2. present indefinite
he's been rescued eventually, must have been, though fine details are all but a blur now.they have been rescued.
he recalls lights in the sky, cold white lights sputtering on the feverish-hot planet's breath; he recalls Padmé being gently carried in someone's arms, not his, no, though he does remember the sickening clammy feel of her skin
so strange feeling so cold on the inside when on the outside everything burst out in flames at the merest touch
he must have said something about touching, must have asked them not to, because no one carried him onboard in their arms, thank goodness, just the soft pull of the Force and the soft, smooth, cool metal of the deck.
he clings to the cool.
feels the ship's steady heartbeat hum.
Organa's ship. as absurdly there and trustworthy as the man himself...
...speak of the devil.
Bail Organa's just way too tall. Obi-Wan tries to fit him all in one glance, from shiny black boots to grey-silver rumbling top, and comes down with vertigo.
vertigo, but no pain. there is none. had not been since Anakin...
Obi-Wan tastes that particular memory, and throws up all over the shiny black. and a vestige of Mustafar must've crept onboard with him, it wraps around his head, and everything goes dirty red at once.
next time there is a cloak draped over him - space is cold - and fresh water smell makes him think remember
"Padmé?"
"She lives."
"So does he."
his voice amazingly fails to break. his body got other ideas, though, and he sees dirty red again, only in stains now, stains and runnels on leather black about to burst in flames any second
but they don't. it doesn't.
he passes out cold - cool.
he does not stand by Padmé's side when the time comes, Bail does. he lies on a medical bed in the next room, half-drugged out of his mind, with fractures, shock, concussion, nasty burns and what have you
he can touch her. he does, reaching out of the wreck of their bodies, through the sterile walls of glass, through.
there is a clarity in death, he knows now, for Padmé also can touch him, and her last breath, her last word is to him - about Anakin - and he hears it clear like a bell, a little silver bell ringing gently in his heart,
and when Bail Organa turns as well, with baby Luke in his arms, and Yoda too -
he sees them all, lives like silver lining, unwind and entwine and go on forever because there is the Force
for a moment he knows the future as it is going to be.
but that is all right, for it's just a moment, perfect but passing, and then there is here. and now.