"There are too many of them, Anakin!"
"I can take them!"
"Nooo! Wait! Stop!"
It was no use. Anakin wouldn't listen. Yes, he was a Knight now and not a padawan anymore but they should still fight as one—collaborate.
"Rex! Cody! Hold position as best you can! I guess I'm helping Anakin clear the way."
"Understood, sir!"
Obi-wan vaulted into the air and landed atop the nearest tank, plunging his saber deep inside, disabling the droid manning the war machine. Ahead, he saw Anakin doing the same—but he was halfway across the battlefield by now. Obi-wan tried reaching out to the young knight in the force because as far as Obi-wan could tell it seemed his former apprentice was attempting to bypass the battle and simply take the droid stronghold immediately. How did he intend to hold the base once taken, though?
"Blast!" He said aloud. When would that boy learn?! Why couldn't he just stick to the plan for once?
Once the front line was sufficiently safe for his troopers to move forward, Obi-wan leapt high onto a communications tower placed on the primitive world by the separatists. From that height he was better able to survey the battle and discern his former padawans location. His heart dropped into his stomach. Anakin was at the entrance to the droid compound battling droidekas. Anakin was far outnumbered and there was no way he could maintain his current level of defense for long. He would tire and slip up and would be blasted to bits.
Overconfidence, Anakin. Where is your forethought?
Closing his eyes, he centered himself and dispelled all worries and criticisms.
In his mind's eye he viewed the battle before him. He precisely placed each droid and their shooting patterns and then he was soaring through the air and landing lightly in the middle of the destroyer droids encircling Anakin. Instantaneously, he summoned the force around and in between each droid and with one fluid wave of his hands he lifted them all into the air and closed his fists, crushing them. Obi-wan released the force around them and all fifteen droids fell to the ground, harmless. He took a deep breath. His hands trembled from the surge of power he has extended. He could barely sense Anakin a few meters away from him as his head pounded and ached from what he knew was impending force fatigue. This was not Obi-wans preferred method of fighting. His average midichlorian count caused great bursts of focus and energy like the one he had just expended to be costly to his force reservoir. He usually relied on superior skill and tactics with expertly applied minor use of the force to aid him. He had bested even Master Windu on occasion using this method. If only Anakin had the forethought to use his massive force reserve instead of relying on brute strength and power he would not have had to over extend himself. They each had to play to their strengths but Anakin always wanted it all and believed himself more capable in everything.
"Couldn't you have waited for the rest of us?" Obi-wan sighed wearily.
Anakin bristled at his former masters rescue, knowing that he himself could have performed that exact force feat with less cost to himself if he had only thought ahead instead of losing himself in the heat and satisfaction of battle.
"I was handling it," Anakin retorted bitterly as he turned his back to his master. Just then he heard something whiz through the air and the force clamored to him in warning. He looked over his shoulder just in time to see a spear pierce Obi-wans unarmored chest and pin him to a wall. Shock froze him as another spear skewered his master through the abdomen. The first spear had knocked all breath from Obi-wan and he hadn't made any sound save for a gasp. The second spear however gutted him painfully and he screamed in agony once and then twice as gravity pulled on his body against the spears imbedded in him.
"Master!" Anakin finally called out. It was then that he realized the attacker was one of the native species of the planet. The people he had thought were victims of the Separatists. The reason he had pushed forward to the base was to free these people before they were slaughtered in retaliation for the Republics attack. He had seen it before. The enemy knew the Jedi cared greatly for the survival of innocents in the war and so they retaliated by punishing the jedis efforts by planet wide genocide. Anakin had hoped to avoid a repeat of that disaster. Apparently, this time the planets inhabitants were in league with the separatists and not victims at all.
Now they were surrounded by spear wielding aliens. They were aiming more projectiles at Obi-wan, intending to finish what they had started.
"Noooo!" Anakin screamed and his voice projected force enhanced sound waves that hit the aliens violently, causing them to drop their weapons and throw their hands over their ears. Blood poured over their hands and out of their ears and orbital sockets. Before he stopped screaming they were all dead.
"Obi-wan!" Anakin breathed and he rushed over to his master.
Obi-wan desperately grasped at the spear in his chest as it held him suspended by his wounds onto the wall. Guttural gasps emanated from deep in his throat. His eyes were wide with pain and abject distress.
"I got you," Anakin whispered as he tried to hold his master up to relieve the pressure on his wounds. Obi-wan screamed yet again at the movement of the spears in his body. "Sorry! Sorry, Master. How do I get you down? Should I pull them out?" Obi-wans eyes widened even more in alarm as he shook his head vehemently. "Okay, okay!" Anakin backed off as he held up his hands obediently.
"Cut…me….down," Obi-wan gasped out with difficulty. Anakin nodded in understanding and approached Obi-wans back.
"You're too close to the wall. I can't get my blade between without burning you." Obi-wans head fell dismally, succumbing to the pain and losing all focus.
"Do something, Anakin! Please!" His face contorting in pained sympathy, Anakin hurriedly pushed his masters body away from the wall and back through the spear wings jutting out from the end of the spear head which had already passed once through Obi-wans body. When his masters body was several inches onto the spears wooden handle, Anakin was finally able to cut through the spear between his master and the wall. Obi-wan fell and Anakin caught him before he could fall forward onto the spears handle and then he lowered him to the ground onto his side.
"Master. Obi-wan." Anakin said as he reached for and held his masters face in his hand. His fingers left blood stains on the wounded man's cheek. The symbolism of having Obi-wans blood on his hands was not lost on him and pierced his heart with guilt. "This is all my fault. I'm sorry Master. I'm so sorry." Tears fell from his face and splashed on Obi-wans tunic, the saltwater doing nothing to dilute the red liquid staining his masters clothing. Obi-wan didn't answer as he started choking and coughing. Blood bubbled up out of his mouth, covering his chin and running down his neck. Anakin tried to help his master breathe and cough the rest of the blood up by elevating him to a sitting position but the blood didn't stop. It was a river of blood and there was no stemming it. The medics were on the other side of the battlefield with the battle still raging on. No help was coming. He was all Obi-wan had. But he was no healer. Then again he didn't know he could destroy his enemies through a scream of rage either. Time to use his instincts instead of his training. Anakin spread his hand onto Obi-wans chest and reached into the force. Closing his eyes he saw inwardly the blood flowing into his masters damaged lungs. His minds eye followed the blood to its source and stemmed its flow through the force. He could do this. It was just like a computer. He could plunge his mind into the inner workings of any machine and get the circuits running again. This was the same. He just had to slow the blood long enough for the medics to get here. Obi-wan coughed up the remaining blood in his chest and finally was able to take a breath. The blood did not stop entirely, though. Anakin slowed it as much as he could but he could not stop it entirely without stopping Obi-wans heart.
It took all of his concentration to stop Obi-wan from drowning on his own blood. He didn't know how much time had passed when he slowly became aware of clone voices around him and a hand was on his shoulder.
"General! Let us take over," a helmeted voice told him. Anakins eyes remained closed.
"No! I can't stop. He will drown. The blood. So much blood." Anakin shuddered.
The medic who was scanning Obi-wans body said, "He is right, Rex. I don't know how he is doing it but right now he is the only thing keeping the General alive."
"Help him, Kix! I don't know how much longer I can do this!"
"On it, General!" Kix responded.
"We've got to do a Thoracostomy to drain the lungs and takeover for General Skywalker until we can get Kenobi into surgery." Kix said aloud, mostly to himself to ground him. He pulled out a small scalpel from his kit, tore away Kenobis tunic and swiftly cut a hole in between the ribs and quickly stuck a hollow plastic tube into the incision. Immediately blood spurted out and onto Kix. Cody picked up Skywalkers lightsaber that had fallen to the generals side when he has caught Kenobi. The commander then ignited it and cut off the protruding ends of the spears sticking out from Kenobis chest and abdomen.
"General Skywalker, you can stop now." Kix said.
Rex crouched beside his General and put his hand on the Knights shoulder and without warning Anakin fell backward into Rex's arms, senseless.
Anakin awakened to a pounding head and blurry vision. The lights of the med bay blinded him. Noises were at first garbled and unrecognizable. He opened and then closed his eyes, shaking his head and running his hands down his face.
"General Skywalker, sir."
"Kix?"
"Yes, sir. You're in med bay, sir. You check out alright. You must've just overdone it a bit while helping General Kenobi."
Obi-wan! He stood up suddenly from his bed and swayed immediately as a wave of dizziness came over him.
"Easy there, sir. Take it slow. Eat this." The medic handed him a chocolate bar. Anakin looked at the item in his hand, confused.
"What's this for?"
"Cody's idea. He said that their medic found it works well for Kenobi—who frequently overdoes it, apparently."
"That he does," Anakin mused somberly as he recalled how his master just recently had summoned massive force energy to save him from those droidekas.
"Kix, be straight with me. How is he? Did he…?" He couldn't finish the question.
"He's alive, sir. Brought out of bacta a few hours ago. He had emergency surgery immediately prior to that to repair some organ damage. By all rights, with a Jedi's superior constitution and healing speed he should be recovering."
"Should be?"
"His vitals have been way off from the start. At first I chalked that up to the traumatic injuries, but his readings are not improving. Out of curiosity I ran some labs and didn't find anything wrong until I sent them to the Temple for a second opinion." Kix paused.
"And? They found something? An explanation?"
"They ran the results through their medical computer and found a discrepancy in midichlorian counts. His levels are way below his baseline on record—in fact, they are almost nonexistent."
"What?! Even force exhaustion doesn't deplete them to that point. Sure, Obi-wan overextended himself a bit but I've seen him do much more and walk away with nothing but a migraine."
"The Healers couldn't explain it until I relayed to them how you had helped Kenobi." Kix stopped for a moment, looking worried. "Apparently, they think because you are not trained in healing arts you may have inadvertently tapped into Kenobis force signature to save him, depleting his midichlorians even further."
"What?! I…tried…I wanted…to help him! I didn't mean…"
"I know, sir. And you did. He would have died before we got there if you had done nothing."
"And now he is going to die anyway?"
"I'm sorry, sir. We are doing everything we can but unfortunately his injuries I would consider fatal to anyone but a Jedi and right now General Kenobi is about as force-sensitive as a clone.
Suddenly the ship shook violently, the lights dimmed and then came back on again. A blaring siren soon followed.
"Kriff!" Anakin swore. "Great timing. I have to see to this. Keep in communication with the Temple, Kix. There has to be something we can do."
"Unfortunately, this attack has been underway for some time, General. The enemy has destroyed our communications relay. The Separatists are outmatched and have already lost most of their cannons to our fighters. However, there is no way to communicate further with the Jedi Healers. In addition, light speed is currently down. We are on our own here. But there is no need for you to go to the bridge, let alone your fighter. This attack will be over soon and you need rest."
Anakin took in this information soberly. Things were bad. Obi-wan needed Jedi healing and they were stuck here on the other side of the galaxy. He dare not make any further attempts at force healing given what damage his last attempt had wrought upon his master.
"Wait! Kix! Since I don't have the skill to force heal Obi-wan, what if we just gave him my power directly?"
"Sir?" The medic asked, befuddled.
"My blood. My midichlorians. They could give him the chance a non-force sensitive lacks."
"Interesting idea, General. It's definitely worth a shot."
"Let's do it, then! Now!"
"Yes, if this is going to work we have to hurry. I don't know how much time he has left."
The transfusions Obi-wan had been given previously had likely diluted his midichlorian count even further so they decided that blood also needed to be replaced by Anakins as much as possible. Luckily, Anakin had a sturdy constitution but even so he had passed out before discovering if his donation had made the impact Obi-wan needed for recovery. When he woke up days later he was glad to have proof that it was successful. Obi-wan sat at Anakins bedside in a hoverchair and had a blanket over his legs. His sunken eyes were closed and he appeared to be meditating, though not very well it would seem as his brow was furrowed in a worried expression.
"Master?" Anakin croaked.
Obi-wan opened his eyes and a smile lit up his face.
"You're awake! You had me worried, my former padawan."
"Me? What about you, you crazy old man? You really gave us a scare this time."
"Yes, well, that was an unfortunate business to be sure—but you cannot put yourself at such risk for me, Anakin. So much is at stake. You must not risk yourself unnecessarily when your destiny is so important."
"So you don't care about me?" Anakin jibed with a smirk.
"What?! I just said…"
"So I'm nothing more than a prophecy to you? That's the only reason you were worried?"
"Of course not, Anakin. That's not what I meant. It's just that…" Obi-wan began to stutter and huff and his face started turning red.
"It's okay, master. I know. I care about you, too."
"Yes, well, two people who have been through as much together as we have could not possibly not form a bond of sorts. It's unavoidable. The code of non-attachment is after all more of an ideal to strive after—a guideline to keep us grounded in the force and not crude matter."
"Who you calling crude? After all, it was my powerful Chosen-One mojo blood that saved you."
Obi-wan grinned sardonically. "Really Anakin, you do twist my words around."
"I'll take that as a compliment from the great Negotiator himself."
They laughed and fell into an easy silence.
"One more thing, Anakin," Obi-wan said seriously.
"I know, I know, Master. Next time I will wait for you and think ahead."
"Yes, well that would of course be appreciated but what I was going to say is: please don't try to heal me again."
Anakins spirits fell at that. "I'm so sorry, master. I didn't know what I was doing and ended up hurting you. I may actually finally take that advanced class on force healing once we get back home."
"Perhaps start with retaking the beginners class, padawan mine. If I remember you barely scraped by that course. However, I am absolutely flabbergasted that you are volunteering to take an unrequired class, Anakin."
"Yes, well sometimes one must go to great lengths when their best friend is a self-sacrificing idiot."
"Likewise, my friend. Likewise."
THE END