Chapter Text
Up until the moment he was taken, Obi-Wan had been having a relatively pleasant afternoon.
He’d been enjoying the cool, autumn breeze and warm sunlight out on some green space just outside the temple. He lay on his stomach side-by-side with his best friend Bant. They were both Padawans now, so they hadn’t had as much time to spend together as they used to have. They took this rare opportunity to catch up with each other and just enjoy each other’s company. They had always been comfortable just sitting in silence together, so that’s what they had been doing. Laying quietly beside each other, each engrossed in their own books, but quietly basking in the light of each other’s Force presences.
“Obi?” Bant questioned after a long while of silence.
“Yeah?” he answered lazily, still partially engaged with what he was reading.
“Are you happy?”
Obi-Wan put down his book and turned to look at his friend with an inquisitive glance. “Of course I am.”
“Are you sure? You just seem... withdrawn. More so than usual I mean,” she said with a half-smile, but the concern didn’t leave her eyes.
“I’m fine, Bant,” he said quietly.
“Don’t lie to me, Obi.”
His eyes fell back to the grass. “I am happy,” he finally said. “It’s just…”
“It’s just what?” she prodded.
“I’m happy to be a Padawan, it’s just, I’m not sure Qui-Gon is happy to have me as his Padawan.”
It was the truth. Obi-Wan had been ecstatic when he had been told he was going to be a Jedi. But after a few months with Qui-Gon, he wasn’t sure that he had actually been wanted in the first place. It was clear Qui-Gon wasn’t as comfortable with him as many other Masters were with their own Padawans. Obi-Wan wasn’t sure what he was doing wrong, but it ate at him every day. He longed for the amiable Master-Padawan relationships that many of his friends had with their Masters. Qui-Gon was never overtly mean to Obi-Wan, he was just… aloof. Obi-Wan had tried hard at first to break through the standoffishness, but it did little good. Now he tended to mirror Qui-Gon’s aloofness. He wasn’t sure what else he could do.
“Oh come on! That’s ridiculous! Any Master would be lucky to have you as their Padawan. I’m sure Qui-Gon feels that way about you.”
“There’s no such thing as luck.”
“Oh, stop being so pedantic,” Bant said, rolling her eyes. “Qui-Gon is privileged to have you as his Padawan.”
Obi-Wan shot her a half-smile. “Thanks, Bant.”
She smiled back at him and they both went back to their reading. Bant was happy to sense that Obi-Wan’s pleasant mood hadn’t soured from their conversation. She worried about him. He’d always been so tightly wound. She hoped he and Qui-Gon would have a breakthrough soon, then he would be happy all the time, she was sure of it. But for now, she would take what she could get.
After a while, Obi-Wan stirred at her side. He sat up quickly, fully alert.
“What is it?”
“Something is wrong.”
As he said it, she sensed it too. A prickle of warning made its way up her spine. She looked around and her eyes widened.
“Obi!” She screamed in alarm as two large men came up behind them. The burlier of the two men held a baton and in one quick movement, struck the back of Obi-Wan’s head. He fell limp back on the grass.
“Obi!” she screamed again in terror as the taller man grabbed her and started dragging her towards a bench. He began binding her wrists to the bench’s armrest. She kicked furiously, but the other man quickly grabbed her legs and started binding her ankles.
“Help! Somebody, please he…” her screams were cut off when a cloth was tied around her head and forced in her mouth.
“Are you sure we’re only taking one of them?” the taller man said.
“Forget the girl, we only have one of these,” the burlier of the two men said as he held up a collar that had a slight blue glow coming off of it. “Besides, a human Jedi is more valuable to the Hutts. Once we get the money from this one we can buy more of these collars and pick off more of these Jedi.”
“Fine,” the taller one grumbled as he finished off the knots around Bant’s wrists.
She squirmed defiantly and screamed, though it was muffled by the cloth in her mouth. She watched as one of the men fumbled with the locking mechanism on the collar.
“Come on man! Get the collar on him before he wakes up and uses his mind control powers on us.”
“Oh come on, do you really believe this skinny kid actually has mind control powers?”
“Look, I don’t want to take any chances. Let’s just get the kid to the Hutts and move on alright?”
“Fine, fine!” the taller of the two men said as he finally opened the collar. The larger man yanked the collar from his hand and roughly forced it around Obi-Wan’s neck.
As soon as it snapped shut, Bant could no longer sense Obi-Wan’s presence in the Force. If she had not been able to see his chest rising and falling evenly as he lay unconscious on the grass, she would have believed him dead.
She watched helplessly as the burlier of the two attackers threw Obi-Wan over his shoulder and began walking away. They were long out of sight when she saw a dingy looking ship take off from about two blocks over.
Tears streamed down her face as she fought helplessly against her bonds. She closed her eyes in defeat before she heard a familiar voice.
“Obi-Wan!” Qui-Gon called, worry dripping from his tone. “Obi-Wan?”
Bant tried screaming through the cloth, but it came out very muffled. However, it didn’t take long for Qui-Gon’s eyes to land on her.
“Bant!” Qui-Gon cried as he ran to her side. He immediately undid her bonds. “Bant, what happened? Where is Obi-Wan?”
Released from her bonds, she slumped forward and sobbed into Qui-Gon’s chest. “They took him! H-he’s gone.”
“Who took him?” Qui-Gon questioned frantically.
“I don’t know,” she hiccuped. “Two men. They… they…”
“They what?”
“They put a Force suppressing collar on him. They’re going to sell him!”
“Sell him?”
“They said they were selling him to the Hutts.”
Qui-Gon’s heart skipped a beat. No.
“Bant, is he injured? Did they hurt him?”
A quiet sob escaped her lips. “Yes. They hit him on the head. He was unconscious when they took him!”
Quiet fury danced behind Qui-Gon’s eyes. He quickly scooped up the young girl and dropped her off at the Halls of Healing. She had insisted she was fine, but the ropes had left her wrists raw.
“Master Jinn?”
“Yes, Padawan Eerin?”
“You have to save him. Bring him home. He’s my best friend.”
“I will, Bant. I will find him and I will bring him home safe. I promise.”
They nodded to each other before Qui-Gon took off to the hangar. He wasted no time commandeering the nearest high-speed ship he could find. He entered the coordinates for Nal Hutta and took off into hyperspace.