A/N: Obi-Wan leaving Anakin there has proved to be quite controversial, which is understandable. I have to admit it was sort of OOC on Obi-Wan's part, but I think he was just so overwhelmed and downright panicky that he couldn't in that moment figure out any other solution but to flee (read: I couldn't figure out a better solution!) More importantly, the reason that Obi-Wan didn't forcibly take Anakin back with him to Coruscant...well, that's what the Sith did to Anakin, isn't it? Do you think Anakin's going to respond positively to being tied up and reverse-kidnapped and taken to the HQ of the people that he thinks want to kill him? Because I don't. Give me time, friends, I love how it turns out and I hope you will, too!

Late in the Coruscant evening, Obi-Wan touched the shuttle down in the empty temple hangar. He flipped off the engine, lowered the exit ramp, collapsed back in the pilot's chair and closed his eyes. A wave of fatigue hit him, and for a reasonable amount of time he considered falling asleep right here because getting up meant confronting the Council and confronting the Council meant telling them the truth...

And then his eyes were startled open by the sound of footsteps coming up the ramp and with a glance at the chrono he realized with some embarrassment that he actually had dozed off, though only for a few minutes.

A voice called, "Master?"

"I'm here, Ahsoka."

She came into the cockpit and sat in the chair next to his. She let out an exhale at the look of his injuries. "So it's true? You fought Vader?"

Briefly pressing his eyes shut at the sound of that infernal name, he tried to center himself in the Force. "Yes. Vader."

She swiveled the copilot's chair awkwardly. "Well, there's four Jedi Masters waiting out there for you to report to them," she said. "I only came in because you weren't coming out."

Finally, he turned to look at her. He reached up with one hand to poke at the swollen side of his face. "Ahsoka," he said, trying to push a tired determination behind his words. "Before I tell them, I need you to know first."

The markings on her brow bone knitted together. "What is it?"

Suddenly, Obi-Wan felt extremely tired. He just needed to say the words. Just a few words. Right now. Just a few...ah...

"Ahsoka," he said again. "Vader is Anakin."

She blinked, a few times. She looked unbearably hesitant. "Master," she said slowly. "Um...I, um..."

"He's been brainwashed," Obi-Wan said, turning to her more fully, gripping the back of his chair for support. "He didn't remember who I was. He didn't respond to his own name. I don't know what the Sith did to him, but he's – he's alive, it's really him."

"Master, I – um – okay – do you want to go tell the Council?"

Of course she didn't believe him. He shouldn't be surprised. All of a sudden, Obi-Wan found that his patience was gone. "Ahsoka, please don't look at me like that. This isn't something that I could have made up if I wanted to."

Ahsoka was at a loss for words, he could see that. He said, "I'm not lying!"

She hesitated. "I don't think you are either, Master, I just...don't really think you know what you're saying."

"I do know what I'm saying," he snapped. "I'm saying that Anakin is alive. I'm saying I fought with him, and that he doesn't remember who I am."

"Okay," she said, nodding. "Okay, I'm sorry. I'm not trying to doubt you, I'm just a little shocked, is all. We should go tell the Council."

Obi-Wan threw up his hands. There was no time for this. "Fine."

They left the shuttle, and the first thing Mace Windu said to him was, "Obi-Wan, I'm glad you made it back alive. Do you need medical attention?"

Obi-Wan waved him off. "No, thank you. Just a few nights of sleep will do."

"Actually," Ahsoka said, glancing up at him, "I don't think that would be a bad idea." She looked apologetic. He was sure she was apologetic, but there were a few more important things that he had to do right now like finding Anakin and saving him and bringing him home.

He took a deep breath and decided to be frank. "All right. The truth." Another breath. "I fought with Vader. We were very evenly matched, and I was interested in seeing who he was under the mask that he was wearing so when I had the opportunity, I pulled it off with the Force. To my extreme surprise, I discovered that Vader was actually Anakin, who is apparently alive and has been brainwashed by someone, probably Dooku, into being a Sith. He did not know who I was beyond the target that the Sith had sent him to kill."

Windu looked down at Yoda, and his expression was as clear as Naboo was green. Obi-Wan cut them off before they even thought of a reaction. "If I was going to make this up to fulfill some wild fantasy of mine, I would have done it months ago. This was real."

They didn't believe him. Windu said, "No one said you made it up." Obi-Wan crossed his arms over his chest and glared at him. "I'm sorry, Obi-Wan, but I have to agree with Padawan Tano. I'd like you to report to the Halls of Healing. Then we can talk about this further."

He considered resisting. He didn't have time for this, there was a mystery that he needed to solve and a Padawan that he needed to find. But he knew, very well, that resisting would only exacerbate the problem.

He took yet another deep breath. "Very well."

Ahsoka stayed outside the room while the healer gave him an examination, cognitive and physical. When she was done, she said, "You're slightly dehydrated and under significant stress, which is understandable enough, but your physical wounds mostly just need bed rest. I am not doubting your account of these events, but I would like for you to stay here at least overnight and see how you're feeling in the morning before you speak with the Council again."

He closed his eyes for a moment and nodded. She led him and Ahsoka to a room with a bed. He fought a sigh. They were only wasting time.

"I'll come see you tomorrow, okay, Master?" Ahsoka said. "Please try to get some sleep." He nodded curtly, and she lingered in the doorway for a moment before leaving him alone.

It wasn't until he had settled in the bed that he realized how exhausted he was. A part of him wanted to stay awake, to dissect the fight in his mind second by second, to figure out how...how? But, he found, the second his head had settled in the pillow, his eyes closed and his muscles relaxed and the world turned hazy around him...

I'll find you, Anakin, he managed to think before he drifted off. I won't let them hurt you ever again. I promise...

He woke up the next morning to a blurry orange figure sitting beside his bed. Before Ahsoka noticed he was awake, he said blearily, "On your left."

Ahsoka jumped and dropped her datapad in her lap. Looking embarrassed, she cleared her throat and resettled herself in her chair. "So...how are you feeling, Master?"

"Isn't there another question you would rather ask me?"

She fiddled with the hem of her sleeve and frowned, silent.

Obi-Wan sighed. "Listen, Ahsoka. I know it's easy to assume that I've...lost my mind, or something like that. But I haven't. I know what I saw."

Ahsoka reached up to scratch one of her headtails absentmindedly. "But – but, I mean...," she stammered. She kicked at the floor with her legs. "I mean, I've been thinking about it all night. I just – I mean, if he somehow did survive that, wouldn't we have known? How – I just don't see how."

"Believe me," Obi-Wan said tiredly. "I don't either."

She fell silent again, and he looked past her out the window. "Ahsoka," he said in a very low, quiet voice, "When he ambushed me, I didn't know who he was. I thought he was another Ventress, some assassin that Dooku would use up and replace just like he had with her. Then I pulled off his mask using the Force to find out who he really was and do you know what the first thing I saw was?" In his peripheral vision, he saw her shake her head. "His eyes. They've turned yellow, just like the Zabrak Sith that I fought so many times. Then I saw the scar that Ventress gave him, the one on his face, and his lightsaber, and his hair, and I felt the metal of his arm. Several times, at that." He touched his face again, feeling the swollen skin ache.

He turned to look at Ahsoka. She was staring at him with wide eyes. "You really, really mean it," she almost whispered.

"Would I lie about this?"

"I never thought you were lying," she said. "I thought you were..."

"Trying to convince myself of what I wanted to believe, I know."

Her gaze drifted off to a spot on his blanket and remained there, probably as she tried to reach out in the Force and find her first, long-lost master. A foolhardy effort. Obi-Wan should know – he couldn't seem to stop trying it himself.

A day later, and he was out. Unusual, that the testimony of a teenaged Padawan would be enough to convince the Jedi Council of his sanity, but he was grateful for it. Next, he just had to find Anakin again. He never should have ran away in the first place, he was such a fool...

In the dead of night, Obi-Wan shifted in his bed. Something had woken him, but he didn't know what it was until he felt a metal hand close around his throat. His eyes startled open and his hands automatically rose to claw at his neck. Anakin was hovering over him, his yellow eyes boring into Obi-Wan's with impartial cruelty.

"Anakin –" Obi-Wan tried to choke out but no sound escaped from his lips. He tried to push Anakin off him but his arms felt like water hitting stone.

"I don't know you," Anakin hissed, but his voice didn't sound like Anakin's, it was dark and evil and it filled Obi-Wan with unbridled fear. "You mean nothing to me."

Obi-Wan tried to struggle, but he could hardly move. The life was leaving him, his vision grew blurry and everything seemed to fade out except for Anakin's Sith eyes.

Before Obi-Wan blacked out, he could have sworn he heard a croaking, despicable sounding voice say, "He's mine, Kenobi…."

Obi-Wan sat up in bed, gasping for air and feeling his neck, freed from the false reality of the dream. It hadn't felt like a dream, though…he suddenly recalled what Anakin always used to say of his visions, how he always seemed to know when his dreams and nightmares were something more. The voice that he had heard had channeled directly into his brain as if it was a message meant only for him to hear.

He pushed the covers off him, suddenly hot and decidedly unsettled by the all-to-real feeling of his best friend trying to squeeze the life out of him. The memory of his fight with Anakin was fresh in his mind. The lack of recognition in Anakin's eyes hurt like a bleeding wound.

He left his room and, as if in a trance, entered the one across from his for the first time in months. Inside, he collapsed against the wall and slid to the floor. Anakin's bedroom was practically untouched: tools littered the work bench and the crates by the wall were full of spare droid parts. The yellow starfighter model Anakin had designed and built (Obi-Wan pointedly realized the cruel irony that the eyes that now haunted him were Anakin's favorite color) sat in front of the poster he had brought with him from Tatooine. The residual feeling of Anakin's presence in the Force had faded from the room with time, but simply sitting in here reminded Obi-Wan so much of the nights he had sat by the bedside, stroking his Padawan's hair as Anakin tried to cope with all the tremendous burdens that the universe had seen fit to place upon him.

Obi-Wan closed his eyes, and gathered his resolve. He would bring Anakin home. He would, and he didn't care if it was the last thing he ever did.

Obi-Wan was let into Padmé's regal apartment by Anakin's old droid, C-3PO. He had gotten to know the thing quite well; Anakin had had the droid with him at the temple for a few weeks after Geonosis. It was fussy, worrisome, and somewhat irritating, but Obi-Wan had never complained. He knew how much Anakin had cared about the thing and upsetting his fragile, orphaned Padawan had not been something he had wanted to do. However, Obi-Wan had been extremely glad when Anakin and Padmé had done their droid exchange – at least R2-D2 had never tried to wait on him every minute of the day and was, ahem, useful.

"Good evening, Master Kenobi, it is such a pleasure to see you again," the droid said to him now, ushering him in. "Mistress Padmé is in the other room, and I'm sure she will be most grateful to see you. Can I get you anything? Some tea or a drink, perhaps?"

"No thank you, Threepio," Obi-Wan said, patting it on the shoulder and moving into the other room. When she saw him, Padmé jumped up and hugged him close.

Then she held him at arm's length, looking him over. When she caught sight of the bruises on his neck and the swelling in his face, she pressed her lips together in a fine line. After a long moment, she said, "I'm sure you've been informed of this, but you look awful. What happened to you?"

He didn't really know how to answer, and he didn't really want to at all, so he said, "I have something to tell you." He hoped this went better than the last two times he'd given this news.

She crossed her arms. "Good news or bad?"

He hesitated. "Both."

There was a lump in his throat that he couldn't swallow. He should be more in charge of his own emotions, but here he was standing before her, putting off revealing to her that her secret murdered husband had not, in fact, been murdered.

"Padmé...," Obi-Wan trailed off. His voice was little more than a whisper. He put his hand on her arm. "Anakin is alive."

He watched her face carefully, giving her time to digest his words. It was clear no digestion was happening. "What?"

"Anakin is still alive, Padmé."

After a long moment of blankness, Obi-Wan watched as her expression turned hard. Ruthless, even. She backed away from him, She stared at him like a vile sewer creature from below the planet's surface.

"Why would you – what –" Padmé stammered, a pink flush rising in her face. He could feel her anger flare up and bite at him in the Force. "What is wrong with you?"

Obi-Wan tried to take a measured breath. "Padmé –"

She held up her hand to stop him. Her voice was cold when she said, "I have spent months, months, trying to reconcile with what I did, and now you think it's all right to – force me into some sick fantasy of yours –" she heaved a heavy breath and let out a bitter laugh. "I really didn't think you had it in you, Obi-Wan, but I guess I should have expected it. I mean, I got this treatment from Ahsoka and I guess you've finally snapped too. What are you trying to do, test me?"

A realization hit him that these emotions were not new to her – she had been burying them, suppressing them, and now Obi-Wan's poor execution of this revelation had apparently lit the fuse.

"Am I not good enough for you, is that it? Am I not good enough to be married to your best friend? Is that it? Are you mad at me for taking your Padawan away from you?"

It was true, a little, or at least it had been in the past, but that didn't matter right now. "Padmé, please –"

"Because you should be!" she yelled, and suddenly her face was twisted as if in pain and there were tears in her eyes. "You're right! It's my fault! Thanks for reminding me, Obi-Wan!"

"I'm not trying to trick you!" he said, perhaps a bit too forcefully, but her silence told him it must have had some effect. He took a few slow steps toward her and said, much more softly, "I'm not lying to you."

She stared at him for a long time, trying to decipher something. Finally, Padmé said, "I saw him die."

He took a steady breath. "And I just saw him alive."

"Where?" she said. Humoring him.

If there was a way to say it that made her both believe him and reconcile with the truth, Obi-Wan would have liked for it to come to him now. Because no such inspiration came to him, there was no way to put it other than saying the simple truth. "He's Vader."

For a long time, Padmé stared at him, and then she crossed her arms over her chest and looked away, shaking her head continuously. "You want so hard to believe that he's alive that you'll believe anything. You've repressed your feelings so hard over this last year that now you're making up stories about Anakin being a Sith assassin. Anything so that he's alive, right? Am I right?"

Obi-Wan tried, and failed, to wrestle with the beast of impatience inside him. "Do I look like I fought with my own denial?" he snapped. He pointed to his neck. "These bruises are real, Padmé. They came from the mechanical hand that I watched him build. I touched him, I saw his lightsaber, it's the same one. And his eyes –" He swallowed thickly. "His eyes are yellow now."

He would never know which were the words that convinced her, but she did believe him now. He could see it shining in her own brown eyes. Still, she said, as if it were so simple, "He would never work for Dooku."

"I don't think he had any choice." Obi-Wan looked at the floor. Anakin's look of unrecognition flashed in is mind like a bolt of lightning. "He doesn't remember anything. He's been – brainwashed, or I don't know what."

There was a very long pause between them while they stared at each other, and when Padmé spoke again her voice was weak. "Anakin is alive." He nodded.

Then, she grabbed his arms and her face broke into a disturbing and maniacal grin. "Anakin is alive!" She threw her arms around him and rocked him back and forth. "He's not dead!"

He hesitantly maneuvered out of her embrace. "Padmé –"

"No!" she said, pressing her finger to his lips. "Shh, I know, I know, he's been brainwashed, he's a Sith, he's a murderer, but Obi-Wan – he's alive!" She threw her arms out like a playful child. Her shoulders shook with mirth and her breathless giggle was decidedly unsettling. "Just let me – just give me a moment, all right, because I – I can't believe it! I can't –"

She laughed and laughed and laughed and Obi-Wan wasn't sure when the transition happened but then suddenly she was crying into her hand. "I can't – I can't –"

"Padmé..."

She was whimpering, "He doesn't remember? What doesn't he remember?"

"I'm not sure. Me, probably you, possibly everything. His own name."

"He doesn't remember his own name," Padmé whispered back at him in disbelief. "Oh, sweetheart. Oh, no, Ani..." She reached behind her and collapsed backwards on her couch, sobbing. "The things they must have done to him. Oh, Anakin..." Obi-Wan just sat next to her and rubbed her back. He'd never seen her like this before – red-faced, smudged makeup, not in control at all – and he hoped he never would again.

Eventually, she said, "How did he look?"

It bothered him that he could hardly think of anything other than the color of Anakin's eyes. "I didn't have a lot of time to look. He was quite occupied with trying to kill me."

"But how – how could you not know –"

"He can use the Force, but he's absent from my sense of it. I wish I knew how."

"What are we going to do?" Padmé whispered.

"I don't know," Obi-Wan said. "I'm going to bring him home. I don't know what I have to do. I don't even care if I die trying. I am going to bring Anakin home."

She sniffled, and said, "I'm coming with you." Then she snapped, "And don't try to stop me, because I'm the one who made this happen to him and nothing you say can change that."

Eventually, Obi-Wan nodded. "Ahsoka and I are going to try to track him down. When we do, I'll contact you."

Padmé gave him a very small, hopeful smile and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you."

The late afternoon's sunlight cast narrow beams through the blinds in Yoda's private meditation chamber. Obi-Wan sat across from him, waiting patiently as Yoda communed with the Force, immersed deep within it in a way that Obi-Wan was sure he would never be able to emulate. Hundreds of years of practice and a high number of midi-chlorians gave Yoda an added advantage. Privately, Obi-Wan had always hoped that with practice Anakin, who's Force potential dramatically exceeded even Yoda's, would be able to find this level of connection. That dream had, with many others, died out months ago, but now there was a renewed chance that it could come true if the Jedi played their cards right.

Yoda opened his eyes slowly, his ears rising and falling with his breathing. "Looked much, I have, and found no trace of Skywalker. Gone he is from the Force."

As Obi-Wan had expected. Well, at least they believed him now. "How is that possible? He still has access to it, I saw him use it."

The Grand Master looked pensive. "Concealed himself he could have, in the dark side."

"Can that be done?"

"An ancient technique of the dark side, it is. Learned it only from a Sith Lord, he could have."

Obi-Wan leaned in. "The one thing he told me was that Dooku wasn't his master. Do you think... Darth Sidious?"

"Likely it is."

A determined frown etched itself on Obi-Wan's face. "I must find him, Master."

Yoda looked at him, his wizened face looking tired. It was a weakness he revealed only to other Council members, and barely even then. "And when you find him, what will you do? A servant of evil he has become."

"We don't know that he made that choice," Obi-Wan assured him. "He doesn't appear to remember a thing. Sidious could have given him no alternative."

"Still, rejected the dark side, Skywalker could have. Gone down a dark path he has, and forever will it dominate his destiny."

"I have to try to help him," Obi-Wan said. Then he grimaced, and remembered the words every Padawan learned from Yoda at a young age. "No, not try. I will help him."

"And if lost, Anakin is? Accept this possibility, you must, before you confront him again," Yoda said, and remarkably there was a cadence of sympathy in his words. Yoda, Obi-Wan recalled, had always had a complicated relationship with Anakin. He had opposed Anakin's introduction into the Order from the start, yet he had admired Anakin's connection with the Force. He had never excused Anakin's faults, but he had, Obi-Wan believed, had faith that one day Anakin might change the galaxy for the better.

Obi-Wan sighed and said, "The Force has always been with him. I do not believe he will be lost so easily."

Yoda took a deep breath as he sunk back into meditation. "I hope right you are, Obi-Wan."

A/N: HAPPY NEW YEAR! [pops champagne] Sad Jedi and depressed senators are a great way to start off the year. Thank you very, very much to all my reviewers and readers! I do hope you liked this one. My teaser for next chapter is that it's Anakin's POV and that my friend read it and responded with, "WHY CAN'T THEY BE HAPPY!"

P.S. No spoilers for Episode VII here just in case, but I LOOOOOOVE Rey and have a lot of feelings about her that I won't articulate here. But just know that, if I wanted to, I could.