fandomhigh | Library [10/05]

"Can I touch them?" Luke asked, hand reaching for the conveniently titled "History of the Jedi Order."

"Keep the gloves on," Rory said, watching him carefully.

Luke bit his lip and carefully removed the book from the shelf as well as one on Jedi powers and a third on famous Knights.

He walked over to a nearby table and smiled at Rory. "I suppose this can be a lesson for you in Basic," he said, flipping to the back of the first book and running his finger down the index until he found the name he was looking for. "Can you read this?"

Rory smiled. "First two words I learned in Basic, yes."

"And this one," Luke said, pointing to a different name, "is Obi-Wan Kenobi." He laughed. "And there's an entire section devoted to the work of Kenobi and Skywalker."

Rory grinned. "They were famous, even when they were really kind of young."

Luke flipped eagerly to that section and began reading, pointing highlights out to Rory as he went along.

"They helped to stop an assassination attempt against a Senator from Naboo," he said, "which...oh, uncovered an apparent Seperatist plot and led to the beginning of the Clone Wars."

He bit his lip and flipped through the next ten pages. "They were very, very busy after that."

Rory suddenly tensed at the words 'Senator from Naboo,' and if she had been a cartoon character, a lightbulb may have begun to flicker over her head. She didn't say anything, though, and repressed all those thoughts as she looked over Luke's shoulder.

"Were they okay?" she asked softly. "I mean, before Vader. Does it say anything about whether they suffered any major injuries or anything?"

Luke began to read more carefully. "Ben got a...oww, lightsaber through the leg on Geonosis--the start of the Clone Wars--and Anakin..." he hissed, "lost his right arm at the same time."

He flipped through pages. "Ben seemed to get through the rest of the war unscathed until he disappeared. Anakin...ran into a dark Jedi and got a lightsaber scar across his eye before dying in the Temple--" Luke held up his hands to make sarcastic air quotes, "in the 'rebellion against the rightful government.' Something about an Order 66."

"Lost his right arm?" Rory repeated hoarsely. "Lightsaber over the eye?"

She sat straight down on the floor where she was.

Luke raced over and sat down next to her. "I'm an idiot," he said, flailing and reaching a hand out. "I'm sorry."

"No, it's okay. I asked," Rory replied hollowly. "It's just kind of more real now."

Luke put a tentative hand on Rory's shoulder. "I'm still sorry," he repeated.

Rory shook her head. "Don't be. I'm glad to know."

"From what it looks like, neither injury slowed him down even a little bit," Luke replied, trying to be comforting.

Rory started giggling. "Did he have a roboclaw?"

"A what?"

"A robotic hand," she amended. "He always told me that if he lost an arm, he'd get one that dispensed coffee."

Luke gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze and stood up, then went back to flipping through pages. "There was a prosthetic," he said after a moment. "No mention of its caf-dispensing skills, though."

Rory carefully stood on wobbly legs. "I bet it did," she decided. "Was Obi-Wan's leg okay, by the way? I mean, did he have a limp later on or anything?"

"Not that I ever noticed," Luke said, giving Rory a worried look and shoving a chair in her direction.

He began flipping through the pages, trying to discover what Order 66 was. When he read it, he paled but didn't share. Rory didn't need to know.

After a few more minutes of reading history, Luke switched to the book on Jedi powers. "Prophetic dreams, mind reading, healing powers, telekinetics..." he read aloud. "How did they not see this coming?"

"The Sith are really, really bad," Rory said. "They can use the Force, too. Probably blocked the Jedi from knowing."

Luke sighed. They left me all alone, he wailed inside his head.

He ran a hand through his hair and tried to figure out how the hell Jedi could read people's minds. It had to be linked somehow to what Ben had done to the Stormtrooper on Tatooine.

"I'm never going to get this," he said in frustration a half-hour later.

"Luke." Rory tiredly got up from where she was perched on a table and gripped his shoulders. "You can take them out into the main library and work all day if you want."

Luke's eyes were full of desperation and a heavy dose of fear. "I can?" he said.

Re: Period 4 [10/05] -- Special Collections [NFB]

Re: Period 4 [10/05] -- Special Collections [NFB]

Re: Period 4 [10/05] -- Special Collections [NFB]

Re: Period 4 [10/05] -- Special Collections [NFB]

Re: Period 4 [10/05] -- Special Collections [NFB]

Re: Period 4 [10/05] -- Special Collections [NFB]

Re: Period 4 [10/05] -- Special Collections [NFB]

Re: Period 4 [10/05] -- Special Collections [NFB]

Re: Period 4 [10/05] -- Special Collections [NFB]

Re: Period 4 [10/05] -- Special Collections [NFB]

Re: Period 4 [10/05] -- Special Collections [NFB]

Re: Period 4 [10/05] -- Special Collections [NFB]

Re: Period 4 [10/05] -- Special Collections [NFB]

Re: Period 4 [10/05] -- Special Collections [NFB]

Re: Period 4 [10/05] -- Special Collections [NFB]

Re: Period 4 [10/05] -- Special Collections [NFB]

Re: Period 4 [10/05] -- Special Collections [NFB]

Re: Period 4 [10/05] -- Special Collections [NFB]

Re: Period 4 [10/05] -- Special Collections [NFB]

Re: Period 4 [10/05] -- Special Collections [NFB]

Re: Period 4 [10/05] -- Special Collections [NFB]

Re: Period 4 [10/05] -- Special Collections [NFB]

Re: Period 4 [10/05] -- Special Collections [NFB]

Re: Period 4 [10/05] -- Special Collections [NFB]

Re: Period 4 [10/05] -- Special Collections [NFB]