Ani-Padmeforever,will zona,Person,jaspreet,JACarter, Andromakhe,

Thank you so much for all of your reviews! I will try to keep this story updated regularly, and I appreciate the well wishes.

GL30,

Thanks! I've always agreed with you about the tragedy of Darth Vader- and I think that you use Anakin Skywalker as a metaphor for how everyone (to a certain extent) is an architect of their own destruction.

guest,

Thanks so much! I will say that writing is a process. I constantly find myself trying to rid myself of bad habits, writing wise, haha.

Resikat,

Thank you!

Thanks again for all the nice reviews! Here's the next installment

He did not resist when they took him out of the tank. He didn't flinch when they dressed his more stubborn wounds and made no effort to help them when they tried to dress him in clean white clothes. In his room, they tried to feed him – just as Obi – Wan had predicted – but he refused. He closed his eyes and ignored everything they said and asked until he heard the door open and shut. He felt better when he was left alone; he could finally breathe. He was going to have to escape out of here somehow. He couldn't stay. He wasn't a Jedi. He thought of Obi – Wan and warm meals in the cafeteria and everything else he would be leaving behind and wished he had died in the cell.

He had mastered the art of not thinking about Padme. It was not that he loved her any less. He knew that if he allowed himself to think of her, he wouldn't be able to let go. Even now, knowing he was back on Coruscant, he could feel the tug in his heart towards that sweet spot in the Republica 500 that his whole universe rotated around, and he knew that if he did not leave soon, he would succumb to the temptation to see her.

He closed his eyes and when he did, images flashed before him. The Temple in ruins. Padme choking. An older Obi – Wan's head falling off his body. Another Jedi he felt he should know, but couldn't ever remember seeing in the Temple before, fighting him in a city of clouds…He jerked himself upright, the movement causing Obi-Wan to look up from the datapad he was reading. He met his eyes uneasily. Obi-Wan smiled at him.

"We'll have to give you a shave soon," the older man said. "You're starting to look like me."

Anakin felt fairly certain that he did not look like Obi-Wan with his beard – after months of not bathing and not being able to trim, he knew he looked far worse. His only reply was to turn his back and stare resolutely at the wall.

A few hours later Anakin was taken into his first therapy session. As soon as he left the room, Obi-Wan checked the time, and suppressed a grim smile. It looked like the Council meeting was about to start. He knew it was no coincidence that Anakin had been taken at the same time and felt a rush of gratitude and affection for Master Yoda, and then a stab of guilt at how he was making the lives of eleven other people revolve around his own schedule. He dropped the data pad and turned to leave.

One Week Later

Padme Amidala awoke the exact same way she had in the five months since Anakin had disappeared. As she felt the first gentle pull of awareness tug on her she would turn over and reach to the side of the bed that had cool sheets and an empty spot, and all at once wakefulness would crash in on her as she remembered where she was and who was not with her. Then she would have to choke back tears of worry and focus on getting out of bed and getting ready for the day. She checked her comlink as she slid out from under the sheets, hoping to see a missed call from the Temple, but she did not have much hope. She had given up doggedly calling Obi- Wan, knowing that at this point, he was making a clear choice not to talk to her. The one time she had gone to the Temple, she had been politely, but firmly told that 'Master Skywalker is not having any visitors right now, and we'll call you when that changes.' Padme highly doubted that call would ever come. The Jedi by nature were extremely insular, and while they tolerated others being in their esteemed halls, it was by no means encouraged.

What she did ignore were the calls from her family. She would talk to them later in the day, she promised herself, if there was time. It was hard to find time to talk to them when she knew exactly what the conversation would be about. How could she explain to them that the reason she hadn't visited in over five months was because she had to be on Coruscant if word came through?

Her handmaidens had just finished with her hair when she heard the door chime. She had made it to her sitting room just as Dorme brought the visitor in and she gasped when she saw who it was.

"Obi- Wan!" She launched herself at him and wrapped her arms around him, her relief at no longer being ignored outweighing her annoyance with the Jedi. If Obi- Wan was surprised with her behavior, he didn't show it, wrapping his arms around her tightly after a moment's hesitation. She separated from him and held him at arm's length to really look at him. He looked…beyond tired. Exhausted; like she could lift a finger and push him over, and he would just crumple over, asleep before he hit the ground.

"Why don't we sit down," she said gravely and turned to Dorme to order some fresh caf.

After they had settled, she looked at him, momentarily at a loss for words. She had suspected for a long time that Obi- Wan must know of their relationship, despite Anakin's assurances to the contrary. Her beloved just wasn't good at hiding his feelings in order for something like this to stay a secret for long. Her frantic attempts to communicate with him a few days ago must have sealed any doubts the older Jedi had. Staring into his eyes, in the light of everything that had happened, she knew that he knew. Even if he didn't have all the particulars, Obi- Wan knew. The silence stretched before them as the awkwardness of the situation settled in like a blanket, neither one knowing how to break the tension or even how to start the conversation. Dorme came in with their drinks and left again.

"I really questioned if I should come here, or not," Obi-Wan began, and his voice sounded as tired as he looked. "It is wrong. I shouldn't be encouraging this, but… I need help. Anakin needs your help."

Padme nodded once, feeling a sort of calm she hadn't experienced in months descend upon her. It wasn't just relief that Obi- Wan hadn't begun with accusations, it was that for the first time in five months, she was fixing to get answers.

"What happened on that mission? How did he even get captured?"

The older man rubbed his face savagely, like he was trying to scrub a memory away.

"We were in a battle. There had been reports that the battle droids seemed to be trying to take Jedi prisoner, but no one had taken it seriously, because none of them had even gotten close to succeeding…

The missile whistled over Obi-Wan's head and found its target moments later, crashing into a carrier packed with clones. He could feel the heat on his back and the impact in his chest as his ears ached with the sound of such a great explosion. He let the waves of the blast propel him forward, increasing his speed. Some yards to his side, he saw Anakin do the same. The Clones that were with them were blasted off their feet, but Obi- Wan made no move to help them. The ones that weren't seriously injured would get up and try to catch up with the Jedi, and there was nothing that could be done, at this moment, for the wounded. He felt a warning and allowed himself to use his momentum to carry himself into a forward roll, allowing him to miss the leg that was flying through the air like a missile. As it went, it still squirted blood and Obi-Wan could feel the warm spray hit his back and his neck, drenching his hair. He grimaced, knowing that his crème colored robes were now ruined. He jumped over the leg when he came to it.

The shield generators, they had to get those down, otherwise this offensive would fail, and all the lives lost here would be in vain.

He reached his generator after Anakin had already begun taking the vent covers off of his and setting the thermal detonators. The blaster bolt seemed to come from nowhere; one moment Obi-wan was yanking a vent cover open, the next moment he had to swing his light saber so close to his body he felt the hair on his beard sizzle. Droidekas. He abandoned his project in order to turn about face all the while swinging his light saber in a defensive maneuver. He turned to Anakin, wanting to warn him, to see if they could prevent being outflanked.

Anakin was already in motion, having taken out one of his droids, he was in the process of slashing down on the head of another, and suddenly, time seemed to stop. All around him there were screams of blaster bolts and the dying alike, he could still feel the wind on his face, drying the sweat on his forehead, but for Obi-Wan, all activity around him seemed to grind to a screeching halt.

He felt a pull in his gut, like someone had reached through his skin and given his intestines a firm squeeze. He felt the cloudiness that had polluted the Force let up, for just a moment. It was like a cleansing rain coming through a smog filled city; he could breathe again, and for the first time Obi-Wan realized just how much the darkside had infiltrated into the galaxy, for him to not even realize how choked off and sluggish he had been. It lasted only for a moment before the smog rushed back in, covering the hole that had been temporarily uncovered.

Before time started back for Obi –Wan Kenobi, he shifted his eyes to stare at his former Padawan, wondering if he too felt the shift, the disturbance. It took a moment for him to register what he was seeing. While Obi-Wan still felt frozen, Anakin clearly wasn't, he was still coming down on the Droideka when his face seemed to go slack. His eyes glazed over like he could no longer see what was in front of him, but he looked tortured. His normally handsome face twisted into a gruesome caricature of pain and horror. His face shifted to look at Obi-Wan, instead of focusing on his task at hand, and that was his mistake. His concentration completely shot, instead of slashing the machine to bits, he crashed into it hard, crumpling the thing beneath him.

That was when time started back up again, and things moved very, very fast from there. Obi- Wan could tell that Anakin had probably broken something – probably several something's – landing as awkwardly as he did, and he when he didn't immediately rise up, his former master became concerned. It happened so fast. Obi-Wan was still battling his droids, when another, unfamiliar class of droids came out of nowhere and converged on Anakin, surrounding his still prone form. Then the thermal detonators Anakin had sent blew. Unprepared, it knocked Obi-Wan off his feet. When the smoke cleared, Anakin was gone.

"When we got back, because of the explosion, and the fact he had gone mute in the Force, the Council decided based on my report that he was dead. That was it. No discussion, no opportunity to mount a rescue. No available resources, they said."

Padme felt anger stirring towards the Council, but tried to hold her tongue. Criticizing Obi- Wan's fellow brethren was more likely to get him to clam up than to continue to reach out for support.

"It's not like I don't understand their point of view," he offered weakly, feeling a need to defend the Jedi's actions to the outsider. "There was zero proof he was alive, and none of our intelligence indicated that they had gained any prisoners from the battle… Since that particular generator ended up blowing up, it was assumed that his body got lost in the chaos when I went to look for it, and that it was…" he drifted off when it occurred to him that Padme may not want to know the grim details. He cleared his throat. "Anyway, it was three weeks ago when we heard the report that our spies thought there was probably a Jedi being kept on Vjun. I knew immediately who it was, and launched a rescue mission. We got him back, Padme."

"So what do you need my help with?" She asked. He stood up and drifted towards the window to stare at the Temple in the distance.

"He's in bad shape, Padme. He won't talk; he only eats just enough to avoid an IV, he won't cooperate with the healers beyond the bare minimum… Something happened to him in there. Nobody can reach him." He turned to look at her. "I know you two have a…understanding. I was hoping a visit might…" he trailed off as she rose from the couch. She managed to keep the movement graceful, but she could not disguise her eagerness through the Force.

"We should go. A visit might do him some good."