Angels Like You | (Out of Date)

Chapter 40

He is racked with questions about what happened, about how Anakin let it get this far, but he knows there is something more important they must discuss.

"Anakin," Obi-Wan says softly, sitting across from the cell door. It has been a long time since he has spoken so quietly. "Where is Circe?"

The boy doesn't answer. A sadness hangs around him like death. It is huge and gaping, swallowing every other feeling in the room. Anakin has never been good at hiding his emotions, but this is different. He is lost, somewhere far off that Obi-Wan can't follow.

He sighs at his silence. "Please, you must tell me. We want to bring her back as much as you do. The Council needs to speak with her, it's important."

Again, the boy stays silent and still.

"Enough of this, Anakin!" Obi-Wan shouts, getting to his feet. He approaches the cell door, staring down at his old student. "You think you're the only one here who cares for her!? She stood up for you against everything, she promised to burn this place to the ground if harm ever came to you! You can't know what she must be going through right now. We need to bring her back!"

The younger Jedi leaps to his feet, slamming his hands against the holoscreen that blocks the doorway to his cell.

"YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW?" He shouts, the screen flickering in front of his face, "YOU THINK I AM NOT FALLING TO PIECES BECAUSE OF WHAT I'VE DONE?"

"Then why did you do it!?"

Anakin turns away furiously, running angry hands through his gold-streaked hair. His skin is tan honey, his eyes like dark, aged stone—two storming suns. He is bright, and burning, and full of pain.

Obi-Wan's heart aches. He grieves the loss of these two, of Circe and Anakin, the ones he should have fought harder to protect. Anakin is unrecognizable now, wracked with grief and guilt, and Circe...

He thinks of her, silver-skinned and bright as a star. The girl he's grown so fond of, as if she were his own daughter, the girl he knows is off somewhere alone. Desperate. Dangerous.

He knows how she will have reacted to this. She will spiral, two parts of her fighting with each other over the boy she loves. The weight of Anakin's betrayal will have ruined her. Obi-Wan must find her, he must bring her home and fix this.

"Help me bring her back," He coaxes. "Anakin, we cannot leave her alone."

"She could be anywhere by now," He snaps. "Don't you feel it? Her presence, it's gone. I couldn't track her if I tried, not even with the trickery that Palpatine taught me."

Obi-Wan looks up. "Palpatine?"

There is a shame in Anakin's eyes. "You don't have to believe me. Even I was blind to what he was doing, and I was with him all the time. The lies he told me..." He looks away, his voice catching, "The bounty hunter, the lessons, the promise of Circe's safety..."

Understanding washes over Obi-Wan. Rage. And then hatred, for using his student. Strong, vulnerable Anakin, who only wanted to keep someone safe.

"The torture that she endured," Anakin breathes, his eyes shining with tears, "She did it for me. I was the one who was supposed to take the poison, but she begged— she begged them to give it to her instead."

He shakes his head. His face is soft and anguished, delicate as hand-blown glass. "Palpatine did everything, if not himself then through someone else."

"The bounty hunter," He says knowingly, the weight of realization settling on his shoulders.

"And still, she rose above it all. When she broke free from her shackles on Dagobah, when I found her after she'd been kidnapped and she fought Phaedris with me."