Master Jinn had packed away Obi-Wan's stuff and said that this room was Anakin's, but how could it be when the late padawan's essence still permeated everything?
Anakin felt like an intruder, staying in the owner's bed without permission. He couldn't sleep even if the mattress was much softer than he was used to.
Which was a good thing. For when Obi-Wan appeared that night, Anakin didn't scream.
"Hey," Anakin mumbled to the thin air. "Want to spar?"
The air shimmered, a small tear ripped through the fabric of reality. A tingle went through Anakin's spine as he felt the arrival.
"Always a pleasure to beat you." Obi-Wan replied, glowing softly in an ethereal light.
"You wish." Anakin said that even if he never managed to win against Obi-Wan. Maybe he would in a year or two… It wasn't that Anakin wasn't good. He was one of the best at sparring in his class in fact. But he was just thirteen for Force's sake, and Obi-Wan had years of training and experience that Anakin was yet to have.
Anakin reached out to the presence in the next room to make sure that his Master was still asleep. Master Jinn forbade him from bringing a training 'saber into their living quarter after Anakin had accidentally maimed some of what Obi-Wan liked to call "pathetic life forms" with one. It was lucky for him that these life forms were some kind of fern. If they had been stray animals his Master liked to bring back from missions, Anakin wouldn't have had a chance to touch a real lightsaber and nevermind had one until he was thirty.
But that was months ago, and what his Master didn't know wouldn't hurt him.
Anakin shifted to a ready stance and ignited the 'saber. He had done some modification to it to eliminate the distinctive buzzing sound. Too bad he couldn't show this to Master Jinn. He would have been proud.
A slight nod from Obi-Wan and they started.
Anakin admired the way Obi-Wan wielded his 'saber with elegant grace, every movement refined and precise. Anakin countered the strike with his own raw power. The Force provided him with Obi-Wan's next move a fraction of a second before it happened.
A falter on Anakin's part and the blue blade was an inch from his neck.
"You win." Anakin heaved out between heavy breaths. "Again."
Obi-Wan clipped the hilt to the belt . No sign of physical exertion in sight, he didn't even break a sweat or breathe harder than usual.
He wasn't breathing in the first place, Anakin had to remind himself as he stifled a yawn.
"It's getting late. You have classes tomorrow."
Anakin fell into an easy sleep.
"Spar?" Anakin already had a 'saber in his hand. He knew what the answer would be.
"Obi-Wan?" Why didn't he responded? He never-
Anakin barely dodged the blue beam coming out of nowhere. "That's unfair," he complained, responding with a slice of similar blue. He didn't need the Force to anticipate Obi-Wan's moves anymore. By now, he knew Obi-Wan's style as well as his own.
He still admired Obi-Wan as he fought, the way his lips caught in a feral grin, eyes lit up until it almost looked green as they crossed blade. He looked so alive.
There was a blade by his throat and Anakin didn't really care. he was too aware of how close Obi-Wan was to him and how attractive he looked at the moment. He heard a clatter, probably his 'saber hitting the floor board, the sound inaudible next to thunderous stutter in his chest.
Their lips met. Well, more like Anakin's crashed to Obi-Wan's. Anakin caressed Obi-Wan's head, pulling him closer. More.
Then Anakin was kissing thin air, clutching thin air.
Obi-Wan was gone.
They never talked about it.
"Master Jinn. Is he there?" Anakin asked into stale, recycled air of a ship. His sooty black robe slid to an inky pile on the bunk.
"He is. I'm sorry."
Anakin had seen the lifeless body of his Master. He had carried it to safety. He had lighted the pyre. But it didn't feel real then, not like it did now.
"You're lying."
Obi-Wan must be. Or he was going to laugh and said he was just joking. Master Jinn couldn't be dead.
Anakin stared out to the dark void, emptiness dotted with pin-pricked light.
Darkness was an absence of light. Death was an absence of life.
"He is one with the Force, Anakin."
There is no death, there is the Force.
But how could there be no death? Death is real and an enemy to be destroyed.
The Council had announced that they were going to Knight him once he came to term with Master Jinn's death. Less than a month before the mission, they had said Anakin wasn't ready. Too volatile, too emotional. Now that Master Jinn was dead, and no other Master was willing to train him, they deemed him ready to be a Jedi Knight.
Anakin had felt a surge of something upon hearing it. Not hatred, because a Jedi didn't know hate. But it was something dangerously close.
He released the feeling into the Force, the way Master Jinn taught him to. He considered it a tribute to his late Master.
Not that it helped.
"By the right of the Council, by the will of the Force, I dub thee Jedi, Knight of the Republic."
Anakin took his lightsaber and left the room, never once look back.
It was done. His time as a padawan was over.
He walked home, where Obi-Wan had been waiting for him.
Obi-Wan congratulated him on being a Knight, though there was a strange longing in his eyes.
He didn't live to be one, Anakin realised. He would have if death hadn't taken him first.
No, he didn't want to think about this. He didn't want to think anymore.
"Can I ask for one thing? Just one thing."
"As long as it is within my power, I will… consider it."
Anakin's ears were too red for his liking, but he had wanted this for so long. He needed this.
"Make me yours."
Anakin woke to an empty bed and emptier heart. Last night, two bodies joined in body and mind. Heated kisses, tender touch. All of that could be just a dream if not for the lingering presence barely noticeable in the Force. He buried his face in a sheet that had once been Obi-Wan's and sobbed. It was not that he regretted what they had done. He would never. He regretted not knowing what could have been.
If only you were real.
Chancellor Palpatine was a grandfather Anakin never had, and he was pretty sure that Palpatine also saw him as a grandson. That was why it felt so wrong when the Council ordered Anakin to spy on him.
"Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the wise?"
"No."
So Palpatine told him the story.
Maybe he should have told Palpatine he had heard it so he wouldn't have to listen to this pointless tale.
"-the midichlorians to create life."
The phrase caught Anakin's attention.
Darkness was an absence of light. Death was an absence of life. To create life. Obi-Wan. His Obi-Wan, real and alive.
"He could actually bring people back from death?" Anakin found himself asking.
You will live again. I promise.
"It's over, Anakin. I have the high ground."
"You underestimate my power!"
The Dark side was with him, pumping him with fire in his vein.
"Don't try it."
Funny Obi-Wan would say that.
Anakin leaped. He trusted the Force to support him when all else failed.
But the Dark side was not like the Light. As powerful as it was, it could not support anything but death and destruction.
A single sweep of Obi-Wan's blade cut through his limbs, like a heated knife cutting through butter. Mortal flesh didn't give much resistance.
No.
His mechno hand scraped at the black sand to escape the molten hell just beyond the stubs of his legs. He refused to die like this. He wouldn't.
Wisps of smoke started curling around him, along with the stench of burnt flesh. His own flesh.
Obi-Wan turned back, unable to watch. He was no longer a blue shadow belonged to the different world, but a man of flesh and blood.
Anakin sold his own soul to give him the second life and Obi-Wan used it to kill him.
How dare you. After all I have done.
"I HATE YOU." Anakin shouted after the retreating form. He was going to die. He was going to die alone by the hand of the person he loved. And Obi-Wan was walking away to the waiting ship, to live the life he never had a chance to had. Life without Anakin.
Obi-Wan stopped and looked back.
Anakin sneered the ugliest expression he could muster. He gave everything he had into it. May this moment haunt Obi-Wan everytime he closed his eyes, every second to his deathbed.
To his surprise, Obi-Wan took a step toward him. Then another. Suddenly, he was so close Anakin saw beads of sweat on his brow and the tightness his eyes. Was he trying not to cry?
Obi-Wan was closer still. The hem of his leggings curled and singed. Wait, why would it? Oh, Obi-Wan sunk down, sitting cross-legged on the shore. The world wasn't making much sense anymore. Why would he do that? Force knew it was hot as hell.
"I'm so sorry."
Obi-Wan reached out tenderly, cradling his head in his lap, a reprieve from unbearable heat. He bent down to kiss the top of his head at an awkward angle, not wanting to cause unnecessary pain. It was so sweet Anakin choked. Like that night, before the war raged across the galaxy, before he turned to the Dark.
"You can rest now. I will be here when the time comes."
Obi-Wan just sat here with him, betraying no discomfort, like he was sitting on a soft mattress, not blistering shore on Mustafar.
Anakin's eyes were blue when the fire engulfed them both.
"Where are we?"
"The Force." Obi-Wan, who was now as real-or surreal-as he was, provided him with the answer.
"What now?"
"We trust in the Force. It will provide the balance."
Anakin saw the Galactic Empire with Palpatine-Darth Sidious-as the Emperor without the Jedi to stop him. He saw the Rebellion formed in the corner of the galaxy far away from the Empire's prying eyes to bring liberty back. He saw life continued, wheel of time still turning without him in the galaxy.
He turned back to Obi-Wan, who was watching him, and pulled him into a hug.
"Thank you. For stopping me back then. If you hadn't, I hate to think what I would become."
Maybe death wasn't so bad after all.