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Fear had a sour taste, and it lingered.
He'd never liked it, did everything he could to refuse it. He would embrace the danger, the rush, the death, but he couldn't stomach fear. And yet, unlike many of his fellows and indeed his own Padawan, he'd never been afraid of the sky, the height, the fall.
He'd loved the wind as a boy, a huge part in his love of podracing. The feeling of weightless freedom, when nothing existed but him and gravity. It gave his mother heart attacks, but he was enamoured. The sky was and will remain his first love.
When Master Jinn had died, a grounded soul like himself, he'd been nervous. Kenobi, his apprentice, seemed a stern sort. Her beautiful wings were always clasped tightly to her back, her posture stiff and resolute. She made him nervous in such a way only a teacher can, having barely looked at him from the moment they met. Even the crisp bun she wore her hair in was unforgiving and severe, the Padawan braid dangling from her right side notwithstanding.
"What will happen now?" He asked her as they stood and watched Master Jinn burn.
She looked down at him, petting his hair gently, the way he'd imagined a sister might have, or an aunt. "We will return to the Temple, and you will be taken care of. I promise."
He nodded, taking hold of her robe sleeve as she led them away.
The ride to Coruscant had been a quiet, noble affair, the Elder clearly still lost in her thoughts.
When they arrived at the Temple, he was assessed right away. The Council didn't seem as impressed as Master Jinn had.
"I will not allow the boy to be returned to slavery." The fierceness in her voice, the dangerous assurity with which she spoke made his nerves uncool for the first time since Master Jinn had died.
"Of course we won't return him." Windu returned, his own sternness somehow worse than Kenobi's silences.
"I will be responsible for him. Master Jinn made a promise, and it is one I full well intend to keep. Whether he is the Chosen One or not, I cannot say, but he in strong in the Force and a fast, brilliant learner."
"You understand what that means for you, right?"
She scowled sharply and if she hadn't been defending him, he would have flinched away. "Yes, I do."
"Don't get hung up on your Master and his way of thinking."
She stiffened, her wings raising in contempt. "I know full well my Master's failings. But empathy and compassion are not traits I intend to dissuade. He will be my Padawan, one way or another."
He glanced back at her, trying to judge her level of ire. She didn't get physical like the slavers did, but the set of her eyes and the disgusted line of her mouth spoke enough.
"Come, Anakin." She said, voice softer. "I will show you to your quarters."
She led him to a large room, with a kitchen and a living room right when you opened the door. She led him to a room off to the side, behind a door.
"This one if yours. Mine is right next to it, if you've ever need of me." After that, she was quiet and pensive until they went to bed.
The next morning, even though he knew he should not be, he stuck into the Council chambers and watched as she knelt on the middle of the dais.
"It is always a shame when a Master cannot see their Padawan come into Knighthood." Windu began. Her pensive look did not ease. "In his place, I will officiate the ceremony."
She said nothing, head bowed, bun in place and braid hanging from her shoulder.
"You have passed many Trials, young one," Master Mundi spoke up, "but none of great as the defeat of a Sith Lord, one even your Master could not accomplish. Though his loss pains us all, we rejoice as you fill his place. Wisdom and strength already grace your young shoulders, beyond your years. It is our duty and honour to initiate you, Padawan, as a Knight of the Jedi Order."
Windu stepped forward with a viroblade and gently cut the braid free. It cauterized at the end, holding it together. "Stand, Knight."
She did so, her face blank and professional. She took the offered braid in her right hand.
"And thus you are Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi." Mundi finished.
She bowed deeply. "Thank you, Masters."
"Do not thank us." Windu spoke. "This is something you've earned on your own."
The way she looked at him spoke when she didn't, and he felt it deep in his mind. Entirely alone.
She turned away from them then, and spotted him peeking in. She said nothing, but he knew he was found. The Council members didn't follow her out of the chamber, but she stopped walking as soon as the doors closed.
"Anakin, come here."
He shuffled over sheepishly. She extended two fingers to him and he cautiously reached up to take them, nervous that it hadn't been what the gesture meant. She curled her fingers and gently pulled him with her, guiding him to the Grand Hall, where the Fountain and Gardens were. She walked right up to the fountain, picking him up and sitting him on its lips. Her wings lifted and raised, allowing her to kneel before him. It was the first of many times she would lower herself to his level.
"Hello Anakin." She cooed, her voice taking on a musical quality it hadn't had until now.
"Hello, Knight Kenobi."
She ran her fingers through his hair with a calm smile. "Call me Obi-Wan, youngling. No need for formalities between us."
"Okay." He murmured. "Obi-Wan."
"What did you think of the ceremony?"
"Master Jinn was supposed to be there, wasn't he?"
"Yes." She admitted softly, anguish passing over her features. "He was. He was supposed to cut the braid and usher me into Knighthood. But he's not here."
"What does this mean for me?"
She met his gaze, her own eyes shining with tears she'd not had the nerve to shed. "I will protect you and take care of you. I will uphold his promises."
She took his hands and laid out the severed braid.
"When the time comes, you will be my Padawan. Until then, can you hold onto this for me?"
He nodded, mute in surprise.
"Thank you. I look forward to seeing yours join mine when the time comes."
"Can I ask you something, then?"
"Sure."
"Why do you wear that bun?"
She stopped and considered it. "The braid has to be visible, and this was the only way they would let me keep all the hair I had. Otherwise, I would have had to cut it off, you see."
"Well, you're not a Padawan anymore, and I have your braid." He touched her cheek. "Let it down? Your wings are so beautiful, I can only imagine your hair is too."
She chuckled, low and genuine. "If it please the prince."
She stood, turned away from him and reached back. She pulled at some unseen seam of her updo and it unravelled, tumbling down her back. She shook it out, letting the wavy locks bounce around her freely. When she turned back to him, hair pulled to the right, curtaining her shoulder and spilling down her front in a vibrant display of copper.
"Beautiful." He breathed.
She chuckled. "I'm glad you approve."
He smiled brightly. "I can't wait to be your Padawan."
She knelt again, no longer severe, not so stern. "I will be responsible for getting you up to speed on the curriculum for your age bracket, so you'll be seeing a lot of me in the months to come."
He smiled again.
She cocked her head at him. "You like racing, right?"
"Yeah. Are we going to race?"
"No, but I have something else in mind. Are you afraid of heights?"
"No?" He touched her cheek again. "What are we doing?"
"Have you ever heard of skydancing, Anakin?"
She took him out, off-planet, to a hilly place with a lot of soft grass, but few trees. She wore different clothes, tighter-fitting beige robes and leggings instead of pants. She dressed him warmly, despite the planet not being cold. Then, speeder set to the side, she extended the massive span of her wings. They glittered, casting back light on the close hillside. She stretched them out, sighing in relief.
"I do not often have need of my ability to fly, and it can get tiring keeping my wings still." She said as way of explanation.
"What are we going to do?"
"I am going to teach you how to fly."
He scrunched up his face. "I can't fly. I don't have wings."
"No, you don't. But I do. And I can help you fly." She gathered him into her arms, holding him tightly with his legs around her waist and his arms around her neck.
She jumped, then she flapped and the inertia felt like wind, like podracing but doing it up instead of across. She has continued to flap, and they climbed higher and higher. He looked out only at the pink sky behind her, trying to keep his bearings. She held him fast, tight and secure.
Then, her wings hitched, and he realized she'd caught one of the middling drafts. There was no more flapping.
"Look around you, youngling."
He did as she said, the world stretching on infinitely around them. It was beautiful and luxuriant. He realized then that he was in love with heights.
It was a speedy love affair, progressing steadily but quickly from holding onto her, to riding her back, to letting her begin to teach him to skydance.
He remembered the first time the clones saw them in action, Rex and Cody in awe mixed with a healthy dose of trepidation. The other clones had taken off their helmets to make sure they were seeing right.
"Obi-Wan! Skydance!" He yelled, jumping into the air. From above, she swooped in like a predator, catching him by his biotic hand and surging back up. She hauled him effortlessly into the air, then threw him at the fighter droid that had been strafing them. He cut right through it and she was there to catch him, twisting around to throw him another hundred meters into the air, cutting apart another fighter. She let him fall then, catching him a dozen meters from the ground, punctuated by the clones' horrified yells. She then put some effort into her speed, shooting up the side of a building to kill the snipers nested there. Once at the top, she flung him at a tripod droid.
They were the scourge of the Separatist Army, the two most feared in the galaxy.
"Are you okay, Sir?" Rex fussed when she dropped him back off, going to scout with Kano.
"Yeah. Why?"
"Well, she just threw you around up there."
He laughed, clapping the soldier on the back. "Don't worry, we've done that since I was a youngling. It's our thing."
"Poor Kano." Rex lamented, leaving to check the guns and gather formations.
He looked back to the sky, letting the wind rush into his spirit and fill his chest. Her wind, her speed, the vibrant rush of colour and adrenaline that let him know he was alive and always safe in her hands.
He didn't feel fear when he was up there. Even getting shot at, so high he couldn't see the ground, he just felt alive. It was wonderful. Their brilliant arial display, the only ones in the Temple that could do it. So beautiful and powerful-
It couldn't save her. She was gone. There was no luminescent bronze or dashing copper to sweep the battlefield, I to command with her gentle voice.
He'd never felt so much fear.