Chapter 21

Plo Koon swung his starfighter around as he saw the motionless ship of the Sith drift in space. He was still tired from the fight, but it had shown him that Darth Maul must be stopped. It was unjustifiable if he would be allowed to escape and distribute his dark arts over the galaxy. This Sith had cost the lives of enough Jedi already.

With a sad pang that he released quickly he thought about his good friends Qui-Gon Jinn and Adi Gallia. And he didn't know about Kenobi yet…but he was in good hands with Anakin and Ahsoka. Plo Koon was more useful for chasing the Sith in the moment.

He had already damaged their hyperdrive generator in the last moment before they flew away and now he would clean up the remains. He docked to the backside of the ship and entered, the Force suspiciously calm. He couldn't feel any life forms on board, and when he entered the front, he saw the problem: The cockpit was ejected, it had been reconstructed into an emergency capsule…with a hyperdrive generator, otherwise he would have seen them.

He cursed and contacted the clone ship that had followed him.

"Commander, search the area around the ship for traces of a hyperspace jump, we will follow them. They can't have much energy, it's only a small capsule."

He entered his fighter again. The clones had already found a lead and he entered the coordinates.

Plo Koon really wanted to find the two Sith, maybe more than he should. But he soon shoved these thoughts away. He would analyze them later, now was time to act.

Obi-Wan had been in a dizzy haze of half-consciousness. He should be dead by now, Maul had promised him so, but somehow, he was still alive. Although he didn't know if that was a good thing. He could barely breathe, and his already hazy thoughts were interrupted by heavy coughing fits that seemed to put his lungs over the edge.

He had heard Anakin not long ago. He must have come back to rescue him, but where was he now? He opened his eyes – or the one eye that he could open – and found himself in some kind of medical ward. He couldn't even be outraged, this time he knew that he really belonged here. And even the droids that measured things on his body only the Force knew didn't really bother him.

Obi-Wan had another coughing fit and new blood dripped down his face. He wanted to wipe it away, when he realized the hard way that his right arm had been broken earlier. He sank back with another cough.

He had inhaled Tsennax, he remembered. The victims of that agent came back to his mind. They died a cruel death, and before, they had exactly the same symptoms he had now. And they had only saved a handful that hadn't inhaled so much of it. How could he survive it? He was sure that Maul had rather given him a tenfold of the dose that would have killed a human.

His thoughts went into a dangerous spiral down when he finally saw the first living person around. And to his joy, it was Anakin.

Obi-Wan tried to sit up, but Anakin held him down.

"Easy, master. You are seriously injured. Don't move and let the droids do their work."

Anakin, where are we?, Obi-Wan tried to ask, but all he managed was more coughing and blood.

"Don't try to speak, it damages your lungs even more," Anakin tried to calm him. He must have gotten some of his thoughts with the Force, because he continued: "You're in a med-station. The healers will find a way to clear your lung, they are assessing the damage now and then you'll be healed."

Anakin's eyes betrayed him. He was full of hope, but underneath lay a seething lake of fear, because he wasn't sure if Obi-Wan would survive this ordeal either. Surely, the healers had informed him about the dire situation. Still, Anakin wanted to encourage him and Obi-Wan was thankful for that. He was calmer when he drifted back into nothingness and projected a clear Thank you towards Anakin. Anakin in return sent calming energy and a slight suggestion of sleep. His breath went slower and less painful, and his body took the chance to sleep gratefully.

Suddenly, Obi-Wan was brutally brought back to reality. Half his body was submerged in a strangely warm and sticky liquid. It had a distinctive smell and seconds later, he knew that it was bacta.

"The patient shows increased signs of vitality. What shall we do?" Obi-Wan heard a robotic voice ask as if it was an error to show signs of vitality.

"Kark," a human voice cursed, "give him a sedation and proceed, we can't stop now, it's too risky"

Sedation? And what exactly were they to proceed? His first question was answered with a hypo to the neck. And his second question was answered when he was submerged deeper into the bacta, and deeper. When only his head was left in the air and the metal clamps over his shoulders still went deeper, he wanted to protest, but he could still only cough. Why would they want to drown him? Or was it just a malfunction of the machine? Wasn't Anakin out there somewhere? And why hadn't they given him an oxygen-mask when he was about to go into bacta? Obi-Wan would have taken one last big breath before he was completely submerged, but the little air that he could save escaped in precious bubbles to the surface when he had his next coughing fit. He panicked, but he couldn't free himself. How long could it take to fix the machine? He could only hang on for some more seconds. But the metal over his shoulders wouldn't move, and still didn't move when the liquid entered his airways and blackness closed around him.

He woke up in a dark room, and he could only see washed-out silhouettes. As his vision improved, Obi-Wan recognized some of them. There were Ahsoka, Plo Koon and Anakin. Anakin looked down worriedly at Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan tried to tell him that he was ok, but he couldn't speak. He tried to get up, but Anakin wouldn't let him. He laid a hand to his shoulder to hold him down, and his other hand, the robotic one, pressed on his face and detained him from air.
Obi-Wan tried to struggle, but it was futile. Ahsoka and Plo Koon stood beside motionless, watching. Obi-Wan grasped at the hand that suffocated him and tried to wrestle it away, but the hand was suddenly of flesh, yet still relentlessly pressing. This hand was now red and black, and Maul's wild grin engrossed his field of vision completely.
He couldn't get out of this, couldn't breathe, his struggle was futile. And he sank back into complete darkness.

It was one of the roughest awakenings he had ever had. He was ripped from his warm, peaceful sleep and thrown headlong into dyspnoea. There was no room for air in his lungs, everything was full of liquid, and he coughed, gargled and retched to get it out. When he finished after what seemed to have been hours, his breathing had not improved much, his lungs were overtaxed. But he could get the air his body needed, at least the minimum. Now that he was diverted from the perspective of imminent death, he took in his surroundings.

Obi-Wan was soaking wet and only wore his pair of trousers, and worse, he had to be supported by two droids.

"Master Kenobi, are you feeling better?"

Obi-Wan's head spun to the right and he saw a familiar face. Neccar Jufo was a friendly middle-aged Jedi, although Obi-Wan saw him, due to his profession, only in unpleasant circumstances. Just like now.

And his question was a bit inept, too, since the healer had nearly drowned him in bacta earlier.

He was about to give his acid-tongued answer, when master Jufo cut him off: "Don't try to speak, your lungs are tender now, just nod or shake your head."

Obi-Wan began to grow a bad temper, the healer wanted to ban him from speaking?

"What-" he forcedly aspirated, realizing that this was the only way he could speak.

Neccar Jufo was now miffed, too. But he finally sighed and began to explain the situation.

"Master Kenobi, you've been heavily poisoned with Tsennax, a gas we both have encountered already…"

Obi-Wan remembered that Neccar had been the healer on Ard-5 that had tried to rescue the people, and his eyes were still filled with grief when he spoke of it.

"Anyway, the scans showed that the concentration of the particles in your lung was high, much too high to be cured," he looked at Obi-Wan intently and continued.

"I used highly experimental sonic waves to break up the particles, but they had to be moved out. And the only possibility was to let you inhale bacta – oxygen-enriched bacta of course, but it was the only way. I don't know why the sedative didn't work, but it seems that you require more than the standard dosage. Be it sedative or Tsennax," he ended with a humorless smile.

Obi-Wan felt more than a bit stupid, he was still smeared in bacta, his anger now subsided, realizing that the healer had done his best, while he had just been off balance and therefore panicked. It was nearly embarrassing.

He nodded his head, mouthing a weak thank you towards the healer. Neccar seemed to be satisfied with that and replaced the droid that supported him on the left. He slung Obi-Wan's undamaged arm over his shoulder and guided him to a bed.

He was back in the Jedi Temple. It hadn't crossed his mind before, but he was finally home. The relief about that and the probably still circulating sedatives in his blood made him weary. He saw Master Jufo fix a respiration mask over his mouth, but the Jedi was too exhausted to even care.

He heard voices, they were oddly bleary, but they were there. He tried to concentrate on them. Maybe he knew one of them, but he was not sure yet. An annoying voice in his head told him that he had other senses to use, and he tried to open an eye, although he would prefer the lake of peace and the Force he had floated in before. He only managed a slit before he was blinded by a light brighter than the sun of Helios. He groaned, but he couldn't hear …and then his sense of feeling came back. Sadly like a pressurized rivet hammer.
It was like every spot of his body screamed in pain. And the feeling of betrayal was somehow in his head. Obi-Wan bit on his lips and then slowly released the air. Something was wrong with his breathing. He couldn't discern it yet, but there was something attached to his mouth and nose, and he grabbed it – wanted to grab it - until he was stopped by a hand.

"Obi-Wan, you're awake. Don't fiddle with the mask, it helps you to breathe."

Anakin. That was Anakin's voice. But hadn't he tried to suffocate him? Did he want to finish the job now?

Then his thoughts settled. That had been a nightmare. During the bacta-bath that went wrong.

Anakin, he tried to speak, but he couldn't. That was frustrating. At least he managed to open his eyes and look at Anakin. He was really there, and looked utterly fit. So the torture hadn't done any lasting effect, at least not physical. Obi-Wan closed his eyes in relief.

Maul?, Obi-Wan projected through the force, and Anakin had a hard time not looking furious.

"He escaped. Plo Koon went after him, but he went off in an escape capsule that shouldn't be able to do as many jumps as it did. But we will get him, and it won't be a pleasant encounter – for him."

Anakin said that with conviction only he could have. Obi-Wan would have preferred Maul to be dealt with, too, but in the moment, the relief that he and Anakin were still alive prevailed.

Anakin might have gotten a grasp on his thoughts, for he said: "Master Jufo said the new scan of your lungs looks good, the bacta purged the rest of the Tsennax away. You'll be all right."
And the smile on Anakin's face was all he needed to know that he would really be, and that Anakin would be, too. The ordeal was over, far from forgotten, and they would need a lot of time to come in terms with all that had happened, but things were improving, and that was a welcome variety.

They had gotten out of there.

Obi-Wan's breath calmed and he drifted into peaceful and warm sleep.

Maul's breath slowed and he resisted the cold clutch of sleep for a bit longer. He had to program the last hyperspace jump, the one that would decide his and his brother's fate. He stretched out his shivering arm – damn, it was cold on the ship – and hit the last button. His relieved breath materialized before him as a cloud of small water crystals glittering in the air.

The stars around him began to blur as the ship went into hyperspace one last time. They would find themselves in a criminal territory, utterly helpless, when they would awake next, but he didn't have another option. Short of being captured by the Jedi or the Separatists, and both of these would involve interrogation and captivity, and one certain death.

He let out a weak laugh that was more a clattering of teeth. He had taken all the energy from the life support to make enough jumps that neither the Separatists nor the Jedi would find them. But the price was being half frozen until they would arrive in the Outer Rim. His brother was already unconscious and he himself soon had to give in to the cold, too.

Still, no cold would be able to exhaust his inner fire, the rage against the Jedi who crossed his plans. And there was also the satisfied fervor that he finally killed his nemesis. He could rest now and preserve his strength for later.

His breath slowed until barely noticeable and the chill stilled his body.

-End-

AN: Two years are over, and the story is finally finished. If somebody told me I would write anything from Plo Koon's POV, I would have laughed at him. I really don't know much about him, so if I made a grave mistake, let me know. Fun fact: you can't write from Plo Koon's perspective with only his first name, that sounds so weird…Anyway, I'm now finished with my first story, and I was really impressed how many of you readers commented and gave helpful thoughts. I really hope I didn't disappoint with the last chapter, so let me know what you thought of it one last time...I really plan to write another story, but it could be some time until I have it all figured out. Thank you for your support!
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