"Anakin?"

Obi-Wan wasn't certain what kind of response he'd been expecting, but it wasn't for Vader to collapse back in a heap. Vader's eyes had fallen shut and his breath was coming out in harsh pants. Since the restraint collar cutting off his connection to the Force, Obi-Wan couldn't tell what was wrong with him. Remaining conscious was proving quite difficult for him as well. The pain he had felt earlier was minute compared to the extended exposure to the Force lightning.

"Of all the times to faint," Obi-Wan grumbled, his eyes tiredly scanning the nearby space for something he could use to cut the binders that held his wrists together. Vader would be of no help even if he was willing to release him. At the moment Obi-Wan's mind was far too muddled for him to make sense of what had happened during that last confrontation between Vader and Sidious. Obi-Wan had been quite certain that he was going to die; whether it was by Sidious or Vader's doing would be irrelevant. But he was alive. He felt very much like death warmed over, but he was still breathing while Sidious was not. That meant there was still a chance that he could safe Luke.

And perhaps Anakin as well.

For the first time he felt truly hopeful that it was possible to save Anakin. Provided, of course, that he was first able to get them out of their current predicament.

It took a great deal of shuffling, but Obi-Wan was eventually able to grab hold of Vader's fallen lightsaber and ignite it. He was extremely careful, using his rather stunted senses to determine the course of his movements so that he didn't cause himself further injury. Taking a deep breath, Obi-Wan strained his arms as far apart as he was able and slowly edged the humming blade towards the binders. He could feel the heat of it on his inner arms and, because of his extreme caution, there was a slight catch when the blade came in contact with the durasteel binders. Keeping the tension in his arms, Obi-Wan brought the red blade forward until his wrists fell apart. It was only a lifetime of practice that kept him from accidentally dismembering himself. As it was, the inside of his left forearm ended up somewhat burned.

The collar was another matter entirely. He would have gladly left it on until he had access to a mirror and could determine a painless way to remove it, but at the moment he didn't have the time for such a luxury. Not if he wanted to get himself, Luke, and Vader off of the Death Star unseen.

Obi-Wan held himself as still as possible, his head tilted to the side, and brought the humming blade to his throat. He could feel the heat singling the fine hairs on his neck and jaw, but dared not move quickly for fear of cutting straight through the collar and into his flesh. It was a maneuver he wouldn't have even thought twice about if he'd still been connected to the Force. He would have cut, trusting in his abilities to stop the blade before it went too far.

There was a momentary hitch and then Obi-Wan felt the whole world crashing around him. All of his senses were open once again to the world at large. He released the hilt just as a tremor shook through his body. Grasping, Obi-Wan dropped from his kneeling position, catching himself on his forearms. His muscles twitched, spasming with the remembered pain of the electrical surges.

Obi-Wan wasn't sure how long he laid there, his mind struggling to make sense of what had happened. One thing he did know was that he needed to get Luke and Vader somewhere safe. Somewhere that Sidious' minions couldn't find them.

"I like to eat—eat—eat… apples and bananas. I like to eat—eat—eat… apples and bananas…." Luke let his voice trail off, scrubbing at his eyes with the back of his hands. He was tired. He wanted to sleep, but he couldn't go to sleep because something might happen. Daddy was going to come and they would go home. Daddy would make him hotcakes like he'd promised. Maybe the Sad Man could come too. Daddy'd said that he liked hotcakes.

Yawning, Luke wiggled around a bit. He didn't want to sleep, but he was very tired. He had to stay awake in case he heard Daddy. He had to be awake so that he could shout for Daddy. It was good that the bed wasn't comfy. It was lumpy, even sitting up it was too lumpy for him to be comfortable.

"Dis is the song dat doesn't end. Yes it goes on and on mah friends. Some p'ple started singin' it not knowin' what it was—"

"Luke!"

Scrambling off the bed, Luke darted towards the door. "Daddy! Daddy! I's here!"

"Luke, I need you to stand away from the door," Daddy said in his tired voice. "Are you away from the door?"

Luke immediately darted towards the center of the room. "I'm away from the door, Daddy!"

Nothing was happening and Luke was getting scared that Daddy had been catched by the bad men again. He couldn't hear any noise, not even the grumbling sound Daddy made when he was working on something. Luke was just about to shout for Daddy again when he noticed one of the corners of the door changing color. First it was gray, then orange, then red, then really red, and then a red stick was poking through. A laser stick. Luke got excited and started to run forward, only remembering at the second that Daddy had said to stay away from the door.

As Luke watched, the laser stick began to cut a smaller door inside the big metal door. A door that Daddy was just on the other side of. It took forever for Daddy to make the little door. Then finally Daddy finished the door and it fell into his room with a loud crash. As soon as the door fell open, Luke noticed that his head didn't feel fuzzy anymore. He felt wide awake.

Happy that his head didn't feel fuzzy anymore, Luke ran towards Daddy who was fallen down like he was going to crawl. Daddy was breathing very loud, too. Luke threw himself at Daddy as soon as he was close enough, holding onto him tight as he could. Daddy moved around a bit and then Daddy's arms were wrapped tight around him too. Luke couldn't quite make out what Daddy was saying, but he knew it was good. Daddy was making rumbling, happy noises.

When Daddy tried to pull away, Luke wound his arms and legs around him as tight as he could. "No! Stayin' wiff you, Daddy!"

"I just need to see if you're hurt, Luke. I'm not going anywhere."

Even though he didn't like it, Luke let go of Daddy a little bit. Just enough so that Daddy could see that he was okay. Whenever Luke said that he was okay, Daddy still always checked. When Daddy was looking at him, Luke noticed the Sad Man lying against the wall. There were still little bits of red around him, but mostly the Sad Man was blue. Blue like Daddy was blue.

"The Sad Man's coming with us?" Luke asked, looking back up at Daddy.

Daddy nodded his head, looking really quick at the Sad Man. "Yes, your father is coming with us. Anakin is coming with us."

Every single molecule in his body that possessed a pain receptor ached. Even the ones that didn't twinged sympathetically along with the others. Obi-Wan was doing all that he could to ignore that pain, his main concern getting both Luke and Anakin off the Death Star. When they were all somewhere safe he could rest. Perhaps for an entire fortnight.

"I need you to be very quiet, Luke," Obi-Wan instructed the small boy who was still clutching at the sleeve of his singed tunic. "Sneaky. We need to get to a ship and leave without anyone seeing us. Okay?"

"'Kay, Daddy."

Smiling at Luke, Obi-Wan gently ruffled his wild hair. "Can you pick that up for me while I get your father?" he asked, nodding in the direction of the lightsaber hilt.

Luke seemed very uncertain for a moment then pursed his lips tight and nodded his head. "You won't go 'way?"

"I won't go away," Obi-Wan promised him.

As he'd hoped, Luke's fascination with the lightsaber gave Obi-Wan the time he needed to haul Anakin's limp frame up off the ground. Lightweight as durasteel was supposed to be, Anakin still weighed considerably more than Obi-Wan remembered him weighing the last time he'd had to carry the younger man around unconscious.

"I'm getting too old for this," Obi-Wan grumbled under his breath as he heaved Anakin up onto his right shoulder. "Why couldn't you be the conscious one?"

"Here you go, Daddy," Luke said, appearing at his side once again.

With the lightsaber in his left hand, and his right one supporting Anakin, he didn't have the necessary limbs to hold onto Luke who was chewing nervously on his bottom lip.

"Take one of your father's hands, Luke," Obi-Wan instructed, gesturing to the unconscious man with his left hand. "Hold his hand and think very hard about him waking up. Can you do that?"

His features scrunched up in absolute seriousness, Luke nodded his head. With any luck Luke would be able to coax Anakin back into consciousness and he wouldn't have to carry the younger man's considerable bulk any longer. As it was it would be a quite miraculous thing if they were able to make it to the hanger bay.

Their progress was very slow, not only because Obi-Wan was unable to go quickly with Luke trailing behind him, but also because he had to stay on the lookout for clone troopers roaming the corridors. His senses were far too frazzled at the moment to attempt slipping into their minds and altering their thoughts. Not for the first time Obi-Wan found himself missing Anakin's meddlesome droid R2-D2. For all its odd quirks it excelled at patching into ships' computers and would have made finding the docking bay that much easier.

"Are you still thinking hard, Luke?" Obi-Wan asked quietly as they slipped into a new corridor. One that thankfully featured a pair of turbolifts.

"He's not wakin' up. I keep thinking but he won't wake up." Luke peered up at him, his face etched in a frown.

"Don't worry, Luke. Your father has always been very stubborn. Keep trying."

Obi-Wan sent a few thoughts of his own trailing along the shattered remains of his and Anakin's old training bond. One that hadn't faltered until that day on Mustafar when Obi-Wan thought Vader had murdered Anakin. Obi-Wan could only hope that what had happened today and the afternoon on Endor was proof that Anakin wasn't completely destroyed. As it was, he was taking a great chance bringing Anakin with them, but the alternative was unthinkable. Leaving him behind on Mustafar had been the hardest thing he'd ever done and Obi-Wan knew that he wouldn't be able to do it a second time. Not when there was a chance that he could save Anakin from the darkness.

It was a relief to be in the turbolift. Obi-Wan was able to lean his left side against the wall. He would have set Anakin down except that he wasn't sure that he'd be able to pick him up afterwards.

"We gonna go home now, Daddy?" Luke asked, winding his arms around Obi-Wan's leg and holding on tight.

Slipping the lightsaber into his belt, Obi-Wan awkwardly reached down to run his fingers through Luke's hair. "It's not safe to go home right now. The men who took us here know where we live so if we go home they might try and take us again."

The scrunched up nose was a sure sign that Luke was unhappy. "What 'bout the hotcakes you said we could have for dinner?"

"As soon as I can, I'll make you hotcakes," Obi-Wan promised the boy.

That earned him a snuffly smile from Luke who continued to clutch at his leg as the turbolift descended to the hanger bay. Wishing that he could gather Luke up in his arms, Obi-Wan had to instead content himself with stroking his fingers through the boy's rumpled blonde hair.

"You've been very brave, Luke, and I'm very proud of you," Obi-Wan murmured when Luke looked up at him again.

Luke beamed at that, his smile as wide as any Anakin had ever flashed at him when being praised. "Yer very brave, too, Daddy. The bravest Daddy."

"What about your father? Isn't he brave too?" Obi-Wan asked, not wanting to chance Anakin hearing anything that would set him off again. He needed Anakin to be calm when he finally regained consciousness.

"The Sad Man's brave too," Luke nodded. "He is really my daddy?"

"He's really your daddy. And he loves you very much."

The turbolift came to a stop then and after a quick glance up at the monitor Obi-Wan was relieved to see that they had reached the docking bay. Instructing Luke to once again take hold of Anakin's hand, Obi-Wan heaved himself away from the wall. He staggered momentarily, but through sheer force of will managed to stay upright.

"No making a peep, Luke. We have to be very sneaky," Obi-Wan whispered as they stepped out of the compartment. "Let me know if you see any bad men."

"'Kay, Daddy."

Finding a starfighter that he would be even the least bit confident piloting took a bit of effort. It had been many years since he'd piloted a craft himself, let alone one that would be large enough for the three of them. And that wasn't surrounded by clone troopers at the moment.

"This ups the tally several points in my favour, old friend."

Daddy was very tired. He was pretending that he wasn't, but his eyes were squinty and the only did that when Daddy was tired. Something had happened, though, because Daddy wasn't nervous of the Sad Man anymore. He was helping the Sad Man. Maybe that meant they were all going to be a family together. Luke didn't mind having two daddies. One of his friends had two mommies and he said having two mommies was a good thing. Luke was sure having two daddies would be a good thing, too.

As they sneaked through all of the spaceships, Luke made sure not to let go of the Sad Man's hand. Carrying him around was making Daddy even more sleepy. It wasn't good for Daddy to get sleepy because then the bad men would come again. The bad men would come and he wouldn't know where Daddy or the Sad Man were.

When Daddy stopped all of a sudden, Luke bumped into his leg.

"Luke, do you see that ship over there? The one with the ramp down?" Daddy asked in a quiet voice, pointing to a spaceship that wasn't very far away.

Luke kept looking at the spaceship, leaning against Daddy's leg. "I see it. That the spaceship we're gonna go in?"

"It is. So when I tell you to, I want you to run onto it as fast as you can. Don't stop, just keep running. No matter what."

Daddy was using his serious voice, so Luke nodded his head. "No matter what."

Gathering up the last of his reserves of strength, Obi-Wan tightened his grip on Anakin and readied the lightsaber. It would have been infinitely easier to leave Anakin behind, reminded a voice in his head that was starting to sound a great deal like Mace Windu.

You have it in yourself to do this, my padawan. A few more minutes and then you, Luke, and Anakin will be on your way to safety.

The voice was one that he had not heard in many long years, but that filled him with an immense sense of peace. Raising Luke had not afforded him the time that was necessary for the training that Master Yoda had prescribed for him, yet he knew that it truly was Qui-Gon's voice and not some dark trick. Sidious was dead and whatever his action would b in the future, currently Anakin was unconscious.

"Now, Luke. Run," Obi-Wan instructed as he ignited the red lightsaber.