A/N: Y'all know how I said last chapter I was gonna have a consistent schedule for this fic.
It's been almost a whole year. Whoops. Y'all are gonna have forgotten this thing exists. It's really annoying as well because I was trying to build hype for these final chapters and now it's all gonna be lost.
I'll put a longer author's not below but (in short for if you wanna skip it) I've been struggling mentally a little bit, but mainly I've not been continuing this because my writing has improved so much since I last wrote, it's kind of hard to get back into it, ya'know?
Anyways a quick summary of the plot and recent chapters so you get a reminder: Anakin is kidnapped by a mysterious stranger (Marius) and rescued by Obi-Wan. They start to heal from the ordeal while Obi-Wan looks for clues. He goes to Marius's apartment and finds an unknown photo, revealing something important. Meanwhile, Palpatine takes Anakin to the lower levels, where he's left to meet Marius once more.
"D'you know people always called me peaceful when I was your age?"
Anakin shuffled, glaring glass daggers at Marius. Marius didn't flinch; the shards had no effect on him. "See, there's a difference between peaceful and harmless. Harmless is what you are. Unable to cause damage no matter whether you tried or not. A tricky state of affairs when you have the willpower but not the grit and callous to act."
The speeder beeped slowly, the flashing light illuminating Marius's face in reds and yellows. Anakin smelt a tinge of sulfur in the air, mixed with a putrid smell of rust and metal. The darkness enveloped them completely, a blinding cover wrapped over the speeder. To either side Anakin saw only wet pavement and rubble.
The industrial zone was oddly climatic for the two of them. A full circle, a cyclical structure that Marius clearly had a flair for. Silhouetted, Marius stretched his legs out, leaning on the dashboard. Anakin leaned away, furrowing his brows. Marius grinned.
It didn't quite reach his eyes.
Turning away, Anakin maintained a stoic expression. Marius looked… better. Anakin tasted bloody iron on his lips and grimaced.
Both of them were far from what they had started. Anakin's life had torn out from under him. He'd lost the honeyed childishness in his eyes and grown his roots from scratch, deeper and wizened. Only for Marius to axe him down without a second thought.
And Marius looked all the stronger for it. His eyes were still hollowed, but now with a keen intimidation rather than starved hunger. His face looked more human than skull now, but still clung to the harsh grin. Anakin knew, even with all his healing, Marius had healed in his own way. They were as well matched as they ever had been. Which was to say: not equal at all.
"I was always the most powerful. My fingers were smart and my mind was strong beyond my age. I just never liked conflict. You know, it all seemed fairly pointless. All dominance and survival. I was never harmless, but I was always peaceful." Marius sighed, flipping a credit in his hand. Anakin waited. But Marius had frozen and Anakin didn't want to get caught in the icy winds.
"Where… where did you come from?" Anakin watched Marius raise his head.
"Come from? My family is from Alderaan. Deepest height of developed civilization. Both flowers and skyscrapers to spare." Marius continued to flip the credit, higher and higher until it spun in the air, twisting like a bird. "Shame I never got to enjoy it."
Anakin couldn't afford to press. Not with hands tied behind him and his emotions scattered into thousands of pieces. But his impulsivity could be useful sometimes, and he wasn't afraid to fall into debt. "What happened to you?"
"What happened to me? What happened to you? Little boy from Tatooine hailed as the new hope of the Jedi Order. Brave and smart and talented," Marius replied. "Often when someone places something on a pedestal the disappointment is immeasurable. You have no idea how delighted I was to find out you were as characterful as they say."
"So you kidnapped me because I was gonna be the best Jedi? But I thought it was because Obi-Wan -"
"Did Obi-Wan ever tell you about his younger years?" Marius interrupted. "Any stories about his life as a Padawan?"
Anakin scowled. "None of your business."
"No, then?" Marius smiled. This time with genuinity. "Still distant then?"
"No," Anakin exclaimed. If recent months had taught him anything, Obi-Wan wasn't cold. Anakin couldn't believe he'd ever thought he was. "No, he did. He did tell me stories."
Marius flipped the credit higher still. Anakin watched it, craning his neck. It flew far above, seemingly gliding in the air. Marius caught it flawlessly. "Any of interest?"
"No," Anakin said. A lie, but it didn't have the usual bitter taste. Only adrenaline fueled survival.
"Funny. I got a couple of great stories from school." Marius stood, wobbling the speeder. Anakin avoided facing him, the man towering above him. "One time I remember I was tryna do some work on the holonet. Thought I'd get all my classwork done before everyone else. Couple of days before a big event and everyone was pushing the work back. But I sat there while everyone was outside and made sure I got all of my mechanics done. Learned to build and fix a small blaster. For emergencies, my teacher said."
Anakin didn't see the relevancy. He began to tune out, scanning the area for escape routes. The streets around were empty, only them and the echoing sound of Marius's voice. Reaching out, Anakin made a desperate attempt to contact Obi-Wan's mind. Once again he felt trapped, like the cover of darkness was pushing back and keeping him enclosed. It couldn't be that. But everytime Anakin tried he was blocked, a hand clamped over his mouth that muffled his screams.
"- I saw some skinny, ginger kid. We didn't speak much, but he seemed nice. We used to sit together at breaks, especially as the days went by and the ceremony grew closer," Marius continued. He looked down at Anakin, catching the credit and shrugging. "Connecting the dots yet?"
Anakin shook his head. Kriff. Maybe I should've listened.
"Damn. Not as smart as I thought," Marius said. "Figured you'd spot similarities quickly. Anyways, the day arrived and I was ready. Done all my work. Trained for months, until my aching bones and aching mind were barely noticeable. Didn't sleep that night."
Anakin watched as Marius threw the credit with all his might. It soared, graceful and purposeful. Anakin thought it was hovering until it disappeared out of sight, into the dark sky.
"I was certain I would be the top choice. Surely. I fit the bill exactly. Peaceful, not harmless. Brave and smart and talented, like you. Quiet," Marius said. He sat down, slumping against the windscreen.
"What - what kind of school was this? Why did you have to train so hard?" Anakin's curiosity piqued. Marius yawned, rubbing a hand over his face. If Anakin was going to get answers, he'd have to do it now. Innocent questions pierced better than accusations.
"Guessing you really haven't got it yet. I'm telling you this to explain why. There's no point hiding motivations now, not when we're ending this tonight."
Anakin's stomach dropped. Tonight? A tightening in his chest and his breaths came quicker. He clenched his hands and swallowed, again reaching out to Obi-Wan. Please. Please.
"What do you -" he began.
But Marius ignored him. "In the end there were two of us. The only two left who hadn't been chosen. My chest was aching and I could barely bring myself to stay in the room any longer. The other boy, the one with the red hair, was there too. We mirrored each other's fear. Certain abandonment was at stake."
Anakin's mouth grew dry. Am eerie twisting in his heart, he realised the credit had still not fallen from the sky. Marius couldn't have thrown it that far.
"Yes, the Jedi order was always as much a competition of cruel pacifism as it was a holy cult."
No.
Marius's face softened, jagged edges smoothing as he took in Anakin's horror. "Then your old friend Qui-Gon came in. I stood up straight, willing him to notice me. He took one look then headed straight towards the other kid. They spoke and I heard them laugh. Master Qui-Gon made his choice before he even spoke with me."
Anakin had never had to go through the choosing ceremony. He'd heard stories from the others, voices laced with terror and lingering dread. Kyla didn't like to speak about it at all. Often he forgot that Padawans could just not be chosen at all.
"Obi-Wan didn't look at me as he left the room. I was left standing there. And d'you know what? I was the only one who'd actually done the homework. I had it all ready to present. I'd trained, I'd practiced. Don't think I ever got to present it to anyone."
There was a glint of silver above them. Anakin glanced up and saw the credit fall from the stars, spiralling downward like a crashing starship. Marius raised his hand slowly, palm upwards.
"Never thought I'd be the only one not chosen to be a Jedi. Tried hard enough. Never thought it would be Obi-Wan who'd get my spot. And you wanna know something else? He didn't do the work. At all. He just sauntered in and was better."
The credit fell, and Marius flexed his fingers. The coin shuddered to a stop and hovered, floating in the air above his outstretched fingers.
"Tell me, do you think that's fair?"
"How do you know Marius?"
Obi-Wan had his hands around fistfuls of cloak before he'd even thought. Nails digging into fabric, tearing it under their desperate scrutiny.
"Who - Master Kenobi, what are - "
"Listen. You're going to tell me exactly who this man is and what he wanted with Anakin."
Master Fanro stumbled away, ripping his sleeve out of reach. Fanro reached up to his collar to adjust himself, while Obi-Wan glared at him as he regained a composed posture, drawing his shoulders up. Narrowing his eyes, he watched Obi-Wan. "Are you in need of assistance? You look rather like some flittish lothcat." He smiled, cutting through the tension like a well aimed knife.
But Obi-Wan waited, oblivious. "What do you know? Who's Marius?"
"Marius?" Fanro said. "Never heard of him. Are you quite sure you're alright Kenobi, you seem to be almost -"
"Fine," Obi-Wan replied. His hand dropped to his belt, Fanro following his movement knowingly. "If I don't get an answer, I will not hesitate."
Still smiling, Fanro raised his eyes and dropped his mask of bemusement. Obi-Wan suppressed a shiver; the corridor filled with a chill blow that emanated from the man opposite him. He kept a firm hand on his belt, fingers wrapped about his lightsaber.
"Interesting," Fanro said.
"You seem to have mistaken my threat to be a weak one. I'm not pressed for time."
"Then I'm sure you'll allow me to take a moment to think -"
Obi-Wan clenched his fist. His skin was peppered with glass, small spikes digging into his hand, drawing the blood which was dripping to the floor. As he flexed his hand he became increasingly aware of the throbbing, realising he must've cut it back in Marius's apartment. But clutched tightly, matted with blood, Obi-Wan still had the evidence.
"How do you know Marius?" He asked, forcing a tremor back. Calm.
"Oh, Obi-Wan. You wish me to reveal my secrets here? In plain hearing of any Jedi that may pass?" Fanro smirked. A flash of limited familiarity struck Obi-Wan. The smile, grin-like, had the hollowed impression of a skull. Teeth far too prominent. Teeth ready to bite through bone and honour.
Obi-Wan knew where he'd seen that smile before. Highlighted in holographic form, blue upon blue. But in the corridor, empty as it was, Fanro would never tell him how. He was glancing about, even with his arms outstretched in triumph. As was Obi-Wan, eyes flickering between the doors lining the walls. The sun was red and orange, shining through windows and casting bloodstains on the floor.
It boded a massacre.
Tentatively, Obi-Wan held up his hand. Unfurling his hand, the picture came out crumpled and tainted, shining in the blaze behind him. He dropped it, letting it curl over and fall limply to the floor, hitting with a silent thud. "You. And Marius. You know each other. How?"
Fanro watched. He studied the picture with a delighted expression. Then he lifted his boot and ground his heel into it, one time, adding to the tarnishes almost obscuring the subjects. When he moved away the two people in the picture were barely visible. "Like Jedi, like Jedi. One and the same, aren't we all? Moral code and moral atrocities."
"Like - Jedi?"
"Certainly. If you could class him as such."
Whirling thoughts crowded, threatening to overwhelm entirely. Jedi? But the Jedi were all accounted for. Anyone who went through the Order was traced and tracked. The archives would've come up with more when Obi-Wan had searched, surely? Unless it was a fake name? But Marius was Obi-Wan's age, he should have known him. Unless -
"Thank you. I hope you've got what you needed, Kenobi." Fanro was walking away, waving a hand in dismissal. But Obi-Wan was rooted to the floor, he couldn't follow. Jedi? His limbs became heavy, his mind wandering possibilities so far-fetched they circled back to reality. But Fanro was walking away with a wealth of answers and Obi-Wan was rooted to the floor. He was doing nothing.
With a snarl, Obi-Wan ignited his saber, allowing it to glide downwards towards Fanro's retreating back. A few steps and he had caught up, the blade hovering above Fanro's shoulder.
"The full truth."
Fanro turned his head, eyeing Obi-Wan over his shoulder. "I assure you, I have told nothing but the truth."
"Omitting the truth in part excludes me from the genuine truth," Obi-Wan answered. He twisted the blade.
People were gathering, a crowd far away from the conflict. Mostly young ones, children wide-eyed and curious, whispering. Adults in the distance, clamouring to reach them in time.
Obi-Wan had long considered renouncing the Jedi. Not in-full, not with spite or bad will. He'd decided against it eventually, for the sake of Anakin.
But if this was how he was going to go, he'd sure as hell do it memorably.
He brought the blade closer to Fanro's neck. "How does Marius know Vansic? Your Padawan. I know, he has tabs on him as well as Anakin. I saw -"
"Keep my Padawan out of this," Fanro snapped. His face, flushed with heat, had turned threatening with malice.
"What does he have to do with this?" Obi-Wan said again, loud, causing mutters to ripple through the crowd.
The blade must've been searing by now, picking through the outer skin in order to reach flesh underneath. Obi-Wan moved it closer, the blue clashing with the red sky. "I will. If you so much as move." A promise.
"Turning cruel, Kenobi? You've cracked."
"Cruel? You've been working with the man who kidnapped Anakin. Did you know Marius tortured him for weeks? Months?"
Fanro sighed, almost regretfully. "Regretful. But, even now, an exchange I was willing to make."
"Exchange? What exchange? Who's -"
Obi-Wan stopped, lightsaber inches away from merciful relief. Fanro's discomfort was clear now, hunched shoulders and clenched fists. Slowly, Obi-Wan lowered the lightsaber, deactivating it. "Who's threatening you, Fanro?"
"I -"
"Obi-Wan!"
The shout came from the people gathered at the end of the corridor, a good dozen now. Obi-Wan braced himself, chin raised in challenge, a wall of willpower. But it wasn't Windu, it wasn't Mundi, it wasn't Yoda. It wasn't anyone who would try to convince him to stand down. Nobody who would try to and fail.
It was Kyla. "Obi-Wan!"
"Kyla? What -"
"Hold on," she yelled. Blue and black braids trailing behind her in a whirl, she sprinted down the corridor. Closing the distance between them, she broke the invisible barrier between the crowd and Obi-Wan. She flew into no man's land and brought the crashing tides with her.
Breathing heavily, she reached the two of them. Obi-Wan caught her, his resolve for violence lost as he encouraged her to relax. "Kyla, what happened?"
"Anakin. He's not in his room. He's not anywhere. I've been looking, I went to see him, but he's not anywhere in the temple and I -"
"Slow. What do you mean Anakin's not -"
Obi-Wan's breath came as fast as Kyla's, his chest heaving and an old headache stirring in his heart. His mind spun outwards, scanning his quarters. Nothing. An empty hole devoid of life. Thoughts spiralling out of control, he looked everywhere. Mind grasping at the Temple, tendrils searching and coming up empty handed. Anakin. Anakin? Anakin!
"What… what do you mean, gone?" Obi-Wan spun around. The question wasn't aimed at Kyla. It wasn't aimed at anyone. Someone had taken all the pieces Obi-Wan had laboured so hard to weld back together and turned the heat onto max, melting everything back into nothing. "What -"
"Obi-Wan." A different voice this time, closer and warm, but no more helpful than the last. Obi-Wan stumbled, wrenching away from hands, blinded as he continued searching his mind for Anakin. Nothing. Nothing. Everyone around him was speaking; he couldn't see, faces blurring, voices merging until Obi-Wan covered his ears, willing to remain calm. Breathe.
"Master Kenobi!" This voice, more frantic, broke through Obi-Wan's cover. Obi-Wan stood straight, pushing past the surrounding crowd. Answers. He could tell, the tint in the voice, the flickering of the heartbeat.
But he didn't expect it to be the Chancellor. Frazzled, robes in disarray, striding with determination. Frailty had been cast away from his body. Obi-Wan ran towards him, warily, but with the despair of an animal desperate for shelter, not knowing whether the newcomer is friend or foe. "Chancellor, have you seen -"
Palpatine stopped. Obi-Wan watched him struggle, a hand on his heart, taking labouring breaths. "Anakin. Anakin, I - He was with me." He coughed. Obi-Wan resisted the urge to throttle the answers out of him, the tension so heavy it choked. "He came with me to the lower levels. He said he would, he insisted. He was so kind about it. Always helpful, Anakin, I -"
"You let Anakin go with you to the lower levels?" Obi-Wan said. No. No no no -
"It was safe, I promise! But he just - he just vanished! I looked away for one second, I promise. He must've run off. I don't know, I looked everywhere for him -"
"I -"
Anakin. No. Not again, please, I -
Sprinting, his cloak trailing as he abandoned the unaffordable luxury of dignity, Obi-Wan tore away. Heart shredding through his chest, his legs pounded with a regular rhythm, drawn into a familiar lull of terror. His hand was on his lightsaber, mind fully focused. Locate Anakin. Rescue Anakin. Kill Marius.
Locate. Rescue. Kill.
"Kenobi." The voice was quiet behind him, but enough to send him into a grinding halt. Obi-Wan turned, finding Fanro standing behind him. Obi-Wan had no idea how he'd kept up. Fanro reached out a hand.
"He told me to give you this."
Obi-Wan reached out. Took the rough piece of paper into his hand, shaking.
An address. A time. Tonight.
A/N: Hope you enjoyed! Has it lived up to the year long hype?
Yeah so basically just general life issues have happened, nothing really serious. But I've actually had a problem with feeling pretty happy? This fic spawned out of a well of self-hatred and depression and relationship issues, and in recent months I've really spent time trying to better myself. I've taken up loads of hobbies and started just trying to accept things about myself. So that makes it just so hard to come back to this and write from a place of bad feelings, you get me?
Adding to that I never plotted this out so I'm trying to make reasonable character backstories from scratch. It's not great but for my first ever story I'm not doing too bad.
I've also been focusing on my original works and just improving my writing (I hope the improvements is obvious lmao). I hope someday I'll get to share my newer stories with you! But overall I'm good!
Sending loads of love to everyone! Tell me how you're all doing! So so sorry this took forever!
Hopefully see you sooner than next year.
Have a great day/night!
