The Edge of the Universe

XXXIX

Obi-wan's POV

I woke up as the sun was rising and stretched my stiff back, the chilly morning air made me shiver but I propped myself onto my elbow and ignored the pain in my ribs as I looked around.

Ahsoka and Rex were still sleeping but the spot where Anakin slept last night was empty, I looked around and quickly spotted him standing by the river with his hands clasped behind his back. I got to my feet and walked over to him, as I drew closer I could sense he was disturbed by something. I placed my hand on his shoulder and that's when images flitted before my eyes.

Mechanical, respirator breathing and then a figure dressed from head to toe in black with a black cape, a mask covered the persons face and a strong hatred and anger radiated from the person who was obviously powerful with the force. His breathing made the hairs on my body stand up on edge and a strong sense of danger came over me.

Another flash and the black-clad figure ignited his blood-red lightsaber and he easily murdered a hallway full of people without trying too much.

Another flash and the sith was overlooking a planet in space and I noticed the green and blue planet as Alderaan, within a few seconds a jet of green light shot out from the ship he was on and the planet of Alderaan exploded in front of my eyes. 

The visions stopped and Anakin took a step away from me and ran a hand through his hair obviously more disturbed than he was before. 

"What was that?" I asked panting. 

"Nothing," Anakin replied not meeting my eye.

"W-Was that the future?" 

"No, Master Yoda made it clear that it's sort of like an alternate reality, a vision showing me what could've happened if someone made a wrong decision," he replied forcefully.

"Who was the sith lord and what happened to them for them to become a monster?" I asked shaken.

Anakin stayed silent for a while and I thought he wasn't going to reply but finally, he sighed and looked down at the ground not meeting my eye. 

"His name is Darth Vader, he was a Jedi before turning to the dark side. Once he did turn he slaughtered all the Jedi and the remaining Separatists that were on Mustafar," Anakin explained slowly.

"And what happened to him after that?" 

"You fight him on Mustafar, you cut off his arm and both his legs before leaving him to burn on the bank of some lava. You thought he was dead but Sidious finds him and that's how he becomes that monster, Vader and Sidious blow up multiple planets and kills so many people," he continued.

"And how do you know that the Jedi won't still turn to the dark side now?" I asked.

"I just do, plus, Sidious is dead and I don't think Dooku knew about his plans," 

I nodded and managed to slow my breathing, I looked at Anakin and I could tell that there was something he was hiding from me and he was still disturbed by something.

"What is it?" I asked.

"What?"

"You're hiding something, what is it?" 

"Nothing, I'm not hiding anything," he lied.

I heard Ahsoka call out our names and that's when I reached out with the force, I pushed past Anakin's shields that weren't as strong in the morning. The only thing I sensed was Anakin's pain in his left wrist before he drew his shields up higher blocking me out.

"Anakin,"

"What?"

"Your wrist, you're injured," I stated.

"It's fine, just sprained or something, I'll be fine," he replied.

"I'm getting Rex to look at it," 

Anakin sighed but didn't argue anymore knowing it would be useless, we walked back to our camp area and Ahsoka sighed in relief when she saw us. 

"For a second I thought something had taken you both in the night," she said.

"Bold of you to assume an animal would come close enough without me noticing Snips," Anakin replied.

His force presence immediately changed to a neutral one but I could still sense the disturbing undercurrent. How did I not notice he was faking his emotions? It was so obvious to me now that I could've kicked myself for not noticing earlier, there was obviously a lot that I didn't know about Anakin. I pulled myself out of my thoughts and sighed, there was no point beating myself up because of the past, I had to focus on the present. 

"Rex, can you look at Anakin's wrist?" I asked.

"Sure thing General," he replied.

Anakin shot me a glare but didn't protest and let Rex look at his wrist which was slightly swollen and deeply bruised. 

"I'm surprised that we didn't get more injured from the crash, I was expecting it to be fatal," I commented.

"That's probably because Master put a shield around us before we crashed, it was only brief but it stopped a lot of damage," Ahsoka replied as she sharpened a stick into a point.

"What?" 

"I see everyone's exposing you, today General," Rex laughed.

"Yeah, but I'm used to them teaming up on me," Anakin sighed.

"Why didn't you tell me you put a shield around us?" I asked.

"It wasn't a big deal and to be honest I kinda forgot about it, how did you even notice Ahsoka?" he asked.

"I literally saw when we first hit the ground but then it disappeared and that's when I blacked out," she replied.

I nodded and Rex had finished bandaging up Anakin's wrist with gauze, he stood up and Rex packed away the med-pack again.

"So, what do we do today Snips?" Anakin asked.

"I think we should move again and try and find something to eat if we don't find civilisation," Ahsoka replied. 

"Will you be able to walk General?" Rex asked. 

"I'll be fine," I replied.

He nodded and we all got up and with Ahsoka in the lead with Rex, we began walking through the forest again. The visions that I saw earlier about Darth Vader flitted before my eyes every once in a while and more questions rose up but I managed to keep them at bay for now because I knew Anakin didn't want to talk about it.

We walked in silence for a while and parts of Ahsoka's and Rex's conversation drifted back to us and it was good that they didn't have anything else troubling them. My arm brushed Anakin's slightly and with a flash, I saw Mustafar.

I was balancing on a pole over lava with my lightsaber held out in a defensive position in front of me, I was scared but there was also an undercurrent of sadness within me. Another flash and I saw two blue lightsabers clash together at such a fast speed, I tried to get a glimpse at the person I was fighting but after that, I was pulled out of the visions. 

I looked at Anakin who continued walking ahead like nothing had happened but I knew he was worried about something.

"Who's the Jedi that turns into Darth Vader?" I asked catching up to him.

"No one you should worry about," he replied shortly.

I sensed that there was something big he wasn't telling me but I knew it was important, I frowned but dropped the subject. I was eventually going to find out what he was hiding.