The Knight Before The Dawn | Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Hold him down!" Barriss shouted over the screams of a dying clone. A sulfuric geyser erupted right behind him. The flash of heat melted his helmet onto his head. Even though the clones wore flamethrower gear there was nothing to protect them from yellow magma bursts, lava flumes, and geysers that rained down a numerous amount of corrosive chemicals. Sullust would be a dead planet had it not once been a lush, vibrant world.

When the Sullustans mined too close to the planet core a chain reaction occurred that covered the entire planet in ash and bright yellow lava. The Sullustans endured the calamity by living underground and continued to mine. The Separatists wanted the resources of those mines and knew exactly how to give every droid the advantage in battle. They seized control and quickly set up defenses on every surface to sub-level entry point. If the Republic was going to liberate the Sullustans, they would have to do so on foot and on the surface. The droids withstood the surface like any other world. It was a clone's worst nightmare.

"I said hold him down!" Barriss shouted again. There wasn't much to be done but trust in the Force. The plastic of his helmet had melted into his face and scalp. The only way to separate him from the plastic was to remove most of the skin and muscle tissue on his head. He would suffer tremendously and may not survive the procedure… unless Barriss Offee could help him. "Don't we have anything to sedate him?"

"We haven't received any aid from the fleet since last time you were here, Commander." Chief Medical Field Officer 'Stitch' answered as he came over to hold down the flailing and screaming clone. He looked right into her sapphire blue eyes as he held the clone down. "We have been pleading for aid. They sent us you."

"Just me? What were they thinking?" Barriss tried to dedicate a little bit of concentration to the conversation, but most of herself was focused on Force Healing the clone. A light blue aura was emanating from her hands as wisps of blue light encircled the clone's head.

"Command said that sending you was all that they could do, but to be honest, I'd rather have you hear than any amount of supplies." Stitch tried to be calm and nurturing as he spoke. Barriss had been healing non-stop for nearly 40 hours and there were still too many clones to count in need of medical attention. "It is because of you here that Scratch has a chance. Without you, he'd lose his head… almost literally." Barriss cracked a smile, but kept most of her focus on the wounded clone. A few more struggled moments and she was done. She used the Force to remove the bits of helmet to reveal a tender, but recognizable face. "You did it! Miraculous. It is because of the Jedi that we will win this war. Your benevolence never ceases to inspire."

"Oh, if only all Jedi were benevolent…" Barriss trailed off not realizing that she was thinking out loud.

"Commander?" Stitch looked at her confused.

"Never mind. Please bring in the next soldier." If Stitch didn't know, then she wasn't about to tell him how Jedi General Krell turned clones against one another in an ignorant slaughter for his own gain. Nor would she mention the fact most had shoved under the rug that Count Dooku himself was once a Jedi.

Stitch returned with another clone who had been shot in the leg twice. He looked at an exhausted Barriss as he laid the injured clone on the medical table. "How long will you be assisting us this time, Commander?"

"Until the battle for this system has ended one way or the other." She said without looking at him. She appreciated his respect, but she wanted nothing more than to jump in her starfighter and leave the wasteland.

---

Five Weeks Later, the battle for Sullust was not over, but the clones had managed to push the droids back to the subterranean pockets of Sullustan civilization. Finally safe from the unforgiving surface, the clone medics could take over and Barriss could finally leave. With the masses of clones all needing urgent care, sleep wasn't an option the entire time. If she rested, clones would die. As she flew up to her hyperspace ring in orbit she finally took a moment to Force heal her arm. She had been regularly getting stimulus injections to keep working without sleep. She barely received one full night's rest accumulatively throughout her time there.

As soon as Barriss Offee engaged her hyperspace ring and put her blue delta-7b starfighter on autopilot she leaned back and immediately fell asleep. There wasn't any distance of hyperspace travel long enough for her to fully recharge, but she'd take any chance to close her eyes at that point. Unfortunately for Barriss, sleep wasn't exactly the most relaxing of practices lately. Nightmares were becoming far more frequent as she struggled to maintain her discipline in the Clone Wars. No one can walk away from seeing so much death and pain without at least a mental mark to show for it.

Her astromech piloted her starfighter out of hyperspace and back to the Jedi Temple hangar on Coruscant. The blue fighter made its approach and landed right beside Luminara Unduli who was waiting for her apprentice alongside Kit Fisto. Barriss' starfighter finished its landing sequence and the cockpit opened to reveal a still sleeping Barriss. Luminara gazed at her Padawan's face. Barriss' brow was furled and she was turning back and forth a bit. Luminara turned to Kit. "I knew this mission was going to be too much for her. She needs time to recover. The Council cannot send her back out again so soon."

"We all knew that this mission was going to take a heavy toll on Barriss, but unfortunately we cannot always be convenient in our timing when we are at war." Kit put a hand on Luminara's shoulder. Luminara just kept staring at her suffering Padawan not sure to wake her or let her be. "I will speak with the Council on Barriss' behalf. I will see what can be done about your assignment with her to Cato Neimoidia."

"Thank you, Master Fisto. Your compassion knows no limits, does it?" Luminara smiled gently at the tall, green nautolan.

Kit Fisto reached into Barriss' starfighter and lifted the sleeping mirialan girl into his arms. "Not that I know of." He said with a smile. "I'll take her back to her living quarters." Without another word he carried her all the way across the Jedi Temple. Luminara silently accompanied him the entire way. Normally it would raise a few eyebrows to see a Jedi Master carrying a sleeping Padawan through the halls, but Kit's selfless and caring nature was all anyone needed to understand. Once they had approached the Padawan dormitory halls, Luminara directed him to Barriss' room.

Luminara turned to Kit once he had laid Barriss down in her bed. "I'll take care of removing her cloak and boots. Thank you so much for assisting her. You didn't have to."

"My work is not yet done, Master Unduli. I must go speak with the Council." Kit turned to walk away. He heard Luminara clear her throat to say something else. He looked back and responded without needing to hear the question. "Just making the galaxy a better place one kind act at a time. May the Force be with you."

Luminara watched for a moment as the Jedi Master briskly walked away down the hall smiling and greeting every individual, Jedi or not, that passed by. Once he had turned the corner she went back into Barriss' room and shut the door. While being a Jedi meant giving up most of your cultural background, Luminara practiced mirialan modesty and trained Barriss to do the same. She gently removed Barriss' boots and cloak without waking her Padawan. After placing Barriss' lightsaber at the feet of the mirialan totem and removing Barriss' head sock, she stared at the sleeping mirialan girl for a moment.

Barriss continued to toss and turn. Luminara knelt beside her Padawan and ran her fingers through Barriss' dark, lavender hair. She concentrated for a moment on the Force and brought ease to Barriss' mind. Barriss stopped furling her brow and tossing and turning. She was finally sleeping soundly, but whispered one word in response to the sudden comfort. "Ahsoka..." Luminara knew that the two Padawans were friends, but saying Ahsoka Tano's name in her sleep was unusual and cause for suspicion. That conversation would have to wait for another time however. Gracefully, Luminara rose and left her Padawan to sleep without a sound.

Heading up to one of the many focus chambers for meditation, Luminara caught sight of Kit Fisto once again. His usual grin was stretched across his face as he approached her. "Master Luminara, I have good news! You and your Padawan will be given a week-long meditative retreat in the Temple. The Council has decided that your Padawan does need some time to recover from her last mission and wants you to oversee her recovery."

Luminara revealed her excitement as her eyes lit up and a smile stretched across her face, but she quickly went back to a more neutral expression as was her way. "Thank you, Master Fisto. I cannot convey my gratitude enough for my Padawan or myself. I must ask though, what about the Republic siege of Cato Neimoidia?"

"There was no discussion necessary to find capable Jedi to replace you." Kit spoke while still grinning. "Anakin Skywalker and his Padawan were still in the Council Chamber for a mission debriefing when I arrived. When I spoke of Barriss' situation Padawan Tano immediately volunteered to take her place."

"Really?" Luminara wasn't surprised but wanted to be. "Their friendship must be very strong indeed."

"When I elaborated on your Padawan's state of mind, Master Yoda recommended Skywalker to take your place in the mission so that you may remain here and look after your Padawan. The agreement was unanimous." Kit bowed respectively. "I hope your Padawan's recovery is a smooth one. I must now attend to other matters. May the Force be with you, Luminara."

"And with you, Master Fisto. Thank you." Kit turned and left Luminara to her meditation. She was confident that Barriss only needed a day or two to rest. Perhaps she could also address Barriss' attachment to Ahsoka during this week...

---

When she awoke, Barriss Offee looked curiously to her window to get an idea of what time of day it was. A soft, faintly saturated purple light flowed gracefully between the blinds of the window and into her room. It was nighttime. The soft purple light was the ambient light from all of the neon signs and holo-images that maintained Coruscant through each night like an artificial day. Barriss didn't want to ruin her normal sleep cycle and tried to fall back asleep until morning, but it was no use. Her mind was already stampeding with thoughts from the philosophies of war to the aching hunger in her stomach.

On closer look to her personal datapad, it was closer to morning than evening anyways, so she got up to walk off some of the lingering stress on her mind. It wasn't until she began dressing that she realized that she had no memory of ever arriving at the Temple. A few different explanations ran through her mind, but she'd be too embarrassed to ever inquire about it. No harm was done so she dismissed the method in which she went from her starfighter to her room.

The halls of the Jedi Temple were unusually quiet. It was almost like time travel for Barriss. She used to roam the halls around that early morning time to enjoy the solitude of the sleeping temple. After a few long hallways, she found herself on the East end of the temple. The towering hallway had massive windows along the exterior wall with deep circular alcoves at the bottoms. It was in one of these alcoves that Barriss stopped to rest. She sat in the window alcove for a while watching the last stars of night give way to the soft blue ambience of the coming day.

She almost fell back asleep relaxing in the window until she heard some rushed footsteps getting louder. Most meetings and activities wouldn't start for another hour. Barriss leaned out of the window alcove into the hallway to see who the early riser was. To her surprise, it was the Abyssan from the war protest outside the Jedi Temple. He was storming angrily towards the hangar with a device in his hand. She didn't need to be a Jedi to sense trouble with him. Barriss swiftly walked over to the middle of the hallway to stand right in his path. "Hey! What are you doing here?"

The Abyssin didn't answer. He kept walking and pushed Barriss aside. She called after him again but he acted as if he didn't even hear her. Finally to get his attention, she used the Force to stop him in his tracks and turn him around to face her. "It is rude not to answer someone when they are speaking to you."

He scoffed at her remark as he struggled to lose her Force grip. "It is rude to enable the suffering of billions across the galaxy, but you Jedi don't seem to have a problem with that." The green-skinned, one-eyed alien stood over a half a meter taller than Barriss, but she wasn't intimidated at all by his size or his deep and graveled voice. She saw an anti-war lecture coming and definitely didn't have the patience for it.

"You will answer me. What are you doing here? How did you get past the guards outside?" She kept her voice calm in an effort not to add to the tenseness of the situation.

"Use your 'legendary powers of observation' and make a deduction, Jedi." The Abyssin motioned to his clothes. He was wearing a Jedi Temple technician's uniform.

"How did you acquire these clothes?" She asked feeling a little threatened at his infiltration.

"The hardest way possible; I work here! Now let me go!" The Abyssin was infuriated by the interrogation.

"Not yet!" Barriss' patience was at about the same as his, but she wasn't about to back down. "What is that in your hand and what are you doing here so early?"

The Abyssin sighed obnoxiously in surrender to the situation. "This is a Tibanna Regulator for an LAAT Gunship particle emitter. It needed repaired and I didn't have time yesterday. I took it home to fix it and I am here early to install it before the ship goes through final inspection in one hour. Now if you would please let me go, I'm racing the clock here!"

Barriss was a Jedi. She could tell if he was lying or telling the truth. In this case, she felt incredibly embarrassed for jumping to conclusions. She released him quickly but carefully. The Abyssin turned and stormed off immediately. She shouted an apology. He just waved his hand in the air like her apology was nothing but white noise to him. As he rounded the corner out of sight, Barriss shrunk back down into her window alcove. 'A dedicated Jedi Temple worker who spends his downtime protesting the war? Interesting to say the least…'

She felt terrible after judging the Abyssin so harshly. Her feelings of remorse only compounded on the other issues plaguing her mind. The thoughts of intrigue and embarrassment were quickly pushed aside as Barriss' stomach started to growl so loud that it nearly had an echo in the great halls. She hadn't eaten for several hours. Wishing to escape the hall anyways, Barriss made her way to the mess hall. The day was only beginning.