In the days of the Republic, it could take Anakin anywhere between five and fifty clicks to arrive when summoned. It usually depended on his mood that day; and on days where Senator Padme was late, Anakin would also be. Sometimes it was frustrating, but when Ahsoka also began to exhibit similar behavior, Obi-Wan found it somewhat amusing. At least now, Anakin had to share in his annoyance of having a troublesome apprentice with little respect for his precious time.

But it was no longer the age of the Republic. Time meant nothing to him anymore. One day was as good as the last, or as bad as the last, it did not matter. Every part of his life could be said to be frozen in place, either insignificant or undesirable to think about. Obi-Wan measured his years in time before and after Anakin, and every one that passed was nothing but a bitter reminder of his sins. All he could do was quietly bide the years until Luke exhibited the first signs of his powers.

The only person who had been able to reach into his heart and pull together the broken wires of his inner clock was Leia. After her, nothing could ever be the same again. Time meant something to him now. All because of a ten-year-old girl whose head barely reached a third of his height.

He would not let her down, not for anything in his world.

Vader did not keep him waiting for long. As Obi-Wan exhaled his last free breath, the magnetic barrier of the cell came down, and the darkness was illuminated by a single bright red light. He looked away and pretended not to care as two tall figures, clad entirely in black, strolled into the small cell.

"Kenobi," Vader greeted.

Reva walked in behind him and stood against the wall with her ringed lightsaber drawn, silent. Obi-Wan took a deep breath and straightened his back, trying not to let the pain from his burns show.

"Have you come to kill me?"

"That was the original plan. However, there has been a change."

"A change of mind, or a change of heart?"

"Neither."

The two of them began to walk closer towards him, circling him. Obi-Wan squeezed his eyes shut, suddenly self-conscious of his burn wounds and the grime covering him.

"I have something that I would like to try. However, I am not entirely sure that it will work."

"Will it kill me?"

"Possibly."

Vader slowly walked towards him, then laid his gloved hand on his neck.

"When I was interrogating the Rebels, I thought I sensed a pathetic old coward trying to cheat and read my thoughts," he sneered. "If only I could cut you away, like the limbs of which you robbed me. But for better or for worse, you and I are connected, in a way that neither of us can deny. You shall give me the information, either verbally or through here."

"I will not tell you anything," Obi-Wan grunted.

"Very well. Have it your way," Vader replied.

Suddenly, he clenched his wrist, and Obi-Wan gasp, his eyes rolling back.

"You will speak today on your knowledge of the Rebel Alliance," Vader commanded.

He could feel him through the Force, dark and overpowering, attempting to force his way into his mind. Obi-Wan shook his head, refusing to grant him entry.

He could not let him read his thoughts. Not now. He had too many to protect, too many lives at stake.

"I...do not...know what you are talking about," he gritted his teeth, his breathing labored.

"You will tell us everything you know about them."

"I...have...no knowledge...on this matter..."

"Cease resisting me. You are only prolonging your own death," Vader growled, shaking him.

"I...know...nothing about them," Obi-Wan panted, still refusing to let him in.

Vader sneered, finally letting him go. Obi-Wan collapsed like a ragdoll, panting heavily. He did not expect to last much longer, not with Vader probing his mind and overwhelming him with the energy of the Dark Side.

"It appears your will is stronger than I thought. We will have to resort to alternate methods," Vader sneered, turning to Reva with obvious displeasure. "Tighten his chains," he commanded.

Reva walked up and grabbed him by the slack of the chain attached to the shackle around his neck. She then shortened it so that he was now pulled directly against the wall. The rough stone walls cut into his back, and now he was forced to look up at them with little room for head movement. He grunted, now sensing a growing pain in his neck. Reva also grabbed each of his wrists and clipped the shackles onto the wall so he was forced to hold both arms up.

"You may speak about two subjects," Vader continued. "The Rebel Alliance, or your relationship to the girl. Any other deviation will be punishable."

"If by that you mean Ahsoka, I am just as surprised as you are to see her."

"That is not who I was referring to."

"Who?"

"Do not pretend to be stupid."

Reva pressed a button on her lightsaber and it began to spin slowly, inches away from Obi-Wan's face. He swallowed nervously.

"I do not know who you are talking about."

"I will not tolerate lies, Obi-Wan."

"I have no relationships. I am just a lonely old man who lives by himself. I have nothing interesting worth lying about."

Vader snarled. "I find it hard to believe that one man working alone is capable of causing such a large scale of disruption. Undoubtably, you must have had accomplices."

"There is no one else but me. I am the one responsible for everything. There is no one else."

Vader turned to Reva. She looked back at him, her eyes alert, then nodded silently and squeezed the handle of her lightsaber, turning off the spin function. She then stood in front of him, making direct eye contact, her face lit by the glow of the lightsaber. He thought that he could also see a faint glow coming from her eyes, but his eyes were already overwhelmed from hours of sitting by himself in the dark.

"It appears his memory is unclear."

His vision was starting to get foggy. As his eyes fluttered open and closed, he nearly mistook the dark cape and black boots for those of a Jedi Apprentice.

"Fix it," Vader said coldly.

Reva walked up to him and pressed her lightsaber hilt to his shackle, igniting it.

The lightsaber flashed to life and immediately heated up the metal, causing it to glow a bright red. Obi-Wan screamed, thinking the metal would melt onto his skin, but it did not. Instead, it continued to glow scarlet red, with sparks flying off of it where the lightsaber's blade made contact. Obi-Wan still cried out, feeling the heat of the metal against his neck.

This must be no ordinary iron. It has to be Mandalorian, he thought to himself, his mind racing wildly.

"That's right," Reva said, as if she could already read his thoughts. "You know what this is, don't you? It's beskar, some of the rarest and most difficult to obtain this side of the galaxy. Which means you're not getting out of here, not unless one of us hands you the key," she growled, pressing down harder.

Obi-Wan screamed louder. He could feel the shackle singeing his skin, most likely leaving new marks.

Vader waved his hand, and Reva let go. The shackle continued to burn at his neck for a while, and Obi-Wan let out a whimper as he could still feel it. Once his cries began to subside, Vader walked closer, inspecting him. He reached out with a black gloved hand, and Obi-Wan flinched, thinking he was going to strangle him. Instead, Vader simply closed his fingers, and the heat in the shackle slowly dissipated away. Obi-Wan gasped loudly, feeling as if he might never be able to breathe again.

"Are you ready to start answering truthfully, Obi-Wan?"

Obi-Wan panted and looked up at him again, his eyes wild.

"Let us try again."

Obi-Wan closed his eyes and shook his head.

"How do you know the girl?"

"I don't. I don't know anyone," Obi-Wan mumbled.

"Oh? Then I suppose I was mistaken, because I thought you were friends," Reva retorted. Vader raised his hand and she immediately shut her mouth.

"And the Rebellion?"

"I don't know them either."

Vader drew back.

He turned his back to Obi-Wan and started to pace around, as if rethinking his strategy.

"I see. He does not know." He stopped in front of Reva. "Perhaps...perhaps I have the wrong approach. Our prisoner is in no condition to answer our questions. What do you think is stopping him?"

He stared at her, waiting for her response.

Reva swallowed, then opened her mouth again. "He cannot think because he is in pain."

"Correct," Vader concurred. "His arms must hurt. His legs as well."

He turned back towards Obi-Wan and focused his eyes on him, not looking away anymore.

"Remove them for him. Perhaps this will allow him to think better."

"Yes, my Lord."

Reva strolled towards him again.

Obi-Wan began to hyperventilate. His breathing became irregular and shaky. With each step, he began to feel his heart pound harder and harder, until he was sure it would explode if she drew any closer.

"Where should I start, my Lord?"

"Unfortunately, it has been so long, I hardly remember which came first. Perhaps you remember. Do you know, Kenobi?"

Obi-Wan looked up at him. Vader stared at him intensely, the sound of his mechanical breathing growing louder and louder as he leaned down closer.

"I said, do you remember which came first, Kenobi?"

Obi-Wan stared back at him as he grabbed his shackle using the Force and began to tilt it further upwards.

"Did what?" He stammered.

"Did you cut off my right leg or my left, Master?"

Obi-Wan's eyes widened, and he instinctively drew back, then groaned as Vader pulled the shackle around his neck forwards. It cut cruelly into the already-burnt skin of his neck. Obi-Wan choked on it, then started to cough uncontrollably. Vader and Reva waited for him in silence.

"It appears he does not know either," Vader drawled. "No matter. The right one should do. Cut it off."

"Yes, my Lord."

Reva knelt down and grabbed the right leg that was shackled to the wall. Obi-Wan screamed and kicked at her, but it made no difference. The red lightsaber came down, and started to burn and tear at his flesh. Obi-Wan let out a cry so loud that Reva drew back slightly, then gritted her teeth and sawed through the rest of the bone. The room began to fill with the smell of hot, burning flesh, and Obi-Wan's sobs became louder and louder as he lost control of himself.

Once it was done, Reva drew back, her eyes strangely wild. Obi-Wan's face was now soaked in tears, and his lip was bleeding from accidentally biting it. He could not get his body to calm down, could not get his breathing back to its normal pace.

"Does it hurt, Kenobi?"

Obi-Wan let out a feeble whimper, unable to form words.

"I said, does it hurt, Kenobi?" Vader demanded.

Obi-Wan squeezed his eyes shut, tears flowing down his sweat-stained cheeks. The only noises he could make were cries of pain.

"Good," Vader remarked coldly.

Reva watched him through narrow-lidded eyes, her expression equally as cold. This must be the same pain she was in, he realized, when she was struck down by Anakin along with the other Younglings.

He forced himself to close his trembling mouth, trying to stop the drool running down his chin, and barely managed to. He breathed shakily through his nose, sniffling and shaking all the while.

"I hope you are feeling a bit more talkative now."

Obi-Wan closed his eyes, grimacing.

"Let us proceed...Next question. How long have you been in contact with the Rebellion?"

Obi-Wan looked away from him.

"Make him look at me."

Reva complied, turning on her lightsaber and holding it in front of Obi-Wan's face. He gasped fearfully and turned quickly to face Vader, looking up at him with teary eyes.

"I am not in contact with them," he coughed. "I only heard that the girl was missing, so I went to find her."

"You have gotten louder, but you are still refusing to speak. I will find the rest of the rebels and kill them slowly, since you refuse to grant them a quick demise. Starting with the two you have brought into my Fortress."

Obi-Wan's eyes widened.

"I have no connections to the Rebellion!" Obi-Wan shouted. It was the truth. "I have turned all of them down every time."

"Lies," Vader hissed.

"It is true!" Obi-Wan panted. "I am...I am a coward," he gasped as Reva raised her lightsaber threateningly. "I told them I couldn't. They came to me for help and I sent them away."

Vader and Reva watched him in silence.

"I...have let a man die," Obi-Wan sobbed, "Because I was too afraid to help him. He asked me to come to his aid, and I didn't. I did nothing. I found him the next day and he was dead, hanging from his neck. I failed him."

Reva made no sign to indicate that she knew the person he was talking about. Her eyes were glazed over and cold, colder than they had ever been.

"I am no longer a Jedi," Obi-Wan cried, "I do not deserve the right to call myself one."

"Indeed," Vader said. "You do not."

Obi-Wan sobbed.

"Now that we are finally in agreement, tell me how you came to know Organa's daughter."

"It's no use," Obi-Wan cried. "I don't care anymore. Just kill me already," he begged. "I don't want to live anymore, Anakin."

"Do not call me by that name!" Vader thundered, scaring Reva and causing her to withdraw from him. "Who said you were allowed to die?"

"But I don't want to live," Obi-Wan sobbed, "I know what I have done, Anakin, and I cannot stand myself. Why won't you just kill me? You already hate me."

"Only I get to decide that," Vader snarled, "And right now, I have no intention of letting you die. I want to know your business with the girl. What is she to you? Is she your Apprentice?"

Obi-Wan's eyes widened. "No," he said, shaking his head fervently as his voice broke. "Leia is just a girl. I don't even know who she is," he lied.

"You are lying again!" Vader yelled angrily. "If she did not matter to you, then why are you still trying to protect her?"

"I am not, I told you, I don't know-"

"You dare continue to defy me!" Vader growled, and stomped so hard that both Obi-Wan and Reva flinched. "I told you, I have no patience for lies," he hissed, leaning in close. "What more do I have to do for you to answer me honestly, Obi-Wan? Must I cut off your other leg? Or your hands?"

Obi-Wan stared up at him. He no longer saw a cold, merciless, calculating commander.

Instead, he saw him.

His first Apprentice.

Lying on the ground at Mustafar, with no legs and arms, unable to move. All he could do was lie there and scream at him, yell at him to turn around. To turn around and come back for him.

Obi-Wan, Anakin screamed, both of his eyes red with anger. Come back! Look at me!

Come back here, Obi-Wan!

OBI-WAN...!

The boy that used to sleep on the floor of his room at night, because he was afraid of him disappearing and leaving him all alone. Who liked racing pods and speedsters. Who he thought would bring peace to the Galaxy, and for whom he thanked and cursed the Force every day. Who he had sworn to Master Qui-Gon that he would protect.

He had spent all those years trying to keep him safe, only to be the one to raise his sword against him, only to abandon him when he was screaming and crying for him to stay.

Obi-Wan did not turn away this time.

"It is as you said," Obi-Wan said slowly. "I am nothing but a pathetic, senile old man. I'm afraid I don't know how to answer any of these questions."

Vader let out an angry shout and swung his lightsaber hard at him. Obi-Wan closed his eyes, welcoming it, bracing for the final blow, but all he felt was a faint heat. When he reopened his eyes, he saw the lightsaber buried in the wall next to him, causing it to crack where Vader had hit it.

"If you will not speak," Vader exclaimed wildly, "Then I will wait no longer." He stood up, dislodging his lightsaber from the wall. "Fetch me the girl," he said coldly.

All the blood drained from Obi-Wan's face.

"No," he whispered.

"You may say goodbye to her," Vader sneered. "Before I cut her head off, and send her back to Bail Organa in a funerary spacecraft."

"No!" Obi-Wan began to hyperventilate, straining against the chains, forgetting that they had been used to burn him and could be used once again. "No, no," he cried, tears falling again, "Anakin, don't do this, she's...you can't!"

"You have no control over what I choose to do," Vader spat.

"No, Anakin," Obi-Wan sobbed, "Don't kill her, please, I'm begging you... why does it always have to be this way?" he panted. "Just kill me, take me instead, I don't want to live anyway-"

"This is not about giving you what you want, Kenobi. This is about what you owe me."

"I give you my life! I already told you, it's yours! You can kill me anytime!"

"And I am telling you, I do not accept your offer," Vader growled.

"Anakin, PLEASE!" Obi-Wan screamed. "Just-just leave her alone! She hasn't done anything to you!"

"That is of no concern to me."

"She's a child! She's ten, Anakin! You yourself were only nine when you came to me," Obi-Wan cried desperately.

"Indeed, and what a blessing that was," Vader snarled. "Naive, trusting, and too focused on celebrating my freedom from a life of slavery to realize that I had merely signed up for another. If I had known what abuse I would endure...what loss I would experience... I would have never stuck out my neck for you."

"If you hate me so much, why can't you just kill me instead?"

"Your death means nothing to me."

"Then why her? She is just an innocent child," Obi-Wan pleaded, "She doesn't deserve this!"

"Because she must die!" Vader shouted. "If you refuse to obey me on pain of death because you do not fear it, I have no choice but to devise a punishment worse than death."

"It is," Obi-Wan gasped, "But not for the reason you think-"

"Silence!" Vader commanded, and Obi-Wan felt a choking sensation around his throat, preventing him from speaking. "The only person you have ever shown compassion towards was not me, not your Padawan, or any of the people who willingly risked their lives to ensure your safety, but this insignificant, ordinary little brat whose father you barely even know.

I used to think of you as my father, but I have never known a man to be so cruel towards his own kin. I can barely even call you a brother. Yet, of all the people you have ever known, you are willing to die for her, as if you had known her your entire life. Why is that?"

The Force grip on his throat was removed, but Obi-Wan could only stutter, paralyzed.

"If I wasn't any wiser, I would say that you were trying to hide a lovechild from me," Vader snarled.

Obi-Wan shut his mouth.

"Ah," Vader said coldly. "So, the truth comes out at last. Your body betrays you."

He raised his lightsaber and the red light illuminated his mask threateningly as it hung in the air above his face.

"Farewell, Kenobi. Know that your daughter will be joining you soon."

With that, he began to lower it, aiming towards Obi-Wan's chest.

Obi-Wan immediately snapped back to reality. It was as if the curse had been lifted, and suddenly he found his voice again.

"No, Anakin!" He cried out, startling them. "She's not my daughter, you fool! She's yours!"