butterfly | White Rabbits (Star Wars, 6/?) (Reply)

Title: White Rabbits
Chapter: 6/?
Author: Diana Michelle (butterfly.
Pairing: Eventual Anakin/Obi-Wan.
Rating: PG/PG-13-ish.
Summary: Wherein Anakin is possessive.
Disclaimer: Not Lucas, don't own a thing, not making any money.
Chapter Index

Chapter Six -- The Tea Party

One moment, Anakin was leaping across still water, trying to reach Obi-Wan…

The next, he was landing hard on the sun-warm surface of a walkway.

He was on Coruscant – he knew it immediately, could feel it. No place in the galaxy felt as tight and frantic as Coruscant, the world-city that never paused for breath.

How the blazes…

Only one thing hadn’t changed – Obi-Wan was still near and still needed him. And that was the only thing that mattered.

The heat of awareness crystalized around Anakin and he took in the necessary details in less than a second – two people, a light-haired man and a dark-haired woman, both armed, were holding Obi-Wan hostage. Anakin could hear speeders and ships buzzing all around and he could feel the bulk of a transport nearby. Most importantly, he couldn’t feel Obi-Wan.

“Let him go,” Anakin said, low and dark. Something was trying to catch his attention, break his concentration, and Anakin pushed it aside, seeing only Obi-Wan’s limp form.

The man started to say something, but he fell silent when Anakin shifted into a ready position, lightsaber held high. The man looked over at the woman, who was blatantly staring at Anakin with something akin to fascination.

“I won’t ask again,” Anakin said, shaking off the discomfort that the woman’s look gave him. After they placed Obi-Wan on the ground, he gestured for them to move away. If they used this opportunity to escape, it still wouldn’t matter, in the end. They would be dealt with, if not this way, then another.

When they were far enough away from Obi-Wan, Anakin moved forward and knelt at Obi-Wan’s side. He’d know if they tried to attack and he needed to focus on what they’d done to Obi-Wan.

He touched his free hand to Obi-Wan’s forehead, realizing with a sigh of relief that Obi-Wan wasn’t still unconscious.

“Anakin,” Obi-Wan whispered, his eyelashes fluttering as he tried and failed to open his eyes. Whatever they’d done had left Obi-Wan as weak as a Jeyferi calfling.

“Shh, don’t try to move,” Anakin said soothingly. He could feel Obi-Wan in the same way that he could feel anyone, but the power of Obi-Wan’s presence was missing. “Oh, Master, what have they done to you?”

“Not them,” Obi-Wan said, managing to open his eyes this time, though they were dark with pain. “And… look to your left.”

“What?” Anakin asked, even as he followed Obi-Wan’s instruction.

Threepio, gleaming in the afternoon sun, was standing on a ship’s ramp. The woman and man were still there and they’d been joined by another man.

How had they grabbed Threepio? And why?

“What’s this all about?” Anakin asked. Obi-Wan just shook his head and then started to lever himself up from the floor. Anakin sighed and then clipped his lightsaber to his belt so that he could slide his arm around Obi-Wan and help him up. “You could at least give me a hint.”

“If I knew, I would tell you,” Obi-Wan said, only leaning slightly into Anakin’s hold. Eventually, Obi-Wan would stop being so blasted independent and just let Anakin help him.

“I’d like to know, too,” said the second man, blustery and annoyed. “Whatever it was, it pulled a hell of a lot of power from my engines and that isn’t something that I forgive easy.”

“Under the circumstances, I think that you should be the one making the explanations,” Anakin said, more than a little annoyed himself. “Let's start with what you did to Master Kenobi and make a detour at how you got your hands on my droid.”

The man appeared to have been left speechless by something, which Anakin was grateful for.

“Is… is he talking about me? Oh, I’m so confused,” Threepio said despairingly. Blast, not only had the space rats stolen Anakin’s droid, but they'd also clearly wiped Threepio’s mind.

“Anakin,” Obi-Wan said, immediately drawing Anakin’s attention with that familiar exasperated-exhausted version of his name that meant ‘I know that you meant to sound more like a Jedi there, so why don’t you try again?’.

“I know,” Anakin said softly, rubbing Obi-Wan’s back. He’d let this Threepio thing slide, for the moment. After all, he could always reverse the wipe by activating Threepio's hidden back-up. Droids were easy to fix. It was people that were complicated. “You really aren’t well enough to lecture.”

“That is something that I will be well enough to do on my deathbed,” Obi-Wan said, stiffening up slightly but not pulling away. “And you’ll probably still need to hear them, even then.”

“I’m sure I will, Master,” Anakin said, pleased to have his sincerity surprise a small smile out of Obi-Wan, even if the beard hid most of the effect. “What’s the subject for today?”

“Just… open yourself to the Force and tell me what you feel,” Obi-Wan said, as if that weren’t the aspect of Jedi training that Anakin had had the most trouble with.

At least Obi-Wan hadn’t actually used the word ‘meditate’.

Though if Obi-Wan had truly been cut off from the Force, then he needed Anakin now more than he ever had before. And that was a pleasant thought.

“Yes, Master,” Anakin said, closing his eyes. “You’re standing next to me, but something’s muting you. I can feel…” For the first time since he’d arrived in this place, Anakin opened his focus to include more than Obi-Wan, and he was shocked to realize that two of the people standing over on that ship’s ramp had incredibly strong presences. “I feel power.”

He opened his eyes, letting himself really look at the people in front of him.

First, and least important, there was the loud man that he hadn’t seen at first. He was easy to categorize – he was a common and scruffy space pirate. Anakin had known dozens of his kind, before ever leaving Tatooine. Anakin did find himself slightly disturbed by the odd look the man was directing at Obi-Wan.

There was the woman, long brown hair twisted up in a Tourgi-style bun. She was wearing all white, and her costume had the feel of being a uniform of some kind. She was powerful, but untrained. He’d noticed before that she had a blaster, but now he saw that the handle was worn with use. A fighter, then, and she likely surprised people with her skill.

Then there was the lightshow. He was strong, he was trained, and he wore a lightsaber on his belt. A Jedi or a man who’d killed one. If they did have to fight their way out of here, that was the one to take out first.

“Wait a moment, that name…” Threepio said, sounding more thoughtful than Anakin had ever heard him sound before. “Master Luke, this 'Master Kenobi' must be related to Obi-Wan Kenobi.”

Master Luke?

“No, it is Obi-Wan Kenobi,” the woman said.

“I thought he was dead,” the pirate muttered and, though his words were quiet, they drew Anakin’s attention immediately.

“If you meant to kill him, you failed,” Anakin said.

“No, he means that, in this time, I’m dead,” Obi-Wan said. Anakin took a moment to process that.

“Master, you’re delusional,” Anakin said. “Since we appear to be on Coruscant, and I would like an explanation for that at some point, we should take you to the healers at the Temple.”

“That’s actually where we were headed, before you arrived,” Obi-Wan said. “Luke and Leia offered to take me there.”

“Wait, you know these people?” Anakin asked.

“Recent acquaintances,” Obi-Wan demurred. “I met Luke and Leia about an hour ago, and, though I have not yet been formally introduced to the third member of their party, I believe that his name is Han.”

“Right, I’m Han. Han Solo,” the blustery man said. “And I’m just as in the dark as you are, buddy.”

“Which is why we were going to the Temple in the first place,” said Master Luke, the droid thief. “We wanted to… show something to Obi-Wan to prove to him that he is in the future.”

In all of his travels, this was very possibly the most insane story that Anakin had heard.

Anakin eyed the waiting ship skeptically. It was haphazard, clearly second-rate, most likely used for smuggling. Such ships tended to be fast, but unreliable. They were always breaking down. And they trapped in unpleasant smells – Anakin had yet to run across one that actually had a decent air recirculation system.

“You expect me to get in that junk heap?” Anakin asked, after a long moment.

“The Falcon isn’t junk!” Solo protested. Anakin decided to practice a measure of Jedi restraint and didn’t tell the man that Anakin could probably build a better ship out of this one’s spare parts.

“I know what she looks like, but she’s a fast ship,” Leia said. She shifted uncomfortably when Anakin looked at her, but not the way that most women did. There was something about her, about the way she carried her power. It felt familiar.

“Well, fast enough,” Luke said, grinning teasingly at Solo, who glared back.

“Oh, I do wish that someone would explain all this to me,” Threepio said. “It's all very irregular, this business of people popping out of thin air.”

“Is Artoo with you?” Anakin asked, though he tried to push away his fears. “He’s pretty good at explaining things.”

“Why, no, sir, he isn’t here. He’s doing something complicated with a Wookiee,” Threepio said. “Frankly, I didn’t want to know more.”

“I can understand why,” Anakin said, a relieved smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. The Wookiees were great friends of the Jedi and Artoo had more built-in safeguards than any other droid in the galaxy. Padmé was safe, then, even if he couldn't sense her.

Anakin turned his attention back to Luke, the only person who actually seemed to know even a little of what was going on.

“Why were you taking him to the Temple?” Anakin asked, outright ignoring Obi-Wan’s half-hearted complaints about preferring to be asked himself and about pushy Knights who believed their own newscasts.

“Because he didn’t believe me about something and I wanted to show him proof,” Luke said.

“Can you be just a little more specific?” Anakin asked, fingers tightening on Obi-Wan's waist.

“You don’t want to know,” Obi-Wan said, straightening up and attempting to brush off Anakin’s hand. Anakin reluctantly released his hold, moving his hand to rest on his lightsaber.

“That’s probably true,” Luke admitted. “It’s not… good news.”

“Though I’d like to mention, in advance, that I still don’t believe him,” Obi-Wan said.

“Not in the slightest,” Leia said. “He’s been very firm about not believing us.”

“Why wouldn’t he believe Luke?” Solo asked. “Luke’s an honest guy, he’ll give it to you straight.”

“Oh, and it makes sense that he wouldn’t believe me?” Leia said.

“That’s not what I meant,” Solo protested.

“Look, I don’t care about your petty little games,” Anakin said, though Leia’s offended look did give him an odd feeling. “I just want someone to explain things. Why are we here? What did you do to Master Kenobi?”

“We didn’t do anything to him,” Leia said fiercely.

“Well,” Luke said. He hesitated for a moment when Anakin glared at him. “I was concentrating on my... someone important to me. And Obi-Wan knew that person.”

“You think a lot, kid,” Solo said. “You’ve never made anybody appear out of nothing before.”

“I’ve never been in a place like that before,” Luke said. “It was… completely focused on one thought, one idea. All this normally loose energy was dedicated to keeping a single memory alive.”

“Maybe we should go back there,” Anakin suggested.

Luke winced. “I think that… Obi-Wan’s appearance may have sucked it dry.”

Solo paled. “Do you think… will the Falcon still fly?”

“Of course,” Anakin said. “Even if all this is true and my appearance took most of the available power from your engines, machines and the Force don’t really get along. All you’ll have to do is refuel.”

He took another long look at the motley threesome. Leia returned his stare coolly, Luke was smiling, and Solo still looked worried about his ship. They didn’t look like Sith Lords or Separatists.

So, he would try to be patient and diplomatic, as Obi-Wan said he should be, by this stage in his Knighthood.

Diplomatic, he could do, but patience was not his gift.

Of course, it didn’t help that Obi-Wan wasn’t terribly good at it either.

“The Temple,” Obi-Wan prompted. Anakin hid his smile – there was his proof, right there. Obi-Wan was not a man who was talented at sitting and waiting, no matter what he tried to tell Anakin.

“If going there means that someone will actually tell me something, I’ll vote in favor,” Anakin said. He took a step towards Luke, giving him the stare that Obi-Wan told him was far too forbidding for a Jedi to use. Luke blinked, losing his smile. Anakin smirked at him, adding, “Oh, by the way, I am going to want my droid back.”

~end chapter six~