━━━━━☆☆━━━━━

AS SOON AS THE GUNSHIP touched the ground, Jedi Master Bluelv jumped of it. The fresh snow crackled under his boots while he lightly walked over it. His amethyst lightsaber reflected in his dark eyes as he observed their arctic surroundings, ready to strike down whatever might jump out of the pine forest.

In the atmosphere far above him, the two Star Destroyers and the rest of the Republic fleet guarded the grey skyline. They would blast the Separatists into oblivion should they have the nerve to return.

The planet Ilum, however, was quiet as a tomb as the icy wind howled around the clone troopers and the Jedi Master.

'All clear,' Brood said to Obi-Wan when his gunship landed as well and he joined other man's side. Brood retracted his lightsaber and the humming sound stopped abruptly.

Obi-Wan scanned the forests for a moment until his eyes fell upon the Jedi temple in the distance. If Anakin, Ahsoka, Goldie and the younglings had survived the attack, they would be there. He knew, though, that Brood was anxious to search for his padawan who had crashed upon the planet's surface not far from here.

'We'll make for the temple,' Obi-Wan said, gesturing for his group of clone troopers to follow him. 'Find your padawan, no one's left behind.'

Brood nodded and both masters clasped each others' under arm before splitting apart and dashing off in different directions. Brood and his clone troopers disappeared between the trees while Obi-Wan and his group ran over the snowy ground towards the temple.

Jaira fiddled with the hilt of her lightsaber before reluctantly following Master Kenobi. She wanted to search for Eerie as well, but she knew her master would have gone with Obi-Wan so that's what she should do too.

'Jaira,' Obi-Wan called, sensing the conflict inside her. 'Go with Master Bluelv.'

Jaira grinned. 'Thank you, Master,' she said, turning around on her heels and following in the tracks of Brood and his troopers. She raced past the clones until she ran next to Brood, her eyes flying from left to right for any sign of a crash landing.

'There,' she said, pointing to the broken branches in the distance on their left.

The group ran towards it and followed the trail until they reached an small clearing. Eerie's starfighter lay on its side against a tree trunk, strings of black smoke whirling out of the engine and the red and white metal plates blackened from a previous fire.

Jaira sprinted to the cockpit, the glass roof was open but Eerie wasn't there.

'Empty,' she called over her shoulder to Brood who crouched down on the snowy ground mixed with frozen dark sand due to the crash. His hand hovered above a spot, but then moved slowly to some other tracks.

'She lay here,' he muttered, more to himself than to his clone troopers or Jaira. Still crouched, he walked a bit farther, facing the forest on behind Eerie's ship.

'They went that way,' he said, raising back to his full length and gesturing they would move out again.

'They?' Jaira repeated, but Brood didn't answer; his mind focused upon following the trail until they reached obvious imprint in the snow of the landing gear of a Separatists' ship.

But whoever had taken Eerie was long gone. . .

✧✧

VERENA CAME BACK TO her senses when the prison door opened with a hiss. A streak of daylight fell through the opening before a figure appeared in it and tossed something in a heap in front of her feet.

The captured Jedi Master dangled a few inches above the floor as she was strapped to the ceiling by a pair of iron cuffs, and every few minutes electricity zapped through her body; making it impossible for Verena to call upon the Force.

She had to use all of her strength to simply stay alive. It was a barbaric method, but an effective one -- she had to admit that. She couldn't do anything else than to rest in her faith, which was a much as a torture to her mind than the physical torture.

The heap of robes moved lightly and Verena squinted her eyes, trying to determine who or what it was while the figure in the door opening stepped farther inside.

'Ventress,' Verena said with a hoarse voice from pain and exhaustion when she recognized the figure, averting her eyes away from the -- most likely -- other captive.

The Sith's assassin grinned, her blood red lips curling upwards like a snarl around her barren teeth. Her gaze traveled up and down Verena's limp body, hanging useless in the cuffs as her filthy black hair from cold sweat fell in front of her green eyes.

'You Jedi really are weak.' Ventress' pale hands reached for another pair of iron cuffs hanging on the ceiling and she clasped them around the wrists of the heap of brown robes. She walked to the chain by the door and pulled onto it, hoisting up the other captive until they dangled a few inches above the floor as well. But unlike with Verena, Ventress didn't fasten their feet to the floor.

'Enjoy each others' company, for as long as it lasts,' Ventress said, her faked sweet voice dripping with venom.

The other captive groaned, lightly moving again and their hood fell off. Just before the door closed again, Verena turned her head to them; using the streak the daylight before it would disappear.

'Eerie,' she whispered, identifying them as the best friend of her own padawan Jaira.

Eerie's eyes moved behind her closed eye lids when she heard her name being called out. With a lot of effort, she managed to open them just as the prison door closed once more.

'Where am I?' Eerie muttered. The small room they were in, was cloaked in darkness now that the door was shut close.

Verena heard a lot of clanging; iron colliding with iron as Eerie took notice of the hand cuffs.

'What is happening?' Eerie asked with a high voice, her panic taking the upper hand.

'Calm your thoughts, Eerie. It is me: Master Meadowdancer. We can get through this together, but not if you do not act like a future Jedi,' Verena said, but as an answer, the padawan shook violently with her cuffs again.

'I cannot calm down, Master,' she spat, her panic fading to the background and making place for anger. 'First I've lost my legs and now my freedom. I cannot calm down.'

'Your legs?' Verena repeated, but her unspoken question got cut short when a spike of energy traveled through the cuffs. Every fiber in her body felt as if they could burn through any moment, the electricity shocking her in an agonizing pain and causing every muscle to tense up in uncomfortable ways.

Next to her, Eerie screamed when she was hit with the electricity as well.

'Your -- heart,' Verena managed to say, pushing her pain to the back of her mind the best she could. But she couldn't elaborate it more as another painful wave washed through her; her voice turning in a scream too.

Luckily, the padawan understood the meaning behind the two words. They couldn't let the electricity travel too much through their hearts or it would mean the end of them.

Seconds felt like hours as they used the little bit of might left in them to redirect the electricity anywhere else than their heart until the torture stopped.

Both of them breathed heavily, exhausted from the toll it had taken on their bodies while the pain still stung like a far too real echo from the past.

Eerie tried to fight against it but eventually her eyes fluttered shut.

'Hang on, Eerie,' Verena said with struggling breaths. 'We will get out of here.' Her eyes got used to the darkness and with a renewed energy she observed the room to find a way out. She might have made peace with her own death, but not with Eerie's.

The padawan were the future of the Jedi Order, Eerie had to survive; and Verena would make sure of that.

━━━━━☆☆━━━━━

━━━━━☆☆━━━━━