Each step was agony, although that wasn't new to Anakin these days. Bodily pain was nothing. He could manage that. What he hadn't expected was the fire in his core as it was flooded with the Force once more.
After so long being nearly entirely cut off from the Force, Anakin had thought his body would sing for joy, but instead his senses were bombarded and overstimulated, crying as the chaos crashed down on him.
Fear, pain and suffering screeched in his ears. Was it his own, or someone else's? Maybe it was both. The child next to him practically vibrated with both fear and hope, and the Jedi who dragged him along was radiating tension and turmoil.
Was Padme alright? Did she think he was dead? How long had it been since his capture? Months? Years? It had felt like years, but he really didn't know, and that scared him the most.
"Where are we?" He whispered, hoping answers to his questions would help.
"An Inquisiting place." The child, Leia answered him instead of Obi-Wan, whispering just as quietly as he did. "Now shush. Also there's a step here. Don't trip."
The little hand under his elbow tightened as the swoosh of a door ruffled the air around them.
An Inquisiting place?
Anakin shivered.
That sounded too nice for the screams that had haunted his dreams during the time he spent there. Leia's own cries were still fresh in his mind, burnt there forever.
'What are you doing to me?! PLEASE! Help, somebody help!'
Her screams were what forced him to his feet after Obi-Wan left him. Amidst all the cacophony of the Force flooding his senses and the weakness of his body, the urgency to answer her cries outweighed anything else.
Something he couldn't explain had snapped inside his heart and it was the same feeling that woke him from his deep trance in the first place. He would have helped any child screaming like that if he could, but her particular scream rocked the Force, stabbing through the only tiny thread of connection he had left and drawing him back into the world.
Every instinct in his soul told him he needed to protect her.
Another set of doors opened and Anakin felt Obi-Wan stop, then start moving again.
Breathing through the pain yet again, Anakin worked to reinforce the walls of his mind. They couldn't afford Palaptine finding out he escaped, not that the monster had visited him more than once. The only time he'd done so Anakin managed to convince him that he was basically a vegetable on life support. The Sith had been disgusted, but satisfied that he was no longer a threat. After that Anakin had waited and planned for his moment to escape…which hadn't come until today.
*BEEP BEEP* BEEP BEEP* BEEP BEEP*
"Come on!" Obi-Wan dragged him along faster now and Anakin could feel Leia struggling to keep up with her shorter legs.
"For the record, I didn't give us away." Anakin gasped as he tugged on the Force and let it in, begging it for help and willing his legs to work better.
They did, but the screaming of his wasted muscles didn't ease.
An alarm started blaring a few floors above their heads.
"Can you manage with just Leia? We're going to have company in a moment." Obi-Wan said tensely.
"I'll manage. I always do." Anakin answered grimly.
He sensed Obi-Wan's hand shift from where it had been gripping the mechanical arm slung around his neck so he could yell into a communicator. "TALA! Tala! We're in the open! We need you!"
The communicator crackled to life a moment later and a woman's voice answered. "I'm on my way."
"Leia, guide Anakin." Obi-Wan ordered. "Stay in front of me for now. When the blasters start, stay hidden if you can."
Anakin felt the girl grip his elbow harder, dragging him with her.
"Come ON!" She commanded.
"Going as fast as I can, m'lady." Anakin told her, slight amusement slipping into his voice. He would much rather die in the next few minutes having teased and bantered with live people rather than all alone in that coffin (not that he had any intention of dying).
Obi-Wan's lightsaber hummed to life and he could hear heavy boots running. Then the blasters started and Leia dragged him backwards. He stumbled and smacked his head into something metal.
"OUCH! Hey, watch it! What kind of guide are you?"
"It's not my fault you're so tall! Get your head down! People are shooting at us!"
"Yes, thank-you. I figured that part out." Anakin ducked and fumbled for the wall, cursing his eyes for still refusing to open. They were being fired at from both directions, but for the moment, Obi-Wan seemed to have it handled.
Anakin frowned.
The Jedi Master was moving slower than usual, and his movements were…clumsy? That wasn't right. What was wrong with him? Where was the fenez and flare?
"Leia!" Obi-Wan barked.
The girl grabbed Anakin's hand and dragged him upright, forcing him to stumble along next to her. They rounded another corner, and more blasters started to fire at them.
Leia tugged Anakin to the side again, dragging him down next to her so he wasn't so much of a target.
Feeling useless and perhaps just a little silly being taken care of by a ten-year-old, Anakin reached out with the Force in an attempt to read the situation without his sight. His head throbbed with the effort, but he could sense more than he had in years and it was invigorating. It was like getting warm after spending too long in the cold or breathing deeply for the first time after using only a straw for years.
A stray blaster round flicked off Obi-Wan's blade and struck nearby. The sound of glass crackling reached both his and Leia's ears.
"I have a bad feeling about this." Anakin sighed.
"Me too." Leia whispered, her hand gripping his even tighter.
"Just curious, but what's outside the window?"
"Water."
"Well, isn't this is fun."
"We have to move!"
Leia dragged him up again, grunting a little with the effort it took her to help him.
Just as they reached a new 'hiding spot' a few steps behind Obi-Wan, Anakin felt the Force surge as another blaster round got past his master and went right for Leia.
His metal arm shot out before he even had time to think, grabbing the child around the middle and tugging her back out the way just as the bolt hit the wall.
The tiny body exhaled a shaky breath and she whispered a faint, "Thank you."
Blaster fire quieted as heavy doors fell shut further away from them and Anakin struggled to his feet just as cracking glass filled the semi quiet.
"BEN THE WINDOW!" Leia cried, fear coloring the air around her like a dark cloud.
Obi-Wan spun and Anakin felt the Force around the man creak and groan with the effort it took to work through the older Jedi as he attempted to hold back an entire body of water.
"Ben!" A woman's voice cried from behind them.
"Tala!" Obi-Wan's relief was fresh and keen. "Get them out of here! I'll hold it!"
Stronger hands gripped Anakin under the arm, hosting him up and supporting him. Tala, he assumed.
"Come on!" The woman urged.
'Wait! Obi-Wan!" Anakin protested, twisting uselessly in an attempt to go back. He could feel the strain in the air and he willed his eyes to open as they stopped moving and Tala left him to Leia's care again. This time, his lids moved, opening slowly to reveal a tattered, shaking Obi-Wan holding back a breaking widow in the middle of an underwater corridor with one hand, whilst staving off blaster fire with his lightsaber in the other.
The window's exploded as the Jedi forced the break along towards his attackers instead.
"RUN!" Tala cried, her hand hovering over the controls for the door.
As Obi-Wan turned and sprinted, Anakin knew he wouldn't out run it.
Pure habit had him reaching out his hand. The Force ran raw and hash over his senses and he cried out as it surged to hold back the water long enough for Obi-Wan to make it through the closing doors.
Once he was safe, Anakin collapsed to the ground next to Leia, breathing harder than the worn older man standing next to him.
How much time had passed that Obi-Wan should look like that?! What about- '
"Are you alright?" Leia asked, kneeling down next to him.
Anakin looked at her for the first time, taking in the deep, thoughtful brown eyes, serious face and tiny body. Her expression was what had him utterly speechless. There was something terribly familiar about that look.
Kind. Concerned. Wary. Proud. It reminded him of-
"Anakin?"
"What?" Anakin tore his eyes from Leia and blinked up at Obi-Wan.
"I asked if you can walk."
"Yes. Yes I can walk. For now." Anakin let Obi-Wan drag him to his feet.
"Put these on!" The woman, Tala, handed Anakin a shirt, then both men long overcoats and hats from the officers on the floor. "We need to hurry. This way."
"How are we going to hide Leia?" Obi-Wan asked worriedly as he threw on his overcoat and helped Anakin with his.
Given his lack of body weight, Anakin swam in it. He could have fit two of him in it, which gave him an idea.
"I have an idea! What if she hides under my overcoat?" Anakin suggested.
"WHAT!?" Obi-Wan's eyebrows disappeared under his hairline. "Now just wait a minute, Anakin. I don't think-"
"Just listen before rejecting the idea! Simplicity isn't a bad thing!" Anakin protested, too tired to be offended. "I'm skin and bones anyway and I might need the help walking! No one is going to notice her unless they're really looking, she's TINY! It's so simple that no one would suspect and-"
"And we don't have another choice." Tala finished, grabbing Leia by the shoulders and shoving her into Anakin's side. "Stay under there."
Leia, to her credit, didn't protest and instead listened instantly to the woman. She tucked in close to Anakin, filling out the coat so that it hung less like it was being worn by a walking skeleton. He dropped his mechanical hand loosely to his side so it was brushing her thin shoulders and held the coat closed with the other hand.
"See? No one will notice and we've pulled off crazier disguises!"
The Jeid Master stared at them a moment before giving a gruff hum of surprised approval.
"Anakin, whatever happens, keep that hat down. Don't let anyone see your face." Obi-Wan told him as they approached the last set of doors in an empty hallway.
"What's wrong with my face?" Anakin asked blandly, only pretending to be offended this time.
"For the love of- Please. Just this ONCE, Anakin-"
"Yes. I will keep my head down. I'm sorry, master." Anakin ducked his head by way of proof and let Tala and Obi-Wan flank him. Leia's little legs ghosted along next to him, and he prayed the plan worked.
They had to escape.
He needed answers to a great many questions because all was NOT right in the universe.