Chapter 37 - No Light

Author's Note: Funny thing. I didn't realize how it might seem as if Obi-Wan stabbed Anakin until the screams I got in the comments. Lol. Anyway, I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint your expectations! :D

Next chapter: October 12th

To Plague: No, it wasn't Maul. ;)

~ Amina Gila


Vader feels the pain searing into his side, and his heart drops into his boots as he knows what it means. Desperation fuels him, and he delves into the Force, tapping into the wellspring of power within him and shoving outward, hurling all enemies away from him as he leaps to the ground, to where Anakin is lying.

For a moment, he's frozen, flickers of visions and nightmares assaulting him, and then, he's moving forwards.

"Anakin!"

It's his worst nightmare come true, and he sees the culprit only paces away. Eeth Koth. He's one of the Council members, one of the Jedi who stayed, one of the ones who came with them to destroy the criminals. Vader doesn't even think, a violent burning rage sweeping over him, and he reaches out, shoving past the Jedi Master's weak shielding, wrapping a telekinetic grip around his neck and crushing. Bones crunch beneath his grip and Koth's dead body crumples to the ground.

Only then does Vader turn to Anakin. Obi-Wan is next to him, expression panicked and haunted, a hand pressed on Anakin's chest as he channels the Force into Anakin's body at a weak attempt at healing him. It's useless. Vader can see the knife in his side, buried in up to the hilt, and he knows that far too much damage has been done. Without immediate medical attention – something that's impossible in the middle of this battlefield – Anakin will bleed out in ten minutes at most, even leaving the knife in place to try and slow blood loss.

He drops to his knees next to him, reaching out to touch his forehead, a desperate, frantic litany of denials racing through his mind. "Anakin," he says again, and the younger looks at him. He looks so young in this moment, something terrified in his blue eyes, and it only makes Vader even angrier, guilt mingling with dread, because this is his fault. If he hadn't been so adamant about coming here, none of this would have happened. He ignored his visions, and look what happened? Anakin is dying anyway. Is there nothing he can do to save the people he loves?

But when Anakin dies, so does he.

Their lives are bound together, forever interlinked, and he can't imagine it any other way. He can't watch Anakin die, hold his body the way he held his mother's, knowing that he failed someone else. He can't – he can't do that again.

And that's when he realizes it, the only thing he can do. If he severs the bond between them, pours his life force into Anakin, Anakin will survive – with the cost of his own life, but it's a cost he's more than willing to make. If one of them must die, he would rather it be him. Anakin has too much to live for.

He reaches for their bond with intent, and Anakin's eyes widen. "No," he rasps, "No, don't. I'm not –" His voice breaks with a gasp, a wheezed inhale. "– Don't."

Vader reaches further and then drops his shielding. He's held it in place ever since he first came, so no one would know who he is, but now, it doesn't matter anymore. It doesn't matter if the Jedi all realize who he is, if Obi-Wan realizes who he is and rejects him. None of it matters if Anakin is dead.

There's a quiet, sharp inhale from Obi-Wan as he tentatively probes towards Vader's signature, feeling the way it mirrors Anakin, just dark and fragmented instead of light and whole.

"I will not let you die," Vader snarls, brushing his fingers gently through Anakin's curls, reaching further into their bond, ready and willing to subdue Anakin with his mind if he must.

"This – isn't the answer," Anakin rasps, almost glaring. "Not gonna – let you die, either."

He wants to scream and rage and burn the world down, and it's been a long, long time since he's felt the Dark so strongly, vibrating through every fiber of his being. "What else can I do?" he asks helplessly, watching, only ever watching, as the one person who means everything to him slowly dies.

"Find the Light, Anakin Skywalker," Anakin orders, holding Vader's eyes with his own. "Find the Light. I know you can save me without sacrificing yourself." He reaches over, weakly, sliding his hand into Vader's and squeezing.

Vader makes a quiet noise, half a sob, he thinks, and his vocoder spits out static. He saved Ahsoka with the Light, on Mortis, what feels like a lifetime ago, and he knows how empty he'll be if he loses Anakin. Anakin will feel the same if he loses him, so there's really no choice, is there? He closes his eyes and focuses, thinking about Anakin, about Ahsoka and Omega and his boys, thinking about his entire family who he now has. He thinks of them, of how much he cares about them, about how he'd do anything for them. And then, he consciously reaches for the Light, in a way he hasn't done since before his Fall.

He reaches, and the Light answers him, flooding in with a rush of serenity and power, tingling all the way through his fingertips. "Help me," he says to Obi-Wan, not looking at the man who reduced him to this, senselessly. He directs the power of the Force, the Light, into Anakin's body, wrapping around his Force signature and holding on. Anakin is weakening, but with the Force, they can hopefully keep him alive until they get him help. Obi-Wan reaches out, too, and Vader shudders at the feel of his Force presence, so bright and real and near, at the feel of their bond pulsing in the back of his mind. But he ignores that discomfort, the memories that rise up, narrowing his focus to Anakin and Anakin alone.

Together, they direct the Force into Anakin, keeping him alive.

"Kinda… feeling better," Anakin says after a minute – or longer; time has no meaning anymore, and the battle around them feels pointless, distant. He shifts, moving slightly. "Might even be able to get up."

"You are an idiot," Vader informs him, reaching out to shift Anakin closer so he's comfortable, careful not to jostle the knife in his side. Anakin is half in his lap by the time he's done. "Let us hope this does not last long," he states, glancing up briefly to check on their surroundings before turning his focus to the younger, confident that the Force will warn him before another attack comes. "You are heavy, and you are crushing my legs."

"My apologies," Anakin replies, a little breathlessly, smirking. "Do you want me to move?"

"You are unable to move."

"Yes, I can." Anakin shifts, wiggling his arms and legs just to prove his point.

Vader presses him down with the Force.

"Unfair," he pouts. A pause, and then, "Your legs are metal. How could I be crushing them?"

Vader doesn't get the chance to respond, because he feels the approaching Jedi, feels their intent to attack, and gently, he slides Anakin off his lap again, twisting. It's Windu. "Protect him with your life, Obi-Wan, and I may yet forgive you," Vader says, rising and drawing his lightsaber, not waiting for his once master to answer as he stalks toward Windu. The Light is still beating through him, and he clings to it fiercely. Even if he can't help Anakin as directly from afar, he can still feed him strength and Light, and he will neither waver nor let go, not while Anakin's life is on the line.

"I knew there was something unnatural about you," Windu accuses as he ignites his lightsaber with a snap-hiss. "You were too strong, your bond with Skywalker too uncanny to be real. It all makes sense if you are him. Did you hope to corrupt this universe as you destroyed your own?"

"You hurt him," Vader answers, because he will not deign to reply to the rest of that, and besides, it doesn't even matter. "You tried to kill Anakin. I warned you, Jedi, what would happen, and you foolishly disregarded my warning. Is your destruction and death really worth it when you have failed?"

Windu glances toward Anakin, toward Obi-Wan, and Vader doesn't know what he sees, but whatever it is obviously displeases him. "Obi-Wan was always far too attached for his own good," he replies, and Vader lunges at him. Their blades crash together, red against purple, and the fight is only just beginning. Vader has never fought someone who uses Vaapad, but it doesn't matter anyway. It's inconsequential when he's the best duelist of his time and when he's not using the Dark. So long as he stays in the Light, Windu will never be able to defeat him.

**w**

Once, Obi-Wan thought the worst moment in his life was when Qui-Gon was killed.

And then, he thought the worst moment in his life was when Anakin chose Vader over the Jedi.

He was wrong.

The worst moment in his life was seeing Anakin stabbed, seeing him fall and knowing that there's nothing he can do to help him, no matter how hard he tries. The worst moment in his life was realizing that Vader is Anakin, and somehow, it makes everything make sense. The strength of their bond, their strange attachment to one another, all of it makes sense under this new light, and words cannot do justice to how Obi-Wan feels about it. He hardly even knows how he feels about it, so all he can do is take slow, steadying breaths as he crams back the turmoil inside of him, focusing on guiding the Force into Anakin's body like Vader was.

It's far harder now that he's gone to fight Windu, but Obi-Wan continues to focus, because he has no choice. If he starts losing focus, Anakin will die, and there is nothing in the galaxy that he fears more than that. Seeing Vader, seeing what he's become, knowing that he is the way he is because Obi-Wan failed him – he doesn't even know how to broach the subject. He has always feared losing Anakin and knowing that he didn't need to lose him at all, that he only lost him because he was too blinded by the Jedi way to see clearly makes him simultaneously angry and horrified. None of this was necessary.

None of it.

None of the days and weeks of agonizing over what went wrong, thinking about the best way of removing Anakin from Vader's influence – it's almost embarrassing to think about in retrospect – and wondering how it could have come to Anakin joining the Sith… None of it was necessary.

If not for what the Jedi teach about Sith, if not for his own stubbornness and willful blindness, it wouldn't have happened.

Focus. Focus!

He tries, but it's hard, and he can feel the increasing strain on his body as he channels the Force in a way he never has before. He's not a healer, and keeping someone's body stable, in a statis-like state with the Force, is hard.

The darkness of an all-too-familiar, approaching Force presence jolts Obi-Wan to full awareness, and he instinctively presses a little harder on Anakin's chest, as if that would somehow be enough to protect him. "Kenobi," snarls Maul, standing atop a piece of smoking debris, his unignited lightsaber in one hand. "I have been waiting for this moment for years."

He tenses, because somehow, he has to stay with Anakin to protect him while preventing Maul from coming at him. For as angry as he is over Maul killing Qui-Gon like he did, Anakin matters more. He always will. And Obi-Wan will not let his anger at Maul cloud his judgment, leading to Anakin's death.

"Am I interrupting something?"

Obi-Wan has never been more relieved to hear Vos as he is, and he very nearly rolls his eyes as the Kiffar saunters up, flanked by his former Padawan, Aayla Secura.

Maul snarls, lunging forward, but Vos throws out a hand, shoving him back and away. He and Aayla leap at him before he can move at Obi-Wan again, blue and green lightsabers crashing against red, and as the duel moves further away, Obi-Wan sees Gallia moving to join them along with another figure he can't fully make out. If Maul survives them, it'll be a miracle.

But now, he needs to focus on Anakin again.

A cry draws his attention back to the present moment, and Obi-Wan opens his eyes – he'd closed them to tune out his awareness of the physical world, looking with the Force to see any further threats – to see Omega barreling towards them. She drops onto her knees next to Anakin's body, grasping his shoulder and shaking him lightly. "Anakin?" she calls, half-panicked, nearly in tears. "Anakin!"

He groans weakly, opening his eyes. "Hello to you, Omega," he says. "I must be dreaming or else I got teleported to Naboo."

"Sorry, General," says one of the clones – Obi-Wan isn't sure who it is, but it's a 501st member from the blue markings on his armor – approaching, blaster in hand. "I tried to stop her, but she was insistent that you needed help. I guess she was right."

Anakin grimaces. "Unfortunately," he agrees, twitching slightly, "I'm not goin' anywhere until this battle is over. I'd never made it through the lines of fire." Somehow, they ended up in one of the most protected places, half surrounded by rubble on multiple sides, and they're close enough to the site of the explosion that most of the fighters are staying away from here.

"Can I help?" Omega asks, her voice wavering.

"Ani!"

And Obi-Wan's day is only getting worse as Padme crouches at his side, reaching for his hand and squeezing it.

"You're not s'pposed to be here," he murmurs, "Either of you. S'not safe."

"It's okay, General," offers the other 501st member. "We're here. We've got you covered."

"You can help me," Obi-Wan says to Omega. He's never met her before, not officially, and it feels strange to be meeting her like this. He has no idea what it is about her that's so special Anakin decided to adopt her, except for her Force sensitivity and the fact that she's a clone.

"Spread out," orders one of the other clones, one with a half-skull painted onto his helmet, a blaster in one hand and a vibroblade in the other. "Cover them." The clones move without hesitation, setting up a perimeter around them, weapons poised, and it isn't long before they've begun to fire into the fray, taking down enemy fighters when they have a chance. Even Padme is helping, a blaster gripped tightly in one hand, while her other holds Anakin's.

"How well can you use the Force?" Obi-Wan asks the child.

She lifts her chin. "Tell me what to do."

It's easier to show than tell her, and he does. She's not very experienced, but she's bright, and she catches on quickly, her determination helping her follow Obi-Wan's example as she joins him in keeping Anakin stable. It's the only thing keeping him alive.

One of the clones comes to Anakin's side, scanning him. "There is nothing I can do here," he says, and he must be a medic of sorts, even if he doesn't have the markings of one. His accent, Obi-Wan notices, is… different. "But I do have a stim shot that we can use should it prove necessary." Meaning, in case Anakin's body starts shutting down, and they need to give him a boost to keep him stable.

"M'good," Anakin assures faintly. His eyes are closed, his breathing rapid and shallow, his face pale from pain.

"Don't talk," Padme tells him worriedly, "And try not to move much."

Despite whatever she told the Jedi, about how she would spy on Anakin and Vader, her actions are telling a whole other story now. It's obvious to him that she's not only not spying, but also, that she actually supports them. Well, it makes sense if she knows who Vader is, but still, Obi-Wan can't quite hide the twist of something akin to jealousy inside of him, at the knowledge that so many people knew but not him.

… That's not really fair, though, because he was the one who stubbornly refused to listen to Anakin or hear him out or any of it – and he really doesn't want to deal with this right now.

A sudden barrage of blaster bolts comes far too close for comfort, and Obi-Wan looks up sharply to see a couple Mandalorians flying towards them, Death Watch warriors no doubt. One of them is holding the Darksaber, and Obi-Wan recognizes him. Pre Viszla. He encountered him once before toward the beginning of the war after meeting Satine again. They're working with Maul, or at least, they were considering it.

Vizsla fires a missile, and Obi-Wan lashes out instinctively, deflecting it with the Force. All of them duck as the explosion sends smoke and flames billowing into the air. He glances at Anakin's still face one final time before pulling back and rising. "I'll deal with him," he tells the others, and already, he can feel Vader reaching towards Anakin further, ready to support and stabilize him with the loss of Obi-Wan's power. Omega is young and untrained, but she's strong, and her aid will have to be enough until he can return.

He deflects blaster bolts back at the two Mandalorians, knocking one out of the sky as Vizsla flies at him. Their lightsabers clash, blue against black, and Obi-Wan knows that this is a fight in which he cannot afford to falter for even a moment.

**w**

In the chaos, Ahsoka ended up being separated from Anakin and Vader, but she's not afraid. She might have been, if she hadn't stumbled into Barriss. "They're here," the Mirialan whispers, tugging her down to find shelter behind a rock formation, "And we can't let anyone get hurt." By 'anyone', it's obvious that she means Anakin and Vader more than anyone else.

"We won't," Ahsoka promises.

They duck out from behind cover, leaping into the fray as they've been taught and as they've done for so long. It's just weird to be fighting with clones and droids. Ahsoka feels it when Anakin is injured, the flare of danger and pain from around his location, and she gasps, stumbling, twisting instinctively towards where he is. He's on the other side of the plaza, but she can still see his body, can still see Obi-Wan and Vader hovering over him.

And they're not the only ones to see them.

Through the smoke, Ahsoka catches sight of Luminara, rising, her unignited lightsaber hilt in hand as she steps toward the trio. Barriss inhales, sharply, shakily, and she wavers for only a moment before she moves forward, stepping in between her master and Ahsoka's.

"Barriss, now is our chance," says Luminara, "While they are distracted."

Ahsoka can feel her friend's turmoil, her anguish, but it settles into a stony resolve. "I'm sorry, Master," she answers, shaking her head, "But I can't let you do that." Ahsoka moves to stand at her side, and together, they face down the Jedi Master who would willingly kill Anakin in cold blood if they let her.

Anakin is not going to die today, not on Ahsoka's watch. She just wishes Barriss didn't have to make this kind of choice; no matter what happens, it will haunt her for a long time.

"They are Sith, Padawan," Luminara reminds, sharply.

Ahsoka snarls, baring her fangs. "They ended the war."

"Do not do this," the Jedi Master warns.

Barriss lifts her chin, igniting her blue lightsaber with a snap-hiss and raising it defensively. "I'm not letting you hurt them," she answers, her voice surprisingly calm, "Not after everything they've done."

Luminara's expression darkens. "Then they have corrupted you just as they have corrupted and misled so many already." She ignites her lightsaber, and Ahsoka follows her example, shifting her grip on her own blades. She does not want to kill any Jedi here, but she will if it means protecting Anakin. She'll do anything to keep him, both of him, safe.

When the fight begins, it's Luminara who strikes first.

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