A/N: Hot dog, it feels like it's been forever. Maybe 'cause it has? Ah, well. I'm picking this sucker back up again, with intents to finish it. Maybe another twenty chapters will do it. Again, probably kind of rusty on the feel of this story, but I'll get it back soon enough. ;-)

Neuf: Heliophobia

It would be an exaggeration to say that time stopped. But Obi-Wan Kenobi felt as if it had. Standing there in the low-slung, gray passage, staring over Yoda's head at the lithe figure he hadn't seen in three years... his concentration was shattered, and his grip on the Force fled.

Anakin Skywalker cocked his head and grinned. "The Force works in strange ways." That was all.

Obi-Wan would later admit that he did not expect what happened. He had anticipated an exchange of words, threats, perhaps more posturing. Instead, Anakin flipped his white cape with a tape-à-l'oeil flourish, deactivated his saber, and disappeared. A shimmering, atmospheric anomaly shone in the air for a moment, then vanished, leaving a bewildered Boba Fett standing in the passage.

Yoda lunged toward the Mandalorian, but the mercenary was too quick. Rolling to the side, he fetched the Jedi Master a blow with his rifle, then slipped into a side passage.

The ancient Jedi Master hopped to his feet with Force-enhanced agility. "Follow the Mandalorean," he ordered. "After young Skywalker, I shall go."

Kenobi returned to reality, shook his head. "No, Master... I must be the one to confront Anakin. I know him, I know how he fights."

Yoda cocked a brow at him. "But slay him, can you?"

Obi-Wan grimaced, hooked his saber back onto his belt. As the Force slowly returned to him, he sensed the presence of his former Padawan - his former friend - somewhere still in the compound. "I will do what I must."

Anakin slid effortlessly past the two frenzied guards, relishing the feel of the Force on his skin, bending the light away from his body. His saber bloomed in the air, one quick slice to the door controls, and he entered. The nerve-center of security for this compound. He smiled to think of it. Palpatine - oh, yes, he had heard rumors of the former Darth Sidious - had not even the slightest that this was here; Anakin had made certain of that. It would have wholly defeated his purpose if Palpatine had found this hidden refuge, and it would have meant death for that which he held dearest: his wife, and his children.

Once within, he crouched in the shadows by the door. To his surprise, the security officer and his own personal guards had not heard his entry. They were scurrying back and forth, observing monitors, manipulating equipment, trying their hardest to observe his movements. Fifteen in all. Just then, one of the techs began speaking. "Sir... I found a residual heat trail in sector 11."

"Damn... that's Security," the chief muttered. "Where does it lead?"

The young crewman poked at his keyboard for a second, then: "Up corridor 3, right past the... look, there's the guards. But the trail goes on up the... oh, fierfek."

The chief remained silent instead of asking the obvious "What?" Instead, he glared blades into the image on the screen, then collapsed as his trachea buckled and his severed head plopped down to land in the tech's lap.

"'Afternoon, gentlemen," said Anakin Skywalker.

Obi-Wan dashed around the corner, lightsaber blazing, and slipped in the blood.

Oh, no.

Clambering to his feet, he stopped to examine the red swath that his boot had planted itself in, running from beneath a locker grate. He stepped up to it, flicked the lock with his blade. The door sprang open, and an assortment of body parts fell at his feet.

Resisting the extremely strong urge to vomit, he knelt and examined the severed pieces. The limbs had been cauterized at their stumps - the wounds of a lightsaber - but the torso's rib cavity was caved in. Blood still seeped from the wound. Drainage. The body was yet warm, the Jedi realized. Standing, he breathed deep, tried to feel the Force again. But for some reason, he was distracted, unable to sense the currents that he knew raced around him. For a moment, frustration washed over him, but he quickly released it, breathing deeply. "Very well," he murmurered. "Use what you know."

He slipped a small flimsiplast datapad out of the pocket of his robe and looked around. Surely there was a datajack... there. A maintenance droid, oblivious to the chaos, came whirring around the corner and entered a side room - a charging socket. Obi-Wan followed, finally finding something to focus on. He slipped in behind it and quickly examined the cramped space. Four power sockets lined the wall in front of him, the droid he had followed plugging itself in to the one furthest to the right. The rest were empty.

The Jedi bent over to examine them - sure enough, just above the socket was a data jack, placed there so that the droids could update their software and revise the status of the building's infrastructure. Just what he needed.

He quickly plugged in and downloaded the compound's layout, thanking Qui-Gon Jinn. "The Force is a wonderful thing. But dependance on it is like an addiction to death sticks. If you are ever disconnected from it, you will be unable to function. So learn to use your mind, as well as your feelings."

Rising, he examined the schematics. He was not far from the security office; that would be a good place to start. They could likely give him more information on how best to search the place, perhaps even a good idea of where Anakin was heading. His thoughts wandered to Padme and Leia... hidden somewhere here. Yoda had never told him where, just that it was 'secure.'

But a nagging feeling filled him that no place was safe from Anakin, a feeling that soon blossomed into crippling apprehension...