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When Anakin is finally found, he's nothing like the dashing Jedi Knight that Obi-Wan was proud to call his best friend. It's been two months, of course, but this goes above and beyond what he had expected.
It’s worse than Obi-Wan had dreamed in his darkest nightmares.
Anakin's eyes stare out at him, glazed and unseeing as he hangs by his one hand and a painful-looking metal rod forcibly connected to the stub of his right arm. Burns cover a good part of the left side of his naked body (and that in and of itself leads to terrifying possibilities), and painful slices cover everywhere else. At his neck lies a shock collar, a Force-nulling shock collar.
His mind isn't much better. He's cut off from the Force, but his shields are so shot that Obi-Wan can see all the pain Anakin had gone through... And a hidden something that he guards even in this state.
Gently, very gently, Obi-Wan reaches into Anakin's mind.
Anakin?
A jolt of surprise, and a slight clearing of Anakin's eyes.
Master... I'm so sorry. I fail you, I-
Obi-Wan tries to send calming waves to Anakin even as anger fills him.
It's alright, Anakin. I'm here to get you out. May I help get you down from there?
Anakin's reply is the most painful thing that Obi-Wan would ever hear.
The Galaxy would be better off without me in it.
It's not a yes, but Obi-wan is honestly too terrified of what he just heard to care, and Obi-Wan envelopes Anakin's mind and body with his own as he unlatches the ties holding Anakin up and the collar around his neck. Anakin barely even reacts as he's lowered to the ground, just lets himself collapse into Obi-Wan's arms.
He doesn't even react as Obi-Wan's hands brush a very-recent wound on his hip. Obi-Wan is beyond grateful that he kept Ahsoka away from this. With tears in his eyes, Obi-Wan puts a hand to Anakin's forehead.
"Sleep."
It's two days of surgery and a week in a bacta tank later that Obi-Wan talks to Anakin again. The wonders of modern medicine have Anakin already sitting up with ease, staring out the window.
"You should have let me die."
Obi-Wan sighed.
"Anakin..."
"I kill you."
What?
"I turn to the Dark Side and I kill every being in this temple. I kill Padme. I kill Ahsoka. I stand by as a planet is destroyed. I torture my daughter and mutilate my son. This," and here, Anakin turns around, gesturing to the burn scars littering his side, "Would have been my entire body, but for my cut off arms and legs that you caused, and life in that suit would still never equal what I had done. You should have let me die."
This is a... terrifying possibility, Obi-Wan thinks. It's also, of course, impossible. Anakin would never-
"Turn to the Dark Side if I thought it would protect the people I care about? You know as well as I do the un-Jedi-like length I would go for you, or Ahsoka, or Padme."
He does. He really does.
He also knows that he would do the same, and that this was not the flaw most in the Order believe it to be. Anakin would never hurt them if he knew he was doing so.
"I do. I also know that you will not choose this path, now that you know where it leads."
Anakin looked away once more.
"I told the Son that I would never turn to the Dark Side willingly moments before I did... I don't know."
Oh... Obi-Wan moved and sat down next to Anakin.
"Is this what you saw there?"
"Yes."
"It's not going to happen."
"How do you know?"
"I won't let it. Your my brother, Anakin. I love you."
At this, Anakin turned to him with a sad smile.
"I know."
Obi-Wan returned the smile, before surprising them both and pulling Anakin into a tight hug. He felt Anakin tense for a moment, then relax, putting his own arm around Obi-Wan. There's a slight hitch in his breath that indicates Anakin's tears, a slight shakiness to his body, but it's the only hint to be felt.
A little known fact about Anakin Skywalker is that he almost never cries, but, when he does, he sobs. These silent tears are so much worse.
Still, he'll be there for his Padawan, no matter how long it takes for Anakin to heal.