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Obi-Wan peaks over the crest of a rocky hill and feels the men do the same on either side of him. His eyes are trained on the so-called “Vader’s castle”; an ostentatious, dark thing with two pillars of black stone shooting up into the sky, almost resembling obsidian in its sharp shine. The whole thing is situated at the edge of a cliff, serving as a sort of dam for the river of magma beneath it.
“Cozy,” Duster deadpans, crossing his arms and leaning against the rock they’re using as cover.
“I think this is what people mean when they talk about ‘Sith Hells’,” Sunshine groans beside him, tugging at his blacks where they cling to his neck, damp with sweat.
Well, Obi-Wan supposes is certainly looks Sithly.
The whole planet is Sithly— even the Force writhes with curdling menace. Mustafar is not a place where life can thrive; what creatures live here are as hostile and tough as the world around them. He watches as little reptiles with dark, hard scales skitter into the crevices around them, driven away by Obi-Wan and the men as they shift in their hiding place.
As a general rule, Obi-Wan tries not to hate. But he thoroughly dislikes this planet.
They lie in wait for their opportunity to go in, hoping that the castle’s functions will begin to shut off as the night cycle closes in. It’s well past midnight now. The supply ship they followed here left hours ago, and nothing has entered or exited the atmosphere since then. Duster has been scanning the castle, and the energy signals have been steadily dropping off until finally only the essential droids and security are left.
The whole planet is eerily quiet.
The landscape is entirely volcanic rock, forming both smooth, rolling hills of hardened magma and unnatural, jagged pillars silhouetted against the burnt red skies. The only real source of light is the reflection of the magma off of the heavy blanket of clouds above. It’s all very dark and red and beautiful, in a terrifying, tragic sort of way.
Obi-Wan can’t say he noticed last time he was here. He had been… otherwise preoccupied, and he’s trying very hard not to think about it. He grimaces as the memories resurface against his will. It takes most of his mental strength to be able to look at the stream of bubbling red in front of him without something in him cracking. The smell of heat and sulfur call forth a barrage of memories, the echo of Anakin’s screaming.
His chest lurches.
It was never going to be easy, coming back here. Obi-Wan knew that before he even stepped foot on the ship that brought him here. But it doesn’t matter what horrible feelings this place stirs up— Obi-Wan can’t afford to feel them now.
There aren’t words for what Obi-Wan felt when Bail gave him the news of what Anakin has become. It was enough to put him out of commission for days. He had locked himself away, frozen by shock and a terrible cycle of horror and guilt and grief. Still now he feels a great deal of denial at the forefront of his mind— such a monstrous thing as Vader couldn’t be the boy he raised. The thought surfaces unbidden that it might have been better if Anakin had died back then, that at least he wouldn’t have been turned into a servant of such evil.
Obi-Wan is so disturbed by the thought that he has to shake his head to dislodge it.
In the end he had been torn out of his spiral by Cody, who had dragged him out into the sun and told him to get a grip. He’d grabbed Obi-Wan by the shoulders and told him to make a choice. Anakin had become Vader; what was Obi-Wan going to do about it?
It isn’t a difficult question to answer. Obi-Wan will always help Anakin, no matter what has happened.
And Cody hadn’t hesitated to follow him. Neither had Sunshine or Duster or Blink. They hadn’t even waited for him to ask, just hopped on the ship and asked if he was coming. Obi-Wan has never felt so lucky to have them by his side.
He doesn’t second guess his decision to come here, but he knows his head hasn’t been where it should be. The last few hours have been spent trying to meditate away questions and emotions he thought he had long since put behind him.
Those things that Anakin did— were they really his choice? Is Vader something he became or something he was made into? Sidious has controlled minds before— he still does now— and he had years to solidify his influence over Obi-Wan’s padawan.
“You have to be prepared,” Bail had told him seriously as he sent the squad on their way. “You may not find the man you knew.”
Obi-Wan knows this, but if there’s any chance at all, he has to try.
He focuses on the pulsing presence of the men beside him and allows the unsteady, wriggling weight in his chest to settle down. There will be a time for those things later, but now is the time to focus.
“Cody?” Obi-Wan refers to his commander, who currently holds the binocs.
“Only droids on guard,” Cody reports, giving him a once-over that means Obi-Wan’s turmoil hasn’t gone unnoticed. Thankfully, Cody doesn’t mention it, and Obi-Wan allows the familiar rhythm of a mission to settle him into a state of calm. “Assassin droids, mostly, and I can see a turret that might be a problem.”
“Only that?” Obi-Wan frowns, he’d have expected—
“Wait—” Ah, there it is. Sunshine speaks up, “I can see two Red Guards. I’d expect more around the other side.”
“Well, that might present a problem.” Obi-Wan takes the binocs Sunshine offers to have a look himself. He spots the red-clad soldiers at the entrance to the castle, each with an electro-spear. The assassin droids are posted further from the castle, patrolling the long, narrow paths that border the area, snaking through pits of lava. He strokes his beard. “Duster, any other access points?”
Duster sinks to the ground against the rock and pulls up a small projection of the layout they managed to swipe from an Imperial outpost. “Security’s tight, General, but there’s a duct on the south side that would lead up to the center. It’ll be guarded, though. Probably some shields at the least.”
“Can we disable them without triggering an alarm?”
“Should be able to, Sir.”
“Alright, that sounds like our best bet.” Obi-Wan opens his comm line to Blink back on the ship. “Blink, we’re going in. Keep the ship running, we might need a quick exit.”
Getting to their access point is something of a trek, especially having to avoid any mines or sensors planted in the jagged ground surrounding the castle. The squad moves carefully in single-file with Duster scanning the path in the front.
The heat on Mustafar is beyond oppressive. Sweat beads down Obi-Wan’s temple and back, clothes clinging to his skin as he pushes forward. The ground beneath them is unreliable, giving slightly in places where magma flows just below the surface, and he takes care not to commit too heavily to his steps.
It’s quiet. It has been ever since they left for this mission. He misses the usual banter and joking that the men engage in, but Obi-Wan fears that he is largely to blame for the tension. It’s a difficult balancing act he’s putting on here, trying to save his padawan from the grip of the Sith without letting himself think about how he got there. A healthy way to cope with unpleasant emotions, he knows, but he’s just trying to make it through the day.
Obi-Wan’s restlessness has inevitably trickled down to the men. Duster makes no sharp jokes or comments, Sunshine grips his blaster tightly, clenching and unclenching rhythmically. Obi-Wan can feel the jitters of them in the Force like choppy little ripples stirred up by the rain.
He feels a finger lightly tap his forearm and he looks up to see Cody’s helmet looking back, tilted to the side in silent question. The commander has been worried about Obi-Wan since they first set out, and not for no reason. Obi-Wan gives him a short nod and a tight smile, grateful to have the commander by his side.
The past is behind him, Obi-Wan reminds himself, there’s no use in reliving it now.
So he squeezes his fists until he feels the strength return to his knuckles and takes three long breaths to clear his mind. He wraps his turbulent feelings into a neat bundle and tucks them securely away for when he can afford to feel them. (A technique he mastered during his apprenticeship that has saved him many times).
The entrance to the duct is on the cliff face beside the waterfall of lava that flows beneath the castle. The position means they don’t have to confront the patrols, but it’s a difficult access point. The magma slogs over the edge of the cliff like molasses, turning a massive metal wheel as it flows and radiating heat intense enough to sting his lungs when he breathes in. They all have to use the cables on their belts to make it to the duct, and Obi-Wan can feel Cody’s smug look on his back, having been the one to insist Obi-Wan bring his utility belt and armor.
The duct is sealed off by thick metal bars and the shimmering blue of an energy shield. “Sunshine, if you would.”
Obi-Wan and Duster shuffle aside so Sunshine can shimmy up as close as he can to the control panel without triggering alarms. There he attaches a small device next to the panel, it releases a few short beeps as Sunshine steps back before it flashes and quiets again. The blue energy field flickers out. It should be enough to disable the shield for a couple minutes, but not so much that it will disrupt the other workings of the castle. Obi-Wan swoops back over to take care of the bars with his lightsaber. One-by-one, they file into the duct, just in time for the shield to flicker back to life.
The duct is just short enough that they all have to crouch as they move through. Cody takes point, scanning the way ahead as he goes for any alarms or security measures they might inadvertently set off. Duster directs from behind Obi-Wan and Sunshine takes up the rear.
The duct must be some kind of emergency cooling system; a structure like this would need extensive ventilation to be livable. The wide corridor-like ducts branch out into smaller ventilation shafts that they have to crawl through, following the directions that Duster calls up from behind. Obi-Wan is grateful, at least for the cool breeze that takes the edge off of the stuffiness of the vent shaft.
The duct finally gives way to an opening with a rush of blessedly cool air. Carefully, Cody removes the grate and drags it back inside so it doesn’t drop loudly to the ground and give away their position. He lowers himself out and waits at the bottom to help out the rest.
Grate replaced, Obi-Wan takes in their surroundings. They seem to have come out in some sort of kitchen area; there are large cooling units to one side and massive ovens to the other. It’s dusty, he notices, dragging a finger over a countertop and leaving a streak in its place.
Obi-Wan’s heart nearly leaps from his throat when they turn a corner and bump right into a service droid, but Cody acts quickly, grasping the droid by its head and twisting viciously until there’s a snap. Silently, Cody lowers the metal body to the floor and steps over it.
“Remind me not to get on your bad side,” Obi-Wan whispers with a smile.
“Will do, Sir,” Cody answers back with an easy smirk.
A quick sweep of the kitchen reveals that they are otherwise alone for now, so they crouch behind the prep counter to get their bearings.
“We’ve come out around here,” Duster points to a blinking point near the center of the holo-map. “Logically, General Skywalker would be in this wing here.” He points to a stretch of the castle three hallways down that looks like it might have living quarters. “But I think this map is out of date, there’s a lot on it that isn’t here.”
Obi-Wan scrubs at his beard, frowning at the map. “A place this big should have more people in it, especially at this time of day.” The large chrono on the wall tells Obi-Wan that it’s early in the morning; a kitchen should be buzzing with activity. “We should have run into someone by now.”
“I’m personally not gonna look a gift-bantha in the mouth,” says Sunshine, helpfully.
Duster shakes his head, ignoring his brother as he crosses the data from the map with his own scanner, “I think this place is run by droids. I’m not picking up more than a dozen active ones right now, though. I think it’s too early in the day cycle for most of them to activate.”
“That probably gives us an hour at most before the rest of them activate,” Cody says.
Even with the rest inactive, a dozen is plenty to get in their way. Obi-Wan hums unhappily. There’s no way of knowing what kind of droids they are, but he’s willing to bet they’re armed. He supposes they’ll find out soon enough.
The interior of the castle is no visual leap from the outside. Lit darkly and with walls of black marble shot through with red veins. Upon the walls are the occasional tapestry or sculpture, all depicting a scene more disturbing than the next, and all done in red. What windows there are are all tall and thin, showing off the immense thickness of the castle’s walls and paned with stained transparisteel.
It’s clearly an ancient structure, built long before Anakin ever took up residence here. There is wear on the floors from hundreds of years of walking the halls and a discoloration of the curtains and tapestries that only comes with time. Obi-Wan would have expected someone as particular as Palpatine to put more thought into up-keep, seeing as his first action as emperor was to completely remodel the Temple.
It is difficult to move quietly through the halls. The marble floors are unforgiving, and the clacking of plastoid armor echoes clearly off of the stone.
Finally, they see the door they’re looking for: a large, ornately carved set of double doors made of dark wood and coated with a rich lacquer. This, of course, is just when they run into trouble.
The assassin droid that spots them is shot down within seconds, but that’s long enough for a signal to have been sent out. The hallways explode into pulsing red lights and an urgent alarm rings out, bouncing piercingly over the marble surfaces.
They’re going to have to improvise.
They’re running without having to say a word, rushing to the room at the end of the hall; the room that Anakin is inside.
Sunshine and Duster whirl around with their blasters aimed at the hallway’s entrance while Cody rams down the door with a heavy kick. With the smooth movements of a military operation, they file into the room one after the other, with Obi-Wan leading the way.
Except, there’s no one in the room. The heavy curtains are drawn and dust swirls through the air from the door’s whoosh. It doesn’t look like anyone has been here in a very long time.
The tight grip of apprehension whooshes from Obi-Wan’s lungs, wavering with confusion. He reaches out with his senses, but everything feels muddled in here, it’s like shining a light through murky water.
It’s so empty here. This castle is massive, why isn’t there anyone in it? There’s a persisting feeling of wrongness that has Obi-Wan checking over his shoulder and shivering down his spine. It leaves him feeling ill, breathing in the dark toxins of this place.
“His office, Sir?” Sunshine suggests.
“This is his office,” Duster replies, having swept through the attached room. “I don’t think it’s been used in a while.”
“There has to be another room somewhere,” Obi-Wan says, “Duster, check the map again.”
“We’re running out of time, Sir,” Cody reminds him. “It won’t take more than a couple minutes for them to find us, we need to move.”
“He has to be somewhere— we know he’s here,” Obi-Wan runs his hands through his hair stressfully, wracking his brain for ideas. Anakin wouldn’t be up and about at this hour, and there’s still half an hour before the morning cycle should rouse the droids.
A blaster shot rings out behind him and Cody is dragging him behind the door.
“If we can get one of those droids, I should be able to slice the information bank,” Duster tells them, and they nod in understanding.
Obi-Wan takes point, with Sunshine on his left and Cody on his right. They charge the assassin droid head on down the hallway, dodging and deflecting the shots fired until they’re finally close enough to tackle it to the ground. With a high somersault over the droid’s head, Obi-Wan comes down on its shoulders to pin it while Cody disarms it. Duster joins them to start taking apart the panel on its back.
If only this was a battle droid instead. Obi-Wan is fairly sure they could have asked and it would tell them.
Every minute they spend prying the droid apart is one that the other droids have to close in on them. Obi-Wan listens restlessly for the sounds of clattering down the hallway as Duster works. By the time he steps back, Obi-Wan can hear what sounds like at least three guard droids heading their way. “There’s a private medical wing where he’s being kept,” says Duster, already packing his tools back into his belt, “It’s not far, but it’ll be heavily protected.”
Obi-Wan’s heart stutters at ‘medical wing’, but he crushes the surge before it can fully form.
“Is there a way to get there that doesn’t take us through all those droids?” Anticipation climbs as the footsteps of the droids grow closer, and Obi-Wan has to stop himself from second-guessing the quality of this plan.
“Not unless you want to go back outside. It’s on the floor below us and the stairwells will be locked by now.”
Obi-Wan looks outside, running through his options as quickly as he can. “Then we’re going outside,” Obi-Wan decides, trusting the men to follow along.
They waste no time. Obi-Wan cuts through the thick transparisteel of the windows and starts helping Duster onto the narrow ledge outside the building. Shots begin ringing out as Duster begins to grapple down to the window ledge below, a group of four droids rounding the corner. Sunshine falls back slowly towards Obi-Wan and Cody, taking out as many as he can. It’s lucky these halls are so unnecessarily long.
“Sunshine,” Obi-Wan calls as he deflects a blaster bolt at the last droid, “your turn!”
Cody’s next up, and it’s just as he secures his grapple hook that the Red Guard appears. They run with inhuman speed, dodging every shot Cody manages to fire at them one-handedly.
“Go! I’ll take care of them!” Obi-Wan gives Cody a gentle push with the Force.
“General—!” Cody protests.
“There’s no time,” Obi-Wan grunts as he blocks the first strike one of the Red Guards swings down on him. “That’s an order, Commander! I’ll be right behind you!”
Obi-Wan knows Cody hates it when he pulls that card, but at the moment, he’s too busy to care. The Red Guard are on a whole other level from typical storm troopers. They fight with ferocity that disregards what should be possible to physically endure, and they never lose control. It’s a disturbing, emotionless way to fight that sets Obi-Wan on edge.
He wonders if Sidious controls them the way he controls Anakin, and the thought costs him precious time.
The red-clad warriors push Obi-Wan back in tandem, each raining a strike down on him just as he manages to block the other. He manages to buy himself some space to breathe with a kick to one’s chest that sends him back, but even fighting one takes all his concentration. He blocks a stab aiming for his chest and yanks the spear out of the Guard’s hands, spinning it to catch his opponent at the neck.
The second Red Guard doesn’t even falter, charging with the same quiet, murderous intent. Obi-Wan has nowhere left to back up; he can feel the rippling heat of the lava river at his back, and terrible memories beginning to resurface.
Fear catches in Obi-Wan’s throat as the thoughts rear their ugly heads. The sound of Anakin’s wild screams and the smell of charring flesh.
In his distraction, the Red Guard manages to slash a deep wound into Obi-Wan’s arm and he stumbles. But the pain is enough to snap him back to reality. He side steps a swing at his head and steps in close to grab hold of the Guard’s chest plate. With a tug and a sweep of his legs, Obi-Wan hauls the Guard out of the window. He breathes hard, and doesn’t watch as his opponent falls.
That was only two of them, there will be more to come.
There’s something off about this whole place, Obi-Wan thinks with a sinking feeling as he joins the others. They should have woken the whole castle by now, and the fight with the Red Guards was long enough that they should be overrun.
Balancing on the narrow ledge outside the medbay, Obi-Wan steals just a moment to breathe, then plunges his lightsaber through the transparisteel before he can hesitate.
A gloved hand whispers over the soaked fabric of Obi-Wan’s robe where the blood has begun to spread quickly. There’s a spike of worry in the Force. “General,” Cody says quietly.
“I’m alright,” Obi-Wan assures, grunting as he pushes the thick transparisteel pane through the hole he cut. “We need to keep moving.”
He’s thankful that Cody lets it go at that, and they drop one-by-one into the med bay. There are medical droids all over that turn at the sound of their entrance. They aren’t expecting them to have weapons, and Sunshine catches a bolt to the shoulder before they realize what’s happened.
The droids without weapons are left alone, though one persistent droid vocally protests the intrusion.
Obi-Wan pays them no mind. He can feel the ghost of a familiar presence in the Force. His eyes set on the singular bed placed in the center of the room, bathed in cold white light and surrounded by trays upon trays of surgical equipment and droid parts. The sounds of fighting fades away as he approaches the figure slowly, horror snaking through him from spine to throat.
The body has no limbs of flesh. Crude durasteel prostheses gleam in the fluorescent light, wiring exposed. There’s a contraption that clamps around his chest and a transparent breathing mask over his mouth. His face is badly scarred and his head completely bald, but Obi-Wan can see him in the deep-set eyes that stare back at him in horror.
This is Anakin. And Obi-Wan thinks he’s going to be sick.
The Force trembles with the Dark Side as it stirs around Anakin. Obi-Wan’s former-padawan’s eyes dart around, morphing from confusion to fury and back again as he struggles to say something, limbs twitching uselessly on the table as the Force begins to howl around him. He never gets the chance to speak. Cody empties a hypo into his neck first, and Anakin is out like a light.
There’s a hand on his back that jars Obi-Wan back to reality, and a low voice in his ear. “General, we don’t have time. We need to get him out of here now.”
“Right,” Obi-Wan croaks out with a nod. “Of course, you’re right.” His hands are shaking as he works to undo the straps that hold his former-padawan down, and Cody moves him aside to unfasten them more quickly. Desperately, Obi-Wan works to clear his mind and push back the suffocation creeping into his chest. It’s difficult, but he does it, and soon he has Anakin’s body cradled against his chest.
Sunshine looks through the small window on the medbay door. “We’ve got clankers incoming. I don’t think this door is gonna hold them long.”
Cody gives him a nod and switches on his bucket’s comm, “Blink, we’re going to need that pickup. South side, the busted window. It’s gonna be tight.”
Obi-Wan doesn’t hear the confirmation. Sunshine pries open the panel beside the door and rips out a few wires so it can’t be opened from the outside access panel. Not a minute later, sharp pounding starts coming from the droids slamming into the door. Eventually they stop and there’s a clunk followed by some successive beeps.
“They’re blowing the door,” Duster cries urgently, “get back!”
The explosion shrouds the entrance in smoke and debris. The Clones start firing immediately while Obi-Wan does his best to shield Anakin with his body. From the wide window, Obi-Wan can see the ship approaching, speeding through the dark clouds above.
The deep orange glow of the flowing lava beyond bathes the room. Obi-Wan steps out onto the window’s ledge, and the hot air thrashes at his clothes, pulls the strands of his hair along to its wild rhythm. He hears nothing but the roar of fire below and feels nothing but the weight of Anakin in his arms.
It was on the banks of this river that Obi-Wan lost his padawan. It will be in the light of the same river that Obi-Wan saves him.
The ship swivels expertly around and lines up with the window before lowering the ramp.
“Fall back!” Obi-Wan hears Cody call, his voice muffled in his ears as he maneuvers himself and Anakin onto the ship. The shooting starts to taper off and the men all manage to make it on board just as the ramp snaps closed, and Blink takes off for atmosphere. The stars extend into streaks of blue, and they’re gone.
Watching Anakin’s still body in the stretcher, something freezes over in Obi-Wan. He can tell his breathing is getting shallow and his senses have all muffled, as if there is cotton in his ears and fog everywhere he looks. His heart rate is up, but his mind is unnaturally silent. He feels his emotions stepping further and further away until none of it feels real.
He stays by Anakin’s side even as the stretcher is taken off the gunship and out to the medbay where Kix starts taking his vitals and taking stock of his condition.
He stares blankly as hypos are injected and machines are hooked up. He only takes his hand off of the stretcher’s railing when Kix scolds him for getting in the way. Even then he doesn’t move from where he sits outside the medbay’s doors, back against the wall and hands wringing absently in his lap.
Footsteps thump along the sterile hallway until they stop at Obi-Wan’s side. He doesn’t have to look to know who that steadily burning presence belongs to. He hears a quiet bump and the sound of plastoid sliding down the wall, then there’s a shoulder pressed against his.
Cody is a rock in the storm, a flame persisting through the rain. His presence unwavering as always against the violent winds of life. He is always there, believing in Obi-Wan when he has no faith left in himself, offering his shoulder for Obi-Wan to lean on when the weight he carries becomes too much to bear.
He leans into Cody’s shoulder now, and the contact gives him the courage he needs to start stitching himself back together.
It takes a long time, and Obi-Wan isn’t sure he can manage to finish any time soon, but then again, he hasn’t been whole for a long while.
Cody says nothing as Obi-Wan tries to gather the scattered pieces of his mind, slowly but surely removing the cotton from his ears and the fog from his eyes. Removing the dullness gives shape to the pain. It’s a raw, electric thing that has him tasting metal, and Obi-Wan struggles not to fall apart all over again when he feels it.
Tonight he will find no sleep. He expects it will be difficult to release these emotions, and unlikely that it will all happen tonight, but if he has to unravel, he would rather do it behind closed doors.
He isn’t sure whether thinking about Anakin in the room behind him will help or hinder his attempts to settle his mind. Thinking about Vader and the things he’s done definitely doesn’t help. But Anakin is another story.
Anakin, who always rushes in head first and laughs loudly, who used to complain about eating his greens and cried over his astro-nav homework. Anakin, who loves droids and flying and Padme Naberrie. Is the boy that Obi-Wan raised still in there? He can’t believe that the Dark has consumed him completely.
“There’s still good in him,” Padme had said, and Obi-Wan sorely hopes that it’s true.
For now, he grounds himself in the way Cody thrums in the Force, steady and warm. He reminds himself that he needs to be strong, if only for Anakin’s sake, and that is enough to push him forward. He continues to breathe until he no longer feels paralyzed by the weight in his chest, until the buzzing in his fingers goes away and some of his fear is replaced by simple exhaustion.
A small, terrible part of Obi-Wan hopes Anakin will stay unconscious a little while longer. He doesn’t know what will happen when he wakes, doesn’t want to torture himself by imagining all the horrible ways this could go.
But Anakin has to wake eventually, and Obi-Wan isn’t leaving him this time.