Ahsoka Tano POV
By Ahsoka's count, Anakin hadn't slept for so much as half an hour since Centaxday.
Five standard days of little to no sleep, and fighting on the front lines for a majority of those five days.
Ahsoka didn't know how he could even walk. There were bags under his eyes, he was clearly drawing on the force to fight at his normal pace, and whenever he blinked it looked as though it was taking everything he had to pull his eyes open again.
Ahsoka had already brought up the subject three times, but her master, while one of the most intelligent people she knew, was a bantha-headed stubborn idiot. The third time she mentioned it he snapped at her, which he almost never did.
If Ahsoka was strong enough, she would just give him a sleep suggestion, but Anakin was a Knight, and the most powerful Jedi in the order. She was no match for him.
But she could think of someone who was.
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"Master Obi-Wan!" Ahsoka called happily. "I'm so glad I could reach you, I was worried that you were still in battle!"
"Oh no, thanks to Anakin, we quickly defeated the Separatists. Obi-Wan responded from his quarters on the Negotiator. "It only took the destruction of a several million credit fighter ship. Speaking of my wayward former padawan, I didn't get a chance to speak with him after the battle. Is he alright?"
Ahsoka hesitated. "He wouldn't want me to tell you this, Master, but... no." Obi-Wan's eyebrows rose. "Anakin's actually the reason I commed you."
Obi-Wan leaned forward. "Tell me."
"He hasn't slept for five days straight. Every single one of those days he's spent fighting on the front lines, and if he goes on much longer, he'll pass out form exhaustion. Maybe in the middle of a battle. I've tried to talk to him several times, but he keeps just snapping that he's fine. I don't know what to do."
Obi-Wan's face was stricken with worry. "Ahsoka, listen to me very carefully. Do not let your master leave the ship. I'll be right there."
"Thank you, Master Obi-Wan. I won't."
Obi-Wan's figure flickered, then disappeared.
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Obi-Wan Kenobi POV
Obi-Wan sprinted out of his quarters in the direction of the nearest exit of the ship, ignoring a confused Cody and several shouts to stop from his security guards. Both the Resolute and the Negotiator were currently stationed on a ally planet near Coruscant, so it wouldn't take long to get to Anakin's flagship if he took a speeder.
It was only by the time he was halfway to the Resolute that he actually stopped, took a deep breath, and considered what Ahsoka had told him.
There was absolutely no way Anakin would sleep willingly, and Obi-Wan knew why.
Anakin had always had trouble sleeping in unfamiliar locations, or when he just didn't feel safe. He had certainly slept on the Resolute before, and had commanded the ship for nearly the entirety of his time spent as a General, so the location clearly wasn't the problem.
It came as no surprise that Anakin didn't feel safe. They were fighting in a war, and Obi-Wan couldn't pretend that he didn't wake up most nights from a terrifying nightmare where Anakin or Ahsoka or Cody was murdered in front of him.
But Anakin's nightmares were different. His weren't just dreams, they could also be visions. Anakin was so in tune with the force that force visions were not uncommon for him, and because of that, any dream he had while sleeping had the potential to be a vision.
It could be that Anakin had just had a particularly terrible vision, about himself or a loved- acquaintance dying, which would have caused him to deny himself sleep in the worry that he would have that nightmare again.
Obi-Wan's heart sank at the realization. In a war, no one could ever feel safe when awake. But Obi-Wan had never thought that Anakin's nightmares would grow so bad that he didn't feel safe sleeping out of worry that he would have a terrible vision that might actually come true.
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"Don't worry, Ahsoka. I'll take care of it." Obi-Wan reassured the young girl. Force, she was young, but had the wisdom and responsibility of one decades older.
"How? What will you do?" Ahsoka asked nervously.
"If I have to, I will give him a sleep suggestion." He noticed the expression on her face. "I know, Ahsoka. But if that's what it takes to get him to stop hurting himself, then I'm afraid I have to do it. He'll understand when he's had a full nights sleep and is thinking clearly."
"Yes, Master." Ahsoka said, looking down at the ground. "I just... I feel bad doing this to him."
"I... I know, Ahsoka. Anakin is very powerful, but that power comes with a price. The Force gives him nightmares, visions of the worse possible outcomes. When he was a padawan and didn't know how to control them, I helped him. Back then, neither he nor I thought that any of them would ever come true. But then he had visions of his mother dying, I ignored it... and days later he held her in his arms as she died... I don't think that he'll ever forgive either me or himself for that."
"Oh..." Ahsoka whispered. "I didn't know..."
"It's not something he likes to share." Obi-Wan responded gently.
"But I thought you said that he can control them now? If that's true, why isn't he sleeping?"
"The constant stress of the war is damaging him. He's losing control. My guess is that he had a terrible vision, and then stopped sleeping out of fear that he would see more. More that could possibly come true."
"I understand. Please help him, Master Obi-Wan."
"I will. I swear to the Force, I will."
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Anakin paced his quarters angrily, scratching his flesh arm with his prosthetic every time tiredness threatened to overcome him. He couldn't sleep, or he would have another vision, one that might come to pass.
Rex could die, Obi-Wan could die, Ahsoka could die, Padme could die, and it would be his fault for being weak enough to sleep while knowing that it could kill one of his loved ones. His family.
Anakin already had a terrible vision of Padme dying in childbirth, and he swore to himself that he wouldn't let it happen. But then two days later, Padme told him she was pregnant.
And he was happy, of course he was. But the fact that Padme became pregnant right around the time he had a vision of her dying in childbirth was no coincidence. Five years ago, he made the mistake of dismissing his visions as nightmares, and then his mother died in his arms.
He would die before letting that happen again.
"Anakin."
Anakin spun around, coming face-to-face with his former master. He quickly hid his flesh arm behind his back, plastering a fake smile onto his face.
"Master! What are you doing here? I thought you were staying on the Negotiator for the night."
Obi-Wan sighed. "Please don't do that."
"Do what?" Anakin questioned.
"Act like you're okay. I know that you're not. Anakin, I know."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"There are solutions, Anakin. Meditations to help you have a dreamless sleep-"
"THEY AREN'T DREAMS!" Anakin roared, flipping over his work table. Datapads went flying across the room, shattering on impact, but Obi-Wan didn't flinch. "They aren't dreams." Anakin said, angry energy fading, voice broken. "They're visions given to me by the Force. They're my curse."
"Oh, Anakin." Obi-Wan moved toward Anakin, and the Jedi didn't back away, staring at the floor unmoving. "It isn't a curse. It's a gift."
"Every time I have a nightmare, I am tortured by the fact that it might come true." Anakin spoke slowly. "If I have a vision, and that sets into motion the death of someone I care about, I will never forgive myself. This is not a gift. This is the worst curse imaginable."
Obi-Wan placed a hand on Anakin's shoulder. "Call it what you wish. But curses can be broken."
"Not this one." Anakin whispered. He tilted his head up to look at his former master. "I won't sleep, Obi-Wan."
"I know." Obi-Wan steeled himself. "And I'm sorry." His hand shot up to Anakin's forehead, his other grabbing the Jedi's arm in a vice grasp to keep him in place.
"Sleep, Anakin."
Anakin didn't collapse right away, and Obi-Wan didn't expect him to. But the suggestion did tire and weaken the younger man immensely.
Anakin's eyes were filled with shock and betrayal. "Obi...Wan...don't." He started struggling, and even in his weakened state, his blows were strong.
"I'm so sorry." Obi-Wan whispered, before moving into action. He seized Anakin's arms in place, trapping his former padawan in his grasp. Seeing the scrapes on Anakin's left arm, Obi-Wan gasped. Anakin ripped his arm away, twisting his body and kicking out, causing him and Obi-Wan to fall to the floor.
But Obi-Wan landed on top, of him, and he wrestled Anakin down, pinning him to the floor. He struggled, elbowing Obi-Wan and attempting to thrown him off. Obi-Wan brought his hand to Anakin's forehead once more, and projected soothing waves of calm, aiming to slip around his shields and force him to sleep.
Anakin's thrashing slowly grew weaker, his movements growing sluggish. His eyes started to close, despite his efforts to remain conscious.
"That's it. Sleep." Obi-Wan gritted his teeth at the amount of strength it took to overcome Anakin's power.
Using the last of his energy, Anakin buckled, trying to throw Obi-Wan off of him, but that only caused the older man to restrain him more tightly, and then, with one last desperate glance at his former master, Anakin's eyes finally closed fully, his body relaxing, slumping over in Obi-Wan's grip. The older man lowered him gently to the floor.
Not wanting to think about what he just had to do, Obi-Wan gently carried Anakin's body to his small bed. The young man looked peaceful in sleep. Obi-Wan's heart ached at the knowledge that he would never look that way when awake in wartime. Fighting for not only his own survival almost every single day, but also for that of his men and padawans. So steadfast in his loyal that he was willingly to keep himself awake through physical pain to prevent himself from seeing visions of his loved ones dying that might come to pass.
Because Anakin did have loved ones. And Obi-Wan gave up on discouraging that a long time ago, because he loved Anakin too. And Ahsoka. Cody. Satine. Qui-Gon. And if he was being honest, he doubted that a single Jedi had no attachments to anyone, because loving was just a part of nature, and if the Force demanded that the Jedi go against their nature to be unfeeling, cold creatures, then the Force was wrong.
The way the Jedi code currently stood, a good Jedi was not the same as a good person.
And maybe, Obi-Wan thought, as he stared at Anakin's peaceful, sleeping form, he was finally willing to step up and do something to change that.
Anakin would never again be with so little support from Obi-Wan that he would think that doing this, hurting himself like this would make things better.
Never again.
