revivalproject | Network Post: Video

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Network Post: Video

[Luke looks a little annoyed at something off screen before looking up to the camera.]

Prosthetic limbs. I'm sure I've seen an arm, and I know we've got some cybernetic residents. Do we have something set up for those of us with them, like, repairs, maintenance, charging if need be? Mine was damaged before I got here and I didn't get a chance to get the synth skin repaired, which is just vaguely awkward, because it means crap can get in and it's harder to clean out.

[He huffs and blows his fringe from his eyes.]

Yeah. Just looking for connect with the others who have a similar situation. Talk solutions.

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Well, at the moment, he's spinning glownie wool with a hand spindle. It's soothing.

"I think at this point, he knows everything he needs to know about Vader." He had, Ezra believed and still believes, needed to know Vader had survived Mustafar. If Obi-wan ever went back to his vigil on Tatooine, that was very relevant.

"Doesn't mean he's...processed it. And for the record, I bet Vader is in that suit, cybernetics and all, in his time."

"... you think so? I mean, that Father's already in all that, with all those cybernetics?" He had assumed it happened bit by bit, parts of him replaced and they were lost, burned out by the Dark side or lost combating and hunting Jedi.

It might be apparent that Luke doesn't actually know anything about what went down.

"Yes." Ezra looks up from his work, squinting off into the distance, not having a vision exactly, but all the bits he knows of clicking together with a dash of intuition.

"It explains... so much. As far as history is concerned, Anakin Skywalker dissapears, like so many other Jedi. Vader, the enforcer, mask and all, appears out of nowhere. It's easier for even the people who were there to think 'Anakin died there'. That's why they both talked that way. But that's a lie. Vader makes his base on Mustafar, feeding all that pain into the Dark. If he lets those feelings go, he looses the power it gives him. It might even kill him. So... that's where he lives, in more than one sense."

He looks over at Luke.

"And here Obi-wan doesn't have the...distance to lie to himself."

"I don't know where Mustafar is. I've never heard of it." He leans his head onto a shoulder, eyes closed. "Owen and Beru told me my father was a navigator on a freighter who died during the war times. Ben told me that my father was a Jedi, murdered by another student of his, Darth Vader. Vader told me he was my father a couple of years later. And now you know what I know. I've pieced together from Padme that Anakin 'died' pretty close to the time that she gave birth, since he didn't know about me. I know the cybernetics were keeping him alive, he couldn't breathe properly without the mask. And I know that when Ben told me about Vader he called him more machine than man."

He frowns sharply. That it sounds like Master Kenobi - Luke's version anyway - had convinced himself Vader was barely even a person is pretty disturbing to him. A strange contrast to the compassion with which Obi-wan has seemed willing to view Maul.

"That's a lot of lies to have to sort through. I'm sorry. And yeah, I'm pretty sure Master Kenobi took Padme from Mustafar to wherever they could get medical help, and that's where you and Leia were born."

Luke doesn't have answers. He has pieced together factoids and deductions.

"Yeah, I still only learned that a month before I came here? Maybe two? That twins thing is still pretty fresh to me. That was another thing that just, didn't get mentioned. Until Master Yoda was literally dying in front of me, then just- died and left Ben to sort it out. I had to tell her just before I gave myself up to Vader and Palpatine, so that if I didn't make it back, the knowledge didn't die with me."

Master Yoda maybe could've handled some things better. Arguably.

"I guess... Ben did what he had to to live with what happened between them. And if that was telling himself Vader had killed Anakin, from a certain point of view, then... I can't judge him for that."

Ezra sighs.

"Whether Master Yoda and Master Kenobi and...Senator Organa, I guess, made the best possible choices in the middle of all that, I can't really say. They did what they could, to protect you and Leia both, I do believe that. And then yes, they all had to figure out how to live with it, and maybe that changed them in ways that weren't entirely for the best. Here and now, Obi-wan is still very much still figuring out how to live with it all."

"They did what they thought was best. I just don't think not telling us about each other was necessarily a good move. Especially once we met."

He's quiet for another few moments.

"Ezra? Do you know what happened on Mustafar?"

He nods slowly. "When the Agrii sent us to Coruscant - the Jedi there tried to help us in all the ways they could, but there wasn't much time. The suggested an amplified form of shared mediation. To bond, to share burdens. But they didn't expect-"

Well, how could they have possibly known the scope of damage survivors of the Jedi Purge were carrying around?

He clears his throat. "That part was more like of a, uh. Uncontrolled flashback."

Luke looks at Ezra with a steady, heavy gaze.

"What happened on Mustafar to make Vader into the mostly mechanical monster that I fought?"

Ezra stares back, expression set to stubborn. This isn't his story to tell.

Then he abruptly gathers up his spindle and ball of wool to shove into his cloak pockets.

"We should go find Obi-wan."

Luke's gaze isn't challenging, it's calm and neutral and irritatingly understanding. "Do you want me to ask Obi-Wan that question?"

"No. But you have a right to know, and I won't tell you without his permission," Ezra replies, aiming for a similar level of calm yet missing the mark, a little.

He's trying to be fair to both Luke and Obi-wan, though.

"... that's fair," he agrees. "We should probably give him some space for a while, though. Let him put himself back together."

"Hmmm," Ezra replies noncommittally.

There's something to be said for giving Obi-Wan space, yes, but for one thing he'd like to give the man a hug, and for another he isn't sure that for Obi-wan, master thought he is, meditation doesn't occasionally end up being less a helpful way of processing and more along the lines of lost in his own head.

So the padawan closes his eyes and lightly reaches out along the bond he has his master to get a better send where on that line Obi-wan might. Ezra hadn't been willing to do that when he was angry, but he's much calmer now. Worried, with a underlying steely determination to see this conversation through, but not angrry.

Ezra has really good intuition.

As he reaches out, there’s clearly barriers erected around the Jedi. The only crack in his defense being one that only Ezra can worm his way into. Simply because of their promise and thus not completely shutting him out.

Obi-Wan is still guarded though. Trying to meditate and find come calm, yet still trembling with grief, shame, and guilt under the surface. Desperately trying to be the good Jedi and to be strong. Yet broken with reopened wounds that stubbornly refuse to heal.

Ezra opens his eyes, frowning.

"Look, this entire situation sucks," he says frankly, after mulling it all over a moment. "But I'm pretty sure what's going to happen if we leave him alone is he's going shove down a lot of self-blame until he can fake fine, but it won't actually be any kind of better. And, well, I doubt wondering whether you'll decide you hate him, too, helps either."

"... why would I- okay, right, can't tell me without his permission. I'm not going to hate him. I don't hate anyone. I mostly forgave Father, Obi-Wan cannot have done anything close to what he did."

Well, that was the hitch, wasn't it? Both Luke and Obi-wan loved Anakin and responses when someone you love being hurt in involved aren't always reasonable.

"No, of course he didn't," Ezra sighs.

I'm coming to you Ezra tries to send to Obi-wan. It's the clearest message he's tried to send from farther than face to face, but he bets the intent will carry.

Message received. Obi-Wan tenses, both physically and mentally. He’s unsure if he’s ready to face a talk that he doesn’t want to have.

And while Luke gives a good impression of serenity, there's an undercurrent of uncertainty as he follows Ezra, hands folded in front of him and trying to keep his thoughts to himself.

Ezra isn't completely sure he's not steering them all into a painful conversation with no upside, either, but...

He's done the sitting in guilt and awful silences and avoidance. That definitely hadn't gone anywhere good.

Up this temple's small version of a spire they go. Without preamble, Ezra goes directly to sit beside Obi-wan, letting concern and affection drift into their bond.

"Luke wants to know about Mustafar. I don't mind telling him, but I told him I wouldn't do it behind your back," he says quietly.

Obi-Wan is there with his eyes closed, trying to be as serene as he can under the circumstances. The flickering light of the crystals playing across his form. It’s only when Ezra sits and speaks that he stirs. His eyes opening to look at the crystal, watching the dancing flames within them.

“I appreciate that.” He says quietly, and he means it. “It’s a conversation I should have with him. Though I’m uncertain if I’m ready for it.”

Luke doesn't sit. Luke waits back a bit more, not intruding, letting Obi-Wan sort out if he wants to tell him or wants Ezra to tell him or neither.

"There's at least one future," Ezra points out, as gently as he can, "Where it looks like you'll never be the kind of ready you want to be. Or Luke would know these things already. Do you know what you need?"

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