Fic: White Rabbits (Star Wars, Part 2/?)

[butterfly]

Title: White Rabbits
Chapter: 2/?
Author: Diana Michelle (butterfly)
Warnings: Spoilers for Revenge of the Sith.
Pairing: Eventual Anakin/Obi-Wan.
Rating: PG/PG-13-ish.
Summary: Through the Force, everything is connected -- Obi-Wan nurses a headache and gets confused.
Disclaimer: Not Lucas, don't own a thing, not making any money.
Chapter Index

Chapter Two – The Other Side

 

Obi-Wan cautiously opened his eyes, snapping them shut again as the brightness around him intensified the ache in his head.

 

He must have been moved by someone, because he didn’t remember any intense lights down in that cave. Actually, all he could remember was the water, and the pain, and Anakin screaming out for him.

 

If they’d hurt Anakin…

 

Well, that was a situation that he would have to deal with in due time.

 

Right now, he had to concentrate on the present, on his current situation.

 

He clearly wasn’t where he had been – the blinding light had been a big hint there. And he could hear the hum and buzz of speeder engines very close by. A city, then, though it didn’t sound like an Outer Rim city.

 

In fact, it sounded remarkably like Coruscant on a slow day, but that was… well, not impossible, but it meant that he’d been unconscious far longer than he’d suspected.

 

He realized with a start that he didn’t know where his lightsaber was.

 

Anakin would be sure to notice that, once Anakin found him.

 

Obi-Wan began to reach out to Anakin with the Force and then stopped cold.

 

He couldn’t feel Anakin.

 

He couldn’t feel anything.

 

Obi-Wan took in a single, controlled breath, and then let it out. There had to be some kind of external reason for this. He would find out what was blocking him from the Force. He would fix it. And if he couldn’t, Anakin would, when Anakin found him.

 

This was fixable.

 

After another moment, Obi-Wan opened his eyes again, more slowly this time.

 

The sterile, white room looked oddly familiar, and it certainly resembled one of the more common styles of Coruscant apartments.

 

And there was someone behind him, gulping in air in ragged breaths.

 

Obi-Wan straightened himself up from the floor and turned around.

 

The other person in the room was a young man around Anakin’s age, who was bracing himself up against the wall. How increasingly peculiar. Was this one of his captors or was this man another prisoner?

 

“Obi-Wan?” The young man asked, an intense emotion of some sort on his face. He was dressed in a black uniform of unknown origin, and on his belt… he wore a lightsaber. Dooku’s apprentice, perhaps?

 

“Do I know you?” Obi-Wan asked, taking a step back and to the left, nearer to the door. The young man looked confused and then reached down to pick up a lightsaber from the floor.

 

It was Obi-Wan’s lightsaber. So close, and he hadn’t sensed it at all.

 

Obi-Wan took another circling step away, but the man held the lightsaber out towards him.

 

“You should,” the man said. “It’s Luke. You trained me.”

 

“I’ve only had one apprentice, young Luke, and no intention of ever taking another,” Obi-Wan said, reaching out to claim his lightsaber. At first, the man… Luke held onto his end, but after a moment, he released it into Obi-Wan’s hand. Obi-Wan slipped the lightsaber back on his belt, not allowing any trace of despair to show on his face. Even without the Force, he would be able to use the lightsaber, be able to fight. “You must be mistaken.”

 

“I’m not.” Luke said, his voice certain and strong. But without the Force, Obi-Wan couldn’t know whether or not Luke really believed that. And Obi-Wan honestly couldn’t even imagine entertaining the thought of taking a Padawan learner, not now and not ever, not when it would certainly mean breaking up the team. Unless… had he lost his memory, lost time? Woken up in a new world, one where he and Anakin were no longer partners? But he didn’t feel any older. “But maybe it hasn’t happened yet, for you.”

 

“What do you mean?” Obi-Wan asked, keeping his expression guarded. He ran an assessing eye over Luke – he was certainly fit and he carried himself gracefully, as a Jedi should. And… he wore a glove over only his right hand, like Anakin. But that was a popular enough fashion accessory these days. All the boys wanted to be like the great Jedi warrior, Anakin Skywalker. Still, oddly, with the glove and with his coloring, he looked more than a little like Anakin, though he had sharper features.

 

“You’re younger than you should be, than I remember you being,” Luke said. He waved his gloved hand towards his head. “Your hair… is darker.”

 

“You’re someone that I’m to teach in the future?” Obi-Wan asked. He still couldn’t understand why he would ever take another apprentice. Anakin was more than enough to worry about. And if, in the future, Anakin left the team to take his own Padawan, Obi-Wan couldn’t imagine that inspiring him to go out and teach someone else.

 

“You don’t believe me,” Luke said quietly. Obi-Wan shook his head slightly, still feeling more than a little bewildered by this entire chain of events. “Can’t you just… know that it’s true?”

 

Obi-Wan hesitated. Clearly, Luke either didn’t know that Obi-Wan was Force-blind or was pretending not to know, for some hidden reason of his own. Well, there was no point in lying – if anything, it might put him at an advantage, if Luke assumed that the Force had been Obi-Wan’s only ally.

 

And all he really had to do was stay alive long enough for Anakin to find him.

 

“Something is blocking me from the Force,” Obi-Wan said. Luke’s reaction was far more extreme than he’d been expecting – the man was clearly deeply pained by the news, as if he truly were someone that Obi-Wan knew well. Deeply pained or just a very good actor.

 

“How… who… why…” Luke trailed off, looking as though someone had kicked him in the head.

 

“Try to concentrate on one question at a time, young Luke,” Obi-Wan said. “And as for the ones you just asked, they are the questions that I am attempting to answer even as we speak.”

 

“And?” Luke prompted him.

 

“I’ve had no success so far, but I’ve only just began to explore the possibilities,” Obi-Wan said. He glanced back over at Luke. “How far into the future do you claim this is?”

 

“I don’t know, how far into the past are you from?” Luke shot back. “Look, the time frame that I can give you isn’t going to mean a lot unless I know what you’re working from.”

 

“Why not?” Obi-Wan asked, taking in Luke’s highly defensive posture.

 

“Because there are things that you might not want to know yet,” Luke said, the tone of his voice sharpening.

 

There was only one thing that Obi-Wan could think of, something that explained him having another former apprentice, something that that apprentice might know that he wouldn’t want to know.

 

Anakin must be dead, in this time.

 

Obi-Wan turned away from Luke, only slightly aware that he was giving the man an opening to strike him down.

 

He just… needed a moment to consider the possibility.

 

Obi-Wan knew well enough that no one lived forever. It was not the will of the Force, which rode the waves of the ever-changing now. And so, Obi-Wan had let go of many things in his life, including his own Master, Qui-Gon Jinn. As a Jedi, Obi-Wan accepted that everything passed away, in time.

 

But as Anakin’s friend, Obi-Wan had always hoped that he, not Anakin, would be the one to pass away first. A thought unbecoming a Jedi, but there it was, as true as the Force itself – he simply hadn’t ever wanted to consider living in a universe that didn’t contain Anakin Skywalker.

Facing the idea that he might have to was... daunting, to say the least.

 

“You should just tell me,” Obi-Wan said, forcing his words to come out evenly. “It’s always better to get these things over with quickly.”

 

“I don’t…” Luke began and, suddenly, he stopped talking, his attention turning to the door.

 

And then, Obi-Wan could hear someone running towards them. So, Luke was Force-sensitive, after all.

 

Moments later, a woman all in white appeared in the doorway, brown hair twisted up in an impractical Naboo-style wrap. She was holding up a blaster, and though she seemed slightly out of breath, she had a sure grip on her weapon.

 

She scanned the room, but then, when she spotted Obi-Wan, she let out a soft sound of surprise, her blaster falling to her side.

 

“General Kenobi?” she asked, her voice a reverent whisper. "Is that really you?"

 

What the blazes had he gotten himself into this time?

~end chapter two~

Comments

[grey-bard.livejournal.com]

Luke! *And* younger Obi-Wan! ...I think I'm in love. More?

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you're enjoying it! And Obi-Wan and Luke will definitely have more interaction in upcoming chapters.

[imadra-blue.livejournal.com]

Ahaha, I am so behind on my reading, I really am. Sorry it took me so long. I'm going to read this bit by bit, and I'm pretty slow, but I will read this, because you've got me intrigued.

This is very nice so far, very interesting. You've got good pacing, and a plot (and I do so love plots). Your Anakin and Obi-Wan are well-characterized, and your language use is well-done. I really like this so far. I knew by skimming it that it was good, but this is good. Damn good. I think it's the best I've seen, and I've had to read a lot of fics for jedi_news, or at least skim them. I really look forward to reading more, but alas, I'm ona time crunch and have to get back to work now. Will read more chapters in a day or two. Bravo to you, dear.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

This is very nice so far, very interesting. You've got good pacing, and a plot (and I do so love plots). Your Anakin and Obi-Wan are well-characterized, and your language use is well-done. I really like this so far. I knew by skimming it that it was good, but this is good. Damn good. I think it's the best I've seen, and I've had to read a lot of fics for jedi_news, or at least skim them. I really look forward to reading more, but alas, I'm on a time crunch and have to get back to work now. Will read more chapters in a day or two. Bravo to you, dear.

Wow, thank you. I'm so glad that you're enjoying it so far.

SW really has quite the hold on me at the moment and I'm just horribly in love with the characters. Terribly, terribly in love. So in love that I am, indeed, writing plot for them, which actually has been surprising me as well.

[imadra-blue.livejournal.com]

I'm glad someone else is in love with the SW characters as I am. And writing plots for them is love. Love, I tell you!

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

The characters are very tempting. And what's surprising me is how much chemistry Anakin and Obi-Wan have on the page. Their personalities really do just spark off each other in wonderful ways that aren't dependent on the actors (lovely as the actors are).

[imadra-blue.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. I haven't really read the novelizations, yet, but while writing and reading fic and bits and pieces here and there of other novels, the very characters themselves just go together perfectly. The chemistry was conveyed nicely by the actors, but the characters themselves are just incredible together. They take on lives of their own.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

The only ST book that I've read is the novelization of RotS, though I've heard some interesting/disturbing second-hand information about the EU. But the movies are the only thing that I actually consider canon (the same that I don't think that the HP movies are canon, just the books. source material vs an interpretation).

The chemistry was conveyed nicely by the actors, but the characters themselves are just incredible together. They take on lives of their own.

They really do. They have this incredibly close yet fraught connection that I absolutely adore. It's... I have a pairing type, which is best friends. More particularly, it's best friends who are at their best when standing back to back against the world, who fit together almost more through force of will than actual compatability. They love each other, and thus make it work, regardless of fights or pain. And Anakin/Obi-Wan, in RotS, really became the tragic ideal of my favorite type of relationship, which may explain why I'm so obsessed with it (more so because of the fact that even through this most horrible of breaks, they both clearly love the other, even twenty years later).

And wow, that paragraph just kept going.

[imadra-blue.livejournal.com]

Same here. Movies primary, all else is secondary. I don't seek contradict it, nor confirm it. Unless I like it. ;D

Ah! My pairing type is the odd couple type deal, the two people who are so different, yet so alike. Anakin and Obi-Wan hit my buttons for that, too. The love, even through the hate and resentment, also compells. They're highly addicting.

Don't feel bad, my paragraphs never end, especially on the subject of Anakin and Obi-Wan.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Ah! My pairing type is the odd couple type deal, the two people who are so different, yet so alike. Anakin and Obi-Wan hit my buttons for that, too. The love, even through the hate and resentment, also compells. They're highly addicting.

They are, indeed.

The best friends thing actually appears quite frequently in conjuction with the odd couples vibe, now that I think about it. It makes a lot of sense -- strong friendship are often based on deep similarities off-set by surface disagreements. The whole 'they don't look the same, but they are, under the skin' idea.

[a-blue-moon-cat.livejournal.com]

So is that why Leia and Han hit it off so well? I had not really considered their relationship in this way, but now it makes more sense.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

*nods*

The Anakin/Obi-Wan banter definitely reminds me much more of Leia and Han than Anakin and Padme do.

re: White Rabbits (Star Wars, Part 2: The Other Side

[a-blue-moon-cat.livejournal.com]

Have I mentioned how much I adore time-traveling stories? *smiles*

Luke's a smart boy, not to let on too much, esp. not to reveal that he is Anakin's son at this point. And yay for Leia showing up so quickly--I love girls with guns! ;)

Re: re: White Rabbits (Star Wars, Part 2: The Other Side

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Have I mentioned how much I adore time-traveling stories? *smiles*

Time-travel can be so much fun (though potentially headache-y, of course).

Luke's a smart boy, not to let on too much, esp. not to reveal that he is Anakin's son at this point. And yay for Leia showing up so quickly--I love girls with guns! ;)

Leia's great -- I'm really enjoying writing her (though I do really like writing all of them).