Chapter 5

No cars go

5 ½ MONTHS BEFORE

She was lifelessly unmoving as she stared at the sky above, while at the bottom of one of the larger fountains in the room of a thousand fountains. The view from underwater was one of her favorites and at times like this was especially calming.

The way Obi-Wan had attacked her to the point of almost killing her…to know he had such power…it scared her. After the fight she had gone straight to her master, tears and all, and had a conversation she would never forget.

"Bant where were you?!" Tahl had said when she had first caught sight of her, a sobbing mess. "What happened?!"

Immediately, she collapsed into Tahl's arms and together the two sank to the floor. Bant was clinging to her master like there was no tomorrow. For minutes she just sobbed into Tahl's arms. Then...

"It was Obi-Wan Master," She paused, not wanting to admit it. "He almost killed me with his lightsaber," A shocked silence met her confession.

"He what?" Tahl held her at arm's length staring her directly in the eyes.

"I was practicing with my lightsaber in the training rooms, when Obi-Wan came and went all freaky and before I knew it, his lightsaber was at my neck and-" Tahl silenced her.

"Where is he now, Bant?" She has a sense of urgency in her voice.

"I left him there-"

"Was there anyone else in the training rooms?" Tahl asked

"No."

"Are you sure he really meant to kill you?"Tahl asked seriously, "Are you sure this wasn't just the two of you getting caught up in the heat of a sparring match between two friends?"

Bant spoke solemnly.

"I am sure of it master," Bant blinked away new tears as they began to fall again, "There was a darkness in that room that wasn't there before he came in."

Tahl nodded and hugged Bant close to her. Then she stood up, talking Bant's hand in her own, as she lead her out of their Quarters.

Together they had gone to Yoda and recounted Bant's harrowing tale. Yoda then had roused the rest of the council members from their slumber and began the search and apprehension of Obi-Wan Kenobi.

That had been last night. It was now morning. The council members still had yet to find any trace of Obi-Wan.

The anxiety over her perpetrator still being loose had been clear on Bant's face as the hours passed. So clear, that her master had ordered her to go swimming. Though she had fought hard against the suggestion, citing the ever present danger of Obi-Wan, her master had countered her arguments by sending a council member to watch over her. She couldn't say anything more after that.

So now here she was, drifting in the water, letting it take her where ever it would in this limited space. Water was like a drug to her, and as such she was at her happiest when surrounded by it. After the fight with Obi-Wan, this what she needed the most.

That experience has been…well, terrifying. She had always known Obi-Wan was a fighter, but to actually see him use his abilities against her? It made her see him in a new light: as someone not to be messed with.

Looking ahead at the watery sky, Bant cleared these worrisome thoughts from her head and simply drifted. It was then that a shadowy figure appeared at the edge of fountain and waved at her.

Obi-Wan.

Now what? She knew she wanted to talk to him to find out what had happened, but this…this was too soon. Swimming up to the opposite side of the fountain from the shadow, Bant quietly poked her head above the water, treading water.

She was surprised though to find that it wasn't Obi-Wan, but instead his Master.

"Ma-Master Jinn," She weakly stuttered, glad to be in the master's presence rather than his padawan's.

"Bant," He nodded respectfully.

"They council called you back?" She asked.

Qui-Gon nodded.

"I'm sorry," she quietly said.

"It's not your fault," He replied kindly.

Bant sighed and looked down.

"Have they found him yet?" She quietly asked.

Qui-Gon shook his head and looked down. Then he walked around the water's edge to where Bant was treading water and took a seat on the ledge.

"Is it true?" he hesitantly asked.

Bant looked down, it was obvious what he was talking about.

"As much as I hate to admit it," She paused, "It is, he attacked me with no provocation."

Qui-Gon sighed.

"I was wrong about him all this time."

He stood up to go.

"Wait," Bant said, swimming closer to the edge. "There has to be an explanation for this, he was fine all day, and as far as I know, nothing happened to him that would have pushed him over the edge like this."

She didn't know why she was defending like this when she still wasn't over the fact that he had been trying to kill her, but her instincts told her that there was more to the situation.

"He seemed as surprised as I was at his outburst last night."

Now that she looked back calmly on the event, she remembered the brief moment of horror that had been in Obi-Wan's eyes after he had dropped his light saber. She had dismissed the look of horror to be one of regret, not for hurting her, but for not being able to go through with killing her.

But now it was clear what his true meaning had been.

"You didn't mention this to master Yoda?" Qui-Gon's low voice stated.

Bant blushed in shame.

"I was still emotional from the attack," She looked up "I wasn't thinking straight."

Qui-Gon nodded, understanding in his eyes. Then he turned to leave.

"Please let me know when you find him," She pleaded to his back.

Not turning around, Qui-Gon answered. "I will."

Obi-Wan watched from his window, food still untouched, as the ship slowly descended towards a planet that distantly reminded him of Coruscant. Escape was on his mind. Earlier he had tried the door, but no matter what he did, it didn't budge. So here he was, waiting for Xanatos to come for him. Soon, with a slight thump, the ship landed.

Minutes later, as he expected, Xanatos came.

"I would tell you we've landed, but I think you've got the idea, looking out the window," Xanatos said.

Obi-Wan turned to face Xanatos.

"What are you going to do to me?" He asked.

"Well, I'm not going to be doing anything to you," He answered. "It's what I'll do with you, after she's done doing stuff to you, that you should be worrying about."

Obi-Wan looked confused.

"Come on," Xanatos said rolling his eyes as he grabbed Obi-Wan's arm and roughly lead him out of the room, "You'll find out soon enough, and don't you even try to escape." Xanatos threatened. "I would hate to accidentally kill a civilian in the chaos of your attempt."

Softly sighing, Obi-Wan allowed himself to be led on, not wanting others to be dragged into his situation.

"Hate to say it, but were here." Xanatos said.

Throughout the short walk Xanatos had enjoyed pushing and shoving Obi-Wan this way and that as they jostled through the crowds. A couple of times he had even called Obi-Wan a slave, which had caused the native people, who abhorred slaves, to avoid them and to stare. It had been humiliating to say the least.

"You'll just love it here," Xanatos said, breaking him from his thoughts and leading him into the building. Upon entering, white walls and gray carpets greeted them. Healers with white hats on walked around them as Xanatos lead him past the reception desk and down a hall. They seemed to walk forever in a maze of hallways. Xanatos seemed to know the place by heart. Soon they reached a lift tube. Xanatos had to punch in a complicated code and have both his finger and eye scanned before the door opened.

Forced inside, Obi-Wan endured the quick ride wondering what would meet him when they finally arrived wherever they were going.

When the door opened, more white walls and gray carpets were revealed. Xanatos yanked him onward again and lead through another maze of hallways eventually stopping before a steel door and palming the cold metal before the door opened.

Inside was a large room that held all sorts of computer screens keeping track of who knows what. The screens were the only light in the dark room.

"And how is our patient today?" She asked Obi-Wan. "He didn't do anything to harm you in any way, did he?" She glanced at Xanatos accusatorily. The woman stood up from her computer to the left of them and walked over to them.

Slowly Obi-Wan shook his head. He knew this woman, but for the life of him couldn't place her.

"Good," she said, looking back at Xanatos. "Looks like he can actually do as he is told."

Xanatos rolled his eyes.

"Just don't kill him yourself," he said. "If he has to die, I want to be the one to do it. Preferably in front of his master," he crossed his arms across his chest.

The tall and slender woman smirked and rolled her eyes. She brushed a piece of blonde hair behind her ear that had fallen out of her loose bun.

"Don't worry. I've had dozens of people to test this out on-"

"And how many died?" Xanatos asked tilting his head.

Answering a little too quickly for Obi-Wan's taste, she replied. "That doesn't matter. His force will save him."

Something clicked in Obi-Wan's mind as he heard her say this. The way she talked about the force…

"You better hope so," Xanatos said menacingly. "I'm paying you the world to do this."

"And you will be rewarded," She said walking up to him. "I want to get revenge on his master just as much as you do," turning to Obi-Wan she continued on, in a menacing tone. "Rest assured that I will not risk that opportunity."

Jenna Zan Arbor. That's who it was! How could he forget? It had been less than a year since she had had Qui-Gon kidnapped so she could experiment on him. The whole situation had caused him nightmares for months. He had buried those memories deep inside him, not wanting to remember how close he had come to losing his master.

"Well I'm sure you have a lot to do," Xanatos said flippantly. "I'll be around."

"I'm sure you'll be," Zan Arbor replied as he left the room. Taking the next few moment to study Obi-Wan, Zan Arbor smiled.

"You will be fun to break."

It was now evening as Qui-Gon, Tahl, and Bant stood in front of the Council, in the council rooms. They still had not found any trace of Obi-Wan, and there were many rumors swirling around the temple because of that.

Some speculated he had escaped the temple in shame and in fear of the consequences he would face for his duel with Bant, while others said he was hiding in the temple waiting for the right victim before he would strike again.

Even more popular, others believed that he had turned to the dark side, attacked Bant to send a message to the Jedi council and escaped to become the next sith lord.

Qui-Gon feared that last theory might just be the truth. For him it was history repeating itself all over again.

"Told everyone to be on the watch for Obi-Wan we have," Yoda stated, "In lock down we are."

Qui-Gon nodded.

"Qui-Gon, this doesn't look very good for Obi-Wan," Mace said, "You very well know what this looks like to us."

Again Qui-Gon nodded.

Mace turned his attention to Tahl.

"With Obi-Wan still at large, your padawan is still in danger. Because of this we are sending you two on a mission, further details will follow soon."

"We accept." Tahl respectfully replied.

"For you Qui-Gon, assigned to the archives you are," Yoda said, "Search the surveillance holo's for Obi-Wan, you will."

"Yes Master" Qui-Gon said.

"May the force be will us all," Mace gravely said.

Obi-Wan was lying on a sterile white bed, his hands and feet individually cuffed and secured to the bed. He couldn't move.

"The first time is always a killer," Zan Arbor said sounding delighted at the prospect. "But you know how it goes; better to rip off the scab in one fell swoop than to pick at it little by little.

Obi-Wan raised his eyebrows. This woman wasn't crazy, she was deranged.

"Unluckily for you, I think your scab will be too hard to pick in one try. You poor, poor child," She smiled and looked down at the tray beside Obi-Wan's head. On it were several syringes and a thick roll of tape.

Suddenly a muffled scream could be heard from the room next to Obi-Wan.

Obi-Wan turned his head as far as he could towards the sound and was surprised to see a glass window covered by a white curtain on the other side.

With a sudden jerk, the curtains flew apart, revealing a crazed young man, obviously in pain, his hands scraping at the window, pleading for escape. For a moment, Obi-Wan's eyes connected with his and in that moment, he saw what he would become if he stayed here much longer.

"How unfortunate," Zan arbor said, as the boy fell limply out of view. "Not."

Turning to see what the mad scientist was doing, Obi-Wan's heart started to beat faster as she picked up a syringe.

"This won't hurt at all," She said sweetly.

For all the squirming he did, the sting of the needle still came. For a second Obi-Wan thought nothing had happened. Zan Arbor was certainly looking surprised when he turned to look at her.

But that look of surprise quickly faded away as Obi-Wan's muffled screams suddenly rent the air and his restraints stretched to the maximum as his body thrashed in obvious pain.

He opened his eyes.

Big mistake.

Everything was bright. Much too bright.

"Hey there," said a voice to his right, "You might want to keep 'em shut for a couple of minutes."

Obi-Wan didn't think twice.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"Does it really matter?" The voice replied, "We'll all be dead soon."

Obi-Wan turned to the voice, and slightly opened his eyes. It was much better now. Next to him he saw a boy, not much older than him.

"What makes you say that?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Just take a look around you," The boy replied.

Obi-Wan did as the boy suggested and understood immediately what he meant. All around them were other young people lying in various states of disarray, empty eyes looking unseeingly into the space in front of them. A few of the other occupants of the room looked better, the boy beside Obi-Wan being one of them, but not that much better. When he compared himself to these people, he looked fit to fight a rancor.

A few minutes passed.

"So, how'd ya get here?" the boy asked.

"I was taken."

Silence.

"Uh, from?" the boy let the sentence hang.

"What does it matter? Like you said-"

"Hey I know what I said, doesn't mean I'm looking forward to it," he replied waving his hands around to emphasize his point. "Help a guy out wont you? My sanity is leaving me bit by bit, day by day," He paused. "This crowd ain't much of a talkin one, you're the newest one here, you still have your mind about you. So tell me a bit bout yourself, and I'll try to do the same, not that it will matter, but hey, right now I've still got most of my mind and I want to enjoy what's left, you know what I mean?"

Personally, Obi-Wan didn't have a clue and thought that this boy had lost more of his mind than he admitted.

"Sure," Obi-Wan started, "So…what's your name?"

He had expected a simple answer, but what he got was far from it.

"My…name" the boy looked thoughtful.

A couple of minutes passed and what had looked like a thoughtful look, now looked like a pained one.

"I know I have one…it's," The boy started to panic, "It's right there, on the tip of my tongue, you know? I just can't remember," He looked to Obi-Wan. "I don't remember! I don't REMEMBER! What's wrong with me!"

Suddenly the boy leapt up and went over to the other boys.

"Do you remember your name?" he asked each one.

Soon, there was in an uproar as everyone began to freak out over the simple fact that they couldn't remember their names. Then…

"Do you remember your name?" one shy boy asked Obi-Wan.

"Yeah," He replied.

"Really?" he said, shocked, "What is it?"

"It's Obi-Wan," he replied, "Obi-Wan Kenobi."

A hush fell over the room as everyone turned to look at him.

And from that moment on, he was their unofficial leader.

Unbeknownst to Obi-Wan someone was watching what had happened, and that someone was immensely pleased.