My apologies for the long update with this one. I have a plan for where this is going, so bare with me. Also, I got my other story pretty much finished, so I can focus on this over the winter break.
David-El: Thanks for your comments. I realize your review was for as far as chapter 12, but I hope the following clears up some things. If not, let me know and I'll clarify anything you have problems with.
I can totally see Yoda taking Anakin on rather than Mace, after all it was Yoda who brought Qui-Gonn and Obi together in the first place, it wouldn't surprise me if he felt responsible to Anakin as his only connection to the pair he obviously as a deep and abiding respect for, especially for Obi. I always interpreted Yoda's skepticism at Obi taking on Anakin as a padawan as an indictment of Obi's abilities to take on the role of Master so soon after becoming a knight, rather than Anakin was not to be trained at all. It's Mace who declares Anakin will not be trained at the Council meeting and from the movies I get the impression that Mace is never keen with Anakin being around, so I really don't think he'd be taking on that role. But I could be reading that wrong, I'm willing to accept that. As for the Dooku thing, I have been reliably informed that Yoda was not Dooku's Master, however he was Dooku's teacher, right? He calls him, 'my old padawan' in the AotC movie, so at some point in his life he was Yoda's student, just as Anakin had been Obi's student, but when Anakin turns he's a full knight and no longer under Obi's tutorage, so all I meant was, just because the teacher is great, doesn't mean the person won't get tempted by the dark side. So I'm not in any way disputing the fact that Dooku was tempted after he became a master. Thanks again for the opportunity to talk about this, I hope you're still enjoying the story.
After waking so suddenly, Obi didn't feel like sleeping, he had too much to think about. He got up off the bed and found he was much more able to move around, his back not really bothering him very much at all. How long had he slept, he wondered, to be feeling so much better now. He took the comforter off the end of the bed and pulled it round his shoulders to head outside on the cold veranda. The night wind was rushing through the dense forest below him, and he reached out with his force senses to feel the fast flow of the living force all around him.
He drifted back to the dream he'd just woken from, trying to remember every detail his former Master had spoken. He couldn't deny that his connection to the force had been on the increase in recent days but the idea of working with the Sith rather than defeating them, which seemed to be what Qui was implying, was not something he could get his head around just yet. All of his encounters with Ventress had involved sabers and the only blending that was going on was the potential blend of flesh with said saber, so the prospect of helping her out was rather strange. But a feeling in the pit of his stomach told him she was in trouble, and the anguished look on her face in the dream was not easy to forget, there was no way he was leaving her wherever she had ended up. All he had to do was find her.
"Ben?" came a groggy sounding voice from behind him. He turned to see Boba at the doorway rubbing his eyes. Obi smiled and went over to him, taking him in a large hug and wrapping the warm comforter around them both.
"It's good to see you, old man," said Obi to the boy who held on to the older man as he slowly woke himself up. "How are you feeling?" He led Boba back inside to the relative warmth of their suite and closed the door to the veranda behind him.
"Good," came Boba's reply, "well, better, anyway. We've had some rough times," he said sadly and sat heavily on the couch he'd been sleeping on. Ben pulled a chair up and sat opposite him, taking a moment to do a non-intrusive scan of his young friend. Despite his removal of the dark tendrils left behind by Maul's assault, Boba's mind was still deeply hurting and seemed almost fixed in one spot, but without digging deeper, Ben had no idea why that was.
"Boba, I'm so sorry I wasn't there for you," he said quietly, leaning towards the boy and holding his knees that had started trembling. "Are you cold?" he asked rising, and he folded the comforter around Boba's small frame. The child looked like a wrapped present in the great folds of material, but there was room next to him for Ben to sit on the same couch, so he moved beside Boba and placed his arm around his shoulders, pulling him close, so Boba could rest his head on Ben's chest.
"I know Maul did something terrible to you and I can help you get through it, but you're going to have to trust me with this. Do you think you can do that?" Boba just nodded very gently, stiffening a little unsure of what was to come. "OK, then, I need you to breathe deeply and try to relax. I'm going to need to see inside your mind, your memories so I can heal the damage he caused."
Boba tensed, suddenly very afraid, "No! You'll see, you'll see!" He pulled on the comforter to get away from Ben. "Why weren't you there? Why did you send me back there in the first place? Did you know? Is that why you didn't mind them finding me? Because I'm so disposable?"
"You are not disposable, Boba. Where would you get an idea like that? Is that what Maul placed in your mind? Show me what he did, please."
"You can't change it, you can't take it back. I'm not really Boba, so don't call me that!"
"Not really Boba?" sighed Ben, trying to fathom what had been done to the poor child. This was getting him nowhere. "OK, OK, I can't change it, but I can at least see if this is something real or another one of Maul's tricks."
"A trick?" asked Boba, feeling a sense of hope coming from his friend, "It could be a trick?"
"I can't guarantee that, Boba, but I wouldn't put it past Maul to do something like that. And whatever I find out, know that I'm right here with you. I'm not going anywhere."
Boba looked nervous, but he had to see if this was real or not, and he knew he couldn't keep going over the images Maul had left him with or he would go mad. Trusting Ben was easy, even if he hadn't prevented what had happened, Boba remembered the desperate fight Ben had undergone to rescue him, and even a badly wounded Ben had managed to comfort Boba on the ship to Serenno. Boba had insisted on being close to Ben during his recovery and had felt the oppression within his body and mind lifted somewhat once he had woken.
"Just promise me one thing," asked Boba, pulling the comforter closer, "no matter what you find," his eyes were suddenly intensely focused on Ben, "be honest with me, please. Don't sugar coat it or hide it, just tell me if what he made me see was real."
Boba's expression and conviction behind his words made the boy seem much older than his ten years. It was now Ben's turn to nod slowly, unable to take his eyes from the frightened, yet determined child before him.
"Of course, Boba, we'll find the truth, together." This seemed to be enough for Boba as he settled his head onto Ben's chest again. Ben leaned back into the couch and got them as comfortable as he could and began to reach out to Boba's mind, keeping things slow and gentle, taking care to enter Boba's mind without causing more damage.
"Take some deep breathes, Boba, it's going to feel like I'm pressing down on you, don't resist, just let me see what you see." Ben began the slow breathing he wanted Boba to follow and the boy quickly fell into rhythm with the former Jedi. Ben found it easy to move into the fragile mind, bringing the force energy swirling around him in to shield and protect those parts of Boba's mind that were clearly his own experiences. It wasn't difficult to bring the invaded material forward to examine, Maul had seen to it that the memory would bounce back up to the boy's surface thoughts the more he tried to suppress it. Boba tensed in his arms, the comforter twisting in his clenched fists.
/Oh, Jango. Why didn't you tell me!/ thought Ben as he played the sequence through, looking for any sign this was a created memory. But Maul had been able to leave clear mental markers that confirmed the validity of the scene, and Ben felt his body shiver from the cold detached attitude Maul had in destroying the child in his grasp. Ben quickly sequestered the memory to a corner of Boba's metal library, and removed the mental cord Maul had used to spring it constantly forward. He checked over the boy's mind, sending force energy to help heal the damage such maneuvers had inevitably caused and then as carefully and gently as he had entered, slipped slowly back out of Boba's mind.
Their breathing continued to remain in synch as the two of them recovered from the deep meditation they had undergone. Boba reached up and rubbed his forehead.
"The headache will last for a while, I'm afraid, but I'll get you something for that." Ben moved to rise, but Boba stopped him.
"That can wait. Was it a trick? Can you stop me from seeing it?"
Ben looked sadly at Boba.
"I'm sorry Boba, it wasn't a trick, Maul did kill that boy and made your father watch."
Boba pulled away from Ben and rose to his feet.
"He's not my father, don't call him that!" he said, close to tears.
Ben also rose and took Boba into another hug.
"Don't say that, Boba, when you know it isn't true. Jango considered every one of you as his sons. He would die for any one of you, without question."
"How can I believe that, when he lied to me about everything?"
"Think, Boba, did he ever once lie about how he felt about you or your brothers? Did he ever give you reason to doubt his affection for you until Maul placed this memory inside your mind? The anguish, grief and frustration he felt through those moments are evidence enough."
Boba pulled away again and turned on Ben.
"But they weren't for me, they were for the real Boba, not some cheap clone knock-off!"
"Don't you understand, you are one and the same with that child in Jango's eyes. Every one of you is one of his sons and he holds each of you as dear to his heart as the next. Perhaps that wasn't the case in the beginning, but even before this incident with that Boba, Jango's connection to you all was changing. This tragedy that you've been forced to witness clinched things for him, and ever since he's been trying to find a way to free all of you, by any means necessary. Boba, he was prepared to die for you in the arena, never forget that devotion to you that he expressed through that sacrifice."
"Then why not just tell me? Why the lying?"
"I'm new to this fatherly role, I have no idea. To protect you, to protect all of you, I don't know. You'll have to ask him that yourself."
Boba sighed heavily, feeling drained by the whole thing. "And how am I supposed to do that?"
Ben smiled, seeing the exhaustion in the boy's features. "Oh, I'm sure we'll think of some daring do to get to him! Now, let's get some rest while there's still some night left. You won't be bothered by those memories quite so much. They're still there, I don't have the skills to remove them, but I've put them somewhere out of the way for the time being."
"Oh yeah," said Boba as Ben led him to the bed, "put them with my algebra classes, then?" he chuckled wearily.
"Actually, I found a particularly sterile set of lectures about astro physics that I thought could bury them quite nicely." He smiled at Boba's wince at the mention of that class and pulled the comforter over him.
"Wait, where will you sleep?" Boba asked even as he settled and sank into the fluffy pillow.
"Ah, well I have our escape plan to formulate."
"We're prisoners here now?
"Well, no, but 'escape plan' sounded better than 'walk-out-and-borrow-a-ship plan'." Boba chuckled and rolled onto his side. "Sleep well, my friend," said Ben and he turned back to the couch, now contemplating the rescue of two former foes.