Under The Cover Of Darkness

Chapter Five

Obi-Wan was sitting on the exam bed of a private room in the Healing Halls, Master Che sweeping various scanners over him, when Anakin burst in.

"Are you alright?" Anakin demanded before he was even fully inside the room.

But Obi-Wan just summoned up a tired smile, well used to the antics of his former apprentice. "I'm fine, Anakin."

"We'll see about that," Master Che said, and promptly poked him with a needle.

"What does that mean?" Anakin asked, alarmed.

"Just that they have some more tests to run," Obi-Wan soothed, even as Master Che drew up the syringe's plunger and sucked out his blood. Force, but he disliked the Healers' Hall. "Isn't that right, Master Che?"

Vokara Che, to Obi-Wan's relief, did grunt and nod, before withdrawing the damn needle and leaving the room. Her parting instructions to, "Stay there, or else," Obi-Wan could fully admit he deserved.

When he turned back, Anakin was awkwardly hovering, leaning in toward Obi-Wan like—like he wasn't sure whether he was allowed to approach.

"I'm fine, Anakin." Obi-Wan smiled again, this time more gently. "I was merely caught off guard." He patted the exam bed next to him in invitation.

And Anakin did sit down, although he was quite uncharacteristically hesitant. "Master Ti told me you blacked out from the attack."

"Only briefly. It's honestly nothing to worry about. I promise that I'm not secretly maimed, and if I was just made the victim of some arcane Sith ritual, I think I would have noticed."

Anakin's grown intensified. "You can't just assume that! These are Sith! Time-traveling Sith! Who knows what tricks they have? Sure, they say they don't know how they got here, but they admitted that they were at a Sith Temple right beforehand!" Anakin took a long, deep breath. So he had remembered at least some of his meditation and self-soothing techniques. "Master, are you just trying to reassure me, or are you honestly not worried?"

"A bit of both, if I am to be honest," Obi-Wan replied. "Yes, it is alarming that the Force gave no warning of the attack. But I could feel what Luke was doing up until I passed out. He overwhelmed my shields, yes, and I'm embarrassed to say that I might have lost control under the onslaught enough that they became the slightest bit porous. But at no point did he enter my mind."

"Master, you just said he overwhelmed your shields—"

"And I was very worried," Obi-Wan said, "until they finished the psychic examination. But the Healers have certified that there's nothing in my mind that isn't me. Whatever Luke's goal was, Master Ti must have stopped him in time."

Although, actually, he was oddly calm about the situation, even given his long practice at Jedi sere—

But at Luke's name, Anakin had tensed. And Obi-Wan's previous thought was swept away and forgotten completely. "I'm so sorry, Anakin," he breathed. "This must have been especially hard for you to hear about."

Anakin just glared at the floor. "Don't be stupid. You're the one that got attacked."

"Yes, but for all the Jedi Code has to say about attachment, he's still your son—"

"Exactly!" Anakin burst out. "It was my son that attacked you! You should hate me for this, for breaking the Code, and for—" He choked himself off and kept staring at the floor.

Oh. "Oh, Anakin. Of course I don't hate you. You had nothing to do with Luke's actions. We are responsible for our own decisions, not for those of the people around us. Luke being your son changes none of that. We are more than our families and our blood."