The journey back to Velen was awkward to say the least. Obi-Wan had ordered the two clone troopers Cody and Fives escort me, which included a lot of pushing and annoyed mumbling, while he and Anakin stayed behind, whispering amongst themselves.
It was when I looked back for the tenth time when I heard my name that Fives accidently pushed too hard, making me fall to the ground. My leg was still hurting terribly but up till then I had remained quiet about it until that very moment.
"Hey! Be careful!" I yelled in annoyance as I looked up at his face, or rather his helmet, from the ground. I felt the wound on my leg tear open and felt the bandages getting moist with blood.
"Now look at what you've done." I mumbled as I examined it, seeing the red spot growing.
"Are you all right?" I looked to my side and saw Obi-Wan kneeling down next to me.
"I'm going to have to be honest with you so I'll say what I would've said as a doctor." I sighed as I lifted up the bandages. "I shouldn't be moving too much and give it some time to heal. But since you insist on returning immediately with me, I don't think that's going to happen."
"How far is the city?" Obi-Wan looked into the distance, squinting his eyes slightly.
"About 2 hours of walking left."
"Then there's no other choice." He stepped nearer, one of his arms going beneath my knees while the other wrapped around my waist.
"Uuh, what are you doing?" I frantically looked at his arms and scooted away. Without any further explanation or permission Obi-Wan lifted me up suddenly in his arms. Letting out a shriek, for I hated too much physical contact with strangers, I involuntarily wrapped my arms around his neck to try and keep myself from falling.
"I'm carrying you." He smirked at me as he held me in his arms.
"I can see that." I narrowed my eyes at him.
"General, I should be the one to carry her. It was me who made her fall." Fives offered, glancing between the jedi and me.
"No need, Fives, I can take her." Obi-Wan dismissed him and resumed walking towards the city.
"You know, it's considered rude to just lift a princess without her permission." I narrowed my eyes at him as one of my arms remained around his shoulder. "In fact, I could have you executed for it."
"Well, your majesty, would you like me to hand you over to Anakin?" My eyes flickered to the other jedi who was watching us with a smirk playing on his lips. "I'm sure he would treat you for the princess you are."
"No thank you." I swallowed rather loudly as I tightened my grip around his arm. "I'm fine right here."
~
When we arrived at the main gate of the city, Obi-Wan put me down after I had requested it. I refused to be carried into my own city by my captors. Either way, my breath was taken away when the sight of the city came into view.
Not in a positive way.
There was a cloud of smoke hanging over the buildings and lots of rubble covered the former clean, beautiful streets of Velen. We walked over the main road towards the keep while the two jedi cautiously watched me closely.
My heart was beating quickly and my eyes darted between the buildings and the rubble, hoping to see no one there. The city seemed completely abandoned except for several groups of troopers patrolling the city. It was when we reached the main square that my breath hitched on my throat.
"Flyn!" I yelled loudly, breaking free of the hold two troopers had on my upper arms. I stormed towards his body and knelt down before him, my fingers instinctively trying to find his pulse by pressing against the inside of his wrists. While trying to find the reassuring thumping his heart, I looked up at his face. His dark brown hair laid before his eyes and his armor was broken. He was one of my brother's warriors, one of the most skilled of our whole planet.
"Hey, feathers!" Anakin angrily yelled after me and followed in my footsteps. I heard the thumping of his feet stop though when he noticed what I was doing.
His pulse was long gone. I could've known if I had noticed the wound on his chest before. Flyn got hit by a blaster, shot right through his heart. I remained there, stroking his hair as his eyes stared at the sky above us. It was then that I realized the dread of the situation. People had died the day before, by the hands of either the jedi or their troopers. People that had tried to save the citizens.
"We need to go." Anakin's voice pulled me from my trance. Instead of getting up I glared at him from my position, almost literally shooting daggers with my eyes. His eyes widened just for a second in surprise before he composed himself again.
"He was a friend, wasn't he?" Obi-Wan walked into view, his eyes frowning at the sight of Flyn in my arms.
"He was, until you decided to kill him." I remembered the times when I used to train with him and his friends. He was the one who always got us into trouble but did it in such a way that it was fun. The loss of him, even though lately I didn't speak to him that much, awoke a burning anger inside of me that I had buried for a long time.
"Look, feathers, this all could've been avoided if you had surrendered-"
"How dare you?!" I growled, standing up abruptly, pointing at them furiously. "You invade our planet and expect us to just hand it over to you?! You had no reason to attack us, we were peaceful, innocent! Don't you dare put the blame on us when it is you who started this!"
"Calm down, Lyanna." Obi-Wan spoke softly, walking towards me slowly. "We are trying to figure this out-"
"Yeah, and while you're figuring this out my people are giving their lives to protect their planet." I growled. "You'll be too late to safe any of us when you're finally done!"
Obi-Wan and Anakin exchanged glances, both looking utterly lost. "If you just hand over the weapon-" Anakin started.
"There is no bloody weapon, for Valhalla's sake!" I yelled angrily which resulted in two troopers grasping my shoulders and forcing me to stand still. "Get off me!" I protested fiercely.
"General, finally!" A group of troopers came running in from the direction of the keep. I huffed and crossed my as before my chest, biting my bottom lip to keep myself from yelling again.
"Rex! Boy, am I glad to see you." Anakin smiled and watched as he walked towards us. Rex glanced at me worriedly after seeing the furious scowl on my face and the way his troopers were holding me down by the arms.
"I've got news concerning the weapon." Rex stated which resulted in both jedi glancing my way immediately.
"Freaking Valhalla, how many times do I have to tell you-?"
"We found it beneath the rubble of the throne room. Seems when we captured the city, they tried to blow it up and keep it from our hands." Rex told them.
"What?"
He glanced at me with a frown. "We're trying to repair it and see what it can do, but it will take some time."
"Tried to blow it up, huh?" Anakin put both his hands on his hips and looked at me.
"I don't know what you found down there, but I knew nothing of it and it surely isn't some kind of weapon." I spoke after a long moment of silence. I was completely baffled, to be honest. I always thought that there was nothing but a crypt beneath the throne room. Apparently, that wasn't the case. Yet I couldn't wrap my head around the idea that my father would've approved of building something down there, let alone a weapon. He was always a man of peace.
"You can stop with the facade, princess." Obi-Wan sighed as he rubbed his fingers on his forehead.
"I'm not bloody lying, are you even listening?!" The grip the troopers had on my shoulders tightened immediately.
"Yet all we find out about your planet is in contrary to what you say to us." Anakin stated.
"Well maybe if you start thinking for a second, if you are even capable of that, you'll see that someone is tricking us both!" I yelled. There was no other explanation for this whole situation. The bombing, the so called weapon, the timing of the attack when my father was sick. It was all too convenient.
"All I need to think about are my troopers." Anakin walked towards me till he was right before me, towering over me and looking down at me with narrowed eyes. "Right now, you and your people are threatening them."
"We are only defending ourselves, as anyone would do." I hissed back, not faltering under his gaze. I wasn't going to let him intimidate me when he knew so little of what we could actually do.
"Anakin, I think you might want to see this." Obi-Wan distracted him.
"What is it now-" an ear deafening explosion shook the whole city. Several followed, making everyone fall down to the ground. As the quakes shook the earth beneath us, we all tried to protect ourselves by holding our arms above our heads.
What I hadn't expected was that Anakin would shield me with his own body, his hands on either side of my waist. When the explosions stopped I looked up at him with wide open eyes.
He only glanced back and then stood up immediately, trying to see what damage it had done. With my hands bonded together I couldn't get up immediately so instead I tried to read their expressions. It wasn't good.
I saw Anakin's eyes darken drastically while Obi-Wan only sighed deeply, stroking his beard with his hand thoughtfully.
"Bloody hell, they just bombed all our ships!" Rex cursed after taking off his helmet.
"What?" I mumbled and followed their gazes. When I saw the destruction, my breath hitched in my throat. All their ships were gone. The whole landing platform was on fire and covered in smoke.
"This doesn't make any sense." I mumbled. It was when I remembered that my father had forbidden the fabrication of bombs, blasters and guns that I realized that it couldn't have been his order. Someone, one of our people, had done this. Not only bombing the platform but most likely making up this whole scheme.
"Peaceful huh?!" Anakin turned towards me swiftly. "Is that why your people just blew up our only way to leave this planet?"
"Anakin." Obi-Wan calmed him down merely by saying his name. He then glanced at me and noticed the same utterly confusement that was evident on my face. "This takes all of this to a whole other level." He sighed tiredly.
"One thing's for sure: it's too late for peace now." Anakin's eyes stayed focused on his burning ships. The fire reflected in his furious eyes.
"Hold on a minute." I stood up rather awkwardly with my hands bound. "You can't declare war on an entire planet because a small group got tired of you invading it!"
"We were already at war." Anakin clarified with a glare in my direction. I tried to think of something to say but the words got stuck in my throat. My mind was still coping with the fact that there was a traitor amongst my people.
"Cody, make sure that the weapon is operational soon. We will need it." Obi-Wan ordered and earned a nod from his captain.
"What?" My eyes widened. "No!!" I pulled on my arms to free myself from the troopers holding me but it was pointless. "You're only making this worse you morons!"
"And Cody," Obi-Wan watched me with deep thought. "Lock her up with the other prisoners."
"No, wait!" I looked at him, practically begging him to listen. "You're making a mistake! My people would never do something like that."
Obi-Wan only shook his head and casted his eyes down to the floor, turning away from me. "Take her, Cody."
I protested and pulled while being dragged away, yelling for Obi-Wan to listen. "You're making a mistake!!"