Fade Away

He felt the chill of the cold, cell floor and the burning of the ropes around his wrists as he moved around trying to loosen the blind fold over his eyes.

"...Where am I?" he spoke in a raspy, horse voice.

He heard footsteps coming toward him, echoing off the walls of the empty room.

"Hello?" he asked, his voice slowly getting back to normal.

The blind fold slipped off of his eyes and fell to the floor before him. He looked up to see a tall, dark-haired man standing above him.

"Maddik, my name is Obi-Wan Kenobi," the man spoke while untying the boy's ropes, "I'm here to help you..."

The young boy's bright blue eyes lit up with hope as he stood, finally rid of his restraints, but stopped as he saw the man's weapon.

"You're a...Jedi?" the boy asked in awe.

"Yes, now Maddik, listen to me," Obi-Wan replied with a serious look, taking the young boy by the shoulders, "I need you to stay with me and keep quiet. It is very dangerous here and we have to hurry..."

Maddik's face turned serious too and with a nod the two rushed off. Obi-Wan peeked around the corner and started around it as he saw it was empty, but as he stepped into the open he was met with about a dozen droids.

"Stay behind me," Obi-Wan instructed, using the force to knock two advancing droids into the wall before pulling out his lightsaber.

"Come on, Anakin," he whispered to himself, "Where are you?"

Maddik watched in awe as Obi-Wan fought gracefully against the droids that stood in their way of freedom. As the droids began to slowly get past the Jedi master, he instructed Maddik to hide in a shaft nearby. He sat in the narrow space watching the battle before him as more and more droids came, but he was not afraid...he was hardly ever afraid...except for the day his parents died.

Just then, a figure fell from a hole above them and back-to-back, the two Jedi fought, achieving victory quickly through working together. Obi-Wan raced over to Maddik and pulled him out.

"Are you alright?" he asked, resting a hand on the boy's shoulder.

Maddik nodded as they were joined by a younger-looking Jedi Knight, or at least who Maddik thought was a Jedi.

"Anakin, this is Maddik Haruko," Obi-Wan introduced the small, blue-eyed boy, "Maddik, this is my apprentice, Anakin Skywalker."

Anakin bowed slightly to Maddik, who quickly returned the jesture.

"We'd better go or we'll be facing more than droids soon," Anakin turned to Obi-Wan, who nodded and started off down the hall.

"Master, might we take the easier route?" Anakin asked pointing up at the hole above.

"How will we manage to get up there?" Obi-Wan asked as if scolding him.

Anakin's hands went into his robes and he pulled out a cord with a hook at the end. With a grin at Obi-Wan's look of defeat, Anakin tossed the hooked end of the cord up through the hole and tugged as it tightened. Once it was deamed secure, he climbed up the chord through the hole, followed by Maddik, who he helped through, then Obi-Wan. Just as the three were safely in the room where all the spacecrafts landed, including the one Anakin had arrived in, they heard the footsteps of more droids coming. Obi-Wan and Maddik started toward the ship but Obi-Wan stopped when he noticed Anakin still stood at the hole, shooting at the droids.

"Anakin," Obi-Wan called, "There's no time."

Anakin nodded and they ran onto the ship, closing the ramp just in time to block on-coming bullets and the ship was off, soon to reach a much safer place...for now at least.

The three had arrived only for Maddik to be immediately asked to be taken before the council.

"Where am I going?" the small boy asked as they walked down a long hallway with many windows that made Maddik uneasy for some reason.

"You will be taken before the council..." Obi-Wan, who walked alongside him began, "They will determine weather or not you will be trained as a Jedi..."

"Will you be with me?" Maddik only asked a lot of questions when he felt nervous.

"Yes, for the most part," Obi-Wan answered, looking down at him.

A small smile formed on Obi-Wan's face at the sight of him. He had a scared look on his face when he was simply to be placed before the council that hadn't been there when kidnapped and faced with a battle against droids. The Jedi let out a small laugh at this thought and smiled the whole way there.

Meanwhile, Anakin entered the only place where he and Padme could be together. He saw her standing in the center of the beautiful room and ran over, throwing his arms around her and spinning her around.

"I missed you..." he said in a whisper and the two kissed passionately.

They sat down on the couch as Anakin told her of his journey and the boy they had brought back with them.

"Why did the council and Obi-Wan want the boy?" Padme asked after the whole story had been told.

"I don't know, but there's gotta be something special about him or they wouldn't have bothered," Anakin replied, a thoughtful look on his face.

Obi-Wan and Maddik stood before in the center of a room, surrounded by many Jedi masters that made up the council.

"We have trained one older than him before..." Obi-Wan was trying to sway the council toward letting Maddik be trained, "And Anakin has done very well...he has saved my life many times."

"Who would you get to train this..." Windu asked from one of the seats.

"...Maddik, and I'll train him," Obi-Wan replied simply.

"An apprentice you already have," Yoda added, sitting indian style in a seat near Windu.

"There is nothing more I can teach young Skywalker," Obi-Wan took a step forward, "and I feel that keeping him under my supervision is holding him back..."

"The council will discuss this issue and get back to you with our decision," Windu said as he stood.

"Windu, you know you have to allow me to train him-"

"Master Kanobi," Windu cut him off, "We are finished here."

Obi-Wan bowed after a moment's hesitation and left in a particularly worse mood than when he entered.

"So we just wait?" Maddik asked, walking quickly at his side to keep up.

"Looks like..." he replied in aggrivation.