darkforcerising | OPEN POST

Anakin nodded. "I agreed..." And then he paused.

He felt that with Ahsoka's reemergence just around the corner, the Rebellion would start to take shape. It'd taken years the first time, but with everything they were doing- especially saving lost Jedi, things would coalesce much quicker this time. He had thoughts about how to help that happen successfully, Bail would surely be a key person they would need to talk to when starting to plan that.

But there was something Anakin felt they needed to do first, and Obi-Wan had hit on it so quickly. It spoke to how far they come on this journey.

"I think you need to see Exegol so we can really plan how to do that."

"Then we start with planning the trip to Exegol."

There was no hesitation or recoil this time, just a willingness to get on with it. Changing the color of his blade had made a strange sort of psychological change in Obi-Wan. A good one. This was evidence of that.

It may be good for Obi-Wan, but Anakin is a little caught off guard. Given the man's experience on Zigoola and his brush with the Dark Side, Anakin was worried about how he would handle this.

"This will be different from Zigoola," he said. "I don't mean to dismiss your experience there. But Exegol is... for lack of a better way to explain it, a live Dark Side planet."

"I am not looking forward to it. I am looking forward to it less now, but it is something that needs to be done."

Meaning that there wasn't much point in delaying, or even in worry beyond finding what they could do to mitigate. Change what you can, accept what you can't, and get the unpleasant done for a bigger cause.

"Alright," Anakin said. He was still concerned about Obi-Wan- he probably would be until the Empire was burned to ashes and they could finally... just rest in peace for the duration of their lives.

"I... remember how to get there, but it won't be easy. We should tell Bail what we're doing... We, might not come back from this. He should know not to come looking for us if we don't."

"I'd like to say telling him where we are going and that he shouldn't come after us will make him more likely to, but with Leia- We might actually convince him."

He was concerned, too, but in the moment a little past concerned for him. He was handling this better, but there was still an unrecognized (by him) desperate need to finish this that could turn truly, dangerously, reckless very easily.

For now, though.

"How long will the trip take?"

Part of Anakin wished he was the one tempered from reckless choices because of Leia and Luke, but he'd chosen to dedicate himself to Palpatine's fall and that meant sacrifices. Something he'd never been good the first time around, and really, he wouldn't say, based on his feelings, he wasn't so good at it this time either. But he knew the price for backing out now, and he wouldn't pay that again.

"A little over one rotation. There are no clear space lanes to the planet. Most of what makes it that long is the numerous jumps you have to make to get to it."

Loving Anakin helped temper a lot for Obi-Wan - as did loving Luke. This was still really terrible for him.

And yet not as terrible as the entire sham of a war had been.

Certainly not as bad as creating Darth Vader.

"All right, then we'll need to make sure we are supplied for that length of trip as well as our visit. We can do more strategy and prioritization along the way itself, I assume? Will you be all right there? Or as near as it is possible to be?"

Anakin chewed on his lower lip. "I honestly don't know," and then he admitted, "It won't be easy. It just needs to be done."

He paused for a second, then added, "After this, he will know for sure I am here- in this universe. Things will... intensify for us, if we live. But I have some ideas, if we live."

"Are you sure you don't want to retreat somewhere and live an anonymous life?" Because that should be an option. Anakin had done this hellishness for one full lifetime already. Surely he deserved some peace, somewhere.

There were many reasons Anakin could do that, and Obi-Wan knew them all. They could rehash all of Anakin's guilt for the pain he'd caused and his drive to atone for it. There was the matter of Luke and Leia's future and how he couldn't fight for them to have something even better than what they got in his memory. There was just the fact that Palpatine needed to be stopped.

But Anakin didn't bring up any of that. There wasn't a need.

"You know me. I could try to live a quiet life, but I would fail miserably at it."

"I am more enraged by the injustice of you being forced to live this again than I am at the entire state of the galaxy," he says, though he says it without heat. "I know it isn't something you will do."

Just... quietly mad.

Anakin shrugged, "If I'd gotten it right the first time, maybe I wouldn't be here now."

He paused for a moment, mulling over a thought. It was one he'd occasionally considered since coming back. And it was something they'd have to address eventually given how it stood between them and their goal of ridding the galaxy of Palpatine.

"Do you want him back?"

"And if I'd gotten it right at all, maybe you wouldn't need to be." Which is not hard to say, but only because it's groundwork for what is incredibly hard. "I don't know. I loved Anakin. I clearly love you. I created Vader and Vader is Anakin but it is very difficult for me to... reconcile those things."

"You don't have to have an answer now," Anakin said.

He sighed, not at Obi-Wan, just about the subject matter.

"But we'll need to decide... if we survive Exegol."

"Yes. First things first."

And rather than let it seem he would continue to avoid it (he'd like to). "I will give it more thought, as we prepare to go and after we've survived."

No one is dying. He says so.

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