morally_cryptic | [AU RP for Obi] old friends

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[AU RP for Obi] old friends

[ooc: takes place in the same future!AU as this thread with

fulcra.]

He'd been here on Lothal far longer than he'd been hoping. Certainly far longer than the battle he'd been supposed to get here for would have taken. Had taken. He tries not to think about how the verb tenses should work too much.

They'd done their best to recreate the original conditions that had brought Anakin here in the first place, though making sure to avoid the Imperials as he flew out and back in several times on the same hyperspace route had been interesting. And completely fruitless. Well almost recreated. Sabine had provided his starfighter with a new paint job to disguise it and make it look at least a little less noticeable. Though she'd made sure to tell him that her usual method involved far more color than what he'd ended up with. He'd told her if this worked, he'd remember to track her down in fifteen years and let her paint the thing anything she pleased.

It didn't work and none of them had any explanation why.

He'd been halfway through suggesting they could check the Temple Archives before he saw Ahsoka's expression shutter. Of course they couldn't check the Temple Archives. They couldn't even get near Coruscant. Or-- Imperial Center. They called it Imperial Center now.

So he was stuck here and more or less also stuck being expected to stay out of the way. Not that they said as much but he was still essentially an outsider to their little close-knit group and most of the time Ahsoka looked like she had no idea what to say to him.

Then again, he still wasn't sure what he was supposed to say to her. This was not the way he'd envisioned them meeting again, after all.

And apparently until they can figure out a way to make him look a little less like himself--apparently in this case being a former hero of the Republic is a bad thing--he can't even move around too much lest someone get too curious.

Everyone knows that enforced idleness does wonders for Anakin's temper.

He's not in Jedi robes, his lightsaber is hidden, he's wearing long sleeves and gloves on both hands to disguise the fact that only one of them is mechanical, and he even let them cut his hair ~~though he hadn't taken up Sabine on her offer to dye it~~! How much less like himself could he look without surgery?

Surgery is a definite no-go. But taking a speeder bike in to the city is apparently on the agenda. If nothing else, he wants to get a better look at exactly what they're up against and it's not like he hasn't been undercover before...

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It had taken a few favours to get clothing that fit like his Jedi robes without actually looking like them, though Obi-Wan was loathe to give up the familiar garments. Then again, those garments could get him recognized, and that would do nothing for his now-fifteen-year-old charge.

After all these years, he still felt responsible for Luke, despite the fact that Owen Lars had made it absolutely crystal that Obi-Wan was not welcome at the homestead ever.

If it hadn't been for the disturbance in the Force that he'd felt several days ago - a disturbance that had made him dizzy and disoriented in a way he'd never felt before - he would still be on Tatooine, pretending not to watch over the Skywalker lad.

He had been keen to ignore it, but a prompting from the astral presence of his former Master compelled him to temporarily leave his exile in search of the source of said disturbance.

Obi-Wan checks a sigh as he disembarks from the transport that's brought him to the back-water planet of Lothal. He's getting too old for this sort of thing, though at 53 years of age, he is hardly the oldest being in the galaxy.

Keeping his hood far enough down to ensure no one could get a good look at his face, yet not so far concealed that he invited unwanted attention, he moves through customs and then into the streets of the city.

He lets the Force guide his steps even as he takes in the sorrow and oppression of the people; Imperial rule never did any planet good, and the further out on the Rim one went, the worse it was.

He represses another sigh and tries to push the noise of life - or what passes for it on Lothal - into the background so he can focus on the thing that brought him here.

Well, Master, he thinks to himself. Here I am. Why the blazes you wanted me to investigate this, I don't know.

Which is when he realizes that his course is moving him inexorably away from the city center towards the border. And as he nears the border he realizes that what he's looking for lies beyond, and that he'll have to rent some sort of transport.

Pausing several blocks away from a city-exit checkpoint, he looks about him to try and locate something that would be suitable for an old man to take a tour of the outlying settlements...

The feeling almost sneaks up on him, really. He'd felt a sort of strange disquiet he couldn't quite put his finger on, but he'd chalked it up to his restlessness. Seeing the city hadn't really helped with that in the least and it's probably just as well he'd left his lightsaber back on the Ghost with Artoo. But as the day goes on, the feeling grows and he's on his way back out of town when it finally hits him and he has to bring the speederbike to a full stop in his surprise.

Obi-Wan??!

Whipping right back around and going full speed ahead is likely a good way to have the city authorities look more closely at him than the young man who'd wandered aimlessly around the city earlier and bought a few random items from the market to make it look like he'd actually had a reason for being there.

It's quite probable he's still trying to decide the best way to get back in and cursing that he ~~shouldn't~~ can't just fly back in and damn the consequences when Obi-Wan comes across him.

He feels a tremor in the Force; not only is it familiar in the sense that it shares in the strangeness that he's currently tracking, but it also has the slightest hint of...

Anakin, the name flits across his mind and he's suddenly alert, every nerve ending in his body on fire and suddenly there are eyes everywhere watching him and why oh why did he leave the safety of his anonymous exile...

When his head begins to swim from the collision of thoughts, he stumbles slightly, causing a young couple to reach out to him in concern. They help him to a nearby bench and buy him water and a piece of fruit from the closest vendor. He takes a deep, steadying breath and allows them to fuss over him until they are assured that he is okay, an no, please, the provisions are a gift.

Once they leave him, he finishes the fruit and drink and disposes of the garbage. Then he sits again and begins to untangle the mess that nearly overwhelmed him.

If he's sensing Anakin here on Lothal, it has to mean that Darth Vader is on-planet and has business here. And if that is the case, then Qui-Gon should be very glad that he's already dead because right now Obi-Wan would very much like to strangle his Master for putting him deadly peril.

Except...Qui-Gon would never do such a thing. So what was going on here?

Edited (letter dropping. I should be banned from the keyboard.) 2015-05-01 03:11 (UTC)

Eventually, Anakin manages to settle on ride casual. And really, it's not like these Imperials are exactly on high alert. They hardly give him a second glance which is just fine by him since it meant he hadn't even needed to call on the Force to give them a suggestion not to see him.

He leaves the speeder bike somewhere safe and starts walking the streets once again though this time with just enough attention outward to keep him from tripping into anyone and the rest directed toward following that thread of energy that had felt so familiar.

Really, it takes less time than he might have thought but the man sitting off the side of the street doesn't look anything like the man he was expecting to find. If he'd been thinking clearly, he'd remind himself that Ahsoka looks nothing like the padawan he remembered either. And he definitely hasn't considered how he'd look to his old Master.

"O-..." he bites off the name with a quiet snarl before he finishes with, "...wen. Owen! Long time..."

Either he was right or the man would think he was crazy. Or both. Very likely the answer was really both.

He can sense whatever it is moving, and it's coming closer. Now that he's gotten a hold on himself and the irrational, though highly justified, fear. And what he can sort out is not menace or evil, not in the quantities that he'd felt on that fateful day nearly fifteen years ago.

What he can sense is confusion, shadows, and...displacement? Was that right? No, it couldn't be. Before he can ponder more deeply that last bit, a voice calls out. A voice he never thought he'd ever hear again.

"O...wen," it trips over the name, as if aborting one name and settling on another. "Owen! Long time..." As it trails off, Obi-Wan opens his eyes, not realizing that he'd closed them until this moment.

Without turning his head, he looks in the direction of the voice and sees Anakin Skywalker in the prime of his life as a young adult. He knew that that Anakin was long gone, and another had taken his place, one that Obi-Wan had left to die on the sulfur fields of Mustafar. So this had to be a vision of some sort.

But why would the Force bring him to Lothal so he could see a vision? Wouldn't his hut on Tatooine been a far easier, and better suited place for this? Well, the Force was weird sometimes, so there was nothing to do but confront this ghost of ages past.

He finally gives Anakin his full attention and offers a smile that is merely a tiny upturning of the corner of his mouth. With a voice only slightly changed by age, he replies.

"Yes, it has been a long time."

Obi-Wan might think it off if he's having a vision of Anakin that that vision would include one with hair he hadn't worn this short since he was still a padawan ~~and there's no little braid dangling out of it~~ or one who was clearly not dressed as a Jedi though some components of what he was wearing may have come from a Jedi's wardrobe.

For Anakin, it's Obi-Wan's presence in the Force--even if tinged with a sorrow Anakin can't put a name to--and the sound of his voice that decides him. Obi-Wan has aged, yes, but so has Ahsoka and...well, everyone else he ever knew, he supposes. But it's still Obi-Wan. And his old Master has always been something of a stable point in the universe for Anakin.

The urge to close the distance between them and wrap his arms around him is almost overwhelming, but Anakin manages to keep his pace sedate and his hands at his sides.

"We should talk."

Of course, if it is a vision, then the strange mash of Anakin's appearance could simply be an inability to chose a single moment in Anakin's life to recreate. Either way, strange or not, he's not convinced this is a real person just yet.

The surge of emotion from Anakin puzzles him, but as the young man approaches, Obi-Wan is hyper-aware of the fact that he's trying not to come across as threatening or overly-exuberant.

"I suppose so," he agrees. He's still not sure what they're supposed to be talking about. A good place to start would be, "And what would you have to tell me?"

He glances around at the people in the vicinity. So far no one has taken much notice of them but that might change with the story he has to tell and the story he wants to hear from Obi-Wan.

"I probably shouldn't say out here. I've been told the locals don't actually take kindly to us."

Us being Jedi. Us being a word Darth Vader wouldn't be using in this context. Not anymore.

Obi-Wan also glances at their surroundings, and he nods. There was a reason he was being led away from the city in the first place. Anakin had been leaving the populated center, after all.

"If you know of a better place to talk, then lead the way."

There's still something odd between them, something he has to chalk up to the way things have changed in the galaxy and that Anakin hasn't been here for it. He wonders if Obi-Wan thought he died.

He wonders if he did.

Still, he turns and leads the way back to the speederbike, then out past the edge of town, pausing only to be sure Obi-Wan is following. Eventually, they'll get to where he stashed his starfighter. It seems more private than just about anywhere else. Only then does he properly face Obi-Wan again. "This is going to sound unbelievable but a few days ago I was on my way here for a battle with the Separatists. Except I apparently arrived fifteen years too late."

The trip out to Anakin's starfighter at least has Obi-Wan rethinking this vision thing. His former Padawan's declaration dispels the idea entirely. Of course, the emotions that bubble up at this new information are a jumble; regret, sadness, nostalgia, love, disappointment and the defeat of crushed dreams all vie for prominence, and the older man swallows thickly and nods.

"I felt a strange disturbance in the Force several days ago and I left my exile to investigate," he replies. "I'm guessing that was around the time when you arrived here. And seeing as how I don't recall you ever disappearing during the war, you evidently find a way back."

Time travel causality is not a thing Anakin has ever given much thought to but he does have to raise his eyebrows skeptically at Obi-Wan, "and I didn't tell you about my adventure? That seems unlikely."

Still, he watches the other man intently, the emotions he senses are...well, a little confusing to say the least. Also worrying. "Your exile?" That seems safer than asking what happens to he himself.

"No, no stories from you about anything like this." Obi-Wan shakes his head, frowning. "And yes. My exile. I've had to go into hiding. I'm one of the last of the Jedi, one of only two that I know of for certain to have survived the end of the war."

"I heard about that." Though even though it's Obi-Wan, he's not sure if Ahsoka would want Anakin 'outing' her and her friends so for the time being, he won't say from who.

"I mean...I heard about what happened to the Jedi." He looks down, "I still can't believe it....any of it."

And he hasn't even heard the worst of it.

"Believe it, because this is now reality."

His eyes narrow ever so slightly, but more in a skeptical way than anything hostile. "And what version of events have you heard?"

Because there's the Imperial Version, and then there's The Truth.

"That the clones turned on the Jedi," just like Fives warned us... "that Palpatine was behind it all all along," and he can't help the way his voice breaks a little on the now-emperor's name even as his tone chills in anger at the betrayal, "that the Republic is gone and there are Sith hunting what Jedi are left."

He looks away, "it's my fault, isn't it? I should have...sensed something. Or done something. Or-...well." He looks back at Obi-Wan with a sad, wry expression, "I guess I wasn't the Chosen One after all."

A little bit of anger stirs at Anakin's reaction to the Emperor's betrayal. His expression clouds and he's once more back on Mustafar, tears marring his soot-stained cheeks, and for a moment, one heartless moment, he has the urge to tell this man standing before him exaclty how it's his fault; exaclty how far away from the Chosen One he really is.

But the moment passes, and he turns away to hide the tears that threaten, even as he fights to loosen the tension in his body. He has no idea what telling Anakin the full details will do to history. If Obi-Wan has no recollection of Anakin telling him a wild story of time-travel and a dystopian future where the Jedi are all but extinct, then maybe he isn't this time-line's Anakin? Again, what would telling this Anakin do to his history?

Softly, he chooses to say, "You were...conflicted." To say the least. "And no one saw it coming, my friend. Even when you returned to the Temple to tell Master Windu, no one wanted to believe it."

There's a great deal of emotion here stirred up between them and perhaps Anakin ought to find a small comfort that apparently he had sensed something and tried to do something about it, even if it had come too late. But the last bit has his spine stiffening, "no one wanted to believe me you mean."

And no one, in this case, would be Master Windu.

It's easy, with the amount of anger both of them are feeling and with that little undercurrent of not good enough Anakin has always felt in relation to the Jedi Council for his words to turn bitter. "Why am I not surprised."

Obi-Wan spins around to face him, his face stern; a look Anakin would be familiar with from his Padawan days. The look that says he's about to cross a line with his Master, and he'd better think long and hard about doing so.

"That," Obi-Wan replies firmly, meaning Anakin's tone and attitude. He points at the younger man. "That, right there. That is what led you into trouble; took you to a place where no one, not me, not the Council, not Padme - no one - could pull you from. Your inability to see beyond yourself..." he trails off, knowing that the conclusion of that sentence is not really the best way to tell someone that they broke the galaxy into a million pieces.

He takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. He lets his anger go, though he's still on guard and ready to be on the defensive if Anakin doesn't likewise back down a bit.

The look, the tone, the words, all of it combined shakes Anakin out of the cloud of bitterness he'd been falling into. He doesn't exactly back down, but at least he's distracted from his frustration with the Council. Instead, he's staring at Obi-Wan, piecing together what he's said...and didn't say.

"Obi-Wan," he says very carefully. "What do you mean?"

And the only reason he hadn't leaped onto Obi-Wan's mention of Padme was he still wanted to believe she was happily on Naboo and nothing bad had happened to her and considering the state of the rest of the galaxy, he wasn't so sure that was true.

How much to tell him? How should he be told? Best to tell the story from his own perspective, and go from there.

"Three years after the war began, we finally got wind of where General Grievous was hiding. The Council sent me to Utapau to deal with him once and for all. You and I parted company as we always had, as friends and brothers, looking forward to meeting again to share our tales.

"The battle on Utapau was fierce, but I managed to destroy Grievous. Shortly after reuniting with Cody and the rest of the troops, I went off to help in another part of the battle. That was when, inexplicably, Cody and the others turned on me. The creature I was using as transport is the only reason that I survived. She interjected herself between me and the sniper shot. We fell into the water and I managed to escape in Grievous' starfighter."

He sighs, trying to marshal his thoughts. "Bail Organa was the one who came to my rescue. He'd picked up Master Yoda from Kashyyyk, where the story was much the same: the battle was going well, the clones received some sort of transmission, and then tried to kill him. The Wookiees helped Yoda to escape.

"We tried to contact the Temple, but all we found was a recall beacon had been activated, calling Jedi back from the front lines. Yoda and I had to fight our way into the Temple, which was patrolled by troops and littered with the bodies of fallen Jedi."

Obi-Wan leans against Anakin's ship, partly because he needs the support while he drudges up the painful memories. His voice breaks a bit as he continues, "They were all dead. The Masters, the Knights....the younglings. No one was left alive. Master Yoda was the one to point out that they didn't die from blaster fire; it had been a lightsabre that cut them all down. I had to know who had done this terrible thing, and after I reset the beacon to warn the Jedi to stay away, I went to the security archives.

"Master Yoda advised me not to, that my curiosity would only bring more pain. Part of me wishes I'd listened to him..."

He falls silent and rubs a hand over his face as if trying to erase the images conjured by his words.

Anakin listens with mounting horror. He knew the Jedi had been turned on by the clones. He knew they could no longer go back to the Temple. But neither Ahsoka nor Kanan had been able to tell him this. Another Sith? A Jedi???

He forces himself to stand up straight, but his gaze is on the rock wall behind his ship and over Obi-Wan's head. This...slaughter...he blames Anakin? No, surely not, even if Anakin had blamed himself only moments before. Either way, Obi-Wan's actions suggest whatever it is, Anakin will find it worse than what he's already heard.

But he needs to know.

"But you didn't," he prompts quietly.

"No, I didn't," he admits. He regards Anakin for a long moment before saying, "I wish with all my heart that you could tell me what happened between the moment I left and the moment I returned; what could make you turn from us...I can only suspect that desperation had something to do with it. And that...your family...was involved somehow."

Anakin's gaze snaps away from the rock wall and down to Obi-Wan's face, searching, hoping he didn't mean what Anakin just heard.

It has him taking a step back, shaking his head. "No, Obi-Wan...I wouldn't-...that's crazy. You've got to be wro-..."

But isn't that what he said to Ahsoka about Palpatine?

And then the word family sinks in. Padme he thinks, he knows about Padme! Something like a boulder made of ice settles in Anakin's stomach. Padme. He'd do anything for her. Which Palpatine certainly could have guessed at. Could have used against him. He still can't imagine exactly what must have happened for Anakin to do something like this but he can imagine that, yes, he might have done it. For her.

He closes his right hand into a tight fist, "what happened to Padme, Obi-Wan?"

"Master Yoda charged me with tracking you down; and if I couldn't talk you out of whatever insanity you'd fallen into I would have to use lethal force. I figured Padme would know where you'd gone, so I paid her a visit. She couldn't believe me, but I knew she'd find you all the same, if only to ask for herself. I waited after I left, and then snuck onto her ship and stowed away.

"We ended up on Mustafar; she confronted you, and it was going well until you saw me step off the ship. You accused her of betraying you and tried to kill her. I managed to distract you and we fought.

"After our duel, I took Padme to a medic." His face is filled with sorrow as he regards Anakin. "The medics couldn't explain her rapid deterioration, save that she'd given up the will to live. She passed away shortly thereafter, and the children along with her."

He doesn't care what timeline Anakin is from, he won't betray the children's secret. So don't mind him if he indulges in a little bit of omission.

And he'll let Anakin read between the lines on how that duel ended.

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JUST TO DIG THE KNIFE IN AND TWIST IT A BIT SORRY OBI

THAT WAS PAINFUL. I CAN'T EVEN.

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Wall O'Text; I think he's *really* wanted to tell this story....

here it comes...unless Obi just tells him a _new_ sith named vader did it. /face. desk. forever.

It's tempting, isn't it? Test out the "Certain Point of View" (tm) to see if it'll work...

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Wall O'Text; I think he's really wanted to tell this story....