Obi-Wan scratched nervously at his stubbled jaw. In all honesty he had no idea what he was doing. Lord Sidious, his new master, had given him the name of a planetary system and he was expected to go there and kill the Separatist leaders who were in seclusion there. He didn't understand why he was supposed to bring an end to a war that Sidious had admitted to spending over a decade setting in motion. But as there was a lot that he didn't understand, Obi-Wan decided to follow whatever course of events the fates had in store for him, hoping that they would bring him and Anakin together again. Obi-Wan had to believe it.
Since his knowledge of the galaxy was lacking and the star maps only confusing him, his astromech droid had been programmed with the coordinates for Alzoc III. It was there in an old munitions factory that Obi-Wan had been told he would find his prey. That it was so cut and dry made Obi-Wan even more nervous. He couldn't trust that everything was laid out so perfectly that it would only take a few strokes of the lightsaber Sidious had given him to end a war he hadn't even been aware had started.
The lightsaber didn't have a blue blade like the one Anakin assured him was his. When Obi-Wan had ignited it in the hanger he had been surprised to see the red blade. It had caused him to shudder, the colour far more sinister than he was comfortable with. Lord Sidious' eyes had been equally frightening. It was as though some sort of hellfire glowed behind his eyes. Obi-Wan feared that same fire would consume him as well and that he would no longer be the man Anakin loved.
First he had to make sure Anakin was kept alive and to ensure that he had to do what Sidious wanted of him. He had to be a cold-blooded murderer until he proved to Sidious that he could be trusted. That he truly was a disciple of the Dark Side of the Force. In all honestly Obi-Wan didn't really understand it when people spoke of the Force. He knew that it was responsible when he altered the thoughts of other individuals or when he threw things about without touching them. It was the nonsense about light and dark that he didn't understand.
The arfour unit that was navigating his starfighter informed him that they were entering Alzoc III's atmosphere. Very soon he would become a murderer. Obi-Wan felt sick in the pit of his stomach at the thought of what he knew he would have to do if he wanted Anakin to remain unharmed. That was the thought Obi-Wan chose to focus on as he manually took control of the starfighter. Anakin had informed him that his unease while flying was something that had always existed. Still, he could pilot the ship decently so he had to have done it on a regular basis. Obi-Wan wondered what else he had done in the past he couldn't remember.
How much blood already stained his hands.
There had to be a reason that Sidious had chosen him for an apprentice. It couldn't have been an idle decision if the Sith Lord had gone through all the trouble to abduct Anakin in order to ensure his compliance. Obi-Wan had to have done something to warrant the man's attention.
Not being able to sense Obi-Wan unnerved Anakin. Their connection had become so intimate over the past few weeks that Obi-Wan's faded presence had become a void. It left him feeling entirely too hollow. Even worse, since he was essentially on house arrest, banned from leaving the room, he couldn't do anything to remedy the situation. He had tried, but the clone troopers outside the door stopped him every time.
Once he'd regained his sense of equilibrium, Anakin had taken to pacing. He would have tried the window as a means of escape only they were too high up and there was no ledge. Anakin stayed near to the window, though, on the off chance that a speeder came close enough to the building for him to jump out and hitch a ride for at least a brief while. Long enough to get away from his guards and start searching for Obi-Wan. Anakin didn't know where he had been taken before since he'd been unconscious for both his abduction and release, leaving him without a starting point to begin his search. He was determined to find Obi-Wan regardless.
The only thing Anakin did know was the Obi-Wan was no longer on Coruscant. If he had been Anakin was certain that he would have been able to sense him. He was sure of it, their bond was so strong. If he could just get beyond Coruscant's atmosphere Anakin was sure that he would be able to sense which way Obi-Wan had been taken.
"On Coruscant, Palpatine still is," Master Yoda announced as he entered the room. "Where Obi-Wan is, we know not."
Anakin wheeled around, his gaze focused on the small Jedi Master. "You have to let me out of here so that I can find Obi-Wan. We've already wasted enough time and the longer we wait the more danger Obi-Wan is in. You're letting Palpatine twist Obi-Wan's mind more and more. Please, you have to let me go to him."
Anakin hadn't been aware that he'd dropped to his knees while he spoke. When he lifted his head, though, hoping to beseech the ancient Jedi Master to heed his pleas, he found himself at almost eye-level with the diminutive creature.
"Dangerous, this passion is," Master Yoda sighed, leaning heavily upon his gimmer stick. "Without it, a Jedi should be for judgment passion clouds. Dangerous enough the galaxy is with the return of the Sith and lose more Jedi we cannot. Risk you, the Council cannot."
"But you'll risk Obi-Wan's?" Anakin demanded, his voice frighteningly calm. "Obi-Wan is a far better Jedi than I could ever hope to be. He's strong and wise, loyal. He's everything that a Jedi should be. Don't punish him because he can't remember that right now."
"Punish Obi-Wan, the Council does not," Master Yoda countered with a brief shake of his head. "Protect you, the Council does. Fallen to the Dark Side your Master has. A threat he has become."
"Obi-Wan would never hurt me," Anakin protested as he shot back up to his full height.
Master Yoda began to toddle towards the door. "His intention it might not be, but harm you your Master could. So stay here you will for your protection."
Palpatine checked the progress of Vader's starfighter, ensuring that his new apprentice didn't deviate from his route. He was putting a great deal of trust in the man's devotion to his padawan because at present that was all that held Obi-Wan Kenobi to him. So long as Vader believed that Anakin was in danger he would follow orders without questioning them. Once Vader had killed the Separatist leaders he would be bound to the Sith.
If not, Palpatine had plans for what would be done if Vader continued to resist. There were many devotees to the Sith Order who would gladly ensure that there was nothing left of Vader to protest his new existence, many of them disgruntled Jedi who would not look kindly on Kenobi for his fall from Jedi golden boy to Sith apprentice. Palpatine counted on the animosity to keep Vader in line while the Jedi Order was systematically dismantled.
And in the chaos that ensued, Palpatine would bring the Sith once again into prominence.
Waiting ten minutes to ensure that Master Yoda had left the medical wing, Anakin set about removing the pane of plasteel from the window frame. It would have been easy enough to jump through, but he didn't much feel like dealing with the irritating scratches the shards of plasteel left behind. There would be other things to hold his attention.
Anakin's next task was rewiring the room's comlink to enable him to communicate outside of the building. There was only one other person on Coruscant that he trusted to help him save Obi-Wan.
"Dex's Diner, sweety, what can I do you for?"
Back in his rooms, Yoda sat himself on his meditation cushion. He'd left young Skywalker knowing full well what the boy had planned. Despite all of his training, Anakin still gave into his emotions far too easily. And when he did that he projected his thoughts and intentions quite clearly. Anakin was bound and determined to find Obi-Wan and nothing the Council did would stop him. If the pair was truly such a balancing entity in the Force, their bond would be enough to allow Anakin to find his absent Master.
What the future held, Yoda could not see. The brief lifting of the haze created by the Dark Side had faded in the wake of Anakin's abduction and Obi-Wan's apparent rejection of the Jedi Order. As of yet there was no formal proof, but the current state of affairs was an obvious indicator of what had happened.
That he couldn't pick out Obi-Wan's distinctive Force signature worried the aged Jedi Master. Yoda had always been able to detect Obi-Wan when he so choose and his inability to do it presently filled him with unease. The chaos that was Anakin's Force signature offered him no clues as to what had become of Obi-Wan.
Unfortunately, there were more pressing concerns that demanded his attention. Though it was barely a week old, the war between the Republic and the Separatists had far eclipsed that on Naboo more than a decade before. Both clone troopers and Jedi were being killed every day in conflicts with the Separatist's droid army. Yoda feared that there would be countless more deaths before the war came to an end.
Obi-Wan wasn't quite sure what to make of the fact that he was expected. No sooner had he touched down on Alzoc III than he was met by a delegation of the local government. Not entirely certain what was expected of him, Obi-Wan simply took events as they came and hoped for the best. He'd been told that he had excellent diplomatic skills and hoped to find that the loss of his memory hadn't effected it any. He still required these people to take him to where the Separatist leaders were secluded and couldn't risk affronting them.
"Lord Sidious spoke very highly of you," the leader of the delegation said as they settled onto the cruiser that would take them into the city. "He informed us that you need to meet with the men we are harbouring."
Obi-Wan nodded his head curtly. "Yes, I'm here to relay my master's instructions to them."
"We were most surprised that Lord Sidious chose to send you rather than contacting them through the usual channels," the lavender-skinned humanoid questioned, glancing Obi-Wan's way rather indirectly.
"This is not a message that can be relayed through a holocommunicator."
Dex could easily remember the first time he'd met young Anakin Skywalker. It was a few weeks after Obi-Wan had taken him on as his apprentice. He had been a hyperactive nine year old staring wide-eyed at everything around him. Obi-Wan had simply sat in a booth, watching as the boy bounded around the diner, talking to everyone willing to start a conversation. He had been so innocent even though his childhood had been spent in slavery.
That afternoon Dex could find no sense of that innocent little boy. The only thing Anakin was radiating then was fear.
"I didn't think I'd ever be breaking a Jedi out of the Jedi Temple," Dex chuckled as he steered his speeder away from the Temple.
"Thank you for that," Anakin murmured as he sorted through the small arsenal of weapons Dex had scrounged up for him. "The Council won't listen to me so I have to do this on my own. I won't let them abandon Obi-Wan."
Dex admired the boy's devotion to his Master. And he knew that Obi-Wan felt the same. He'd shared many drinks with the Jedi Knight over the past ten years and had watched Obi-Wan's fear and jealousy had become genuine affection. He knew that Obi-Wan was utterly devoted to the boy and would have mounted his own assault had their situations been reversed. He might not have admitted to it, but he would have defied the Jedi Council if it meant saving his padawan.
"So do you have any idea what you're getting yourself into, kiddo?"
Strapping a holster to his thigh, Anakin glanced up at him quickly. "All I know is that Obi-Wan's in over his head and I have to find him. I have to help him before… I don't even want to think about what'll happen, but I have to find him."
Dex didn't question him. He merely nodded his head as he guided the speeder towards one of the many spaceports that dotted Coruscant's surface.
With a gasp, Obi-Wan dropped to his knees. All around him were the bodies of the Separatist leaders. They were all either missing limbs or had been slashed by his new red-bladed lightsaber. The one thing they all shared in common was that they were all dead by his hand. His lightsaber clattered to the ground as he leaned forward, vomiting up mostly stomach acids and bile as he hadn't eaten anything that day.
Wiping the back of his hand over his mouth, Obi-Wan rose shakily to his feet. Obi-Wan spit a final time as he leaned over to retrieve his lightsaber. He stood up too quickly then, wavering slightly. Obi-Wan staggered across the room, sitting himself down on a console far away from the carnage.
It wasn't the killing that frightened him so much as the fact that he didn't know why he'd done it. Obi-wan had no idea what the politics of his actions were, whether he'd killed people who'd genuinely meant to do harm or if he'd killed innocent people— figureheads.
Obi-Wan threw his lightsaber away then, tossing it across the room. He shrugged out of his cloak next, obi and belt following immediately after, creating a pile of dark leather on the ground. In only his tunic, trousers and boots Obi-Wan stalked out of the room. He had to get off of the planet and away from Sidious' grasp. Obi-Wan didn't want to be used to hurt anyone else or be a threat to Anakin.
He would go somewhere safe. Somewhere he could hide from Sidious and where he hoped Anakin could find him. Anakin had found him once before. He'd rescued him before when Obi-Wan thought he'd never be safe again.
I'm sorry, Anakin. I'm so sorry.