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Anakin was indeed awake,
in fact thrashing in his cot violently. Erun and B'yea were working to
calm him, and finally subdued him. He glanced around the room as if seeing
it anew, at Obi-Wan, Mace, and Erun, and finally to Iryshi.
"I..." he started,
but then passed out again.
When he was awake again,
Anakin seemed much calmer. He sipped from a canteen of water, his face
still contorted with pain, but less alarmed now.
At the collective
expectant gaze of his friends, he began talking. "I saw.... Death. I saw
death and it saw me." He paused, took a deep breath, and spoke again, looking
directly at Iryshi. "There were screams. And laughter, high and cruel.
I saw blood, blood everywhere. It was an endless field of death and chaos."
Iryshi furrowed
her brow. Anakin continued. "And then, I saw, in the midst of it all, one
man standing. He was holding a lightsaber, with only one end, but it was
red. He was the one laughing, and I saw it was Palpatine."
"Chancellor
Palpatine?" Mace inquired incredulously.
Anakin nodded.
Yvai leaned forward to pat him on the shoulder. "Get some rest, my boy,"
he said softly. "We'll be on Tatooine soon."
They left him
alone in the infirmary.
It was the next day, and
Iryshi ventured inside the infirmary to visit Anakin. He didn't acknowledge
her entrance, but instead continued staring into the distance. Iryshi finally
took a seat by his cot.
"What did you
do on Tatooine?" Anakin asked softly, never meeting her gaze.
Iryshi looked
at him in surprise, one brow raised. "Well," she started, "I saw a few
Podraces, for starters."
Anakin grinned.
"How's Sebulba?'
Iryshi shook
her head. "Died a few weeks after you left."
Solemn once
again, Anakin nodded. "Sorry to hear that."
The older Jedi
snorted. "Sorry it didn't happen sooner!"
They shared
a laugh. Iryshi continued, "And I also visited your mother's grave."
Skywalker closed
his eyes. "How does it look?" he whispered.
"Very nice,"
Dylar replied solemnly. "Kitster fixed it up well."
"Good," Anakin
said. "Thank you."
She rose, knowing
he had no further need of company for now, and left.
Queen Amidala was noticeably
pregnant. This was the first thing that Anakin observed upon their arrival
on Tatooine. Despite her delicate condition, she ran to him happily and
enfolded him in an embrace, or did the best she could manage due to the
fact that Anakin was in a repulsorlift chair. He laughed as she hugged
him, and when they pulled back he leaned down to touch her rotund belly
in awe.
The entire
procession made their way to a reserved area of the Spaceport Hotel in
Mos Eisley, laughing and reminescing. Artoo and Threepio were both on hand,
overjoyed or as much as a droid can be to see old friends. Iryshi went
off to visit with her "old friend" from Corellia, and return the ship he'd
loaned her.
She walked through the door
of the small ship rental office, and smiled at the man behind the counter.
"Ol'val, Han," she said in old Corellian.
Han Solo looked
up from a datapad on his desk. "Ol'val, Iryshi," he said with a wry half-grin.
"Bring back that ship?"
"Without a
scratch," she said, tossing him a datacard.
He grinned
and pocketed the datacard. "How's your husband?"
"He's fine,
just fine. Happy to see me again."
"And your daughter?
Have you heard anything of her lately?"
Iryshi sighed;
shook her head. "No, the foster parents haven't contacted me. It's a shame,
I would've liked it if he met her."
Mace and Yvai had ventured
out to Mos Espa in a rented landspeeder to visit Shmi Skywalker's grave,
with Anakin's promise to come later.
At dinner that
night, the mood was light. Jokes were traded among the Jedi who had survived
from Mandalore, and a few of the Jedi from the Council were visiting. Yoda
was reunited with Obi-Wan while B'yea visited Plo Koon.
Throughout
the happy proceedings, Iryshi sat alone in a corner of the room. Obi-Wan
finally came over and sat next to her, not knowing quite what to say. She
spoke up first. "Being an orphan has its downsides," she said quietly.
He smiled and
kissed her, lightly, and she smiled back.
Anakin awoke gasping for
breath. As he climbed out of bed, Amidala rose slowly and inquired what
the problem was. When he didn't answer she looked up at him, and saw the
panic in his eyes. She called for Obi-Wan. He came running, followed by
Iryshi, and Mace Windu. Yoda had left that night, heading back for Coruscant.
Just as they
entered the room the window beside the sleeping pallet exploded into shards,
and in stepped Sidious.
He stood, lightsaber
ignited, with a grim determined look on his tatooed face. Obi-Wan ignited
his lightsaber, as did Iryshi and Windu. Anakin turned to face Sidious
and grabbed his lightsaber from the table by the bed, igniting it as well.
Sidious laughed
and lunged for Anakin without warning. Amidala scrambled over the other
side of the bed for safety as Obi-Wan, Iryshi, and Mace all leaped to attack
the Dark Jedi. As Obi-Wan was thrown back, Iryshi moved forward. Kenobi
watched her fight as he worked to his feet. A cacaphony of lightsaber clashes
was the result as more and more Jedi entered to battle off Sidious. Soon
the Dark Jedi was forced to retreat, climbing back out the same window
he had broken.
Anakin slumped
to the floor after extinguishing his energy blade, spent of energy. Mace
quickly asked if he was alright, and Anakin answered with a nod. Obi-Wan
moved to check on Iryshi. She was spent, worn and weak, and he had to help
her up.
Obi-Wan, with
his usual inherent calm, said softly, "Well, I wonder what that was about."
None of the Jedi Knights
could sleep the rest of the night. The sat around the common room in the
reserved area of the hotel, drinking stim-tea and discussing why Sidious
would attack for no apparent reason. It was decided that the next morning,
they would travel to the home at the edge of the Jundland Wastes for safety.
Before long, the subject of Iryshi was brought up.
"She's no longer
a Jedi," Anakin said once more. Mace shook his head.
"I hate to
disagree with you, Anakin, but she never lost her Force powers, which means
that she is still a Jedi."
"Well," Anakin
said with a disdainful look at Iryshi, "You'll forgive me if I forgot to
bring extra robes."
Without
missing a beat, Iryshi answered, "You're forgiven."
Erun
was called off to answer a message he had just received, from Coruscant
of all places. He came back grinning, and thrust a datapad into Iryshi's
hands.
She glanced
from Erun to Obi-Wan, who was seated next to her, then back to Erun, with
a clearly confused look on her face. He kept grinning. "Those are medical
records from Coruscant taken just after you had your Force powers removed,
or at least after the Council performed the ceremony. The DNA files were
tested against random people to find possible blood matches and relatives.
Take a look at the second match."
Iryshi glanced
down at the datapad and read aloud, "Subject's DNA patterns were an almost
exact match with Candidate #2, suggesting relation, most likely making
the Subject Candidate #2's daughter." Erun grinned again.
"Now look at
the next file."
Iryshi switched
files, and this one held a list of names. Candidate #1 was someone she'd
never heard of. Candidate #2... "Qui-Gon Jinn," she breathed.
Erun nodded,
his grin growing.
Iryshi wasn't
paying attention to him anymore; she was staring in confusion at Obi-Wan.
He was staring back, with the look of someone who knew more than he would
tell.
Iryshi glanced
away, then stood shakily and deposited the datapad onto the table in front
of her. With that, she threaded a path swiftly to her reserved bedroom
and left the rest of the Jedi alone.
Anakin joined Obi-Wan in
front of the door to Iryshi's room. He glanced in at Iryshi, who sat along
in front of a small table, hands folded before her, head on her arms. "Has
she moved, said anything?" he whispered to Obi-Wan. Kenobi shook his head.
Anakin set
his jaw and walked away.
She looked up and saw someone
standing before her. He was big, balding, with a decidedly paternal look
about him. But that wasn't what she noticed right away. She noticed he
was glowing. Like a hyperdrive engine, he was lighting up the sparsely-illuminated
room. He smiled at her. "Hello, Iryshi," he said in an accent not unlike
Obi-Wan's.
"Who are you?"
she whispered.
"Your father."
She shook her
head. "The only thing close to a father I ever had was Master Yvai."
He nodded.
"Yes, that was always my intent. I was a good friend of Yvai's, and he
met you once. That spark you saw in his eyes when he found you was more
than surprise. It was recognition. He knew right away that you were my
daughter, and he took you on as a trainee for that reason."
Qui-Gon paused,
sighed, and added, "You look so much like your mother."
Obi-Wan was getting something
very important from a compartment in the back room of the little home.
He retrieved a large brown Jedi cloak and an old lightsaber from the stucco
alcove, and headed for Iryshi's room.
She only looked
up when he sat across from her and handed her the robe and lightsaber.
She took them, recognizing the lightsaber as the same one that Kenobi had
tossed her that day on the landing field as Sidious was attacking, and
examining the robe as he spoke. "He told me this story once," he started,
"about his wife. He said, just after their daughter was born, they went
to Corellia on a vacation. By this time Qui was only a Jedi trainee. They
were walking through a museum when a coolant vein in the walls exploded
and the building collapsed. He managed to escape the rubble. He said he
had a connectiong through the Force with his wife, and when the building
fell he lost contact with her. He knew she would be dead; he thought you
would be too.
"He left Corellia
the next day, and never looked back."
Iryshi looked
a bit pale. After a while, she asked, "What would you have done?"
Obi-Wan looked
up at her in surprise. "What would I have done?" he repeated.
"Under those
circumstances, if you had a daughter whom you thought dead, would you have
at least looked?"
Obi-Wan shook
his head. "Under those circumstances, no, I don't think I would have done
anything different then Qui."
She was silent
for a moment until she said, "I have a confession."
"What's that?"
"I asked you
that question because the circumstances here are almost identical. You
have a daughter, but you didn't know it."
Obi-Wan was
silent whiile this sank in. "I what?" he said suddenly, emphasizing the
last syllable as he stood from his chair. Iryshi grimaced, cringing as
if expecting him to strike her. Instead, Kenobi leaned down until he was
eye level with her, face very close, and said, "How did that happen?"
She smirked
slightly. "Well, I can go into the long, detailed version, or I can just
say that I gave birth a few months after you left."
He didn't back
away. "Where is she?"
Iryshi cringed
again, averting her gaze from his. "I don't know. I gave her to foster
parents, but they've disappeared. I wanted you to meet her, but..."
Obi-Wan sat
back in his chair, eyes closed and face scrunched into a pained expression.
"Stang, Iryshi, why didn't you tell me before?"
She shook her
head. "I didn't have a chance, Obi-Wan. You weren't exactly here on a weekly
basis."
He successfully
managed to level her with a gaze. "I didn't really have the choice, my
dear. I had an Academy to teach--"
"Yes, your
precious Academy," Iryshi interrupted.
"--and the
Council wouldn't give me leave," he concluded.
"Then go behind
their backs," Iryshi said. The look Obi-Wan gave her showed just how shocked
he was at the idea.
"I can't do
that, Iryshi," Kenobi said. "They have the power to do to me what they
did to you. Or," he added
quickly, "at least try."
Iryshi
glanced away.
Obi-Wan
moved to kneel by her chair, hands at her cheeks. "You have to understand
what I went through too, Iryshi. It didn't just happen to you. When they
brought you out of the ceremonial chamber, all I wanted was to go to you.
They wouldn't let me. You're Iryshi Dylar Jinn Kenobi, my wife, but they
wouldn't let me go to you or even visit you here. It was cruel. It was
torture. I wanted to scream, but I couldn't do anything. I wanted to protect
you. That's why I married you. I wanted to help you, but the Council..."
He
trailed off, and Iryshi noticed, somewhat detachedly, that he was crying.
Leaning down, she stroked his hair and kissed the tears away.