For The Blood We Spill

Chapter 17 - Deal

Author's Note: Yes, this chapter is a week late. It took me longer to write it then I thought it would, because I've been having difficulty writing anything for some time now, idk why. Anyway, I just finished it yesterday. Enjoy! :D

~ Amina Gila

Obi-Wan has no idea how he came here exactly – well, that's a lie. He knows exactly how he got there, all the choices that led him to this moment, but it's easier to pretend that it's wholly unexpected, that he had no way of predicting it. He should have. Would have if he wasn't so willfully blind to his own faults and attachments. Of course, he has always been a little too attached, too – too possessive, even. Maybe he wasn't always, but it became progressively worse after he lost Qui-Gon so suddenly and abruptly.

And then, there was Anakin. Anakin, who shone like a star. Anakin, who became the center of his world in a few short months. Anakin, who he would do anything for, even Fall.

Maybe he should regret this more than he does, but he doesn't really feel much regret at the moment, watching the droids' every move as they transport Anakin's unconscious, dying body to a cell where he won't be so wholly cut off from the Force. Dooku is standing there as well, radiating a smug pleasure. It's enough to make Obi-Wan want to hit him. Actually, scratch that. He wants to stab him. Gut him. Slowly and painfully.

His hands tremble from the force of his desire, so he folds them into his sleeves, pretending to the world that he's just watching, not imagining increasingly creative ways of torturing Dooku to death. Really, he should stop, but seeing Anakin lying there, so still, in pain, blood flowing from his nose as he nearly died... it broke something in him even further.

He's done pretending. He'll embrace being Fallen, being a Dark Jedi. He'll do whatever he must if it means keeping Anakin alive.

"I will do whatever you want, so long as Anakin lives."

And Dooku will hold up his end of the deal if he wants to live. If something happens to Anakin, Obi-Wan will stop at nothing until Dooku is too dead to even regret it.

There's a strange comfort from the violence of his thoughts, a strange familiarity to the icy tendrils of darkness flowing through his veins. It feels... inevitable, in a way, as if he was always meant to come here, to reach this point. Obi-Wan doesn't particularly care to explore what that feeling means. All of this is for Anakin, even if his former Padawan can't and won't appreciate it. He had been so quick and ready to let himself die, trying to make Obi-Wan promise not to save him. And he doesn't understand it one bit.

They'll need to talk again, later, once he's done whatever it is that Dooku wants from him. Surely, he'll at least let Obi-Wan visit Anakin soon, spend time with him when they aren't both prisoners. Well, he can make some demands at least, though it's questionable how willing the Count will even be to indulge him.

He resolutely doesn't let himself think about the possibility of Ahsoka coming to rescue Anakin, doesn't let himself dwell on how the Council and other Jedi would feel, what they would think, seeing him now, bathed in the Dark. Those things don't matter. Anakin's life does.

Anakin is transported to a more normal holding cell, but he's fitted with Force restraints that leave Obi-Wan silently seething. Dooku casts him an appraising look. "It's for his own good," he says idly, "And yours. The droids have orders if you try anything."

"I understand," he grits out, wishing wildly that he could tear Dooku apart, limb from limb. He pauses though, taking a steadying breath. "Are you certain it won't harm him? He isn't... well."

A flicker of something, satisfaction maybe, appears in Dooku's dark brown eyes, but it's gone before Obi-Wan can fully register it. "He will be fine so long as you complete the mission which I have for you in a timely manner."