“Stop.”

The word is too simple and yet too complicated at the same time with the power it contains and Obi-Wan feels his knees fold beneath himself, his shoulders trembling as he manages to keep his chin up and watch Qui-Gon and the Sith through the red ray shield.

They’re both frozen, the word still trembling in the air between them all and the one that spoke it.

They are affected and yet not as badly as Obi-Wan, the saber only millimeters from Qui-Gon’s abdomen, the tunic charring with the closeness of the lightstaff.

Just another second and his master…

Obi-Wan’s shoulders trembled before he forced himself to raise his head as a presence stopped at his side.

Anakin stood there, blinking back at him and not for the first time since the discovery of the boy on Tatooine did Obi-Wan wonder how anyone could keep him as a slave.

Or had they?

They had kept his mother for sure but Shmi had by no means seemed skinny, nor did Anakin. Nor had Watto punished them.

Anakin might have been under some chains with unwieldy powers at his fingers, but no, he listened because he was waiting.

Waiting for… him?

Obi-Wan swallowed thickly, letting out a keening whine at the boy.

Anakin tilted his head again, looking back at Qui-Gon and the Sith and then to Obi-Wan. “He’s going to die, I don’t want him to. But my powers can’t stop it, not alone. I don’t have control.” He stated, a tad childishly.

‘Nine, he’s nine and he has no idea what he’s doing and yet he can do this.’ Obi-Wan couldn’t help but shakily comprehend just the sheer power of this boy with too many teeth in his smile and unnerving light in his eyes.

“No one should kill a Jedi,” Anakin continued, glancing to the Sith again, cocking his head not unlike a small bird. Curious and wary at the same time. “Will you help me? You love him after all.” Anakin stated, as if the word was as simple as just that.

Love wasn’t simple though, not with the start Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan had to their apprenticeship, the trauma’s they had been through at each others hands and the secrets Obi-Wan had. But he did love Qui-Gon, how could he not, after twelve years together?

Though what kind of love, well, that was hard to define.

Did love really have to be defined?

Instead he simply raised a shaking hand to Anakin, unable to open his mouth under the sheer pressure of the boy’s power, numbly trying to avoid Qui-Gon’s confused eyes.

Beaming, that smile full of teeth as it was and his blue eyes swirling with his power, Anakin grasped Obi-Wan’s hand only to jerk to when Obi-Wan gave a pitiful little cry, tears instantly streaming down his face from the pain of holding on.

It was too much power and yet Obi-Wan didn’t let go.

His very bones were aching and his soul felt like it was crumbling at its foundation, the swirl of Anakin’s own power, of ozone and electricity hitting Obi-Wan’s own placid storm, the redhead shaking as he forced it under control.

It was too much and yet Obi-Wan carried that burden of power that wasn’t his to hold, pushing it towards the Sith, wheezing as he slammed the wide eyed zabrak across the open hole and into the wall opposite.

His lightstaff hit the ground with a clatter but Obi-Wan’s focus was on the presence the now unconscious man had left behind.

He could taste the fear in him and for a dark moment, the Force along with the power at his fingers rose, whispered to him how he could kill the Sith, destroy his very core and ensure he never rose up again.

Obi-Wan turned away from that, it was not the path of the Jedi and his bones were breaking, his skin burning as it was, he let go of Anakin’s hand and crumbled to the ground, wheezing and coughing, tasting blood in his mouth.

Anakin’s power was not his to wield.

And it showed on how it affected him, the padawan laying crumbled to the floor and if it wasn’t for his master, the ray shield would have cut him apart as the man quickly jerked Obi-Wan out of the way of it.

It gave him a moment to see that Anakin was no longer there.

Obi-Wan wasn’t sure what that meant, busy coughing on blood with his head pounding as Qui-Gon worriedly turned him over, his hands fluttering over Obi-Wan as unconsciousness greeted the redhead.