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A Shift in the Force: Chapter Sixteen: Tensions on Anobis
AN: Let part two of A Shift in the Force begin! So…I could make an attempt to follow the Jedi Quest series, but I figured why not make it a bit more fun and make it up as I go?
Yes: Talik will be training in Jar'Kai, she and Sabé will be a famous pair for both specializing in the double-blade style, especially when there aren't all that many that study it.
There's a lot of excitement about the Talik-Anakin brotp, but sadly it looks like they're going to be apart in this chapter, ah well, better luck next chapter.
Enjoy!
Obi-Wan's eyes flashed open from the raw agony he had sensed from his Padawan, and then he was throwing the blankets of his bed back as he made his way hastily to Anakin's side as he thrashed in his sleep.
Anakin was nearly fourteen now and his Padawan braid had grown longer as he had aged, though he had yet to go on an official mission with his master. But in many ways he was still the little boy on Tatooine, the boy, not the Jedi.
Obi-Wan hadn't been certain he was quite the best master for the Chosen One, words he had imparted upon Sabé over some tea after meditation in the apartment, dutifully ignoring the presence of Luminara Unduli as she embraced the Force on the veranda.
And Sabé had listened patiently, swirling the tea in her cup.
"You mustn't make the same mistake your master did," Sabé had warned him, her eyes gleaming with ancient knowledge of the Force. "You have a bond to Anakin, a bond that was formed long before you chose him as your Padawan, Obi-Wan…Anakin chose you to be his master."
And sometimes Obi-Wan hated how certain his friend could be, but her belief in the Force was strong, as strong as her strength in it was.
"You are a good Jedi, Obi-Wan," Sabé had said, "but Anakin will make you great."
So Obi-Wan stumbled into his Padawan's room, turning on the low light to cast a dim glow across the boy in the bed.
Anakin's face was twisted, his fingers fisting into the blankets at his side as he writhed in agony.
"Anakin," Obi-Wan murmured his charge's name, reaching out a hand to grasp the boy's shoulder when his blue eyes shot open and his fist caught the left side of Obi-Wan's face, sending the Jedi tumbling backwards, startled.
Anakin, on the other hand, was breathing hard as awareness returned to him, blinking owlishly as he took in his room; the scattered droids around the room in disrepair, the training 'saber parts on the floor, and his master sitting up with a hand to his eye.
"Master!" Anakin was immediately horrified. "I'm so sorry! I—"
Obi-Wan held up a hand to stall the flow of Anakin's words, pulling himself off the floor to sit on the edge of Anakin's bed.
"I could hear you screaming in the Force, Anakin," Obi-Wan said gently.
"I'm sorry," Anakin said miserably, flopping against the pillows, pressing his hands into his face, rubbing aggressively at his eyes.
"Do…" Obi-Wan paused briefly before barreling on. "Do you want to talk about it?"
He couldn't very well force his Padawan to speak, he had enough experience to know that was a bad idea. Though he hadn't quite mastered Sabé's ability to force him to speak by simply staring it him long enough with her arms crossed and her eyes narrowed.
Anakin gave him to response, attempting to steady his breathing.
"Would you rather talk to Master Sabé?" Obi-Wan asked instead.
"No!" Anakin's hands left his face and his fiery blue eyes fixed on Obi-Wan and the Jedi could sense an overwhelming sense of failure coming from his Padawan. It was clear that whatever his dream was, it had been quite terrible. "I—" His words choked in his throat.
I don't want to disappoint you, he whispered in Obi-Wan's mind and Obi-Wan's hazel eyes softened.
Anakin was still a boy in need of the binding ties he'd had with his mother, even if the Jedi believed in non-attachment. Obi-Wan found himself often comparing the boy to the younger Sabé Amidala. Sabé had been raised in the Temple, and though she had met her family, the only truly profound ties she'd had were with her youngest sister, but Obi-Wan knew that Sabé would throw herself into battle if it kept her friends safe.
Yet, Sabé was an accomplished Jedi no matter her binding ties, proving her theory that one could love without it affecting their ability to be a Jedi.
"You won't disappoint me," Obi-Wan promised him, pressing a hand to the boy's forehead, feeling the fevered skin beneath. "You couldn't disappoint me."
Anakin shut his eyes and Obi-Wan noticed how pained his pinched face became.
"I was burning," he croaked, "I was burning alive…and, and I heard you, you were disappointed and ashamed of me."
His eyes caught Obi-Wan's and Obi-Wan swallowed thickly, trying to imagine what he had described; he had never been burned alive, but he imagined that it was quite painful and for Anakin, a Padawan still in boyhood, it was no wonder he had screamed in agony.
"It was just a dream, Anakin," Obi-Wan assured him as he lifted his hand from the boy's forehead to rest lightly on his shoulder. "You're not in pain anymore, are you?"
Anakin shook his head, but his eyes were still wide. "What if it was a vision?" he whispered.
The young Padawan learner wasn't nearly as prone to visions as Sabé was, though, Obi-Wan knew from her muffled complaints that many of her visions were the least helpful kind, the potential of what could occur.
"Visions are notoriously unhelpful," Obi-Wan acquiesced and Anakin snorted.
"Master Sabé says that too," he agreed.
"That's because Master Sabé has had quite a few that have only served to fill her with anxiety," Obi-Wan muttered.
The name Carina had a terrifying effect on his old friend, but she rarely spoke to him about her visions, that was left to Aayla Secura and Kit Fisto, whose trust she held close to her heart.
"Get some sleep, Anakin," Obi-Wan said, patting his shoulder. "I believe the vision has passed and you may get some rest tonight."
And though Anakin was doubtful, he conceded to his master, pulling his covers over himself as Obi-Wan shut the door behind him.
He didn't tell Obi-Wan of the vision he'd had moments before he'd experienced the burning agony…but he couldn't quite get the image of his violet-skinned friend being thrown through the air and dragged away with a cry of "MASTER!" before she was silenced.
The thought of his best friend being in trouble made Anakin's stomach churn and made him break out in a cold sweat.
Talik, I hope you're all right.
Talik was spitting mad even in binders that kept her from using the Force, but Talik didn't need it, not now at least. And the rotten nerfherders had taken her 'sabers!
She clenched her hands into tight fists where they were caught behind her.
The mission had seemed quite simple. Go to Anobis and settle a minor dispute between the settlement of Zabraks there, between a farming and mining colony. But then, soon after they'd arrived, a bomb had been thrown into a mine and things had gone, as Master liked to say, utterly pear-shaped.
Talik had been thrown in the explosion and nabbed by several farming Zabraks before her master could reach her.
And though Sabé Amidala might not have been able to sense her through the Force now, that didn't mean that her master didn't have a way of finding her.
But…
"You can't always depend on me to save you," Sabé had remarked three missions back, reproachful to her growing Padawan. "You must learn to save yourself, because sometimes you will be all there is."
The Zabraks weren't in the room that they'd dragged her into, but it didn't matter; Talik could practically smell the fear, it was coming off them in waves.
What could cause them to be so afraid? It couldn't have been from her and Master Sabé's arrival, could it? Surely two Jedi didn't cause that much of a fuss, especially when they were there to settle an arguably minor dispute.
The sudden escalation was startling.
Talik leaned forward where she was sitting in order to feel the binders around her wrists better. It was clear that whatever material they were made of, it was clearly not as unbreakable as most were. Which meant it was possible that Talik could short circuit them and free herself.
Thank you, Master, she thought fervently.
Sabé had once bound her hands in binders to see if she could escape them on her own (a feat that Sabé herself had managed only a few times to date under very extenuating circumstances), and it had taken almost a full day (and hours of Anakin laughing his ass off at her) before she'd finally managed it.
Her knees dug into the floor as she pulled herself upright, jumping up and pulling her legs inward so that she could bring her arms around to the front, a feat that strained even the most flexible, and Talik was nothing if not flexible.
But what mattered was that Talik had managed it, and she breathed out deeply, before whacking her bound wrists against the jutting wall.
The binders cracked as they fell away and Talik rubbed at her bruised wrists, glaring at the door.
"Fear does the strangest thing to people," she murmured, reciting a phrase her master had mentioned once.
Then Talik sat down on the ground, crossing her legs and closing her eyes, spreading her awareness out, past the door.
Sabé had been working steadily with her on her ability to use the Force in order to sense what could not be seen and hear conversations beyond her hearing.
Sadly, she didn't have the ability to extend it very far, but it was far enough in this case.
"This is wrong and you know it!" a female said angrily. "We don't want to bring the wrath of the Jedi of the Republic down on us!"
"We didn't want this, Jarvei!" a male hissed. "But these are our children that monster was threatening and she wanted that Jedi, badly!"
"This will end badly and you know it!" the woman known as Jarvei said. "What happens when she kills that Jedi? What happens when she kills the Jedi's student?"
Talik's eyes flashed open, widening at the words spoken.
"We will not come out of this unscathed," Jarvei warned.
"I care more for the lives of our children," the second responded.
A split second later they were startled by the door being slammed into the opposite wall by a Force push and when the dust cleared, an irate Twi'lek was standing there.
Talik Shala may have only been fourteen, but she was the Padawan to Sabé Amidala and the past three years had taught her much. Her traditional Jedi tunic was a darker brown, though hers lacked sleeves, and her lower arms held vambraces fused with Mandalorian iron (a gift from her master when they'd ran into a bounty hunter with a murderous streak' he hadn't need the vambraces so Sabé had given them to Talik) that were difficult for lightsabers to cut through.
She spied her lightsabers on one of the Zabrak's waist and held her hand out, summoning them through the air and activating them in a swift movement.
"I'm only going to ask this once," Talik spoke coolly. "Where is my master?"
The two Zabraks in the hallway wore differing uniforms, she realized, one was from the farming colony –the male– and the other was from the mining colony –the female named Jarvei. The fact that two opposing sides of the dispute that Sabé and Talik had been sent to settle were in close proximity to one another fortified Talik's thought that the dispute had been a sham.
The male looked to the female uneasily and she, in turn, gave her own "You see?"
"We…don't know," he said finally, uneasiness filtering through his expression. "She was thrown in the blast."
"A blast you caused," Talik spat through gritted teeth.
She was getting angry and she could hear her master's voice in her ear: Do not fight with anger in your heart, Talik, it is a dangerous power that leads down a dark road. Talik had to pause, take a deep breath and let go of that emotion.
More calmly than before she said, "Am I to assume that this…Jedi intervention was not your idea?"
"We'd be more than happy to tell you everything," Jarvei said, eyeing the double emerald blades glowing ominously in the hallway. "Provided you agreed to keep your laser-swords at your waist."
And Talik was nothing if not accommodating.
Obi-Wan had a black eye the next day and Anakin was perfectly miserable about it. But he tried not to be obvious about it, even though he was sure it filtered through their master-padawan bond.
And sure enough a moment later his master turned back to him with a slight smile. "Don't worry about it, Anakin, its fine."
"I should have been in more control of my emotions," Anakin disagreed, avoiding his gaze.
"You were in the midst of a terrible vision," Obi-Wan said, waving him off, "I should have known what to expect."
Anakin chewed on the inside of his cheek, lengthening his stride in order to keep up with his master's long-legged pace.
It wasn't very early in the Temple, not now, anyways, but it had been a bit early when they had first left the Temple apartment that both shared as master and Padawan. Anakin had almost been certain that Obi-Wan had wanted to speak with the Council about his vision, but Obi-Wan didn't mention it and Anakin didn't ask.
But the curiosity was eating him up inside when they entered the Temple's hangar for star-craft.
"Where are we going?" he asked before brightening. "Are we leaving the Temple?"
He'd lost count of how many times he'd waved Talik and her master off to whichever planet they were sent to help. The lucky times his best friend was only gone a week, but at worst she'd been gone close to a month on some missions.
"Yes, we are leaving the Temple," Obi-Wan laughed, faintly amused, but mostly cryptic.
Anakin sulked at that; it seemed that being cryptic came with being a Jedi because nearly every Jedi he'd met shared that manner at some point.
"Are you going to tell me where we're going?" he probed, tugging sharply on Obi-Wan's robe before releasing his grip quickly (it was a habit he'd picked up when he'd first started as Obi-Wan's Padawan and it was a habit he was trying to break).
"I hadn't considered it," Obi-Wan said, his lips curling into an amused smile as he looked down at Anakin. "It's a surprise."
"I hate surprises," Anakin grated.
"You'll like this one, I promise."
After all, Obi-Wan was taking him to Ilum to search for the crystal for his first lightsaber. There was no way that Anakin could be disappointed with the thing he'd been waiting to do for months.
Kit Fisto was glad to be leaving Corellia with the ship-saboteur caught and in custody, as he had only been called in an investigative capacity. He was grateful that the mission was so simple and he could head home once more.
He swept his robes around himself as he drew closer to the Jedi Starfighter he'd taken to the planet, the one that still held Sabé's precious R3 unit, whom he had been loaned for the mission. Arthree was in need of a tune-up, but Sabé had been a little busy and the last time someone had tried to tinker with him –and by someone, Kit meant Anakin Skywalker and Talik Shala– it hadn't ended well; Sabé had been caught somewhere between exasperated and displeased.
Arthree beeped as Kit approached, his domed head twisting back and forth and Kit had to sigh, lacking the ability to translate the astromech's noises without a translatorpad.
"What?" he asked, shrugging his translatorpad out of his robes. "Hang on…say that again, Arthree?"
The astromech beeped and words appeared across the screen: Message saved to computer.
"Message?" Kit stared at the word in surprise. "From where?"
Origin: Anobis
Well, that didn't really help things. Kit didn't know anyone on the planet Anobis, much less any Jedi that were on assignment there, though he had been on Corellia for the past week, so he couldn't have said either way.
"Any idea from who?"
Frequency signature: Sabé Amidala
That had Kit's back straightening in surprise. Sabé was on Anobis?
"Play the message," he said finally.
Sabé's form flickered in the blue holographic form from Arthree's holographic projector with a hand extended, cupping something claw-like in her hand and Kit was certain it was her own holoprojector.
"Kit, since my long-distance transmitter has been knocked out I've set this to Arthree's message computer. I need this message transmitted to Master Yoda immediately."
And without being told to do so, Arthree gave a whirring beep of affirmative (he was Sabé's droid, after all) as a small satellite came out of one of the hatches on his domed head, the satellite moving around until it found an appropriate signal and then Arthree sent off the transmission.
"What should have been a simple matter is no longer, Master," Sabé intoned with a grimace on her holographic lips as her eyes kept glancing out of the frame, a hand tensed at her waist. "There was an overwhelming sense of fear of such a trivial matter and I believe the bombing of the mine shortly after our arrival was staged. My Padawan disappeared in the chaos and I'm afraid that something darker is at work here."
The holoprojector clattered from her hand to fall to her feet as Sabé's twin blades flared to life.
"Who the hell are you?" she demanded before a figure with a saber leapt forward, clashing their blade against hers and the transmission failed.
Kit breathed out sharply through his nose; it was truly an unfortunate quality that Sabé possessed that attracted herself to trouble like moths to a flame.
Yoda's projection replaced Sabé's. "My old Padawan's senses, rarely wrong they are," he remarked, his claw-like hands clutching that gimer stick of his. "Closest to Sabé's position, you are, send you to follow, I will."
"Of course, Master Yoda," Kit responded with a smooth and reverent bow, relieved that the Grandmaster had suggested him rather than telling him to come back to the Temple instead. "But…it is likely that Sabé will have resolved the issue by the time I arrive."
Yoda huffed a light laugh, but he didn't deny the truth to it. Sabé was, after all, famous for finding her own way out of bad situations. "True, that is," Yoda said. "But investigate, you still will."
Kit smiled wryly. "Of course, Master. I'll make contact when I've found her." Or when she's found me, he thought privately as the hologram winked out.
Arthree beeped. New destination: Anobis?
"Looks like," Kit said, smiling at the practically-sentient astromech. "Eager to see your master?"
Eagerness must be tempered with experience
The muscle under Kit's large eyes twitched and he almost laughed. The astromech was far too cheeky, a habit he had picked up from Sabé, no doubt. Arthree had been known to quote snippets of the Jedi Code to his master, something Sabé had always found a bit amusing.
"So it's been said," Kit replied simply, hoping up onto the top of the Starfighter, pulling himself into the single-person cockpit and replacing the reinforced glass covering over his head once he was situated. "How long will it be in Hyperspace?"
There was a trilling beep that told Kit the astromech was calculating the time in space before it beeped out a: Seventy-two minutes.
"Lovely," Kit murmured to himself with a grimace. If there was one thing that Kit Fisto truly didn't like, it was space travel. He'd rather be heading back to Coruscant, thank you very much, but it couldn't be helped. "Let's see what kind of trouble my old friend has gotten herself into."
Arthree whirred an affirmative as the Starfighter lifted off from the ground, soaring up into the sky and then past it right into space, entering Hyperspace in a matter of seconds and leaving behind the planet Corellia entirely.
She was beyond his grasp, but not entirely…
Darth Sidious could taste her power on his tongue…the Great Guide…at first he had disregarded her, during that skirmish on Naboo his mind had been changed. Yes, he had want of Anakin Skywalker, but he would have to be a fool to deny the same of Sabé Amidala.
And Sabé Amidala was a Knight already with views on the Jedi that some might consider grey, and grey so easily turned to dark with a single choice.
Pass my tests, Great Guide, and perhaps you might become a force to be reckoned with to the Dark Side.
"About one rotation past there a crash beyond the mountains," Melkoann, the male Zabrak from before, told Talik once they'd all calmed down and Talik had extinguished her lightsabers.
"And how long is a rotation here?" Talik asked with crossed arms.
"Seven days," Jarvei told her. "The miners went to search the wreckage for any sign of life and that's when they found her."
"Someone survived the crash?" Talik asked, her brow wrinkling. The way the two were speaking made it seem unlikely. She remembered more than three years ago when she and her master had been shot down on Naboo, and she remembered Garen Muln's crash on Hoth, and it took skill to survive those kinds of crashes.
Melkoann shuddered. "She didn't even care about the injuries she'd sustained during the crash, the first thing she did was threaten the lives of our children if we didn't bring a Jedi to her immediately."
"I'm going to guess it was Sabé Amidala," Talik said with eyes narrowed and a muscle jumping in her jaw.
Jarvei swallowed thickly but she nodded. "It's the only time the two factions have agreed on anything, but…she is dangerous and we hoped that Amidala might be strong enough to overpower her."
This 'she'…whoever they were, they must have been frightening enough to inspire so much fear in the citizens of the planet.
"So you made up a conflict that would require a Jedi with at least some experience with diplomacy to get her to show up," Talik said with a sigh. She didn't want to imagine what would have happened if someone else had gone in Sabé's place; her terrifying imagination ran rampant and produced an image of a Jedi's head in a box and a message demanding Sabé Amidala be sent to Anobis or more would follow. Talik tried not to shiver.
"Is your master strong?"
"Of course my master's strong!" Talik said, stung as she glowered. "But she prefers to talk rather than fight…what did 'she' call herself? The one who crash landed, what was her name?"
"She said her name was Korinth'Kel," Melkoann said and Talik drew back in stunned surprise. "Why? What is it?"
"You're absolutely sure that was the name?"
"It was the name she gave us," Jarvei remarked dubiously. "Is it of importance?"
"Korinth'Kel is a former Jedi," Talik said, incomprehension and apprehension warring on her face as she reached a hand up to tangle with the beaded strand tied to a leather strap wrapped around one of her lekku. "She left the Jedi Temple just last week."
What did a former Jedi want with Sabé so much that she had to terrify a whole planet?
AN: Ooh! Fun stuff in store and Sabé wasn't even technically in the chapter, but I promise she will be in the next one!
For Firestar007 who wanted some Star Wars book recs: I've read a few Star Wars books, but I loved Matthew Stover's Novelization of the Revenge of the Sith, the Obi-Wan-Anakin moments give me life.
Then there's Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Wild Space, which had a few good Obikin moments to appease me (because you know how much I like their brotherly relationship) but I was annoyed by how the relationship is portrayed between Obi-Wan and Padmé…old friends is not a term to use, which makes me sad, because I love the Obidala friendship as much as the Obikin friendship
I'm currently reading Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth which is equal parts humorous and equal parts interesting.
I can't believe how long its going to be before I can write the Clone Wars for this fic...that's when all the good stuff happens! And the scenes I've got planned out for book two won't happen for a few more chapters...sigh...
As always: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!
