Anakin burst into the apartment, cheeks flushed from exertion. "Master?" The apartment was dim and motionless. But his mentor's muffled presence was fairly evident…not the soft incandescence, so bright and comforting…a candle's flame weakening by an unseen gale.
"Master!" He trotted down the hallway, past framed holos of happier times and solemn milestones. Anakin stopped at the strip of yellow light where the lavatory door met the tan carpet. He laid a wide hand on the steel barrier between them. "Master, are you alright?"
There was no response, save the quiet sound of fast, sharp clips.
Anakin's brow furrowed. "Master, what's going on?" When he wasn't offered an explanation, he sighed heavily and stared unseeing at the ceiling. "Master, please. You can tell me."
A pause, then the odd snipping continued.
Anakin compressed his lips in frustration. His face, smeared and misshapen, was reflected by the door's silvery surface. He looked away. "Master, I'm worried. Just let me in."
Obi-Wan uttered an annoyed grunt. "I'm not required to acquiesce to any demand of yours, Padawan." He reminded the boy caustically. "Now, leave. Me. Alone."
Anakin took a step back, hurt going sharp into his chest. "NO!"
The cutting was hastier, louder. "DAMN YOU, Anakin! Get the hell away before I'm forced to move you!" He rumbled.
Anakin crossed his arms. "Then force me!"
There was a clatter and resounding slam, then Obi-Wan shoved the door open manually.
Anakin gasped. A hand clamped over his mouth.
The hair that had always rested at the base of Obi-Wan's neck, gleaming auburn and golden and ginger all at once, was raggedly shorn into a riot of spikes, all of differing lengths. His beard had been shaved completely off; small drops of blood seeped from the nicks.
"Master…" He breathed. With the formal mane and facial hair cut away, a striking, almost tender youth was revealed in Obi-Wan Kenobi.
His face was more boyishly round, eyes vibrant and vulnerable.
He didn't appear to be a seasoned and weathered Jedi Knight.
He looked like the worried Padawan crouched beside his sweating Master on the starship floor, with the dimpled chin and smooth cheeks.
Anakin's eyes widened. He looks like a Padawan. "Master…" He started cautiously. "What have you done?"
"The question is, what have you been doing, Anakin?" Obi-Wan countered, acid dripping from his fierce tone.
Anakin swallowed. "What do you mean?" Oh force, he looks barely older than me!
Obi-Wan chuckled. "I think you know, Ani." He mocked bitterly. "You talked to Bant."
His eyes darted from his teacher's painfully open face. "Of course I did."
"What'd she say?"
"Why should I have to tell you anything? You won't be honest with me! You won't tell me anything!" He screamed.
Obi-Wan wasn't shaken. He only blinked. "I don't have to tell you anything. I am the Master here." He tried to barrel past him, but strong hands pushed him backward.
The ice was melted by crackling fire in Obi-Wan's eyes. They were a dismal, cloudy gray…streaked with tears. "Get out of my way." He demanded in a low, dangerous tone.
"No!" Anakin snapped. "You could have hurt Bant! Why?" He grasped Obi-Wan's shoulders tightly. "Why would you try to hurt your friend?!"
Obi-Wan's eyes bore into him, without the least bit of intimidation. "I don't care who it is…If they stand in the way of finding him, I will do whatever it takes." He swore vehemently.
Anakin grit his teeth. "WHO?! Who are you talking about?!"
The fist that smashed into his face didn't offer an answer.
Pain erupted in Anakin's nose as he was thrown back, slapping onto the floor.
He lay there for a few stunned seconds, squeezing his eyes shut, water rolling down his cheeks.
And the pause was all Obi-Wan needed to launch on top of him, a flurry of limbs, snarling, raw strength potent in the hands hurdling at his apprentice's prone body.
"Master…" Anakin panted, hot burgundy spattered on his skin. "Please…"
But, as he saw the unbridled rage in the man's eyes, felt the dead presence in the Force where luminosity once lived, Anakin realized his Master was gone.
Smothered by…whatever demon had ripped control from Obi-Wan, who held the gentle heart and quiet, reserved nature hostage…who filled this powerful body with savage bloodlust.
Fingers wrapped tightly around his neck.
Anakin instinctively clutched at them, eyes wide. "No…" He gasped.
Obi-Wan straddled him as he wrestled the reddening column with gritted teeth. His vision was a gray smear, but he didn't need clarity to accomplish what he sought. He could hear the struggle of breath and dry chokes.
Yessss…You'll be free…You can find him…Just a little more…
The whispers rasped in his head, swarming his mind, and the pleading voice of his Padawan began to fade in the drowning onslaught…
Anakin tried to Force-push Obi-Wan off, but there was a thick block erected around the Knight, and he couldn't manage a defense. Slowly, his arms, that had shoved desperately at his attacker, fell.
As darkness encroached on him, the boy looked up with trembling disbelief, lips splotching with dark blue…
Yesss… Obi-Wan grinned, freshly shorn hair falling into his face, sweat gleaming on his honeyed temple. Yessss…Yessss…
NO.
That was different from the wispy, shadowed tones that crowded his thoughts.
This was a rich, warm inflection that spoke to his soul. Familiar. Caring.
Obi-Wan hesitated, hands loosening, eyes filmed with fresh tears. "Master?" He called softly.
Anakin coughed. He carefully lifted his head and found the man, so painfully young with his open, glowing face, staring ahead.
He knew his chance had come. With a grating cry, he catapulted Obi-Wan off his chest, rolling to his stomach and grabbing weakly at his bruised throat.
He leapt to his feet before he recovered fully, to continue the fight before his teacher could.
But Obi-Wan was sprawled on the floor, as if he had yet to register the rough offense.
Anakin wiped at his dripping lip. Breathing heavily, he took cautious steps forward.
Obi-Wan was expressionless, legs and arms limp, head turned away.
Anakin remembered the vacancy of this same face, shards of porcelain scattered at his feet, pallor bleached.
"Master…?"
The acrid words muttered at the Dining Hall, meant to hurt…succeeding…
The detached aura only minutes before…
The way he always shut himself away to purge his sorrows while Anakin wondered what he had done to cause his Master's tortured, muffled sobs…
The plea to Qui-Gon, to comprehend the danger of a small slave boy…
Who wanted nothing but to become a Jedi…
Who deserved Qui-Gon's tutelage…
Who had to settle with someone who was a naïve child himself…
"I HATE YOU!" Anakin screamed, stalking quickly forward and hauling the dazed man up, gripping handfuls of tunic.
Obi-Wan's head dipped back, his eyelids pulsing as they descended.
"IHATEYOUIHATEYOUIHATEYOU!!!!!" Anakin buffeted the vulnerable, lax form with his fists, kicking when his mentor collapsed, the anger a red haze overtaking him.
So immersed in the frantic violence, he didn't notice Bant slip into the room…
Or the hand that pressed to his forehead, sending a suggestion that sent him toppling over into oblivion.
Bant fell to Obi-Wan's side, gasping his name.
His eyes were closed, and his mouth hung open, a row of white peeking out from cracked lips.
Where, she saw with dawning horror, a thin stream of blood was sliding down to outline the chin and pool in the small cleft.
"Obi…" Bant reached out with tentative, healer hands and turned his head to the side. A cloud of light red stained his cheekbone and colored his smooth jaw line.
"Oh…stars." She inhaled, pale eyes wide and confused. The Mon Calamarian touched the shorn, gleaming hair. Without the longer drape concealing his round, boyish temple and beard stealing the youthful tinges of his face, her friend looked like the amiable, eager, sweet Padawan he once was.
Bant swallowed, shaking her head. "No….Obi…What's happening to you?" Darkening contusions and fresh, burning blood littered his body. Places where…Anakin had….
"Ani." She whispered, glancing over her small shoulder to see the apprentice stirring weakly. Already? Huffing, the Knight stood and moved to Anakin.
The boy blinked, a spray of blood over his eyes, hand going to his head. "Ow…"
Bant crossed her arms, trying to appear authoritative, while inside she was as frightened as a child. "I didn't whack you over the head, Ani. You're fine." She leveled her gaze. "Now get up."
He was quick to obey.
"I want you to explain what happened here. I want to know why I found you beating your Master, Padawan Skywalker." Bant told him calmly, a coolness to her feminine voice that was totally uncharacteristic…and therefor, all the more disconcerting.
Anakin dropped his eyes from her questioning face, and saw his Master on the floor, dead asleep. Their bond, of course, remained just as unresponsive. The bruises and deep slashes of blood turned his stomach.
"I checked him. His injuries are minor." She informed him with an almost detached air.
And he couldn't help but rip his focus from the scene, look to Bant once more. His lips quivered. "He---He punched me, Master."
Bant's hand went to her heart with a desolate sound. "Force, Ani. Why?"
He touched lightly on his sore nose and winced. "He wanted to know if I had talked to you…after…."
She sealed her eyes briefly, as the pain and controlled anger passed through her. "Yes." Hesitantly, Bant squeezed his arm. "Go on."
Anakin wiped a smear of burgundy from his cheek. "I told him I had, and he just…went crazy. He wasn't making any sense and then he…punched me."
Bant swallowed the rising lump of apprehension in her throat. "You fought?"
Anakin's eyes trailed off a moment, then he nodded. "Yeah."
"I see." She said. "But Ani, that doesn't explain the shouting I heard."
He opened his mouth to reply, but Obi-Wan began to rouse behind them.
Secretly, Anakin was relieved.