The delicate feel of lips against his own lingered, warm and wanting. The jaw he held still in hand gave way, working languid and slow. Seemingly disconnected was the tongue that moved against his own leisurely as their mouths casually danced on one another, slow as molasses and just as sweet.

Obi-wan found himself apart from time, in a place where his own cognition slowed to a halt. It was a mindless state where the man he had become was laid bare for all to see. And aside from the living force as his witness, Anakin was the sole spectator to see, to feel his Master unravel. And Obi-wan wasn't fully aware of it, how could he be?

He wished he could have been dreaming, and in the first few moments he thought he might have been. That dream before certainly had been real enough. And Anakin was here now, vulnerable under his touch, completely susceptible- helplessly so.

Obi-wan felt his hand slip down from Anakin's jaw to the soft flesh of his throat, resting there with a gentle firmness. Another hand tangled in his hair more roughly, quickening and deepening their kiss to a frantic, desperate pace. A torrent of desire washed through him, libidinous images to match, all of it thought too loudly.

Anakin hummed a heady moan into Obi-wan's mouth as he began to tear at his Master's clothes ravenously, his enthusiasm borne of his Master's wanton thoughts falling haphazardly across their bond. Anakin lie there, open for him to take what he wanted, however he pleased. And the boy would let him. It was more than that- he hungered for it badly. Obi-wan could feel it, the hollow pit inside him, how he longed for his Master to fix it. To fill him and fuck him and use him in ways that shocked Obi-wan deeply to sense.

None of it was anything like Obi-wan had fantasized. Anakin was broken, in ways he hadn't even understood. The fractures ran deep in his core, through the whole of him. Taking advantage of his all too willing state seemed wrong. It struck a painful chord of guilt in him. He had already indulged far too much, and the only one to blame was himself.

Obi-wan retreated from Anakin's lips, pursing his own into a fine line as a serious furrow creased his brow. Anakin looked back at him with fearful uncertainty, sensing the sudden change in his Master's aura with growing alarm. His hands that had been clawing for his Master's flesh now hung in fist-fulls of Obi-wan's garments. Obi-wan gently unwound them, holding Anakin's hands thoughtfully in his own before placing them on Anakin's chest.

Obi-wan felt the inexorable veil of shame and sorrow fall over his shoulders. "I'm sorry," he said, his words heavy with remorse.

"What's wrong?" Anakin asked hesitantly, propping himself up to sit on the bench, his disposition growing near to tears, but not quite on the edge of. "I don't understand."

He had been given something Obi-wan should have never allowed. And there was no taking any of it back, that was the bitter reality of it. "Anakin, you must understand why this could never be." Obi-wan said somberly, feeling the words form in his mouth with a bitter taste.

Anakin's chest was heaving from the burden of too much emotion combined with his feverish state to start. Obi-wan could hardly stand to look at him. He didn't think he had ever seen Anakin so heartbroken in his whole life. His shattered soul refracted through his eyes in that dove jewled tone of sapphire blue that seemed to dim a bit from shock.

"You're my Padawan," Obi-wan said putting a hand to his forehead, feeling himself grow dizzy with distress. Even he was shocked with himself, all of his past transgressions mounted to this one moment. As he truly saw himself, he barely even recognized the man he had become.

"And even if that weren't the case, the code..." Obi-wan trailed off. The Code forbid so much. Even beyond his desires being expressed through action, it forbade him to even feel what he felt. The code would have him cut Anakin out of his heart. Inside Obi-wan had already known that was something he couldn't do. But things couldn't go on as they were, either.

Anakin looked up at him, one last surge of hope lighting up his anguish ridden eyes. "But I love you," Anakin said resolutely, stabbing Obi-wan through the heart with his declaration- his plea.

And I love you, I always will.

And that was why he had to end the delusion before it had a chance to stunt the boy's potential. Obi-wan feared it already had. He cursed himself, knowing he had to be better than this. He needed to be better than this.

"Please, don't make this harder than it has to be." Obi-wan said sullenly. "And if you can find it in your heart, please forgive me."

Force knows I can't forgive myself.

Anakin looked back at him fractured through and through. His sickly look only added to the feeling that Obi-wan was killing him. "You are going to be a great Jedi Knight. I refuse to let you throw it all away."

Obi-wan could see Anakin think over the ramifications of their consummated love for one another, seeing it end only in their mutual demise. It did little to soothe the devastation that had fallen over his soul, but Anakin seemed to be able to come to terms.

….

Anakin could feel his heart being ripped to shreds by the calm level headed words spoken from lips that had kissed his only moments ago. The cold calculating logic Obi-wan kept always ready had ruined what had seemed too good to be true.

"I understand." Anakin said gravely.

And it had been- too good to be true. Anakin had let himself get lost in the most empty of hopes. Worst of all were the kisses he still felt on his warm swollen lips, the flash of images that had escaped his Master's mind that would be forever imprinted in his. He would hold onto it as a memento. The sour memory of the few seconds where he thought his fairy tale might have come true.

And it would torment him. But he knew what would happen if the council ever found out about his Master's feelings for him, it would be the end for Obi-wan. He would be cast out of the order.

And if he were, all of our problems would be solved. There wouldn't be the code to come between us.

Anakin put a stop to his selfish thoughts. It would hardly be the end of their problems, it would only solve one and open the door to many others. Being cast out of the order would kill his Master's spirit- the order was the only thing he knew. He wasn't like Anakin, who had remembered any other sort of life outside. And even for Anakin, it would be a soul shattering prospect. And besides, he didn't deserve the man anyway.

Obi-wan looked on at him with the same melancholy that filled his aura. "It will get better. Things will go back to normal and all of this will just be a... distant memory." Obi-wan assured him.

Anakin knew that would never be true. He knew his Master knew it, too.

"I know." Anakin said back, nodding his head.

He would indulge his Master's lie. It wouldn't help to speak the truth of it, when the truth was the very thing that they were seeking to escape.

Obi-wan leaned forwards and took Anakin in his arms in a sterile embrace. Anakin held himself back from fully giving himself over to the man's arms like he wanted. He understood its purpose- a bow on the gift of rejection and heartache. Consolation prize. It felt like the embrace one might give when you were about to go away for a very long time, maybe even forever. The thought brought up traitorous tears to the surface. It was like when he had left his Mother on the desert sands of Tatooine, and somehow even worse.

When Obi-wan pulled away from him, Anakin didn't try to keep him longer. He let him slip out of his grip, which had grown considerably more desperate as Anakin began to silently weep onto the shoulder of his tunic. Obi-wan looked him straight on for a moment in silence, his eyes full of things he didn't know how to say.

Just as he might have said something, the ship lurched forward and down as it fell back to realspace, tossing Obi-wan across the small lounge area as Anakin was thrown from the bench into the corner of the bulkhead just beside it. The wrenching of metal sounded out simultaneously with the whirring of a struggling hyperdrive while the smell of ozone crept into the cabin.

Obi-wan pulled himself up and rushed over to Anakin, but he managed to get back to his feet before his Master had the chance to help him up. Anakin was still feeling worse for wear but it went without saying that he was the tech sav between the two of them. And that meant it was time to get to work. Time to shove his feelings back into the dark corners of his mind so it could taunt him later.

"I'll go take a look at it," Anakin said wearily, his red puffy eyes now the only proof of his tears.

He walked dutifully around the corner to the control panel in question, which was still sparking and sending out plastic fumes into the small space. Waving the dense growing cloud of smoke away from the box, Anakin opened it and threw the switch, killing the power to the hyperdrive and the resulting arcing wires.

Obi-wan hung around the corner in wait. "What's it looking like?" His Master asked in a conversational tone, one a few shades lighter than he truly felt of course.

"Not good," Anakin answered, feeling faint from the smoke as he moved back to the bench to sit.

No, not good at all. And even that was an understatement. No hyperdrive in the middle of open space and no com? It was worse than bad. And whatever had caused it, the entire board was fried. They required not just a new part for the hyperdrive, but a whole new system. It was impossible to try to refurbish it without setting the ship down to get supplies.

"Not good?" Obi-wan went to Anakin and stood with crossed arms, their previous conversation all but wiped from the fore of their minds, for the sake of their situation.

"She's fried." Anakin said dryly. Perhaps it was the fresh heartbreak that was making him so bitter, but even still, they weren't in the best of circumstances. "If we aren't a stone's throw away from a star system, we're as good as-"

"Well let's look then, shall we?" Obi-wan interrupted him, not allowing him to finish vocalizing the thought.

Obi-wan marched over to the helm and did a scan of their surroundings. Judging from the lack of dialogue that ensued, Anakin supposed his initial evaluation had been correct.

His Master came back from around the bend, his face carefully controlled to emanate the Masterly calmness he felt he ought to portray however unnatural it seemed in the moment. "No system within sub-light distance. And it appears our distress beacon is missing all together. It could be an oversight, but somehow I'm beginning to doubt it." He said grimly, his eyes distant and calculating.

"No, with all that's gone wrong, I'm beginning to suspect we were supposed to end up out here like this."

Suddenly Anakin saw another problem, this one he knew he could solve. "I can rig a beacon together from the com system, and a few other components I don't think we'll be needing." Anakin said, getting to his feet and setting to the task before his Master replied with anything at all. The man seemed to be in a trance of sorts, his eyes cast out in the distance, trained on nothing but his own thoughts that lingered between the various causes of their eventual demise.

"Yes, yes do that." Obi-wan said well after the fact.

….

Anakin set to the job of building a small emergency beacon while Obi-wan stewed over the facts. First of all was the obvious dislike Zaann had for both Obi-wan and his Padawan. But it transcended that. With what Zaann had done to Anakin, the still broken ribs and bruises to prove it, Anakin was a serious threat to him- living proof that could walk before the council to testify against him.

Obi-wan should have suspected more when both their coms failed to work. He should have decided to put the ship down to repair their own array. He had been so caught up in his emotions, the anger and fear from what had happened to Anakin, he hadn't been thinking clearly. And now look where that had gotten them- stuck somewhere on the wrong side of nowhere, dead in their tracks and no way to get any message out. The temple didn't even know to expect them home early. And Zaann had been the only one of rank who had known they were departing. And there was the issue of Anakin's sickness and hallucinations, which Obi-wan now suspected could very well be the result of some poison or toxin willfully administered to him by some unknown method.

It could be weeks before they were even suspected missing at all. They would die long before that with such a limited supply of water, even if they meditated to slow their own metabolic processes. And maybe that's what Zaann wanted. Yes, they had fallen into a trap- one constructed specifically for them.

As much as Obi-wan wanted to believe that he was jumping to conclusions, that he had been making irrational connections between things that weren't connected at all, he knew better. Perhaps one thing that no one had counted on was just how ingenuitive Anakin truly was. Sure they could take their distress beacon, but Anakin could construct another. And if anyone had done enough research into designing their demise, they might have realized that small fact.

Obi-wan peered around the corner of the small cabin to see Anakin elbow deep into one of the various panels, finding salvage and components for his project. Anakin was more than competent, Obi-wan had no doubt that he would finish the task with time to spare. They would switch on the beacon and wait for whatever ship nearby happened to catch their distress signal.

That was another uneasy unknown factor. But whoever, or whatever picked them up, Obi-wan was confident in their ability to handle the situation. Often times ships donning distress signals were prime targets for pirates or thugs, searching over the wreckage. If they were lucky they would run into beings who had a sense of morality about them.

Sure, they could have the ship, they could have anything they wanted in exchange for safe passage to the next world with a spaceport. Even more if they could take them all the way to Coruscant. The Council would allot the crew compensation for their troubles. Such promises might be the only thing that held the darker inclinations of sentient beings at bay.

Still, promise of payment was not the same as credits in hand. And if their word wasn't good enough, whether bounty hunter, scrapper, pirate or slaver, they would all find some way to make you worth their time. Whether it were rendered via credits, services, or other means. Obi-wan thought through the worst case scenarios with dread. Maybe dying in the middle of empty space wasn't so bad after all.

Get it together Kenobi, he grumbled internally, chastising himself. That was no way to be thinking. The force always had its will, its purpose. Obi-wan preferred to think that it involved him and his Padawan alive and for the most part, unscathed. Whatever was thrown at them, they would survive. They would get back home, report to the council. Every block in their path was another shred of evidence against Qualturus. No matter how inconvenient or difficult things became, in the end when push came to shove, there was little that could stand between Obi-wan and his goal.

Sensing his Master around the bend looking over at him, Anakin turned to him. "I've got everything I need. Shouldn't be a few minutes before I've got it configured and ready to program to broadcast." Anakin said, his face a damp sickly shade, tinted blue from the panel lights casting their cold glow onto his tepid skin.

Obi-wan pulled from his inner world as Anakin addressed him. "Very good," Obi-wan said with dull enthusiasm. He found his spirit running dry and empty, as he was becoming aware of just how emotionally fatigued he was. He was awake and alert, but his soul was tired, like a plug had been pulled right out of him.

Obi-wan turned to retreat to the helm, having not much else to say as Anakin set out again, sitting on the cold durasteel floor surrounded by open panels and their dim light that spilled out over him. He sat with a ring of parts and components around him like a child might with their toy cruisers and small miniature bantha figurines. But the look on his face had been all too serious to be that of a child's.

But Anakin was not a child. He had grown into a man. An intelligent, conflicted, passionate man. Obi-wan felt himself grow more fatigued and tired at the thought. Yes, Anakin was no longer a child. But that made all of his waywardness that much more condemning. The fracture that ran through him, Obi-wan could still see it as if it were made of broken red glass. Shards of his soul flaying him in their many pieces, cutting him to the core, rivulets of blood drenching him inside.

How many of those wounds existed because of him? Obi-wan thought about it, wallowing in dread. He knew it was speculation, and useless at that. The only thing that mattered was the moment- his late Master reminded him from beyond the grave.

Anakin came from around the corner, breaking him from his futile rumination. "I've got it Master, it's ready to go." Anakin said proudly.

"It's broadcasting?" Obi-wan asked, seeing the silent red flashing light blinking out from the glob of metal and wire.

"Yeah," Anakin answered back, setting the part delicately on an empty flat surface beside the pilots chair.

"What's it transmitting?"

"General Jedi distress signal." Anakin answered simply. "Why?"

"With our circumstances, I wonder if we want to appear as Jedi, or not," Obi-wan noted open-endedly. Depending on who came across their path, it could be a help or a hindrance. Either way it wouldn't matter, in the end, he reminded himself. Obi-wan couldn't understand why he was so hung up on the question of who might come across them.

But then the answer to that was obvious, too. If Zaann had set them up like this as it appeared, and he hadn't looked over Anakin's technological genius, they could be falling deeper into the trap. Typically such things wouldn't have bothered him much, but with Anakin seeming to be the focal point of the man's madness, Obi-wan wasn't interested in seeing what the man might have planned further.

"Do you want me to reprogram it Master?" Anakin asked, aware of his oversight with a tinge of self criticism.

"No, no it's alright." Obi-wan said, accepting that they very well might be staring into the jowls of a beast without knowing it. Or, it might be nothing at all. Zaann might have truly looked over Anakin's talents. Somehow, Obi-wan doubted it was so.

Anakin collapsed wearily into the co-pilot's chair beside him. Beads of sweat condensed on his brow. His chest rose and fell rapidly, his eyes lidded in exhaustion. His limbs fell limply around him.

"Why don't you go back and lie down while we wait for our shining white knights to come to our rescue?" Obi-wan said with words that didn't match the worry in his voice.

"I'll just sit here for a bit, if you don't mind Master." Anakin said, his voice sounding more labored than it ought. "I'll keep you company so… you don't get… bored." Anakin said, his words trailing off as he seemed to drift from consciousness.

Obi-wan began to grow fearful for his Padawan. His mind ran over all the different ways he could have been poisoned again. It seemed to be a slow acting toxin, perhaps ones that induced visions, if the visions hadn't been inspired by the force itself- poorly heeded warning signs.

There was no way to help someone who had been poisoned in the middle of nowhere, not with the simple contents of a medkit. He would be reduced to his own limited healing abilities to keep him alive if it came to that. Obi-wan didn't like the idea of Anakin's life being quite literally in his hands in such a dire situation, for better or worse.

"Anakin," Obi-wan said, putting a hand on his shoulder and giving him a light jostle.

"Master?" Anakin replied drunkenly, rolling his head on his shoulder in Obi-wan's direction.

"Anakin, open your eyes." Obi-wan said sternly.

"They're so heavy, I'm just going to close them for one minute. Just one minute." Anakin spoke in a voice that waned on barely any breath. His eyes were circled with dark purple near the shade of his bruises while his skin turned a pale ashen tone.

"No, Anakin you have to stay awake. I think- I think you may have been poisoned." Obi-wan said in a voice that negated most of the panic and alarm that was coiling in his chest.

This time Anakin gave no answer. His chest still rose and fell rapidly but his head was slumped over, no life in him to move a muscle. Obi-wan looked him over, his body laden with a sinking helplessness that wove itself into his bones. No, it had been there from the start but he had been trying to ignore it. Everything he was set up against, all the ways he was failing. Now with Anakin badly sick, poisoned, whatever it was, it made him fully aware of the scope of his failings.

And the helplessness exchanged for panic, as he found himself toggling between the two as each second passed, making time slow down excruciatingly.

"Anakin, wake up!" Obi-wan said with a firmer voice, but yielded no results. Placing a hand on his forehead, he felt the boy burning up, fighting off a menace of a fever. If there was anything he could do, it would be to at least treat the symptoms. Wanting to feel some semblance of control in the situation, Obi-wan decided to do just that.

Gently Obi-wan hoisted Anakin from the co-pilot's chair and carried him back to the bench in the back of the ship. His febrile body felt like cot coals against him. Anakin's tunic had been nearly soaked through with sweat, uncomfortably damp.

Obi-wan loosened his collar and unlaced his boots, pulling them off gently, and then his socks afterwards. Going to the small closet of a fresher he wrung a couple of rags under cool water and placed them on Anakin's feet, another at his neck and forehead.

Next he set out to find the ship's medkit, which was nowhere to be found. Instead he was forced to settle on the smaller emergency med pack that was secured to the underside of the pilot's chair. As he ripped the bag open and began to rummage through for some fever reducer, bacta, anything he could get his hands on, a flash of light burst in the near distance. It was the typical flash one would see as a ship exited hyperspace, and shortly after it, one did appear. Though it was not the kind he had hoped to see. That being said, it could have been worse, too.

It was obvious from the markings and make of the machine that it wasn't a harmless freighter. Neither did it seem like a slave transporting vessel. It was much smaller, a ship made for quick travel, a few blaster cannons and miscellaneous guns attached to its sides in an aftermarket fashion. Not big enough to be a pirate ship- no room for spoils and plunder. No obvious or overt governmental affiliation by the looks of it.

If they hadn't dismantled some of their own ship's components, Obi-wan would have been able to scan the ship for lifeforms. Though he guessed there would be very few. Perhaps one, two or three. No, what he was looking at was more likely than not the ship of a bounty hunter.

Were they there to assure their deaths? To make sure they were never to be found? Obi-wan wasn't naive enough to believe their sudden appearance was happenstance. They could blast them into their component atoms in the silence of space and no one would be the wiser. Obi-wan's blood chilled at the thought.

Then he reached out, trying to feel out the intentions of the beings within the opposing ship. As much as his mind screamed at him with worst case scenarios, he didn't feel they were there to shoot them to smithereens. There might have been dark intent, but it was much less elementary or brutish. It was the kind that smiled at your face and stabbed you in the back.

Beings with dubious intent, Obi-wan felt much more comfortable with. He could at least read them to a point. And such beings, when they lacked force ability, were more transparent than they would ever know. Usually you could find them in the political arena, or in the shadier bars of the Coruscanti underworld.

Obi-wan knew how to play their games to his advantage, though he disliked employing such devious behavior himself. There was a strict moral line that decided when such measures were necessary, and when he had to, he was good at it. However the types that resorted to it often rarely had any morals to speak of.

He could see the ship drift towards them, sublight drives on low power as they moved to dock with their small transport. Best to play the fool, Obi-wan thought as he turned their small ship in kind, to allow their new acquaintances to dock easier. Play the part- happy recipient of much needed aid. There wasn't anything else he could do, especially not with an incapacitated Padawan in need of medical attention.

The bounty hunter's ship eclipsed their own, as locking clamps extended from both sides, sealing a small passageway between them. Hastily Obi-wan moved back to Anakin. There hadn't been anything worth while in the med kit to treat him with, so he tossed it aside.

Obi-wan knelt by Anakin's side. "Anakin, please wake up," he begged in futility.

He could hear the activation of the docking way as it filled with atmosphere. It was time to meet their rescuers. And clearly, Anakin would be a mere stage prop to the occasion. Obi-wan sighed, hoisting him up into his arms again as he went to walk across the merged airlock, into enemy territory. He prayed the force would be with them.