EAST OF EDEN ( anakin s. ) ✔️

020 | A Jedi's Last Mission..

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" a jedi's last mission "
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━━━ ༻ CHAPTER TWENTY ༺ ━━━

          IT FELT LIKE THE END long before he could actually understand what had caused him to feel so sickly. Feverish, Anakin ghosted himself through patches of undeniable numbness, leaving that bitter taste of death on the back of his tongue until it corrupted his sight, his hearing and even his ability to speak. 

A bad feeling made it harder for him to even walk once they've landed on Coruscant and he made it his priority to leave the ship before either Captain Rex's puerile insisting to complete the mission despite an extension being naturally obligatory to do so or Ahsoka's sporadic yet worrisome observation about his abrupt paleness would cause him a too big of a headache to handle.

The terrible headache struck him anyhow and for just a moment, Anakin considered Cay Lanshee had done something to him. Fortunately, he had retained enough consciousness to remember clearly that the nauseating blurs started long after he left Emissary Lanshee on that alley with the vow that once Anakin eliminated the danger of the Seer and he will have no other evil to protect Eden from so restlessly, he will turn himself in to the Jedi Order. It was a mercy ought to finally erase from Anakin's mind that undeniable bias he held for the man simply because of Eden.

Alas, the consciousness had its downside: it made it painfully obvious, halfway through his walk through the temple that this was an unnatural state to find himself into. He had convinced himself in pure madness that maybe the Seer has become stronger and thus, she was trying to corrupt his mind with nightmares too. That, followed by the anger of knowing the Jedi Council has not done anything about the Dark Side threat on Anope, despite promising on doing so right after the verdict of Eden's trial was announced, fueled Anakin enough to make it into the elevator and consciously all the way to the top. 

There, much to his surprise, he felt some of his mind regain full clarity. It was as if some cloud had been lifted off of his thoughts, but paradoxically, what was left behind it was not total relief, but a rather malignant uneasiness. It felt less and less like the clouds had vanished and more like he had reached the eye of the storm instead. 

Anakin had made a beeline for the High Council chamber, but it was only then that he realized he hadn't actually checked whether or not the Council was in session, if anyone at all was there to begin with. To his relief, once he decided he wouldn't mind waiting inside for any Jedi Master's arrival, he heard faint voices from inside. 

Without any shame of interrupt a possible meeting, Anakin opened the door and with a deep breath stepped inside. Looking up after he had bowed his head stuck that breath into his throat and confirmed: the storm was still raging, ready to tear him apart. 

His eyes had been drawn naturally to the very center of the room once his gaze lifted, thus having him focus first right on the hologram call around which the Jedi Masters were all sitting, save for two chairs which were empty and a couple occupied only by holograms. Anakin cared too little about who was present at first, because what his eyes stopped on was far more important. 

"Why are you holding that?" he inquired in the silence built up from everyone who stopped murmuring due to his interruption. Commander Cody tightened his fist on a thinly braided string, by the end of which was tied a wooden circle whose carving Anakin could recognize even through the lined blurs of the blue transmission. Only then, his eyes looked up and noticed Obi-Wan's hologram was missing and his chair was empty. "What happened?"

The sickness was back and by pushing it down so to avoid letting tears block his sight, it sunk down to weakening his knees with a shiver. 

No one was answering Anakin, but the gazes piercing him were all filled with pity and remorse.