𝗙𝗔𝗨𝗟𝗧𝗦 | anakin skywalker

✰ 62: what have i done?

Anakin Skywalker's eyes filled with fear as he stared at his wife on the ground, unconscious.  He walked up to her and fell to his knees by her side, then placed a hand on her shoulder.  "What have I done?" he repeated. He leaned over her, still kneeling.  His tears fell over her limp body.  "Akya," he said breathily. "Please.  Please wake up."  He placed his head onto her side, his arms around her.  "What have I done? Please, Akya.  Please.  I'm sorry," he pleaded.

Obi-Wan looked upon his Padawans, his stern look at Anakin having turned into one of sorrow.  What had changed him?  What had turned Vader's anger into Anakin's sorrow? Had it been simply the sight of her, eyes closed as she fell to the ground?  What had changed Anakin's moldable mind?

Anakin finally looked up at Obi-Wan.  Anger was no longer directed at his former master, and instead, Obi-Wan saw nothing but fear in his eyes.  They were filled with tears, and some ran down his cheeks.  His arms stayed around his wife.  Obi-Wan stared into the boy's eyes for a moment.  They were the same eyes of the boy who left his mother at nine years old.  The same eyes of the boy who successfully taught a hopeless case just because he felt he needed to. The same eyes of a boy who loved and cared just a little too much.  The eyes of a boy who he heard crying in his room after his own Padawan left the order, and the eyes of a boy who wasn't ready to be the Chosen One just yet.  He was simply that; a boy.  And he had been pulled back and forth from light and dark since the day Master Qui-Gon found him on Tatooine.

The boy rolled his wife onto her side and brought her into his arms, still kneeling on the ground.  Hair fell in his face as he looked down at her.  Anakin's breathing was slow and shallow, and when he finally looked back up at his master, his eyes asked Obi-Wan one simple question, soon vocalized in a hoarse voice coated with regret.  "Help me, Master." 

Obi-Wan tilted his head, taking a couple of steps toward him.  "Oh, Anakin," he said, pity in his tone.  He felt sorry for him.  This was not all Anakin's fault.  He had fallen into a trap, and for some reason, Obi-Wan felt just that much guilty about it.  He had been his Padawan.  He was supposed to teach him these things.  He raised this boy.

Anakin looked back down at Akya.  "I'm sorry," he said to her.  It didn't matter to him that she couldn't hear him.  He repeated these words over and over.  Obi-Wan knelt down and felt her wrist for a pulse and felt a faint sensation on his finger, a rhythmic beat.  He let out a small sigh of relief.

"She's alive," said Obi-Wan. 

Anakin let out a breath, then touched his forehead to hers.  "Thank you," he said.  Obi-Wan wasn't sure if it was to himself or Akya.

"What were you thinking, Anakin?"  Obi-Wan said.  His voice was not scolding, like it was if Anakin had done something risky on a mission or caused some harm for a good cause.  Obi-Wan said these five words gently, sorrow resting easy in his soft tone.  He still held his Padawan's hand.

Anakin looked up at his master, shaking his head.  "She won't forgive me," he said.  "She can't."

Obi-Wan sighed.  "Let's get her onto the ship."

Anakin looked down at her again.  "She's pregnant, Obi-Wan."

"What?"

"She's going to have our child."  He didn't look up at his master.  "What have I done?  I've ruined everything."

Obi-Wan put a hand on Anakin's shoulder.  "I am so sorry," he said.

Anakin looked up at him as a tear ran down his cheek.  Then he stood, his wife still in his arms, and walked up toward the ship and up the ramp.  Obi-Wan followed him closely behind. Anakin laid his wife across one of the benches on the side of the ship and sat next to her, moving hair out of her face. Obi-Wan took to the pilot's seat as he heard a whirr coming from outside, and turned the chair to see R2-D2 boarding the ship.

The astromech took its place next to Obi-Wan and helped power up the ship's systems. Obi-Wan began setting course for Coruscant— that's where everything was.  He needed to take Akya to a medical facility there to make sure she was going to be okay, then he and Anakin could deal with the rest. They needed to end this.  But as soon as he got into the atmosphere, Anakin began asking questions.

"Where are you taking us?"

"Coruscant," Obi-Wan replied, taking the ship further up. 

"What?" Anakin said.  "No.  We can't go to Coruscant."

"Take the controls, Artoo."  The droid beeped, and Obi-Wan turned around to face his former apprentice.  "Why?" he asked.

"He's there," Anakin said, a shiver in his voice.  He shook his head profusely.  "I can't go there.  We can't take him on our own, Obi-Wan.  I saw him take on four Jedi Masters.  We need help."

"Where do you suppose we get that, Anakin?"

"I—" Anakin looked down.  "I don't know.  There has to be Jedi that survived."  He looked up again.  "Right?"

Obi-Wan sighed.  "I don't know, Anakin."

"Ahsoka," Anakin said. "What about Ahsoka?"

"She was surrounded by clones.  If we begin the search for her... you must be ready for the possibility she could be dead."

"I'm ready for any possibility, Obi-Wan."

"I don't know."

"She's our only hope."

Obi-Wan sighed.  "Do you know her signal frequency?"

"By heart."

"Alright," he said finally.  "Check her frequency, and Artoo will scan her last known coordinates.  If she's gone, we have no choice but to take him on our own.  You know this."

"I know," said Anakin. 

"I hope luck is on our side," said Obi-Wan.

Anakin looked at Akya and reached for the chain around her neck, pulling a small pendant out from under her clothes.  "It is."

a.n.:

yeah. sorry. 

don't forget to vote!

molly