A/N — Longest break for the longest chapter! Anyone? Anyone? No? Okay.

I think you can tell I struggled a bit with this chapter. I realized I'd written myself into a corner with the last chapter and had to sort out how I was going to handle several plot threads. That took some time (obviously) but overall I'm pretty happy with this chapter and what's coming, at least plot-wise. It's been so long that I wanted to get this one out ASAP, so the technical quality of the writing might have suffered (if mine is any good to begin with). After the last chapter with its action this is a very talky one but I hope the next few won't be. We'll see.

Currently my plan (for those interested) is looking like this:

Chapter 10: Kamino.

Chapter 11: End of TCW-era timeline.

Chapter 12: Tying off loose TCW ends and ushering in RotS-era. Could end up going long (we have a bunch of material to cover, but I'm worried about slowing the pace too much).

Chapter 13: Fic finale.

Chapter 14: Epilogue.

Guess we'll see how it goes. Hard to believe it's almost been a year since I published this fic.

Chapter IX: Secrets

•

Life, for one Anakin Skywalker, was not good. That seemed like an uncharitable thing to say when he had been raised from among the lowest lows in the Republic to its shining star and brightest hope, but somewhere along the way Anakin had realized that all the glamor and fame didn't seem to make up for everything else life threw at him. Some days he wondered if it might not have been better that he had remained a slave; a small, out-of-the-way life where his greatest ambition — to free himself and his mother — would not only have been eminently achievable but would have had a definite end.

Nothing he did now seemed to have a definite end. The Republic seemed more corrupt and broken than ever, the war with the Separatists merely dragging it to the breaking point and laying all its flaws bare for all to see. The war itself seemed to drag on and on, and even though they had long stormed and taken the heartworlds of the Separatist cause in bloody, horrific battles their droid production was higher than ever and the war was now almost fully in the Outer Rim, the largest front in galactic warfare that had ever been seen, dozens upon dozens of worlds that would all have to be stormed and purged down to the last hole. The Jedi were falling apart at the seams, the Council growing more ineffectual and divided by the day as the war and the Republic called everything they were founded on into question. The Senate was becoming increasingly fragmented and divided, competing interests that had once been subsumed into the Republic's imperial order now bubbling to the surface in volatile, angry reactions. Friends were turning against friends, and it seemed as though everyone was scheming for something. It felt like Anakin was being torn apart in every direction, every loyalty he had been called into question as it sought to invalidate the others. Every decision he made seemed to be wrong and Anakin was beginning to wonder if there was a right decision to be made. He tried to be better, tried to improve himself and work on his flaws, but how was he to do that when he didn't even know what were flaws and what were virtues?

To top off all that was wrong in the universe before, now Anakin knew Count Dooku was right, even partially.

Before the war had even started, the Separatist leader had tried to sway Anakin's master and Dooku's former student, Qui-Gon Jinn, into joining his cause. He had told the maverick Jedi that a Sith Lord was inside the Republic, in control of it even. Qui-Gon hadn't believed him, and neither had any of the other Jedi, including Anakin. At least until now, after who could only be Dooku's Sith Master had stabbed Qui-Gon.

Anakin's fist clenched, emotions threatening to spill over as he thought of his master in a critical condition only a short distance away in the healing ward. His fate was cloudy, Yoda had said, and every time Anakin had tried to sense his master's future it was always veering rapidly between sudden mortality and a long life yet to come. It had Anakin almost at the breaking point, for he had never truly contemplated trying to find his way in the universe without Qui-Gon. The man had always been there to guide him, ever since their first, fateful meeting when Anakin had begun his steps into manhood and a wider universe.

"–––to add, Knight Skywalker?" Master Windu's voice broke his train of thought, and Anakin blinked.

"No, master," he replied. He'd already told them all he could, a delicate balancing act between revealing as much as he could about the Sith he, Ahsoka, and Qui-Gon had fought and not revealing Obi-Wan to the Council. It made him feel a little guilty, until he remembered all they had lied to him about. Obi-Wan was his friend, and the Council could shove any thoughts about sticking him in a cell or worse right up their––– well. He'd seen them argue enough, seen the consequences of their misinformed decisions enough, to know they couldn't be trusted with Obi-Wan's secret, especially now Anakin knew for certain there was a greater Sith Master around doing who knew what. Not to say the Council hadn't been immensely curious about the mysterious and apparently rogue Jedi Master that had aided in the fight before revealing himself to be in league with Ventress and ordering the kidnapping of Jedi Padawan Barriss Offee. Luckily there were things they were more interested in.

"Not even about this… hole in the Force you created?" Master Windu continued probing, referring to the rip in the Force Anakin had created when he had bent all his will towards defeating the Sith Master to save his friend, his padawan, and his mortally-wounded master. It had worked, to an extent, when the Sith Master had fled, but Anakin felt as if that had been the man's — if it was a man — goal anyway.

Anakin resisted the urge to scratch the back of his neck sheepishly. "No, master," he repeated, and Master Windu hummed in that disapproving way Anakin so hated.

"Disturbing news indeed, this is," Master Yoda pronounced, preempting any continued interrogation. Anakin wondered if the old master had already come to his own conclusions about whatever it was Anakin had done when battling the Sith. "Elsewhere, we had hoped Dooku's master would be, yes. But suspected this, we have. Dark is the heart of the Republic, late though we have realized it. The Sith, perhaps, or perhaps not. Dangerous to the Republic, this Sith Lord is. Take steps, we must, to save the Republic."

Which were dangerous words these days, since everyone seemed to have a different idea of what that meant. What everything meant, it seemed. Obi-Wan's voice came back to him: 'There are those with an active interest in seeing you Fall.' Anakin suppressed a shiver. The Sith Lord was dangerous to the Republic, but Anakin couldn't shake the feeling he was more dangerous to the Jedi, and he himself in particular. And besides, sometimes he had to wonder if the Republic was even worth preserving when it was turning even his beloved wife, his best friend, and the Jedi Order itself into a bunch of conniving, manipulating sleemos.

A theme that was, apparently, going to continue, Anakin judged when the Council exchanged looks with each other. "That will be all, Knight Skywalker," Master Windu dismissed him, and not for the first time Anakin wondered if the Chancellor wasn't right about the Council not trusting him despite being one of their most effective and important generals, about the Council excluding him unjustly, and whether Palpatine wasn't right to be growing more and more worried about the Jedi Order and their plans for the Republic.

"Yes, master," he replied automatically, a habit he wondered if he'd ever be able to leave behind.

•

Obi-Wan awoke and immediately regretted it when burning pains erupted over his body. Reflexively, he called on the Force and was surprised but grateful when it flowed just as happily as it ever had. Blinking, his eyes gradually adjusted to a featureless white ceiling and the accompanying cheap lighting and he did his best to sit up. Pain flared, but now that he was aware of it he recognized it mostly as being a residual psychic pain in the Force — no doubt from the prolonged torture at the hands of Palpatine — than a physical one. Even still, he grimaced and was not surprised when he looked down to find crudely-applied bacta patches covering him like incompetently-made polka-dots.

A flurry of beeps alerted him to his company, and Obi-Wan looked up to see a familiar blue astromech droid wheel up to him. Even if Obi-Wan hadn't recognized his friend's constant droid companion, the holo-message the droid played would have tipped him off. Even in the hologram Anakin looked tired, and the blue of the projection threw the dark circles around his eyes into stark contrast. His mouth was a thin, hard line and not for the first time Obi-Wan reflected on how intimidating Anakin could look unwittingly.

"Obi-Wan, I know you have questions and will probably wake up sooner than I expect, but stay put. The house is safe, trust me, but Artoo told me you're in no condition to be up. Siri's safe too, but she hasn't woken up yet. We'll talk when I get back."

"So overdramatic," Obi-Wan sighed to himself, though he was mostly relieved that his wife had suffered no apparent or lasting damage from Sidious' attentions. He hefted his legs over the side of the bed and tested his weight on his feet. The droid immediately zoomed forward to wack into him and Obi-Wan barely moved away in time. Apparently his reflexes were still dulled. A flurry of angry-sounding beeps accompanied the attack, and the man did his best to swat away the droid. "Yes, yes, I heard the message quite well, thank you, but you are no medical droid." More angry-sounding beeping was the response to that, and Obi-Wan held the droid at bay with a held-out palm and very welcome returned Force-sensitivity. "I assure you that not leaving this room in the next little while will be more detrimental to my health than leaving it. If my cover hasn't already been blown, that is."

The droid seemed to accept that, but Obi-Wan had to remind himself that this was Anakin's favorite droid when it decided to follow after him as he left the safe-house.

•

Obi-Wan's cover, it turned out, had not been blown, at least so far as he could tell by the time he walked back into the safe-house and released his hold on the Force. Instantly the pain and aches and physical limitations he had temporarily suppressed during his attendance in the Senate flooded back to him, and he would have fallen to the ground in a very undignified manner if an arm didn't come out of nowhere to hold him upright.

"What were you thinking?!" Anakin demanded, face now a mixture of the anger he was trying to hold onto and the concern leaking through.

Obi-Wan, suddenly dazed and in pain without the aid of the Force, didn't have the energy to deal with someone trying to manage him after more than a decade of being his own master. Really, he already had three wives and didn't need Anakin playing the part of a worried fourth. Judging by Anakin's surprised and annoyed look, he thought he might have said the thought aloud. "You're not my keeper," he tried to reply to his friend, but thought it came out slurred.

"No, I'm your friend, and friends tell you when you're being a karking idiot!"

By this time Obi-Wan had reached the bed and was saved from collapsing ungracefully into it by Anakin's second timely intervention.

"Vitally… necessary," Obi-Wan told him. "…Sith can't… know I was injured."

Anakin stilled. "What do you mean, Obi-Wan?" he asked slowly. "What Sith?" Obi-Wan winced, both from the agony of lying back down in the bed and what his momentary daze had allowed him to let slip to Anakin. "Obi-Wan, what Sith?!" Anakin demanded. "Where were you that there was a Sith?" Then his eyes scanned over Obi-Wan still dressed in his senatorial attire and Obi-Wan could see the gears quickly turn in the young man's head. Then he paled. "The Senate?" he whispered, horrified. "There's a Sith in the Senate?"

Obi-Wan closed his eyes and for a brief second considered misleading Anakin with the possibility of spies in the Senate before he discarded it. "Anakin…" he murmured slowly, recovering his faculties rather more sluggishly than he liked. "I promised… to tell you everything." He opened his eyes and stared at the young man. "But you must consider when and what I tell you."

Anakin's eyes blew wide. "You know?! You've known who the Sith Master behind this war is the whole time and you––– you never said a thing?!"

"Anakin," Obi-Wan refused to be dissuaded. "If the Sith Lord behind this war is revealed, it will end. Do you understand that? You––– we are all playing for higher stakes than you could understand."

Anakin was still livid. "I can't–––!"

"Anakin," Obi-Wan demanded. "Do you understand? Do you? If the Sith Lord is revealed… if the Jedi know his identity the consequences of it will be beyond your imagining. Do you think he hasn't planned for the Jedi discovering this secret? If I tell you this now, you will be forced to make the choice you have been putting off for so long, for this entire war and longer."

"I––– I don't understand," Anakin blurted, seemingly put off his rant by Obi-Wan's uncharacteristic bluntness.

Obi-Wan stared at him grimly. "The Sith Lord is not someone you will be prepared for, Anakin. You've fought him. You know how powerful and skilled he is. He defeated one of the Order's greatest masters with ease, did it with one hand that he was also using to subdue another Sith Master. He defeated both of us and with his other hand defeated one of the most celebrated master-padawan pairs in Jedi history. What you will face and what you will stand to lose are more than you know. Not just because of his power but because when I reveal his identity to you you will be forced to choose whose side you stand on. When he is revealed, you will have to choose between the Jedi, the Republic, me, and… others. If you'll excuse me for saying so, I don't think you're ready to make that choice."

Anakin stared at him in unadulterated horror. "H-How do you know that?"

At this Obi-Wan sighed, suddenly feeling very tired and with no energy, the daze fading somewhat. "I'm not as unobservant as you seem to think, Anakin," he said softly, trying to put his disordered thoughts in some sort of coherency. It was safe to say this was not how he had planned having this conversation with Anakin, but then he hadn't planned on facing an unimaginably powerful Sith Lord so soon either. "And I haven't known his identity this whole time, only since Maul. I only ever knew he was here, in the Senate, as the Jedi are now starting to suspect, after he–––" Obi-Wan found himself unexpectedly choking and cursed his weakness for his lack of control. "After he killed my master," he murmured finally.

Anakin looked torn beside him between wanting to remain furious and wanting to sympathize with his friend. "I'm sorry," he finally said, though it sounded strained.

Obi-Wan sighed again. "That was why I became a Senator at all. My master's death required justice." He paused and did his best to relax the sudden tenseness in his frame. "At least I thought so. I thought a lot of things, really."

Anakin hesitated then reached out a hand to grab Obi-Wan's shoulder. "But… Obi-Wan, you have to understand. If we know who the Sith Master is, we can stop him! We can stop this whole war!"

Obi-Wan snapped. "Haven't you been listening? Of course you'll stop the war! You'll stop the war and end the Republic!" The energy left him and he collapsed back on the bed. "I know what this war has cost you, Anakin. I'm trying to stop it costing you more. Stop the Sith Master? What do you think I've been trying to do?"

"And you think I can't help with that? Is that it? How are you any different from the Jedi Council?! Always demanding my trust and showing me none in return!"

"Don't," Obi-Wan hissed, partially from pain and partially from anger. The dark side swelled. "Don't you dare say I haven't trusted you when I've put my life, my wife's life, in your hands."

"If you trusted me, you'd tell me! You'd trust me to help you, trust me that I can make the right call, trust me not to just fly off and attack him, trust me to pick you!"

And that, Obi-Wan thought, is the rub. Because at the end of the day he wasn't sure what Anakin would pick. The Chancellor was his friend, even if not his closest one, and Obi-Wan didn't need to be a Sith Master himself to imagine what Palpatine might be able to offer Anakin and tempt him. Obi-Wan knew he wasn't nearly as powerful — politically, institutionally, influentially, maybe even in the Force — as Palpatine, and a man who had manipulated an entire galaxy for decades, who had his designs on most potentially powerful Force-user to ever exist, would surely have any number of manipulations going on. Could he trust Anakin to choose him over everything else? The terrifying answer was that he didn't know.

"My master is dying, Obi-Wan! And you're going to let the scum-sucking Force-damned karking sleemo who stabbed him through the chest get away because you don't trust me enough?!" Anakin yelled at him, making Obi-Wan blink. He'd had to deal with so much else in the short time he'd been awake that Qui-Gon's fate had quite slipped his mind. Anakin didn't give him a chance to respond, however. "You owe me, Obi-Wan!" Anakin insisted darkly, breaking the silence. "You owe me for sparing Ventress," he specified, spitting out the name disgustedly.

Sometimes Obi-Wan wondered why anyone would want power and influence. He sighed. "I owe you for saving my life too," he murmured.

Whatever response Anakin was going to make to that was lost when the chirrup of Anakin's commlink went off. Emotions visibly being forced away, Anakin calmed himself and looked at the commlink.

"It's Ahsoka," he told the other man. There was another pause, the commlink continuing its chirruping.

"Alright," Obi-Wan finally said. "When I return to Coruscant after my visit to Kamino, I will tell you who the Sith Master is." Anakin didn't look happy with the compromise, but Obi-Wan forestalled him: "It's your turn to trust me. Believe me when I tell you whatever your worst imaginings of the truth are, it is worse. I'm giving you this time so we can both prepare." There was a pause, then… "And… I'm sorry about Qui-Gon. Our relationship is… complicated… but I know how much he means to you."

Anakin's jaw tightened but he eventually nodded stiffly. "Fine."

Obi-Wan let out a breath of relief but pinched the bridge of his nose as a new problem occurred to him. "Why is Padawan Tano calling?"

For once Anakin had the good grace to look guilty. "I… might have put her in charge of watching over your wife."

"Oh, fantastic, just fantastic," Obi-Wan replied. "Did you tell her she was a Sith Lady too or is that a surprise for when my wife wakes up and tries to kill her?"

"Don't give me that! I didn't have a lot of options for keeping her safe, alright? I did the best I could," Anakin replied defensively.

"I'm sorry," Obi-Wan said without explanation. "But shouldn't your padawan herself still be healing? She was tortured with Sith lightning and injured." Looking at Anakin's face gave him all the answer he needed. "She broke out, of course. I supposed you encouraged her?"

"No!" Anakin said very unconvincingly. "Besides, you're one to talk. Even outside the Senate you have a reputation."

"And yet I've never had to be carted back catatonic and strapped to a stretcher, repeatedly." Anakin opened his mouth but Obi-Wan preempted him. "We're keeping your padawan waiting." Anakin shot him a look but finally answered the comm.

"Master!" Padawan Tano exclaimed as soon as her small, blue figure appeared in Anakin's palm. "I was starting to get worried."

"No need to worry, Snips," Anakin replied easily, belying the tension Obi-Wan still felt in the room. "I was just catching up with Obi-Wan here." Tano's hologram turned, now being made aware of the other occupant of the room, and her posture became defensive and she withdrew into her Jedi façade. Obi-Wan hid a frown beneath his beard at the lack of subtlety. Evidently Anakin was not much for the diplomatic training Jedi Knights usually favored. Even Qui-Gon, unorthodox as he was, was known as an uncannily-able diplomat when the situation demanded. He supposed Anakin had prioritized more combat-oriented aspects of education. "It's okay, Snips, he's trustworthy."

"Right…" Tano said slowly. "Anyway… the… uh… chore you asked me to do will… uh… you'll need to finish it yourself. I'm being recalled to the Temple for the investigation and I don't think Master Che will let me escape again."

"That's fine," Anakin said. "Obi-Wan can watch over her."

"But Master–––!" Tano exclaimed before cutting herself off. She visibly struggled, and Obi-Wan had no doubt she was objecting to his ability to watch over someone she could no doubt feel was a dark-side Force-user. "Um… is he really the best person for the job?" she finally asked. "No offense, Senator, but… uh… well… you were only an Initiate. This is sort of Jedi business…" she trailed off, looking like she was cursing herself as she broke Obi-Wan's gaze.

"She's not as dangerous as you think, Snips," Anakin tried to calm his apprentice. "She's… she's part of an… operation Obi-Wan is involved in. He'll be fine."

Tano looked reluctant but acquiesced. "Well… alright. I've got fifteen minutes before I have to leave."

"We'll be there," Anakin affirmed.

"Master," Tano bowed slightly. Obi-Wan wondered if she did it when it was just her and Anakin. "Senator." She bowed to him and then the hologram flickered out.

"Well," Obi-Wan said after a beat, sliding his feet off the bed and testing his weight on the ground. "It seems we have an appointment."

Anakin was silent for a moment. "I still don't like this," he finally said.

"You'll like this even less then. There's a conspiracy to do with the clones. The Kamino inspection is a ruse to investigate it. I… was wondering whether you'd be willing to spare some men."

Obi-Wan's tone seemed to have triggered something in Anakin, and there was a hard glint in his eye. It could never be said the man wasn't protective of his men. "What do you need?" he asked.

Last edited: 2020/2