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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 3817969" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 528: One Crazy KidTobias felt like he was losing his mind.    Well, no, that wasn’t the right word. It wasn’t really losing his mind as much as it feeling crowded. Very, very crowded. It was so hard to tell one thought from the next and who’s it was and it had just started all of a sudden and he couldn’t make sense of anything and it wouldn’t stop!    He didn’t look very well, either.    Good thing she’d shot that Miraluka first, Toby really looked like he was in bad shape.    It would be nice to get back to the fleet though.    This whole ground thing was just so unnerving...artificial gravity really did have a different feel, and it wasn’t so...so open.    And why the hells did I get stuck with the body?!    “Shut up!” Tobias suddenly cried out, hands going to his head out of reflex as he tried to stop all of the voices.     Both Rulae and Rea had turned to look at him in surprise, and the second they looked at him, he could hear their concerns.    Shut up?    Is he okay?    What the hell is going on out there?    They were speaking, too, but Tobias couldn’t actually hear the words. Not the real words. Trying again, he focused inward, trying to do something, anything, to block out the voices. If he could just block them out maybe he could think straight, or at least hear his own thoughts and not be so...so panicked! He didn’t even know why this had suddenly started happening!    “What’s wrong with him?” the voice was heavily accented, and for a moment, Tobias wasn’t sure if he’d really heard it or not. But then he realized that there had been an accent, and it had been a very distinct voice, and so he opened his eyes and looked up to see he was once again beneath the floodlights of the shuttle.    The ramp was still down, and the entire area looked just as he’d left it however long ago it had been. Standing there, halfway down the ramp and in the same fatigues that the other two were wearing, was a red-haired human woman...pointing a blaster pistol at him.    “Put the blaster down, Harken,” Rulae said firmly, then turned to look at Tobias again, though he didn’t say anything. Tobias, though, stared at the Duros’ two large, red eyes and tried to make something of the look he was getting...but couldn’t. He was just impossible to read! And yet...    I don’t know how I’m going to deal with this all the way back. Where’s a Jedi to deal with this when you need one?    “She’s dead,” Tobias mumbled under his breath, then shook his head and closed his eyes tightly. He could still hear them all so clearly and it wouldn’t go away. Stop. Stop and focus. Calm down. Focus. Calm.    I drag one body all the way here then they bring another corpse and a crazy cat-thing. Typical.    No! Stop! Focus!    Calm down.    You have to be calm. Breathing first. Slow it down. Focus on it and slow it down...calm...    And then they were gone. Tobias opened his eyes again, then looked to the human, the Duros, and the Twi’lek all staring at him. And he couldn’t hear a thing. Nothing. The voices were gone. Well, except for his, but that was normal. Tobias could handle one voice.    Realizing they were still staring at him, he managed to say quietly, “I’m okay...I’m...”    Focus on the burn. Heal it. Keep breathing. Heartbeat going. Focus. Draw on the Force. Repair the damage...    Tobias blinked. That wasn’t him. And he was sure it was none of them...    “Where’s Venda?!” suddenly, his voice was much louder and back to sounding slightly crazed.    Tobias’ eyes had locked onto the red headed human woman, and the look he was giving her caused her to take a step back on the boarding ramp. But then, probably out of reflex, she answered the question, “The woman’s body? In the cargo hold...”    She trailed off because as she finished the sentence, Tobias started running to the ramp, then straight up it and right past her. In a matter of seconds, he got to the cargo hold that was in terrible shape after the fight with Tokarr, and saw Venda’s body laying there off to the side. Quickly, he ran over to the body and knelt down next to her, first trying to find a pulse.    Nothing.    At that point, he really saw the lightsaber wound. It had burned all the way across her torso from shoulder to hip, but wasn’t actually that deep, save for at the shoulder...where Tobias could across see a bit of bone. That unnerving sight he quickly put aside, though, as he could feel...something. Not that he was sure what it was, but it was something. Something he shouldn’t have felt. Something like...    It was the Force.    Not that he wasn’t supposed to feel the Force, but like this it was just odd. It was focused, concentrated, and very strong right around Venda’s body. Almost as if...    No. No, she had no pulse! And she wasn’t breathing! But...    “I’m sorry, Toby,” Rea’s voice surprised him, as Tobias hadn’t even heard her come up the ramp. He glanced over his shoulder to see the blue-skinned Twi’lek giving him an apologetic look.    For a few seconds, he stared at her. Had he been better at reading people, Tobias would have seen how much that unnerved her. But then, in the same sudden changes that were becoming normal for him in the last few minutes, Tobias’ head jerked back around to look at Venda’s body, “I don’t think she’s dead.”    “Usually not breathing is a sign of death,” it was the accented voice of the red haired woman again, who had just come back up the ramp and was standing behind Rea.    “I know!” Tobias yelled down at the floor in front of him, not bothering to turn around and sounding a bit more crazy than he’d meant to. He shook his head again, tail behind him flicking back and forth on its own, “But she’s...I heard her. She’s alive. I don’t know how but she’s alive!”    “Whoever this guy you picked up is, I think he’s crazy, sir,” the human woman said more quietly, obviously not meant to be heard by Tobias. Of course, Alraxians’ larger ears did work as would have been expected for their size and he heard her very clearly.    More boots could be heard coming up the ramp, then Tobias heard the voice of Rulae Nok, “His name is Tobias BlueIce. The late-Captain’s son.”    There was silence then, but it didn’t last too long.    “Oh,” the human made the noise more than said a word, then added in the same trying-to-be-quiet voice, “That doesn’t really change the fact that he doesn’t seem to be all there.”    “He’s just a kid,” Rea cut in now, her voice lowered as she, too, seemed to be trying not to be heard, “A kid that just saw two people killed right in front of his eyes.”    “One person,” Tobias corrected, speaking over his shoulder.    Again, silence. This time, Tobias figured the three others were taking in the fact that he’d heard them. When the silence hung in the air for an uncomfortable amount of time, he decided to say, “She’s not dead. I can’t...explain it but she’s not. She should be. And she almost is but...I can feel her drawing on the Force and trying to heal. I don’t know how to help, though...and its so weak and if she doesn’t get help I think she is going to die...”    Tobias’ head spun around again to look to the three others, then said something he didn’t mean to say, “...I want to go home...”    It was the honest truth. It seemed like no matter what he did, Tobias wasn’t ready for any of this. The galaxy abroad, the war, the killing...he just couldn’t handle it all. And now he’d seen his Master nearly killed, another Jedi who was supposed to guide him on the brink of death, and the person he’d been sent to bring back dead. It was the second thing that was eating at him the most, though.    Venda should have been dead. That kind of strike should have killed her. But she was alive, holding on by a thread. And everything in him told Tobias that she needed help, that she wouldn’t be able to heal the wound on her own...and he had no idea what to do. What bothered him the most, though, was the even if he knew what to do, Tobias didn’t think he could.    Nothing made sense anymore. All of the other voices were gone, but he still couldn’t think straight. Now, he really did feel like he was losing his mind...and Tobias couldn’t even make out a why for that.</blockquote>

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