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Title: Fire..Fire..all around

Author: Daibhaid O'broder

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Feedback: Please! Would love to hear!

Rating: G

Category: Obi-wan/Anakin Adventure

Summary: Anakin summons Obi-Wan after his mission that has a dramatic turn.

Time Frame: 12 years after TPM.

Spoilers: None that I am aware of.

Disclaimer: All characters are the property of George Lucas and Lucasfilms LTD., and no copyright infringment is intended. No monies have been exchanged or are being made from this bit of fiction.

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The rain beat down incessantly on the cockpit of the freighter that was descending through Dantooine's atomosphere. Worriedly Obi-wan replayed the holo that he had received only one day past.

The image cleared to see his young apprentice, Anakin Skywalker, standing in what appeared to be a commercial transcription office. The message was relatively clear and the appentice Jedi's face was a mix of anger, sadness and something else that touched deep into Obi-wan's heart, betrayal. He watched and listened intently trying to discern even though he knew that the Force could tell him no more about this recording than his senses.

"_Master_," Anakin began, the title laced with sarcasm, "I know what you have begun and what you have done. You are mistaken to think that I would not be aware of your tampering with the affairs of my heart. Moving Padme from Naboo will not keep me from my search for her. However at the same time, neither will I forego my duties to the council by failing in this mission. Which I may add was easily accomplished. I wish to meet you on the Vetrai plains tomorrow at midday. We will settle this matter which lies between us once and for all."

Obi-wan rubbed his chin now thick with bearded growth, and slightly uncomfortable in the newness. "Tampering with the affairs of his heart." Obi-wan said to himself. All the jedi had performed was that which the Queen herself ordered. She wished transport to Alderaan to a place of safety as her home planet was being subjugated under the new Emperor's rule. The hand of Sidious was drawing down on several worlds, the first, curiously was Naboo. As a result the Queen was denounced and taken into custody by the Emperor's stormtroopers. As it was she and Obi-wan were nearly killed in the escape. However, Obi-wan did have the foresight to obtain this battered freighter for the insertion and escape. For all of it's apparent disshevelment the freighter had good sheilding and even better guns. Anakin was not told of the escape action as he was in the midst of negotiations on Dantooine. Also there was something which Obi-wan sensed in his apprentice which caused him to rethink many things. He felt a definite darkness lurking in the back of the Padawan's mind which caused him to desire this meeting as much as Anakin.

"General, we are nearly there. We should be landing in about half a standard hour." The Naboo pilot told the Jedi General Obi-wan Kenobi. "Thank you, Commander, I would appreciate your keeping shields up until landing and maintaining a class 2 alert on board until this matter is resolved and I have Anakin safely aboard or dispatched to his own transport." Obi-wan ordered.

"As you order sir."

Anakin was standing on a small prominory overlooking a vale of desert as the ship descended and landed. He walked down his hands at his side his face calm. He had chosen this spot and would choose the outcome in his own time. He also had to consider the many transmissions he had received from Darth Sidious to join him to train in the ways the Jedi refused, to have the Dark Lord answer questions which Obi-wan shied away from considering. He saw the ramp lower and Obi-wan walk out his robes billowing slightly.

The plain upon which they landed was semi-stable and the pilot remained in the cockpit ready to leave at a moments notice should the area become too challenging. Obi-wan sidestepped many fissues blowing steam and droplets of water as he and Anakin closed the distance.

Obi-wan greeting him with open arms. "Anakin, I understand your mission has been a success."

"As has yours, I presume." The student said with rancor.

"It was necessary to take her from Naboo and you should have realized that with some of the news coming over the official channels. Really, even though you are newly bonded to her, you should have realized the dangers to her to remain there."

"And now you will take me to her." Anakin said bringing his suggestive power to bear in full. Obi-wan's eyes widened at the probing and he quickly shunted it away as one would a gab-fly.

"As long as you continue this attack you will go no where near her."

At that Anakin brought his lightsabre out and ingited the blade. "I thought that would be your decision. No problem, You shall be dispatched and then I will deal with the other traitors as well."

Obi-wan's mind reeled, "traitors?" He thought, what was the Padawan speaking of? No one had denied Anakin, and Obi-wan had strived to train him exactly as he had been taught in the temples by Yoda. He was stunned at the hatred coming from his student.

"Anakin, what is the matter?" Obi-wan asked stepping closer by a pace and keeping his hands from his waist. "Why do you feel so?"

Anakin studied his master and gulped slightly, trying to keep his own fear in check as he was aware that his fear was rising to the occassion.

"Anakin, you are my Padawan, more than that you are my friend. I have not betrayed you or any you know. I have only sought to help your young wife. Why has the dark side touched you so?" Obi-wan asked desperately.

Anakin shrugged and smiled slightly. "The dark side? Call it what you will but I have been shown a side of the Force you refuse to teach. I have seen the nature of the Sith. The nature you and all the others preach as being evil. There is nothing evil with expanding your mind a bit. Now you and the others seek to hunt me down for my efforts." Anakin then lunged his blade blocked by a blade of blue as Obi-wan quickly brought his own blade to bear.

They exchanged blows as quickly as sight. At one point the blades seems to bind into one another sparking slightly at the straining of the individual units. "Anakin, I have never sought to betray you, only advise you. There is nothing to be gained by seeking the paths of the Sith. They destroyed themselves in their greed and lust for power. Would you do the same? Would you turn your back on all who have trained you? Who have loved you? Anakin, please, consider, for the moment stop and allow the Force to talk to you." Obi-wan pleaded. "There is good in you, and there is hatred. I know from where each comes. We will hunt the slavers who razed your mothers village, but we cannot do anything if you do this."

Anakin stumbled backwards, his mind confused now, images of his mother, of the huddles which were the only homes he knew turned into burnt out hulks of sandstone. He recalled seeing the only place he knew as home a burnt cinder and there no sign of his mother. Nothing, his worst fear come to reality, his nightmare realized. Tears formed at the corners of his eyes as he remembered quickly running from house to house searching and then finding one house with the occupants burned to cinders. Anakin reeled slightly and regained his footing. His thoughts went back to what Sidious had pressed upon him, how it was the Jedi and their abominations against the slavers and how they would hunt those who enslaved, if the slaved were in the way, that was too bad. Sidious made it seem all real and nothing but nothing could have changed the boys mind at the time. The boy who was now turning twenty-one. His own face scrubbed clean, his hair flowing on his neck much like his most revered of masters Qui-Gon Jinn. Anakin stumbled again as these images seemed to torment him like flies, the ever present and subtle hypnotic suggestions of the Emperor taunting him. Finally, he shut his sabre down and crouching on the ground reached out to Obi-wan.

"Help me.....Master." He said through his tears. Obi-wan shut his sabre of as well and started to run to his striken padawan's side, when a tremor shook the earth and the ground underneath them began to crumble. Obi-wan could hear the ship powering up and the repulsors causing the ship to hover just enough to be free of any damages if the ground gave way under it. The ramp was lowered and a voice rang out over the speaker.

"General, quickly!"

Obi-wan was within a meter of his friend when the ground gave way and he lost sight of Anakin for a mere moment, then he heard the scream. A scream that made his blood turn to ice. He froze for a moment as a gout of steam belched and then retreated. Anakin was barely hanging on the edge of a precipice which seemingly dropped to the bowels of the earth. Obi-wan recoiled at the stench of burnt cloth and flesh. Using the Force he levitated his padawan clear of the fissure and towards him. He lay his own sabre down on the ground not quite a third of a meter from the fissure's opening. As he guided Anakin down to a stable part of the ground. He would not release his hold as he saw the extent of the burns.

"Anakin, concentrate, will all your will, move the pain away from you, do not think about it. I will get you to safety, but ignore the pain for now. Quickly, or you may be beyond recovery."

"Let...me...di...e." The apprentice said through the burns of his face.

"I can't ... I can't lose you too." Obi-wan said his own emotions breaking. Quickly he raised Anakin with the Force and guided him to the waiting Freighter. The YT1300's ramp was hovering about a foot off the ground and Anakin was quickly boarded. Once on board he was liberally sprayed with a bacta foam concentrate and given a pain killer. Obi-wan sprinted back to the ramp for his sabre when he saw the plain turning into a vast panalopy of steam vents. He watched as the sabre, Qui-Gon Jinn's lightsabre disappeared in the vent. Saddened he turned and closed the ramp as the headed away from a dying plain.

Anakin lay in the hold moaning slightly. His words unintelligeble and his motions weak.

"Hang on my friend, my ... son, hang on!" Obi-wan urged.

Part II playeth now

Floating in his own subconsciousness Anakin slowly rowsed. His head slightly lolling as he lay in the supports. The trip from Dantooine to Coruscant was uneventful for the pilots, yet for Obi-wan it was a tense, long, and tedious journey. He concentrated more than he had ever during his tutor days with Qui-Gon. Upon news of their docking he had the pilot make the call in that they were in need of emergency medical services, and that he must have Masters Mace Windu, Yoda, and XXX present immediately. Upon arrival the masters observed what the younger Jedi was doing was grabbed him quickly, Yoda and XXX taking over in their concentration of building a Force bubble around Anakin to prevent him from feeling the pain of the fires burns. Obi-wan slumped to the deck plating as he released his hold and promptly passed out.

...

The room seemed to spin as Anakin tried to focus on what was happening. His senses seemed to be nulled and he truly could not feel the burns now. He felt the pressure of liquid around his body, of a mask on his face to aid his breathing and of lines which were supplied to carry away waste products during his convalescence in the Bacta tank. A relatively new invention, it was only recently that it was discovered that Bacta, a mixture of herbs from the planet Thyferra, had healing properties. Small earplugs transmitted sound to him from outside the tank. He heard in the back of his mind the mellifluous tones of Mace Windu speaking.

"Anakin, you have been severelly injured, the medical staff will do what they can, but you should expect..." the dark skinned Jedi looked at the young protege with a mixture of sympathy and pain, "you will have to have Bionic grafts. We are sending now for a surgeon from the Sullustain colonies with an inventory of what may be required. Do not try and concentrate on anything for now but to heal." It was then that Master Windu heard a voice through the masks microphone, a voice of a heart that was breaking in a microsection and uncountable number of pieces.

"I ... have failed...failed you all. I fell....listened..to Sidious I did." Anakin stammered his voice racking and his breathing hitching with the sobs. It was then that the medic stepped forward and keyed in a sequence which caused Anakin to slacken in the straps slightly as he fell into slumber.

The medic turned to the Masters, "The last thing he needs to do at this point is to introspect on himself. The more he rests the better his chance of recovery. However, I can assure you that he will probably have to be outfitted with a thermosuit for the rest of his days, not to mention to protect him from infections. It would also appear that his right and left legs, both calf and thigh will have to be excised probably to the bone and an exoskeleton applied. The fact that General Kenobi did what he did when he did and as fast as he did saved this boys life."

Windu and Yoda nodded and turned to leave. As they strode from the chamber, Yoda looked up to the Master and shook his head slowly. "Sad this day is to see. But looked he did into his soul, perhaps, learn he will from this. But strange to learn that Sidious, involved he is...watched he must be. Perhaps destroyed." With that Windu and Yoda exchanged glances and nodded.

In his quarters Obi-wan lay asleep, stripped and covered in his bunk, he tossed and turned as if in the grips of a terrible nightmare. He could still see in his minds eye Anakin plunging into the crevass. Then he felt the sure firm touch of his master in his mind. "Don't dwell on the past, you can't change that. Concentrate on the future. Follow your heart, but don't allow your desire to avenge colour the outcome of your decisions."

"Master..." Obi-wan started as he awoke to find himself bathed in a sheen of sweat from his nightmare. He shivered as from a breeze from ice. Rising he stumbled into his refresher and immersed himself into the warm spray to cleanse his body. Standing there with the water running over his face, he wondered anew if anything could clean his soul.

Qui-Gon mentioned in his dream not to allow his desire to avenge colour his perceptions. Yet what could he do? Sidious had revealed himself earlier and proclaimed himself Emperor, much to the consternation of the Republic. Now with the various civil wars that were happening around the galaxy, the Republic itself was being pulled apart to the extent that the Emperor was forming an Imperial Senate to help govern. One of the first to go over was the Naboo representative and the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic, Thorst Palpatine. He had told the now deposed Queen of Naboo that if he led the way, perhaps that would prevent the Emperor from exacting too stringent a payment against the Republic for any future actions. Also Obi-wan knew that members of the Jedi council were keeping a close watch on Sidious as well as Palpatine. It would not do for anyone to get too close to the Emperor. Considering what the council knew of Sidious was ominous, considering yet that he was a Dark Lord was even more frightening to the Jedi. Still there was something that the council was not sharing with Obi-wan and that toubled the youths conscience. Still Anakin would heal and would soon be well enough to speak before the council, provided the council would give him leave to speak.

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Fire..Fire..all around (Part III)

Time Frame: 12 years after TPM.

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Obi-wan was startled out of his reverie and waking dream as he clothed for the day by a knock at the door. Thinking that it might be a messenger from the medical lounge, Obi-wan rushed to open the door only to find the somewhat resplendent Naborrian, Palpatine there with one of his personal guards. He waved the guard to the side. "Good morning Chancellor. How may I serve you this morning?" Obi-wan asked courteously.

"May I come in?" Palpatine asked quietly.

Obi-wan nodded a bit awestruck and stood aside. "It is not often we have so illustrious a visitor in this quarters. I hope you will pardon the condition here." Palpatine smiled slightly.

"Obi-wan, there is no need to stand on extreme ceremony. You did a magnificient job with the Naboo so long ago we can hardly thank you. And you continued efforts for the Republic have proven effective, especially in your training of the young Skywalker. I hear he will survive, if just barely."

Obi-wan flushed with some relief slumped onto his bed and motioned the Supreme Chancellor to his single chair. "There has been a great deal of insight brought about recently by the death of the Trade Federation, well at least the old order and now the rise of some new order with the advent of this self proclaimed Emperor Sidious. There is something in that which I must confer with the Jedi Council this morning about as well."

Palpatine looked up with hooded eyes, "You mean the fact that Sidious is a Sith, as well as a Dark Lord?"

Obi-wan gasped and the look of shock and astonishment so genuine as to cause the Chancellor to actually laugh, not evilly or even staged, but a carefree laugh.

"Obi-wan, you didn't think that I was so stymied in the politics here that I didn't know what was going on elsewhere. Also I am sensitive to certain things." He finished cryptically.

Obi-wan looked up and at the Supreme Chancellor with puzzlement then imagery filtered through to him as he looked into the eyes of Palpatine. The man was not a Jedi, but then even so, he was never sought to be one.

"What is your midi-chilorian count, if I may ask?"

"You may ask." Palpatine said with some of his dry humour returning. "Let us say it is well below yours. But I am a Force Sensitive nonetheless. As a result, I felt Sidious when he was on Coruscant not too long ago, not to mention during the assualt on Naboo."

Obi-wan stood and paced slightly. Deciding he spun to find the Chancellor on his feet as well. "You will, I hope, excuse me as I must go to the Council chambers. There is something now in my mind that is of prime importance with the Sidious issue, something I think we both should consider."

Palpatine looked at the young Jedi then his eyes flew wide in honest fright. "God's of Y'aamej, the connection and the one missing thing...quickly you go to your council, I to mine." He spun and almost flew out of the room with his guard in fast pursuit as Obi-wan sealed the chambers behind him.

Quickly the Jedi made his way to Council chambers to find the group locked in meditation on the subject of the Federations death as well as the impending death of the Republic. Obi-wan not wishing to disturb them, but at the same time considering the ramifications of what the news he had meant could not do less than barge into the center of the Council chambers. All eyes snapped up on his form, some guarded, some in fear, some in disdain, and one set tiredly watching.

"Masters, the link, I've figured out the link! It was you, Master Yoda, who supplied the key, so long ago!"

Now the Masters, still disdainful and somewhat put out at having this upstart Jedi running amok, nodded for him to continue. Obi-wan collapsed onto the flooding in a seated heap. He faced Master Yoda.

"Sidious is a Sith, in fact he is a Dark Lord, this I have through the direct testimony of my Padawan apprentice, Anakin Skywalker. Alright, he's a Sith, so be it, but the parity, don't you all see, the parity!! There always has to be two, if not the other is driven nearly mad with dispair. There is in their minds, no competition for them within their own race, something that they cannot abide long without." Obi-wan said breathlessly. The other masters nodded as if awakening.

"We _have_ considered this Obi-wan Kenobi." Mace Windu said placidly. "In fact, we have been arguing and meditating on this point. Still what does that have to do with your headlong charge into our chambers?"

Obi-wan blushed to the roots of his browned hair but did not back down from his stand in this matter, "I am sorry Master Windu, to all of you, I apologize for my hasty and aggregous interruption. However, It is just this, Sidious has been recruiting my Padawan with lies blended with truth in the attempt to gain his own Padawan for his perverted training. Moreover, as we know or can readily guess that he _has_ been attempting this, how certain are we that this is the only Padawan that has been tried by Sidious and is still being tried by that insane Dark Lord."

The others traded looks. Then when Obi-wan thought he had wasted his breath, Master Yoda rose from his small chair and walked over. "Come, Obi-wan, to Anakin we will go. See him I would."

"Master, he..." Obi-wan choked slightly recalling the medics words and the view of his near son suspended in the tank of green fluid.

"Come...see him we shall. Clouded his future may be, but death be not his card this day." Yoda said in his gentlest of tones. The Master took Obi-wan's hand and the Jedi could not help but stand. Together the others stood until the two walked out, then all traded looks and began talking at once. Outside the chamber, Yoda secured his repulsor lift chair so that he could be on eye level with the Jedi and not impede his stride as well. The two made their way to the lift and then decended levels to the Jedi towers medical unit. There after submitting to a raying for microbiological particles or contaminants they were permitted to robe and enter the clean room in which Anakin still hung suspended in the fluid. His body was a mass of scar and burn. His legs were bones jutting from mid-thigh flesh, his rib cage flailed on one side and whole on the other. The medic walked up and started when he saw the Jedi Master.

"Master Yoda!" He said weakly. "Sir, we...uh..that is.."

Yoda nodded and then pointed to Anakin, "Spoke has he?"

"Only a wish to live."

"How speak did he?"

"No anger, no fear, nothing, except..."

"Yes..." Yoda probed slowly.

"A bit of hope maybe." The medic finished.

"Good, hope is good, the rest are nothing if hope exists not." Yoda then surveyed the damage. "Better it might have been for the fires to have consumed him than this."

From somewhere in the bacta a stirring came. Anakin weakly opened his eyes and looked blearily at the Master and his Master. He tried to smile and did manage to present it around his eyes, which were clouded slightly, and strangely changed in colour from his ordeal, from their brilliant blues to a blue with crimson speck. "Masters, i....f it is th...the For...force wil..l th...at I llllive, I wi...illl make you and Mas....ter Quiiii-Gon pppp...roud of mme." Anakin said weakly. His lips swollen and threatening to burst from the pressure of speaking.

"Heartrate increasing." A medic from the side said.

"Increase the Morphinate-hydrosolinatic drip solution." The other medic ordered. At the order and as it happened, Anakin slumped in the slings and fell back into his slumber. Obi-wan slumped slightly as his tension flowed from him from the meeting and speech. He then looked over at Yoda whose eyes were also alight with tears as well. The Master nodded to the Master and the two left the clean room and went to a nearby office followed by a medic.

"Sirs, if he lives, he is in for a lot of grafts, possibly some bionics, possibly more."

"How much more?" Obi-wan asked.

The medic looked from one to another. Then shrugged as if the whole of the matter were beyond him. "If he lives, we are looking at a half set of Thyferran Exoskeletal Bionics as well as a Renal Computation device and Malasstar Respirator and breath mask combination. That's on the low end of the pole."

Yoda looked at the medic with a gaze that plainly said, 'bugger the cost and the cheap stuff, only the best for our boy!' The medic reading the gaze nodded and in reply again shrugged.

"The best thing I can recommend at this point is that you and all his friends visit him as much as possible. That would be best. At least that would help him mentally. His friends should be permitted to come down here while he is asleep to see him through the glass of the doorway so that they will not be so shocked when they see him for the first time. As it is when he does get out of here he will be a different man externally. That much is for certain."

Above the medic area in a building many blocks away from the Jedi Temple, Supreme Chancellor Palapatine strode into his office and dismissed his guards. He then walked into a sonically guarded holo center and keyed in an address. After a few moments the line opened and an obvious undersling appeared.

"Lord Sidious." Palpatine said quickly. Looking at the hologram with undisguised contempt as he waited for the Sith Lord. Palpatine tapped his fingers on the console, everything was proceeding exactly as he had planned. Except for the fact that this Sidious was getting a bit too fiesty for his own good, at least in Palpatine's view of how the Galaxy should be handled. The Sith Lord hove into view for a moment and upon seeing the Supreme Chancellor, he allowed a slow smile to crease his seemingly permanently frowning features.

"What is thy bidding...My Master."

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