutive Jedi Master. "I do not fear it, Master Piell. I simply do not need to know. The child exists. The past cannot be changed and as I have said I have no intention of aborting this child no matter who the father is." She turned to Yoda then with a slight smile as she looked into the ancient one's eyes. "The past isn't important save that it brought us to the present. We need to look to the future, not wallow in petty details and squabbling over inconsequentials. There are far more serious matters the Jedi Council needs to attend to." Her eyes went distant for a moment, and she seemed to age ten years in a heartbeat. Kee's hands immediately went to her shoulders. "Jedi and Mystic need to find a common ground if we're to survive what's to come."
The Force rippled through every member of the Council present at her words, the echoing chime of harmony confirming what she said.
Yoda's ears dropped for a moment as he took in her words and the ripple of the Force, gave a long sigh and sank back in his chair, looking away from her. There was silence in the Council for several heartbeats, all of them caught in the odd moment of prescience that swept through the chamber. No one on the Council had yet spoken openly of what many of them sensed coming in the future: a war that would decimate the Jedi and engulf the entire Republic in chaos, death and Darkness. The signs many had Seen were still vague but alarming. The long years of bloody, desperate conflict loomed in the future like a hurricane just beyond the horizon, impinging on the psychic senses with irresistable force while remaining unseen in the physical world.
My child will never know the Republic as it is now, Theri thought with a wistful sadness. By the time he or she is old enough to comprehend it there will be precious little that remains. She had a flash of vision then, the holomap of the galaxy down in Operations, a slow tide of darkness eating through the spiral of the galaxy, the sparks of light that were the worlds of the Republic darkening as each fell to the inevitable conclusion of the conquerer.
[We will survive,] Kee Sent softly.
Theri didn't answer him. She wasn't so sure.
"Upon every gift that cometh from the Force the Dark Side layeth its curse."
Theri came out of the peace of the Force with that phrase from the Book of the Force bare in her thoughts as if Inda himself had said them just that moment, that she'd see that much-loved blue glowing form sitting beside her as he often had in the silent equilibrium of meditation.
Six months he'd been gone now. Truly gone. Yet his words and his memory would live forever within her. What was forever anyway but the span of a life? When you were dead or gone into the Force you ceased to be aware of time, so "forever" was the exact span of your life. She still had to swallow back tears whenever she thought of him.
Then she realized what had brought her out of her meditation and chuckled.
The baby within her, only two weeks from birth if all went according to plan, had begun what Kee and Ben called "the morning katas." She'd gotten to the point where the sensation of something twisting and tumbling inside her body didn't alarm her, but it was still a peculiar feeling. The first few times the baby had begun his odd little routine of rolling over, turning upside down, turning right side up, and twisting sideways Kee had felt the whole thing with amazing clarity and intensity. It had jerked him awake with a yelp of surprise and he and Ben had both dived out of bed with lightsabers ablaze, convinced some alien had crawled in bed with them. Theri had wakened everyone else up with her hysterical laughter.
Ever since then, the baby's growing awareness had drawn her lifemates like a magnet. There were moments when she felt sure they'd rather talk to the baby than to her. Still, she too was under this child's spell already, even if she did feel like a waddling koruada whale.
Sinking her awareness down to brush lightly on the active, wiggling, tumbling life within her, she sensed the timeless, formless joy of the wakened thoughts, grunted as something (probably a foot) hit her sharply from the inside. She drew herself into the spiral of the Force and let her mind drift on the tide of it for a moment, Sent gentle tendrils of thought to the unformed nebulous restlessness of her child and drew him along with her to touch the Force. She felt the baby's thoughts relax, drawn into the fascination of the spiral, drawn into the soothing thoughts and love of his mother's touch.
[Awake again?] Kee Sent softly as he came into the meditation room behind her. Theri had not been inclined much to leave the apartment in the last few days and spent most of her time in the small meditation room there, letting the discomforts of the last days of her pregnancy go into the Force, resting, twining her thoughts and emotions into those of her child and her lifemate.
Always there had been harmony and love between them. Now there was a future that would be product and continuance of that harmony.
Kee came up behind her, knelt and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her cloak around her as he caressed the huge awkward lump of her belly, chuckling at the bumps that appeared in the tautness in answer to his soft mindtouch. [Training him already, dearheart? He's a bit young for Soritsu-ji, isn't he?]
Theri smiled and leaned back against him, feeling the prickle of his beard on her neck as he kissed her under her ear. [Oh, and here I thought you and Ben were giving him saber katas already.]
[Hmm. It wasn't me.] Theri could feel the mischievous smile against her neck. [Where Ben's concerned, I've had other thoughts of late.]
Theri snorted. [I noticed.] The gentle warm hands moved to rub her shoulders and she let her head loll as the strength in those wonderful hands dug into the muscles that had tensed unconsciously in her meditation. She let the burn of the tension go, letting her mind go blank as well for a moment. Then, [Are you glad it's worked out this way?]
Kee's arms went around her again and held her close, leaning back a little so she'd lean her weight on him. It was a long moment before he answered and she could sense he was trying to find the right words. [I never dreamed there could ever be such love and trust between three people on this side of life,] Kee finally Sent. [I have felt loved before, I have felt love between others, I have had you for almost two years now, I had Ben as my apprentice for twelve years...but I never knew there could be such...] His mindvoice trailed off but Theri caught the wash of emotions in his mind.
[And to think we haven't gotten around to completing the lifebond with Ben yet. We're feeling all this *now* and he's not even truly a part of us yet,] Theri Sent wistfully.
[By the Force, *that* will change!] Kee Sent with a snap in his mindvoice. [I honestly don't know why we've waited this long.]
[Because we agreed it would be six months,] she answered. [Good, bad or indifferent, we all agreed we'd give it six months before we finished the bonding.] She squeezed the big hands now smothing down the layers of linen and silk of the long loose dress she wore. [Help me up? I'm hungry.]
A chuckle and she felt him rock back on his heels and stand in one smooth motion, then he was Lifting her gently to her feet again. She winced a little as her feet touched the floor; the minor aches of her joints, the swollen ankles, the sort of shaky unsteady feeling that had been gradually creeping up on her. She was so glad it would all be over soon.
She settled into a chair in the dining area of the kitchen as Kee rummaged around in the cooler.
"Do I need to ask what you'd like for lunch or should I just bring you the whole box of pastries?" Kee said with a mischievous smile.
Her mouth started watering at the thought of sweetcheese pastries. Sure, she'd had four for breakfast but that was three hours ago. "Uh, no, beloved, two pastries only and maybe some of that sholgha stuff Kylan made last night." She rolled her eyes at his amused and knowing look. "Well, I have to eat *something* besides sweetcheese pastries..."
"Very true," he agreed as he put the leftovers into the warmer. "Here, just leave some room for the sholgha," he said, putting the box of pastries on the table in front of her with a huge glass of tsala juice.
"You really do love me," she said with a happy sigh as she started in on her first pastry.
"With every thought I'll ever have," he answered with a kiss on her temple as he passed by her to the doorway of the kitchen. "I hear Ben."
"Hmm?" she asked around a mouthfull of sweetcheese. [Ben?]
The agitation and tense worry in Ben's thoughts brought them both to their feet as they felt him get off the lifts and start across the terrace outside, then heard the front door open and close. And suddenly Ben was there, his face so bad-news blank they dared not even peek to see what was wrong.
"Kee?" Ben said as Kee and Theri rushed to him, arms folding about him automatically. Ben hugged them back for a long hungry moment, and kissed them both before he continued. "Master, there's been news. From Queen Amidala. The Trade Federation has begun a full blockade of Naboo. Senator Antilles' motion failed in the Senate this morning and the Federation is insisting this blockade of Naboo is legal." He leaned his forehead against Kee's for a moment, drawing a deep breath. Kee and Theri could both feel how upset he was. "The Lady--Queen Amidala--well, you know how she is, she could out-stoic Master Windu when he's in Council mode. But I could see it in her eyes. She's scared, Kee."
They held each other for a long silent moment. A moment broken by the quiet chirp of the comscreen. Kee turned and moved to acknowledge the comm request. "Accept request," he said toward the screen and it brightened to life to show Yoda.
"Master?" Kee asked, nodding.
"To Operations you will come," Yoda said, "Obi-Wan as well. Needed you are."
"We're on our way, Master," Kee replied, turned as the comscreen went blank.
[Go, I'll be all right,] Theri chided gently, kissed Ben and then Kee for a long moment. [The kids will be back from Political Science class in a few minutes. I'll be sitting here stuffing my face till then. Go. You're needed.]
Trapped briefly within the safe haven of their arms around her, she let her love for them both wash over the two Jedi in a snuggling, loving wave. Then they were moving toward the door, taking their cloaks from the hooks in the entryway as they did so.
Theri watched them go, feeling her son twisting within her in response to her agitated thoughts. Absently she Sent a caress to the baby, soothing the slight distress she had inadvertantly caused. That feeling of dread she'd had on and off for the last couple of months thrummed through her briefly and she automatically separated the prescience from the baby.
Something was very, very wrong.
Two hours later, Theri felt Kee returning home, felt the tense anticipation and lightning swiftness of his thoughts as he reviewed his orders in his mind distractedly.
[Beloved?] Kee Sent as she felt him descending in the lift. [I need to ask you a favor.]
[Anything. No need even to ask.]
The front door of the apartment opened and Kee was there, hurriedly swinging his cloak off and tossing it onto the sofa in the main room of the apartment. Theri levered herself off Inda's meditation bench and he met her at the door, urging her out onto the terrace by the waterfall.
It was early fall again on Coruscant now, the weather-controlled heat of summer just now giving way to deliciously cool nights. Not yet cool during the day, still quite warm and sunny, cloudless skies filled with the constant hum of ship traffic. Here in the Temple the air was always filled with the thickness of flower scents save only in the depths of winter. Rhyon's water lillies were well established now, floating on the surface of the small contemplation pool, nibbled on by the darting koi fish and the odd six-limbed waterwalkers that Kylan had bought at some pet store at the Galleria.
Kee pulled her over to sit on the edge of the contemplation pool, sat down next to her to pull her close as they watched one of the waterwalkers pick it's way across the bottom of the pool, grabbing bits of flower petals and water lily roots with nibbling toe-teeth for an exploratory taste as it passed.
[I need to ask you for the loan of the DawnStorm,] Kee Sent finally. [Ben and I need to get up to the Justice and there's not another shuttle due in until tonight.] He kissed her hair softly.
Theri nodded and squeezed his hand briefly. [We'll all go, love. The kids have been asking me daily when we'll be going somewhere besides high orbit and back.] She looked out across the vast expanses of vitriglass and plascrete around her, the flittering cloudhoppers racing by the Temple. [Can you tell me more of what's going on?]
Kee sighed. [No more than what we already know. We'll have time to talk on the way up to the Justice. You'd best call the children and have Tas get the DawnStorm ready to go. We need to leave as soon as possible.] He helped her up, held her against him for a long silent moment. "Beloved, there's something....something just not right in any of this. Something out of kilter. I feel like there's something I'm not seeing here."
Theri took a deep breath and looked up into the troubled sapphire eyes, reached up to smooth a few strands of silvered hair behind his ear. "I know, I feel it too. It reminds me of the moments before a whirling storm would come up over the ocean at home on Thretketh. You could feel it coming, you could feel the pressure change in the air, but you couldn't *see* anything. Every instinct in your mind would be telling you to run or get to shelter, but all you could see were normal storm clouds before the wall of it came up over the horizon and you realized you were seeing something so huge and horrible you couldn't even find words for it." She turned her face back into the warm silk of his tunic and the strength of the solid body beneath, pressed her ear into the muscles and heard the steady pulsebeat, the comfort of their shared life grounding her. The baby within her wiggled a little and settled as he felt her emotions calm a little from the shifting uneasiness. Kee felt the restless tumbling of the baby and reached down a hand to caress her belly, Sending a soft wave of wordless love and reassurance to son and lifemate alike.
"We can only live in the moment," Kee said wistfully. "To worry about the future wastes energy needed elsewhere." He rubbed her shoulders, ran his hands through her hair. "We will do what needs to be done."
The faith and quiet strength in those words soothed the anxiety. She turned, took his hand and pulled him back inside.
The DawnStorm would take slightly longer than a Jedi shuttle to get to Droma. Tas and Rhyon had opted for a hyperdrive system that was easier to maintain, the only drawback being that it wasn't the fastest on the market. Jedi ships found themselves in need of speed and power on occassion, but Tas and Rhyon had strict orders to run at the first sight or sense of trouble. Once in hyperspace, they'd be safe.
Theri woke up from her nap to the quiet murmurs of voices in the main cabin just across the corridor. Kee's thoughts were quiet, almost meditative, but she sensed an idle sort of interest. Reaching further than the soft hum of her lifemate, she felt the convoluted quicksilver dartings of Tas' thoughts around some object she was working on, felt Ben's thoughts almost an echo as he too huddled over whatever new project Tas was building. Kylan's thoughts were a mumble of light and poetry. He was sitting in the pilot's chair reading. Rhyon was half-meditating in what Tas called his "inventing trance". Half-formed ideas floated through the young Wookie's mind, and she could all but see him leaning his head on one furry hand, his golden eyebrows twitching and his yellowish eyes staring out into the white infinity of hyperspace.
She was struck all at once by a pang of formless sorrow and dread. All of this contentment and normalcy could be ripped away with stunning abruptness at any moment. So many things could go wrong in any given moment. This family she'd somehow acquired, the happiness she'd found, was so ethereally fragile.
Somehow, she must find some sort of security and safety for her son. Somehow she must find a way to change the future so many of the Jedi knew was growing closer every day. The looming dread of it lurked just beneath the horizon of time.
[Beloved, we will do what needs to be done and we will survive,] Kee Sent softly. He'd heard the roiling muddle of her emotions and thoughts. [All else is by the will of the Force.]
[I know,] she answered and the simple truth she lived by settled into her with only comfort she could accept. [ 'All things are good and right and just.' Don't mind me, dearheart, I'm just being maudlin.]
A chuckle then. [Never that. Under the circumstances I think you have every right to be concerned. Is it just that old Thretkethan mistrust of the future or is it that premonition everyone with a touch of the gift has been feeling?]
[Both,] she answered and threw off the blanket she'd been snuggled under, trying to pull herself up out of the warm gelfoam, cursing slightly at the damned dress she wore that tangled in her legs constantly. A moment later Kee was there, helping her up with a kiss and smile in his eyes. He took her cloak from where she'd thrown it over the end of the small bunk and settled it around her shoulders.
"Space is cold and this is a small ship," he said firmly when she started to protest.
"It's not *that* cold," she grumped.
"I'm not taking the chance you'll catch something," Kee said with an admonishing tap on her forehead as she scowled up at him. [Only a couple more weeks,] he Sent soothingly as he ran his hands through her disheveled hair to try and straighten the tangles.
Theri hmphed and stomped out into the main room. Kee chuckled and followed her.
"Whatcha doing?" Theri said to her apprentice as she settled onto one of the blastchairs.
Tas looked up at her, a pair of magnifying goggles covering her eyes and reminding Theri of the hackers she'd known on Korolis. "Rhyon came up with an idea for a new kind of weapon, and I helped him design it. Ben's helping me build it!"
Theri saw Ben suppress a grin as he turned back to the jumble of parts on the worktable in front of him. He was well aware Tas had a crush on him, but he was always interested in whatever projects Tas and Rhyon came up with and was often able to help them when their own skills or knowledge of electronics were inadequate. He looked up again after a moment and nodded to the screen in front of them that currently showed a rough schematic. "Rhyon's idea is for a sort of knife-sized lightsaber that can be worn on the arm, projecting the blade from the back of the hand. He thought it might be a way to effectively fight lightsabers with Soritsu-ji. Make the activators contact switches in the palm of the hand. Clench the hand and the blade activates, let go and it retracts. With blades only twenty-five centimeters long the activation time should be nearly instantaneous. You could parry lightsabers, stab, slash, almost everything a lightsaber can do, but you could fight primarily with Soritsu-ji." He smiled over at her then teasingly. "When you're back up to speed after the baby's born, you can try it out for yourself. We should be able to get the nanos to build them once we get the design perfected."
Theri settled back in to the gelfoam and pulled her cloak around her, considering the image Ben Sent her of how the weapons might look once completed. The majority of the electronic workings would be housed in black-metal casings that fit along the forearms with adhesion straps. A thick cable would connect the electronics to small emitter assemblies on the backs of the hands. Another non-conductive adhesion strap would hold the emitter assembly firm on the hand and hold the pressure-activated contact switch in the center of the palm. When the wearer made a fist, the curled fingers would activate the switch.
"Sure, I'll try them, when you get them done," Theri said, smiling as Kee settled on the edge of her blastchair and took her hand. "We could ask Master Qualara to help us too, he'd help us modify some of the moves so we don't inadvertantly slice our own hands off or something equally stupid."
Tas rolled her eyes and snorted at this.
Kylan's call down the corridor alerted them all that they were about to come out of hyperspace then, and Tas and Rhyon got up to go back to the cockpit as Kylan came back into the main cabin. "Master Kee, will you and Ben be needing help with this mission? I could go with you."
Kee considered this for a moment. "I don't know yet, Kylan. We'll see if there's been any further news from Naboo when we get to the Justice. If it's nothing more than convincing the Federation to stop the blockade, you wouldn't be needed for that. However, I would appreciate it if you and Theri could sort through the transmissions the Justice has logged from the blockade itself. There may be some information there that we might need. Somehow I have a feeling that there's more to this blockade than simply enforcing taxation."
[And you want me to look after Theri,] Kylan Sent mischievously on a narrow line to the Jedi Master.
[Of course,] Kee answered with a quirk of a grin. "The Chancellor has assigned one of his own diplomatic cruisers to take us from the Justice to Naboo. Sort of a tacit show of support for Queen Amidala. The Federation may have a presence in the Senate but they have no right to prey on anyone this way. A reasonable profit is one thing, outright extortion another."
"Well, that's what the Jedi do, play galactic fight referee," Theri said with a sigh.
"Two minutes to reversion to sublight," Tas called down the corridor. "You guys had better strap in."
They all moved to do so, Ben reaching out with the Force to hit the button to close the blastshields over the viewports as he helped Theri to pull the webbing straps around herself.
A moment later the little Nogaran ship shuddered slightly as the endless ribbons of light in hyperspace parted and the DawnStorm swept in toward the dead planetoid Droma and the luminescent dagger-shape of the Justice.
Kee and Ben pulled the hoods of their cloaks up as the group walked down the rampway of the DawnStorm. Awaiting them at the foot of the ramp was Master Koon, the big Vaikerian wrapped in his own dark cloak and standing silent and still waiting for his friends.
[Well, Koon, enjoying your new command?] Kee Sent with a chuckle in his mindvoice.
The answering growling laugh then as the eyeshields tilted down to regard Kee and Ben. [She may not be the most powerful dreadnought in the galaxy, but the Justice and I were meant for each other from the start,] Koon answered.
[I know of no one else in the Jedi or the galaxy I would rather have in charge of her,] Kee replied with a slight smile. [What news from Naboo?]
[None official, since the Viceroy acknowledged that the Chancellor is sending someone to deal with them,] Koon Sent as Kee and Ben fell into step with him as they headed for the lifts, R2-D2 whistling brightly as he followed behind the three.
Theri stopped as they strode quickly away, knowing she'd never be able to keep up with them in her present waddling mode of walking. She turned back to her students then. Kee and Ben had their duties to see to and she had hers to her apprentices. Further down the cavernous landing bay she saw the red-painted hull of a Republic diplomatic cruiser, suspected that was the ship that would carry her lifemates to Naboo. There would be time later to say goodbye. "All right, kids, lets get the DawnStorm hooked up to the power feeds and go have a look around the Justice. Last time I was here I didn't get to see much. Kyl and I have work to do later but we've got some time to kill before we're needed."
"You'll be careful?" Theri asked two hours later, not turning to look as she felt her lifemate slip into the room behind her.
Strong arms went around her, pulled her back against the warm wall of his chest. "Of course."
Theri leaned her head back against him and closed her eyes, but the measureless expanse of the galaxy outside the viewport was only hidden, not banished. The itching sense of growing wrongness could not be ignored. Her restiveness was making the baby within her restless too and the sharp jabs of tiny kicking feet startled her at irregular intervals. She'd locked herself in this unused conference room to try and order her wayward thoughts and emotions into some sort of coherent order. It hadn't worked.
She turned in his arms, turning away from the starfield outside the viewports, closed her eyes and listened to the steady beat of his heart for long moments. Kee's hand smoothed her hair silently, a hypnotic movement through the long black strands that fell almost to her knees now. He doubted he'd ever see a single strand of gray in that hair and smiled ruefully at the thought.
"Where are the children?" Kee asked at last.
"Down in the hangar, bugging the techs," she answered with a twitch of her lips that was too feeble to be a grin. "Kylan's gone up to Communications like you asked. Where's Ben?"
"On his way here, most likely," Kee said quietly. "I told him where you were. He's making sure all the neccessary diplomatic impedimentia is secured on the Radiant."
Theri nodded against him and pulled back to look up into his eyes, reaching up to twine a lock of his hair around her fingers. She reached out to the Force and felt him do the same, felt the lifebond flood with the calming silent joy--
--a joy shattered, disjointed, by a jagged slash of Darkness that raked across their minds in a wind of cold terror.
They both gasped and nearly fell, their arms tightening instinctively around each other. It was the distressed tumbling of the baby inside her, the wordless tiny protest, that wrenched them back. With a move that was becoming instinctive they both cut off the flow of negativity and fear, walling it away from the child, drawing the fear and alarm away.
They looked into each other's eyes and knew what was to be. The Force had given them a warning. And a reason, a singular purpose, a deal made, a ransom demanded.
Time and place were converging, and what would come from it was the possibility --possibility *only* -- to avert the all-but-inevitable triumph of the Dark over the Light that was yet to be.
But that possibility must be paid for. The balance must be maintained. For the Light that would be needed to combat the Dark times ahead, a price was asked by the Force. If the Light were one day to return from the prison of the Dark, Light must give itself now to ensure what would be.
And that Light was the lives of Qui-Gon Jinn and Theriyah bel Kaitryn.
[Do you See, beloved?] Kee finally managed to Send softly.
Theri swallowed convulsively and swayed against him as her head spun dizzily. He clutched her to him and felt her wordless affirmative. Then she came back to herself and looked up into his eyes again. [You will do what must be done, beloved, and so will I. We will do what the Force asks. You to save Padme and her people, me to make sure our son won't pay the price with us.] She closed her eyes, tried to swallow down the fresh agony of a new thought. [But -- please, beloved, don't tell Ben. If you told him he'd be so devastated he wouldn't be able to go on with the mission, and that might get him killed too and get nothing accomplished. You *must* help Padme's people. More than just Naboo is at stake here in both the Federation and the larger picture. Whatever it is we're truly fighting here, the Federation is just a pawn.] She choked then and the tears started down her cheeks. [Ben -- Ben *must* go on without us. Our son --]
Kee nodded and she felt his weary sadness, the feeble broken satisfaction that maybe, just maybe, by their willing sacrifice the galaxy might one day drag itself out of the war and horror that was to come. But to do this at the inadvertant cost of his apprentice and lifemate was almost unbearably heartwrenching.
Then, shaking his head and putting up a hand to banish the tears from his face and hers, he straightened her cloak around her shoulders and kissed her gently. [Ben said it once. The Force is never wrong.]
Theri nodded, but the assurance felt empty. [When the time comes, beloved...I will go into the Force.]
Kee nodded, his face bleak and seemingly carved from stone. Then he looked up and around. [Ben's coming.]
They looked into each other's eyes one last time in honesty and acceptance of their fate before smothering all thoughts of it behind their shields. For the first time in six months, they were glad Ben would be unable to feel their thoughts.
Somehow, she wasn't certain how, she managed to send her lifemates off on the Radiant without demanding they remain on the Justice or demanding she go with them. Somehow, she had let them go. Somehow, she had kept the horrible knowledge inside, away from Ben's bright inquiring mind.
Theri let the flatbed droid carry her up the length of the hangar after she had watched the Radiant disappear around the curve of Droma and hopped off the droid as it passed by the DawnStorm. Tas and Rhyon were chatting animatedly with several off-duty techs and showing them around the DawnStorm, chattering about the hyperdrive and ion engines and the old proton cannons they'd found in the Nogaran ship. When Tas caught sight of her, the girl left off the conversation and came to her teacher.
"Mistress? You all right?" Tas asked. The bleak emerald eyes and the slow tiredness strung a note of fear through Tas' quick mind. Behind her, Rhyon noticed as well and crooned a long querelous note as he came to join them.
Theri's eyes snapped back from the empty distance she'd been focussed on. Here and now, she reminded herself. This moment only. "Sorry, kids. The Radiant just went into hyperspace. It still tugs me when Kee goes somewhere without me." She gave them both a brief hug then pushed them back toward the ship. "Go on, have fun. Just remember we'll have to leave in a few days so don't tear down the hyperdrive or the engines, all right?"
Tas' flashing grin then. "Heh. Yeah, I get the picture. We were thinking we'd like to hang around with the techs here, they see a lot of different ships and they said we could tag along and help."
"If you want, that's fine," Theri said quietly. "I'll be up in Communications with Kyl, Kee wants us to work on logging and analyzing the Federation communications net at the Naboo blockade. If you need me, give me a yell on the comlink. And meet us for dinner up in the crew galley tonight."
"Great! We'll be there!" Tas said happily and Rhyon chuffled a laugh and gave Theri a furry hug.
And she turned away, starting the slow walk to the lifts and Communications, feeling the ache of exhaustion beginning to sink into her bones. Drawing on the Force, she pushed the slowness and aching away. Whenever it happened, she must be focussed and ready. Whatever happened, she must accept.
Ben stood with Kee at the viewport in the conference room where they were to meet the Federation Viceroy and his minions, both of them silent, looking out and down at the blue-green curve of Naboo.
Something was wrong. Ben could sense it not in what Kee said to him but in what he *didn't* say, the little things, the gentle loving signs that had crept into their body language over the last six months. The quirk of a smile, the hesitation in the step so that Ben would walk at his side instead of one step behind, the absence of the slightly imposing defensiveness he'd always known in the tall Jedi Master. All these and the low thrum of love and trust that had always been there, so recently allowed greater depth. Now, nearly nothing. The very silence alone, of mind and voice, brought a small chill of apprehension.
Of course, it could just be because the Lady was in danger. Yes. That might be it. Though they'd not seen each other much over the years of Ben's apprenticeship, Prince Doran's niece had often traded holomessages and letters with the Jedi Master. Ben knew Kee cared for the new Queen of Naboo as a distant but much-loved niece.
Ben gave himself a mental kick. He knew that wasn't it.
[Master? What's wrong?] he Sent finally.
Kee startled almost imperceptibly and turned to face him, wrapped as Ben was in the warmth of his cloak. He looked down at Ben and for a moment Ben almost didn't recognize this person he'd known for almost all his life. The person he loved with all his heart. Then Kee blinked and he was Kee again and Ben was relieved to see the slight smile appear.
[Sorry, beloved. My mind was wandering. But as for your question, there is nothing wrong beyond this damnable Federation blockade on Padme's planet.] Ben felt his fierceness then, the outrage that Naboo of all planets would be under such a restraint. [But we'll soon sort it out. If I can't manage to send these Federation toads yelping back to Amyltai within a day I'll give Master Yoda my lightsaber and go home to Tatooine on the next shuttle.]
Ben grinned briefly at that. [Can I go with you? The shame of my old Master retiring in disgrace---]
A raised eyebrow, a suppressed grin, and Ben jumped as the Force nudged him in the ribs much as Kee's elbow would have done. [Impudent wretch. I see six months as my lover hasn't dulled that teasing tongue.]
[As well you should know, considering how often you're on the receiving end of that tongue,] Ben Sent in a laughing purr.
Kee rolled his eyes heavenward and conceded his defeat.
Kylan sighed explosively and sat back from the computer screen in the Communications center of the Justice, ran a hand over his face and rubbed his eyes wearily. He tossed his hair back over his shoulder, grimacing at the disordered locks. Several hours of frustration at his seeming inability to decipher the Federation encryption had resulted in the resumption of a nervous habit he'd thought he'd shed years ago, raking one hand through his hair and twisting it around his hand. He now looked decidedly less than his usual immaculate, alluring self. Damn it.
"Give it a rest, Kyl," Theri said softly beside him and he looked up at his teacher, trying to conceal fresh worry. "In the state you're in now you'd be lucky to recognize your own mother, let alone the code key."
Kylan nodded distractedly. "You don't look so good, Ther," he said tentatively.
A soft "Hmph" and a raised eyebrow in answer.
Kylan bit his lip and said nothing more, but in truth he was deeply worried. Theri had always had a tendency to overdo things, to push herself far beyond her limits. The physical demands of her pregnancy had been manageable at home at the Temple with three apprentices and two lifemates to share the burdens of her duties. But now there was something more, some worry that wouldn't let her sleep despite Kylan's repeated attempts to convince her otherwise.
"If you insist I rest then I must insist that you do too," he said finally. He gestured up and around them at the cramped confines of the Communications center, the glowing screens and holomaps on every wall and projected into the empty air over the heads of the commtechs on duty. It was well into the night cycle now and save for the glow of the screens and holos it was comfortingly dark. "This is hardly the most conducive place to rest, and Master Kee will have my hide already that I let you stay up this late."
Theri looked down, blinking a bit, with a tremulous smile. "All right then, truce. We'll both sleep now."
"Who knows? The way things work with me, I'll probably wake up in the middle of the night dreaming the code key," Kylan joked as he helped her up from her chair.
"It's already the middle of the night, love," she said softly. "But there's every possibility you might. You're better at lucid dreaming than I am."
"Ah," Kylan answered, then, "I take it that time with Master Inda was a fluke then?"
Theri snorted a laugh at that. "That was entirely his own fault. I had nothing to do with it." She stopped and swallowed back the inevitable sadness and grief at the thought of Inda. How she could use that joking wisdom now! Or even just the simple comfort of the spirit's presence. But he was gone now.
[Beloved?] she Sent softly through the lifebond. [Kylan insists I sleep now.]
[Yes. Sleep. I'm all right for the moment,] Kee Sent, his mindvoice so faint with distance. [But, beloved -- don't trance tonight.]
[Wouldn't dream of it,] she answered, grinning at the pun.
Kee's telepathic grunt at the pun warmed her, though.
[Be careful, beloved,] she Sent wistfully. [You have your fight there, and I'm about to start my own here.]
[How so?] Kee asked curiously.
[You'll see,] Theri answered. [There are sometimes advantages to living as the Force choosing to remain in form rather than as a form that can touch the Force.]
[So long as you are taking care of yourself,] Kee Sent warily.
[It's not myself who needs taking care of,] she answered as she and Kylan got on the lift and headed for the guest quarters the little group had been given. [Just don't be alarmed if you feel me in pain. Everything will be under control.]
Kee perceived what she meant then and Sent a rush of awe and regret. [Ben and I should be there.]
[But you can't be,] she Sent softly with an answering regret of her own. [This is my own battle to fight, beloved. I will not fail. Our son must survive.]
A mental caress then, and a quiet wave of acquiesence. [Do what you must. At least I will know when you succeed.]
If we live that long, Theri thought around a pang of grief.
Yoda hobbled down the hallway of the Temple heading toward his rooms from the lifts, feeling every one of his more than eight hundred years. The Darkness was coming. He could feel it in his bones. That preternatural sense he'd always had of his opposite number told him that Darth Sidious had done something to tip the balance in his own favor. A new power, a greater strength of force or Force, somehow his greatest enemy had acquired. Somehow he'd found something with which to topple the Republic.
For that, unbelivably, was what Yoda sensed in the winds of the Force. The looming unseen shadow of Darkness was creeping closer with every passing day. Anyone with even a touch of prescience felt it, felt the constriction and creeping horror. If it got worse even mutes would soon be affected and the fear of it would turn mere anger and resentment into violent rage. Chaos and anarchy would inevitably follow if the Darkness was not dispelled and rooted out. This outrageous blockade of Naboo was only a beginning.
The ancient Jedi Master reached up with his walking stick to whap the doorpanel and it opened at the accustomed abuse.
Humming to himself in agitation, he paced through the curtain of wooden beads and across the room to his nest of pillows, determined to meditate and think on these new developments, for he felt sure there was something more to the situation on Naboo than appeared on the surface.
As he settled into his pillows with a sigh, grateful the long walk was over, he saw the message light was blinking on the datapad he kept on the low table beside his nest. He retrieved the datapad and keyed for the message and his ears went up in surprise as the text scrolled onto the little screen.
"Master Yoda --
Kee and I have reason to believe that we will not survive the situation currently taking place on Naboo.
In the event that we do not, I would ask that you guide Kylan and Tas and Rhyon until they can take their Questings. All the teachings are safely in the Temple Archives and I give them into your care. The DawnStorm is currently registered to Kylan Hellstorm and Theriyah bel Kaitryn, but the registry is through the Temple. Please have someone add Taslimi Choi and Rhyonluppa of Kashyyyk to the registration. Kee asks that you see to it that our house on Tatooine is transferred to Ben. R2-D2 also is to go to Ben. I have left my lightsaber in the middle storage compartment under the bunk in the first sleeping cabin on the DawnStorm.
Tell my family that I died happy.
Kee says to tell you that he loves you and that sometimes the path of the Force is very difficult to accept, but that he trusts in what you taught him and though it may be difficult it is never in vain. He says to tell you he is not afraid.
Please see to it that our son is trained as a Jedi. I have already felt that he is telepathic and Force-talented.
His name is to be Obi-Wan Jinn bel Kaitryn. Ben insists we call him Benji for short.
Thank you for all you've done for us.
--Theri "
Kee ran ahead of the droid transport craft, his cloak flapping about him, the stampeding animals of the forest around him racing ahead and behind, the noise of the transport's hover engines almost enough to throw him off his feet from the sheer sound pressure alone. Trees cracked and fell under the transport's blunt duralanium hull, the smells of scorched wood and vegetation amidst that of sun-warmed stagnant water and faint flower scents. The transport was bearing down on him and would soon be on top of him.
Worst, he and Ben had been forced to escape from the Federation flagship by splitting up and stowing away on separate transports. He had no idea where his lifemate had landed. For all he knew, Ben could be on the other side of the planet.
Oh well. At least they'd escaped from the poison gas when the Federation toads had tried to kill them. And managed to deal with the destroyer droids. Ben's obvious showing off in dealing with the destroyers hadn't been lost on Kee. They'd have to have a talk on ego one of these days.
The stab of pain that suddenly sliced through his middle made him stumble and he nearly fell. As it was a leaping wild kaadu grazed him with one foot and he sprawled ungracefully into a patch of waterlogged moss. He was up and moving again in an instant, the roar of the approaching transport growing deafening.
Then he saw it, less than fifty meters away and barreling toward him with inexorable force, snapping trees in it's path and blasting the moss and lush grasses from the swampy forest floor. Leaping over a tangled mass of tree roots, he saw something vaguely humanoid in his path, flapping it's arms and screaming something incoherent in the mad rush of animal life and technological terror.
"Move! Get out of the way! Run!" Kee yelled at the thing, but the odd amphibious creature seemed rooted to the ground in fear. Then he had no time to think as the droid transport overtook him and he tackled the amphibious humanoid to the ground as the transport boomed above them, the magnetic flux of the maglev engines sweeping through Kee's body in dizzying waves. Then the transport was moving away, the noise receeding amidst the terrified calls of the rampaging wildlife.
"Oh mooey mooey, meesa luv yous," the strange creature said as Kee got to his feet again and cast all about for further signs of danger. He'd seen single trooper aerial platforms with battledroids riding them some time before and he'd hidden from them in the shadows of the trees. Presumably the battledroids were scouts sent to investigate landing sites for the droid transports. Now that the landing was taking place, there would be dozens of the damned STAPs everywhere, each one armed with a blaster cannon.
"Are you brainless? You almost got us killed!" Kee said, a bit too harshly perhaps.
"Brainless? I spake!"
"The ability to speak does not make you intelligent," Kee grumped, already annoyed at himself, the situation...the premonition. The odd frog-like humanoid was the only target around for his anger though, and at the moment he was too disturbed to corral his emotions and reactions back under control. "Now let go of me and get out of here!" [Ben! Beloved, where are you?]
No answer from Ben, but why had he expected one? He knew how limited Ben's range was...
The whine of STAP motivators began somewhere in the distance in the wake of the transport. Kee glanced around and began to move again quickly. The amphibious humanoid followed him.
"No, no, meesa stay with yous! Meesa called Jar Jar Binks. Meesa be you humble servant!"
Distracted by seemingly a million things at once, Kee's eyes swept past the creature as he searched the trees for a flash of rust-brown and white, the swift-running form of his lifemate and former apprentice. Another slash of pain through his abdomen and he stopped again, wrapping his arms around his middle for a moment before the pain passed, trying to catch his breath. "That won't be neccessary. You'd best be on your way."
The Gungan squelched through the mud and caught up to him then. "But is neccessary! 'Tis demanded by the Ghuds. Is a life debt!"
Kee whirled to the familiar presence approaching, the screech of STAP engines ripping through the air with harsh abruptness. Ben ran ahead of them, smudged with mud and his hair wet, running all out, dodging as the battledroids dived at him with blaster cannons blazing.
Kee jerked his saber from his belt just as the battledroids saw him and transferred their attentions to the Jedi Master. He shoved the Gungan with his free hand into the bushes nearby. "Stay put and don't get in the way," he growled as the blaster cannons started firing. The green lightsaber flashed and spun, deflecting the bolts away to the side as Ben reached him at last, two of the bolts deflected directly back at the STAPs that had fired them. Both attacking craft exploded and the remains plowed into the mud of the swamp.
"Sorry--Master--" Ben panted as he caught his breath again. "The swamp fried my lightsaber." He took his saber from his belt and handed it to Kee. "I think--I think it'll be all right once it's dried out."
[You'd best put another set of crystals in, beloved, you don't want it exploding in your hands,] Kee warned as he unscrewed the emitter assembly to peer into the innards of the lightsaber. There was still some dampness inside the casing and a thin film of mud coated the black sapphires in the emitter assembly. He put the saber back together and handed it back to Ben.
[I know, Master. When we get a minute.]
Kee nodded with a small smile at him. A smile that faltered as he turned away, fighting against another slash of pain that lanced through his abdomen.
"Yousa save me again, heh?" Jar Jar asked as he popped up out of the bushes.
"What's this?" Ben asked, eyeing the creature.
"A Gungan, I think," Kee answered. "One of the natives of Naboo. Amidala's people colonized Naboo several hundred years ago." He gave a tug to Ben's cloak sleeve. "Let's get moving before more of those STAPs show up."
"More? More, yousa say?" Jar Jar gasped as the two Jedi began moving away into the swamp at a fast half-run. "Exsqueeze me, but safest place would be Otoh Gunga. Tis where meesa grew up. Tis a hidden city!"
Kee jerked to a halt at that, Ben beside him. "What? A hidden city?"
"Uh hunh," Jar Jar confirmed, nodding briskly, the improbably long ears flapping.
"Can you take us there?" Kee asked.
The Gungan's billed face brightened for a moment then fell again. "Uh, no, not rilly, no."
"No?" Kee said, a trace of disbelieving menace in his voice.
The Gungan backed away several paces as both Jedi began walking toward him threateningly, Ben circling around behind the Gungan slightly. " 'Tis embarrassing, but...meesa forgot meesa been banished. Da Boss do terrible things to me if go back dere. Terrible things!"
The bass rumble of another droid transport began to rise somewhere behind them amidst the faint distant whine of STAPs. Kee pointed toward the sounds. "You hear that? That's the sound of a thousand terrible things headed this way, my Gungan friend."
"And when they find you, they will smash you into dust, grind you into little pieces, and then blast you into oblivion," Ben said, obviously enjoying himself.
Kee almost laughed outright at the effect Ben's words had on the Gungan. Instant obedience. "Hurrm. Yousa point is well seen." The Gungan considered for a moment more, then, "Okeyday! Dis way! Come quick!"
[How deep are we in this again?] Ben Sent with a soft snicker as they turned to trot after the lurching Gungan.
[Would you believe up to our necks?] Kee Sent, an exasperated laugh in his mindvoice.
Theri pulled herself upright in the bed once again as the latest contraction subsided and rolled over to the side of the bed, put her feet to the floor and forced herself to stand. She jerked her cloak from the back of the chair where she'd left it and somehow got it around her shoulders, grateful she'd not bothered to undress. Getting her boots off had been difficult enough, with the contractions she was certain she'd not be able to put them back on. Oh well. The deck was carpetted and the flagship was warm so she doubted she'd catch a chill on the walk to the medical bay.
Provided she could actually get there on her own two feet.
It was just past morning watch change and she realized she was probably going to attract attention. Not everyone on the Justice was Force-talented, the great majority of the crew were Republic starfleet crewmen. And the sight of a very pregnant woman lurching down the hallway in a long gray dress and cloak and bare feet was bound to cause some kind of alarm sooner or later. Then again--
With a grunt of effort she brought up her full shields, disappearing from view in the dimness of the back corridor she was traversing.
She faltered once on her way to the medical bay, fortunately in a deserted corridor just around the corner from the lifts. Her shields dropped completely as the pain of another contraction swept through her and squeezed her insides, twisting with such pain that she had to muffle the inadvertant cry by biting down on the wool of her cloak sleeve. She slid to the floor in the onslaught and stayed there panting as the pain passed slowly. Once again struggling up to her feet she forced herself to her quickest pace to the lifts as she built her shields up around her again.
Just as she was hobbling up to the door of the medical bay the door opened in front of her and incredibly, unbelievably, Master Healer Danya stepped out of the door.
"Oh thank the Force!" Theri gasped as she felt the Healer's familiar aura. "Danya, help--"
Her shields dropped again as she slid to the floor in the grip of another contraction, crying out with the pain.
"Theri?! Great good gods, what are you doing here?" Danya burst out as the Healer rushed to her side, calling for the nurses to bring a stretcher.
"What's it look like?" Theri gasped sarcastically. "I'm having a baby."
Kylan flipped through the screens of data, the feeling that he was on to something growing stronger every second as he found pattern after pattern in the graphs of the encrypted transmissions recorded to and from the Federation flagship in orbit around Naboo.
He stopped abruptly, centered himself and closed his eyes, withdrawing all his concentration into the pulsing of the dragon-point within him, feeling the oscillations of the Force marked by the counterpoint of his breath. Show me, he asked of the Force, show me the patterns, show me the link. Then he opened his eyes and keyed forward in the graph display.
And suddenly he realized he wasn't looking at just *one* signal but *two*, one superimposed over the other, one at a higher power and the other the normal Federation transmission power.
"Computer, filter out all transmission below fifty terahertz," he ordered. The computer blipped and complied and the graph cleared away to show the appropriate data. Much clearer, yes, but not clear enough. "Computer, filter out all transmission below seventy-five terahertz." Even better. "Computer, eliminate superheterodyned signal corresponding to two two five one three." The computer complied with another blip and suddenly Kylan was looking at the familiar multiple oscillation patterns of a hologram signal. A hologram, buried in the static and mundane comm traffic of the Federation flagship. And the signal was faint enough that he guessed it hadn't been relayed through more than one or two sattelites.
"Commander," he called to the Communications duty officer. "I think I've found something."
*How did this happen?* Ben thought to himself with something akin to despair. *How could this happen in a Republic that prides itself on fairness and enlightenment? How can we allow this to happen?*
The outrage at what he saw in the streets of Theed burned in his heart even under the balanced control he brought to bear on his emotions and mind.
He and Kee ran through the wide boulevards and cobblestoned lanes winding through the market section of Theed after leaving the small submarine they'd been given underneath one of the many graceful bridges that crossed the canals. They kept their senses alert for any sign of battledroids or destroyer droids, knowing they'd get little lead time in sensing the mechanicals through the Force. What they *did* feel was the people of Theed in confusion, fear, anger.
Then they found the first bodies.
A line of elderly women, each shot through the back of the head with a blaster set on needle-beam, had fallen where they'd been shot as they stood facing the stone wall of an agricultural warehouse. A little further down the street, a similar line of elderly men had been executed as well. Upwards of a hundred people had been killed. And Ben was willing to bet good credits that every company of battledroids who were occupying the city had identical orders. Execute those elderly who could not be productive workers and would only prove a burden to the society of Naboo. He'd heard a name for such once on some mission long ago in his training, "useless eaters."
[If ever I get to the point where I place no value on the wisdom of my elders, you have my express permission to put your lightsaber in my ear and put me out of my misery,] he Sent in an anguished grumble to Kee.
[I have no fears that will ever be neccessary, beloved,] Kee answered as they crept along the wall toward the corner of the street. [So long as you keep me young.]
Ben smiled briefly and clutched Kee's hand in a quick squeeze of reassurance.
--And felt --
[She's in labor?! Why didn't you tell me?!]
Kee winced and pulled back from the corner as Ben's Sending burst angrily in his mind. [Because we are on a mission and our duty takes precedence over our personal concerns,] Kee Sent coldly. [Theri's on the Justice, the Master Healer is there, everything's fine. If I'd told you before, it would have been a needless distraction. As it is now.]
Ben had rarely heard such coldness from his former Master. Certainly not this kind of angry, steely control. He looked down at the cobblestones under their feet and slumped in response to Kee's reprimand. [I understand, Master. You are right. The mission must take precedence.]
A pause, then Kee silently lifted Ben's chin until they were looking in each other's eyes again. [I'm sorry, Ben, but the mission *must* take precedence.] A quick look up and down the deserted street then. [Though I will have to stop soon somewhere safe when -- when she actually gives birth.]
[D'you know how soon?]
Kee shuddered a little and Ben felt the ghost of sympathetic pain that Kee now allowed to surface in his mind. [Not -- not long at all, beloved. She's been in labor since -- since we landed here.]
[Then we'd best find you somewhere to be safe,] Ben Sent, taking charge. [Come on, let's go.]
The two Jedi slipped from shadow to shadow in the stone archways of the lanes, the tiny twisting alleyways barely wide enough for three people to walk together shoulder to shoulder. Shops and houses lined the lanes, pennons and flags and the morning's wash hung out to dry on window sills and on ropes strung between the houses. The people of Theed were being systematically evacuated or killed according to their degree of usefulness to the Federation. This section had been cleared earlier in the day. Half-eaten meals and tasks left unfinished spoke mute testimony to the abruptness of the battledroid invasion, the lightning swiftness of the enforced evacuation. The scorch marks of blaster bolts provided the evidence of the futility of resistance. Ben kept one hand tangled with Kee's and one hand filled with his lightsaber as they progressed closer toward the center of town, searching for somewhere they could stop and hide for a while.
[Here, Ben,] Kee Sent with a gasp as they rounded a corner into a vaguely familiar street. [This is Waxflower Street. There should be an inn on the eastern side of the street, the Laughing Grintha Inn. Go there. The owner -- was a friend of Doran's and mine.]
[Yes, Master,] Ben Sent as he pulled Kee to the opposite side of the street. Kee was doubling over now in pain, his face tense with it, as Ben found the wooden sign swinging in the slight breeze over a doorway several steps down from street level. The jolly, roly-poly cartoonish grintha confirmed the name.
It took a judicious bit of Lifting to trip the relatively simple doorpanel lock to admit them but a telepathic scan from Kee confirmed there was no one in the inn now.
Inside the walls were white with limewash amidst the clean lines of darkly polished wood. Ben turned swiftly and shut the door silently, re-engaging the lock on the doorpanel as Kee stumbled toward the narrow stairs that filled a nearby doorway. In a moment Ben followed him, hoping his beloved Master and lifemate knew what he was doing.
"She's WHAT?" Tas yelped.
"Having the baby! Right now! Come on!" Kylan yelled as Tas and Rhyon hurriedly dropped the tools they were using and tore off the protective goggles they wore, getting to their feet as Kylan gestured urgently for them to hurry. Tas grabbed Rhyon's hand as they sprinted to Kylan, quickly yelling an explanation to the techs they'd been helping.
"All right, Theri, it's time."
Theri nodded, unutterably grateful for the nerve blocks that were keeping her from feeling much pain anymore as she drew all the resources of energy left at her command into a single-pointed focus to release her son from the confines of her body.
Stronger than the dulled twisting pain of the near-continuous contractions was the sense of her son's frightened presence. She struggled to Send her reassurances to him, struggled to deal with everything going on at once. Then she felt familiar presences somewhere close, opened her eyes to see her apprentices arriving at the nearby window, all of them flushed from their hasty run from the hangar. One of the medics waiting just outside the delivery room spoke to Kylan and he answered hurriedly. Tas and Rhyon gave him nods of encouragement and he disappeared into the sterilizing beams in the enclosed airlock entry of the delivery room. A moment later the door opened and he was rushing to her side.
[Oh, gods, Ther, I'm sorry I'm late!]
Theri would have burst out laughing if she'd had the breath to spare. Then she forgot all that as Kylan took her clenching hands in his own, forced her fingers open and wove their hands together. [Don't worry about me, we're surrounded by Healers. I'm here. You grab on and push.]
Theri nodded weakly and gathered herself as Danya directed her to push with all her strength as the next contraction began.
Kylan grunted and reached for the Force as Theri's fingers dug into the tendons of his hands, reached his mind to hers, felt her mind grab on to his as frantically as her hands. He let the Force flow through his mind and hands into her, felt the Force within her respond and reach back to flow into him.
[Now, Ther! A couple more good pushes and he'll be out!] Kylan Sent as she hauled air into her lungs as the contraction eased for a moment. [You're doing it! He's almost here!]
[Almost,] Theri Sent breathlessly as she strained again into the contraction, head thrown back into the gelfoam in a painful arch, wisps of her hair plastered in the sweat on her face and neck.
And then a long drawn-out silence as she focussed every bit of her failing energies on pushing her child into the world, closing everything and everyone else out in her single-minded absorption in the task. An absorption shattered by the thin broken wail of a baby's first cry.
On Naboo, in the deserted Laughing Grintha Inn, Kee's pain-filled thrashing suddenly drew into a bone-snapping tensing of muscles all over his body. For several heartbeats Ben held his breath, apprehension rising quickly toward panic as he held his lifemate against his shoulder and felt the powerful muscles contract all at once and his breathing stop. Then everything relaxed all at once, and Kee slumped against Ben's shoulder gulping air into his lungs and trembling violently in his arms. Then the shaking turned to soft weary laughter and Kee lifted his head a little to whisper, "Well, beloved, now we are fathers." He put his head back down on Ben's shoulder and Sent the image that Theri was wearily Sending to him, that of a tiny pale-white boy curled up on Theri's chest as Healer Danya cut the umbilical cord.
Ben choked and held tight to his lifemate, and for a few moments everything else was forgotten save the wonder and joy.
The soothing aura of the Healers soon had mother and son settled down and the roller-coaster emotions of the birth calmed. Theri watched blearily as the Master Healer hurriedly weighed and measured her son, washed the blood away, cleaned out his nose and mouth and eyes. The Healer hesitated a moment at one point but then resumed her task and a moment later was wrapping the baby in a thermal blanket as he once more began to cry. The other medics present were dealing with Theri and the aftermath of the birth, but the new mother's eyes never left the Master Healer and her child.
Theri saw the slight worry in the Master Healer's eyes as her son was returned to her, the tiny wiggling bundle settling on her chest almost curled in a ball. Kylan's eyes were bright with what Theri thought might be happy tears as he reached up to pull back the blanket from the baby's head so they could see him.
A full head of jet black hair was starting to dry now from the short bath he'd been given. The newborn's face was red and scrunched a little as he cried weakly, but then the tiny fist jammed into the mouth and the crying changed to wriggling. There was still some unformed outrage flowing from the baby's mind at the mistreatment of the bath and the measurements and the stranger's hands that had held him for those few moments, but this faded as the baby felt his mother's presence surround him again. The tiny fist not currently jammed into his mouth flexed and clenched again against her chest.
"He's perfect," Danya said as she trained a medical sensorpad on the baby, assuring herself of the healthy normal readings. "None the worse for the early birth, he's four point eight kilograms. All fingers and toes neccessary for a human. One foot slightly turned in, but that's not unusual and it'll correct itself in a few weeks. Brainwave activity normal, no deviations. All vital signs strong." The Healer gave Theri's hand a reassuring squeeze. "He's perfectly fine. Now, have you and Kee and Ben picked out a name yet?"
Theri's grin was almost as shaky as her voice. "Obi-Wan Jinn bel Kaitryn."
"Quite a mouthful," Danya said with a smile as she entered the name into the sensorpad and updated the files she was starting on the child.
"Ben wants us to call him Benji," Theri said as she looked back down at her son, losing herself in the awareness of her child. It was real, *he* was real, he was here, a separate entity that had formed from her own body. It was almost too much to believe that this perfect little child had come from herself.
The newly named Benji wiggled a little in contentment and sleepily opened his eyes as Theri Sent a gentle wordless inquiry to him.
His eyes were yellow and slitted like a cat's.
Kee cautiously peered around the corner of the Judiciar's Court building and caught himself back as he saw the squad of battledroids pacing in lockstep toward the palace. There were hundreds of battledroids converging on the palace now, herding crowds of captive Nubians, hovertanks moving slowly into the broad plaza in front of the palace, STAPs flying in ordered formations searching for those hiding in the many gardens and courtyards of the palace grounds.
Ben's hand on his shoulder warned him and they both jumped back down into the stairwell leading to the basement of the Judiciar's Court, drawing their cloaks around them to blend into the shadows there. A line of captive and bedraggled children walked past their hiding place, some of them barely more than toddlers, most of them crying helplessly as the battledroids prodded them along with harsh shoves of their blasters on slumped shoulders.
Kee saw Ben's jaw clench in anger and he reached out to capture one of the hands clenched around the hem of his cloak holding it closed. [Steady, beloved. We can't stop this by slicing a few battledroids.]
Ben's jaw relaxed slightly, but the steely look in the sky blue eyes didn't fade.
The sound of the metal feet striking the flagstones outside faded and they crept up out of their hiding place. Kee Sent Ben the image of a small side gateway leading to the servant's quarters to the right of the palace, sighted on a the narrow lane leading to it, and let the Force fill him as he started running. He felt Ben setting off in the opposite direction to circle around behind the Judiciar's Court to emerge onto the lane a few dozen yards away from the gate. In seconds they met again at the servants' gate and Kee was hurriedly punching in the code and they were squeezing inside.
Theri drifted in and out of sleep for several hours, slipping easily from the soothing blue-tinted half-dark of the small room in the medical bay of the Justice to the bright warm sunlight of Naboo, too exhausted to really care which was which until something brought her completely awake.
Kylan, coming into the room silently with her son wrapped in a blanket in his arms.
" 'm awake, Kyl," she said sleepily.
She could barely see the smile he graced her with then. The small viewport beside the bed showed only the nightside curve of Droma and the infinity of space beyond. Kylan carefully lowered her son into her arms and then searched for the button to raise the head of the bed so she could see him without having to sit up.
"You made sure Danya didn't do those tests?" Theri asked wearily.
"Yeah. Only the midichlorian count."
"And?"
Kylan's smile went lopsided then. "You even have to ask?" Then he relented. "Higher than yours."
Theri gulped back the lump that started in her throat then.
"And Danya suspects he'll be almost as strong as you are telepathically," Kylan said softly as Benji grunted a little and wiggled into a ball on her chest, drawing his legs up under him like a frog.
A long moment of silence then as Theri held the warm weight in her arms and let the tuneless song of the baby's living presence wash through her. She was comforted only a little by the thought that he'd inherited her Thretkethan clan memory as much as Maul's eyes. He'd remember her one day, he'd know who she was. Or would he? He could very well have inherited nothing of the clan memory. He might never know who she was or what she thought or what she felt.
Ben would take care of him. Provided Ben could withstand the grief and rage enough to care. Failing that, Yoda would see he was raised by someone who would love him, some Jedi family somewhere safe, until Benji could be accepted for Jedi training. Her child's future was bright with promise. He would be a great Jedi.
But she and Kee would never be there to see it.
The grief nearly choked her then and she covered it by nuzzling the fine soft black hair of her newborn as he tried to chew on his balled-up fist.
At the moment, she had a very hard time believing that all things were good and right and just in the Force.
She drifted off back to sleep then, back into the odd half-world of dreams mingled with visions from her lifemate's eyes.
"Jedi Hellstorm?"
Kylan almost didn't respond to the call. He hadn't thought of himself as "Jedi Hellstorm" for several months. He turned to the voice and recognized one of the commtechs he'd met in the Justice's Communications center. "Yes? You're Specialist Raini, aren't you?"
The young androgynous humanoid smiled faintly and nodded as she caught up with him in the corridor. The odd undertone of blue in her skin made him think of the wavedancers of his homeworld, the marine mammals with slick blue-gray skins and minds fully as developed as any humanoid's. She wore a Republic Starfleet uniform, a utilitarian dark blue flight suit with the Jedi triskele on the right arm and the icon of the Justice below it. A Commander's silver triangles flashed on her collar tabs. "I've managed to decrypt that holo transmission you found in the background noise from the Federation flagship. I think you'd better take a look."
"Lead on, I'm curious to see what it was."
"Mistress Theriyah is all right?" Raini asked as they rounded the corner into the wider corridor leading to the main lifts.
"Quite so. As is her son, a healthy boy."
"May one inquire of the child's name?" Raini asked tentatively. "On my homeworld it is a thing not to be known outside the family until the child reaches the age of knowledge, but I have seen others ask after the names of children."
"I'm sure with Master Koon in charge, his name will be flashing on every comscreen before the day is out," Kylan said with a grin. "But no, we do not mind if you know. His full name is Obi-Wan Jinn bel Kaitryn, but he will be called Benji."
They came to Communications then, and Kylan was surprised to see Master Koon himself standing at the door waiting. The big Vaikerian had his arms crossed over his chest and stood still as a statue in his dark blue Jedi cloak over his Starfleet flight suit.
[Master Koon?] Kylan Sent with quiet inquiry.
[Youngling, you have caught a q'uornkaleth by the tail,] Koon replied, his mindvoice filled with faint awe and a kind of disbelief. [Theriyah is all right?]
[She's fine, sir,] Kylan replied absently as all three made their way into the Comm center, squeezing past the massive hologrid table displaying tactical views of several different situations, including the one over Naboo. Koon gestured to the door of a secured and shielded room at the back of the cramped room.
"Commander, wait outside and see that no one disturbs us," Koon rumbled as he nodded to the officers and crewmen saluting and nodding to him as he passed.
"Yes sir," Raini answered and snagged the chair at the computer console next to the door.
Koon waited until the field-shielded door had slid shut behind them before turning to the computer and keying up the playback.
The holos of both sides of the two-way communication unfolded and Kylan caught his breath. The transmission was fuzzy, broken in some places, the audio distorted. But there was only one person it could be.
Darth Sidious.
Talking to the Trade Federation Viceroy, Nute Gunray.
" -- cruiser got past the blockade--"
"How did she escape, Viceroy?"
"The Jedi, my lord. They overpowered the guards escorting the Queen and her Govenor to the internment camp--"
A burst of audio static from Sidious' end of things, and then, " -- want that treaty signed!"
"We have been unable to locate her ship, my lord," Gunray replied. Kylan snorted a laugh. *He* wouldn't want to be the one saying that to Darth Sidious! "It is out of range of our sensors now."
"Not for a Sith it isn't." Another figure in black moved up into the focus of the holocam and Kylan stiffened. "This is my apprentice Darth Maul. He will find the Queen's ship."
Abruptly Sidious' signal ended and a moment later the Federation signal as well.
After a moment the cold chill of the preeminent Sith Lord faded from Kylan's bones and he raked his hand back through his hair. "Gods! Darth Sidious is working with -- no, the Federation is working for him! And he's sending Maul to -- "
"Indeed," Koon rumbled. "And there is now a communications blackout around Naboo."
"But they escaped!" Kylan almost yelped as he jumped to run the holograms back to the appropriate spots. "The Viceroy says the Queen's ship escaped! Ben and Master Kee helped her escape!"
"As you say," the big Vaikerian said after a moment. Then in a move so fast Kylan couldn't follow it the Jedi Master ripped his lightsaber from his belt and dived at the unsuspecting Mystic apprentice.
[Theri! Help!] Kylan Sent in a scream as he dived out of the way, his own lightsaber suddenly in his hand, turning to parry the howling yellow-green blade as it sought to slice through his neck.
Tatooine.
It was so good to be home.
Kee paced down the rampway of Amidala's ship and let the white blaze of the double suns dazzle his eyes for a moment as he hauled a deep breath into his lungs. The sour smells of hot sands and scorched stone, the dryness of the air, the feel of sand beneath his boots. He wanted nothing more than to stretch his hands to the blazing suns and forget the pulse of time growing short. For whatever time he had left he'd bless Ben for suggesting they flee to Tatooine. They knew this place as they knew no other and the Federation had no presence here.
They had come here to Mos Espa, half the planet away from Mos Idris and the edge of the Dune Sea that held his house. No matter. The few people who knew him in Mos Idris wouldn't be here, and he could slip into the persona of moisture farmer as a native. For the moment the death-shadowed Jedi Master was left far behind and he was simply Qui-Gon Jinn the farmer.
A pang of desperate longing to continue that assumed role, to just walk away and leave fate unfulfilled, swept through him with the force of a lightning strike.
No. He was Jedi. He couldn't do that.
[It's good to be home,] Ben Sent softly as he came down the ramp behind Kee, R2-D2 following him close behind with Jar Jar Binks. They'd tried to send the Gungan on his way back on Naboo but the bumbling amphibian had somehow managed to fumble his way through the battledroid army and follow them to the palace. R2's story was somewhat more convoluted. The plucky and resourceful droid had learned a few things from the two Jedi in the years since Amidala had given the little droid to Kee. He'd apparently hitched a ride down to Naboo on the Federation dropship and simply rolled off into the forest before anyone could order him to work. He'd shown up beeping a blue streak at the two Jedi in Amidala's palace as they were getting her to the hangar and her ship. And saved the day for them all when he'd jury-rigged some vital repairs to Amidala's cruiser as they were escaping from Naboo.
Ben came to stand with him, squinting out over the expanses of sand and stunted scrub, the heat haze shimmering over the desert floor. Five miles away, indistinct in the haze, was the blocky white sprawl of Mos Espa. Like Mos Idris it was a small settlement, only as large as the local water supplies would allow. Like Kee, Ben put his head back and breathed deep, closing his eyes against the glare of the suns and letting the welcome heat sink into him.
"Don't let them send any transmissions while I'm gone," Kee said softly as he pulled the rough fabric of a farmer's poncho over his head. "It could be traced."
"Yes, Master."
"And don't acknowledge any transmissions either," Kee added with a hint of warning in his voice.
Ben gave him a small glare at that. "Of course, Master."
Awkward silence then. But Ben had all but given up trying to ask what was wrong. Kee could sense the hurt he was causing and it tore at his heart. Why was he doing this? Why had he retreated into this shell of silence and concealment? It was so far different from the love and trust of the last six months that he scarcely recognized himself. And what Ben must be thinking...
But that was plain from the younger Jedi's body language and aura. Resentment, hurt, confusion, anger. And a growing irritation that Kee was suddenly treating him as an apprentice again when he could very well take care of himself and could probably carry out this mission completely on his own without Kee's help or guidance at all.
Kee didn't blame him one bit.
[You'll be careful?] Ben Sent, a sort of formal stiffness in his mindvoice. He didn't look up at the tall form beside him but out at the distant sprawl of Mos Espa.
[Yes, Ben, I'll be careful,] Kee Sent softly. [You will be as well?]
A brief nod, then Ben looked down and swallowed. Kee felt a hand close around his and he clutched it fiercely for a moment, Sending a wave of love and apology just as fierce.
Ben caught his breath and looked up at him then and Kee was relieved to see the answering love and forgiveness there. [I love you, you infuriating nitwit,] Ben Sent then. [You think I'm going to run away the first time you have a temper tantrum?]
Kee gave him a goofy grin for a moment in answer then wiped it away behind the mask of Jedi control as the Queen's Guard commander Captain Panaka came down the ramp behind them, Padme following close at his heels.
"The Queen wishes you to take her handmaiden Padme with you," Panaka said without preamble as they approached.
Kee gave Padme a glare at that. "No more commands from Her Highness today, Captain. Mos Espa is not a pleasant place -- "
"My Queen wishes it," Panaka interrupted. It was clear from the abruptness that Panaka did not agree with his Queen's wishes one bit. "She is emphatic. She wishes to know more about this world."
Padme's eyes danced up at him as she tossed one of her many thin braids back over her shoulder. "I've been trained in self-defense, I speak many languages. I assure you I can take care of myself."
Kee kept glaring at her for a moment, then relented. "I don't have time to argue, Captain. It's a bad idea but she may come with us." He nodded to Padme, then, "But stay close to me at all times."
Padme nodded, her eyes now sparkling with excitement.
[Go, beloved,] Ben Sent then as he looked once more out at the desert. [The sooner you go, the sooner you return.]
Kee took a deep breath and turned away to begin the walk to Mos Espa. It was one of the hardest things he'd ever had to do.
The big Vaikerian's chilling growl of a laugh filled the small security room, rolling through the shadows and the harsh light of the hologram of Darth Sidious frozen in "pause" mode. The shadows shifted and tossed crazily as the two lightsaber blades clashed and spun in the confined space, the droning hum of the weapons bouncing off the walls.
Kylan discovered it was very hard to lock eyes with someone when all they had was twin grated metal bubbles where those eyes should be.
[Why are you doing this, Master Koon?] Kylan Sent desperately to the Vaikerian.
There was no answer save the flash and the burn of the saber as it grazed Kylan's shoulder as he spun away. Whirling back, he dove into his attack even as he knew it was futile. Koon was a Jedi Master, he and Yensho and Windu kept a running tally of how many times they'd defeated the Sith.
While Kylan considered it a very good day if he could handle four of Ben's remotes without getting shot more than twice.
And he knew help would never come. This room was psi-shielded, the door was locked with Koon's personal code, and it was soundproof. Kylan was alone and at a distinct disadvantage.
The fight continued, Kylan blocking the majority of the slashes and batting away the stabs that came so very close to burning holes through his heart or throat. He shot out a hand and Lifted one of the chairs and flung it at the Vaikerian. The yellow-green blade darted and spun and the chair fell in seven pieces in a clattering heap. Kylan Lifted those pieces and flung them all at the Vaikerian in a swarm of swirling metal, backpedalling again as the Vaikerian hurled himself out of the cloud of debris and lunged forward with saber held high. The Mystic apprentice scrambled up and over the computer console in his way as Koon laughed again. He tripped over the chair on the other side of the console and landed in an ungraceful heap on the floor, yelping as the yellow-green blade sliced through the console just at his shoulder. Kylan rolled aside, felt pain shoot through his right arm as he pushed himself to his feet. His hand was going numb.
A broken arm. Damn.
He flipped his saber to his right hand and ducked as Koon jumped forward at him, cried out again as he bumped into the computer console and Koon's saber sliced across his thigh.
And for some odd reason, that one small slash across his leg brought everything into focus again.
"When you can't fight someone in the situation they force on you, change the rules."
Kylan laughed as Theri's voice rang in his memory and disappeared from sight.
Koon growled, stalked forward swinging his saber in the space Kylan had just vacated, kicking beneath the consoles and shoving the chairs down the cramped aisleway between them. Silence and stillness save for the shifting hum of his own lightsaber greeted him. Behind him, unseen, the hologram of Sidious winked out and buttons seemed to move themselves on the computer console.
Koon stopped and whirled back, throwing himself forward toward Kylan as the Mystic slapped at the "Send" button and dove away unsteadily, disappearing again as he did so.
Silence again and Koon turned slowly and straightened up, lowering his saber as he drew the Force around him and went still.
"You won't get away with this now, Koon. I just sent those transmissions to Master Windu."
The voice seemed to float on the air, directionless. Koon turned a full circle, his lightsaber wavering as he searched every corner of the room. Nothing. Just as he was gathering himself again to scan the ripples of the Force around him Kylan's voice spoke again.
"What makes you think you can defeat me? Can't fight what you can't find."
Koon stalked down the short aisleway, raking his metallic visage through every corner and under every table and console. The half-light of the room and the screens scrolling data or waveforms didn't reduce his visual perception but nothing showed itself.
"You expect me to fight as a Jedi. But you forget, Koon, I am no longer a Jedi."
Something struck the big Vaikerian from behind, hard and fast, tumbling him face first to the floor, and then the horrible screeching howl as Kylan's saber blade plunged through his heart.
"The Chosen One."
Kee had never much believed in prophecies, at least not the sort that populated the early writings of the Jedi. Precognitions and warnings from the Force, yes, those were valid and when they came from someone like Torin who had an uncanny accuracy rate he took those warnings as fact. But the vague, often doom-filled pronouncements that promised dire things to come, no, those he tended to disregard. His old Master Yoda had urged him innumerable times not to let the future blind him to the present and he agreed wholeheartedly.
"You're a Jedi Knight, aren't you?"
The dark crystal blue eyes of nine-year-old Anakin Skywalker pinned him with a sly knowing glance from across his mother's dinner table. A glance far too knowing and far too old to belong to a child. Then again, he doubted there was anything very childlike in the life of a slave on Tatooine.
He'd thought the Hutts had given up the slaves long ago. Apparently he'd been wrong.
"What makes you think I'm a Jedi?" Kee asked as he sat back in his chair and firmly commanded himself not to curl his knee up along the edge of the table. He looked down at the handful of grapes he held before popping one in his mouth.
"I saw your laser sword. Only Jedi Knights carry those."
Kee shrugged nonchalantly and glanced up at Anakin's mother down the length of the table, met dark brown eyes filled with worry. "Maybe I killed a Jedi and took it from him."
Anakin snorted a laugh at that. "No one can kill a Jedi."
Kee's eyes unfocussed and he swallowed against the sudden tightness in his throat. He felt the wordless wistful sadness of his half-asleep lifemate, somewhere on the other side of the galaxy, their newborn son with Maul's eyes curled asleep in her arms. The son he would never see with his own eyes. "I only wish that were true."
He looked up to see Padme's face, the graceful perfection of the small features concealing her own grief. Doran the Prince Regent of Naboo and Jedi Knight, had found death far too quickly at the hands of a still unknown assassin.
"I had a dream I was a Jedi," Anakin continued, shaking his head to banish the sun-frosted hair from his eyes. "I came back to Tatooine and freed all the slaves." He looked up at the big Jedi measuringly then. "Have you come to free us?"
Kee shook his head. "No, Anakin, I'm afraid not."
Anakin was not going to be put off the trail that easily. "I think you have. Why else would a Jedi come to Tatooine?"
"We were on our way to Coruscant and our ship was damaged. We had to land here to make repairs," Padme explained. Kee almost smiled, noting that she didn't tell Anakin where they'd come from or why they were going to Coruscant while still giving the boy an answer he might accept.
"That hyperdrive you want to buy from Watto?" Anakin asked.
Kee nodded. "All we have are Republic credits and Watto won't accept those."
"I'll take a look at it," Anakin offered. "I can fix anything!"
Kee laughed softly. "After seeing that kit-bashed droid of yours, Ani, I'm sure you can. But perhaps I can find a way to wrangle that hyperdrive from Watto in any case." He popped another grape in his mouth and looked toward the small windows in the wall across the room, guaging the sandstorm's ferocity. "These people must have some sort of weakness."
"Gambling," Shmi said as she got to her feet, taking Anakin's empty plate and her own to the sink. "All of Mos Espa orbits around the podraces."
Kee gave Jar Jar a stern look as the Gungan carefully snuck a plum from the wooden bowl on the table and silently began to gnaw on the fruit, then raised an eyebrow at Padme as she took his plate and Jar Jar's to the sink. He wondered what Shmi and Anakin would think if they knew the reigning Queen of Naboo was gathering dirty dishes and rolling up the sleeves of her tunic to wash them herself. The slight grin she gave him as she passed told him she knew very well what she was doing and she was enjoying herself immensely. "Greed could be our ally then."
Anakin gave Kee another one of his measuring looks. "I've built a pod. The fastest ever built. And there's a big race here day after tomorrow, the Boonta Eve race. You could enter my pod in the race."
"Watto won't let you race, Ani," Shmi said immediately, the concern evident in her voice.
"Watto doesn't know I've built it, Mom," Anakin countered. He pointed to Kee then. "They can tell Watto the pod belongs to them and get Watto to let me race for a cut of the profits if I win."
Kee watched the byplay between mother and son, silently taking in every nuance of the boy's words and body language. The Force swirled around the boy like the streamers of light around the event horizon of a black hole and was just as powerful. Kee had no doubts the boy could indeed fly a podracer, and was fairly certain that with the Force so strong with the boy he would win. Not the most ethical use of one's Jedi abilities....but Anakin wasn't a Jedi. Yet.
"We have to help them, Mom," Anakin said at last, giving his mother as stern a glare as a nine-year-old could muster. "You always say the biggest problem in this universe is that no one helps anyone."
Kee watched the boy manipulating his mother, all but instinctively using a mindtrick on her, and felt the low howl of the boy's aura sliding around his mindshields like the sandstorm over the walls outside. He felt the pulse of a strong telepath unaware of his abilities, the sense of Sending unformed and untaught.
And he knew then the agent of the future he would buy with his life.
Ben Kenobi sat on the rampway of the Queen's ship, looking out over the desert toward Mos Espa, grateful the sandstorm had finally blown itself out. If he couldn't hear Kee's mindvoice he could at least look in the direction he'd gone under the guise of lookout duty.
He wondered if he was fooling anyone.
Vibrations in the rampway behind him and the Queen's pilot Ric Olie came down the rampway, a bottle of Nubian spring water in each hand. "My Queen is grateful to you and Master Jinn, Jedi Kenobi. And I am grateful your droid was able to keep those shields together long enough to get us away from the blockade."
Ben smiled faintly in response to this and nodded his thanks as Olie handed him one of the bottles of spring water. The pilot hopped off the side of the ramp and stood looking out over the expanses of sand and scrub toward the slow purple twilight of evening. Far in the distance the lights of Mos Espa were just beginning to twinkle in the dusk.
"My Master has located a Nubian hyperdrive," Ben said after a moment.
Olie glanced back at him with a raised eyebrow. "And?"
Ben shrugged a little. "The dealer will not accept Republic credits. This is a Rim world. The Republic holds no authority here."
Olie snorted a little. "The Republic holds little authority anywhere anymore, Jedi. Every year more and more worlds from the Rim inwards are realizing the Republic's starfleet cannot protect them from privateers or slavers. And you Jedi leave such to the Fleet. And then there's the Federation."
"Which is the problem of the Senate," Ben finished for him. "Actually, though, Pilot, the Jedi do get involved in all of these to some extent. But we are only ten thousand. We cannot be everywhere. And our first duty is to the Republic. We do what we can for the Rim worlds, but...we know it is not enough."
Silence then as the breeze that always kicked up at dusk swept across the flats then. Ben closed his eyes and took another deep breath, absently identifying every individual scent carried on that breeze, all of which spelled "home" to him. Truth, so far as it went. He was honest enough with himself in that moment to realize that where he really wanted to be was wherever his lifemates and newborn son were, so long as they were all together. If not for the absolute imperative of keeping the Queen hidden and untraced he would have found a way to send a two-way holo to the Justice. He had not seen his namesake yet save for the few glimpses Kee had given him. It only made him desperate to be done with the mission so they could go home, and *that* made him guilty because he couldn't focus on the moment and give his full attention to the mission. Kee had been right. He *had* been thinking of himself and his own wishes, not the mission. The Queen -- Padme -- deserved the best they could give.
His comlink chirped an incoming call and he snatched it from his belt in a blur of motion. "Master?"
"Ben," Kee answered. "Is all well?"
"Yes, Master," Ben said quickly. "Her Majesty is resting now, we've got the majority of the repairs done that didn't require the parts you've gone to find for us. No transmissions have gone out, though we picked up an open broadcast call from Govenor Bibble on Naboo. As per your orders we did not answer it, though the Queen wanted to. She saw your wisdom in this, though."
"Wisdom, Ben? I wouldn't call it that. Experience maybe." Ben could hear the laughter in Kee's voice then. And then, faintly, [I do what I must when I can, beloved. If that is wisdom, so be it. I do what the Force asks and let go the rest.]
Ben smiled a little at the mindtouch, wishing he could reply in kind, and went on with the verbal conversation over the comlink. "Any further luck with the hyperdrive, Master?"
"There's a possibility, but we'll be here another two days," Kee answered. "Tell the Queen that Padme is well and is quite enjoying herself." [In truth, Ben, Padme's having a ball. We've found this boy, Anakin Skywalker --anyway, I'll tell you all about it later when I've got the time. Reassure Sabe that her Queen is quite safe here with me. The Skywalkers are good, honest people. Anyway, remember to tell Sabe and the girls this only when you're alone with them. Panaka knows, but no one else.]
"Understood, Master," Ben answered over the comlink. "I'll go report to the Queen when she wakes from her rest."
"Keep your eyes open, Ben. Jinn out." [Sleep well, beloved. We'll get this over with as soon as we can, I promise.]
And with that the comlink transmission cut off and Kee's mindtouch faded from Ben's mind.
Reassured and heartened, Ben stood up from the rampway. "Ric, is Her Majesty awake yet?"
"Probably. I saw Eirtae poking around in one of the storage containers a few minutes ago," Olie said with a slight grin. "I'm sure she'd want Master Jinn's report."
"Then I'd best take it to her," Ben grinned and headed back inside the sleek silver ship.
If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, Kee would never have believed what he saw under the double suns of his homeworld two days later.
Anakin Skywalker, nine-year-old slave boy, not only flew a podracer in the Boonta Eve race, he actually won that race despite the cheating of Sebulba and damage to his own pod.
[I can scarcely belive it, beloved, and I watched him fly across the finish line myself,] Kee Sent to his lifemate.
[I thought humans couldn't fly podracers,] Theri Sent in answer, her mindvoice a faint but distinct whisper.
[Normally they can't,] Kee confirmed. He ran a hand over his face to wipe away the dust as he walked through the streets of Mos Espa. The big man in the farmer's poncho made almost as imposing a figure as the Jedi Master in his cloak. Again he was tempted simply to disappear, hitch a ride with one of the water farmers to Mos Eisley and then to Mos Idris, get Kham to take him out to his house and just let the universe go on without him. But no. However tempting the thought he knew better. [This boy *must* become a Jedi, dearheart. There's simply no question in my mind.]
A long pause and he sensed Theri was thinking. Then, slowly, [You realize Mistress Yaddle and Master Yoda will more than likely reject him for training? They'll say that the psychological scarring of a slave's life will be impossible to overcome and that he'll be easy prey to the Dark?]
[You'd rather he got snatched up by the Sith?] Kee countered. [And they would, sooner or later. More than likely it would be Sidious. It must be the will of the Force that we found him first.]
Another long pause, then, [Beloved...this child attracts fate like thorotla fish attract koro-sharks.]
Kee felt the cold wind of time around him then even in the glaring heat of the day. [I know, beloved. So long as you and I are together, I have no fear.]
He rounded the corner of the street then and found Anakin at his friend Jira's fruit stand. "Good morning, Ani. I was just coming to find you, I've something I need to talk to your mother about."
"Sure," Anakin said, squinting up at the Jedi Master with a long measuring look.
"Here, Ani, take these to your mother then and tell her I'll have those grapes from Mos Eisley in tomorrow," the old woman said as Anakin took the net bag of pallies from her and gave her the coins his mother had sent with him to buy the fruit. The boy gave her a hug too and then moved to lead Kee back to his house.
Darth Maul sat motionless at the table he'd taken at the small outdoor cantina, his black cloak pulled about him and his hood shrouding his face. The cantina was doing a lively trade but the tables around Maul remained stubbornly empty. All that was required to keep them so was a look into the sunlike feral gleam of his eyes.
The droid controller on his wrist bleeped softly and he glanced down at the tiny display on it and slammed all his mindshields up at once.
A long minute later Jinn walked by only a few feet away, walking beside a young boy who was chattering away about the previous day's pod race. Yes. The human boy who'd won the race. He should have known. Only someone strong with the Force could have flown a pod, much less won a race where the favorite to win was cheating. The defeated Dug pilot was several tables over and glaring after the small human and the big Jedi with undisguised hatred.
"Now you'll have enough money to get that hyperdrive from Watto," Anakin said with a sly look up at Kee out of the corner of his eye.
"Indeed, Ani."
"So you'll be leaving soon?"
"I'm afraid so, Ani. Time is of the essence." Maul barely caught the Jedi Master's words as the pair rounded a corner nearby and disappeared.
And Jinn had a five-mile walk across the desert to get back to the Nubian cruiser. A walk he would make alone.
Perfect.
"So this thing I feel when I'm flying, it's the Force?"
"Yes, Ani," Kee answered as they trudged along the side of a low mesa only half a mile from the Nubian cruiser. It was the hottest part of the day now and the sands reflected the light back to glare into eyes already squinted nearly shut. "When you learn how to be quiet and still within yourself you'll be able to feel it even when you're not flying. You'll learn many different ways to be quiet inside yourself at the Temple."
"And that's on Coruscant, right?"
Kee smiled a little at the questions that jumped around every subject imaginable. "Yes, Coruscant. Near the Galactic Senate. I'll have to show you how to shield yourself before we get to Coruscant or you'll have quite a bit of trouble once we get there."
"Shields? Like ships have?"
"Yes, but they're shields around your mind, made of your will and the Force and your telepathic talent."
"I'm not a telepath," Anakin said, confused.
Kee's smile turned into a lopsided grin then. [Yes you are, Anakin. You just never knew it.]
Anakin yelped in surprise and whirled around looking all around him wildly in fear until Kee reached out a steadying hand to his shoulder. "That was me, Ani."
"You?" Anakin squeaked, staring up at him wide-eyed. "But that's not the one I heard before--" He stopped and bit his lip and looked all around again at the rocks surrounding them.
"You heard someone else? When?" Kee asked worriedly.
"Just before the race, when I was checking my pod and getting ready," Anakin said worriedly. "It said, 'If you win, the prize money could buy your freedom and that of your mother.' And then it stopped. But the voice felt...cold, kind of. And mean."
"Well, that's the sort of thing that will be stopped by your shields," Kee said after a moment. "It's not a difficult thing to learn but it takes practice. Come on, then, let's keep going."
As they continued the walk to the Nubian cruiser Kee cast his senses around him and let the Force fill him, seeking, scanning with every resource at his command.
The warning, a moment later, was sudden but not unexpected.
"Run, Ani," he urged, speeding up to crest the dune ridge before them. Just over the ridge was the last open expanse where Amidala's cruiser had landed. "Hurry!"
They were fighting their way through the soft sand half way up the side of the dune when the whine of the speeder bike began somewhere behind them. Kee quickened his movements and scooped the boy up, carrying him up to the top of the ridge and tossing him over the crest to topple down the other side. Anakin spluttered and spat out sand with a yelp, but then his sharp ears caught the sound of the speeder bike as Kee stood atop the duneridge and looked back the way they'd come. Then Kee dove down the ridge in one lightning move, rolled down the dune and up to his feet again beside Anakin, pulled the boy to his feet and started running.
They were halfway to the Nubian cruiser when the speeder bike topped the ridge.
"Anakin, drop!" Kee shouted back at the boy, drawing his lightsaber as Maul dived at the boy.
Maul overshot Anakin and was shooting toward Kee now at full throttle, cut the engine just as he reached Kee and leaped off the vehicle with cat-like grace, landing with his double lightsaber already coming to life in his hands.
"Ani! Get to the ship, tell them to take off!" Kee yelled at the boy, then his whole world was taken up by the fight.
[Beloved!] Kee Sent desperately as he fought. [Is this the time?!]
No answer from Theri.
And then there was only the song of the Force moving him as he blocked the orange blades that sought his life, the furious whirling dance of light and Darkness that was Darth Maul. A low slash of the orange blade at his leg which Kee blocked only to sense the opposing blade coming at him from high left, another block and a quick jump back to avoid the blade which swept around toward his midsection. It was a defensive fight now for Kee, no chance to try for a disarm in the midst of blocking the two orange blades seeking his life. The yellow eyes gleamed at him with a manic hatred, the black hood had fallen back from the horned head, and Kee felt the Dark pulled in to the darting wiry form, the absolute focus, the surrendering of self to the Dark Side. The Dark wanted death and destruction. Maul in his desperation had made himself a conduit for that power.
Finally, after a seeming eternity of whipping his emerald blade from earth to sky in blocks and parrys becoming increasingly unsteady in the broiling heat of Tatooine's punishing day, he heard the Nubian cruiser's engines roar and felt the ground shake beneath his feet as the sleek chrome-silver ship lifted slowly off the ground, hovering on the ion engines.
Maul growled and pressed forward in his attack, driving Kee before him, forcing the Jedi Master to give ground, backing him toward the ridge of stone behind him.
The Nubian cruiser suddenly loomed up behind Maul, the rampway still lowered.
Kee leapt to the side, darted around the spinning orange blades, and called the Force more closely about him as he jumped for the cruiser's ramp. Maul's lightsaber whirled just past where he had stood as he leaped in a blur of motion, slicing only empty air as the cruiser lifted smoothly into the sky.
Maul growled low in his throat as the ship lifted off, turned off his lightsaber and watched it go. Then he walked over to the speeder bike some few dozen yards away and pulled it out of the side of the dune where it had landed. Digging in the storage compartment on the small craft's side, he came out with his comlink. A moment later he had an open channel to his ship and a relay to Coruscant.
"Master, be prepared. They are on their way to Coruscant."
"Excellent. Go now to Naboo."
Maul blinked and nodded. "As you wish, Master."
For the first time in his life, Kee felt a trace of ...not exactly fear, but anxiety, as he stood before the door of his Master's rooms.
The terse [To my rooms, you will come, when Council is over] had held more command than he'd heard in the old one's voice since he himself was fifteen years old. It was not a request from Master to Master. It was a command from Master to apprentice and no matter he'd been on his own since he was twenty-one he obeyed that command without question.
Not that he wouldn't have anyway, but he'd felt distinctly like the often rambunctious prankster he'd been once, caught in his high-jinks by someone he could never hide from.
The door slid open at the touch of his transponder button and he was walking forward into Yoda's rooms.
Yoda gave him a half-angry glare as he sank down silently onto one of the huge pillows of the old one's nest. A tiny hoverlight up in Boodle's network of branches near the ceiling cast enough yellow light to dispel some of the ever-present watery gloom of Yoda's rooms. And, not coincidentally, so that Yoda could see every shift of emotion and flicker in his former Padawan's eyes.
Yoda humphed to himself softly after a moment's glare and then tossed a datapad at Kee who caught it automatically and turned it on. Kee read the first few lines and then slowly turned the datapad off.
"Explain, you will," Yoda said.
Kee shrugged and tried to dissemble. "We hadn't expected ever to see the Temple again, and that the message might take several days to get here."
The walking stick whapped him across the leg and Kee yelped a little at the unexpected blow.
Kee sighed and rubbed his leg a little and tried again. "Well, you know Theri, she's always the one to plan ahead and I was rather busy, so she --"
Another whap on the other leg this time.
"All right, all right," Kee said, miserably. He finally managed to drag his eyes up to meet his old Master's. "When we got to the Justice, just before Ben and I left Theri got a premonition, a very strong one. You know she doesn't see actual visions, but sometimes something someone says or does around her will trigger feelings of what will happen in the future. She's got a bit more of the talent than Ben does, but usually it's very vague. She rarely gets anything specific out of it, just vague ideas about situations and sometimes a sense of what factors will be important. Anyway, she sensed that she and I would die soon and that ..." Kee stopped, swallowed, closed his eyes and continued, "That it's the will of the Force. That if we're to have any chance, if the *Republic* is to have any chance of surviving the Darkness to come, that the Light that will defeat the Dark eventually must be bought with a sacrifice of the Light now. And she and I are that sacrifice."
Yoda's ears drooped at this and his eyes pinned Kee with a dagger-point look. "Certain you both are of this? Always in motion is the future."
Kee looked away and said nothing.
"Uncertain, you are, that this is to be, but determined you are it will!" Yoda chided angrily. "So willing, are you, to die for the Light?"
"Of course!" Kee all but yelped.
"If half so willing, you were, to *live* for the Light, how much more accomplished would be?" Yoda said sternly, poking Kee's leg roughly with his walking stick. "Easy it is to die for the Light. Easy to give in, to think fate demands death, or blame such on the will of the Force." The old one's eyes bored into Kee's with surprising disgusted sternness. "Why would the Light of all life demand your deaths? Answer me that, Padawan?"
"Because -- because if the galaxy is to one day be free ---"
Yoda's stick whapped him on the leg again. "The Force knows nothing of the future, only the present!" The old one struggled up from his pillows to pace, a sure sign of his agitation. He rarely paced save in his most frustrated tirades about the ineffectual ramblings of the Council. "The Force, a living thing it is. Only here in the present it is, though vast beyond imagining. Not in the past, not in the future. It is the connections between the things and people in the Now. The Now creates the future. Change the Now, you change the future. What Theriyah senses is the thread of wrongness in the Now, the factors that may be important. *May* be important, Padawan." He turned at the end of his hobbling track and pointed his walking stick at his apprentice. "No more will I tolerate of this doomsaying from you! My apprentice you are! No Padawan of Master Yoda will count himself marked for certain death in my presence! Jedi Master you are, fourteen years! My son, forty-two years! Discount your own experience and abilities you *will not!* " The glare softened a little then. "Never thought I would need remind you of this."
Kee choked at this, half laughter, half grief, and all at once the terror of death he'd been trying to keep at bay for the last several days crumbled away. The relief was so great he nearly fell over where he sat. He sat there for several long minutes letting the emotions wash through him and away into the Force and when the storm passed he felt -- relaxed, at peace, unshadowed by death, for the first time in days.
He felt Theri's bone-deep sigh of relief as well. [Were we guilty of assuming too much, beloved?]
[And being blind to all but death looming before us,] Kee confirmed to her.
[Is Yoda always right about everything?]
Kee smiled then and chuckled a little.
"Told Obi-Wan, you have, of this?"
Kee brought himself back to the matter at hand. "No, Master. We thought it might be a distraction that could affect his judgment and reactions, so we haven't told him."
Yoda hummed to himself a little at this. "Yes. If knew he did you thought you might die, spend all his time ensuring you would not and would not concentrate on the mission. So busy fighting to save lifemates that others might suffer. Not my choice, to lie to Obi-Wan, but -- under circumstances, might be best. Until danger time is past." Another steely glance pinned his apprentice then. "Remember, you will, that the future is not fixed and certain! Changed, all things can be, in an instant!"
Kee nodded.
Yoda shook his head slightly, his ears waggling, as he came up beside his apprentice. "Brainless Padawan!" he said in loving exasperation.
"Even after all this time, Master?"
A chuckle from the old one then. " *Especially* after all this time!"
"What is wrong with you, Ben? Can't you see the boy needs to be trained?"
Ben stopped in his headlong angry rush toward the lifts, whirled around to face his former Master. Beside Kee, Anakin looked from Ben's angry visage to Kee's annoyance and wished heartily he were anywhere else.
"I will take this up with you alone, Master," Ben said coldly.
Kee humphed a little at this. "Fine then. Ani --" he said, turning to the boy, "Would you like to go stay with Padme for a while? Ben and I need to have a talk."
Anakin gave him a narrow look out of knowing blue eyes. "You sure it's gonna be talking and not fighting?"
Ben snorted.
Kee gave the boy a lopsided smile. "Quite sure, Ani. You remember how to get to Senator Palpatine's office? Padme should be there with her Queen. You can take Jar Jar with you if you like."
Anakin rolled his eyes at this, but he really did enjoy the Gungan's amusing company. "You'll call me if you need me?"
"Certainly. With mind or comlink?" Kee asked.
Anakin bit his lip at that. "Uhm, comlink please?"
Kee nodded. "Go on with you then."
Ben waited until Anakin had disappeared behind the lift doors before he turned blazing blue eyes on his lifemate. "That boy is dangerous, Kee! The Council sees it! Why can't you?"
"Dangerous, Ben? How so? I seem to remember a certain nine-year-old who let his Lifting talent get away from him and smashed up half the stuff in his room before I could stop him," Kee said, tucking his hands inside his cloak sleeves. "Dangerous in his talent with the Force? Every Jedi or Sith alive is dangerous precisely because they can touch the Force." Kee shrugged and regarded his seething apprentice with a level look. "Life is dangerous, beloved."
"You saw the way they all reacted the moment the Council chamber door opened and Ani wasn't shielded away from them anymore!" Ben said. "I thought Mistress Depa was going to fall out of her chair! And Master Windu *flinched*. I saw it! Ani howls power to anyone and everyone with the slightest bit of sensitivity! He's young, innocent, vulnerable, and too old to begin training! He wasn't found as a baby, he hasn't been raised by Jedi, and he was a slave! More than likely he'll never be emotionally stable enough to handle the training, even if he could catch up."
"So we should hand him over to Maul and Sidious?" Kee asked. "And in five or ten years watch a new Sith Lord, one with all the power you just spoke of, causing untold havoc and destruction in the galaxy? What would you have me do, beloved, kill the boy?"
"Of course not!" Ben hissed. "But I see no point in training the boy when we know it will end in failure."
Kee quirked a slight grin then. "No, Ben, we do not *know* that he will fail as a Jedi. Don't assume that the future is certain. Just because something has always happened in a certain way don't assume it will always happen that way."
Ben glared at him for a moment before relenting and turning away slightly to shove his own hands into his cloak sleeves. "Master Yoda's Assume Nothing."
"Exactly." Large warm hands turned Ben around then and he was caught in a hug for a long moment. Ben sighed and slipped his arms around Kee and they held each other silently, apology and reassurance for both. Ben felt a kiss pressed to his forehead and opened his eyes to look up at his lifemate.
"But why you, Kee? Why must you insist you be the one to train him?"
"Why not me?" Kee asked with some surprise. "I found him, I know him best, I don't have an apprentice at the moment -- " Here he grinned down at his lifemate and Ben smiled back. "You know that everyone from Yoda to the archivists are always saying I'm one of the best teaching Masters. Well, Ani would need the best to overcome all those obstacles and deficiencies you just named. Also between you, me, Theri and the kids, we can provide Ani with a home. He misses his mother very much and living in a loving, supportive family will go a long way to prevent problems caused by the separation from his mother. It's true he wasn't raised by Jedi but his mother is a remarkable woman. She's led a hard life but she's a kind soul and obviously Ani is an incredibly compassionate and caring boy. So long as we can preserve and nurture those traits I think we can overcome whatever deficiencies or problems may occur."
Ben gave an exasperated sigh and moved away slightly, still holding to Kee's hand. "You're determined to do this, aren't you?"
Kee shrugged a little and Ben felt a touch of something wistful and worried then in his lifemate's touch. "If the Force allows, Ben."
They were heading back to Naboo.
Theri sighed as she brushed out her hair under the sonic dryer and centered herself in the here and now again. For the moment she could relax and just live in the moment. For days she'd been living with her mental focus drifting on the tides of the Force, preparing at any moment to let go into the spiral at the first hint of pain or wrongness. Even as she'd held her newborn son she'd been waiting for death.
Now, with one good scolding from Yoda she and Kee had had their heads handed to them and their assumptions shattered. Death held no power over them now. If it happened it happened. But they would no longer allow it to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. And she'd been in bed hiding long enough.
She still had work to do, she still had three apprentices to train, and she had a child that needed his mother.
She chuckled as she came out of the bathroom to find a set of Mystic grays, tunics and leggings and her own old boots, waiting ready on the bed. Thank the Force, she could wear her uniforms again! She suspected Tas had ordered the uniform made from the Justice's resupply department as her measurements must still be in the ship's database from when she'd been here before. She'd adjusted her metabolism that morning to burn off the remaining weight she'd gained from her pregnancy. In a month at most she'd be back to her normal weight. It would take somewhat longer to get back the level of physical strength and agility she'd lost during the last few months.
Provided, of course, she and Kee lived that long.
Banishing those thoughts, she set about finding her apprentices. They had work to do and it was time she began it.
Ben surfaced from sleep to the sound of muffled voices indistinct in the silence of the ship's night cycle. It took him a moment of sleepy thought to realize the sounds were mental and not physical.
The hum of the ship's hyperdrive was a calming wash of sound, vibrating the ship ever so slightly as they made their way back to Naboo. Amidala -- since they'd left Coruscant Padme had decided to forgo her handmaiden disguise and be the Queen of Naboo she was in truth -- had decided that the time and circumstances demanded she fight to take back her world from the grip of the Trade Federation. And, further, that the battle for her world would be fought with the Gungan army and a handful of Naboo pilots who had a grand total of three hours of actual live combat experience between them. And all of that experience was concentrated in one pilot, Ric Olie, the Queen's personal pilot. It was a mad plan. It hadn't a prayer of actually succeeding.
But Ben couldn't argue with Master Yoda's Assume Nothing.
He sighed a little and tightened his arm around Kee and nuzzled the mass of silvered brown hair and the muscular shoulder beneath it. He'd started to drift off again when the muffled voices that had awakened him gradually became clearer. Kee and Theri. He realized Kee was still awake.
He sent his mind deeper toward sleep, hoping he'd catch some hint of what had been bothering Kee the last few days before he fell back asleep.
[ -- can't believe Koon was the Sith spy. It just doesn't seem possible. He's been on the Council for years. You'd think Shosin at least would have been able to tell something was wrong all that time.]
[If he ever let anything slip in her presence,] Kee answered. [He could very well have kept it hidden even from her. Mind you I don't quite believe it myself. Yaddle will confirm Kylan's story, but I've no doubt of his veracity.]
[So Sidious is the mind behind this invasion of Naboo, beloved,] Theri Sent. Ben could barely hear her even through the skin contact with Kee that usually made it much easier for him to Hear.
[Thus Maul was sent to capture Padme on Tatooine. Or was it rather Ani he was trying to acquire?]
[Hmmm. I'm not sure. Sidious couldn't have known of the boy before or he would have wasted no time in snatching him away. And probably would have found a way to get rid of Maul. I can't see Maul sitting still for someone taking his place with Sidious. One of them wouldn't survive.]
[Probably true,] Kee agreed. A moment's pause, then, [Are you truly all right now, dearheart?]
[Physically or mentally?]
[Both. How does the situation feel to you now?]
Ben could all but feel Theri's shrug at this as she replied slowly. [Much the same as you do. I'm still certain that the probability of our deaths is all but inevitable. But at least after Master Yoda handing us our heads I feel that even if it's inevitable it might not always be so. Any moment something could change to make it a mere possibility instead of a probability. There's a big difference. But so many threads I think on seem to point to the inevitable conclusion. Although I had a thought as to where it might happen. Do you remember when the kids and I came to get you on Naboo last time? When the kids had just finished the DawnStorm?]
[Hmm. Yes. I remember. So you think it will be in Padme's palace hangar then?]
[Where else? It's Naboo, isn't it? We both felt that chill we got in the hangar there.] Theri's mindvoice went solemn then. [In truth, beloved...I see no way around it.]
Ben's world seemed to lurch around him as his mind screamed an incoherent No, the instant terrified denial choked back inside his mind, buried away before Kee could feel it. He had to fight to keep himself from moving. All trace of sleepiness was swept away in the one blast of denial and despair.
No wonder Kee had been acting funny the last few days. He and Theri both felt they were going to die.
[We mustn't let the ...probability...cloud our minds, beloved,] Kee answered softly. [And even if it *is* inevitable that we sacrifice ourselves for the Light, there are far worse fates.]
[I never wanted to be a martyr, Kee. Hell, I never even wanted to be the last Mystic.]
[Neither did I. Want to be a martyr, that is. But, y'know, beloved, I have no problem being the means by which others may live.]
A long silent pause. [I keep thinking of something from one of my Mystic teachings. 'We have not even to risk the journey alone, for the heroes of all time have gone before us. The labyrinth is thoroughly known. We have only to follow the thread of the hero path, and where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god. And where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves. Where we had thought to travel outward, we will come to the center of our own existence. And where we had thought to be alone, we will be with all the world.' ] A sheepish feeling Sent then. [I don't know why, but it keeps going through my head over and over. And it feels like -- like some kind of key or code, something...]
A profound silence of mind and soul from Kee, and then, [The greatest journey, the most dangerous journey, anyone can ever make is that taken to find themselves. What could be more dangerous, more frightening, than to question everything you believe about yourself? And what greater sacrifice than to remake yourself, or to allow yourself to be transformed? And what other journey or experience is so universal...or so overlooked and misunderstood?] Ben felt the hand that held his on Kee's chest tighten for a moment and longed to snuggle closer, but he did not. [As your teachings say, beloved, all things are good and right and just in the Force. In every moment there is sacrifice, because in every moment there is change. If we take the hero's path, as you named it, we welcome that change and sacrifice with joy. Change is not evil or good. It simply *is*, irrespective of past or future. Master Yoda's 'Now' is simply the point where past becomes future. Where energy becomes matter, time becomes memory.] A flash of image then from Kee, the spirits walking at the call of the Great Bell at the Temple. [And living or dead or gone into the Force, we are never ever alone.]
[No. For even then we have memory if not the spirit to guide us,] Theri Sent wistfully. [And so even in death we are a part of life. So long as those we touched go on, our lives have not faded from the web of the Force.]
[And, beloved...I've had a good life.] Images and emotions flickered through Ben's mind then, memories. [I've had you and Ben, I've done a lot of good for a lot of people. I've learned a lot. I've loved a lot.]
Theri's thoughts were full of smiles. [I'm not afraid to die either, love. I've been there twice already. This world, this life, is only one side of things. We go on from here. I can think of no greater compassion than to allow myself to go back into the Force so that whatever I am can be given to new creation.]
[So is that sacrifice again?]
A long pause and Ben sensed Theri was thinking. [Yes. Willing sacrifice.]
[ 'Where we had thought to be alone, we will be with all the world,' ] Kee repeated softly to her.
[Yes.]
An awed, peaceful, accepting silence from both of them then. Ben felt tears begin to slide out of his eyes.
Finally, when that odd vast silence had grown too much for him to bear, he moved. The hand that was tangled in Kee's on the broad chest splayed and pressed lightly, and before Kee could react Ben Sent a gentle command into his surprised mind. [Sleep, beloved.]
Kee dropped off without another thought, falling swiftly into the emptiness of sleep, his mind going quiet and dark.
Ben shook with silent tears for several long minutes, his heart breaking into a million pieces, feeling betrayed. Betrayed and angry at these two he loved with all his heart. Did they think he couldn't bear the knowledge? No. He knew better. They were afraid he would disregard his duty to save them.
And like them, he would have to make the sacrifice willingly. Because the "right" thing to do was to let them go. They had accepted this, they were at peace with it. Who was he to question their choices or... He stopped as the inevitable thoughts rushed through his mind. Who was he to influence them?
But he had not made this choice. He had not made the choice to allow his lifemates to die.
He looked into his soul and asked himself what he should do.
Long minutes passed as he questioned himself, cleared his mind so that the Force could speak to him. Asked himself if what he wanted to do was in any way Dark. Was it selfish to wish to spare yourself a lifetime of pain and anguish? Was it wrong to go against someone's wishes if death would be the result? Especially those you loved? How could he ever be a decent father for Benji if he was emotionally crippled for the rest of his life?
How could he go on living if Kee and Theri did not share that life with him? Even without the true lifebond twining them together in the soul and in the Force he knew he would never again feel complete without Kee and Theri beside him.
The choice was simple. Let go and watch them die. Or somehow find a way for them to live and possibly deal with the Dark later on, possibly something much worse, as payment or punishment for dodging fate?
"There's more to justice than turning away and more to love than letting go," he said softly to himself, to Kee, to the universe, to the Force.
He snuggled against Kee's back for a long moment as he wiped away the tears that had escaped. Then he slid out of bed and reached for his clothes. Moments later he was sitting down at the viewscreen at the tiny desk beside the bed and calling up schematics and blueprints.
"Everyone get to your ships!" Padme said with a snap of command in her voice as the doors at the far end of the main hangar from the palace opened at last at R2-D2's electronic commands. Her pilots scrambled to obey, running the hangar's length to reach the graceful twin-engined, long-tailed starfighters arrayed in a neat line down one side of the vast hangar bay. Astromech droids were quickly deployed to take up their accustomed places in the droid niches of the fighters. The Queen, once more dressed as a handmaiden in a dark maroon velvet version of a Nubian military outfit, led her small contingent of guards toward the hangar entrance that led to the palace. Her handmaiden Sabe, dressed in the royal trappings of the embattled Queen complete with white face paint and elaborate hairstyle, nodded to her true Queen as she too led a small group to a side entrance intending to infiltrate the palace from the servants' quarters.
Kee and Ben swept along at her side, completely alert, scanning all around them for signs of danger. "Ani, you'd best find your hiding place now," Kee said absently to the boy.
Anakin nodded and scampered over to one of the starfighters, swarming up the ladder and dropping into the open cockpit with a grin at the Jedi. R2 rolled underneath the starfighter and the little ship extended clamping arms down over the little droid and hauled him up into the fighter's droid niche. R2 let out a whistle that sounded like a startled squawk.
"Where are you going?" Anakin asked as he watched the group continue on toward the palace entrance.
"You stay in that cockpit!" Kee admonished.
"But --"
"Stay in that cockpit!" Kee repeated with a look at the boy that would accept no arguments. Anakin subsided back into the pilot's seat with a last worried look at Padme and the Jedi.
The group came to the palace entranceway but before Panaka could reach out to touch the doorpanel the door opened on it's own.
Waiting for them was Darth Maul.
And Kee felt time and fate snap into place with the solid ring of truth.
Maul reached up to put back the hood of his black cloak, and his eyes locked with Kee's.
"We'll handle this," Kee heard himself saying.
"We'll take the long way around," Padme agreed as she motioned for her guards to step away.
Everything else seemed to drop away into some realm of irrelevancy as Kee and Maul stood for a full ten seconds staring into each other's eyes. Then with fluid precision Maul and Kee and Ben all shed their cloaks and tossed them aside.
Maul brought his double lightsaber up and both blades ignited at once.
Kee found his own lightsaber in his hand then, heard the answering hissing hum as Ben's lightsaber powered up beside him.
[Beloved,] Kee Sent with one last desperate loving caress in his heart and soul, [This is it.]
[I'm ready,] Theri answered. [Forever together beyond time, beloved, come what may.]
And the battle was joined.
Ben jumped back as Maul rushed forward at him in an unexpected move, the orange lightsaber slashed directly at Ben's eyes. He moved without thought, his saber moved in a white flash to spin the point of the Sith's blade away a second before it connected and Ben reached for the Force and let himself relax into the double-time rhythm of Maul's flying blades. The drone and clash of lightsabers filled the hangar, bouncing in wild echoes off the polished marble walls, joined a moment later by the concussion of blaster cannons firing from one of the remaining starfighters as the other ships raced off on their appointed mission. Destroyer droids across the hangar flew to pieces as the blaster shots hit. Padme and her group were even now disappearing inside a stairwell doorway as the destroyers exploded. Dimly Kee realized the blaster shots had come from the ship where Anakin was hiding, and then all other considerations were dismissed as he whirled to the fight, rushing at Maul from the side to distract him from Ben.
The Force tugged and pulled and howled around them all, the twinned halves of the true Force raging as the Jedi and Sith lightsabers slashed and parried and stabbed in a whirlwind of energy and rasping sound. Maul drew them back, drew them away, rushed at Ben and forced him to give ground, whirled and attacked Kee then, the orange blades a whizzing bright solid wheel of fire. The growling Sith's eyes darted between one and the other, his focus perfectly divided between the younger Knight and older Master, drawing them step by step down the length of the hangar, forcing the two to all but chase him.
[No, Master, stand your ground! Don't let him draw you into a running fight!] Ben Sent hurriedly as Kee was driven further away from him toward the door halfway down the hangar wall.
Maul must have felt the Sending pass him because he whirled away from Kee and dived at Ben, snarling wolflike in rage. Ben let the Force carry him through the flurry of parry and slash and parry again as the orange blades struck seemingly faster than thought, felt the buzzing tingle of blade energies sizzle across his face as the blades whirled far too close. Ben backed quickly, drawing the Sith back the way they'd come, but the moment Maul realized he was being led he backflipped and was suddenly lashing at Kee again. Ben charged back into the fight, running the few yards toward the wiry form in Sith black. Just as he reached saber range Maul swept his lightsaber behind him and Ben swept his own blue saber down to bat the blade away, trying to snap his own blade around for a disarm. With a growl Maul jumped from between the two Jedi, flipped in mid-air and came down facing them again. In a blur of motion the Sith was leaping at them in pantherine rage in utter silence, his double lightsaber held out before him horizontal, intending to drive the Jedi before him.
Ben and Kee reacted simultaneously, leaping up and over the oncoming blades, also flipping to land feet first, the Force carrying them up and over the Sith's head. Just as the two landed just behind Maul the Sith dropped into a sweep kick and knocked Ben's feet out from under him. Ben yelped and landed in a heap, then rolled instantly as the orange blade stabbed toward his throat.
Maul thrust out a hand and a nearby bit of destroyer droid flew up from the floor, across the intervening space, and hit the doorpanel of the doorway Maul had been herding the them toward.
Ben cursed inwardly as he jumped to his feet, following as Kee ran after the Sith. Well, there went Plan A: Standing Your Ground in the Hangar.
They passed through the open doorway into the power station of the palace, the hydrogenerators on the floor dozens of yards below them. The door from the hangar led onto a a broad catwalk and a series of control gantries at irregular intervals along the walls. It was mostly dark, only the diffuse light of the massive bundles of fiberoptic cables snaking from floor to ceiling in the center of the room and the flickering lights of the control panels. It was a cavernous, huge room, fully three or four times the not-inconsiderable size of the hangar bay behind them. In the distance Ben could glimpse other catwalks cris-crossing the airspace above and below him.
They found themselves fighting on one of the control gantries, the metal deckplates beneath them shuddering under the strain of a pitched battle. The interrupted pulse of the fight resumed, the two Jedi bracketting the Sith between them, attacking as they always had in synchrony, moving together as two halves of a whole. They had perfected this dance long since in years of trust and the Force, years of practice and battle shared. Ben knew how Kee would move as well as he knew how he himself would move in any given moment in response to any given attack or defense.
How long had they fought as equals? Ben asked himself. How long had he guarded his Master from harm?
What would he do so that dance would continue?
Would he risk the unknown future for his own happiness?
Maul was not the only one who could risk and win.
The Sith gathered himself and leaped off the control gantry to the nearest catwalk, flipping as he jumped to land facing them again. Simultaneously Ben and Kee ran and jumped after him, green and blue blades twisting in the air in graceful loops. The moment they landed Ben was springing at the Sith, determined to spare his Master's energy as much as he could. Maul laughed, the crazed sound echoing eerily in the gigantic space, as the young Jedi's blue blade was blocked and knocked aside at every point. The wild grating crackle of the lightsabers crashing together only punctuated the roar of the Force that fought for control of the three. The Light and Dark personified, given form, by the Jedi and Sith who fought so furiously for fate, for control, for hope, for survival.
It's not Jinn and Kenobi against Maul, Kee realized. It's the Light and the Dark themselves, using us, controlling us, bringing us to this point in time.
Maul and Kenobi and Jinn were irrelevant. This was a battle of faith. A battle of the powers themselves.
He opened his mind to the Force as never before, trusting as he never had, and felt it surge at his invitation, taking his body along for the ride.
Maul sensed the change and snarled at the big Jedi Master, turned and began his running fight again, taunting Ben to follow him out onto the catwalk.
Kee rushed forward and the howling green blade was suddenly everywhere at once, striking with inhuman quickness, the fluid motion and wild grace stunning to watch. Ben gulped as his Master ran past him in a blur of motion after Maul, the green blade streaking yellow afterimages in the air. Ben ran after to take his accustomed place at Kee's side.
Maul hissed and divided his attention again easily, and the double lightsaber never wavered in the oscillations between attack on one and then the other. The feral gleam in the yellow eyes was that of a blood-maddened tiger, the moves still as quick and steady as when they'd begun. In another unexpected move Maul suddenly freed one hand from his saber's grip and backhanded Ben across the face, knocking the younger Jedi from the edge of the catwalk to fall several dozen yards to the catwalk below, and Ben's lightsaber was knocked out of his hand as he fell.
Ben fell hard on his back and for several long agonizing seconds he was sure he'd broken his spine. He couldn't move, everything hurt, he couldn't breathe. Then he opened himself a little more to the Force and it broke through him like an ocean wave, surging strength and energy through muscle and bone. Only stunned, only had the breath knocked out of him. He was on his feet in an instant and his lightsaber flew back into his hand as he Lifted it from where it had clattered to the catwalk some few yards away. Then he sighted on the catwalk far above and the glow of green and orange tossing fitfully, moving away quickly along the catwalk.
[No! Beloved, wait for me!] Ben Sent desperately. He doubted he'd even reached Kee, they were already out of his range. So he gathered the Force around him and jumped.
The taste of blood in his mouth as he landed lightly on the catwalk and his saber came to life again in his hand. He wiped his hand across his mouth and it came away streaked with blood. He'd bitten through his lip when he'd fallen. He tossed his braid to his back and raced off after his lifemate and the Sith, toward the tall doorway into the melting pit section of the power station. He had to reach them before Kee got past the first energy barrier.
Ben turned off his saber and ran for all he was worth, let the Force in so that he raced in a sort of time-slowed blur of motion, far too fast for human eyes to follow, racing headlong toward that flash of emerald green blade.
He hit Maul with all the momentum of his Force-enhanced run, tackling the Sith past not only the first but the second energy barrier just as the gates began to cycle as they tripped the sensors that started the sequence.
As he wrestled away from the enraged Sith, Ben wondered idly if this was in fact his own day to die, not Kee and Theri's.
Blue and orange blades clashed, tangled, and the dance began anew, white-clad Jedi against black-clad Sith. Light against Dark.
While Kee, caught outside two glowing amber energy walls and ten yards of empty air, watched helplessly as his apprentice fought for his life.
[This wasn't supposed to happen this way,] Theri Sent slowly, softly, sounding stunned.
[What's this, beloved?] Kee asked breathlessly as he hauled air into straining lungs.
[Something's changed. This wasn't supposed to happen like this. I don't know *how* it was supposed to happen, but...this isn't it.] Theri's mindvoice was the merest whisper, washed with the Force, a caress on frazzled nerves and thoughts.
[Master!] Ben Sent frantically as he ripped his lightsaber up, down, right, up again parrying Maul's furious attacks. [The barriers have a five second open window! They're set to go down in sequence! When you see the emitters start to turn inward, get ready to run!]
[Understood!] Kee Sent back, bouncing on his toes as he rivetted his eyes to the energy emitters within the massive doorframe, trying to ignore for the moment the frantic battle sending fitful shadows and streaks of light onto the floor below him.
The emitters began to turn on their servos, and Kee was through the opening barrier in an instant, flashing forward at the snarling Sith Lord, lightsaber slicing upward in a vicious draw cut, nearly knocking the double lightsaber out of Maul's hands.
But the green blade was no longer so steady as it had been, the fluid economy of Kee's movements was becoming rougher, heavier. Ben noticed it at once and knew Kee was getting tired, worn down by the running frenetic battle.
Maul sensed it too and turned his full attack on Kee as the second barrier resolved again behind them, locking them in the equivalent of a saber cube, a ten meter span of space bounded by two amber walls of energy and the blank duralanium walls of the corridor.
Ben ducked under Maul's sideways slash at waist level, popped up again inside the Sith's guard and his blade hissed through black silk only as Maul jerked himself away at the last moment from a strike that would have sliced through his left arm. At the same moment Kee looped his blade around the orange scintillant fire and wrenched upwards, but Maul growled a tigerlike snarl at the Jedi Master and turned the momentum around, whirling the blade around one handed, slicing downward toward Kee's head. Ben yelped and reversed his grip, and Maul staggered back as the saber pommel struck him just over the ear. The Sith hissed loudly and shook his head violently, backing away, spinning his saber menacingly at the two Jedi as they advanced as one on the disoriented Sith Lord.
The energy barriers began cycling again, and Maul straightened abruptly and flung himself across the intervening distance straight at Kee in a relentless barrage of luminescent deadly strikes, the afterimages of the double blades weaving a sphere of yellow energy around the dark figure inside.
But Kee was no longer in the Sith Lord's path. He was across the floor and through the last two barriers of the melting pit corridor in one streak of Force-powered run. Ben saw him move, felt himself drawn after as the Force tugged him forward--
--and felt himself smash against the last barrier as it snapped into glowing existence in his path. He let out a startled yell at the unexpected impact and bounced away from the energy wall, his skin sizzling at the electic crackle of static discharges.
Maul and Kee fought just beyond the auroral cycling energies of the barrier, the drone of the lightsabers strangely distorted, their forms tinted in sepia gloom by the amber color. For a moment Ben wiped the blood away from his bitten lip as he watched Kee fight, watched the slowing movements, saw the fatigue creeping into that beloved form, the endless energy and power of the leeching Dark that Maul pulled in to enhance his own strength. Throwing out a mental "hand" to his Master, he brought the Force surging around him and channeled it all into the mind and soul of his lifemate.
[My -- thanks, love,] Kee Sent raggedly. [But I fear it will be in vain.]
[Never!] Ben snapped back at him. With that he searched the walls of the melting pit room, focussing away from the fight, away from the danger his lifemate was in, away from the deadly lunge and parry and slowly dwindling strength. There should be --
--there. Yes. He reached with his mind for the emergency cut-off for the barriers --
Just as Maul whirled himself inside Kee's overextended guard --
"NO!" Ben screamed and his hand shot out --
-- And Maul and Kee both flew across the room in one irresistable, unstoppable tidal wave of Force, the power of the Lift so great it crushed all Maul's ribs even as it flung him bodily into the melting pit, Kee skidding over the edge an eyeblink later, caught in the edge of the bolt of psi-energy that exploded like a shockwave from his lifemate's mind.
A moment of stunned shock that screamed in Ben's mind like an eternity of agony and he flung out his hand again toward the barrier cut-off.
He flung himself toward the pit, dived to the floor and crawled to look down over the edge.
Kee hung from a tiny ledge by one hand, some fifteen feet down the wall of the pit. Far below already, his lightsaber clanked and clattered off the walls of the pit that plunged some five thousand feet into the bedrock of the planet, falling to smash somewhere far below in the darkness.
Maul's weak screams were receding into that darkness already.
With a choked cry Ben brought the Force surging around him again, sent his Lifting talent in a shell of Force-cushioned strength around his Master's dangling body, and Kee was moving up out of the pit in a blink of motion.
It was then that Ben saw he'd been a fraction too late.
A neat hole was burned through the ivory silk and linen of Kee's tunic, high on his chest, through the ribs and lung beneath, out through the bone of his shoulderblade.
"No, no no no," Ben whimpered as he lowered Kee to the floor and was on his knees beside his lifemate in an instant. "No, I won't lose you like this, I won't lose you --" He began pulling at Kee's belt and sash to get the tunics off, to get to the injury, to somehow do something, anything --
Kee caught his hands in trembling fingers, gasping in pain. [No ...no, Ben. Don't. It's -- it's my time...]
"The hell it is, Jinn!" Ben yelled at him angrily. "Damn you, you are *not* going to die, I will *not* let you die, you are *mine!* "
[ No, Ben, it's -- Theri --saw this would happen...]
"I know, I heard you talking about it last night," Ben snapped as he got the tunic pulled away. The cauterized hole was burned black through lung tissue and he could see the neatly severed ribs, feel the frantic hitch of breath as Kee tried to breath. "It's only a hole burned through your lung and ribs, you'll be fine with some time in a bacta tank!"
[Wishful thinking, beloved.]
Ben took hold of Kee's sweaty face, forced the bleary, pain-filled eyes to focus on him. [I am not letting you two go, Kee. I refuse to live half alive. I didn't choose this sacrificial lamb riff you and Theri think you've got to do. Six months ago you accepted me as your lifemate in all but the last bonding. If you must die then either we go together or not at all.] He swallowed, took a deep breath, prayed he knew what he was doing, and called the Force around him with everything he had and everything he was, calling on it as he'd never called before. [Now! It's time, my loves. Do it now or I will do it for you!]
[No! No, Ben! Don't --]
But Ben was already sending the Force streaming through his mind and hands and heart and soul, flooding through memory and love. Seeking through the years of faith and companionship, through the more recent discoveries of passion and the liquid need of lust. Past that to the bedrock of the twined soul, reaching for all that was Qui-Gon Jinn and Theri bel Kaitryn, touching, claiming. And in return, offering all that he was, all he would ever be, all he ever wanted to be, to the weakening, fading doubled soul that he could not, would not, live without.
Ben could dimly feel himself shaking with the energies that were burning away every defense he had ever put up around himself and his true feelings, could feel the pulse of his own blood in his veins as he held the elusive threads of his lifemates' souls in his heart and hands. But they were fading, pulling him toward the darkness, toward the emptiness --
[Qui-Gon Jinn and Theriyah bel Kaitryn, I choose you as my lifemates, forever and always touching and being touched, in soul and spirit and body, from this moment forward and throughout all time and beyond time, so long as anything remains of my soul,] Ben Sent in a whisper, his last best hope to turn the tide of their determination to die. [I promise you I will always be with you, no matter where the road may lead. Even into death if that is where you are meant to go.]
Silent white fire, then, and they knew nothing more.
For some unknown, unmeasurable time there was nothing but the white blankness, and then the formless oblivion of deep healing trance. Gradually the realization of incompleteness began to make itself felt, growing stronger.
Then the darkness changed again with an awareness of time to a normal deep entranced sleep. A sleep fought against as consciousness began to stir from the void into which it had dissolved.
Then all at once the frantic retching and coughing as bacta fluid was forcibly rejected from newly regenerated lung tissue and the sudden instinctual fear of drowning was overwhelming in it's intensity.
Ben and Theri awoke screaming and thrashing as the healers hauled Kee out of the bacta tank.
It was dawn on Naboo. A new beginning.
Part 15
Archive