The Loyalty of the Dark

Chapter 13

It had taken Anakin most of the morning to track down Obi-Wan before finally locating him on top of the Temple's ziggurat. He knew he'd told Padmé they weren't going to tell his old master anything but....

Hell, if he saw anything relatively close to what Vader had seen he needed someone who had an understanding of the Force and Force induced visions who also had access to holocrons about said visions to talk to. And someone he trusted, that was also a must. Even if Anakin didn't necessarily know how Obi-Wan would react to the hint of him and Padmé being more than friends—well more like conformation, he was almost positive that the older Jedi had more than just suspicions—Anakin would prefer telling Obi-Wan and then trying to convince him to not tell the Council.

Basically. Part of the Jedi was still wondering if he'd lost his mind.

Anyway, with Obi-Wan's help, maybe then they could figure out what the hell Eclipse was actually doing here. If anyone ought to be getting a vision of Padmé's death, it should have been Anakin, and it should have been him first. How the hell a Sith managed to get it was beyond him and the fact that they seemed to be either the same or connected....

What if Eclipse had actually been the one who sent it? Was that even possible? He'd seen her nearby—well, her beacon, but close enough.

All Anakin had to do was find a way to explain.

"You missed the report on the Outer Rim sieges," Obi-Wan said as the two Jedi reached each other—Anakin still desperately hunting for words.

"I was participating in the meeting between Eclipse and Padmé," Anakin responded, running a tired hand over his face. "I forgot, sorry."

"Well, easy enough to brief you," his friend responded, his tone reassuring. "In short, they are going very well. Salecumi has fallen, and Master Vos has moved his troops to Boz Pity. What happened in your meeting?"

"Well, Padmé didn't really give an answer. I did get to hear more specifics of the vision both Eclipse and Vader saw," Anakin said, deciding to go ahead and just plunge on into whatever the hell was next even as he glanced around the open area. "Funnily enough, I had a similar vision last night."

"Really? What was in it?" Obi-Wan asked, a worried frown gracing his features even as Anakin's eyes caught onto something that gave him a convenient change of subject as his resolve derailed.

"Rather.... I'd rather talk in private," the Jedi muttered, shaking his head. "Or forget about it. What's the Chancellor's suttle doing here? Did something happen he needed to see the Council about?"

Obi-Wan's frown deepened, but he answered all the same. "No, it didn't bring the Chancellor—quite the opposite. It's waiting to bring you to him."

"Waiting for me? But my beacon didn't go off," Anakin said, even as he wondered if his mind had left him enough to have forgotten it at the apartment. "If the Council wanted—"

"The Council wasn't consulted."

"I don't understand."

"Neither do I," Obi-Wan responded even as he took a step closer and gave an ever so subtle nod to the shuttle. "They simply arrived, some time ago. When the deck-duty padawans questioned them, they said the Chancellor has requested your presence."

Anakin pressed a hand to massage his forehead, wasn't even midday and he had what, five mysteries on his hands? He didn't get that much of a good sleep last night either, not with Eclipse, her warnings, and the vision running around his head. "Why wouldn't he go through the Council?"