"Anakin? Anakin?"
   Anakin Skywalker grunted, jerked from a light nap. "What?"
   "I need some water, Anakin. I'm thirsty. Please, just a sip." Iryshi Dylar looked pleadingly out from her storage cage in the cabin of Obi-Wan Kenobi's ship. She was pale, drawn, and thinner than Anakin had ever seen her. He guessed that she was so devastated by losing her Force powers that she was losing weight involuntarily.
   He reached over to the platform next to his bunk and picked up the canteen. Iryshi's face seemed to light up with hope and she leaned forward in the cage expectantly. He got up and walked over to her, stopping a few feet in front of the cage and holding the canteen just out of her reach. "Give me one good reason," he whispered harshly, "why I should give it to you."
   Iryshi's pale blue eyes bored into him. "It's against the code to cause pain or suffering to any living creature," she said meekly. "The Jedi acts to preserve life."
   Anakin paused long enough to make her wonder if he'd give her the water. An annoyed voice called out from the cabin. "It's my ship, give her the stang water," Obi-Wan said drowsily. Anakin took one step toward her and let her take the canteen, holding it through the bars of the cage. She guzzled the sweet fresh water until he pulled the container away from her. Though her face showed her gratitude, she still thanked him.
   Glancing up the passageway to the front of the ship, Anakin saw that Obi-Wan was dozing once again in his pilot's chair. The older Jedi had his feet propped up on the console, just millimeters from hitting vital devices. But Anakin knew that Kenobi slept carefully. Though his body was unconscious, his mind was reaching out with the Force to sense that all was well. Anakin wondered what he was sensing now. The turmoil raging in Iryshi's mind? Her sense of helplessness that she no longer could use the Force for her benefit? Her anger, grief, frustration... peace? Was there peace in her mind? Did she forgive Anakin and the Council for putting her through this? 
   Did he forgive himself?
   He shook his head slightly, thinking Iryshi wouldn't notice, but she did. "What is it?" she asked, and when he turned back to her, that pale blue gaze was locked on him again.
   "It's nothing," he said softly. "Go back to sleep."
   "Can't," she whispered. "I tried."
   "Try harder," he said, laying back on his bunk and rolling over until his back was to her.



Tatooine was a gray-gold orb rotating silently from where they were. Wispy cloudlets sprinkled the atmosphere, remnants of what little moisture the planet still contained. Obi-Wan Kenobi leaned forward in his seat, awakened by the hyperdrive alarms that had signaled for him to cut off the engines and make the jump back in to realspace. Anakin was already in the cockpit, staring out the viewport as if he'd never been to this planet. The planet where it had all started.
   Looking back into the cabin, Obi-Wan saw Iryshi trying to get a look at the planet she was sentenced to spend the rest of her life on. He swiveled his chair to give her a view of Tatooine, and she stared. "That dustball?" she asked quietly.
   Anakin smiled, and Obi-Wan wondered if there was a hint of cruelty there. "Exactly," Anakin said. "We're leaving you there. There's a home you can stay in, on the edge of the Jundland Wastes. You'll have enough money to buy food and supplies, but that's all. We're not leaving you with enough to get off the planet. You'll receive an account transfer every month, just enough to sustain you for that month and no more." He glanced back at her, and smiled again. "You'll never leave that planet."
   Iryshi met his gaze unflinchingly. "You've already put me through Hell. This will be a vacation, albeit a long one."
   Obi-Wan admired her, still. She was brave. She had lived through the loss of her Force powers, she had lived through the casting-out from the Council. She had lived through the sneering and the whispered remarks of her peers. She had lived through the steely looks from Anakin. 
   He wondered for a moment if he still loved her; decided he did. Of course he did. She was perfect for him, and the sentence she'd received was entirely unfair. But he did not have the power to go against Mace or any of the other Council members.
   He brought the ship in on a landing vector into Tatooine's atmosphere. 



While Anakin went off to rent a speeder, Obi-Wan and Iryshi went to a fledgling cantina at the center of Mos Eisley. Obi-Wan ordered a glass of Alderaanian Wine and Iryshi got some Corellian Ale. 
   Standing at the bar, she was suddenly approached from behind by a seedy pair of humanoids. One of them snarled, "You're in our spot."
   Iryshi sighed and backed away from where she had been standing. "Terribly sorry," she said. 
   The taller of the humanoids, something that reminded her somewhat of a Trandoshan, put a hand on her shoulder. "Maybe we should take this outside."
   "Maybe you should get your grimy paw off me," Iryshi replied, trying to act much bolder than she really was. 
   The reptilian growled, his breath smelling foul. 
   From out of nowhere, Obi-Wan appeared, and said, "She's not worth the effort, sirs. Let me buy you a drink and we can forget the whole thing ever happened."
   He and the humanoids walked off, leaving Iryshi scowling to herself.



"Not worth the effort?" Iryshi sneered as she and Kenobi exited the bar. "You would know, wouldn't you?"
   Obi-Wan stopped, turning toward her abruptly in surprise. "Look, I was just trying to get those nerfs away from you, alright? I didn't mean to insult you."
   She was about to answer, but Anakin called to them before she had the chance.



The rented landspeeder glided smoothly over endless desert, salt flats, and scrawny brush. Iryshi sat in the seat next to Obi-Wan, her light blue tunic fluttering in the breeze. Anakin was seated in the back, his eyes on Iryshi to make sure she didn't try to escape. That would, of course, be both stupid and impossible, given the speed the landspeeder was moving at.
   "The sky here reminds of Dantooine," she murmered, barely loud enough to be heard. "In the summer. When I was learning to lift objects with the Force." He could barely sense the sadness in her mind. She was locking it away, hiding it from the galaxy. She didn't even want him to see it, although she knew he had by now. He'd seen it in the way she'd collapsed outside the doors of the Council, her body seeming small and wracked with sobs of grief. He'd seen the fear and pain in her every time he looked in her eyes. They used to be dark azure, as bright and deep as a lake. Now they were pale, almost rain-gray. Like she'd wept the color right out of them. 
   Her hair was loose, not in the neat braid she usually kept it in, and blowing back with the wind. Anakin had to move to the other side of the speeder to keep it out of his face. 
   She was looking at Obi-Wan now, her face an expressionless mask. "How long will you stay?" she asked, as quietly as she had spoken before. 
   Anakin answered, even though Iryshi had been addressing Kenobi. "Until you receive your first account transfer," he said, nearly having to shout to be heard over the roar of the engines and the wind. "A week or so."
   Iryshi made no move to acknowledge his remark, but looked away sadly.



The stucco building was small but well-equipped. Standard food unit, a small refresher, sleeping pallet. Kenobi watched Iryshi as she unpacked her belongings from a large wooden chest, her trinkets she had salvaged from her apartment on Coruscant. She examined every inch of the tiny home, taking in every detail of the place where she would spend the rest of her life. 
   Despite the desperation he sensed within her, she didn't cry. She sat on the sleeping pallet and looked around the house once more, paying no attention to him.
   Obi-Wan glanced out the diminutive windows at the empty desert surrounding them. Anakin had taken the speeder back to Mos Eisley, to pick up food and water for the week's stay. He'd be another hour or so.
   Iryshi joined him at the window, watching the shifting sands of the Jundland Wastes.


   
The next day, Obi-Wan had gone out for a walk in the desert. Iryshi was alone in the house with Anakin as she made dinner.
   He approached her in the kitchen, and said softly, "Iryshi, listen... I'm sorry about all this."
   She froze in the middle of cutting open a vegetable. "You're sorry?" she said, voice barely audible. "You're sorry about this?" She turned on him suddenly, leaning back against the counter. "Anakin, do you need a short-term memory enhancement? Because it certainly sounds like you've forgotten how you voted."
   Anakin shook his head. "I never meant for any of this to happen. Really."
   "Oh, you didn't?" Iryshi said sarcastically. "Well, gee then, I suppose you're forgiven. After all, you never meant for any of this to happen. It wasn't your intention." She shook her head, and snarled, "You nerf-breeding, cowardly, son-of-a-vrelt. Go run off to Shmi."
   Obi-Wan chose that moment to make his appearance, stepping through the door of the little  house. "What's going on here?" he asked.
   Iryshi, looking embarrassed, went back to chopping vegetables. Anakin stalked off. 



They found out that night that Anakin's mother was dead. Shmi Skywalker had been killed in the crossfire of a street brawl in Mos Espa, reportedly between a Rodian and a human smuggler. Anakin was inconsolable. Obi-Wan did his best to just let him be alone with his thoughts.



Obi-Wan awoke due to a sharp pain in the back of his neck. He stifled a cry, being careful not to wake Iryshi, and turned to look for whatever caused him pain. 
   Anakin was standing by a support pillar, hand outstretched and fingers curled. He whispered softly, "It's time."
   Kenobi glanced back at Iryshi, still asleep, and shook his head. He couldn't leave now, in the middle of the night, without saying goodbye to her. That was wrong, it was cruel, not to give her a chance to say goodbye...
   A twinge of pain in the back of his neck again. Anakin looked more insistant, and urged him out of the bed.
   Obi-Wan rose reluctantly, slipping into his Jedi robe, and turning to go. He grabbed his bag of belongings, already packed, and followed Anakin out the door. He only looked back once at his wife, his Padawan, his lover, and then he was gone.



Just after the door slid shut, Iryshi cracked her eyes open, smiling to herself ever so slightly.



Obi-Wan sat back in the pilot's seat of his ship as they made the jump to hyperspace. He slipped his hand into his cloak pocket to look for the miniaturized datapad he carried there, but what he pulled out first surprised him. It was a bracelet, small, thin, and beaded with a pearly gem. He stared at it a moment before slipping it back in his pocket, and closing his eyes.



Iryshi was up the next morning, fixing her breakfast, and when she opened up her cabinet to get a utensil hanging from the rack, she found her lightsaber hanging along with the ladels and scoops. She grinned and took down the hilt, carved with runes in ancient Corellian, clipping it to her belt. It was back where it belonged.
   Everything was as it should be.