The healer dropped easily to the ground, swiping a stray lock of salmon hair behind her ear as she descended.
"Obi?" She said, concern appearing in fine lines between her brows.
His eyelids fluttered.
Force-soothing laced her naturally nurturing touch, tracing the troubled face. "Obi, wake up."
The man, who looked remarkably like the apprentice he had once been, moaned. "H-Hurts."
Bant spared a second to glance at Anakin, standing a small distance behind her, expression caught between worry and brooding. "He's not attempting to lessen the pain." She told the Padawan grimly. "That should be instinctive. Especially for Obi."
It was strange hearing the endearments used toward his Master. Sometimes, Anakin forgot that Obi-Wan had once been young. Seeing the naked visage, free of the masquerade of beard and longer mane, Anakin realized his teacher still was. And it was difficult to accept.
"Maybe he's just groggy." He suggested.
Bant visibly mulled over the theory, then shook her head. "His presence has been muddled. Even when shielding or injured, Obi's always shone brightly in my own Force connection."
Anakin nodded.
The female Knight turned back to her friend. "Obi, I'll help you, if you just open your eyes and let me."
Obi-Wan frowned, wiping blindly at the uncomfortable viscous warmth on his mouth. "Hmpph…Tell h-him it hurts."
Anakin crashed to his knees, shoulder near the much smaller Bant's head. "I'm here, Master." He bowed his body to lean forward, grasping a limp hand. "A-And I know it hurts." His chest ached from sharp, beating guilt.
Bant looked up at him and stroked his shoulder reassuringly. She had no real idea what occurred between them, but she had to encourage steps taken to mend this violent rift.
"Master, please." Anakin urged with trembling strength.
Slowly, fingers returned the pressure.
Anakin grinned briefly. He braced the side of Obi-Wan's face with his free hand. "Master?"
Obi-Wan's bruised lips parted. "Tell h-him."
The blonde-capped apprentice wrinkled his forehead. "Who? Master, I'm---"
"Tell him he w-w-wins." The insistent rasp interrupted. "I give up."
Anakin shook his head, trying to control the sorrow building in his throat. "No. No. Master, don't say that." His fearful eyes flew to Bant, but the Temple physician could only stare down at her lifetime companion. He brought his Master's hand to his chin. "Master, never say that."
Tears gleamed on colorless lashes. "Hurts. E-Everything h-h-hurts."
Bant rose. "I'm calling for the healers. "
Anakin could only nod, the blame and anxiety spread cold throughout him, thickening in his mouth, and trickling from his dark eyes.
Half an hour later found them in a small hospital room, a ceiling fan whirling above at a slow clip.
"The injuries are basically superficial." Bant concluded, eyes narrowed in crisp concentration. Her hand hovered above Obi-Wan's stiff midsection. Bruises mottled the ivory skin and she blinked back tears, forcing herself to remain in healing mode. "I just have to be sure there's no internal damage."
Anakin watched her tenderly probing fingers move up to his Master's neck. "Okay." He said quietly.
Obi-Wan's eyes were half-lidded, watching the ministrations but largely unaware of them, their surface glassy and filmed.
The Padawan took a step backward. I can't….Oh Force what did I do?
Bant stopped to smooth Obi-Wan's hair before pouring over a tray of salves and bandages. "But he still needs something pretty strong to mend the lacerations and contusions." She knew of Anakin's extreme discomfort as she described the consequence of his outburst, but she also knew he couldn't be shielded from it. "I think he should enter a trance before I apply the medicines." Bant turned to the apprentice, her petite features set. "Can you help him?"
Anakin's lips compressed, halting the trembles. "You---want me to put him in a trance?"
Bant laid a roll of gauze aside and clasped his clammy hand. "I know that something negative has gone on between you two. Things were said that you didn't mean. And maybe some that you did.
"But that doesn't change the way you feel in the core of your soul, Ani. You care for your Master. And I know for a fact that Obi-Wan Kenobi loves you more than anyone in this Universe. You depend on one another, even when you disagree."
Anakin studied her face for the tiniest trace of insincerity. Yet, as it always was with Bant, he only found sweet truth. Hesitantly, he allowed himself a tight smile.
Bant fairly beamed at the breakthrough. "You've done some things you regret today. You can help him now, Anakin." She pulled him into an abrupt embrace. Her head rested on his chest for a brief second. "And through this, you can tell him you're sorry."
Anakin accepted the solace of her generosity with tears frozen in his eyes. The oblivious form of his Master was visible over her shoulder.
She relinquished her touch, then wiped a gleam of moisture from his cheek. "He'll apologize too, Ani. He needs time, but Obi-Wan couldn't bear to have this stand."
Anakin nodded at the diminutive physician. "Thank you, Master Eerin."
Bant chuckled. "No need for formalities now, kid. We've been through a lot today." Her hand caressed Obi-Wan's forehead. "And so has he." She added somberly.
Anakin gathered a breath. The heaviness remained inside, but her words made it manageable, for now. "I was wrong to do what I've done. I'll make it up to him." He told her resolutely.
She smiled. "He has faith in you, Ani."
The young Jedi set a chair beside the hospital cot. He curved his hands around Obi-Wan's temples. "I have faith in him." He murmured to himself. Then he closed his eyes.
Bant moved silently forward to ease her friend's lids down, ghosting a kiss across his brow. I have faith in both of you.
I have to.
The link between Anakin and his Master was a plaiting of vibrancy and steady trust, affection and pledged devotion.
Light and dark. Everything that resided in their souls, the deepest, most hidden strands, were meant to be entwined.
There were supposed to be no secrets.
It was the ancient reason for the slender, beaded Padawan braid. As it grew, so matured the bond of the Jedi pair.
Anakin had believed Obi-Wan to be an open, honest Master, for the most part. He concealed only the more intimate facets of his heart, where wounds throbbed and insecurities thrived.
Anakin was well aware. For he possessed the same tendencies.
But this shadowed, muffled presence in the Force was not remotely similar to the bright, pure aura of Obi-Wan.
The apprentice had struggled through the foreign place, moving beyond constrictions that would have hindered him in less desperate situations. For now, he shoved the hesitancies away, galvanizing himself with unwavering intent.
He controlled his shock and sorrow when once-familiar, warm passages were tainted with dark, shaky, cold fear.
Obi-Wan's fear.
Anakin's mind, immersed deeply in his teacher's, trembled. He knew, of course, that Obi-Wan experienced doubt, uncertainty, and even bare, jarring alarm.
But he'd never sensed it in him so strongly, so unmasked.
Anakin risked a tender attempt to reach him. Master?
No actual words were exchanged at the ethereal level, just embodiments of emotion and thought.
The static that answered him was frustrating. He tried again, ribbons of care and love spiraling around the call. Master? I'm here…I'm here to help…
Instantly, pain erupted in Obi-Wan's mind, bursting from every corridor.
Anakin mentally gasped at the powerful onslaught. Remnants of his Master's perspective, images of Anakin's fists hurdling and his legs kicking, flew.
I know..I hurt you…
A whimper replied, and the Padawan was fueled by the weak response, wispy fingers of his Force stroking the confused soul of his mentor. I know it hurts…
I hurt too. He mentioned hastily. But I can make the pain leave you…You just have to let me, Master…
..Leave? Obi-Wan questioned, still distanced from his apprentice.
Yes. It can go away. Anakin detected faint shimmers of his Master surfacing. He thrust the relief from his consciousness, to maintain the intense focus. Just follow me…and then let go…
Obi-Wan's bewildered delight broke through his mind's haze. …follow...
Yes, Master. We've done it before….Healing trance?…
Realization buoyed the heavy, tired Knight. …trance…yess….
No!
Anakin was nearly catapulted from the connection by the sizzling denial. He grasped onto the bond. Master….what are you doing…I'm trying to help…
Another gust buffeted Anakin's mind.
I DON'T NEED HELP. Obi-Wan ground out. You don't want to help… nobody does they just want to take him away… it's all been lies all of it and you know it… don't you know it?
Anakin didn't have time to deliberate a careful approach. Master, there is something wrong inside you. He stressed, stretching out to brush his presence against Obi-Wan's. You're not thinking clearly… You HAVE to let me help you.
YOU have to let me find him!
A maelstrom formed in the ravaged head of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Anakin was helpless to fight it, plummeting away from his Master, and into an icy, black oblivion.
Obi-Wan opened his eyes narrowly, through a smeared haze, and saw the stark white walls and silvery medical equipment of the healing ward.
He smirked, shaking his head.
"I knew it. Nobody helps. They just trick…Dirty tricks." His voice was dangerously quiet…acidic/
Obi-Wan looked down, and discovered tubes digging into his bruised flesh.
"Think they can hold me here? They think they can hold me here?!" He snarled, ripping the i.v. from his wrists without a flinch.
They fell away with dark, stray droplets of blood that splattered across the floor.
He threw the covers aside.
Bant rushed into the room, having stepped into the hall to collect more salve for his wounds. She stopped when she found Anakin slumped in the chair and Obi-Wan unconcerned, fresh blood dripping from his hands.
"Obi?" She questioned carefully. "What are you doing?"
His eyes were barely focused, filmed with tears and ire. "What I should've done from the beginning, you witch."
His melodious accent, that never raised above a calm note, was gruff, heavy…razor sharp.
Bant's breath caught in her chest. "And what's that, Obi-Wan?" In contrast, her words were gentle and even. Her unblinking eyes drifted to the Padawan's unconscious body.
Obi-Wan stood, a grin splitting his face and dark glint in his gaze. "You needn't try to fool me anymore. I know what you all're doing….It's going to end now."
Her trembling, salmon fingers curled. "What is?"
He snorted. "What did I just say? I'm GOING to find him, witch."
She couldn't prevent the pained wince that crossed her concentrated features. How can he say this to me?
Anakin moaned, stirring behind them.
Bant's stomach clenched. What…What would he do to him? "You want to find him, Obi-Wan?" She stared levelly at him. "Go. I won't stop you. I'll make sure no one stops you."
Obi-Wan cocked a brow uncertainly, hand grasping to his head, chin dimpled, appearing sharply young and strangely innocent.
Bant's heart ached. It's not him…It's not him…Obi's inside…Not him… "Just go." She urged.
And he did, in a blur, leaving a gush of cold air in his midst.
Bant flew to Anakin's side.
The boy's head was tipped against the back of the chair. Frightened, broken murmurs were spoken through parted lips.
She touched his high forehead. "Ani…Ani you have to wake up." She called insistently.
"…n-no…Master…" He groaned.
Bant squeezed his arm. "Anakin!"
His eyes opened to bleary, red-washed slits. "Where…Master?"
She helped him sit erect, wild worry frenzied in the lines of her small body. "Ani, are you alright?"
"Mmmmph…Yeah." He gathered a breath and scanned the room.
"He's gone." She told him before he could ask. "I had to let him go. I wasn't sure…He might've hurt you."
Anakin surged to his feet. "Where did he go?"
"I--I don't know." Bant admitted gravely. "But he couldn't have gone far."
The Padawan wiped at his face. "We have to find him. There's something…wrong inside him. I felt it in his mind." He inhaled, forcing himself to repeat the pain. "He pushed me out."
Bant grabbed a syringe and adjacent vial. "If I can take him out with this, he has a chance."
Anakin held her moist eyes with his, nodding.
They barreled into the corridor.
Oh no. Yet another cliffie…..Moohoohaha. Thanks for the replies everyone. It lets me know someone's reading, and hopefully, enjoying. ;) More soon.