angstpril day 29
prompt: Going Dark
ao3
prequel to day 21‘s simulation/matrix au
They're on Mortis when things start falling apart.
Granted, the strange occurrences have been happening more and more frequently—it's not just this new, bizarre planet to blame. More and more often, Anakin's found himself holding back doubt and confusion at battle plans that don't quite seem to slot together right, at numbers that add up to one thing one minute, another the next, at strange. . . dark spots, in maps, in halls, in fields, on datapads.
Something strange had happened a few weeks ago, with Padme. She'd said something. . . bizarre, about a . . . computer?
He'd asked her what in the galaxy she was talking about. She'd brushed him off with an uncharacteristic giggle and a kiss.
She's hiding something. He doesn't know what, and truly, he should trust her but. . . it's not just numbers, any more, that aren't adding up.
He's not alone. He's not going crazy. Ahsoka's been noticing the same things too.
"But. . . this doesn't make any sense," he says, still frowning once some light has finally been shed on the situation with the Father, Daughter, and Son. "The force. . . the force isn't corporeal. It's energy, it's intangible, it's not. . . it's not deities."
Suddenly there's a rush of. . . something and everything winks out for a terrifying, death-defying second.
Everything is dark, hazy, murky—he can't feel his body. His eyelids are impossibly heavy.
He tries to move, to escape, to shift a limb—and finds that he can't. Something's holding him down.
Then suddenly it's all back and Obi-wan is still speaking. "—many mysteries, Anakin. This is just another one we will simply have to get to the bottom of."
He and Ahsoka exchange an uneasy glance.
"Did you see that too?" she asks hoarsely, gaze darting back and forth in a panic.
He nods. "What was that?"
Obi-wan looks between the two of them in confusion. Whatever it was, he hadn't felt it. "We have to keep moving."
"Of course, Master Kenobi," Ahsoka murmurs, and they wordlessly agree to put this behind them. They have a mission to get back to, after all. They'll figure it out later.
It keeps happening.
When they meet the Son, when the Father tests him, when the Son turns Ahsoka and when the Daughter helps him bring her back to life—
It could be chalked down to Mortis. This planet is exceedingly strange. But that—doesn't seem right. Ahsoka doesn't think so either.
And then comes the Son. "Know your future," he hisses, stalking closer, "Know what you will become."
And images are pushed into his mind, images that would horrify him to his core if it had been at any other moment but—
They ring false. They look. . . manufactured. He shoves past them.
And suddenly there's nothing there.
The Son is gone.
The voices are gone.
The visions are gone.
Mortis is gone.
He doesn't understand.
He feels like he's on a precipice, tipping forward. Like he's dreaming and about to wake up. None of this makes any sense.
Everything goes dark.
*
Then he opens his eyes—
And wakes to a wire coming out of his skull.
