AU: Not Milliways continuity: The Foundry -Reprise

[last_kallig]

Ibani is at a corner booth in Milliways, examining a tactical map of the Kurost sector of the Mid-Rim, specifically the Nanth'ri system.

She's half in, half out of armor, a look worn by many commanders in many worlds and many times. A look that suggests that the Commander was either interrupted en route to sleep or has given up on it entirely.

She has a small stack of holopads set out on the table, listing various groups and their locations, most of them are crossed out. The two on top are for a Major Bessiker and the Sith Hiran Bessiker, his son.

She'd hoped she would never need to enter the Foundry again, but events have conspired against her.

Her stomach sinks as she recalls what she's fairly sure will be Major Bessiker's last message to her or to anyone, that a group of fanatical Jedi had taken the Foundry. She's checked again and again, and there is no one she can send, no one she can spare.

If she can't find an answer here, she'll be going alone into what the data tells her MUST be a trap.

(OOC: dialogue in italics is taken from/adapted from Ibani's canon.)

Comments

[acertainpov]

Ben meets Kell's eyes, the gaze between them steady, understanding. He lowers his lightsaber a few degrees.

"No one will pursue you," he says, addressing Barriss but with his gaze unflinching. "If you go now you may be able to get help, but you'll need to be quick."

He's no older than Obi-Wan Kenobi was when he watched Darth Maul cut his Master down. Ben can wait until he's gone.

Kell Daree holds her lightsaber in a similar position: held in front of her hips, blade pointed up, ready but not attacking. Around them the droids close in on Ibani, ignoring the Jedi Knight running towards the nearest starfighter, and the two Jedi Masters locked in a motionless tableau.

"Who are you?" she asks finally.

"A survivor," he says, raising his gaze to look vaguely around the Foundry, at what they're doing there.

He opens himself up, just a crack in the Force he shields himself with, gives her a glimpse of the pain he still carries. What it's like to lose ten thousand of his siblings: Masters and padawans and children in a matter of hours, cut down by the people they trusted most. He lets her catch a glimpse of that and he lets it go, fixing her in his sights again. His presence is still there, but it's dominated by understanding, compassion for her, and with hope for eventual peace.

Daree inhales slowly, lowers her head.

"I'm..."

"I know."

Barriss is long gone by now - he can't feel what happens next. Kell Daree lifts her head, raises her lightsaber to head level and throws herself at Ben Kenobi. His lightsaber flashes, moves as if to parry again, but slices cleanly into her, piercing her neatly in the heart.

He catches her in his off-hand and lowers her gently to the ground, hoping that at least at the end, she found that peace she needed.

Gently, he closes himself off again.

[last_kallig]

Ibani has been busy while Ben has been preoccupied with the Jedi. Dozens of droids lie strewn about the hanger, riddled with lightning, cut by lightsabers, or torn asunder with the Force. The droid remains are blocking the entrance to the hanger, and the humans can hear the sounds of other droids firing at the blockage attempting to get in. From a distance, in her armor, Ibani looks like a demon, a monster. (There are those on both sides of the War who would agree with that assessment of her nature.)

She jogs over to Ben, goes to put a hand on his shoulder in comfort if he'll let her. The Force is full of sorrow and concern. "I'm sorry, Ben. I would have spared your gentle soul that weight," she says quietly, looking at Daree's remains. "But the youngster is safe and away, and I am glad of it."

Up close, Ben can see the blaster marks, the shrapnel scars on her armor, places where her defense was just slightly less than perfect. She would be bloody and burned now, if she had come here without it.

"If we go through the maintenance passageways we can cut down on the number of droids we have to wade through to get to the control center."

[acertainpov]

Ben rolls Daree over so she's lying on her side, her tendrils arranged smoothly behidn her. He then reaches one hand up to cover Ibani's on his shoulder.

"Don't be," he says. "She died well." He doesn't need to be spared anything.

He drops his hand and stands, glancing over at the blockade of droid corpses and nods at her, setting off at a run towards the best positioned maintenance hatch.

"Not bad work with the droids. Almost as good as my old clone commander."

He misses Cody.

[last_kallig]

He might not NEED to be spared anything, but that doesn't mean Ibani wouldn't spare him if she could.

Ibani runs after him toward the hatch. "Only almost as good, hm?" she asks, but her tone is teasing. "I would have liked to meet this commander of yours."

The maintenance hatch is a tight fight, too small for the droids to operate in it. "I wish I had known where these went my first time here, would have saved a lot of fighting."

[acertainpov]

"You would have liked him; he was a good man. I would have died several times over without him."

And then he tried to kill Obi-Wan. But who hasn't wanted to do that at some point?

Ben squeezes in, and checks over his shoulder to make sure she's following without any problems before continuing through the passage.

"He'd have preferred the direct route to squeezing through maintenance routes, but he wasn't above using stealth if it meant he could get the drop on some droids."

[last_kallig]

Ibani hasn't wanted to kill Obi-Wan at any point! "Then I owe him a great deal," she says when Ben explains that he would have died several times without Cody.

"A difference in training, I expect. I was trained as an assassin, after all."

They reach the end of a passage and can hear droids passing outside of it.

"Preferred tactics?" she asks quietly.

[acertainpov]

"Oh there were plenty of clones who prefered stealth," Ben says. "Personality plays as much a role as training."

The ARC Troopers were very good at this kind of thing. Fives, he remembers, and Echo.

He pauses at the end, and rests his hand on his lightsaber.

"Here's an old trick I used to run with Commander Cody and his men. Get your lightning ready?"

As soon as she gives him the go ahead, he kicks the door open and steps out, clearing his throat loudly to get the droids' attention.

The resultant blaster fire is deflected neatly by his blade, clearing a safe space behind him where she can stand without worrying about being hit.

[last_kallig]

"That would make sense."

Ibani nods, lightning crackling between her hands as Ben kicks the door open.

It is a very nice trick!

The lightning doesn't roll over him this time, as Ibani centers the blast farther back, to hit as many droids as possible.

[acertainpov]

It's a few seconds, but the more droids that go down the less fire Ben has to deflect, and soon they've got the corridor clear.

Ben doesn't continue to reminisce about Cody - it would feel a bit too self indulgent to get lost in his old friend and that particular betrayal. Instead he grins at her and nods his head along the corridor in the direction he assumes they're heading, just to check they're on the same page.

[last_kallig]

She grins back at him, and sends a feeling of happiness and appreciation his way since her armor will hide the grin. (Sometimes the fact that her armor conceals her expressions is USEFUL, sometimes it's not.)

She nods in agreement and follows him. More passages, more droids, even with these 'shortcuts' it's going to be a slog.

Eventually, though, they're near the center of the complex, near the control center, and they can sense two Jedi in the control room. One Jedi is a male Cathar, the other a dark skinned male human.

Maybe they'll be reasonable? It could happen, right?

[acertainpov]

It's a definite possibility. Not very likely, but possible.

Ben, completely invisible in the Force still, falls back, to the side, where he won't be that obvious to eyes, and lets Ibani go first. You never know, maybe just sensing Darth Imperious will prompt them to rethink their plans.

[last_kallig]

Ibani kicks the door open from the maintenance passageway and lets her presence seep into the Force.

Both Jedi immediately turn her way and draw their lightsabers. "Darth Imperious," the Cathar Jedi growls.

"You won't stop us," says the other. "We will defeat you, then wipe the stain of your kind from the galaxy forever!"

Ben will sense another force presence then, another Jedi, coming up stealthily to the actual main entrance to the room. They are young, and the Light shines in them, unlike the others on this station.

"No need to go living down to expectations as genocidal hypocrites, gentlemen," Ibani drawls. "I'm no expert on the Jedi Code, but I do believe murdering billions of innocent children is rather frowned upon."

When the Jedi do not deny Ibani's statement, that cloaked Force presence begins to leak horrified surprise into the Force. This Jedi, at least, is innocent, did not know what horrors were intended to be wrought here.

[acertainpov]

Ben waits for Ibani to circle around, drawing the ireful gaze of the Jedi with her, and away frm the maintenance hatch, before he slips out and circles around in the other direction towards the main door.

He glances once at Ibani, establishes that she can probably handle two Jedi on her own, and if she can't he'll be back anyway, and then he holds a hand up against the door lock.

The door opens with thankfully not enough noise to distract anyone from the very real and imposing presence of Darth Imperious, and Ben steps out into the corridor.

Again, he relaxes his shields, and there he is, kind, compassionate, and utterly trustworthy, a strong contrast to the presences he leaves behind in the control room.

"Tell me," he says quietly, "are you expecting an attack, or is it normal to wander around the Shadows?"

[last_kallig]

The Force shield drops, revealing a young togruta girl who can't be more than 14.

"I'm sorry, Master. I know I'm not supposed to be in this part of the complex, but I just, I just had a feeling..." Her voice trails off and her eyes dart toward the power and the aggression she can feel in the other room.

"Why didn't they deny it, what she said?" Her voice and her presence in the Force turn uncertain, and there is a desperate hope that this is all a misunderstanding, that her Masters aren't trying to do something horrible.

[acertainpov]

Ben stands steady, his eyes on her filled with all the warmth and compassion in the Galaxy, his hands folded in front of him.

"Is she lying?" he asks with the rhetorical tone of a Master talking to his own Padawan. "Would they be telling the truth if they denied it?"

She's strong in the Force: she can reach these conclusions on her own.

[last_kallig]

"She didn't feel like she was lying," Ashara says after a moment. "But that doesn't mean she couldn't be mistaken."

But that begs the question of why the Jedi didn't correct her, doesn't it? "But if it was a mistake, they should have said so."

She swallows hard, draws up her courage. "Please, Master. Can you, can you keep the Sith occupied for a while? Master Ryen, Master Ocera, I'm their Padawan. They might not listen to a Sith, or, or a stranger, but they'll listen to me!"

The Force is full of determination, the drive to do the right thing, to save everyone. To be what a Jedi SHOULD be.

They have to listen to her, surely?

[acertainpov]

Ben considers his options - realizes that he can’t kidnap her, can’t force her to go with him to safety. She’s right, it would be against their role as peacekeepers not to try.

But his hope for her success is slim.

He nods once.

“You must be prepared for failure,” he advises. “Know that when a heart is lost sometimes the wisest course is your own survival.

“I can hold her off long enough for you to try, but when I say to leave, you listen.”

He places a hand on her shoulder, reassuring and warm.

“Trust in the Force, Young One. Listen to what it tells you.”

Then he steps back, and before he opens the door he increases his presence in the Force. It’s like knocking, in a way.

Eyes on the child’s, he holds his lightsaber, unactivated, in one hand and invites her to come forward, to stand in front of him.

Then he opens the door back into the control center.

[last_kallig]

Ashara nods in agreement, then moves to stand in front of Ben before he opens the door. Unsurprisingly, all three Force users are looking their way when they enter. Lightsabers were clearly drawn before they entered, but no one appears to have been stabbed yet, hooray!

"Ashara!" the Cathar Jedi snaps, concerned. "You should not be here, this foe is beyond you!" Which is an accurate assessment, honestly, if Ibani had any intention of fighting the girl.

Ibani backs up to the far wall, keeping an eye on the enemy human Jedi as she moves away. She sends Ben a sense of questioning, but she trusts whatever his plan is.

"I'm not here to fight, Master Ryen," Ashara replies. Then she steps forward, moving toward Master Ryen, hands raised palm out. "Please don't do this, Master!" she begs. "Even if you win, we will have lost, don't you understand?"

The other Jedi, who must be Master Ocera, moves to keep his position and distance from Ibani the same.

"You're too young to understand, Ashara," Master Ryen replies. "Sometimes we must make terrible sacrifices for the good of the people of the Republic." There is a tinge of sorrow in the Force from him.

[acertainpov]

Ben stays by the door, but he raises a hand to stay Ibani, his lightsaber hilt in it adding a threat to that, as if either were needed.

His glance though carries a helpless tolerance. He thinks it’s amusing she even thinks he has a plan to trust in.

The thrust of his attention is on the growing tension between Jedi and Padawan, and his usually genial face develops a deep furrow at Ryan’s words.

[last_kallig]

Ashara moves closer to Ryen. "No, Master. Not, not like this. If we do things like the Sith, how are we any different than them?"

Ibani starts to raise a hand to object to this comparison, but changes her mind. She'll take whatever argument gets them to back down, honestly!

Ashara keeps moving closer. Master Ryen sighs, lowers his lightsaber slightly, then shuts his eyes for a moment. Suddenly the Force is full of a deep well of grief and guilt, a whirlpool of it.

"Damn, I honestly wasn't expecting that to work," Ibani says, beginning to feel hopeful about this after all!

Ashara smiles brightly at Master Ryen, turns to approach Master Ocera, who has never taken his attention off of Ibani.

And that's when it happens. Neither Ashara nor Ibani reached the correct conclusions about what those emotions from Master Ryen meant, you see. It wasn't guilt and grief over what he HAD done, but what he was ABOUT to do.

Master Ryen moves his lightsaber toward Ashara, to give her the same blow, the same quick, clean death that Ben gave Kell Daree earlier.

Ben's the only one in the right position to both see what's happening and react to it in time, IF he's fast enough...

[acertainpov]

The Force hits Ashara like a Jawa sandcruiser, sending her flying across the room to the far wall.

Where she had been standing a millisecond ago stands an old Jedi hermit, his lightsaber blocking the clean path of her Master’s, his gaze determined, unflinching, locked on the Cathar.

Open as he is to the Force even now there’s no anger. Just disappointment.

[last_kallig]

Ashara is surprised by being hit by the Force, but that has nothing on the surprise when she looks back and sees the way her Master and Ben are standing.

She knows, then, what was supposed to happen. She freezes, and her careful control shatters, flooding the Force with fear, horror, and betrayal.

Master Ryen holds Ben's gaze, equally determined and unflinching. "You'll pay for that, traitor."

Ibani knows what it's like to break and to be on the very edge of breaking. She's been broken before, and if things had gone only slightly differently she would have found her Death on Korriban when she was seeking it. The last thing this poor child needs is any more trauma today. Trauma like feeling her Masters die.

"I will hold them until you return," she promises Ben. So much is unsaid along with that statement, but open to the Force as he is right now, Ben will likely sense it anyway. That Ibani understands how fragile Ashara is right now, that she knows what it's like to be broken, that she wishes she had had someone, ANYONE, in those terrible days after A'Tema's murder to help her put herself back together.

Master Ryen growls as Ibani reaches out with the Force to yank him toward herself. To give Ben space to act with regard to Ashara.

[acertainpov]

“Ashara.”

When the pressure of Ryen’s lightsaber pressing down on Ben’s is relieved, Ben stands. He keeps his back to Ibani, Ryen and Ocera, but the set in his shoulders is clear. He can feel you and you’d be a fool to think a turned back is a target.

He also puts himself between the three of them and a clear route from where the Padawan is just standing up, to the door and the way off this station.

“Come, young one, it’s time to go.”

[last_kallig]

Ibani 'helps' by moving to attack both of the Jedi Masters, which ought to keep them plenty distracted!

Ashara doesn't respond at first, and she's shaking slightly when she finally moves toward Ben.

She's repeating the Jedi Code out loud to herself over and over again, like a mantra, the words running together. It doesn't seem to be helping her calm down, much.

[acertainpov]

Ben’s hardly surprised; those words seem so meaningless now. And false, to boot.

He reaches out a hand for her again as she nears, places it on her shoulder, and steers her firmly towards the door, his arm around her.

He still doesn’t look at Ibani even on his way out - she’s doing her part by giving them this space.

As the door shuts behind them he continues on down the corridor, but adapts his pace to Ashara's, his presence serene.

“You were right to try,” he says.