The Wrong Time-travelers

Part 5 - AU

Author's Note: I couldn't stop thinking about this fic, and then I started wondering what would happen if Obi-Wan went to see Anakin in the Citadel instead of him escaping. I knew it would happen eventually because there's only so long he can be stubbornly stupid (I think O_O) so I wanted to explore that as an AU. xD

Also, if you want to know what happens next in this universe, just re-read parts 3 and 4. It'll be pretty much the same. :D

Oops, that was a spoiler. XD 

~ Tirana Sorki

WARNING: Past torture.

~ Amina Gila

Lola Sayu reminds Obi-Wan too much of Mustafar for his liking. The heat everywhere is practically suffocating, and the rivers of lava are too familiar. Not that any of the past five months have been "to his liking" anyway.

It was five months ago that many of the Jedi had visions of several years into the future – it was more like getting their memories of that time, actually. Memories of a world beyond his worst imagination. He doesn't know how the galaxy could have fallen so far, how any of it could have happened really, but... At least they had a warning, and they've been able to take steps to change it.

Palpatine is dead – he didn't see the future, so they used his own plans against him, turning the Festival of Light into an excuse to kill him in a way they wouldn't be accused of treason. (Obi-Wan did it himself, and he knows he shouldn't have found it quite as satisfying as he did.)

But – Anakin is still gone.

He was already Fallen when the Jedi came to arrest him, and – Vader is all that's left now.

That doesn't mean it's been easy. Of all the time he was in the future, what he longed for most was Anakin. What he missed most was Anakin – wondering constantly how their relationship could ever have fallen to the point it did. And the same is true now. It's been so long since he last felt him, had him at his side, and knowing he never will again is...

It's hard.

Maybe it hasn't even been entirely half a year but remembering so much of his time alone in the future and knowing it will never change makes it almost intolerable sometimes, and he supposes, that's what he's here at the Citadel now – the place the Council imprisoned Vader.

Coming here is only going to make how he feels worse, though. Vader isn't Anakin anymore. It will only make returning to the Temple after seeing him again even harder. It will make every day knowing he'll never have Anakin back more difficult.

Obi-Wan doesn't even know what he thinks he's doing here. It's stupid. (He just misses Anakin. He – he wants to feel him again, to see him again, but... coming here is pointless if that's what he wants.)

But if nothing else, it won't hurt to make sure that Vader is really secure here. The don't need a very angry Sith breaking out and being unleashed on them and the galaxy.

The walls of this place still feel of darkness and misery – it was in the Separatist hands for a long time, after all. (He doesn't have any desire to sense to know if any of that misery and darkness are more recent.)

"Has he been... cooperative?" Obi-Wan asks, pausing in the hall outside the door. Suddenly, he doesn't know if he's ready for this, but he came all this way. He still can hardly say why. Padme and Ahsoka were nagging at him endlessly to do this, and he didn't, only because he knows how pointless it's going to be. So, he doesn't know why he's here now.

"As much as you can imagine," Jedi Master Masana Tide replies. They picked some of the Jedi with visions who'd had future experiences with Vader to guard him here, making sure he can't escape. Technically Obi-Wan was the best option of all, but he... couldn't do that. Besides, he's a Council member. He has other duties to attend to, like helping keep the galaxy from shattering completely. The Clone Wars are still going on, after all. "But he has no chance of breaking out. I assure you that he is very secure here."