Under The Cover Of Darkness

Chapter 13

Anakin woke to the sound of nearby voices and a pain in his neck from where it had stretched too far and his head drooped down over his chest.

Still bleary, he couldn't think where he was, or why he'd fallen asleep upright, but he could hear Obi-Wan's voice, so it must all have been—

Then Anakin tried to shift and felt the binders around his wrists.

In a flash of panic, everything came rushing back.

Binders—! The ones that they would have already had access to were—immediately, Anakin reached out, and was beyond relieved to realize he could still touch the Force.

"Master!" A voice called, and then Ahsoka was in front of him, eyes wide and worried.

She was unbound.

Before he'd passed out—before Luke had drugged him—she'd been putting on a gas mask. She'd known exactly where to find it. She had watched, still and silent, as Anakin faltered and fell.

"Ahsoka," Anakin said, voice raspy from sleep and whatever the fuck they'd dosed him with, "what have you done?"

Ahsoka swallowed even as she squared her shoulders and set her jaw. He knew that look of determination too well. Ahsoka might apologize, but she clearly wasn't about to take her actions back.

"Sorry, Master," she said, so at least he could still read his Padawan a little, however much she'd just made herself a stranger. Working with the Sith—Anakin didn't even know where to start with that one. "It's not what it looks like," Ahsoka began, voice conciliatory, but unless she'd been coerced or blackmailed, Anakin wasn't sure he wanted to listen. But if she had been, if his Padawan was in trouble, he had to—

"But I'm going to let Master Obi-Wan explain it to you," Ahsoka finished.

The body of Anakin's Master appeared in the doorway in response to Ahsoka's words. The mind of Anakin's Master, however...

Obi-Wan walked into the cramped, metal room where Anakin was tied up. Of course it was metal, he realized—they were still on the ship. Personnel quarters, he was finally awake enough to recognize his new prison as, gray and utilitarian.

Ahsoka's eyes darted between the two of them once, twice, before she said, sounding way, way too perky, "Cool. I'm gonna be out there." The gesture was accompanied by the galaxy's vaguest pointing, which Anakin assumed meant "anywhere but here."

Ahsoka turned and left without waiting for a response from either of them.

"You probably won't believe me," Obi-Wan began once she was gone, in what had become a familiar refrain, "but I am Obi-Wan Kenobi. I am in control of my own body. And I am sorry that it came to this."

Anakin could respond to that. Force knew he'd yelled enough invective at the thing pretending to be his Master these past few days. But given where that had gotten him...

Anakin was so, so tired.

He'd keep fighting eventually, of course. He always did. But faced with the loss of his Master, his son, and his Padawan...

"Anakin," not-Obi-Wan's voice came, gratingly gentle. "Please look at me."

Anakin very pointedly stared at the wall instead.

The only response was a slowly drawn breath. "I understand that, after everything, it must seem impossible to believe me. But this time, I come bearing proof." Out of the corner of his eye, Anakin could see the body of his Master turn in the direction of the door. "Now would be a good time for you to join us."