Give Me Love

chapter fifty seven

The heat of Mustafar was bitter and choking. But familiar.

You had felt this before. Seen this before.

Dreamt this before.

Everything seemed to click into place again as soon as you stepped onto the cracking, steaming rock. The man you had seen crying on the balcony, surrounded by fire. The man burning in lava on the ashen bank. The man whose limbs were scraped of flesh and replaced with metal and black armor. That new evil... bending down to grab Ahsoka's ice-encrusted lightsaber. Even after it all, he was still searching.

It was all Anakin.

And this... this finally scared you. Because his dreams were right– you were not in any of these visions. You were not with him in that future. And if this were to all come to a head now, this is where you would die.

You could at least try and alter that future for him, even if it meant you weren't there with him. But you also sure as hell weren't going to jump into your death...you still had hope you could maybe avoid it.

Just steer clear of the gushing geyser's down below, watch your step, and run at the first site of a lightsaber. Simple.

...Not so simple.

You and Obi-Wan searched through the Separatist center in the big metal tower jutting out of the rock. The entire room was bathed with blood, you and Obi-Wan slipping on the puddles as you scaled your way around dozens of fallen bodies, all killed with charred stab wounds and slashes. It was a lightsaber that did that, and no doubt about whose.

You met Anakin on the balcony. He was in the robe, hood pulled up over his head, with a tear rolling down his cheek like you had seen in your dream. As soon as he sensed you, he turned around and let the hood drop.

His eyes were yellow, rimmed with red and black. He was also covered in blood. And his hands were itching for his lightsaber.

You wanted to tell him that he did it– he killed the last of the Separatist leaders. The war was over, once and for all, and he was a hero. You could all go home now.

But Obi-Wan beat you to it.

"What have you done?"

Anakin straightened his shoulders. A gust of hot air blew his hair away from his face, cape billowing behind him. He was terrifying.

Powerful.

"I did what needed to be done."

"Taking innocent lives? That is not what Jedi do."

You almost wanted to butt in. How ironic, that sentence was. And hypocritical. Did Obi-Wan need to be reminded he was a General of war himself? Did he need a count of how many clones died from his orders? How many citizens were crushed under the rubble of his rescue missions? Not just him– all of them.

"I'm no Jedi. The Jedi turned against me." He focused his gaze on you, and the unfamiliar yellow sent chills down your spine. But that was Anakin– your Anakin. You could not let anything happen to him.

"Come," he held a hand out to you. "I have orders to go back to Coruscant for a very special mission. Come with me, Y/n."

You stepped forward to take his hand, but Obi-Wan reached out an arm to stop you.

"What mission, Anakin? Orders from who?"

"I have a new master now. Move out of her way."

Obi-Wan looked like he had been punched. His old friend, so blinded by hatred and rage. Gone from the boy he once knew. "Anakin... It's not too late to come back to us. Look how far you've fallen– this isn't you."