Stormy
Part Two
It was morning when Cyndi woke up but the sound of the holo-vid still going in the other room told her that Z'ior must have fallen asleep on the couch as he often did.

During the night, Obi-Wan had worked his way over until now, instead of lying beside her, he was lying on top of her. His little head rested on her breast, rising and falling gently as she breathed. The young Initiate's sturdy little body was light, but very warm as he lay with his tummy to hers and she could feel his peaceful breathing as his tiny chest rose and fell against her ribs.

Cyndi placed her hand gently on the side of Obi-Wan's small head. His downy ginger hair felt like glimmer-silk beneath her fingers. Obi-Wan's little hand, cradled in her armpit, twitched gently in response to her touch, but he did not awaken. The child was so tiny, so perfect and fragile looking...

Cyndi's heart ached strangely and she wondered if Z'ior were right. Maybe it was her maternal instincts that were making her feel this way. She had never felt a love so pure as this before, never even imagined something like it existed. Lying here, with the child like this, made her feel so right.

She thought that for the first time she understood what it felt like to be a mother, or at least, a big sister. This little being that was sleeping so gently on her stomach looked to her with wide-eyed acceptance, turned to her for comfort, depended on her... the ache in her chest turned painful. She was not Obi-Wan's mother, or his big sister; she was the kidnapper who had taken him away from where he was loved and wanted and brought him to a place where he was abused and mistreated. To top it all off, this morning she was going to take this precious little boy and leave him with a man that she knew was a criminal and a kingpin for the dangerous spice-syndicate known as the Lords, and who knew what purpose they had in store for the child.

Cyndi hated herself at that moment, but it was beyond her power to change. Z'ior would never let her back out of the deal, and Nah'boor would doubtless track them both down and kill them if they did.

"Cyndi!" Z'ior's slurred voice snapped from the other room and Cyndi jerked, her peace shattered.

Obi-Wan stirred and whimpered softly.

Gently rolling the child off of her, Cyndi settled the little Jedi tummy down on the bed and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.

"Cyndi!" the demanding call came again and Cyndi hurried out of the bedroom to find Z'ior struggling to get up off the kitchen floor. He had stumbled into the kitchen with a monstrous hangover, looking for a drink and some medication to make his head feel a little smaller.

Unfortunately he had totally forgotten that yesterday's little juice accident was still all over the kitchen floor and had ended up flat on his back.

Cyndi helped him up and pulled his pills out of the cabinet for him.

"Why didn't you clean this up last night, or make that little brat do it? I could have broke my neck!" Z'ior snapped, his hangover making him dangerous.

"I'll get it now, Zee," Cyndi said quietly, knowing better than to cross the Miith'yn when he was like this.

Z'ior nodded and stumbled off to take a shower.

Cyndi was scrubbing the now sticky bubbly off the floor when Z'ior reappeared, clutching her handbag in one hand and looking furious. Hauling her up to her feet without preamble the Miith'yn slapped her.

"Thievin' little tramp!" he spat at her angrily and Cyndi tried to figure out what in the galaxy he was talking about.

"What-?" she backed up in the face of his rage, bumping against the kitchen counter.

"Don't you act innocent with me, Cyndi Jancy!" he shouted, pulling a fist full of credits out of her handbag. "They paid you half our fee last night, and you didn't tell me!" Grabbing the front of her shirt he slapped her again, so hard he brought tears to her eyes. "No, you just waltzed in here like nothin' happened, dirty little back-stabber!" What he had been doing going through Cyndi's things in the first place he didn't mention.

Dragging his young girlfriend out of the kitchen by her hair Z'ior threw Cyndi against the wall. "Thought you were pretty smart, huh? Thought you could double-cross me after all we've been through together!" Z'ior laid into her with his fists.

"Z'ior, please!" Cyndi begged. "I wasn't trying to hide anything from you, I swear! I-I didn't want to interrupt you while you were watching your show, and-and then I fell asleep, I-I wasn't going to hide it from you! Please! Please stop!" she sobbed as he continued to slap her around.

"A likely story!" Z'ior raged, striking Cyndi so hard he knocked her to the floor.

"Stop it!" a small, but authoritative voice from the bedroom doorway demanded.

Looking over, Cyndi saw Obi-Wan standing in the doorway, one of the bed sheets trailing behind him. The child still looked bright-eyed and bushy-tailed from just waking up, but a disapproving frown wrinkled his small features and his eyes flashed. "Stop it!" Obi-Wan demanded again, making his way to Cyndi's side. "No hurt Cyn'i! No!"

"Stormy, don't!" Cyndi urged, trying to push the child away before he got in the path of Z'ior's anger as well.

The three-year-old ignored her, standing protectively in front of the fallen teenager. "No hurt Cyn'i," he repeated defiantly to Z'ior.

Snarling angrily, Z'ior lashed out, aiming a hard kick for Cyndi's midsection. At the last moment, Obi-Wan got in-between them, catching the blow instead. Z'ior's boot caught the tiny Initiate in the chest and abdomen. The impact knocked the child backward, slamming him against the wall. Obi-Wan crumpled to the ground like a rag doll and Cyndi screamed. "Stormy!"

Scrambling over to the child, Cyndi scooped him up into her arms, terror clutching at her heart. "Stormy! Stormy honey, are you okay?!" For an instant, her heart stopped beating as saw the glazed, glassy look in Obi-Wan's wide eyes. For a moment, she thought he was dead. Then Obi-Wan coughed and his face contorted into a mask of pain.

Holding the sobbing child close Cyndi rocked him back and forth. "You shouldn't have done that, sweetie," she murmured softly.

When she turned back to Z'ior there was a fire in Cyndi's green eyes that the Miith'yn had never seen before.

"You could have killed him!" she shouted furiously. "Just think how much that would have pleased Nah'boor!" she added, knowing that would hit Z'ior closer to home than the thought that he had very nearly snuffed this precious little life out of existence with one blow.

"Cyndi..." Z'ior wasn't sure what to say, Cyndi had never turned on him this way before.

"Stay away from us!" Cyndi snapped, her eyes threatening. "I didn't try to steal nothin' from you! But if you touch Stormy again, so help me Z'ior, you'll pay for it!"

Z'ior actually backed down, looking a little confused. "Hey, hey Cyndi, calm down honey..." he held his hands out in a placating gesture. "Okay, if you say it's a mistake, it's a mistake. Now come on, we've got to get this kid over to the warehouse."

Cyndi took Obi-Wan into the bedroom again to dress him. The little boy was still crying as she ran her hand gently over his small ribcage. The child looked so fragile, she desperately hoped that Z'ior's vicious blow had not broken any of the tiny ribs or ruptured anything inside. She couldn't find anything visibly wrong, so she gently pulled his tunic back on him.

"You 'kay, Cyn'i?" Obi-Wan asked between hitching breaths as he tried to bring his sobbing under control.

Cyndi laughed. He was concerned about her? "I'm fine, Stormy," she assured. "How about you?"

"I 'kay," Obi-Wan nodded shakily, as if he were not really sure. "My tummy hurts," he said, rubbing his stomach unhappily.

"I know it does, Stormy," she said softly. "I'm sorry, but... thanks," she smiled at him warmly. "Nobody's ever tried to stand up for me before, not even myself."

"Don' let him hurt, you Cyn'i," Obi-Wan shook his hand, reaching up and wiping the tears from her cheeks with his small palms. "You big, not little like me, you can stop him, you don' have to let him hurt you."

Cyndi used to think differently, but now... she wondered. She had stood up to Z'ior for Obi-Wan's sake and he had backed down, and she felt incredibly good because of it. Maybe the child was right. Maybe, just maybe, she didn't have to take abuse from Z'ior and people like him.

"Maybe you're right, Stormy, maybe you're right," she said softly.

"Cyndi!" Cyndi heard Z'ior call impatiently from the other room.

"Coming," she said, picking Obi-Wan up and carrying him out perched on her right hip.

They took Z'ior's speeder the abandoned warehouse where they were supposed to meet their contractor. Obi-Wan clung to Cyndi as they climbed out of the speeder.

"Some'in' wrong, Cyn'i," he whispered. "Some'in' bad here," the little Jedi shook his head, registering instincts and insights he did not yet know the meaning or origin of.

A large black hover-car waited for them. The moment they appeared, a tall Twi'Lek man stepped out of the hover-car, followed by two large whiphids toting blasters. It didn't take a genius to figure out that the Twi'Lek in the dark blue robes was Nah'boor. Around his neck hung a pendent of dull, metallic obsidian, dotted with tiny fire-gems, resembling stars. The crest of the Midnight Lords.

Obi-Wan took one look at Nah'boor and hid behind Cyndi's legs, clutching her pants and burying his face against the back of her calves. There was something evil about the man and Obi-Wan knew it.

Z'ior picked Obi-Wan up and the Initiate squealed in protest. "Cyn'i," he cried plaintively. "Bad man, don't wanna go wit' bad man! Don' make me go wit' him, Cyn'i!" Obi-Wan pleaded.

Cyndi resisted the urge to cry. "Shh, Stormy, it's okay, it'll be okay," she tried to assure, unconvincingly. The little Jedi clung to Cyndi, wide-eyed and scared, but Z'ior pried his tiny fingers loose and carried him to the waiting Twi'Lek.

Obi-Wan squirmed in the Miith'yn's arms.

Nah'boor grinned at the frowning child. "You don't like me, little one?" the Twi'Lek's yellow eyes regarded the human child's half-frightened face. "Nasty habit of your kind I've heard, being able to see too much about people."

Nah'boor's pasty face was cold and hard. "It's too bad really. You're just much too observant for your own good," Nah'boor shook his head, making his plump head-tails sway gently. "Put him in the backseat," the spice-dealer gestured and one of his whiphid henchmen took Obi-Wan from Z'ior.

Z'ior grinned, albeit, somewhat nervously. "Good luck with him, the kid's a little brat." The Miith'yn rubbed his finger, still sore from Obi-Wan's bite the night before.

Nah'boor's pale lips parted in a predatory smile. "Don't worry, I have a feeling he won't be giving us any trouble." The big Twi'Lek pulled out his purse.

"Hey, um, you know, you didn't tell us the kid was a Jedi," Z'ior angled, his greed overcoming his nervousness. "That's high risk, you know..."

"You'll be compensated," Nah'boor said flatly, pulling a large stack of credits out of his money-pouch. "You did a competent job," the Lord commented as he sorted carelessly through the pile of dactaries. "The Security Force has no idea where the child disappeared to."

Cyndi supposed she should take pride in her handiwork, but she did not.

"There's another small matter you could take care of for us, if you're interested," Nah'boor said, waving the credits slightly in front of them.

"Yeah, sure, what'd ya want?" Z'ior agreed eagerly.

Cyndi didn't like it. She wanted to have nothing more to do with the Midnight Lords. It was not as if she were unaccustomed to crime, unfortunately. The teenager had been a small time crook since she was eleven and ran away from her abusive father to live a life on the streets.

Since then she had been a thief, a smuggler and a lot of other things she wasn't terribly proud of; she had also gone through a succession of boyfriends, all of whom treated her more or less the way Z'ior did. Perhaps because she did not realize that the relationships and the abuse were neither healthy, nor normal. Yet in all her time on the streets, Cyndi had never become hooked up in a gang before. She had had friends who were and she saw what it did to them. Most of them were dead now.

"My associate will fill you in on the details," Nah'boor said, handing the dactaries over and gesturing to one of the whiphids.

While Z'ior greedily counted the credits, Cyndi tried not to look at the backseat of the hover-car. Through the darkened windows she could just see Obi-Wan, his little face and hands pushed against the glass. He looked so darn helpless...

"What's so important about a little kid like that?" Cyndi asked, just as Nah'boor turned to leave. The price the Lords were paying them was incredible.

"Cyndi," Z'ior hissed. "It's none of our business."

"Hey," Cyndi huffed, folding her arms. "I'm the one who risked my neck to get him, I'd like to know," she said with a cockiness that she did not feel. She turned back to Nah'boor again. "I'm interested in what a three-year-old could know that would make a big group like the Lords want him so badly."

Z'ior stared at her as if she were crazy and Cyndi wondered too late if that had been a wise thing to say. It was only that she wanted so much to be sure that Obi-Wan would be all right...

Nah'boor however, just smiled and cupped Cyndi's chin in one of his cold, pale hands. "You have a great deal of spunk, human, I like that," he smiled in a manner that said he liked other things about her as well.

The sixteen-year-old did not flinch away from his gaze.

"Maybe one of these days you'll find a place in the Lords," he said, stroking her cheek. "I could put in a word for you..."

"You didn't answer my question," Cyndi pointed out, intentionally not returning the Twi'Lek's interest in her.

Nah'boor gave a faint smile and withdrew his hand. "It's nothing very important, my dear," he said as if disinterested.

"Yeah, that's why you paid a small fortune to have Stormy kidnapped. That's why you knew exactly where he was going to be and when..." Cyndi thought sarcastically, but she knew she had better not push her luck with the cartel honcho.

"If you really must know, the child had the misfortune of seeing something he shouldn't have, now, if you'll excuse me?" the Twi'Lek mock-bowed and retreated towards the hover-car.

"What in the Cryion blazes did you think you were doing asking him all those questions, Cyndi?" Z'ior breathed after Nah'boor moved away. Z'ior was disgruntled, irritated, and a little more frightened than he would like to admit. "When the Lords are involved, you want to know as little as possible. You don't wanna get on these guys' bad side, Cyndi."

Cyndi tucked a few strands of copper hair behind her ear. "I was just curious," she said flippantly, although inside, her heart was turning over and over like a restless Hopi. "What do you suppose they're gonna do with Stormy now, after Nah'boor finds out whatever he wants to know?" The teenager was desperately denying to herself what commonsense was telling her.

"Geez, Cyndi, the brat's a witness, you snagged him from the Security Force station yourself for cryin' out loud and they didn't have him down there for a social visit! What do you think they're gonna do with him?" Z'ior said dispassionately, tucking the credits away, deep inside an inner pocket.

Cyndi's heart wrenched, unable to deny the truth anymore. She had just handed over a helpless baby to face death at the hands of a group of cold-blooded executioners. Cyndi couldn't stand herself. All she could see were Obi-Wan's shifting blue-green eyes looking up at her, awash with tears, but so trusting...

The teenager wished this had never happened. If the Midnight Lords had wanted the boy dead, why couldn't Nah'boor have just hired someone to kill the young Jedi and get it over? Why have him kidnapped? Why give her time to fall in love with the little boy...?

The whiphid that Nah'boor had indicated earlier now came forward to talk to Z'ior and Cyndi about the other job that his boss had mentioned.

Nah'boor settled his large frame onto the hover-car's backseat, next to the tiny Jedi child.

Obi-Wan shrank away from the Twi'Lek, pressing himself against the door. "Le' me go home," the little boy said warily. "Please, take me home." 

"In good time, in good time," Nah'boor said casually. "We have some things to talk about first. Like what you told the Security Officers yesterday."

"You wanna know 'bout the man tha' ran through the garden too, don' you?" the child said, folding his arms and drawing his knees up in what anyone who knew him recognized as his stubborn, suspicious posture.

"That's right, you're a smart boy," the man complimented, but even a little child like Obi-Wan could tell that the Twi'Lek didn't really mean it.

If that was really what all this was about, then Obi-Wan wished that he had stayed indoors after the rain last week, like everyone else. But the adventurous little Initiate had ventured out when the crèche Master wasn't watching and gone for a stroll in the rain drenched Temple gardens. There had been great puddles for splashing in and lots of squirmies and creepers, whom the torrential rain had driven above ground, to examine.

The child had been busily engaged in studying a huge, hairy creeper on an Azili bush when someone jumped over the garden wall, close by him. Obi-Wan had been so shocked at the rude intrusion that he simply stood and stared as the man dashed across the garden and jumped heedlessly over the wall again.

Obi-Wan was inadvertently staring at the heavy pendant around Nah'boor's neck.

"You like this?" the Twi'Lek asked, holding the chain out a little so that the pendant rocked gently, making the fire-stones glitter like the stars they represented. "You recognize it, don't you?" Nah'boor's eyes narrowed. "The man you saw in the garden was wearing one, wasn't he?"

Obi-Wan nodded slowly, suspiciously.

"He was carrying something too, child. He took it into the garden with him, but he didn't have it when we caught up with him on the other side. Where did he hide it, hm? Do you remember, boy, when he entered the garden, what did he do?"

"He jumped th' wall an' ran 'cross the garden," Obi-Wan said sullenly. "He trampled Mast'a Thr'own's 'Zili plants," the child frowned disapprovingly. "Mast'a Thr'own wasn't at all happy..." Obi-Wan trailed off, finding the soft fabric that the seats were covered in incredibly interesting.

"Then what did he do?" Nah'boor asked with attempted patience.

"Then he jumped over th' other wall," Obi-Wan said plainly, idly walking his fingers up the back of the seat.

"I mean between the two. What did he do in the garden before he jumped over the other wall?" the Twi'Lek's scanty patience was running out fast. The hover-car's engine started up.

Obi-Wan's little mouth tightened and he regarded the syndicate leader stubbornly with the same turbulent eyes that had given Cyndi cause to knick-name him "Stormy".

"I don' remember," the child said carelessly. It wasn't quite true. Obi-Wan did remember, but something, something deep down inside was telling him that this man was evil and that he should not tell him what he wanted to know.

Nah'boor grabbed Obi-Wan's little wrists, jerking the child up and forcing the small boy to look at him. "This is not a game, little one," the Twi'Lek threatened. "Don't think to toy with me. You remember, and you're going to tell me! Think, child! Before he jumped over the wall again, he must have stopped, paused for a moment somewhere. All I want to know is where. Then you're free to go home. You do want to go home, don't you little one?" a malicious smile tugged at Nah'boor's lips as he saw the doubt and longing that flittered across the child's face.

Yes, Obi-Wan did want to go back to the Temple very badly. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to tell the big man with the tentacles on his head what he wanted to know...

Tears of indecision welled up in the tiny Jedi's big eyes. He didn't want to do the wrong thing, but he didn't know what was right!