Chapter 13

No, no matter how far we've come
I can't wait to see tomorrow
No, no matter how far we've come I
I can't wait to see tomorrow
With you

-Linkin Park

Adi

I can't believe he would do this, she thought in irritation. But that was a lie; she was not surprised in the least that Qui-Gon had gone off and left without them. It was so like him. She tapped her foot; the hard edge of her boot making a sharp rap everytime it hit the ground. Kit pretended not to notice as he piloted their ship toward The Abductor, but she saw that his nautolan head tails were twitching with nervousness.

She couldn't believe the relief she had felt when the council told them to follow Qui-Gon, but "be cautious." She had told herself that she would respect their decision, but it wasn't true. As a member of the council Adi knew they were the ones who had to make the hard decisions, and at least 40 percent of the time the Jedi Knights didn't listen. But if they didn't tell them their actions were wrong, who would?

"I think we have a problem," Kit said, startling Adi. For a moment she thought that he had broken into her thoughts, and she silently scolded herself. There was no problem with the Jedi order, it had lasted thousands of years and would last thousands more.

"What is it?"

"It's The Abductor. Something has gone wrong. It's emitting some sort of malfunction, but it's hidden. If I hadn't been looking for an intruder alarm I wouldn't even have noticed the alert."

"How bad is the malfunction?"

"I don't know for sure, I can only guess."

"Kit," Adi said. As a human she was unable to read the emotions in his lidless black eyes. "How bad is it?"

"I think it's bad. I think it's really bad."

Qui-Gon

He raced down the hallway toward the medbay. I have to save the girls. Nothing else matters but their lives.

If he didn't think about it, nothing bad was happening. It wasn't the Jedi way, but he could only cope with so much that second.

He pushed open the doors, cradling the vials gently.

"Sir, do you have a pass…"

He pulled out his lightsaber and sliced the med droid in half. It wasn't necessary, but he didn't have time to deal with him or fight off any guards he might call.

"Qui-Gon?" a weak voice asked.

He looked over at the beds. It was Bant. He had always liked her. She had sensed his prescence, but he doubted that she was truly coherent.

"It's all right," he said softly, grabbing two sterilized needles out of the med supplies. "It's going to be alright."

He gently lifted up Bant's arm and inserted the syringe into her elbow's nook, pushing the liquid into her veins. She sighed, as if the serum was already working. Her skin felt dry; all the medicine in the galaxy wouldn't do much good if she didn't get moisture soon.

Qui-Gon gave Siri the antidote next; her lips and skin were both deathly white. For a split second he thought he was too late, but her eyelids started to flutter open. She glanced at him unknowingly; clearly uncertain of what was going on.

"Can you walk?" he asked, pulling her into a sitting position. "Bant hasn't had enough moisture, I'll need to carry her."

Siri stared at him for another moment before nodding weakly and sliding off the sleepcouch.

Qui-Gon lifted Bant up into his arms and Siri leaned on him as they hurried as quickly as they could down the corridor toward the hangar.

"Obi-Wan," Siri said absentmindedly, her voice weak and rasping.

A lump rose in Qui-Gon's throat. "Don't worry about him."

"Is he waiting for us?"

"No, no he's not."

Varn

"Things have not gone as I wanted. I am most displeased with you."

Varn stared down at his boots, trying not to visibly shake. "Yes, my Lord. But if given a chance…"

"No," Sidious said, his blue image fading in and out. "Come to Coruscant, do not engage Xanatos. I'm not finished with him yet."

"Coruscant, my lord?"

"Yes," he said. "I want to see you in… person." Sidious flickered out.

Varn stared at the wall where his master's image was a moment before.

Worthless, that's what you are. Worthless.

"Shut up," he shouted, covering his ears. "I'm not worthless. I'm not worthless!"

His father's disembodied voice ranted sharply, echoing of the walls. Useless. Worthless.

Varn crossed his arms tightly, trying to protect himself from the inevitable blows. They didn't come, but the voice didn't stop. Worthless. Tears fell from his eyes, covering his lavish coat, dripping on to the floor next to Gannen's dead body. In death, Gannen hadn't fought nearly as hard as the old man had, even though he had more of a reason to see it coming.

"You can't be here, I killed you. I killed you."

Sidious

As useful as Varn was Sidious always found something… disgusting about non-force sensitives. It was like painting blind or singing deaf. He couldn't fathom how they did it.

His young apprentice tried not to fidget beside him. Sidious knew that Maul had silently disapproved of this plan from the beginning, unable to see the usefulness that Obi-Wan and Xanatos presented. Maybe he had ground a little too much hatred for the Jedi into Maul.

"The girl is no longer useful to us," Sidious told to the Iridonian. "Kill her and dispose of the body. I don't want her ever found, the Naboo King has to assume that she was killed by Cad'ara."

Maul nodded, neither of them noticing the terror of the gagged and bound teenage girl. Tears ran rivers down her face as she sobbed into the cloth.

"And the Naboo King, my lord?" Maul asked.

"He will be devastated by his loss, and may never recover," Sidious conceded, always a little disappointed to lose a valuable pawn. "It's a shame, but we can't send her back. Besides," he paused as he looked out at the sunrise across the Coruscant horizon. "There's a young princess, a pretty little brunette, newly elected and fresh out of political school that I think has some potential…"

Xanatos

"I can't just leave them here, not like this."

Xanatos sighed. "Why not?" His hand rested on the side of his starship, his fingers drumming impatiently. Something was wrong, something he hadn't expected. He didn't know what it was, but he felt it through the force. Hanging there. Mocking him. "We really need to leave."

"What if he doesn't reach them in time?" Obi-Wan's voice cracked slightly.

"He will."

"But what if he doesn't?"

"I thought Jedi didn't deal in 'what ifs.'"

Obi-Wan reached up to his hairline, laying his hand on his neck where the Padawan braid used to hang. "I'm not a Jedi anymore."

Xanatos shook his head. "We can't stay here."

Obi-Wan looked back toward the medbay, his forehead creased with trepidation.

"You can't protect those you care about forever. Are you coming?"

Silence hung heavy in the air for a moment, and suddenly Xanatos was worried. Had he lost the battle afterall?

"Yes," Obi-Wan said finally. "I'm coming."

Qui-Gon

A ship was blasting out away from The Abductor as they reached the doors, and they had to wait until the blast doors shut and the hangar stabilized. Those few minutes felt like hours, but they got to Qui-Gon's ship. He gently harnessed Bant into her seat; she was still barely conscious. He turned and made sure Siri was secure before starting the flight check.

As they were leaving Qui-Gon thought he could hear the shrilling of an alarm system. It came too late; the blast doors opened and sucked all the noise and oxygen out of the hangar, and then they were spacebound. He saw another Jedi cruiser in the distance.

"Qui-Gon," a relieved yet irritated voice came over the intercomm. "What were you thinking? If you had just told us…"

She never got to finish. Behind Qui-Gon The Abductor was all lights, blinding him even though his ship's viewport wasn't facing it. A wave silently ripped through space, hitting the starship like a heavy tide and sending it spinning end over end. He heard Siri scream, just beginning to wake up from her poisoned sleep. Bant was still silent.

As they spun he saw Adi's ship in the distance, twirling from the explosion as well. The ship's alarms were whining in the background. It wasn't damaged, just frantic. Any evidence they had to bring Cad'ara down was now gone, but they would live. They had escaped just in time. The slaves hadn't, the employees hadn't. Qui-Gon briefly wondered if Obi-Wan had.

It didn't matter anyway.

To Be Concluded in Broken Love

A/N: ….So that's it for this installment. I have officially decided that I can't end the story here because no one (except maybe Xanatos, and even then he didn't get to kill Qui-Gon…) is happy, or even really content. Trilogy then. I don't know when I'm going to get the third part up, but I'd like to get most of the chapters written beforehand so I can update once a week or every other week regularly and avoid these long waits. Thanks for sticking it out with me, and I hope you guys come back for the last part.