LN(^_^): I'm back! Happy New Year everyone!

Chapter 9: Jujiminmee mo Moocha (Kidnap or Steal)

"Wait a minute, Qui-Gon left you on Tatooine?"

"…I believe that we have already established that he did leave me on Tatooine, Master Windu."

"Perhaps your hearing you need examined, hmm?"

"So how exactly did you come to be on Naboo?"

"The Zabrak warrior stole me."

"He stole you."

"Yes."

"Don't you mean he kidnapped you, took you hostage?"

"Kidnapping is for free sentients. I was property, so I was stolen."

"Well, I'm glad we've made that distinction."

"When this was?"

"Several hours after Master Jinn left with Anakin. I had reported to work after they left, but Watto sent me home. I don't know if he felt sorry for me for losing Ani, or if he just didn't want to have to look at me right then knowing that I did everything I could to help Ani win. He lost a lot of money that day, not to mention Ani, so he wasn't in a very good mood."

"He lost money even though his slave won the race?"

"He was betting on another racer. He didn't believe Ani would win. That's how Master Jinn won Ani—he staked 'his' pod against Ani in a bet with Watto that Ani would win the race."

"That can't have been legal."

"It wasn't. But on Tatooine, even under-the-table deals like that are expected to be honored."

"I'm surprised that your owner would offer either of you up in a bet. It seems like you would be valuable to him."

"Watto was an inveterate gambler. This probably wasn't even the first time he'd staked one or both of us. This was just the first time he lost."

"Jinn. Why was none of this in his report. I'm sorry, I just can't get over that Qui-Gon Jinn won the prophesied Chosen One in some kind of back-alley bet. This could only happen to him."

"I'm beginning to see why he didn't go into details in his reports if his…adventures always inspired so much questioning from the Council."

"Don't you start taking after him, Kenobi. The galaxy won't survive."

"I think that starship has sailed, Master Windu. How did you put it—enslaved on a desert backwater and still raised the Chosen One and defeated the first Sith in centuries?"

"We're doomed."

"Have more faith, you should, Mace. After all, hurt us it cannot, what the Council does not know."

"Yes, Master Windu, don't worry. I won't let Anakin destroy the galaxy without telling you first."

"That's comforting. Get on with your report, Kenobi."

"Well, a few hours later, I felt a wave of evil intent in the Force coming toward me. I barely had time to brace myself before the Zabrak was there. He attacked me very aggressively, hoping to overwhelm me right away. I think he was expecting that I would fight him, but he was also expecting that I would not be too difficult an opponent."

"I assume he was wrong on the second point."

"He was at that."

Something in the Force surges, dark and potent. Ben surfaces quickly from his meditation on his loss, readying himself for what is coming for him, quickly reinforcing his mental shields against the sudden attack and grabbing a hydrospanner, the nearest object to hand.

He does not have long to prepare. Within seconds of the initial warning the door bursts inward, and Ben raises a hand to redirect the splintered metal flying at him with the Force.

Then the warrior is there, framed in the broken door, a robed and hooded Zabrak with eyes like flame and a Force presence that both freezes and burns.

"He didn't start out wielding a 'saber. He didn't want to damage me too badly, and my quarters were tight. But I'm not exactly helpless when it comes to unarmed combat."

Ben dodges the first attack, throwing the hydrospanner at his attacker to try to slow him down, which works about as well as throwing a bee at him in hopes it would sting him. As it is, Ben has to back into the kitchen as the Zabrak rushes him. At the last second, Ben twists out of the way, grabbing his attacker's arm and using his momentum to send him tumbling over the table. A judicious Force push sends the table and chairs towards the rising warrior, boxing him in and getting between him and Ben.

"I held him off for a few minutes and nearly got the best of him once or twice."

There is an electrical hum and a flash of red light, and the table lies in two pieces on the floor. Ben does not allow the appearance of the red lightsaber to shake him. Instead, he concentrates on the cabinets and sends every dish, utensil and appliance flying suddenly at his foe using the Force, knowing that a lightsaber is not the best weapon against physical projectiles. He sees the dark warrior swing his 'saber, but doesn't stay to watch how he fares. This move is only good for a distraction, and he cannot hold it, nor will it stymie a fighter of such power for long.

Ben races out of the kitchen, headed for the back door. If he can reach that junked speeder bike Anakin was fooling around with…

He feels the air seize around him, and he is yanked back, away from the door, pinned against the wall. The Zabrak is quicker than he'd expected. Ben struggles to push with the Force against the pressure holding him, trying to make enough space that he can slip out from under his opponent's grip. The door is so close.

The Zabrak senses his intent and increases the power with which he is holding Ben. Ben struggles to breathe against the incredible pressure squeezing his chest like a vice. He can feel the plaster cracking and starting to give way under his back. He's being pushed right through the wall.

Through the blackness gathering at the edges of his vision, Ben watches the warrior approach bathed in the red light of his 'saber. The foe reaches out to grab him, and Ben feels a powerful revulsion. His instincts are screaming at him to not let the darkness touch him.

"He was powerful, well-trained. I could feel the anger coursing through him. I've never sensed such hate as I felt in him. I have felt the touch of the shadows before—hard not to when you have been through what I have—but this warrior completely cloaked himself in darkness."

All of a sudden, Ben slams his palms against the wall behind him, switching from using the Force to push back against his attacker to pushing in the same direction. The wall crumbles beneath his hands and spine as he is pushed further into the plaster and brick, cracks spiderwebbing all across the wall and up to the ceiling. The sudden lack of resistance throws the Zabrak off balance, and before he can wonder what his quarry is up to, Ben seizes the weakened ceiling in the Force and pulls.

The cracked and crumbling ceiling gives way immediately, nearly burying the Zabrak in rubble. Ben fights to extricate himself from the wall, and lands a kick on the Zabrak's temple, who grunts and falls back. Another kick sends the warrior's lightsaber skittering away back into the hall, where it is lost among the debris.

Ben's fingertips have just brushed the back door when he feels an explosion of anger in the Force. Ben's entire body is shoved forward, impacting the door, which crumples and gives way. The door, along with most of the back wall of the structure, is blown out, sending Ben flying over the balcony and into the yard below.

The landing drives all the air from Ben's lungs. Gasping, he raises himself to his elbows and begins pulling himself forward. He hears a thump behind him and he doesn't need to look to know the Zabrak just jumped from the balcony. Ben has just feet to go to get to Anakin's bike.

A kick to his side from a black boot knocks him off course, sending him rolling onto his back. He lashes out, letting the Force guide his kick, and manages to sweep the leg out from under his attacker. Ben scrambles forward, desperate now to get away, but the Zabrak once again recovers more quickly than should be possible. A hand grips his leg, and Ben is yanked back. Before he can turn and fight, an arm comes around his throat, cutting off his air and pulling him up to his knees, immobilizing him against the torso of his attacker. Been feels the hilt of a lightsaber pressed against his back, a silent threat to ignite it and sever his spine if he continues to resist.

"His hesitance to unsheathe his lightsaber was more than just wanting to take me alive, I think. He was trying to be stealthy. A lightsaber is a distinctive weapon, and a red lightsaber even more so, to those aware of its meaning. He never removed his cloak or hood while still on Tatooine. I doubt anyone who saw him could give a clear description of him."

Ben curses his own weakness. He had hoped that he would never fall into the hands of a darksider again. Yet here he is, subdued and at the mercy of this dark warrior, the creature's ugly anger and hate pressing against his shields as though seeking a way in to corrupt his mind, his soul. He knows he can resist—he did it before. But he wishes he had been strong enough to get away this time. He carefully does not think of Anakin, lest his thoughts betray his child to this monster.

A round, black probe droid approaches with a hypodermic needle in its appendage, and Ben has no choice but to allow the drug to be administered. He begins to feel woozy almost immediately, so doesn't fight when the Zabrak lays him facedown on the ground to cuff his hands behind his back with what he can feel are definitely Force-suppressing binders.

When the Zabrak jerks him to his feet, Ben sees for the first time that their altercation has attracted an audience. His neighbors watch from windows and doorways with frightened eyes. None step forward to stop the Zabrak, for which Ben is grateful. He doesn't want anyone's blood on his conscience.

But when the Zabrak makes to throw Ben over Anakin's speeder bike and take off, someone in the crowd stirs.

"Hey! Stop! You can't do that!"

"I have never been so relieved that Anakin was not with me. He would have tried to fight. He would have tried to save me, like his little friend did."

Ben's heart sinks in his chest when he hears Kitster's voice. He tries to speak to warn the boy off, but the drug is making his mind too foggy to find words. He shakes his head at the boy standing bravely before them, trying to convey with his eyes that Kitster should run.

Kitster doesn't run. Instead he shouts, "If you wanna take him alive, you gotta disable the chip first. It'll kill him if you just take him like that!"

The Zabrak warrior glares at the child and Ben fervently prays to the Force to intervene on the boy's behalf, since there is nothing Ben can do to save him.

To Ben's very great relief, his kidnapper then turns his glare on Ben. He waves the probe droid over and it scans Ben from head to toe, beeping its findings and marking a point on Ben's left calf with a laser dot. Before Ben can even begin to put his muzzy thoughts together to figure out what's going to happen next, the Zabrak has a vibro-shiv out and is cutting into his leg.

Ben locks a scream behind his teeth. The drug he was given apparently doesn't affect his pain receptors, because he can feel every agonizing moment perfectly. He tries to remain still; he fears that if he twitches too much the Zabrak will sever a tendon. The drug and the pain are making his head spin. He tries…but he can't quite…

Another burst of pain comes from his leg, like something being ripped out of it, and Ben moans weakly. He just manages to catch a glimpse of the Zabrak holding a tiny metallic piece in his bloody hand before his vision finally goes dark.

"I hope Kitster was all right, that he ran away while the warrior was taking out my chip. Unfortunately, I don't remember anything else until waking on his ship."

"And then?"

"Then he started in with the questions."

"Asking about the queen and Jinn?"

"Yes."

"About young Anakin, did he ask?"

"…Yes, master. But I didn't get the sense that he knew Anakin was special in any way, or anything more than a latent Force-sensitive that Master Jinn picked up. From what little he said, I gathered that he had tracked the queen's ship to Tatooine, and one of his probe droids located Master Jinn at our house. He was trying to find the queen, not the Chosen One."

"And you told him nothing."

"Not a word."

"So it is possible that the Sith still do not know that the Chosen One has been found."

"I hope so, master."

"So do I. For all our sakes, but for the two of you especially."

"To rebuff the advances of a darksider, difficult this is. Manage this, how did you?"

"My mental shields are quite strong, master. Especially when I am concentrating on reinforcing them, and I had no other greater matter on my mind than shielding while I was his captive. However, he did not seem particularly adept at this kind of subtle drawing out of information. He tried, and did a credible job, I suppose, but he was hampered by the fact that he knew almost nothing about me, so didn't really know where to strike for my weakest points. He was eventually reduced to simply using pain to try to goad me to anger, which I never gave him the satisfaction of rising to."

"Mental fortitude under torture is not a simple thing to learn."

"You don't say."

"Really though…how did you learn these skills? Yoda and I both remember you as an Initiate. You were an excellent student, but your knowledge of the Force seems to have advanced quite a lot since then. Those that leave the Order as Initiates or Padawans—their learning in the Force usually stops there. Most of them regress in their practice and their connection to the Force fades. But not you."

"It is kind of you to say that I was a good student, though that is not quite what I recall. You are right though, that my learning of Force skills has progressed since I, ah, got lost. I could not have imagined as an Initiate the sheer breadth of how much there was to learn about the Force. When I first glimpsed it, I felt truly humbled for the first time. It taught me that only by approaching the Force with humility, knowing that we can never fully comprehend or control it, are we able to unlock its power in ourselves."

"Yeah, sure. You're worse than Yoda, spouting all that philosophy bantha poodoo. 'Mysterious are the ways of the Force' indeed. Like I wouldn't notice that you didn't answer the question!"

"Philosophical dissembling, an underappreciated skill is. Many times I have used this on missions, to great effect."

"Stop encouraging him. I'm not going to sit here and let you ruin this one with your intentionally confounding doublespeak like you did all your Padawans and grand-Padawans. Look here, Kenobi, don't be like him. He's awful."

"Object, I do!"

"Do you really want to end up a crabbed old man cornering the unsuspecting into drinking your disgusting swamp tea and listening to you muse on the mysteries of the universe until they go cross-eyed from trying not to fall unconscious because they're too polite to give in to their self-preservation instincts and run away?"

"Answer carefully, you should, young Obi-Wan."

"It may be too late for me, Master Windu. Anakin already falls asleep to my lectures on a regular basis. You'll have to pin your hopes on Anakin turning out better than I did, I fear."

"Tragic."

"Tragedy it is that appreciate the charms of a good philosophical discussion you cannot, Mace."

"Seriously though. How did you learn to use the Force with such skill?"

"A lot of things I learned out of necessity through trial and error. It helped that I knew certain things were definitely possible in the Force, even if I had never learned to do them myself. For instance, I knew from my time in the Temple that many Jedi Knights can use the Force to sustain themselves for long periods without water, food or sleep. So I knew that, theoretically, I should be able to do it too. It took me quite a while to learn that skill, but I finally managed to be able to do it consistently when I was about fourteen. I never would have had the patience to keep trying if I didn't already know the technique existed and I had but to discover the method."

"That…is not a technique we teach to adolescents. It's not healthy for a child whose body is still growing."

"Yes. Unfortunately, I didn't have many other options. I never taught it to Anakin, and I don't intend to anytime soon. I was lucky that I was nearly always able to provide for his basic needs. Actually, Anakin was my other motivation in learning. He's so strong in the Force, and we shared a Force bond from the beginning. I had to always be in control, especially of my pain and fear, lest Anakin pick up on my emotions. I had to learn more so that I could protect him, teach him. I had no teacher myself, so I found myself depending more and more on the Force to provide the knowledge I lacked."

"Difficult it is, to follow guidance from the Force itself, hmmm. Few Jedi there are that have the deep connection necessary."

"I didn't have much of a choice, really. I couldn't fail Anakin."

"How does the Force teach lightsaber forms?"

"I'm sorry?"

"The queen sent the Council the security holocam footage of your fight with the Sith. It was frankly impressive. Lots of nonstandard moves, which I assume come from your years fighting in the pits and the arena. But there was more there rooted in the Jedi arts than I would have expected from someone who ceased formal lightsaber instruction at age twelve. I doubt you learned your katas just from communing with the Force."

"Ah, well… Here's where things may get a bit complicated."

"Excellent. Wonderful. Glad that up till now they've been very commonplace and straightforward or I'd be worried."

"I'm going to have to back up a bit to explain… You remember how I disappeared on Bandomeer?"

"I already don't like where this is going."

"Well…"