Star Wars_ Rebel Force 2_ Hostage - Alex Wheeler [20]
It is a dangerous emotion, and he allows it to flow through him, leaking away. He has seen what anger can do. It offers a sweet power that he never wants to taste again.
Only one of the men is still on his feet, and he takes a step toward Ferus, then thinks better of it. Ferus gestures to the ground with his lightsaber. The man drops down beside his fellow conspirators.
Ferus feels a tinge of battle rush, the dizzy excitement that always follows a victory.
It's been so long since he has stood against an enemy face to face. So long since he's gripped his lightsaber with anything but nostalgia and regret.
His lightsaber…They have not seen his face, but they have seen his weapon. If stories spread of a Jedi wandering the streets of Alderaan, it will draw the Empire's scrutiny. He has endangered himself. Which means he has endangered Leia.
Vader would kill them , Ferus thinks suddenly. They are my enemies, they are Leia's enemies. Vader would argue that it is the only way.
There was a time when dark thoughts like that bubbled up inside of him, disguised as his own. The dark side of the force lay at the bottom of a steep cliff, and he had come far too close to the edge.
Those days are behind him.
He reaches out with the Force, shaping their minds to his will. " You wish to leave this planet, " he says without malice. " Leave the system. You no longer wish to work for Senator Aak, or anyone who would use a child as a bargaining chip. "
The men shake their heads, their gazes blank. " We wish to leave this planet, " they chorus.
" No one attacked you tonight, " Ferus says, retreating to the night. " There was no Jedi. No lightsaber. You never even saw the princess. "
One of the men elbows another. " Let's get out of here, " he says, sounding confused.
" What are we doing, helping some political hack use a kid as a bargaining drip? "
" Not just the planet, " another of the men says. " Let's get out of the system. "
" Why are we even out here tonight? " the third says, as they wander off into the night.
Ferus still needs to deal with Senator Aak, to make sure this never happens again.
That will not be as easy. But for tonight, he has succeeded. The princess is safe.
Ferus thought he had experienced too much grief in his life to ever hurt again.
Wrong.
His body felt wrenched out of shape, the absence of Obi-Wan as visceral as a missing limb. He somehow found enough strength to return to his own chambers, but once there, he was lost.
He had lived with an ever present ache for years, ever since Leia had grown old enough to take her own stand against the Empire. Ferus knew he couldn't follow her to the Galactic Senate, just as he couldn't follow her on Rebel missions. He had found the strength to let her go off on her own, but he had never found a way to make the agonizing worry fade.
Ferus had been in space when Alderaan was attacked. Terrified by reports that Leia's ship had been destroyed, Bail Organa had sent him to investigate. Ferus had long refused to join Organa's Rebel Alliance—however much he may have wanted to fight the Empire, his place was in the shadows. His role was protector, not warrior. But this wasn't about the Alliance, this was about helping Leia, and it was a request Organa knew Ferus would never refuse.
It was a request that had saved him. Shortly after Ferus lifted off, Alderaan had been destroyed. That same day, reports had surfaced that the princess was safe and sound.
Knowing that Leia was safe had offered Ferus his only consolation in the time of unthinkable tragedy.
It had never occurred to him that Leia wasn't the only one to worry about.
Like all Padawans at the Jedi Temple, Ferus had grown up without parents, without a family. But who needed a mother or a father, when you had Jedi Masters like Yoda, Siri Tachi, and Obi-Wan Kenobi shaping your path?
When Ferus had decided to leave the Jedi Order, Obi-Wan had accepted his decision.
Years away from the Jedi had not dimmed his respect for the great Master, tempered as it often was by irritation.