The Sakurar fell back spitting, leaping clear to cling to the bars two meters away. Murder strobed through the black eyes as the wiry body coiled.

Obi-Wan watched it all through his haze of pain and knew. He knew. His heart screamed. “No, please,” he begged. “Don’t do this!”

But the Sakurar was beyond reason. It leapt, slicing through the dark towards the despairing Padawan.

Obi-Wan watched him come as if in slow motion. His thoughts flew. Him or his enemy. His enemy or him. His foot came up but he did not feel it move.

He came apart on the inside as it connected, knocking his adversary out into thin air and into oblivion. A real cry tore from his lips, overlaying that of his adversary as the dark body tumbled, falling helplessly away into blackness.

A forever minute of silence passed before there came a blinding flare from the energy field far below.

But Obi-Wan did not see it. His face was already buried in his arm, stifling the despairing sobs that wanted to break free. What had he done? Why hadn't the Sakurar stayed? Why--?! He'd killed him. He'd--

On wooden legs Obi-Wan started forward, moving back to his bunk, sightlessly stepping over those lying on the ground, heedless to anything.

Until a cry split through his senses and drew him to an abrupt halt. A cry of a child in distress.

Obi-Wan was already turning towards the sound. He espied a man at the near wall, Kyan was there, cowering at his feet. The man shouted and raised a fist.

Obi-Wan’s vision finally went red and he swept across the floor. In a heartbeat he had the man’s arm in his hand, twisting and pinning him against the wall in a vicelike grip.

Fury roared in his ears.

“Touch him again and I’ll kill you!” he snarled in a voice that he barely recognised as his own.

This sorry little man suddenly became the target for all his anger, his despair, his regret. All he could see in that moment were the faces of Sonu and the Cobra. The men who had done this. The men who were still doing this. Who had brought him here, who had fixed him with this suffocating collar. Blocked him from the serenity of the Force and his Master. Made him fight.

Made him kill.

The fury mounted. For the second time in as many hours he was tumbling into darkness. Into a pit far blacker and ever more inescapable than the one he had just fought his way out of.

“Ben?”

It was the little voice that saved him. It cleaved through the raging mire of his mind like a thin sword of light.

Kyan?

With a gasp Obi-Wan came back to his senses. The red haze receded and his vision cleared. For the first time he truly saw the man he held pinned before him. A short, quivering man. Not Sonu. Not Cobra.

Another victim.