Chapter Text
Obi wan should have known that Jabiim was a trap. Last time he was here, he had the very unpleasant experience of being captured by Ventress, believed to be dead by the Jedi order, and subsequently tortured for months on end with no hope of reprieve in sight. So naturally, Jabiim is a planet behind only Rattatak, Zigoola, and Mustafar in his list of places he’d happily go the rest of his life without ever visiting again.
But Darth Vader likely has other plans, he muses, as he feels the familiar pull of traveling through hyperspace on his suspended shoulders. The binders above his head put just the right amount of pressure on his still healing burn wounds. It hurts, and with every slight jostle of space travel it sends just enough sharp needles of pain down his arms to keep him awake, but never enough pain to cause him to pass out peacefully. The Executor's prisoner cells are just so thoughtful.
He’s not sure where they are headed, but he has an inkling. Either to Coruscant where the empire will torture him endlessly for the access codes to the archives, or to Mustafar, where Anakin will- Vader will torture him endlessly because he simply can . He might even want the access codes as well. Only Jedi Masters have full access to the library holocrons, and Obi wan is now grateful for the good judgment of Mace Windu, who had insisted that Anakin remain merely a Jedi Knight. If that’s what Vader seeks, he will likely force it from Obi-wan eventually, but how useful that information will be by the time he gets it is another matter entirely.
Obi wan wishes it were that simple. Torture was simply an occupational hazard of being a Jedi. Though he certainly feared Darth Vader in a deep gutteral way he didn't think was possible. He had never imagined that Anakin would ever- could ever- become that cruel. But Obi-wan can’t decide which is scarier: that the boy he raised could gut innocent children in the street with no remorse, or the fact that his own feelings had blinded him so thoroughly to the darkness that had grown in Anakin from his early padawan years.
Obi-wan Kenobi, Jedi master, General of the Grand Army of the Republic, negotiator, and sith killer had deceived himself. He wanted so desperately for Anakin to be the chosen one of the force that he allowed an entire generation of Jedi younglings to be extinguished. The guilt is palpable and Obi-wan sinks in his chains, knowing full well that he deserves anything the will of the force has to throw at him.
But Leia. She’s innocent. She doesn’t deserve any of this. And Obi-wan’s heart breaks knowing that it is entirely his fault that she is in danger. He reaches out in the force to try and locate her, at least to see if she is alive. But he is reprimanded by the force collar, and is once again thrown into the anxious milieu of wondering if Vader had killed her with as little remorse as he had broken that child’s neck on Mapuzo.
Jabiim had been a total disaster. Somehow, Vader had known they would be there. Down to the exact port. Tala was dead. That much was certain. Despite his best efforts, in his injured state Obi-wan couldn’t even buy her enough time to signal her allies. And Leia. Leia had, quite possibly for the first time in her life, listened to directions and darted off into the mud soaked terrain.
With any luck, the clones and Darth Vader could not locate her and some rebels had picked her up. Obi-wan knows from vivid personal experience that the planet’s torrential rains and mudflows are extremely difficult to traverse for droids and clones alike. Their armor sinks into the surface like a rock, and Vader, with all that heavy durasteel would need to use the force just to walk around the planet's surface.
But for a ten-year old child, weighing hardly more than a womprat, the winding branches and bogs of Jabiim are easily navigated. And Leia has the added advantage of being no ordinary ten year old girl. She’s Anakin Skywalker’s daughter. She burns so brightly in the force that Obi-wan genuinely doesn’t know how Vader couldn’t sense the truth, and has force perception strong enough to guide her to safety. Or so he hopes. Plus, there is certainly little love for the empire on Jabiim, a fact which very well could save the girls life.
With the familiar jerk of screeching out of hyperspace, Obi-wan snaps to attention. Wherever they are going, they have arrived. He steels his nerves and prepares his mind. Whatever Vader has planned is about to begin, and Obi-wan has a very bad feeling about that.