Ch. 15

Obi Wan watched Anakin as he sat staring blankly at the wall, an expression of utter despair etched on the young Jedi's face. He wished he could help him, in some way, any way, but knew that nothing he could say or do would comfort Anakin. He felt such deep empathy for his friend, and extreme fear for the family with whom he was so close- but he knew that Anakin's pain was far worse. He now understood, though he wasn't sure that Anakin realized it yet, that Sidious was using Anakin's family to get at Anakin himself- he would take this opportunity, in which Anakin felt that he had lost everything, to try to turn him. He would offer Anakin the chance to save his family, and Obi Wan worried that Anakin would see no choice but to take it. He knew that the only option was to escape from their prison quickly so that they could save everyone from Sidioius' grasp before Anakin had enough time to lose all hope. He could feel Anakin's grief resonating through the Force, and could hear his former Padawan wondering if the children would be killed. He approached him now and put an arm on his shoulder.

"He will not kill them, Anakin," Obi Wan said comfortingly. As he said those words, all of Anakin's feelings suddenly disappeared from Obi Wan's detection, and Anakin turned away and stared at the wall. Obi Wan no longer had any idea what Anakin was thinking- Anakin was blocking him. He tried not to be hurt, understanding how difficult this time was for Anakin. "Don't block me out, Anakin. Please, let me understand. I want to help you, to comfort you, after all of this time you must know that I-"

"Nothing can comfort me now, in a situation like this" Anakin answered despairingly. "You don't want to know what I'm feeling."

"Anakin, yes, I do…"

"No, it would only worry you," Anakin said stubbornly. "It would scare you, Obi Wan. I don't want you to know."
"Anakin I can't let you keep these feelings contained, it will only make it worse. You have to work through this so that we can help your family."
"How can we help them?" Anakin shouted suddenly. "We're impossibly outnumbered."
"Anakin, you and I have been in situations much worse than this before, we-"

"Yes, but my wife and children haven't!" Anakin screamed, tears in his eyes.

"Anakin, stop it. Stop blocking me. I want to help you-"

"Fine!" Anakin yelled, and suddenly a flood of emotion filled Obi Wan's senses, and Anakin was right- it did scare him. There was so much pain, so much anger, that Obi Wan knew that so far Sidious' plan was working. Obi Wan felt the same feelings in Anakin that he had felt so many years ago during the Clone Wars, except now, they were multiplied. But amidst that anger was a terrible sadness, and a deep, deep love for his family. Also, Anakin's bright Force presence with which Obi Wan had become so familiar was still there- still holding out hope. So Obi Wan clung to the feelings of love and hope, desperately, trying to strengthen them and trying to reassure his friend that they would be all right. Anakin saw the look of shock on Obi Wan's face.

"I told you you wouldn't want to know," he said solemnly.

"But I do Anakin- I can help you," Obi Wan stated firmly. "Don't give in to these feelings, we will get through this, with your family and our little friends in tact. I promise you."

"How will we do that?" Anakin said pessimistically. "How-" Suddenly, Anakin sunk to the ground, unable even to keep himself standing. He sat against the wall, now letting the tears fall. He turned away, not wanting to let Obi Wan see his weakness, but Obi Wan simply sat next to him and put his arm reassuringly around his shoulder.

"I know you're upset Anakin," Obi Wan said. "I know this is hard, it's ok to be scared. You don't have to be strong all the time…"

"Yes I do," Anakin said stubbornly. "I have to be, or how will they be?"

Obi Wan knew he was talking about Padme and the children- Anakin had always put such a burden on himself to not worry them about anything, to make sure that he always was reassuring and strong for them, so that they didn't have to be scared, or worried, or sad. It worried Obi Wan, and Padme as well, and the two discussed it occasionally, knowing that it wasn't good for Anakin to bottle up his emotions.

"But Anakin," Obi Wan said gently, "they aren't here." Anakin stared at Obi Wan, but suddenly, just when he thought he might let himself feel weak and vulnerable, just for a moment, he no longer needed to. He suddenly felt reassured, and strong, and ready to save his family, go on with their lives, and forget the whole thing.

"Well," he said, turning to Obi Wan with a hint of a smile on his face. "How do you suggest we escape?"

"Now there's the Anakin I trained," Obi Wan said, smiling at him. "Personally, I think we should just break out the back, and hope we don't get detected. We just need to get out of here well before Sidious comes back- so that we have time to rescue everyone. So let's get out of here now. We've broken out of plenty of places far more secure than this, you know that Anakin."

"Yes, but with one important thing that we now lack- light sabers," Anakin reminded him.

"Well this is where we break the code a little bit and use the Force a little more than we are supposed to," Obi Wan answered, his eyes twinkling.

"Master, I'm shocked!" Anakin teased him. "Break the code- you?"

"You're a fine one to talk Anakin," Obi Wan laughed. "Look what you've done to it."
"So how do you intend to use the Force to escape?" Anakin asked him.

"For once, Anakin, let yourself use it in the ways you've always wanted to in battle. Manipulate your surroundings and see if you can't get us out of this room."

"Obi Wan, now is not the time for a new lesson," Anakin said frustratedly. "Just tell me what to do, and for Force sake, help me!"

"What would you say these walls are made of, Anakin? Dirt?" Obi Wan said casually.

Anakin nodded. "Packed tightly too… miserable place. I don't know how we can get out of here, Force pulling pieces of floor and ceiling is one thing, but the ground itself?"

Obi Wan just smiled. He lifted his hand, and the pieces of dirt began to rearrange themselves so that there was a hole in the wall and up to the ground's surface just big enough for Obi Wan and Anakin to push themselves through to the top. Anakin stared in shock at Obi Wan.

"How did you do that?" He asked, incredulously. He suddenly realized that Obi Wan was a lot more powerful than he had realized. He was truly impressed, and in awe of his former Master. He had never seen him use the Force so powerfully and yet peacefully before. Anakin suddenly realized that he still had a lot to learn- obviously there were things about the Force that even he hadn't even begun to learn yet.

"Even as a Master, Anakin," Obi Wan told him, "There is much to learn." (A.N. totally making this stuff up…) Anakin kept staring at him, and Obi Wan just laughed. "Surprised to find something you can't do that I can, Anakin?"

"No, no, I just-"

"I'm just teasing you, it's something you will learn."

"I've been on the Council for four years," Anakin began. "Why don't I know?"

"Learn to mediate properly," was all Obi Wan said, before he wedged himself through the hole he had created and was soon standing in freedom. Anakin followed soon after, and with a flick of Obi Wan's hand the ground closed behind them.

"Let them figure that one out," Obi Wan laughed. "It will be a long time before they can even figure out which way we went. They'll never know how we escaped. We'll be out of here with everyone before they even know that we're gone."

"Have I ever told you how incredible I think you are?" Anakin said, still in shock.

"Don't tell Padme you said that," Obi Wan teased, rolling his eyes, before heading straight into the woods behind them. "Hide here, just to be safe. Do you know where the cell holding Padme and the children is located?"

"Well I think that we went north when they took us…"

"Really?"

"No, I made that up. I have no idea," Anakin admitted, suddenly frustrated again.

"Search for them with the Force Anakin," Obi Wan instructed, as if this were obvious. "Call to them."

"You could do it too…"

"But you know them far better than I do," Obi Wan told him. "But be careful, we don't want Sidious to sense this."

"They're over here," Anakin said suddenly, walking off to the right with Obi Wan following him closely. Soon enough, from the little ridge of woods where they stood, they saw several small huts like the one in which they had been kept with Anakin's family.

"Ah!" Anakin screamed suddenly, clapping his own hand over his mouth. Obi Wan rushed to him and put his hand on Anakin's shoulder.

"What is it?"
Anakin just pointed, and Obi Wan followed the direction of his finger and saw Leia sitting down with guards all around her. She looked very small and vulnerable, all alone in the open stretch of land, with the black-cloaked guards surrounding her. Obi Wan looked at Anakin and saw tears in his eyes.

"Anakin, keep yourself together- we can handle this crowd. This might actually be better, we can save them each individually, if they're all separated."

Anakin turned to him, trying to accept this explanation. He took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down. "What should I do?"

"Talk to her, through the Force. Tell her we're here and tell her what to do…and see if she can tell you what happened, where the others are…"
"She will be surprised- I've never spoken with her through the Force before…but she and Luke talk to each other, so hopefully she won't react too strongly…"

"She and Luke can already talk through the Force?"
"Yes, I was going to tell you- It's very impressive," Anakin said proudly.

"Wow, that's… oh dear, am I going to have trouble with him," Obi Wan thought out loud, and Anakin smiled. "Just warn her right away not to react. To pretend she doesn't hear you, and to respond only through the Force."

"All right," Anakin said, taking a deep breath. 'Leia, angel, it's daddy, can you-'

He saw Leia's head turn around quickly, and, much to his and Obi Wan's surprise, she looked directly at them with a Force intuition far beyond her years.