As they entered Coruscant's atmosphere he could feel the weak threads of Anakin's Force signature. It was very frayed and indistinct, and Obi-Wan knew that it would be difficult to track Anakin that way. Not that it would be difficult to find the younger man. All that he needed to do was find Sidious. After what had happened the last time it was highly unlikely that he would stray far from Anakin until he was certain of his allegiance. Even then he was likely to remain cautious.
"Take us to the industrial sector," Obi-Wan instructed Cody. "We'll be able to hide the Falcon there."
What he left unsaid at the moment was rumours of a passage that led from the industrial sector right to 500 Republica. It as good a place as any to start his search for Anakin. That it was possibly also the most dangerous was inconsequential. Obi-Wan only cared about finding Anakin before he was swallowed up by the darkness.
And even though he knew that it was likely a bad idea, he had also decided that he and Cody should split up. As much as he trusted Cody, there was a great deal he didn't know about the clone's programming. Even though he didn't want to think too hard on it, Obi-Wan had a suspicion that it was Cody who had unwittingly led Sidious right to them. He didn't know how it was done, but Obi-Wan was fairly certain that there was a way to track the clones: homing beacons imbedded somewhere under the skin. Obi-Wan didn't approve of it much in the same way he hadn't approved of the small chip that had been placed under Anakin's skin when he was a slave. Most of the time the homing chips weren't much of an issue, but so close to Sidious, Obi-Wan couldn't take the chance.
"I need you to find out whatever information you can about the goings on in the Senate in the past few weeks," Obi-Wan instructed as Cody brought the ship into dock in a large abandoned factory bunker. "I will find Anakin."
Cody looked as though he would say something else, but remained silent. For all the time he had spent in their company, Obi-Wan knew that their relationship still confused the clone. While the clones certain did have the ability to think for themselves, the basis of all their reactions came from Jango Fett. The rugged and rough bounty hunter was not one that Obi-Wan would envision as being open-minded about sexual relationships. Cody himself had never made a comment on his relationship with Anakin, discretion that he and Anakin were grateful for as, to Obi-Wan's knowledge, the Council had never found out about his and Anakin's relationship. Obi-Wan feared to think about what the consequences would have been if Mace and the rest of the Council had known of the strong bond that had formed between him and Anakin. What the austere Master had suspected had caused enough problems for them.
"Skywalker was in that cell for a reason," Mace growled as he stalked into the quarters that Obi-Wan and Anakin shared while on Coruscant. "He is a threat to himself and every other sentient being and should be locked away."
Obi-Wan stood before the bedroom that he and Anakin shared, arms crossed over his chest. "Anakin is only a threat so long as you make him so. You have blown a very simple situation completely out of control."
"The Council did what it thought necessary where Skywalker was concerned. He was insensible when we removed the mask and injured each of the Jedi who were a part of the rescue. Two of the clones were killed. All this while he was too weak to even walk under his own power. We did what was necessary," Mace insisted as he came to a stop barely two feet in front of where Obi-Wan stood.
His arrogance only infuriated Obi-Wan more.
"With all due respect, Mace, you have no right to judge Anakin's actions. You don't know what it's like for a Jedi to be forced into that mask," Obi-Wan reminded the more senior Master, his voice hard.
"Regardless of my own opinion, it is the will of the Council that Skywalker be returned to the detention cell," Mace informed him, clasping his hands behind his back.
Obi-Wan arched an eyebrow. "I could hardly have been a unanimous decision as all Council members were not present."
"Given your attachment to young Skywalker, you could not be counted on to remain impartial where he's concerned. So you were excluded from the proceedings," Mace explained, his tone relaying just how trivial he believed it to be. "You have one standard hour to return him to the detention center."
"And just what will happen after that hour?"
"Skywalker will be forcibly removed from your care."
Having read Mace's report on the passage found leading to 500 Republica, Obi-Wan immediately made his way to where the other Jedi had begun their search for Sidious. Had Palpatine not arranged his own abduction Mace and the others likely would have discovered his alternate identity as the Sith lord much sooner. In time to prevent the destruction of the Jedi Order. At the moment he didn't have the luxury of focusing on such things. He could only be grateful for the information that would, with luck, help him find Anakin sooner.
"I honestly do not know why you continue to struggle. He will not come," Sidious insisted, frustration evident in his tone. "He i cannot /i come for you."
Anakin arched his neck to prevent smashing his head against the hard surface beneath him. He wanted to block out Sidious' words, but he couldn't focus. The mask made it impossible to focus on anything. He could sense the Force only enough to be taunted by its presence, unable to use it. Unable to tell if Sidious' words were truth or lies.
And desperate as he was for Obi-Wan to come, Anakin hoped that his lover had chosen to abandon him. He couldn't be the reason that Obi-Wan was killed. Being without his lover was pain enough, but if Obi-Wan were alive he would at least be able to take comfort in that. He knew that Obi-Wan would look after Padmé and his child. His lover would make sure that they were kept safe from Sidious.
He knew immediately that he was alone. He could sense it before he even opened his eyes. It had been a dream then. Obi-Wan really was dead and all because of him. It made Anakin want to scream, but he found that he didn't have the energy to do so.
"And just what will happen after that hour?"
"Skywalker will be forcibly removed from your care."
Anakin's eyes immediately shot open when he heard Obi-Wan's voice. The older man was still alive. Anakin was out of the bed before he even realized it, rushing towards the sound of his lover's voice. The other voice that he had heard with Obi-Wan was full of rage that was bubbling just beneath the surface.
It took him only an instant to establish which of the two figures was Obi-Wan. In that instant he altered his path and tackled the other man to the ground.
"Don't touch him! You stay away from him! Stay away!" Anakin shouted, his fists slamming into every available bit of flesh that he could find. He couldn't let anyone hurt Obi-Wan. Not again. He couldn't risk anything happening to Obi-Wan because the next time he really could be dead.
Even after he had stopped punching, Anakin continued screaming, the words blending into a single sound. Arms wrapped around him then, pulling him away from the other man and into a familiar embrace. Anakin sobbed with relief, twisting himself about so that he could wind himself about the one holding him.
"You're alive," he moaned against Obi-Wan's shoulder. "You're alive. You're alive. You're alive."
In the end, that was all that really mattered to him: that the people he cared about were kept safe. What happened to him ultimately didn't matter.
Try as he might, he couldn't prevent the scream that escaped his lips as his body was once against racked with pain.
There was something sinister about being in the tunnels. As though it was filled with the phantom presence of people long since dead. That it was also the path to the Dark Lord's lair was fitting. The only way Obi-Wan would have felt more uneasy about his current path would have been if it was clean and well lit. In a way, there was comfort in its darkness.
As he trekked through the tunnels, following a fading, indistinct trail in the dust, Obi-Wan regretted that he couldn't contact Anakin through their bond. It was something that he couldn't risk. Not with Sidious so close. He was forced to keep his shields up as tight as possible in order to ensure that his presence on Coruscant was kept masked for as long as he was able.
To better his chances of remaining hidden, Obi-Wan had said nothing to Cody of his chosen path. It was that he didn't trust Cody; Sidious was the one that he didn't trust and Sidious was the one who ultimately controlled Cody and the rest of the clone commanders. Proof of that was Order Sixty-Six which had decimated their ranks. Obi-Wan himself had been the victim of a separate order and while it was Cody who had rescued him, he was also the one to have shot him in the first place. There was no way Obi-Wan could know whether such a thing would happen again and so he had separated himself from Cody.
Hearing a noise up ahead, Obi-Wan immediately ducked into a nearby alcove. He was grateful for the black clothing that he wore which kept him hidden far better than his beige robes would have. His twitching fingers moved automatically towards his lightsaber, wrapping around the hilt in a tight grip. Obi-Wan remained perfectly still otherwise, his senses strained towards the passageway's other inhabitant.
He was relieved to discover that it was only a droid. It was lying on the ground in several pieces before its sensors had even registered a threat. Obi-Wan began moving forward once again immediately, clipping his lightsaber onto his belt. With any luck there would be no further disruptions on his way to 500 Republica. Anakin had already spent far too long in Sidious' clutches.
Obi-Wan wasn't sure how long he and Anakin sat huddled on the floor in the middle of the common room. The blonde had long since stopped crying, but Obi-Wan made no move to release him. Not while Anakin was still trembling ever so slightly. Mace had left at some point, but that, like so much else, didn't register in his mind. He only cared about Anakin who seemed on the verge of falling apart at any moment.
"Hush now, love," Obi-Wan murmured into Anakin's unruly curls. "I'm not going anywhere, you have my word on it."
Anakin said nothing, hugging Obi-Wan to him even tighter.
"She didn't kill me, Anakin," Obi-Wan assured his lover. "She had been concentrating so hard on fighting you that she struck as though I had been you. Her aim was too high and she missed my heart. So you did save me. That damnable height of yours is what kept me alive. It now seems worth all that trouble we went through keeping you in clothes that fit when you were younger."
He wasn't sure what type of response he had been expecting, but the brief flicker of a smile against his neck was hopeful. Anakin still didn't say a single word, but his body was beginning to relax; muscles no longer quite so tense.
"Come now, I am not as young as I once was, and this floor is quite uncomfortable."
Obi-Wan was brought up short when he felt a familiar presence flair suddenly to life. Anakin. He was frightened, panicked, and in enough pain that it nearly brought Obi-Wan to his knees. Obi-Wan shook off the phantom pains, even more worried for Anakin that he had been before. Obi-Wan hadn't lowered his shields so he shouldn't have been able to feel Anakin's pain so acutely. He shouldn't have been able to sense it at all.
Obi-Wan!
He also shouldn't have been able to hear his lover's voice echoing in his mind with such intensity. It pained him that he couldn't risk a response. Desperate as he was to assure Anakin that he was coming, he couldn't chance Sidious discovering his presence on Coruscant just yet. So instead he sped up his pace, following the fading trail of Anakin's Force Signature.
In that moment Cody was relieved that General Kenobi wasn't anywhere that he could see the latest HoloNet footage. The Jedi Master's nerves were coiled tightly enough without seeing his partner bound and displayed before the entire galaxy like a trophy. A truly frightening trophy. Clad all in black, Skywalker wrists were fettered to his hips with what Cody assumed were meant to be invisible shackles and his face was covered by what appeared to be a black death mask. Emperor Palpatine might be attempting to disguise the mask's presence as a necessity following the supposed Jedi attack on General Skywalker, but unlike most Cody knew the true purpose of the mask. He had been a part of the rescue team that had gone after Kenobi and Skywalker following their abduction by Asajj Ventress. He had seen first hand the effects wearing the mask had on the young Jedi then and had the emotion registered with him then he would have feared for Skywalker this time if fear was an emotion that registered with him.
It was as though he was underwater and floundering for anything that was familiar. There was nothing, though. Despite all of his efforts, he couldn't focus on a single thing in the Force and knew that even if he had been able to there was no one for him to sense. Obi-Wan was the only Jedi left in the entire galaxy and Anakin knew that the older man would no longer want anything to do with him. He was too weak. It didn't matter that he was the best pilot in the galaxy or one of the best swordsmen; in the end he was weak. He had allowed Sidious to convince him that Obi-Wan would abandon him when his lover had always promised him the opposite.
Yet while he could sense almost nothing through the Force, Anakin was far too aware of what was going on around him in the physical world. Too weak to fight back, he had been dressed in what amounted to little more than a walking prison cell. To keep him docile the mask was still in place and along with it he had been dressed in stiff black leather that also contained several hidden straps and cuffs that kept him restrained. The reinforced and very sturdy straps were at his upper arms, elbows, wrists, and knees which made escape all but impossible without the use of the Force. Not that he would have had the strength to escape even if he hadn't been restrained. He was barely even managing to keep to his feet as Sidious made a grand speech about the evils of the Jedi.
Anakin chaffed with the inability to speak. Since he would have been able to speak even with the mask on it had been briefly removed and a gag stuck in his mouth. The moment it had been removed he had done what was instinctual and screamed for his lover along their bond. He didn't expect an answer, but it still hurt that he didn't even feel a flicker of the older man's presence. He had hoped that he would at least get some type of a response from Obi-Wan.
"…. And to think that the Jedi were once considered to be our former Republic's renowned peacekeepers. They cannot even be counted on to protect one of their own. The Hero With No Fear and the Negotiator. How often have we all heard of the exploits of this formidable pair? And the Jedi nearly destroyed them, our greatest heroes and protectors. We should therefore be relieved that young Skywalker was spared an untimely death. It is a shame that he will be forced to wear this mask just to breathe. After all that Skywalker has done for us, that this would be his reward…."
Sidious played the part of a lamenting politician well, earning the sympathies of his new Empire. None of those hapless masses even suspected that it was all lies. Or that their "hero" was now a prisoner. Had they known the truth of recent events he doubted there would be any sympathies for either he or Sidious. They were both monsters. And now they both looked the part: Sidious with his disfigurement as a result of his duel with Master Windu, and Anakin himself in the frightening black mask.
While he had never seen the mask from the front himself, he had seen it several times in Obi-Wan's nightmares. As much as his lover had tried to conceal the effects of his own time as Ventress' prisoner, the one thing that he couldn't hide were his nightmares. For all of his meditating, he couldn't do anything about his unconscious minds when he slept. There had been many nights that he had been woken by Obi-Wan's panicked screams as his nightmares jolted him back into wakefulness.
Anakin had been sitting in the common room, going over the contents of a datapad when he heard the shout from Obi-Wan's bedroom. He was on his feet before the cry had even finished, the datapad tumbling forgotten from his hands. Calling Obi-Wan's name, Anakin ran towards his master's room, thankful he didn't need to waste time with the door as he rushed to the older man's side.
Inside the room, Obi-Wan was seated upright in the center of the bed, panting and gripping at his skull as he rocked back and forth. A moment later Anakin was kneeling on the bed, winding his arms around Obi-Wan's shoulders. The smaller man clung to him desperately, his body trembling as Anakin ran his fingertips up and down Obi-Wan's spine. Neither man spoke. There was no need. Obi-Wan wouldn't answer any of the questions Anakin asked. Not that questions were needed. In the few moments after a nightmare, Obi-Wan always projected quite clearly. So Anakin would do what he could, holding his lover while he shook and making tea to help calm him enough to sleep again.
"I have should not be having these dreams still," Obi-Wan sighed, turning his head so that his cheek rested against Anakin's shoulder. "I have moved passed it and the memories no longer trouble me. It is in the past, where it belongs."
Anakin pressed a kiss to the top of Obi-Wan's head. "I'll find her one day and make sure that she really is in the past. She won't hurt either of us again."
What a naïve fool he had been. Everything had all appeared so simple then. Go in, fight the bad guys, defeat the bad guys. A very simple equation that was never supposed to change.
Except now he was one of the bad guys.
Whether he wanted to be or not.