There was a vast emptiness where life used to flourish, though the nuance of this emptiness didn't suggest absence of life; energy residue marked the former location of tiny pulses within the intrinsic weave of all living matter, interconnected through a veil of vitality. The Force. The veil was perforated, rendered incomplete; loose strands floated separately from the waves of this force, slowly withering and decomposing into particles. There was Force in those particles too, they vibrated, but at a completely different frequency compared with what constituted life. The real tragedy was that the most vibrant strands were those ripped away and thrown in the amorphous mass, strands that felt so painfully familiar.

[center][b]There is no death, there is the Force.

The Force.[/b][/center]

[i]Why can't I feel the presence of the dark? The Sith? Where are they? Where is the darkness?[/i]

[center][b]There's... only the Force.[/b][/center]

A green pair of irises reflected the nearly-blinding mass of light surrounding the cockpit, as Aleko's eyelids slowly parted. A low, throaty sigh filled the otherwise cramped compartment, his body perfectly still in the pilot's seat he reclined in. He then blinked heavily, trying to take in the light-emitting, tubular formation his Cutlass was travelling through. He could spot waves and ripples within this odd fabric of dilated space-time weave, rather similar in structure to what he had felt through his mediation. Muscles and bones felt painfully still against the cushions, but they were relaxed and ready to be put in function, his left arm didn't hurt so much anymore. He groaned as he stretched his form, his mind climbing back down into the full awareness of his biological existence. With a slight push of the boot, the pilot seat slid back forward and lifted his torso into a sitting position; knuckles crackled as he clenched his fists before he checked the map to obtain an estimation of his location within the galaxy's rims. The computer predicted that he was roughly five minutes away from Coruscant, enough time to regain mental fortitude and prepare for the disaster he feared to discover.

[i]Did they sack it?[/i] He was reluctant to learn the answer.

He looked down upon the Clone Snow Trooper breast plate he had to readjust, and pushed it against himself until it locked in place. The white fabric that made the suit felt better on him since he took of his robes just after he engaged in hyperspace, deciding to wear the stolen attire as Jedi armor. There was still some discomfort at his waist, but that was because of the long, metallic rod decorated with several switches along its length barely fitting in the cockpit. He yet refused to abandon it; his gloved hand clasped the staff and thumbed a groove on its elongated hilt.

[i]Why. Why would they?[/i]

A warning signal filled his ears, marking the end of his journey through hyperspace. He had to let go of the hilt to comb his hair with his fingers and then wrap them around the flight controls to maneuver his patrol fighter into a sub-orbital trajectory and reach the Temple. As soon as his ship exited hyperspace and decelerated, he could feel anguish flow in his blood just by looking at the Galactic City's rings and patterns of light texturing the planet. But then, there was a sudden spark, a peak of hope somewhere in the back of his head; there was fear and doubt too, but he could feel them all. He only hoped that whoever was down there could sense his presence too.

[i]Hold tight[/i], he thought with growing hope in his heart, [i]I'm coming.[/i]

Aleko took a deep breath and aligned his craft to burn retrograde several huhdreds of Delta-V, as his Navicomputer calculated the flight path towards his destination. He did receive a few intercepting signals challenging him to identify himself and state his intentions, but he refused to return the call and instead closed his eyes; it took him a bit of effort to not let the goody-two-shoes-side of his Jedi training ruin the few moments of inconspicuousness he still had. It didn't take long before he hit the atmosphere at a reasonable speed, his craft didn't start burning through the air; still, he preferred to shave off more of his speed through the natural drag and wait some more before he would take control of it.

He opened his eyes at the second signal and plunged down, his eyes quickly darting at the topside of his cockpit to see two Z-95 trailing him; if they weren't aggressive before, their own sudden change of direction was a big enough hint that they were ready to lase him down. Even though Coruscant was dubbed center of the Galaxy and had some of the best security protocols, one would think that neutralizing a vehicle in atmospheric flight would have devastating consequences; wherever the vehicle would crash, there would be a lot of collateral victims.

[i]But how come they didn't gun me outright in orbit?[/i] Aleko pondered. [i]Unless the main forces are busy with the Temple, most of the fleet may be fighting elsewhere. And these two. Are they willing to try to sho-[/i] this question was answered by the trails of lasers missing the wings of the Cutlass-9 by a few inches. The Jedi could only grit his teeth as he saw himself being narrowly missed, owing his survival to sheer luck; the next gun run would definitely put him down. There was no real chance for him to outmaneuver humans manufactured to dogfight droid tri-fighters.

"Oh, not good." He muttered to himself, his own voice being the only companion left to keep him from suffering of complete loneliness within this precarious situation.

So, he accelerated and leaned his head forward, his whole body tensing up as he felt himself pushed back into the cushion of the seat. His toes curled in his boots as a protest against the acceleration forces pinning his frame down, his senses sharpened by the bath of epinephrine occurring inside the walls of his skull; his muscles only needed to twitch to change his trajectory in a rather erratic pattern as he gradually lowered his altitude until he could find himself cutting through the highest layer of intense traffic. He knew that they, the two pilots, still tailed him as the comms kept beeping wildly with challenges. Aleko simply turned them off and shook his head.

[i]I suppose it would be obvious I won't stop now.[/i]

His Cutlass plunged deeper through the clear patches where vehicles didn't fly, loosing altitude until he could identify people on the surface-level rooftops. He pulled the flight controls towards him hard and prepared for the vertical G's to punish his body for the rather reckless tactic; people screamed as the deafening roar of the twin-engine patrol fighter gave them the scare of their life, the underside scraped some taller antennas and a couple of rooftop edges. The two Z-95's followed up quickly, their more aerodynamic shapes allowed them to take sharper turns, not to mention the wider range of the thrust vectoring engines allowing them to recover from the steep descent. They had finally lost their patience. 

A loud alert brutalized the Jedi's ear as the combat computer warned him of multiple missile launches. His heart nearly collapsed at the thought of being detonated by a salvo of missiles trailing his trajectory, only several kilometers away from the Temple itself; it wasn't fear that dominated him, but it was a sense of danger he never had to face before, especially being caught in such a vulnerable situation. There was no way for him to outrun the missiles, he wasn't good enough to dodge them either, especially with the two tails ready to lay more firepower upon him as he would try to fool the missiles. He stalled as much as he could, every second he lived was a blessing from the Force, time in which he tried to appreciate his distance from the Temple, as well as how close the fighters and the missiles were compared to him. When a powerful chill ran down his spine, he knew it was time. He reached at a lever somewhere to the right of the seat, pulled it and braced as the canopy launched itself away with a blast. suddenly, he found himself gripping to his consciousness as he was propelled upwards and away from the now empty fighter, the two dazzled Z-95's zipping past his ejected seat. Moments later, he saw a large ball of flame that used to be his Cutlass-9, followed by multiple detonations sending powerful shock waves, one of them was close enough to rumble and tilt his seat's flight path. He tried to correct it by tugging at a rather small controller on the left side, but there was a very limited amount of movement in the gimbal; the Temple was in sight, it was rather close now. Close enough to see thick clouds of smoke covering parts of the awe-inspiring building. Seeing it peppered, blasted, torn and violated, it hit him. The better part of his childhood had been destroyed, the community that raised him murdered like rabid animals and thrown in a ditch. He ground his teeth and buried his otherwise stern eyes in a dangerous frown as he watched LAAT's come and go, then, the fighters banking for a U-turn.

"Abominations. Monsters!"

After a quick glance at his feet, he determined that the fall would break a few of his bones, if it won't end him outright. On the other hand, he was a rather small, but still easy target to hit. Thus, he found that there could be only one way out. He unbuckled the belt and hoisted himself forward, the direction of acceleration changing quickly after he had departed from the only object that remained of his patrol ship. Another important piece of his fond memories as Jedi knight rendered into debris. He had to focus, though, and hard. He was falling with nothing to slow him down, but the Force. He could already hear the screams of the engines nearing, which meant that they were very close since the air blowing past his ear deafened him. The Jedi found it easier to concentrate on his body in this perilous moment, managing to envision the entirety of his frame landing without injury; focusing on his calm spirit within, he pushed it all into his feet and knees until he could feel them quickly heat up. He opened his eyes in the very last second, seeing himself land on his feet with a rumble, sending a shock wave that lifted the layer dust and the knee-length white cape hanging from the back; he quickly tumbled forwards to keep himself in motion, laser bolts threatened to hit him as evidenced by the explosion of his seat intercepted by one of the sharp-shooting pilots. He didn't knew if he would have been seen landing on the roof, but he dashed towards the nearest tall structure and dropped on his knees, sliding in a cranny that concealed his body from anything that flew above. Seconds later, he heard the screams of engines again passing somewhere above, but he dared not to peak out to see where they were headed. He had to give them time to bugger off.

Time long enough to calm his body down after the escalation of events. He reached Coruscant, the Temple was around 5 klicks away from his spot, he only had to find a safe way to access it.

[i]No. I can't go in, I'll only find corpses and clones.[/i] he bitterly thought to himself. [i]Those who are alive... they're seeking refuge away from the surface, obviously.[/i]

Aleko sighed, and closed his eyes, dropping his forehead against the ground. [i]Service tunnels. They could lead anywhere.[/i]

He took a deep breath and tried again to tune into the weave of life, focusing on his mental voice and his spiritual presence to send out a message to ripple through the veil and, maybe, just maybe, be heard and felt.

[i]The Force is still with us. Where are you headed? Show me the path. I will help.[/i]