So, before we begin, I need to do some serious apologizing for the last couple of days fiddling with the chapters! I was reading through everything and discovered the I had posted chapter 27 twice, so chapter 29 was a repeat. I thought I had remedied the situation only to discover that I had totally messed up the chapter order and had to resubmit chapter 40 with a different name or it wouldn't accept it!
Anyway, the short explanation is, READ CHAPTER 29 (LABBELED CHAPTER 30) AS THIS WILL FILL IN SOME GAPS! The chapter begins "Boba was scared…." and has my responses to SeraphimXII and AndrossKenobi's comments. Apologies again, hope this whole thing hasn't put you off!
Valairy Scot: Well, then this chapter will either really entertain or really frustrate you! Sorry in advance if it's the latter! I will admit that I hadn't realized it would take this long to get to them, but there was a lot I wanted to get through with the Maul/Kenobi confrontation. I found it really hard to write the action stuff and it took way more chapters than I expected!
RoMythe: I'm glad you liked that last one. Nice idea about the two names thing, I'm sure I can work that in somewhere! Yep, there goes Obi again, wouldn't be an Obi story without a large dose of self sacrifice, especially in his current condition. So I said in the reply to Valairy Scot's review above, it was really difficult writing those scenes and took way more words than I thought it would and you're completely right about getting it all into the text. Thanks again for the helpful comments.
The Anti-Stratigist: Thanks for the encouragement! I really appreciate it. Updating has been troubled, lately, as I rally haven't had as much to work on this as I had at the start, but the Thanksgiving break should give me some time to run off a few chapters.
Meanwhile…..
Before Maul could close up the ship, he was pulled from the craft and flipped in the air, so he ignited the green blade, which milliseconds later smashed into the similarly colored one of Jedi Master Yoda. He made a quick look around for Mace Windu, but he was not present. Then, as he and Yoda faced off, he sensed through his link, Assajj facing off with the dark skinned Jedi. This would be a real test for the both of them, separated like this the masters had foolishly weakened themselves and both Sith had a chance after all.
Yoda breathed out his shock at seeing Qui-Gon's old blade in Maul's hands, but he didn't have time to dwell on that now. The Sith lord had to be defeated. His connection to the force took over as his deceptively small figure whirled and whipped around the Sith. Maul was keeping pace for the time being, matching blow for blow as the Jedi master became a blur of green fluidity around the Sith.
/Dooku has joined in!/ exclaimed Ventress over their link, /Get back here!/
Momentarily distracted he felt the sting of Yoda's blade rake his left thigh and he spat out a gasp, his eyes falling on Kenobi as he swung down and away from another strike aimed at his legs. He thin smile spread over his lips and he moved back into the fight with increased vigor.
/Tell them of what Kenobi did to you in the shuttle. I think you'll be surprised by the Count's reaction./
Another spinning attack got too close to Maul's horns for comfort, he could feel the heat of Yoda's blade through the sensitive appendages on his head. It was time to end this ridiculous scenario. He pushed his attack into the green blur, trying to drive him back enough for Yoda to have to flip off the wall behind him an go up and over Maul so all Maul had to do was feign to the left and twist the blade up into the annoying gnome.
Yoda must have sensed his intention, because he slid down to the right to avoid Maul's blade as it sang in that low hum singeing the hairs in the Jedi Master's ears. Maul spun around and deliberately sniffed the air to take in the burnt smell, smiling devilishly at the Jedi master who had bounded away from Maul, suddenly seeming distracted.
"Problem, is there, Master Yoda?" asked Maul in mock concern. The Jedi master's face was awash with confusion and pain as he glanced at the prone form of Kenobi. "Dark side you sense in him, maybe?"
The two powerful force sensitives circled each other, Kenobi between them.
"Fine apprentice, he will make," Maul continued, enjoying immensely the experiment in Yoda syntax he was employing.
"The dark side, this one, would never truly embrace," his voice was calm, quiet, hiding the exhaustion he was feeling after so short a fight. The force energy of the whole place seemed to be draining away from him the more he pressed his attacks into the Sith and yet he sensed the Sith was faring no better. Yoda had barely managed to avoid having his ear sliced off and it had shaken him. Now the Sith was openly mocking him, trying to goad him into something reckless, a path he was not going to descend as words replaced physical action while the two tried to re-compose themselves. Another problem was that something was wrong with the encounter Mace was facing. He had sensed his old student joining the conflict, but the man was clouding his connection to Yoda.
"How can you possibly say that for certain? He has obviously touched on that part of himself before, you sense the dark forces swirling around him as we speak and you should have seen how effectively he caught my associate in a force choke hold earlier. Really quite literally breath-taking!"
Could this be true? Was Obi-Wan capable of such dark force manipulation as to perform an effective force choke? And yet Ventress lived. She had been recovering as Mace and Yoda entered the main part of the hangar and Mace had taken it upon himself to stop her from escaping, allowing Yoda to seek out their fallen friend. And Maul had been right about the dark tendrils of force that were hanging around the former padawan. In this lull in proceedings Yoda took a moment to look back at them. It was this atmosphere around Obi-Wan that was so draining to both conscious force sensitives. It was as if these tendrils were drawing on the power around to penetrate into the boy, but a surprisingly familiar force presence was keeping them at bay. There was a great deal of hope for Obi-Wan yet and Yoda was not about to give up on the child.
"To me, you will surrender," came Yoda's calm voice again, this time betraying a little of the strain he was feeling.
"Nice try at changing the subject," said Maul, unimpressed with the Master's response. He had successfully blocked from Yoda the confrontation that had taken place in the main hangar between Mace, Ventress and a fully recovered Dooku, but now was his time to escape and he wasn't leaving empty handed.
"He's mine, now," he grimaced at Yoda, "or as good as, as far as your precious order is concerned. Do you think they will banish him off somewhere, or study his behavior as they lock him in a cell deep within the temple?"
"Jedi Order, like that, does not work," Yoda desperately wanted to move Obi-Wan from between them, but such a move exposed both Yoda and Obi-Wan to Maul's blade.
"So, forgive and forget, they will?" Maul scoffed at the Jedi Master, who clearly knew nothing of his own people's paranoia at this point, delicately maneuvered by Maul's Sith Master. "I rather doubt that, you old green gnome."
"Leave with him, you will not." Yoda raised his blade again and with a force speed that was astounding, even to Maul, he leapt across the room and swung down on the stunned Maul. The sith apprentice barely had time to ignite the blade and defend himself as the flurry of strikes crashed into him. A swing to his left arm found a whole in his defense and he winced as the blade slashed across it, swiftly followed by a jab to his right leg that, combined with the one on his left thigh, had him stumble back away from Yoda in time to roll away from a head taking swipe. Suddenly his prize didn't seem worth the price of pissing off Jedi Master Yoda.
He reached out and grabbed Kenobi's body and flung it up into the air. The hangar cavern above them was vast in this section, much to Maul's relief and he held the man suspended a good fifty feet above the ground. Yoda was momentarily distracted by the former padawan's assension and tried to prevent it, but the Sith apprentice had a strong force hold around Obi-Wan.
Yoda reached deep inside himself and felt the force flow between him and the force presence of Qui-Gon he had sensed surrounding Obi-Wan. The presence seemed like an echo, now Yoda realized, an echo of the long past Master that Obi-Wan was projecting in an effort to protect himself from the dark force tendrils around him.
/Help you, allow me to/ Yoda sent out, hoping to make some kind of connection to the echo. It took a moment of intense thought and force flow, but Yoda found himself in control of the echo and was able to begin to guide the form back to the hangar floor. The echo drifted over the large open wound on Obi-Wan's back and Yoda nodded in understanding, not that the echo could comprehend that, the nod was merely a reflex to this new information. As the body approached the floor, he turned it so that Obi-Wan would end up on his stomach. Once Obi-Wan was safely down, Yoda examined the empty hangar, Maul's ship having left while he had been bringing Obi-Wan down. The Jedi Master breathed deeply, regaining some of his composure and force sensitivity now the darkness surrounding Maul had left.
A spike of pain pierced his newfound peace as the extent of Anakin's injury was suddenly thrust through his training bond with the boy who had been unable to shield his Master from the intensity of it.
/Master! Master! Don't leave us here! Don't leave../ The cry through the bond was heartbreaking and had Yoda leaping back up the path he had taken to get to Maul and Obi-Wan.
/Leave you, I never would, my padawan. Coming I am, hold on/ and he sent waves of assurance and drew some of the pain he sensed in the boy away from his wound and out into the force as Anakin was unable to perform the task by himself.
The scene before him totally surprised him. He had never expected to find the hangar so changed from when he and Mace first entered. His immediate concern, however, was his padawan and he dashed to the boy's side. He stroked Anakin's sweat covered brow and the usually brilliant blue eyes of his apprentice flashed open to reveal pain glazed orbs and the boy's breathing hitched in his throat.
"Calm, my padawan," caressed Yoda with his voice, continuing to send his reassurances to Anakin and channeling more of the boy's pain out into the force. "Healing trance, we will attempt." Anakin nodded quickly, wincing as a tendril of pain wrapped around his injured arm. With Yoda's help, they guided him into the welcome embrace of the living force and Anakin allowed it to surround his consciousness, the midichlorians given their cue to begin the deep healing and protection such a wound would need. With his padawan comforted, he brought his attention back to the confusing surroundings he found himself in.
Mace was sprawled on the deck, his clothes and skin smoking from receiving force lightening directly to his head and chest. His force signature shone brightly, however and Yoda sensed he would recover momentarily after a brief healing trance the Master had placed himself into. Anakin was as he had left him, but the bodies of Padme and Jango were now positioned outside of the shuttle. They had been positioned with great care, Padme with a rolled up robe beneath her head. The other small craft they had noticed when they first entered the hangar was in pieces, the entire front view window had shattered and the duraglass strewn around the deck. There was something missing as well, and for a moment he wasn't sure what it was until he remembered Anakin's horrified words.
He glanced over to the place his ship should have been and found it empty. The ship was missing.
"Yoda?" asked Mace hesitatingly as he rolled onto his back breathing deeply.
Yoda came to his friend's side and helped him into a sitting position and began to answer Yoda's unasked question.
"It was Dooku, he betrayed me to the Sith," Yoda sensed his friend's shame at not being more cautious with the man. He placed a hand on Mace's shoulder waiting for Mace to explain.
"I thought he was there helping me as we faced off against the Sith, but she began talking about Obi-Wan as though he had turned and how that would sit with the order. I was not about to allow her petty insults get the better of me, however they would appear to have had quite an effect on the Count, as he suddenly turned on me, grabbing my neck and hitting me with a Sith power of force lightening I have never encountered before. I don't seem to be able to recall anything after that. I'm terribly sorry, my friend."
Yoda was taken aback by this revelation. Dooku was Sith? How could this have happened? He had trusted this man with his life on more than one occasion and now he had almost killed Mace, a man he had claimed to hold in such high esteem. What could have possibly made him turn on Mace like that, it didn't make any sense? But then, his position had changed only after Ventress mentioned Obi-Wan and his actions towards her. Suddenly, he realized the echo of Qui-Gon was no longer present in his mind. When had that happened? And what did it mean for Obi-Wan?
"Yoda, what is it?" asked Mace as he saw the concern and urgency cover the Jedi Mater's face.
"Obi-Wan!" exclaimed Yoda and he fled back down the path to the hangar Maul had used. There was no sign of the former padawan, only a patch of blood drying in the oppressive heat of the desert planet.