...Disclaimer: We don't own Star Wars. We are not George Lucas.

...Acknowledgements: Co-written with Seylin. Inspired by George Lucas' film, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.

...Summary: Anakin's black and white world of the Jedi way has been stripped away, by Palpatine's corruption. After the battle on Mustafar, Yoda and Obi-Wan are determind to get it back for him. But, with Padme gone, will Anakin be willing to listen to them at all? The Jedi are going to need help, if they plan to save their Chosen One. And, Senator Amidala has left them with exactly the help they need...

...Aubrey's Crap: Last official chapter, folks. Didn't think it'd come so soon, didjya? Once again, there is an epilogue, that explains a bit more about the aftermath, but this chapter has a perfectly good ending, too. Now...this one's like the creme de la angst, for this story, so consider yourselves warned. There will be character death, and major mental abuse. Please enjoy the grand fanale of Monochrome Shatter!

Monochrome Shatter
Chapter 11: City of Angels

It was a few weeks, before they were disrupted again, and by that point it was mostly because...

"What do you mean you have to go on a mission?" Obi-Wan checked through his bag.

"Just that. I'm going on a mission that could take a few months," he replied.

"And you didn't tell me this sooner, because...?"

"I found out yesterday, Anakin. From that point I argued with Yoda about letting you go with me, but he firmly said no, because the Padawans need their piloting Master," Obi-Wan answered.

"But...but you're just leaving!" He was feeling reasonably insecure about this. Every time Obi-Wan left, he got in trouble. Obi-Wan turned and gave him a smile.

"Not until the morning. Why do you seem so worried? It never bothered you this much before, I would almost think you would be grateful to get rid of me for a while."

"I was always with you before," Anakin pointed out, with a small huff. "And, my fear is not without cause. There was a reason I saved your skin twelve times."

"I will try to be very careful, as I said I wanted you with me but Yoda would not allow it."

"Yeah, yeah." He made an impatient movement with his hand. "You'd better come back alive. I might have to hunt you down, bring you back, and kill you again, if you don't." Obi-Wan chuckled.

"That's soo reassuring," he stated.

"It was meant as a threat," Anakin informed him, slumping a bit further down, on the couch. Obi-Wan leaned down over the back of the couch, his arms circling Anakin's neck.

"You know I never take your threats seriously."

"Considering how lacking my knowledge of Necromancy is, I'd say that's safe enough," he admitted, leaning up to kiss him. "But, you'd still better come home alive!"

"And alive I promise I shall come, but for now... let... us... say... goodbye," he said between kisses, letting the Force do wicked things. Anakin nodded in agreement, and was tempted to throw him over the couch, to be done right there, but they somehow managed to make it into the bedroom...

-insert smutty content here-

He cursed softly the next morning, and tried not to be too emotional. "Hurry back," he warned, resting his forehead against Obi-Wan's. Obi-Wan kissed him gently.

"I will do my best, I will be in contact," he promised.

"Alright..." He agreed with a sigh, before moving away from him, and walking back toward the Temple. He wasn't going to stand there, and watch his boyfriend fly away, like some weepy woman. It just wasn't going to happen. He was looking forward to getting Obi-Wan back, though...

Obi-Wan kept his word and contacted him nearly every two days for the first three months he was gone, after that they just stopped. It left a uneasy feeling in the pit of Anakin's stomach but neither Obi-Wan or Yoda had told him where he would be going on this mission. When asked Yoda just said that it was unimportant.

The room was so dark...Force, it was haunting. The only light that entered it came from a solitary torch, suspended on the wall, outside in the hallway. The shadows, of the scarce items in the room, seemed inlongated, by the dim light. Still, Anakin could see the apallable conditions. The cracked stone floors, the leaking, thatched ceilings...It was freezing in there too. But, that didn't bother him nearly as much as the display he was unwillingly witness to.

Obi-Wan Kenobi was suspended from a support beam, by a long chain. A creature that he couldn't recognize stood before him, baring knives and whips. The creature was making use of them, too. Obi-Wan looked like he was in so much pain...Anakin felt his heart restrict, and he wanted to throw up.There had to be something he could do...but, he couldn't seem to reach his lover, to help him.

Obi-Wan coughed something out, but Anakin couldn't hear him anymore. He realized he must be asleep...but, this was so horrorfyingly real...It felt more like a vision, than a dream...He wanted to wake up...to be able to see if it was real or not. He'd talk to Master Yoda...that was all, for the moment, that he could do...

"Master, I haven't heard from him in weeks!" He protested, when Yoda told him that. "What if something went wrong?"

"Busy this mission keeps Obi-Wan. Understandable his silence is," Yoda replied.

"Well, yes, but...seriously! He always gets in trouble!" Yoda smiled a little knowing this was true, but the Force had told him nothing was wrong with Obi-Wan. Of course... that didn't mean anything if the people of Warcous had found a way to block the Force.

"Meditate on your concerns I will. Inform you of my findings I shall," Yoda promised.

"Thank you, Master..." Anakin agreed to that, with a small sigh. Maybe he'd kidnap Luke for the afternoon...to distract himself...or, maybe he'd go home and worry more...yes...that seemed less disruptive...

Later that night (much later), Yoda came to Anakin and Obi-Wan's apartment looking very concerned.

"Yes, Master?" Anakin opened the door, sweating slightly. He'd been meditating too...and the Force hadn't been too thrilled about it. It had been tiring. Yoda came in and was quiet for a few moments before turning to Anakin and looking him in the eye.

"Bad news I bring."

"What happened to him?" No...hell no! He'd fucking promised to come home alive!

"Know of Obi-Wan's condition I do not. The news I bring is that the Force for him has been blocked. Tell me it would if he were dead, told me this it has not," Yoda replied.

"Blocked?" He echoed, blinking. "How can it be blocked?" Yoda bowed his head.

"Know this I do not. Ways there are but not many know."

"He has to come home..." Anakin muttered, blinking very rapidly. "He promised he would, so he will."

"Leave you now I shall. Do all I can I will." Yoda left him then to do what he could to get through this block that had been placed around Obi-Wan. Anakin blinked again, and sunk down onto the couch. Well then...if the Force was going to be a bitch, he could play too. But...mostly, he just prayed to it, to bring his lover home...he couldn't take to lose anyone else...

Another 3 months later

"I have an unidentified person trying to make contact commander," the soldier reported. His commander looked at the connection signal and then nodded.

"Make it." The soldier quickly did as told.

"Unidentified starship, please identify yourself," he ordered. Static met their ears for a few moments before a voice cut through it.

"My... is... Oriku... wounded... trans... wounded... Jedi..." the voice answered although it was very broken by the static.

"Repeat again starship, static is interfering," the soldier said.

"...wounded... Jedi..."

"Report this to Master Yoda. Give clearance for landing, but have a line of soldier's ready in case this is a trick," his commander ordered. Two other soldiers ran off to see his orders through while the other kept trying to get more out of the starship.

The ship landed moments later a bit shakily, showing the person piloting hadn't had much experience in flying. Ten soldiers waited, their guns cocked and ready to fire if this did turn out to be a trick. The cargo door slowly lowered with a hiss, a shadow appeared in the steam, clutching his shoulder.

Oriku leaned heavily against the side of the now open doorway.

"Help… Jedi…" He managed before going unconscious and falling off the platform.

"Take him to the medical wards! Search the ship for this Jedi!" The commander ordered. It only took moments to find the bloody and bruised body of Obi-Wan laying on one of the beds.

"It's General Kenobi, Sir!"

Anakin was in the middle of his class, when the clone solider came to get him.

"Master Skywalker," he panted slightly, obviously he'd been in a hurry. Anakin paused, to offer him an annoyed look. He was more tired than usual, from all the meditation (which within itself was slightly ironic), and this clown was interrupting his demonstration! "General Kenobi has landed, sir. But, he's wounded, they're taking him to the Healer wing."

Anakin froze at the words 'but he's wounded', and as soon as he found out where Obi-Wan was, he took off wordlessly. His Padawans were old enough to not get themselves killed...right?

Unlike the last time he was not allowed into the room where Obi-Wan was. The droids even requested a guard to not allow him back.

"You may see the other one though, Master Anakin. He may have some answers you desire," a droid said before disappearing.

"But..." Anakin protested, sweating from his rush, and panting, and swearing all at the same time. "But I have to see him! He'll want to see me! You have to let me back there!" He was fighting against the guard as much as he could, too, all the while screaming through the Force,

'Master? Master!' The Force granted him nothing this time. He could feel a thin string of Obi-Wan's energy but it seemed ready to break at any moment.

"You have to!" He repeated, sending out a wave of energy that he really didn't have, to get the guard to let go, and fall over, so that he could get past. "Please! Please...you...you have you!"

"I'm sorry, Master Anakin, but I have my orders," the soldier answered. His mental defenses were superb. "Until I am told otherwise, you will have to settle your answers with the other patient."

"Anakin. Come with me you shall," Yoda ordered.

"But..." He was on the verge of tears. Exhausted, frustrated, and desperate, crying seemed like the only thing he could do...but, he wouldn't. Not yet. "But, Master, he's hurt!"

"Hurt he is. Trust you must have in the medical droids. Come now. Find out we shall what has transpired for Obi-Wan to be returned to us as such," Yoda replied. Anakin blinked at him, but nodded, and scrambled to regain his balance.

"Have Luke and Leia been told that he's back yet?"

"Told they have not been," Yoda confirmed. "Better for now it be for them to not know." He led Anakin to another room where another injured person lay, although he guessed not as bad as Obi-Wan. Anakin could barely summon up the energy to speak, but he managed.

"What happened to him?" He demanded angrily. "The Jedi you brought in. What happened?" Oriku tried to sit up but failed.

"My master was not pleased... with the way the talks were going. He captured the Jedi and had him...thrown into the dungeons. Mad my master is, forgive me for... not being able to get him away sooner. Fed barely for three days he was... and beaten badly. Help I tried to bring... Master punished me when he found out," he explained through his pain.

Anakin eyed him in cold silence for a few minutes, and when he spoke again, although it was to Yoda, his eyes never left the man.

"I need to get to him," he stated in an empty tone. "To Obi-Wan. I was able to help him before, and he needs me even more now."

"Grant you entrance I cannot, young Skywalker," Yoda told him sadly. An energy passed over Anakin. One he knew well by now, Qui-Gon.

"It wasn't a request, Yoda," Anakin informed him, in a firmer tone. "It was a statement." He was perfectly willing to pull rank, on these stupid machines, if he had to. They couldn't refuse a direct order from a military General of Jedi Master rank.

"Master Yoda, Master Kenobi has been moved to a different room. The droids have performed all the surgery they could but he is still unstable," the guard that had been guarding the door from letting Anakin in informed them. Anakin glanced up at the soldier, feeling his second...or seventh wind coming in.

"I can see him now?"

"No rules against it now," the soldier answered.

"Good." He nodded, his grip on his cane tightening. "Go find out what room he's in."

"One floor up, 687."

"Right..." He nodded, before limping past him. No damn droid was going to stop him this time...that was for sure...

The sight that greeted him when he arrived at the room Obi-Wan had been put in was not pretty. A tube forced air into Obi-Wan's lungs, bandages covered every visible part of his body and probably the invisible. The one around his head was already becoming bloody again.

The blonde froze in the doorway, eyes wide. He heard Yoda murmuring to the soldier something about informing the children, but it felt like it was from a hundred miles away.

'Oh...my Master...' He couldn't even speak, his throat had closed up. But, he could still try to reach through the Force for him...It's 'eternal, pure light' was offering him little comfort right now. 'You said you'd be careful...'

'Anakin... things are not looking good,' Qui-Gon told him sadly.

'But...but there has to be something...' He felt his eyes burning hotter than ever. It was only a matter of time, before he started crying now, not will. 'You can't just mean...that we have to wait this out...I can't do that, Qui-Gon!'

'There is nothing you can do this time. Not even I can feel him this time.'

'But...I can't just lose him...He's all I have...My children don't need me...Padme's gone, my mother's gone...This is ten times worse than when you died, for him...'

'I'm sorry, Anakin.'

Pounding feet came rushing through the halls. Whoever owned them skidded to a stop gasping for air, but their breath caught when they came through the doorway.

"...Papa..." Luke whispered in an incredibly small voice.

'Nothing, Qui-Gon, is impossible,' he stated quite firmly, with more confidence than he possessed, at the moment.

Stumbling forward, Anakin leaned heavily against the bed, looking down at Obi-Wan's battered face. His hands fisted around sheets he couldn't feel, and hot tears trickled down his cheeks. This couldn't be happening...not again...he wouldn't let this happen again!

"Obi-Wan...you need to wake up now," he stated tightly, ignoring Luke and Leia watching him from the doorway. That infuriating dragon spoke up in his mind, as his tears dampened the sheets, and his gloves alike.

All things must die, Anakin Skywalker.

No. Not Obi-Wan.

"You can't do this to me...bastard..."

Even stars burn out.

No! Not Obi-Wan!

"I won't let you do this to me...!"

All things must...

He felt something snap, and what he yelled, he shouted so loudly that he could have sworn he felt blood vessels in his throat pop.

"WAKE UP!"

There wasn't even a change in the slow beat of the heart monitor. Luke stood frozen just staring, Leia hid her face in his neck crying.

"You...you have...you have t-to wake up..." Anakin sobbed brokenly, his knees giving way under his weight, sending down to the floor, but he barely noticed. "You...you're too strong for this, too--too stubborn! Obi-Wan Kenobi...can't die...from a damn whip..." Once again nothing happened. It seemed that this time Obi-Wan was fighting to hang onto that last thread of life... but also just wanting to give up and be at peace.

"You can't leave me yet..." Anakin continued, and...this time it almost seemed that he was laughing through his tears...Mirthlessly, but as he continued, the irony continued to build up, and he was definitely laughing. "I still need you." He'd gone on and on for years while Obi-Wan had been training him, about how he didn't need anyone, how he would be just fine on his own, how he was far too strong to possibly need his master's help...yet here he was, broken, defeated, sobbing, pleading for him to stay and help him more.

Beep...beep...beeeeeeeeeeeeep...

The only two sounds in the room were the flat line and Anakin's laughter. And, he continued to laugh. Harder now, still crying, and his mumbling lapsed languages. While he spoke in Huttese, it was impossible for Luke and Leia to know what he was saying, exactly, but his progressively angry tone gave them a pretty good idea that he was spewing out every curse word he knew.

A droid entered and unhooked the monitor so now only Anakin's curses filled the room, for the first time in their lives Luke and Leia were scared of their father.

Yoda came in and rested a hand on Anakin's head putting him asleep before he could hurt himself. He then nodded to a soldier to come and get him before leading him out of the room.

When he woke up again, he was at home. He sensed some energies in the room, but he couldn't bring himself to identify them.

"Where is my Master?" He wondered, to whoever happened to be listening. "I can't feel him." Padme gently stroked his hair while Yoda sat silently. Luke and Leia had cried themselves to sleep on the couch in the living room. None of them wanted to answer his question.

"I need him," he continued, chuckling nervously. "He needs to chase my nightmares away."

"Unable he is to do that now, Anakin," Yoda told him quietly.

"No, no!" He protested, only half registering that he was crying again, and still snickering slightly. "He always has before. Since I met him. If he isn't here to do it, the monsters will come. I need him."

'Ani... he's gone,' Padme said as gently as possible.

"No!" He repeated, shaking his head. "No! He can't leave! Without him my dragon will come! My dragon will come, and he'll eat you all up!"

'Recover from this he shall not,' Yoda thought. 'Endanger himself he will.'

"My dragon...he can eat whole systems. He can crush them. Make them all die!" He continued to rant, cursing ever so often. "My Master is the only one who can calm him down. Where is my Master? I need him!"

"Left us, your Master has, Anakin," Yoda answered. Qui-Gon appeared and stared down at him sadly.

'He's dead, Anakin,' he stated his voice cracking a bit. 'He cannot come to you now.'

"NO!" He shook his head desperately, shrieking the word out, and thrashing a bit. "No...there is no death," he stated quite confidently. "My Master taught me that, you know. There is no death; there is the Force. The Force is my friend, my companion, it wouldn't take my Master from me!"

'He's gone, Anakin, and there is nothing you or any of us can do about it. I'm sorry,' Qui-Gon replied. The mixed sobs and laughter got louder, and louder.

"But, my dragon can't take him." He shook his head, smiling now through his tears, and tremors. "It can take my mother, and my wife, but it can't touch my Master. My Master is stronger than my dragon. He's stronger than death!"

"Hurt yourself you will. For the best this is." He heard Yoda say before he knew no more once again.

"D...Daddy?" The adults turned to see Luke and Leia watching in horror from the doorway. "What's wrong with him?" Luke wondered, his eyes wide. He could feel his mother here...and Qui-Gon...and obviously Yoda was...someone would know...

Padme's energy wrapped comfortingly around them both, they could also feel her sadness.

"Hurt deeply by Obi-Wan's passing he is. Recover from this loss he may not. Put away where he can hurt none and none can hurt him shall he be," Yoda explained sadly.

"So..." Leia spoke up this time, shivering slightly, and pressing closer to Luke. "He really is broken?"

Yoda only nodded in answer before saying, "The last anchor to the sane part of his mind, Obi-Wan was. Broken he is now."

"But...isn't there something we can do to help him?" Her tone was so naively hopeful...It almost hurt Luke to hear it from his sister.

"Sadly there is not. At this point, even his love for you cannot pull him back, I fear." In his sleep, Anakin shivered, and twitched in his bed. He hadn't just been rambling about his nightmares...

"But...Papa got him to come back from the dark side!" It was Luke's turn to sound hopeful this time. "Is this that much different?"

"Outside forces the Dark side is. Inner demons he faces now," Yoda replied.

"Oh..." Both their expressions fell, upon hearing that. Wrapping an arm around her waist, Luke led Leia away from the door. He'd take her home, to the Organas. She didn't need to be here to watch their father be locked away.

Yoda called for a soldier to help him with Anakin. He would be taken care of, Yoda himself would see to that but locked away he would be. Deep below the Temple, where no one could hear his screams.

Whenever anyone went to see him, to feed him, or some such thing (He wouldn't be medicated, Yoda had feared that might do more harm than good.) they were always met with the same image. Anakin Skywalker, broken and curled up in the corner, his face buried in his hands, laughing softly, and speaking with himself...or, an Obi-Wan Kenobi that no one else could see. As the months passed, and absolutely no improvement came, it became all too apparent.

The Hero With No Fear had finally, truly fallen into his own fears.

End

"Gone away.

Who knows where you've been?

You take all your lies, and wish them all away.

I somehow doubt we'll ever be the same.

Too much poison, and confusion on your face.

Can you feel it?

Do you mean it?

I cannot see ya.

How are we doin'?

I think I love ya

But, I ain't sayin' nothin' you don't know!"

Hate This Place (Goo Goo Dolls, Dizzy Up the Girl)

"Ani...you're not all powerful."

"Well, I SHOULD be. Someday, I will be. I will be the most powerful Jedi ever, and I will even learn to stop people from dying."

Anakin Skywalker, and Padme Amidala (Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones)

Next: Epilogue - Fated