Candlelight

Chapter 14 - Aftermath

Obi-Wan can admit, at least to himself, that he's beyond shaken by what happened. He'd gone straight to find Sidious, only for the Sith to possess him. He can't forget the suffocating feel of the Dark Side clawing through his mind, forcing him back until he couldn't control himself anymore.

It wasn't for long, at least, but still. The Sith was mind-controlling him.

He keenly remembers that panicked look in Anakin's eyes when he'd drawn his lightsaber on him, and it's worse that, only days ago, they'd been having a... difficult conversation about the times they apparently fought in Anakin's time.

And he doesn't know what the Sith was planning to make him do, but he's never been more satisfied to know that someone's on trial. (And will be executed, because there's no way the Senate could give him any other sentence, unless he still has supporters who are manipulating things. He's a Sith anyway, so there's no other way they can deal with him.)

"How is the search for the missing Jedi?" Obi-Wan inquires once he finally is able to escape from the healer's wing. There was so many Jedi here, some of whom were actually injured, so he was able to... convince them to dismiss him more quickly. He feels physically fine – being there will change nothing.

What happened is hardly something they can help with. All that matters is they recover from what Sidious has done, that they rebuild the damage that's been done to the Jedi Order with the war and so many of its members missing.

"I located Aayla and several others on Zygerria," Vos replies, and Obi-Wan doesn't miss the underlying note of anger in his voice. "The information Skywalker got was useful in hacking into the network on the station. Evidently, their former slave Empire is still running in secret."

They have a slave empire?!

He can't help but wonder what that will mean for the Jedi who were taken there. What have they been doing to them?

He doesn't know much about slavery himself; For all the years that he's known Anakin, he still often can't really understand it.

But he has to wonder, for a moment, if it's anything like – like what it was like to even lose control of his mind. It's the not the same, but... he thinks the idea of not being able to control anything is... similar.

That's essentially what Anakin was to Sidious, from what he's gathered, and seeing what the Sith is capable of... He doesn't think he wants to know what that would have been like. It makes it all the more relieving that Sidious is imprisoned in the Jedi Temple right now, with no hopes of escape.

"We will find them," Vos finishes determinedly.

"You will," Obi-Wan agrees. "We will send as many Jedi as we can to retrieve them."

Right now, he wants to see Anakin.

Finding him is easy enough because he's still in the healer's wing.

"I fail to understand why we're being kept here," Anakin declares flatly – it's clearly one of the practically unheard-of times that he's being cranky. Not that Obi-Wan can blame him. Neither of them like being here. No one does.

"Your dislike for them appears to have grown exponentially," Obi-Wan remarks dryly. "May I ask why?"

"You may," Anakin replies wryly.

"Is there a reason?" he asks, "You are not normally this cranky."

"Perhaps I'm trying to rival you today," he snarks back.

With a start, Obi-Wan realizes this is the first time they've... bickered since Anakin time-traveled. That doesn't mean he is going to let Anakin know that. "Truly," he huffs, crossing his arms.