ℝ𝔼𝕊𝕆𝕃𝕌𝕋𝕀𝕆ℕ ➵ o. kenobi {my only hope; book 3}

【 TWO 】

     ɪ ᴡᴀꜱ ʙᴀᴄᴋ ᴏɴ ɢᴇᴏɴᴏꜱɪꜱ. The sun was out, beating into my eyes as I stared up at a ghost of what my mother used to be, burning the sand that my knees were pressed into. My hair and cloak were rippling in the weight of the wind. Jobal's hand was extended toward me. She didn't have to say a word.

I couldn't speak, couldn't breathe. All I could feel was pain. Excruciating, unbearable pain that seemed to tear me apart from the inside. My whole body seemed to be imploding. Tears leaked from my eyes and my breathing came in intense shudders. I had to be screaming, but I couldn't even tell. My mind was so far gone, the pain too intense...

I saw things that my mind had repressed. I felt the fear that had run through my veins as I watched a group of men attack my sister, the despair I'd experienced as I thought they might kill her. I felt the immense grief I'd held within as I watched a Sith Lord murder a man I'd come to love, the immense hopelessness that him dying in my arms had brought to me. I felt the incredulity, pain, and hopelessness I'd endured as my mentor had laid nearly lifeless before me, the guilt I'd felt knowing that it had been me who'd done it to her. Most vividly, the feeling of watching the man I loved tumble to his death, a feeling that no words could even come close to describing.

My mind and senses were overloaded. This was a fate worse than death. In this moment, I would have asked, begged, pleaded... for someone to kill me. Because even death would bring solace to this misery. Even death was better than feeling all of this hopelessness and pain.

I couldn't even remember that this was something I'd already experienced before. That I'd lived through this, fought through it, and hadn't seen the woman responsible for that torture since. I couldn't process that this was just a memory, only a fraction of the pain I'd experienced that day. All I could do was sit there and take it, relive those memories, feel that pain.

"Remember, my daughter," a voice seemed to say. "You must come find me. It is your duty. If not... this is the fate that awaits you."

My eyes shot open, and I took a deep gasp of air. I could feel my cheeks were wet, as if I'd been crying, and my throat was hoarse, as if I'd been screaming. But I was fine. I wasn't on Geonosis. I was far away from Jobal, far away from all of that pain.

"Just a dream," I told myself. "Just... a dream."

I had to take several deep breaths to keep myself from hyperventilating. Then, as I relaxed, I finally took notice of the state I was in.

I couldn't understand how I'd gotten here. I seemed to be in a pile of wreckage, pinned under several sheets of warm metal that had blue stripes painted upon them. My ship. I seemed to have crash landed somewhere... but where?

I tried to get up, to lift my head, even, but I was really stuck. I could only move my head side to side. I couldn't even move my arms, to reach my lightsaber to cut me loose from this mess. The only thing I noticed about my surroundings was that I seemed to be in some landing bay or cargo room, by the sheer size of the place. The wall to my right was metal, and to my left, there was a huge entryway that opened up into space, covered by a blue forcefield. Well, I wasn't on any planet, that was clear.

As my senses adapted even more, I suddenly became aware of the faint sound of a lightsaber humming. I turned my head again and focused my vision--off in the corner, near their respective ships, were Anakin and Obi-Wan, slicing apart the entire landing bay worth of droids. There were dozens of them, but Obi-Wan and Anakin were taking them down effortlessly, and already had at least two dozen more sliced up at their feet. It took them less than ten seconds to take the rest of them down, and as soon as they were satisfied with the emptiness of the bay, they extinguished their lightsabers. Obi-Wan's eyes immediately searched the large room, and when his eyes caught on the wreckage of my ship, he tore for me at once.