Title: Anakin's Vacation
Author: DarkPhoenixBC
Rating: T
Chronology/Summary/Notes/Disclaimer: please see chapter 1

Chapter 3 - Words of Wisdom

It was fascinatingly revolting to look at. The actual injury began about an inch and a half from the ring of mechanisms that held the glove in place; like a bracelet pushed up on the forearm. From there, it was like seeing through her flesh at the very bones in her arm. But even that was not entirely eaccurate. Parts of the bone were brackish gray instead of clean white bone. Poking out of these areas were small, delicate looking spikes with nodes on the ends. On the back of her hand was what looked liking thing wet leather clinging to the underlying bones. The middle finger was just a stump, and the two leftmost fingers were gone entirely. In their places, on the ends where the fingers should have continued from the hand, were target-like circles with additional wires poking from the middle. This entire ensable, with the exception of these three rings, seemed to be encased in a transparent covering.

Anakin stared at it. He realized he was doing this after a moment and fixed his gaze uncomfortably on Rogue's face. She seemed to be studying it intently. "Nasty little thing, isn't it?" she muttered, and he nodded. "How. Why.?" He mumbled a bit, as about twenty questions filled his mouth and garbled themselves. "The glove is like a bionic hand. I didn't want a fake one. I kept the injuries to remind myself not make the same mistakes we did then."

Anakin's head whipped up at the word "we". "My master and I. We made a lot of errors in our mission. They cost me my hand and temporarily the use of my body from the chest down. They cost my master her life."

There was an akward silence after this statement, and Ani felt it wise not to pursue this. After a while, Rogue picked up the glove and fixed it back on, then threw the tool back at the shelf, stopping it midflight to levitate it gently down.

"Obi-Wan's master died." Anakin said softly. Dark eyes swept over him in an instant. "What did you say?" Anakin was silent for a moment, then got up and retrieved a bottle of regular water from the cooler-crate. His mouth had gone dry. "Qui-Gonn Jinn, Obi-Wan's Master. He died. Not long after he. saved me."

Anakin had realized a little earlier that he hadn't told Rogue how he'd escaped Tatooine; only vague details about almost not being made a Jedi. In truth, Rogue had assumed that her friend had been knighted fairly early and simply happened to come across the boy on assignment, and push him through the council. As he told her the story, as much as he knew, she listened, perfectly still. She didn't take another drink, didn't interrupt him. She barely blinked.

When he was done, she practically downed an entire bottle of B'jork, and retreived several more from the crate, which she put on the table with vaguely shaking hands. "I can't believe it. I should have paid more attention to the statements."

Not understanding, Anakin leaned closer. "Did you know him? I mean, did you know him, and my master too?" she nodded without looking at him, smiling faintly. "Oh yes, I certainly knew them. Obi was two years my senior," Anakin blanched at this unheard of nickname for his beloved Master. No one called him Obi. "but we were pretty good friends, mostly because our masters were good friends. He even cried when I left." She smirked. "Of course he would never admit it. But we, all four of us, were pretty bonded. I thought I felt something several years ago. Right about the time you say they rescued you. Of course I didn't understand it until now." she absently opened another bottle on the table.

"Now Ani, tell me about you. And I want to hear everything, including, if this shocks you, what you actually think about everything."

"Master Kenobi?" he sighed. He was honestly tiring of that name. With the exception of in his dreams, no one seemed call him anything else anymore. "Come in. It's open." He said, rolling over on his bed. "I apologize if I woke you." the nonhuman Knight who had entered the room said, but Obi-Wan raised a hand to silence him. "No, no, I wasn't asleep. What is it?"

"It's the Council. They want to see you immediately."

He commanded the lights to brighten, and squinted as they did so. "Why didn't they just use the comlink?" he asked, annoyed. The Knight shifted on his feet. "Er. I believethey were switched off, sir."

Oops. Good point. "Right. Of course. Thank you, er." "Keroin." "Of course. Thank you, Keroin."

Feeling a bit stupid, but eager to hear what the Council had to say, Obi- Wan ran a hand through his hair, and stepped out into the halls. Maybe there was word about Anakin.

Said person, Anakin, was, at that moment, ranting to previously referred Rogue. When she'd told him to tell her everything, he found his heart opening like a flower to the sun. Arrogance that had been squashed in him flared up, and he was now making claims to the throne of the universe.

"I'm to be the greatest Jedi ever! I'm going to have more power than anyone, and I'll change the galaxy!" Anakin said, proudly, determinedly. Rogue looked at him solemnly. Anakin stopped pacing and came to a stop. "Is that so?" she asked wryly. "Yes!" he cried. But his enthusiasm was spent, and his surety withered under her steady gaze. "And so this is what you are. Your destiny. It is to be the greatest. You are special, you will do this?" he plopped down next to her, suddenly exhausted with the conversation. "Yes."

"Ani, give me your hand." He looked at her, questioningly, and obeyed. She took his right hand in her left, and with her other hand, extended a razor from the tip of her index finger in the mechanical glove. Anakin yelped. "What are you doing!" he asked nervously. "What, a big boy, going to change the galaxy, is scared of cuts? Just watch." She told him. As he stared, she took the crystal razor, and pressed the blade to the back of her hand. "What do you see?" she asked, as she drew a line across her moon- pale skin. "Well, you're bleeding!" he said, rolling his eyes. "Correct. Now, watch this." Gently, she took his hand and did similar as her own. He ignored the light sting, trusting her. "What do you see?" he looked at her. "Blood?" she smiled, but only vaguely. "Correct. You and I bleed the same. You are no better than I." Her point made, she neatly wiped the blood from his hand, and bandaged it.

But Anakin wasn't satisfied. "No! You don't see! I may bleed, but we're not the same! My blood has. has. mimid.midin. Oh! I don't know what you call them! But I've got millions of them!" he turned away. Her voice followed him, soft but relentless. "Midichlorians? The symbols of our connection to the Force? Maybe. But what good does that do you, if you bleed them away? You're not all-powerful. You never will be, because if you ever became all powerful, you would have no purpose."

"You've located her? Wal-Hali? Does she have Anakin?"

"Patience, Master Kenobi. We have indeed located Wal-Hali Bleidarc. And she informs us that she does have Anakin in her household. She will return him to us soon.

Obi-Wan sighed with releif, releasing all the vexations of the past week or so. Fortunately, no Council member commented on this outward show of emotion. A tear slipped down his cheek. He felt like cheering. Running, shouting, grabbing Adi Gallia and dancing around the room. Instead, he cried.

Rogue looked at Anakin with those penetrating dark eyes. "It is wisdom that you lack, Skywalker. " she said, drawing another flask of the volatile green liquid. Anakin shifted, upset. "I have plenty of wisdom!" he argued. "I've got more wisdom than half the Jedi Council!"

Rogue gave him a hard, cold stare. "And yet they are the leaders, the ones everyone listens to. Anakin you do not even know what wisdom is!" before he could argue back, she raised a hand. "Wisdom," she began, then paused to take a drink from the flask, "is knowing your place." Anakin started to reply hotly "I do." but Rogue slammed a fist angrily on the table to stop him, and hurried on, "And staying in it!"

Anakin was angry now. "I DO know my place!" "You do NOT! And even if you did, you would not be able to stay in it!" she yelled. Anakin sat back and folded his arms. "Fine. If you're so smart, tell me my place." Rogue took another draw at her flask, wiped her mouth, and leaned forward.

"The place of a Jedi Padawan," she began, "is to be in servitude. The greatest component in a Jedi's working is subordination; to the command of the council, the word of your master, and of every knight and master above you, and even of those that you are working to protect. You are to follow orders with little or no question. You are a servant to peace. You are to learn and train, and when you have reached the fullness of your training and are knighted, you, in turn, train others."

She took another drink, then continued in a slightly gentler tone. "But what the Council does not understand is that some cannot live that way; bonded to the will of everyone but their own. They cannot see all that is intended by the Force. Some must learn that on their own. Some must carry out tasks not assigned by a Council member; that cannot be measured in success or failure, but only in its effects on others. Not all paths are clear roads, as the Council wishes. Anakin, do you know why I left the Temple?"

Anakin shook his head. He had wondered about that, but though it best not to ask, in case it turned out she'd been expelled on dishonorable terms. However if she was willing to bring up the subject. He shook his head, and she spoke as if she'd guessed his thoughts. "I wasn't kicked out. Not that most weren't happy to see me go, but I honestly left of my own accord. Even Master Yoda though it best I leave that place. You see, shortly before I was to be knighted was when my master was killed. And soon after her death, I realized my destiny did not lie in the future as a Jedi; to die defending something I couldn't understand or believe in. I became conscious of the fact that there was another fate for me; one that could not be handed me on a crystalline plate. I didn't know what it was, still don't actually, but I do have a feeling that it will soon be fulfilled. Whatever task the Force has for me will soon be carried out."

She turned her head, looking Anakin straight in the eyes now, and smiled. "Maybe it was to give you and others of our kind a break. You're not the only stray Padawan that I've given refuge and counsel to. Maybe that is my fate. To let young Forcelings know that they're not doomed to die for something they can't give their hearts to. Some must seek their own paths.

"And yet, just because I'm telling you this, doesn't mean you have to disregard what your own master tells you. You know that I knew Obi-Wan; we trained together for a while. He was very smart, saw a lot of things others missed. You're lucky to have him. When you go back, you must listen to them. They know what's truly best for you. Especially that Yoda. No one seems to really want to listen to him." She mused on this for a moment, then continued.

"You Anakin. You're strange. I can see why everyone's so nervous around you. You're unreadable. The Force is so strong around you, it acts like a barrier to anyone who would try to see your fate. I think that, it is not yourself that poses a threat to everyone. You are not here to do some great thing. But you are a test for others; a test that I think has been failed. Could the Council resist the temptation of taking on one who, though amazingly powerful, was already well past the accepted age; a boundary they themselves set to prevent problems. The answer was no.

"I can tell that Yoda was right; it was wrong of them to take you and at your age, when you had already formed bonds to another life. You already had a shape, and the Jedi at the Temple are now trying to press your strange shape into their rigid mold. It won't work. You were bound to be great, but not a great Jedi. As long as they keep you in their bondage, you're headed for self-destruction."

Rogue fell silent, her moments of deep wisdom passing. Her eyes clouded again; they had gone suddenly clear when she had been speaking. Her words chilled Anakin. Was he really a slave again? A slave to the Jedi and their rigid ways and laws? Truly, his life on Tatooine hadn't been so good. At times it could be downright bad. But he'd been born there; the Force must have intended him to be there, as he hadn't been born into the life of a Jedi. Maybe this woman was right, it was a mistake to take him here, to train him.

Anakin shook his head. No, that could not be. He was to be the greatest Jedi in the world; he would change the universe. How could he do that as a slave on Tatooine? He couldn't! Anakin thought to himself.

"Come." Rogue rose, her flask was empty now, and she hadn't opened another one. "We've got to get you cleaned up. I'm taking you back to the Temple tomorrow." Anakin looked at her in surprise. "Back? Why?" "You didn't think you were staying here forever did you? I can't take care of you! Your fate is not to waste away with me, oh Chosen One!" she moved into the sleeping room. "Come on, no arguing! You're going back, and you're going back tomorrow!

Alone in his quarters, Obi-Wan celebrated. It was very fortunate that the walls of the Jedi Temple were made specifically to block unwanted noise. His uninhibited carousing would have cause quite a stir outside. But unlike Rogue, Obi-Wan was not drunk on any drink or drug. He was drunk on pure happiness.

It was as though a serious weight had been vaporized off his back in an instant. Anakin was out, having his little vacation. He was safe. He was coming home soon. But for now. . .

"BACK TOMORROW! BACK TOMORROW! I'M FREE AND THEN HE'S BACK TOMORROW!"

Let me assure you, the image is worth a good laugh. Take it.

Anakin wasn't speaking to Rogue. Partly out of anger, partly out of having too much to say to put into words. He stood still while she cleaned him up, rebandaged his hand and remaining wounds from the gang-fight.
Obi-Wan paced the length of the Council Room, unease seeping from every pore in a most un-Jedi-like way. The Council watched him in silence, some with sympathy, some with grim determination. "There is nothing more we can do?" Obi-Wan inquired again, and again, received no more reply than a shake of the head from Mace Windu.

All turned as the doors suddenly opened. For a moment, all was still; then, Obi-Wan bounded forward with a cry. There, on the threshold, stood Rogue Bleidarc; and with her stood his Padawan. Obi-Wan ran to Anakin and picked up the fourteen-year-old happily, ignoring the disapproving frowns from the Council at this outburst of emotion. (Hey, YOU try being responsible for someone called "The Chosen One", losing him, and then having him returned, and not end up crying like a baby!)

The Council members moved forward to question Anakin, and Rogue took the opportunity to make a hasty escape without much hindrance.

She smiled faintly, turned, and headed down the hall. Yet she made it no further than halfway, before a small figure stepped in her path. "Again, Wal-Hali Blaydark returns, again bearing a lost Padawan. Hope, I do, that filled the Chosen One's head with unhelpful thoughts and ideas, you have not." Said Yoda seriously. Rogue smiled. "I did no more than usual, than fate required." Yoda sighed. "Feared this, I did. Unorthodox, your teachings are. Seldom helpful to the Jedi, are they. Wal-Hali, wonder, I do; have yet you found the path the Force has set you? The path often you spoke of." Rogue had to shake her head. "Sir, I do not know. Master Yoda?" "Mmh?" the elderly Jedi looked up at the tall human. "My name is Rogue. Not Wal-Hali. You know I shook that name off with all my connections to the Jedi when I left. So please don't use it, even when I'm forced to return with another one of your lost charges." Yoda nodded knowingly. "Sometimes, not good is it, to shed all things of old. Retain some roots, one must. However, feel I do, that honored your request will be. Feel, I do, that return here again, you will not."

Rogue looked back at Anakin and Obi-Wan. Apparently he was already busy telling them about his adventures. She was glad her home was hidden; if they were to seek her out she'd have to move again. "Tell Anakin not to try to seek me out. Not to come back. We had a good time, but I can't take someone in twice." She requested. Yoda nodded. "He's very strong with the Force, isn't he?" Yoda closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. "In him, the Force is. Very strong. Much pain will it cause him. Destined for greatness, he is." He looked up at her again. "But greatness in what, impossible to say. We must watch him." Rogue shifted her weight. "I have to go now. May the Force be with you, Master Yoda." She turned to leave. "May the Force be with you, Wal-Hali Rogue Blaydark."

Rogue finished the length of the hall, and was gone. At the other end, Anakin suddenly remembered that she had been with him. "She was here just a second ago! Rogue! Rogue, where'd you go!" he ran up and down the hall. "Gone, your friend has. Return she will not. Seek her out, you must not." Yoda said. "But."

"Anakin. I think you should listen to Yoda. You need to go to your quarters. Clean up; change back into your robes. Rest. Have something to eat. Go. Now." Obi-Wan commanded. Anakin hung his head. "I didn't even get to say goodbye." he too, exited. Obi-Wan turned to Yoda. "It was Wal-Hali, wasn't it?" Yoda nodded again. "Indeed. Returned your Padawan, Wal-Hali the Rogue did. Watch him, you must. Allow him to leave, you cannot. But if it is his wish."

Obi-Wan looked deep in thought. "Wal-Hali. She was. she was pretty smart." He admitted. "She should be thanked. But I guess it's thanks enough for her to be left alone." He turned to the Council. "I'll see that he gets cleaned up. Then I'll bring him back if you have any more questions." Obi-Wan Kenobi followed his Padawan out.

From a distance. Rogue viewed the Jedi Temple. She closed her eyes, and let the memories dance through her mind.

>>"Obi-Wan, you're too quiet. You're going to be on the Council some day." She taunted the young Initiate, two years her senior. "But that'll be good. For you."

>>"What's the matter? Wal-Hali? Are you alright?" her master, so gentle, so kind. "A dream. A nightmare. You said Jedi don't have nightmares!" "Yes, but those that come are Force-sent, and can be helpful. Tell me." The cool hand on her cheek, comforting. "It was about you first. You were in a fight, and I couldn't get to you; no one could. Then you. you were killed. Then it changed. It was one of my friends. Obi. He was yelling, then crying. Somebody was fighting him, but he won. But he wasn't happy. Later, he was older, and someone was crying at him. Fire." "Wal-Hali, I would never be in a situation where no one could help me. Still, tomorrow you can tell the Council."

>>"Wal-Hali, I'm sorry about your master." Obi-Wan placed a hand on his friends shoulder. She looked up, and he was surprised to see she had no tears in her eyes. "I told her. I warned her. But she still left me. I couldn't save her." Obi-Wan thought surely she would cry now, but she didn't. "Kenobi, I told you once you'd be on the Council. But you won't. Keep an eye on your Master. He'll be as foolish as mine one day, but it's more important that you stop him. Don't let him kill himself. He's a fool, but a wise fool."

>>"Master Yoda, I've decided." Wal-Hali stood in the darkened Council Room. "Hm? Decided what?" "I will leave. The Temple." Yoda leaned on his gimmer stick. "Leave, will you? And where will you go?" She'd been waiting for that question. "I'm not sure. I don't think I will go far. I can get work here. But I, whatever I do, can no longer be a Jedi. It's not my destiny. The Force does not will me to die in the same manner as my master. There is something I must do. Something that will come later. It will happen as long as I'm near the Temple, but not in it." Yoda nodded, and shuffled closer. "Seen this, I have not. But feel it, I do. Something great waits for you. But not great fame. Not great for all, no. Subtle, the ways of the Force are. Difficult to discern. Yet this decision I feel is best. You will leave."

>>Memories of a hundred little Padawans, lost and found, ran through her head. How many of them had left the Temple and found their destinies? How many had ignored her words, and died pointlessly, without fulfilling fate? Too many. And now Anakin.

Rogue could see it now. The Padawan of Obi-Wan Kenobi would be turned. Millions would die at his hands. But now she understood something new.

The Force had a plan. Each person had a place in it, a job to fill. Yet even if they were forced to avoid it, fate found all in the end. The Force would change to conform to the decisions of its symbiots. And the offspring of its original Chosen would take his place. The wounds done to the universe over so much time of degrading would be undone and healed by him. The universe was old, and its life was going stagnant. Rogue could see so far now. Great war and battles were ahead, a huge struggle with something not of the Force. The Force knew it was coming, and had to prepare its people. So there would be wars to cleanse the rot that pierced deep into the very soul of all. And when all was done, it could be renewed by the second generation. This group was dying out, but the young would rise up out of the ashes of the old. But much destruction of that was loved would ensue before rebirth.

Rogue closed her eyes against the images. She knew. She could see all that was to come. Yet it was not her place to tell. The Force unfolded in her, and she felt all the pain that was coming. Yet she also felt the joy at the end. The stale breezes of Coruscant broke her reverie. "Well, it sure seems hopeless for you all. Yoda, doomed for a stagnant swamp. Obi-Wan, to the blade of the one you teach. All of it's doomed. You'll never see the fruits of your labors." She wrapped her cloak around her and turned away from the tall gleaming tower that had once been her home. "Oh well."

While the universe had a complex destiny in front of it, she had a crate full of B'jork beer.

A short time later, Wal-Hali Rogue Blaydark became one with the Force. And not long after that, she died, leaving behind little more than a broken body, a pile of trash, and a tiny wisp wisdom. All that she had seen came to be, and from another place, she cried and laughed at the sheer futility of it. In the world of the living, her home was ransacked, and her body left in a forgotten apartment in the lowest slums of the city-planet.

Many years later, after the final battles with the Empire, the buildings that held her remains were destroyed by a construction droid under the command of General Wedge Antilles. And such is the way of the Force.

End chapter 3

END TRANSMISSION

Notes: Well, it's done. The one major fanfiction I ever actually finished. Begun in summer/fall of 2003, completed in November that same year, and revised January 2006. I was so much younger, so much more naiive.

It's been interesting to look back, and see how I've changed, and how I haven't. And of course, two new movies and a ton more information has come out since then, not to mention the life experiences I've had. If the person I am now had started writing the story back then, it might have been a whole lot different. (For one thing, Rogue would probably have been male. Luckily, the younger me had fewer problems writing female characters than I do now.)

Of course, the whole time my point when writing this was to get around to the lessons on wisdom. My Anakin is probably more out of character than I realize, but the story isn't for him, it's for you, as the reader, and for me, the writer.

So... I guess that's all. Except for a few more apologies. (Sith never apologize! Oops, guess I need to be re-trained.)

Rogue's other name, Wal-Hali, doesn't seem entirely original either, since I've found a couple Hali's not just in fanfiction but in Star Wars canon as well. Again, blame it on young naiivete. I didn't know it then, so I'm clear. Sorry for the major OOC moment for Obi-Wan. You know you loved it really. I also apologize for all this non-story ranting. I hate reading it in other people's fics, why do I do it myself?

Aaaaaaaaand that's all. Thanks again. R&R or I'll do something evil, like take all the slash in the world away and Force-feed it to homophobes.