Work Text:
Obi-Wan had suggested Dex's diner as a meeting place, thinking that Shmi would be more comfortable, but she had refused very calmly and invited him to a place he had never heard of before. It was down a few levels, and got hardly any natural light, but the restaurant was quiet and clean and private. She seemed to be good friends with the people behind the serving counter, and greeted everyone with little bits of news about names they threw at her.
It was a calm, cheerful place, so he was completely unprepared when, in the middle of their meal, she asked him, "How do you know if you've met someone using the Force for evil?"
There was nothing humorous about the question, and Obi-Wan found himself struggling to catch up with the tone change of the conversation. They'd been discussing Leia and Anakin's situation on Geonosis, and sharing amusing anecdotes about Anakin's childhood. Surely she didn't think Anakin was—
"I suppose you know by comparing them to those you've felt using it for good, and the opposition to that," he answered slowly. "I'm not really sure how to answer you."
She seemed frustrated by the short response. "It does me no good to speculate and be wrong in this case. If there is a way to know, I must learn it. I cannot conceal the truth."
"You've personally met someone using the Force in a way you would instinctively define as 'evil?'"
She nodded solemnly and Obi-Wan took a deep breath, the privacy of their setting suddenly taking on new meaning. "Have you kept track of where the Refugee Committee has placed them? We could have a general…”
His words trailed off as she shook her head slowly. "I don't think…I’m not sure a Jedi is capable of recognizing what I've felt. If they haven't already noticed…” Her fingers tightened around her mug, her expression closing off in a way Obi-Wan had never seen before. "I must be sure. No, I am sure. But I must know how to defend my certainty to those who have never felt what I have, and will not want to believe me when I speak."
She wasn't just asking for knowledge or understanding about the Force. She was asking him to teach her how to act and move in a world she had never inserted herself into previously. That told him the severity of this if nothing else did. But it was more than that too. She didn't believe the Jedi could do what she'd done, which meant she believed the Jedi had been close to someone using the Force for what she felt she must describe as evil, and they hadn't noticed it. At all.
"There is some room for defense simply on the grounds of what you've felt," Obi-Wan said, turning his own cup back and forth. "I doubt any Jedi who knew you would question whether you knew the difference between good and evil. The fact that you have enough strength in the Force to do the things that you have done means you're more than strong enough to get accurate impressions of things. If there's something specific you can describe, a feeling of cold or darkness is common, that may help us to understand you more clearly."
She stared at Obi-Wan for a long moment, then said, "I watched him speak to my son, and when his lips moved and his tongue clicked I saw my child wrapped in consuming chains."
That was significantly more vivid (and personal) than Obi-Wan had been expecting. "You've known this for some time."
"Two days," she said, shaking her head. "I knew him to be callous before then, but saw it as a more mundane evil. But the way he talked to Ani…” She stared at him, like she was afraid of Obi-Wan almost. "You really never noticed?"
Someone who spoke to Anakin. Someone who had spoken to Anakin in front of Obi-Wan. Someone who had spoken to Anakin in the last few days, who Shmi would have had access to.
That was a very, very short list. "What you're suggesting—“ He licked his lips, his throat dry and hot. "Shmi, that’s—”
He didn't have to finish. She knew it was treason.
And she knew no one would believe her.
"Leia's not on planet," she said quietly. "I do not know the Council. Master Allie is kind and trustworthy, but I don't think she would know how to believe me." Her gaze pierced Obi-Wan as she said, "You love him. As much as I do. We must stop this."
"Leia's not on planet," she had had said. Not that Leia wouldn't believe her. But Leia wasn't here.
Leia knew.
(Obi-Wan knew. He knew it as surely as he was breathing. Hadn't he always felt uncomfortable about the Chancellor? Hadn't Dooku said, to Obi-Wan's face, that the Senate was entirely lost?)
(He knew.)
(He didn't know how to believe it.)
"A Sith," Obi-Wan said softly, "is a very dangerous being. They can have as much training as the most expert Jedi master, but they are greedy and selfish and cruel. They have no limitations in their cruelty."
"I know," she told him. "I've seen it."
She'd watched him wrap her son in chains, just by speaking. Obi-Wan was suddenly surprised that the Chancellor was still alive. There was something in Shmi's eyes now, something that reminded Obi-Wan a little too much of Leia.
She was going to do something. Alone if she had too.
"Does he know?" Obi-Wan asked. "That you've discovered him?"
Her smile was wry now. "He'd completely forgotten I was in the room. I don't think he would have taken the call with Anakin if he'd remembered. It happens quite often," she added at Obi-Wan's skeptical look. "He sees right through me most of the time. Unless he needs me to be a tool in his hand. But he rarely sees much use in me."
It should have been harder for Obi-Wan to believe. "We'll need allies," he said. "We'll need proof, if we aren't going to turn the Republic into collateral damage."
(Dooku was the apprentice. Dooku ran the Separatist cause. Palpatine ran the Republic. The entire war was a trap.)
(Leia and Anakin were alone, where Obi-Wan couldn't reach them.)
Shmi was nodding. "Do you think anyone from your order will believe me?"
"Anakin will," he said, no hesitation. "But if you mean the Council…” And it would have to be them. Obi-Wan couldn't act on this alone. "I trust Master Windu to at least hear us out. And Master Koon."
"Then we will tell them first," Shmi said, finishing her drink and setting the mug on the table with a decisive clack. She watched Obi-Wan for a while when he didn't move. He would. He couldn't stay here forever. Anakin needed him.
"Your ghost believes me," Shmi said, almost amused.
Obi-Wan jerked in his seat. "I don't know—“
"He's quite aware," her smile got sharper somehow. "But you will see him one day. Probably soon."
Of all the things she'd said, that was the one that left Obi-Wan speechless.