Bound

Exceeding Tolerances

Some spoilers from Jedi Apprentice.
No betas, therefore the mistakes are all mine.
See chapter one for disclaimers.

Obi-Wan had awakened to find Master Jinn gone. The master's absence did not truly surprise him, but his own reaction to the missing Jedi's presence did. Obi-Wan found himself wanting to be around someone for the first time since he set foot off Coruscant. His previous encounters with the tall, aloof master had been... tolerable, polite, impersonal, but this last time... when the Jedi Master had chosen to share Force energy with him Obi-Wan had felt... more. The feeling was not quite the warm contentment he remembered from his days living among the Jedi, but at least now Obi-Wan felt he could remember it and the memory, though painful for the bitter loss, was still favorable to the sense of abject misery and desolation that had become his waking nightmare. In fact, at the moment, Obi-Wan was in better spirits than he had been any day since his assignment to Bandomeer some three months ago.

Three months.

Is that all it had been? It felt like he had lived a lifetime. Well, perhaps lived was too strong a word. Suffered, endured, tolerated. Those were closer to the truth. But with Jinn's last gift some of that had changed at least for the moment. For that alone Obi-Wan would be forever grateful. Which was why the master's absence upon his waking had left him surprisingly disturbed.

Obi-Wan stretched as he moved to sit on the edge of the medical couch. He slid down from the soft mattress until his feet touched the cold surface of the floor. He shivered slightly. At some point the medical personnel had relieved him of his Agri Corps uniform and dressed him in a long white tunic and no trousers; only his small clothes were left to protect his modesty under the too thin gown. He was just about to poke around the few cabinets in his room when the door slid open. Obi-Wan looked on with a deep sense of dread as the broad figure of the Codru-ji he had seen the day he arrived filled the narrow doorway.

"Come," the caninoid growled. Obi-Wan resisted the urge to take a step away from the intimidating figure blocking the room's only exit. Instead the youth drew himself up as best he could and schooled his features into the neutral mask his instructors had taught him at the Temple.

"I haven't been released by medical yet," Obi-Wan replied calmly, but the other being did not appear to be swayed. After several silent seconds the Codru-ji growled again.

"Come."

"No," Obi-Wan said shaking his head. "No, I want to speak with a doctor or Administrator Voluk," he declared crossing his arms defiantly over his chest. The flesh around the caninoid's muzzle drew into a feral sneer, his black gums rippling over a bright white row of fangs.

"Come or the other Jedi dies."

Obi-Wan's eyes grew wide in shock for just a moment then his arms fell to his sides, his hands curled into small fists.

"What have you done to Master Jinn?" he demanded, but the Codru-ji responded only with the same snarled command.

"Come," he said and with little other choice Obi-Wan did.

* * * * *

"Where are we going?" Obi-Wan asked from his seat in the sleek Offworld hopper. After discreetly spiriting him from the Agri Corps medical facility, the hitherto unnamed Codru-ji had planted him bodily into the passenger seat before taking the pilot's seat. The two had sped past the vast acreage of the fields and were now crossing the open plains of Bandomeer. The farther his escort drove them away from the Agri Corps complex the more convinced Obi-Wan became that he had made the wrong choice. Glancing out at the passing scenery he noticed the large rock formations that had begun to dominate the horizon. His stomach clenched tightly.