Part VII
Anakin felt a bolt of fear go through him when he saw Obi-Wan lying on the ground near a cluster of huts. With the blood that already covered him, Anakin couldn't tell whether he had been hurt again. The Tusken were all dead, each and every one of them. Obi-Wan would lecture him about it later-- about giving into his anger --but Anakin didn't care. Those creatures had hurt Obi-Wan, had tortured him, and deserved all that Anakin had done to them.
"Obi-Wan!" Anakin shouted as he slid to the ground next to his master.
Obi-Wan mumbled something non-sensical, turning his head away from Anakin. It was almost comical, or would have been had the situation not been so dire. Anakin lightly ghosted his fingertips briefly over Obi-Wan's shorn scalp, hoping for some type of reaction from his master. What he hadn't expected was for Obi-Wan to lean into his touch and murmur his name. And despite himself, Anakin felt tears pricking at the back of his eyes. He barely choked down a sob, curling his upper body around Obi-Wan, hugging him close.
"Our spies tell us that the Ma'ha woman and all of her cohorts were killed yesterday," Uv Gizen informed the Chancellor once he had finished detailing the other important Republic news. "The money, however, was not touched. Save by our spies, of course."
"Of course," Palpatine mused, summoning Kenobi's lightsaber into his right hand. He hefted its weight, gazing at it without really seeing it. "Any clue who the the killer was? The young padawan perhaps?"
"The initial reports would indicate that, yes," Gizen confirmed, glancing up briefly from his datapad. "In all likelihood he has already determined Kenobi's location."
The lightsaber fell to the desk with a hollow thud. "Of that I am most certain. Anakin is an intelligent boy. That intelligence and his rage will make him the perfect apprentice."
"Help us! Someone, please! We need help!"
Anakin clutched Obi-Wan more tightly to him as he brought the speeder to a stop next to the main buildings of the moisture farm. Obi-Wan moaned slightly at the sudden loss of forward momentum, his eyelids fluttering briefly. Anakin tenderly cupped his cheek, brushing his thumb over his cheek, hoping to coax him back into wakefullness. For the briefest of seconds the wandering blue-grey eyes met his own gaze before his eyelids slid closed again.
"Anakin?"
At the sound of his mother's voice, Anakin's head shot up, eyes wide in shock. "Mom?"
"Ani, I don't believe it. You're really here," Shmi gasped, bringing her right hand up to her mouth.
Anakin could only stare at her, his mind unable to fully process this latest shock. When he had seen the moisture farm, Anakin had only thought of finding help for Obi-Wan who hadn't woken since he had found him sprawled on the ground. He also needed to find some way to remove the Force inhibiting collar and with the repairs that always needed to be done on the farms, Anakin had hoped to find the necessary tools.
"Shmi, what's going on, love?" a man asked as he emerged from behind the building.
Obi-Wan's solid weight against his chest snapped Anakin from the shock at seeing his mother for the first time in nearly a decade. "Mom, we need help. Obi-Wan was betrayed into the hands of the Tusken raiders and--"
"No need to explain, boy," the moisture farmer cut him off, striding towards him. "Shmi, go gather the medikit while Anakin and I bring-- Obi-Wan, was it? --into the house."
Anakin held Obi-Wan protectively against his chest as the other man approached. "I've got him. Just show me where I can take him. I'll need some tools, though. For the collar."
"Follow me then."
With only a slight boost from the Force, Anakin cradled Obi-Wan against his chest as he climbed off of the speeder. The moisture farmer was waiting for him and fell in step beside Anakin as soon as he was close enough. Anakin wasn't sure how to act around the man.
He was helping them now, but Anakin had every intention of taking his mother with them when they left. Anakin wouldn't let his mother remain a slave when he had the power to save her.
"My name is Cleigg Lars. I suppose that I'm your step-father," the moisture farmer said casually as they neared the house.
"But aren't you...." Anakin drifted off, not wanting to finish the thought.
Cleigg bobbed his head from side to side. "I'll admit it, I did buy her contract from Wattoo. But I destroyed it before I married her. She's free now."
"Do you love her?" Anakin asked, his gaze dropping briefly to Obi-Wan who was still as ever.
"Aye, I do," Cleigg said without hesitating. "I love her very much."
"Good."
In all of her dreams, Shmi had never thought that her son would return to her splattered with blood, bearing another more severely injured man before him on a speeder. A man that she could tell he loved very dearly from the tender way Anakin had held him. The careful way that he had touched Obi-Wan. The gentle way Anakin was now dabbing the blood from his cheek.
"Is he one of the Jedi?" Shmi asked her son, handing him a fresh cloth.
"Obi-Wan's my master," Anakin whispered, stroking the pad of his thumb across the injured man's cheek. "He's been training me since Qui-Gon died.... He's my best friend."
"To inspire such devotion from you he must be a good man."
Anakin flashed her a brief smile, his eyes still incredibly sad. "The best I know."
"He would have to be to have managed you all these years," Shmi teased, hoping to lighten the mood even as she rinsed the gritty sand from the deep scratches along Obi-Wan's left side. She sobered up a moment later, pursing her lips. "I'm grateful that it's not you lying here, Ani. I don't know what I'd do if it was you lying here."
"It wouldn't be me," Anakin said solemnly, stopping what he was doing to stare down at the unconscious man. "Obi-Wan wouldn't have let something like this happen to me. He would have been with me and this wouldn't have happened. The slavers wouldn't be able to defeat the both of us. And if I had been there, I wouldn't have let this happen to him. I've been a slave before, I could handle it better."
"Yet I do not think that he would agree with you."
At first everything was bright. Everything around him was blurred together in various hazy shades. He could feel a very solid presence next to his right hand, though. Obi-Wan blinked, hoping to clear his vision, as he turned his head to see what was lying next to his hand. A moment later it became a question of who. His eyesight had cleared enough so that Obi-Wan could tell he was lying on a bed, the figure next to him resting with his upper body supported on the mattress, the fingers of his right hand very close to Obi-Wan's own. The angle obscured the man's-- for the being was obviously male --features, but there was one distinctive feature that tugged at Obi-Wan's rather depleted memory.
A long slender braid.
"Anakin," he sighed, stretching his fingers until they brushed against the very tip of the braid. Catching it between his middle and index finger, tugging it lightly.
Obi-Wan startled when, a moment later, Anakin bolted upright, leaning over him. Anakin must have noticed this because his next movements were far more controlled. He very lightly cupped a hand along Obi-Wan's cheek, soothing his thumb along the upper swell of his cheekbone.
"You had me worried," Anakin whispered, touching his forehead to Obi-Wan's. "You've been asleep for more than a day."
"Sorry," Obi-Wan muttered, barely resisting the urge to yawn.
"Don't be sorry," Anakin chastised quietly, shifting his hand so that his fingertips could massage soothing circles against Obi-Wan's temple. "For once you have an excuse. And you have my word that I won't tell Master Yoda how long you slept."
Obi-Wan could only stare at Anakin in confusion. "Who's Master Yoda?"
Anakin stared at Obi-Wan for several long seconds, waiting for the other man to arch an eyebrow or otherwise show that he had been teasing him. That moment never came and Anakin slowly came to realize that Obi-Wan was being serious. There was no deception in his eyes. Just exhaustion and the lingering feeling of pain.
"Don't worry about it," Anakin whispered, forcing away the unnerving thoughts that filled him. "Just rest. Things will be better once you've had some time to rest."
Obi-Wan furrowed his brows, his head shaking slightly. "Tell me what's going on."
"Nothing is going on," Anakin lied, masking the words with a smile.
One that Obi-Wan didn't believe. "Please. Don't lie to me."
"I don't know what's going on," Anakin amended, bowing his head. When he met Obi-Wan's eyes a moment later, he offered up a slight smile to hopefully lighten the mood. "I have some ideas, but I really don't know what's going on. Give me some time, please?"
Obi-Wan pursed his lips, sinking back into the thin pillow under his head. "Can you at least tell me how we know each other? Are we friends?"
"The very best of," Anakin whispered, tears pricking at the corners of his eyes.
"I'm glad," Obi-Wan sighed, his eyes drifting shut.
Anakin sat silently beside the bed watching as Obi-Wan drifted off to sleep. At that moment getting up and doing something was beyond him. He was still wrapping his mind around the fact that Obi-Wan had forgotten everything. Except for him. Obi-Wan knew him, Anakin didn't question that. There had been recognition in his eyes. That was something which could not be faked. His relief had been too genuine; very raw and uninhibited. The blow his master had taken to the temple certain hinted at the cause for his absent memories. There was a large gash that started about his left eyebrow then cut through it before finally ending half an inch past his hairline. And though Anakin knew that he should take Obi-Wan back to the Jedi Temple so that the healers could examine him, he felt safer here on Tatooine with his mother. Shmi was the only other person he trusted besides Obi-Wan.
"Ani? I brought you some lunch," Shmi said quietly as she entered the room a few minutes later. Setting the tray down on the bedside table, she ran her fingers through his hair. "Ani, you have to eat. I let you get away with not eating breakfast, but I won't allow you to starve yourself with worry."
"He doesn't remember anything," Anakin said, his eyes never straying away from Obi-Wan's still form. "He doesn't know about the Jedi, or what had happened to him.... I'm not even sure how well he remembers me. He knows my name, but he didn't know what we are to each other. Obi-Wan had to ask if we were friends."
"It's quite telling that Obi-Wan remembers you at all," his mother pointed out, her hand never stilling against his scalp. "He must care for you very deeply."
Anakin brushed his fingertips along the heel of Obi-Wan's palm, watching the fingers curl upwards briefly. "Obi-Wan's been everything I've known since I was nine."
"Then there is no one better to help him remember himself."