Well, actually I wanted to update four weeks ago. I had written a chapter and was about to upload it, but when I read over it again, I somehow wasn't happy with it anymore. So I decided to scrap the chapter completely and took a completely new approach. But I wasn't satisfied with that either, so, long story short, this chapter is the final result. Attempt No.3 of Chapter 13! :D
Chapter 13
Anakin couldn't tell exactly when the guards had actually come for him. He had taken Plo's advice and tried to get some rest, but he had not found any sleep. Still he had hoped that maybe Obi-Wan would show up, but as time passed, he realized that would never happen. He could understand it, but still it destroyed something inside him when in the end only the guard stepped through his cell door to take him to court and not his master as he had hoped. Perhaps it was the hope of restoring something of what they once had that faded away, or it was the awareness that he was now alone that set in.
After handcuffing him, the guards led him outside to the steps of the temple, where the first reporters were already waiting, pointing their cameras at his face and pelting him with questions.
Anakin ignored all this, turned his head away and continued to walk forward, still flanked by the temple guards.
He would have liked to turn back time. Perhaps for once in his life he should not have been so ignorant, should have seen that perhaps things were not always as they seemed. Time and again he had demonized Obi-Wan, had called him emotionless and heartless. Yet he was just the opposite. Like any human, he felt, and even if he had mastered hiding his pain from others, the signs had always been there. His smile had not been able to hide how his eyes had glazed over at certain moments. Anakin had just deliberately not wanted to see it. Once he had heard Obi-Wan crying after one of their many arguments. Petrified, he had stood in front of the closed door, listening to the muffled sobs. He knew that if it had been Ahsoka in Obi-Wan's place, he would not have hesitated long to comfort her. It had been different with his master. Even if Anakin could never say why that was so. In the end, he had turned away from the door, had hidden in his anger, had convinced himself that he was in the right.
He hated himself for it.
The only thing left for him to do now was to try to make things right. Obi-Wan did not deserve to be held accountable for mistakes that were not his own.
It felt like an eternity until they reached the courthouse, in front of which the next cluster of people had already formed. Anakin didn't give the people another glance and walked briskly forward, hoping to disappear quickly.
But then he heard her voice. "Ani!"
He almost stumbled as he came to an abrupt stop. "Mom?" he asked incredulously, stretching his neck to find her in the crowd.
"Ani!" it sounded again, and this time he found his mother, relatively far back in the crowd.
"Mom!" he shouted, and tried to sprint off, but the guards immediately held him back.
"Knight Skywalker, we're going to have to ask you to keep moving," one of the guards tried calmly, a hand on his upper arm.
"But...," Anakin calmed down and looked at the man, "... please, let me talk to my mother for a moment."
Something like sympathy showed on his counterpart's face, but still he shook his head. "I'm sorry, I can't do that."
Before the incident, he would have been fuming at this point, but now? Anakin bit his lips and dropped his shoulders. "Maybe at least a minute?... that's all I ask - please."
The man gave him a steely gaze, and Anakin was beginning to think he wouldn't be able to convince him. But then the guard's gaze softened. "All right...but just a minute, and no more, understand?"
With that, he called out to his colleague to let the woman in the crowd through. Anakin stared, transfixed, as his mother wove her way through the crowds and finally came to a stop in front of him.
"Mom..." he began, but words failed him. Should he apologize for what he had done? Should he justify himself?
"Oh Ani...," his mother sobbed, her eyes full of tears as she put a hand to his cheek, "...what did you do?"
He shook his head in despair. "I... I don't know, Mom," he replied, his voice breaking, "I'm so sorry."
He leaned into her touch, for a moment sinking into the fact that his mother was actually here.
The guard interrupted that moment. "Knight Skywalker, I'm afraid your time is up, we must take you to the courtroom now."
Anakin slowly broke away from his mother and looked into her eyes. He could see incomprehension, shame but also fear reflected in them. "I will try to make things right, I promise."
He could no longer wait for her answer as the guard now impatiently pulled him along, through the large door of the building.
The slamming of the door sounded almost final. The corridors that lay before him were relatively empty to the streets outside. Anakin had never been here before, though he knew that many of the criminals they had faced on their missions had been brought here sooner or later.
Just outside the courtroom, they were stopped. The Chancellor stepped into the hallway, his hands folded in his robes and an expression on his face that somehow made Anakin shudder.
This man had forced Obi-Wan to go on the mission. Had caused Anakin to distrust his own Master so much.
Stiffly he straightened up and met Palpatine as neutrally as possible. "Chancellor," he greeted the man with a shallow bow.
The Chancellor's lips curled to reveal a toothy grin. "Anakin, my boy," the latter began, "I am terribly sorry you are in this situation."
Anakin swallowed hard and would have preferred to take a step back. "I alone am responsible for my situation. The only one who is here for no reason is Obi-Wan."
Palpatine's expression darkened almost imperceptibly to the outsider, but Anakin could see the glare in his eyes. The gnarled hand that came to rest on his shoulder made him freeze. "What did they tell you, my dear?"
Anakin tried to shake the hand off, but couldn't move. He wanted to answer, but the words kept escaping his grasp. A fog had settled around him and it took away some of his memories.
You did... you did what? What was he going to accuse the chancellor of?
He didn't know anymore. All he knew was that Obi-Wan had failed him. And that he had taken his revenge.
The Chancellor's blue eyes held him captive, and he couldn't even tell anymore if he was sorry for what he had done.
"I... they didn't tell me," he muttered as if in a trance.
Palpatine continued to smile. "That's what I thought. Don't worry, I'll help you."
When the hand was removed from his shoulder, the veil that had settled around him did not disappear. Frowning, Anakin rubbed his temples, watching as the Chancellor disappeared through one of the doors to the side.
Still confused, he let the guard lead him into the already packed courtroom, past the benches to the front with a small table to the left and two chairs. The guard unceremoniously seated him in one of the chairs and then took his place against one of the walls. Anakin looked around and noticed that the table to the right was already occupied.
Obi-Wan.
The man kept his head down and seemed to absently tug at the bandages wrapped around both of his hands.
Anakin didn't know why, but anger was rising again inside him.
His stare seemed to have been noticed when Obi-Wan finally raised his head and turned it in his direction. The man's eyebrows drew together as if he were trying to discern something. But Anakin didn't have to be a doctor to see that wasn't possible. Obi-Wan's eyes were milky, the skin around them angry red and bulging where the scars had formed.
Silently, Anakin averted his eyes again, suddenly uncomfortable. It was as if something was missing from him. He didn't know what it was, but something was very wrong here.
He was jolted out of his thoughts when the judge finally took his seat and the chancellor also entered the room.
"I would ask you to be quiet," the judge ordered, waiting for silence to fall in the room, "We are gathered here today to deal with the incident between Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker and Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi."
The judge's gaze first fell on him. "Anakin Skywalker, you are charged with aggravated assault on Obi-Wan Kenobi. Do you object to this charge?"
"No, your honor."
He watched as the statements were carefully recorded.
"Can you explain to me how the incident occurred?"
Again, there was that pressure in his head. "I was angry," he finally admitted, turning his head in Obi-Wan's direction, "I felt abandoned."
"And that's why you saw the only way out was to get physical?"
Anakin's eyes remained fixed on his former master, who was not looking at him but had simply turned his head forward. "Yes," he gritted out.
"Do you regret it?"
The answer was actually on the tip of his tongue, but suddenly he found it difficult to formulate the words. He averted his eyes and looked first at the judge and then at the chancellor, who was watching him intently. "I don't want to make a statement about that," the words fell out of his mouth, and immediately there was uneasiness in the hall as some of the listeners made their disbelief known.
Was that really what he had wanted to say? Anakin didn't know.
"I again ask for silence," the judge again demanded in an authoritative voice.
"Knight Skywalker, has there ever been any violent confrontation between you and Master Kenobi?"
"Not that I can recall," Anakin returned, a little irritated.
Before the judge could ask any more questions, the chancellor interjected. "Your Honor, may I make a comment?"
Without much hesitation, the man agreed. "Proceed, Chancellor."
Palpatine rose from his seat and moved to the center between the two tables. "I well remember meeting young Skywalker while he had visited the Senate for a tour with a group of younglings. The boy had had a black eye and when I asked him how that had happened, he had been very evasive."
Again, a whisper went through the hall.
"Chancellor, what are you getting at with that statement?"
Palpatine smiled. "Of course," he glanced in Obi-Wan's direction, "I merely wish to question how, or rather from whom, he received the black eye."
Anakin glanced briefly over at Obi-Wan, who still had a neutral expression on his face. He himself barely remembered what might have happened.
An assistant of the judge threw a holo on the wall. It showed a snapshot of a video recording in which he could be seen quite clearly - and also the black eye.
"Master Kenobi, can you perhaps tell me something about this?"
The addressed sat up a little and folded his hands. "I think just before, Anakin and I had a little training accident."
"A training accident?" the judge raised an eyebrow questioningly, "Could you elaborate?"
Obi-Wan sighed, "Well, we were doing a Force exercise," he explained calmly, "where you sit across from each other and a ball is moved back and forth between you using the Force. Over time, you get faster and faster at it. Anakin missed said ball at one point and was unfortunately hit very unfavorably in the eye."
"I see. Master Kenobi, am I correct in thinking that you may have overestimated your student's ability?"
"He was in no way lacking in skill. Rather, I think his concentration had waned at that moment."
"I understand, were there any other witnesses to the incident, perhaps?"
Obi-Wan shook his head. "I'm afraid not. Of course, there are the records in the Halls of Healing, but there's probably nothing more written there like I just described."
The judge hummed and wrote something down. "Were there any other such... accidents?"
"I don't think I understand what you're getting at exactly, your honor."
Adjusting the small round glasses on his nose, the judge glanced at his files. "Well, Master Kenobi, you are here today because you are accused of child neglect and endangerment regarding Anakin Skywalker."
Anakin could see Obi-Wan visibly slump and it almost hurt him to see his former master like this. Even though it was still nearly impossible for him to form a clear thought.
"I never willingly put Anakin in danger," he said.
"You agreed to take full responsibility for his actions so that the boy could be trained, even though there had been many concerns. What drove you to do this?"
"Anakin deserved a chance, I decided to give it to him."
Lie, whispered a dark voice in Anakin's head, you are merely a promise to a dead man. Subconsciously, he clenched his hand into a fist.
"You have been the victim of your student's rage; do you believe you are also the cause of it?"
Obi-Wan scratched at his hands. "Quite, yes," he replied a little hoarsely.
"Have you sought help?"
"I...no, I have not."
"Why not?" the judge probed further.
Biting his cheeks and pursing his lips, Obi-Wan took a moment before answering. "Because I thought I could do it on my own."
"So, you deliberately put your own pride before the needs of your student?"
For the first time, Anakin could see something like anger come across his master's face. "No, I did not," he pressed out, "And I will answer no more questions."
Something twinged inside him, and Anakin felt the need to say something, but there was only emptiness in his mind.
"Very well," the judge finally said, "The court has no further questions. We will now retire for the time being for the sentencing discussion."
With that, the judge, along with the jury and the chancellor, left the courtroom. An oppressive silence fell over the room and once again Anakin caught himself looking over at his Master.
Only now he noticed that Obi-Wan seemed ill. He was paler than usual and he thought he could see a little sweat on his forehead.
Remorse wanted to overtake him and again he asked himself why he had not been able to say anything to support his friend.
Obi-Wan contorted his face and carefully put two fingers to a particularly red glowing spot around his eyes, only to quickly take them away with a wince. He was in pain.
Bile slowly crept up his throat, and Anakin forced himself to look away as he felt sick. It was his fault. And now he hadn't even managed to help Obi-Wan.
Sinking into shame and self-pity, he only belatedly realized that the judge had re-entered the courtroom and was now apparently ready to pronounce the verdict.
His breath caught in his throat with tension.
The judge calmly sorted through his documents before he began to speak. "The court has deliberated and has now reached the following verdict," the man readjusted his glasses and picked up a document, "Anakin Skywalker, based on the evidence before you, the court has decided to sentence you to five years in the Republic Judiciary Central Detention Center for aggravated assault."
Anakin's mind shut down as shock set in. Five years. Here in Coruscant prison.
"Obi-Wan Kenobi, due to your significant influence on the development of Anakin Skywalker, the court has decided to sentence you to a term of three years in the Republic Judiciary Central Detention Center."
When the gavel fell, Anakin knew it was now over for them both.