A/N: "Accustomed" is primarily and ultimately Obi-Wan/Anakin. The Anakin/Padme will serve a purpose relating to that pairing in the vein of what's often called a 'spanner in the works', or even a whole toolbox.
Chapter Four
Anakin decided the railyard made him uncomfortable. The air was so filthy he felt like it was coating the inside of his throat and lungs with grime. There were layers of ash and rust on every surface, and the sunlight was reduced to a dull red glare by the haze of smog and pollution that hung over the place. The constant hum of heavy machinery reminded him of similar places on Tatooine, and brought up negative associations that made him dislike the place even more.
He eyed the hollow shell of a burnt-out railcar as he walked past it. It sagged on broken axles and chipped wheels, the windows forming a stark black lattice of twisted metal. It was hard to imagine any passengers in it now, or ever.
He struck out towards the building opposite him, keeping half an eye on the scanner in his hand and half on the terrain in front. The ground was a patchwork of bare dirt and gravel large enough to be labelled stones. Steel tracks crisscrossed the yard like the tangled web of a giant spider – Anakin dizzied himself trying to follow one set.
Obi-Wan was somewhere in here, probably in trouble again. Anakin hadn't heard from him for sixteen and a half minutes, and while they'd set twenty as their deadline he was uneasy. It wasn't that he didn't trust Obi-Wan, exactly – he just didn't have any delusions about his Master being infallible. And he'd gotten comfortable with the idea of protecting him, just like he'd protected Anakin during their early years together. He'd outgrown the idea of Obi-Wan as a father figure (although he'd been good at that, too). Now, he more often saw Obi-Wan as a teacher who was almost a partner.
He was also working on getting Obi-Wan to see that they could be lovers, too, but wasn't making much progress. So for the time being, partners would have to do.
And like all partners, Anakin was concerned about his other half's safety, and not just for the success of the mission (although it would be nice to maintain his faultless success rate). As he scaled a metal staircase up the outside of a building, he told himself he'd wait another minute before contact Obi-Wan and casually checking on him. Well, thirty seconds at least.
Screw it.
"Elf to Red Wing. Elf to Red Wing. Come in, Red Wing."
There was silence from the comm unit. Anakin frowned and glanced about him instinctively. He'd ended up in the older, all but abandoned section of the railyard, and the stillness contrasted unsettlingly with noises of activity in the active areas. He was uneasy.
"Yes, Anakin, I'm here. You don't need to keep using those absurd code names, we're not spies."
Anakin let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding, but didn't let on how worried he'd been or how relieved he was now. It wouldn't do to make Obi-Wan think he couldn't control his emotions.
"Are you all right?" he blurted, then wanted to swallow the words back. "I mean, what's your status?"
"I'm fine, Anakin," said Obi-Wan, a distinct reprimand in his voice. "But if you don't learn to stay calm in stressful—"
"I am calm!" Anakin said indignantly and without thinking. Once again his brain caught up with his mouth a moment too late. He missed a step on the staircase and his boot clanged loudly on the rusted metal.
"What was that?"
"Nothing, master," said Anakin, mentally kicking himself. "Just – just took an odd step, that's all."
Politely, Obi-Wan turned the comm unit away, but Anakin could still hear his sigh of exasperation. He counted to three…
"Control yourself, padawan," he said, in perfect time with Obi-Wan and exactly the same tone of voice. There was silence from the comm and Anakin imagined the supremely unamused look on his master's face. He grinned to himself.
"Just continue with your mission, Anakin," said Obi-Wan, and shut off the comm. He never laughed when Anakin teased him – he believed a Jedi should be above such childish and petty amusements, and in accordance with this theme had been getting less tolerant of his padawan's jokes lately. Sometimes Anakin thought Obi-Wan had no sense of humour at all.
When he opened the door at the head of the stairs he found himself in a huge, echoing room filled with giant robots. They weren't of the sleek, aesthetic design favoured in the more cultured areas of Coruscant – some were just arms and claws, others resembled deformed humanoids. All were of a design scheme apparently aimed at giving children nightmares: skeleton ribs, cruel iron jaws and gaping, empty eye sockets were a recurring theme. Naked metal joints, ligaments and pivots of every kind were visible.
If he hadn't been a bold, powerful Jedi, Anakin would have said it gave him the willies.
But there was no power in a dead machine, except what your imagination gave it. He resolved not to let these … constructions … have any power over him.
Obi-Wan would've been proud, Anakin thought, and this helped him feel better.
He cast his eye around the room, making a mental map, before descending the stairs to the floor and venturing across. He kept constant surveillance of the scanner, but it wasn't one hundred percent reliable. He might see the hoard of blue zone before the device sensed it – the crystallised powder, an extremely expensive and powerful adrenal drug, possessed a strong ultramarine glow, hence its street name. If its container wasn't properly sealed, some light always escaped.
Anakin kept his eyes peeled as he grid-searched the room, but didn't spot so much as a hint of blue glow. His scanner was unresponsive, only twitching at a deposit of mildly radioactive irellia shavings that interfered with its functions, so he judged it a miss and headed for the door.
As his hand touched the lever, a ripple in the Force warned him. He ducked and rolled sideways just in time to avoid a pair of slug bullets.
Reacting on instinct, he made for the nearest cover – a robot seemingly designed as a cross between a cockroach and octopus. It looked sturdy enough to buy him a few minutes. He kept his head low as he shuffled along, trying to shield himself as much as possible and guess the origin of the slugs based on their trajectory. He wasn't eager to tackle them with his lightsaber if he could help it – those kinds of slugs reacted nastily if they came into contact with energy swords.
There was a pause in the firing. Anakin strained his ears in the sudden silence; he thought he heard something move … light, quick … on two legs … not much noise of fabric…
A voice called out, high and wispy but clearly audible in the vast workshop. "Human! Don't bother fighting, I've got you covered. Hand over the blue zone and I won't kill you!"
Anakin paused. A dozen thoughts raced through his mind, only half-formed due to their speed. They thought … but weren't they the ones … who else knew it was here? He cleared his throat. "Why should I trust you?" he yelled back, stalling for time.
He heard muttered curses in a language full of hissing, and there was a moment's silence before his attacker spoke. "I don't care about you, I just want the blue zone."
"That's no reason for me to believe you," Anakin called back. He concentrated on the thoughts he sensed from the other person – they felt cold somehow, almost reptilian, and he got the impression his attacker was androgynous, but tending towards female. It, or rather she was impatient and edgy. She didn't want to kill him, but was anxious to complete her assignment and go – home? Back to base?
"I promise," she said grudgingly, "not to kill you. I swear by … by the Horns of the Great Progenitor. Now hand over the damn blue zone!"
Anakin was silent for a moment in surprise. The religion of Iguennakan, the Great Progenitor, was an obscure sect from the far western arm of the Republic – it originated from a planet near the Obsidian Oort Cloud, if he remembered right. But he couldn't recall which planet, or what races lived there, and couldn't use the knowledge to decipher his attacker's identity.
Obi-Wan would know. Anakin turned on his comm unit, but a round of slug bullets greeted the buzz of its activation.
"No comm!" his assailant screeched, pronounced hissing and an unfamiliar accent in her voice. "Just hand over the blue zone and go! I mean it, human … I said no comm!" she screamed as Anakin tried again, and unloaded another round of slugs into his shelter.
Anakin swore and clapped his hand to his mouth. An angry red welt was forming on his wrist – it had been pressed against the robot's shell when the heated slugs hit, and the metal nearly melted through. Anakin attempted to push the pain away, rise above it using the Force, but wasn't entirely successful.
Anakin, are you all right? I'm sensing that you're in pain.
Obi-Wan! Startled that their master-padawan bond was strong enough for Obi-Wan to sense physical pain from such a distance, Anakin was a moment transmitting his reply. I'm – well, I guess I'm fine.
Obi-Wan's thoughts clearly conveyed his doubt. You 'guess' you're 'fine'? Somehow I get the feeling I should probably drop in.
No, no, I can handle it. Everything's under control, Anakin lied.
Nice try, padawan. Where are you?
Anakin grumbled to himself about interfering busybody Jedi masters for a minute before grudgingly sending his location. The connection closed with Obi-Wan promising a swift arrival, and Anakin was back with the mystery attacker.
"Well?" she demanded, and Anakin sensed she was getting stressed. "Hurry up! I'm not interested in shooting you, so just cough up the blue zone already!"
"I don't think so," Anakin replied. He cast himself in the character of a search-and-retrieve hunter like his assailant seemed to be. "My boss'll be really pissed if I come back without it. He'll probably break so many bones I'll be in traction for the rest of my life!"
"Hah!" she snorted without mirth. "That's nothing! Ever hear of the Slave's Smile? They cut all the ligaments in your body, starting with the ones on your jaw so you can't talk or scream in agony. That's why it's called the Slave's Smile, cos slaves aren't supposed to speak, just obey." She seemed to shudder at the thought. "That's what's waiting for me if I fail. Traction? That's kid's stuff!" She made a noise somewhere between a hiss and a rattle, which clearly expressed disdain.
"That sounds painful," Anakin said. He was twitching involuntarily just thinking about it.
"Not as painful as what I'll do to you if you don't hand over the blue zone!" she snarled. "Get a move on, human! Just open the frigging trapdoor!"
Trapdoor? Anakin thought. I didn't see any trapdoor… "How do you know it's in the cellar?" he shouted across the room, trying to bluff.
"What do you think I am, stupid?" she snapped. "I saw them covering it up with irellia shavings so the radioactive field would confuse everyone's scanners. I won't go near it myself, but you don't get a choice!" She punctuated the threat with another round from her slug gun.
Anakin hadn't flinched at the warning, as he was going over his mental map of the room and reviewing what he remembered of the box in question. Yes, he decided, it'd be possible to hide blue zone under there – most scanners sensitive to the drug would also react to the radioactive field generated by the irellia shavings. And most people wouldn't think to dig deeper for an alternative source to the easily-explained behaviour of their equipment. Anakin Skywalker, you're six kinds of idiot.
"But if I rummage around in irellia shavings I'll get radiation poisoning!" he protested in character, still thinking furiously.
"Hey, if you do it quickly you'll probably survive. Not that it makes any difference. Look at it this way – you do it, and risk feeling a bit sick, or you don't do it, and I shoot you. Your call."
"I have a third option," said a familiar voice, and there was the sizzle and hum of a lightsaber being activated. "I disarm you…" Anakin's attacker gave a shriek, and there was the sound of a gun – or two halves of a gun – falling to the floor. "…And you kindly answer a few questions for us."
Grinning, Anakin leapt to his feet and ran out from behind his robot shield. He just about flew across the room while Obi-Wan put handcuffs on the attacker, and took the stairs three at a time.
"Good timing, Master," he said, stopping beside him. Out of the corner of his eye he noted that his assailant, although humanoid, more closely resembled a lizard, with silver-grey scales and narrow, slit-like pupils. However, most of his attention was on Obi-Wan.
"You would have been fine," said his master. He seemed to almost disapprove of Anakin's levity, given the situation.
"Really? Then why did you come to help?"
"Because you sounded like you were in real trouble." Obi-Wan cast him a stern look and Anakin hastily reclaimed the hand he'd placed in the small of his master's back. "But you weren't, and now our search has been delayed." He didn't need to say he was annoyed – the set of his shoulders and the tone of his thoughts informed Anakin of this fact unequivocally.
He rallied his composure. "Oh, I don't think that'll be a problem," Anakin said reassuringly. "You know I haven't failed a mission yet."
Obi-Wan scrutinised him. They were exactly the same height, and although six-point-two centimetres separated their bodies (Anakin was very good at visual measurements) their faces seemed much closer together. Anakin felt random parts of his body and mind turn to mist and float away.
His master, however, seemed to be immune. "All right, where are they?" he asked, deadpan.
Vaguely annoyed, Anakin pointed. From this angle they could all clearly see the robust wooden freight box containing the irellia shavings, with its painted-on arrow pointing downwards to the trapdoor and the blue zone beneath.
Obi-Wan nodded as if it were obvious, and took out and activated his comm unit. "Master Kaleide?"
Anakin could hear the reply, slightly distorted but understandable. "Yes, Kenobi? What do you have to report?"
"The blue zone is in a warehouse on the older side of the railyard."
"Well done," said the Jedi who'd given them the mission to find the blue zone. "Send your location, please."
"Sending location now." Obi-Wan tapped a few keys on the unit and waited for the signal to be sent. He seemed to have forgotten he had company; Anakin and his attacker both waited silently, despite being responsible for the mission's success and a captive, respectively.
"Location confirmed," came the master's voice. "Anything else?"
"It's in the warehouse cellar, under a box of irellia shavings," said Obi-Wan. Rather than sounding like he'd just remembered, he gave the impression of having known all along that Master Kaleide would ask that exact question. Sometimes Anakin thought his master was the wisest and most powerful Jedi in the galaxy. Sometimes.
When he was ignoring Anakin's achievements and hard work, such beliefs were less inclined to suggest themselves.
"Right. We'll tell the retrieval crew. They should be there in about twenty minutes, I guess." There was a sound from the comm that suggested Master Kaleide was shuffling bits of paper. "Wait for them in your current location. Is Padawan Skywalker with you?"
"Yes, he's here." Obi-Wan didn't so much as glance around. Anakin privately thought he could have wandered off and gone exploring (or stripped off and danced a jig) and Obi-Wan wouldn't notice – his master had rare moments where his vaunted observation skills went right out the window. Such as not noticing, or maybe just not acknowledging, the inevitability of falling in love with Anakin Skywalker.
"Post him outside your building so the retrieval crew will see him," said Master Kaleide.
"Should I take a couple of signal flares?" Anakin muttered under his breath.
"We have a captive, too," Obi-Wan was saying into the comm, and either didn't hear him or ignored him. "A Demascan cornered Anakin. She was armed with a slug gun and had also been assigned to retrieve the blue zone."
"Understood," said Master Kaleide, and Anakin wondered if he was imagining the hint of disapproval in his voice. He wished Obi-Wan hadn't phrased it like that. Getting cornered by a mere slug gun wasn't the most impressive thing a Jedi could do.
Obi-Wan deactivated the comm and turned to Anakin. "Did you hear that?"
"Yes." Anakin was satisfied with how neutral his voice came out.
"I think the north side of the building would be best." Then, as Anakin turned to leave, he added, "Good work, Anakin."
He only paused for a moment. Without looking, he said, "Thankyou, master," and kept walking. Too little, too late.
