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Anakin was still just barely stable when they arrived on Coruscant.
The medics on board The Negotiator and The Resolute did everything they could to stop the spread of the poison spreading through Anakin's veins, and yet, it seemed all they could do was slow it down. Ahsoka and Obi-Wan couldn’t even help- both had been trained in basic first aid but nothing further, and they weren’t willing to risk hurting Anakin trying to help. All they could do was wait to arrive on Coruscant.
Healers were swarming around them the second they touched down. Voices overlapped with each other as they brought out different instruments and ordered more, doing their best to help Anakin while rushing him along to the Halls of Healing.
Obi-Wan and Ahsoka were just behind them, never more than a few feet away than they absolutely had to be. They were there when the Force-blocker had been tested during their battle. It had affected all of them- even the clones who were mainly null felt something was wrong. A few more of the sensitive ones reported headaches, and Anakin and Obi-Wan themselves had felt sick and disoriented, unable to do much other than curl into a ball and shake, searching for the light that was so suddenly missing from within themselves.
Anakin’s reaction had been the worst.
He screamed as though he’d been run through with his own saber and collapsed to the ground like all his muscles had given out on him. Moments later he’d started seizing and it’d only gotten worse, Obi-Wan was told later.
Obi-Wan almost asked for the rest of the report there in the med bay, but Kix looking over significantly to Ahsoka held back his demands. He knew what it was like to be a padawan worried for a master, but he also knew what it was like to be an injured master. Ahsoka knew that Anakin was hurt and they both knew it was on the fatal side of dangerous, she didn’t need to know the details.
Obi-Wan still wanted to.
After all three of their Jedi had been taken out the clones had very nearly retreated, but some quick thinking on Cody and Rex’s side had won them the battle. They’d evacuated the three of them off the battle as soon as they could and split their numbers so that the majority would clear the area and clean up while some others would escort the Jedi back to Coruscant.
Even at top speeds it would take more than a few hours to arrive, during which Ahsoka and Obi-Wan recovered with little complications, and Anakin had flatlined three times. He’d been coughing up blood for quite some time and nearly a long as well, Kix told him with a tone just frightened enough to imply that the statement was fairly literal.
The medics hadn’t left his side the entire flight, most of them barely having a break for twenty minutes before every hand was needed again. Anakin was kept just barely on the side of the living and already looked as though he had passed on.
Obi-Wan felt sick even staring at him for a few moments. His padawan, the Chosen One, the strongest Force user in hundreds of years- ashen skin and heavy breathing as he barely clung to life. The child he’d raised was dying and there was nothing Obi-Wan could do.
Ahsoka joined him some time later, across the room from Anakin. They couldn’t be next to him, Kix was quite clear on that, but they could at least be near him. She curled up under his arm as they watched and waited, flinching and wishing that they could arrive on Coruscant as soon as possible.
Which brought them to where they were now. Running behind Anakin being transported through the halls, Jedi jumping out of their path as they noticed the crowd.
Obi-Wan wasn’t sure what caused it to finally happen. After hours of staying as still as the grave Anakin finally moved. His back arched off the bed and everyone around him flinched as he started to scream in pure pain, like his flesh was being dissolved in acid.
Lights flashed brighter around them as Anakin himself seemed to glow and grow larger, more and more in the Force than he’d ever been. It was a relief to Obi-Wan at first- he’d taught Anakin as a child and had grown used to the constant deluge of too much behind Anakin’s unusually strong shields. It was a comfort now, when moments ago Anakin had barely had the presence of a half-starved tooka kitten.
Seconds later he regretted thinking such a thing- Anakin had at least had some shields as a child. Now it was like they had all been torn down, leaving them with the weight of thirty stars before them. They burned and froze everything over and over, tearing through their shields like there was nothing to stop them, not even air. The knowledge of a thousand languages and species etched themselves into his mind and Obi-Wan screamed as something riffled through every hidden crevice in his mind.
Obi-Wan could have sworn he had lived through a thousand lifetimes but as everything quieted and he looked up, mere moments had passed. He’d stayed standing somehow, but Obi-Wan didn’t spare a single thought as to why or how he saw Anakin sitting up and staring at him.
He wanted to rejoice and rush forwards to hold his former padawan in his arms but something stopped him from moving. Anakin looked like he normally did- handsome, blond hair and tan skin, blue eyes- Obi-Wan’s gaze slid off Anakin if Obi-Wan tried to look any deeper than that. With a start Obi-Wan realized he couldn’t remember what Anakin looked like except for those features- blonde. Tan. Blue eyes. Handsome.
Obi-Wan became more frantic as he looked to and away from Anakin, who never blinked or shifted a muscle. Out of the corner of his eye Obi-Wan could see Anakin face him, always staring, and the more Obi-Wan looked away the more he saw.
Wings erupting out of every available inch of skin, more eyes than every being in the universe combined. Fire crowned his head and poison spewed out his lips, fangs biting at the air. A halo surrounded him to beat back the chains of darkness wrapped around the multitude of limbs Anakin sported and it wasn’t clear which was winning. Above his head a sword hung over his head, a massie thing that would surely cleave him in half if it ever fell, but Anakin didn’t pay a modicum of attention to it. Instead he smiled at Obi-Wan, a sight as grotesque and beautiful as the man himself.
When Obi-Wan looked back to Anakin, his padawan looked as he always did, and he hadn’t moved a muscle.
Obi-Wan felt something drip down his face and reached up to touch his eye. It came away bloody and he wasn’t as surprised as he should have been.
Anakin- for it was undeniably Anakin, no matter what he appeared as- tried to tell him something, but the words were as indiscernible as he was. A melody from the depths of Obi-Wan’s soul itself poured from Anakin’s lips and wrapped around him, and though no words were spoken, Obi-Wan knew that as certain as there were stars in the sky, Anakin would be alright.
In between one moment and the next, Anakin laid back down, and the oppressing power still surrounding them dissipated. Everything was peaceful for just a few moments before Anakin’s back arched painfully once again- though Obi-Wan could tell he was much better off now. The Healers began running and it was a race to heal Anakin once more.
Obi-Wan didn’t know if everyone had seen what had just occurred or just him, but a glance at Ahsoka at his side told him she was just as shaken as he was. With a nod and an agreement to discuss later, the two shot off to follow Anakin once again.