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More and more worlds were leaving the Republic. They left in droves and the Jedi were struggling to deal with all the unrest that followed. Obi-Wan and his padawan Anakin had been sent out on an assignment—a mission that involved a lot of negotiation on the behalf of the Republic.
They were always on some kind of assignment these days, dealing with the Republic and its issues.
And like most of their recent assignments, it wasn’t going well. At least it wasn’t going according to the Republic’s wishes that Obi-Wan was supposed to represent here.
Anakin was acting out too, still trying to prove himself and his abilities after all these years. Obi-Wan understood where he was coming from, but he still worried. Anakin was like a brother to him, of course he worried. And what terrible timing too.
In the morning, still a few hours before another round of negotiations, Anakin was super quiet. Any and all of his attempts to find out why failed. Obi-Wan was tired, but that was his life right now.
“Anakin,” he tried one last time, “whatever it is, I hope you know you can tell me.”
“I know, Obi-Wan. It’s…”
“Yes?” he prompted.
Anakin sighed, frustrated. He ran a hand through his short hair, flicking his padawan braid over his shoulder. “I’ve been dreaming. About my mother.”
“Alright,” Obi-Wan said slowly, trying and failing to understand the importance of it without more details.
“It’s nothing, I know. Whatever. We’ve got work to do. So let’s go do it. Somebody has to show these guys how it’s done.”
Anakin left him no room for an answer and quickly hurried off. Alone, Obi-Wan sighed again, rubbing at his eyes. If Anakin didn’t want to talk about it yet, that was fine. He would give him some time. Eventually, Anakin would tell him what was bothering him.
After a full day of talks, Obi-Wan was exhausted. More from the people he had been arguing with than anything else—and it had truly been arguing since the other party had refused any rational conversation and resorted to flinging insults at the Jedi and their involvement.
Obi-Wan wasn’t happy about being there either, but he could keep his emotions in check. Anakin struggled with that too, so Obi-Wan had to work around Anakin’s anger too.
He was beat.
The bed in the hotel where they had been offered enticed him. Obi-Wan had barely forced himself to get out of his robes. The silence of his room felt amazing after all the noise of the day. Obi-Wan was out a minute after his head hit the pillow.
It felt like only a moment before Obi-Wan was woken up abruptly. His eyes ran around, trying to make out the room in the dark, the person in front of him. His panic gradually disappeared as Obi-Wan focused on the things he could hear and feel.
Anakin called his name, shaking his shoulders violently. His sight focused next. He could see in the dim light coming from the open door. Anakin looked terrified. It was still the middle of the night.
“Obi-Wan!” he yelled in his face again.
“Yes. I can hear you,” he said, pulling slightly away from Anakin, but his grip on his shoulder was like steel. Obi-Wan’s shirt was cold now and damp, clinging to his skin.
“What the kriff was that?” Anakin was still yelling.
“What was…” Obi-Wan pushed his hands away now. He realized his throat was dry and hoarse. “…what?”
“You were screaming. I rushed in and then you just stopped, sat up and I don’t know. You weren’t really there. I couldn’t wake you up. And then you had this frightened look on your face, like, I don’t know. I couldn’t wake you up.”
Obi-Wan frowned. “I don’t remember any of that.” He didn’t remember screaming, nor Anakin calling him. “I must have been dreaming. A nightmare, from the stress,” he reasoned when he saw the doubtful look on Anakin’s face.
He didn’t understand what happened, but he was awake now so it hardly mattered. Wouldn’t be a first nightmare he couldn’t quite recall. He would be fine. For now, he had to do something about Anakin. “We should meditate.”
“Are you feeling up to it? It’s still late.”
Obi-Wan nodded. This was a bit of an ordeal for both of them, in different ways. Obi-Wan couldn’t recall it, but his body sure did. He felt like he hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep. Anakin still looked vaguely scared even if he was doing his best to hide it.
So they meditated and fell into a familiar routine.
Each focused on their own inner struggles. Obi-Wan thought about every insult thrown at him and the Jedi, accepted that people were entitled to their own opinions, and let go of any anger that might remain. He accepted that this was the present they were living in and that he was doing his best and that was all he could really do.
Things would always work out eventually. He released his worries into the Force.
Anakin’s voice brought him out of his focus. “My mother. I saw her dying. A painful death.”
.
It was time to return to the temple on Coruscant, Obi-Wan had decided the day after his odd nightmare he couldn’t remember and after Anakin had told him what was troubling him.
They were unsuccessful here and Obi-Wan couldn’t do anything to change their minds. It didn’t matter how long they stayed, how many times they talked, the results would be the same. He and Anakin needed a break.
They would be more useful after some rest. Useful somewhere else where they could still help. There were many places like that around.
Anakin didn’t have another dream with his mother while they settled their leaving and the subsequent journey home. Obi-Wan, on the other hand, seemed unable to escape whatever it was in his own dreams.
He woke up almost every night, just a few hours after he went to sleep. Exhausted and with a lingering feeling of fear that he couldn’t quite shake during the day. The worst thing, he didn’t know why he was feeling like that. And since he didn’t know, he couldn’t do anything about his fear.
Only fragments of the dreams stayed in his mind. Armored people, lots of them. And death. So much death. He knew somewhere inside him that that was what his dreams were about even if he couldn’t quite picture it clearly. No details were forthcoming.
But so much death… maybe he did understand that fear after all.
He had to talk to his friends in the Council about this. Perhaps a mind healer too.
The dreams weren’t stopping and Obi-Wan could admit when he needed help. This was too much to burden Anakin with. He wasn’t even out of his teenage years yet. He didn’t need to stress because of Obi-Wan too, the Jedi were going through enough turmoil because of the fracturing Republic as it was.
Upon their return, Obi-Wan met with Mace and Master Yoda and explained to him his odd dreams. He didn’t tell them about Anakin’s own, only that they were both stressed and tired from the never-ending assignments.
“You are still young, Obi-Wan,” Mace said. “You have been taking care of Anakin for almost a decade now. He does not make it easy. With the additional missions, I wonder if we have burdened you too much.”
“Not quite. I’m handling it. Anakin can be difficult, but he is no burden.”
Mace inclined his head. “I meant the work.”
Obi-Wan flushed. Of course Mace hadn’t meant that. Obi-Wan should have known.
“I want to know about your dreams,” Yoda said. “Aptitude for Force visions you have always had.”
That was right. Obi-Wan had had a couple of Force visions in his life. That manifestation of the Force had always been stronger with him.
He hadn’t even considered that.
“You think I’m seeing some version of the future?”
“May be,” Mace said.
Obi-Wan wasn’t so sure. It had been a long time since he had one like that. “I was planning to see a healer about this. It scared Anakin a lot, and I still barely remember. These dreams are different from the visions I’ve had before. None have been so intense. The feelings alone…”
“It’s definitely something to look into,” Mace said.
“Yes,” Yoda agreed. “Something to do for your padawan, we shall find.”
Otherwise he would worry too much and that would lead to more problems. Anakin would want to help but he didn’t always go about it the right way. He didn’t think things through. Obi-Wan needed the doctor to check him and to figure this out.
.
Night terrors, the healer had told him. He was experiencing night terrors. It didn’t happen to adults often. The healer couldn’t be sure if this was normal for Stewjoni people or not, or if it could be something hereditary. Either way, she didn’t think it would stay for long.
She agreed that in his case, all that accumulated stress was potentially the source of his ailment. She told him to meditate more, to try to find out why he might be stressed. To look deep inside. A mind healer was recommended as well.
First, he wanted to try the meditation alone.
Perhaps it would help.
He did it. With nothing to distract him for days, he could truly concentrate and align himself with the Force. He did some stuff in between—commed Anakin, got food, practiced katas, took short naps.
The first real sleep after all that, Obi-Wan was hopeful. After nearly three full days of meditation, the Force nudged him, guided him to his bed, whispers of sleep so promising. Obi-Wan trusted the Force, always had.
His mind was calm as he closed his eyes.
The dreams came, but the night terrors didn’t follow.
Obi-Wan was dreaming. No, rather, he was experiencing a true Force vision.
A sun. A bright day. He shielded his eyes, looked down. Another sun, on a now-familiar white armor. And a face. Brown with strong features. Young. A smile pulling at the man’s lips. Polite. Words of respect Obi-Wan couldn’t catch.
Then it all turned blurry and fast. Blaster shots flew everywhere. More white. More and more of those armored people. That sun stayed next to him. Obi-Wan was overwhelmed by feelings—affection for this man at his side.
He truly saw him as a sun, in the Force too. Oh so bright. And then the fear, such a contrast to it, so much fear as they went through a battle.
Obi-Wan woke up. His night shirt was dry, and he felt a bit scared, but not like before. He remembered what had happened in his dream—his vision. The meditation must have helped. He had cleared all his emotions and thoughts, left enough space for the vision to take hold.
His body had been finally ready to receive the vision in its full magnitude.
He hurried to write down everything. The images would fade soon otherwise.
.
He didn’t need to go and see the mind healer. His night terrors had stopped. Anakin was glad to hear that. He was enjoying his freedom, working on an assignment without his master there.
Everything was looking up.
For now.
Obi-Wan kept dreaming about the man. So many things came to him in his sleep. He could no longer distinguish if they were all Force visions or a blend of the visions and his actual dreams.
Force visions, he thought, so vivid and sharp, but so many?
The man featured prominently. Sometime Obi-Wan felt worry. Sometimes he was amused. Sometimes he felt so safe with this one man with the sun on his chest. He saw the scar, noticed the detail after seeing him so many times.
He tried to draw him too, with his notes, but he had never had a talent for such arts.
The visions, they weren’t all pain. Though there was certainly a lot of it. Obi-Wan saw himself slashing and slashing through enemies, through all kinds of droids.
Familiar droids, like the ones the Separatist movement was using in their small skirmishes that had happened so far. This worried Obi-Wan. The meaning behind it, the connection with the real living world, and his visions.
But then came another vision and he couldn’t focus on the worry and fear, not when so much care and love and affection was coming through the Force, laced in those flickering images he received in his sleep.
It showed him tender touches, lingering hugs and warm arms secure around him. He felt it all as if it were really happening. As if he had already lived through it. Obi-Wan saw friendly spars and subtle jokes and so much laughing in between so much pain. So much love weaved through the tragedy.
And yet he didn’t know the man. His feelings in the Force were real, the visions so vivid. He lost the details hours after waking up, but Obi-Wan made notes, as detailed as possible.
There was something about this man. He felt so much for him.
Like falling in love again.
Whoever he was, the man was important. Or he would be. From what Obi-Wan could gather, these were true visions of his future. But this man’s future too. Their shared one. They would fight alongside each other. For each other. Protect one another. And love each other too.
He would be important to Obi-Wan personally one day.
A big battle was approaching. Something with the Separatists. Their current conflict would escalate. And the Jedi would fight.
Obi-Wan had to report this to the Council. And he would, but there were things in his visions, things too private to share even with his friends.
.
Anakin’s dreams turned into Force visions too. Or so Anakin was convinced.
They didn’t get a chance to deal with this matter properly, because they were called to protect Padmé, an old friend.
Obi-Wan had found a dart on the assassin. Had gone to Dex for information. Had been told a name.
Kamino.
Obi-Wan went.
And then he finally saw the face that he had been dreaming about. But it wasn’t quite it. The scar was missing and the bounty hunter felt different in the Force.
Then he learned about the clones and everything clicked. After that, Obi-Wan knew that it wouldn’t be long until he met the man that was going to be his sun in the years of darkness and pain.