| Title: Silent Nights (Part Two) Author: Ginger Ninja ***** Obi-Wan smiled at the parents as they handed their tiny baby girl over to him. She had a little jet-black hair on her head and blue eyes that were so dark they were nearly pitch black as well. "She's a beautiful baby," Obi-Wan said, allowing the baby to grasp his finger. "Her name is Leezal Kins," the mother said, a loving tone in her voice. "I'm sure she'll grow up to be a beautiful woman." Obi-Wan grinned as the baby made sounds to herself as she sucked contentedly on Obi-Wan's index finger. "I'm sure she will." Leezal bit down hard suddenly and although she didn't have any teeth, it was enough for Obi-Wan to pull his finger away and keep it well away from the babies mouth. After a fairly short, yet emotional goodbye, Obi-Wan and Leezal left, Leezal now clutching a new dark brown wookie cuddly toy and Obi-Wan carrying a small bag of baby 'necessities'. Obi-Wan didn't bother explaining that such things as nappies and baby clothes were not required; Leezal would have plenty of such things at the cr�che in the Temple. The baby was making content sounds as she gazed up at Obi-Wan from her blankets. Obi-Wan tickled the little girl with the Force and she giggled gleefully. Obi-Wan laughed himself as he strapped Leezal into the baby seat in the back seat of the speeder. As Obi-Wan stepped into the driver's seat, he kept on eye on the girl as she sucked her thumb, clutched her new wookie and continued to giggle. Obi-Wan started up the engine and pulled out of the speeder-lot, all the while keeping a close eye on not only the road but also the baby in the back. The baby dropped her wookie and began to wail. /This is why I never help out in the cr�che/ Obi-Wan thought as he desperately tried to think of a way to calm the screaming child. Turning in his seat, he attempted to make eye contact with Leezal but she was twisting and turning so much in her seat that her head kept moving as well. Sighing, Obi-Wan reached out with the Force and used it to levitate the bear back up to the girl. Obi-Wan floated it around in front of Leezal, hoping to distract her. It worked only too well as Obi-Wan not only distracted Leezal, but himself as well. Leezal cried out in delight and tried to grab the wookie that was flying in front of her face. Obi-Wan turned to make sure she got a good grip on it and when he turned back, he found himself heading on a collision course with a taxi. He grabbed the controls and turned a hard right, managing to avoid the taxi, only to find himself heading straight into a building. Letting out a curse, Obi-Wan turned the speeder to the left but caught the building just above the engine. Leezal was screaming again but Obi-Wan had no time to worry about the little girl. Right now he had to land this speeder safely or end up killing them both. The speeder headed for the ground with frightening velocity. Obi-Wan managed to slow it down enough as he crashed down under an old bridge. His head slammed into the control panel and the last thing he was aware of was Leezal's screaming. /Let her be all right,/ he thought and then he lost consciousness. ***** Qui-Gon sipped at a mug of coffee as he sat on the couch in the main room of his and Obi-Wan's small apartment, gazing thoughtfully at the datapad in his hand. Names of Jedi who had left the Order or had not been taken as Padawans were listed on the pad and Qui-Gon was studying each one intently. A pair of names caught his eye. Jay'ro and Maari... Before Qui-Gon could read their surname, he felt a disturbance in the Force, coming from his bond with Obi-Wan. //Obi-Wan?// Qui-Gon called but he received no reply. Sighing worriedly, Qui-Gon stood up. If Obi-Wan wasn't replying, then something had to be wrong. What was it with Obi-Wan? Was he fated to almost constantly injure himself? Was that it? Reaching out with the Force, Qui-Gon gained a fairly accurate reading on Obi-Wan's position. Although their bond was silent, it was open enough for Qui-Gon to locate Obi-Wan. Leaving the report behind, Qui-Gon left the apartment and went down to where Mace Windu resided. "Qui-Gon!" Mace said with a grin as he opened his apartment door. "To what to I owe the pleasure my friend?" Qui-Gon smiled but the expression did not reach his eyes. He was too worried. "I need to use you speeder." ***** "Uh." Obi-Wan blinked and his eyes slowly focused on the world around him. Somehow he was lying on the ground outside the speeder. "How did I get out here?" he asked himself as he sat up. Looking around, he could barely see anything in the darkness. He was under an old bridge, struts sticking out of the ground all around him. There were no sounds other than the creaking of metal in the hissing wind and drip dripping of water echoing around. Obi-Wan couldn't see the sky. He couldn't even see the underside of the bridge he was under. Everything a few metres away were lost in the shadows. "It wasn't this dark when I went out this afternoon..." Obi-Wan muttered to himself, gently touching a lump on his head. Was it nighttime already? He gasped as he suddenly remembered why he had gone out in the first place. "Leezal!" Obi-Wan reached out with the Force, trying to feel the life force of the little girl. He felt it just to the north. Obi-Wan started forward but stumbled on something sticking out of the ground. Bending down and squinting in the darkness, Obi-Wan realised it was his lightsaber. It took some effort to pull it out but he managed it. This was getting weirder and weirder. How had his lightsaber ended up buried in the ground? Shaking his head... "Ow!"...and only regretting it, Obi-Wan carried on walking forward, slightly more cautious now. His foot banged against something else. This time it was Leezal's wookie toy. He picked it up and carried it as well. The nearer Obi-Wan got to where he could feel Leezal's presence, the louder her cries suddenly became. "Hang on Leezal!" Obi-Wan called out, hoping to let the girl know she wasn't alone. "I'm coming for you!" Obi-Wan made it back to the speeder...or rather what was left of the speeder. The front was completely ruined, crunched up like a piece of paper that had been tossed into the trash. The back was slightly more recognisable and that was where Leezal's cries seemed to be coming from. /Makes sense really,/ Obi-Wan thought as he started towards the back half of the car. /Leezal was strapped in back there./ "Be wary of that one..." Obi-Wan started in surprise, his heart pounding. "Hello?" he called out into the impenetrable darkness. "Is somebody out there?" Leezal's screams grew more disturbed as a something began to pound on the structure above them. Obi-Wan felt icy fear tingle down his spine and the hairs on the back of his neck rose in response. "Just your usual Coruscant type noise," he tried to reassure himself. "Nothing to worry about." The nearer Obi-Wan got to the speeder, the louder the pounding became, as if thousands of people were marching above his head. It was a precise rhythm as well, not just random footfalls. /Sounds like an army/ Obi-Wan thought. Shaking his head, he continued towards Leezal. "No! Beware!" "Beware!" "Who's out there?" Obi-Wan yelled into the dark abyss that seemed to be pressing in on him as he approached the wrecked speeder. Obi-Wan focused entirely on Leezal's cries of distress, failing to notice the darkness spreading until only the car was strange light that seemed to be coming from nowhere in particular. None of this featured in Obi-Wan's mind as he reached into the back seat and freed Leezal. As he undid the straps, he took a look at where he had been sitting. It was crashed up beyond recognition. The chair was practically part of the controls now. Both parts of the speeder were indistinguishable from each other. If he had still been sitting there... Obi-Wan pulled Leezal free. "Hush baby hush," he whispered soothingly but to no avail. Leezal only grew more disturbed. Obi-Wan pulled himself fully out of the speeder and turned back to where he had come from, noticing the oppressive darkness for the first time. Feeling suddenly claustrophobic, Obi-Wan sought out a spot of light that could show him the way out. No light. No way out. Leezal's screams became louder, impossibly loud. How could something so tiny make so much sound? Leezal latched on to Obi-Wan's hand with her own tiny pair and pulled it towards her mouth. She bit down hard, and Obi-Wan yelped in surprise and drew his hand back reflexively without thinking. His one arm was not enough to support Leezal and she fell to the ground, hitting it with a sickly thud. Everything fell silent in the same instant. There was no more pounding from above. It was as if the darkness itself was holding its breath in anxious anticipation. "Oh no..." Obi-Wan bent down to feel around for the now silent infant "Leezal?" his voice wavered with fear. Obi-Wan's hands brushed against something smooth and warm. Obi-Wan could feel the baby's body underneath the clothes. Using the Force, he checked for injuries. There were none. With the Force, he checked for a life force. There wasn't one. Obi-Wan's face, if anyone could've seen it, showed an expression of pure horror. Blindly, he felt for the girl's pulse. As soon as his hands left the clothes, his fingers came into contact with something cold, hard and smooth. Frowning, Obi-Wan picked up the body in his hands. With Force enhanced vision, he realised that he wasn't holding Leezal. He was clutching a very old, fragile doll that had an eye missing and all it's hair torn out. The doll wore no clothes. That was strange. Hadn't he just felt the clothes beneath his fingers? The silence began to dissipate. The pounding returned, louder, faster. The voices returned, screaming, shrieking. The baby doll in his hands began to cry in its synthetic voice. "Mama!" it wailed. "Mama! MAMA!" The darkness let up a bit and Obi-Wan got to look at the doll clutched in his hands. The doll's head turned to face Obi-Wan. It looked exactly like Leezal, only it was a doll. "It's coming," the doll said in a low voice, moving in a frighteningly life-like way. "It's coming for you Obi-Wan Kenobi." Thick blood oozed out of the doll's mouth as it continued to weep real tears. Obi-Wan dropped the doll in shock. It shattered the moment it hit the ground but the sound was lost in all the other loud booming and yelling. It's crying didn't stop and became like those of the real Leezal. They grew louder, like all the other sounds around Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan clamped his hands over his ears but the sounds continued to hurt his ears. The darkness pressed in on him further as Obi-Wan felt the Darkness heading for him. "Beware!" "MAMA!" Falling to his knees, Obi-Wan squeezed his eyes closed. He prayed to the Force that the Darkness would not get him. /Sitting here won't help!/ Obi-Wan sprung to his feet and ran blindly into the abyss. The marching behind him became faster as it chased him. The cries fell silent much to Obi-Wan's relief but the darkness didn't let up. It chased him relentlessly. Objects became visible around him. A wall, a door, a window. It was the Temple. Obi-Wan didn't dare look back, he knew what was coming and he knew how it would end. Knowing he couldn't escape on his own, he screamed through the Force. //MASTER!// Then It pounced. ***** "Qui-Gon Jinn I do believe you are getting soft in your old age!" Mace Windu declared as Qui-Gon told him about Obi-Wan's lie-in. The pair of Masters were heading to where Qui-Gon felt Obi-Wan was in the speeder that was Mace's pride and joy. "Oh please Mace, I am not soft. Obi-Wan deserved a lie-in. He hasn't been sleeping lately," Qui-Gon replied sighing. "Nightmares." Qui-Gon explained Obi-Wan's nightmares to Mace as best he could. "He doesn't tell me much," Qui-Gon admitted. "But I know this is disturbing him greatly. I just wish he would talk to me." "Maybe he's too afraid," Mace informed his friend without taking his eyes off the lane ahead. "Maybe it has something to do with you and he's afraid to admit it. Or maybe he just doesn't want to upset you." Qui-Gon looked thoughtful and didn't reply. Could that be it? Could Obi-Wan's dreams contain something that involved Qui-Gon? "Turn off here and head for that bridge down there," Qui-Gon said absently, his eyes staring but not seeing. /When I find Obi-Wan, I'm going to make sure he tells me what's going on./ //MASTER!// "Obi-Wan!" Qui-Gon jerked forward in his seat. //Obi-Wan?// "Qui? What is it?" Mace finally looked at Qui-Gon now there wasn't so much traffic around. "I don't know Mace but we have to find Obi-Wan soon. Something is very wrong." Mace nodded his agreement and on Qui-Gon's call, he landed his speeder in front of an old bridge. Qui-Gon was out of the speeder before Mace had the engine switched off. Qui-Gon didn't need his senses now; he could see his Padawan's wrecked speeder up ahead. He could hear the cries of a baby coming from the wreck and wasted no time in rushing over, Mace close behind with a first aid kit. Qui-Gon saw Obi-Wan unconscious in the driver's seat. Qui-Gon's eyes widened as he saw how wedged in the teenager was. His legs were trapped under an unrecognisable mess of metal. Using the Force, Qui-Gon began the painstaking task of freeing his apprentice. Mace came over, saw Qui-Gon taking care of Obi-Wan and then looked at the screaming baby and found that she had no visible injuries, much to his relief. He took the baby out of her seat and began to calm her down. Leezal was proving to be very uncooperative so Mace was forced to use a Force suggestion to put the terrified baby to sleep. "Mace I need a hand!" Qui-Gon called to his friend. Mace put Leezal in the back of his speeder and then went over to assist Qui-Gon. Qui-Gon was holding a piece of trashed speeder up with the Force and the strain was showing. Without needing to be told, Mace pulled Obi-Wan out of the seat and away from the speeder. Qui-Gon relinquished his hold on the metal and bent down by his Padawan and checked his injuries. Nothing too serious thankfully. His legs weren't broken and all he had was a concussion. It was a miracle Qui-Gon was eternally grateful for. "No!" Obi-Wan suddenly cried out and his eyes snapped open. "Master? What? Where am I? Where's Leezal? I didn't mean to... I mean something happened! Master I didn't mean to kill Leezal! I'm so sorry!" Mace and Qui-Gon shared a confused look. "Obi-Wan," Qui-Gon made eye contact with his distressed Padawan. "Leezal is fine. She's not dead, you didn't kill her, and she's in Mace's speeder." "No! It's just a trick being played on you! I killed her! I did! But...but it was an accident! She...she bit me and I was surprised and there was something coming for me and..." Obi-Wan ranted on but Qui-Gon silenced him. "He's confused Qui-Gon," Mace told his friend. "He's got a concussion." "Obi-Wan calm down," Qui-Gon said. "You're safe now. You're just confused." The Master turned to Mace. "Let's get him home." Mace nodded and stood up. Qui-Gon calmed his apprentice through their bond. Obi-Wan was on the verge of unconsciousness when he muttered: "It's coming for me Master. The Darkness is coming for me." ***End Part Two*** |
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