Chapter Text
Colour.
Everywhere he looked another splash of colour popped up. From the bright green gras blanketing the rolling mounds in front of him to where trees in all different shades of green were reaching for the crystal-clear blue of the sky and the occasional white cloud decorating it.
A soft breeze whizzed through the treetops, gently swaying those single blades of gras which as a whole created the impression of ocean waves. He could feel the plush gras beneath his fingers as they weaved their way through it.
There was another presence right next to him. A piece of all too familiar dark fabric caught the corner of his eyes but when he turned his head, nothing was to be found except for more green and blue. A sense of panic washed over his peaceful state of mind which he tried to ignore. This was alright. He was alright.
But it was a lie. Once Doubt reared its ugly head, he couldn’t shake it off again. The colours around him started to fade as Doubts icy cold hands tightened its grip on his mind. He jumped up from his relaxed position and tried to run but his legs simply refused to work. Panic was breathing down his neck and a feeling of dread made its home deep down in his soul.
Then the colours were gone. Faded into a murky grey that only enhanced this feeling of paralysing fear. The kind of fear he’s only ever felt once before
“Obi-Wan!”
There it was. The only voice that could dig up all his fears and drag his regrets right up to the surface. He watched, frozen, as a black shape materialised in front of him. The grotesque figure took on the characteristics of a human body clad in those all too familiar dark robes. The black mass of the head morphed into short dirty-blond hair with a single braid hanging down it’s neck. He knew what was going to come, had seen it often enough and still, no matter how painful he couldn’t look away as a pair of startling blue eyes settled themselves onto a boyish face.
He felt his mouth form words but no sound comes out.
It was futile. He knew what was coming. No amount of screaming and begging would help. He’d tried in the past, but the void would just absorb his words again. All he could do was watch as those clear blue desert eyes widened in fear, the mouth torn open with a scream that would never reach anyone as a large black hole opened on the ground.
Then they were falling. Falling and falling, further and further into the endless grey void. It was coming up soon, he thought, and a tiny simmer of hope spread through his body. Maybe this time would be different. It had to be different, he thought as he watched the boys outstretched arms, his lips forming the words “help” and “please” over and over again. He couldn’t let him down, not again.
With a hard impact his body was dunked into freezing cold water and he watched the boy sink like a stone. Control returned back to his limbs, the freezing water acting as a wake-up call to act, now. He swam straight down to try and catch up with the boy looking at him, reaching up, opening his mouth to scream. The bubbles from his mouth drifted up towards him but no sound ever reached him.
Panic seized control of his body again and he swam faster, as fast as he could go while trying to grab his arms, his clothes anything. For all his efforts though, the boy was sinking away from him faster than he could swim.
He had failed him again, he thought as the boy sliped further and further away, the image of him getting blurrier by the second in the murky water. It was over, his limbs grew numb and slowly but surely his world turned black.
Obi-Wan woke up with a start. His eyes torn open, frantically searching for something to anchor himself. A blinking light from his comm presented itself like a beacon in the dark room and Obi-Wan latched right onto it. His ears picked up the low, barely audible, hum of an engine. Right, he was on a ship. A ship to Alistan Nor for their newest mission.
As his breathing slowly turned back to normal, he could feel Ahsoka’s presence through the force, the bond strong and stead and, most importantly, alive. For a single moment, his mind brushed against the frizzled end of a different bond before heavily flinching away from it.
No. He was not going further down that lane, not today. What he did instead was sit up – ignoring the way his drenched night robes clung to his body for now – and release everything into the force. Letting memories of the past influence his present life was not the Jedi way and could only bring chaos.
There is no emotion, there is peace.
Continuing on in the Jedi Code Obi-Wan steadied his breathing and feed everything into the ever-moving stream that was the Force. The thoughts and doubts plaguing him drained out of his mind leaving behind a comfortable void of peace and harmony, almost like at the beginning of his dream.
Once Obi-Wan felt like all the remains of his nightmare had left he sat on the edge of his bed, bare feet touching the smooth floor of his quarter, stealing a quick glance at the blinking com. It was almost time to get up anyway. Might as well grab an early shower and check the mission details again. When dealing with a possible Sith Artifact one could not be too careful
Obi-Wan looked into the mirror, noticing the sweat drenched hair matching his cloths, the only remnants of his nightmare. He took a deep breath and shook his head.
What an odd timing for this exact dream to resurface.
Freshly showered and feeling like himself again, Obi-Wan entered the cockpit, where his apprentice was already chatting away at Plo Koon while studying the panel in front of her.
“You seem awfully excited considering the time of day,” Obi-Wan commented, allowing a warm smile to slip on his lips at Ahsoka’s enthusiastic ways.
“Of course, Master, it’s not every day we get to see a Sith Artifact!”
“Maybe see a Sith Artifact,” Plo reminded her, “we don’t know if that is what we are looking for.”
“Probably,” the Togruta countered and Obi-Wan could basically hear the question in her voice, “why else would there be a Sith Star Courier parked right on the surface of Alistan Nor?”
That caught both Jedi Masters attention and Obi-Wan quickly joined the duo on the control panel.
“What do you mean?”
She brought up the image of a heavily modified Star Courier while a list of informations appeared next to it. Scanning over the details Obi-Wan’s eyes came to an abrupt stop close to the end of the list.
“Well, that’s just fantastic,” Obi-Wan deadpanned as the picture of a masked Sith was brought up.
Not just any masked Sith though. No, they would get the honour of dealing with one Darth Vader: Sith extraordinaire and menace of the Republic – and the Jedi. Skirmishes with Vader almost always ended in countless deaths. The Sith was as ruthless as he was efficient. He was a clever foe that knew exactly how to lead those under his command but at the same time never shied away from getting his hands dirty. Vader was singlehandedly responsible for about half the deaths since the start of the Clone Wars.
Oddly, enough Obi-Wan and Ahsoka had never once had the pleasure of dealing with the Sith directly, and he’s been at the front lines of a lot of battles in this senseless war. Almost every Council Members had had to deal with him in one way or another. All Obi-Wan knew was from reports and stories. Today was apparently the day though where he’d find out if those stories were true.
“Why isn’t he trying to hide though?” Plo questioned, one hand stroking over his chin. “For all it’s worth, this looks like a trap.”
Obi-Wan couldn't agree more. With the location of the Star Courier so far out in the open it would be an easy thing to simply destroy the ship from afar, strand them on the planet – which was not populated by the way – and wait for back up.
“So, what are we gonna do?”
It was most probably a trap, and they shouldn’t play into it but there was still the possible Sith Artifact to deal with.
Even if their informations were wrong, they couldn’t risk leaving probably one of the strongest Sith with it. They didn’t know anything about Vader, neither what race he belonged to nor how old he possibly was. For all they knew he could be a Sith Master as well with decades of knowledge under that suit of his, not to imagine what he could do with a Sith Artifact. Also, Obi-Wan was curious. He’d really like to see if he couldn’t find out more about this masked terror. Something in him felt drawn to the Sith and with every new report this urge grew stronger. Almost as if someone were pushing him to interact with the Sith.
“I say we continue with the mission.”
“What if it’s a trap?”
Obi-Wan threw a cheeky smile at Plo. “Then it would be awfully rude of us to ruin all their effort.”
“That it would be indeed,” the Kel Dor answered with a laugh of his own. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one that was interested in a confrontation with Vader.
Needless to say, Ahsoka was all for it as well, which did concern Obi-Wan a bit. She was, after all, only 16-years of age. Obi-Wan had faced his first Sith Lord when he was 25 and that encounter had left some very deep wounds. He couldn’t – and wouldn’t – leave her out of it though. For her young age she was a brilliant fighter and a stellar apprentice with way more experience on the battle field than Obi-Wan when he was her age.
So, the only thing Obi-wan could really do was to make sure this encounter wouldn’t leave her without a master as well.
Despite their decision they didn’t actively provoke an encounter with the Sith because they were sensible Jedi after all, thank you very much.
What they did instead was land a good distance away from the Sith ship and make it their priority to search for the Artifact. They had sent their coordinates with information about their findings to the nearest republic force just in case. If they didn’t report back in 12 hours, they’d send back up.
That only left them with the task of fighting their way through the lush jungle of Alistan Nor, historical home of the Force Builders. Not much was known about them, but they were considered to be the creators of the finest art, architecture and starships. They had passed several ruins depicting their fine architecture while palm trees and rainforest pressed against all sides, pulling at the stone in an attempt to reclaim it as part of nature.
In any other circumstances Obi-Wan would have loved to linger and appreciate those ruins but since they landed it was clear that the information about the Artifact was true. The whole planet was blanketed by a dark presence they could feel deep down into their bones. There was no audible wildlife here and the plants felt dead, even if they didn’t look the part. Even Ahsoka’s previously excited aura had dulled considerably. Whatever it was that reigned over the place, it drew power from the dark side of the Force, and it was powerful.
At least that made it easier to locate the artifact because with every step they took in the right direction this presence grew stronger as the darkness closed around them. The artifact didn’t want to have them here, that much was clear, and it took a lot of willpower to fight against the constant push.
“This is considerably less fun than I would have imagined…” Ahsoka grumbled, her shoulders slightly hunched like she was steeling herself for a fight.
“I did tell you to stay back.”
“Yeah, but only once.”
He could practically hear the eye roll in her statement.
“It shouldn’t be too far off now,” Plo threw in, seemingly less bothered by their surroundings than them. “The jungle seems to clear up as well.”
And indeed, only a few moments later they were stepping out of the thick foliage into the clearing of a small temple. Weather-worn stone pillars and cracked blocks of stone broken up by meandering tree roots welcomed them. Half crumbled steps sprinkled with moss lead up to sculpted archways entwined with ropy vines. There wasn’t much left of the temple itself, only towering spires with inscriptions and carvings and faceless statues. But what really caught his eyes was the lone black figure standing admits all the white, weather beaten stone.
“Looks like we’ve hit the Jackpot,” Ahsoka commented under her breath not leaving the Sith out of hersight.
The silence surrounding them was eery and the motionless way in which the Sith stood there didn’t help. And that’s all he did, stand there and watch them. If it weren’t for the black suit, you’d think he was just one of the many art pieces littering the place. But he was not. He was a threat. What surprised Obi-Wan though was the fact that he didn’t feel like he was a threat and wasn’t that concerning? Here they stood, face to face with a Sith – who might as well be the personification of death – and Obi-Wan’s instincts did not react with fear.
Obi-Wan shook his head as he took a couple of steps forwards. This was ridiculous, he decided but nevertheless threw on one of his most charming smiles.
“Vader! It’s an honour to finally make your acquaintance. My name is Obi-Wan Kenobi, nice to meet you! What brings you here to this lovely planet?”
Silence.
“Not a man of many words, I see,” Obi-Wan continued unperturbed. “Say, you wouldn’t by chance know something about an artifact that could be found here?”
Silence and more staring.
“Well, we wouldn’t want to steal any more of your time. If you’d excuse us,” Obi-Wan said and took another step forward, which apparently was one too many if the ignition of a blood-red lightsaber was any indicator.
Behind him he heard Ahsoka and Plo getting ready as well.
“Now now this doesn’t have to escalate into a fight.” Despite his words Obi-Wan also steeled his body for a fight, his hands read to grab his lightsaber while keeping up the light-hearted mood. “We could just try and talk about our differences here, right?”
Before he knew it Vader was moving. Obi-Wan ducked beneath the red streak as Vader passed him, igniting his own lightsaber in the same motion and swinging it back up as he turned to face Vader. Their blades clashed once, twice before Vader jumped backwards to avoid the green blade of Plo’s saber.
Ahsoka took the next strike head on with her two blades forming an X. Their fight continued in this form the Jedi raining down blow after blow on the Sith not giving him any time for a counterattack.
To give credit where it was due, Vader didn’t seem fazed one bit. He met each blow with frustrating ease and dodged every other strike he couldn’t block. Obi-Wan’s curiosity grew more and more because it almost seemed like Vader wasn’t even trying. His movements flowed passionate, direct and relentless.
Vader dealt a double-handed high strike as Ahsoka braced her weapons horizontal above her head her arms strained as she withstood his brute force. The odds were slowly turning in Vader’s favour as he followed up with a middle strike that flowed into a low stroke aiming at Plo who blocked them all in the traditional manoeuvres.
Obi-Wan, for his part deflected each strike with subtle dodges and tight parries. Compact, economical movements that made up his preferred combat form the defensive and efficient Soresu. It should have been a perfect match for the aggressive form of their foe, but it took him a surprising amount of energy considering the fact that it was three against one.
As their blades crossed again and again, they were progressively losing ground. Obi-Wan attempted to drop into a sort of moving meditation, connecting as best he could with the force to help him sense Vader’s movements but the Sith still seemed to be one step ahead of him.
Suddenly an explosion of force energy blew the trio high in the air. Obi-Wan was so caught off guard by the sheer power the Sith had put behind the attack that he failed to land on his legs and instead rolled off on the ground.
Quickly shaking off his surprise Obi-Wan jumped up from the floor. With a bit help of the Force he brought his saber down hard which was, of course, met with a red blade, prompting Vader to release a frenzy of subsequent counterattacks. Fatigue was slowly creeping in but he kept his head and focus straight. All he needed to do was to engage Vader and make him forget about Ahsoka and Plo.
With each step and swing, Obi-Wan mirrored him as they migrated in tandem across the temple. Once he felt a nudge from Ahsoka through their bond he sent a wave of telekinetic energy towards Vader knocking him backward with surprising success. Caught by surprise, Vader was thrown several meters back and before he could charge forward again Ahsoka jumped over him, slashing her sabers down in quick succession. The distraction was enough for Plo to land the first real blow of the battle by slashing straight across Vader’s chest before force-pushing him into one of the high spires.
The structure crumbled from the force of the impact burring the Sith beneath it. Finally able to catch their breath the trio waited for any signs of Vader hoping against hope that it was enough to at least knock him out. Obviously, that was too much to wish for. With a single explosion of energy, the debris was blown away crushing other structures in the process forcing them to shield their eyes from the resulting dust.
When the dust settled Obi-Wan watched the Sith stand amongst the chaos with his back to them as if nothing happened, his suit taking most of the damage, but one thing had changed. Plo’s hit might not have done any damage but Ahsoka’s manoeuvre had somehow managed to slice right through the Sith’s mask which now lay amongst the rubble broken in half.
It was good though. Finally they’ be able to pin a face to the menace that had been plaguing the Republic for more than two years now. The Sith wouldn’t be able to hide any longer, Obi-Wan would make sure of. The trio moved in on the Sith their stance battle ready as they studied their enemies' every move. When the Sith actually turned around though, Obi-Wan was the first one to freeze as the image from his nightmare shot straight into his mind.
Short dirty-blond hair with a single braid hanging down its neck and a pair of startling blue eyes admits a boyish face.
There was no braid admits the shoulder long dirty-blond hair framing a battle worn face with no trace of softness. But the worst was the pair of startling blue eyes that weren’t blue anymore but a deep and dangerous gold.
The face was so different yet so very similar as it tore open all the scars that had taken Obi-Wan so much effort to heal and before he knew it, his mouth was forming a name he hasn’t spoken in years.
“Anakin.”
“What?”
He heard Plo’s question but there was no time to explain because Anakin – dear god, the pain was unbearable – charged at him again, his face whipped blank of any emotion.
With his mind thrown into chaos his body had trouble keeping up with the avalanche of blows Anakin dealt. Only muscle memory from years of experience saved him from getting his head sliced off by an angry red blade.
“What happened to you?” Obi-Wan ground out between clenched teeth as he pressed his green saber against Anakin’s red one but still nothing. Anakin’s expression didn’t even show if he’d heard his words. It was disturbing to see this blank face on Anakin, that little boy from Tatooine that wore his heart not so much on his sleeve as right on his face.
Anakin took advantage of that brief moment of distraction from Obi-Wan feigning an overhead strike while kicking Obi-Wan directly below his ribcage ripping the breath straight out of his lungs. The blow sent him soaring and he landed with a solid thud on the ground coughing up bile. Why was this happening? What had they done with his Padawan?!
Taking one, two, three breaths and releasing his troubling emotions – guilt, remorse, grief, anger – into the force Obi-Wan stood up and charged back into the battle where Ahsoka and Plo were struggling against Anakin.
“You’re not a Sith, Anakin!” Obi-Wan exclaimed blocking one of Anakin’s blows against Ahsoka. Channelling the force he pushed his former Padawan back to gain some ground for them. “You are a Jedi!”
Anakin’s reaction though only consisted of moving back in and taking a swing at Plo’s unprotected side but Ahsoka was already there deflecting the attack.
“Don’t you remember?” Block. “It’s me.” Dodge. “Obi-Wan!”
Nothing. It was like they were fighting a droid. No that wasn’t quite right. At least they had something resembling a personality. This stranger was nothing but a mere shell of his former Padawan and it broke his heart.
Their fight came to a head when another massive force-push hurled them through the air, and they could do nothing to soften the blow. Then suddenly, before he could even recover from the hit he felt an invisible grip around his chest. With growing horror Obi-Wan watched as not only he was lifted in the air but also Plo and Ahsoka each one struggling for breath. On the other end Anakin stood calm and collected with his free hand stretched out in front of him as if it didn’t take him any ounce of power.
The grip around his chest grew tighter and tighter and Obi-Wan seriously feared for the state of his ribs. But what hurt even more was when Anakin finally opened his mouth.
“I don’t care who you are,” he spoke with such a detached voice that it jarred something deep down in Obi-Wan’s core. Anakin pulled his fingers closer and closer into a fist making the three of them groan in pain when he suddenly stopped. At once the pressure was gone and the trio slammed into the ground, the breath knocked out of them.
For the second time today Obi-Wan coughed up bile his eyes instantly searching for his former apprentice. Said apprentice had singled in on something far behind them and slowly Obi-Wan noticed the sound of an engine roaring in the distance that was quickly coming closer. And indeed only a few moments later the Sith Star Cruiser appeared above them. His attention was drawn back to Anakin at the sound of his lightsaber turning off. Their eyes met and Obi-Wan searched for something that would tell him that his Anakin was still in there but to no avail.
“You are a disappointment, Kenobi,” Anakin spat before catapulting himself onto the opening of the Star Cruiser with the help of the Force and then he was gone leaving behind three exhausted Jedi.
“And you are sure about this, Master Kenobi? I mean it’s been-”
“Eight years,” Obi-Wan interrupted Mace with force, only barely refraining from glaring at the holoprojection. “I am aware.”
“Eight years is a long time. He was practically a child when he disappeared,” Mundi questioned. “How can you be so sure it’s him?”
Obi-Wan knew the older Jedi didn’t mean any harm, simply stating facts. Still, he couldn’t help the fierce protectiveness surging through his body.
“It could be eight years or a hundred, I’d recognize my Padawan anytime and I will not leave him alone again. Not this time.”
Anakin’s parting words floated through his mind caught in an endless loop.
”You are a disappointment, Kenobi.”
While still said in this monotone voice that was so not-Anakin there had been an underlying edge of something he couldn’t name and despite its cutting nature the tone proved that he wasn’t completely soulless. It wasn’t too late. Anakin had to be in there somewhere and now that he finally knew about his former Padawan’s whereabouts he would do everything in his power to bring him back.