Chapter 7
The streets R2 led them through turned more and more like something out of the lower levels of Coruscant, the farther away from the Government buildings they got, until the Astromech droid stopped in front of a seedy Cantina that reminded Anakin of the one in Mos Eisley. For a moment he he asked himself if this could be any more cliché.
By the time he was done, Obi Wan caught up to him and by the look on his face had exactly the same thought.
"R2, are you sure this is the right place?"
The indignant reply that came back needed no translation, yet Anakin chose to provide one anyway. "He says: 'Of course it is, and that he at least would never lead his best friend into a Gundark Nest.'"
With a humorous 'You'll pay for that.' Obi Wan led them to a nearby dark and only marginally clean side alley lest they attract even more attention. "On a more serious note, do we have any idea how we proceed from here?"
Once again it was R2 who provided the answer.
"He says that the message contained as it's last entry instructions to go in there, sit at a particular table and wait."
Obi Wan looked at the Cantina again, in time to see a boy of about ten years running out, with what he presumed to be the bartender hot on his heels, wielding a stick of some type. He swung once, missed, and by the time he had gotten his bearings, the boy had taken off down the street, leaving a severely irate bartender behind. Obi Wan looked at the scene and shook his head.
"Anakin, I have a bad feeling about this."
"So do I." came the reply. Anakin inclined his head and considered his old Master. "But we both want to find out what is going on. Let's face it, we have to go in there. And we have a few trusty friends."
With a swish of his poncho he unveiled the light sabre clipped to his belt for a second.
"Another one? Anakin, you go through sabres like other men through water on Tatooine."
"Not really my fault this time. Padmé has it, I wanted her to have it."
"And the next time someone sees her with it? I doubt this time there will be a convenient attack on the Senate to distract everyone."
Much to his own surprise, Anakin didn't really care about that.
"But we could stand out here and bicker like two old women for another hour, and as much fun as that would be to me, it won't solve the problem we are here for."
With that, Anakin declared the conversation over and resolutely marched towards the entrance to the Cantina.
On the inside, the biggest difference to the Mos Eisley Cantina was that R2 didn't have to wait outside, down to the fifth-rate band playing the same sort of music. Oddly enough the booth they had been directed to take was free, and as they sat down, Anakin muttered instructions to R2 to keep an eye on the crowd. The droid dutifully turned and surreptitiously scanned the crowd who was far more interested in getting drunk than what was going on around them. The only waiter in the room was a decades old protocol droid that had enough rust over it's lime green base paint to make it look like a fruit that had gone bad.
"Your orders please." it said with a clearly broken voice actuator.
"Two Brushanti Glow-waters, one with ice." came Anakin's order, born out of familiarity with both men's habits.
The droid went to relay their orders while Anakin leaned back in his seat. "Well, this isn't the worst dive either of us has been in, but it's damn close. And for some reason I feel like we're being led on again."
"Wouldn't be the first time, Obi Wan."
"Nor the last, I suspect."
Conversation died away when the waiter reappeared with their drinks in two reasonably clean glasses on a tray.
He took a few credits as payment and left without taking the tray. The two Jedi exchanged glances before Anakin put their glasses on the table and turned the tray over for closer inspection. Sure enough, a piece of flimsiplast was taped to the back, and Anakin peeled it off to read what was written on it. Though before he could even turn it around, a warning came over his Force bond with his master. Saying nothing, Anakin stuffed the plast in one of the pockets of his robes and looked at Obi Wan, who motioned towards the entrance with his head.
Sure enough a group of five especially unsavoury characters had entered, and by the way they surveyed their surroundings they were clearly looking for someone. Technically, they could have been looking for someone else, but the two Jedi hadn't survived years of war by taking chances, so they and their droid moved towards the back of the Cantina where a bricked up corridor led to... some place else, which was what they needed right now.
Their attempts at subterfuge were for naught though, because the new arrivals spotted R2 almost immediately and began to push through the crowd towards them, ignoring the angry shouts by those they shoved aside. Giving up any pretence at subtlety, Anakin pulled out his sabre, ignited it and cut a hole into the rickety wall of bricks before shoving both his master and his droid through, the latter making a short jump to clear the debris. He turned around and faced the newcomers, but they obviously hadn't expected to face a Jedi, because they hesitated for just a moment when faced with his blade.
It didn't last long, but it gave Anakin enough time to disappear through the hole and force-push them back into the crowd which, as was the nature of semi-drunks in a shady establishment, didn't take too kindly to being 'assaulted' twice.
Thus having shaken his pursuers for the moment, Anakin ran after Obi Wan and R2, using the Force to pull down disused furniture and cabinets behind him. He caught up with the others, finding them inn front of a locked durasteel door.
"Where do you think this leads, Obi Wan?"
"I have no idea, but right now, anything is better than back there, I should think."
"Agreed. On three?"
Without a word, Obi Wan ignited his own sabre and on the count of three, the two began to cut a hole in the door. With a slight Force-push the piece they'd cut out flew inwards and Anakin stepped through. He found himself in what seemed to be an abandoned speeder repair shop, on the other side of the low block the Cantina was in. Stepping past the gutted speeder that was silently rusting to oblivion, he reached for a switch near the door and flipped it. More than half of the lighting elements in the roof failed to function, but those that did cast a half-light over the room. As Anakin moved a few empty tools cabinets to cover the hole in the door, Obi Wan made his way towards one of the dust-caked windows and looked outside.
"We're in luck, Anakin. This leads to the next street over. R2, care to give me a hand?"
The little droid moved to the computer jack near the door that Obi Wan indicated and within a minute they stood on the street, walking back towards the city centre and trying not to attract attention. Anakin was burning to know what was written on the flimsiplast, but there would be a time and place.
Obi Wan was in front and as soon as he was reasonably sure that they weren't being followed, he lead them into a small side alley.
"We best get this done now, before you explode."
Anakin dead panned his usual look at this sort of barb and pulled the sheet out of his pocket.
The message was hand-written.
General Skywalker, General Kenobi, my apologies for any inconvenience I have caused. Meet me at the coordinates below. Be sure you aren't followed, or I will not be there. Meet me two local days from now.
Anakin had read it aloud, and even though there was nothing in his voice, Obi Wan sensed through their bond that something troubled him about the message. Obi Wan decided not to broach the matter, Anakin would say something when the time was right.
"R2, where are these coordinates?" Anakin listed them off, and R2 beeped, before displaying a holographic chart of Coronet and it's surroundings. The location was, even with a speeder they didn't have, an hour or two away from their current location and, as Anakin pointed out, in the middle of nowhere, if one counted a small town as such.
"Are we dealing with someone who is doing this for the first time? Wouldn't it be smarter to meet in a crowd, considering what's been done to stop us already?"
Obi Wan had a point, Anakin conceded. "True, but Master," he said, recognizing the questions for what they were, "we could be dealing with someone who does not wish to be overheard by someone in the same crowd more than not be seen with us. Or that he wants to be able to watch our approach."
"This tells us what?" Obi Wan considered, "that he doesn't trust our ability to shake pursuit?"
"Well, considering the way you fly, Master..."
"Disrespectful little whelp!" the Jedi Master exclaimed, though with evident humour in his voice. "What you do isn't flying, it's suicide. And much too conspicuous for our current task."
"Yes, Master." Anakin was the picture of the respectful Padawan, though both knew that he was anything but on the inside, having done this particular dance way too often over the years for anything else.
"But speaking of flying, we have to try and rent a speeder, best from some place that doesn't ask too many questions. Or we could always steal one."
"No." Obi Wan said with certainty in his voice. "The last time you did that, we ended up on a nosedive through Coruscant traffic after an assassin shapeshifter. That is not an experience I care to repeat."
"Will you always remind me of that whenever I suggest just taking a speeder?"
"Considering what that set in motion, yes."
Anakin said nothing, and Obi Wan blasted himself for the unintended bite in those words. Anakin had most certainly noticed it, and Obi Wan admitted to himself that there were still things they had to talk about.
"Anakin, I..."
"I know what you meant, Master. Later."
Anakin acknowledged the apology for what it was, the boy clearly had changed lately.
"We still need to get some transport, Master."
"Drawing on the accounts again would draw undue attention. How many credits do we have left?"
The bucket of bolts they ended up renting was bad enough to entice worried beeps from R2 and a continual comment on it's likely points of failure from Anakin, but Obi Wan suspected that it was more to rile him up. He didn't let it get to him, but as they sat down in front of the low-price inn they had rented a room in, Obi Wan couldn't help but wonder about something else he felt from Anakin. As they checked in R2 as their only luggage and walked up the rickety staircase he held his tongue, but as soon as the room door had closed behind them, he spoke.
"You know who it is, don't you?"
Anakin noted that he hadn't been as circumspect with his feelings as he had to be, again.
"I suspect you know me too well, Master. But no, not with certainty. That undefinable something that is familiar, I've felt it again, stronger. When we got the message and even before then. Thinking on it now, I believe that The Watcher was in the Cantina as well, but he knows to hide his signature and physical presence well."
"And I don't suppose you'll tell me who you think it is, don't you."
Anakin only tilted his head.
"No, I wouldn't have expected you to. After all, was it not me who tried to teach you not to jump to conclusions?"
Later that night Anakin had a nightmare. It was not as bad as the one he'd had the night they departed from Coruscant, for he saw that his children lived, but a dark, shadowy figure was taking them away, and Padmé still died in his arms. He turned, and there was Obi Wan again and -
The way Anakin was tossing and turning in his bed and the way sweat was literally dropping off his body, it had to be a very, very bad nightmare. Obi Wan had woken to Anakin's cries for his wife, and he stood by his almost-brother's side within seconds. "Obi Wan... NOOOOOO!"
He decided to wake him up. Whatever he dreamt about, it was bad, and his Force signature was full with worry and fear, more so than at any other time Obi Wan knew of, worse than any he'd sensed in his life. Desperate to help him, he grabbed Anakin by the shoulders and began to shake him.
As he jerked awake, Anakin sat up in his bed, nearly knocking Obi Wan over in the process.
"What is it, brother?"
He would never know what had prompted Anakin to be so uncharacteristically open that night. Maybe it was the vivid picture of the dream, loosing his children as well as his wife and being unable to prevent it, maybe it was the knowledge that Obi Wan would always be there for him as long as he breathed.
In any case, he slowly released the worst of his fears into the Force to calm himself. A few minutes later he took a deep breath and turned to Obi Wan.
"She dies, Master. They all die. And there's noting in the Force I can do about it. Each night since I found out. And the visions keep getting worse."
Anakin's ability to have those visions was a sticking point between them. The last time he had approached Obi Wan with them he had dismissed them out of hand, and that had resulted in the death of Shmi Skywalker and a tribe of Sandpeople, though no one but Padmé knew about the latter.
What Obi Wan knew though was enough to make him thread very carefully.
"Are you... certain?"
Instead of the indignant 'Of course I am' that he expected, Anakin said nothing, instead he looked away from him and stared towards the sole window in the room.
Something broke inside Obi Wan. After all these years, after everything they had done together, and even though he knew Anakin's biggest secret, he still felt that he could not give it his all.
'And whose fault is that?' a voice in his head asked, sounding suspiciously like the late Qui-Gon Jinn. 'Since before he became your Padawan the Jedi Order has made it blindingly obvious that he is not trusted by the Council and that they only suffered him because they want or need to believe that he is The Chosen One. How would that make you feel? Would you find it easy to fully and completely trust anyone from within the Order?'
Even so, Obi Wan felt hurt, because he'd thought he made it abundantly clear that Anakin could rely on him.
'There is a reason for that.' the voice returned, and now Obi Wan could have sworn it was his old master, 'You told him that you wouldn't turn him in to the Council, but what after that? Have you let him know what you are going to do when his secret inevitably breaks to the Order? What are your intentions, what will you do then?'
And with a cold clarity he realized one thing. It was decision time. And the Force showed him two choices, like a fork in the road. In one direction lay the proper way he, as much as he hated it, was pulled towards taking by his head, keep the secret, then profess ignorance as soon as it was out after which would come supporting whatever the Order wanted to do to Anakin and his family.
The other choice was the one he was pulled towards by his heart and his own very real attachments, past and present, It was the path of telling Anakin know that he would lay down his life for his wive and children, that he would support him in what he would have to do, and that when the time was right, he would stand right beside him before the Council.
And Force be damned, he had no idea what to do, but he knew that if he chose wrong, he would loose Anakin forever, one way or another. Already his soul nearly tore itself apart, for he knew that something would be lost. It remained up to him to determine what it was.
'Oh Master,' he thought, 'I could sure use your guidance right now.'
But the voice in his head remained silent.
Keeping the secret was a very easy thing to do, he merely had to say nothing and if Anakin was half as good at sneaking around as he had to be, then there would never be a time where Obi Wan would have to actively lie to the Council. It was the nice, easy and most of all, safe way.
But safe to whom? To his career in the Order, certainly. But did Anakin deserve to be dismissed from the Order and have his children taken away in one fell swoop? Because that was the most likely consequence, as the two Children of The Chosen One were already very strong in the Force. And if... no, when that happened then it would destroy Anakin as a man and as a Jedi, thus making the fall to the Dark Side that everyone feared would come from his being married and having divided loyalties just that much more easy.
Though if he chose to help Anakin, he might be dismissed right along with him. But then when the Children were born, then he would be there to help his friend and his Brother. He would be able to defend them from being taken, he would be able to help Anakin be the father he was sure he could be.
And that, Obi Wan thought, was what he was going to do. Not because it was the smart thing to do, as it certainly wasn't, but because it was the right thing to do.
After all, he thought with a slight pang of guilt, he knew very well what happened if a Jedi chose the Order over attachment. An unbidden picture of a certain blonde flashed through his head, along with the inevitable sense of loss and regret.
No, he chose then and there, Anakin would not have to go through that. And if the Council did not like it, then damn them.
All he had to do know was to tell Anakin and make him believe.
'Tell him the truth, without censoring yourself, and the Force will show you the way.'
"Anakin, if I could change what happened to your mother, I would. I am so, so sorry that I dismissed it then. I won't do it now. I promise you. I promise you that I will always stand with you like I have since you became my Padawan. You saved me more than once, and you've always helped me, so let me do this for you. I beg you."
"Wouldn't this go against... the Council?" Anakin said, almost spitting the last word.
"Anakin you broke the Jedi Code about as badly as it's possible. You can't expect me to just make up and forget that!"
That had been the wrong thing to say, because Anakin's face clouded with anger. He opened his mouth to say something, but Obi Wan cut him off before he could.
"Let me finish, my former Padawan. You will let me speak, and you will listen. You broke the code. You broke the code and got married, never mind the twins. By rights, I should go to the Council right away, make you turn in your lightsabre and then turn in my own for having kept your secret. And the council would be well within it's right... no, it's DUTY to expel us both. Force, I've ignored making this call since before the war. And I will make it now. Anakin, I will stand by you and Padmé through everything. If I have anything to do with it, you will have the family you want, and it will make you happy. Council be damned."
Astonished at this dismissal of the Order by the strict and rule-bound Obi Wan, Anakin only managed to force a "Why?" past his vocal cords.
"I'll tell you why. Anakin, you are my brother. You aren't like one, you ARE one. Force knows I've formed attachments of my own over the years, but I'll roast in all the Sith Hells if I am going to dismiss that just so. And if you need more..."
Obi Wan paused, desperately struggling for the words he needed. "Anakin, even a blind, deaf non-Force user would notice how happy she makes you. All those times I wondered why you were so happy and well-tempered while we were on Coruscant, and why you were morose when we left, that's because of her. People say that a wife can be someone's better half, and with you it's true. I've seen it when the two of you are together, and now that I know what to look for, I can see it even now. You deserve it, and I would never take it away from you."
tbc
Can you tell that I think R2 is awesome?
Anyway, I believe that Obi Wan acted the way he did because deep down he knew damn well that he would stand with Anakin, but he didn't want to admit to himself that he was willing to act against the Council, thus proving that he had broken the code as well with his brotherly attachment to Anakin.