Author's Games: Star Wars

Task Three: Jenaara and Kanan

I'm posting our entry so you guys know we handed it in on time. Our word count was 3,144, but Kanan is using his sponsored perk of unlimited word count. Enjoy!

Cold steel bit at Kanan's wrists as he blinked back the dizziness that consumed his vision. Next to him was Jenaara, chained by his left wrist and his right was cuffed to his left. He furrowed his eyebrows and flicked his eyes around the room in search of Adaara. At last, he found her, chained to none other than the Sith.

Her eyes glistened with unshed tears as she stared at him in desperation. Jenaara was unconscious and so was the Sith, but Kanan's body was weakened from the blast earlier. Closing his eyes, he called to the Force and dragged Jenaara behind him as he closed the distance between he and his wife.

"Kanan, the Sith...What if—"

"Don't think like that. He's chained to you and it would be too inconvenient to drag around a body. For now, he'll work with you. Be cautious. When it's over... More than likely he'll betray you. keep your guard up. I'll try to get through whatever this is first and be waiting for you."

Adaara nodded leaning against him. He couldn't embrace her back, so he settled for resting his head against hers. "I love you," she whispered.

Breathing in the scent of her, he kissed her forehead. "No matter what happens, Adaara, I will find you, I swear. I will always find you."

Jenaara felt her consciousness stirring. Her eyes snapped open and she jumped up in shock, jerking Kanan's hands.

He followed suit, using the Force to help ease her nerves.

"We're chained together? Why? What are they doing to us next?" Jenaara looked at the room around them nervously, half-expecting something to jump out at them any moment.

Gritting his teeth, Kanan shook his head. "I don't know." I wish I did know, he thought. If he was being honest, he felt as wary and nervous as Jenaara appeared.

"Surprised that some of you survived this long," a familiar voice said.

Kanan whirled around.

Kaladin.

He stepped forward, kneeling beside Adaara and her now-awake Sith.

She whimpered and crawled back, trying to escape Kaladin.

Kanan growled and charged toward him, but Jenaara grabbed his arms to stop him. "Let me go. I want to kill him!" Snarling, Kanan tried again, but Jenaara shifted so that she stood in front of him. "That's only going to get you killed," she said. She was almost surprised that she was the one holding him back. She wanted the Inquisitor dead as much as he did. Still, a more rational part of her told her that now was not the time for revenge.

Kaladin smirked and stood up, walking through the middle of the rebels as if he wasn't worried they would try to attack him. Much to Kanan's surprise, no one did. Is everyone afraid of him? Kanan's eyes shifted to Adaara, who was still cowering in the corner. His stomach twisted; he had never seen her so afraid and vulnerable before.

Kaladin stopped at the edge of what appeared to be an empty room. "Before me is a room with floor panels. You must find the right ones, or you'll die. Your objective is to cross the room alive. Once across, you can enter through a door and into the next challenge. Navigate through each challenge until you walk through a door and find me. This means that you've lived. I would suggest hurrying because the last team through will be killed." With that, he disappeared, and Kanan realized he had been a hologram.

Ray shields appeared on their left and right, separating each of the chained pairs. They couldn't help one another, so each pair had to make it across the floor on their own.