Obi-Wan

He'd watched her follow Palpatine's guards into the building not long after dusk, as darkness crept its fingers through the lights of the city. He kept looking at the chrono. Time was passing interminably slowly, and gods knew how long this dinner would go.

And then, as it turned out, it wasn't not long at all.

She rushed out, alone, almost running down the steps of the Senate. She couldn't have eaten more than a few bites of food, surely. What had Palpatine said? Done? What had she said?

He put his hand on the doorframe and tensed to move himself out of the speeder-and then stopped. She didn't know him. She'd probably think he was stalking her.

Was he? He'd told himself he was here because her safety was important to that mysterious voice, but objectively, it was strange for him to be shadowing the Hapan princess without authorization.

He waited for the voice, for that faint presence in the back of his mind-but nothing. No guidance. No illumination. The presence had vanished. Should he follow her? Did she even know how to get back to the Hapan residence? She was moving down into the shadows of the city, not bothering to call a ride. Things were relatively safe here in the upper levels of Coruscant, but only relatively.

He took in a quick breath, then zipped the speeder out of the shadows and into a lane that would take him just above where she'd gone. He pressed autopilot, then looked down.

Faster ships and speeders skimmed past him, and he found himself squinting past the bright lights to the ground below. The main thoroughfares were decently busy, servants running the evening errands, a stray politician or trade owner out for a walk in the cooler air. But the side alleys and streets were mostly empty. If she was upset, she'd have turned down one of those.

As he slowly drifted above a section of the city dedicated to planetary consulates, he saw two darting figures slipping in and out of the shadows. In the lower levels, this was more common-this not wanting to be seen, avoiding prying eyes from above and below. But here, he chilled at the sight. This part of the upper levels, the heartbeat of the Republic, was well guarded, since so many of the residents were high-profile targets anywhere else in the city. Security measures had increased dramatically after the assassination attempts against Senator Amidala several years before.

And then he saw her. Elan was moving down the center of an alley, steps stiff and quick and angry.

He looked back toward the creeping shadows just as they ducked down the same street, perhaps a few hundred feet behind her.

And suddenly he knew. Fear shot through him like an arrow. He had no time to think, just react.

He dropped the speeder down rapidly, and then jumped, flicking his lightsaber on just before he hit the ground. He caught the first blaster shot, then the second, and saw a third flash as the rebounding blaster shots hit their targets. He whirled around, pure adrenaline-

Elan stood just beyond him, motionless, eyes wide, her left hand slightly outstretched.

"It's okay," Obi-Wan heard himself say. He closed his lightsaber, returned it to his belt, raised his hands cautiously. "I only saw two. I got them."

It took him a moment to register what was between him and Elan. A silver dart, a common carrier for noxious poison, hovered, quivering, in midair.

He stared at it, reached out, then stopped. He looked back at Elan.

"Can you-can you drop it?" he asked, feeling lightheaded. Stopping such a small, rapid object in midair took skill, skill beyond most-and she'd done it instinctively, as far as he could tell.

She took a quick, shuddering breath, and pulled her fingers into a fist. The dart clinked as it hit the ground. He crouched down to pick it up.

"My guess is synox," he said, forcing his voice to be casual. "Colorless, odorless. Very deadly. You made someone angry."

He was suddenly reminded of Dooku, all terror and loss. Tell her to return the Force to me. What would she do to him, now that he knew her secret?

He heard her step closer, and he glanced up as she knelt down next to him. She was trembling.

"Palpatine. I made Palpatine angry," she said. "I-I'm so stupid, Obi-Wan. I took his bait, I picked at him and pushed Anakin's buttons, and now-"

"Anakin?" Obi-Wan sat back on his heels, staring at her. Then-"And surely Palpatine wouldn't be so blatant as to do this immediately after having an on-the-records meeting with you. That's not a politician's style."

Unless that politician was deeply afraid.

Her brow furrowed-concern, confusion, he couldn't tell which. She wasn't focusing on him-her eyes were still on the dart on the ground, and then she looked up and over to the two assassins.

"Don't-" Obi-Wan began, but she had swiftly risen to her feet and strode toward the still bodies.

"Human," she said, her tone flat. She bent down. "Corellian garb."

She's done this before, he thought. This analyzing of a crime scene, reading a body.

"Been to Corellia, have you?" The question came out dryly, before he could stop it. He shouldn't push her, shouldn't remind her that he was on to whatever game she was playing, whatever secret she was hiding. Because there was no way in any universe that she was just a sheltered Hapan princess.

She looked over at him sharply, and her fists clenched at her sides. But she wasn't afraid. She didn't seem threatened by him. Maybe because she knew, in whatever realm of Force ability she had, that he wasn't any particular threat.

But somehow, he didn't think that was it.

"My uncle is Corellian," she said finally, looking back down, stretching her fingers, out and in, out and in. "Gods, I've lost my edge," she murmured, almost to herself. "I didn't even realize they were here."

Obi-Wan caught himself on the edge of a dangerous question. Asking would name the unspoken, and could very well trigger her to turn on him. But, if she really did trust him, if he perhaps could be the one person whom she'd let see her for who she really was…

He closed his eyes briefly, then opened them again and pushed the words out. "Does muting yourself in the Force to others hamper your ability to sense things?"

She didn't move at first. Her eyes were still on the assassins, but she was very still. She was thinking. Deciding.

She turned slowly. His heartbeat pounded loudly in his ears, a rushing noise.

"I…" She took a deep breath. "I mean, yes. I had to be particularly careful around Palpatine. I couldn't let him read me at all. And Anakin. I can sense a bit when I'm muted, loud things, immediate things. I should have sensed this. But I was so angry, so-he got to me, got under my skin, and that was louder than anything else."

Elan stopped, and he saw the fear, the question in her eyes.

It was everything he had suspected. Known. Feared. And she had held it out to him, with unearned trust. She had stepped forward into midair, and was waiting to see if he would meet her there.

He nodded. "It was not particularly wise to put yourself in Palpatine's path like that," he said carefully. "But I am confident your shields held. They're very strong, stronger than I've seen from anyone before. Palpatine may not trust you or like you, because you're the Hapan princess, but he won't see you as the existential threat I suspect you are."

Her relief was palpable. "And Anakin?" she asked, her voice shaking.

His laugh, short, quick, also relieved, surprised him. "Oh, if Palpatine didn't sense you, Anakin most certainly didn't. He's good, really talented, but no all-powerful Sith Lord."

Her expression became quickly closed, quiet, pensive. She didn't respond, and Obi-Wan felt a sense of nameless unease.

"We should get you somewhere safe," he said, glancing at the two dead would-be assassins. "I'll alert the Republic Police to what's happened, but it's best no one knows where you are for the next while." He tapped the remote on his wrist, and the cruiser made a quick dive down to the alley. "Please, Princess, I must get you somewhere you cannot be found, for now. We must find out who these assassins are."

Elan's eyes narrowed. He wasn't even being that subtle, he knew, sidestepping the obvious question of motive and clear Force ability. But this was all he knew to do right now. Get her safe. Buy time. Figure it all out.

I could use some help, he shot out, flailingly, to the vanished voice.

Nothing.

"Where do you want me to go?" Elan asked, voice flat and skeptical.

Obi-Wan felt everything take shape silently before his eyes.

"Nowhere I can name, not while I don't know who's listening," he said.