When Stars Align

Chapter 2 - Jedi Crash

Author's Note: Yes, Bly/Aayla is meant to be an implied minor, background, future thing. I'm normally not a fan, but there's an age difference, and something about them feels like it clicks right in here, so...

~ Rivana Rita

Anakin knew, from the start of the war, that there would be a time when his master was injured. He knew, maybe from long before then, maybe from the moment Obi-Wan told him he would train and raise him at Qui-Gon's funeral. Anakin knew it, because he lost his mother, and then Qui-Gon, and it would only be a matter of time before something happened to Obi-Wan, too.

That doesn't lessen the terror of seeing it happen right in front of him.

Anakin can't really say when he realized this would go badly.

Maybe when the gunship started crashing, maybe when Obi-Wan took off alone while Anakin lingered a few feet back to cover Rex and his vode, maybe when he saw the damage on the cruiser in the first place. But either way, the moment his master Force-shoved him, Aayla, and the men with them down the corridor, closing the door behind them with the Force is the moment he knew.

"Master!" Anakin screams, scrambling to his feet, running to the door. It's closed, and there's nothing he can do, but he can hear the explosions rumbling down the halls, can feel the lives being ripped out of the Force by every passing moment as the clones they failed to evacuate are claimed by the explosions.

He feels it, and he reaches out, beyond the door with the Force, trying to feel, too – to make some sort of Force barrier like he can feel his master doing, trying to help, but the Force backlashes.

He feels his master's pain.

Anakin stumbles from the backlash himself, nearly falling, and runs to the door, slamming his hand on the button to reopen the door. Aayla is calling his name, trying to pull him back from the door. "Let go!" Anakin yells at her, wrenching away. Obi-Wan's unconscious, and the ship is burning, and they need to get out of here, but he can't leave his master behind and that's more important than anything else in the galaxy.

"Anakin, we must leave," Aayla argues, but Anakin ignores her, igniting his lightsaber through the door. He expects her to keep arguing, to call him out on being weak and a failure to the Jedi, but instead, she ignites her own lightsaber and starts cutting through on the other end.

The flames are still burning, licking across the hall when Anakin yanks the cut part of the door away with the Force. He doesn't care for that, only that Obi-Wan is out there, and that he's still breathing. He wants to cry. Maybe he already is. His eyes are stinging and burning but that doesn't matter, and he grabs Obi-Wan's arm, dragging him inside. Aayla and her clone commander – Bly – step forwards to help, and the Commander shuts off the door the moment they're all aboard, giving the order to depart.

Anakin doesn't care.

He doesn't care about anything right now, except that his master is hurt, and they need to get him to a medbay immediately. Anakin isn't a healer, but he can tell just from looking that his injuries are bad.

The medical droid looks him over, and Anakin sits beside him in silence, holding his hand. He almost jumps when Aayla touches his shoulder, though she doesn't say anything. He leans into it a little, eyes still fixed on the rise and fall of his master's chest. The heart monitor is beeping normal and all, but that doesn't mean much, does it?

Obi-Wan is always so insistent on doing everything alone, Anakin doesn't think he has any idea how much it hurts. It hurts Anakin, at least. Constantly worrying about him, stressing over him and knowing there's nothing he can do drives him crazy.