AN: Two in one day. I'm spoiling you all. Eh, it makes up for the last few months of silence.

Chapter 6: Give 'Em Whiplash

Inside the security room, Micah was hugging her knees to her chest in the chair, watching the slaughter of the patients that couldn't escape the halls. Her hands were clasped tightly together to stop them from shaking. Despite this, she was still watching, unable to tear her gaze away from the morbid scene in front of her.

Her comm clicked on, and Xariek's quiet voice sounded, loud in the small, silent room.

"Hey… how's it looking?"

"Fucking massacre." Micah replied, voice breaking with grief in the middle.

There was a pause, the silence hanging between the two girls for a long moment. After a minute, Micah broke the quiet, eyes still glued to the slaughter before her.

"Xariek… what if we can't defend the temple?"

"Don't be like that, of course we can."

"But Vader-!"

"But nothing. The temple is our home, the home of every single Jedi. There's nowhere else to go if we don't have the temple. Abandoning it isn't an option, alright?"

"…Alright."

"Hey. Chin up love. We can turn this around. We're us, we always manage to make it work. Now, we haven't checked on the crèche sector in a while, how are we looking there?"

Micah straightened up again, dropping her feet back to the floor, and finally looked away from the halls of healing footage, deftly switching the feeds around.

"Right. Back to work. Okay, looks like a twenty in bound from the south side…"

"And there's twenty clones heading at the crèche from the south side. They're about eight halls away, so if anyone in the area wants to go mess them up, now's your chance. Skyfucker – who I have been informed is going by Vader for those of you who think we should be a bit more mature about this – appears to be on the move, and is leaving the halls of healing with his entourage of clone trooper. I don't recommend having a go at them kids. He's heading north on the seventh floor, so if you're there, I'd advise you to not be there real fast."

Hiding under her bed, Lilly sniffled, clutching her comlink tighter in her hand. She still had heard nothing about if Keira was alright or not… but she had to be. She had to be. Sure, from the sounds of the woman on the comms, the defenders were losing ground, but Lilly's master would be fine. She was always fine.

The woman on the comms was trying to joke about things, and play them off as no big deal, but Lilly was fairly certain things weren't going well, and the knight was just trying to keep herself calm with the humour. Still, if it was working, Lilly couldn't judge, and a few of the dumb jokes had gotten a snicker out of her. Besides, the knight on the broadcast and the knight watching the cameras was the only reason Lilly knew anything about what was happening. She certainly couldn't complain about the method of delivering the only information she could receive.

"Hey, shit, those of you down in the residential areas need to be on alert, we're seeing some clones roll through, breaking down doors. I'd advise hiding and keeping your ears sharp, alright?"

As if in response, Lilly heard a thud against the door, loud and forceful. Another one followed quickly, like someone was trying to break it down.

She squeaked in fright, and shut her comm off, shoving it back into her pocket, and pulled her lightsaber into her hand, wiggling further into the shadows under her bed.

There was another thud, followed by a smash as the door gave. Men's voices floated into her room through the closed door, and she pressed a shaking hand over her mouth, trying to ensure her silence.

There was another, much louder crash as her bedroom door was kicked open, and she saw three pairs of feet enter.

"Alright, sweep the room, might be a padawan in here." One of them ordered. The other two made noises of affirmation.

"I've got under the bed, hang on." One of them said, feet right in front of Lilly's eyesight.

Thinking fast, she removed the hand from her mouth and waved it sharply, directing the Force through the gesture.

A box fell over in her closet, creating a small thump.

The feet paused, and turned as one for the closet.

"Fire?" One of them asked. Lilly quietly inched away from the wall of her bed, towards the clones, who would have their backs turned.

"Fire." The leader ordered.

Shots rang out, at the closet that she wasn't in. While they were distracted, she leapt out from under the bed, ignited her lightsaber, and sliced through all thee of them in a single, quick gesture.

The shooting stopped, and the three bodies hit the ground. Lilly's lightsaber dropped as well, slipping out of her shaking hand, the pink blade deactivating before it hitting the floor.

Her legs gave out, and she sank slowly to her knees, staring in muted horror at the bodies.

She had never killed before.

She stayed there, frozen for a long minute, taking in frightened, shaking breaths, staring widely at the bodies on her carpeted floor, and the bloodless carnage she had created, her lightsaber having cauterized instantly, as usual.

One of their comlinks turned on.

"CT 029-359, report reason for earlier blaster fire? ...Trooper, report."

Lilly squeaked again in fright, jumping to her feet, and almost bolting for the door, before halting, swaying back and forth with indecision, and seeing no good route of escape from the situation she had ended up in.

"Hang on, we're coming in there."

Those words were enough to force her hand, and caused her to run for the door, hoping to escape before she could be cornered.

The fourteen year old sprinted out of the apartment, and into the main hallway- before skidding to a stop, staring in stunned fear at the dozens of clones filling the halls.

There was the sound of blaster fire nearby, and Keira looked up sharply, wheeling around and running in the direction of it automatically, green lightsaber already out and ready.

She came around the corner and saw a group of clones firing on a padawan, and she reacted, charging in and attacking. The padawan assisted her, and between the two of them, and the surprise of Keira's arrival, the two easily dispatched the attackers.

"Are you alright padawan?" Keira called once it was over, looking over.

"Yes, I'm fine. Kids?" Aaron called, looking around.

The younglings Aaron was escorting came out from hiding around the rubble. Keira blinked in muted surprise.

"My goodness. What's a padawan doing with all these younglings? It's dangerous out here." She said with concern, brow creasing from worry for the children.

"I found them after their teacher was killed, coming from a class. I've been in contact with the two women co-ordinating the defense, Micah's told me to bring them to the council room, it's empty and she can shut down the elevator once we're up." Aaron explained offhandedly, busy counting up the children coming out of hiding. Upon reaching the correct number of children, he nodded, and gestured for them to follow, heading down the hall again.

"Wait, hold on! You're not escorting all those kids alone! Here, I'll assist you. Honestly, teenagers, trying to do everything themselves…" Keira scolded gently, following after them. Aaron paused briefly, before turning slightly red.

"Right. Yes. That makes sense-"

He was interrupted by his and Keira's comms switching on again, and both of them shut up, listening for Xariek's broadcast.

"Hey, shit, those of you down in the residential areas need to be on alert, we're seeing some clones roll through, breaking down doors. I'd advise hiding and keeping your ears sharp, alright?"

Keira sucked in a sharp breath, pulling a worried face.

"What is it?" Aaron asked, noticing her worry.

"Nothing, just worried about my apartment. Come on, we need to get the younglings to safety."

Keira walked on ahead, ignoring the teenager behind her raising his eyebrows, before following, gesturing for the children to do so as well. Her mind was occupied with greater concerns.

Namely, the fact that Lilianah was hiding in their apartment. And with the chaos in the Force, Keira wouldn't be able to feel it if she died.

There was a cold pit of fear in her stomach, but she pushed it aside. She was a Jedi master. There were things more important than her own worries.

Lilianah was strong. Keira's padawan could take after herself.

But she was still worried, so she hurried Aaron and the children the rest of the way to council chamber, thankfully encountering little difficulties along the way. Upon arriving at the lift, Aaron and the children hesitated briefly, looking at her as she hung behind slightly.

"Just comm the woman watching the cameras to turn on the lift, you'll be fine, alright? I have to go, I've got other things to attend to. May the Force be with you all." Keira said hurriedly, before sprinting off down the hall.

Aaron watched her go, eyebrows raised slightly, before shrugging, and pulling his comm out, calling Micah.

"Hey, we've reached the lift to the council room."

"Sweet, just give me a second… and, you're good to go. Head on up kids."

The doors to the lift whooshed open, and Aaron was quick to herd the younglings inside, glad to be at the end of their journey.

The lift headed up to the top, and promptly shut down again, leaving the group in the council chamber stranded, yet safe.

And at the bottom, Aaron sighed in relief, before jogging off on his own.

He still had to find his master after all.

Korin was bound to be getting worried by now.

AN: Surprise fools, Aaron is Korin's apprentice. Minor plot twist of the fuckin' century.

Anyways, so yes I am leaving Lilly's fate ambiguous on purpose. That purpose is I'm a dick. Just the worst dick. The worst dick of all. The same goes for why Ji-Lien won't be getting brought up again for a while. It's because I'm a dick.

Hey, at least the cast isn't dropping like flies yet! We've yet to hit a double death chapter. That comes later.

And, as always, I survive of constant validation, and reviews are one of my preferred forms of it. Not to be that douche, but it's a lot easier to update a story when I actually feel motivated to do it, y'know? Anyways. Feed the trash lord.