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“It has been said,” Obi-Wan spoke softly, “that they warp the flow of the force itself.”
He and Anakin stood side by side in front of their shuttle’s window. Before them was the most powerful thing Anakin had ever seen. The black hole was still far away, very far, but still it loomed. He had thought space was dark, but that was nothing compared with this gaping wound of blackness. He did not like how it felt in the force. When he looked at it he felt as if there was something missing, something he hadn’t noticed was there until it wasn’t.
Obi-Wan was still talking. “The force is woven into the fabric of space-time, just as it is through all living things. Here, all aspects of the universe are warped. We must be cautious, Anakin. I have read stories in the archives about the effect proximity can have on those attune to the force. They say, near a black hole a Jedi can see through time itself. A dangerous thing, to be sure.”
“We have bigger things to worry about than some old legends,” said Anakin, shaking himself. He would not stare into it like that again. “I’m the one who has to pilot this ship remember.”
“Ah, I do, which is why I fear distractions. One wrong move could be deadly for us all.”
“Glad to hear you have faith in me. Don’t worry Master, we’ve got Artoo along. He’s the best co-pilot a guy could ask for.”
“So it’s your little astromech droid v.s. that… thing…” Obi-Wan gestured out the window.
Anakin did not look. “We’re staying in high orbit anyways,” he comforted. “It should be fine. Get any closer and we’re subject to time distortion of the non force related kind.”
“I’m grateful to hear you say that. I know how stubborn you can be about completing a mission. No data, no matter how valuable, is worth our lives and the lives of the crew.”
“And if there were survivors?”
“With this thing’s gravity difference, if they fell in too close they’re probably already dead, ripped apart.”
“Not in our reference frame,” said Anakin. “To be sucked into that thing is to be dying for a millennium.”
“Comforting… So we could see them, pick them up on the scanners, but know there is nothing we can do. I see why we normally steer clear of these things.”
“Like ghosts,” Anakin whispered, mostly to himself. “I have a bad feeling about this.”
He would take a Separatist armada or a foxhole on some backwater planet over this mission any day. It was all the fault of some experimental Separatist technology; a gravity well capable of plucking Republic ships right out of hyperspace. Terribly imprecise, it had launched the spy ship they were targeting into the galactic core. Republic engineers had calculated its trajectory and found that it had been pulled into the orbit of a black hole, thankfully in reach of a known hyperspace route.
“Generals.” Captain Rex stood in the doorway of the mess, pulling Anakin from his thoughts. “We need you on the bridge. “We just passed the point of no return. From here on out, we won’t be able to jump into hyperspace.”
The information the spy ship carried was important, though Anakin knew no more than that. It was important enough to send two Jedi and a hand-picked squad of clones. If Obi-Wan knew more he was denying it. Since his master had been appointed to the council it always felt like he was holding something back.
On the bridge, Anakin did a full systems diagnostic and typed some trajectories into the navcomputer. Everything was going smoothly, though there was still no sign of their target. They were moving cautiously, in a slow orbit. It could hypothetically take them over a standard day to find the ship, if they did at all. Anakin hoped this was an exaggeration. He did not relish the thought of being near that thing for so long.
Obi-Wan had come up behind him, placing his hand on his shoulder. Anakin sat in the main pilot’s chair, staring purposely at the blinking screens instead of the monstrous cosmic body.
“Rex and Cody are taking the first shift,” Obi-Wan said. “We should both get some rest, while everything is calm. It’s night at the Jedi temple, I believe.”
Anakin complied. He knew arguing would have gotten him nowhere. Sometimes, with Obi-Wan, he still felt very much like a child. He knew his mentor didn’t see it that way. He was simply worried for his friend. Their quarters were next door to each other and they walked towards them together.
“I’ve felt weird for the last hour or so,” Obi-Wan said. “I can’t really describe it, but it worries me. I was wondering if you felt it too.”
“I do,” Anakin said, though he hadn’t fully admitted it to himself until that moment. He’d been trying to ignore it, push it down.
“I tried to meditate,” said Obi-Wan, “but it only made it worse. Sending Jedi on this mission may have been a mistake.”
“You worry too much, Master.” They’d reached their rooms, and stood talking in the corridor. “I’m sure whatever this is, we can handle it. We always do.”
Obi-Wan smiled at him. He looked tired, and a little sick. “Good night, Anakin.”
As Anakin tried to get to sleep he tossed and turned, trying desperately to ignore a nagging feeling of foreboding in the back of his mind. It was like the ticking of an analogue clock. Once you noticed it it was impossible to ignore. Eventually his consciousness did slip away, through sleep, to somewhere else.
When he opened his eyes Anakin was standing in a white room. The medical equipment and smell of bacta gave it away as a medical facility. What he noticed first was the quiet. It was eerie. No machines beeped or hummed. There was only one sound. Someone was crying, though the sound was very muffled.
Anakin turned, and saw the room’s two occupants. It felt so real here, from the smells to his feet on the floor, that at first he wasn’t sure if he could be seen. Padme lay on a table, skin white, perfectly still. She was so beautiful, even in death. Obi-Wan sat on a chair beside her, head in his arms. He cried into her stomach. The sound was barely audible, but his shoulders shook slightly. Anakin had never seen his master like this. He was dishevelled, ash matted into his tattered robes.
Obi-Wan and Padme had been friends, but the level of defeat that encompassed the Jedi master spoke of something more, some terrible future. This was the worst thing Anakin could have imagined. Padme was dead, he had been unable to save her. But for it to have broken Obi-Wan, he was too scared to think of what the future might hold.
One question kept him frozen in this tomb of a room—which was too quiet, too cold. Where was he? Where, in this future, was Anakin Skywalker? It was not him in the chair, mourning his wife in this unfamiliar hospital. Padme had many people who loved her, so why did it seem as if Obi-Wan was the only one in the galaxy?
Was he dead? Anakin bubbled with self-loathing at the though. He’d failed, abandoned those he cared about, lost his reason for existence back to the force. This would not come to pass. He would not allow it!
Obi-Wan had raised his head. He looked infinitely tired, and older than Anakin had ever seen him.
“I’m not sure if I can do this,” he whispered to Padme, as if admitting some great secret.
Padme, of course, did not respond.
“How can you expect me to do this when you just gave up?” He was sitting up now, drawn away from her, and he appeared almost angry. “You think I don’t want to just leave? The force calls to me more than it ever has. I feel as if I am always speaking to the dead: to you, to Qui-Gon…”
He trailed off. Anakin had never felt so helpless. He reached out involuntarily, but his fingers went right through his masters back. He was nothing but a phantom, an observer. All the same, he drew closer, staring down at Padme’s beautiful face. This was an old fear, a nightmare which would never lose its potency.
“You have left me alone with this great task,” said Obi-Wan, “but I’m not sure if I can do it. Not even for you… not even for him… not even for the galaxy.”
Him. Anakin grasped desperately at the clue. If he could figure out where he was, what had happened, maybe he could prevent this terrible future.
Suddenly, Obi-Wan looked up, seeming to stare directly at Anakin. Anakin could not help but meet his eyes; a sad, washed-out blue. Then, he woke up.
In his desperation to get away, Anakin tumbled from his bunk. He landed in the pile his bedclothes had made, thrown off at some point during his sleep. He felt strange, a little dizzy. He could not get the image of Padme’s still body out of his mind. Pulling his cloak on over his sleep clothes he stumbled out into the hallway.
As if in a trance he walked to the mess. Stepping through the door, he realized he was not alone. Obi-Wan sat hunched at one of the two tables. A steaming cup of tea sat before him. He wasn’t drinking it. He held his head in his hands. Although not identical, this scene was too similar to the one in his dream, and Anakin considered fleeing before his master noticed him.
“Anakin…”
Too late.
“…I see you can’t sleep either. What has it been? Only a few hours, I believe.”
Anakin took a seat opposite him, his back to the large window. He knew the black hole was there though, imperceptibly closer.
They’d been sitting in groggy silence for about a minute when Obi-Wan spoke. “I hate to admit this, but the black hole has been having a profound effect on me. I had a terrible vision of what I hope is not the future.”
Anakin froze. Was it possible, could they have seen the same thing? As much as he wanted to talk about his dream, he didn’t know if he was capable of admitting it to Obi-Wan. It hadn’t been himself he’d seen. He felt partially as if he’d been spying on his master’s private moment. But mostly he held his tongue out of a strange sense of failure. He’d failed them: he and Padme both.
“I saw the Jedi temple,” said Obi-Wan, taking Anakin’s vacant stare as a prompt to continue. “It was burning. Then, I was walking through the halls, and they were so silent…”
Obi-Wan looked genuinely shaken. Anakin leaned forward, prompting him to continue with a nod. This was the same future; it had to be. This was another clue.
“There were bodies everywhere: clones, Jedi, Padawans, younglings… The thing is—and I only realized this after I woke—I didn’t see a single droid.”
“If there were any other details, you must tell me,” said Anakin. “Maybe together we can figure this out. If this truly is the future, we have to find some way to stop it.”
He had not intended for the last part to come out so intense. His metal hand had been gripping the edge of the table, warping the metal a little.
Realization crossed Obi-Wan’s face. “You saw something too, didn’t you? The timing may be inconvenient, but maybe this was meant to happen. We’ve been given an opportunity. Alright, it is not pleasant to think of it, but I will try to remember.”
“The force is never straightforward, is it?” Anakin asked, venomously. “It has us playing detective.”
“I believe Yoda was with me. It felt as if we were the only living beings in the galaxy.” Obi-Wan furrowed his brows and stroked his beard. “At first I wasn’t sure. I was so distracted by all the horror, but the clones, I think they were the 501st.”
“And you didn’t…” Anakin swallowed. “See me, did you?”
“No, Anakin, kriff no! If you were dead, don’t you think I would have mentioned that earlier?”
Not that he’d seen, Anakin thought, though he kept it to himself.
“There’s something else,” Obi-Wan said.
“I don’t like your tone of voice. What else could there possibly be?”
“I was reluctant to share this. I don’t wish for my own failings to get in the way of the mission. One moment I was walking through the halls of the temple, terrified of whose body I would see next. Then suddenly, it was the halls of the shuttle. I have no memory of leaving my bunk.”
“Just a little sleep walking is nothing to worry about, Master,” Anakin said, though his reassurance came out sounding flat.
“I hope you’re right, I truly do. But now it’s your turn. What did you see?”
There was no getting out of this now. He was going to have to share. After all, it would be unfair to keep details of Obi-Wan’s own future from him. So Anakin told him. It was hard for him to conceal the full extent of his emotions when he spoke of Padme’s death, but he did his best to repeat what he’d heard Obi-Wan say.
When he finished, Obi-Wan still hadn’t said a word.
“Do you think,” Anakin asked, hating the way he sounded, “do you think this means I die? Maybe at the temple with my men?”
Obi-Wan’s answer came too quickly. “We don’t know that.” He took a deep breath and seemed to center himself. “We’ve been given a rare opportunity. The force has guided us here for a reason. However, we cannot allow these visions to interfere with our original mission. Once we find the ship we can stay, meditate and try to find some answers.”
Anakin nodded. He could always count on Obi-Wan to bring some focus, some clarity.
“Let’s go check on things on the bridge.”
“That sounds like a great idea,” said Anakin, glad that he had not needed to carry the weight of his vision alone.
Even in the short journey from the mess to the bridge, Anakin’s moment of clarity evaporated. The best way he could explain it would be to say he felt seasick.
“Generals,” Rex greeted, as they entered. “Everything’s all good here, don’t worry. Black hole’s nothing we can’t handle.”
Both he and Cody had removed most of their armour, though it sat nearby in the corner of the room. Artoo beeped a greeting as well. Anakin slumped down into the pilot’s seat, only because he was unsure how long his legs would be able to support his weight.
“Not to speak out of turn,” said Cody, “but you both look like you could use a good sleep. We can handle things here. We’ll just wake a couple of the men for the next shift. If something comes up on the scanners, we’ll wake you.”
Anakin could see what had evoked this response. Obi-Wan was leaning heavily against the wall. He looked worse than Anakin felt.
“I’m unsure if sleep will be the cure for this,” Obi-Wan released a dry laugh. “I wasn’t sure if it was pertinent to share this, but you have the right to know. Proximity to a black hole is known to have some unexpected effects on force sensitives. Anakin and I weren’t prepared for the reaction we seem to be having. You and the men may have to take on more of the burden of this mission than was initially intended.”
Rex and Cody exchanged a look.
It was Rex to speak. “Of course general. Are you sure you’re alright? Do you need Kix to take a look at you?”
“I’m afraid this isn’t the sort of thing modern medicine can help.” He forced a smile. “I do feel rather ill. I’ll return shortly.”
Before Anakin could say anything he was gone. Anakin decided to stay, not wanting to be alone. They made conversation: about the men, about the war—ordinary things. Anakin was actually beginning to feel better.
“The general’s been gone for a while,” Cody commented.
“Maybe he went back to bed,” Rex suggested.
“I think I better check on him,” Anakin said, getting to his feet.
He was halfway to the door when the ship pitched violently. Anakin stumbled, reaching out for the wall to steady himself.
“We need to keep the ship level!”
Rex had rushed to his side, reaching an arm around him to steady him. “General,” he spoke cautiously, “nothing happened. We’re still on course.”
Embarrassment brought a flush to Anakin’s face. He pulled himself free of Rex, leading the way as they left the bridge. He put all his concentration into every step he took.
“I’ll be fine,” he said, partly to himself and partly to the captain. “I can handle this. I’m just worried about Obi-Wan.”
“All the same, I’m coming with you,” said Rex. “Cody, can you keep an eye on things here?” he yelled over his shoulder. “I think I’ll wake some of the other men.”
The door of the nearest fresher was locked.
“Obi-Wan?” Anakin banged on the door.
At first there was no response, but then the locked mechanism released. It was clear he’d done it with the force, as he sat curled on the far side of the small room. His head hung over the fresher, though it didn’t smell like he’d been sick. His face held a sheen of sweat.
“Master!” Anakin dropped to his knees.
He cupped Obi-Wan’s chin, lifting his head. It looked like his eyes were having some trouble focusing. Anakin brushed his bangs back, feeling for a fever. Of course, there was none.
“General Skywalker.” Rex was back. With him was Kix. “Let’s get him out of there.”
Anakin pushed himself to his feet, stepping out of the way as the two clones lifted Obi-Wan between them.
“He doesn’t have a fever, and I don’t think he threw up,” Anakin hurriedly listed what he knew.
In his gut he knew Kix would be unable to help, but he just felt so useless on his own.
“It’s the dark side,” Obi-Wan spoke for the first time, surprisingly coherent. “All parts of the force are strong here, pulled tight together, swirling, bubbling. I don’t think I was cut out to be a Sith.”
Was he making a joke? Now?
“I’m afraid all this’s a bit out of my depth,” Kix admitted. “I think the best thing is for you to lie down.” He looked at Anakin. “Both of you.”
In his cabin, Anakin sat at the edge of his bed. It wasn’t that he was afraid to go to sleep. He needed to know what the future held. It was just that he was too restless right now. That was it. Kix couldn’t tell him what to do. He’d just walk a couple times around the ship to burn off some energy.
He’d just stepped out into the hall when he realized it was not the correct hallway. It was larger, unfamiliar. The force was playing tricks on him. He didn’t want to be wandering around the ship in a trance. This had been a bad idea. He turned back to his door only to find it wasn’t there anymore. So, spurred on by curiosity, he did the only thing he could do. He started walking.
Whatever architecture this was, he did not recognize it. However, it was not foreign enough to be alien. By the size of the halls, and judging by the amount of time he’d been walking, wherever this was, it was big. Was it a building, a ship? Sometimes he saw what appeared to be clones. Their armour was just slightly different, and none of it had been personalized in any way. He tried to catch up with them, or call out to them whenever he saw them, but they would always disappear through a locked door or around a corner.
He was beginning to worry. How could he wake up from this? How could he find his way out of this maze? Then he rounded a corner and saw someone familiar. His back was to him, but the familiar robes and figure made his identity obvious.
“Chancellor?” Anakin called.
The lights flickered and now the figure wore a dark robe, like a Jedi.
He tried again, hurrying towards him before he had the chance to disappear. “Chancellor Palpatine!”
Everything went dark. When the emergency power kicked in—consisting of dim, red floor lights—Palpatine was facing him. Except it didn’t look like Palpatine anymore. His face was hideously deformed. Skin sagged around sunken yellow eyes. Anakin took a step backwards, unable to look away. It smiled at him, extending a hand. The nails were long and yellow, like a claw. It beckoned him to come closer.
Anakin was still backing away, but it was like he was going uphill. The gravity of the ship was changing, and the hallway was becoming less of a hallway and more like a pit. He was unable to keep traction on the floor and suddenly he was falling towards the sneering face. Behind what had once been Palpatine was the black hole: gaping, unavoidable. Anakin couldn’t help himself. He screamed and closed his eyes.
When he opened them again he was standing in what looked like a natural cave. It was dark, and a blanket of mist covered the ground. It clung to his legs, to his black cape and his boots. Roots hung from the ceiling, and came up through the floor. Anakin tried to take a deep breath, to calm himself, but he couldn’t fill his lungs. It made a mechanical hiss as it passed his lips.
This was not like the endless hallways. He felt real, present. It had to be another vision of the future. He stepped forward, pushing a bundle of hanging roots out of the way, and found himself face to face with a boy. He was blond, with big blue eyes. Anakin was sure he’d never seen him before in his life, and yet he was hauntingly familiar.
He stared at Anakin with shock and fear. Unlike Obi-Wan in the last vision, this boy could see him. He drew a lightsaber. The blue was blinding in the darkness of the cave. Was that his lightsaber? That boy had his lightsaber! On instinct, Anakin’s hand went to his hip. Much to his relief, he found a lightsaber hooked there as well. He activated it just in time to block the descending blade of the boy.
Blue plasma crossed red. No. What did this mean? Why did he wield a Sith blade? He blocked the next strike, continuing the fight on autopilot. His mind was racing. His whole body felt wrong. The boy made use of his distraction, and when he went for his neck Anakin couldn’t block him in time.
His head was severed from his body, and Anakin woke up. He was standing in the hall outside Obi-Wan’s room. So he had not walked so far after all. Rex and Boil appeared around the corner.
“General,” Boil called, “are you alright? We heard a scream.”
“Fine,” Anakin mumbled, mind still racing from his vision, “I’m fine.”
How did he know he was even awake now? Once he’d had the thought he couldn’t get rid of it. And then there was the red lightsaber, and Palpatine, and the boy. He had so many pieces, and any way he assembled them he did not like the picture they made.
“Are you sure?” Rex approached him cautiously.
“It was a dream, a vision… a nightmare. I’m not sure.” He usually hated showing weakness in front of the men, but right now he couldn’t bring himself to care. “I don’t think being alone was the best idea. I need to check on Obi-Wan.”
Or maybe he just needed to see him. Anakin hesitated before pushing the button that would open his master’s room. If Obi-Wan was having a vision as well, what would he see? Fear gripped Anakin, and he hated himself for it. He could not erase the image if the red lightsaber in his hand. Maybe he didn’t want to see Obi-Wan after all.
Rex and Boil were watching him. He pushed the button. The sliding door revealed a darkened room, and a dishevelled but empty bed. Anakin was about to worry, but then he saw him. Obi-Wan sat curled in the corner of the room, blanket wrapped around himself like a cloak.
As Anakin approached he squinted up at him, pushing himself stiffly to his feet.
“Anakin!” he embraced him like they hadn’t seen each other in years. “Thank the force!”
“Master?” He was too shocked to reciprocate the gesture. “What happened? What did you see?”
Obi-Wan released him. “How long has it been? How long was I asleep?”
Not knowing the answer himself, Anakin looked back at the clones.
“Only another hour, Sir,” Rex answered.
“I need to get out of this room.” Obi-Wan sounded desperate.
“Alright. Sit with me in the mess?”
“I’ll leave you two to talk,” Rex said. “But if you need anything we’re right there. I have Oddball at the controls, and there has been nothing on the scanners. Everything is running smoothly.”
“We’re lucky to have you aboard, Captain Rex,” said Obi-Wan. “I apologize for my… condition.”
“You have nothing to apologize for, General. I don’t know much about the force, but what you’re dealing with does not look fun.”
When they reached the mess the clones continued on to the bridge. Obi-Wan and Anakin took the same seats they had the first time: at the end of the long table closest to the window, Anakin with his back to it. On the walk here Obi-Wan had seemed slightly better. He looked less ill, and had not stumbled once.
“We’ve done this already,” Anakin said. “I don’t like this repetition; it makes me feel like I’m still dreaming.” He was unsure where that had come from.
“Take a deep breath, try to center yourself. Though I know I’m not one to talk right now. We need to go over what we saw, make some use of this. Although I don’t think my vision will be much help.”
“You should go first then,” Anakin said quickly. “You looked really shaken up when I came in the room.”
“Yes… I was.” Obi-Wan stared past him out the window. “What felt to you like an hour felt to me to be years. How many? I lost count.”
“Sounds like you had the worst spice trip of your life.”
Obi-Wan laughed.
“Seriously though,” Anakin prompted. “Where were you? What was going on?”
“Nothing. I was completely and utterly alone.”
Right in front of Anakin he seemed to curl in on himself, and Anakin began to wonder if maybe a vision could have lasting psychological effects.
“You weren’t though,” he said. “I was right next door. And the men are here. We’ll get through this, Master, together. And we’ll stop this… I’ll never…” He stopped himself. It was still Obi-Wan’s turn.
“I was in a tiny house, not much bigger than my quarters on this ship. I could leave but it was surrounded by desert, stretching endlessly in all direction. It was like some sort of purgatory. I waited for years, never seeing a soul. I knew I could not leave, but it was like I had forgotten why. I was trapped there so long I forgot my own name. I forgot who I was. I feared if some traveler came upon me I would be unable to speak so I kept conversation with myself, with Qui-Gon… with you.”
“That’s terrible, I’m sorry. If I’d known, I would have checked on you earlier.”
“It’s not your fault I have been allowing the force to control me, instead of the other way around.”
“Was there anything you saw that could help with this puzzle? Something in your house? Any hint of what planet you were on?”
“Oh, I’m almost positive I know what planet I was on. The two suns were unmistakable. I was on Tatooine.”
Obi-Wan’s mental prison was truly one of the worst Anakin could imagine. He’d been trapped alone, surrounded by endless sand.
“I didn’t have much,” Obi-Wan continued, “just one robe, and few possessions. There was only one thing of interest and I fear what it may mean. I had your lightsaber. You may be correct, about you dying that night in the temple.”
Anakin was shaking his head.
“What is it? What did you see?”
“It’s worse.”
“What do you mean? What could be worse…?”
Anakin couldn’t speak. It was like the words were trapped in his throat. He didn’t need to tell Obi-Wan. He could handle this on his own.
“Nothing. I didn’t see anything.”
His master stroked his beard in concern, studying him intently. “Anakin, please.”
“I’m just not sure what it all meant. The visions were so jumbled. I need time to make sense of it.”
“Just tell me, we can make sense of it together. Neither of us are alone in this. You said that.”
What did he want him to say? That it might have been him who had trapped Obi-Wan in that purgatory? That it was him who’d turned him into the shell he’d seen weeping over Padme’s body. Anakin couldn’t breath. Obi-Wan would misinterpret everything, tell the Jedi council. He was always looking for some reason to attack the chancellor and Anakin would be giving him exactly that. He just needed a little more time... Maybe another vision.
Anakin was saved from Obi-Wan’s gaze by the entry of a group of five clones. They began digging through the ration packs and Anakin got up to join them.
“How you feeling, General?” Fives asked.
“A bit better,” Anakin said. Physically this was not a lie. Mentally, he was still reeling.
From near the crate, Waxer tossed a freeze-dried pod to both of them. Obi-Wan had gotten up to join them, and Anakin quickly headed over to the droid that would turn the ball he held into something marginally edible.
“General Kenobi?” At Cody’s words, Anakin turned around.
Obi-Wan had frozen in the middle of the floor. He seemed to stare right through the clones who circled around him, concerned. Waxer waved his hand tentatively in front of his face, but there was no response. They all watched as Obi-Wan’s expression changed to one of horror.
Then his eyes focused back in, darting quickly from one clone to another. And before anyone could ask him what had happened he activated his lightsaber.
“Stay back.”
He hadn’t even needed to say it. The men were already backing away, afraid and confused.
“General…”
“What’s happening?”
“Please, sir, calm down.”
Fives was by Anakin’s side. “What’s wrong with him?”
“Master!” Anakin stepped foreword, hand hovering by his own lightsaber, though he hoped he would not have to draw it.
Thankfully, Obi-Wan deactivated his. “Anakin, I need to talk to you. Now.” He looked back over to the clones. “Alone.”
Once Anakin’s door had slid closed behind him, Anakin confronted his master. “Tell me you’re not going to be a danger to the mission, because I know you’d want me to take you out of the equation. I don’t want to, but I will lock you in—”
Obi-Wan cut him off. “Anakin, listen to me! I know why I didn’t see any droids in the temple. This is bad; really, really bad.”
Anakin shut up.
“I flashed from body to body, seeing through one pare of Jedi eyes after another. Every time I saw the same thing.”
“What?” Why was Obi-Wan keeping him in suspense?
“The same thing I saw when I came back to reality. The Jedi are always surrounded by clones, so much that we no longer think anything of it. They turned on us, shot us dead without even a second of pause. In that moment, I felt myself die a thousand times.”
“That can’t be. You’re misinterpreting it. Those men out there are my friends, yours as well! They would never…”
“Tell that to Aayla, and Plo Koon, and those younglings I saw in the temple! Anakin, I don’t want to believe it either, but it’s the truth. We need to get in touch with Master Yoda. Something needs to be done, now.”
Anakin stepped in front of the door. “So you’re positive what we see will come to pass? You aren’t willing to give those men, our friends, a chance?”
“It’s too dangerous. The whole order is at stake.”
This was what he’d feared. If anything, this turn of events should have prolonged Anakin’s silence, but instead it all came rushing out.
“Do you want to know what I saw, Master?”
His fear and anger had exploded from where he kept it locked away, rushing out without reason. With it it brought something else, and instead of facing Obi-Wan he sunk backwards into the dark tendrils of the force.
The vision was different this time. It was a blurred mess. He was in his body, but unable to control it, barely hanging on to reality. There was fire and burning emotion to match it. There was the march of hundreds of boots and the screams of children. As he watched his legion gun down those he’d known his whole life he realized that Obi-Wan had been right, about almost everything.
Clones had not killed those younglings. He could still feel the hilt of his lightsaber in his hand, even as he sat shaking on the ground with his back against the door. He was sick and dizzy, tears streaming down his face.
“You need to kill me.”
“What?” Obi-Wan was holding his shoulders, shaking him. “I couldn’t Anakin. Never. You’re like my brother.”
He was barely aware of his master’s presence. On fast-forward they flashed before his eyes: every Jedi he would ever kill. There were so many, at such speed, that they joined together into a blur of colour and hatred. Even though he was still partially aware of his body on the ship, it still felt as if decades were passing. When he reached a withered old Jedi with a blue blade, he barely recognized him as the man who crouched before him.
“Hang on, Anakin,” Obi-Wan had carried him to his bed, “breath. Explain to me, please.”
“I’m a monster,” Anakin whispered. “If you don’t kill me, you will suffer and die, and I will rip the galaxy apart.”
“Whatever you’re seeing, we can fight this.”
Anakin stared uselessly at the ceiling. “You said so yourself. It’s too dangerous.”
There was a long pause, and Anakin eventually pushed himself into a sitting position. Obi-Wan was pacing, back and forth across the tiny room. Feeling Anakin’s eyes on him, he stopped.
“Whatever this means. Whatever you saw. It was wrong to try to understand it now, here in this place where we can barely hold ourselves together. I was wrong to try to take action. I couldn’t get a message through to the Jedi council anyways. The transmission would never escape the black hole’s gravity. We have a real, present mission, and we cannot allow ourselves to be consumed by potential futures.”
Obi-Wan exuded an aura of calm. He had found his center, and it helped to be near him—just a little.
“You don’t think this is more important?”
Another pause then, “half a standard day. If we don’t find the ship in that long, we head back. It will give us time to… settle.”
“Master, are you sure?” Anakin warned. “What I saw…”
“I don’t want to hear it. Not right now. Come on.” Obi-Wan motioned for him to get up.
“Wait,” Anakin said, “there’s something else I have to tell you now, just in case…” he wasn’t completely sure what this was just in case of. All the same, he knew he did not trust himself, so he continued. “In the first vision I saw something I’m not sure how to interpret. It was the chancellor but he was disfigured horrifically. He wore a cloak and his eyes were sunken and yellow. He reached out to me and I fell towards him, and the black hole was behind him.”
Obi-Wan stiffened. “I think we both known what this must mean, Anakin. It’s been in front of our noses all this time. All the pieces are fitting together. The clones turning against us, the fog of the dark side which hangs in the senate.”
“You’re wrong. You have to be. The chancellor is my friend. He’s been a mentor to me since I first arrived on Coruscant.”
“Yes,” said Obi-Wan, and there was a bitterness in his words, “and that’s starting to make a lot of sense, isn’t it? Regardless! We can speak of this later. When we leave this room, we leave all of this behind. We must give no indication to the men of what we know.”
Obi-Wan said the words, but when the portal slid open they found it was waiting for them outside as well.
Hit by a wave of heat and sulfur, Obi-Wan stumbled back from the door.
“You see it too?” Anakin asked, incredulously.
Out in the hall, what had once been floor was now a river of molten lava. The air was thick with ash, and Anakin covered his mouth despite himself.
“It’s not real,” said Obi-Wan. “It won’t hurt us. We should go to the bridge. I need to apologize for my reaction earlier.”
Anakin knew it was a vision, but when he stepped out into the corridor the pain was real. He released a yell of pain.
“Anakin,” Obi-Wan was holding his shoulder, “breath. It’s not real. It’s not real.”
He was guiding him slowly down the hall, seemingly unaffected.
“You don’t feel it?” Anakin gasped.
“No… I see the lava, and I can smell it in the air, but it doesn’t hurt me.”
Anakin had managed to push the agony to the back of this mind, but it was still there, always there.
Suddenly the ship shuttered.
“Was that real?” Anakin asked.
“I’m not sure.”
“Rex!” Anakin yelled.
They’d just rounded he last corner before the bridge. From here they could see the doors. At his call, they slid open.
“Nothing to worry about, generals,” the captain reassured. There’s just a bit of ionized dust. We could probably go through it, but Oddball is going to take us around.”
“Are the men all on the bridge?” Obi-Wan asked.
“Most of them, yeah.”
As soon as they were through the door, Obi-Wan began making his apology. Anakin was just revelling in relief at the fact the bridge floor was not covered with imaginary lava. Obi-Wan gave the same spiel he’d given Anakin, that the visions they were having were important but that he would no longer allow them to affect the mission. He also informed them of the new time limit. Anakin was only half listening. He’d gone to stand beside Oddball, who sat in the co-pilot’s seat.
Tendrils of gas and dust streamed towards the black hole. When the light from the ship shone through it some wavelengths were absorbed, and some reflected. Parts of the cloud looked green, or purple, or a shimmering red. It would have been beautiful, had Anakin not known how dangerous it was.
“Going around was the right call,” he told Oddball. “There could be plasma in there.”
“If you’re up to it, I could use the help,” Oddball admitted.
Anakin was about to agree when the force chose that exact moment to create another distraction. While Anakin had been talking, Obi-Wan had wandered over to the door, and was looking down the hall.
“Do you see that?” he asked.
Anakin went to join him by the door, holding up a finger to indicate his conversation with Oddball wasn’t over.
“It’s you,” he said, seeing the same hallucination as his master… of his master.
Instead of being pulled into a vision, this time a vision had come to them. Another version of Obi-Wan stood right outside the bridge. Though he looked slightly older and infinitely more tired than this Obi-Wan he looked no less real. He didn’t seem aware of their presence.
As they watched, the scene seemed to fade into place: heat distortions in the air, the smell of molten rock—though it no longer coated the hallway floor—and finally Anakin, facing Obi-Wan down with hate in his yellow eyes. Present Anakin looked away, over his shoulder. He had the choice not to watch this, to help Oddball with the ship.
“I think I’m getting control of this,” he told the concerned men, not sure if he was lying. “But it’s my future. You can’t expect me not to look. If anything happens, anything at all, get my attention, remind me what’s at stake.”
“Yes, Sir,” said Rex, with a salute. “But with the upmost respect, I still think I’ll check up on you.”
Anakin didn’t blame the captain at all.
The visions had said a few words to each other, but he hadn’t been paying attention. The real Obi-Wan was standing out in the hall as well, transfixed.
“Only a Sith deals in absolutes,” said the version from the future, words heavy with sorrow, “I will do what I must.”
“You will try.”
Anakin felt as if he’d been slapped in the face. It was strange enough to hear a recording of one’s own voice, but this twisted version of him didn’t sound, or even really look like him. Or did he? He wore the same robes, sported the same distinctive scar. Unlike Obi-Wan he didn’t even look noticeably older. That anger that bubbled off of him: was it really so foreign? Anakin knew it as intimately as a lover.
Anakin Skywalker drew his lightsaber and lunged at his best friend. The two men moved at an astounding speed, lightsabers nothing but a blue blur. They progressed down the hall, locked in combat, and their past counterparts followed them. There was nothing they could say to each other, held in place by morbid curiosity. Their lightsabers scratched the walls of the hall, and sparks rained down. But when they passed there were no marks left on the metal.
They moved through the portal into the mess. Anakin and Obi-Wan took off running, not wanting to lose sight of themselves.
Their doubles fought as if they really were really on the ship, respecting the walls and making use of nearby objects. They clashed atop the long table, and Anakin grabbed Obi-Wan by the throat, slamming him down. As his lightsaber pushed closer to Obi-Wan’s neck, Anakin looked away. Though he should have known it would not end like this, after the other visions they had seen. They hurled objects with the force. A chair shattered against the window.
“That’s really happening, isn’t it?” asked Anakin. “Is it us moving those things?”
“It would appear so.” Obi-Wan gestured at their doubles.
Anakin was not sure he wished to see the conclusion of this fight. Suddenly everything shuttered and dipped, effecting all four of them. This left the difficult question of whether or not it had really happened.
“This ship?” Anakin asked.
“No,” said Obi-Wan. “The mining station. It’s going to collapse into the lava.”
Still seeing the mess hall, Anakin did not understand.
The door opened, revealing Rex. “Oddball could really use some help, General.”
Rex was the master of functioning under pressure, but Anakin could hear the worry in his voice. His future self still fought, but he had no choice but to turn away. He had lived his whole life under the shadow of prophecies. What difference did one more make?
“Look after him,” Anakin said, then left Obi-Wan to face the end of their fight alone.
“General Skywalker!” Anakin was bombarded with information as soon as he entered the bridge, but it was Oddball who had called his name. “There was a chunk of something mixed in with the dust. It knocked us off course and we’re getting pulled in, I can’t—”
Already in the pilot’s chair, Anakin cut him off. “Hang onto something. Things are about to get bumpy.”
Compensating for the gravitational pull and getting them into a stable orbit was not an easy task. They were already far closer than Anakin had planned to come. There were also the tendrils of gas and dust. He weaved between them, flipping the ship sideways to fit through a hole in a large cloud. Then, dropping straight down to make it under a bank of glowing green ions. The adrenaline helped to focus him. The threat of death, with the ship at his command, this was what he’d been born for. With so much to focus on he could forget the past, forget the future.
The gas seemed to be thinning, but they were still far too close to the black hole. Not to mention, Anakin was starting to get tunnel vision. It did happen occasionally when he got in the zone, but never before had it been quite so literal.
He held the ship steady, keeping it from crashing into the looming walls which had appeared on either side. It reminded him of pod-racing through the canyons on Tatooine, but the walls here were not rock. They were armoured like a star destroyer, or a space station. Anakin should have realized he could not hold the future back forever. There was another ship ahead of him, a star fighter. He stayed close, keeping it in his sites.
Unable to see the present, Anakin should have given control back to Oddball. But the force flooded through him: warm and hopeful. He could trust it. This ship would not lead him astray. He would trust in the force. It would not be showing them these horrors without reason. So he flew through this manmade canyon, as some future space battle raged above him.
Then Oddball was yelling, “it’s the ship General! The ship! Do you see it?” and suddenly everything was gone, and he was snapped back to reality.
The first thing he noticed was how much closer the black hole was. Still, he would trust in the force, and they had other things to worry about at the moment, because they’d found it. The spy ship was in front of them, and they were fast approaching. Anakin slowed down so that their orbital velocities were the same.
He did not leave his seat, dispatching the clones to board. He did not go check on Obi-Wan, scared of losing the little clarity he had gained. There was so much he needed to do, so many things he needed to say to him. That he loved him, and that he had the right to know about his marriage to Padme. That he was sorry.
To the clone’s credit, they were fast. Soon, Kix was fretting over the injured pilots in the med bay, and Rex was showing him a tiny drive filled with secrets. The mission had been a compete success, but it didn’t matter, all that mattered was getting away from this place, to his universe, where none of what they’d seen could be allowed to come to pass. They had come awfully close to the black hole, and for a moment he feared that when they returned so much time would have passed they would be too late.
Oddball took back control of the ship as they reached escape velocity. He tried to ask permission, but Anakin did not answer, as he was somewhere else. He was somewhere in the vastness of spacetime, dying, his body that of a broken old man. If he could still be called a man. As life slipped away he could see only the face of the blond boy from his dream.
“Father!” His voice was very far away.
As one becomes one with the force, many truths become evident to them. On returning to his body, Anakin was only able to hold onto one of these. That his was only one of infinite universes, each the result of a choice. Every being able to choose had the power of a god: the power to create realities. And though it saddened him, he was also aware that the universe on the other side of the black hole needed to exist, for it had shaped this one.