Master Apprentice Archive A Question of Means Quick search:

ARCHIVE: M_A

CATEGORIES: Non-consensual

RATING: NC17

NOTES: Read Emu's recent noncon story on an empty stomach. Go to sleep thinking about what she wrote, and what she didn't write. Wake up with a cold, spend the next three days in bed. This is what results. This fic is utterly and shamelessly unbeta'd. In fact, it is utterly shameless in many other regards, not least in a ludicrous level of cliché. But somehow I enjoyed writing it anyway - many thanks to the Emu for the unwitting inspiration. Dedicated to our darling Splix, who knows how to tie up a man and show him a good time: thank you so much for coming up with the idea of November noncon. Let's do it again next year.

DISCLAIMER: George Lucas owns these lads, and would disapprove greatly of the uses I put them to, I'm sure. Oddly enough, I am unlikely to make any money out of this story.

SPOILERS: None.

WARNINGS: Sod the noncon - this is out-and-out rape, of the worst un-PC kind. For further warnings, click here. For any reader with the slightest sensitivities in this area, I strongly suggest you read them.

FEEDBACK: All welcomed, as negative or positive as you care for, to: gloriana@virginqueen.com But you're warned, I really do have no shame about this one, even though I should.

SUMMARY: In an AR, the Jedi are ready to bring down Palpatine a few years after Anakin has been found on Tatooine. But who might get hurt in the attempt?

It was nearly midnight when the four cloaked men burst into the Chancellor's suite of offices.

"Wha-" gasped the lone clerk still there, half-rising from his desk. "Who are-"

"Where's Palpatine?" one of them cut in.

"Check the inner office," another ordered, then wheeled toward the clerk again. The sound of a lightsabre being ignited hissed through the room. "Take your finger off that button, boy," the man said. His voice was quiet, but all the more threatening for that.

The clerk swallowed and slowly withdrew his hand from the security alarm hidden in his desk. Nevertheless, he didn't flinch when the man stepped toward him, lightsabre blade perilously close to his chest. "Who gave you the authority to break in here?" he challenged.

Two of the men had already pushed open the doors to the Chancellor's office. His eyes went to the third, who had sat down at the desk beside his and begun to access the computer system. "You can't..." he began feebly.

"We can." The clerk's gaze flew back to the fourth man, in front of him. "We act on the authority of the Jedi Council, instructed by the State of Emergency Committee of the Senate."

"But there isn't any emergency committee!" the clerk protested, casting another urgent glance at the Jedi on the computer system.

"There is now," the man said, and the harsh satisfaction in his voice made the clerk's eyes open wide. "As of one ko ago, a state of emergency has been declared throughout the Republic. The Senate has been suspended, pending new elections at the turn of the year; and Chancellor Palpatine," he leant in, "your boss, is under warrant of arrest."

The young man's eyes narrowed again. "A coup!" he said. "So much for the Jedi as upholders of the law!"

"We far prefer to uphold justice," the man drawled, that note of satisfaction still rich in his deep voice. "Palpatine will be indicted for his crimes - the entire list of them. And you will tell us where he is."

The young man faltered at that flat declaration. "But I don't-" he began.

"Master Jinn!" came a call from the inner office. "No sign of him here, and his computer's been wiped."

The man's blue eyes narrowed. "What about that one?" he asked the Jedi seated beside the clerk.

"It doesn't seem to have been tampered with," the man replied, eyes fixed on the screen in front of him. "But there are hundreds of locked files here, and some of the encoding is sophisticated stuff. It'll take us hours to break into them, perhaps even days."

"Which we don't have," Jinn said grimly. He swivelled back to the young man held at the tip of his blade. "The passwords."

Finally the boy began to show some sign of self-preservation. "But I don't have them! That's not even my desk-"

"Come now." Jinn's voice was calm, but deadly. "Don't waste our time. You've been Palpatine's aide for four years; head of his office staff for the last six months, ever since your predecessor mysteriously vanished on a routine trip to Tarsus. Oh, yes," he breathed, "we know all about you, Obi-Wan Kenobi."

Obi-Wan's breath stopped for a moment. The man leaning over him - Master Jinn, had the other Jedi said? - was all intimidation. One hand clasped around a lightsabre that could slice into Obi-Wan at a single poke, even without the power of that big body driving it forward. Eyes glared from a face marked with years; harsh lines around a hard mouth, bent nose and craggy brow - there was no kindness in this man, only an intent to destroy.

Obi-Wan had no business helping him.

Yet the doubts that had been stirring ever since Naipal's disappearance couldn't help but surge up. Jedi were here - would they really have acted against the Chancellor without firm evidence? Who exactly was on this 'State of Emergency' committee? Senator Organa, perhaps, whose young wife had died in that plague on Sissus IV - the plague the Chancellor's office had been so unusually slow to respond to? And what was in half those files, the ones Palpatine had never given Obi-Wan codes for?

So many questions. He had to decide now, who to trust. There was nothing in the files Obi-Wan had accessed that would injure Palpatine; but if the Jedi knew more than he did, perhaps they might spot some link that had escaped Obi-Wan's scrutiny. And if they just wanted to plant evidence against Palpatine, there was nothing Obi-Wan could do to stop them, anyway.

There was no reason to hide the truth. Obi-Wan's loyalty was to the Senate and the Republic, not to the Chancellor. The question was whether the Jedi represented the Republic's interest, or their own...

Too late. The Jedi in front of him had lost whatever patience the Force had ever granted him. "The passwords, Kenobi," he growled deep in his throat. "Now."

"I - yes," he said, pushed as much by the strength of the man's personality as by his own instincts. "Let me just-" He leant over the Jedi at the desk to let the machine take a retinal scan. "Now you can use these passwords," he said shakily, and dictated the short list he knew.

"I'll run an analysis on what we've accessed," the Jedi said; and moments of tense silence ensued until it was done. "Not much here, Master," he said, shaking his head. "Purchase of three AdinaCorps speeders within the last month... those could be the ones we picked up after the warehouse fire, when that group of illegal workers in Fourth sector were all killed. He wouldn't have known we'd made the connection between them and the smuggling ring in Bhadal's Gulch. Ah," the man bent forward. "Two property transactions that might be worth investigating. Let me pull up some more on them."

Obi-Wan twitched. He'd wondered about those. Master Jinn caught the movement and his eyes narrowed; but his concentration shifted back to the Jedi at the desk when the man continued. "Mainly legal transactions recording the purchases. But there are some image files in here, all very recent except this one."

"That's the building plans for the apartment the Chancellor bought," Obi-Wan said. "He was having it remodelled - but it was all above-board. He used his own funds, not a cent of Senate money-"

"We're not looking for trivialities like embezzlement," Jinn shot back at him. "Pull them up, Xan."

All three men stared at the plans for a moment. "Something odd about the access there," Xan said, pointing to one of the rooms on the layout. "No obvious way in."

"What about the more recent files?" Jinn asked.

"Furnishing choices," Obi-Wan supplied immediately. "The Chancellor had an interior designer mock up some colourways for him - that one's the red..."

His voice trailed off. On the screen there was red, alright: a big bed, furnished entirely in shades from plum to crimson; and in the middle of it, Obi-Wan on his back, his legs spread wide.

He was naked. Utterly naked.

"It- But-" he stammered.

Jinn leant down and flipped to the next file.

Obi-Wan, hand on his own cock, staring at the camera with a smile.

The next. Chancellor Palpa... and now it was his wizened hand on Obi-Wan's cock, and Obi-Wan's eyes half-shut.

Palpatine behind him, him on his knees, his backside up in the air, hole open.

On his back again, legs up and Palpatine between them, the old man's arse hanging down in lax folds even though he was obviously pushing in.

Next one. Obi-Wan leaning up to kiss that wrinkled mouth...

"No!" he shouted. "They're not me! Can't you see - that's a composite! It's not my body, he's never touched me-"

Calmly Jinn clicked on the last file. Obi-Wan in orgasm, his mouth wide open, his hands clutched in Palpatine's hair. Palpatine's lips shone wetly.

"He must have had cameras in my rooms," Obi-Wan babbled wildly. "I swear - I've never even been fucked by a man, much less him! Please, you must believe me-"

"Odd that he's left them on the machine," Xan said, ignoring Obi-Wan completely.

"Hidden in plain view?" Jinn raised one eyebrow. He clicked back to the picture of Palpatine between Obi-Wan's thighs. "Palpatine's whore," he said, turning to stare at Obi-Wan. "We didn't know that about you, Kenobi."

"But it wasn't me" Obi-Wan stared at the picture, cold terror beginning to gnaw at his stomach. Hidden - no. Palpatine must have left them here on purpose for men like these to find. The very thought of his urbane, dignified employer merely looking at images like these, much less having them created, perhaps watching through hidden lenses while Obi-Wan masturbated, plotting how best to use what he was seeing...

Obi-Wan felt sick already.

"One moment," Xan said, flipping back further to the picture of Obi-Wan's arse up in the air. He zoomed in on an area to the right of the open hole. "What's that on the cheek? Looks like a tattoo."

"A bird," Jinn confirmed, peering at it. "Well-spotted, Xan. It's just like the one on Naipal's body: same place, same shape."

Naipal's body?

"Is he - dead?" Obi-Wan whispered.

"Found in a sealed iron chest on Debelis Prime," Jinn answered. "He had huge burns where the box had been welded shut, but he died of asphyxiation."

"Gods." Obi-Wan turned away, tears gathering in his eyes. He'd known in his heart that Naipal was dead, even though Chancellor Palpatine had always denied it, had kept the search teams assigned even as the months wore on with no clues...

Those kind hands would never touch him again. Poor Naipal, to die alone and in pain.

Palpatine might have been responsible for that, too. He took a shuddering breath. "Look. I was Naipal's boyfriend for a while, I guess, but I have never touched the Chancellor. Naipal had that tattoo, not me. Maybe Palpatine took pictures of him, got my face stuck on them - I don't know. I was only his aide, that's all - and I don't know about killings, I don't know about murders, this is all-"

"Show us," Jinn cut off his rising panic.

"What?"

"You claim you don't have a tattoo," Jinn said impatiently. "Take off your leggings and show us."

"But I-"

"We don't have time for this," Jinn growled, and he slashed the tip of his lightsabre all down the length of Obi-Wan's leggings, and up the other side.

It was expertly done. The leggings fell apart, yet Obi-Wan's skin was untouched, except for a small burn low on his hip where his belt had been buckled. Gasping, he snatched for the falling cloth. Too late: Jinn tore the material away. "Turn around," he demanded, and Obi-Wan did, hands covering his genitals. His cheeks burned hot.

"No tattoos," Xan said, making Obi-Wan blush even more. "But that's no proof either way; they're easy to remove. I think we must assume he knows more than he's saying, Master - if only because Palpatine thought he was dangerous enough to be worth incriminating. And we still need the passwords to the rest of these files."

Obi-Wan shut his eyes in fear. There was nothing he could tell these men beyond what he had already given them.

A movement in front of him, and his eyes flew open again, to find Xan standing there looking coolly down at him. His gaze was icy pale, where Jinn's had blazed. "He's a good-looking enough boy," Xan said, turning Obi-Wan's chin up to the light. "Palpatine's taste can't be faulted."

Xan leant down, his lips almost touching Obi-Wan's. "The passwords, boy," he breathed. "Tell us before we make you."

"He never gave them to me," Obi-Wan whispered desperately. Xan had seemed more willing to suspend condemnation than his master - if only Obi-Wan could convince him. "He didn't tell me about anything illegal-"

Xan drew back, clicking his teeth in disgust. "Don't tell me you worked for a politician and thought he never crossed the line. Whatever he promised you, Kenobi, he can no longer pay. Take the sensible course. Give us the passwords."

"I don't-"

"Xan," Jinn interrupted Obi-Wan yet again. "There's something here - "

But by the time Obi-Wan had turned round, Jinn was gone, vanishing into Palpatine's office. "Bring the boy," he called back. The image on the screen had changed, Obi-Wan saw: oddly, Jinn had returned to the original building plans. Then he was caught up trying not to stumble over his torn clothes as Xan pulled him forward, one hand still clutched over his genitals.

The two Jedi in the room beyond paid no attention to his strangely undressed state, boots but no leggings. Still, when Xan released him he instinctively backed into a corner and tried to tug down the hem of his tunic.

Jinn was standing in the middle of the floor, staring at the opposite wall. "There," he murmured, and with one lunging arc of his lightsabre he scythed from ceiling to floor. Chips of wood and synthcrete flew. "Give a hand, Bruck."

"Yes, Master." The youngest Jedi scuttled to help, and between the pair of glowing blades, a hole was hacked out in moments.

The room beyond was red.

Jinn stepped through the gap, blocking Obi-Wan's view with his big body; but Xan tugged Obi-Wan through next. "A hidden room," Xan marvelled. "Not on the official plans..."

"This should be storage cupboards," Jinn said, staring around at the lush carpets, the huge canopied bed, the rubbed velvet wallpaper. There were no windows, only light from glowing gold candelas.

"Easy enough to steal a little from one office, a little from another." Xan crossed to a display of knotted rope stretched out on one wall. To his shock, Obi-Wan realised they were braided bits of leather. "Quite a hideout. Now we know why Palpatine was so fond of redecorating the Senate offices."

"He kept his whores in his offices," Jinn said with a disparaging nod of his head towards Obi-Wan. "Why not somewhere for them to service him, too?"

This time Obi-Wan did not even dare to open his mouth in protest. Slowly it was dawning on him that, whatever Palpatine had appeared to be, this room was not part of that image. Naipal dead, murdered with appalling violence: had he known what Obi-Wan did not? Had he discovered the truth about Palpatine? Or simply had suspicions, just as Obi-Wan had done?

Oh gods, he was so alone here.

The next hour was awful.

Xan pushed him over to the bed and sat him down, then proceeded to question him. Where had Palpatine been on this date, and this? Who had he met with? Why?

Obi-Wan asked to check the office diary, but Xan would not let him, saying he wanted Obi-Wan's memories unsullied by external props. Obi-Wan was sure he was contradicting himself in his replies; and there appeared to be horrible laecunae in his memory, gaps where his surface recollection turned out to have no depth or detail. Worse, Xan always came back to the passwords. Obi-Wan would not even guess at one: once he started lying, he knew the Jedi would tie him into a knotwork of words as fiendish as any on Palpatine's walls.

They wouldn't let him dress, either. Men came in and out of the room, running devices over the walls, handing datapadds to Xan, talking to Jinn; and always glancing at his naked legs out of the corner of their eyes. Finally Obi-Wan begged Xan for a cloak to cover himself, or even to be allowed to tuck a fold of the bedsheet over his lap. But Xan, rather than showing Obi-Wan the small kindness, snatched the sheet from him.

"Talk and you can dress," the Jedi snapped. From that moment on he grabbed hold of Obi-Wan's wrists whenever Obi-Wan's hands strayed down to cover himself; until finally he went over to the wall display and came back with a piece of leather to lash Obi-Wan's hands over his head, to a ridge on the bedpost.

"I didn't do anything," Obi-Wan pleaded hoarsely, horrified that no-one else in the room had raised the slightest protest on his behalf. The leather cut into the bruises forming on his wrists.

"You served that man," Xan returned. "We lost some of our best to him." His tone was enough to make Obi-Wan quail.

The questions began again.

Finally everyone but the original team of Jedi had left the room. "His home is abandoned," Bruck updated Jinn, "but there is nothing from the ports, Master Qui-Gon, and he hasn't registered anywhere on the public transit system."

Jinn looked bleaker than ever. "Take the team over to his mansion and start pulling it apart. Search every corner, Bruck: we must assume he's built hidden retreats like this all over Coruscant."

"Yes, Master." Bruck nodded briskly and left with his companion.

"Any luck?" Jinn asked, glancing at Obi-Wan, who suddenly felt very vulnerable indeed.

"Not yet," Xan said, going over to him. "But here, I want to show you this." Xan handed him one of the datapadds.

Obi-Wan waited, beginning to notice the ache in his arms stretched above his head now that he no longer had the distraction of Xan's questioning. The two men talked quietly for some minutes, voices too low for him to catch, although occasionally one or the other of them would look over at him. He could only assume he was the subject of their discussion; but they didn't seem in a rush to take him away to jail, or anything like that.

Idiot! he thought to himself. At least in a jail there would be cameras recording everything, droid guards programmed for impassive neutrality, and a need for warrants and evidence, an opportunity to ask for his own defence. Here, with these men seemingly motivated as much by their disgust of Palpatine as by a desire for justice, without any witnesses...

A regime might just have fallen. Who would miss one young clerk in the chaos that was bound to follow? Obi-Wan stared up at the bedcurtains, fighting against his fears. They were Jedi - he had to trust in that.

The conversation in the other corner was getting more intense, if no louder. Obi-Wan strained to hear. From his gestures, it was clear that Xan was disagreeing with Jinn about something. Finally he stepped back and gave a stiff little bow. "As you will, Master," he said, once more speaking for Obi-Wan's ears, "but you have heard my opinion."

Jinn nodded his head, greying hair falling forward. "I have heard," he acknowledged. That sounded very formal to Obi-Wan - he wondered what it meant. "Check those codes, Xan. I'll do what I can with this one here." And, as Xan turned to leave, "Lock the outer door, will you? I don't want anyone disturbing these offices until our replacement administrators get here in the morning."

"Yes, Master." Xan left without giving Obi-Wan another glance.

Oh gods. He was alone with Jinn.

He tried to sit up straighter against the bedpost, and draw his legs up against his stomach. Furtively he tugged on the bonds holding his hands.

Of course, Jinn saw the slight gesture. "Are those hurting?" he said dispassionately.

"A little," Obi-Wan admitted. "There's no need to keep me tied up, Master Jinn. I want to help, if I can. I've told Master Xan all I know, but if you have more questions, I'm ready to answer them..."

"Hmm." Jinn stared at him a moment longer, then pulled out his lightsabre. "Stay still," he instructed.

Obi-Wan had already frozen in place. Jinn's sabre tip plucked the knot in the leather holding his hands, and it fell in a shower of tiny pieces around him. "Thank you," he said shakily, rubbing his wrists.

"So. You know nothing beyond what you've told Xan," Jinn said, powering down the sabre. Obi-Wan noticed that it only went onto a sidetable close to Jinn's hand, though; not onto the clip at his belt.

"That's right, Sir," he answered, trying to sound as earnest as possible. It wasn't hard.

"You're an interesting man, Kenobi," Jinn said, shedding his cloak on the floor. "A graduate of the best niche school in Coruscant for trainee space pilots - got there on a scholarship - and yet you chose a position as a Senate page instead of going on to the Academy."

"My father died," Obi-Wan said nervously. Gods, they really did know everything about him - and if they knew his academic career, they almost certainly knew the poverty that had faced him at that moment. "I was only eighteen. Even with a scholarship I couldn't have afforded a full pilot's programme. My father...left nothing," he ended. Nothing, and no-one to call family, nowhere to call home. The communal pages' dormitories had been a welcome haven.

"You were interested in politics?" The big Jedi unclipped his belt, which landed up beside his lightsabre on the side table.

Obi-Wan shrugged. "Not particularly, Sir. But the civil service seemed a good enough career. Nice and safe." The irony of that struck him immediately, and he winced.

"Yet you kept up your piloting studies," Jinn said. He was unwinding the obi from around his waist now.

Obi-Wan wondered why he was bothering to ask so many questions he seemed to know the answers for. "I only picked them back up when I became the Chancellor's aide," he said, watching the big hands put the length of cotton to one side. "He thought it might be useful one day, in an emergency."

"And he also wanted you to take those weapons courses, I suppose." Jinn dropped his stola onto the floor.

"Yes, Sir," Obi-Wan said, his heart beginning to beat faster.

Jinn's outer tunic followed the stola. "You did exceptionally well at those," he remarked conversationally, toeing off his boots. "Almost good enough to be a professional bodyguard."

"I enjoyed them," Obi-Wan whispered. "They were very physical, a good change from- Sir, what are you doing?"

"What do you mean, Obi-Wan?" Jinn said. He pulled his inner tunic over his head.

Obi-Wan tried to swallow, his mouth suddenly dry. The Jedi's bared chest was heavily muscled, very wide; old scars cut white lines against otherwise smooth flesh. "Your clothes," he stammered. "Why are you taking them off?"

"Because I'm going to rape you," the Jedi said calmly, and in that moment Obi-Wan was across the floor; but Jinn had grabbed him before he'd gotten to the gap in the wall, a fist in his hair, and he yelled at the sudden yank backwards, then found himself tossed back on the bed, all the air knocked out of him.

"You think we are fools," Jinn said in the same quiet tone, as if he hadn't just flung a hundred and sixty pounds across the room. "Persuade me to untie you, use your fighting skills when you saw a chance - was that your plan?"

Obi-Wan wheezed in protest, unable to take in a breath. His hands were hauled behind him. "And even if it wasn't," Jinn whispered to him, holding down his writhing body with one knee planted in the base of his spine, "even if you were as innocent as you say, I would still rape you. Do you want to know why?"

"Stop it!" Obi-Wan cried. "Let me go - ah!" The cotton obi had flown through the air to Jinn's hand, and now his arms were being wrenched forward again, back over his head, already sore muscles yelping at the pressure. The cloth was wound around bruised wrists, tighter than the leather although less cutting.

"Don't tie me up again - please!"

He stilled under Jinn's hold to show his acquiescence, but the Jedi forced his wrists to the foot of the bed, the rest of his body twisting to follow; and he was bound to the bedpost again, although at a lower level, almost at the mattress.

The new position meant that sitting up was harder; but the moment Jinn relieved the weight on his spine he slithered off the bed, landing on the floor with a thump that winded him nearly as much as being thrown on the bed had.

"Stay there, then," Jinn said grimly, and got off the bed himself, stepping carelessly over Obi-Wan's twisting body.

By the time Obi-Wan had struggled up to sit on his heels, as close to a running position as he could get, Jinn had come back, a number of the leather strips in his fist. He dropped them on the bed and stood over Obi-Wan, looking down at him. Obi-Wan thought of kicking out, but he was sure the Jedi could easily move away before any blow landed. Obi-Wan had been astonished by how fast he'd crossed the room.

"I want you to see what you're going to get," Jinn said, "because I'm sure you'll have your eyes closed when I give it to you."

Obi-Wan wanted to close his eyes right then, pretend this all wasn't happening, but instead he couldn't help watching as the man pushed his leggings down.

Wide thighs. Muscle there, corded pillars enough to hold this big man up. Between them, dark hair tinged with grey curled above the root of a cock that lay flaccid on heavy-hung balls. It's just a cock, Obi-Wan thought, swallowing hard. No more than that. Don't think of it as anything more -

Jinn stroked a hand down over the soft penis, and it began to stir. Deliberately, watching Obi-Wan as he did it, he teased the head, slipping the foreskin back and forth over the tender flesh until it started to swell. Blood filled and flushed the tissues, brought out the veins along its length until it began to curve up, large and proud.

"This is going up your arse," Jinn said, "and I'm going to fuck you and fill you with my seed until it soaks out of your mouth, and then I'm going to fuck you some more."

"But you don't even want me!" Obi-Wan cried, appalled. "You're having to wank yourself off just to get hard enough to do this - why?!"

"A little curiosity at last." Jinn nodded with approval, rubbing his palm over the purpling head with its one eye, level with Obi-Wan's face. It glistened with the trail of fluid leaking out. "Usually I'd have no taste for Palpatine's leavings, even though Xan is right: you are quite beautiful in your own way. That copper hair."

The hair he gestured to was the bush at Obi-Wan's groin. "But now - I have a score to settle. You see, whore, Palpatine caught my apprentice nine days ago. Anakin is only - was only - a boy. Twelve: I'd just taken him as my apprentice this year. Too eager - he split off from me, vanished down a corridor as if he never existed. Very like your Naipal. I searched for...a long time."

Obi-Wan waited with growing horror.

"We found him last night. Tortured, raped. Choked to death - the monster had bitten off his tongue and left him to drown in his own blood." The voice was quiet, none of the fury or disgust in it that Obi-Wan felt welling up inside himself at the dry tale. But when Jinn leant down, it was all there in his eyes.

"So I'm going to rape you, the way he raped Anakin. It won't hurt you so much - he was just a boy, not a grown man. And I'll leave you your tongue, so you can tell our interrogators what they want to know tomorrow; and I won't cut off your fingers and toes. But I will screw that tight little hole of yours until you scream."

"I wasn't Palpatine's whore," Obi-Wan whispered desperately. "I told you - I haven't had a man at all. Please - I'm as innocent in all this as your apprentice was."

To his shock, what entered those blue eyes was a cold calculation. "I think you might be telling the truth, Obi-Wan Kenobi," Jinn said, straightening back up. "Which makes it all the sweeter. To have what Palpatine wanted, what he saw proferred to him every day, that lovely arse jiggling round his office. Oh yes, I could taste his lust on those pictures. He wanted you."

Obi-Wan sat mesmerised, his heart pounding like a baby rabbit's.

"But he didn't get you, did he," Jinn said in that quietly dangerous toe. "And now I'll have you instead."

"No - you're a Jedi!" Obi-Wan insisted fiercely. "How can you think I'm innocent and still do this?"

The blow across his cheek was an utter surprise. The burn blazed up his face, receding instantly to a sharp sting. He caught his breath at the shock.

"Enough talk," the Jedi grated. "It's time to use your mouth for something better."

Hard fingers dug into his jaw and his mouth was pulled open, something large thrust in -

He bit down; kicked out at the kneecap to his left.

With a shout Jinn leapt back. Those strong fingers on his jaw had stopped Obi-Wan's teeth doing any damage, but the blow to the knee had struck truer, his boot giving it extra force.

"Little bastard," Jinn swore. "You'll pay for that."

"No-" But Jinn had grabbed his thrashing ankles, and his world suddenly spun upside down as he was tossed back on the bed again. Gods, the man was so strong, and even without tied hands it would have been so hard to fight him! But Obi-Wan fought anyway, kicking out while he was rolled on his stomach across the bed, finding himself face down in the suffocating quilt.

"Kick all you like," Jinn said, breathing a little more quickly at last. "I'll tie you down when I want you, but your fighting makes this even better."

Obi-Wan growled into the quilt and kicked out again in sheer fury, but there was nothing there. He strained to lift his body up on his elbows, wrists still pinioned to the bedpost. "Keep away from me," he shouted, thrashing out blindly behind.

In answer Jinn strode in front of him, reaching over his head to pluck some of the leather ties from the bed. Obi-Wan watched, panting, while he twisted four lengths of them around his fist, leaving a few feet of each one trailing.

"Start fighting again," Jinn advised him with a wicked, crooked smile. "But work harder at it this time."

Furiously Obi-Wan tried, landing one kick on what must have been Jinn's shoulder; and another lower down, that actually made the man grunt in pain. But big hands grabbed his right foot, stripped off his boot and wound the leather round his ankle, not stopping even when Obi-Wan's left foot found its target.

Then Obi-Wan was being wrenched over on his back, his body hauled down across the bed, and his leg pulled up by the leather bonds to the bedpost. Now out of range of Obi-Wan's free foot, Jinn easily tied his ankle to the top of the post, then strapped another piece of leather round his thigh, binding him lower down.

Jinn even took off his remaining left boot, untying the laces with exaggerated care while Obi-Wan tried futilely to jerk his foot away. Then he stepped back and crossed his arms. "Very decorative."

Panting, Obi-Wan seized struggling to take stock. He was stretched out along the foot of the bed, but between his secured wrists and the new tie on his leg, he stood no chance of rolling back off. Indeed, the bed was so wide that his arms were almost as stretched out over his head as they had been earlier, for Jinn had pulled his backside flush with the edge of the bed, and bent his leg slightly back to truss him to the post.

The position gave him no leverage to kick out: the toes of his left foot grappled to keep purchase on the edge of the mattress, to relieve the slow burn already beginning in his tethered thigh. Gods, he must look... and Jinn was just standing there, staring up his arse. Obi-Wan closed his eyes, a red flush creeping up from beneath his tunic to stain his face.

"I beg you, don't do this," he began, but Jinn cut him off.

"Anakin wouldn't have begged," he said, and the cold determination in his voice finally made Obi-Wan realise. This was going to happen, to him.

"No," he whispered, "I'm not a padawan, I'm just a clerk, please don't..."

"Since you're 'just a clerk'," Jinn mocked, "a virginal little clerk at that, I might even use oil. Palpatine must have some around here - ah. There." Obi-Wan heard a compartment open and some rummaging, then a bottle thumped on the bed beside him, followed by Jinn's belt and lightsabre.

Wildly Obi-Wan looked at the unlit sabre hilt. If he could just -

Jinn climbed onto the bed himself, keeping well clear of Obi-Wan's untethered left foot, and put the sabre to one side. "For emergencies," he said warningly, "and I'll use the belt on you if you don't cooperate. Now, let's see you properly."

Big hands pulled at the neck of Obi-Wan's tunic. It tore apart at once.

"Don't," Obi-Wan said, as Jinn's mouth lowered to one nipple. He closed his eyes as the surprisingly gentle scrape of teeth against dampened flesh. "Mmm," Jinn said, lifting his head. Slowly he pinched the nipple, the pressure growing until Obi-Wan tried to flinch away. Then it was the mouth again, teeth more evident this time; and Obi-Wan yelped as a hand fondled his cock.

"I'm going to put my tongue down your throat," Jinn said, "and by the gods if you bite me, I'll rip your cock off. Do you understand?"

He would have whimpered in agreement because that hand was on his balls now, squeezing gently with the potential for more; but the mouth on his stopped any sound coming out. Sharp bristles from Jinn's moustache digging in, and a tongue, warm yet alien, slithering over his lips, between them. His mouth full of it, of the taste and heat of Jinn. He tried to move his head, but the hand on his crotch tugged, stilling him immediately. Fingers there too, palpating his balls, slipping down with his sweat into his crack - he leapt uncontrollably as they touched his hole.

"Quiet," Jinn growled. "You'll wish I'd stuck my fingers in there, once I'm sticking you with something else." Then Jinn sealed his mouth again.

That plunder went on for minutes, Obi-Wan light-headed and heart pounding for air by the time it was done, a suspicious warmth coiling in his stomach.

Jinn reared back and grabbed the bottle of oil from the sheets. "Look at that hot red mouth," he said, squirting oil all over his palms. "Those hard little tits - you're enjoying his, aren't you, little whore?"

"No," Obi-Wan gasped, but the oil-slicked hand that reached for his cock found it half-hard and waiting. Obi-Wan's stomach lurched at the tight, slippery grip.

"Yes," Jinn said, working him hard, "you're eager enough now. Enjoy this while you can, you virginal little whore. Because when I enter you, you'll be screaming."

The jolt of fear that filled Obi-Wan somehow made the sensation of the rough hand on him even more intense. Jinn started to stroke his own cock, longer slower pulls on the thick instrument. But Obi-Wan was already twisting on the sheets, driven by the relentless squeeze and pull.

"Please, I think I'm going to-" he begged, not even sure what he was begging for. All he knew was that excitement and fear together were hammering the blood through his body, and that if he scrabbled on the sheets he could push up into Jinn's hand for a little more -

The hand vanished. "Not so soon, whore," Jinn said, and Obi-Wan wanted to burst into tears because he'd been driven to ask. "You'll wait until I'm ready."

But it was you making me, Obi-Wan would have cried out indignantly. Naipal had kissed him a few times, and once they had jacked each other off in a toilet near the Senate floor far from Palpatine's office. It had been nothing like this: the tumultuous mix of passion and rage, Jinn testing him with the edge of pain to his touch, and no care at all for whether Obi-Wan wanted any of this or not. Naipal had been careful and compassionate; and there had been none of the hot desperation that filled Obi-Wan now. Perhaps that was why Naipal had never done it with him again.

A fingernail flicked against his cheek. "Watch me," Jinn commanded, "or I'll put this down your throat instead." Obi-Wan looked up at him with startled eyes. There was already a bruise starting on the man's shoulder, in the shape of Obi-Wan's boot heel; another on his cheek where Obi-Wan must have hit him without realising. Obi-Wan's gaze dropped to the prick Jinn was working between both palms now. The big man's hips jutted forward a little, his eyes closing under the stimulus.

If only Jinn would bring himself off by accident. Obi-Wan could stand being showered with jissom, but he wasn't sure he could stand that thing inside him. His whole groin tensed in protest at the thought.

But Jinn backed off, running one oily palm over his chest rather than his penis, pinching his own nipples no more gently than he had Obi-Wan's. "Good," he said gruffly, his hunger obvious in the flush of blood up his chest. Perhaps he had had to push himself to arousal earlier, but he seemed to Obi-Wan frighteningly ready now.

"Master Jinn, you don't want to do this," Obi-Wan said, denying the evidence of his own eyes. "Truly - think! The others know I was here - do you think they'll cover for you? I won't stay silent, you know I won't, I'll tell everyone-"

Jinn laid a gentle finger on his lips. "I don't care," he said, smiling. "Catch your breath, young clerk. You'll need it in a moment." He slid off the bed, his penis brushing Obi-Wan's shoulder as he went.

The moment it took him to walk round to the other side was the longest in Obi-Wan's life. The arousal Jinn's hand on his cock had forced was utterly dampened by a wave of fear. Don't do this thing, his mind pleaded; but another part of him was desperately trying to think of a way out. If I kick him, straight in the groin, smash his balls - if I can just get him -

He lunged out with his free leg the moment he thought Jinn was in range; but Jinn sidestepped easily, and the force of his kick left him even further over the edge of the bed, the little burn from Jinn's sabre on his hip rubbing against the sheet.

"That's it, Obi-Wan," Jinn said, running a hand up the thigh trapped to the bedpost. "Fight me off if you can."

"I will, you bastard!" Obi-Wan kicked up wildly - and his ankle was caught in that iron grip.

"Now for it," Jinn said, and stepped into the gap, pushing Obi-Wan's knee wide. His foot slithered helplessly down, nothing to brace against before it hit the floor, and now Jinn's hands were creeping up his thighs, the smallest pressure enough to keep them spread wide.

"So soft," Jinn whispered, stroking the line where the leather bit into Obi-Wan's inner thigh. "I'd like to whip you here, where he's never touched. Leave marks on this delicious skin."

"Why don't you?" Obi-Wan taunted, his voice trembling despite his bravado. At that moment, it seemed infinitely preferable to be whipped, than to be raped.

Jinn gave that small smile again. "All things to their time," he chided gently, slipping his thumb down to the curve of Obi-Wan's crack.

Obi-Wan tried to wriggle back; but Jinn's hands just followed him until the thigh rope caught him up short; and then those thumbs were spreading him, pulling at the edges of his hole, and Obi-Wan closed his eyes as a memory of Naipal's body in the picture came to him, hole wide and eager. But his wasn't - his tensed and tried to pull tight under the unusual pressure, and then there was something else there, where it shouldn't be. Something hot and thick and slippery enough to push into the narrowest entrance.

Obi-Wan's breath caught at the first little stab forward, a jolt of pain with it that took him unawares.

"No," he moaned. Jinn just set his teeth and pushed again.

"Ah - oh - no!!" Obi-Wan tried desperately to back away from the sudden spear of agony, but Jinn's hands held him flat, and he stamped the floor with his free foot instead, every muscle straining to get free of his bonds. The pressure was a burn with spikes of sharp pain radiating out the further Jinn went, his sphincter distending...

It gave way and let Jinn in. Deep, deep the man's thrust took him; and Obi-Wan howled and squirmed as the huge cock split him inside. It burned, all the way up his spine, and he wanted to shit himself and push it out and - and - gods, it hurt so much! He bucked and cried, and it took him long moments to find words, to beg, "No, please, take it out, I can't bear it!"; and longer yet to realise that Jinn was staying absolutely still, and that it was his own wild movements that were twisting his body around the pole within him.

Panting, close to sobbing, he finally found the control to be still himself.

That eased the pain a little; but there remained the stinging stretch of his sphincter, the unnatural girth pressing against his very bones from inside: something he longed to push out, every muscle in his newly-abused channel instinctively trying to push down. His anus was spasming too, in random little jerks that had his fingers digging into the obi tying him to the post.

Jinn groaned and opened his eyes. Obi-Wan hadn't realised they'd been shut. "Are you watching me, Obi-Wan?" Jinn asked, and his voice was much deeper than it had been a moment before.

"Yes," Obi-Wan whispered back. "Oh please..." His anus caught in another spasm, and Jinn blinked in response.

"So tight - so good." The rough voice would have been a caress if Jinn hadn't continued, "I have to- " And he moved, pulling back in a slide that had Obi-Wan yelping even as it gave his body some small relief from that awful pressure.

Jinn didn't go all the way out. "I need to fuck you now," he muttered, leaning down to lick a circle around Obi-Wan's nipple. "I need to come. Yell if you must - it will hurt."

"Stop! Please!" Obi-Wan gasped, unable to bear the thought of more. But Jinn was pushing in again, and a cry ripped out of Obi-Wan's throat.

It didn't stop. Jinn thrust deep and pulled out; thrust deep again; and the scream was building in Obi-Wan as every powerful surge forward threatened to rip him apart. "Gods - no! Ah! Don't, don't!"

Jinn moved faster between Obi-Wan's thighs, grunting now on every push. His face was red and flushed, and his chest was heaving. "Finish...soon," he panted, shoving once more into Obi-Wan, who cried out again, this time wordlessly.

Then Jinn gave a sudden jerk and threw his head back, mouth agape. "Ah!" he groaned deeply. Something hot and wet pulsed inside Obi-Wan.

Slowly Jinn slumped back down on Obi-Wan's shuddering body. His head rested heavily on Obi-Wan's chest.

When he had not moved for long moments, Obi-Wan pleaded quietly, "Take it out. It still hurts - please." The penis inside him was softening, easing itself out - but not fast enough.

"No," Jinn said, and he pushed himself up, one hand braced on Obi-Wan's untethered thigh. Obi-Wan grunted at the extra stretch. "Now we do that again," Jinn said calmly, and then the tears really did come to Obi-Wan's eyes. Was this man going to fuck until he died? Until he split asunder and bled?

"You'll get to like it soon enough," Jinn said, beginning to rock his hips again.

It seemed impossible. The pain was still there, even in the little teasing movements Jinn was now making; and it grew worse as Jinn's penis firmed again, until it was tight in Obi-Wan's channel. The friction of skin in and out of Obi-Wan's sphincter alone burned him.

Once more he tried to wriggle backwards. This time Jinn let him, not holding him down; but he found he was just rubbing on the penis inside him, not getting it out.

Jinn's mouth twitched. "That feels fine, lad."

Obi-Wan's nostrils flared, but Jinn said, "Hush," and bent forward into him again.

This time, though, his hand was on Obi-Wan's cock. A toothclick of annoyance and there was oil dripping over Obi-Wan's balls and down his crack to Jinn's penis, still moving in restless little jerks. It eased the friction, let Jinn slide further in.

Jinn's body came down on his, too heavy but warm, and those lips were teasing his nipple again. Teasing - everything uncomfortable, short and unsatisfying, the hand at his groin giving little pulls to his soft cock until it started to rise.

"It will build," Jinn whispered.

Obi-Wan closed his eyes. "I don't want this," he said, throat thick with tears. "Why are you doing it? So you can say I enjoyed it? Begged you for it?"

"So I can have what you haven't given him," Jinn answered; and in that honesty Obi-Wan found he'd lost his strength to fight back.

"Do it, then," he said, turning his head away.

But even with his eyes closed, he couldn't ignore the fingers sliding his foreskin down, or the slowly deepening pushes inside him. He found his breath catching at each one, part pain and soreness - but there was something else. He wanted to squirm again, this time with a restlessness that cried for a heavier hand on his cock, a deeper -

Jinn touched something inside him, and his breath all let out in one gasp.

"Better," the man murmured, his grip on Obi-Wan's cock tightening.

It must always have been there, because Jinn touched on it again, in a thrust that didn't go far enough.

Obi-Wan groaned and tried to turn his hips up into the next push.

"Slower," Jinn said, his own chest heaving for a breath. "Don't rush."

"You didn't say that when it was you," Obi-Wan snapped back, frustrated beyond restraint, and Jinn laughed and began to fuck him in earnest.

It was just like it had been before, the pain of the stretch almost too much to bear; but now there was also a pleasure to balance it, every long slide past that little place inside him sending his nerves jangling, rocking him to the core that the big cock was seeking. And on the slide out Jinn twisted his hand down Obi-Wan's penis in a tight spiral, making him shout and fight against his bonds as urgently as the pain had.

"Harder," he begged at last; and Jinn took him to mean he wanted to be fucked more, and abandoned his cock to grasp his hips and drive deeper. He cried, "No!", but the next plunge was so deep that he shouted out, and the sudden sting from the small burn on his hip, pressed beneath Jinn's thumb, was enough to make him come.

It went on and on. Jinn milked him with his hand, spraying Obi-Wan's seed over them both, squeezing out the last few drops when Obi-Wan could barely bear to be touched.

"Please, no more," Obi-Wan gasped; but of course there was more. Jinn put Obi-Wan's free leg over his shoulder, when Obi-Wan was too weakened and shaking from orgasm to react, and drove to his own climax, fucking Obi-Wan's loosened hole with grim determination. It was minutes before he finally came, while Obi-Wan lay there utterly helpless beneath the big body. Jinn panted and jerked, and then there was that flush of hot wetness inside him that Obi-Wan remembered from before.

Inside him. He'd had no choice, and this stranger had just spewed his seed up Obi-Wan's rectum. At the thought, more tears threatened.

He squeezed them back behind closed lids; felt Jinn pull free of him at last.

"It's done, now," the Jedi said, in a curiously flat tone. "And others might do it again, tomorrow or the next day, if you don't give us those passwords."

Obi-Wan ignored him, eyes tight shut.

He heard Jinn move away, heard the sound of running water from the toilets in the offices beyond. He lay there motionless, still open, something leaking out from his hole.

The light from outside went off. Jinn came back and untied his bound leg. The pain of blood rushing back to his foot had him biting his lip; but he made no other movement as Jinn untied his wrists from the bedpost, picked him up and laid him against the pillows, tethered him again more loosely to the headboard.

The oil and the belt were taken off the bed, although Jinn left his sabre there. Obi-Wan heard a beep: Jinn had turned on his commslink. "Master? It's Qui-Gon," he said quietly. Obi-Wan couldn't hear the reply.

"I have the boy here - he hasn't talked. Have they found anything?"

The person on the other end spoke for some time. Obi-Wan ignored it all. He felt dead inside, incapable of any more emotion. Jinn had wrung him dry: all fear, all anger gone.

But his mind raced, trying to understand the truths of the last few hours. Palpatine - the man he'd worked with daily for four years - Palpatine had done...that to a twelve year old boy. And worse.

Palpatine had killed Naipal. The face that had been in those images before he had had them doctored - had Naipal been smiling? Or had he been screaming in pain? Jinn hadn't told Obi-Wan if Naipal had been raped or not.

Even if he had, how could that compare to being shut - no, burned - into an iron box, being left to gasp a few last breaths of overheated air while your life slipped away?

That could have been him. He'd been curious, poking into Palpatine's affairs, opening every file he was given a password to and running it through an analyser. He'd comforted his uneasy conscience that he'd checked all he could: that his suspicions were too vague to report to a higher authority. Besides, who was higher than the Chancellor?

If he'd talked to the Jedi, would Anakin be alive now? Would Obi-Wan be dead?

He hadn't deserved what Jinn had done. But he felt dirty nonetheless, tainted as much by his own lack of action as by Jinn's spunk inside him.

"I'm going to spend the next few hours here," Jinn said, "get a little sleep. Palpatine left it fully furnished." His voice was very dry.

Looking over in the low light, Obi-Wan saw that there were shadows under his eyes. "I'll meet the administration team here in the morning, then bring the boy over. The Council will want to talk to him." Obi-Wan shuddered at that.

Jinn listened a moment longer. "I'm here if you need me. Tell Xan to call if he breaks those codes, no matter what time it is. We have enough evidence for the Senate Review Committee tomorrow, but the more we mop up of Palpatine's organisation now, the better chance we have of capturing him."

The person on the other end replied. Jinn smiled, his whole face softening. "Yes, my Master," he said gently. "Goodnight to you, too."

He closed the commslink and took a deep breath. "You heard all that?"

Obi-Wan nodded.

"Get some sleep, then. Morning will be here soon enough." The candelas dimmed and Jinn settled into the bed beside him, the mattress dipping beneath his weight. A cover was pulled up over Obi-Wan's naked body, before Jinn rolled away. In a while, Obi-Wan heard the even breathing which said he had gone to sleep.

But it was much later before Obi-Wan allowed himself to cry, tears spilling down onto the crimson pillowcase.

He woke with a start, from a dream where his arms had been cut off by a spider wielding huge scissors, and his stomach was being eaten by ants searching for the sugar in his spine.

The pressure on his bound hands reminded him instantly where he was, as wholly incredible as the entire situation seemed. Behind him, Jinn slept on, his deep breaths almost snores. Obi-Wan blinked in the low light. Dried semen itched on his stomach, he needed to piss and his arse was throbbing - but there was something else. Something wrong.

>From the shadows, Palpatine stepped out.

Obi-Wan's eyes widened and he would have called out, but Palpatine put a finger to his lips. Still stupid with sleep, Obi-Wan blinked at his former employer.

Was he a dream?

In his hand there was something glinting, and to his bemusement Obi-Wan recognised it as a lightsabre hilt. Palpatine? With a Jedi weapon?

The man did not ignite it. Instead, he walked round the bed, his footsteps silent in the thick carpet. He came to Jinn's side, then turned and brought the hilt of the sabre up, and smiled at Obi-Wan.

"Qui-Gon!" Obi-Wan yelled, and Jinn was off the bed, his sabre in his hand and the blade igniting just in time to catch Palpatine's blade in mid-descent.

Dazedly Obi-Wan saw that Jinn's blade was green, but Palpatine's was red; and where they met they hissed and white sparks flew.

The two men fought wildly, their faces eerily lit by the glowing sabres. At first Obi-Wan, huddled in his corner of the bed, thought Jinn must win. Naked, his strongly muscled body was even more of a contrast to Palpatine's than the lithe young man's in the pictures had been. He swung his blade with power and cunning, hair flying behind him.

But slowly Obi-Wan realised that Palpatine was gaining the upper hand - or, at least, some space in which to flee. Then, in a moment when Jinn had cut through his guard Palpatine whirled, sending a bolt of blue lightning straight at Jinn's belly.

Unprepared, the Jedi reeled back.

Palpatine dashed for the gap into the outer offices. But he had to pass Obi-Wan - and Obi-Wan wasn't going to let him get away.

Swinging on the bonds that held his wrists to the bedpost, he flung himself feetfirst from the bed to trip Palpatine up. The old man went crashing to the floor, their legs entangled.

Instantly Jinn was there, but Palpatine rolled out of the path of his sabre, and sent another of those streams of blue lightning at Jinn's chest. This time, the Jedi caught it on his blade and forced it back. Obi-Wan could see the sweat on Jinn's brow even from his pinioned position on the floor. So they fought, Jinn weakening at each renewed onslaught of the blue lightning, but holding Palpatine in the room.

Then suddenly more Jedi were there. Xan: Obi-Wan saw him come through the gap first, crying out, "Master!" A big black man - his blade was amethyst where Xan's was blue. A Twilek woman who cut Obi-Wan's bonds with her own sabre but then sheathed it, helping him to his feet. "You must get out of here," she said, pulling him to the gap in the wall.

"No," Obi-Wan protested, trying to see what was happening behind him; but the fight followed them into the outer offices, the woman drawing her blade and covering Obi-Wan's body with her own as they cowered in a corner.

The black man went down first, caught by a bolt of that blue lightning. Xan had lost a hand - when had that happened?! - but he fought on, shielding Jinn's left side. From the smell of charred flesh, Obi-Wan guessed the sabre wound had cauterised itself. It was surprisingly hard not to vomit at the thought.

The woman sprang to help guard Jinn's right. Palpatine was wearying now, and this new force was perhaps what made him resort to other weapons.

"Did you enjoy my young clerk, Jinn?" he called out, shattering the window pane behind him with the tip of his sabre. "A Jedi raping an innocent boy - my, my." The woman glanced at Jinn and went down to a sudden lunge from Palpatine, who used another lightning blast to parry Jinn's desperate attempt to shield her.

The woman was dead. Obi-Wan knew it. He stared at the body and then at his employer, who spared him one dismissive glance.

Palpatine had been watching the whole time - he'd seen Jinn rape Obi-Wan, had even enjoyed the sight, who knew? And then the old bastard had expected Obi-Wan to stay silent out of revenge while he slew Jinn. Obi-Wan shook with helpless rage.

"Yes, that's it," Palpatine crooned. "Let your anger build - feed the Dark Side." His voice was trembling with glee. "Your apprentice would have turned," he suddenly rounded on Jinn, "if I hadn't killed him first. His anger - it was so sweet, so powerful. So much stronger than that feeble little body, those fat little cheeks in my hands..."

"You have chosen the wrong target," Jinn said coolly. "Anakin is dead and with the Force. He did not turn. He shines brighter than you, Sith Lord."

Obi-Wan shuddered at the words. He'd heard horror stories of the Sith, all old legends but terrible tales nonetheless. Palpatine - one of those? Surely not.

But with every bolt of lightning he sent at the two remaining Jedi, Palpatine's face grew more haggard, his eyes flamed yellow, and his hands twisted and gnarled until he did seem like a monster.

And that cool tone of Jinn's - it was the same as he had used when he'd said he was going to rape Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan recognised the implacability in it and shuddered. This time, he was hoping Jinn's will would triumph.

"You are a liar," Palpatine snarled at Jinn. "I heard you with Kenobi. You raped the boy because you knew I wanted him; because you wanted revenge for your poor little apprentice. Did you like the way he whimpered, Jinn? Your apprentice sounded just the same."

Jinn struck forward, and Obi-Wan's breath caught. It looked like a blow dealt hastily, in anger: but it was not. It cut through the cloth at Palpatine's shoulder, seared down. Palpatine's sabre dropped to the floor.

Jinn advanced, his own blade held high in a careful guard. "What you heard," he said in the same quiet voice, " was a trap set for you, to pull you out of your little nest. And for all your cunning, Sith Lord, you have fallen into it."

Palpatine screamed his rage into a shower of blue sparks that enveloped the Jedi Master. Jinn cried out and dropped to his knees, his sabre rolling away from his hand; but at that moment Xan stepped forward and ran Palpatine through the heart.

The body, under the thrust of the blade, went toppling through the broken window. Palpatine's last word was a howling screech as he fell away into the distance.

"The Republic is very grateful for your help. Your bravery will not go unnoticed, Obi-Wan Kenobi."

Obi-Wan nodded his head. Senator Organa was more subtle than most, but Obi-Wan did not doubt for a moment that his gratitude was mixed with suspicion. After all, Obi-Wan had been Palpatine's aide for four years. And as for bravery - much of what he'd done had not been his choice.

The little that had... he doubted its efficacy. Jinn had been awake beside him in the bed, he'd concluded. The only thing his word of warning had achieved was to establish his own innocence.

"There's another matter," Organa went on, tapping the desk with one finger. It wasn't Palpatine's: that had been taken out of the office some time in the last week, probably to be scoured over by yet another special investigations team. Organa had had to order a new one in. "I would personally appreciate your consideration in a...delicate matter."

Obi-Wan waited. He'd been expecting this speech all week, and the unwillingness of anyone to actually make it had tried his patience. He wanted to get the fight over with.

But when the request came, it was not in the form Obi-Wan expected. "Qui-Gon Jinn is a close friend," Organa said. "His tactics are sometimes..."

"Unorthodox?" Obi-Wan suggested. He had found a new talent for sarcasm, having been so thoroughly shown the error of unbounded respect for his employers.

"Just so," Organa agreed. "But his ends are admirable, Obi-Wan. Even when his means cause...individual discomfort."

Obi-Wan's mouth set. That was the other thing he'd hated about this week: the way complete strangers knew this most intimate part of his life. The therapist they'd sent him to: that was one thing. She'd been professional, concerned about the details without the slightest hint of prurience. But the others... all too coy to actually use the word rape, as if denying that it had happened; yet that was what he saw in their eyes. It was as if he were perpetually walking around the way Xan had left him: naked from the waist down.

"Yes, well." Organa looked down at the datapadds on his desk. "I'd just ask you to bear that in mind at the sentencing."

"The what?"

"The sentencing," Organa repeated, looking Obi-Wan straight in the eye, "for your rape and sexual humiliation under questioning. The trial ends today."

"B-But it's only been a week!" Obi-Wan stammered.

"The Jedi try their own, and they do so with alacrity," Organa returned.

Obi-Wan's nostrils flared. "I haven't even been called to testify," he said in a low, shaking voice. He'd known they would try to get Jinn off, but this! It was incredible.

"There was sufficient evidence from the Jedi's own recordings during the evening," Organa said, "such that the Tribunal have decided not to subject you to further questioning." He must have seen the anger in Obi-Wan's eyes, for he added, "Your therapist endorsed the decision."

Obi-Wan tried to swallow back his rage. He had been angry all week, a fierce fury biting into him whenever he thought of what Jinn had done. Raping him out of a dark desire for revenge: Obi-Wan could almost understand that. But out of a cool calculation to trap Palpatine?

He was so angry. The therapist had said it was as much a reaction to his guilt over Naipal's death, and the intense fear he'd experienced that night, as the rape itself. All probably true, but what he really wanted was to have Qui-Gon Jinn kneeling at his feet, naked. He wanted to flog the skin between those powerful thighs until they bled; and to have the man bucking and writhing on the bed, tied down as he had been, helpless and hurting as Obi-Wan slammed an enormous cock into him.

The violence of these fantasies appalled him, not least because the background to all of them was that room, and that bed with its plum-coloured sheets, where Palpatine had done... indescribable things.

His civilised self answered that a public trial and a jail term would be enough. And now it seemed he would not even get that.

"So," he said, wondering if Organa could see the seething emotions beneath the simple word. "I'm allowed to be there? At the sentencing?"

"At the verdict and the sentencing both. We leave within the hour."

Obi-Wan tried not to be intimidated by the trip through the Jedi temple, itself the size of a small city. The Jedi might be an ascetic order, but the wealth and power they had controlled for generations could not help but display itself in the massive open spaces, the elegance of the architecture. Everything flowed to an easy organisation that Obi-Wan understood well. The Senate itself possessed some of that air of effective power, barely constrained.

The Tribunal Room, to his relief, was a small chamber at the peak of one of the spires, with space only for a single ring of chairs around the circular mosaic set in the stone floor. Three Jedi sat at one side: Obi-Wan suspected they were Council members, but the only one he recognised was Master Yoda. He assumed they were to act as judges.

In the second quadrant, Xan sat beside a Malastaarean, whom Obi-Wan was surprised to see was not in Jedi robes. Xan looked pale and tired; Obi-Wan knew he had had virtually no sleep that week, for Obi-Wan had been his liaison in tracking down all the data left in Palpatine's files.

It had been very strange working with a man who'd left him to be raped. But oddly enough, he understood Xan's position the better. There were times he'd done things on Palpatine's instructions that he'd had difficulty sleeping on at night. All legitimate, nothing he couldn't excuse - but those were the excuses. He'd known, somewhere deep inside, that something was wrong.

Xan hadn't reported Jinn's intentions to anyone who might have stopped the rape, much less intervened himself. Obi-Wan understood that unwillingness to act against a master with claims of loyalty. And Xan had turned to Obi-Wan that first morning, his stump still a blackened mess, and recited an Act of Penance, his head bowed, while the healers took Jinn and the other two Jedi away.

Obi-Wan would not forget that. At least one person had acknowledged the wrong done to him.

Opposite Xan, alone on his side of the chamber, another Jedi stood. He recognised this man too - the black man with the amethyst blade. He hadn't been sure the man was still alive when they'd carried him out.

One of Organa's assistants pointed them to seats in the fourth quadrant, opposite the Council members. No-one else sat there: the press were obviously not invited to this little party, Obi-Wan thought sourly. So much for all the sunlight flooding the chamber.

"Bring in Master Jinn," one of the three Tribunal judges said. Obi-Wan tensed in his seat.

To his surprise, Jinn looked as tall and imposing in the middle of this room as he had in Palpatine's offices. Somehow, Obi-Wan expected him to have shrunken down to half-size, no longer in command of the situation. But this man standing straight-backed in the centre of the floor, his hands folded into the sleeves of his robe, seemed utterly unperturbed. He turned and nodded his head at Obi-Wan, a gesture of acknowledgement rather than nervousness, before turning back to face the judges. Even in his anger, Obi-Wan couldn't help but admire such absolute self-confidence.

Then again, he thought blackly, Jinn had the decks stacked in his favour.

"Qui-Gon Jinn," another judge began, a woman with soft brown eyes and a sad mouth, "you are accused by this Tribunal of the rape of a civilian; of causing unnecessary pain, much of it sexual in nature, during his detention such as must amount to torture; of acting beyond the limits of your mission orders; and of instructing other Jedi subordinate to you not to divulge your intentions to a higher authority. How do you plead?"

Xan shot to his feet. "I contest the last accusation," he said in a voice that was not quite steady. "Master Jinn told me what he planned to do, but he did not instruct me to remain quiet about it. I could have taken the information to the Council that night, if I had chosen."

Obi-Wan thought that he would be told to sit down immediately; but instead the black man who had fought at Xan's side stepped forward.

"Did you make a Mission Protest to Master Jinn at the time, Knight Telos?"

Xan's eyes fell. "I did, Master Windu," he said.

"Let us see it," the woman said, and in the front of the chamber a holographic image sprang up. Obi-Wan shuddered at the sight: there he was, cowering on the bed, his hands strung up above his head. Xan and Jinn were much closer to the recorder, talking in low tones, but this time Obi-Wan could hear their words clearly.

"I think Palpatine must still be here," Xan's image said. "Look, Master, there's extra space all around this room unaccounted for on the plans. And the files on his computer were deleted only moments before we entered. It could have been done remotely, but there isn't any external connection to that unit. Palpatine was here."

"Does Kenobi know?" Jinn asked, glancing over to the bed.

"I doubt it. The security logs show Palpatine leaving late this afternoon and not returning. He could have come in via a secret way, and be planning to escape down it if he spots an opening in the planet guard."

"Or just planning to wait it out here," Jinn murmured. "You're right, Padawan - I feel his presence. Muted - he's shielding well - but it's him."

"But where?" Xan breathed.

"Watching everything we're doing, I'll warrant. He must be very confident of his hiding place, otherwise he would risk the running the blockade no matter how few openings there are. But if we try and flush him, he will flee. No: we need something to tempt him out, something his greed won't resist even when his fear councils otherwise. He is Sith: dark emotions draw him as light does a moth."

Xan's eyes flickered to Obi-Wan.

"Kenobi," Jinn confirmed. "He's been plotting for the boy for months now, since he killed Naipal. Kenobi's Force signature is so strong it must exert a pull on him - even I feel it. Perhaps that's why Palpatine is still here, rather than lost in another hiding place in the depths of the city. For we must assume he has others, and will run to ground in them if we act against him."

"I don't think you should involve the boy," Xan argued back. "It's too dangerous. Besides, Palpatine won't come out if all we use on Kenobi are words. He'd have to think the boy's life was in danger."

"Or that he'd lost something he wanted," Jinn said grimly.

Xan's breath caught. "No, Master," he said a little louder. "You can't do that."

"We are in a war, Xan," Jinn said, his mouth hard, "and many innocents like Kenobi could die if Palpatine gets away. I'll have to hurt the boy - Palpatine will stay, if only to take strength from Kenobi's pain. But he will come out. You must trust my judgment in this, Padawan. I'll keep Kenobi safe from him."

Xan stepped back and gave a short, curt bow. "As you will, Master," he said, "but you have heard my opinion."

Jinn nodded. "I have heard."

The holographic image winked out.

"A Mission Protest," Windu said.

"The strongest a Knight can make," the first judge agreed.

The civilian beside Xan stood, too. "The Tribunal," he began, in the tones of one used to speaking at length, "has already recognised that, given the difficult and dangerous nature of this attempt against the Sith Lord, the rules of field missions apply. Master Jinn was in charge: his was the absolute authority, and Knight Telos' last resort was to him. In making the Mission Protest, my client took all possible steps to dissuade Master Jinn from this course of action. Anything further would have counted as treason under the rules of the Jedi Order. No charges should be laid against him."

Xan shot the man a withering glare; but Jinn only gave a small smile to his padawan, and shook his head slightly.

"The Tribunal has already decided to clear Knight Telos of culpability on the grounds you have just stated," the first judge agreed. "Master Jinn had sole authority."

Obi-Wan saw Xan look across at him, shame and regret on his face.

The judge went on, "But then, can we accuse Master Jinn of instructing Knight Telos to remain silent? By accepting the Mission Protest, Jinn himself was ensuring that the Council would receive a full report in due course, since a Mission Protest is always the subject of an enquiry once the mission is complete."

The female judge spoke next. "There is also the issue of whether Master Jinn acted outside the limits of his mission orders. Given the regular occurrence of unforeseen problems, Masters on field missions are free to exercise complete independence, without the need for recourse to the Council. It does not matter whether the Council is half a galaxy away, or within easy reach: the Master has the last say. Since we have agreed that this action constituted a field mission, logically it follows that Master Jinn cannot be accused of acting beyond his authority, since his authority was unlimited. I therefore call for the Tribunal to withdraw the third and fourth allegations."

"Aye," the first judge.

"Done, it is," Master Yoda confirmed, thumping his stick on the floor.

Obi-Wan closed his fists. So this is how it would go: Jinn let off on technicalities, charge by charge.

"Now we come to the more substantive matters of rape and torture," the first judge said.

"I plead guilty to both charges," Jinn said, from the centre of the floor.

The blood rushed so fast to Obi-Wan's head that he hardly heard the first judge continue. "Your plea is accepted by this tribunal."

"Aye," said the woman.

"Done, it is," Master Yoda said more slowly, his ears lowered. He thumped his stick again. The sound rang through the room.

Done? A guilty verdict, so quickly? Obi-Wan stared at Jinn with wide eyes. At the edge of his vision, he saw Xan step back and lower his head, but Jinn still stood, unbowed.

"The Prosecution calls Obi-Wan Kenobi, the victim of these crimes." It was Master Windu whose voice echoed out over the shufflings and murmurs Jinn's declaration had brought from Organa's small retinue.

Obi-Wan got unsteadily to his feet, and followed Windu's imperious gesture to a point in the centre of the chamber, beside Qui-Gon Jinn.

"In cases of personal injury of this or similar nature," the woman said, "Jedi law allows the victim to choose from a number of possible punishments." She smiled gently at Obi-Wan. "Master Windu will read through the list, and explain each one to you. You may ask him whatever questions you desire." She sat back in her chair.

Obi-Wan nodded his understanding, then risked a glance up at the man beside him. This close, he could see the hints of tension distance had hidden: the furrow on Jinn's brow, the lines by his mouth.

His eyes met Obi-Wan's and Obi-Wan immediately looked away. This was just too -

Thank the gods they'd not asked him to testify, he thought suddenly. He wasn't ready for this at all.

Yet it was happening. Master Windu's voice boomed out again. "Four punishments are open to you, Obi-Wan Kenobi. The first is the Merced: you will set this man free, without let or hindrance, and have no more dispute between you."

Oh, yes, there had to be a catch! A wave of fury swept over Obi-Wan; but to his confusion the Jedi in the room seemed to sense it, murmuring amongst themselves until Yoda brought order by thumping his stick once more.

The female judge leant forward. "Please understand, Obi-Wan," she said, concern in her voice. "This is a traditional punishment, the first one offered in every case. You are not obliged to take it."

He nodded again, and struggled to bring his emotions under control. This trial was not what he had expected: perhaps it was time to suspend judgment until he understood all of what was going on.

After a moment she gestured to Windu, who continued, "The second is the Pecuniam. Master Jinn will be declared bankrupt, his possessions seized and handed over to you. To the extent that they fall short of the sum of two hundred thousand credits, the Jedi Temple will reimburse you the difference."

Two hundred thousand credits. Enough for one of those apartments Palpatine had bought. He would never have to work again.

"I - " He cleared his throat. "I understood that Jedi knights had few belongings," he said. Gods. Everyone in this room had probably watched a recording of Jinn taking him; and here he was discussing Jedi fiscal habits.

"Your understanding is correct," Master Windu said. "Master Jinn's current estate totals one thousand, two hundred and seven credits, plus a few personal items of little commercial value."

That was less than Obi-Wan had saved up in the last four years.

"The third," Master Windu continued, "is the Penulum. Master Jinn will be incarcerated in a Jedi prison for the next two years."

"A Jedi prison?" Obi-Wan echoed.

Windu nodded.

"What do Jedi prisoners do in a Jedi prison, Master Windu?"

"Meditate," Windu answered promptly. "The conditions are not harsh by some penal standards: our aim is foremost to seek penance, not punishment. We can arrange a visit to one, if you wish to see the conditions Master Jinn will be kept in."

"Thank you," Obi-Wan said.

He was terribly aware of Jinn standing silently beside him. The man hadn't moved since Windu had begun. Now that it came to it, Obi-Wan found this whole situation, deciding the punishment of a man who stood inches away from him, almost too much to bear.

"The fourth punishment," Windu said, "is the Castigatum. For two months, Master Jinn will live in your possession. During that time, you are free to visit any physical punishment on him that you wish, save only that you do no more lasting damage to his body than he has done to yours."

Beside Obi-Wan, Jinn shifted.

"I want that one," Obi-Wan said immediately - and the court broke out in a roar of voices.

Obi-Wan waited, heart pounding, until Yoda's stick brought order. He didn't dare look up at Jinn; instead he stared straight ahead, through a sunlit window to the sky beyond, until the room was quiet again.

"Choose not now, you shall," an old voice croaked. It took him a moment to parse Master Yoda's sentence. "An hour you are given, and counselling in your choice. Continue, Master Windu."

Windu nodded. "These are your four choices, Obi-Wan Kenobi. In light of the exceptional circumstances of this case, the Order has chosen not to offer the final two options: the Castratum, and the Annulum."

The first was obvious, but the second?

"Execution," Jinn murmured to him.

"Thank you," Obi-Wan murmured back.

"The Tribunal will reconvene in an hour," the first judge said. Two guards appeared beside Obi-Wan, and Jinn walked away between them.

"Please sit, Obi-Wan," the female judge said to him. "My name is Depa Billaba, and I will act as your council today. I welcome you to my home."

The room was shaded in blues and greens, and the small fountainhead on the wall sent cooling waters trickling into a bowl below. But it was very simple: nothing else except a few cushions on the stone floor, and a writing desk by the window. No wonder Jinn only had a thousand credits to his name, if this was how a Jedi Councillor lived. "It's beautiful," Obi-Wan said, in his diplomatic clerk's voice.

She sat down on the cushions, and gestured for him to follow. "We do not have time for such social conversation, I regret. Let us be straightforward with one another. Tell me, why did you not choose the money?"

"Is that what most Jedi victims want?" Obi-Wan said bitterly, sinking to his knees. "The money?"

"It is a sizeable sum," Billaba answered, "but you misunderstood my question. You have been poor for most of your life, Obi-Wan Kenobi, ever since your parents escaped Korsan as refugees." Obi-Wan was growing used to the way every Jedi he met knew the details of his biography by heart. "You have chosen financial security - security of all kinds - over your natural abilities as a pilot and a fighter. Why not now?"

Obi-Wan closed his mouth stubbornly. There was no Jedi law that said he had to talk to this woman about his desire to take personal revenge on Jinn.

After a moment she sighed, and patted the cushion in her lap. "I am here for two things," she said. "The thing of lesser importance is that the Order would like me to persuade you not to ask for one of the penalties."

Obi-Wan's eyes opened wide. "Why offer it to me if you don't want me to have it?"

"The decision of which punishments to offer is solely within the purview of the Prosecution," Billaba replied. "Master Windu, who acted as Prosecutor, is also head of the Jedi Council. Thus he was particularly scrupulous in dividing the concerns of the Prosecution from the concerns of the Order."

She lowered her voice. "The Republic is still in a very vulnerable position, Obi-Wan. Palpatine's favourites fill the General Assembly of the Senate, and its bureaucracy. Stability must be restored, the State of Emergency brought to an end and new elections held as soon as possible. These things are in all our interests."

Reluctantly, Obi-Wan nodded his head.

"So we would ask you not to choose the Penulum. To lose Master Jinn's services for two years... If we could have done without him, we would have given him a sabbatical when Xanatos Telos was knighted, or after Anakin Skywalker became his padawan. Now - we need him all the more."

"I can agree to that," Obi-Wan said slowly. "But the Castigatum," he stumbled over the unfamiliar word, "that would only take him away for two months."

"Better," Billaba agreed, "if not ideal." She linked her fingers together and laid her palms flat on the cushion. "Now we come to the reason of greater importance for this talk. Do you understand why the Jedi offer the choice of punishment to the victims, Obi-Wan?"

Obi-Wan shrugged. "Justice?"

"Justice is rarely done by those suffering from rage and fear," Billaba said. "But just as justice is far from them, so also are acceptance and healing. No one can make up for what Master Jinn took from you, Obi-Wan, even the Jedi."

He shifted under her gaze. "The therapist says there is a treatment," he said. "They can...break the association between the memories and the feelings I have. Make it so I can think about what he did, and not feel angry, or afraid - not feel anything at all. A simple drug."

Billaba waited.

"But if I remember, and I'm not angry, then who would I be?" Obi-Wan said in a low, pained voice. "I'm already a stranger to myself. Every time I look in the mirror, I see him, and then I see myself and I feel capable of such things.... Did he even consider that when he decided to rape me?"

"Probably," Master Billaba said calmly. "After all, he has been raped a few times himself."

Obi-Wan's head jerked up.

"The first time was when he was fifteen," Billaba went on. "I believe that one was very difficult for him, although I did not know him well enough then to really say. The last time was three years ago, when he was under cover in a penal mining colony on Globbus VI. What he has learned," she said gently, "is that rape, like many things, can be survived. That you need not lose yourself in what was done to you."

Obi-Wan sat there, blinking tears away.

"I will leave you to think about these things, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Remember: it is your choice. But that also means it is your responsibility. And it is you who will suffer the consequences of your decision, just as much as Qui-Gon Jinn will."

The Tribunal reconvened with much the same makeup as it had had before, except that the Malastaarean had gone; and Organa was on his own.

He nodded his head when Obi-Wan sat down. But almost immediately Jinn was issued back in, and Windu called Obi-Wan to stand again.

"The verdict of the Tribunal is that Qui-Gon Jinn, Jedi Master of this Order and member of this Temple, is guilty of rape and torture," he said. "What sentence do you pass on him, Obi-Wan Kenobi?"

Obi-Wan felt all eyes on him; except Jinn's, of course. The man was standing as quiet as ever, all that power and danger Obi-Wan remembered sheathed in a still body.

He lifted his chin. "I have decided," he said, his voice cracking a little and then growing stronger, "to give the choice of punishment to Qui-Gon Jinn himself."

Dead silence. Obi-Wan waited for anyone to say anything at all.

And then Jinn stepped forward. "I accept," he said, " and I choose the Castigatum."

This time even Yoda's stick could not quiet the voices raised in the chamber. Obi-Wan remembered Xan stepping over, saying to Jinn, "You mad fool," in a tone of wonder; then, looking at Obi-Wan, "You're both mad fools."

"What are you up to, Jinn," Windu also came to ask; but at that moment Yoda's patience ran out.

"Quiet, you will all be!" he declared; and silence fell.

"Qui-Gon Jinn." Jinn bowed his head. "For two months live you will as a belonging of this man. Obey him, you will; deny him, you will not."

"Yes, my Master," Jinn replied.

"Over, this Tribunal is."

It took a ko for the room to clear. Billaba came to bow before Obi-Wan, and he bowed awkwardly back. "That was bravely done," she murmured, "but you will need more courage yet to cope with the consequences." Then she smiled. "Visit me whenever he becomes too much."

"Yes, Master," he said.

"Your rooms in the Temple will be ready for you tomorrow," Windu said. "Be here at nine and three ko."

"Wh- Rooms?" Obi-Wan asked, bewildered.

"You don't think a Jedi under sentence of Castigatum can be let out of the Temple, do you? You'll have to live here. Besides, Jinn will need medical checks every week to ensure you're not overdoing it. Don't worry," he raised a dismissive hand, "you're unlikely to give him anything he can't take."

"Yes, Master," Obi-Wan said.

"I have some thoughts about those last four files, Kenobi," Xan said. "We can work on them on the Temple computer tomorrow, since you'll be here. Oh, and I'll arrange for you to be added to the Jedi payroll. We can always use a good pilot."

He smiled at Obi-Wan's expression. "Don't worry, we pay members of the Jedi Corps something closer to a living wage. And don't forget to have your bed brought to the Temple. Qui-Gon sleeps on a piece of rock, I swear."

"Thank you, Knight Telos," Obi-Wan said.

"Hmmmm," Master Yoda huffed, and pointed Obi-Wan to a place on the floor beside him. Obediently Obi-Wan knelt.

"Beat my padawan well, you will," he said.

"Yes, Master," Obi-Wan said, thinking the old creature had gotten more than his syntax mixed up. Surely he meant, 'treat my padawan well'.

"And let him brood on Anakin, you will not. Keep him busy. Much work he is, but bring you healing, he shall."

"Yes, Master," Obi-Wan said, by now utterly confused.

"Hmmmm." But Yoda said no more, merely chivvied the others out of the chamber with his stick until only Jinn and Kenobi were left.

Slowly, Obi-Wan turned to face him. Jinn was standing there, still as usual, and that small smile was on his lips again.

"Shouldn't you be kneeling at my feet?" Obi-Wan finally asked.

"The two months don't start until tomorrow," Jinn replied. "Haven't you read the guidelines?"

"The guide...What?!"

Jinn rolled his eyes. "It's a traditional Jedi punishment," he explained. "Did you think it came without a manual? Here, I picked up a copy during the break." From beneath his robe he took out a datapadd, and handed it to Obi-Wan, who stood there staring.

"I've marked up a few passages that you might want to read," he said. "Ways to vent your anger without crippling a man, that sort of thing. And there's a standard package down in stores for you to collect. Shackles, dildoes, whips if you want them. We should go and get it soon: the commissary closes in the next hour."

Obi-Wan clasped the padd to his chest, watched Jinn walk to the door. "Why did you do it?" he blurted out. "You could have chosen the Merced, walked away from all this - Is it because I asked for the Castigatum first? Did you think you should give me what I wanted? Did you think that would be enough to make up for it?"

"No," Jinn said, turning back to him. "I simply chose the most interesting option."

Then he smiled, and there was a kindness and a wickedness in that smile which took Obi-Wan's breath away.

"Come along, Obi-Wan," he said. "We have work to do - let's not waste the day."

And he was gone, and Obi-Wan was running to catch him up behind.

The end