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The only thought in his head as he walked was that he wasn’t ready to face this. The hallways of the Temple had never felt so empty before. The patter of the fountains pulsed through his ears and settled into an ache at the base of his neck. Obi-Wan wasn’t sure this place had ever been so empty that he could hear the fountains like that without meditating first. He wanted to stop short in the entryway. No, he wanted to never have to come back to this room again. And yet, some strange inertia kept his feet moving forwards, deeper into the Room of a Thousand Fountains.
This was for the best, he’d been told. It was just like lightsaber practice. If you stopped just because you got a little burn, you’d never learn to defend yourself. He wondered if whoever penned that particular advice had been incompetent at sparring, or just a masochist. This just felt like poking at scabs that hadn’t gotten the chance to turn into scars yet with scalpels.
“We’re here,” Bant said. Obi-Wan didn’t turn to look at her, but he didn’t need to. The hand that clasped his trembled just as her voice did. He gripped it back tighter. “I don’t know what comes next.”
Right in front of them was the pool that Bant had nearly been drowned in. At the very least that had been cleaned up, and unless you knew where to look for the new grooves the chains had cut in the stonework you wouldn’t be able to tell anything had happened there. That made it a safer view than what he could see on their left. The hill where Obi-Wan had fought Bruck looked larger than he remembered it, or maybe he just felt smaller. The ledge that Bruck had fallen from was still partially crumbled, and was likely a more difficult fix. If Yoda would have it fixed at all instead of using it as some sort of placeholder for a lesson.
Or maybe he’d become a little cynical. “I don’t know either,” Obi-Wan turned to look at Bant instead. She was pale around the gills, her skin almost cracking with dryness. “But maybe we should swim?”
That sent the color right back to Bant’s face. “What? We nearly died here, Bruck actually died here, and you want to swim?”
Obi-Wan pinched her, just a little bit on the arm. Dry. The stress, he thought. “Yeah. You need some water, Bantling. And besides, you know I’d never let you drown.”
A small smile unfurled across her face despite herself. “Of course not. But this isn’t a good pool for swimming. It’s not very deep.”
It wasn’t. Both of them could stand in the deepest part of the pool. If Bant hadn’t been tied up that day, drowning never would have been on the table. “That might not be the worst thing.”
“I’d rather go swim somewhere else.”
One of her favorite pools was just around the corner. The two of them, along with Garen and Reeft and sometimes even Quin or Siri had spent many hours playing in it. The fountains that fed it sprayed a fine mist into the air, and it was one of the best places in the Temple for a Mon Calamari to rehydrate their skin. Obi-Wan could have walked to it with his eyes closed. He didn’t move.
“Bruck is—but Xanatos isn’t. And soon I’m supposed to go help Master Qui-Gon track down Xanatos, even though I’m not his apprentice anymore.”
“He’ll take you back,” Bant let go of his hand to grip Obi-Wan’s face. He didn’t resist, but he couldn’t quite meet her eyes. “He’d be stupid not to.”
“Maybe.” His voice was doubtful. Qui-Gon wasn’t stupid, but he was incredibly stubborn. “But how can I face Xanatos if I can’t even come here?”
“Haven’t you though? Come on, Obi. You were right. Let’s swim.”
“Wait—” But Bant didn’t wait. She had her outer robe off before Obi-Wan could really think about stopping her, and the purpose in her eyes stayed his hand. Hers had stopped trembling, and that made it easier to fold her intermediate layers.
“Now you,” She said, dipping her toes in the water.
And what could Obi-Wan do but obey his friend, when she finally sounded like herself again? His robes swiftly joined hers, but he stopped at the edge of the pool. Bant had waded in up to her knees, and was raising and lowering her leg like she was testing something.
“I don’t know what this is supposed to prove,” Obi-Wan said. “This place is safe now. It’s just like any other place.”
“Then it’ll be that much easier for you to face Xanatos, now that this isn’t hanging over you.” Bant looked up at him. “We lived after all.”
“That’s right,” Obi-Wan murmured, stepping into the water. He didn’t think too hard about it, and inertia brought him right next to Bant. “We lived.”
The pool was just a pool, and the fountains were just fountains, even if he still had a bit of a headache about them. Bruck had died here, but they had lived. Just as Cerasi had died and he and Nield had lived. They would remember him, but not at the cost of doing the things they needed to do. He’d get justice, he thought. Someday soon he’d have that chance. The next time he saw Xanatos, he would be prepared for that.
But for now, Obi-Wan looked back at Bant. She looked wrung out again. This time it was his turn to cheer her up. He raised his hand and sent a small splash her way. “Bet you can’t catch me!” He grinned at her.
It was a good distraction. Bant might have skipped pulling him under the water’s surface like she usually might as retaliation, and Obi-Wan’s heart nearly beat out of his chest when Bant tripped on the uneven flooring and nearly went down to her knees, but it was good. They were good.
Eventually, they both migrated to the edge of the pool and sat drying out with only their feet in the water.
“Thanks for saving me, Obi-Wan,” Bant whispered.
“Always. I promise.”