Will recognized the long metal cylinder Xanatos pulled from beneath his long, dark jacket. It was very like to the one that Obi-Wan had made. The fact that none of them were sure of its function did not help him feel any better. He had a very bad feeling about what Xanatos intended.
"The only question is, which of you is most expendable for my purposes?" His gaze flicked across them one by one, finally settling on Deanna.
"No, wait -" Geordi cried. Will froze. Xanatos raised the cylinder and stepped toward Deanna.
A soft thud and a clatter of metal on the deck turned all their heads. Obi-Wan crouched by the door, hand outstretched. The binders that had held his wrists lay open on the floor. Behind him Sherkess lay groaning.
"You -!" Xanatos stepped toward the boy, cylinder raised in front of him
A blur of movement crossed the room, straight to Obi-Wan's hand.
The boy was on his feet, holding in both hands the canister he'd built, extended. With a sudden hiss, both were ignited. A glowing blue-white cylinder of light, brilliant azure at its heart, sprang from the lens at the end of Obi-Wan's canister: about a meter long, tapering into a point. Its mate, ruby-red, extended from Xanatos's. Each hummed a deep note.
Xanatos laughed. "You dare challenge me?" He stepped sideways on the balls of his feet, circling. Obi-Wan matched him. Both kept their beams of light upraised, like swords, between them.
"You thought I would cower at your feet, and allow you to commit murder and mayhem as you wish?" the boy returned bravely.
"Oh, very good," Xanatos mocked. "And here I was beginning to believe you had acquired some intelligence. You haven't a chance against me, boy. You may as well surrender now."
"Trying to back out already? Are you so afraid to fight?"
In answer, Xanatos stepped forward swung his weapon in a wide arc toward Obi-Wan's head. Smoothly Obi-Wan stepped back; he raised his own weapon over his head, guarding his face: a classic block. The light beams met with a crackle and sizzle, but each stayed whole and solid to the other: a pair of blades, constructed of laser light. Will wondered if they would be solid to flesh. He feared so: and that they would burn, as well as cut. He hoped for Obi-Wan's sake the boy knew what he was doing. He made himself remember the tapes he'd seen of Obi-Wan fighting in the arena at Lansar.
The duel gained pace, now. Xanatos rained blows on the boy, and Obi-Wan returned them, letting the force of Xanatos's strikes propel his own blade to greater speed for attack, defense, and counter-attack. They moved a perfect, graceful dance, no movement wasted, though their economy of gesture brought blades to a hairs-breadth of striking. Xanatos tended to rely on the unexpected: swapping his blade from hand to hand, driving in one direction only to suddenly switch. Obi-Wan anticipated and smoothly countered his every move. His own style was more of power through movement: using the placement of his feet and the swing of his hips to propel his blade through wide, rapid circles.
"Incredible," Picard muttered at his side. Will had to agree. He and Picard shared a hobby of fencing, but neither of them had skill to compare with this. Even the guards had only half their attention on the prisoners, the rest focused on the dueling pair.
But Obi-Wan was tiring, Will could see that now. He had to compensate for his own shorter reach with quickness. And also the wound in his side that he had received from the first probe droid two days before was slowing him. Still he pressed on. He showed no sign of demoralization, only determination. A slow grin spread on Xanatos' face. With a flurry of quick, hard strokes he drove the boy backwards toward the wall.
"This game is pleasant, but I am pressed for time," Xanatos said as he pressed forward. "Surrender to me, and I will be merciful to you and your friends. You have no chance of defeating me, and you know it."
"The randomizer can turn a bomb-out to pure sabacc. At the nether region, pawn becomes Master."
"You think yourself better than a pawn?"
"You've played me the pawn three times now, Xanatos, and three times I've thwarted you. You forget the Force."
"So you are a pawn with delusions of grandeur."
With a suddenness that startled everyone watching, Obi-Wan spun and jumped against the wall, using his momentum to tumble impossibly high above Xanatos's head. His blade swung down as he passed, striking Xanatos a glancing blow on the shoulder. Blood trickled from it.
"I am only a Jedi," said Obi-Wan, and landed lightly on his feet.
Xanatos went cold with fury. His blade swung quick and sharp, his strokes firmer and stronger now, matching his anger. Still Obi-Wan matched him, but once more he was losing ground. His arms trembled with fatigue. "So you are, Jedi. With all the high-handed assurance of your kind that Light must triumph. That the righteous shall prevail."
"The Force is with me."
"The Force has two faces." The ruby blade cut sideways. Obi-Wan turned. Not quickly enough. The blade sliced his side, just below the wound from the droid. "And Dark is the stronger." With a quick pivot and return strike, he severed the hilt of Obi-Wan's weapon. Both halves arced away in a shower of sparks, and clattered to the floor.
Obi-Wan stood still and tall, hands at his side, Xanatos's blade at his throat. In the dim backup lighting of the cargo bay, the red sword cast a bloody pall on the boy's skin.
"Sanctimonious Jedi brat. For all you've done..."
"So kill me."
Quick as a serpent striking, Xanatos drew his blade across Obi-Wan's chest, diagonally from right to left.
"No!" Will cried, simultaneously with Wes. But the cut was shallow. Obi-Wan still stood, still defiant. His hands clenched into fists; blood stained his cut clothing. The ruby blade again rested at his throat.
"Death would be too easy for you," Xanatos hissed. Without turning, he called, "hold him, Poder!" A pale, massive humanoid rushed to do his bidding. The alien pulled the boy's arms roughly behind him and twisted them so Obi-Wan could not move. The red blade disappeared into its hilt and fell silent. Xanatos stowed it at his belt.
"You're going to wish you'd just killed me."
Swiftly Xanatos backhanded Obi-Wan across the face. Obi-Wan's head snapped to the side. The boy blinked rapidly to clear his vision. Will winced. Obi-Wan's jaw was rapidly purpling where he'd been struck. Stop provoking him! Will silently begged.
"You're going to wish I'd just killed you." Xanatos turned on his heel, walked several paces from the boy, and turned to face him once more. "And whence came this bravado? Such a difference from the boy of a few days back, who wept bitterly at my feet after I forced him to watch his friend's beating like an inhuman automaton."
Obi-Wan's expression melted from challenge to a soft, sad look. "Have you no one you would grieve for? Who would grieve for you?" he shook his head slowly. "I pity you."
Xanatos's eyes narrowed. His eyes flashed ice. "Your master took the life of the one I grieve for." He stepped close to Obi-Wan once more, and brushed the boy's face with one hand. "I have not yet taken my payment."
"And how will you pay for the tens of thousands dead for your greed, and your father's? On Telos, and elsewhere. Let the dead rest, Xanatos."
"Fools need no accounting. Vengeance is for the powerful. How I shall enjoy throwing your broken husk at Qui-Gon's feet!"
"You can't break me," said Obi-Wan with quiet confidence.
"Can't I?" Xanatos sneered. He pulled a tiny device from his pocket, and a small vial. "Do you remember the bitter drink?" He looked down at the boy, and smiled, his eyes hard. "I've developed a form of the drug that can be injected." He pressed the device to the base of Obi-Wan's neck. Obi-Wan gasped, and squeezed shut his eyes. "It takes effect much more quickly and intensely this way."
"What's the point? I've resisted this b- b- before." Tremors shook the boy's entire body. Sweat beaded on his forehead.
"Qui-Gon is not here to help you, this time. Your mind will be gone long before he can reach you."
"This is madness!" Picard burst out angrily. "Whatever grievance you have against his master, there is no honor in taking your vengeance on a child!"
"Why, Captain, you are becoming as tiresome as a Lansarite."
"The slave-keepers I've met on Lansar have honor. The lowest slave has honor. You have none," Will jumped in, hoping to distract Xanatos from Obi-Wan, at least for a time.
"How unfortunate for them," Xanatos answered. "I am not so encumbered. Consider that the next time one of you poor honor-bound fools thinks to open your mouth." He turned to the massive alien holding Obi-Wan. "Break his arm, Poder." His gaze swiveled back to the captive crew, settling on Will. He smiled.
Will pressed his lips into a firm line. Wes, pale as a ghost, buried his face in Deanna's shoulder. Obi-Wan grimaced as giant Poder slowly squeezed his forearm, twisting and crushing it. In the silence they heard the bone snap. Obi-Wan's breathing quickened. He did not cry out.
"I believe we have unfinished business, Mr. LaForge."
Slowly Geordi got to his feet under the raised barrel of an alien blaster.
"Where were we? Ah, yes -" A quick flash of red was all they saw of the light sword's arc towards Deanna. Xanatos stumbled backwards as if pushed by an unseen hand. Deanna gasped. Will started to rise, to go to her, but was kicked into place by his guard.
Xanatos once more trained his ire on Obi-Wan. "Fool boy! Why do you continue to defy me? There is no hope for you, or for your friends, however you struggle -"
Deanna - he called silently.
I'm all right, Will. Don't distract me: Obi-Wan needs me here to hold on to.
Will looked anxiously from the blood welling in a thin line across Deanna's abdomen, to Obi-Wan: slumped now in the alien pirate's grasp, shuddering and gasping.
"And still, and yet, hope remains strong in you. Why?" Xanatos stepped toward the boy, slowly, considering.
There is hope yet.
What are you talking about? Will asked bitterly.
I feel it. In Obi-Wan.
"What are you hiding?" Xanatos asked the boy, suspicious. "You're waiting for something." He grabbed a fistful of Obi-Wan's short hair and pulled back his head. "You can't keep me out, little Jedi. Your shields would fall in a gentle breeze." He focused on the boy's eyes.
Obi-Wan cried out, and Deanna gasped.
Xanatos let go the boy's head with an angry shove. Obi-Wan slumped forward, boneless. "Qui-Gon comes," Xanatos growled. "You knew. All this has been a ploy, to delay me and hold my attention. You knew."
Obi-Wan raised his eyes slowly to Xanatos. Without a trace of triumph or irony, he said simply, "Check."
Xanatos clenched his fists, but his voice remained low, controlled. Dangerous. "Clever. Clever pawn. But the game is not finished. Your sacrifice will yet be in vain."
An invader ran into the room, breathless, and skidded to a halt a few meters short of Xanatos. "Boss -" he called out, then stopped abruptly when Xanatos turned his cold raging eyes upon him.
"What is it?" The leader growled.
The pirate, a human, took a step back before continuing. "Jedi, boss. Three of them, two decks above. We can't hold them."
"Three." Xanatos' voice was flat, emotionless. "How did they come so far, without my knowing?"
"We - we tried to contact you -"
"They're here for the boy," called the pirate engineer from behind the console. "They've come for their own. Leave him, and let's get out of here!"
"Don't be a fool. The Jedi brat is leverage. Poder! Terden! Take both boys; you're to come with me. Devender! You're in charge. Gather everyone in the area and hold the Jedi here."
"We can't hold against three Jedi!" The alien protested.
"Don't fight them. Use the hostages. The Jedi will not proceed if doing so will endanger innocent lives. When we're clear of the ship I'll signal you, and you can leave. The Jedi will ignore you, and come after me and the boys."
Devender looked for a moment like it might protest, but a look at Xanatos changed its mind. Evidently its fear of its leader won out. It nodded and drew its weapon.
Xanatos walked to where Obi-Wan was held immobile by the massive arms of the pale alien; Wesley was held by its twin.
"You won't escape Qui-Gon and Tomas this time," Obi-Wan challenged him.
"Won't I?" Xanatos sneered. "Let's go," the man ordered. His two minions each lifted a boy over an immense shoulder, and followed him from the room through the doors at the far end.
Will's heart sank. Even with help on the way, he feared he would never see either boy again.
"How will I tell Beverly?" Picard groaned.
"And the Jedi that are coming," Will added.
"It's not over yet," Deanna told them. "That boy just sacrificed himself to save my life. We're getting him back. We're getting them both back."
"How?" Geordi asked. He had been dropped to the floor, finally, in front of them - wrists once more shackled together. "I'm fresh out of plans. The last one was a disaster, anyway."
"We wait. After what we just saw, I'm betting on the Jedi," she answered.