“Thank you for informing me, master Jedi. Of course the resources of the Republic will be at your disposal in order to retrieve this wayward padawan of yours before anything horrible happens, Force forbid. Why, he’s the boy that saved my very own planet of Naboo from the Trade Federation’s invasion and destroyed the droid controller ship threatening us all. It would be the least that I can do to make sure that he remains safe.”

Master Windu inclined his head, “Thank you, Chancellor. We will make sure to share any information that will help bring young Skywalker back home.”

“By chance, do we have any explanation for why he has done this?” Chancellor Palpatine asked, “What could lead him to go so far as to flee to the Outer Rim? He seemed quite eager to be a Jedi when I last met him in the aftermath of the Naboo invasion.”

Master Windu’s jaw worked and he looked irritated for a moment before he replied, “He was reassigned to a new master after… Master Kenobi’s most recent incident. It seems that the boy disliked the change and in a foolish act of rebellion chose to flee rather than continue his training under his new master.”

“Is that so? How intriguing. Were conditions so intolerable for him under this new master?”

“The conditions were…” Master Windu hesitated, something that made the Chancellor take note. How interesting. Perhaps he should tell his spies to dig deeper into the specifics?

“The conditions were less than ideal,” Master Windu admitted, “It seems that Master Druman pushed the boy harder than he could take. But rest assured that he has been reprimanded harshly, and such things will not happen again when the boy has returned.”

“And do you intend to place him back in Master Druman’s care despite your reprimand to this Master? Is it not unusual for a padawan to be forcibly transferred to a new Jedi master unwillingly?”

“There is precedent,” Windu said defensively, “Master Kenobi can not carry out his duties until he recovers fully. The Jedi will deal with such matters internally once the boy is returned to us. If that is all, good day Chancellor.”

Grandmaster Windu inclined his head at Palpatine one more time before turning around and strolling out of the room.

Sheev Palpatine waited until the Jedi was outside of the Chancellor’s office before turning to Mas Ammeda, the grand Vizier of the Republic Senate.

“What do you make of this, Mas?” he asked, “This throws the grand plan in disarray. The Chosen One himself fleeing from the Jedi… Perhaps I should mentor him sooner than planned.”

“That seems unwise at this time, Lord Sidious,” Mas said as he bowed to his lord before straightening again, “All eyes are on him, and on you. There’s too much risk training him yourself.”

Lord Sidious drummed his fingers on the desk as he considered his plans, and how they would have to change.

“The Jedi are in an uproar,” he said, “A ripe ground for sowing division and strife. We must ensure that the boy is both safe and out of Jedi hands for as long as we can. It will be easier to turn him to the dark later, the longer he is away from them and their temple. And we must somehow still bind him to us, without him nearby and with the Jedi such things will be far more difficult…”

“My lord, there is one answer. But it must be handled delicately. Your newest apprentice, Lord Tyrannus. He can do the hard work of training the boy out of sight while you reap all of the rewards in the end, when the moment is right.”

Chancellor Palpatine sat back in his chair and steepled his fingers, considering the proposal. Then he smiled widely and indulged in letting the hatred flow through him as he briefly indulged in drawing on the dark side of the force.

“Why, Mas, that sounds like an excellent idea,” Lord Sidious said, “Yes, this is an unprecedented opportunity. We must seize it full force before it slips away and the Jedi recapture our prize and hide him away once more. You organize the Republic’s response. Make sure to keep the search competent enough that the Jedi don’t suspect any foul play from you. I will make the arrangements with Lord Tyrannus and explain his newest mission personally.”

— — —

Anakin woke suddenly as the ship rumbled around him. He reached to his side and pulled out his knife as he sat up in his bunk. They were stacked four high on the ship and Anakin had made sure to take the top one when he had the chance. He didn’t trust the nearly forty people sleeping in the communal sleeping quarters on the ship. Well, communal for the passengers, Anakin had yet to see somebody from the crew so far. They were sectioned away in a different part of the ship from what Anakin had heard from the muttering of the people around him.

The ship rumbled again and Anakin tightened the grip on his knife. He leaned his head over his bunk and stared at the Twi'lek man who blinked in surprise as he saw Anakin leaning over.

“You know what’s going on?” Anakin whispered, “Did we just exit hyperspace?”

“I don’t know,” the man said, “I know as much as you. I just woke up.”

He rolled over and Anakin thought for a second he was ignoring him, but when he rolled back around he was holding a holopad.

“It’s been… No, still a few hours too early. Why would they drop out so soon?”

The ship rumbled again and Anakin lifted off his bunk as the gravity generators shut off for a moment before kicking back into gear and slamming everyone down in a loud crash.

“Sith spit!” The man below Anakin cursed, “What is going on? Is something wrong with the engine?”

“Probably pirates. Here to sell us as off slaves,” a twi'lek woman with a long scar running across her cheek and running down her jawline to just below her lips sneered from the line of bunks opposite Anakin. She had slept on the top bunk as well, and Anakin saw her raise an eyebrow as she saw the knife that he held in his hand. She shifted and lifted her shirt and revealed a blaster tucked in her waistband that she pulled out and held it at the ready in front of her.

“Boy, you know how to use that sticker or is it an empty threat?” she asked as she gestured towards Anakin’s large knife.

“I know how to use it,” Anakin replied, “You think it’s really pirates?”

The ship shook again and Anakin heard the faint sound of screams and blaster fire through the halls of the ship.

“Pretty sure,” she said, “Engine malfunctions don’t sound like that. I’m not gonna go back to being a slave no matter what. This junker of a ship doesn’t have anything valuable on it except people. You choose, smooth hands. You seem like the only other semi competent one in this sorry lot.”

Smooth hands? He had calluses from handling a lightsaber, but she was right. These weren’t workers' hands. Not like how they’d been scratchy and uncomfortable when he was a slave back on tatooine.

“I’m not going back either,” Anakin said as he looked back at the woman, “You have a plan?”

The woman glanced at him in surprise before shrugging, “Point and shoot. You stab a few once I’ve distracted them enough. I’m Slarena Reborn by the way. You, kid?”

“I’m not a kid… I’m Anakin… Just Anakin.”

The blaster fire and shouting outside of the passengers quarters grew louder and the worried muttering of the passengers grew louder and more urgent. Most had a blade or two that they carried, but it seemed like only Slarena had a blaster. Anakin specifically remembered that the blasters were supposed to be stored away in a separate bag while they were traveling on the ship to the outer rim. Bags that were taken away and stored elsewhere for the journey.

“Your parents sure were confident, weren’t they?” Slarena said as she aimed her blaster at the door and pressed her body against the wall so only the snout of her handheld blaster should be visible from the door.

“Naming you Just. Short for Justice? What a name. Nice to meet you, Mr. Anakin.”

“What, no! My name’s Anakin. I was only saying…”

He stopped as he saw her smirking at him and groaned, “Ugh, you’re teasing me.”

“You set me up there,” she said with a morbid note in her voice, “May as well get in one last quip before we die.”

“We’re… We’re not going to die,” Anakin said with a deep breath, “We’ll be okay.”

She frowned, “You think we can fight them off? I’m the only one with a blaster. Knives won’t do anything against them.”

“You’d be surprised how good a sword can be,” Anakin said before he slowly put his normal knife back into his pocket and drew out his lightsaber.

“What the sith spit is that?” Slarena asked and stared at the lightsaber in confusion, “Some kind of flashlight?”

Anakin let the Force flow through him and jumped from the top bunk down to the floor.

“Something like that,” he called out, “Try to not shoot me.”

Anakin shoved through the chaotic crowd uncertainly holding their knives at the ready. None of them recognized what the silver handle in Anakin’s hand represented, but at his confidence they cleared the way.

He stood by the door and with a few deep breaths stood in his ready stance with his unignited lightsaber held at the ready. The others eyed him dubiously, but still backed away and gave him a circle of space directly in front of the door.

“What in the galaxy are you doing, kid?” Slarena called out from her high bunk, “Get back here! No flashlight is going to save us.”

There were heavy footsteps thundering in the hallway just outside, so Anakin just stood there in a ready stance and ignored Slarena as he waited. He could feel them through the force, the pirates. They were gathering on the other side of the door, waiting for something.

“Get back here right now, Anakin!” Slarena demanded, “Somebody down there get the kid back, he’ll get killed up there!”

Anakin ignored her again, and no one listened to her as they all heard the shuffling and clanging of many boots gathered just outside their door to the main ship.

After a few minutes of standing there motionless, there was finally a change. Slarena had given up on her worried demands and just laid there silently, aiming her blaster at the door while Anakin and the others stood in a rough circle around the door with their blades and his unignited lightsaber.

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Anakin had let his nervousness bleed into him and broke his meditation on the Force slightly. He worked hard to center himself and took more deep breaths and reestablished his connection to the light side of the Force like he’d learned at the Jedi temple.

The door opened and a crowd of dirty and scruffy men in mismatched gear stood on the other side. A man in the center stood in the back behind the first two lines of burly people who must be pirates as he stood with a sense of authority. His gear looked much more well maintained and little gold jewelry was pinned across his chest like the medals on a general.

“Friends!” The human pirate captain said cheerfully with a sadistic smirk on his face, “Soon to be slaves! I’d suggest you put down your weapons, and give up. The more of you that are killed, the less merchandise we have to sell! You wouldn't want to go the way of your brave crew, would you? Poor men didn’t know when to quit, a shame really. Some of them would have done well in the fighting pits…”

The nearly dozen pirates on the other side of the door armed their blasters and pointed them inside threateningly. Anakin saw that there were even more pirates to either side of them deeper on either side of the door out of sight.

A man to Anakin’s right had his face welling with tears, and dropped his small switchblade and kneeled and put his shaking hands in the air in surrender. Over three quarters of the others did so as well in a wave, only a few people including Anakin remained standing defiantly, even if the knives in the hands of the others were trembling.

“A good choice!” the captain said, “The rest of you have ten more seconds. Slavery or death? One can always gain their freedom, but dead is dead. Think carefully before you decide.”

One of the pirates took a step inwards as the others all dropped their knives and surrendered as well, leaving only Anakin standing there in the doorway.

“And what of you, boy?” the pirate captain sneered, “Would you rather die? Hit us with your little toy there? You have five seconds left.”

“You’re not hurting any of these people,” Anakin stated firmly as he tightened his grip on his lightsaber and kept his thumb hovering right over the ignition button on the side of the handle, “I won’t let you.”

“Is that so?” the captain sneered, “What will you do, boy? Surrender before things start getting ugly. Or I might get in a bad mood and decide that I don’t need to keep all of you as slaves.”

One of the burly pirates took a step forward, but before Anakin could react, Slarena fired her blaster from behind him and landed a pinpoint shot directly in the large pirate’s eye, sending him falling to the floor dead.

Anakin ignited his lightsaber and quickly brought it in front of him to block as a barrage of wild blaster fire from the pirates came into the cabin in response to Slarena’s shots.

Anakin blocked one shot blasting directly towards his face and clumsily deflected it to the side into the wall. Using the Force’s guidance, Anakin twisted his body as three more shots in the barrage sailed past him and scorched his side, shoulder, and his right thigh right around his hip in glancing blows that he barely dodged with his Force guided dash to reposition himself.

The pirates kept firing and Anakin heard the screams of the dying passengers behind him. He felt through the force that three of them were already dead and many others were on the edge of death as well as the pirates fired indiscriminately on them, seemingly not having spotted where Slarena was hiding yet.

As he dashed forward, he felt an indescribable rage welling within him. He was supposed to be a Jedi, to protect people! So why… Why were they dying anyway? Even as the first pirate’s eyes widened as Anakin sliced him in half with a horizontal slice of his blue lightsaber, he felt something twist and pulse within him as all that rage crescendoed into something more.

Why should he care about these animals? Slavers, murderers. Wasn’t it only fair that they should suffer? Just like what they’d inflicted on so many others, Anakin would show no mercy to them. He’d tear them apart!

The Force pulsed around Anakin as his head throbbed with a steady beat of rage and loss as he wildly dove into the crowd of pirates and swung his lightsaber wildly, killing multiple of them at once as his lightsaber barely even slowed by their shoddy armor.

The pirate captain was fleeing, he was the source of this rage within Anakin. If he was dead, then everything would feel better. All those people that the man had hurt would be avenged.

Anakin went to charge after the captain, but ducked as the Force screamed a warning to him and two blaster bolts sailed over his head. He turned around and saw two living pirates pointing their blasters at him with shaking hands.

Anakin lifted his free hand and with a scream let out a burst of twisting malevolent Force that slammed into the two men. They were thrown through the air and slammed into the back wall at high speed, their bodies going limp with wet crunches before they fell to the ground dead.

Anakin turned to see only the pirate captain remained alive, fleeing in a panic and shouting into a communicator even as he did so. Anakin started running after him with a soft growl in his throat as he felt his face twisted into a frozen snarl.

Pirates came running in from adjoining hallways and fired their blasters at Anakin, and he dealt with them at all in barely a second. But each pirate gave their captain more time to flee.

The pirate captain’s voice grew screeching and high pitched even as he heaved heavy breaths as he ran. Anakin saw the dead bodies of what must be the crew of this ship, blaster holes perforating their bodies and carelessly shoved to the side to clear the main path for the pirates.

It only drew Anakin to stoke the fires of his rage higher as he chased after the pirate captain. The man ran through a hatch that closed behind him as he turned around and mashed the buttons of the door controls, watching with wide eyes as Anakin charged after him, only second behind.

Anakin slammed into the metal doors full speed, and was briefly thrown off balance from the blow and shook his head before recovering. He plunged his lightsaber into the metal and started cutting a rough circle in the metal door with his superheated lightsaber blade.

When the circle of metal was cut open wide enough after a few seconds, Anakin held out his hand again and in another burst of malevolent force the plug came loose and fell out of its housing into the hallway behind it with a heavy thud. Anakin growled slightly at seeing how little his blast of Force caused the thing to barely move more than a meter from the doorway. He went through the hole and barely noticed the sudden change in the design of the hallway around him compared to the normal ship. He saw the pirate captain disappear around the corner.

All he knew was that more pirates were coming to attack him again, shooting at him. Anakin continued his rampage, slicing wildly with his lightsaber and releasing blasts of malevolent Force from his hands for those farther away. The Force let him dodge the laser blasts of the pirates as he dodged and weaved through their attacks to butcher them.

Then as if in a flash, there were no more. He had nearly caught up with the pirate captain and no more pirates came to ambush him from behind or the sides.

The captain turned around to look behind him and screamed and held his hands up defensively as he saw Anakin meters away from him.

Anakin leapt forward and in one blow split the pirate captain in two from shoulder to waist. The two halves of the man’s body slid apart and hit the ground. But Anakin didn’t stop there. He descended on the remains and slashed again where it lay. And again, and again.

Why wasn’t this feeling, this rage, this loss, going away? He had gotten rid of the source of the problem! The lightsaber was too clinical, too clean. He had to vent his anger in a more satisfying way for it to work. He dropped his lightsaber and started pounding the dead pirate captain’s body with his fist, coating them with blood. Anakin vaguely registered that somebody was howling and screaming like a dying animal. It might even be him this time, instead of the people that he had killed.

Punch, punch, punch. The floor was a bloody splattered mess, but Anakin had to keep punching. There were still small pieces of the animal’s body left to crush.

“Anakin?” A woman said from behind him in a small voice after who know how long of mindless rage and attacking the floor.

He snapped his head around and through the pulsing rage pounding in his head, someone vaguely familiar. She… wasn’t a pirate? It was Slarena? Hadn’t she been the one who fired back there. He had it handled! All of those people were dead because of her! If she’d just trusted him, then those pirates wouldn’t have had a chance to kill anyone! He would have stopped them in time!

The pirates were all dead, so that meant that Slarena was the one who had caused all of this, this aching terrible and raging hurt in him!

He took a step toward her panting and raised his lightsaber as he picked it up from the floor next to him, tensing his legs and preparing to leap forward even as he turned.

He took a menacing step forward and Slarena flinched and looked scared of him. Anakin paused as a moment of clarity washed over him. What was he doing? It was the pirates that were at fault, not her. Where were the pirates…? He glanced around and realized that they were all dead. But that must mean that she… No! What was he doing?! In his sudden burst of clarity, Anakin suddenly felt horror at what he’d almost done. Even now, he could feel the dark side of the force warping his thoughts, looking for another target to vent his rage on now that the pirates were dead.

Anakin started panicking and took a stuttering step back from Slarena, who looked confused at his sudden shift in stance and expression.

Even now he could feel himself sliding back into madness. He had to stop it, if only he could… He remembered the shield around his mind sitting there passively like it always did. In a panic he grabbed onto the mental shield and flexed it as hard as he could.

His head throbbed harder and he fell to his knees and groaned in pain slightly. But he pulled even harder on the shield and ever so slowly and painfully, the unnatural rage and madness started to fade from his mind. Finally after what felt like an eternity, his mind was fully cleared and the coiling madness of the Dark side drained away from him, its power enhancing body fading away and leaving him with a bone deep exhaustion.

Anakin was still on his knees, his lightsaber having shut off and fallen to the floor at one point. Slarena was staring at him uncertainly from a few meters away, a complicated expression on her face.

Anakin looked down at his trembling hands and saw that they were coated in red blood. His whole body was, he realized as he looked down at himself.

“What… What have I done?” Anakin said in horror as all the memories of what had happened washed over him all at once, “I killed them. I killed them all.”

Anakin felt his eyes welling up as the horror and trauma of what had just happened washed over him.

“It’s alright, Anakin,” Slarena said softly as she crouched down in front of him and put a hand on his blood soaked shoulder, “You did what you had to do.”

“I killed them,” Anakin repeated, “I failed. All those people died because I wasn’t good enough. I… I…”

Anakin’s welled up tears finally escaped his eyes despite his best efforts and ran down his blood streaked face and he buried his face in his hands.

He felt a pair of arms wrap around him in a hug as Anakin’s mind felt flashing through all the horrible images of what he’d done, what he’d let happen because he wasn’t good enough.

“You’ll be okay,” Slarena whispered to him as she kept him wrapped in a hug and ignored all the blood that he was smearing all over her, “Deep breaths, Anakin. I… You saved the rest of us, me, from… You don’t know what I’d do to never be a slave again, Anakin. Thank you.”

“I… But I… I never thought it would be like this. I just lost control and killed all of them like a wild animal…”

“That’s just how it goes sometimes,” Slarena said sympathetically and started rubbing little circles in Anakin’s back with her right hand, which oddly enough immediately helped him calm down as he felt his body relax and some of the tension drained out of him.

He took his hands from his face and awkwardly hugged Slarena back as she sat there hugging him on the blood stained floor.

They stayed like that for a few minutes before Anakin eventually released her and wiped at his eyes with his bloody sleeve. But his face was covered in blood too, so all it did was smear the cloth a bit and leave his face just as dirty as ever.

“Thanks, Slarena,” Anakin said, “I… needed that. How many made it?”

Slarena grimaced and hesitated before answering, “Half. But that’s half more than would have been free otherwise. Let’s get you up. You can think about all of that later. Let’s get you cleaned up. And maybe a nap. I’ll even tuck you in for your bedtime if you ask me nicely.”

“I’m not a kid,” Anakin muttered listlessly as he stood and let Slarena lead him back through the path of devastation that he’d created. She tried to cover his eyes at points, but he didn’t let her and forced himself to watch the carnage that he’d created when he lost control.

This was what the Force wanted him to do. If the Force turned him fully to the dark side, then he’d be a monster. If he hadn’t pulled himself back from the brink, if he hadn’t had Draeth’s special power to help him purge the dark side from himself…

Anakin glanced at Slarena and shuddered. He didn’t want to think about it. She still had two calloused hands on his shoulders and was guiding him as they walked through the hallways. They eventually reached the showers. She released him and put her hand on the square of his back and pushed him forward slightly inside.

Anakin looked back at her.

“Well, I’m not going in there with you if that’s what you’re thinking,” she said drily, “I’ll get your clean clothes. You have that one bag with all of your stuff in it on your bunk, right? I’ll bring it here and throw it inside so you can find your stuff. Just take your time, I’ll make sure the others don’t come and bother you. You’ll feel much better once you’re all clean and in fresh clothes.”

Anakin blushed slightly and nodded and closed the door behind himself.

She was right, and after Anakin took a shower and Slarena was right. Once he was clean, he did feel much better.