"I think that meeting went well," Obi-Wan said. "It's a shame you weren't appointed Master, though."

"I think I should be a Master," Anakin muttered. "I've defeated a Sith Lord."

"You would be the youngest ever," Obi-Wan pointed out. "I can understand the Council's reluctance."

Anakin glanced at him. "Does that mean you agree with them?"

"It means that I think being a Master would offer challenges you haven't yet had the chance to face," Obi-Wan replied. "Being a Master is more than just a title… I sometimes wish I wasn't one."

Both their commlinks chirped at once.

"I wonder what that is," Obi-Wan said, taking his out. "Maybe it's the droid attack on the Wookiees."

"Master Ki-Adi-Mundi is always going on about that," Anakin said.

A string of binary came out of Obi-Wan's commlink, and he looked at it in polite bafflement.

"I'm not an expert, but… that was profane, wasn't it?" he asked. "R2-D2 has an incredibly foul mouth for a droid from Naboo."

"Yeah, he does that," Anakin agreed. "I wonder what these records are he's boasting about… he really seems to think we should watch them."

Taking out his own commlink, he beeped expertly into it.

"R2 does understand Basic, doesn't he?" Obi-Wan said.

"Yeah, but I'm working on my accent," Anakin explained, getting another string of beeps in return. "Okay, he says he'll meet us in conference room fourteen, one level down from the hangar."

"All right, what's this about, exactly?" Obi-Wan asked, as he and Anakin entered the room. "I'm curious, and I've got some time before I have to leave… it doesn't do me any good to arrive on Utapau before Cody's ready to drop in."

"You don't need to explain that to me, Master," Anakin chuckled, then R2 provided a litany of beeping noises.

His expression changed slightly, and he glanced at Obi-Wan. "I guess… that's probably helpful, right?"

"What is?" Obi-Wan replied.

"R2 said he managed to extract a lot of the archives from the Invisible Hand before we left," Anakin translated. "He managed to find something we need to see."

"I should have brought us some snacks," Obi-Wan said, and his former padawan sniggered.

The windows went dim as R2 polarized them, then his projector lit up, and the two Jedi watched as an image appeared – Palpatine, Anakin, Obi-Wan and Count Dooku.

"Well, this is going to be embarrassing…" Obi-Wan muttered. "But we may as well treat it as a learning opportunity, I suppose. Feel free to explain in great detail exactly how I screwed up."

Anakin didn't reply, feeling guilty in a way he wasn't sure he knew how to put into words, and the battle played out.

The angle wasn't great, but it caught Obi-Wan being knocked out, and it also caught when Anakin cut off one of Dooku's hands and retrieved his lightsaber.

"Good," the Chancellor said, a chuckle to his voice, then continued pleasantly. "Kill him."

Obi-Wan did a double-take. "What?"

R2 obligingly paused the recording.

"Did he just say that?" Obi-Wan asked. "Anakin, did the Chancellor really say that?"

"It made more sense at the time," Anakin replied.

R2 rewound a few seconds, showing them Palpatine's instruction a second time, then the Chancellor continued. "Kill him now."

Not sure what to say or how to process that, Obi-wan watched as Anakin struggled with the question. Pushed back… then, ultimately, complied with Palpatine's instruction on a third order.

A moment later, R2 cut forwards, to when Palpatine had told Anakin to leave Obi-Wan to die and Anakin had insisted on picking up his friend and master.

Then the projector dimmed.

"...well," Obi-Wan said, eventually.

"Say it, Master," Anakin began. "I should have-"

"You should have done what, Anakin?" Obi-Wan replied. "Told me about this? I'm not sure I believe what I just heard, so I can certainly forgive you for that."

He shook his head. "About the only way I can see it being justified is if… maybe the Chancellor isn't comfortable with taking a Sith prisoner. Imprisoning a powerful, evil user of the Force is very difficult, and giving him a trial wouldn't be easy either."

After a moment, Obi-Wan put his hand on Anakin's. "I wish we had time to properly meditate about this, to let you accept what happened and work through how you feel, but – we don't have time before I have to leave for Utapau. After I get back?"

"All right, Master," Anakin decided, with a nod.

An extremely crowded day later, Anakin ran into the Chancellor's apartment.

"Anakin, help me!" Palpatine cried, as he fended off Mace Windu with lightning bolts.

"So…" Anakin began, glancing at Master Windu. "Shouldn't you be arresting him?"

"They're trying to murder me, Anakin!" Palpatine wailed.

"We tried arresting him," Windu replied, speaking over Palpatine. "There's no way to give him a trial!"

Anakin thought about that for about a second.

"Seems legit," he said, and stabbed Palpatine in the side.

The Chancellor fell off the building, and Mace half-fell against the windowsill as he watched.

A flare of purple Force energy rippled against them, and Mace sighed in relief.

Then looked up at Anakin.

"I'm not complaining," he began. "But you made that decision very suddenly."

"I was just glad to have a simple moral problem," Anakin replied, shrugging a bit defensively. "I thought, what would the Chancellor tell me to do in this situation, and he said, do it."

Mace looked between Anakin and the window.

"...sure," he said. "I'll take it."

AN:

Could have had Palpy's evil revealed then, but Anakin speedrunning being a Sith by accident without realizing is good too.