Chapter 50
The slight vibrations beneath Mace Windu's feet and the chill he always associated with space travel were the only things betraying the fact that he was on a ship. He reached to pull his cloak more tightly around his body only to remember that it wasn't there, lost to flames as he had fallen into the arena. Mace stopped in front of a door. The object of his search was located in the room just beyond. Not that it was really a search. Yoda's Force signature was unmistakable. The door slid open and a medical droid exited, paying no attention to him. Mace slipped through the doorway.
From all appearances they were in the Healers' Ward back at the Temple on Coruscant, only on a much larger scale. In this room alone there were several bacta tanks, and this wasn't the only room that housed them, nor was it the only ship. The cloners on Kamino had seen to it that all needs for an army were fulfilled, including ordering these Medstar-class frigates from the Kuat shipyard. Unfortunately, they had underestimated how many to send to Geonosis. This was evident by the number of wounded lying everywhere there was space. Mace was uncertain who had given the order for severely injured Jedi to be treated ahead of the clones, who was more expendable, but it was a preview of the type of decisions that would have to be made in the coming days.
His footsteps brought him to bacta tank A6, where a Jedi padawan floated peacefully. Anakin Skywalker, with a missing limb and his body injured by Force lightning, had been triaged and tanked almost immediately. Mace came to a stop next to the small, hunched figure watching over the Chosen One.
"I would have thought that Obi-Wan, Xanatos, and their padawans would have had no difficulty with Dooku," Mace mused out loud.
"With Obi-Wan, young Ben'dek was not. Even if been there he had, severe were his injuries, more so than even Obi-Wan assumed. His master's knack for hiding injuries he has acquired," Yoda said softly.
"And what of Xanatos and Anakin?" Mace continued. "Even the two of them should have …"
"Divide and conquer – a strategy that has always served my old padawan well," Yoda murmured as he tore his gaze away from Anakin's still form and looked up at Mace. "Not fighting as a team were Xanatos and Anakin. I sensed conflict and disharmony where unity should have been."
"You mention conflict. I worry what war will do to Xanatos." Mace finally admitted, getting his concerns off his chest. "Will leading an army be too much - too close to what happened to him on Telos?"
"Need all Jedi we will," Yoda replied with firm resolution.
"He already walks close to the Dark side."
"Yes, but clings to the Light Xanatos does. Stood against Dooku … his determination to not fall I sensed clearly."
"We have Anakin to think of as well," Mace continued. "If Xanatos is indeed struggling, can he effectively guide such a powerful padawan?"
Mace watched as Yoda glanced away, cat-like eyes focusing on a distant corner of the room.
"Lose them both we will if break the partnership we do. Convinced of this I am." Yoda nodded his head, his gaze returning to the figure submerged in rose-tinted bacta. "Stays in the Light Xanatos does to anchor his padawan. Take away Anakin, take away his purpose we do. Take Xanatos from his padawan, we take away Young Skywalker's anchor."
The discussion was closed. Mace knew that from the finality in the elder master's voice. He chose not to broach the subject of what had happened in the hangar. Master Yoda was more than a match for his former padawan. Of anyone, he should have been able to defeat Dooku.
"A choice I made," Yoda said, answering the unspoken question. "Crushed them all – Obi-Wan, Xanatos, Anakin – he would have. Their lives I chose over capturing Dooku."
Mace checked his shields. The aged master had not read his thoughts. Yoda simply knew him too well. It was not a Jedi response to safeguard the lives of a few individuals when it put the galaxy at risk. As much as he questioned the choice, Mace trusted the elder Jedi master to be able to put aside the feelings he had always had for Jinn's padawans.
"A futile struggle against the Sith this will be without Qui-Gon's line," Yoda continued, answering more guarded thoughts. "Seen this I have."
The pair turned to leave. They had only gone a few steps when Yoda stopped. "Stay a little longer, I think I will."
Yoda waited until Mace had left, his eyes narrowing as he turned back to face the corner of the room he had searched out earlier. With a weary sigh he asked, "Been there long have you?"
A figure stepped from the corner of the room, relinquishing a tight hold on his shields as he came into view. "Long enough to listen to the two of you debating my future without having all the pieces to the puzzle, as usual."
Xanatos looked paler than normal, and the loose-fitting, bright white medical tunics that had replaced his blood-soaked clothing did little to help. He fidgeted slightly against a sling that held his arm close to his body and his shoulder immobile. The way he carried himself betrayed fatigue and pain.
"Resting you should be. A lot of blood you lost," Yoda said softly. "The healers tell me that made the wound worse you did, when you pulled the metal from it."
"It was in my way," Xanatos murmured absently as he approached the bacta tank. "Mace was right. Our lives were not worth war."
Yoda smacked his walking stick across the Jedi master's shin, causing him to flinch. "No choice you had in the matter. After more than eight hundred years, rash choices I do not make. Live with my decision, I will. Now tell me what happened with you and your padawan, you will."
Defiance briefly burned bright in Xanatos' eyes, but it was tempered with regret and weariness. When silence lingered on, Yoda urged him.
"Better it is to talk to me here and now. Then, go before the Council you and your padawan will not."
Long-lashes swept down to hide Xanatos' eyes as he pressed his free hand against the glass of the tank. "I told you he was not ready for a mission, that he needed time," Xanatos whispered.
"Hid things from me you did."
"Would it have mattered if I had told you everything?" Xanatos shot back, a bitter tone creeping into his voice. "The Council seemed more eager to please the Chancellor and his personal whims than to listen to what a master thought was best for his padawan. If you continue in that pattern, this war will be disastrous for the Jedi."
"About war this conversation is not."
"Anakin had been having dreams of his mother suffering. They were waking him every night and were getting worse."
"Dreams pass in …"
"Don't start with Jedi platitudes," Xanatos snapped.
It never ceased to amaze Yoda how fearless and disregarding of rules and tradition Xanatos could be when he felt it necessary. There were few in the Temple who would be so disrespectful to the head of the Jedi Council.
"Yes. Most dreams pass in time," Xanatos conceded. "But, there are some that are prophetic in nature. Anakin is the Chosen One. It only makes sense that the Force would show him things."
"Difficult dreams are to interpret, the future can change."
"I know. We changed it," Xanatos answered before slowly shaking his head. "My only mistake was in allowing Anakin to come with me when I knew his control over his emotions was tenuous. I should have gone alone."
"What happened?"
"The details are not important. All you need to know is that he touched the Darkside, but he did not embrace it. He is completely aware of and repulsed by what almost happened." Xanatos turned a gaze on the aged master that shined with resolve. "Don't push the matter. He just lost an arm, and the healers tell me it will take time to get used to a prosthetic. What my padawan needs is time and space to heal."
A pale hand went to the glass again. Yoda suspected it was more for Xanatos to steady himself.
"Time you will be given at the Temple for recovery," he said softly. "But, meet with a soul healer you both will."
"I will meet with Master Nuran, and she's the only one I will meet with." At Yoda's disgruntled sigh, Xanatos cracked a slight smile and added. "She's already been in my head before and survived. Why subject someone else to something so disturbing."
"Very well." Yoda began to shuffle away, leaving Xanatos alone with his apprentice. He stopped just short of the door, turning back to say, "Learned much you have since Telos, Xanatos. Did well to hold Anakin to the Light."
Consciousness came with exploding bursts of pain. Ben remembered hearing once that pain was good because it was a reminder that he was alive. Right now, he felt as though he was in a great sea of it, not only his, but that of others crashing over him like giant waves. He couldn't breath and was suffocating. With great effort, he drew up strong shields, shutting out everything until he floated in his own bubble of the Force. The energy expended made him want to sleep. He couldn't remember the last time he had felt so spent. It was as though the last days had been spent fighting for his life, which as memories slowly began to coalesce, wasn't far from the truth. As he contemplated lifting heavy eyelids, one thought consumed his mind.
"Master!"
He remembered Obi-Wan with angry red gashes along his arm and leg, Xanatos unconscious on the ground in a pool of his own blood, and Anakin missing an arm. Why had he allowed himself to be separated from them? It seemed that seeing Master Yoda in the hangar was what finally had convinced him that it all might finally be over. He had given up the charade, stopped hiding his injuries, stopped maintaining shields, too tired to continue. He remembered swaying on his feet before darkness overtook him.
"Padawan … I'm safe and you're safe."
The voice, soft and gentle, broke through his panic. He had heard that simple statement so many times upon waking up after being injured, his master assuring him once again that they had made it through alive.
"Feel awful," he managed to mumble.
"Finally … some honesty," the voice chided with amused sarcasm. Then more sternly. "Don't try to hide an injury like this ever again. The healers said there was swelling … that you are fortunate to not have suffered permanent brain damage."
Ben finally forced his eyes open. His master was in white garments that identified him as a fellow patient. A sling held his injured arm to his chest, and his leg was immobile and propped.
"I too will make a complete recovery," Obi-Wan assured him. "Unless the healers finally decide I am not worth the effort anymore."
"I should have been there at your side," Ben said, dismissing his master's attempt at humor.
"I may have lost you if you had tried to fight in your condition." His master's jeweled eyes were flooded with relief. He reached out and smoothed out the long braid that trailed down Ben's shoulder. "Dooku is stronger than we realized. He is a Sith. "
"I know," Ben murmured, suddenly haunted by what the former Jedi master turned Sith had said. "He wanted to train me … as an apprentice."
"You resisted, and I've never been more proud of you."
Ben tried to push away the knowledge that this was all just the beginning. They had survived the first battle, but war was upon them, and they would face the Sith again. Sensing the swirling thoughts, his master flooded his mind with assurance and a strong compulsion to sleep.
"Rest now, Padawan. I will be here when you wake up," Obi-Wan promised as Ben drifted off to sleep again.
There would be time enough to consider the state of the galaxy and the Sith later.