Obi-Wan was in the communication center of the Jedi Temple. He was preparing for a report that was to be given the following day regarding a campaign in the outer rim. The Republican Army was planning a push back against the Confederacy and they needed every Jedi in on it to command countless troops. With the security of the planet Q'oor as a new outpost, the Separatists were reacting in kind. Every action in this war had an immediate reaction.

Obi-Wan was alone at the moment, his eyes raised as he surveyed the star map of the systems, taking in the drawn images of the two sides of the battle. He was calm and focused. Here and now, he was General Kenobi.

Nothing more.

He did not spend his time or anxieties thinking about the time bomb that was Anakin. Every time his former padawan was near, he could feel the roiling emotions that he was struggling to suppress. It was going to take time for the boy to heal. Lots of time. But Obi-Wan had to trust in the Force, that it would bring balance and peace back to Anakin.

More than anything he had to drown out the echo of Padme's voice in his mind.

I love you.

He had felt it from her whenever they were together, a part of him always knew. But he never imagined how it would feel for those emotions to be put into words. It was elevating and addicting in a way that frightened him. He didn't know if he was worthy of it.

These were the things that troubled him since they left Naboo, but at this moment he had cleared his mind, and for this moment he was tranquil.

Some hours ago, Anakin had been summoned by Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. Obi-Wan was not overly fond of the old politician, but he tried to reason that he was a friend to Anakin, a mentor and someone that the young Jedi needed in moments like these, to get him back on track. Obi-Wan didn't have that right anymore—if he ever did in the first place. Especially not when they were in love with the same woman.

A shadow approached in his peripheral, calm and centered in its energy. It was Anakin, looking surprisingly serene after the storm of two days ago on Naboo. He was looking up at the map as well, and for a moment they shared a peaceful silence.

"I was going to leave the Order," Anakin said suddenly. "Today. I was determined."

Obi-Wan's heart sank, but he wasn't surprised. Anakin had toyed with the idea before, it would not have been out of the blue for him to decide to finally do it after being rejected by the love of his life. But his phrasing piqued Obi-Wan's interest. Past tense.

"You were?" he prodded evenly.

"I changed my mind. The Chancellor wisely convinced me not to."

Perhaps Palpatine really was a positive influence on Anakin. "I'm glad to hear it."

"I suppose the prophecy doesn't mean much if I'm not a Jedi…" Anakin almost sounded like he was trying to be facetious about it, but there was something else that was… unsettling.

"The right choice is not always the easiest, as we well know…" Obi-Wan said quietly, leaning over to switch off the battle plans. The blue lights that flooded the chamber died and plunged them into darkness, only a few yellow light fixtures on the walls outlining them.

Should he bring up what happened with Padme? Surely it wasn't helpful to bury it.

Anakin stepped closer, suddenly a breath away from Obi-Wan, the cloud surging from him. "What did you say to Padme?"

It seemed he chose for them both to bring it up.

Obi-Wan had to lift his chin to look his padawan in the eye. "You are acting with your feelings, Anakin…" he warned.

"And you're acting like a typical Jedi by not answering me. What did you say to her about me?"

Anakin was right, of course, and Obi-Wan was willing to admit defeat when he was called out on his indirectness. He breathed in slowly and glanced around the hall. They were alone, but obviously they were being recorded on the security feed at every moment.

"Do you really wish to speak plainly about this? Here?"

"Yes, now!" Anakin's voice boomed out, echoing in the chamber, the air around him prickling. "What did you say to her?"

Obi-Wan didn't blink to Anakin's show of intimidation, nor did he break his gaze or raise his voice. But the anger was deeply concerning. "I told her what you were doing to her. How you were manipulating her feelings towards you with the Force. I know you did not realize that you were doing it, Anakin, but I saw it and felt it for myself."

The look of confusion and rage on Anakin's face made it evident that Padme had not mentioned that part. Of course, how could she?

"I'm sorry, Anakin. I sensed it and had to stop it…"

"That's a lie…" Anakin's lip trembled as he clung furiously to denial. He knew it was true, though. The tears in his eyes said it all. "You just want to keep us apart…"

"Falling in love is enough, but using the Force to control someone's will is against the Jedi Code."

"No." The younger Jedi was shaking his head, refusing to accept the truth. "I love her. And she loves me, on her own. I could never do that to her…"

"I know you would never knowingly do it…" Obi-Wan kept his voice gentle, but he was careful. All the serenity that Anakin had when he first entered the chamber was all but gone. Now there was chaos. "But did you never think twice about the jeopardy in being with her?"

"I don't care—"

"The jeopardy to her, Anakin. There are very real consequences to her life and career in marrying a Jedi!"

"You know about that?"

Obi-Wan nodded, once again omitting that it was Padme herself who told him. "Anakin, it's forbidden. You know this."

"If it's so forbidden, then why don't you turn me over to the council? Right now?" He was daring Obi-Wan to do it.

"It's over now. You said it yourself that you don't wish to leave the Jedi Order."

Anakin's eyes narrowed and he finally stepped back to arm's length… which was hardly more comforting, since that was also lightsaber length.

"How long did you know about us?" Anakin lowered his voice.

Obi-Wan's first instinct was to dodge answering, to give a vague explanation. He had done that enough, and his padawan was asking for honesty. He deserved it.

"I've known from the moment I saw you both on Geonosis."

Anakin swallowed hard. It seemed he thought he was genuinely fooling his master all this time. It would have been insulting if his heart wasn't hurting for his friend. The rage was quelling in Anakin.

"And you let it happen?" he asked cautiously. "Why? All this talk about it being forbidden… You're the one Jedi who never breaks the rules. Why would you allow that?"

"I hoped it was an infatuation that would eventually come to a natural end…" he offered a partial truth. "I couldn't destroy the happiness that you both found. I see now that I was wrong. I should have spoken sooner."

"Or you couldn't wait any longer because you wanted her for yourself," Anakin said flatly.

"What?"

"Don't try to deny it. You're in love with her."

Anakin was looking straight into him, reading his very soul. Obi-Wan knew he couldn't blatantly lie, they were beyond that. "Whatever feelings I have for Padme are not important…"

Anakin's face dropped and he stared, looking like a lost boy. "Then it's true… The Chancellor was right…" Anakin was breathing harder now, taking one step back. "You're in love with her. You want her for yourself, that's why you took her from me!"

"Anakin, calm down," he said sternly. He could feel the young Jedi's emotions boiling beneath the surface. "It was over between us long before you compelled her to love you."

And there he said too much.

"What do you mean 'it was over'? It wasn't just feelings? There was actually something between you?" Anakin was blinking rapidly, trying to understand it all. "What was over? You did have something with Padme! You've always kept secrets, you've always only ever given me half-truths, told me to be in control and in secret you were with her! You're a hypocrite!"

Anakin was flaring with fury, his emotions feeding into a power never meant to be touched by a Jedi. But the truths he spoke cut deeper than any lightsaber.

"I'm sorry, Anakin… I know I've failed you… But you must calm down…" He spoke slowly, quietly, as one might speak to a cornered beast.

"You took her from me!" Anakin was blinded by his loss and his hand extended.

The moment it did, the Force called Obi-Wan into action, and he raised his own hand just in time to counter the push that blasted from Anakin. It was severe, raw enough to knock Obi-Wan off balance, though he didn't fall. His palm was out towards Anakin's gloved hand, the Force roaring between them. If Obi-Wan let go, he knew Anakin's power would throw him clear across the room.

"Control your anger, Anakin!" He could feel it eating away inside of him, consuming the hurt and anger and growing on the feeding frenzy. "You are losing control!"

"You fed her lies about me!"

"Search your feelings, Anakin!" he shouted, grunting a little as he pushed back against the energy that was crushing down on him. "She doesn't love you! Not in the way you want her to!"

Just when he thought the rage was going to consume Anakin, and him, it was suddenly snuffed. Anakin stopped without warning, and the defensive push from Obi-Wan knocked him into a spin, hurling him a few feet back. He caught himself, heaving for air, pale with tears in his eyes. All that anger and pain was sinking into guilt and abandonment. He dropped to his knees, his fingers gripping at his hair.

Obi-Wan felt drained by that impasse, and he too was out of breath. He waited, then stepped nearer.

"You must accept what happened, Anakin…" he said softly, reluctantly. "You are not to blame…"

"I love her…" he choked on tears. "I thought she loved me…."

He could remind Anakin that this was why Jedi were not supposed to get attached. But this was not a time for lecture, not when his apprentice—his brother—was bleeding out. He was partially to blame, he knew, for hiding the truth from Anakin all these years. And still, he could never confess the true depths of his own feelings for her. Obi-Wan still had to keep the secret of her last words to him. That she loves him.

Though he was doomed to always be in control, he knew Anakin's pain. He lowered onto one knee, joining his crumpled apprentice.

"I didn't mean to attack you, Master…" Anakin's voice rattled. "I… I couldn't stop…"

Obi-Wan knew this. It was deeply alarming.

"What am I supposed to do without her…?"

He wanted to embrace the boy, to give himself as comfort, the closest thing to parental affection that Anakin had ever gotten since he left his mother. But Jedi do not hug or act on feelings of attachment. Even when he held his own master dying in his arms over ten years ago, he felt some shame for weeping as hard as he did.

Anakin wasn't dying, though it surely felt that way to the boy.

So Obi-Wan placed a hand on his shoulder and ventured to squeeze at the risk of being pushed away, or caught showing too much compassion. It seemed in this tumultuous moment, Anakin had stopped seeing his master as a romantic rival and he did not fight him off. He wept quietly, shrunken on the floor, his hands pulling at his short hair.

"What," a voice bellowed out into the hall, and standing atop the steps leading down into it was Mace Windu, his arms akimbo, "is going on in here?"