Chapter 35: 35. Chapter

-Ugh...

My eyes opened, I tried to sit up, but the sudden movement caused a just as sudden spike of pain in my head.

-Ouch... damn... no sudden movements, I guess.

It was one of the worst hangovers I ever felt, but... I can't seem to recall, when I managed to get this drunk?

Seriously. What the hell happened to me? When did I fall asleep? I can't remember that, kind of important detail... I was in a garden, with the healer... Oh yeah, I was back in the damn temple... Sigh... No matter, I will have to play the part of a padawan for a few more weeks... I finally managed to sit up in a way to not move my head more than it is entirely necessary. That was the moment when I finally looked around... I saw an even more minimalistic room than the jedi usually used... There was nothing, except this bed built into the wall, in a way that it was impossible to move it away. There was a water source built into the wall and a room that was clearly leading to the toilet... I was passively channelling healing energies towards my brain, to soothe the constant pulsing pain that was distracting me from thinking over the possible happening that could lead to this situation.

There was a massive door in front of me. It was obviously locked; since there was also an energy shield, stopping me from even touching the inside of the doorframe... There was no window in this room. Therefore, I was unable to check my surroundings behind the walls of this place. Well, it seems, that I am in prison, that's well, that's not exactly what I expected, but it wasn't too unexpected either... I mean, if that damn girl, who I freed from the lizards shared my plans to never ever go near to Coruscant, and maybe even some of my more interesting opinions of their order... I face palmed... Oh damn, I would never said that, if I knew that I will be brought back here so soon... If the "here" still means the jedi temple, but there is an easy way to figure that out.

I reached out with the force, and immediately found a few more force sensitives, but... there were not many actually... I was not in the jedi temple anymore... Why? I pushed my senses even further. There were three, four... no five jedi in close proximity, and one of them was a familiar one... Obi-Wan Kenobi, my so-called substitute master. I sensed a few other humans without any special force presence, most likely clones and also two droids moving around the ship. Yes, I was on a ship, from the constant low frequency humming created by the burning engines that I could feel through the body of the ship, if I focused on it. I don't even need the force to figure this out. I just have to touch one of the steel walls surrounding me, and I can easily feel the resonance.

-Auuurgh... damn... why does my head hurt so much!?

My head began to hurt even more... That was strange... I was constantly healing it; it should have been mostly healed... Now, I was feeling a new wave of drowsyness too... Something was wrong... The air... it must have been poisoned! What is the meaning of this?! It is one thing to put me in prison, but to kill me? No, wait... Calm down... this is not the style of the jedi... Then who?

-Cough... cough...

No time, to think about that... I sat down on my bed and relaxed my mind; I must focus to create an air bubble around my whole body, who knows what kind of poison is this... This force aura technique, is an old one. It's purpose is to filter any type of harmful material from the air around the user... A master of this technique is believed to be able to use it in raw space and survive. I don't know about that, never tried it, and I am not that bored to actually try it out in space. I mean, not willingly... What if I fail, or it is simply misinformation...

I opened my eyes, as I activated the technique... An invisible bubble appeared around me containing only clean air. Although I can't see any visual difference, since the gas or poison that is in the air, is also perfectly transparent, but since I stopped coughing and can breath without a problem, it can be said that the technique was a success. I only have to support it until I figure out what to do...

The energy shield protecting the doorframe suddenly disappeared. It was followed by a hissing sound as the door opened out of nowhere.

-What? Who?

I asked, somewhat bewildered, but there was nobody standing in the door.

I stood up, still hesitantly from the headache, but since I was able to breathe clean air for a while, my head felt much better. So I walked towards the door on mostly stable legs. Behind the door, there was a corridor, and two temple guards were knocked out, lying on the floor. I kneeled down next to them and checked their pulse. I was relieved to find them still alive, only asleep. The gas was not focused on my room. It was used over the whole ship.

I don't know who is behind this, but I will never have a better chance to get away. I was about to pick up one of the guard lightsabers when I realized, that my own blade was placed on the belt of one of the guards. I couldn't believe my luck? Why would they place my weapon in such an obvious place? I picked it up, activated it and it worked! Unbelievable. I looked over my clothes with a smile, as I noted, that I was still in my rich guy clothes back from the pirate gang. I will easily fit in with the Coruscant people, at least on the surface levels.

I took one of the wrist computers of the knocked-out temple guards, than I picked up a one handed blaster gun from one of the clones nearby. I checked our current position on the wrist computer's map. Luckily, we were still in the atmosphere; what is our goal, I wonder... A prison? Oh, that explains things... one of the highest security prisons on Coruscant and that means in the whole galaxy... They were really about to put me on ice for the forceable future... Fuckers, heh, well, nobody can say, that I didn't try. Maybe the Grey Order, is not the best in raw force power, like the Sith are, nor are we that incredible in force heal or other lightside powers. But, if there is one thing we excel at, that is hiding and surviving. A surprised expression appeared on my face as I accidentally saw a small paper attached to the hilt of my lightsaber...

I knew, that they would not simply leave my weapon on a guard posted in front of my cell... Someone placed it there later, most likely after the guards had been put to sleep...

I read the message... It was one single word. "JUMP!"

Well, I would do that on my own anyway... I planned to levitate down to one of the buildings... Sadly, with my midi-chlorian count, I will not be able to fly with the use of the force, but to slow down my fall to a survivable degree, that is a piece of cake. I walked to one of the doors, and opened it through the console. I was about to jump out, when a desperate and somewhat angry voice appeared behind me.

-Nizzal, if you jump out of that door, there will be no going back!

I turned around, partially, and looked at the face of my substitute master...

-Obi-Wan Kenobi; I should have known, that some simple sleeping gas is not enough to stop you.

-Maybe that is why you sent that assassin droid after me... But I will give you one more chance if you go back to your cell right now, on your own, I will do everything in my power to make the council look over this... You will have a fair trial and...

I showed him an easy-going smile, while I weakly shook my head.

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-Assassin droid, could it be? What was its color, copper?

-Oh, yes?

-I hope you destroyed it.

-Well... yes.

-Good ridance, thanks for that. Aside from that annoyance, I have to say that I can clearly see why the council trusted you to be my investigator. If there is one person, who can turn someone away from the darkside, it needs to be just as stubborn with the pestering as you are. Sigh... Okay, come on, there were times, when I kind of enjoyed being your padawan, at least for a while; Master Kenobi. Although, I have to say, that you were never meant to be my tutor, because I had one already.

I looked out towards the sky above Coruscant; there was the colorful city moving under my feet, and the blue sky extended over the horizon, promising sweet freedom with countless possibilities. My hearth fluttered from sensing the massive life energy of the trillions of beings living on this colossal city planet. The whole thing seemed to call out to me, it wanted me to join to live.

-Nizzal, think about your friends! What about Ahsoka, and Rika, are you going to make them suffer this way? They are already worried about you! Come over and think through this...

My face whipped with frustration towards this idiot.

-What is there to think through?! I already know what the Jedi would do with someone who is a suspected sith. You either kill them, or strip them from the living force entirely.

I felt as my eyes for a second turned to the deepest golden glow as a deeply buried burning hate shook my whole being. So I shouted.

-I will not suffer that fate once more!

After that, I shut my eyes forcefully and forced myself to calm down somewhat, through a few deep breaths.

They were not really my words, since I was never stripped from the force. Revan's memories got triggered again, the shame and powerlessness when they took away, what he worked for in his entire life... It left behind a deep scar, which will never heal entirely.

I saw as Obi-Wan shook from the power of my words, words that seemed to have left my mouth against my will. He was confused, but there was something else visible on his features, a new emotion... pity.

I sighed again.

-Kenobi, you are a good man, a good jedi, a jedi that the people may actually need these days. You remind me of my master in many ways... except, maybe that he was more cowardly in nature, which you are clearly not. He had missed many things that he regretted because of this fear, lost many friends, too, because he was afraid to die, afraid to risk more than what was absolutely necessary. But, is that really what you call a coward? I would say no, yet he somehow along the passing years managed to stigmatise himself, and therefore he truly believed that he was a coward. One day, when I was much younger, I asked him this question. Is it really your mistake, that your friends didn't listen to you, when you told them not to risk your lives foolishly in a stupid endevour? Is that your mistake, that you didn't join them and die too in the process? For nothing? Because, if he died I wouldn't be arguing with you right now. I would have died in a slum on Ryloth seven years ago. But even if my master was a coward in his life. In his death, at the end, he chose from his own free will to give me something precious, in exchange for his very life. He showed courage, something that I could only hope to ever achieve. Joseph, Joseph Grey was my master, a name that you clearly had never heard before. He was not an outstanding man, but for me, he was everything that I could wish for. Tell your council to forget about me, and our paths can differ in peace. Yet I can already see in your eyes, that you will not let me go that easily... I guess, then I will have to play the cat and mouse play. Let me tell you one last thing, I am pretty good at this game...

With those words left in the air, I lazily jumped out of the door backwards while showing a double middle finger in Kenobi's general direction.

Oh god, that felt good.

I saw as Kenobi rushed towards the door, looking down at me with a horrified expression, only to see, that I had landed on the top of another ship. It was, of course the Ebon Hawk, which I clearly saw from the doorframe, and therefore I intentionally jumped on its top. I have to say that there are many differences since I last saw the ship. It was upgraded with new technologies, hopefully with a shield generators too, and weapon systems because I have a feeling we will soon need it.

______________________

Kenobi, was standing in the door of the prisoner transporter ship; he felt utterly helpless about this whole situation... Why the hell did the council have to force him into this damn role, he knew at the beginning that it would not end well. He walked over to the door's console and closed the door. The others should have been about to wake from the sleeping gas, since he had already destroyed the strange protocol droid that released the gas into the ventilation system. That damn thing was an actual assassin droid in disguise. Damn droid... cough... It even had some weird martial arts program; I was occupied with it for a whole ten minutes... I don't want to imagine, what would happen if these types of droids would have made up most of the separatist droid armies... What a nightmare... And the worst thing, is the fact, that after I finally managed to destroy it, the whole damn thing turned into dust, as some kind of nanomachine trigger was unlocked and it destroyed the it's body, there was not even a chunk of it left, only iron dust or whatever it was made of...

But how did this cursed droid manage to slip up on a high security prisoner transporter ship in the first place? This thing was supposed to be a well-guarded ship? And where are the reinforcements? I have asked for it, about twelve minutes now?

-R-4? Do you copy? R-4? Oh damn it! Of course, the communication is also compromised... Sigh...

Kenobi looked out on a nearby window towards the currently accelerating ship while a simple sentence left his mouth.

-The council won't be happy about this...

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