Pairing: A/P. A/O. P/Sabé.
Summary: Spiritual warfare on Utapau
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654321

Obi-Wan anxiously waited as they moved Anakin up to the transport. "Sir?"

"Yes, Cody?"

"Would you like someone to take your ship while you go with Commander Skywalker?"

As much as he wished to say yes, Obi-Wan needed to take a moment to think about what happened between him and Sidious. Now that Anakin was in safer hands, he would be able to do so. Reaction was settling in and he could hardly believe that he had fought the Sith Lord who had troubled them so much-and won. A Sith Lord who had been protected from the effects of a Force suppression strong enough to knock Anakin out. It was most puzzling.

He needed to meditate and regain his balance for this constant shaking was unnerving.

There was also the fact that he needed to make sure that the denizens of Utapau were all right. Now that the disrupter was gone, he could feel them again-they were terrified. He needed to reassure them that all was well, that the threat was gone from their world.

With a pained and regretful sigh, he shook his head slowly. "I wish that I could accept that offer but I must do my duty and make sure that everyone here is safe. Now that Grievous' trap has been destroyed, I can feel them."

"Very well, sir." Cody turned, then paused and looked back at him, "I will make sure that the commander is taken care of."

Nodding once, Obi-Wan watched them walk off. It was very strange, now that Anakin was not there, he felt no danger from the clones. The trust he felt for them was back and the Force was not telling him that he was incorrect.

"Anakin, please, be all right," he whispered before becoming the Jedi Master he was. There were other matters that required his attention, though he hated the fact that he was-once again-putting duty above all else. But he couldn't change who he was, not really.

654321

There's someone here, Anakin thought, glancing about suspiciously, someone who was not welcome.

"And why am I not welcome, dear boy?" Palpatine asked, his voice circling about. Painfully kind-and oozing menace that only now could he hear. "Have I not often invited you into my office, my apartment, to listen to you? Offering you a kindly ear for all your troubles? I've only ever wanted to be your friend."

"That's not what you offered," Anakin stated harshly. He whirled about, glaring at him. All he could think of was the death. The endless lies, the deception this man had perpetrated and created. The betrayal of him-and the entire Republic, "Not really. I don't know what your real motive was, Darth Sidious, but it was not friendship."

"Darth Sidious? I? Come now, Anakin, where did you hear such a ridiculous thing?"

"From you," he coldly answered, arms crossing across his chest, trying to be calm. Trying in the face of Palpatine's suddenly patronizing tone of voice. Pounding inside his mind, a litany of names, of faces and people paraded before him, of worlds betrayed and hopes destroyed-all in the name of this one man. He desperately wished he had his lightsaber, though he wasn't entirely sure that it would be of any use in his own mind.

"I?" Palpatine looked thoughtful as he approached him, watching as he warily backed away from him. "I don't recall ever telling you such a preposterous thing. I may have spoken to you of many things but being a Sith? Please, Anakin, you're smarter than this. I never would have told you such a thing."

"Not in actual words but in meaning, in tone, you did. I didn't want to believe it of you-but every word you speak has a honeyed sound to it and nothing more. They are pleasing to hear. But I know what I know." It burned like icy fire, this knowledge, this truth. Anakin knew what he was-knew what he must do. His blood burned, an unquenchable fire flooding through him, causing a red haze to blind him.

"No, you only know what Obi-Wan Kenobi has told you. And he has never liked me," he replied, a sad smile on his face. Feeding the flames easily, trapping him within the rage that had dominated Anakin's mind for so long-giving Sidious the key to destroying the boy.

"My Master told me no such thing," he snapped, angered that Sidious would suggest such a thing about Obi-Wan. "No, he's never liked you-but he never would've told me to forget you and save him. If you were lost, he would have encouraged me to find you. In fact, he would've helped me. Not because you are the Chancellor but because you are my friend and he doesn't wish me pain."

"And you think I do? Oh, my boy, how could you think such of me?" There was a pitying note in his voice that grated on Anakin's nerves.

"Because I have proof."

"Based upon what happened on the Invisible Hand? I was frightened, reacting on instinct."

"Frightened?" Anakin mocked. "Of what? In your own words, Grievous treated you well-and I don't believe that Dooku would've harmed you anymore than the general would have. You were both of their Masters, Sidious."

"My boy…"

"Stop calling me that," Anakin interrupted him fiercely. "There is only one who has the right to call me that-Master Qui-Gon Jinn. Oh, wait. You robbed me of him."

"Do you discount your mother?"

Anakin felt the red hot flash of anger and knew-with startling clarity-that it was because of him that he'd lost her. The Tusken Raiders had attacked her on Sidious' order. "She would call me son. And I would never forget her, through Obi-Wan's patient guidance, I know that she is with me always."

"And Master Kenobi? What does he call you?" he taunted. "Padawan? Apprentice?"

"Beloved," Anakin softly declared. That one, seemingly small word was filled with so much love and truth that Sidious stopped, startled at the peace that seemed to fill the man at the thought of the Jedi. It was like he had become someone else entirely. "He calls me that and more-so much more. In ways and silences and caring that you cannot even begin to understand for the ways of compassion and love are unknown to you. Obi-Wan Kenobi is beloved to me and I am to him. That is something that you can never understand and will never destroy, Sidious."

It was almost as if something had locked into place within him and he could see as he never had before.

The truth of who and what he was.

He was the son of Shmi Skywalker. Born on a planet of sand and fire, he had been raised as a child of great hope and undeterred courage by a woman who lived the same way. His mother lived within him, helping him, and carrying him when he could not do it himself. Next to him, he could feel her there, smiling at him and urging him to take the needed steps forward.

Then there was his forever angel. In Padmé's heart, he would always have a safe haven to flee to-but he no longer needed it. He no longer wanted it. She was the one who'd loved and comforted him when he needed it the most. When there had been no one else to understand his grief, she had been there and she understood. With her, he had found a way to recover from the loss of his mother and the strength to go after Obi-Wan in his hours of need.

He would always hold her within his heart for he would no longer hold her in his arms.

Overcoming many trials, he had become a Jedi Knight, known throughout the Galaxy. Many called him the Hero With No Fear and the Chosen One of the Jedi. Enemies and peers alike granted him respect for his skills as a warrior, as a pilot. He was all of these things-but he was more than that, so much more.

Above all of these titles and callings was the one title he bore with the most pride for it was the hardest won of them all, he was the friend of Obi-Wan Kenobi.

It was at Obi-Wan's side that he'd become a Knight of the Jedi Order. The man had taken him on, at the greatest of costs to himself-and Anakin had adored the man for it. A partnership begun out of fearful necessity had quickly become so much more than either had ever expected. Together, they had grown into Jedi Knights and men, becoming greater than the sum of their parts.

He'd always loved him but in recent years, as he'd grown up and been changed by the war, the tenor of his love for his friend had changed, became more. This love had deepened for the two had faced many of their fears together. They had struggled and fought beside each other-had killed for each other. Unlike his love for Padmé which had remained in a constant state, his love for Obi-Wan had grown for they had truly come together over the years.

And it was in knowing all of this-and understanding these truths at long last-that gave him completeness of being.

Drawing himself up to his full height, he towered over the other man. Towering with his own strength and confidence in the Force and the rightness of his actions, augmented by his new found confidence in who he truly was. Inside the flames of rage and vengeance he felt were not quenched. Far from it, for the flames grew in intensity and fury. They changed into something else-something far more powerful than mere rage under Anakin's hands. The Force filled him with peace and strength, granting him the ability to turn away from Sidious.

To turn away from the man he'd thought of as friend, mentor, and uncle for so long.

"Now, GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"

Sidious knew that he had lost. This battle at least for there would be others-he would make sure of that. Nothing but endlessly resourceful, he always had a contingency plan. And this one was simply divine-if such a word could be rightly used by a Sith.

A warning whispered in the Force and Anakin let it fill him, guide his actions. Gathering up his strength, he slammed the full weight of the Force that was in him straight into Sidious, preventing the man from making his final move.

Startled by the unexpected blow, Sidious was blown back. Unable to regain his footing under the constant onslaught of his attack, he stumbled under the pressure exerted upon him. He couldn't seem to raise his arms, his hands, to ward off the blows, to counter them.

Unrelenting in his attack, Anakin concentrated all of his energies on shoving the Sith Lord out of his mind. Shoving him so firmly into the Force that he would be absorbed-and eradicated from existence, he pressed on. With his mind clear upon what he had to do, Anakin did what he needed to do-he destroyed the Sith.

Seeing and breathing in the Force became easier once the taint that was Sidious was gone from it.

But it was not enough.

Never enough after what he did to them. Not content to do just that, Anakin extended his reach out farther than he had ever dared to before, blending into every life touched in some way by the Sith's taint-and destroyed it.

Destroyed it utterly before it caused irreparable damage.

Finally, finally, his bloodlust was quenched and Anakin returned to himself, allowing the Force to leave, to depart from him. As it did so, it healed him, healed the breach within his soul and cleansed him, made him whole. Calmed, quiet, at peace with the world for the first time in ages.

But he felt strangely barren-as though expending so much of himself had taken away all that he had.

Though he knew it was worth it, truly destroying the Sith and healing the break in the Force, he couldn't help but weep from the loss of the purity he had found. What did he have left if he had truly spent so much, he no longer had any Force sensitivity within him? Could he survive if he could no longer call upon the Force?

He wept, despairing.

And then he heard it-the sound of the adored voice that reassured him, reinforced his will, and gave him home. It gave him hope, restored him to himself for it was the only thing he craved since meeting this person. It was everything.

It was simply and wholly…Obi-Wan.