binary stars (a.s)

chapter five

While it proved a difficult task, forgetting about Eola Vex became manageable if Anakin kept himself busy. Leading training sessions with Ahsoka, heading on missions with Obi-Wan and Rex, attending meetings with the council, they all pushed and pulled Anakin's attention from the Sith apprentice like an orbiting moon, urging him to discard of his concerns and focus on the job that had to be done.

And, as Anakin found himself trailing to a stop in one of the cavernous halls of the Jedi Temple, weary and exasperated, the job was never close to being done.

But distractions were good, no matter how he felt otherwise. He couldn't afford to keep dwelling on Eola or her schemes, even if he did sense she may be in danger. If he indulged in the thought that she did truly need his help, it only made him think that the situation was incredibly dire. After all, Commander Vex did not need anyone's help but her own. To come to him after everything they'd been through together...

Anakin sucked in a breath. Well, it was telling. Of both her bravado and her plight, only Anakin wasn't sure which one was more compelling. And he couldn't bring himself to figure it out.

A week had passed since their clandestine meeting beneath the ground layer of Coruscant, and each day made Anakin feel as if there was a tether tying him to Eola, and each day she unraveled further and further from his side, where he knew she could be safe.

"Admiring the architecture, my young padawan?"

Anakin spun around, his heart plummeting to his stomach, to find Obi-Wan heading towards him. He cursed himself mentally for ignoring his senses and indulging in his thoughts; his master had managed to sneak up on him virtually undetected.

"Not this time, I'm afraid," Anakin managed, summoning a bravado of his own. It was a familiar skin to step into, even though his thoughts left him rattled. "Is something wrong?"

Obi-Wan regarded him with keen blue eyes, and Anakin recognized the look within them. Curiosity. "I suppose I could ask you the same question." He inclined his chin and raised an eyebrow, the picture of a suspicious mentor. "Your head has been turned recently, Anakin. Might a certain young woman have anything to do with it?"

Anakin huffed a laugh and nodded down the hall. Obi-Wan fell into step with him, but did not abandon his suspicious gaze. "That's a trick question, Master. You know of the Jedi Code."

"As do you," Obi-Wan said, and while Anakin knew his master was keeping his tone light, he sensed the warning beneath its shroud. It wove its way around Anakin's heart, though he wouldn't allow himself to ponder why.

Anakin managed a nod, keeping his eyes trained on the hall before them. The Jedi Temple was bustling with life and activity, much like the sprawling city outside. Everyone nodded to Anakin and Obi-Wan as they passed, respect and deference to the order they represented and the cross they chose to bear.

And that had been what Obi-Wan meant. Anakin chose this life, despite being the Chosen One. He excelled at his studies, his training, his missions, and led with a firm and steady hand. But this life came with a code, and that code very strongly opposed attachment. Let alone a dalliance with a lethal woman who appeared so suddenly and disappeared just as swiftly, a plume of smoke long after the flame.

"I'll remember that, Master," Anakin said lightly, unable to fight the sarcasm lacing his words and the smirk lacing his lips. "Especially the next time we encounter Duchess Satine."

Obi-Wan's steps faltered, just for a split second. Anakin kept his eyes trained forward but didn't resist the satisfied smile.

"Oh, how clever you've grown," his master drawled, sarcastic and sharp. He caught up to Anakin, who'd begun snickering. "Mind your tongue, my young Padawan."

Anakin put his hands up in mock surrender as he and Obi-Wan continued down the hall. It was a moment of light, this moment with his mentor and brother, and Anakin seized it for as long as he could. Light was another distraction, strong and bright and bold. He would capture it if he could, to keep it in his pocket wherever he went when the darkness in his mind howled and raged.

But for now, Anakin condemned them to the back of his mind, where he could only feel the drag of its claws if he stopped, and let in the pain.

--

Anakin regarded the young woman seated before him, which was not a difficult task by any means. She was beautiful, there was no denying that, but in the way that the depths of space were beautiful. All dark colors, studded with a flash of color there and studded stars all around. She carried the night sky on her petite frame, from the black velvet of her fitted gown to the jewels around her throat, her wrists, her fingers. And despite the warmth in her ruby lips and bright citrine eyes, Anakin could feel the hidden cold.

"I take it you're my contact, then," he said, dipping his chin towards her. She held his gaze, feline and predatory, as if she was waiting for him to make a wrong move.

A subtle low laugh escaped the young woman's lips. "How perceptive." She unfurled a bejeweled hand towards him. "You may call me Eola."

Anakin raised a brow, his lips twitching into a smile, but he raised her hand and brushed his lips against the smooth skin all the same. "May call you?" he echoed, low and playful. "What do your enemies call you?"

Intrigue sparkled in her beryl eyes. Not a wrong move then, but a right one.

"I promise you, General," she said, each word a melody that played through his mind on repeat. "You don't want to know."

The melody lulled Anakin from his slumber and he blinked the sleep from his eyes. Moonlight filtered in through the slats of his windows, tinged with bright blues and purples from the city outside. Peace outside, and peace inside, only Anakin soon felt the latter begin to shatter.

His indulgent dream--more a memory than a figment of his imagination--twisted and turned before his waking eyes. As his breath caught and lodged itself like a dagger within him, he watched as the Eola in his mind turned to the Eola he had seen--or had yet to see.

His heart stopped.

She was in danger.

Only fleeting images raced through Anakin's mind, as if his psyche feared that letting them sit would turn them into reality. But what Anakin did see sent him shooting up in his bed, kicking sheets away from his body. He saw Eola standing on the steps of the Jedi Temple, a dauntless expression on her beautiful face, before flares of bright light tore through her frame and that twinkling, knowing light within her eyes went out.

And he knew who that light belonged to. Had seen it as clear as day on the steps of Naboo.

Anakin flung himself to his feet, and froze in the center of his chambers. His heart thundered in his chest as if willing his feet to do the same but he stood there and paused. Thought.

The Council was still looking for Eola, and Eola was in danger. No matter what the Code told him, no matter what Anakin knew in his head, what he would be doing would get them both into all forms of trouble.

But he couldn't just wait, not when that vision had confirmed his worst fears. Eola Vex was in danger, and he might be the only person in the galaxy that could save her.

So, with a quick breath, Anakin got dressed and grabbed his lightsaber before hurtling out of his quarter and through the Jedi Temple, a Sith apprentice to find before a bounty hunter found her first.