I came awake sucking air through the breath-mask covering my lower face. Feeling the thick, viscous, and mostly transparent fluid my body was suspended in as I opened my eyed and began shaking off an initial sense of disorientation.
Consciousness hadn't returned gradually, as I might have expected, but rather like a mental switch had been thrown. It wasn't until I heard a very familiar voice seeming to speak directly into my ears that I even realized I had something akin to ear-buds in.
Telling me my head still wasn't as clear as I'd first thought.
"You scared the frak out of me with your heroics, Apprentice! The falling hssiss caught you in the abdomen with the razor-sharp spikes on it's tail.
One of those spikes slashed open your gastric artery, so Master Yoda was forced to place you in suspended animation until we could get you to the Argent Bulwark's med-bay.
The bacta has just now finished mending the breach in the blood vessel, so he reversed the Morichro trance before returning to the surface" Dark Woman began to explain. The calm in her voice belied by an expression of obvious concern.
My fingers went to my right side as the memory of looking down and seeing the side of my white shirt soaked red came back to me. All I found was a soft line of raised tissue perhaps the length of my index finger, and a couple of shorter ridges half as long above and below the first.
I remembered from my copious Star Wars lore that the healing properties of bacta were remarkable, but actually experiencing such healing was something else altogether.
Thinking about how fast I was healing raised a more immediate question, however. One which I was presently powerless to vocalize, but was fortunately something my astute mentor had anticipated as she continued.
It was a little harder than usual to pick up on subtle cues in her voice due to the tank pickup she was speaking into on it's front, but I had the sense she was trying to ease into communicating something I wasn't going to enjoy hearing.
Her voice was too calm, if that makes any sense. Saying nothing about the way her eyes kept flicking away from mine, as she continued "It was a very close call. You lost more than two-thirds of your total blood volume before Master Yoda was able to get to you and freeze all your biological functions.
Which didn't stop you from losing even more blood as we moved you. That's why you've been in the tank for a little more than a week, and have another day to go. The good news being you're going to make a complete recovery.
You won't have any weakness in your abdominal muscles, or even a scar to remember your first brush with death by."
"Master Yoda wanted to be here when you regained consciousness, but with how chaotic everything is right now, he simply couldn't justify waiting." Now my Master was actively not meeting my gaze, as she grimly went on.
"Using the Kaiburr Crystal, Yoda recognized Palpatine as the Sith Lord a little more than five days ago. Only to find when he hyper-comm'd the Temple to pass this revelation on that the Chancellor is believed to have been kidnapped three days ago.
There's security footage and a couple of witnesses pointing towards the Order as the responsible party. Judicials are crawling all over the Temple, the Senate's in an uproar, and all members of the Jedi Order presently on Coruscant are forbidden from leaving the planet."
The bottom of my left fist hit the inside of the tank with a faint thud as I expressed my frustration in the only manner I could.
Unable to verbally reply, I wheeled my left hand in the universal "come on/tell me more" gesture, and trusted to Dark Woman's empathy to glean the fact that I wanted to hear about how the Jedi's refutation was faring, and what else was transpiring as a result of this obvious contingency-plan on Palpatine's part.
"It isn't all terrible news. The High Council's counter-accusation has provided a viable alternative theory of the supposed crime.
One strengthened by an extremely lucky break in the form of a piece of civilian camera footage submitted by a young couple in search of somewhere to be, well, young together.
It shows a figure in robes much like the Chancellor's leaping out of an air-car and dashing aboard a vessel very similar in appearance to the Scimitar/Legends sitting on a landing pad rented by an affiliate of the InterGalactic Banking Clan/Legends .
Covering the unregistered vessel's lift-off and subsequent disappearance, the footage's timestamp contradicts the timeline supposedly established by the security recordings featuring Jedi kidnappers.
The footage's veracity is being contested by certain elements in the Senate, but that only emphasizes how easily any video evidence can be falsified. The entire situation is devolving into a chaotic wash of accusations and counter-accusations, with conspiracy theories dominating the Holo-Net, and everyone trying to make hay from the tumult."
Unable to speak, I very slowly spelled out with my fingers (In Basic) "W-O-r-K-S. L-I-M-e-r-g-e. P-O-W-e-r. B-L-D-g." The need to use some lower-script characters because I couldn't readily make the upper-script characters hampered my communicating what I was trying to get across, but finally after the sixth try my Master's eyes widened in understanding.
"Palpatine has another Coruscanti hideout in the Limerge Power Building located within the Works?" The Jedi Master asked with enough eager enthusiasm for some of it to penetrate her ever poised demeanor.
I nodded emphatically, so she touched two fingers to the tank and raced away to (presumably) call it in.
Unfortunately, that left me alone to consider the situation and my own problems. What I'd just done would undoubtedly be enough to end the convenient fiction my foreknowledge came from an overactive capacity for precognitive visions. Especially with Yoda's own foresight and Far-Sight currently more incisive than at any other point in his long career.
Yet what else could I have done? I had no doubt that Palpatine's lieutenants and minions were cleaning up after him just as fast as they possibly could, so the Jedi and Judicials needed to be pointed in the right direction with equal alacrity.
A terrible feeling had set my gut to churning. This was all just a smokescreen on Palpatine's part. That much was obvious to anyone with the two brain cells required to realize it would take more than a bogus security recording and a couple of paid-for "witnesses" to seriously harm the Jedi Order.
A smokescreen that was doing it's job, as it was keeping the Jedi from attempting to follow the Sith.
"Darth Sidious isn't running away from anything. He's running to the starting position of his next contingency plan. One I can only guess at" I silently considered while floating in goo.
Oddly, and as distressed as I was over the Sith Lord's disappearance coupled with my own ignorance concerning his next move, I felt some of the weight I'd been carrying for nearly ten years leave me.
If I couldn't effortlessly prognosticate my way to galactic peace and prosperity, then I wasn't solely responsible for whatever befell the galaxy. I could simply do my best, and that best would be judged on the merits rather than by my accuracy as a "seer."
It didn't really feel right to be at all relieved by any of this, but Force help me, I was.
...
(The Next Day)
"The Judicials just completed their sweep of the Temple, and now they're moving on to every property affiliated with the Jedi Order in their wild bantha chase. The Senate has of course formed an Investigatory Committee, then issued subpoenas to me and all the other members of the High Council.
It's a complete quagmire, here" Mace Windu's tiny bluish-white holographic form announced. The Jedi Master looked and sounded frustrated as he awaited a response.
"Deception, treachery, and betrayal, the tools of the Sith, these are. Where we look not, there Palpatine will be. Divisiveness, chaos, and death, he will cause, if capture him we do not" Yoda replied with firm resolve.
Silence stretched between the two Jedi Masters for a moment, then the venerable servant of the Light questioned "Complete, our own search is?" One eyebrow raising as he did so, with an intent expression clear on his face.
The hologram of Windu sagged a bit, with even more frustration evident as he replied "Just before the search party's rotating frequency-jammer went online, a bomb tore through the central portion of the Limerge Building.
The jammer stopped the other bombs intended to complete the destruction of the multi-level complex, but we lost the largest bank of computers and who knows what else.
Depa's team is still combing through what remains for any clues as to Palpatine's plans or present whereabouts."
"The lightsaber was exactly where your Crystal-assisted Far-Sight declared.
We didn't so much as touch the statue of Sistros until we had so many Senate and Red Guards in attendance that not even the most paranoid anti-Jedi conspiracy theorist could imply we had anything to do with a neutronium statue being cold-forged on Naboo a decade ago to surround a bloodshine lightsaber of no make ever used by any Jedi.
Seems not everyone is against us though. One or more of the Judicials involved in recording the statue's opening leaked the video to the HoloNet News studio.
The ignition of that red blade by one of Palpatine's devoted Red Guards seems to be acting as something of a damper upon the Jedi Snatched the Chancellor theory.
At least with regards to the public, anyways. Unfortunately, it also means people are beginning to ask whether he's a rogue Jedi, or whether he could have been trained by one" Windu continued in a more ambivalent manner.
Yoda hmm'd at these comments, but didn't immediately respond. When he did, his ears were flat against his skull, as he answered in a heavy voice.
"Double edged, the Crystal's aid is. A true lens for the Force, it remains. Rigid and unchanging, it's user it makes.
Sparing, must the use of it be. Disaster, otherwise it's use will invite." Judging by the expressions on the faces of both Jedi Masters, this wasn't what he wanted to be saying anymore than it was what Windu wished to hear.
Yet the Master of the Order only nodded, before asking when their contingent intended to return.
"Upon the answer to your question, I must meditate. Uncertain, if more here, I can learn" Yoda answered with equal ambivalence. His gaze turning in the direction of the Argent Bulwark parked far to the southeast.
Sensing his Grandmaster's intention, Mace bowed his head before asking.
"Is Skywalker the Chosen One, then? From what you've told me, no number of precognitive flashes could explain everything he's revealed. Have you finally decided to confront the boy?"
"No!" Yoda shot back immediately with a sharp rap of his walking-stick against the stone floor of the ancient temple for emphasis. In a quieter and considerably more reserved tone, he elaborated "A discussion, we will have."
Now it was Mace Windu's turn to raise a holographic eyebrow. In a rather dubious tone, he replied.
"I mean no disrespect, but are you sure that's the right way to handle this? Master Drallig tells me he's routinely out-sparring Padawans six and even seven years older than he is.
Whereas Astaal Vilbum came to me insisting that we should, get this, make an exception and allow the boy to join the fifth and sixth year Force-technique segments. One instructor is adamant about his need for a shorter leash, while the other thinks him the perfect Padawan.
You know as well as I do that when two instructing Masters adopt such diametrically conflicting views of an apprentice, that one of them is always wrong.
I am troubled by Cin Drallig's statements in light of the reports that Skywalker took to consistently helping his peers in Force-technique segments where he'd already mastered the skill being practiced, however.
Becoming restless and angry at not being allowed to progress more quickly would have been behavior in line with the Battlemaster's assessment, but Astaal was adamant he didn't pick up on any of that."
There followed several long moments of silence. During which Yoda seemed to search for the right words, before finally answering in a longer string of ideas than the Korunnai Master had heard from him at once in many, many years.
"Young in years, Skywalker may be. Much older in many ways, he certainly is. Flashes from the Crystal, I have seen. Comprehend them all, I do not. One thing, learned I have. To the need of others, he will respond."
Seeming rather surprised by this mix of endorsements and cryptic statements, Mace eventually replied "I'll defer to your wisdom then, as always. May the Force be with you." Cutting off the transmission as soon as Yoda had nodded his acknowledgement.
Leaving Yoda staring down at the wheel-shaped Kaiburr Crystal at his feet, then off to the southeast. A considering expression on his lined and well-weathered face.
...
Hey guys can you throw some power stones to Elevate the ranking.
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