Chapter Text
Anakin shivered as they entered the Jedi-issued fighter jet. The air-condition running froze the sweat dripping off of his chin.
His Master nonchalantly sat down behind the two chairs and was checking his comm for any new messages. He didn’t seem to find any so he placed the device to the side and turned a blank look to his freezing apprentice.
“Are you alright, Anakin?” He asked.
“T-... Turn it off.” Anakin gritted out. How could Obi-Wan be fine with such an extreme temperature switch?! The older man tilted his head before Anakin sent the feeling of chills to him, which made him nod and remarkably turn down the air-conditioning so it was just a fine breeze.
He sighed in relief and landed himself in the pilot’s seat, receiving a raised eyebrow from Obi-Wan. “So you’ll be the one crashing us this time, I assume?” Anakin huffed, “We haven’t crashed yet, Master. You’re bringing us bad luck.”
“There is no such thing as luck.” The young Jedi Knight hummed and he reached upwards to ruffle his short cut hair. Anakin smiled, even when the hand withdrew. “You sound like the old Masters from the temple,” He teased.
Obi-Wan smiled, “I suppose I am growing wiser– and much more patient with you around.” Jedi Knight Kenobi closed the shuttle and locked it before taking a seat behind the pilot’s seat.
“What’s that supposed to mean!” Anakin protested, “How could I be making you gain the lesson of patience, when you’re the one taking your sweet time meditating in all of your free hours!” Obi-Wan laughed quietly, “I assure you, my meditation has never trained my patience as much as you have.”
Anakin rolled his eyes.
“Am I, or am I not trusting you with the flight back to Coruscant?” Obi-Wan questioned when he hesitated. “I’ll do it! I just…” He trailed off. “Do not let your fear take over you, Anakin.” Obi-Wan reminded.
“I’m not. I’m just being cautious is all.” Obi-Wan lifted a brow. “If you cannot trust yourself, you cannot trust the Force.” He stood up from the seat and leaned against the Pilot’s seat Anakin was currently sitting in, sending a mental cue to get up.
But Anakin didn’t get up, instead stubbornly staring out. Obi-Wan sighed. “There is no luck when there is the Force, young one.” Anakin rolled his eyes at being called a child, and wordlessly started prepping the fighter jet for take off.
“Are you sure?” His Master asked suspiciously, making Anakin snort. He wasn’t the one hesitating anymore, instead it was his Master. “Yeah, don’t worry, Master. I trust myself.”
“Not the Force?”
“I don’t think the Force can save us from pirates.”
Obi-Wan replied with mirth. “You’d be surprised.” Anakin recalled podracing on Tatooine and how many times he had been helped by premonitions– though you could also say that, that was him and not the Force, so who was really saving him?
“Did the Force save Qui-Gon?” He grumbled quietly. Obi-Wan went silent before sighing and taking the seat behind him. The words had slipped out before his mind could even catch up to his mouth, but he didn’t vent the ensuing guilt, despite sensing through the Force how the words had affected his Master.
“Do you remember how to fly one of these things?” Obi-Wan asked after a moment of silent meditation where Anakin had been checking the fuel left. “Yeah.” Anakin said quietly and turned his head to his Master who didn’t reveal any change in his expression.
The last time he had flown one of these was three years ago, back on Naboo. They both clicked their seatbelts on as the engines boomed in readiness.
“I’m personally feeling pretty tired– think we’ll have enough fuel to manage hyper-space?” Even he could see the out he was getting there. “Yeah, I’m exhausted.” Hopefully Obi-Wan would know that was his way of expressing his guilt, especially when the man himself had presented it. “We have more than enough with the extra fuel canisters.”
Obi-Wan nodded with a calculated gaze. “The trip won’t take more than a week,” he predicted and Anakin nodded in agreement as they took flight.
“Should we report back to the council?” He asked curiously as they exited the planet’s atmosphere. His Master switched their shields on as a just-in-case measure, but frowned when he looked at the barometer beside it.
“It seems we don’t have much power left to convert into shields…” He muttered quietly as he turned it off again. The power was connected to the energy shields and their oxygen on such a small fighter jet as theirs, so it wasn’t wise to keep it running.
“Do you have to make a stop?” Anakin sighed, just wanting to get back to his own bed and enjoy a day’s break from doing anything when he got back. “Not necessarily.” Obi-Wan said. “I just find it strange.” He stated.
Anakin sent an inquiry to his Master as he charged the fighter jet for hyper-space. “It was fine yesterday, and yet now we barely have any left.”
“What do you mean?” Was his Master insinuating someone had tried to sabotage them. “Just be on the lookout and keep your senses open, Padawan.” He increased his focus and opened himself up in the Force. Obi-Wan gazed out into the mass of stars in front of them and gripped the stool tightly as he was thrown back against his chair as they entered hyper-space.
“Oh, dear.” His Master muttered lightly. Anakin felt a sense of bile rise in his throat and swallowed it again. He couldn’t afford to mess this up; he had to prove he could do something as simple as this.
He had to prove himself to his Master.
The boy gripped the controls tightly and forced a wave of calm to take over him as their bodies settled into mild discomfort instead of straight nausea. “It’s sad that hyper-space is the most effective mode of high-speed transport.” Master Obi-Wan sighed, disgruntled as he resettled into the chair. Anakin hummed as he slightly dimmed the lights.
It was giving him a migraine staring hyperfocused with the light show that was hyper-space with the combination of fake fluorescent lighting that could make your pupils narrow considerably by just being in a nearby vicinity to them.
Obi-Wan handed him a ration bar. Anakin let out a noise of disgust. “How did you even get this thing?” He asked as he accepted the bar from his Master, who had started munching on his own with a very careful blank expression; it was almost like he was ignoring his senses as he methodically chewed. “Bant.” Anakin scoffed.
“If she gives us another ration bar for energy I will trap her in the medicine bay.” Obi-Wan lifted a brow. “You’d go as far as to trap?” The older replied in amused mirth. Anakin just briefly let go of the controls to open the ration bar. He could see something on the radar and narrowed his eyes. His Master caught his sudden tenseness and held his hand close to the lever that would activate their Force-field and kept it there until he saw Anakin untensed when it had passed by.
“Well, I’d probably get kicked out of the Order if I did that.” Anakin didn’t make eye contact with his Master and instead expanded the radar to be able to see what had passed them.
His eyes widened in alarm. “Master…” He called with a haunted look. Obi-Wan leaned up and against the pilot’s seat and narrowed his eyes. “Two of them…” He muttered calmly. “Should we put up the shield?” Anakin asked anxiously. Obi-Wan mulled it over before sighing in what Anakin perceived to be frustration.
“We don’t have enough power to last more than five minutes before depriving ourselves of oxygen.” Obi-Wan calculated. Keeping the shields up took about twenty times the amount of power it took to keep the oxygen, lights and radar on. If they lost enough power they could risk being stranded given how far out they were from any republican planet.
“What about the council?” Anakin questioned since it seemed to be the next course of action, as he watched the now approaching objects on the radar; the first had done a turn-around after the other one had traveled a certain distance. “Let’s focus on dodging this first, young one.” Obi-Wan sat back in his seat.
“...But you are going to turn them on if we’re about to be hit, right?” He asked in suspicion and Obi-Wan sighed.
“Of course I will, my Apprentice. Though that does have a limit, so you’ll be doing the heavy lifting today, if you’re up for the task.” That sounded very unfair, but Anakin guessed he could view this as a test– he was pretty sure if he didn’t at least do well, then he would be kicked out of the pilot seat forever.
Anakin frowned seriously and set the hyper-space to a max, much to his Master’s discontent. A red stray light flew right in front them, just narrowly dodging the nose. “They fly into hyper-space now?” Obi-Wan hummed quietly, but his expression was vacant and most likely sensing through the Force, which was something Anakin didn’t have time to do as his Master quickly turned the shield on and off again to block a blast when Anakin was dodging another one.
“They’re going to overwhelm us.” Obi-Wan stated. “Can you find any planets to seek shelter on?” Anakin asked as he miraculously weaved through four blaster shots strategically directed towards their engine. “None of these planets are particularly friendly to the republic at the moment– it is the outer rim we are in currently, if you recall.” Anakin rolled his eyes.
So no escape. He’d have to get out of hyper-space so he would be able to find whoever was shooting at them. Anakin was about to multitask to prepare the transition when they were hit on the side. It shook up the entire fighter jet and when he tried to regain control he was panicked to find that one of their wings had been ripped off.
“What the kriff!” Anakin screamed in frustration and looked back at his Master who was looking out. “The shield was up– do you still have control?”
“Barely.” Obi-Wan nodded detachedly and ordered them out of hyperspace. “Direct it on to the nearest planet and steer.” He commanded. Anakin pulled it up and found a nameless planet, making him hesitate but he pushed aside the fear he felt and brazenly leaned his body weight to the side—.
They crash.