The first step that he took dashing out of their hiding place, Obi-Wan stumbled. Not a very good sign of things to come, but he managed to regain his footing before dropping Anakin or falling. Luke, thankfully, had no such hindrance and made his way quickly to the star fighter. They were deep enough into the hanger bay that Obi-Wan hoped they would evade detection by the clone troopers.
Getting out of the Death Star was only the first problem. Obi-Wan still had no idea where he was going to take Luke and Anakin. He wanted Anakin calmer before he revealed Leia's survival to him so they could not go to Bail on Alderaan as both father and son would undoubtedly be able to determine her identity. Both Naboo and Tatooine were bad choices considering the memories they held for Anakin. Padmé's body was on Naboo and even though Tatooine was where Anakin had grown up, it was far too dry for Luke who had always been surrounded by water.
Obi-Wan was staggering up the gangplank when he came upon an at least temporary location for the three of them to hide.
"Luke, stay back here with your father," Obi-Wan instructed as he dumped Anakin into a seat in the passenger area. He quickly belted Anakin in before doing the same to Luke. "Hold on."
Without Anakin's bulk slowing him down, Obi-Wan was able to move easier. However, ease of movement was no guarantee that his piloting abilities would be on par with what they had been a few years before. He had never been a superb pilot by any stretch of the imagination, leaving the more thrilling stunts to Anakin.
"Now would be an excellent time for you to wake up," Obi-Wan muttered as he fired up the ship's engines.
Checking to make sure that all of the ship's guns were in working order and that the tracking signal was disarmed, Obi-Wan let out a shuddering breath and released the docking mechanism. One final run-through to ensure that everything was in order and that they would have enough fuel to get them to where they were going and Obi-Wan began to ease the ship forward.
"Let's hope this works."
Daddy was flying a spaceship. Daddy hated flying and Daddy was flying a spaceship. Twisting about in his seat as much as he could, Luke tried to look out the window so that he could see the stars. Daddy had strapped him in too good and there wasn't much that he could see. It was all very bumpy and twisty. And lots of flashes of light. Green and red and blue. Very pretty.
"Are you all right back there, Luke?" Daddy shouted after the ship began to spin round and round in circles.
"I's fine, Daddy! The Sad Man's fine, too!"
At least Luke thought the Sad Man was fine. He was still sleeping so it was hard to tell. He wasn't twitching like Daddy did when he had bad dreams. Daddy was always sad after he had a bad dream. The Sad Man didn't need to be anymore sad. Luke was pretty sure Daddy could make the Sad Man feel better. Daddy always made him feel better.
"Daddy, can I take off the belt yet?" Luke yelled up once Daddy stopped flying in circles. "I wanna see the stars and I can't back here."
Daddy was quiet for a minute and then walked into the back of the ship. He still looked tired, but not as worried as he was before. They must have got away from the bad men. Maybe it meant they could go home.
"Are we space pirates now?" Luke asked as Daddy started undoing his belt.
Daddy laughed quietly and shook his head a little bit. "No, Luke, we're not space pirates. We're just going to find a new place to live…. Come along, you can be my co-pilot."
Daddy lifted him up into his arms then looked very quick at the Sad Man before he walked back to the front of the spaceship. He didn't think that Daddy had had a bad dream again, but he looked sad. Almost as sad as the Sad Man.
As he'd hoped, after Luke's initial excitement about seeing the stars, the little boy had drifted off to sleep. With any luck, Luke would sleep most of the way to the Forest Moon. Obi-Wan knew that he should get in touch with Master Yoda given all that had just occurred, but Degobah was not a place he wanted to take either Luke or Anakin. Anakin was still far too unstable to spend an extended period of time on such a Force-infused planet. Luke, meanwhile, would probably try to befriend one of the carnivorous beasts that lived in Degobah's endless swamps and become a snack to one of the large, snake-like creatures. Master Yoda would likely track them down regardless and at least on Endor's Forest Moon he could retrieve both his and Anakin's lightsabers when it was safe. Luke would also become quite enamored with the Ewoks who would all be roughly his size.
"Obi-Wan…?"
Leaning back in his seat, Obi-Wan ran a hand over his stubbled jaw. He had hoped that Anakin would sleep longer. Knowing that he couldn't put it off indefinitely and it would only incite Anakin to come looking for him, Obi-Wan switched on the auto-pilot and rose wearily from his seat.
"I can't move," Anakin said by way of greeting as he made his way into the passenger section of the ship.
"I was hoping that was not the case," Obi-Wan murmured as he knelt down in front of the younger man. "My mechanical skills have improved over the years, but it will take some effort to get your limbs functioning again. I only hope that damage isn't too severe because where we are going is quite primitive."
For a long while Anakin stared at him through eyes that were no longer quite so fiery. In fact, they were only a few shades duller than the blue he had known so well before.
"Am I a prisoner?" Anakin asked after a time.
"A prisoner?" Obi-Wan echoed, staring intently at Anakin. "Why would I take you prisoner? I would have simply fled with Luke if I bore you any ill will."
Anakin's eyes slid shut and he allowed his head to drop back against the seat. "Then you have me at a loss because I do not understand why you would risk yourself trying to save me when you've already tried to kill me."
"Then you share my predicament because I'm not entirely certain why I'm still alive."
"Sidious lied to me."
Blunt as the response was, Obi-Wan knew that it was the extent of Anakin's reasoning. For all the philosophies that he had tried to teach his apprentice over the years, Anakin always returned to his simplistic mind-set of right and wrong. It was what should have made him the ultimate Jedi. The Jedi Code, however, had never taken emotions into account and Anakin felt emotions more strongly than any being Obi-Wan had ever encountered.
"You're truly living up to all of Qui-Gon's hopes for you," Obi-Wan said at last, his lips quirking in a brief smile. "You destroyed Sidious which means that you are the only Sith left in the galaxy. If you can conquer that you will have destroyed the Sith just as he always hoped you would."
Anakin snorted mirthlessly. "The only way I can do that is to destroy myself."
"Or instead destroy that thing within you that is so dark," Obi-Wan countered, rising up from his crouched position. "The choice is yours. But know that if you continue down the path of Vader you will not see Luke or myself again."
"You will not take my son from me," Anakin hissed, the seat he was strapped to slowly beginning to rattle.
"I would not take Anakin's son from him just as surely as I will not allow Vader anywhere near Anakin's son."
As always Obi-Wan was speaking in riddles. In the past it had made Obi-Wan an excellent negotiator, but at the moment it only served to frustrate him. He could not understand why Obi-Wan insisted on talking to him as though he were two separate people. Or think that he could possibly hurt Luke. Luke was his son. Luke was all that he had left of Padmé and he wasn't going to lose his son now that he finally had him.
At the moment there was nothing that he could do. He was trapped inside his own body until repairs could be made to his prosthetic limbs. The only thing he could do at the moment was move his head about and he was too exhausted to do much of that.
For the life of him he could not figure out what had possessed him to step between Obi-Wan and Sidious. He should have been rejoicing at Obi-Wan's imminent demise. Obi-Wan had left him for dead, hacking off three of his limbs and leaving him to burn to death on the fiery shores of Mustafar. Instead he had saved Obi-Wan's life, taking the full force of Sidious' frightening blue lightning into himself.
More frightening was the knowledge that if it came to it a second time he would do the exact same thing over again. Obi-Wan had been utterly defenseless and that was not the kind of death he deserved. Dying electrocuted by Sidious' blue lightning wasn't the type of death that one of the greatest warriors in the galaxy should have. Once his body was functioning again, he intended to ensure that Obi-Wan met his end. It would be a warrior's death, though. He'd die, lightsaber in hand, as it should have happened on Mustafar.
Around him, the ship began to vibrate in a way that Anakin knew was not external. Breathing as deeply as he could, he tried his best to calm himself. It would benefit no one if he rattled the ship apart in his anger. He would be denied his vengeance and would kill both Luke and himself in the process.
Slowly the tremors began to ease and, as they did, his anger began to dissipate. Desperate as he was to remain angry with Obi-Wan, he found that he could not. The emotion kept slithering through his grasp, elusive.
Release all of the anger that is consuming you, Anakin. Free yourself from it.
Anakin could not contain the snarl that twisted his lips. While there was a part of him that recognized the wisdom in Qui-Gon's words, he did not appreciate the interference of yet another person telling him what to do.
"Keep your advice to yourself," Anakin growled, his voice low enough so that Obi-Wan would not accidentally overhear him. The older man did not need to think that he was insane as well as evil. "I do not need your interference, nor do I appreciate it."
Anakin, my concern has only ever been for you. You are the Chosen One, yes, but beyond that—"
"Save me your platitudes. All that you or the Council ever cared about was that damn prophecy," Anakin chuckled mirthlessly. "You wanted to prove that it was true and Mace couldn't wait for me to fail so that it would be proven false. Both of you ended up dead as a result. My whole life was destroyed because of this Sith-begotten prophecy. You made me the Chosen One and then you let it consume me. You took Obi-Wan from me time and again and you didn't care. Sidious wanted him dead and the Council wanted us apart. I only ever wanted him."
Anakin pursed his lips to keep from revealing anything further. Arguing with a figment of his imagination would only prove to Obi-Wan that hew as insane and the older man would watch him more closely. Obi-Wan might also put off repairing his damaged limbs and it would be longer before he could escape with Luke. At the moment that was his only goal. To recover and disappear into the galaxy with Luke. Away from the Jedi and the Sith. He didn't want Luke to be devoured as well.
It looked like home. Everything was green and sunny and the trees were all big like the ones back home. Except it wasn't home. Daddy had told him that it wasn't home. Daddy had woken him up and showed him as they flew past home. It wasn't very far.
"Are you sure we can't go home, Daddy?" Luke asked as Daddy unbuckled him from his seat.
"One day we'll go home, Luke, but not yet."
Luke wanted to go home. He wanted to tell his friends about the bad men and the spaceship and that he had two daddies now instead of one. The Sad Man was a little bit scary, but Luke knew that he was only pretending to be scary. The Sad Man loved him and Daddy. The Monster just made him forget that for a bit.
"You have done a fine job raising him, Obi-Wan."
"Daddy, who's that?" Luke asked, pointing to the blue man standing near Daddy's chair. He could still the wall behind the blue man, too.
The blue man smiled at him. "My name is Qui-Gon Jinn. I was a friend of both your father and Obi-Wan."
Qui-Gon was a friend because Daddy was smiling very big. Daddy only smiled that big when he was very happy.
"How come yer blue?"
Qui-Gon laughed in the quiet way Daddy did when he was trying not to laugh. "I am blue, as you put it, because I am one with the Force."
Luke was still confused. "Daddy, why is he blue?"
Daddy was staring at Qui-Gon, still smiling, but then looked back at Luke. "He's blue because he is very far away. Like the people on a communicator are far away."
"How far away are you?"
"Unfortunately, I am very far away. So far away that you will never see me in my true form, but in the end, all things are connected through the Force."
Qui-Gon was very confusing.
"I gonna go see if the Sad Man woke up," Luke told Daddy as he slid off his chair.
Daddy stopped him with a hand to his shoulder. "Even though he's your father, I want you to be careful around him, Luke. If he starts saying bad things I want you to come back here to me. Understood?"
Luke didn't think the Sad Man would say bad things, but he nodded his head so Daddy wouldn't worry. "I promise, Daddy."
"And if he's tired, let him sleep. There will be plenty of time for you to talk with him afterwards."
Daddy wiggled his hair and let him go then. Luke made sure not to step too loud just in case the Sad Man was sleeping. Daddy said that the Sad Man got hurt saving him. That meant the Sad Man still loved Daddy. He was just mad and forgot for a little bit. But now that he wasn't mad anymore the Sad Man would be nice to him and Daddy and they would all be happy.
"Luke?"
The Sad Man was wide awake and looking at him funny. "Hi. Daddy says I can talk to you if you're not sleepy. Are you sleepy?"
"You do know that he's not your father?" the Sad Man asked, his head flopping a little. "He took you away from your mother and I."
Luke climbed up onto the seat next to the Sad Man. "Mommy died and Daddy promised to take care of me because you were with the Monster. Daddy thought the Monster killed you. But the Monster didn't kill you so now you can stay with me and Daddy."
"Where are we?"
"Du'nno," Luke shrugged. "It's near home, but not home. There's not as much water and Daddy says there are little people who look like teddy bears."
The Sad Man smiled! It was a little smile, but he never saw the Sad Man smile before. Daddy said the Sad Man used to smile a lot and now he made him smile again.
"Yer very pretty when you smile."
The Sad Man made a funny face and shook his head. "Girls are pretty."
"Boys can be pretty, too. Daddy's pretty. How come you don't have hair? Daddy said that when you were little you had yellow hair like me."
The Sad Man was very quiet for a long time and Luke thought that he fell asleep. Then he blinked and looked over at Luke very slow. He was frowning.
"I did something very bad," the Sad Man said quietly. "Obi-Wan tried to make me stop, but I wouldn't listen to him."
"I sometimes forget to listen to Daddy," he told the Sad Man. "He never gets mad at me, though. He just gives me a hug and makes it all better."
"He did that for me, too. A long time ago."
"If you ask him nice Daddy'll give you a hug now, too. Daddy gives the best hugs."
Since Daddy wasn't there and the Sad Man really needed a hug, Luke reached over and gave him a hug. The Sad Man didn't hug back, but that was okay. He was probably too sleepy.