Chapter Text
INTERROGATION RECORDING - REGARDING THE DISAPPEARANCE OF OFFICER KENOBI
Primary interview of Officer Vos, law enforcement officer in the City of New Coruscante
INTERROGATOR : How many individual times have you been assigned on a conjoint case with Officer Kenobi ?
VOS : We have worked together on twelve cases if my memory serves me right.
INTERROGATOR : Covering a span of how many years ?
VOS : That would be… Eight years ? I'd say eight.
INTERROGATOR : Our files tell us your first case together was ten years ago.
VOS : Ah, well, I'd trust the files then. Time has turned to mush since the blur reached the harbour, you know.
INTERROGATOR : During those years, would you say Officer Kenobi has ever expressed strong opinions about the government of New Coruscante or his superior officers ?
VOS : (Vos chuckles) I think you'd have a hard time finding anyone less interested in messing with that type of problems than Obi-Wan Kenobi. Whatever he has done, or wherever he's gone, I doubt it's to cause trouble to the powers in place.
INTERROGATOR : Please answer the question as clearly as possible.
VOS : No, no. No. Officer Kenobi has never said anything of the sort.
INTERROGATOR : Were you aware of his political affiliations ?
VOS : No, and I don't care about it.
INTERROGATOR : In the report 27443 dated from 26/Fevriary/5780 for the case you titled Dream Sweet in Sea Major, you recount meeting a friend of Officer Kenobi.
VOS : Dream Sweet in… Oh right, yeah. I remember that one.
INTERROGATOR : How did you meet with Anakin Skywalker that day ?
VOS : I'm unsure what it has to do with any—
INTERROGATOR : Please answer the question as clearly as possible.
VOS : Fine. It was not planned, we were heading for the Blue Fairy down in the lower city and a car almost hit us in the middle of the street. Obi-Wan was driving so he immediately chased after it…
Quinlan's hand grabbed the edge of his synthetic leather seat as if it could make any difference in whether he would live or die. Obi-Wan's driving style was always so conservative that the few times where he made the old steam engine screech were always a surprise. The wet avenue shone under the few streetlights of the lower city, warm and tired bulbs whose glow barely managed to break the night's thick veil.
The air reeked of something too rare to identify immediately. Blue gasoline, the expensive kind. Evidently coming from the modified car that they were chasing. It was not a smell the two officers often came across since the Senate had locked the trade routes that provided it. Then, as if to make the message even clearer, oil and all of its derivatives became forbidden for the general population. It was reserved for the army now.
Handmade alternatives like blue gasoline were hard to produce but they fed the black market like a single mother. Milking the poor almost as well as stimulant drugs. None of its users, however, had ever been stupid enough to fill its tank with it and play cat and mouse with a police car from the first precinct before.
"This shithead is going too fast," observed Quinlan, as they took a particularly abrupt turn. Next to him, Obi-Wan's eyes were focused on his target that had just disappeared around the corner. There was no way for them to catch a gasoline powered car with a steam engine, even with the road as empty as it was now.
"He's faster than me, but not smarter."
Taking a turn to the right again, then a left, Obi-Wan pushed the police car to its limit. Until he reached an even calmer street. The worn out sign at the corner of it revealed the name Spice Street. It probably used to be a market street, quite some time ago. The car stopped before reaching it, as if in defeat. Evidently, they had lost the little shit.
Surrounded by dark buildings and the silence of a dead town, Vos turned to look at the other officer with a mocking air to him. Kenobi gave it back, his finger rhythmically hitting the steering wheel.
"I mean he's not smarter than me, as for you, the jury's still out."
Quinlan's mouth was already open to gloat when the familiar sound of an illegal motor reached them from the other side of the cold street.
He shut his lips, only to mutter an insult between his teeth. An insult Obi-Wan gracefully ignored, preferring to wear his biggest smile. With his freshly shaven face, Kenobi's smile was almost unsettling in the night's half darkness.
Right before the target could escape them again, Obi-Wan turned on his engine and drove their car in the middle of the way. Causing another swearword to escape Officer Vos's mouth as the wheels of the other car screamed in pain. Luckily, the driver seemed to be as good with his brakes as he was with his speed.
It was too tight a street to even attempt to make a u-turn. And both officers were out of their car a second later anyway, their leather jackets and shiny golden badges too obvious to be ignored.
Quinlan reached the Driver's side first, and placed himself in front of the already rolled down window. In the corner of his eyes, he noticed Obi-Wan had stayed a few steps behind. Probably testing him with the arrest. Or he was just becoming as paranoid as his ex girlfriend.
The man in the car was young, probably under twenty five. Maybe even under twenty, which would make it impossible for him to have a license. Strong build, dark hair.
His blue eyes, looking somewhere behind Quinlan, were lined with black. A common practice from some people originating from regions further outside of the consortium. Those from the Great Deserts, especially. Something to do with the blinding sun there, he had been told. The shining piece of metal on his eyebrow however did not look related to anything cultural.
And the guy was not even looking at him.
"Son, how fast were you going?"
"I don't know, about 80?" scoffed the young man before finally looking up at Quinlan.
"Had to reach such speed with steam power alone. Got a card on you?"
"What, like a library card?"
No, a License card you illiterate dumbass. Now, Officer Vos had never been a violent man. But something arrogant in this darkened gaze did make the whole face, while quite handsome, especially punchable.
"Don't get smart with me, get out of the car."
Smartass number one shook his head with a muffled laugh, and his eyes went behind Quinlan again. It was then that Officer Vos noticed what the boy was looking at.
He was staring at Obi-Wan, and the cybernetic hand on the steering wheel was playing a rhythm Vos had seen played a few minutes before. Up, quite a few levels above them, a few windows lit up in the surrounding buildings. People were starting to look.
Quinlan turned to the other officer, whose face was lit up in pink by the neon advertisement for cheap cyberimplants behind them. Kenobi was straight as a tree trunk, and visibly quite disturbed by their newly caught prey. Too disturbed for this to be their first meeting.
"You know him?"
No answer came in words, but Kenobi sighed and walked towards the car door before repeating Quinlan's last orders to the reckless driver. As if it was going to make any diff—
The stranger rolled his eyes but obeyed, opening the door of the luxurious car to stand in front of the officers. He was wearing a black mesh shirt under which quite a few cyber alterations were visible.
A tall idiot, that one. It explains why blood does not reach his brain. The bureau would certainly have loved to hire that type of beast if he did not look so much like a lower city mecharat. The steel of his right hand and forearm, the visible metal piece that covered the base of his neck down to under the collar of his almost transparent shirt, the piercing on his brow, everything screamed trouble. But worse than that was his face when he looked at Officer Kenobi who was standing right in front of him.
It was cold. Mean, in a childish way. It was accentuated by the dark line at the base of his lashes.
"Hands on the side of the car," said Obi-Wan.
"I'm not putting my hands on no fucking car," answered the driver, who could definitely not be a day over twenty, yet towered over both of the officers.
Neither the words nor their venom seemed to disturb Obi-Wan, who, much to Quinlan's surprise even if he did not let it show, took one step closer. Until he was cornering whoever the boy was against the metal of his own car. Or was it his own?
It was easy to be intimidated by Officer Kenobi, despite the fact that he never got angry at anyone at the station. Perhaps because he never got angry and always did his job better than anyone else. But Quinlan had never seen that effect being so obvious than right now.
The men's bodies were close enough for Vos to feel almost uneasy witnessing it, not that he could truly pinpoint why. Officer Kenobi crossed his arms to make it worse, as the young man's breathing hitched.
"Hands on the side of the car," repeated Obi-Wan slowly, giving each word weight.
A siren echoed in the distance, far beyond the limits of Spice Street.
"Fine," mumbled the guy before obeying.
The steel of his right hand clicked against the car, and someone in an upper level closed their window. No dramatic gunfight to be witnessed tonight. Evidently. Quinlan looked up, as if he could see the night sky in the lower city, while Kenobi was searching the driver's pockets.
"Tell me if you find a License card," mumbled Officer Vos.
"Anakin does not have a License, he's nineteen."
Obi-Wan had answered with an intriguing certainty, and Quinlan wrote down the name while said Anakin observed him.
"What do you need my name for?"
"I collect them, I'll file yours under Fevriary's biggest pain in my ass."
A very polite way to say mind your business, right ?
"I'd ask yours but you're all pigs to me anyway."
Obi-Wan roughly grabbed the cybernetic arm to handcuff it to the other one. It was firm enough to look like an acknowledgement of the insult that had been thrown at him too.
"Quiet, Anakin."
Quinlan looked as the other officer pushed Anakin towards their car. Dumbfounded was a light word for his state. Obi-Wan had not made an official arrest, yet he had handcuffed the teenager, was putting him in the car, and seemed way too close to him.
Not that they had ever spoken about their private lives before. Or not much, at least. Vos had mentioned his ex once. Or twice. Maybe three times. Kenobi had been polite, but never curious. The station had made a bet about his age last month, and the closest bet had won absolutely nothing thanks to everyone's meagre salary. But at least they had learned he was forty two.
And there was no wife listed as his emergency contact. No emergency contact at all, for that matter.
Taking back control of his own brain, Quinlan went to take back his spot on the passenger seat and found Obi-Wan on the radio signalling the location of the illegal vehicle. On the backseat, the tall silhouette was staring at the neon sign with obvious anger. Officer Vos' voice rose as soon as the radio turned off.
"You cannot make an arrest without—"
"I'm not arresting him."
"He's driving a car pumped full of blue gasoline without a license."
"That car does not belong to him. Nor can I prove he knew what was in the tank. Can you?"
Obi-Wan looked at him without malice, but with enough bravado to sound convincing. If Quinlan had been willing to be convinced.
"Then what are we doing, taking out the dog for a walk?"
A kick hit the back of his seat at the use of the word "dog", before Anakin spat out a few words in a language Quinlan did not understand. As far as he was concerned, words he did not understand could not hurt his feelings, so he intended on keeping it that way.
"We're taking him home."
The old cyberimplants neon turned off for a second, then buzzed on again. They had to wait for the other brigade to be closer before abandoning the car, or it would inevitably end up stolen. The city's most proficient strip club was two blocks away, and the Blue Fairy was an establishment which specialised in illegal activities. Only a few that could be proven, but even those ended up buried. Cops were easy to blackmail. All of them had been with prostitutes from the Blue Fairy at least once. Quinlan had even dated one of them.
Somehow, he was certain Officer Kenobi would never do such a thing. Yet it was hard to know now, given the newfound nature of his… acquaintances.
"Do I look like a taxi to you, Officer Kenobi?"
"I'll be doing the driving, Anakin's place is not that far."
"I don't live on Thirst Av. anymore," said the young man behind, a hint of pride wrapping around the words.
Another siren broke through the foggy night, this time coming directly towards Spice Street. Obi-Wan turned the car on, and the steam motor coughed. Quinlan bit back the words he wanted to say. That old nun of an officer was not one you could easily sway.
"And where do you live?" Asked Obi-Wan, his voice steady and unbothered.
"None of your business."
"You're acting like a child," sighed the officer, carefully driving out of the street. Gone was the speed demon who almost killed Quinlan.
What the fuck was going on between those two?
Anakin was staring directly at Kenobi through the rear view mirror, and the officer was absolutely looking back. Was that kid Obi-Wan's personal fairy ?
"Palpatine Tower," finally said Anakin right before they passed a decrepit mall.
Yeah right. As if. Palpatine Tower was the work of a demented and egotistical politician who had risen to one of the most influential spots of the senate in the last few years. Little birds kept singing about how much control he truly had, and that the senate was only a masquerade by now. Someone like Anakin would not even be allowed in the lobby of that place. Quinlan scoffed and fished a pack of cigarettes out of his jacket's pocket. Right when he extracted one, the driver's hand stole it and put it between his lips.
"I don't think so," answered Obi-Wan before he grabbed the lighter they kept behind the windshield. The flame lit up the inside of the car for a few seconds before he handled the lighter to Quinlan.
Smoke escaped the open windows, and Vos felt the whole day of investigation weigh upon his shoulders. He wanted to be home, not babysitting a teenager with more metal in him than brain cells.
"You don't believe me?"
"I believe you," said Obi-Wan, slowly letting out the smoke that was filling his lungs. "I'm just not bringing you there."
Believing him made no sense. Unless he was a whore of sorts himself, that boy was certainly not the corpo type. And even if he was, Quinlan would have a hard time believing he was the kind a politician with as much power as Senator Palpatine would hire. While Vos was staring through the mirrors, streetlights reflected on the jewel that pierced Anakin's brow. He was certainly pretty, but not prostitute pretty. Maybe a niche market ?
A niche market for a fascist senator and the first precinct's best police officer seemed far fetched, even for New Coruscante. Yet it was hard not to want to laugh a little at the intensity of Officer Kenobi's gaze when he looked at that guy.
"Officer Vos, I think it has been a long day for both of us, I'm going to drive you back before I take care of this personal issue."
"Yes, please," groaned Vos. "I still have reports to write."
"Let's make today's report as succinct as possible then, shall we?"
The officers shared a look before Quinlan smirked in his direction. Kenobi never asked for favours, and it was almost funny to see some willingness to disobey a few rules. None of the officers in any precinct were innocent of taking a few liberties with their reports when it was needed.
"I can do succinct."
Quinlan added with his eyes : but you'll owe me one.
As soon as the car door slammed shut behind Officer Vos, the silence of the car became deafening. The motor's purr did not alleviate it one bit. Anakin's gaze behind Obi-Wan's neck felt palpable, yet the policeman ignored it. Or feigned to.
It was a nicer part of the city, or at least it was nicer than the lower levels. Nowhere near luxurious. Sometimes, between the buildings and when the wind blew the pollution clouds away, Obi-Wan could see the stars at night. Every officer of the first precinct lived in the Temple neighbourhood. People had called it that way because it had no clubs, no bars, and very discreet hookers. Almost a monastery compared to the rest of New Coruscante.
And still, the comfortable street paled in comparison to the Palpatine Tower. The ugly source of the artificial glow that disfigured the heavens.
"Still living in the same place, uh," observed the young man in the backseat. Whatever had been done to his throat with the implant there, Obi-Wan could hear it in his voice. It was lower,It laced with a mechanical shadow. The officer wondered what else had been changed on that boy he used to know so well and could barely recognise under all of that metal.
"I never moved. " In case you ever wanted to come back home.
"Sounds like you."
The handcuffs clinked against the cybernetic arm, and Obi-Wan looked at the rear-view mirror. Anakin's lined eyes looked luminescent, and they saw right through him. They always did. He had grown more handsome than anyone could have predicted in those two years.
"At least one of us does, that thing in your throat truly is… something."
"You don't like it?"
"Can't say I'm fond of it, but it's none of my business now, is it?"
Anakin shrugged, as well as one could in his position. Kenobi had to stop himself from staring too much.
"Can you turn it off?" asked Obi-Wan as he parked the car in the dark alleyway they both knew very well.
Anakin rolled his eyes and mumbled something about the implant being part of his body so it could not turn off. Whatever that was sounded disgusting to Obi-Wan who ignored it, leaving his seat to go and open Anakin's door.
A stray dog barked, somewhere in the street, but Anakin did not move from his seat. And he was almost pouting. Perhaps he could have stayed lost a few months longer.
"I guess the grumpy baby act does not turn off either."
"Oh, fuck you, Obi-Wan," said Anakin without even raising his voice. He looked tired, and the aggressive behaviour was out of character even for him. Kenobi knew him too well. But at least he started moving, and the officer closed the door behind him before grabbing him by the handcuffs to push him towards the greasy and unlit backdoor that unlocked after reading Obi-Wan's palm.
"You don't have to push me, I know where it is."
Then he could have dropped by to say hi, or fuck you you're not my dad Obi-Wan, or put a dead animal in front of the door. Anything that proved he was alive.
Officer Kenobi did not give him the grace of an answer, only leading Anakin to the stairs and the flickering light bulb that lit it all the way up. The last time he had heard the steps of this human being in those stairs was when he had slammed the door and disappeared. Two years ago. Because Obi-Wan had been dumb enough to tell Anakin that his newfound friend was very much not that. Not a friend. Politicians did not have friends. And this one had always been strangely fond of Anakin. There were many things Kenobi could change his mind about, but Sheev Palpatine was not one of them.
The front door of Obi-Wan's apartment closed behind the two men with a familiar creaking, and the officer immediately started undoing the handcuffs. It had already left a red mark on the flesh of Anakin's wrist. He could not bring himself to regret that either. Anakin had always needed excuses to give up, had he not been bound he would not have followed.
The flat was big enough for one and too small for two, and it had always been. When Anakin had been forced to live with him at fifteen after the death of his adoptive father, Obi-Wan's best friend and colleague, it had been a nightmare to figure out how to give him any intimacy. In the end, Kenobi had just decided to leave the minuscule bedroom to the teenager and take the couch for himself. No one else in that city had space for an orphan anyway.
Two years after Anakin's disappearance, he had not slept in that bedroom, and barely stepped foot inside of it. And now, the formerly lanky silhouette of the teenager had been replaced by a tall man who still obeyed him but swore like a lorry driver. After shaking his newly freed hand, Anakin took a step in the unlit apartment, distractingly touching a few things on his way. The back of a chair, the wall, a light switch.
Obi-Wan had yet to move from the entrance.
As if not to scare off a cat, the officer slowly took off his leather jacket to leave it on the back of one of the two chairs. Anakin's eyes were locked on the miniature car that remained on Obi-Wan's desk, in the corner of the room. Skywalker had built that himself, a few months before he left.
"You kept that old thing?" enquired Anakin as he sat on the desk and finally started to look normal. Kenobi noticed then the many rings on his ears, too. He was almost half metal by now. A small luminous aquarium containing one single mechafish lit up Anakin's eyes like a sun ray, leaving the rest of his face dark.
"I kept everything."
The silence was velvet, embroidered by the low hum of the ventilation.
"Why would you do that? Why not just arrest me tonight?"
For the first time since the night had started, Anakin looked sincere. His arms were crossed over his chest, but Obi-Wan still took a few steps in his direction. Skywalker did not flinch.
"So Sheev Palpatine can bail you out and lock you up for two more years in his tower?"
"See, that's your problem, you don't know shit about anything yet you keep running your mouth."
"What did you take, Anakin?"
The venom on Anakin's tongue seemed to dry up instantly. His eyes lowered to the ground, and Obi-Wan did not need anything more to know he was right. The aggressiveness was out of character, it had to have been induced. It was already impressive that he had never seemed to have tried any of the many drugs on the market when he was living with Obi-Wan.
Kenobi observed him from head to toe, closely. Trying to gather signs of the substances he knew. Whatever it was, it was on its way out. Anakin seemed more exhausted with every passing second.
"Better not be what I think it is or you're going to have a rough night," declared Obi-Wan as he leaned forward to observe Anakin's eyes more closely. The white of it was not so white after all. Bloody eye.
"It would have been much easier without you here, that's for sure."
The older man's shoulder met with the wall as he smirked, still studying the man sitting on his desk. He could almost build Anakin's plan in his head now. Running away with a car loaded with illegal fuel, probably stolen from a rich owner, and going straight for the Blue Fairy could only mean one thing. Skywalker was on his way to the city's best known Bloody eye spot with one of Sheev Palpatine's car. And he was being a bitch because he wanted out as quickly as possible and was hoping getting on Kenobi's nerves would be enough.
"I'm not going anywhere, and neither are you."
Bloody eye was not the worst thing in the world, and it would only take a day at most for Anakin's body to eliminate it. The young man scoffed, and stood up to walk towards the exit. Obi-Wan's arm stopped him firmly, as he forced his whole body in the way.
"Don't touch me," warned Anakin coldly, but Obi-Wan was already pushing him backwards. As the officer had predicted, Skywalker's current state made him much weaker than he naturally was. Even his biological muscles should have made him an unmovable wall.
Before the young man could try again, Obi-Wan's right hand grabbed his jaw to force the darkened blue eyes into his. A cybernetic hand immediately wrapped around his forearm, but perhaps for the same reason Anakin still obeyed his orders, its grasp did not even tighten enough to hurt.
"I can see just how well this cohabitation with Senator Palpatine is going for you, it's impressive, truly. I'm pretty sure that arm of yours could break mine in half so why don't you do just that, Anakin?"
Still holding the boy's face, Kenobi squinted as he dared him to act. Anakin, who had always favoured barking to biting, or at least used to. But this…
This was a shell of the Anakin he knew.
And the cyber arm did not break his in half. The pretty face did not swear again. The steel at the base of the strong throat did not sing like the fury he could be. Anakin just took it. When had he become so tamed?
Obi-Wan's throat felt like sandpaper when he let go of Anakin to open the bedroom's door. It had stayed exactly like Anakin had left it two years ago, but none of them commented about it. Anakin's back was visible under his mesh shirt, and Kenobi stared at it for one long minute before the young man slowly sat on the sheets and hid his face in his hands. The room's small window enveloped him in neon lights.
And Obi-Wan breathed in for what felt like the first time in two years.