Chapter Text
Obi-Wan then turned and continued to the anteroom. Going down a short hall to the canvas-tarp-covered doorway, he took the vibroblade from his belt and tapped a series of codes on the wall next to the curtain. After a few moments, the dirty tarp was pushed aside, and Nield—in his grimy dark-brown jumpsuit and an oversized, dark-stained frayed leather jacket, blaster in hand—appeared, followed by Cerasi in a dirt-stained dark grey jumpsuit that she’d mended as best as she could to make it fit better on her starved frame. She carried her blaster rifle as she followed Nield out of the anteroom.
“What happened? You’re supposed to be on watch-patrol right now,” Nield half-questioned half-demanded as he rubbed a dirty hand over his face, lowering his blaster to his side.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got Deila covering for me. But I’ve some important intel you need to be made aware of, and there’s a deadline, so it couldn’t wait,” informed Obi-Wan as he slipped his knife back into his belt.
Nield lowered his hand, his golden eyes narrowing at Obi-Wan’s vague answers. “Is this more of your Jedi magic crap?”
“Now, Nield, don’t be like that. You know that Obi-Wan’s powers have been a great help,” Cerasi interrupted as she shifted her rifle to her shoulder. Her greasy shoulder-length red hair was pulled into a ponytail away from her dirt-smeared, pale face. “But let’s not stand here in the hall. We’ll go to the discussion room.”
“You mean the argument room?” Nield sarcastically replied, holstering his blaster as he moved past Obi-Wan, leading them back out into the main room of the Vault. Turning left after exiting the small hallway, they followed the wall until they reached the only room that had a real door. Nield had to push hard to open the old wooden door to get it to move on its heavily-rusted hinges. Once Obi-Wan and Cerasi had entered, Nield pushed the heavy door closed so that none of the rest of the Young could hear them.
The discussion room was about ten-by-ten feet in size and bare. They didn’t know what the room had been used for, but Obi-Wan had been able to use the Force to pry it open for the first time not long after choosing to stay and protect the Young. They now used it to make decisions or argue about plans before coming to an agreement; then, they moved out into the Vault to their main planning table. While Nield had closed the door, Cerasi moved along the wall, turning on the glow-rods, they had fastened there before sitting down on a floor mat.
“Alright, Obi-Wan, spill. What did the Force do now?” Nield demanded as he sat down on his own mat, one of the three makeshift mats. They had dragged the mats into the room when they realized that sometimes it took hours to hash out an agreement between the three of them.
Obi-Wan took a lotus-position on his mat after propping his and Cerasi’s rifles against the wall, where he could face the two other leaders of the Young. “You remember that I had a vision of Melieka and Jenika not getting their limbs amputated—that they had been in a brightly lit room that looked somewhat like the Healing-Halls in the Jedi Temple, but wasn’t?” Obi-Wan asked.
“Yeah, a pipe-dream. You yourself said that your people were collared, and that it would be very unlikely that the Senate would send any aid to help us.” Nield remembered the collars that Jinn and Tahl had worn. He did not know which would have been better for Obi-Wan: going back and being a slave for the rest of his life, or dying here with a bunch of kids who didn’t want to be slaves to a war they hadn’t chosen. He couldn’t decide which was a more likely end for Obi-Wan’s choice: starvation or being cut down by an Elder.
Obi-Wan ignored Nield’s comment, used to his sarcastic-reactions to almost everything. “While I was on patrol, about to enter the C1-tunnel, I was contacted by another Jedi telepathically. You remember me talking about Master Koon?
"I know why I had that vision. He notified me that the Jedi Order are now free and that they have ships in orbit along with another group called the Vode. They’re offering aid and something else. They want to talk with the Young leaders about it in a little over two hours at the Ash Garden, as they know it’s neutral ground."
Obi-Wan gave them a summary, as Nield worked better knowing the main issues before asking for more details. Cerasi was the opposite—she liked information in detailed-sections to ensure nothing was missed—but since time was an issue, it was best to go with Nield's way of problem-solving.
Nield and Cerasi leaned forward at the news that there were ships in orbit around their planet and that the Jedi were free.
“Who are the Vode?" questioned Nield first, not liking an unknown. He had never heard of the Vode, and while he didn't trust adults, Jinn and Tahl had tried to help as much as they could, which was more than the adults and relatives on their own world had done.
Obi-Wan took a deep breath and let it out before diving into the complicated part of what Master Koon had told him. “So, Nield, you know how you asked, ‘What did the Force do now?’?” Obi-Wan asked, quoting Nield’s earlier question back at him.
At Obi-Wan’s question, Nield dropped his face into his hands and groaned in frustration before pushing both of his hands through his short, dirty, dark-black-or-brown hair and rubbing his head briskly. “I knew it!” exclaimed Nield.
“Now, Nield…” started Cerasi before being interrupted by Nield.
“Don’t ‘Now, Nield’ me! It’s bloody frustrating to be on a raid with a plan, then have it go in a totally different direction because the Force told him to go in the opposite direction of where we’re supposed to go! And yes, I know that it’s usually a good thing that it does that, but it would be nice if the Force told us that while we were planning the raid, not while we’re in the middle of one!!!” Nield argued in frustration.
“Nield, you know he can’t control when his powers tell him something or when he has a vision,” Cerasi calmly reminded him.
“Whatever. So, what did it do now?” demanded Nield, flopping back against the wall behind him with his arms crossed, giving in to whatever Obi-Wan’s Force-magic crap had done now.
“So, it appears that the Senate had another group of slaves. That’s who the Vode are; they and the Jedi escaped together. The Senate got control of a planet where they were making clones of a Mandalorian and decided to use them as their own army. They’re all basically brothers with a few sisters; that’s why they’re called the Vode. It means siblings in Mandalorian,” Obi-Wan explained.
“The Senate had the whole Jedi Order moved onto giant-ships along with the Vode, and since the Senate didn’t want anyone to mess with their supply of clones, they moved the whole cloning facility to the ships as well. Then the Senate sent the whole group to check out a Force-anomaly, and when they did, the Force deactivated all the collars on the Jedi. When the Jedi realized the collars were no longer working, they took down all of the Senate-appointed officers on those ships by putting them to sleep. The Vode then, apparently, spaced them,” Obi-Wan explained finally.
Nield and Cerasi were both looking at him with skepticism now. Obi-Wan rolled his eyes at them both. “I knew you guys were going to look at me like I was crazy when I told you that part,” Obi-Wan complained.
“How many Jedi and Vode are we talking about, Obi-Wan? How many ships do they have?” Nield inquired.
“From what Master Koon told me, it’s several hundreds of very large ships. As for how many of the Vode and Jedi are on those ships, I don’t know, only that it’s the entire Jedi Order, including the youngling and the Service Corps. That was over twenty-thousand Jedi when I was last on Coruscant,” Obi-Wan explained.
“And their first act is to come here to help us?” questioned Cerasi, her sharp green eyes watching Obi-Wan carefully. “Are you sure it’s not a trap, Obi-Wan? And how do they know about the Ash Garden?”
“I promise it’s not a trap. Master Koon wouldn’t have even been able to contact me if he was still wearing the collar, and without a collar on, they couldn’t have forced him to contact me. Plus, it wouldn’t make sense to make up such a crazy story just to recapture me. As for the Ash Garden, I told them about it and that it would work as a meeting point; they promised to not cause any harm to it,” Obi-Wan reassured her. He knew that it had been his future self who had told the Jedi and the Vode of the garden and its location, so from a certain-point-of-view, he had told them.
“What the kriff? Isn’t that what they had your Order collared to be for them—their own personal army?” Nield asked, his brow furrowed in confusion.
Obi-Wan shrugged. “Apparently, they wanted more. It gets worse,” Obi-Wan warned. “The Vode are actually about eleven or so in age; the people who were cloned them accelerated their growth so that they look like thirty-year-olds, all so that the Republic didn’t have to wait for them to grow up normally. That’s why they want to help the Young.”
Cerasi’s horrified face was a complete contrast to Nield’s stone-cold fury. But it was Cerasi who spoke up first. “How could they do such a thing? Are they still aging fast?” she asked.
“I don’t know. All I know is that Master Koon said that they’ve been trained since birth to fight as an army. At one year of age, their physical appearance is that of a three-and-a-half-year-old,” Obi-Wan answered with a shake of his head.
“But they’re free now, and they both want to help the Young. They’re offering medical aid and supplies, but there was more they want to discuss with the both of you. They want to do it in person instead of going through me,” Obi-Wan continued, leaning forward. He didn’t want Nield and Cerasi to get stuck on the horror of the Vode’s lives, as he didn’t have all the details and they didn’t have time to dwell on it.
“Are you sure about this, Obi-Wan? Your Jedi-magic isn’t giving you any bad vibes?” Nield questioned, leaning forward, his golden eyes watching Obi-Wan skeptically.
Obi-Wan met Nield’s gaze head-on. “I’m not getting a bad feeling, if that’s what you’re asking.” Nield and Cerasi watched as Obi-Wan’s sea-green eyes became unfocused, as they always did when he checked with the Force about something, before refocusing on Nield and Cerasi. “As for how the Force feels, it feels excited—eager, like it wants us to hurry up and go already.”
Nield turned his gaze to Cerasi, one dark eyebrow raised in question. At her firm nod, Nield rolled his eyes but turned back to Obi-Wan. “Fine, let’s go see the Jedi and the eleven-year-old men. I swear, Obi-Wan, the longer I know you, the weirder life gets,” Nield complained as he got up from the floor. “But we’re waiting for Deila to come back from patrol. We’re taking her and Rica. Roennie and Towan can watch the base while we’re gone. I also want you to pull that trick you do on the Melida/Daan I want to see how the Vode and Jedi react.”
________
After finally receiving the all-clear to the knockout stage, Captain Ace-It and Lieutenant Crash-It guided the Apex down through the smoke-filled atmosphere until they passed the planetary-boundary layer. There, the planet’s surface could be seen clearly in the predawn light due to the planet’s twenty-hour day cycle.
The war-torn surface of Melida/Daan rose up to greet them; as far as they could see, the destruction scarred the surface of the planet with only a few patches of plant life remaining. The city of Zehava was the tallest structure visible, and it was clear, even from a distance, that it was so war-torn it would be safer to tear it down and rebuild than try to repair it. It was worse than what the Separatists had done to other worlds that they had fought on, and the fact that this world’s own inhabitants had done it made it all the more tragic.
The shuttle banked left of the city, heading west. “There, between those two hills—land just outside of the valley floor.” General Kenobi pointed out the two hills that looked to be the beginning of a mountain range, not far from the city, to Captain Ace-It and Lieutenant Crash-It.
“We are not showing any life signals,” Lieutenant Crash-It notified, sounding worried that they were not picking up the Young’s life signs.
“Don’t worry; you won’t find them unless they want to be found,” assured General Kenobi with a pat to Captain Crash-It’s shoulder, before he moved to sit back in his seat and buckled in for the upcoming landing.
“Then how did the Young get injured or killed in the raids?” asked Commander Cody curiously. There was no sense of blame or accusation, just bewilderment.
“There are tunnel-systems all over this area that the Young use to move unseen by the Elders, including ones that lead to the Melida and Daan warehouses. If the Young only used the tunnels to steal supplies, the Elders would quickly realize where the Young were. So, they make open-raids on the surface to draw the Elders in one direction while carrying an empty-supply-box or two, while another group uses the tunnels to remove a box or two from the warehouses. The Elders think we’ve stolen it and are hiding somewhere in the city, allowing the tunnels and the Young base to remain safe,” Obi-Wan explained with a haunted look on his face. General Koon silently sent a calm wave of assurance to Obi-Wan.
“Can’t we just knock the Young out and take them with us without having to ask them?” questioned Commander Wolffe.
“Patience, Commander. While your concern for their safety is commendable, we cannot take them by force; they would see it as a new group of Elders trying to force them to do what they want. It is best to let them decide for themselves to come with us, Wolffe,” General Koon advised, tilting his head as he looked at Commander Wolffe while patting the commander’s arm.
Commander Wolffe leaned back in his chair, grumbling to himself as the shuttle began its landing-sequence.
Captain Ace-It and Lieutenant Crash-It guided the Apex in a slow descent to the apron of the valley. They landed so that the heat of the thrusters was aimed away from the valley entrance, ensuring they didn’t cause any damage to the area. Once they had landed, Lieutenant Crash-It opened the loading ramp. The group got up to depart, grabbing their weapons and using their maglocks to attach their helmets to the rear-support-side hip—as Captain Ace-It and Lieutenant Crash-It offered them a “good luck” before the group exited, as they would be remaining with the shuttle.
Once they were outside the shuttle, General Kenobi took the lead, heading up the slight slope toward the opening between the two hills. The area surrounding the entrance to the pass was covered in tall green-gold grass with patches of small dark-green shrubs and white stones littering the area, but if you looked out to the plains leading away from the pass, the grass was not as tall and gradually grew brown and withered. It was made even more dreary due to the grey, smoke-filled atmosphere that allowed no sunlight through.
As they neared the opening to the valley, a faint scent that was sweet and tropical began to filter through the smoke-filled air, and an old, broken, white-stone path started to become visible in the tall grass. General Kenobi stepped onto it once they reached it; following his lead, Commander Cody, General Koon, and Commander Wolffe also stepped onto the path. From there, they could see that the narrow path curved to the right and disappeared around the bend.
When they rounded the bend, the sweet tropical-smell grew stronger as the narrow pass opened up wide on either side. The tall, green-gold grass grew shorter until it faded under new plants that had silver-blue leaves and silver stems. These plants featured medium exotic-looking flowers that had deep-blue centers that faded to a brilliant white at the petal-tips. Scattered among them were what looked like silver-drop-shaped berries a little smaller than the size of a Jogan-fruit. These plants grew from a few scattered plants until they covered the ground entirely by the time they reached an old white stone wall.
The open area also included a few ancient trees with thick, twisted, gnarled white trunks. The white of the trunks faded to long-thin, dark-gold, draping-branches of bright gold-yellow leaves. There were also tall shrubs with dense foliage of leave that were a deep red-black that faded to a glowing yellow-orange at the tips. This foliage partially obscured the crumbling white-stone walls and two askew, aged, rusted, and broken ornate metal gates that were partially still attached to the walls. Beyond the gates, the silver-blue plant continued to cover the ground on either side of the stone path as it went past the entrance.
The group stopped to take in the sight of such a contrast from what they had seen of the rest of the planet so far. “I can see why the loss of this place was such a hard blow to you and the Young, Obi-Wan,” Master Koon stated with sympathy at the loss of such a treasure, as he looked around to take in the details.
“It was after its loss that the Young, for a short time, nearly gave up; they lost faith that things could ever get better, but Cerasi would not give up and rallied the Young to not let the Elders destroy any more of this world. That was the turning point and why the Young began to truly fight the Elders to stop the civil-war. Of course, that was before we learned of Mawat’s betrayal,” explained General Kenobi as he continued down the path to the gates.
As they passed through the large gap between the two gates, they could see that the silver-blue plants covered the almost-one-acre space. This expanse was broken only by the lightly-scattered white-gold trees and orange-red bushes.
Nearby, small dark-green shrubs grew alongside the remains of a dozen or so broken white-stone sculptures. The parts that were still intact appeared to be some sort of cloth or skirt that flowed upward to where the stone had shattered. Standing about three feet at the base, the tallest was roughly four feet high, but their original forms were lost to time.
“The Young call those trees Weeping-Gold,” General Kenobi said, pointing to each plant in turn. “The small dark-green shrubs are called Shadow-Shrubs, and the tall orange-red bushes are called Amber-Bushes.”
He paused, his gaze falling on the silver-blue plants with their blue-white, starlike flowers. “These are the Ash-Star. They bear the berries we call Silver-Drops.”
“Hello there. The Young want to know how you know so much about this place, as they did not allow Master Jinn or Master Tahl to come here?”
A sudden voice from right next to their group caused the commanders to jump and to put their hands on their weapons. While their generals didn’t seem surprised at all, the group turned to the right toward the voice. The Vode did not draw their weapons, as General Koon and General Kenobi had warned them against pulling their weapons unless it was an emergency. What they found made them both want to find some Elders to shoot.
Standing there was a glowing, blue-transparent form of a young-teenaged boy with shaggy-looking hair, wearing leggings, boots, and an under-tunic; even in this ghostly form, you could see the starvation and unwashed-appearance. Despite the spectral-blue haze, they could tell he was the younger-version of their own adult Kenobi; if not that, then the general’s ‘Hello there’ would have given it away.
“General, this had better be that Force-projection osik that Healer Eerin was dressing you down about and not your younger-self’s ghost, or your wish to only knock out the Elders is going to be vetoed,” Commander Cody stated in a deadly-calm voice.
“I’ll second that,” growled Commander Wolffe, his gloved hands tightening on his DC-17s.
“Do not worry, my dears, this is indeed a Force-projection,” General Kenobi assured the commanders, placing a gloved hand on their shoulders and giving them a gentle pat. General Kenobi looked at the translucent, starving boy with a mixture of pity and pride. “Hello there. Did you not tell Nield and Cerasi about the Force-anomaly?”
“I did,” agreed the younger, blue-transparent Obi-Wan as he inspected the group before him. His older self was in mostly-white armor with a gold-orange stylized sunrise and scrollwork with a rainbow-outline. He had a blaster at his right hip and what looked like some sort of folded-rifle strapped to the back. Even Master Koon wore armor inscribed with words in a mostly-gray-blue with a main patch of burgundy-red words on the chest plate and light speckling in other places. The words made no sense to Obi-Wan. Master Koon also had a pair of specialized-blasters strapped to his thighs.
The two other men, Obi-Wan assumed, were the Vode. They were similarly armored, each almost matching in color of his older self and Master Koon. Their colors—one in white and the same grey-blue as Master Koons armor, and the other in white and gold-orange of his older self—were complemented by various weapons. They had almost identical faces except for the obvious injuries. One’s right eye was a cybernetic-eye due to what looked like a saber-scar running vertically across the eye. The other had a scar on the left side of his face; it was shaped like a backwards-C that curled around his left eye.
“But you did not inform them that not only were the collars deactivated, but that we time-traveled as well,” stated General Koon, his voice a warm, rhythmic hiss through his mask as he teased both Kenobi's, knowing that Obi-Wan in both forms had picked up the habit of partial-info-dropping from his entire lineage.
General Kenobi offered a sheepish, one-shoulder shrug at Master Koon’s assessment, while his younger self merely mirrored the expression with a faint, ghostly grin.
“I did not, Master Koon, as Nield and Cerasi were already looking at me like I was crazy when I told them that the Vode and Jedi had been set free due to a Force-anomaly. I didn’t think adding that you time-traveled would have helped that situation,” explained the younger Obi-Wan with a shake of his head. “And that was before I informed them that the Vode were actually eleven-year-olds with thirty-year-old bodies. So, I figured it would be best for them to hear it from you instead; then at least I’m not the only one who sounds like they’re crazy.”
“Don’t worry, my dear; Nield will just blame the Force,” General Kenobi assured his younger self.
“As he should, General,” stated Commander Cody dryly. “It was hard enough having to deal with the Force giving you a bad feeling when you had the collars. I can just imagine what it’s going to be like now that they’re gone.”
“I'll second that,” agreed Commander Wolffe, thinking of the times his own general had a bad feeling.
A second or two of quiet-silence settled over the garden for a heartbeat before another young male voice yelled, “It’s a kriffing pain-in-the ass!”