Tethered to Life

Chapter 2 - Reunion

Author's Note: In which Anakin and Obi-Wan attempt to communicate and fail very badly... Not like that's a shock.

~ Tirana Sorki

Suffice it to say, Obi-Wan has never been this confused in his life.

He hadn't been able to watch any more of it after that.

Anakin was gone. His padawan, the boy he raised like his own child, the only person he's truly been close with in years. The only person who's ever been the center of his world to this point.

None of it made any sense, least of all that Anakin would turn on the Jedi only right before he was killed. Yoda insisted that he'd clearly been corrupted, that at least one of the Sith had been stopped, but all Obi-Wan could think about was that Anakin was gone.

And Windu did it. Windu killed Anakin and if what the holograms was showing were really true then yes he had to stop Anakin, but he didn't have to kill him. He didn't have to –

Maybe he shouldn't be so furious with Windu but he can't help it. He killed Anakin and he can't get that out of his head. It feels almost like betraying the Jedi to be so angry at him when what he did allowed many more Jedi to escape but he can't make it go away. That was Anakin, even if he apparently betrayed them though that doesn't make an ounce of sense and he half thinks something must have been wrong with the recordings because what.

He's lost himself in trying to fight the Empire ever since, trying to do anything to get the aching, gutting emptiness out of his heart – to take an edge of the icy fury and desire for vengeance burning through him – but nothing really helps.

Nothing is going to bring the Jedi back, nor any of those he knew as a part of them.

Nor was anything going to give him answers on how Anakin could have helped with any of that in the first place.

And nothing could get focus away from the knowledge that he was never going to see Anakin again.

But Anakin is right here, standing in front of him as though none of what he saw in those recordings even happened. He's here and alive even though that shouldn't be possible. Never mind that no one ever bothered to tell him that, not even Anakin himself. Who is apparently still fighting for the Jedi, even Obi-Wan saw clear holograms indicating otherwise, and Windu is acting like he's a ticking time bomb who's about to murder them all, when he sees none of those signs whatsoever. Except, that he still can't get Anakin cutting through the Jedi in those security recordings out of his mind, so he has no idea what's even happening.

Apparently, the mission they're supposed to be going on is to rescue another Jedi who's held at an Imperial base nearby. Windu would come along except he's busy elsewhere, so he's sending the two of them together.

"We can do it easily without you," Obi-Wan says curtly. Yes, maybe he's feeling more than a little spiteful that Windu never bothered telling him any of this.

And he'd still like to know what in the world is wrong with the Jedi Master's eyes.

Why are they black? It looks completely unnatural and unsettling, and he feels wrong in the Force. Obi-Wan can't even place what it is, but it almost feels like his Force presence is fading somehow though he certainly isn't visibly dying or anything.

Anakin feels slightly off in the Force, but he's definitely not an illusion, and Obi-Wan can clearly sense him, his Force presence always strong enough to overwhelm everything around him. That's just as true now as it ever has been, but there are lingering traces of something else mixed in his Force presence he can't make sense of. It almost feels like traces of Windu mixing over with Anakin's Force presence whatever that even means.