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SOMETHING WARM AND WET trickled down Eerie's forehead. A high whistle rang through her ears and she groaned as she slowly regained consciousness. Something cold and hard pressed against her cheek and she carefully lifted her hand to feel her head while ignoring the vague urge to leave as quickly as possible. What happened?

Eerie hissed in pain when her fingers hit a sore spot and she saw they were covered in blood when she moved them away. She blinked a few times, trying to shake the daze off her but somehow the fog around her stayed, no matter how often she blinked.

Her lungs hurt and it felt like a piece of sandpaper scrubbed her throat with each jagged breath she took. Suddenly, her sense of smell returned as well and the penetrating scent of smoke brought back her recent memories. The fog wasn't fog and the vague urge to run wasn't vague anymore.

Eerie lifted her head up from the dashboard to look over her shoulder. The engine fire crept closer and closer to her; its hot flames already licking at the glass roof of her crashed starfighter. She pushed herself away from the dashboard until she sat straight in the chair again. She had to get out of here before the fire reached the power cells and sent the ship flying in thousandths of pieces.

Her head throbbed painfully but she tried not to think about it while she made sure she could leave the cockpit before she pressed the button to open the roof. The thick smoke inside blocked most of her view but if she looked closely, she didn't see anything else than snow and trees outside; allowing her to run away from the starfighter as fast as she could.

She unbuckled the X-shaped belt over her chest and hit the button with her fist. The glass roof opened with a whoosh and the smoke drifted away, swapping places with the fresh, cold air of the arctic planet.

However, when Eerie tried to move her legs out of the small space in front of the chair, she noticed she couldn't move them. Panic tightened her chest and her breathing became shallow while the fire entered the now open cockpit.

She couldn't move her legs! Why couldn't she move her legs?!

'No, no, no, no. . .' Eerie muttered, her eyes growing wide as she realized she could not only not move her legs, she also couldn't feel anything at all from her waist down. She felt her upper back pressing against the backrest of the pilot's chair, but she couldn't feel herself actually sitting on the chair.

The realization hit her almost as hard as the starfighter's contact with the ground: the crash landing had left her partly paralyzed.

Eerie felt as if she was going to lose consciousness again until she realized the panic caused her to hold her breath. She tried to open up her chest and took a few shallow breaths, but it didn't feel like as if she was gathering enough oxygen. Oh no, what if the paralysis was spreading and caused her lungs to dysfunction?

Colourful dots danced in front of her eyes and her head throbbed no longer but became lighter instead while the sensation of her body floating away from the chair filled her mind.

Was this what dying felt like? It wasn't that bad.

Eerie's peaceful thoughts cut short abruptly when something cold covered the upper half of her body, and she gasped for air involuntarily. The dots in front of her eyes disappeared and her panic faded to the background. The cold had scared her but also brought her back to reality. She saw nothing but snow all around her. Someone had lifted her out of the burning starfighter and tossed her in a heap of snow.

Had Master Bluelv come after her and rescued her?

Eerie used her elbows to completely turn on her back and she squinted her eyes a bit to make out the figure against the bright background in front of her.

'Well, well, well,' purred a female voice. 'Look what we have here.'

Eerie tried to crawl away but Asajj Ventress pinned down Eerie's wrists with her own, pale hands. Her long nails clawed in Eerie's skin and droplets of scarlet blood fell onto the snow like obscure rose petals.

'You're not going anywhere, sweetie.'

✧✧

KAI RYDER PUT DOWN the pencil with trembling hands. The Jedi Archives were empty apart from him and he wasn't sure if it was his imagination or he could actually hear his own breathing bouncing off the walls and repeating itself several times before it slowly faded away between the high bookshelves.

Dozens of papers covered all of the desk in front of him and his scribbled down calculations on it almost seemed to smile viciously at him; he knew they would match the deciphered plans on the screen of the holo-pad, like they had matched the other four times.

Kai fought the urge to check them a sixth time, he couldn't postpone this any longer. The Jedi Council had to know that the Separatists' plan to create a Force sensitive droid wasn't a scam. It was very, very real. If the Separatists' succeeded in manufacturing them, the tide of this Clone War would turn, and not in the Republic's advantage.

As quickly as he could, Kai gathered the papers and grabbed the holo-pad with the schematics. He rose up from the desk, feeling he could no longer sit still as he had been sitting for hours. His eyes stared into nothingness while he tried to decide whether he should contact the Grand Master with his wrist-com or if he should talk to him in person.

Kai decided on the latter and ran through the corridors of the Archives until he reached the main hall of the Jedi Temple. The massive golden statues at the sides of the red carpet were a more friendlier sight than the frisk and twilight Archives, and he took a few moments to calm down his heartbeat. He spun around his axis -- ignoring the weird faces he got from the other Jedi and visitors -- until he faced the right path to northwestern tower. With two steps at a time, he ascended the marble stairs to the elevator and pressed the button of the highest floor.

While the elevator rose, he shifted his weight from one to foot to another; his eyes focussed on the illuminating, digital numbers above the sliding doors. He didn't know why but it felt as if there wasn't any more time to lose.

After what felt like ages, the elevator reached the highest floor and with a ding, the doors opened. Kai sprinted the last few meters to the round council room but when he swung the door open and almost slid inside on the soles of his boots, he noticed the room was empty.

'Idiot,' he grumbled, almost face palming himself as well. Of course Master Yoda couldn't be found all the time in the council room; he had other responsibilities as well.

Kai tucked the holo-pad under his arm, deciding to contact the Grand Master instead of trying to find him in the massive Jedi Temple. He could be anywhere.

Master Yoda answered the call after a few seconds and a blue hologram of the Grand Master appeared above Kai's wrist-com. Till Kai's surprise it looked as if Master Yoda was in some kind of speeder and his ears flapped in an invisible wind.

'Master Yoda,' he said, trying not to laugh because of the funny view. 'The schematics of the Separatists --,'

The Grand Master cut him off before Kai could finish his sentence. 'Time to talk, I have not, and safe this line, might not be. In the council room, await my return, young Ryder.' And with that, Master Yoda ended the call and the small hologram disappeared.

Kai frowned but shrugged it off. Telling it in person was probably better anyways. He walked further in the round room and sat down in Master Meadowdancer's chair. It felt wrong to sit in any other chair of the council members but he was fairly sure Master Meadowdancer wouldn't mind. She had been very kind to him when he had spoken out of turn.

Kai laid down the holo-pad on his knees and waited like instructed.

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A/N:

ooooh, what's this? is it an update after almost four weeks? yes, yes, it is. oops.

I got kind of distracted with my new HP fic and I almost wanted to write another chapter for that one, until I realized I should probably write one for this.

but we're nearing the main plot now, so yay!

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and don't hesitate to let me know your thoughts!

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