trans_9 | A House Divided [Part 3]

Anakin could feel that he was being followed. The light was Luke lingered in the back of his mind, but otherwise his focus was on the path ahead. With the wave of calmness that washed over him, he felt himself slow in his steps, until he came to a halt.

It dawned on him.

Luke.

He turned, his eyes narrowing.

Luke was going to try and stop him. Too many had died because he wasn't there in time or wasn't strong enough to save them. He would not let the crime against Obi-Wan go unpunished. He would not be stopped.

The blade on his lightsaber ignited, illuminating him with a blue light. He would make Luke turn around, go back to Obi-Wan. He would not be chastised by some Jedi -- some Jedi who happened to share the same last name.

A moment of confusion washed over him, but it was brief. He pushed the thoughts away. He would get his answers, after he dealt with Obi-Wan's attacker.

Obi-Wan watched Luke go with trepidation, every nerve and force-sense in him in agreement: this could not end well. Panic never served anyone well, nor did focusing on pain, but if the smile Obi-Wan made for Arha was a little shaky, it was at least an honest effort.

"Hello there," He greeted Arha, belatedly, a hysterical chuckle nearly bubbling up despite the seriousness of the situation. Obi-Wan offered the hand that had slid off Luke's shoulder as Luke himself had done, "Is there anything I can do to help?"

She freed a hand, which was still raging with desert power, and sighed as she linked hr fingers through his. He could hush, but she had told him thus many times. Arha felt the surge and press of the healing that wanted to punch through and tried to carefully nudge around for the same sort of access point she'd found with Luke.

"Be still," she murmured, it was not the same as telling him to be quiet for the thousandth time, "and help me access your Force." Her fingers tightened in a squeeze. "I have almost all of the pain. It will not distract you, now." It was there, like a ball of white-hot fire in her mind, flaring like a living thing, and she set it aside, holding it back so she could keep her concentration on knitting the gash and open the way for better focus from Obi-Wan.

He has lost much water. This is where I should be, with the blood.

It reminded her of healing a badly wounded Fremen. It had taken near eight hours of work to stabilize him and three more healing sessions to complete the task. Obi-Wan was not that injured, but still, it would take six hours to heal him on her own the way she was going about it. She turned another fragment of attention inward to Obi-Wan. If the Force would let her through, it was the regeneration of the blood structures (hemoglobin, or the Jed-Eye equivalent, and the defining cell structure) that allowed for oxygen transportation along with clotting factors and tissue regeneration she would keep a sharp focus on. It was much like setting up the chemical process of stopping aging, one which no Reverend Mother was supposed to use. It would do well for healing, though.

She did not sweat, though anyone without her training would have. Her lips were white as she pressed them together, her blue-within blue eyes bright with intent and focus as she worked, and her hair swung forward, tangled and tipped with his blood. Her cheek, bottom lip, and chin had caught some as well. Messy. Battle wounds were always so messy.

Luke came to a stop just outside of the reach of Anakin's lightsaber and looked at him, still radiating calm despite the roil of emotions coming from every other quarter. He couldn't let his father run off half-charged and angry--vengeance wasn't the right answer by far.

Closing his eyes, Luke searched inside himself and through the Force for the right words to use, for the way to persuade Anakin to calm down and come back to do what would really help Obi-Wan.

"I'm not here to fight you," he said simply. "If we duel here we'll only scare more people and cause a panic, and then more will be hurt. The being who did this to Obi-Wan is probably already captured."

Like a mouse on the desert sands, like a little breeze, Sheeana had woven through the battle lines to find Arha. She crouched next to her.

Jedi blood, she found, smelled the same as others. A Bene Gesserit would have been able to staunch this bleeding for herself, forcefully coagulate the bleed to the severed arteries. For a Fremen, the process would have been automatic.

A stabilizing hand on her shoulder (why did Sister Masaari feel different right now?). "Our friends are safe...Just remember the litany." She said quietly before her gaze flicked over to Luke and Anakin. Where those two really going to fight with their wounded comrade right here?

Anakin stared long and hard at Luke. His lightsaber was tilted downward and angled towards the other Jedi. So many others had fallen because he failed to act. He would not allow it this time. Obi-Wan was his only link to his life. Right now the only thing he had left, and that was something he would not lose. Those who dared to take that away from him would suffer dearly.

At this point, he did not care if it was the Jedi way.

"You do not understand. No one ever does."

He thought back to when he slaughtered the Tuskin Raiders. How angry he had been then, but how powerful he felt. He had regretted what he had done afterwords, but the taste lingered in his mouth. And it was something that he could not completely shake. It beckoned him to do more.

And he was about ready to give in.

"Turn around now." He spoke as if he were in charge and giving an order. "I will not tell you again. The one who did this needs to be brought to justice. Or have the people of your time forgotten what that is." His gaze locked on Luke's. He seemed cold, confident, and every bit ready to do whatever it took.

Back in the tent of ice, with two very intense Bene Gesserit stares on him, Obi-Wan closed his eyes. What did these two women expect of him, he wondered. In the darkness within and without himself, Obi-Wan breathed deep and measured, and found in the touch of the Force within him his comfort, like a the bright blue glow of his Lightsaber. Like the Lightsaber...ah. That was it, then. A fellow Jedi had once told him something, and it stuck in his mind, now as more true than ever.

"The crystal is the heart of the blade. The heart is the crystal of the Jedi..."

From the heart of himself, Obi-Wan drew a tendril of power, a seeking vinelet of the Force, like the roots of a water-hungry plant, and directed the power down his arm, to where his fingers curled around Arha's. There was a barrier there between them, but life will always persist and so the root strengthened; no longer slender seeker, now it was the rockbreaking taproot.

"...The Jedi is the crystal of the Force. The Force is the blade of the heart..."

And the barrier parted in a thousand tiny holes, like the egress of a membrane, like the space between molecules of air, the thousand breathing mouths of a leaf. With care, Obi-Wan grew this power around hers, and channeled it through himself. Like a focusing crystal purified and controlled the energy from the power conduit in a Lightsaber, Ben made easier and more pure the passage of the Force to Arha, by his own capabilities. He knew the energy would be returned to him. Many people saw a Lightsaber and the hilt it came from, and assumed that the battery within must be efficient beyond their wildest dreams. Not so. A Lightsaber was a loop, and gave back nearly all it's power when in use.

"...All are intertwined: the crystal, the blade, the Jedi. You are one."

Arha was aware that Sheeana was there, but her slim smile was all she had for her Sister. She released any fear that might have been lurking within her with a soft breath of acknowledgment. She had looked at this wrong. It was not what it seemed. But then, all things were not as they seemed. Her mind was clear as the Force itself washed through her.

It hit her like a wind storm and exploded around her in a ripple. A ripple of potential, of knowledge, of brilliant possibility, of something new, and in it she remembered The Water of Life. It spoke of new paths, new openings and new life. It was a beginning. Her spine went straight, jerking her head back as her own torrent of healing was released in a breathless cry. If Obi-Wan's Force was the root, Arha's was the desert sun. She shook with the force of it, but kept herself in place as she opened her eyes.

Her breath caught.

Dark blue specks, like tiny granules of Spice Melange mixed with the pale blue wash she had come to associate with the Jed-Eye. She knew where to direct all of it as sure as she knew her name. Calm flooded through her, stripping away everything and revealing it all at once. Stacy, the living ship (not a Thinking Machine, a sentient thing, alive), Sheeana beside her, Luke who wrestled with pulling his father back from his ledge of rage. Anakin who snapped and hissed and needed. Needed to lash out, to punish. She reached out to them. They should come back. Here.

Shai-Hulud, but she could feel the whole ship, all of the life, and those beleaguered by the events that had taken their course. Here they were, separate and yet one. One group, each different in nature, but alive. All of them, even those that were machine--how she felt a wave of confusion at that! They were all. Here. United.

And it shook her.

It shook her to her very core.

It shook the water from her body and tears rolled down her cheeks as she healed Obi-Wan Kenobi Jedi the way it was meant to be done. Arha Masaari was awake. She had been asleep for all of her life. She had thought she was awake as a Reverend Mother, but it was a half truth. Now. Now she was awake.

Edited 2009-09-12 02:01 (UTC)

"I will not leave," Luke replied, pulling his will behind it. He would not let his father be tainted more, even though instinctively he knew that that choice resided with Anakin alone. "To me, there is no justice in vengeance, only the darkness, and I've had enough brushes with that in my lifetime to not see my family do the same."

"Obi-Wan is strong in the Force, and he'll live with Arha tending him," Luke said. He had still not activated his lightsaber, and stared without fear down the blue blade of his father's, the one he had once wielded now with its maker. Luke knew the weapon, as he knew the one who used it.

As he knew, with a breathless rush from the Force, that Obi-Wan would be all right. Whatever they were doing back there, it had loosed a great tide, one that washed over and enveloped the Jedi Grand Master with a kind of power and comfort that he couldn't dream of. It was a torrent of Force and that strange, exotic power that he'd touched within Arha that was both of the Force and entirely something else.

Luke gasped, as he took all this in. Arha, Obi-Wan, Sheeana--when had she arrived? oh well, it didn't matter--Anakin, himself, he could feel them all as clearly as though they were right there in his own mind. It was like the battle-meld they had used so often while flying, and like the deep, affectionate bond between himself and Mara, and like the undying bond between himself and his twin sister.

A sandstorm, sweeping in from the dune sea; a gentle, warm breeze. It was both and neither.

It filled him and for a moment, the lonely pain Luke had been living silently with since Mara had been killed was relieved, and he was not alone.

Luke didn't know he was smiling until some semblance of awareness came back to him. "You see?" he said softly, blue eyes alight with the power of the Force that flowed through him like a strong current, and with what he had just felt. "There is no need for vengeance, because this power we have is greater than anything seeking revenge has to offer us. But right now we're wanted back there."

"Ghafla! Sheeana swore, tensed and jolted as if struck. Her whole body tingled and little spots danced in front of her vision, performing little sparkling pirouettes centered around Arha and Obi-Wan. Her skin tingled all over. And this was just second hand, from touching the woman.

She reached back into herself to get steady. Something important had just happened. Arha had tipped a landmine of the Jed-eye's 'Force' abilities.

"He's not dead, Sister. No...no need to shed water for him." Her sardonic nature was coming back to her.

Humor is a sign of life, after all. She showed me what this healing takes from her when we Shared. I will have to reassure her to keep her from slipping back into a kind of necrosis of the spirit.

Anakin took a step forward as if to threaten Luke with his saber, but he stopped. Something caused him to hesitate. Luke's words...

His family?

The same last name.

He was taken back by a sudden sense of surprise. He stared at Luke, looking him over. There was something so familiar, something that seemed to link them within the Force.

It couldn't be... could it? Padme did say...

The realization struck him like a thousand bullets. He didn't even have time to react when the wave in the force also washed over him. For a moment he thought he was drowning. He almost buckled under it all, but somehow he held his ground.

His eyes closed for a moment, before he opened them to look at Luke again, this time in a much different light.

His future was right before him. And in that moment he was suddenly uncertain of what to do.

"You -- We will talk later."

His thoughts of vengeance were momentarily lost on him. He needed to get back to his one link to reality. The one thing he had left to hold onto. The blade on his lightsaber disappeared and he started to move past Luke to head back to Obi-Wan.

In the wake of the unexpected crush of power Obi-Wan found himself breathless and wet-eyed. A part of him just wanted to lay there and pant, but the practical part that had always won out made him blink and turn his head to look at Arha and squeeze the hand still in his. Without the Jedi's concentration, the power diminished quickly, but the memory of it was more than enough to make him smile.

"Well, that was interesting," Ben murmured under his breath and felt with his free hand for his side. Smooth skin and swiftly knitting plantsuit. It too seemed to be revitalized, binding over the tear with preternatural speed, "Are you alright?"

Distantly, she heard Sheeana's voice and the edges of humor within it.

Arha blinked a few times, only the lock of her body keeping her upright as she stared down at him. Fatigue blurred her vision, though the Force itself was still eddying through her in soft lapping waves. She expected it to leave, but it did not. It stayed. She watched Obi-Wan's lips move and it took a moment before she forced herself to put it into words that made sense.

Are you alright?

That was an interesting question. She was fine. And shaken. Her blue-within-blue eyes locked with Obi-Wan's then. She had no words to answer him with. None at all. Nor did her Mothers-Within. This had been more than unexpected, more than unheard of, more than most things she might have considered. The breath she'd let out was a soft hiss of noise. She was.

Different.

Arha worked the tight muscles in her body, forcing them to ease fractionally, and caught herself on Sheeana, rigid control (mind over body, always, always) keeping her upright. She didn't look away from Obi-Wan and it kept her centered as she fell back onto her knees, wordless, her fingers loose against his.

Fifteen minutes and she would be forced to sleep. Five and she would need to eat or the cramps and hungry gnawing would begin. But yes...she was alright. It was not accurate for what she was. Arha simply blinked.

It may not have been handled with the kind of grace that a Jedi Master ought to have, but it was out, and by the Force, Luke felt as though an entire planet-sized mass had been lifted off his shoulders. With a bit of a smile, Luke clipped his lightsaber back onto his belt and followed Anakin back toward where Arha, Sheeana, and Obi-Wan were.

"I look forward to it," he murmured, just before he dropped to one knee beside Obi-Wan and peered at him. The cuts on Obi-Wan's side had been healed, as he knew they'd be, and the plantsuit was closing over the skin. Soon, it would appear as though nothing had happened.

They would know better, though. Luke smiled.

"Are you feeling better, Master?" he asked, resting his chin on his knee.

Sheeana recognized that look. Miles Teg had it after...Well. After his reawakening.

So it wasn't a surprise when Fremen practicality won out over sentiment.

"She needs food. Now."

Anakin was quiet. Hauntingly quiet. He approached Obi-Wan and stared down at his former Master, but he spoke no words. He desperately wanted to tell someone, especially Obi-Wan of his realization. Of everything that had went on. About what the future could possible hold. But he couldn't betray that secret. He couldn't tell anyone.

And suddenly he never felt more alone.

Was it true what he believed? If it was ...

A certain sense of panic swelled up. If Obi-Wan found out -- he could be thrown out of the Order. He could be exiled or whatever other punishment they could come up with. He had to do something. He had to stop Obi-Wan from finding out.

But tearing Luke away now would look suspicious.

He was lost. Confused. Unsure of what to do.

So he fell back to the basics.

"Master... I apologize. I acted foolishly." He recited the words as he had done a thousand times. He no longer had to follow Obi-Wan, but he still found himself doing so at times.

He struggled to keep his emotions from boiling over, but his internal conflict was in vain. He looked away. All he could do now was keep himself calm.

"If you stopped acting rash, I'd have to ask you to go in for psychiatric testing," Obi-Wan quipped automatically, falling easily into their old pattern. He could feel Anakin's conflict like the sound of a simmering pot, but made no comment. Vaguely, Ben felt he ought to feel something of the same, but the healing had left very little room for else but calm acceptance. It would all come out right, "And don't think I still won't. We're going to have a talk."

That stern look was familiar, and it promised a good lecture in the very near future. Obi-Wan was nonpartisan, and gave Luke a similar warning glare, "But not at the moment. For now, help me up, I'm not an invalid. And help Arha for goodness sake, she's about to fall over."

Arha reviewed herself carefully and then slowly, calmly licked her free hand clean of blood. It took her a long moment to move the other and she repeated the process before working herself standing, still silent. Food first to replenish the lost energy.

Oh food, even if it was glop.

She refused to wobble, not even a little, and then reached down to pull Obi-Wan to his feet. Arha would not fall over, and that was pure stubborn will. She lasted perfectly long enough after her Agony.

Three minutes until cramps, she thought. Limitations. They were annoying. So very, very annoying, especially now.

Concern flooding him, Luke looked over at Arha, who indeed looked like she was about to tip over. Standing himself, Luke stepped carefully around Obi-Wan and his father to put a hand on Arha's arm.

That wild energy surged up his hand, and startled, Luke felt as though a channel had been opened between them. Not surprising really--she'd just poured much of herself into Obi-Wan, and the other master had opened himself up to her. Still, things coming from Arha were more in focus than they had been before.

"Can you walk?" he asked, worry in his voice. "I can carry you if you can't."

Sheeana looked between Skywalker and Masaari several times. A mischevious thought grew within her.

"Luke, please help Sister Masaari to the mess hall or sensorium and be sure she eats enough. Arha, you will allow Luke Skywalker to assist you in doing so, by carrying you if need be, and will not attempt to walk by yourself. That is an order from Mother Superior. I will remain behind to ensure that no more of our companions have been wounded or killed." There was a tinge of Voice to the request and command.

Playing matchmaker, Sheeana? That's generally what retired seductresses do. Came the voice of Odrade-within with an amused tone.

I'm just testing them. And laying the foundation for future bonds that will be of use to the Sisterhood.

Be sure they don't use you. I'm a 'heretic' and I still advise caution there.

Anakin knew it was coming -- the lecture. He had acted brashly and it was no doubt that Obi-wan would want to have words with him about it. But another realization washed over him and it resulted in a feeling of pure panic.

Just how much did his former master know? Is it possible that Luke did not tell him anything, but Anakin would have to make sure to watch what he would say. He would also need to talk to Luke and make sure he didn't give anything away.

"Of course, Master ... I will go ... Meditate on my actions. I assume you won't mind."

He turned to leave. He just needed to get away for awhile and think. He wad sure it would be a good excuse to get away.

"Good, see that you do," Obi-Wan glowered, then sighed and ran a hand over his tired face. He felt as if a stampede of Wookies had been using him for a thoroughfare. Still, no rest for the righteous weary; Obi-Wan dusted himself off, gave a deep nodding half-bow to Sheeana and said to the room at large, "Well, I suppose I should...see what I can do about the rest of the wounded."

Allow. She would allow assistance and yet not walk on her own? Arha fixed Sheeana with an unholy apoplectic, strangled sort of look that completely flushed her features before she schooled her expression into something less...

Less whatever that was.

She swallowed down her pride, which had jerked her back straight to push her to her full height, and let out a slight annoyed sigh as her eyes swept over Anakin (he was boiling, still, and that would only continue), and stopped on Obi-Wan as her fingers touched Luke's hand.

"Obi-Wan," she forced out as clearly as she was able, "I will slap you upside. Your head. Should you overextend yourself. Do not assume," she paused, breathless for a moment in which the world faded just a little, "that you may jump about. Like a frog. Rest."

Arha blinked furiously to refocus and wobbled from the effort of getting the words out, solidly leaning into Luke. If they hadn't been important, she wouldn't have bothered. Her gaze needled Sheeana in a silent do not think I did not see that!

Edited 2009-09-13 02:08 (UTC)

That really did make Luke crack a smile. The idea of anyone smacking Obi-Wan Kenobi upside the head was too funny not to. "She sounds pretty serious, Ben," he said, blue eyes merry. "Better listen to her."

A thought occurred to him. "In fact, you'd better come with us. You might be healed but I don't think you're up to fighting capacity yet. I don't want to see you laid out like that again, and I doubt Anakin would either." He stretched out to his father for affirmation and was struck by the dark swirl of emotions in the man.

Luke sighed. Things weren't going to be easy between any of them. He sent his father a tendril of all those supportive emotions he wasn't sure the other man even wanted and held his arm out to Arha. "Besides, I'm sure she'd prefer to walk if she could, and I can't be on both sides of her at once."

It's really difficult to see when a Spice addict is rolling their eyes. The total blue-within-blue obscures the pupils. A diligent observer, however, might have been able to pick up Sheeana doing exactly that.

That and smirking. Blushing like a first year acolyte, Arha? Charming as that may be, we may have to go over the art of obscuration a bit more.

"Fine. I will carry Master Kenobi and Luke will carry Arha. We will get you to a safe resting place, where you will remain." One wouldn't think that with her small, slight frame Sheeana could carry Obi-Wan but she was dead serious.

A House Divided [Part 3]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject