The Negotiator and the Fire Fang

Investigation on Iveria: White Flag

"Everything looks the same out here." Shan stated, examining the battle scarred Bindo Village. It was her, Kenobi, Cody, and a squad of five clones investigating the ruins. Lano had stayed behind in case any of the trespassers found themselves in the camp.

At first glance, the Gray Jedi home looked like it had been abandoned for years, if one ignored the fallen droids. But once Kenobi looked at the finer details, it was plain to see that a devastating battle had taken place.

The stone and wood houses were falling down due to damage, not weather or time. Shrapnel and residue from some type of explosive took out the corner of two houses. Broken and dismembered battle droids too numerous to count lied limply around the area. The remains of shattered pottery adorned the front of one house. Straight ahead, past a marble fountain with missing chunks, was the entrance to the temple.

Sahrea was distant. She walked slowly through the village, her arms wrapped around her torso. Kenobi watched as Shan paused by a modest, two story home.

It was made of rose colored quartz like the other houses here, the same material that made up the mountain that loomed to the north. The front door had been ripped off its hinges. Blaster marks charred the front facade. Oddly, a box of pale purple flowers attached to the window still sat untouched.

A lightsaber cut stretched across from the window to the doorframe, creating a grey gash in the polished stone. He watched Sahrea as she stared up at the house, her aura surprisingly neutral. He would have expected it to be icy, standing here where her order and family were slaughtered.

"Your home?" he asked gently. Her back was to him. Her cloak and hair leaned right in the soft breeze that danced through the grave of a town. She was quiet for a long while, to the point he wasn't sure if she had heard him.

"Yes." she replied finally. "I grew up here." Her voice was barely over a whisper. She stepped forward, to the door. He thought she would go inside, but she didn't. Instead, she stuck her fingers in the lightsaber cut. It was an external wound in the facade of her home to match the internal wound inside of her.

"This is where Grievous killed my father." she muttered. She pulled her gloved fingertips along the bottom of the slice before pulling her hand away.

"And there," she said, pointing at the threshold of the dry fountain that had been placed in the center of the village, "is where Dooku stabbed my mother."

Kenobi could almost picture it. Dooku standing over a woman, on the ground beaten and bloodied, leaning up against the fountain, trying to get to her feet.

Then he would end it, stabbing his lightsaber through her chest. She would collapse, her head lulled back, arm hanging off the lip of the fountain. Her lightsaber would slip from her limp fingers and fall to the ground.

He recoiled inwardly as he realized that the woman he saw unintentionally looked like Sahrea. That sent a stab of anxiety into his heart. He chastised himself immediately for it. Attachments were not the Jedi way. Obi-Wan shook himself out of his rebellious thoughts. He opened his mouth to say something to her, but she stepped away before he could.

Shan led them down the dirt street to the steps of the stone temple. The village had a wide main road with smaller ones branching off to the back streets. It was quite small, made up of only a handful of roads.

The temple was at least a quarter of the village's size. It was a large, square building, with tall triangular peaks. Windows were cut into the rosey facade. The ones at the top were made of colored glass, all fused together with silver to create various pictures. It reminded Kenobi of some ancient castles he had seen, like the ones of Arazadel, Naboo, and Selanon.