ic inbox

[onlyhope]

@ ben

THIS USER IS UNAVAILABLE. LEAVE A MESSAGE AFTER THE TONE.

✉️ ☎️ 📷

Comments

[unrepentant]

You're going to report all of this?

[onlyhope]

[ This is when he realizes what he had said out of pure reflex; a honed response from years of doing missions for the Council. This is when he remembers there is no one to report to.

For a moment, it had felt so... normal. The two of them on a strange planet together, discovering. ]

No, I suppose not.

[unrepentant]

[If the reply was instinctive for Obi-Wan, then it was instinctive for Anakin too. Who hasn't yet lived through the fall of the Order and the Republic. Who isn't one of the last surviving Jedi scattered throughout the galaxy.

For the first time, he finds himself wondering how he must die. Obi-Wan has been so reluctant to speak about it- but if anyone would know, it would be him.]

I'm sorry I didn't

Think

[onlyhope]

It's alright, Anakin. I didn't either.

[ He feels foolish, and scrambles to rectify the situation with a poor attempt at levity: ]

Although this does mean you will have to do your own datareports.

[unrepentant]

You make it sound as if you won't be around.

[onlyhope]

I will.

But I imagine in the end, we will return to our respective points in the timeline.

[unrepentant]

It's possible

But I doubt it.

[onlyhope]

What makes you say that?

[unrepentant]

Well. You said to trust in the Force.


If it brought us all together like this it must have been for a reason.

[onlyhope]

Of course, but surely any mission with objectives must come to an end eventually.

[unrepentant]

But this isn't a mission.

[onlyhope]

You sound like you have a theory.

[unrepentant]

Not really.


But you're here. And Cal's here. And both of you needed refuge somewhere.
What else but the Force would be able to reach out like that?

[onlyhope]

A refuge. Interesting.

And what about you?

[unrepentant]

I wanted something too.

[onlyhope]

[ Time. What else could it be? ]

Perhaps when we reach the conductor we will have some answers.

[unrepentant]

You're betting on that too?

[onlyhope]

I am hopeful.

[unrepentant]

Come on Master, how often is it just one guy responsible?

[onlyhope]

[ he thinks of the other missions they have been on, the way these mysteries always climbed a ladder to the top. he thinks of Palpatine.

a shiver goes down his spine, makes his skin break out in gooseflesh. ]

Often enough that I cannot rule out the possibility.

[unrepentant]

[He can feel it across their bond- not clear enough to name. But a frisson he doesn't recognize. A tension.]

What does that mean?

[onlyhope]

[ a long pause as he weighs his response, then a video call request comes through. ]

[unrepentant]

[It brings an immediate frown of confusion- and also Anakin's face as he switches on the video.]

Obi-Wan?

[onlyhope]

[ Obi-Wan appears with arms folded and a crease in his brow. ]

Certain... developments have lead me to consider points of view I would previously consider impossible.

One person orchestrating something of this magnitude might seem outlandish but we have encountered it before.

[ His eyes cut away, then come back. ]

[unrepentant]

[It speaks to the history between them that Anakin listens as his friend carefully picks his words. Connects one thought to the next. But even watching as Obi-Wan's gaze cuts away, as he folds his arms across his chest- Anakin isn't able to meet him where he is. His weight shifts as he waits, but the disagreement is there from the very beginning.]

I know it seems like the simplest solution, but we've never seen it be just one person.

[Anakin makes it sound like a reminder because for him it is. Its history they've been present for, seen with their own eyes.]

Every time there's been a Separatist plot or Sith intervention, there've always been people on the other side who said yes. Because they were too cowardly to stand against them or because they were greedy for more.