Chapter 25 A Bold Move

"I'm sorry, Master Kenobi, but I can't find any medical reason for this headache of yours." Declan said.

"Well, that's just great, Declan; are you saying that he's imagining this?" Anakin asked sarcastically.

"No, Anakin; I just can't find anything wrong." Declan answered. "I can sense the pain, but I can't find the source….Anakin…"

"What?" Anakin asked and then knew 'what'. "Oh, no; not that again."

"Try it, Anakin; I'm at a loss here. It certainly isn't going to hurt him." Declan urged.

"I don't think…" Anakin started.

"I do; you can't do any harm and it just might help." Declan continued to push.

"Obi-Wan?" Anakin asked.

"Go ahead, Anakin; I'm about ready to rip my eyes out." Obi-Wan replied. "Even if you can only find out what's causing it, I can fix it myself."

"You're more Force sensitive than me, Anakin; maybe you can find what I could not. Just try, please." Declan said.

Anakin sighed; it was two against one, and he felt as if he were backed into a corner. He had no desire to see Obi-Wan suffer any more than he already had; Anakin had no choice, "Alright; I guess it can't hurt." He finally relented.

He took a centering breath, closed his eyes, rubbed his hands together and placed his real hand on the back of Obi-Wan's neck. The feeling of pain came through almost immediately, hitting him like a wave and nearly causing to fall forward, "How can you stand this, Obi-Wan?" He asked, amazed that his friend could still manage to function.

"Do I have a choice?" Obi-Wan asked in reply.

Anakin smiled; a typical Obi-Wan response, he thought. He went deeper, letting the Force course through him and diving into the center of Obi-Wan's pain tracking it to its center, its source….

"Ah, here it is; Zak was right, Obi-Wan, it's your Dark Jedi friend." Anakin announced.

"What? No, it can't be; I would have felt that." Obi-Wan refuted.

"He must be cloaking himself from you. Palpatine could do that too; remember?" Anakin answered.

"Why would he want to hide from me? That makes no sense." Obi-Wan wondered.

"I don't know…uh oh…." Anakin said suddenly. "Oh no, no, no, no."

"No? No what, Anakin? What is it?" Obi-Wan asked, concerned.

"He wants Zak; that's what this was all about. He never masked himself from Zak." Anakin replied.

"But what does he want with him?" Obi-Wan wondered, "That doesn't make sense either."

"I'm in his mind, Obi-Wan; he wants to use Zak to get to you. He's going to kill him right in front of you." Anakin explained. "He's using your pain to lure Zak to him."

"How is this going to…oh….Anakin, we have to stop Zak." Obi-Wan said. "We have to stop him before he leaves the Temple."

"I'll stop him; in a moment. First I need to show you where this Dark Jedi is hiding so that you can get rid of him." Anakin replied.

"You don't have…"

"It will only take a moment; just open up to me and I can show you." Anakin insisted.

Obi-Wan said nothing and breathed deeply, opening up completely and allowing Anakin's Force strength to blend with his until they were one and the same, "That's it; you can feel him now, can't you." Anakin said.

"Yes…yes, there; I have him. Now, go stop Zak from doing something foolish; I will be right behind you." Obi-Wan replied.

Anakin raced down the corridor towards the Padawan wing. Trying as he ran to make contact with Zak without success. He reached out in search of the Dark Jedi and could not find him either; he was cloaking himself this time against Anakin. When he reached Zak's quarters, he burst in, hoping that he was not too late.

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He waited now, on the walkway around the corner from the Temple. He did not want to come too close, and yet he wanted the boy to be able to find him quickly. Skywalker knew what he was planning now; timing was critical. He must take the boy before Skywalker could stop him. Oh, he would enjoy killing that meddling fool; again, he was trying to ruin his plan. Skywalker had found him and Kenobi had vanquished him easily. If the boy found that out, he would not come. He reached out to the boy and enveloped him in Darkness. No one would find him now, not until it was too late.

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Zak walked purposefully to the main entrance to the Temple. He still did not trust this Dark presence, but he feared for his master and could not think of what else to do. He tried to connect with Master Obi-Wan, and could only feel the Dark presence. It seemed to surround him preventing him from reaching out for help. The intensity of the Darkness hit him the moment he stepped out of the Temple, binding him and pulling him towards the Dark presence he had felt in his mind. He tried to return to the safety of the Temple, however, he felt as if he were caught in a tractor beam; too late, he realized that he would be used in a deadly game. He saw his own death, witnessed by his master. With more strength than he knew he possessed, he reached out one last time in a desperate attempt to reach….

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Once Anakin had shown him where the Dark Jedi was hiding, Obi-Wan had only a brief struggle before he managed to push him away. He understood enough of this presence to control him and was easily able to overcome the Darkness of his hate and anger. With the presence gone, the painful headache disappeared and he lost no time getting to Zak's quarters soon after Anakin. They were too late; Zak was gone. Obi-Wan reached out trying to connect with his young Padawan, however, although he could feel him, he could not touch him; Zak was surrounded by Darkness. Obi-Wan's heart sank; his unknown enemy, the Dark Jedi had his apprentice, "We're too late, Anakin. He has him." Obi-Wan said sadly.

"I'm sorry, Obi-Wan; I just wasn't fast enough." Anakin told him. "I should have come down here right away. This is my fault, I should not have waited."

"I think he was already gone by the time you figured out what was happening. This is not your fault; I should have listened to him from the start. If it's anyone's fault it's mine." Obi-Wan replied. "Right now, though, we must try to find him before this Dark Jedi hurts him."

"Then we should go where he went; at least it would be a start." Anakin suggested.

"Agreed." Obi-Wan said, and together, they set off at Jedi speed to the main entrance.

Halfway there, Obi-Wan suddenly pulled up short. It took Anakin a minute before he realized he had left Obi-Wan behind, and by that time, he was nearly to the entrance. He turned to see where he had lost his friend and spotted him, standing still far down the corridor.

"Obi-Wan?" He called out. "What is it? The headache again?"

That seemed to shake Obi-Wan back to reality and he moved quickly to meet Anakin at the entrance, "It was Zak, Anakin. He was trying to warn us. He knows this is a trap; and he knows this enemy of mine is going to kill him." He told Anakin, grimly. "And, Anakin, he is not afraid."

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Zak tried to fight the pull of the Dark one, but he was not strong enough. For one brief moment, he thought he had felt a connection with his master. He hoped that Master Obi-Wan had heard his warning. If he was going to die, better that his master did not join him. Again, he tried to free himself from the will of this enemy without success. Then he saw him, standing on the walkway, smiling at him, "Ah, there you are; I knew you would come. Now we can start this little game; I think you will enjoy it." He said. "Come on, Zak; just a little farther."

"NO! I…won't….you…won't…" Zak replied, fighting to get every word out.

"Oh, Zak; you cannot fight me. I am a master at this. Your puny little Force strength is no match for mine." He told him.

Zak fought every step of the way, but was still unable to break the hold on him. With great effort, he managed to turn his head just in time to catch a glimpse of his master and Master Anakin before the Dark Jedi grabbed him by the arm and dragged him into a waiting speeder. He had lost….for now.

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Obi-Wan could only watch helplessly as the vehicle sped away taking his apprentice with it. They had come so close, only to miss him by a matter of seconds.

"No." He whispered as he clutched his injured arm. "NO, NO, NO!"

"Obi-Wan, come on; there's nothing we can do right now; not yet. We have to find out who he is and why he hates you this much." Anakin said as he grasped Obi-Wan's shoulder. "Come on back inside."

"I was supposed to protect him. He's my Padawan; I let this happen, Anakin." Obi-Wan told him.

"You can't do this, Obi-Wan. You're always telling me to be calm; now I'm telling you. If we find out who this guy is, then we can find a way to beat him. Don't let him win, Obi-Wan." Anakin replied, gripping Obi-Wan's shoulder tightly.

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He was elated; at last, things were going his way. But the boy was fighting again, he would have to put a stop to that; he slammed Zak's head into the side window of the speeder. There, that would keep him quiet until he could get back to his sanctuary. He piloted the speeder into the industrial section of Coruscant and put it down inside one of the abandoned warehouses. He opened the canopy of the speeder, got out, pulled his unconscious hostage out after him and carried him over to what had once been the office. He laid him face down on the floor, tied his hands behind his back and then moved to tie his ankles together. The boy was now his and it would be up to Kenobi to make the next move.

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There were several of them in the Hall of Archives, poring over every file trying to find a clue, any clue to who had taken Obi-Wan's apprentice. Even Jocasta Nu had stationed herself at one of the terminals.

"Wait a minute." Mace announced.

Immediately, Obi-Wan, Anakin and several of others gathered around Mace's terminal, "Look at this." He said.

Obi-Wan scanned the information in the file, "When did this happen?" He asked.

"About fifteen years ago." Mace said.

"No wonder he was so persistent about my decision to let Zak come with me on Champala." Anakin observed. "He must have been thinking about what happened to his own son."

"So, that means he was behind the restating of Order 66." Mace said.

"Yes, he wanted to kill the Knights to protect the younglings and the Padawans from them." Anakin pointed out. "That's why Zak wasn't targeted, he altered Order 66 to exclude them."

"Well, that still doesn't explain why Zak was kidnapped; he had no reason to do that." Obi-Wan said.

"Besides, the hatred that I felt was more personal; whoever has Zak hates me specifically."

"Then I'll just bet dinner at Dex's that the Dark Jedi who took Zak was probably working for Borlac; maybe that Clone's order to kill you came from him and not Borlac at all. So the Chancellor could have been Borlac's target, but not this rogue's." Anakin speculated.

"So, if we confront Borlac with this, maybe he will give up this hireling of his." Mace added.

"Yes; but Borlac may just deny the whole thing; that he held no grudge against the Jedi for what happened in the past." Obi-Wan suggested. "After all, we really have no proof other than our own instincts."

"Then we'll just have to find some." The old librarian stated firmly.

"We don't have time." Obi-Wan said.

"Obi-Wan, the hate and anger that I sensed was old; whatever happened between the two of you must have happened when you were younglings. Is there anything you can remember that happened back then?" Anakin asked.

Obi-Wan pulled one of the chairs up and sat down; he put his hand to his chin, stroked his beard and furrowed his brow in concentration, "Yes, but it happened so long ago, I had all but forgotten it." He said after a moment.