Part Five

"See disa wall here? It stayed up because of the structure."

"I'm afraid I don't completely understand."

"The weight, deysa distributed evenly across the old ceiling," Augara explained. "And then, all the floorboards deysa all tied together by dis beam here. So when de bombs, deysa come fallin', the buildin' don't shatter like the others."

Obi-Wan studied what Augara pointed out for him. For the last three days the dark brown Gungan had been giving him quite the education on how buildings were made. Obi-Wan had known little more than duracrete walls and transparisteel windows. Now he was learning about structure and weight distribution and electronics and plumbing and this thing called HVAC. It was new and different and complex in ways Obi-Wan would never have expected. He was surprised to learn how much care went into Gungan architecture, how structures were made to a strict collection of rules. "It must be up to Code!" Augara had said, and Obi-Wan was shocked to learn that the word had meaning outside the Jedi.

Theed construction was old, and many of the buildings had been deteriorating long before the bombings even took place. Augara was surprised more buildings hadn't collapsed before the Federation blockade and invasion.

Obi-Wan was also learning to apply his lessons in different ways. Living Force was not his forte, and it had cost him dearly; now he focused his mind to look at the Force around the buildings, trying to ascertain if he could differentiate between the structures that survived and those that didn't, what had worked and what hadn't. It sometimes gave him a headache, reading the Force of inanimate objects was a skill for others like Quinlan, but the memory of his old friend hurt, so fresh was his abandoning the Jedi, that he tried not to focus on it. It also made him redouble his efforts; if he wanted to live as a Jedi without the title, he would have to learn how to apply what he'd learned in the Temple in new and different ways.

Perhaps because he was so focused on the Force, he noticed something. He paused in lifting his boulder, long enough that Augara turned to see what had caught his new friend's attention.

"Obi?"

The former Jedi cocked his head to the side listening. They were on one pile of rubble that had been a three-story building; and he suddenly felt very strongly that he was running out of time. That was the Unifying Force. But also he felt a spark of life, a collection of the Force somewhere, weak and dim. If he weren't focusing on the energy of the structure he would not have realized there was still som-

"Someone's down there!" he cried out, dropping his boulder almost on his foot.

"What? What?" Augara asked, following his friend as Obi-Wan leapt over one of the collapsed walls and shoved aside another worker. Obi-Wan circled slightly, trying to hone in on the signature.

"Here," he said, bending down and holding his hand over the rubble, closing his eyes. "Yes. Here. On the ground floor, someone's still alive down there."

"What?" Augara asked, several other workers gaping.

"The bombings were a week ago today!"

"No one could have survived this!"

"They called off all search and rescue!"

Obi-Wan looked up, standing to his full height. "Nevertheless, I sense a presence down there. We don't have much time. Augara, can we use the larger machines to dig down? Is it structurally safe?"

His eyestalks wide and blinking it took a moment for the dark brown Gungan to realize a question had been asked of him, but he shook himself back and started looking around. "Nosa," he said, energy in his voice. "Disa buildin' took too much damage. The dozers deysa cause all kindsa collapse. If a Hisen down there, then itsa because the structure strong enough to not crushin' the Hisen."

"Then we'll do it by hand. Tell the foreman we've found a survivor, the rest of you, help me dig."

"Are you nuts?"

Obi-Wan brought his Jedi firmness to bear. "Now." And without waiting he began lifting rocks and boulders and debris. Augara disappeared, believing Obi-Wan, but the others just stared, uncertain what to do.

"What is going on here? You're costing me money!" That was the foreman.

Obi-Wan looked up. "Excellent, do you have a communicator? Contact the security guard and inform them that we've found a survivor and need help; we'll need all the help we can get." He bent down and got back to work, taking a boulder and heaving it aside, preventing it from hitting people with the Force.

"Were you hit on the head or something?" The foreman asked, stepping down to Obi-Wan's level of rubble and grabbing the former Jedi's arm. "There ain't no survivors! Declared the day of the funerals so's everyone could mourn! Rubble can't be just tossed around, it's gotta go in the bins to be shipped off and melted down or slagged, every pound you cost me comes outta your paycheck. I've have a mind to fire your right now and-"

Obi-Wan cut him off. "You can worry about your precious profits later," he absconded, "Right now there is someone alive down there, hanging on by a thread; it is our duty to help them!"

"It is your duty to clear the rubble for new construction!"

Augara interrupted. "Yousa certain? That a Hisen hesa down there?"

"I am a Jedi," Obi-Wan said, working to hold in a growl, "Yes I am certain."

"Okie-day!" Augara said, and hopped down and stared lifting rubble. Obi-Wan gave the foreman one last glare and went back to work, pulling out rocks and boulders and tossing them aside. A few workers went back to work; others joined the two.

Two hours later they were still working. They had broken down one floor, but it seemed the deeper they went the more rubble there was, and breaking through the floors proved the be difficult, the strong structural security that was keeping the person alive was also making it markedly difficult to get down to him or her.

"Hey, hey, quiet, quiet!" someone shouted, and everyone paused in their working.

As the stillness settled into the air, everyone strained their ears, hoping to hear what the worker had heard.

Nothing.

"... if I loose a day's pay for this..." someone muttered.

The doubt would not deter Obi-Wan, however, and he knelt down on the rubble, casting his senses out to the Force, closing his eyes and quieting his mind. He could feel the life force, weak and sputtering. There was so little time, there had to be a way to speed up the process. He slowly touched the mind, trying to assess where the injuries were. He was no good at it though, even now, and so instead he tried to offer strength, reassurance, and hope. He could feel a flicker, perhaps a cough, and a groan.

"I hear that!"

"I did too!"

"Come on, we've got to hurry!"

Obi-Wan had other ideas, however. In this deep level of meditation he could sense his Padawan, and Anakin was percolating with curiosity on why he could sense such hurry in his master. He reached out again, this time to him. If it didn't work, he could get it himself; but he was hesitant to leave the work site.

He felt shock from Anakin as Obi-Wan touched his mind; Obi-Wan, too, was surprised that he could do this after only a few days, but urgency superceded any other emotion.

Lightsaber. Here. Now.

Whoa! Then, Coming!

Excellent.

Obi-Wan returned from his meditation and quickly stood up. "Help is on the way," he told Augara. "My Padawan is coming with something that will make things go much quicker."

"Mm," Augara nodded, his arms full of rubble. "Mesa found weak spot on the floorin'. Wesa might be goin' down that way."

"Very well," Obi-Wan replied, concentrating and sweeping aside some pebbles of destruction away with a wave of his hand. "Show me."

Anakin was quick to drop the datapad he was working on, much to the handmaiden's startled gasps and a turn of Padme's head, but he dashed off anyway. He heard a startled, "Ani! Where are you going?" from Padme.

He quickly replied, "Obi-Wan needs me!"

And he ran off leaving the Palace staff confused. He ran as fast as his legs could carry him, because Obi-Wan had said Now and that was such an urgency in his mind that it was everything Anakin could do to pace himself even remotely. Twice he had to stop and catch his breath in his mad dash to the one-room apartment. Once he tripped and skid into a basket of something, he heard much shouting behind him but he pressed on, bursting into his apartment building and dashing up the small, narrow stairs; crashing through the door to the apartment and falling to his knees and then rolling to his back, trying to settle his lungs and his heart a third time. Panting, he tried to collect himself, counting dots on the ceiling and mentally reverse engineering a podracing aft engine to give himself the time necessary to be ready to run again.

When he finally had control of his breathing, he rolled back onto his knees and looked up to the open storage shelf, the potted plant, and the lightsaber. Qui-Gon's lightsaber.

"Obi-Wan needs this," he said softly, before snatching it in his hand. It was heavier than he expected, but he paid it no mind as he ran out of the apartment, leaving the door wide open and flying down the narrow stairs and back out into the streets. Obi-Wan said he and his team had been working in the main thoroughfare, where most of the damage had been during the bombings. He needed to cross a bridge to get there, and when he finally got there he tripped again, Qui-Gon's lightsaber falling out of his hands. He gave a startled cry, half running half crawling after it and tossing his hand around it at the last possible second, before it rolled off the bridge and into the tributary below.

"Are you alright, boy?"

Anakin looked up, still panting, at an old woman with a basket of foodstuff at her elbow. Too winded to talk, he only nodded his head.

"You look like the Federation is at your heels; what on earth is the trouble?"

Taking a giant gulp of air, all Anakin could choke out was: "My brother needs me!" before he dashed off again, down an alley he never knew about before and up a road he hadn't traveled yet. His mind was starting to feel like it did in a podrace; his instincts were telling him left, right, straight, alley, left until he surprised himself by bursting out into the main boulevard. He looked all about, trying to find the construction workers.

"Obi-Wan!" he called out. "Where are you?"

Anakin made the call in his mind as well as his voice, Obi-Wan heard him quite clearly. He stood from lifting another piece of rubble; his muscles strained and sweat streaming down his face. "I'm here, Padawan," he said, projecting the feeling in his mind. He knew when he had time to reflect on this he would be overwhelmed, but first priority was the survivor.

"Obi, wesa can't go farther without somet'in' for the duracrete."

"That is no longer a problem," Obi-Wan said confidently, his eyes bright. Bracing his legs, he leapt the dozen meters up out of the whole that the crew had spent four hours digging and to the top, ignorant of the startled cried and waved his arm. "Anakin!" he called down.

A tiny figure ducked under several workers shouting epitaphs of "no children allowed" and nimbly started climbing the rubble. Half way up the foreman finally got his arms around him, and Anakin struggled at first before looking up. "Obi-Wan!" he shouted, tossing up the lightsaber.

With a quick hum of the Force it flew up to his hand and without a thought he ignited it. The green color shocked him; he was expecting blue. "Master..." he whispered. Qui-Gon was going to help him. "... Thank you."

Spinning he leapt back down into the hole, the workers backing away quickly when they saw the green light. Obi-Wan plunged the blade into the duracrete, the material melting instantly against the heat of the light. Slowly, he spun the blade around in a loose circle, and then used the Force to lift the meter thick, several ton hunk a debris up and away. "Padawan, are you watching with your senses?" he asked, his mind still half on the work.

Wow yeah! was the reply.

The edges of the duracrete were still superheated, but Obi-Wan paid it no mind as he leapt down the hole he had just created to the darkness below. The green light cast long shadows everywhere, but he didn't need to see to know where the survivor was, her presence drew him to her. He stepped carefully; though they were on the ground floor he did not know how strong the structure over his head was and he dared not remove his focus from the survivor.

Her face was covered in blood and she was pinned under an ornate table. Obi-Wan swept it aside with a gesture and knelt down, assessing the damage. It was serious, a miracle that she was still alive to begin with, and he knew that this was going to be difficult. Stepping back to the shaft of light that was his exit he looked up to Augara's silhouette. "I need water and rope! I'll have to improvise a stretcher."

"Yesa!"

With Qui-Gon's lightsaber he cut the legs of the table off, using it as a base as he carefully lifted the survivor with the Force and put her down on it. Holding the green light over his head he pulled at her eyelids, trying to assess what he could.

"Obi-Wan! I got the stuff you wanted."

"Anakin?"

"The others were afraid they'd get burned on the edges," he said quickly, "I told them it was safe but they wouldn't listen to me 'cause I'm a kid. Here. What do we do?"

Obi-Wan closed his eyes for a moment, his emotions threatening to break out. He hadn't even thought when he'd asked for Qui-Gon's lightsaber, and the memories were starting to flood him. Anakin shockingly being able to answer him from such a distance and carry out his orders caused all sorts of feelings and concerns and worries as well. That he was here in a structurally unsafe building worried him to no end, and he hadn't thought of that either when he'd called for his Padawan. His mistakes seemed to keep piling up but he didn't have time for it and so he cast it all aside, focusing on the immediate need of the woman.

"She has several broken bones, and so we need to tie them down and support them so they aren't further damaged when we bring her up."

"Okay," Anakin said, nodding. "How do we do that?"

Obi-Wan gave a very quick and dirty run-down of field medicine that he knew of, and the two slowly scavenged for items that could be used as splints and other needs. Obi-Wan showed Anakin how to give water to an injured person, and used the rest to clean the wounds he could see. He also told Anakin to cast his feelings out over the woman to see what injuries he could see and what he could sense. When she was stabilized as much as they could be, they gently and slowly carried her over to the shaft of light. Obi-Wan was surprised to how much time they had spent in the gloom with only Qui-Gon's lightsaber to illuminate. He was watching over them, Obi-Wan liked to think; he could almost feel the pride, but he knew that was only delusion and cast it aside.

"Alright; Anakin, you're up first."

"But-"

"You don't know how to do this yet, it would be best if you are up there to catch her if something happened."

"... Okay..."

Anakin jumped up and Obi-Wan lifted him up with the Force. Blast he was exhausted, but he shook that off as well and concentrated on the survivor strapped to her table, once her prison and now her stability. He floated her up slowly; mindful of the edges of the hole he'd cut and waited until he sensed hand wrapping around the edge of the table. Once the way was clear, he clipped his master's lightsaber to his belt and leapt up.

He was surprised to hear cheers, to feel claps on his back and hands gripping his to shake it. He didn't quite understand what was happening, there were so many smiles and cat-calls and whistles, people were all talking over each other, the noise indiscriminate. Anakin was here, the dirt from below smeared everywhere; Obi-Wan could only imagine how he looked in turn, but he had the brightest of smiles on his face.

"The woman?" he tried to ask. "How is she...?"

"The medics came right up and took her," Anakin said. "Everybody was shouting and cheering even louder than they are now; they're really happy! There's even a news crew here! We're all gonna be famous!"

... Famous?

"... Whatever for?" Obi-Wan asked, utterly confused.

" 'What for?' hesa says," Augara said, sliding up to the pair. "Yousa savin' someone! What else was there?"

"But... I didn't..."

"Sir!" someone shouted and suddenly there was a floating camera in his face and a microphone of some kind. "How did you know there was a survivor there?"

"How do feel knowing you've just saved someone's life?"

"Are there any other survivors at such a late date?"

"What do you do for a living?"

"Why didn't anyone find her sooner?"

Obi-Wan stared, openly stared, as it finally began to dawn on him that all the attention was on him. Heat rose up to his face and he found himself speechless. A confused stutter fell out of his mouth, and that only spurred even more questions. He found himself taking an involuntary step back.

Anakin, however, did not seem nearly so deterred by the crowd. "His name is Obi-Wan Kenobi," he said brightly. "He was a Jedi and that's how he knew that there was a survivor. My name's Anakin Skywalker and I'm his Padawan and soon I'm gonna be able to do that cool stuff, too!"

The entire crowd seemed to shriek as one and Obi-Wan backed up even further, almost falling back into the building.

"Master," he whispered, "How am I going to get through this?"

Author's Notes: When in doubt, Obi-Wan, ignore the press. That usually helps.

Obi-Wan, as stated in wookiepedia, goes through a "long period of self doubt." This fic takes place during all that self-doubt, but we felt it absolutely necessary for hints of "Master Obi-Wan" to peek through. He's a Jedi, with or without the title, and when the situation needs him he will act like a Jedi, whether he realizes it or not. We also felt it important that he still work on his training. Jedi spend their entire lives learning, and Obi-Wan knows exactly where his deficiencies are, and his high expectations demand that they work on him.

It was also nice to see "The Team" in action. Just a shadow of what they could someday be.

We're not construction experts by any stretch of the word - our home improvement projects are usually home improvement disasters, but there's this one Canadian TV show we've become quite enamored with, "Holmes and Homes." It's insanely educational (whether it's intended or not) on building codes and house structures and a lot of terminology, so we thought it only right to drop hints of it where we could.

Next chapter: The underappreciated Social Worker. And the underappreciated Education system.