Anakin slowly opened his eyes. They were crusty and crackled as he struggled to open his eyes even as his whole body ached on a deep level.

He groaned as he weakly sat up and looked around. He was still in his room and looking at the clock it had been over twelve hours since he’d fallen unconscious. It was nearly time to get up and go back to train with Master Draeth for another lonely day.

Anakin stumbled to the communal showers and cleaned himself off, before returning to his room. His training was earlier than the other Padawans woke up now, so he didn’t get to see them even in passing in the mornings for small moments like this.

“What changed?” Anakin whispered to himself as he dragged himself to his feet and made it back into his room, “Draeth?”

The creature popped into existence again, perched on Anakin’s desk in the corner.

“Oh, nothing much,” Draeth said, “Not yet at least. I can do all sorts of things to help you, but what I did was more like a primer of sorts. Your body will now accept my power more easily and that pesky Force shouldn’t be able to detect it when you use your other abilities. You should be able to use both your Force powers and mine at the same time without consequences. It’s not something as easy to do as you would think normally.”

“Alright,” Anakin said, “That makes sense. What kind of things can you do? Is it like the Force, but just using your power or…”

“No, well… Eh, the Force can do some crazy things. So probably best to think about it that way. I have a few techniques or abilities that I could imbue you with. Each only does one specific thing, but does it as good if better than Force techniques that would take you decades or even centuries to master. If you could figure them out at all. I have enough power to give you only one of them though, and I won’t be able to do much more for a while after. I have to go to sleep as a side effect of imbuing you with my power. So, what are your goals? If you tell me what you want to do, I’ll know which ability should help you the most to accomplish them.”

Anakin thought about it, and his mind came out blank.

“Well, I want to become a full Jedi and go out and help people in the galaxy,” Anakin said, “To fight injustice and prove to Obi-wan that it was worth it for him to spend so much time teaching me. That master Qui Gon was right that I would be a worthy Jedi someday.”

“Hmmm, so you want to stay at the Jedi temple? Maybe wait out Master Druman until the Council declares Master Kenobi cleared of any mind control? Sorry about that by the way, I didn’t think the Jedi would be so paranoid. I really didn’t leave any compulsions on him beyond erasing his memory fully of the time around his mission. There isn’t anything for them to find.”

“Wait, are you saying that Obi-wan might never be cleared? Because of you?”

“Well, let’s not throw blame around…” Draeth said with a nervous laugh, “I’m sure that after some time, the Council will declare him healthy even without finding out what was wrong. It might take a while though depending on how stubborn they want to be.”

How stubborn… Uh oh. The Council was infamous for never wanting to backtrack or second guess decisions or judgements that they’d already made.

“By the look on your face, I’m guessing that the prospects aren’t good?”

“No. They’re not,” Anakin said gloomily.

“So do you still want to stay in the Jedi temple? Given that you’ll be training with Master Druman for some time likely.”

Anakin grimaced at the thought of spending potentially years through the torture of the last few weeks.

“But where would I go? I want to be a Jedi, I can’t just leave the temple before I go on my Padawan’s journey with Master Kenobi.”

“Jedi didn’t used to be so centralized, you know. It was an informal code that individuals followed as they wandered around the galaxy on their own. The Jedi Council only formed later. There were actually multiple different Jedi groups and governments back in the beginnings of the Republic. You can still be a Jedi and follow their code even if you’re not following this Jedi Council’s orders specifically.”

“How do you know so much about the galaxy? I thought you were from another reality?” Anakin asked in a sudden burst of suspicion.

“I think you underestimate me. Your master’s mind gave me a lot of information to consider in the last few months that I was in his body.”

“Are you reading my mind right now?” Anakin demanded, “Stop it! If this is going to work then I want my first power to shield me from anything like what you do. And for you to promise to never read or influence my mind, or I’ll find some Jedi master to purge you from me immediately.”

“But, there are far more useful powers that…” Draeth protested.

“So, you can do it?” Anakin said, “No, I want that one. Otherwise I’ll go to grandmaster Yoda right now and tell him about you and what really happened!”

“Fine, fine. I was just saying… Alright, I get it. Guess it’s a long term investment rather than immediate power… Here I go.”

Anakin felt something tingle within him and his body went numb for a few minutes as he lay in his bed before his control over his body came back. He sat up and instinctively flinched as he felt something worming into his mind. He reflexively flexed a new muscle and the intruder was violently expelled from his mind in a wave of power. It wasn’t like how the Force felt, but more… visceral. Like it was really a limb or part of his body rather than something from outside and from another entity assisting him. A guiding hand from all around him like how the Force was when he drew on it.

“That was me,” Draeth said, “You see? That was my mental probe. Now you’ll feel it if me or anyone tries to influence your mind with their power. Does that help you relax a bit? I’m trying to do my best here, but I think I deserve at least a little trust by now.”

Anakin flexed his new muscle in his mind a bit more and felt it ripple. It was like a shield covering his thoughts, but he could flex it and make it shift when he thought of tensing this new ‘muscle’ that he felt.

“Okay,” Anakin said, “I guess that’s fair. I wasn’t lying though. If you’re tricking me or you try to influence my mind or something then we’re done and I’ll find a way to get rid of you. But I’ll assume that you’re telling the truth for now.”

“Great,” Draeth said, “It’s always good to have some boundaries. Now, I’m rather tired. I’ll be hibernating for the next few months at least to recover from this before I can manifest myself as a mental projection again. Enjoy your new ability until I wake back up. Do try not to die while I’m recovering. Please.”

And then Draeth disappeared from Anakin’s desk like he was never there at all.

He glanced at the clock, and with a sigh stood up and prepared to go to another day of training with Master Druman and the stern old Jedi masters.

Meditation practice wasn’t as boring as it usually was, Anakin had fun flexing and playing with the new shield in his mind even as he drew on the Force at the same time. Master Druman didn’t have any biting comments for him today as he saw that Anakin was less visibly annoyed by their boring training as much as usual.

Anakin was in a good mood for a few days after that as he played with his mental shield whenever he was bored. But eventually… Even that grew boring too. And he still had to train and meditate, and train his lightsaber forms and duel with old masters who thrashed him effortlessly in every exchange.

As Anakin sat in his room after another long day of monotonous training, he stared at the ceiling and thought about what Draeth had asked. What did he want? Was being a Jedi Master really all that he ever wanted to be? Master Druman was a Jedi master, and Anakin could never imagine being somebody like him.

But he could also be like Master Kenobi, somebody who was everything about a Jedi that Anakin wanted to be. Calm in the face of danger, charismatic with even the Jedi that Anakin knew that he didn’t like, and a master of combat and drawing on the Force deeply, even more than most Jedi Masters far older than himself.

But Anakin wasn’t training with Obi-wan anymore. He was training with Master Druman. And he had to start considering that… Maybe that wouldn’t be changing anytime soon. Months, years, who knows how long. What if he had to go on his Padawan’s journey with Master Druman? It was only two months away now. The very thought of his first journey on a Jedi mission tainted by Master Druman looming over him caused Anakin physical pain as he grunted and brought a hand up to his heart from the feeling.

Ugh. That would just be the worst.

He couldn’t even talk to Felix and the other padawans even if he tried to sneak it. Felix and the others had told him that they’d been ordered to not talk to him until he left ‘seclusion’ with Master Druman.

Anakin had still managed to talk with Felix and the others a little bit when he sneaked off a few times, but their conversations were stilted and uncomfortable. Nothing like how they’d been only a few months ago.

Anakin wasn’t sure how much more of this he could take.

— — —

Anakin stared at the open doors of the cruiser with empty eyes. His Padawan’s journey was going to be… with Master Druman. Some diplomatic mission to mediate a trade dispute between the Trade Federation and one of the worlds on the mid-rim of the galaxy between the Core worlds and the Outer Rim where Anakin was born.

Anakin grimaced as he entered the Jedi ship and thought about the mission. Even after their full invasion of Naboo, the Trade Federation had gotten away with nothing more than a slap on the wrist. A few fines, some public statements from the government condemning their actions, a few lower level executives who were arrested by the Republic and put on trial and disavowed by the company.

But the Trade Federation itself was just fine, barely even affected by the whole matter. Just returning to business as usual after spending barely a few weeks of acting apologetic about what happened on Naboo and throwing a few million credits like pocket change to a charity to help the victims of the droid invasion of the planet.

Now he had to stand there and watch as they extorted some other planet for all they were worth while he and Master Druman made sure that the people of the planet were left with at least some crumbs in the end despite the massive economic and political power of the Trade Federation wielded.

Anakin was mostly silent as the two of them traveled through hyperspace and eventually landed on the planet. Anakin’s eyes mostly glazed over as Master Druman stood there and looked intimidating once the meeting between the planet’s and the Trade federation’s representatives started. He just stood there and occasionally said a few words when the negotiators grew too heated with each other in their arguments. They were arguing about the import and export of some kind of special fabric unique to this planet.

Anakin didn’t understand and didn’t care to understand as the meeting dragged into hours and then days of him standing there uselessly, his lightsaber dangling at his hip as a prop. Not having been ignited even for lightsaber training for days now.

As he meditated in the ship as Master Druman had ordered, the walls of his room felt like a prison. Closing around him like a slowly tightening box around him despite the room supposedly remaining the same size each day.

The thought had been tugging at him for these last few days, ever since he had arrived here to the mid rim. Master Druman left Anakin alone for long periods as they both meditated in their respective rooms alone. There was a chance…

He couldn’t take another day of this. Obi-wan would have to forgive him. Anakin would be a Jedi on his own terms, like the old ones before the Council. He had gone in the archives and Draeth had been telling the truth about the history of the Jedi. The Jedi code and the Jedi themselves had existed far longer than the Jedi Council that existed today. He didn’t need their approval to go out there and promote peace and justice in the galaxy. Not after they’d isolated him and ignored Obi-Wan and old Qui Gon Jinn’s wishes without a second thought when it was convenient for them.

“Draeth,” Anakin whispered as he opened his eyes, “I’m going to escape. If you’re awake, do you have anything that could help? Advice? An ability maybe if you’ve recovered? This won’t be easy.”

There was no answer. Anakin waited a few minutes before letting out a sigh. He took out a piece of paper and wrote out a letter explaining things and hiding it in his desk. Just something to ensure that Obi-wan and the other Jedi wouldn’t worry that he was kidnapped but that he was leaving of his own free will.

Anakin laid the blame entirely on Master Druman and his methods, for all the good that it might do. And made sure to avoid mentioning Obi-wan at all. He didn’t need to get blamed for Anakin running away.

Leaving the Jedi Order wasn’t something that you could just decide to do. The Council had to individually approve each case and assess each one individually. Most expulsions were punishments or from old Jedi masters that wanted to leave the order and settle down somewhere elsewhere in the galaxy for their retirement.

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The Council were the ones who had forced Master Druman on him, they wouldn’t let him leave if he asked. Let alone let him go because he was the Chosen One. So Anakin had to escape on his own. And dodge the Republic too. He wasn’t sure if it was an actual crime for him to run away, but he was sure that if the Republic caught him then they would happily hand him back to the Jedi without a second’s thought.

Anakin finished writing his note and packed his things. Not much, really. His lightsaber, three sets of brown Jedi robes that fit on his fourteen year old body. Some hygiene products. Some basic writing supplies and a few other small items he’d collected over the last five years at the Jedi temple. He only left his communicator behind sitting in the desk drawer. He was sure that it had a tracker of some sort inside of it that they could use to find him if he had it on him.

He left his room, walking as quietly as he could and intentionally minimizing his draw on the Force as much as possible as he snuck through the empty central corridor of the ship. He wasn’t sure if it would help, but he’d heard that people in battle and heavily drawing on the Force could be tracked through it. If he limited how much of the Force he used then hopefully it would make it harder for Master Druman to detect him from his room where he was meditating right now. Anakin went to the supply closet and pressed the panel to the side to open the door with a hiss of air.

He quickly went over to the corner and picked up the heavy sack of Republic credits. It wasn’t Master Druman’s money, but the Jedi Temple’s. Jedi weren’t supposed to be concerned with material concerns, and Anakin doubted that Master Druman had a single credit to call his own in his whole life at the Jedi Order. Whatever was needed was supplied by the Jedi temple and the Council.

Anakin slipped the pouch of credits into his own larger bag that hung at his side. He carefully counted out the money and thought about what he could do with it. It probably was enough to buy what he would need…

He didn’t know the prices here, but his old owner Watto had had him negotiate with the customers on prices for parts sometimes. So Anakin thought that he shouldn’t be hopeless and get completely scammed either.

Anakin left the supply closet and closed it behind him and went to the back of the Jedi ship.

He opened the ramp to the outside of the landing pad and winced at the loud hum as the ramp lowered. He went outside and quickly mashed the button to close it again before quickly jogging outside onto the landing pad before it closed again.

He walked to the edge of the landing pad and went into the elevator there with his heart beating in his chest as the doors closed and he started descending. With a ding, the doors opened and Anakin put up his hood and fixed his eyes towards the floor as he walked to the main doors. This building was a private landing pad that the planet’s government had let them use for the duration of the negotiations. Just outside was the main city where Anakin could start working on getting off planet.

“Hey! You!”

Anakin froze and turned with a bead of sweat forming on his brow as he saw two uniformed guards staring at him with a frown. They were carrying heavy blaster rifles and were wearing body armor covered in the greens and yellows of the security company guarding these private landing pads.

“Would you like an escort into the city, young Jedi?” the woman on the right asked after a moment.

Anakin relaxed and shook his head, “No, thank you. I can handle myself. I’ll be back soon.”

“Are you sure?” she asked, “It really would be safer if you were to have an escort. Here, I’ll go with you.”

Anakin opened his mouth, but then closed it. She wasn’t going to let him leave alone.

“Okay. Come with me then. I’m going to the market to see the sights. What’s the busiest one in the city?”

The woman glanced at her fellow guard and the man nodded.

“I’ll call it in,” the man said, “Go ahead, I can hold the fort here while you’re gone with our honored guest.”

She turned back to me, “Padawan Skywalker, wasn’t it? The biggest market? I believe that would be Seleni Square on the other side of the city. We can take the public hovertrains there, shouldn’t be more than fifteen minutes away from here.”

“Great,” Anakin said, “Lead the way.”

She walked out the door as the male guard raised his communicator and started talking through it to report to his bosses about what we were doing.

They found an outdoor bazaar in the bustling market after Anakin and the female guard spent some time idly chatting. It was a bit odd as she asked him about how he liked the Jedi temple as he was actively running away. It had been a while since he had a casual conversation with a complete stranger like this before. But Anakin muddled through and even though he felt the rust on his conversation skills, he didn’t fumble it too hard either.

The pair of them got a lot of odd looks from the other passengers on the trains, and even in the market itself the crowd avoided the two of them with wary looks.

Anakin went to a few stalls and haggled hard over a few sets of clothes. And a pair of cloaks that were distinctively not like the particular style that his Jedi robes were. Something brown and nondescript, but in a grubby smuggler kind of way rather than the refined tailored cut of his more distinctive Jedi robes like he was wearing right now.

His funds dwindled as he bought two sets of clothes, shirts, pants, underclothes and all, with the two cloaks to accompany them. And three ‘scarves’ that Anakin would use for another purpose later.

The guard was confused by his purchases, especially when he moved to the other side of the market away from all the clothing vendors.

“Are you sure you need things here?” she asked with a note of tension in her voice as her eyes darted around the rougher crowd as they moved into the weapons dealers and droid vendors. Anakin shopped for prices for a bit, not answering her question as he looked for the best price.

He finally found it, and haggled with the stall owner before reaching into his bag and paying the man the right amount of public credits. The man handed Anakin a bare sharp knife a hand’s length long and with a grooved leather handle. It was on the edge between a pocket knife and a blade. Just in case that he ran into trouble, and didn’t want to expose his lightsaber hanging at his hip under his robes. Something that was very much a Jedi weapon and would cause him a lot of trouble if he pulled it out if somebody tried to mug him.

“Let’s go to one of the retail stores,” Anakin said, “I’d like to try on some of these clothes. Where do you think that they’d have some changing rooms that we could use for free?”

“There is this one place around the corner from the market. I’m surprised to see a boy like you buying a knife. Don’t you Jedi have your lightsabers and the Force for protection?”

“Can’t hurt to have a backup,” Anakin said with what he hoped was a casual shrug. The two of them went into the store and walked to the back where a line of stalls were in a line with a small gap on the bottom of the doors.

Anakin went inside and changed into the pair of pants and shirt that he had bought, retrieving them from the bag he’d been carrying around this whole time.

He carefully counted out the Republic Credits that he had left. It was probably enough for a ticket to somewhere in the Outer Rim. The Outer Rim was lawless, so tickets there should be cheap. And once he reached there, records of any kind were spotty. So it would be hard to track him down if he reached the outer rim and then immediately left for another planet before the Republic or Jedi caught up with him.

Anakin took out both of his Jedi robes and carefully folded them and placed them on the bench next to him in the small changing room.

He took a deep breath. He really didn’t want to do this, but it seemed like the only way. He hoped that the Republic at least gave her some money or something because of him.

Anakin turned to the mirror across from him and inspected the clothing that he was wearing. He reached out and unlocked the door to the room.

“Hey, Mara? Can you come in, tell me how it looks?”

“Hm?” the guard, Mara, poked her head in from the door and looked over him, “It looks… Great everyday clothes, Padawan Skywalker. You haggled well on the prices as well. They look well made.”

“I had a question about this one…” Anakin said as he reached down and held up his Jedi robe and acted like he was inspecting it in front of him and lowered slightly where she couldn’t see it from the door.

She took a step inside the small room and peered over his shoulder to see what he was looking at.

“What? About your normal robes?” she asked as she looked between Anakin and the robes that he was pretending to inspect in front of him.

Anakin dropped the robes onto the bench in front of him and turned around.

“I’m really sorry about this,” he apologized, “Thank you for talking with me.”

He reached his hand up and with a flick of the Force the door to the small room slammed closed. Before Mara could react he jumped forward and clamped his hands around her throat. She thrashed in surprise, her eyes bulging and thrashing on the ground as Anakin jumped on her and bore her to the ground. He carefully adjusted his grip on the Jedi knockout hold, pinching her carotid arteries to cut off the flow of blood and oxygen to her brain. He used the Force to strengthen his limbs, while keeping himself calm and focused so he wouldn’t hurt her any more than necessary. After ten seconds, and a look of utter betrayal on the face from the spasming woman, her body underneath him went still.

What would Obi-Wan think if he saw Anakin now?

Anakin carefully released his grip on the woman’s throat and felt a wave of intense guilt as he saw the bruises already forming on her throat. But she’d be fine in a few hours, Anakin justified himself. A healing droid and some bacta could heal a few bruises in seconds. He checked her over as best as he could, and made sure that her breathing was slow and steady as she lay there unconscious on the floor.

She seemed fine, and her heartbeat was strong. As quietly as he could, Anakin shoved and lifted the heavy guard’s body up and maneuvered her so she was sprawled across the raised bench inside the changing room. Her arms dangled over the sides, so Anakin rolled her over so that her sleeping face was pointed towards the back wall and her arms stayed in place.

Leaving his pair of Jedi Padawan robes behind, Anakin took his bag of things and locked the door to the changing room. Suddenly paranoid as he was about to leave, Anakin went back to the unconscious Mara and checked her pulse again. She was fine.

Anakin looked up and with a slightly Force enhanced jump, leapt up to the ceiling and the cheap tiles sitting above. He gripped onto the supports and carefully pushed aside the lightweight corky material and revealed the empty space of the ventilation. He pulled himself up and after a bit of a scramble managed to fully pull himself inside. He pulled the ceiling tile and put it back into place behind him, and adjusted his bag so it would stay on his back as he lay there on his belly.

The ceiling tile beneath him crackled as it started buckling slightly under Anakin’s weight. He quickly clambered forward as quickly as he could like a lizard with spread out limbs to try to not fall through back into the room below. After traveling for a few seconds with the metal pipes and wires just above his head, he finally stopped as he reached the end.

He took the ceiling tile in the far corner, and using the tips of his fingers slowly lifted it up and peered down inside. It was the changing room on the far side of the line. There was no one inside in the room below.

Anakin was about to lift the ceiling tile and drop down fully, when he stopped as an alien male who looked mostly human besides his blueish green skin and row of stubby black spikes lining his jaw like a sort of sideburns.

He put down a bag of clothes after locking the door behind him. He reached down to the hem of his shirt and started lifting… And Anakin rapidly shoved the ceiling tile down and blushed, mortified as he realized what he was doing. Duh, it was a changing room. Why wouldn’t he change in there?

The man below gave a confused hum from below at the faint clatter as Anakin put the ceiling tile down. Anakin lay there motionless, embarrassed as the man below seemed to shrug off the sound as his imagination and seemingly tried on at least four or five pairs of clothes based on how long he took.

Anakin’s embarrassment at the situation soon turned to worry. He was on a ticking clock now. As soon as Mara’s unconscious body was discovered or Master Druman went looking for him, then he would be caught. He had to be off the planet before that happened, or the Republic or planetary government might be able to stop his ship and catch him at the starport. He couldn’t go through all of this, hurt that guard Mara, for nothing.

Anakin slowly started shifting backwards, moving so as to make as little noise as possible as it became apparent that the alien man in the stall below him would not be leaving for a while still.

Anakin backed up enough that the soft sounds of the man’s movements below became muffled. Anakin lifted a ceiling tile again, and peering through let out a sigh of relief to see that the changing room below was empty. He quickly lifted the ceiling panel and dropped down so he was dangling by one hand by the ceiling supports. Using his free hand, Anakin shoved the ceiling tile until it was nearly aligned above him.

In one motion, Anakin let go of his grip and let the ceiling tile come down and fall back into its original place as he fell and landed on the ground lightly on the balls of his feet.

He put on his cloak from his now slightly dusty bag, and threw it over himself. He took out one of the scarves and wrapped up the lower portion of his face. He threw the deep hood of the cloak over his head, and looked down at the ground as he opened the slightly ajar changing room door and walked back into the main store.

As fast as he could without being too suspicious, Anakin left the store and went out onto the street. He reached down into his pockets and relaxed slightly as he felt his newly bought knife in his right pocket and his Jedi Lightsaber in the left.

There were plenty of other people walking by with covered faces and deep hoods walking around, but none were as short as Anakin was.

Already knowing from his idle planning and research for his escape over the last few days, he already knew where the closest starport should be from here. He’d been thinking of getting away from the Jedi temple for weeks already, and he’d thought about how he’d escape as a half-serious thought experiment ever since he’d arrived here. It seems that his research should pay off, as Anakin quickly took the hover trains across the city again in thirty nerve wracking minutes.

Everyone gave Anakin strange looks on the train, with his deep hood and covered face, but nobody spoke to him. It seemed it was his age more than his clothing that was causing their confusion.

Anakin reached the spaceport and exited the train along with most of the others riding with him. The place was packed, with people rushing everywhere to get to their terminals.

He walked up to the ticket stand and took out his bag of Republic credits. He waited in line for less than five minutes, but it felt like forever as every moment Anakin felt the moment of his inevitable discovery inching ever closer.

But he reached the front of the line, having already glanced at the big holographic display floating next to the ticket station displaying the times of flights and the prices. Anakin had already picked an outer Rim planet that was cheap to get to, but he knew was fairly urban. He should be able to find another ship out to another planet from there, even if it would be difficult with only a few credits to his name after buying his ticket.

“Destination?” the man in the ticket booth asked in a bored tone, his eyes only showing a flicker of interest in Anakin’s cloaked form before seeming to give up his inspection.

“Raska,” Anakin said and took out his credits and took them from his bag and counted them to the right price, “Paying in credits. The one taking off in twenty minutes.”

“Twenty minutes? You’ll have to hurry to reach it in time. Ticket is nonrefundable,” the employee said, before counting Anakin’s credits himself and then handing Anakin a little silver disk.

“Show this at the door. Docking bay G4. No ID required to go to the outer rim, but you’ll need one on the way back, kid. Keeps the vipers out there away from our planet. Best of luck.”

“Thank you, sir,” Anakin said as he grabbed his access pass and ticket, “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Next!” the employee called out and the person behind Anakin stepped forward and started ordering his own flight.

Anakin jogged slightly to reach his ship in time, but he managed to get there in time and get inside and take a seat.

The ship was grimy, only the seats looking like they’d been scrubbed clean recently by a strong chemical. The smell of it still lingered in the air as Anakin took a whiff of it as he sat in his chair around various grimy and rough looking people who were eying him slightly as he sat there not talking to anyone. There were no other teenagers on the ship that Anakin could see.

But despite his concern, nothing stopped the flight. The spaceship rumbled and they blasted off from the surface. In a few weeks, he’d be out on the outer rim.

He’d be a Jedi for real instead of wasting his time and suffering under Master Druman.