Part X
The last thing Anakin had expected when he removed the collar was for Obi-Wan to fall into a dead faint. He tossed the now-useless device aside, catching the older man before he tumbled to the ground. Obi-Wan was dead weight, drawing Anakin down to the floor with him, though at a much slower rate. It was shock that brought Anakin to his knees. Once that shock wore off, Anakin reached out with the Force hoping to get a sense of Obi-Wan's mind.
It was chaos. So much that Anakin was nearly drowning in it. All of Obi-Wan's shields were down, giving Anakin a free peek into his master's mind. He resisted the temptation, though. Anakin wouldn't take advantage of Obi--Wan in such a way.
Once he had gotten over his shock, Anakin gathered Obi-Wan into his arms and heaved himself to his feet. He staggered briefly under the weight, but stabilized himself almost immediately and hurried out of the workshop. Owen and Beru were sitting in the courtyard as Anakin rushed through, their footsteps trailing after him as he carried Obi-Wan towards the bedrooms. He was brought up short when the door to the room he and Obi-Wan were sharing slammed closed in his face.
"What the...." Anakin muttered, his confusion growing when he couldn't open the door with the Force. Shifting his hold on Obi-Wan, Anakin waved his hand in front of the door with the exact same effect.
"Anakin, what's going on?" Owen asked, his voice raised slightly in panic.
As Anakin turned towards his step-brother, he noticed that everything in the hallway was vibrating. Chairs, boxes, even the walls were vibrating with a force that definitely wasn't coming from him. In his arms, Obi-Wan shifted, a slight moan escaping his lips. Then, as Obi-Wan's eyes began to flutter and the shudders became all out shaking.
Reaching out through the Force, Anakin followed the path of their training bond back into Obi-Wan's mind, attempting to coax him into a deeper level of unconsciousness. As Obi-Wan slipped deeper, the shaking and rattling faded as well. When at last it stopped, Anakin was able to wave the door open.
"Is everyone all right?" Cleigg demanded as he entered the hallway from near the kitchen, Shmi right behind him.
Having set Obi-Wan down on the bed, Anakin glanced over his shoulder at the four people huddled just inside the doorway. Beru was clinging to Owen who had placed himself between her and the two Jedi. Next to them Cleigg had a protective arm wrapped around Shmi's waist to keep her from venturing further into the room. For his part, Anakin lightly stroked his fingers over Obi-Wan's short hair, the cropped reddish strands bristling against his fingertips and palm.
"Ani, what happened?" his mother pressed, her eyes shifting between him and the unconscious man on the bed.
"Things didn't go exactly as planned."
Palpatine's frown deepened when he felt the return of Obi-Wan Kenobi's Force signature. He had hoped that the Tusken raiders would kill the irksome Jedi before he was rescued by Skywalker. The tantalizing taste of the boy's anger he had felt a few days before was hardly enough to whet his appetite and he'd concluded then that Kenobi lived. It was one of the few times Palpatine had disliked being proved correct.
That Kenobi had survived would severely alter his plans. It was Kenobi's death that he had counted on to leave young Skywalker susceptible to the Dark Side. He had spent the past ten years working towards just such a moment and would not admit to defeat just yet.
"I demand to know what's going on here," Cleigg said when Anakin failed to elaborate. "If my home is going to fall down on my head I'll know why."
Anakin didn't rise from the bed, but turned his whole body so that he was facing the others. "When Obi-Wan lost his memory I didn't think that it would effect his ability to use the Force. All of the shields and restraint Obi-Wan usually has have been lose as well.
I'm hoping that this happened because he was only half-conscious and that once he wakes fully everything will go back to normal."
"That's not entirely reassuring, lad," Cleigg muttered, scrubbing a hand over his face.
"Something I'm all too aware of," Anakin breathed out, pursing his lips. "I wish that I could give you a definite, but I've never been in a situation like this. I'm only an apprentice. What I need is to get in contact with the Jedi Council, but for that I need my starfighter which right now is in Mos Eisley."
"I can go get it," Owen volunteered.
Anakin arched an eyebrow. "Do you even know how to fly one?"
"Well, no, but--"
"Artoo!" Anakin shouted suddenly, reaching towards his belt. Pulling out the comlink, Anakin set it to the channel R2-D2 was set on. "Artoo, are you there?" It took a moment, but there was a series of bleeps and whirls that he immediately recognized as belonging to the astromech droid. "Artoo, I need you to get back to my starfighter. My half-brother will be coming to Mos Eisley in the morning to return the speeder. I need you to follow his directions and get the both of you to where Obi-Wan and I are. Okay?" Once he'd received an affirmative, Anakin ended the communication.
Even though none of them said anything, Anakin could tell that they were relieved that he and Obi-Wan would soon be out of their hair. Including his mother. Anakin tried his best not to be offended that his mother was siding with her new husband over him. He was her son, her blood, she should have taken his side over the Cleigg and the rest.
"You can all go back to whatever you were doing," Anakin said into the deep silence that followed. "Obi-Wan won't wake for the rest of the night so there's nothing to worry about."
Cleigg, Owen and Beru offered mumbled farewells, but Shmi remained, hovering nervously in the doorway. "What's going on, Ani? What happened earlier?"
"It's what would have happened if Master Qui-Gon had never found me," Anakin said quietly as he moved back around so that he was seated next to Obi-Wan's head, his back pressed up against the wall.
Shmi finally entered the bedroom and seated herself on the end of the bed. It wasn't exactly close, but as there was no other places for her to sit, it was the best that could be done. "I'm afraid I don't understand, Ani."
"I've been training for ten years, Mom, and I'm still not a Jedi Knight," Anakin pointed out, his fingers once again sliding through Obi-Wan's hair. "And it's not just because I don't know all the philosophies and whatnot, because I do.... Obi-Wan's made sure of that. The Force is a very complicated thing. It takes a lot of control for it not to get out of hand. For a Force sensitive being to lack that control, it can get very dangerous. Obi-Wan has more control than any other being I've ever met. He's been training since he was three and he was still six years older than I am now before he was knighted. What just happened now was Obi-Wan losing that control when he was barely even conscious."
"Goodness," Shmi gasped, staring at the sleeping man in utter amazement. "And you could...?"
Anakin nodded his head. "It would probably be a lot worse if it was me because I'm more sensitive to the Force than he is. That's why I need to figure out how to fix whatever's wrong with him."
"I am so very glad to hear that we will have your co-operation in this matter," Darth Sidious murmured, nodding briefly to the expansive creature that shifted in place in the communication hologram. "The sooner you can obtain our objective, the better. And remember, don't kill the Jedi. He is still necessary."
Ending the transmission without waiting for a reply, Darth Sidious pushed back the concealing hood and removing the black robe. That simple action altered his identity entirely, allowing him to slip back and forth between his two roles. It was now Supreme Chancellor Palpatine who strode across the richly appointed office to place the black robe in a concealed closet that required a DNA scan to open. There was nothing sinister about the aging senator. He was a humble man who wanted only to better the lives of those loyal to the Galactic Republic. It was a role that Palpatine had played well for many years and was growing increasingly weary of. The power that he gained was slow to accumulate and had to constantly reign in his own instincts which called for him to seize power by force.
The main hindrances to his power were currently on their way to his office. Four of the insufferable Jedi masters were coming to once again speak about the formation of a Republican army. It was a futile endeavor for the Jedi to try and stop the army's formation. Palpatine would see the creation of his army and the war that would follow. Only then could he create the Republic as he saw fit.
Masters Yoda, Mace Windu, Ki-Adi-Mundi, and Plo Koon arrived just as they were scheduled to. By that time Palpatine was perfectly ensconced in the act of a senator fearful for the life of a woman he cared deeply for. In truth Palpatine was furious that the meddlesome Senator Amidala had survived yet again. He went to great lengths to ensure the total secrecy of his role in it all and did not enjoy going through the process yet again.
His plans seemed foiled at every turn. By this time he had hoped to be rid of Amidala and have a new apprentice. He had also intended to have the Galactic Senate vote for the formation of an army that answered only to the Senate, and, more importantly, to him. Everything was to have been in place and he would not have needed to placate the Jedi any longer.
"Jedi Masters, already my troubles seem lessened by your presence," Palpatine enthused, throwing his arms out wide as he approached them.
Though he knew he should rest, Anakin had found himself unable to sleep. Long after his mother had retired to bed, Anakin remained awake, watching over Obi-Wan as he slept. Even with the influence of the Force, Obi-Wan's sleep was a restless one. The older man shifted about uneasily, stilling only when Anakin would ghost his fingertips over sun parched skin.
By the time the household was stirring in the morning, Anakin was finding it difficult to keep his eyes open. He couldn't sleep, though. Every single twitch Obi-Wan made would wake him again. Something was going to happen, he could feel it tingling in the air around him. Anakin only wished that he knew exactly what it was that was going to happen. He wanted to ensure that his family and Obi-Wan were safe. What was the use of being a Jedi if I couldn't keep the ones that he loved safe?
It was only with absolute reluctance that he allowed himself to be coaxed away from Obi-Wan's side when it came time for Owen to leave. He once again coaxed Obi-Wan into the deepest levels of sleep that he dared before joining his mother in the hallway.
"I could stay with him if you wanted," Shmi volunteered, lightly brushing his bangs away from his eyes just as she had always done when he was a child.
Anakin glanced back into the room, able to see nothing but the protrusions Obi-Wan's feet made under the blankets from his vantage point. "I should only be a few minutes."
"Go on," she urged, pushing him down the hallway while she turned towards the bedroom.
With one final look back in the direction he had come, Anakin walked out into the courtyard and then up the staircase that would take him up to ground level. Owen and Cleigg were both waiting for him, standing near the speeder.
"This little droid of yours, he can pilot a starfighter?" Owen asked, disbelief evident in his tone.
Despite himself Anakin felt a smile tugging at the corners of his lips. "Don't worry about Artoo, he'll get you back here."
The smile was erased a few seconds later when the ground shook from the force of a small explosion. By the time Anakin turned around, an armoured figure was blasting out of the open-air courtyard with the aid of a jet pack, a familiar form held in his arms.
"Obi-Wan!" Anakin screamed, shoving Cleigg and Owen out of the way as he jumped onto the speeder. When he turned the ignition, the gauges flared to life for the briefest of second before the engine cut. The second and third times he tried to start the speeder, he was met with the exact same results. Squinting into the distance, Anakin watched the smoke trail, the bounty-hunter disappearing further from sight with each passing moment.