Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber slashes through Palaptine's chest, and for a few awful seconds, Anakin thinks he made a terrible mistake. Anakin thinks that he has just killed a friend, an innocent, perhaps slight corrupted politician. A man perhaps into the history and art of the Sith, but not necessarily the Sith Lord they have been looking for.
Then Palpatine's eyes roll back into his head and his body crumples to the floor. A huge wave washes through the Force. Mace Windu and Anakin's connection, which were always stronger than many Jedi, had been weakened since the start of the Clone Wars. But now, the Force is throbbing stronger than ever before. Stronger than it has been in centuries. The Sith's reign has ended. There is balance in the Force.
All doubts are erased from Anakin's mind. Relief floods through him and he merely nods to acknowledge Mace Windu's flood of praise. He hears the words; sees the body of the Sith Lord on the ground, feels the clarity in the Force. He has done it. He has fulfilled the prophecy. He is no longer carries the burden of being The Chosen One. He can simply be Anakin Skywalker.
And then the peaceful lull vanishes. A colossal, empty void takes over his control of the Force. Like every memory he has is being forcibly ripped from him. It only last a few seconds, but it feels like a haunting, hellish eternity. When Anakin finally realizes what it meant, his entire body goes cold. Because Anakin knows what this signal in the Force means. And who caused it.
Anakin is gone from the room in seconds, shouting an explanation back at Mace as he runs. Oni-Wan is in danger. Extreme danger. Anakin has felt Obi-Wan's Force signature before when his Master was endangered, but it has never ebbed as strongly. For a few seconds, before Obi-Wan's signature returned, Anakin was afraid that it would never return. That Obi-Wan was dead. That Obi-Wan's comforting presence in his mind would never again be felt.
Anakin finds a Jedi fighter and is out of the hanger bay almost instantly. Over Coruscant's atmosphere, battles are still occurring. Normally Anakin would stop to help, but not today. They would have to fight their own battles. He makes the jump into hyperspace.
As the ship comes out of hyperspace, Anakin flips the control to autopilot. He can't concentrate. The bond he and Obi-Wan share is thrumming with pain. Obi-Wan has lost control over his shielding. Anakin has no doubt what that could mean. Anakin knows Obi-Wan would never allow such feelings to slip through his shield. Anakin and Obi-Wan share a very strong bond, but both are careful to avoid letting feelings of pain slip through to affect the other one.
Obi-Wan is dying or captured. It is the only explanation. The only reason Obi-Wan would lose control over their bond. This bond allows Anakin to feel Obi-Wan's pain, Obi-Wan's dying moments, Obi-Wan's weakness. Anakin tries to send a message over the bond, but Obi-Wan's connection to the Force is strained, almost unconnected.
Anakin will search the entire planet if he needs to. Obi-Wan will be found. He only worries that he will not get there in time. He shakes off the feeling. He will find Obi-Wan in time. He has to. The trip to Utapau could not be any longer.
Obi-Wan Kenobi is dying. And confused. And in a lot of pain. He's not sure which one is worse. He does not know who shot him. The clones were the only ones in range. But why would the clones have shot him? Not that it matters at this point. He can only remember flashes of what happened. An explosion. Rocks cascading down upon him. Freefalling down the ledge. Slamming painfully into the sides of the cliff as he fell.
He's not sure where he is now. He briefly remembers falling into a lake and quickly shoving a breather into his mouth before he slammed into the rocky underwater floor. Shoving in the breather seemed to be the last coordinated movement between his brain and limbs. He knows that he should move, whoever shot him will be looking for a body. But he cannot. His arms and legs refused to move more than a few inches and even then, pain flares up and renders them useless once again.
The pain is incredible. He tries to place himself in a healing trance; there's nothing that he can do if he can't move. The pain stops him from concentrating on a trance. The pain is absolutely consuming. He has trouble breathing, and he doesn't fool himself into thinking it is because of the breather. Every part of his body feels like it is bruised, bloody, or broken.
He tries to call for Anakin through the bond, hoping to warn him. He knows Anakin will be able to feel this through their bond. He also knows that Anakin will rush to rescue him. And Obi-Wan can't decide if he wants him to or not. Obviously, there is a danger here that Obi-Wan does not want Anakin to encounter. On the other hand, Obi-Wan Kenobi is afraid of a slow death. And his breather will not last forever.
Finally, Anakin's ship dives through the atmosphere, and is almost vaporized by a sudden shot aimed at him from a clone ship. Puzzled, and thoroughly annoyed, Anakin wastes no time in destroying the ship. Reaching into the Force, Anakin finds his answers. Obi-Wan is on this planet. General Grievous is dead. And the clones are out to kill him. Not the best odds. Not that Anakin cares.
He blasts a few more hostile vehicles out the air before he comes to land in the hanger bay. He is greeted by Commander Cody and an army of. clone troopers. Their weapons are raised. Anakin is not the diplomatic one. They are merely clones. Anakin doesn't care why they turned against him. All he knows is that they did. If the clones chose to fight him, then so be it.
He flips out of the cockpit. He gives them once chance.
"Where is General Kenobi?"
The clones open fire. There goes their chance. Anakin Skywalker, the successful Chosen One, the Hero with No Fear, takes over. The clones are wasting time. Obi-Wan is laying injured somewhere. And then Anakin, for the first times in his life, fights without anger. Fights without fear. Fights without a thought of revenge. He fights only for Obi-Wan. No revenge, no anger, just a calm truth. Obi-Wan needed Anakin to help him. The clones stood in the way. Simple as that.
Anakin Skywalker was undefeatable. He almost dances in between the rows of the clones, his lightsaber slashing and stabbing in rhythm. Blaster fire is all around but Anakin hasn't been hit once. Clones are falling to the ground left and right. Anakin defeats them in a matter of minutes. The hanger bay is littered with clone corpses. As soon as the last one falls, Anakin wastes no time in running off in the direction of Obi-Wan's Force signature.
His Force signature almost led Anakin to watery plunge over a thousand feet below. Skidding to a halt, he looks down. Obi-Wan is down there, he just can't see where. And nor can he see how Obi-Wan got there to begin with…there is no sign of cable marks, no sign of a struggle, no obvious scorches from a blaster or a lightsaber. And then a body of a varactyl goes floating by. A riding harness is floating aside it, one of its straps tangled in the varactyl's legs.
Anakin wastes no more time. He quickly secures a cable and scales down the cliff. The water is freezing. And Anakin, living for so long a fiercely hot desert planet, does not usually get bothered by colder temperatures. But this water is icy, even for Anakin. He is already shivering. Obi-Wan must be suffering from hypothermia if he is trapped in the water. And if he fell from a height, the last thing he would need was lake water running through any open wounds.
Fitting in a breather, Anakin dove into the water.
Obi-Wan had become an odd center for the water life on Utapau. And not the friendly, curious little lake tetra. These were tiny, fanged monsters. Attracted by the scent of blood, and, quickly finding their prey was helpless, swarms collected around him. Ripping at his tunic. Biting at his exposed hands and face. The most he could do was feebly try and scare the fish off. So far it was working, but he was weakening.
The water was beyond cold. It was frigid. It had slowed the bleeding, yes. But he was shivering and close to unconsciousness. Hypothermia had set in. His body was completely shutting down. His eyes were shut, his arms and legs lying limp, his useless lightsaber in the dirt next to him.
His grasp on the Force was gone completely. The Force was there, but hovering just beyond his reach. Taunting him. Daring him to try harder. To push himself over the edge. But at this point, he didn't care. He has been lying in this underwater grave for little over three hours. He had given up hope. Even if Anakin arrived on the planet and didn't get ambushed, the least place he would search was at the bottom of a ravine filled with arctic water.
He was abandoned. Left to the fish. Left to succumb to the cold. Left to the agonizing pain. He vaguely debated spitting out his breather. It only prolonged his torture. Drowning would be a quicker death. But part of his mind still foolish hoped for Anakin. Anakin would try to save him. Anakin always saved him. No matter how desperate the situation was. But Anakin had always been with him. Always been by his side.
Anakin never liked death. Never accepted it. Anakin would do everything in his power to fight to against death. Obi-Wan accept death. He did not welcome it, but should death come, he would accept the will of the Force. At least, that is what he told himself before. Before, when he had nothing to leave behind. He had a Master, who would find a new Apprentice, and friends, who would grieve, and then move on. But now Obi-Wan had Anakin.
Anakin. The man would do anything for him. Who was reckless, daring, a fighter over a diplomat, the Hero with No Fear. Unless Obi-Wan was involved. And then Anakin was completely different. Anakin became overprotective. Anakin was full of fear. But only where Obi-Wan was concerned. And Obi-Wan wasn't sure if that bothered him or touched him.
Either way, Obi-Wan wasn't eager to leave Anakin. Obi-Wan was selfish about one thing. He loves Anakin. He worries that one day, Anakin will leave him. One day, Anakin will realize that Obi-Wan is much older. So much weaker. Anakin could have anyone in the galaxy. But Anakin had been the brave one. Anakin had confessed his feelings first. Obi-Wan would not have. Obi-Wan would have painfully kept his feelings a secret forever. He was too afraid of rejection. But Anakin loved him. And Obi-Wan is slowly getting over his fear of rejection. Anakin will never leave him. Anakin will continue to cling to a long dead memory of an old romance. Clinging to a corpse.
By the time Anakin reaches him, he has fallen into blackness.