Chapter Text
Four - Interlude
Six Months Ago
Obi-Wan wasn’t answering his comms. His master hadn’t answered any of his comms since before Anakin and Padme had arrived on Naboo. It was starting to make Anakin worry, perhaps too much. But still! His master had gone comms dark, without warning. And now his comm wasn’t even ringing out. It had been before, but that was over a week ago. What was Obi-Wan doing?
Anakin growled, slamming the comm unit down on the table a little too hard. The clone commander they’d assigned him--because of course he and Padme had gone to Tatooine to rescue his mother--glanced over. They didn’t say anything, but Anakin knew they were frowning at him beneath that helmet. He’d successfully rescued his mother, but she’d been in a bacta tank all week and would be for quite a while longer. Of course, they’d then intercepted a comm about Geonosis and something to do with some kind of meeting. Padme had gone with him, to help.
That had ended badly, with them both in a gladiatorial arena with Quinlan Vos. At least they’d all survived, no thanks to Master Yoda’s prompt arrival with a swarming army of nearly identical-looking men. All clones, apparently. Anakin wasn’t sure whether he liked that fact or not yet. Regardless, it meant the pair of them had dueled Dooku--who was apparently leading the new separatist movement. A Confederacy of Independent Systems, as he’d mentioned more than once to Vos before the arena debacle.
Anakin was not going to mention the conversation he’d had with Vos-- Where’s your padawan? Securing a rescue, Skywalker; where’s your Master? --or the ensuing insinuations from Vos on his blossoming relationship with Padme. He didn’t need the lecture on attachments, especially not from someone who wasn’t Obi-Wan. Nor did he want to hear Vos conspiratorially stage-whispering to him about the kiss he’d seen them exchanging before the arena--let alone Vos’s chiding of Anakin on his poor dueling technique against Dooku. He’d had his hand severed, for sith’s sake!
“-ywalker.”
He growled, leaning heavily against the Temple’s long-range comm unit. Sith’s sake. Where the hell was Obi-Wan?
“Skywalker.”
Anakin glared at the comm unit, tempted to crush something with his new cybernetic hand.
“Anakin!”
He jumped, turning to give Mace Windu a sheepish look. “You called, Master Windu?”
“If you are quite done glaring at our communication unit?”
Mace raised an eyebrow at him and Anakin sighed, pushing off the unit to take several steps away. He could feel the Jedi Master watching him, but he also couldn’t quite shake off the feeling that something was wrong with Obi-Wan. Why couldn’t he shake the feeling? Anakin frowned, pacing back towards Master Windu. Something was....wrong. What was wrong?
“Something’s bothering you,” Mace said, making Anakin glance over.
“Huh?”
“Anakin,” the older jedi said, very carefully. “You know you can tell us anything, right?”
Anakin sighed, rubbed his flesh hand over his face. “Like what, Master Windu?”
Mace just gave him a meaningful look. Anakin shrugged, turning to go back to pacing. The jedi master heaved a sigh and moved towards him. He didn’t stop until he felt Mace’s hand on his arm, gentle yet firm, and came to stop, looking up at the other man.
“Master Windu?”
“If you’re worried about any,” Mace began, then cleared his throat, “...kind of relationships you might have, don’t. There is nothing in our Code that would tell you those relationships are banned.” He gave him a stern look. “Nothing, Skywalker. Do you understand?”
Anakin swallowed, thinking back to the small ceremony he and Padme had had back on Naboo. “I understand, Master Windu.”
“Is there anything you wish to share, Knight Skywalker?”
Anakin blinked at him, hesitating for a moment. Then he glanced away, feeling sheepish for believing everything that Palpatine had told him about the Jedi Order. “Um....” He glanced away, swallowing thickly. “PadmeandImightbemarried?”
Mace blinked at him for a moment, then raised an eyebrow. “Pardon?” he asked, tilting his head a little. “What was that, Skywalker?”
He took a deep breath and then let it out slowly, reaching for the calm that Obi-Wan had tried to help him reach all those years ago. “Padme and I are married.”
The Jedi Master stared at him impassively for a moment, then smiled fondly. “Oh, we’re well aware of that.”
“How?” Anakin squeaked, jerking back from Mace a little. The other man let him go.
“Vos doesn’t know how to keep his mouth shut,” Mace said by way of explanation. “That, and you two are hardly very subtle, Anakin. We were betting on how long it would be before you told us.”
He flushed a little, swallowing thickly. “Oh... Uh... Right...”
Mace snorted. “Go home to your wife, Anakin. We’ll let you know if we hear anything about Kenobi.”
“Okay,” Anakin said meekly, then turned to head out of the main communications hub. A couple of the clones turned to watch him go before obviously turning back to whatever it was they had been doing.
---
Four Months Ago
Padme was asleep when Anakin crept into the room. He’d been by the Healer’s Wing at the Temple before coming to her Coruscant apartment to visit his mother. She was looking better than she’d had in weeks. Healer Che had told him she would be coming out of the bacta tank within the next few days, and that Shmi and the baby were fine.
The baby.
His mother was pregnant .
Anakin was going to have a little sibling.
He was going to be a big brother...
He didn’t know what to do with that information. Should probably call Lars, but it would be very late on Tatooine right now, and getting Shmi to the Temple had been quite the task. Did Lars even know where they were? Had Anakin even told him? He groaned and moved into the ‘fresher, rubbing his hands over his face. He’d call Lars later, leave a message. Maybe invite him to come all the way to Coruscant so he could see Shmi.
Anakin exhaled and stopped in front of the mirror, staring at himself. What was he doing? His mother was safe. Lars would be contacted, if he hadn’t already been. Anakin should be out there, looking for his master. He still wore the padawan braid for Sith’s sake! He groaned and buried his face in his hands. What in the Sith Hells was he doing here? Why weren’t the Council letting him go out and search for Obi-Wan?
He already had the answer to that. Vos had mentioned talking to Padme. About Tatooine. He’d probably told the Council about the Tuskens... And Anakin had spoken to Masters Yoda and Windu about it--they’d advised him to see Master Che. And Master Che wasn’t letting him off-planet until she was sure he wouldn’t be a danger to himself or others. After all, he’d had a brush with the Dark Side of the Force.
No wonder Mace had told him to go home.
“Anakin?”
Oh, and now he’d woken Padme up. Shit .
“Ani?” He turned to find her sitting up in bed, squinting into the dimly lit ‘fresher. “Ani, is that you?”
“I’m sorry, Padme,” he said, trying to shove the whirlwind of conflicting feelings back down. It didn’t work. “Did I wake you?”
Padme shook her head. “It’s fine, Anakin.” She hesitated, apparently seeing something that he maybe didn’t want her to. “Something’s bothering you.” She hesitated, then leaned over to turn a bedside lamp on. “Want to talk about it?”
Anakin shook his head. “Not tonight... Maybe...another time?”
She sighed, patting the bed. “Come to bed, Ani.”
He exhaled heavily and went.
---
Three Months Ago
Anakin stared through the window at the tiny little girl with dark hair and bright blue eyes. She was bundled up in a bright yellow blanket and had ‘Skywalker-Lars’ written across the end of her cot. His mother had come out of the bacta tank just last week, and within a few days, she’d gone straight into labor. Anakin had had no idea just how far along his mother had been. She’d only looked like she was barely past the first trimester. Then again, he knew very little about pregnancy or how it worked, let alone how long it should take. So seeing this ....first thing in the morning? That had been quite the shock.
“Beautiful, she is,” Yoda said from beside him and Anakin startled. “Strong, she is.”
Anakin stared at him. “In the Force?”
Yoda hummed and tapped his walking stick against the floor before glancing up at him. “Come,” he said, turning to walk off. “Walk, we will.”
He sent his little sister one last look before turning to follow Master Yoda down the hall. He’d visited his mother before checking on the baby, but Shmi had been asleep and Anakin hadn’t wanted to disturb her. His mother needed all the rest she could get. She’d just spent several months as an unwilling guest of Tuskens. Tuskens he’d killed. Every. Last. One. She deserved the rest.
Yoda led him to the Room of a Thousand Fountains, then deeper still to a part of the area Anakin had never been to. It was much quieter here, more secluded. Peacefully. He took a deep breath, held it for a count of five and then let it out. Yoda grunted as he settled onto a stump by a very swampy-looking pool Anakin eyed said pool warily for a long moment. The Grandmaster of the Order huffed, somewhat impatiently.
“Sit,” he said, thumping his walking stick down on the ground before him. “Sit, young Skywalker.”
He sat, frowning at the other Jedi. Master Yoda wiggled until his was comfortable before crossing his legs and laying his cane across his knees. Anakin exhaled slowly, watching as the Jedi Master calmly stared back at him. He forced himself to be still, waiting to see what Master Yoda wanted to talk to him about.
“Disturbed, you are,” Yoda finally said after several moments of silence. Anakin blinked at him and tilted his head a little. “Feel it, I can, in you. Tainted, you are, by the Dark.”
He snorted. “I knew that,” Anakin muttered, a little sourly. “It’s why I’ve been talking to Healer Che.”
“Good, good,” the other jedi said, smiling slightly. “Master Che, helpful she is?”
Anakin hummed a little. “Yeah,” he said, after considering the question for a moment. “Yeah, I think so?”
“Convinced, you do not sound.”
He huffed a little laugh, weak but not forced. Okay, maybe Master Yoda had a point there. Anakin frowned again, thoughts whirling back ‘round towards Padme and his mother, and his little sister. To his recurring dreams that were starting to seriously worry him.
“Concerns, you have, hm?”
Anakin winced and refocused on Yoda. “A few, I think...”
“About this, you wish to speak, yes?” Yoda pressed a little, voice kind and soft, not expectant. Just there, willing to listen. Anakin swallowed and ducked his head, just a little. Yoda was right. He should speak to the older jedi about it, about his feelings, his dreams. His brush with the Dark side of the Force.
He cleared his throat. “Yeah,” he said carefully, wetting his lips. “Yes, I think I should.”
Yoda nodded and tapped his nails against the wood of his staff, seemingly considering his words and how to approach the subject. Anakin shifted a little, feeling a little twitchy about the entire thing. But Yoda and Master Che were right. He needed to talk about it, to see if it was more than just him. What if there was an outside influence on him? He needed to know.
“Something, yes?” Yoda asked after another moment of silence. “To tell me, hm?”
Anakin tilted his head and nodded. “I... The tuskens. It didn’t feel like just...me... I don’t know if that makes sense?”
“Influenced, you think, you were?” Yoda asked, fingers stilling on his staff. “Outside of yourself, hm?”
He nodded. “It felt...almost like the Force...but....also not?”
Yoda sighed. “Darkness, I sense, in this.”
“You really think so?”
“Sith, perhaps.” The Grandmaster exhaled heavily, ears lowering in what Anakin could only assume was sadness or possibly distress. “Influenced, maybe, by a Sith Lord. Feel this, you do?”
Anakin blinked again. He hadn’t ever...considered that before. Could Yoda be right? Could he have been in contact with a Sith Lord and never even noticed it? “You think a Sith Lord has been influencing me?” he asked, tone a little sharp. He cleared his throat and gentled his tone, frowning. “For how long?”
Yoda shrugged. “Know that, I do not.”
“Great,” he muttered, a little sourly. “How do we check?”
The old jedi master squinted at him, then picked up his staff and set it aside, laying it against the stump with a care that Anakin only ever saw for a jedi’s lightsaber. Yoda cleared his throat and then lap his hands palms up on his knees. “Meditate, we will,” the older jedi said, giving him an expectant look. “Together, yes?”
Meditate? With Yoda? Anakin balked a little at that. It sent fear down his spine--but he could tell, somehow, that the fear wasn’t his . He ground his teeth together and shuffled forwards a little, just enough that it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to lays his hands over Yoda’s small, gnarled ones.
“What’re we even looking for?” he asked, watching as Yoda studied their hands for a moment and then glanced up at him. “I...don’t know what to expect from this, Master.”
“Feel, we will,” Yoda said, brushing a thumb over Anakin’s palm. “Look deep within, see what happens, hm?”
Anakin sighed. And there was Yoda’s cryptic bullshit again. “So. Meditating?”
“Mmh. Guide you, I will.”
“Alright,” he muttered and settled in for a long, potentially boring meditation session with Master Yoda. Yoda watched him for a moment, then closed his eyes and took a deep breath, held it for several beats and then let it out in a long, slow exhale. Anakin hesitated a moment before he followed the older jedi’s lead.
As they sank down into the Force, Anakin could feel immediately that something else within him was perking up. That it was paying attention. He let Yoda in, let the older Jedi guide him deeper and deeper into the Force. Let Yoda search gently through his mind, his Force-presence, through everything that made Anakin, Anakin--and made up his presence in the Force. Yoda’s presence was a soft, glowing warmth that didn’t feel too intrusive, all things so considered.
As he let Yoda search through his very essence and through his memories, his fears, his hopes, Anakin could feel that something else really starting to take notice. It was when Yoda reached his dreams about Padme and his mother that the something else roared to life, surging up to drown everything out in a wave of dark, possessive anger and hate. Anakin jerked back from it instinctively, felt Yoda push forward into the feeling. The old master was clearly trying to see past it, to see what was causing it.
It was starting to make him feel nauseous and the more Yoda pushed, the more his head began to hurt. He wasn’t sure if he made a pained noise or not, if Yoda heard it, but the old master pushed just a little more and then the pain in his head burst. It was a strange sensation, almost like he’d popped a blister or something like it. Anakin groaned but didn’t back away from the pain and the dark. With the sensation of the burst blister came a rush of memories, of dreams and visions. His mother, hurt and in pain, screaming. Padme, Obi-wan, the sound of something crying. Anakin wanted to hide from it but Yoda wouldn’t let him. Face i t, he seemed to be saying.
And then something dark and cold swept over him, through him, and Yoda coursed. It was the first and only time Anakni had ever heard the old master speak normally and with such language. The dark seemed to be saying something, but Anakin couldn’t hear it properly. It was almost like it was muffled through several walls. The most he could make out was the occasional Mine . Yoda pressed back with the Light, and Anakni felt himself start swaying.
He felt like he was caught between two opposite forces, almost like they were attempting to tear him apart. Anakin had a feeling that if this kept up, then he’d explode. Apparently, Yoda had the same feeling because suddenly, Yoda was gone and so was the dark.
Abruptly set adrift, Anakin gasped and fell backwards only to be caught by gentle hands. It took him a moment to realise it was Yoda. He groaned and slitted his eyes, frowning up at the older master. He was on his back and he was staring up at the canopy of a very large, very old tree overlooking the stump and the swampy pool of Yoda’s sanctuary deep in the Room of a Thousand Fountains.
“What happened?” he asked, wincing at the croak in his voice. Yoda was staring down at him with very worried eyes. “Master?”
“Anakin,” Yoda said, very seriously. The tone made him pay attention. “A sith, there was, bonded to you.”
That was not what he’d been expecting to hear. “What.”
“Removed it, I have,” the old master added, very solemnly. “No more, the bond is.”
Anakin sagged in a weird kind of relief. It hadn’t been what he was expecting, but regardless, he felt better for having the Sith out of his head. “I...really..?”
Yoda nodded. “Worry, do not. Called Master Che, I have.”
He just nodded and closed his eyes again. One less thing to worry about, apparently.
---
One Month Ago
Anakin stared at the holoprojector from where he was pacing with Baby Skywalker-Lars--he was looking after her for his mother, who was sleeping in the other room. She was doing better but still weak. Looking after his little sister was challenging, and draining. Hence Anakin helping her. The holo was showing him one of Vos’s scanning programs that was scouring the holonet for any sign or Obi-Wan or Jango Fett. It hadn’t pinged once in months.
But it had just pinged now.
Jango Fett’s ship had been seen entering Mandalorian space and more specifically, Concord Dawn. And a video from one of Concord Dawn’s spaceports had shown Fett--or what Anakin could only assume was Fett, considering the black and gold armor--leaving the port with two people in tow. Obi-Wan and what appeared to be a young child. Maybe a boy. The video wasn’t that great, quality-wise, but clear enough to see his Master’s face and his signature red hair.
Anakin pulled his comm off his belt, calling Vos. Vos answered after a couple of moments.
“What?”
“Your program just pinged.”
“It did?” Vos asked and then Anakin heard movement and then cursing. “The hell is he doing on Concord Dawn?”
“You tell me,” Anakin muttered, carefully jiggling his baby sister as he began pacing again when she started to fuss. “That has to be Fett, right? It is his ship.”
“Yeah,” Vos said, lowering his voice. It almost sounded like the other jedi had just woken up. “Who’s the kid? Fett’s foundling or something?”
“No idea.” He moved closer to the holo, frowning. “You got sound for this?”
“Unfortunately, no.” Vos sounded frustrated now. Anakin shared that frustration. He’d been grounded and he couldn’t leave the Temple to go on missions. Only to meet with Padme and, occasionally, Chancellor Palpatine. “Could try running this through one of my programs to check on lip-reading. See what Obi is saying?”
“You can do that?” he asked, surprised. Vos laughed, amused. “Right, of course you can.”
Baby Skywalker-Lars took that moment to wake up and start fussing. Anakin swore softly and moved away from the holo and towards the kitchenette in his rooms. She was projecting a strong sense of hunger at him, and it was driving a spiking headache into his skull.
Vos was silent for a long moment and then coughed. “Skywalker. Was that a baby?”
Anakin huffed, adjusting his hold on his sister so he could start working on putting together some milk one-handed, with gratuitous use of the Force. “Yeah. It’s my baby sister.” He swallowed, furrowing his brow in concentration. “Mum’s not feeling well, so she’s staying with me.”
“Is that wise? I heard about your little incident with Yoda in the swamp room.”
He groaned. “How does everyone know about that?”
Vos huffed. “You were hardly subtle, you know,” the kiffar jedi said, not unkindly. “I think
everyone
planet-side felt the shockwaves when Yoda broke you free from the Sith’s influence. Kinda hard not to miss, to be honest.”
Anakin swallowed thickly and didn’t say anything, focusing on getting his little sister something to eat. Or, well, drink in this case. He wasn’t sure he liked that fact. That everyone knew what had happened to him, that he was grounded until further notice. Anakin scowled at that. It felt like something that the Sith Lord had planted in his head, whenever the hell that had actually happened. According to Yoda, it had been there for...a while. Years, perhaps.
“You there, Anakin?”
“Yeah,” he said, and cleared his throat. “Not sure I like that I have no privacy here.”
Vos snorted. “You’re a supernova in the Force, kid.” He sounded sincere. “Not sure that was ever an option....and to be honest, I don’t think anyone has any privacy in the Temple.”
He sighed. “You’re not wrong.”
The other jedi cleared his throat. “So. Want me to go look into this?”
Anakin swallowed thickly. “Please.”
“Sure thing, kid,” Vos said, and Anakin could hear the smile in his voice. “I’ll keep you updated. Maybe head out in the next hour or so.”
“Thanks,” he murmured, still rocking his sister as he finished organising her formula. “I appreciate it.”
“I want to know what he’s doing in the Mandalorian sector myself. The hell are you doing, Obi?”
Anakin made a noise of agreement and then cut the comms. Vos would look into it. He wasn’t one of their best Shadows for nothing. He’d figure out what was going on. For now, Anakin had a baby sister to look after, and she was starting to demand her formula rather intently.
---
One Day Ago
Anakin jolted out his light mediation to Baby Skywalker-Lars--she really needed a name--loudly crying and his mother’s worried voice attempting to soothe her. Not to mention the massive explosion of something in the Force mere seconds ago. Along with the disappearance of his Master’s Force Signature and that of Jango and Boba Fett. What the hell had just happened?
Within seconds, his comm was chiming alert after alert. Anakin hurried to check it and then bolted for the Council Chambers, ignoring his mother calling his name. It was all very concerning. Especially if Mace’s message about a massive shatterpoint was anything to go by...
Obi-Wan, what did you do?