Sorry for the late update! It completely slipped my mind last night, and so to make up for it I'll be posting tomorrow as well. This one is based off 5x20, the Wrong Jedi. Such a sad episode-seems to be so many of them!
Hours after Ahsoka's departure, Obi-Wan found Anakin exactly where he always was. Hidden away in the most remote corner of the smallest hanger, invisible to everyone unless they knew precisely where to look. He'd been coming here as long as Obi-Wan could remember, ever since his early days as a padawan. Obi-Wan could still remember the panic he'd felt that day as he tore around the Temple searching for his distraught padawan. It was only after Bant had made him relax that he'd followed Anakin's Force signature here-a place he had all but forgotten, but his padawan had been happily tinkering with one of the broken ships, a technician inspecting the work he'd done, and impressed by it as well.
Now, Anakin was seated next to a rather broken speeder. An old toolbox rested near his leg, and his face was twisted into a look of concentration. Obi-Wan knew that to Anakin, fixing ships was his form of meditation-something he had trouble grasping. For Obi-Wan, that had been hard as he relied on meditation heavily to help him connect to the Force, just as Qui-Gon had taught him. He could never quite understand why Anakin did not find it so simple, but as the years passed he gradually accepted that his padawan was very different to most, and it became something he embraced, rather than shunned.
Slowly, Obi-Wan approached Anakin, lowering his shields slightly so Anakin would sense him long before he reached him, knowing that sneaking up on the grieving knight was a terrible idea. Not that it matter. Anakin paid him no notice, instead continuing to work on the dilapidated engine.
"Kriff." Anakin cursed under his breath as one of the bolts slipped from his grasp. He grabbed it again, but his oily fingers meant he had little grip and it fell once more. Obi-Wan could feel the rage seething underneath Anakin's skin and decided now would be an ample time to intervene. Fortunately, Anakin agreed.
"Are you just going to stand there and watch?" He spat. Obi-Wan sighed and approached Anakin, resting his hand on his former padawan's shoulder. He paused, collecting his thoughts.
"I came to see how you were. Ahsoka's departure is hard on many of us."
"You don't know anything!" Anakin growled, knocking away Obi-Wan's comforting hand. "She was my padawan. Mine."
"She was as much mine as she was yours." Obi-Wan replied calmly. "And we are no strangers to loss."
"This is different." Anakin narrowed his eyes and turned back to his work, and suddenly Obi-Wan was in the past, trying to discipline a disobedient and scowling padawan. The sudden memory shocked him for a moment.
"We have all sacrificed much in this war." Obi-Wan let out a long breath and seated himself beside Anakin. "Some more recent than others." His tone had an edge of sorrowfulness to it, remembering his most recent loss. Satine. Sweet, beautiful Satine torn from him in the name of revenge. All his fault.
Slowly, Anakin turned his head until his eyes met Obi-Wan's. The anger Obi-Wan had felt brimming in Anakin was slowly replaced by curiosity.
"Satine?" Anakin ventured. Obi-Wan nodded and closed his eyes, reaching into the Force. Her presence swirled around him, calming and peaceful. He opened his eyes again, and looked back at Anakin, feeling like he had just aged ten years.
"Death finds us all in the end." Another memory hit, Satine in a deep midnight gown as they attended yet another political evening of food and dancing. Despite being surrounded by many other young women fawning over him- a Jedi apprentice- he had eyes only for Satine. That night was the first time they kissed, the first time they acknowledged their feelings for another.
"Some far too soon." He finished, his voice trailing into a whisper. Anakin's head dipped briefly, paying respect to the fallen. Obi-Wan decided that perhaps now was the time to brooch the question.
"What are you feeling, really?" Anakin grunted and turned away, but he soon withered under Obi-Wan's inquisitive gaze.
"I feel angry, but not at her. At...everyone really. But mostly myself. I should have supported her better, should have worked harder to prove her innocence rather than chase her. She was scared Obi-Wan, and I helped fuel that fear."
"It's not your fault Anakin." Obi-Wan cautiously drapes his hand on Anakin's shoulder in a gesture of comfort, one that Anakin finally responded to.
"And the Council-they just abandoned her! Left her to die for crimes she didn't commit!"
"I know." Obi-Wan hung his head. If only he'd argued Ahsoka's case more. Perhaps then this unfortunate situation could have been avoided.
"And then, as the evidence started to pile up, I found that even I started to believe she was a traitor."
"We all did, Anakin. You're not alone."
"But she's gone Obi-Wan." Anakin looked at him with wide eyes, a look Obi-Wan has not seen for many years. For a moment, the Jedi in front of him is replaced by a padawan- hair spiky and a stubby braid hanging behind his right ear. It's too much, and Obi-Wan has to take a moment to centre himself once more.
"I don't blame her for leaving." Anakin's raspy voice is barely above a whisper. "I know how she feels. I've felt it too many times before." With his left hand, he reached into his pocket and drew out a small object. Ahsoka's padawan braid. He clutched it like a lifeline, light beads weighing a thousand tons. "I just wish I could have made things right before she left."
"You did, Anakin. You found the true culprit." Obi-Wan is finding it hard to keep his centre, so many emotions are pouring off Anakin.
"But Bariss was right-wasn't she? The Jedi have become warriors. We're not the peacekeepers we once were. We're too accustomed to war. I'm too accustomed to war. She was too young, too young to be facing these kinds of threats."
"Yes, I believe she may have been right in that respect." Obi-Wan sighed and raised his hand to stroke his beard thoughtfully, a comforting habit that helped him to order his thoughts. "But more violence is not the way to solve this war. We can only do what we can and hope that peace negotiations finally work."
"I know." Anakin's reply is short, but it conveys so much. Obi-Wan knows that the chance of negotiations succeeding is slim with Dooku at the helm of the Separatists. To achieve peace means the end of Dooku.
"There's something else, isn't there?" Obi-Wan feels that it is time to get further into Anakin's problems, and there is one more thing bothering his former padawan.
"The bond." Anakin all but whispers. "It's gone."
Obi-Wan bows his head. To lose a bond like that so suddenly and unexpectedly, is damaging. He felt the same thing after Qui-Gon died. It feels like your soul splits in two, and part of you is lost forever. Carefully, he sinks further into the Force and reaches out along their old training bond, sending comforting feelings to Anakin. To his delight, Anakin accepts them and the two of them fall into a deep meditation. Master and Knight. Knight and Padawan. Brother and brother.
Just the two of them, just as it's always been. Skywalker and Kenobi against the galaxy.