By My Side

Chapter 28 - This Ends Today

Author's Note: No, I do not feel bad for how I skipped most of the fight with Sidious again. It was about to make me cry as it was. lol.

~ Rivana Rita

Ahsoka stumbles at the sudden flux of pain and fear and darkness flowing through her bond with Anakin. She braces her hand on the wall, gasping ,as words, images filter through in flashes. He's reaching for her, far across the galaxy. She heard, of course, how he and Rex were on some quick rescue mission that went rapidly downhill, and that he was captured, but they were tracking the ship. She wanted to go, but...

But now this is happening.

"Until then, you will remain here," a dark, icy voice sends, sending shivers through her. She doesn't know who it is. It's not Dooku, but somehow, she thinks it's someone far worse. Sidious?

"You'll what?" Anakin replies with every bit of the sassiness she knows he has but never uses, "Leave me here on Mustafar?"

Clever of him to do that – she knows where to look, at least.

"Calling for help, are you?" the other voice snarls. "They will never find you. If they come, you will be responsible for their deaths. Every single one."

The connection is snapped right after she senses a jolt of pain through their bond – that's Anakin. He's in pain. Of course, he is – he was captured, and why does this keep happening to her master?

He may not have gone through much before, but he should've taken her on this one – she could have helped him but instead, he left her here, and she didn't hear about it until afterwards because she was sleeping at the time, and it wasn't – apparently – important enough for her to be notified.

So, yes, she is very upset.

Not enough to stop her from pushing herself off the wall and comming Master Obi-Wan, even if she can only get out a half coherent story to him. This is important, and Anakin is in danger. She needs to – somehow – get him back here in one piece.

Even if it's only to yell at him for running off again and again.

One thing's for certain: he's making it very hard to have any sort of relationship with him, whatever exactly it is they share.

***

Obi-Wan felt something went... downhill already, but he didn't expect it to be anything like what he can gather from Ahsoka. Of course, they have no way of verifying the information they got from her, but it's something to work with.

And he cannot believe that Anakin got himself captured again. He'd be lying if he said he didn't think something would go downhill, but either way, Obi-Wan never expected it to be anything nearly this serious.

He knew, of course, that Anakin was... being hurt, because he could feel it, but... this means it wasn't a simple Separatist attack. It was a trap, set specifically for Anakin himself.

By Sidious, Obi-Wan suspects, though it could have been Dooku. Ahsoka never encountered him. She would have no way of knowing with certainty if it was him, but...

That doesn't stop his worry. They'll need to go search for him, just in case. He wants to ditch everything and go there, but he knows, that as a member of the Jedi Council, that would be inacceptable.

In the end, nothing matters to him more than Anakin, but as a Jedi, he needs to look at this rationally. If he goes there alone, he'll be captured the same way Anakin himself was – though based on the report, it appears Anakin knew what would happen, though Obi-Wan can't fathom why he would have allowed such a thing.