( closed ) is anybody out there out there

[facultative]

Who: Anakin Skywalker (facultative) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (jedies)
What: Anakin's free of Maul and he thinks Obi-Wan is mad at him
When: Sometime in the second half of the month
Where: the Kenobi house for wayward Jedi

Content Warnings: n/a

[Anakin returns in much the same fashion that he had left, without any warning or sign. It's a dark day as it had been for every other day this month, but there's a lightness to his steps that had been absent for a while. It had been an indescribable feeling to have the weight of his bond with Maul lifted. He'd struggled and now he could look back and see how much he had taken without breaking. He survived and he hadn't given in. Things could be better, he could do better.

He goes into every room as if exploring, but he's really only looking for one person. When he does find him, there's no greeting or words exchanged. Anakin goes right up to him and wraps his arms around Obi-Wan. Only then does he speak, his words muffled slightly against the older man's robes.]

It's gone.

[He trusts that whatever Obi-Wans personal feelings, he wouldn't pull away right now. And then hopefully Anakin can cajole forgiveness while Obi-Wan was stuck here.]

Comments

[facultative]

[The quick answer is that they should never have bothered with him in the first place. The next answer comes slower.]

I can't stop change any more than I can stop the suns from setting.

[jedies]

[ it feels like a breakthrough. small but no less important. obi-wan places his hands on anakin's shoulders, gripping them tightly. ]

I know you feel you're alone in this, but all of us — even Jedi — fear loss. We fear losing. Fear is in the heart of us all.

[facultative]

[He looks at Obi-Wan, eyes bright with unshed tears.]

But no one else will do what I do.

[Fear doesn't drive people to murder and subjugate an entire galaxy. That was all him.]

[jedies]

No one else was in the presence for a Sith Lord that long. You held out as long as you could and then Palpatine used your fears to do the rest.

Yes, you are still culpable but you were also used.

[facultative]

He didn't-- he didn't even say anything. I thought that he wouldn't want me to be happy, but he didn't do anything.

[He wishes he could put some of the blame on someone else, but he doesn't see how. Even Maul was open about how horrible he was to him.]

[jedies]

Didn't he?

The information about the Sith. Did he volunteer that himself or did he know you were having visions of Padme?

[facultative]

He already knew when he told me. He begged me to let him help.

I swear I went to the Council after that. I told them. I didn't join him! Master Windu took some of the masters to confront him. They were going to arrest him.

...They were supposed to stop him.

[He was going to kill them, wasn't he? He'd change his mind, rush over to the Senate building and when he sees them threatening an old man, he'll snap.]

[jedies]

I believe you, Anakin.

I think Palpatine put those visions in your head. He manipulated you.

[facultative]

How? Can you really do something like that?

[This is not good for his suspicions that they were hiding something from him, but he won't think about that until later.]

[jedies]

The Jedi can't.

But Yoda had trouble with that before. With the Dark trying to manipulate him through visions.

[facultative]

But it all happened.

[jedies]

Not all of it, I imagine.

[facultative]

[He conflates the vision he had on Coruscant to the one he had in the dream world. There was enough overlap between the two to make him believe they were an extension of the same.]

It did. I even saw this place before we went through the door.

[There's one detail he can't confirm that until either of them live through it. But those were just words and doesn't change the fact that everything else he knows will or has happened.]

That's why I knew that you'd walk away before anyone said anything.

[jedies]

[ obi-wan shakes his head, his stance firm. ]

No, Anakin. Think back carefully. Were they truly the same?

[facultative]

[He can't see the point of this and it frustrates him.]

What does it matter? We know it happens.

I know it, they know it. What's the point in pretending like it isn't while waiting for me to snap?

[jedies]

It's not all about what happens. It's equally important to know what led up to it.

[facultative]

Why? It won't change anything.

[It won't do anything for everyone who has to suffer. This was it.]

[jedies]

It may not. But the truth still matters, Anakin.

Do you want your truth to be in the control of someone else?

[facultative]

He already gets everything from me. What's one more?

[jedies]

Do you want to give him everything then?

[facultative]

[He glances away.]

It doesn't matter what I want.

[The knowledge that their worlds will be unaffected by their presence here had seemed like an opportunity to find answers, but it turned to become a noose around his neck.]

[jedies]

[ he repeats himself, steady. ]

Do you want to give him everything? Is this what you want your family to see you as?

[facultative]

No.

But maybe they should.

[jedies]

That's their decision to make.

But you can't keep avoiding making your own.

[facultative]

You're the one trying to pretend everything won't happen.

[He knows he's not dealing with it particularly well, but at least he accepts that its happened.]