EAST OF EDEN ( anakin s. ) ✔️

014 | As the Force Wills It..

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" as the force wills it "
...
━━━ ༻ CHAPTER FOURTEEN ༺ ━━━

          "I DON'T CARE WHO GAVE you the orders, soldier," Anakin's shouts were diffused by the far too thick walls between which Eden was commanded to remain.

The cell was minuscular. Suffocating. Plunged into the sort of red lights which dimmed her sight to blurs and confusion, even as her eyes remained fixed singularly on the handcuffs around her wrists. She felt the buzz of the magnetic field holding its pieces together and remained aware of the heaviness with which the metal pressed onto her skin; its coldness chilled her deeper than it should have.

Much of what was supposed to happen in a certain way did not come to pass in its usual formulae. For example, the loud bang coming from outside the cell should have startled her, but Eden was too far gone in her own thoughts to flinch or even attempt a reaction to it, a mere auditory relic of the present that was becoming hazy.

"You are going to let me in now...," Anakin demanded, his voice growing ever the more distant and soon fading with his following threats as far too quiet for Eden to even attempt to actually make out what was happening out there, what has been happening for the past hours and in fact could be traced all the way back to Mion and the hallway where Obi-Wan became the herald to that moment when her play-pretend came to an end. It was then that the harsh reality of what had happened and what she had done truly came crashing down on top of her head.

She's had too much time to think since.

Eden could no longer feel her hands and her breath barely slithered out of her throat, where she felt this prison had choked her out. Some primal fear in her had been startled awake: she didn't want to die. The eternal poison of humanity lingered in her veins and behind her thoughts, marching on about the unfairness of time; one year had been too little.

Panic molded with rage, only to eventually break apart into a frightful acknowledgement where it seethed into a decay of reason. After all, what could she do? Eden couldn't deny it. Lying was not in her nature and the truth was not hidden from her, the very culprit of this mess. She knew she was guilty and the more seconds passed, the heavier the restraints got on her wrists and the clearer was to her what her guilt meant in the grand scheme of things.

Sobs started trembling from her mouth without a single notice, much like Eden had only momentarily become aware her hands were shaking as if the coldness of Mion followed her to Coruscant. When her lips had parted for air, as her nose alone was left rather unfortunately useless in providing that sustenance to her mind, her thoughts had blurred together too well for her to distinguish if her ears were truly ringing or she had simply imagined it all.

Maybe it was a merciless nightmare and the reality would be merciful to wake her up in a cold sweat in the desert temple. Such hopes were futile and even their shriveled light was blown up under the pressure of time.

Between blinks unfaithful to her thundering heartbeats constantly peaking speed, Eden felt a thread of fresh air, a miracle amidst her quiet madness, just about strange enough in the middle of her lukewarm drowning that it coerced her into prying her eyes open. Anakin, at long last right in front of her, was met with the glimmer of her tears and his heart broke so violently, so fast that he feared he would die there and then. The crack in his soul descended upon his hands, until then merely ghosting their touch on her shoulders, but now gripping more firmly, to offer them both an anchor.

No matter how wrong he knew such a thought was, he couldn't help but feel resentful for not having opposed her incarceration harder. He could feel the toll it took on her too late, after Obi-Wan has already restrained and imbued his mind with the lie that this was but a temporary formality, that she was not their prisoner and definitely not into trouble. The lies were bitter drops on the back of his tongue, against which he fought a grimace.