Eventide of a Jedi

V

I lay on the ground, my body racked with pain and my mind dazed. I can't hear anything through the ringing in my ears and I desperately try to make sense of what had just happened. The mine is full of floating dust and smoke, and I can't see if Aayla and the clones are dead or alive. I reach up to brush hair from my face and my palm comes back red and bloodied. A sharp pain in my side suggests that a rib is broken, but I stand anyway, hoping to find my comrades. I think I see the outline of a figure through the smoke, but before I can call out the second blast goes off.

Now, as the tunnel collapses behind me, I understand that this was an ambush. The earth caves into the tunnel with a roar, a torrential tsunami of dirt and rock. I lay on the ground watching as the tunnel fills up, separating me from where we had entered the mining shaft. The dust settles and it appears I am alone, either separated from my friends or the only survivor. I struggle to my feet, holding the side of my torso with my hands, and ignite one of my lightsabers. In the eerie blue light I see no sign of the clones or my master, and my heart races as I fear the worse. I imagine Master Secura being instantly crushed by tons of dirt, and the clones being buried alive and then slowly suffocating. There is an ominous stillness in the Force and I begin to panic.

I can't think of what to do, so I begin digging at the mound of earth that had clogged the tunnel, blood slowly dripping from my forehead into the dirt. I am dazed from the explosions but adrenaline gives me the energy to frantically sift through the wall of dirt in a futile attempt to save my comrades. I call out their names, but am only met with the response of my own voice echoing back in the empty tunnel.

The more I dig, the heavier my limbs become. Every move I make sends a sharp pain down my side and it becomes increasingly hard for me to even stay on my feet. My motions drastically slow until I buckle to my knees, struggling to keep my eyes open. I can feel darkness seeping in and I think that maybe I'm suffocating in the tunnel or that the explosions had caused enough internal damage to kill me. My thoughts drift back to Coruscant, to the Jedi Temple, where no one would know why Master Secura and her padawan had never returned from New Holstice. Locked under the planet's surface, this would be our tomb. I give in to fear during the last fleeting moments of consciousness and begin to cry, wondering if my master was suffering the same fate. The possibility of death had always been present since the beginning of the Clone Wars, but in these last moments the fear of the unknown grips my heart.

There is no death, there is only the Force.

There is no death, there is only the Force.

There is no death....

*********

My eyes slowly open and the first thing I notice is the absence of pain. I'm laying in a comfortable bed and I let myself relax in the comfort of the silky sheets, the pain meds making my mind foggy and tired. I roll over groggily and stare at the wall. I didn't remember it being so far from my bed, or being such a dark shade of grey. An uneasy feeling settles in my gut and I sit up with a start; I am not in my dorm at the temple.

The dark mining tunnels...the explosions...it all slowly comes back to me. I spring from the bed as a thousand questions whirl in my mind, and though I was in an unfamiliar location it was unclear whether or not I was in danger. My lightsabers rest on a bedside table, along with a black tunic and pants, and I pick the garments up reluctantly. My Jedi robes were gone, and instead I wore a white hospital gown. I could feel bandages around my chest and I could no longer feel the gash on my forehead. I looked around the room but it didn't seem like the usual Republic hospital, and it certainly was not the Jedi Temple. Still, it seemed that whoever had found me in the tunnels was trying to help me, and I changed into the clothes that had been set out. I grab my lightsabers as well and grip them firmly, just in case. I wouldn't get too comfortable here until I found out exactly where 'here' was.