Chapter Text
The war dragged on, seemingly endlessly. Anakin looked around him, seeing clones everywhere. Friends, everywhere. Friends, he had to send into battle day after day, knowing that there was every chance none of them would make it out alive.
Anakin would break if this war kept on for too long.
He shook his head and got into his ship, nodding to Obi-Wan and the clones. He could be existential later, for now he had a rescue mission to complete.
Truly, what was even the point of having the Chancellor so well protected if he ended up kidnapped again and again anyway? The ship hissed as it locked, and Anakin flicked some buttons and got ready for take-off. There was something soothing about being back in his TIE fighter and going through the routine of flying it, even though he knew they were about to fly into an active war zone.
Blaster shots exploded all around them as they flew into where the fighting was fiercest, ships blowing up around them. Friends and enemies, both lost to the violence of war. A beeping on his radar.
“Lock onto them, Artoo. Master, General Grievous's ship is directly ahead. The one crawling with vulture droids.” He feels himself slip back into his general’s voice, information flowing out of him like he’s rehearsed it, and in a way he has.
“I see it. Oh, this is going to be easy.”
Anakin smiles slightly, his master’s sarcasm never failing to bring a slight bit of light-heartedness to even the harshest of circumstances. “This is where the fun begins.”
The swoop down into another wave of droid ships. Another explosion, another clone lost. Anakin frowns. “I’m going to help them out.”
Obi-Wan’s voice sounds staticky through his headset. “No, no. They’re doing their job so we can do ours.”
Anakin nods reluctantly, knowing Obi-Wan is right. He doesn’t dare look back as he hears another ship explode behind him, and is almost glad to get distracted by incoming missiles. He dodges them and the prepares for the enemy to come around and try again. If there’s one thing he’s learned over these last few years, it’s that neither they nor the Separatists give up easily.
He smirks to himself as he gives orders to Artoo for a manoeuvre Obi-Wan would deem ‘too fancy’, even though it works flawlessly. He spins his ship around, the missiles following him crashing into each other in an attempt to copy his movements. Artoo whistles happily.
He starts to feel that familiar feeling of adrenaline and excitement course through his veins. This is what he was born to do; flying and defending those he cares about. Even back when he pod-raced, it was for Master Jinn and Padmé.
Padmé, the woman who he’d called ‘angel’ on their first meeting, the both of them still so young to be dealing with their respective lives. Padmé, who was now his wife. Obi-Wan’s voice crackles through his earpiece again. “I’m hit. Anakin?”
Anakin nods, despite knowing no one can see. “I seem them. Buzz droids.” He watches in horror and concern as the droid start dismantling Obi-Wan’s ship piece by piece, drilling and lasering into the metal. “Move to the right so I can get a clear shot at them.”
He ignores the protests he hears from his headset, dead-set on not losing the one person who has been there for him since he got away from that damned sandy planet. He shoots, inadvertently shaking Obi-Wan’s ship even more than is necessary.
“Anakin, hold your fire, hold your fire. You're not helping here. “
“I agree, bad idea.” He frowns, watching as Obi-Wan loses view through his windscreen. “Move to the right”.
He almost smirks as he hears Obi-Wan’s voice crackle through Comms once again, his tone a mix of fond exasperation and genuine concern. “Hold on, Anakin. You're going to get us both killed.” A pause, then: “Get out of here, there’s nothing more you can do.”
Anakin almost scoffs, does Obi-Wan still think he would ever let something like that happen? “I’m not leaving without you, Master.” He manoeuvred his ship to scoop the buzz droids from Obi-Wan’s ship, and with some difficulty managed it. If he hadn’t been trained so well, he almost might have forgotten about the mission in favour of celebrating another crazy but well-executed flying trick.
“The General’s command ship is dead ahead.” He said, getting a squealing response from Artoo.
“Well have you noticed the shields are still up?” Obi-Wan’s voice sounded in his ears, this time a mix of fond exasperation and something akin to fear. Not that he was wrong, a collision with fully energised shields would end disastrously for everyone involved. Namely, the two of them.
“Sorry, Master.” Despite that, he decided to show off a little bit more, and flipped his ship with an unnecessary flair to finally disable the shields.
Obi-Wan’s voice came again. “Oh, I have a bad feeling about this.”
Despite that, they somehow made it onto the ship in once piece, cutting down the droid forces with ease, barely even raising their heartbeat. Meanwhile, Artoo had been busy in locating the Chancellor. Still, something unsettling tingled up Anakin’s spine; a presence in the Force they hadn’t counted on.
“I sense Count Dooku’s presence.”
“I sense a trap.”
“Next move?”
“Spring the trap.” Obi-Wan said with an almost boyish grin.
The lift stopped abruptly.
“Did you press the stop button?”
“No, did you?”
“No.”
Anakin sighed and looked up at the lift’s ceiling. “Well, there’s more than one way out of here.”
He ignored Obi-Wan’s protest and subsequent Comm with Artoo in favour of actually getting back on the move. He thrust his lightsaber through the metal of the ceiling and start cutting away a circle while Obi-Wan kept on trying to reach Artoo. Within seconds the ceiling opened and the metal fell between them to the floor. He jumped up onto the ceiling’s roof with ease, deliberately ignoring whatever Obi-Wan was muttering.
The lift suddenly moved away under him, and he just barely managed to grab onto a ledge at the side of the shaft. Looking down, he saw the lift moving away further and further at dangerously high speeds, carrying his master with it.
A door opened just above him, two battle droids appearing before him. “Hands up, Jedi.”
Anakin hung there for a moment, cursing whatever bad luck had overcome him now, when he suddenly felt a shift in the air. He looked down and saw the same lift that had just sped down suddenly speed up, directly at him. He looked down and prayed to the Force he wouldn’t miss the jump he’d have to make to not get squashed against the shaft’s walls.
He jumped over the sound of the droid’s concern and landed back into the lift, immediately being confronted by his Master’s blade.
“Oh, it’s you.” Came Obi-Wan’s almost casual reply.
“What was that all about?” Anakin asked, straightening out his robes.
“Well, Artoo has been…”
Anakin cut him off quickly. “Hey, no loose wire jokes.” Force help anyone who made fun of his favourite little droid.
Obi-Wan looked offended. “Did I say anything?”
“He’s trying.”
“I didn’t say anything!”
The lift door opened, normally for once and they were immediately confronted with a wide-open observation deck holding the Chancellor stuck in a chair. They quickly walked over to him, and Obi-Wan bowed in respect. “Chancellor.”
Anakin couldn’t stop himself. “Are you alright?” He’d already lost so many friends; he wouldn’t lose someone who’d almost become a second mentor to him over the years. Perhaps it was inappropriate for him to address the Chancellor of the Republic so informally, but right now he didn’t care. He looked at his friends and tensed his muscles when he heard the reply.
“Count Dooku.”
Said count appeared on the walkway they themselves had just come from, and the both of them immediately got into readied positions, prepared to defend one of the most important people currently alive.
Obi-Wan reached for his lightsaber. “This time, we do it together.”
Anakin smirked slightly. “I was just about to say that.”
He straightened up, watching as Dooku did an unnecessary front flip from the walkway. Palpatine’s voice came again from behind him.
“Get help, you’re not match for him. He’s a Sith Lord.”
“Chancellor Palpatine, Sith Lords are out speciality.”
Anakin had no time to wonder how Palpatine seemed too calm about being tied up in front of a Sith Lord, as Count Dooku low voice rang through the room. “Your swords, please, we don’t want to make a mess of things in front of the Chancellor.”
Obi-Wan scoffed. “You won’t get away this time, Dooku.” The name sounded like a curse word in his voice.
Anakin followed suit as his Master lit his sabre and got into a fighting stance. A third snap-hiss was heard at Dooku lit his, and the fighting began. As if he’d learned the steps before hand, the Count evaded and blocked their attacks with ease and grace. Even despite being outnumbered, neither one of them could get a hit in as they drew him back and forced him to give up ground.
“I’ve been looking forward to this.” The Count’s smile was wicked, and Anakin didn’t miss the slight nod in his direction. The stump where his hand used to be tingled, and his mechanical hand clenched tighter around the hilt of his sword.
“My powers have doubled since the last time we met, Count.”
“Good, twice the pride, double the fall.”
Obi-Wan lunged forward, attempting to make use of the temporary opening. Again, his strike was blocked with infuriating ease. Their swords clashed over and over as they desperately tried to lay low the Sith Lord who had so long plagued the Republic with war. Hundreds of thousands of souls lost, dozens of worlds destroyed, an unnameable number of children orphaned. It had to stop here.
With a violent Force shove, Obi-Wan was pushed out of the fighting. Thrown against the wall and left on the ground, unconscious. Anakin almost turned around and ran after him, panic gripping his heart.
But he didn’t, because that was much more dangerous and stupid than fighting the man who’d cut his hand of on his own. He clashed their swords together repeatedly, fury driving his blows as he forced the Sith Lord to give up ground.
Their swords met in a stalemate, their faces close together.
“I sense great fear in you, Skywalker. You have hate, you have anger, but you don’t use them.”
Anakin moved in further, leaning into his fury, striking again, and again, and again until he managed to cut off Count Dooku’s hands. He caught the Sith’s lightsaber and forced him onto his knees.
“Good, Anakin. Good.” Came Palpatine’s voice, unbidden. But Anakin was too angry to worry about the seeming happiness in his voice. This man had cut off his hand, possibly killed his Master and was the reason behind all those lost and forever changed lives.
“Kill him.” Dooku looked up at Palpatine in fear and… disbelief?
“Kill him now.”
Anakin felt something well up inside of him, something eerily familiar. The same feeling he’d had when he found his mother, three years ago.
“Do it.”
The thing inside Anakin snapped, and he found himself cutting of the head of the kneeling man before him almost with no thought at all. Immediately after, he felt queasy and unsettled. This… this was wrong.
“You did well, Anakin. He was too dangerous to be kept alive.”
Anakin frowned at himself, that queasy feeling not leaving at the comfort. “Yes, but he was an unarmed prisoner” A pause. “I shouldn’t have done that, it’s not the Jedi way.”
“It is only natural. He cut off your arm, and you wanted revenge. It wasn't the first time, Anakin. Remember what you told me about your mother and the Sand People. Now, we must leave before more security droids arrive.”
Anakin took in a deep breath, knowing that the mission had to take priority. He followed as Palpatine walked away, but stopped them to quickly gather Obi-Wan, even over his friend’s protests. Didn’t he understand he couldn’t leave the man who’d raised him? The man who was now his brother, both in and out of battle?
He hoisted his Master over his shoulders and lead the way to one of the elevators as the ship shook around them. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it didn’t work and his hand immediately reached for his Comm.
Somehow, he was once again hanging over a deep precipice inside this Force-damned ship, this time with his Master on his shoulders and Palpatine hanging onto Obi-Wan’s leg. Truly, this was just supposed to be a rescue mission. He felt Obi-Wan move and cling to him as he woke up.
“Easy, we’re in a bit of situation.” He looked around, trying to find a way out of this… whatever this was. With all the shifting of the ship’s gravity, it was hard to tell what was what.
“Did I miss something?” Was the reply, and the only reason Anakin didn’t smile was he strain of having the weight of two people added to his own.
“Hold on.” He looked around frantically, not knowing how long he could hold this.
Suddenly, above them sounded an awfully familiar sound as that damned elevator sped towards them. An elevator shaft then. Again. Force damn it all. He tried to reach for his Comm to bid Artoo to please quickly slow down that elevator, but he was cut off by Obi-Wan’s command to jump. With a mix of relief and trepidation he let go of the ledge he’d been holding onto. They fell a considerable distance until Obi-Wan had the presence of mind of somehow launching them through an open lift door onto another floor, narrowly avoiding being squashed by the falling lift.
They stumbled ever so gracefully like fully trained Jedi onto their feet and quickly scanned around them for any signs of danger.
“Let’s see if we can find something in a hangar bay that’s still flyable.” Obi-Wan said, still panting from the exertion.
“Artoo, get down here.”
With an affirmative beep through the Comm, Anakin nodded to his Master and they started jogging in the direction of the closest hangar bay. The corridor stretched out before them seemingly endlessly, and Anakin couldn’t help but feel like they would somehow be stuck there for eternity. Just as they were nearing the end of the hallway, ray shields went up around them, trapping the three of them in small circle.
Anakin sighed long-sufferingly. “Ray shields.”
Obi-Wan looked around in confusion. “Wait a minute. How did this happen, we’re smarter than this!”
“Apparently not.” He sighed again, and looked up at Obi-Wan, ignoring Palpatine for the time being. “I say patience.”
An amused eyebrow from his master. “Patience?”
“Yes, patience. Artoo will be along in a moment and then he can release us from the shields.” He staunchly ignored the bemused smirk on his Master’s face. Yes, even Anakin was aware that he didn’t tend towards patience, but he knew how to strategize and sometimes, though only sometimes, patience was warranted. A door opened behind him and Artoo shot out with an excited squeal. “See? No problem.”
Another door opened, and a bunch of battle droids walked out.
“Do you have a plan B?” Obi-Wan deadpanned.
Somehow, they managed to get the bridge cleared. The fight was a blur, lightsaber light and blaster shots mixing together into something unrecognisable and disorienting. Yet, they did it, and the Chancellor was still alive.
A beeping pulled Anakin back to reality. “All the escape pods have been launched.”
Obi-Wan grimaced. “Grievous.” He looked around, as if expecting an escape pod to appear out of thin air. “Can you fly a cruiser like this?”
Anakin huffed. “You mean do I know how to land what’s left of this thing?”
“Well?”
“Well, under the circumstances, I'd say the ability to pilot this thing is irrelevant. Strap yourselves in.” He sat down in the pilot’s seat while speaking, his mind already cataloguing the various buttons and switches, locating where some of the major ones were. If they hadn’t been about to crash onto Coruscant, he’d have loved the opportunity to try and figure out how to fly this incredible machine. Right now though, they had bigger things to worry about.
“Open all hatches, extend all flaps, and drag fins.”
They entered the atmosphere and the impact shook the ship. Something exploded far behind them.
“…we’ve lost something.” Anakin said, thoroughly fed up with this day.
“Not to worry, we are still flying half a ship.” ‘
The ship trembled, shaking from the stress of the atmosphere, the increasing speed and the growing temperature around it.
“Now we’re really picking up speed.”
The rest of the flight was a blur to Anakin. Orders were given back and forth between him and his Master, Artoo beeped and squealed in the background and the ship continued to groan and lose pieces around them. The heat built and built, leaving Anakin to wonder if they would be baked to death before they ever made impact with the ground.
Still somehow, he managed to get them to the ground. The ship skidded over the landing bay, making noises that no ship should make. They were tired, injured and had only a partial ship left but they were alive. He sat back, panting as if he’d just flown the hardest podrace in history and looked to Obi-Wan.
His Master ran a hand through his hair. “Another happy landing.”