Where Accidents Happen

The first time Anakin left the Temple, it was completely by accident.

It had started off with a rather innocuous assignment from a teacher - to do a report on some aspect of the Temple. His classmates had picked what he considered predictably boring things: the Room of a Thousand Fountains, or the Halls of Healing, or a Spire or the Council Chamber. Dull and humdrum! Anakin, with his Master's delighted encouragement, had decided to do a report on the energy consumption of the Temple. When he'd first arrived at the Temple, Obi-Wan had put him on a tourist's tour of the place. The Jedi guide, some withered old biddy named Nu, had a lot of novel and interesting facts, but the one that had caught his attention was the fact that the Temple had used only one tenth the energy of average buildings on Coruscant which were significantly smaller. That had perked him, and for the assignment he remembered the little factoid and decided to do more research on it.

He had actually been quite fascinated. It was once he'd found the electronics mapping of the Temple he was able to overlay what he already knew and things had started to turn interesting.

The Temple was four thousand-something years old, and had gone under many reconstructions and renovations, but Anakin was shocked to discover that some of the facilities and systems were still in place and, actually, untouched. There was an old school, low-tech genius to some of the things Anakin had learned about. For example, there were several East-West ducts on the underneath of the Temple that held nothing but massive turbines; and the combination of exhaust and traffic and wind created significant gusts, spinning the turbines and creating sustainable energy for the Temple. The lightning rods on the spires of the Temple were connected to batteries for generators, and every electrical storm brought charges to the reserves. The windows also doubled as solar panels.

The more Anakin researched, the more the boy became fascinated by what he learned. It wasn't long before he was taking the maps he's printed out and was exploring all the corners of the Temple, curiosity demanding that he saw these inner workings in person. He was shocked to learn that there were no lights in the maintenance ducts, and this was what had precipitated his accident.

He'd crawled into an access duct with his maps and tried to figure out how anyone could see what they needed to. It wasn't until he'd made a turn and the light from the Temple had disappeared that he realized the wonderful truth. Someone, somehow, had had the brilliant idea of coating the pipes with some kind of phosphorous compound; the ones on the left were clearly labeled with what they were. The floor had arrows with directions lining them, and crossways were outlined with the compound.

Fascinated, Anakin scraped his fingernails along the arrows - a feat that took longer than he thought because he couldn't see his hands in the darkness. He realized quickly that any workers had to have similarly coated gloves (Maybe even suits! That would be wizard!). When he did finally managed to scrape, he discovered that the phosphorus was coated with some kind of protective polyurethane. That was even cooler! Fumbling, Anakin pulled out his maps and realized he couldn't read them in the darkness. Frowning, he shoved the maps back into his belt and reached for a datapad, powering it up. He called up the electronic versions of the maps and tried to assess where he was.

The light from the datapad dimmed the visibility of the phosphorus lettering, and as he stepped forward to squint at the words to see at what junction he was at, he failed to see the faint outline of an access way.

Directly below him.

For a full three minutes he tumbled and fell and bumped and slid before he finally was blinded by the sudden flood of light and, as his pupils tried to constrict valiantly against the onslaught, he finally managed to reach out to the Force and beg that it cushion his fall. The impact shook him all the way down to his bones, and for a several second he just lay there, trying to figure out what had just happened.

When he finally realized the light he was immersed in was sunlight, Anakin pulled himself up to his knees and ran a hand through his closely cropped hair. Looking up, he saw the duct he had fallen through. Looking around, he saw the sun was reflecting and refracting along all the buildings around him. Air traffic was buzzing around his head about ten meters up, and the air was hot.

He was... he was...

Outside.

Anakin gave into his first impulse and used every swearword he could think of. Then he created a few new ones for good measure. Just to cover all his bases.

The swearing used up a lot of excess energy, and it helped alleviate the flare of panic that had initially threatened him. Expended and a little clearer in his thoughts, he walked around to see if he could find a way back into the Temple. If he managed to reenter the ductwork, he could use the phosphorus to guide his way back to a hall and he could find his way from there. Anakin quickly learned, however, that the vent was about twenty meters above him, and he was not yet good enough in accessing the Force to make the jump. Frowning, he tried to work out another way to fix the problem. He was nowhere near the Processional Way, the main boulevard that lead into the Temple. Climbing the ziggurat-shaped building was also impossible - the Temple was a kilometer taller than the rest of the buildings!

Would he have to call for help?

No, no, there had to be a way to get back into the Temple. He would not call his master for help.

An hour later, however, he had to concede defeat. All his life he'd been a fixer; it was his ability to fix droids that made him a valuable asset to Watto. It was something that he took pride in. He knew from slavery that asking for help was the same as asking for punishment - one didn't do it unless it was worth it and, fortunately, Watto never did much more than yell at him if he couldn't fix something. After years of this, Anakin found it very, very hard to ask for help if he didn't have to. It was why he had been so resistant to Obi-Wan teaching him at first. It was his master, in point of fact, that showed him that sometimes asking for help was beneficial. And so, with much grumbling and rehearsing some of his better swears, he sat down heavily and began the painstaking process of clearing his head enough to project.

Obi-Wan, while Anakin was adventuring, was in the Council Chambers. It was always an experience to be in the presence of any member of the Council, the Force resonated around them and one could not help but sense the capability and prowess the Masters had with it. Being in front of all twelve of them, it was inspiring.

It was also nerve wracking.

This wasn't Obi-Wan's first meeting with them, of course. He had been in these chambers many times but, before, it had always been with his master, Qui-Gon. Inspiration always turned to nervousness, because if his master was before the Council, it was to poke and prod at some particular decision or side-quest that Qui-Gon had made. Being on the bad side of the Council never made one feel easy. For the last year, Obi-Wan was left never quite sure which side of the Council he was on. Yoda's admission that he did not approve of his training of Anakin had left the new Knight all too aware of the fact that the Council in general didn't like Anakin and, by extension, himself. Since he hadn't had many meetings with the Council since that particular conversation, Obi-Wan was left wondering where he stood.

He had no idea what to expect when the Council had summoned him. When Mace explained why he had been called, Obi-Wan found himself trying (and to his mind failing) to hide his shock.

"Me?" he managed to ask.

"Yes, hmm," the tiny figure of Yoda said, closing his eyes. "You. Go, you shall."

The Jedi took a breath and forced himself to think rationally. "Masters," he began, "I'm honored that you would choose me for this assignment, but I hardly feel qualified. I've only been a Knight for a year and a half, and I've a Padawan who has not yet had the self-defense and lightsaber practice necessary to go out on missions. Surely, there is a better choice than such as myself."

Mace leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees. Obi-Wan suddenly felt himself wondering if the Master realized how intimidating he looked when he did that.

"Kenobi," he said in blunt tones, not even bothering to placate the Knight. "Over two hundred planets have seceded from the Republic to create their own governing system. We must send a Jedi to every one of those planets to try and negotiate their return. We simply don't have enough Knights to afford to be selective. Even sending every Knight available we won't have enough. You are free when compared to others. Therefore, you are going." His intense stare brooked no refusal.

Obi-Wan conceded defeat, wondering how he was going to explain this all to Anakin; the boy was looking forward to his first mission, and he sensed that he would be upset that Obi-Wan would go off and he di-

LOST!

Obi-Wan fought to bite back a groan and thrust a hand to his temple.

LOST! LOST! LOST! LOST! LOST!

"Is there a problem?" Mace asked, leaning back in his chair.

"No, no, Master Windu," Obi-Wan said quickly, jerking his hand back and mentally cursing that he had been so obvious. "My Padawan seems to be trying to get my attention," he supplied weakly, hoping he didn't sound quite as incompetent as he thought he did - space in front of the Council, no less!

To his everlasting surprise, the entire Council, all twelve members, shared soft and knowing smiles.

Yoda gave a warm chuckle. "Then go you should; and see what trouble your Padawan has found. Done here, we are."

Obi-Wan bowed and left as fast as dignity would allow, his mind swirling in many directions. What had Yoda meant when he talked of Anakin finding trouble? Did he feel that Obi-Wan's Padawan was prone to it, a troublemaker, some subtle jibe or reminder that he did not approve of the boy? No, that was beneath the Master, Obi-Wan berated himself for thinking so little of a Council member. Was he really so uncertain about his standing that his mind would jump to such thoughts? What had Anakin done to make him shout, "lost!" over and over? Where would he be if he actually considered himself such? What had he gotten himself into?

And why, stars above, why had this happened in front of the Council?

Anakin startled when he felt something like a response from his master, a soft where infused his mind, colored with irritation. What did his master have to be irritated, Anakin wondered. He didn't fall down a pipe and out of the Temple. He growled slightly but did not leave his meditation, opening his eyes slightly and picturing everything around him, sending it through the bond.

He thought he heard a soft feeling of coming, and the boy assumed that everything was set and all he had to do was wait. Opening his eyes and coming out of the meditation, he stood and stretched his legs, wondering how long it would take before his master would find him. He craned his neck up again, trying to follow the line of the Temple up and up, but it was too high for him to fathom, and it only made his shoulders hurt. Frowning, the young Padawan rolled them and lowered his head, looking for interesting things that were more down to earth.

It was a little past midday, the sun was and would be hidden behind one of the spires for a few minutes, and without the shine of the glass, Anakin had a better look around.

That was, of course, when he saw the poster.

It was plastered on one of the buildings, scraped there by a less than professional hand and looked much like the ones Anakin often saw on Tatooine for the back races, the illegal ones that weren't controlled by the Hutts. It depicted a podracer, zooming so fast that the rest of the background was painted in colored streaks. The text read, "Wanna race? Come to the lower level tracks and see if you have enough adrenaline!" Anakin stared at the poster, goggled it really, as his mind absorbed perhaps for the first time, that life existed outside of the Temple and the Senate. He'd had no idea that Coruscant even had lower levels, and his innate curiosity made him wonder what it was like, who would be down there; but more importantly, what were the tracks like, did anything match what Beggar's Canyon back home could do to a racer, what kinds of turns were there, what kind of racers were considered standard, who was the best racer on this circuit? That thought made Anakin grin, whoever the best was, he would soon be deposed now that he was here to show everyone who the best really was.

He was memorizing the address when a hand clamped firmly on his shoulder. Startled, he looked up to see his master in silhouette, the sun directly behind him, making his expression impossible to see.

"Obi-Wan!" he cried out brightly. "Look at this! They have podraces here! When can we go down and watch them? Do Jedi have podracers, 'cause if they do I want to sign up and show them all who the winner of the Boonta Eve Festival is! Do you know what the track is like, or what kind of fuel-"

"Padawan," Obi-Wan asked, "It this was made you cry out to me through the bond in the middle of a Council meeting?"

Anakin had enough presence of mind to feel abashed, and he looked down accordingly. He gave himself about three seconds before he decided that was enough atonement and launched into an explanation of what happened:

"I was checking out some of the maintenance ducts for that Temple report I had to do and it was really cool how everything glowed in the dark because of the phosphorus compound that had been sealed on all the pipes but they could only work in complete darkness and when my datapad lit up so I could take notes and stuff I didn't see that there was an open pipe right below me and I fell through and I didn't know how to get back inside!" He paused to take a breath but finally caught site of Obi-Wan's face. The stern, downright cold look blocked any further words from escaping.

The Jedi stared at the boy for a long time, his face frozen, before his eyes closed and he heaved a deep, weary, sigh. A hand went up to his beard, tugging small strands of it. Finally,

"Come, Anakin. Let's go."

Obi-Wan turned on his heel and started walking, leaving Anakin to scramble to catch up and wondering what was wrong. "Obi-Wan? Obi-Wan what happened? What's wrong? Are you mad at me?"

The Jedi paused at that, tilting his head slightly. "... No," he said finally, his voice sounding defeated. Anakin had not caught up yet to see his face. "No, I'm not angry, Padawan. I dare say you gave me quite the scare when I realized you were outside the Temple." Anakin assimilated that, quickly writing that off as a lie because Obi-Wan was never scared.

"Then what's the big deal?" he pressed, wanting to figure out why his master had looked so cold back there. "I was doing my crèche-work and fell down a duct, it was an accident."

"And the podracing questions?"

Anakin found himself being defensive. "Oh, come on!" he said, still jogging to keep up with the Jedi's long strides. "I love podracing! You know that! Maybe the better question is why you didn't tell me there were races like that on Coruscant, huh?"

Obi-Wan froze, coming to a halt so quickly Anakin nearly ran into him. He used his momentum to spin around and throw a fierce look at the Jedi. "Well?" he demanded.

The man had closed his eyes, though, and was rubbing his chin again. "Anakin," he asked slowly, "I thought you wanted to be a Jedi."

That hurt. Hurt a lot. "Of course I do!" he shouted, his voice cracking with volume.

"Then why are you letting yourself get distracted with occurrences outside the Temple?"

"I am not!" he cried out, shocked and hurt that his master would even think such a thing. "I was doing my crèche-work, what part of that didn't you hear?"

Obi-Wan crouched down to eye level, putting a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Anakin," he said softly, "I want you to listen to me: the life of a Jedi is very hard. It requires discipline and total dedication. Total. Outside influences cannot be entered into the equation. This will be harder for you, I understand, because you haven't grown up with this knowledge; you know better than the other younglings here what lies outside the Temple and your natural curiosity draws you to it."

"Then..."

"Anakin," the Jedi said over the Padawan. "Your only focus should be on the training, on becoming a Jedi. Any other distractions will only hinder you, and you are too talented for that to happen. Do you understand?"

"But..."

"Do you understand?" he pressed.

"... Yes, Master," he replied softly, though it was a lie. Anakin felt the weight of the question, though he did not completely understand it. He couldn't figure out why liking podracing would hurt him in becoming a Jedi, because it was his podracing that broke him out of slavery. If he was as talented as people were starting to say about him, then surely he could multitask? He was confused, and when Obi-Wan got like this - stern and unyielding and unable to listen - he didn't know what to do.

The second time he snuck out of the Temple it was to see Palpatine.

The third time he snuck out it was to see the podraces.

Author's Notes: Sigh, poor Obi-Wan, though he gets little screen-time here this is actually his chapter, kind of.

All it says in his profile at wookiepedia that he goes on a long period of "self doubt," and so we can only imagine that he doesn't feel that he's on sure footing with the Council, Yoda's refusal to consent to his training - Yoda! Whom he has nothing but the deepest respect - must have rocked him to his core and made him doubt every decision he makes in regard to Anakin. Would the Council approve of this or that? Did he make the right decision over this problem? One imagines that after a meeting with the Council he would feel even jitterier and, probably, more reserved towards Ani. This leaves him less inclined to give the emotional understanding that Anakin needs when he's asking a question.

And so, cue Palpatine. And the Soap Opera continues.

Next time: Anakin's Worst Week Ever and how Obi-Wan helps.