Chapter Text
There was a soft knock at the door.
“Obi-Wan? Are you in there? I—I need to talk to you.”
Obi-Wan sighed at the sound of Quinlan Vos’s voice through the entryway. Well, there goes my quiet afternoon.
Setting the half-filled hydroheater down with a petty amount of force, he reluctantly exited the kitchen, opening the door even as he mourned the pot of tea he had been intending to share the next several hours with.
“Vos,” he said, leaning against the doorframe. “I’ve got a lot on plate and I’m not in the mood for your nonsense, understood?”
Quinlan looked back somberly. Obi-Wan’s smirk slowly faltered.
“Can I come in? There’s something important I need to talk to you about.” The Kiffar’s usually boisterous attitude was missing; subdued words invoked a silent nod of agreement as well as a chill down the spine. Quinlan slipped inside, continuing to the common area to take a quiet seat on the couch. Obi-Wan settled next to him nervously, thoughts of tea slipping away.
“Vos, you’re starting to worry me—is something the matter?”
Quinlan’s expression twisted. He scrubbed his face with one gloved hand, inhaling sharply before slowly exhaling with a shudder.
“Yes. I have some—really horrible news that’s going to freak you out but I have to tell you. I want you know you’re not going to have to go through this alone and it’s not your fault, ok? I know you’re going to blame yourself but it’s not your fault.”
Obi-Wan stood, heart in his throat. “Of Force—did something happen to Anakin? Is he—where’s Anakin?”
“Anakin’s with Aayla—he’s fine—he’s in the temple and he’s perfectly safe right now—”
“Right now?!” Obi-Wan paled further.
“Please sit down, Obi-Wan. I’m going to tell you everything but the important thing is that Anakin is safe, okay? It’s going to be alright but you need to stay calm.”
Obi-Wan collapsed on to the couch, closing his eyes. “If you’re trying to keep me calm you’re doing a very bad job of it Quinlan.”
“I know,” Quinlan responded guiltily. “I’m not good at this. I’m sorry.”
Obi-Wan meditated for a moment, laboriously seeking out and letting go of his mixed dread and alarm, before opening his eyes again to refocus on Vos.
“Quinlan,” he said sharply. “Tell me what’s going on.”
The visiting knight nodded and pulled out a datachip from his robe, placing it gently on the table.
(Listen) the force whispered, straining for someone to hear and Obi-Wan did, leaning in intently.
“You know I work with the Coruscanti spy networks, right?”
Obi-Wan nodded impatiently.
“Well, we have a long standing agreement that if a, uh, rogue padawan is spotted on the lower levels, they bring it to me—well Tholme before, but me now—and I quietly take care of it before it become a whole Jedi Council incident. No one wants a dead Jedi kid on their doorstep, you know?”
Obi-Wan groaned, falling backwards.
“I promise, whatever you think it is, it’s probably not that, so uh, just hold on before you say anything,” Quinlan added quickly.
“I can think of a lot of things,” Obi-Wan muttered. “Pod racing, slave freeing, droid bartering, street fighting, pick pocketing, any of those close? Some combination of the above? Just tell me when. I could’ve sworn I had finally gotten a grasp on his movements…”
Quinlan cringed. “Two nights ago. And none of those, please stop guessing.”
“Two nights—” Obi-Wan froze, then protested indignantly. “He told me he was with the Chancellor! Unbelievable!”
“He was,” Quinlan confirmed quietly.
A beat passed and Obi-Wan stared at his friend in blank confusion. “I don’t understand—I thought he was in the lower levels, wasn’t that—”
“He was,” Quinlan added in a low voice.
“He was…with the Chancellor?” Obi-Wan repeated slowly. Vos nodded once in confirmation. “They were both in the lower levels? Together?” Vos nodded twice.
Drops of cold sweat started to prickle at the back of Obi-Wan’s neck.
“Doing…charity work?” Obi-Wan asked weakly. Vos shook his head, then picked up the datachip, plugging it into to a small mobile datapad.
They watched as smoky cantina security footage resolved. Obi-Wan squinted but eventually his eyes caught on two hooded figures seated at a table. (Not right) the force seemed to say. He couldn't hear the two over the buzz of the crowd, but after a moment the smaller figure shifted enough to reveal his twelve-year-old padawan’s face, smiling nervously in the way he did when he was overwhelmed by a situation and didn’t want to admit it.
Obi-Wan watched the scene play out, white-knuckled grip around the datapad tensing more every second. Drinks were brought to the table and Obi-Wan trembled with fear and eventual relief as Anakin didn’t touch a drop, despite the various gestures the taller man made with his own cup.
After several minutes, the taller man leaned over, mouth far too close to his padawan’s ear. Anakin flinched back slightly. It was just enough for Obi-Wan to catch a glimpse of a distinctive long forehead and cleft chin before the old man retreated to the shadow of his robes. A few things in the apartment started rattling, but Obi-Wan ignored them. Anakin started talking with hands, obviously relaxing. The force swirled ominously in warning.
After several moments a fight broke out at a nearby gambling table. Even with the poor audio, Obi-Wan could hear the grating sound of Palpatine’s laughter, overly uproarious. He clenched his jaw in fury as Palpatine used the excuse to press a hand to Anakin’s shoulder.
(Wrong) came a warning, stronger than most. (This is wrong).
His padawan chuckled along at the joke, barely seeming to notice the touch.
After a moment, two of the losers from the table brawl stalked over and grabbed Palpatine by the front of his robe. For a moment, Obi-Wan grinned in a decidedly un-Jedi manner at the thought of the man’s face getting caved in. But Anakin, of course, stood up in the bastard’s defense, hand moving protectively to the Chancellor’s arm. Palpatine took the opportunity to press an arm against his padawan, ostensibly holding him back from a brawl. It was a move that Obi-Wan himself had practiced to keep the kid from throwing himself into trouble. The knight saw red at the realization that this pervert was using it, obviously as an excuse for contact, likely in a fight he had instigated, and certainly in a dangerous setting that he had willfully brought them to.
(Evil) the force agreed.
Some inaudible exchange of words occurred between the adults and the hulking figure retreated. Palpatine dusted off his robes and exited the booth, Anakin far too close his heels, no doubt feeling protective, and Palpatine no doubt being aware of that. Palpatine rested a hand gently on Anakin’s back as they exited frame, and the vid quickly cut-off after that.
Obi-Wan took in a shuddering breath of air and everything that had been unknowingly hovering in the apartment came crashing down. He tilted forward, feeling light-headed, but Quinlan caught him before he could fall too far, pulling him in for a tight one sided hug.
“Of force—oh kriffing gods—I didn’t know,” Obi-Wan choked out.
“I know, you couldn’t have—”
“I SHOULD HAVE,” Obi-Wan shouted in Quinlan’s face before sagging. “I should have,” he repeated in a broken whisper.
“I’m his Master,” Obi-Wan continued hoarsely. “He’s my padawan, I’m supposed to protect him.”
“I’ve dealt with men like Palpatine before,” Quinlan retorted bitterly. “Men in power. They’re in power because they’re good at hiding this stuff, expert manipulators. I dug into Palpatine’s background and there’s nothing. Not even the normal bones you find in every politician's closet. He’s practiced at controlling people, controlling his image, it’s his fault, not yours.”
Obi-Wan pushed the other knight away, standing up to pace in long strides back and forth across the apartment. After a minute of this, he spoke. “I’m going to kill him. I’m serious Vos, I’m going to kill the Chancellor of the Republic.”
(Yes!
Quinlan nodded slowly, “Yeah, that’s probably the best option.”
Obi-Wan faltered in his stride, stopping in place to narrow his eyes at the kiffar Jedi. “Shouldn’t you be trying to talk me out of this?” he asked suspiciously.
Vos groaned, running his hands through his hair, before speaking in a strained but steady calm. “Even if he hadn’t done a scarily effective job consolidating political power and gaining control over the courts the last few years, we don’t have enough proof to put him on trial. This isn’t the highest quality footage- a half decent lawyer would be able to claim it’s doctored- It’s not- but there’s no way it’s good enough for court. The person who gave it to me wouldn’t back up its legitimacy; I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t have even handed it over it they had realized it was the Chancellor of the Republic. It’s going to be the Jedi against the Senate in the court of public opinion and even if the Jedi somehow win, Palpatine’s not going to lose and Anakin’s not going to come out of this unscathed.”
Obi-Wan collapsed against a wall, taking over Quinlan’s grim recitation of facts with a softly agonized voice, “Even if the footage was admitted, there’s nothing…explicit about it. There’s no good explanation for why they were there, why he bought him a drink, why he was—” Obi-Wan choked on the word ‘touching’ before soldiering on, “but there’s technically nothing that’s a violent crime.”
(No good)
Knight Kenobi shuddered, then resumed his pacing, continuing to speak. “And he’s probably done this before. He’ll probably do it again. Even if I grab Anakin and take him to the furthest reaches of the galaxy- which I’m very tempted to do- it doesn’t stop him from- from grooming his next victim. He’s too powerful—he already threw his political weight around to get time alone with my twelve year-old padawan and Force, why—”
Vos cut him off before he could spiral to far into self loathing. “You’ve got to kill the Chancellor of the Republic,” he agreed. “Do you want my help?”
Obi-Wan stopped, then returned to the couch, smiling gently. “That—actually means a lot, thank you Quinlan, but no.”
“I’m serious,” Quinlan offered intensely. “I can’t talk about shadow work but it wouldn’t be the first political assassination I’ve done.”
Obi-Wan shook his head, “No. There’s going to be an investigation—It’s just not worth the effort to make it look like an accident. He’s too high profile. And I can’t risk you also getting caught, not when you’ve got your own padawan to think about, and I don’t want people thinking this is a Jedi coup d'etat—”
Knight Kenobi stopped mid-sentence, letting out an inappropriate snort at the absurdity of the sentence. “Oh force,” he gasped. “I’m planning the logistics of assassinating the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic.”
He started giggling hysterically. Quinlan started to reach a hand out towards him before thinking better of it, and instead began casually righting some of the clutter and trinkets that had fallen over and about, trying to give the overwhelmed man a little space to breakdown. A minute or two passed and the giggles gradually petered out.
Finally, Obi-Wan rubbed a hand over his face, scratching furiously at his newly grown beard. “You’ll take care of Anakin for me?” he asked seriously.
Quinlan returned to the couch quickly, staring Obi-Wan directly in the eyes and radiating promise in the force. “With my life. I’ll make sure he gets the help he needs. It’s…possible he won’t want to stay in the order, but I’ll make sure if he does want that, he’ll find a Master. And if he doesn’t, I’ll see to it that he’s well cared for."
Obi-Wan blinked away tears. “Right. Alright. Well,” he slapped his hands to his lap then stood up. “I’m off then.”
Vos reared back in alarm. “Uh—right now? Are you sure?”
The soon-to-be-political-assassin nodded decisively. “If I wait too long I’ll lose my nerve,” he admitted. “And if I have to see the two of them in the same place in person I swear by the stars I’m going to fall, I’ll fall right then and there.”
Quinlan Vos cringed, then bowed his head in acknowledgment. “Wait—at least take some credits—I assume you’re going to go on the run immediately after, right?”
Obi-Wan sighed. “You’re probably right, ugh. Give me a tic.” Quinlan continued his tidying of apartment, suppressing a flinch at the occasional flashes of grief and joy palpable even through gloves as he returned the apartment to the order he remembered from when Qui-Gon was alive.
There were some odd grunting and clanging noises from Obi-Wan’s room which Quinlan generously decided not to barge in on
A teapot had fallen off the edge of a counter, carefully packed leaves spilling out of its basket. Quinlan winced at a new chip as he picked it up, before pushing it to the back of a cabinet, hoping Obi-Wan wouldn't notice.
Eventually the clanging stopped and the man of the hour exited his room, striding heavily.
Quinlan’s jaw dropped. “Uh, that’s what you’re wearing? Are you sure it’s not…overkill?”
Obi-Wan rolled his eyes, acting as though Quinlan was the absurd one for being surprised that Obi-Wan Kenobi was wearing Beskar Armor to kill an elderly pedophile.
“Well, I’m going to need to be able to support myself after all this, aren’t I? Bounty hunter is the traditional fall-back career for fallen Jedi,” Obi-Wan explained wryly. “And honestly, this is probably the first thing I’ll be doing in the armor since I, uh, acquired it that a Mandalorian would actually approve of.”
“How’s that?” the Kiffar asked weakly as Obi-Wan carefully wrapped his robe to conceal the dented red armor underneath.
Obi-Wan paused. “Well…protecting foundlings, protecting adiik and aliit is the way. Children and family.” He hesitated, strapping a small blaster that he apparently just had already to his inner thigh before fussing with his tunic so the weapon was completely concealed. “Would you…would you tell Anakin I said that? That…I love him, and he’s my family, and I would do anything to protect him.”
Obi-Wan flushed, staring at the helmet for a moment before gently placing it on the table.
“Yeah,” Quinlan responded softly. “I can tell him that.”
Obi-Wan shuffled awkwardly. “You should probably leave first. I assume that the cover story is going to be you told me before the council, and I said i needed to meditate.”
Quinlan grinned, giving Obi-Wan a leering up-and-done that made the well-armed Jedi knight roll his eyes and scoff.
“Yes,” Quinlan drawled. “The last I saw you, you were meditating quietly. No idea where you might be heading next, not even if your padawan wants to contact you.” He raised a brow.
Knight Kenobi looked off to the side.
“Tatooine,” he offered quietly. “If I’m not going to be a Jedi, not going to be…Anakin’s master, I can at least free his mother. I owe her that much considering—”
Quinlan cut him off, feeling suddenly and selfishly desperate to stop Obi-Wan from walking away. “Obi-Wan—I’m serious—you don’t have to do this. We can tell the council; we can keep Anakin from him.”
Obi-Wan shook his head sadly. “I wish that were true but the council’s hands are tied in so many ways. I can’t let Anakin be a victim of politics. Not anymore then he already has. And besides—” he sighed, running a hand through his hair. A red gauntlet was revealed as the sleeve fell back, and Obi-Wan quickly dropped his arm to conceal it. He cleared his throat.
“Besides—this feels right. I don’t know why but the moment I said—the moment I said I was going to kill him the force rang like a bell. I’m supposed to do this.”
(Must be done) it said somberly
The other Jedi dipped his head, “I felt it too, I feel it now,” he agreed quietly. “Once you put it out there—I’ve never known a man who the force wanted dead this badly. It’s…it’s a little terrifying.”
Obi-Wan exhaled slowly. “Quinlan—you need to go. I can’t be seen leaving until you’re out, not if you’re going to have your alibi.”
Quinlan darted forward, pressing a passionate kiss to Obi-Wan’s mouth, jumping back before the swirling feelings of anguish and resolve could overwhelm him. “Something to remember me by,” he teased lightly. The auburn haired man rolled his eyes in response.
Quinlan Vos left, taking the datachip and pad with him. Obi-Wan meditated for a few minutes. All he could hear was the force agreeing him, urging him to stop Palpatine (stop the monster.) by any means necessary. Obi-Wan smiled viciously. He probably would have done this anyway, would have done anything to protect Anakin but it was comforting to know that the universe also wanted the predator(dead).
Obi-Wan walked out of the temple and proceeded slowly and confidently towards the Senate. And despite the warning the force was giving him that (it might be the last time you see the temple), he felt no regrets.