Chapter 25
"Vos, Secura. Do you have eyes on him?"
"No, he hasn't come in."
"You're sure?" asked Saesee Tiin over the comm.
"Yes, why? What's going on?"
"If you see him, call immediately. Stand-by."
Tiin scanned the crowds for Skywalker from his location and still couldn't find him. His Force signature had blunted. The anger was easy to track, easy to see, but then he had stilled somehow. Now he felt like a shadow.
"Dammit." He clicked another channel on his comm. "Mace? I think we just lost him."
"What?"
"I don't know," Tiin said. How could he have disappeared in the short amount of time Tiin stopped watching him to adjust his position?
"Did he go into the club?"
"Negative from Vos and Secura."
Mace picked up his pace, and set his comm to all-call, his message would be heard by the Jedi teams surrounding the area.
"Does anyone have eyes on Skywalker?" he asked.
Mace felt out through the Force discreetly. Too much searching, and Ventress might be able to feel it, if she were even here in the district. Skywalker's earlier anger had been palpable, easy to track. But now…
Where is that boy going?
"Master Windu, I have eyes on him," came Kolar's voice. "He's heading further west down the same street you're on, and he's going in a hurry."
"Track him," ordered Mace, switching his comm. "Vos, Secura. Things have changed, Skywalker's heading west down Statecx. Follow him discreetly, I'm on my way."
Searching through the Force, Skywalker's signature was an erratic ghost.
I don't even think he knows he's doing it, thought Mace. I have a bad feeling about this.
Anakin marched worryingly down the sidewalk, his steps fast. He blinked quickly, vision threatening to blur. The rapid staccato of his heart did nothing to help the rapid, short breaths that he could barely manage to force through his lungs.
Breathe. Breathe deeper, or you're going to pass out and then what good will you be?
Anakin stopped and turned into an alley for a brief moment. The durasteel wall behind him was cold and helped ease the heat that threatened to overcome him.
Stop panicking. Just stop. What did Obi-Wan tell you? Calm your mind…calm your mind…
Deep breath. One, two, in, out. Count to ten I DON'T HAVE TIME. Stop. STOP PANICKING.
The light-headedness returned with full force and he sat down heavily, panting hard.
Blinking back tears, he stared at the photo in his hands one more time.
Mom.
Blinking harder, he once again looked at the message scrawled sharply on the back.
He was here. Dejiak was here. That was it, the uneasy feeling he'd felt through the Force earlier. It had nothing to do with the protests, nothing to do with any of that. It was Dejiak. It had been that Sith-damned son of a bitch that the Force had been trying to warn him about.
He has my…he has my mom.
Shaking his head, Anakin tried to centre himself. Tried to get himself back under control.
She needs me.
Closing his eyes, he pictured Obi-Wan in his mind sitting before him, his ginger hair falling into his eyes, ducking his head as he looked up at Anakin, giving him that kind smile that made his eyes crinkle. 'Try and release your emotions to the Force, Anakin. It will calm you and you will be better able to feel the Force moving through you, let it guide you.'
He tried, he really did. Not everything left, but enough of it that he was able to stop shaking at the least. Release. Release, release, release….
Anakin took a deep breath and felt the tightness in his shoulders relax. The fear that had gripped him so strongly - had let go a fraction on his heart. He felt for the Force. Felt it surround him, closed his eyes and let it flow through him.
I'm all right. I'm all right. The Force is with me.
Steeling himself, he clenched his jaw and stood. It was time he faced this, faced Dejiak - the last part of his past that still haunted him.
He followed the instructions on the back of the photo and found himself closer to the industrial district. The air taxi he took to get here had asked no questions and dropped him off like he'd asked. Looking around, Anakin was struck by how empty it was. The buildings and gratings here all felt empty. It was far from the bustling centre of the streets he had just come from. The isolation worried him, but he expected it. If Anakin screamed here, there was no one was around to hear him. That was the point.
His stomach churned nauseatingly the closer he got to the stated location - a warning from the Force that he was getting close. The building he was directed to loomed high in front of him, however it wasn't up he was going, but down. Entering the building, his footsteps echoed in the wide space. The only colours were blacks and greys, and the lights were all dimmed for power preservation. He found a staircase and started his way down. He counted twelve flights before he stopped. The Force echoed warnings to him, which he hastily ignored. There was no one to help him here. He was alone.
The stairwell's door scraped loudly across the floor as he opened it; stepping through, he walked to the far end of the hall, hand reaching out to wave across the console to open the door. The hiss rang loudly through his ears as it opened to admit him, moving across the floor he found himself in a mid sized room. A table and chairs were scattered along the right wall, and the rest of the interior had probably seen better days. At the back of the room, part of the duracrete wall had crumbled, exposing a small space and pipes which ran who knew how deep. Moving to the centre of the room, he breathed out loudly, glad that he was alone for the moment.
It was all there, in the back of his mind. The memories that he had worked so hard to bury during his time on Bandomeer, the memories that Obi-Wan's presence and blossoming affections had helped to block out. He had been safe with Obi-Wan, safe on their little hill, in their little house; where he could finally focus on his future, his engineering. On Bandomeer he actually had a future. Not what he had come to endure on Tatooine, but now –
The Force hummed in warning, the skin on the back of his neck crawled like doop bugs were burrowing under his skin.
The door behind him hissed shut.
"Hello, dear."
Anakin's body shook violently as he shuddered. He never expected to hear Dejiak's voice again. He feared it in the beginning, but it had been so long since Tatooine, that his presence had very nearly been wiped from Anakin's mind. He was a phantom, something that lingered only in nightmares simply to be wiped out by the touch of Obi-Wan's hand on his brow and being pulled into warm, comforting arms.
His heart beat wildly against his ribcage as he turned to face the subject of his nightmares.
"Where is she?" Anakin was proud of the way his voice didn't shake. Setting eyes on Dejiak again threatened to bring up all of the memories of his past. All of the things he had done to him - the pain and humiliation, the torture that he could get away with under Kerr's rules.
"Really? I don't even get a 'hello'? I've been searching for you since the auction and you can't even greet me properly?"
Anakin's stomach threatened to empty itself onto the floor in front of him.
All that time? He's been looking all this time? How -
His jaw clenched. "I have nothing to say to you until I know what you've done to her!"
Dejiak shrugged. "Nothing. Last I saw her she was having lunch with your step-brother."
"What?"
"That picture," he nodded to the photo clasped in Anakin's hand, "I had taken a few days ago. I figured she'd be the perfect lure if I ever came across you again, and well, here we are."
Anakin couldn't speak. His tongue felt like lead and his mind fogged as so many things ran through him at once. Elation and relief that she was safe, suspicion at whether it was a lie, stupidity for running blindly down into an obvious trap but she…she was safe. That's what mattered the most here wasn't it? She wasn't… Dejiak wasn't hurting her. Hadn't touched her the way he'd touched Anakin. If he had – Dejiak wouldn't have lied about it. He would have marched him straight to her and made him watch. Dejiak's mocking laughter pulled him abruptly out of his stupor.
"She was literally just across the street from you, Skywalker. You passed her on your way here."
Anakin ground his teeth together painfully as he watched Dejiak start to circle him. Tears sprung unbidden to his eyes against his will. She was there… was she actually there…
"Do you know how long I waited for you? How much money I spent on you?"
"Not my problem."
"I always did love it when you cried."
"I am not crying," said Anakin, but a treacherous tear escaped his eye anyway.
Dejiak grinned. "You were never supposed to end up at Kerr's, you know. You were always supposed to be with me. I killed that Toydarian when he wouldn't sell you to me, I didn't expect –"
Anakin flinched hard. "You killed Watto?"
His breathing started to come erratically again. There had been rumours… rumours of a dark shape that appeared after Watto closed for the night…
"I… I was-" He choked. "I was twelve…"
Anakin barely managed to fight down the urge to vomit. He could feel it there, roiling sickly in his stomach. "You're a monster."
"He refused to sell you."
"I was a child! I- I- I was -"
Dejiak shrugged. "You wouldn't have been the youngest I've fucked. And you were so pretty; a small little thing – delicate, like a little bird. You've filled out this past year though." He looked Anakin up and down, eyes lingering. "So come here, sweetheart. And when I'm done taking you apart, I'm going to hunt down that bastard, Kenobi, who thought he could touch something that wasn't his, and make him wish he was dead."
Anakin backed up with every step towards him Dejiak took until his back hit the cold wall. His eyes darted around the room until settling back on the man before him. Tears ran down his face as the past ten years in the brothel ran through his mind, the last seven of which he was whored.
Never again….
Never. Again.
Enough.
Dejiak had less than a moment to watch Anakin's horrified expression turn cold and angry, eyes hardening to flinted steel.
Pain exploded along Dejiak's jaw as his head snapped violently to the side. The floor was hard and cold when he landed on his side, but barely registered as a hard kick to his stomach knocked the wind out of him and rolled him a few feet across the floor. He laid there on the ground gasping for air.
"What the HELLS-" Coughing, he rolled to his hands and knees and glowered up at Anakin.
"I'm not afraid of you," spat Anakin, glaring and shaking out his right hand. "Not anymore."
Dejiak felt rage course through him, hot and white. Skywalker had always been defiant. But there had always been that thread of fear behind his eyes, a wary sort of terror that trilled Dejiak to no end. But now…the defiance remained, but the strength behind it was new.
New and unwelcome.
I'll put that scared look back on your face if it's the last thing I do you fucking slut.
Dejiak stood, forcing himself to ignore the pain. "You little bitch, I'll," he coughed. "I-, I'll, ack…"
He couldn't- why couldn't he breathe?
Anakin turned his hand and squeezed. The coughing and spluttering that came from Dejiak made his blood sing. He felt the anger viscerally course through his veins and forge a pathway through every fibre of his being.
Passion.
Anger.
Hate.
Rage.
And oh, how those emotions burned. They licked their way along his spine and whispered to him. All he had to do was keep going and Dejiak would be dead on the floor in front of him. Dead and gone. Never able to hurt another living thing again: not another unfortunate person, not Anakin, not his mother, not Obi-Wan. No one. And all he had to do was choke the life out of him.
"You're never going to touch him," Anakin whispered. "Or her, or me."
He watched coldly as Dejiak clawed at his throat, his face turning an unnatural shade of red. Oh, how Anakin wanted this, how he just wanted to kill. His hand tightened. The Force thrummed around him, darkly. Dangerous. And then, it shifted.
The grating metal of a door opening down the hall startled him sharply out of his trance. He heard no footsteps, but the force vibrated.
Run.
Anakin blinked and released his Force hold on Dejiak, so caught up in the feeling that centred in his stomach and slid cold and oily up his chest. His heart pounded wildly, he couldn't hear anything over Dejiak's harsh, laboured breaths. It felt… he felt something…
Blinking, he looked at Dejiak and shuddered. Had he… he'd almost killed him, what -
His skin felt clammy, and sweat darted down his brow. He kept looking back and forth to the door and Dejiak.
The Force whispered all around him.
Run.
His temperature dropped a few degrees, his sweat cooling and making him freeze. His heart contracted forcefully and beat into his throat. Danger. There was danger, the Force was telling him-
RUN.
Anakin ran. His body unlocked and he was gone in an instant, sliding through the break in the duracrete in the back of the room, there was nowhere else to go. He couldn't go through the door, whatever was coming was out there. The Force was screaming at him. The hole he went through lead him out to a gangway, likely used for maintenance personnel to fix the pipes. It was wide enough for him to start running with purpose. He kept going, but breathing hard he turned back to look.
The Force had resonated powerfully with Anakin's rage, it sung sharp with fury and trembled with its strength.
It had not gone unnoticed.
The Sith had come.
A/N: The last bad cliffhanger! I'm sorry. Thank you so much for your reviews. You are all the most patient readers ever, and I love you. This chapter was beta'd by FemaleSpock. Thank you so much for taking over and helping me out with this fic!