title Imprisoned
author patientalien
rating R
characters Ahsoka, Anakin, Obi-Wan
summary AU of ROTS (sort of). The Citadel was designed to hold Jedi who had lost their way, and none lost their way as badly as Anakin Skywalker. - implied character death
notes I thought Anakin's description of the Citadel in the most recent episode was an interesting one, it got me thinking. I sort of saw it as an Azkaban for Jedi. Thank you to citizenjess for the title and for her suggestions.

Ahsoka Tano forced herself to stand tall against the violent winds whipping around the poisonous lake and swallowed heavily. Though she'd been here once before, it had been under very different circumstances - the Citadel had fallen back into Republic hands during their seige on it months earlier and it had gone back to being what it had been before Separatist control - a prison for Jedi.

Her master's words echoed through her head as the speeder sluiced closer to the massive, forbidding structure. Everyone else on that mission had referred to the place as a Separatist stronghold; her master was the only one who'd told her the truth of what it was, and what it had once been used for. To hold Jedi if any of us lost our way.

Apparently, her master had lost his way. She'd been so angry at him the last time they'd spoken - again, him picking and choosing her missions for her. Apparently rescuing the Chancellor was a little too important for a youngling, and this time there was no way for her to sneak in undetected. She'd pouted, but let them go, and refused to talk to Anakin again once he'd returned to Coruscant. In fact, she'd given herself a mission in the far-flung Outer Rim, taking only Torrent Company and a small frigate, so it took days for the news to reach her.

Palpatine was dead. The galaxy was in shambles, and her master had fallen and, if the reports were to be believed, fallen hard. The Temple had been burned to the ground, and hundreds of Jedi and younglings murdered, all at her master's hand. According to the report that trickled in over secure channels - she had a feeling Artoo Detoo was responsible - Obi-Wan had been able to subdue Anakin and bring him in, but not before Anakin had killed Palpatine as well, declaring himself Emperor. And now he was here, being held in what amounted to a maximum security prison for Jedi and, now, Sith.

The looming tower reminded her of something out of a nightmarish children's story and as the shuttle docked, she let out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding. She hadn't told anyone she was coming - as soon as she saw the report, she'd left her squad and made a direct course to Lola Sayu. She didn't care if she had to fight her way in, she was going to see him.

Surprisingly, the guards at the gate did not put up any resistance. Two Jedi, they looked at her with a mixture of pity and concern, but led her to the lift that would take her to the bowels of the Citadel, where Anakin Skywalker was being kept. They did not, she noticed, look afraid. She herself was a little nervous and she wondered if they just didn't know how powerful her master was - or maybe they were so confident in the Citadel's ability to hold fallen Jedi they didn't feel the need to be afraid.

The ride was silent, and Ahsoka could feel the dark side growing more and more suffocating with each floor descended. Finally, the doors slid open. "Last cell on the right," one of the guards informed her and backed off quickly; perhaps they really were afraid. She made her way down the gloomy cell block, not daring to look in any of the other cells. She could really only sense one or two life forms, though.

When she approached the cell, she sucked in a gasp through her teeth. Anakin hung suspended by a force-field in the center of the cell, which had been stripped of everything. Holes in the wall from where he'd punched through them had been hastily patched over; pipes overhead had been forcibly re-routed after he'd exerted his considerable will on them. Hanging in the ether, he appeared to be sleeping - or sedated.

"Ahsoka!" The voice was not Anakin's, but it was nonetheless familiar. Out of the shadows at the very end of the cell block stepped Obi-Wan, looking tired and worn. "Ahsoka, what are you doing here?" He sounded urgent, warning. "This is no place for you. Anakin..."

"Is my master, so my place is here," she replied, sharper than she'd intended. "Master Obi-Wan, what happened?" She had so many questions, so many worries and regrets, surely he would give her that small kindness of the truth.

Instead, he shook his head and gazed sadly at his former student in the cell. The lights flickered suddenly, and Obi-Wan took a step backwards, placing a restraining hand across Ahsoka's chest. The figure in the cell began to stir like a great dragon awakening. His eyes opened, yellow and poisoned, and he began to scream. It was a hoarse screaming, like he'd been doing it off and on for days, which Ahsoka didn't doubt he had been. "Traitor!" he spat at Obi-Wan. "You kriffing traitor!" Spittle flew from his lips as he raged, hurling every horrible insult Ahsoka had ever heard at Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan remained standing where he was, arms crossed over his chest, looking insurmountably sad. "I've broken out of this place before, I can kriffing do it again!" Anakin reminded them, though he hadn't seemed to have taken notice of Ahsoka yet. "Let me OUT!" He closed his eyes and he was like a force of nature given human form.

The force field containing him shorted out and he dropped to the floor. Throwing out a hand, the glass cell walls shattered and Ahsoka had to duck to keep the shards from hitting her face. In the confusion, Anakin darted out of the cell, slamming his weight into Obi-Wan and grabbing Ahsoka by the hand. "C'mon, Snips," he said and for a brief, horrible second, Ahsoka forgot what was really happening, forced to run to follow him down the hall, his grip on her hand vise-tight. She heard Obi-Wan running after them, felt him tackle Anakin to the ground.

"Ahsoka!" Obi-Wan exclaimed, "move away!" She scurried down the hall a bit, but then stopped to watch. Anakin didn't have a lightsaber, but he did have the Force. Surprisingly, he seemed to be holding back from outright killing Obi-Wan - it seemed his only focus was escape. After getting a strong kick to Obi-Wan's jaw that made the Jedi Master reel backwards, Anakin was sprinting down the hall again. Ahsoka ran to Obi-Wan, helping him up. "Master, he's..."

Obi-Wan nodded, and hit a button on his wristcomm. Instantly, electricity crackled from the walls, heading in the same direction Anakin had gone in. A moment later, she heard a strangled cry of pain. She and Obi-Wan reached him at the same time the guards did, crumpled on the ground, twitching. "Well, that proves it," one of the guards said, obviously addressing Obi-Wan. "We must take the next step."

Sighing, Obi-Wan ran a hand over Anakin's scarred cheek. "I was hoping it wouldn't come to this." He sounded perilously close to tears, and Ahsoka swallowed a sudden lump in her throat. "But it's the only way."

"Are you going to kill him?" Ahsoka demanded, feeling sick to her stomach. One of the guards injected Anakin's neck with a hypo-spray, and Ahsoka had a dreadful feeling she was watching an execution.

"No," Obi-Wan replied, closing his eyes. "They're going to fit him with a suppressor and put him in the medical ward where he can be better controlled."

It took a few moments for the implications to sink in. "You're just going to cut him off from the Force and keep him on a chemical leash for the rest of his life?" she demanded, the sick feeling in her stomach returning tenfold. "How is that the Jedi way?" Why weren't they even trying to bring him back, she wondered helplessly. Obi-Wan, of all people...

"He's dangerous, Ahsoka," Obi-Wan replied as the guards dragged Anakin down the hall towards, she presumed, the medical ward. "And the Jedi have no law allowing us to execute prisoners." He sighed softly. "It may have been better if he hadn't allowed himself to be captured." The implication weighed heavy in the air - Obi-Wan could have killed him in battle and spared him this fate.

"So you're not even going to try," Ahsoka said. It was not a question. "Why? You did on Mortis - you went after him, and brought him back, and..."

Obi-Wan shook his head. "That was different," he said. "There were outside influences, this... this was Anakin's choice."

Ahsoka firmed up her jaw. "I don't believe that!" she snapped. "There's still good in him - there has to be. He could have killed us both just now, but he didn't. He's..." She swallowed. "He's afraid, Master. Why won't you try?"

Obi-Wan's expression hardened, and Ahsoka wondered what he'd seen. "Because Anakin is dead," he told her, and stormed out of the cell block.

Despite Obi-Wan's declaration, Ahsoka couldn't believe all hope was lost. She left the Citadel that day determined to return. And she did, week after week, even after she'd learned that Anakin had killed not only Jedi, but Padme and her unborn babies as well. Week after week she appeared, and week after week he looked at her as if she were a ghost. He recognized her at first; she'd been able to talk to him - not about the things he'd done as Vader - the one time she'd brought it up had required three med droids to hold him down and sedate him, but about missions they had been on, about her impending Knighthood. It was, she thought, almost normal. But every time she visited, something else was missing from his memory, something else had been stripped away from his emotions.

He wasn't angry anymore. He no longer felt the anxious hand of dread, but he no longer seemed to feel anything. Day by day, week by week, they were draining him. They couldn't kill him outright, but they were punishing him for the things he'd done, the atrocities wrought upon the galaxy.

On her last visit, she realized what had happened: they'd broken him completely. He didn't talk to her, didn't even seem to recognize her. He stared at the wall and rocked gently, knees pulled to his chest. He had, the 'droids told her, stopped eating. She knew - they were going to let him kill himself. There was nothing left of her vibrant, charismatic master, just a shell of a human being with dull blue eyes.

"I'm sorry, Master," she said softly, kissing his forehead. He didn't even blink, and gave no indication he noticed her walking away. She knew, now, that she would never return. Anakin Skywalker was dead, after all.