Shadows of Tomorrow

Chapter 40 - The Bombing

Author's Note: I'm so sorry. ;-;

~ Amina Gila

The room slowly comes into focus around Theseus, and the memories of what happened right before he went unconscious rush back. The next thing he registers is how his body aches all over. He's in the healer's wing, having been treated from the injuries he sustained in the explosion.

Theseus shifts his position, turning his head slightly to see that Obi-Wan is sitting near his bed. "Master?" he croaks. "What happened?"

"Someone let off a bomb in the Temple hanger," Obi-Wan explains. He looks grave, and tired, not exactly unlike how he often is. The war has taken a toll on all of them.

"What? How?" he utters, the implications of it all rapidly catching up to him. How could someone get into the Temple like that and blow it up? Out on the battlefield, yes, but right here on Coruscant, right in the home of the Jedi? It doesn't make any sense! He remembers when Cad Bane infiltrated the Temple well over a year ago, but this is on a far more serious level. How could an intruder – was the person an intruder?! – enter the Temple and set off a bomb without anyone sensing them?

"We don't know who did it, at this point. Everything is still in too much chaos," Obi-Wan explains.

Naturally, he doesn't understand how this could have happened. How many other people were injured in that explosion? He's seen plenty of things blowing up over the years, and from what he briefly saw, he's under no delusions that he easily could've been killed if not for the ship that protected him.

Which means – which means – a sudden icy fear like he's hardly felt before crashes through him. No, no. "What about Caleb?" Theseus demands.

Obi-Wan's expression immediately turns grimmer. No, no, no. Suddenly he doesn't know if he wants to know the answer to that question anymore. It's not – He can't be –

"He's alive," Obi-Wan answers finally. A quiet breath of relief escapes Theseus, but that doesn't mean much. "But his condition is a lot worse than yours."

Of course, it is. His relief rapidly vanishes all over again, and he feels totally sick instead. He doesn't want to believe this. It can't... he and Caleb were just being brothers, and everything was fine only – was it hours ago? – and now. "How bad?" he asks weakly.

"They don't know at this point," he replies, which really does little to make Theseus feel better. "His condition has been temporarily stabilized, but it could continue to deteriorate. Right now, you need to rest."

Maybe, but somehow, he doubts he's going to be getting much for a while.

***

It's sometime the next afternoon – after Theseus got out of a bacta tank treatment – that he gets another visitor. Ahsoka, followed by a droid holding a datapad.

"Ahsoka? What's going on?" asks Theseus urgently.

"I came to see how you were doing and talk to you about what happened and if you saw anything," she explains, "Master Anakin and I have been assigned to investigate."

Oh. "I'm doing fine, or I will be," he replies, "Have you heard anything about Caleb?"

Something between sympathy and concern flickers across her face. She knew Caleb relatively well, too, after all. "No, I haven't, beyond that he's been injured much worse than you."

Theseus sighs, sinking back against the bed. He was really hoping that at least she'd be able to tell him something other than that. Caleb has to be alright. He has to be. He needs to stop thinking about how... how things could end with that, the very thought filling him with a sickening dread. He's lost so much, and he should have been able to protect this child. He thought they were safe, in the Temple, in their very own home, but he was wrong.