Take Seven

by Bablefishmouse

Summary:

Luke had succeeded. The Empire had fallen. Vader was redeemed, at least in the eyes of the force. All was well. But the cost had been high, too high. As Obi-Wan faded from existence he wished to be able to fix it, to change all that. And someone answered.
Sent back in time with his family to the last few months of the Clone Wars now they must desperately try to prevent the destruction of the republic, the obliteration of the Jedi order, and the rise of a Sith Empire.
All in a few months, while sorting out who they are, what makes them family, and do they really deserve to be here.

Chapter 1: Another Chance

Obi-Wan could feel himself grinning at Anakin, at Yoda, at Luke as the young man turned his back on them and the pyre, and turned back to his friends. In the end they’d done it. Anakin had done it; he was himself again. Sidious had been defeated and the empire destroyed. For the first time in a very long time, the sensation of peace and tranquillity washed over him.

Slowly Obi-Wan sank into that sensation, wondering absent-mindedly what the world would have turned out if they had known about Sidious. Would they have been able to stop him? Even if they were in the late stages of the Clone Wars, had the damage already been done? It didn’t really matter now. Anakin was back, and by the complete blankness of the world, Obi-Wan was finally becoming one with the force.

A sensation not unlike a tide ebbing over sand swept over him as he fell backwards into a wash of space and time.  Things would be better, was his last coherent thought before a wave of dizziness consumed him.

“Do you wish to go back?” A vague musical voice said, humming all around, yet seemingly from within Obi-Wan’s own mind. “Would you present the breaking of what has been fixed?”

“Is it better for something to have been broken and then mended, or for it to have never been broken in the first place?” Obi-Wan asked.

“That depends on whether it is already fractured when it was truly broken.”

“It is easier and cleaner to heal a crack than two separate pieces.” Obi-Wan felt himself replying.

A barely audible laugh followed. “Your wish shall be granted former Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. But it will fall on you and your family to fix it. I cannot offer any assistance.”

But… he had no blood family.

The sensation of falling returned as he fell further and further his sense of being slipping. Who was he, when was he, was he even a he? It didn’t matter anymore as the force took hold of his consciousness.

 

High General Obi-Wan Kenobi opened his eyes upon the inside of tent he’d forgotten had ever existed. Was it true? Had he really been sent by- by someone into his own past to try and prevent it all? Could he manage it? Could he prevent Anakin’s fall, Order 66, the rise of the empire? Obi-Wan, involved as he had been, had never been entirely sure what had happened in the end. And he had no idea how long he had to achieve it all.

He slung himself out of his bunk. And left the tent to glare at whatever clone was outside. Oh Force! The clones. He’d have to get over it, it wasn’t their fault. He knew that. If he forgave Anakin, who had been in control of himself, if hardly in his right mind, he could forgive people who had yet to be taken over by control chips.

“Kix,” He said, recognising with relief the man hurrying towards him. He must be on a joint mission with Anakin. “What’s going on?”

“Sir,” Kix said, “What are you doing up?”

“Well you know me and medical leave.” Obi-Wan attempted to shrug it off. “I do however need to see people, and indeed get up to date on things. I don’t suppose you know where everybody is?”

“General Kenobi, Sir, you’ve been unconscious for more than a day, I may not be your medic, but I really can’t advise just wondering around, particularly after what happened.”

“Well Kix, if you tell me where people are, I won’t be wondering around will I? I’ll be heading somewhere specific.”

Kix looked at him suspiciously, then smiled. “Well from what I can tell the only thing you’re suffering from is spending too much time with General Skywalker, Sir. The General should be in his tent, but he’s probably in the command tent with the Commander, Captain Rex and Cody, Sir. None of whom should be up and about, but you know them.”

“Thank-you Kix,” Obi-Wan relaxed slightly. If his Grand-Padawan was still with the Jedi he had more time than he thought he might to fix this.

Fortunately, while the Command tent might not have been particularly noticeable, his suddenly renewed bond with Anakin was.

He pulled the tent flap aside to be face with his former padawan’s back.

“Anakin?” He said, laying a hand on the young man’s shoulder. “Are you alright? I-“ Force this was harder than he’d thought it would be. “I know the Jedi don’t go in for talking about it much, but you know I’m always here if you need me right?”

“Don’t look at me.” Anakin pleaded in a small broken voice. “Please don’t, I’m – I’m an abomination, and you’re you. I’m destined to go dark and I- I should just kill myself now really. I’m not-“

“Anakin!” Obi-wan walked around so he could look his friend in the eye. “Anakin, what are you talking about?”

“What would you say if I said I’d seen the future. I’d lived it really, and I was the greatest monster that there had ever been.” Anakin said, his voice quiet and laced with emotion. “The Jedi were all gone. The men had been turned against us. I- I killed you, and Padme, and everyone.” He let out a cry of pain. “Alderan was gone, and it was all my fault.”

Oh, that kind of family. Obi-wan took a deep breath and a risk. “I would say Sidious is currently a far worse monster than Vader could ever hope to be.”

That caused Anakin’s head to shoot up and his eyes to meet Obi-Wan’s for the first time. “You- you know?”

“I lived it. You lived it. And now we have a chance to make sure no-one else has to. I don’t suppose you’ve found out the date yet?” Obi-Wan said keeping his voice and gaze steady towards Anakin. “It will be alright.”

“How?” Anakin dropped his gaze again. “How can you even bare to look at me. You know what I did. I, I killed everyone. I KILLED YOU!”

“Anakin.” Obi-Wan dropped his shields. “Do you think I care for you so little that your betrayal would make the slightest difference?”[1]

Anakin’s head shot upwards and his hands shot around as he grabbed his former mentor into a tight hug.  “I- I wasn’t even sure you liked me.”

Obi-Wan couldn’t think of anything to do but to hug back. Fearful that if he let his friend go, the illusion would end. “Anakin, I-“

Ahsoka Tano entered the tent, “Unfortunately I don’t think this is the time for this discussion.” He finished.

Anakin nodded with misunderstanding and let his friend go. Then he saw Ahsoka. “SNIPS!” He yelled far too enthusiastically.

“I caught the end of that conversation.” The young padawan said gravely.

“Ahsoka …” Obi-Wan said warningly.

She held up- her hand warningly. “What would you do if I said I was thinking about going as Fulcrum?”

“Oh,” Obi-Wan said. “Welcome back?”

“Fulcrum?” Anakin pondered for a moment, before the sudden realisation of why the name was familiar to him hit. “THAT WAS YOU?” He spun around so his back was to both of them, but a rush of pride and horror spread through the bonds. “Oh what did I do?” he murmured.

“Nothing yet.” Ahsoka said stepping forward to a level with Obi-Wan. “It’s the middle of the Clone Wars. It’s a long way until E-day, and I personally don’t intend to let Sidious see it alive. We could probably do with some sort of plan, but then we have three high class military generals here. I think we ought to be able to think of something.”

“That’s one way of putting it. Anakin, are you in?” Obi-Wan smiled broadly. So this was what had been meant by family. He wondered if Yoda was back too. He doubted it.

“Oh I’ll see Sidious dead.” Anakin swore. “I can’t promise about afterwards, but I’ll see him dead, Dooku defeated, Grievous obliterated. Fuck! What are we doing about Ventress?”

“Oh, Grey,” Ahsoka said quietly.

“Huh?”

She sighed. “When are you back from?”

“Just after the fall of the second Death Star, and the death of Darth Sidious, and Vader.” Obi-Wan said,

“Same,” Anakin agreed. “I’d just faded out after the after party.”

“A few weeks later for me.” Ahsoka said, “I’d just talked to Leia for the first time in a while. And Luke for the first time ever. Then I just sort of blanked out and woke up here. Bit odd to be so young again.”

“Leia, Leia Organa?” Anakin asked.

“yeah, Bail may have taken her in, but I didn’t exactly abandon Skygirl.”

Anakin let out another burst of pride, shame and horror. “How did I not realise?” He whispered. “She looked so much like Padme, and-“ The rest of the words were lost as he burst into tears, singing to the ground. “How often is this going to happen? How often am I going to realise I tortured my, my-“ his voice hitched- “my daughter, or killed Bail, or went after you, or- how often?” He screamed.

Obi-Wan knelt down next to him. “I don’t know. I don’t know how often we’ll work out that someone we thought was dead was really alive. I don’t know how often we’ll be hit with the sudden realisation that so few of them are dead now. I don’t even know if Vos has fallen yet. But I do know that E-day hasn’t happened yet. I do know that Padme is alive and well and probably missing you somewhere on Coruscant. The Temple is standing. I won’t say the order isn’t broken. But it’s there, it’s fixable.”

Anakin huffed and leant into his partner. “I know I don’t deserve it. But can you-“

“Anakin. I promise to you that I will not desert you.” Obi-Wan swore.

“I was going to say, if you think I’m going Vader, kill me then, don’t wait for me to start killing you. I don’t- I can’t be in that position ever.”

“Anakin,” Obi-Wan said warningly, “I couldn’t do that on Mustafar, there is no way I could ever kill you.”

“Same.” Ahsoka said. “Too bad Skyguy. You’re going to have to ask someone who’s slightly better at following the ‘no attachments’ clause in the code.”

“Oh,” Anakin said simply, looking between his former master, now partner, and his padawan. “We’re a mess aren’t we. I mean, me most of all, but... yeah.”

“Our entire Lineage is a mess.” Obi-Wan said. “I don’t know how much of it you know.”

“Not much.” Ahsoka said, sitting cross-legged on the floor next to them. “You trained Anakin, but that’s about it.”

“Well I was trained by a, well, let us say unconventional, Master called Qui-Gon Jinn. I- I loved him dearly, but his favourite phrase often seemed to be ‘I follow the will of the force’. That roughly translates into ‘fuck the council’.”

“Ah.” Ahsoka said with new understanding.

“He was a master of the living force, and an expert in form IV. Darth Maul killed him.”

“Oh.”

“That’s how Obi-Wan ended up saddled with me.” Anakin said.

“Not saddled, not since the very early days.” Obi-Wan countered strongly. “But yes, he was very fond of picking up, well I used to call them pathetic life-forms. I was one, although how we ended up as a master-padawan duo is another story. Anyway, he was trained by a name we’re now sadly familiar with, Count, then Master, Dooku.”

“Count Dooku is your Grand-Master.” Ahsoka said incredulously.

Obi-Wan nodded.

She whistled. “I know see what you mean, our lineage is seriously messed up. Who trained him? On the Jedi side I mean.”

“Yoda. Who might be a little green troll, but we hardly have to worry about turning to the dark side.” Obi-Wan said with a small smile.

“So,” Ahsoka said, “We have one current Sith Apprentice, one former Sith Apprentice, one Grey Jedi, a Marginal Jedi, and then the epitome of Jedi-ness and the current head of the order. It’s an odd bunch.”

“Who’s meant to be the epitome of Jedi-ness?” Obi-Wan asked incredulously.

Anakin and Ahsoka looked at him.

“Hmm, and Palpatine is a mild mannered politician.” He said. “And that’s not counting Qui-Gon’s previous Padawans. We’re a messed up bunch alright.” Then he stopped and considered. “But I’m rather fond of us, all the same.”

A cough sounded, “Excuse me Sirs,” Rex said from the entrance to the tent, looking rather shaken. “Is everything alright?”

“Yes, yes,” It was Ahsoka who recovered first, being, ultimately most familiar with the man. She had spent a good portion of the last twenty-six years of her life working with him after all, “We’ve just had a sort of Jedi Vision of a potential future and it was rather disturbing”

Rex looked at the three of them for a moment, then at Ahsoka for a moment more, studying her posture, and considering the positions they were in, then he asked. “Fulcrum?”

“Yes?” Ahsoka said, then realised “Oh,”

Rex muttered something that might have been thanking someone that it wasn’t just him as Ahsoka swept him into a hug.

“It’s not just you, four of us and counting. When are you back from?” She asked.

“Huh?” Rex asked.

“Those two are back from just after the death of the Emperor, and I’m back from just after I talked to Luke and Leia. When?”

“Same, I think. What happened?”

“Why are we back in time, or what happened to end the empire?” Ahsoka asked, “I’m not sure now’s the right time. But we’re all ourselves.” She glanced back to where Anakin was leaning heavily on Obi-Wan, “And we were all ourselves when we went back too.”

Rex followed the glance and nodded. “What are we doing first?”

“Well,”, Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker puller himself up, and together. “As we were saying earlier, we have Dooku to kill, Grievous to deal with and Sidious to obliterate. We also have chips to remove,” Rex touched the back of his neck subconsciously. “Good men to validate in the eyes of the law, and, in my eyes, two systems to revamp.”

“Well that’s not ambitious at all.” Obi-Wan said, standing up.

“What you don’t think we can do it?” Anakin asked,

“I think we need a more detailed plan other than we want to do a, b and c.” The Jedi Master said.

“Hey, we want to do at least six things.” Anakin said grinning.

“And I’m still not letting you set the plan.” Obi-Wan teased.

“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.” Anakin’s smile dropped right off his face.

“Oh Anakin,” Obi-Wan laid a hand gently on his shoulder, “That wasn’t what I meant at all.”

Ahsoka, who had been tracking the exchange with a small nostalgic grin, stilled for a moment. Silence sat in the air.

“So, what do we do now?” Rex asked again.

Obi-Wan sighed, “Now we find out what in the living force is going on.”

The tent flaps opened and you could almost feel the air chill as a tall, bald, imposing figure strode in.

Asajj Ventress glared at the assembled four. “Long time no see.”

 

[1] Gratuitously pinched from doctor who

Chapter 2: An Unexpected Ally

Notes:

The canonical Clone Wars timeline is a little fuzzy. I've happily blurred it a bit more. Basically the whole Ventress v Dooku arc has gotten stretched out quite a lot in the background of some of the other bits of the Clone Wars.
Also: Thank-you so much for feedback! As you probably guessed, this is unbeta'd.

The tent flaps opened and you could almost feel the air chill as a tall, bald, imposing figure strode in.

Asajj Ventress glared at the assembled four. “Long time no see.”

Ahsoka Tano stared in horror at the new arrival. This was evil-Ventress. Why hadn’t the force warned them about her arrival? Had they been so blind by their own concerns they could miss the arrival of a Sith? Hesitantly she reached out into Force. There was Obi-Wan’s familiar signature, it was older than it used to be, more worn down, but fundamentally the same light warmth.

Anakin’s was changed, but still identifiable. It was too bright and strong to be mistaken for anything else, even behind newly steel shielding. Hints of the regret and shame he was leaking earlier threatened to spill out.

Rex’s was the same weak warmly and strength that she had been used to for the last twenty-five years of her life. That made sense, force signatures, especially of non-sensitives, didn’t change over a matter of hours.

Hesitantly she reached out to where Ventress was standing, if she was wrong about this… There, she felt the force signature, the nervousness, the warmth and concern that was being concealed, the absence of overwhelming darkness and the vague remnants of a pair bond. Oh… Oh!

Asajj was speaking “I know you don’t have any reason to believe me, but I have come from-“

Ahsoka cut her off “Grey?”

Asajj snapped all her focus on Ahsoka. “Not just me.”

“No,” Ahsoka said, her eyes watering with relief, “Really not just you,”

To the other three’s astonishment Asajj rushed forward and swept Ahsoka up into a hug. “Heya,”

“Hey Grey,” Ahsoka murmured. “We’re probably freaking out the overprotective-duo right now.”

Asajj Ventress, the former-Sith apprentice, released her on-off working partner of twenty years. “I think it’s more over-protective trio.”

Rex said, “I relaxed the second I heard Grey.”

Anakin cleared his throat stepping forward so he was in between Ahsoka and Asajj. Hand twitching for his lightsabre, he ignored it and instead asked, “Can I ask what happened?”

“Having lived the next twenty to thirty years, most of it as a perfectly pleasant bounty hunter, I was rather disturbed to wake up on Dathomir, with a plan to take down Dooku in place.”

“Anakin,” Obi-Wan said warningly, stepping forward to their level.

“Right, sorry,” He took a step backwards, still keeping in front of Ahsoka.

“What did you do?” Obi-Wan asked Asajj.

She shrugged. “Panicked,” She glanced at Ahsoka, “Shielded, then got as many supplies as I could on my ship. Successfully, disabled the tracking devices, got into the base using my inside man, set explosives around the base, killed Dooku, blew the base up and went to find the only three people crazy enough in the galaxy to believe my story.”

There was stunned silence for a moment.

Then Anakin made an aborted movement and said with utter astonishment. “I think you are now my joint fourth favourite person alive right now.”

Obi-Wan burst into quiet laughter. “It is a very you plan, Anakin. Well, I guess we can cross item one off of the agenda then.”

Everyone felt themselves relax as they all took a step backwards.

“All of you are back as well then.” Asajj said, then looked at Anakin, “All,” she stressed the first word, “of you.”

Anakin nodded, “Kill me if I seem to be going Vader. I mean it.”

Asajj nodded, “That I can promise. Nice to have you back. We’re going to need your particular branch of insanity to get through this.” Then she added, “No Judgement here,”

“No Judgement.” Anakin agreed.

A moment of ease passed within the group. None of them forgot what the others had done, or would have done, but there was an air of forgiveness nonetheless.

“So,” Rex began, “Do you know what planet we’re on at least?”

A good few hours later it all began to go wrong.

The five of them had been huddled, plotting, in the tent and had hence come up with a somewhat reasonable plan. Admittedly one that more or less boiled down to – get back to the temple and work out stuff from there. They all agreed that while they should avoid Sidious for now- either in his Palpatine disguise or not.

“I still think I should stay well out of the way of the rest of you. I will just complicate the shit out of it all.” Asajj argued. “I’ll stay in range and maybe try and get to some events before they happen.” She gave a pointed look towards Obi-Wan.

“Satine,” he murmured, then added in a far more normal tone of voice. “We don’t even know if that will happen now. Dooku being dead changes a lot. I’d rather we all stuck together.”

“And I don’t see how me getting locked up changes anything!” Asajj yelled.

“Ah, yes, well,” Obi-Wan considered. “You may have a point.”

 “What about if Grey goes to Coruscant separately and maintains both her own cover as a bounty hunter, and contact with us there?” Ahsoka suggested. “That way we all get to stay together, but no-one is arrested.”

Anakin glanced at Rex. “When did she get so wise?”

Rex shrugged.

Obi-Wan sighed. “That would work, I guess. Asajj?”

The grey force user rolled her eyes, then said. “I guess. At least for a bit. You’re checking my shielding before I leave though.”

“Now that’s a point.” Anakin said, “As much as I- “he broke off, rethought, and began again, “The Jedi either need to know or need to not know. If they need to not know then we need to make sure we appear as we should do if we weren’t us. So someone needs to help me-“

Obi-wan wanted to step in, to say of course he’d help, but something told him not only did he need to be asked, but that Anakin needed to ask.

“Someone needs to help me make sure that my shielding is such that no-one can tell that I’m a si-. No.” Anakin corrected himself, “That I was a Sith Lord. Can you-“ He looked between Asajj, Ahsoka and Obi-Wan. “Can one of you help please?”

Obi-Wan agreed at the same time as Ahsoka said, “That might be a good idea all around. I undoubtedly feel more grey than I should do at this point, Obi-Wan could probably get away with it, it hasn’t changed that much, but as for the rest of us.”

“Fuck time travel is complicated.” Anakin agreed.

The tent flap moved behind them, unseen to the five of them that were surrounding the table.

“We haven’t even had to worry about cause-and-effect or paradoxes yet.” Obi-Wan said, his amusement obvious.

“You mean this is going to get even more complicated?” Rex asked.

“Does it matter?” Anakin asked grinning.

Asajj looked at them one by one, sighed, and said: “I should have done this on my own shouldn’t I?”

“Sir,” The sound of guns being aimed finally got the group’s notice.

Cody was leading a group of soldiers. The guns were being aimed at Asajj.

Obi-Wan froze. Rex instinctively began to step in front of them. Ahsoka drew her lightsabres.

Asajj Ventress had a split second to decide how she wanted to play it. Without a nanosecond of notice, she threw up a force illusion over herself and her lightsabres, changing the handle and her race to human passing. “It’s not a bad illusion is it?”

“It’s very convincing,” amazingly Anakin was the first one to recover. “I can see how it’d be very effective. Oh, Hey Cody, people,” He pretended to have just noticed the troops in the tent, “It’s much better than yours, Obi-Wan.”

Anakin could feel the amount of effort it took Obi-Wan to relax and say dryly “Very funny Anakin. But it is a good approximation of Ventress. The plan however.”

“It sounds like something Skyguy’d do.” Ahsoka snorted twilling her lightsabres around and away. “Hey guys? What’s up?”

Cody cleared his throat. “There was a massive explosion-“

“Ah,” Asajj interrupted him. “That would have been me. Let’s just say you authorised the plan before I executed it alright?”

Ahsoka let out a couple of genuine chuckles. “Grey, good luck with that.”

Obi-Wan frowned at her. “Thank-you for that Ahsoka.” At least she’d called her Grey rather than by her name. He turned to the soldiers. “Cody you’d better stay, Kix we’re all alright relax, the rest of you can leave. That includes you Kix. We’ll tell you when we can but for now this is all highly classified. You’ve seen a bit more than you were supposed to already.”

“Alright Men,” Cody said, “You heard the General, all out, and not a word to anyone, brothers or not.”

There were various mumblings of ‘yes sir’ as the ten or so men elbowed their way out of the tent.

Cody waited until they were gone to turn back towards the generals. “Sirs, what’s going on?”

Anakin’s eyes flitted frantically between Asajj and Obi-Wan, the later of whom stared at the small table they’d been huddled around. Ahsoka blinked.

The truth or a lie. What would they tell Cody? It was Cody. But it was Cody didn’t carry the same connotations as the fact that it was Rex these days. Even knowing it wasn’t his fault. The fact Rex had had his chip removed, and Cody hadn’t. Sure it was Cody, but it was also Cody.

Obi-Wan made a decision. “The Jedi Shadows, with the knowledge of Force Illusions, tried a new technique to get to Count Dooku, sending one of their operatives in disguised as Asajj Ventress, unknowing of their dispute. As the person who has had most contact with Ventress in the past and therefore was most familiar with her force signature as well as appearance the operative was to be vetted by me before going in to try and kill Dooku. The operative skipped that stage.” He glared at Asajj, currently in her human disguise. “But successfully retrieved information and equipment from the Separatist base before managing to kill Dooku and blow up the base.”

“Oh.” Cody said looking at Asajj with a new kind of well disguised awe.

“We’ve been discussing the implications since.” Anakin agreed. “Rex was only involved as he was here when she came in. The plan wasn’t to involve any non-Jedi at this stage.”

“Technically,” Obi-Wan said, “We did just assassinate a head of state, even if it was a clear Sith Lord and a nation we are at war with.”

“So what happens now Sirs?” Cody asked.

“We carry on as usual, although Grey here is going to be around both in and out of disguises. But otherwise we carry on as of our most recent orders from Coruscant.”

“If we pretend I was listening at the time will someone tell me what our most recent orders from Coruscant are?” Ahsoka asked to Cody.

“They’ve changed actually we’re all to come back as quickly as possible, no matter what we’re in the middle of.”

“Then I guess we’re packing up and going.” Obi-Wan said.

Anakin projected quietly, but with a sense of humour about it. “Maybe Yoda came back with us after all.”

“I’ll take my own ship.” Asajj said, “So I’ll see you when I report into the council. “Or in Dex’s Diner” she projected.

“See you there,” Obi-Wan smiled politely.

“See you again soon.” Ahsoka said with a lot more force in the statement. She was loathe to her partner loose on their own, even if this world wasn’t as dangerous as the one she had been used to. Given who was where they were going. It was a lot more.

Not that Grey couldn’t take care of herself. She really, really could. But Ahsoka was allowed to worry. After all they were all going back into the lion’s den.

“Sir?” Cody asked, turning back to Obi-Wan after Grey left. “Shall I tell the men to strike camp sir?”

“Yes, although Kix had better clear us for flight duty before we set off. That includes you Anakin.”

Anakin rolled his eyes, secretly delighted at the prospect of being fussed over by someone he knew and cared about, instead of an impersonal droid. Suddenly Anakin realised that R2D2 was around.

“Let’s go get prodded by medical then.” Anakin grumbled. “Come along Snips, there’s proper food in the temple.”

 

Notes:

Let me know what you think, I'll admit to being a little nervous about this chapter. Feel free to come bother me on Tumblr if you don't want to post here, Bablefishmouse there too. Next chapter should be up same approximate time next week. :)

Chapter 3: It's all too familiar

Notes:

This chapter contains Garen Muln. Therefore warnings apply for a not technically canoical smart-ass Jedi friend of Obi-Wan's. You need to know nothing about him. I just wanted more non-council Jedi. I also take liberties with how bad timelines are for the prequel trilogy and solidify the ages I am going to use.

“Let’s go get prodded by medical then.” Anakin grumbled. “Come along Snips, there’s proper food in the temple.”

The trip back to Coruscant took longer than Obi-Wan remembered it ever taking, but then he had never had much of an inclination to go back to the galactic centre. He had never been that suicidal.

The bizarre ache in his stomach started once they got onto the track of the high orbital approach. At first Obi-Wan thought it might be the nearness of so many other people, or indeed so many other force sensitive people after so long. Other Jedi.

No he couldn’t think about that. Not about who would be alive, who wouldn’t. He knew the date certainly, but it had been so long and even in the short space of time they’d been back they’d changed so much. There was no guarantee of anything. He could only hope.

A hope that was at least slightly justified by who was waiting in the hanger once they arrived.

“Garen!” Obi-Wan was genuinely pleased to see his old crèche-mate, and friend.

 “Oh, so here he comes now, the Negotiator, what did you do?” Garen Muln grinned.

“What makes you think I did anything?” Obi-Wan asked.

“Don’t tell me Dooku’s death had nothing to do with you?” Garen asked, then spotted Anakin and Ahsoka standing at the top of the ramp. “Mini Hero, Mini-Mini Hero, this one’s trying to tell me he had nothing to do with Dooku’s death.”

“Dooku’s dead?” Ahsoka sounded surprised. Her acting ability had clearly improved over the years. “Old Age?”

Garen let out a bark of laughter “I wish, nah someone blew him sky high, and yes, we’re sure. Thought it must have been at least one of you three.” He glared at them suspiciously.

“I’m afraid you must be mistaken old friend.” Obi-Wan said, following Garen down the corridor towards the council chamber. “None of us had anything to do with any explosions, this time anyway.”

“Mmmm,” Garen was far from convinced. “As you say Negotiator, Mini-Hero, Mini-Mini- Hero.”

Obi-Wan rolled his eyes.

“Can you not,” Anakin said, more snappishly than he meant to.

“Huh?” Garen asked. “What’s wrong with it? You’re mini, and you’re a hero. Hence- Mini-hero.”

Quick, Anakin thought. “I’m three inches taller than you.”

“And I’m old enough to be your dad. Therefor still mini.” Garen said.

Anakin snorted. “I’m less than ten years younger than you.”

“You are not.”

“I am less than ten years younger than Obi-Wan, although by a narrow margin, and you’re younger than he is.” Anakin pointed out.

“Drat it,” Garen said good-naturedly. “Well, that makes me feel slightly better that one of my crèche-mates has a grand padawan.”

“Wasn’t my idea.” Obi-Wan said.

“Whatever you say old man.” Garen joked as they approached the doors. “They want you all right away anyway, so I’ll see you later old man.”

Obi-Wan rolled his eyes. “See you later Garen.”

The three of them stood in front of the doors, waiting.

“Shielding?” Ahsoka whispered, remembering the last time she was in there.

“Yours is good,” Anakin whispered back, “How’s mine?”

Ahsoka poked at it, “Solid.” 

They glanced at Obi-Wan, who nodded.

Then he opened the doors, and let them in.

 

The council chamber was almost exactly as Ahsoka remembered it from her last time in there. The same people, the same chairs, and she needed to find Barriss as soon as possible. That wasn’t for the now.  She watched as Obi-Wan sat in the familiar seat, and took a step forward to just behind Anakin.

“Master Obi-Wan, Knight Skywalker, Padawan Tano, much news missed you have.” Yoda greeted them.

“Master Yoda, Council,” Anakin bowed, actually sounding respectful. When was the last time he was in this chamber? Had he killed any of them here? Ahsoka didn’t know, and this was not the time to ask.

“Heard, you have, of Dooku’s death?” Yoda asked.

“Yes Master,” Anakin replied, “Knight Muln has just informed us.”

“So none of you were involved?” Mace Windu ‘asked’.

“No Master Windu,” Anakin bowed.

Mace Windu frowned, even more suspicious of Anakin and Ahsoka, before turning to Obi-Wan.

Obi-Wan shrugged minutely.

Windu ran his eyes around the room, looking at the occupant of each of the chairs in turn. Finally he turned back towards the pair.

Anakin was beginning to feel like he was on trial. Ahsoka knew a trial. This wasn’t it. It did, however, have the same lingering judgment, hiding the same snap decisions, and the same wait, full of distain. This time it wasn’t as intense, but it was enough, enough to bring the memories she’d been trying very hard to hide, or at least to supress while she was in this room to the fore.

“Ahsoka Tano this council-“

No!

No. She had to stay in the present. This was not a trial. She had done nothing wrong- apart from pal-ing around with a traitor and ex-Sith, and another one, and hiding thing from the council and technically being involved in a conspiracy against the High Chancellor of the republic and she COULDN’T THINK OF ANY OF THAT RIGHT NOW.

Calm, quiet serenity. Ahsoka took a deep breath and began to focus on one of her earliest memories. It wasn’t the Jedi way, but, whatever the current register said, she wasn’t a Jedi. But she had to pretend to be. And she hadn’t had anything to do with Dooku’s death. Not directly. Not even indirectly really, given she hadn’t know about it until afterwards.  But somehow, given it was Grey, she felt that it was kind of her fault. At least a little bit.

“Alright then.” Windu decided. “Have you had time to prepare a debrief regarding your incident?”

“Incident, Sir?” Anakin asked politely.

“For Force’s sake Skywalker your company better not have suffered fainting fits more than once in this mission!”

“Oh,” Anakin desperately tried to remember what caused it last time. Nope, no such luck. He poked questioningly at Obi-Wan and Ahsoka to see if they remembered. He got two mental shrugs back. So Anakin said: “I’m sorry grandmaster, the final results from the medical scans have yet to come back, and there was no obvious cause in the initial investigation. We would have made more extensive investigations but we were summoned back early.”

“I see,” Windu said. “Well, complete a report when the results come through, and if it turns out you’ve infected us all we can only play part of the blame on you.”

Anakin didn’t know how to respond to that. He hadn’t quite realised the extent to which he was answering this council as if they were going to react like the emperor. The Emperor had never had that kind of a sense of humour. Unless they were being serious. Was Windu being serious? Anakin couldn’t tell.

“We’ll blame the person in charge of the mission in that case Grandmaster,” Ahsoka bowed next to Anakin with a sly glance at Obi-Wan.

Mace let out the slightest hint of amusement.

“Very Well, Knight Skywalker, Padawan Tano, unless anyone has anything else?” Windu asked the room.  There were no affirmative answers. “Very well, you are dismissed.”

“Thank-you masters,” Anakin bowed and only just avoided running out of the room, Ahsoka followed him. Fortunately Garen wasn’t waiting for them. Neither of them would have liked to deal with that right now.  

“Um, Skyguy?” Ahsoka reached across their fragile bond.

“Yes?” Anakin sent back. “Also, you don’ have to call me that you know.”

“Better Skyguy than master.”

“You don’t have to call me either!” Anakin sent across hurriedly. “You’re not exactly a Padawan anymore.”

“Well only three other people know that now don’t they.” Ahsoka sniped back.

“In the bond at least then,” Anakin sent.

“Maybe,” Ahsoka compromised, “Maybe, but anyway, Skyguy you don’t happen to remember where our room is do you?”

“Oh Bantha-droppings.” Anakin said out loud.

“That’s a no then?” Ahsoka sent across their bond again.

“I remember where Obi-Wan’s are?” Anakin sent back, “We never did spent much time in our own quarters. Hey, maybe he knows?”

A moment later, after consulting with Obi-Wan, Anakin sent back, “He said go to his rooms, it’s less weird that he wouldn’t know.”

“Well, that makes sense I guess?” Ahsoka said as they finally stopped loitering in the hallway and set off towards where Anakin used to live, and Obi-Wan still did.

Once they were safely inside Ahsoka forced herself to relax a little.

“So, what do you want to do next?” She asked.

Anakin dropped himself onto the sofa. “Honestly? Or what I think I should do next?”

Ahsoka shrugged. “Both?”

“Honestly I want to go and see Padme. I can feel her force signature from here. And the fact she’s alive is dizzying.”

Ahsoka rolled her eyes.

“What I want to do is to run outside, to go to Alderan and just sit in a field all day and let myself know it still exists, I want to run through the wilderness of Naboo with my wife, even go to Tatooine just to reassure myself that my son isn’t there waiting for me. I want to go and kill Jabba for the torture I shouldn’t know he inflicts but I do. I want to go and hug Bail and let him know that he was an amazing father and that I will never let anything happen to him, and how sorry I am for things he can never know about. I want to go and strangle the life out of Sidious, or throw him down an elevator shaft again. I want to sit in the crèche and let the younglings be young. I want to end this war and be done with it all and I want to possibly, just possibly leave this world a better place than when I came into it. What I think I should do is come up with as many plans of action we can take in as much detail as possible without Sidious finding out prematurely- Oh force, I’m gonna have to visit him aren’t I?”

With that Anakin Skywalker, Jedi Knight and former Lord of the Sith began to cry.

Ahsoka sat down next to him on the sofa, hesitantly she reached out and patted his head. “Well, she ventured, “It’s hardly possible to leave it worse.”

Anakin stared at her. “Oh it’s possible. Are you not remembering any of my history?”

“That would have happened anyway. I’m not saying you aren’t responsible, cause you were, at least partially, but at least most of it would have happened anyway.” Ahsoka shrugged. “So if you’re talking about getting the universe onto a better path, then that’s not that hard.”

It wasn’t that simple. “What do you want to do then?” Anakin snapped.

“What do I want?” Ahsoka retorted, “I want to go and shake Barriss until she confesses everything and then hug her until she reverses all her plans. I want to run into the senate and make them listen. I want to yell in the council’s face about how moronic and naive they’re being and then quit. I want to go back to running import-export missions with Grey, even if half of them were the hurried export of agents. I want to punch you in the face until my knuckles bleed and maybe not even stop then. I want to hug Rex and dig out his chip this second and let everyone know that the will ever have to loose agency ever again. And I want to run. I want to run so freaking far that Sidious will never ever find me, and that I will never have to deal with this ever again.”

“Me too.” Obi-Wan said, coming into the room.

“Oh force right now I want to leg it, go after Grievous and then go into hiding. But I can’t, and I’d regret it if I even thought of it as a viable option for a second. I want to grab Padme and tell her to run, to get away from this place, to go somewhere she’d never go and to never come back, while wanting to take her to the best medical facility ever and make them run every possible scan. I want to grab Bail and thank him for thinks he will never know he has done and would never ask for thanks for if he did. I want to strangle every drop of life force out of Sidious and I want to yell at everyone. You two, the council, the senate, the separatist government. Particularly the separatist government.” Obi-Wan shook his head. “We can’t do any of that.”

“I know. At least not right now,” Anakin said.

“Well,” Ahsoka said, “You could go sit in the creshe for a bit, and there’s nothing to stop you seeing Padme. Well,” She considered, “Nothing that would stop you anyway.”

“I can’t lie to her.” Anakin admitted. After all, they were all being ridiculously honest eith each other so why stop now. “I can’t hide anything from her. And I can’t corrupt her. And I will, just by being near her. I can’t drag her into this, she has her own war to win, and she will, I need to make sure she will, she doesn’t need my help, but with Sidious…” Anakin broke off only to exclaim louder “She’s perfect okay. She’s perfect and I can’t ruin that.”

“Oh Anakin,” Obi-Wan sighed. He got it. Padme had become almost mythical in the years after her death, and undoubtedly for none more so than Anakin Skywalker. “She deserves to make that choice herself.”

“I know. But she doesn’t know. She can’t know.” Anakin protested.

“So tell her.” Obi-Wan suggested gently. “Tell her the whole story, from your perspective. I’ll verify anything else she wants to know. And that way she can make her mind up whether she wants you to continue being her husband, and to have contact with your kids.”

“But Sidious?” Anakin objected.

“No reason to suspect remember. He’s not going to out himself as a Sith Lord just to snoop in a senator’s mind.” Obi-Wan said.

Ahsoka looked at the two of them. The way Anakin was almost desperately frantic, trying not to mess up, yet absolutely sure that he would. The way Obi-Wan moved to support him without a second though, advising and supporting, the barrier that had prevented them from taking the few final steps into emotional intimacy having tumbled down somewhere on the trip forwards or back in time. She wandered when they’d see it. She wondered when Padme had.

“Okay,” Anakin said, “I’ll go and see Padme, and tell her everything. If I don’t come back, then you know why, and not to blame her.

“This is a you two thing,” Obi-Wan started, “And I know that, but if you want me there, I’m there.”

“Thank-you!” Anakin seemed almost over bowled by the offer, “but I have to do this myself if I’m doing this.” He turned to go out the door. “Thank-you both so much for putting up with me, even if it’s only to defeat Sidious.”

He walked out before either of them had a chance to yell after him.

The room was left in quiet.

“Anything interesting in the rest of the council meeting?” Ahsoka asked eventually.

“Some speculation about what really happened to Dooku and vague plans for the end of the war. Some of it I actually remember, which is odd.” Obi-Wan said. “So no, nothing in particular.”

“Hmm,”

“So,” Obi-Wan ventured, “what are you going to do now?”

Ahsoka considered her options for a minute. “I’m going to go and sit in the crèche for a while. Let younglings be young, remind myself of the good things here.”

Obi-Wan nodded, “Sounds like a plan. I’d join you, but work, and they’d assume I was looking for a Padawan.”

“Ah,” Ahsoka said, “No.”

“As you put it, no.” Obi-Wan said, “Even taking into account my extra years, it’s still too soon.”

Notes:

Those poor exhausted characters. I should give them a break right? Nah. They're so tired and scared they're being honest. It's a miracle!
Thank-you for reading! Please let me know what you thought!

Chapter 4: Oh! Oh? OH!

“Padme” Anakin called as he buzzed up to her- well their- apartment. “Padme it’s me.”

There was no answer. It still didn’t seem real to Anakin, that he was back here, that he got a second shot. He didn’t deserve it – force he knew that- but the galaxy didn’t either. He could help, and part of that was that he could help Padme. And do it right this time. No more panicking and making awful decisions through a cloud of overactive emotions. He was going to do better this time. He had to.

“Padme?” Anakin tried again. When there was still no answer he sighed, and let himself in. He hadn’t planned on treating this place like a home.

Anakin took a step forward into the room. It was the same old place again, the same sofas, the same balconies. The same familiar buzz. It was both relaxing, and strangely unsettling. Almost as if he’d landed in a dream, and knew he was about to wake up.

“Ah, Master Anakin,” A familiar gold droid startled Anakin out of any brooding slump he might have started. “I’m afraid Mistress Padme’s not home right now, but I am more than happy to help. Did you know protocol is my primary function? I am programmed with-“

Anakin burst into laughter, much to his own surprise. “C3P0, it is good to see you.” He grabbed both of the droid’s shoulders and said “Never change Threepio, you’re a good thing, and there are going to be far fewer of those around in the days to come.”

“Oh, well, ah, yes, I see.” C3P0 seemed a little flustered, finally settling on, “Thank-you Master Anakin, as I said, Mistress Padme is due back any moment now, but if there’s anything I can help you with-“

“Thank-you Threepio.” The voice came from behind Anakin. “We won’t be needing you for a while.”

Oh Padme looked well. Anakin had almost forgotten, had assumed his memories had made her out to be more somehow, more beautiful, more righteous, to have made a god out of an angel. He hadn’t. She was every bit as he had remembered her. Perfect to the last.

Also, more surprised than, perhaps, she should be to see him there.

“Padme, I-“ Anakin didn’t know what to say.

“Anakin,” Padme smiled, covering something, an emotion that had flashed across her face so briefly that he hadn’t caught it. “This is a lovely surprise.”

“We were summoned back to Coruscant unexpectedly,” Anakin steadied himself “If you don’t want me here I can go, we’re likely to be on world for a couple of days this time.”

“No, no.” Padme sounded almost panicked, “No,” She sighed, “It’s just been a long day at the senate that’s all.” She sank onto one of the sofas. “Actually since you’re here, I wanted to talk to you about something.” She began pulling out pins out of her hair. Anakin moved around the back of the sofa to help. “Thanks- I swear that those don’t need to be as tight as they are.”

Anakin shrugged. “Not really my area of expertise Angel.”

“I suppose not.” Padme said. “Look I, with-“ she glanced down towards her stomach, “and all I want you to promise me something. I’m being serious here Anakin.”

“Anything,” He promised, handing her the few pins he’d collected so far.

“No matter what is happening to me or the twins, you prioritise the welfare of the galaxy first. Don’t let anything you fear, or even foretell, gaud you into doing anything rash or violent. I’m not talking don’t kill the bounty hunter level here, I’m talking on a grander scale.”

“You’re back too.” The realisation was whispered.

Anakin scrambled around and bent down to look his wife in the face. “I promise. Not matter what. I am not going Sith, and we are not letting Sid-“ Anakin snarled, “-HIM win. I’ve got someone to promise that they’ll kill me if I go Vader, and-“ Anakin broke off again with another  growl. He shook his head. “This isn’t the place to talk about this. Meet me in Obi’s favourite restaurant in say, an hour? We’re not the only two, and you should- we all need to get up to speed.” Anakin pulled a face, “Providing we can all get away.”

“Did you-“

“Regret it every single moment I am myself, of course. I will do ANYTHING to change the future. If you want me to walk away now and never come back, I will. I can get a huge scar so that those- stupid- force forsaken propaganda teams will leave me alone.”

“Anakin no.” Padme interrupted him. “Don’t hurt yourself deliberately. I don’t – I don’t want you to walk away and never come back again. But I might need a bit more time to re-adjust, and to not be alone with you for a while.”

“Of course, I-“ Anakin backed away. “I’ll see you with people in an hour. If you know anyone you’re sure is with us, bring them too. I- I love you, I love them,” Anakin glanced down at her stomach. “It’s your decisions and your life.”

He turned towards the turbo lift.

“Anakin,” Padme called. “Were you planning on telling me? If I hadn’t known.”

Anakin nodded, “Why do you think I was here? You can check with people later.” He turned back towards the lift.

“Anakin,” Padme called back to him, “I love you too.”

Fortunately, even with the traffic as bad as it ever was, Anakin made it back to the temple in fairly quick timing, where he managed to dodge the padawans, and other knights, and arrive at Obi-Wan’s quarters without being mobbed. He knocked.

“Who is it?”

“It’s Anakin, can I come in?”

The door was pulled open by a slightly damp Obi-Wan. “Come on in, I just got out the shower. Give me a moment,” he stepped back letting Anakin into the apartment, and closing the door behind him.

“I’m just going to dry my hair off,” Obi-Wan made the symbol for bugs.

“It’s alright. I was just wandering if you fancied going out to dinner?”

“Hmm?” Obi-Wan said non-committedly.

“You know, grab Snips, maybe the Captain, any friends of yours that want to come along, meet up with Angel, that sort of thing.”

“Ah,” Obi-Wan “Do you want to grab Snips and the Captain, I think he’s still around, and I’ll see if I can get hold of any friends of mine. See you outside in ten?”

“Better make it fifteen,” Anakin said, “I’ve no idea where Snips has got to.”

“Try the Crèche,” Obi-Wan suggested.

Snips had, in fact, gotten to the Cafeteria, and was more than happy to abandon it for going out, even if they weren’t going for the food. Rex was just happy to avoid all the stares.

Obi-Wan insisted on driving. No-one argued.

Dex’s Diner was about how Anakin had remembered it as well, as was the Besalisk that ran the place.

“Ah, what can we do for you today?”

“We’d like somewhere quiet please.” Obi-Wan asked the ‘waitress’.

“Of course, of course, right this way.” She led them towards one of the booths. A moment later they heard the distinct hissing noise that meant that the jammers had been turned on. “Anything else I can do for you?”

Obi-Wan looked around, “Just menus I think, thank-you.”

She dropped them off a moment later.

“So,” Ahsoka said, leafing through the extensive menu. “Any particular reason, besides the owner, we’re out here?”

“Padme’s back too.” Anakin said.

“Ah,”

“Oh,”

“Ouch,” Rex winced. “You in one piece?”

“She’s in the right here, but yes. I told her to meet us here. Her place is bugged too. We couldn’t talk much.” Anakin said.

“How’d she know?” Obi-Wan asked.

“I know, actually, I was trying to bring it up right and she mentioned the twins.”

“Ah yes,” Obi-Wan said, “That would trip you off.” At Rex and Ahsoka’s confusion he clarified, “Neither of them knew that they were having twins until they arrived.”

“How do you not notice you’re having twins?” Ahsoka asked incredulously.

“I’ve wondered that myself.” Padme said, standing at the far end of the table.

“Me too.” Bail Organa said, standing beside her, “Fulcrum, Majesty” he nodded to Ahsoka and Rex with a smile, “Obi-Wan,” his smile dropped a little. “Anakin.”

“I make the same offer I made to Padme.” Anakin promised.

Padme yelled “No.” at the same time that Obi-Wan said:

“If that offer’s what I think it is you don’t get to make it ever again. You understand me. You are a valued and essential member of this team, past mistakes are not to be repeated, and to be atoned for, but you don’t need to do THAT do to do that.”

“No-one sitting at this table wants you dead Anakin.” Ahsoka said, glancing at Rex, who nodded.

“No-one standing here does either.” Padme said glaring at Bail until he nodded. “Now budge up, there’s a lot of us aren’t there. Is six the normal size for a time-travelling mission?”

“Seven.” Anakin said, “There’s seven of us.”

“Well then I guess that’s my cue.” Asajj Ventress grabbed a chair and pulled it up to the open side of the table. “I’d say long time no see but,” She shrugged.

“Grey?” Bail asked questioningly.

She nodded. “How surprised are you that Dooku’s dead now?”

Bail nodded “Not very. I take it you blew everything up in your typical fashion?”

Asajj nodded, “Anakin said I was his joint fourth favourite person.”

“Do you have a list?” Bail asked him.

“He has a list.” said everyone else.

There was slightly awkward pause. The waitress hurried past, arms piled high with food.

Anakin’s stomach grumbled.

“So anyway, we’re all from just after the Emperor’s death, when are you from? Ahsoka said.

“And how much can you remember?” Rex added.

“Everything as normal from when I was alive, and some from after my death, it’s a bit foggy. I think about the same. It’s the last thing I remember from then.” Bail said then turned to Padme.

“Same, but that means a lot more is foggy for me.” Padme said, “I’ve got the main events down though. Don’t worry about it.” She dismissed any concerns before they could be brought up. “So I take it the plan is to take down Sidious.”

 “More or less?” Asajj said.

“There were a few more steps in it earlier.” Rex added.

“I think we were talking endgame goals.” Ahsoka said.

“I thought the ultimate endgame was a reform of the republic,” Anakin said.

“Not to mention restructuring the entirety of the Jedi Order.” Obi-Wan agreed.

“Achievable.” Bail said deadpan. Then he looked around at the people sitting at the table, and everything he knew they would have done, “Actually, it’s not out of the realm of possibility is it?”

Obi-Wan considered each of the conspirators.

Bail Organa: Prince Consort and Senator of Alderan, one of the most prominent politicians of the day. Also Spymaster of the Alliance for nearly twenty years, facing down both Darth Vader and the Emperor on a frequent basis for that time. Personal attachments aside, Obi-Wan couldn’t deny there was no-one he’d rather see as Chancellor.

Padme Naberrie Amidala: Former Queen and Senator or Naboo. Founding member of the Alliance. The leading voice of opposition against Palpatine. One of his oldest friends, capable of matching wits with Yoda, and glaring Separatists into submission.  Also known to shoot the odd battle droid.

Rex/Majesty: While the codename was news to Obi-Wan, the sheer proficiency of the man was not. There was a reason he was Anakin’s Captain, he was the only one who’d charge into the line of fire after him, and drag him out again. That took a special brand of sane insanity, and something sorely needed to win this kind of war. The man had also kept up with Ahsoka, and Asajj Ventress for twenty plus odd years. That alone was an achievement.

Ahsoka Tano/ Fulcrum: The fact she kept up with Anakin when she was fourteen was nearly enough in itself. She’d then, completely independently, operated as an agent for the Alliance, before working as part of an isolated cell for them for the rest of the time. As a grey force user she managed to evade Vader, Sidious and all of their goons for twenty years. And, although she might not know it, she had multiple senators and Jedi Councillors utterly charmed.

Asajj Ventress/ Grey: She had managed to turn from almost Jedi to almost Sith and then back to somewhere on the lighter side of the grey spectrum on her own. Obi-Wan didn’t need any other recommendations of her strength of will. The sharp downturn the Separatists made after her departure spoke of her skill as a general. Of course their number of victories would plummet even more dramatically this time. Plus, again, Vader, Sidious, twenty years. Obi-Wan had only managed that by practically ceasing to exist.

Anakin Skywalker: Was Vader. Was Vader for twenty years and managed to climb back to the light. The only person who knew more about Sidious was Sidious, and Anakin wasn’t afraid of discovery. He had a mitichlorian count of twenty-three thousand, children to protect, and penance to serve. Add to that his inability to back down and there was no-one Obi-Wan would rather have with him in the past, other than a wish that he could have spared his friend the pain.

Obi-Wan Kenobi: He was a capable General, a good fighter, and he’d had everything taken from him once. He wasn’t going to let it happen again. Plus he was on the Jedi High Council, so he had a direct input and respect with them. While he’d deny it, he was also the darling of the republic, and the youngest human master in over four hundred years.

“Yeah,” Obi-Wan said considering. “As long as we’re talking long-term, not by E-Day, we’ve got a shot.”

Notes:

Well, that's the gang. I will 'see' you next week for more of the same, or perhaps some pain. In the meantime in order to prevent me trying to rhyme, or indeed just because, please let me know what you think by comment, kudos, or random goodwill force waves (warning reception dodgy).

Chapter 5: We'll be alright. I promise.

“Yeah,” Obi-Wan said considering. “As long as we’re talking long-term, not by E-Day, we’ve got a shot.”

So far they’d managed to break the plot down into eight steps.

Step one. Investigate Sidious/ Palpatine. Get the ins and outs of his plans, and gain proof to present to both the Council and the Senate.

Step two. Quietly de-chip as many Clones as they possibly could without arising suspicion.

Step three. Redeem Asajj in the eyes of the law? Or at least the council.

Step four. Kill General Grevious

Step five. Use the ending of the clone wars to get the clones legal rights

Step six. Kill Sidious.

Step seven. Present evidence that they were right to kill Sidious

Step eight. Reform senate and council (to be left for later)

Unfortunately, all that established was that they needed to keep up appearances. So when the Chancellor Palpatine summoned Anakin to his office all Obi-Wan could do was pace inside Padme’s.

“There’s nothing we can do.” Padme said, looking across her desk to where Obi-Wan was doing a marginal job of not looking like he wanted to go and murder someone.

“I know, it’s just, it’s Anakin.”

“And you’ve already lost him once,” Padme said, understanding.

“I’ve lost both of you before.”

“Oh Obi,” Padme sighed, “You’re not going to lose him again, and you’re not going to lose me. It’s not too late.”

“What if it is?” Obi-Wan asked. “We’ve got barely seven months, Asajj meant well but Sidious has to know that something’s up with Dooku being killed like that, so we may have even less time.  What if I just doomed us all to fail again?”

Padme looked at him gently. “All we can do is try. And Obi-Wan,” She got up from her desk and walked over to where the Jedi Master was standing. With a slight forewarning she enveloped him in a hug. “We’re with you. The three of us are a team.”

“Seven,” Obi-Wan corrected, “There’s seven of us.”

“See,” Padme smiled, “We’ll be fine.”

Obi-Wan gave the slightest of smiles and stepped out of the hug.

“Thanks,” He said awkwardly. “Look Padme, I, you know I’m far more attached to you than a Jedi should be right?”

“Obi-Wan,” Padme said, “No-one is that emotionless. I don’t care what you’ve been taught. No-one.” Internally she begged him to get the message. Please let him know that emotion was human, and that he was not wrong for experiencing it.

“As I said,” Obi-Wan began, sounding very unsure of himself, “The Jedi need major reform?”

“The Jedi need major reform.” Padme stated, calm and sure.

Obi-Wan shook his head, “I’m sorry, it’s bad that even after more than twenty years after its complete an utter failure I need to be reassured of that isn’t it.”  

“Not really,” Padme said, “You grew up inside that organisation, believing it infallible, given it only toppled down as spectacularly as it did due to outside influence, the fact you realise there were fundamental problems with it says a huge amount about your strength of mind. What works for one individual, or even one species, won’t work for all of them, and the Jedi Order is second in diversity of species to only the senate itself.”

“I know,” Obi-Wan sighed, finally realising how close he still was to Padme and taking a step back. “It’s just a rather imposing task.”

“Well anything major will have to wait until the end of the war, but I’m planning on putting out a survey with the senate, both to senators, staff, and the general public, about where we succeed and where we don’t. Maybe you should do the same thing with the Jedi.”

Obi-Wan shook his head slightly, “When did you become the wise one?”

Padme smiled, “Well, from what I’ve heard from Rex you’re the reckless one, so someone had to fill in.”

“What does that make Anakin?” Obi-Wan asked.

“The other reckless one?” Padme ventured.

“I heard that.”

Anakin stood in the doorway to the room, and let the door slam closed.

“How sure are we that this room isn’t bugged?” He said, his voice heavy and quiet, taking the tiniest of steps into the room.

“As sure as Dex’s.” Obi-Wan said. Literally, they’d bought the jammers off of him.

“Oh thank the force” Anakin mumbled and staggered forwards falling into both of their arms.

Padme shot a brief look of alarm at Obi-Wan and they pulled the shaking young man closer and into a joint hug. “You’re safe, it’s us.” Was all Padme could think to murmur, she repeated it over and over again with Obi-Wan saying something similar in Anakin’s other ear until finally the shaking began to stop.

Gently Obi-Wan lowered them to the floor. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“It was horrible.” Anakin said, the words hoarse and sticky, “I kept thinking of all the things he’s done, all the things he would have done and had me do, and I had to keep smiling. He keeps making little jokes which I never picked up on before but they’re horrible and I feel sick.”

“We’re here,” Padme murmured, and began to rub her husband’s back. Is she’d had any doubt about his remorse and regret before now, well. She knew her husband, and her husband was not that good of a liar.

“You don’t have to do that again.” Obi-Wan decided. “Actually, you’re not doing that again. We’ll come up with some excuse, make the council forbid it or something. It’s-“

“Don’t,” Anakin broke off, “I can manage, thank-you. I’ve had to deal with that man for rather longer than you have.”

“That was the point.” Obi-Wan sighed, “I’m not saying you can’t manage, I’m saying you shouldn’t have to.”

“If I’m pretending to be a Jedi then I should at least act like one.” Anakin protested.

 “Screw the Jedi!” Padme exclaimed.

“Padme,” Anakin sighed,

“No,” Obi-Wan said, “She’s right. Screw what the Jedi would do, what’s the best thing to do? As much as I admire and respect many of the elders of the temple, most of them wouldn’t know what to do with a true Sith Lord if one tried to sell them death sticks.”

“I think they’d try and arrest them.” Anakin pointed out.

“See,” Obi-Wan said, heartened by the improvement in Anakin’s condition. “Wouldn’t know what to do.”

“In fairness,” Padme said, “I doubt I’d know what to do either, faced with a Sith Lord in general, rather than-“

“I’d hope you’d run away rather than try to arrest them.” Anakin said.

Padme thought for a moment.

Obi-Wan took one look at her expression and sighed. “You’d shoot them wouldn’t you?”

Padme shrugged, “I’m pretty sure I have actually, or at least would have? Time Travel is confusing.”

Oh force Anakin had missed her. He’d missed this. The three of them against the world. Even if it was the two of them against him he’d never doubted that they’d fail to close ranks. Now of course… But it was nice to have the illusion that the old days were back.

“Hey, Anakin,” Padme smiled at him. “Still here.”

“Still here.” Anakin repeated.

“Maybe that’s the solution.” Obi-Wan said,

“What is?” Anakin asked.

“To keeping away from Sidious without seeming to. We’ll need As- Grey’s help,” Obi-Wan corrected himself, “But if we can stay off of Coruscant as much as possible then we, or at least you, can avoid him. He doesn’t leave much.”

“Didn’t,” Padme pointed out, “Grey’s actions have already kick-started the end of the war. Sure we’ve still got Grievous, but on the scale of things. Well, there’s a reason dealing with Sidious is our first priority.”

“Yeah,” Anakin agreed, refusing to let the slight pang worry him. He knew why he was here dammit and it wasn’t so he could get something he didn’t deserve even when he was the age he was supposed to be.

“Investigating Sidious is our first priority and given I’m the one he trusts the most it will be a lot harder to do that if I suddenly start avoiding Coruscant.” Anakin rationalised.

“Are you sure?” Obi-Wan pressed, looking intensely at Anakin. “Because putting you in those situations doesn’t seem like a good idea.”

Oh yeah, Anakin thought, Obi-Wan had a point, what if he couldn’t handle being close to Sidious? What if he fell again? He was better off keeping as far away as possible.

“Anakin no,” Obi-Wan caught his train of thought at the edge of their rapidly strengthening bond. “All I meant was that I didn’t want to see you get hurt,” He glanced quickly at Padme who seemed just as alarmed. “Neither of us want to see you in pain.”

“I, I-“ Anakin sighed, so much for an illusion. “You don’t have to lie to avoid hurting my feelings,” He cleared his throat, and tried to aim for a solid, clear voice. The voice he used to use when he knew (thought) he was right (he was never right). “I’m sorry I overreacted before. I’m not that fragile, I promise.”

“A-“

Obi-Wan stopped Padme with a slight shake of his head. He didn’t want to do this. He wasn’t sure if he had the mental discipline to do this. But dammit this was Anakin and Padme. He couldn’t not do this.

“Anakin, I’d like your permission to show you something.” Obi-Wan spoke softly, squashing his instincts that told him to reach for his friend.

 Anakin nodded absent mindedly.

“It would require opening our bond further than we have at the moment, and possibly more than we ever have done, is that alright?” Obi-Wan asked.

Anakin nodded again.

“Anakin, can-“ Obi-Wan took another look at him and abandoned his hopes of getting verbal confirmation.

“I trust you.” Anakin swore.

Obi-Wan nodded then and brought his hands to cradle the knight’s head. They weren’t strictly necessary but the physical link helped stabilise the mental one. Then Obi-Wan took a deep breath and started thinking about Anakin, about how he felt about Anakin, the pride, the trust, the worry on his behalf. He let it grow and fluctuate into a cloud, everything he would have meditated to avoid, or get rid of, he let to the front, then slowly began to let down the barriers on the bond.  This was far beyond what he’d ever done in the old timeline. It was beyond what he’d done when they’d just gotten back. That had been a projection out, this was letting Anakin in.

“Anakin, come in and see.” Obi-Wan sent down the now near completely open bond.

Oh. Oh… That was – different, having someone almost in his mind. It tickled, almost, as he could feel Anakin poking and prodding trying to find where the imagined hatred was. It was- wow. Obi-Wan could almost feel the ghosts of memories as echoes of heat and cold, fear and joy washed across him. “Anakin,” he whispered as the slow warmth began to build up and the pain in his chest began to change from the slow dull ache to a caressing, dancing joy as Anakin slowly realised that the dominant emotion was love, that it had always been love, not quite from the beginning, but close enough not to matter.

Peals of laughter echoed from both of them as the dance demanded to be let out to be expressed in the only way that humans know how. The two of them laughed and laughed as Anakin pressed their foreheads together and slowly drew out of Obi-Wan’s mind.

“Oh force,” He breathed, “Really?”

“Anakin,” Obi-Wan dropped his hands to Anakin’s shoulders, “You can’t lie in there. Not unless I was lying to myself, and I don’t think even then. So yes,” he considered with some amusement, “Really.”

“Oh good,” Anakin said, sweeping Obi-Wan up into a hug much to the latter’s surprise, “Because same.” He managed a slightly desperate smile, “Same Obi-Wan, so freaking same.” He would have laughed again if he’d been able.

“I should have done that years ago.” Obi-Wan said with a vague sense of shock.

“Yeah, old man, you probably should have done,” Anakin grinned. He looked over at his wife.

Padme was looking at the pair of them with a sense of profound relief, utter love, and other squashed emotions. “What happened?” She asked.

“He showed me myself.” Anakin told her. “How he views me, how he thinks of me. I didn’t even know that could be done.” He admitted with a great sense of wonder.

“It’s not the Jedi way,” Obi-Wan said with a sense of mischief.

“It wouldn’t be,” Anakin couldn’t get the grin off of his face. Nothing else seemed important just then, there were the three of them and he loved them so much, both of them. They were his Obi-Wan, and his Padme. Oh they were they were own people alright. But Anakin had a tiny bit of them, as they had a tiny bit of him. They were a trio alright. It was like they’d been trying to work out how they fit all their lives and they’d just worked it out. Sitting on the floor of Padme’s office they’d finally clicked. They were them: Padme, Obi-Wan and Anakin.

Anakin’s manic grin settled into something smaller, something sweeter, the smile he used to smile only at Padme. He leant back watching the scene of Padme letting the relief washing over her, and Obi-Wan leaning back and relaxing in the sunshine that flickered throughout the room highlighting the ginger hairs in his beard. Force he was beautiful like that.

Wait what?

Notes:

And that's all you're getting until next week!
Thank-you for reading, please let me know what you thought. If I promise to stop torturing Anakin will you forgive me?

Chapter 6: Troubling Thoughts

Force [Obi-Wan] was beautiful like that.

Wait what?

 

It wasn’t like Anakin hadn’t known objectively that Obi-Wan was gorgeous before. He was. Anakin was far from the only one that had noticed, even people who didn’t know Obi-Wan and didn’t know how kind, how patient, and how lovely the man was had noticed that.

The beauty of the man was nothing new, neither was the love Anakin felt, it was less confused than it had been, perhaps ever before, but it one way or another Anakin had never stopped loving Obi-Wan, even when he was Vader, even when he had hated him, even when he had killed him, Anakin had still loved him.

But then knowing that he’d looked out for Luke. He’d helped Leia. That Obi-Wan loved him back. Anakin couldn’t imagine not loving him.

But that sharp stab. That sudden pull towards Obi-Wan, the desire to kiss him, to feel that beard, to see what damage it could do, what would it feel like. The even stranger desire to see Obi-Wan kiss Padme. What would they look like together? That was new.

That was really, really new.

Yes they were all consenting adults. Even in body they were and force alone knew that ten years meant nothing at age well, whatever age Anakin technically was. Forty? Fifty? He wasn’t that old he didn’t think?

But it was Obi-Wan.

Oh great, Anakin nearly moaned out loud. That has changed meaning as well. The worst thing was he knew how Obi-Wan felt about him, exactly how he felt about him. Which meant that Anakin knew that there wasn’t even a drop of desire in there. Not for him anyway, maybe for Padme. Something told him not though. Probably the way that Obi-Wan was looking at both of them in exactly the same way.

“So what do you think we should do?” Obi-Wan said, finally breaking Anakin’s increasingly panicked train of thought.

“Do?”

“About Sidious, and you meeting with him.” Obi-Wan prompted.

Anakin considered it for a moment, fresh with the knowledge that at least one person would not think him any less if he decided not to. Oddly, it made the decision easier.

“I can do it-“

“Anakin” Padme interrupted in a pleading tone.

“I was going to say, I can do it as long as there’s someone around afterwards. One of you two preferably, at least to start with, although,” Anakin thought for a moment, “I could probably manage with Ahsoka. But I need someone to tell me that they’re lies, and to remind me that the world is not like that. But I can do it, as long as it’s not every day or anything.”

“Me, Obi-Wan and Ahsoka,” Padme said, “Preferably more than one of us with you whenever you talk to Sidious.”

“At least for now,” Anakin agreed, “Maybe I’ll build the same level of- of attachment to be honest- with Bail and Grey later, but while I’m fond of them, it’s in an abstract way. I’m fond of them for looking after Leia and Ahsoka. Does that make sense?”

“It makes sense.” Obi-Wan agreed. “You don’t actually know either of them particularly well. I hate to ask but, what about Rex?”

“Rex,” Anakin said, contemplating far deeper than he ever would have done when he was his age in truth. “Rex would work at an absolute pinch, but I’d prefer not. It’s not necessarily a lack of personal attachment, I think it’s an association of him with violence and the war. Chances are I’ll need a reminder of peace and life outside after Sidious.”

“Hey,” Padme said, “it’s good you recognise yourself.”

Anakin shrugged, “It helps to see yourself from someone else’s perspective.” He paused for a moment, then stood up finally and walked over to the window. The speeders sped by without a moment’s thought. There was so much life out there, so much to live for, and to protect. He just had to remember that. “Thank-you,” he directed back at the room in general.

“What for?”

“For being here, I know I’d said I’d stay away and then I came running here. You didn’t have to help but you did, and you offered to keep helping and, well,” Anakin was solely addressing Padme at this point, “I know it’s stupid that I keep calling you Angel, but it suits you so much.”

Padme stood up and walked over so that she was stood right beside her husband. “I love you too Anakin,”

“I love you three,” Anakin said, with the slightest of silly smiles on his face.

Padme smiled at him. “I love you four.”

“I love you- “

Obi-Wan coughed.

“Sorry,” Padme turned around, “I’m very fond of you too.”

“That’s good to know.” Obi-Wan said dryly. “I was merely going to point out that, if everyone’s alright, the two of us should really be going. Avoiding rumours and all.”

“Of course, of course,” Padme agreed, “If you’re okay Ani, you are more important than rumours.”

“Thanks,” Anakin said, “Yeah, I’m fine to go back to the temple, my shielding hopefully never slipped,”

“It didn’t I don’t think.” Obi-Wan confirmed, finally standing up. “Maybe if you were looking for it, but not noticeably otherwise.”

“So I’m not promising I’m ready to go onto a battlefield just yet, but I can go to my own quarters.”

“Okay then,” Padme agreed, “Well, give me best to people, and R2 of course. I hope I’ll see both of you soon.”

“Give mine to Threepio,” Anakin told her, “And I hope I get to see you again soon as well.”

“Goodbye Senator,” Obi-Wan held out his hand to shake. Padme grabbed him into a tight hug.

“It’s Padme,” she said, “We’ve gone over this. Don’t make me and Anakin team up on you.”

“Goodbye Padme,” Obi-Wan said, extracting himself from the hug. “We will probably see you soon.”

“Goodbye,” Padme said as the two men turned to leave the room. “Oh Ani,”

“Yes dear,” Anakin turned round.

Padme crossed her office, leant upwards and quickly pressed her lips to his. “For luck.”

“I’ve missed you so much.” Anakin half-whispered. Then in a more normal voice, he added, “Be seeing you soon Senator.”

“And you Master Jedi,” She bid them farewell as she was left all alone in her office with her thoughts. Well, and her paperwork.

Padme sat back down at her desk and began to look at the paperwork that she had to do that day, and ignore the strange atmosphere that had settled over the room. It felt charged almost, one small flame and it was ready to explode and take her with it. The pressure needed a way out, and Padme needed a way out of the pressure.

She sighed.

Paging her aide she said: “It’s Padme, I need to talk to Senator Organa over some issues. Could you possibly arrange to have the room aired while I’m out, it’s stuffy in here.”

Well that took care of that. Padme gathered up her papers and carefully removed the jammers from their hiding places. It wouldn’t do for the cleaning crew, even if they were droids, to find those.

She made her way over to see Bail.

“Senator Amidala here to see Senator Organa,” Padme told the aide.

“Go right in,” They didn’t even look up. Sloppy.

“Padme, come in,” Bail glanced up from his mound of paperwork. “New bill we need to worry about or just needing a change in scenery?”

“Depends, are we safe?” Padme asked.

“Jammers are on, yes.” Bail told her.

“Good,” Padme sank onto the sofa, “Do you mind if I work here for a bit?”

“No, of course,” Bail said, settling back to his work. “You up to date yet?”

“Up to date?” Padme smiled slightly, “I’m not sure you’re remembering something fundamental about the nature of senate work. It’s never up to date.”

“I meant if you’d managed to slot yourself in correctly,” Bail said with a certain degree of humour. “Somehow I’d managed to rosy the end of the war, I do not remember it being this much work.”

“Well, we have kick started the end of the war,” Padme pointed out, flicking through the work, “At least a quarter of this is because Dooku’s dead.”

“And isn’t that typical that it generates paperwork for us,” Bail said. “Did we even have time to do that paperwork last time?”

Padme thoughts about it. The end of the Clone Wars had been rather rushed last time, what with the imminent arrival of the twins, her husband falling to the dark side, and the demise of democracy. “Not unless you had to do it for the Empire?”

Bail shook his head, “They were surprisingly big on paperwork, but no. So this is our first big change to the state of the galaxy huh, more paperwork.”

“Hey,” Padme signed off on the payslips for her aides, “It could be worse, maybe it’ll keep the trade federations busy.”

“We can but hope,” Bail agreed, “Maybe we’ll even get time to work out why they get to be in the senate this time around?”

There wasn’t much Padme could think to say to that. They were an oddity, that the Trade Federations and the Techno Unions got senate representation. The Galactic Senate was big sure, but the Republic was larger, most planets didn’t even get senate representation, it was sectors, so why did the few, admittedly large, corporations get it? Were a lot of other companies and organisations owed representation as well, as those were the only ones who had taken up on it, or was it a special case just for them? And if it was, how had that been allowed to happen? Of course if she could prove they were in league with the Separatists then that should have at least the current leaders arrested anyway.

Bail took one glance at her expression: “Padme, no.”

“I was just thinking.”

“That’s the look that you get when you start shooting at assassins. Do not go after the Trade Federations, they hate you enough already.”

Padme shrugged, “That makes me ideal. They already try to kill me on a weekly basis, so it’s not like they can try and kill me any more frequently.”

“People will take it as a personal grudge.” Bail warned her.

“For blockading my planet! I should think so!” Padme yelled, standing suddenly, knocking her work to the floor. She took a deep breath, “Sorry, but it was far from an isolated incident, they’ve done it before, they will do it again, and to be frank being involved with the Separatists, while easiest to prove, is almost the least of their crimes.”

“I know,” Bail said, standing up and moving so that he was in her direct eye line. “Padme, I know. Just promise you won’t go after them yourself. Not now, not when we have Sidious and Grievous to worry about.”

“I won’t go after them on my own.” Padme promised reluctantly, returning to her seat. What she needed what an investigator, one that could be trusted, normally of course she’d turn to Obi-Wan. But Obi-Wan was busy, and Anakin even more so. Besides, even originally when she’d been blinded by love not merely full of it, Padme could see that Anakin wasn’t the best at actually investigating anything.

Who could she ask? She needed to keep this is her circle really, rather than hiring outside help. If Ahsoka had quit the Jedi, but no, she was still there in this universe. She couldn’t ask any of her aides, and she needed someone ruthless- oh. Well, it was a thought. Padme knew that they had done some mercenary work in the past, and lack of determination was unlikely to be a problem. But how to get into contact?

“Bail,”

The senior senator had returned back to his work while Padme had been thinking. He looked up, “Yes,”

“Never mind, I’m going to the temple.”

It wasn’t Bail that could help her locate the person she needed. It was Ahsoka.

Notes:

Thank-you for reading, please let me know what you thought! More plotting from Padme next week, hopefully successfully. You will see, you will see. (If you stick around)

Chapter 7: Hubble Bubble Padme Makes Trouble.

Notes:

Sorry this is a little late, I'm on holiday and I'd forgotten about the time difference.

“Never mind, I’m going to the temple.”

It wasn’t Bail that could help [Padme] locate the person she needed. It was Ahsoka.

It was a cold night to be flying around the back channels of the Temple district. Padme was glad, not only did it mean that there were less people around, but from her few memories of being dead, as supposed to her memories of things that happened after her death, was that it was uncomfortably stuffy. The crisp breeze was a welcome change.

It may have also added a hint of adventure to the night as well. What? Padme knew who she married when she married him.

During the (original) course of their marriage Anakin had shown Padme several of the secret passages in and out of the temple, and while some of them were impossible for non-Jedi, and even more had been blocked up since the start of the war, there were still a number she could use to get into the accommodation areas.

It was odd to be knocking on the particular door and not looking for Anakin.

“Padme,” Anakin opened the door with a startled whisper, “Come in, come in, what are you doing here?”

Padme entered the room, letting Anakin close the door behind her.  “Well,” she said in a low voice, “As lovely as it is to see you, it’s not actually you I’m looking for. Have you seen Ahsoka?”

“She’s in her room.” Anakin was confused, “What’s going on? Is there something wrong? Can I help?”

“I just want to talk to her, she was a friend of mine as well you know, and I’ve barely seen her since we arrived.” Padme said, glossing over why in particular she wanted to see her. “Don’t worry, even if I was to take her on any more escapades into Separatist territory I have a feeling she’d do better than you would now.”

“Point,” Anakin acknowledged. “See me when you’re done?” He asked tentatively.

“Sure,” Padme said softly, laying a hand on his arm. She leant up and laid her other palm over his cheek. “Love you.”

“And I love you,” The words were earnest as Anakin leant into the touch.

Padme patted him once and took her hands away. “I’ll see you later.”

She knocked on Ahsoka’s door. “Ahsoka, it’s Padme, can I come in?”

The door swung open.

Ahsoka was sitting on her bed, looking at a holopad. She shut it down. “Hey Padme,”

“Hey,” Padme closed the door behind her. “How are you doing?”

“Alright I guess. It’s really weird.”

“I can see it must be.” Padme sympathised. “I’m not reliving much, but you-“

“It’s suddenly over twenty years ago, yes.” Ahsoka said, swinging her knees around to make room for Padme to sit down. “Being around Jedi is difficult to say the least, for at least two different reasons. I keep thinking of events that happened ages ago, and then trying to work out if they’re in the past or the future. Will they even happen now?”

“At least I largely get told what my work is,” Padme sympathised, “And with the other thing…”

“I’m coping.” Her voice left no invitation to consider the line of questioning. Ahsoka cleared her head, “Sorry, how are you finding things?”

“More or less the same, although I don’t remember being this busy,” Padme said, “The Trade Federation is even more appalling than I remember it.”

“Ugh, now that’s something the Empire did that I didn’t hate.” Ahsoka said, “I’d almost forgotten they were a thing.”

“I hadn’t.”

Padme focused her mind away from her anger, and towards her point. “Anyway, I was wondering how you managed to contact – Grey- I believe it is?”

Ahsoka turned to look at her for a moment: “Grey, yes. What do you want with her?”

“I find myself in need of an investigator, and was wondering if she was still in mercenary work.” Padme explained.

Ahsoka let out a small smile. “I’ll give you the frequency and encryptions. I’d use a comm just for this though.”

“I came prepared,” Padme showed her the new, if fairly cheap, comm she’d bought earlier that day.

Taking it off her, Ahsoka programmed it to Asajj Ventress’s current comm. “I can’t promise she’ll take the job, or that she’ll even have time. But at least now you can ask.”

Padme thanked her, taking the comm back. Silence hung in the air. “I swear we used to have stuff to talk about.” She said after a moment or so of the awkwardness.

“I can’t remember what though, was it really just the war?” Ahsoka said.

“It can’t just have been, even excluding moaning about Anakin.” Padme tried to think back, “How hopeless the droids were occasionally, politics a fair bit, although that comes under the war.”

“How is Threepio?” Ahsoka asked.

“Hopeless.” Padme said with a smile. “As per usual. And I keep looking at him and knowing where he would have ended up, looking after my daughter, and I wonder how an earth he could have become a family legacy. R2 I get, that droid is competent, if, well,”

“Hopeless,” Ahsoka injected.

“I didn’t say anything, but Threepio?” Padme shook her head. “I guess I should be glad to know I gave them anything, even indirectly.”

Ahsoka didn’t quite know what to say to that. She hadn’t died. She had never had children.  Of course she didn’t know what it felt like. But, “I never met Luke alas,” she said, turning back towards Padme, “But I can tell you about Leia if you’d like. I’m sure you know it all but just, you know, if you like.”

“I’d like that.”

“Well,” Ahsoka thought about her honouree niece, “Let’s start with the basics, she had your hair and eyes, and something of Anakin around the face. If you didn’t know, you probably wouldn’t spot it, but once you knew, you never had any doubt. Something like Anakin in her temper as well, although it didn’t come out as often. Partly because she grew up to have more of Bail’s approach to politics and spying than mine, or either of yours. War on the other hand, well I didn’t see her much after she was openly with the Alliance. We’d need Mon Mothma really. But you would have been really proud of her.”

“It sounds like it,” Padme said, somewhat wistfully. She had missed her chance to know her daughter. The daughter that, with any chance, she would get to bring up. If they managed this well. If she didn’t die again.

“I was,” Ahsoka said, then rested her hand on Padme’s shoulder. “Hey, we’ll do this okay. We nearly did this once, we can do it again.”

“I hope so.” Padme said, “I really, really hope so.”

“If it looks like we’re running out of time, we can, or at least you can-” Ahsoka stopped mid-sentence. “Let’s face it. None of us are going to run and hide are we? We’re not the type.”

For a chance to keep them all safe and bring up her kids? No. Not with Sidious. But Padme was tempted, and she couldn’t swear for the others, not it in the end. But all she said was, “No, we’re not,” as she waved the comm unit slightly.

“Well I hope you get ‘em.” Ahsoka wished her well.

“So do I.” Padme agreed, standing up. “I hate to talk and run, but…”

“But you’re not supposed to be here,” Ahsoka finished.

“But I’m not supposed to be here.” Padme agreed. “Are you alright though, really Ahsoka, not just pretending to be?”

“I’m coping.” She said bluntly. “I’ll do better once we’re out on a mission, or have something more concrete then get evidence that Sidious is evil to do.”

Padme wanted to tell her to hang in there. She wanted to tell her that everything would be alright, that none of it had really happened. But it had, and however much she looked like it, Ahsoka was not a teenager. So all she said was, “We can all hope. See you soon though.”

“Yeah,” Ahsoka said. “See you soon.”

Padme closed the door behind her, and walked across to Anakin’s door. She paused just short of knocking. She wasn’t in the mood. But she said she’d see him before she left, so. Tucking her new comm away in a pocket, she squared herself up and knocked.

Anakin opened the door and let her in, closing the door quickly. “Are you alright?” He whispered. “What did Ahsoka say?”

“I’m fine.” Padme said, “Ahsoka’s largely fine.” As far as it was hers to tell. “I needed a way to talk to Ven- Grey.”

“Hey that’s an idea,” Anakin grinned at her, “I should totally build communicators for each of us, then we could all talk together. The current ones are awful. Probably couldn’t get anything as good as a hologram, not to be that secure, but something text based should be doable. If we have some time off I should get on that. Great idea!” He made to kiss her on the check, then remembered, and backed off, the smile dropping off of his face.

Oh she wanted to say that they were good. She wanted to just forget about all that had happened, pass it off as a prophetic dream. But she couldn’t, they weren’t all good. It wasn’t that he didn’t regret it. It wasn’t that she didn’t know that. But they weren’t good. Maybe it was time. Maybe they would never be good. However much in control, or not in control, and it was hardly like he’d talked about it, Anakin was during those years as Vader, he had done it. She couldn’t forget about it. Forgive possibly, but forget. No.

“I’m sorry,” Anakin looked at his feet.

“I know.” Padme said, then hooked her finger underneath his chin bringing him back to eye level. “We’ll get there.” She wanted to, he wanted to. They had to. “We are getting there. I’m not going anywhere. Not from this anyway.”

“Thank-you!” Anakin couldn’t put enough emotion into the simple words no matter how hard he tried. Padme got the idea.

“I can’t stay long. I’ve got to sleep tonight.” She apologised.

“Go,” Anakin said, “Thank-you for talking to me.”

“Thank-you for understanding. Love you,” Padme said.

“Love you too.” Anakin wondered how had he gotten so lucky? She could do so much better than him. She could have done much better than him before he’d messed up so colossally. “Goodnight,”

“Goodnight Ani,” Padme leant up and kissed him on the cheek.

Then she left, back out the same passage she’d come through earlier, and back to her waiting speeder. She set off, heading into more mainstream traffic, and weaving around town, just in case she was followed. Eventually she pulled into a dock space behind a decent, if closed, diner.

It was there that she pulled the comm unit out of her pocket. Was she really going to do this? In the dark of the night, the lights of the never fading planet around her, was she taking on the Banking Clans alone, and asking a wanted fugitive, who she had had no personal positive experience with, for help?

Padme watched a red open-topped low cut speeder whoosh past far too full and going far too fast, blaring loud music like there was no tomorrow. Hey, there was a war on, there might not be. The war probably didn’t affect them. The vague cries she could hear from the undercity, that family she was fairly sure was living in the poorly painted camper, the war was affecting them. They were the ones without water, without electricity, without heat. They were the ones suffering. They were the ones who might not make tomorrow.

So yes, Padme was doing this.

She opened the comm link and called the number.

There was no dialling tone or anything as comfortable as an answer machine to let you know that you’d been connected. Just the buzz of static, inaudible over the traffic of the world.

The Static stopped. “Who is this? How did you get this number?”

“This is Padme, you know how.”

“Yes,” Asajj Ventress said, stepping into view, “I do. The question is why?”

“I need your help. Are you doing mercenary work?”

Notes:

Hope you enjoyed it! Please leave me a comment, letting me know what you thought, and if I really am that predictable a writer. Also, Anakin is basically trying to invent group chat. Because as far as I can find Star Wars does not have a normal, not incredible fiddly bad connection filled hologram based, group chat. And that is a shame.
See you next week! Hopefully at a more usual time.

Chapter 8: One More Shot

“Yes,” Asajj Ventress said, stepping into view, “I do. The question is why?”

“I need your help. Are you doing mercenary work?”

“You mean other than avoiding the entire republic, and the separatists, and helping to bring down the most powerful Sith Lord since Bane, am I doing odd jobs for money?” Asajj said, looking somewhat sceptically at Padme. Then she sighed, “It’s surprisingly boring. What did you have in mind?”

“How would you feel about making an enemy out of the one big power that doesn’t necessarily hate you?” Padme asked.

Asajj mulled it over for a moment: “Trading Federations?”

“Trading Federations.” Padme confirmed.

Shrugging, Asajj said, “Never liked the buggers anyway. Anyone who worked full time for both the Separatists and the Republic seems too like Sidious to me. What do you want on them?”

“Dirt.” Padme said simply, then expanded, “Or rather proof that they’re working with the separatists and are traitors to the Republic. Preferably, and that they’ve been carrying out illegal manoeuvres on planets and systems for longer than there has been a separatist alliance. Failing that, that they’re knowingly working with the Sith. But it needs to be hard evidence. Undeniable, undoubtable, and a lot of it.”

“Admissible in court?” Asajj asked, wondering how she could get the in, and what the information would turn up.

“It would need to look like it was.” Padme decided. “I’d rather go through the legal channels on this one than-“ Well, than blackmail, but she wasn’t saying that. “Than passive aggressive negotiations.”

“Is that code for what I think that is?” Asajj asked, a little impressed. She knew the senator could kick up a storm but now she was beginning to see what Skywalker saw in her.

“You’re the force user.” The senator pointed out.

“Doesn’t work like that.” Asajj said, hiding the slightest of smiles. “Why me?”

“I couldn’t exactly hire a normal PI, or a normal bounty hunter, and the others are a little busy.” Padme said, hoping she hadn’t been wrong.

“I’ll take the job.” Asajj said, “Do you want info on the Techno Unions as well, or just the Trade Federations?”

“Prioritise the Trade Federations, if you happen to have incriminating evidence on the Techno Unions then I’ll take it. But it’s no big secret how shady they are.”

“Alright then, do you need to know my going rate now, or shall I just give you the bill with the evidence?” Asajj asked, seemingly doing some mental calculation. She actually knew what she was charging the senator already, and cursed Ahsoka for it. How you could grow fond of someone from someone else’s memories was beyond her. Not that she was doing it for free or anything.

“With any luck it’ll get paid out of their coffers.” Padme said.

Hey that was a point. Asajj could just help herself to some of the Trade Federation’s profits. It would probably even look like money laundering. “I’ll still charge you expenses.” She said instead to Padme.

“That’s fair.” Was there even anything else to discuss? Such was the state of being that the two of them trusted each other nigh on absolutely, but yet had never had a friendly conversation. “How are you?” Padme eventually settled on.

 “Better at keeping out of trouble than the temple trio.” Asajj said, “Unless I’m wrong?”

“You shouldn’t be,” Padme smiled at the comm, it was a point they’d been back two whole days and if they’d gotten into any trouble yet, it was small enough that she’d yet to hear of it. “I’m the one poking at the wasp’s nest this time.”

“Give it time,” Asajj predicted. “Give it time. Bet you that by the end of the week one of them will be injured and pretending that their not.”

“No bet.” Padme didn’t even think about it. “I’m very fond of them, but no bet. They are the three worst people I’ve ever met about going to medical.”

“Didn’t Bail once try and give a senate speech hours after nearly dying?” Asajj asked, her memories of the time hazy. She’d been a little obsessed with revenge at the time.

“Both Anakin and Obi-Wan have tried to lead a major attack a couple of hours after nearly dying.” Padme pointed out, “Although yes, he did. I ended up giving the speech. That would have been a while ago now I think?”

“My sense of when is messed up too,” Asajj admitted, “Partly because I was never really at this stage last time around. By the time I was free of Dooku the Empire was more or less here.”

“And you had Ahsoka with you,” Padme said, picking up the thread.

“Not quite then, and she picked me up rather than the other way around, or at least in the long term. That’s a story for another time.” Asajj said, “We’d better rap this up. Anything else I ought to know?”

“Don’t get seriously hurt or killed because Ahsoka will not be happy?” Padme ventured a guess, “If necessary we can take down the Trade Federations after Sidious.”

“You can, yes,” Asajj agreed, “If that’s all, then good night, what’s left of it anyway.”

“Goodnight Asajj,” Padme said, the name sticking awkwardly,

“Call me Grey,” Asajj said, “It’ll be easier.”

“Okay then, Goodnight Grey – oh I forgot,”

“What?” Asajj asked,

“Anakin said something about setting up text based encoded comms for all of us so we could permanently keep in contact.” Padme said.

“Ah,” Asajj rolled her eyes, “Typical Skywalker, well I’ll still be on planet for at least another week chances are, so someone can get it to me then, if it’s done.”

“Right,” Padme agreed, “Goodnight Grey,”

“Goodnight,” Asajj cut the connection leaving Padme sitting in her cold speeder. She shrugged and went home for what little sleep she could manage. She had to stop keeping such late nights.

As a result Padme was at somewhat less than her hundred percent the next day. In fact, by the time it was reaching the late afternoon all the caff in the senate couldn’t have stopped the slow lag that was beginning to set in.

By the time the clock crawled round to the extent it could be called evening Padme gave up. She packed the work she could take with her into a bag, gave it to one of her ‘aides’ better known as a bodyguard that was kept on retainer, and left the building, hurrying down the steps towards her speeder.

“Senator Amidala,”

 “Senator Amidala,”

 It took her a moment to notice.

“Oh, An- Knight Skywalker,” She smiled distractedly as he hurried towards her. “I was just about to go home for the day, what can I do for you?”

“It’s more what-“

Anakin was still a good few feet away when he felt the atmosphere shift. Run. Run it told him. He dashed forward the static clinging to the air as he used the force to enhance his speed.

A second later a quiet bang sounded somewhere in the distance.

No ear could have heard, nor eye seen the slug slicing through the air. Heading towards the platform. Heading right towards Senator Padme Amidala.

Anakin got there in time. From his perspective.

He dove in front of his wife, physically blocking her body with his, leaving no time for deflection, or even deceleration of the slug. The slug that sank into his chest.

Anakin fell backwards. The platform was hard.

The ringing in his ears was louder.

Not that it was a ringing really, more like a whoosh of static. Whoosh! Whoosh! Weee! The world seemed to be spinning and wasn’t that fun. He loved the spinny thing. He’d always loved the spinny thing. Now the world was doing the spinny thing.

“Spinny, Spinny,” Anakin smiled deliriously, “Whoosh,”

He was vaguely aware of someone calling his name, and of angels, and demons, and someone who was both yet neither. But the world was spinning and getting darker and…

Anakin woke up in med bay to an extremely unimpressed Rex. Also a giant headache. And a rather sharp pain somewhere down south of his heart. He wasn’t sure which one he preferred least. Rex knew.

“Ah good you’re awake.” The Captain stood up from the chair he had been sitting in order to loom over Anakin’s bed. “You ought to be glad to know you’ll live.” He paused, “Well, from the slug wound at least. I can’t promise anything once Obi-Wan, Ahsoka and the senator are done with you.”

Hah! Ahsoka hated him, Obi-Wan was a proper Jedi with no feelings and Padme had long lost any attachment.

Except that Padme kept talking to him, and saying they’d work through it, and there was no reason to do that unless she did still like him. Oh, and Obi-Wan loved him enough to show him that, and had probably been worried and now Anakin felt bad for making him worry. Plus Ahsoka was standing in the open doorway right now with a somewhat difficult to read expression.

“Don’t you dare do that again!” She jabbed her finger in his direction. “There were plenty of other ways you could have stopped that slug. Think rather than just throw yourself in front of it next time okay!” Ahsoka yelled at him stepping forward into the room, letting the door slam behind her. Then she added through the bond, “I’m beginning to get used to having you back. Don’t you dare go anywhere, okay?”

“It’s okay snips,” Anakin thought before he caught himself, “sorry,”

“Shut-up Skyguy.” Ahsoka mumbled. They weren’t alright. But they were better. “Anyway,” She said, glancing back at the closed door, “I may have let people know you were awake, so I’m gonna let them scream at you, they’re better at it. Coming Rex?”

Rex nodded as Anakin gulped in mock fear. Mostly mock fear.

Obi-Wan passed them on his way in, as they went out, closing the door firmly shut behind them. Obi-Wan locked it.

He walked straight up to the bed, so that he was almost standing next to Anakin’s head. Then he sat down.

“Anakin,” He began slowly, looking at the slight raised bump on his head, and the way he shifted uncomfortable under the blanket.

“I’m sorry,” Anakin mumbled,

Obi-Wan sighed, and gently leant forward reaching with both hands for Anakin’s shoulders. “May I?” He sent.

“Of course,”

Obi-Wan slowly gathered Anakin into his arms and held on, pressing his head into Anakin’s neck, trying not to cry. “Don’t leave me.” He murmured, “I can’t lose you again. We’re a team.”

“Hey,” Anakin had no idea what to do. Obi-Wan had always seemed so strong. Even with Satine he had seemed so strong. And now, well, something had finally caused the armour to crack. “We’re the team remember. I’m not going anywhere.”

Well, he wasn’t going anywhere now.

“I’m not going to let anything hurt you,” Anakin promised, “I’m not going to let anything happen to you again.”

Padme knocked on the door.

Anakin opened it with the force.

She locked it behind her again, and walked up towards where Obi-Wan was perched on the bed. Gently she laid a hand on both of their shoulders. “Are you okay?” She said, addressing it far more towards Obi-Wan than Anakin.

“Sorry,” The Jedi Master apologised, carefully releasing Anakin and sliding off the bed, “Just making sure he wasn’t about to do anything else stupid.”

“You’d need to tie him up in bed and sit on him for that to happen.” Padme said in a teasing tone.

Obi-Wan coloured slightly, “Well that sounds like a you two thing.”

Anakin shifted uncomfortably as Padme laughed slightly “You know what I meant.”

“None the less,” Obi-Wan said, smiling slightly, despite slightly wet eyes. “You know I was worried Anakin right?”

“It occurred to me once I woke up.” He admitted.

“Keep it in mind.” Obi-Wan instructed him, “The whole back alive once you were dead thing almost certainly isn’t reoccurring. Don’t waste it.” He said, then almost stormed out.

“He’s not okay.” Anakin told Padme the second Obi-Wan might have been out of ear shot.

“I noticed.” Padme said, “And neither are you jumping in front of that slug like that! Your life is not worth less than mine!”

“It kinda is…” Anakin tried to point out.

Padme was having none of it. Outraged she only just remembered not to yell: “Not to me it isn’t!” She hissed instead.

“Are you alright?” Anakin ignored that. He already had plans to keep on living, at least for a bit past dealing with Sidious. Someone needed to keep Obi-Wan safe. And Padme come to think of it, although Padme would usually shoot the thing shooting at her. And Ahsoka was even more capable of looking after herself. But that didn’t mean that they couldn’t have an extra layer.

“I’m fine, I didn’t even get dirt on me.” Padme dismissed Anakin’s concerns. “Do we need to talk about this?”

“I don’t have a death wish, Padme,” Anakin said, not anymore he didn’t anyway.

“Good.” She decided, “Because I think the twins would like the opportunity to get to know their father. And I’d like the opportunity to get to be a, if somewhat unconventional, family.”

“We’re good?” Anakin asked in a half whisper.

Instead of a verbal answer Padme leant down and kissed him lightly, but full of promise.

“Going slowly,” She cautioned, “but yes, I- I worked through enough on my end. We’re good.”

“I love you,” Anakin promised.

“I love you too.” Padme said, resisting the urge to annoy all the healers and spill their secret to the world right there. “Do me a favour though?”

Anakin hummed his agreement.

“Talk to Obi-Wan,” Padme said,

“Do me a favour?” Anakin asked, “Talk to Obi-Wan with me. Not about me, about him.”

“I’d noticed that.” Padme said, “I was wondering if I could claim Gungan problems and get you two and Ahsoka as bodyguards and go back to Naboo. I think it might be a bit farfetched.”

“Well,” Anakin said with a chuckle, “As long as you don’t do something like investigate the Trade Federations anyway.”

Padme froze.

“Oh you didn’t?” Anakin asked, looking at his wife’s face, “You did. Please tell me you didn’t on your own at least?”

“No I hired Grey.” Padme told him.

“Well, at least that’s something.” The Jedi Knight wondered in his taste in people. Then wondered at how he’d managed it.

“Bail made me promise not to go after them myself.” Padme admitted. “But if I’ve ticked the Trade Federation off that is cause for a heavier bodyguard duty.”

“Go talk to the council,” Anakin mumbled. “I can feel the healers getting very impatient that their practically the last ones to see their patient.”

“Ah,” Padme said, understanding. “Well then, I will go and talk to – well probably Obi-Wan.”

“Love you,” Anakin whispered as Padme kissed him once more.

“Love you too, get some sleep Ani,” She wished him well before going.

So Anakin was left alone in his room in medical, with healers fussing over him, stealing his blood and, unbeknownst to him, worrying about his lack of complaint.

Anakin was thinking. Anakin was worrying. But most of all, he was plotting. Obi-Wan clearly needed a full time protector. And Anakin was signing up for the job.

 

Notes:

Thank-you for reading! Comments and Kudos will be loved forever more, so please leave one and let me know what you think!

Chapter 9: Oh Obi-Wan

So Anakin was left alone in his room in medical, with healers fussing over him, stealing his blood and, unbeknownst to him, worrying about his lack of complaint.

Anakin was thinking. Anakin was worrying. But most of all, he was plotting. Obi-Wan clearly needed a full time protector. And Anakin was signing up for the job.

Obi-Wan meanwhile, was meditating. He didn’t intent to push his emotions and attachments away anymore, but he couldn’t be ruled by them. He couldn’t be blindsided by them either.

Maybe he shouldn’t have shown Anakin. It didn’t seem to have helped, and there was always a chance that- well, Obi-Wan couldn’t do anything about any feelings that might have leaked through.

Why did he have to be so reckless?

He wouldn’t have been Anakin if he wasn’t. Brave, protective, kind, rash, reckless Anakin. Anakin who used to be his padawan. Anakin who was Darth Vader. Who slaughtered children, murdered his brothers, served Sidious for years. Who killed Sidious. Who turned back to the light after decades of being entrenched in the darkness on his own strength. That Anakin. That wonderful, stupid, magnificent man.

Obi-Wan was so screwed. There were so many reasons why this couldn’t have happened, so many reasons why it was such a bad idea. Obi-Wan knew he had forgiven Anakin far too quickly as it was, to then add a form of desire to that? That was a bad move. Add in the fact that Anakin was married and therefore certainly not interested in him, it turned into a disastrous one.

Ideally Obi-Wan needed to talk to someone. There were times when meditating wasn’t enough. The few times this had happened before, well. With Siri he had more or less dismissed it as youthful foolery. It had faded into the background after a while anyway, the peculiar want that he had yet to get around anyone else at that point.

Then there was Mandalore. And then there was Mandalore. At his best guess it took six months out of the thirteen Obi-Wan spent on that planet for the subtle, and occasionally not so subtle sniping, arguments, and delight in having some sort of relief with Satine to turn into a physical attraction. Obi-Wan didn’t notice until early on in his eighth month when Satine kissed him and his subconscious demanded ‘more’.

He wasn’t sure how he rationalised it at the time. Stress at the situation he guessed. It only ever seemed to happen when he had gotten attached. He shouldn’t get attached. He was a Jedi, and, hopelessly bad at following that part of the code. Sometime in Tatoine, he’d accepted that.

Even his platonic attachment to Qui Gon had been stupid.

Bail was less stupid, although less platonic, if one-sided and unspoken. Obi-Wan had gotten to keep the friendship out of that one.

Although, arguably in terms of the unsaid, Padme was worse.  She was fantastic, challenging Obi-Wan in ways that few could, and even fewer wanted to. The talk of politics, and the fact she just got him. She got what he was getting at, even when he was far from articulate. She knew how to twist his arm that would have him trying to work out how weeks after he agreed to something.  But they also agreed, they agreed on everything that would normally send people screaming. Even Anakin.

Oh Force. Obi-Wan had gone and ‘gotten attached’ to both halves of a married couple, nay, an expectant married couple. That was what he was calling it. He shouldn’t, denial wasn’t healthy, but it wasn’t like he was in love with either of them, and calling it ‘fancying’ them just made it sound so trivial, and it wasn’t.

He wasn’t in love with either of them. He wasn’t. So he loved both of them, and liked them. Unfortunately, Obi-Wan held a lot of love in his heart for a lot of people, some of which he’d been given a chance not to fail. That didn’t mean that he was in love with Anakin or with Padme. Right?

Obi-Wan was doomed.

So was Anakin if he didn’t learn some self-preservation technics. While Obi-Wan had every confidence that Padme could yell some into him, and was probably doing so right now, he wished that Anakin would get some of his own. That he would see he was worth more than just being a tool to save the republic. He had thought that Anakin had been doing better since he’d been so reckless, and maybe Obi-Wan was just overreacting.

He was probably just overreacting. After all, Anakin had always been reckless and free with his own life, back during the clone wars, even back during his padawancy. It just meant that Anakin cared, surely. He’d never seemed to have a problem with self-esteem. He was the Chosen One. So surely he hadn’t lacked for friends?

Obi-Wan found himself looking back and wondering if he was right. If Anakin had had any friends. Not even close ones, but just even classmates he got on with? Other knights he’d bonded with? Master’s who’d shown him a connection? With a jump Obi-Wan realised that the only one he could remember was the droid master that Obi-Wan had never actually met. It was possible that Anakin had had friends outside of the temple, down at the racing circuit that Obi-Wan might have followed him to in the early days. It was also possible that Obi-Wan had forgotten them.

But Obi-Wan had a stark feeling that they had never existed.

It wasn’t like Anakin wasn’t a people person. He was far more of a people person than Obi-Wan was really, he had always seemed so outgoing, always happy, or curious in a new environment. Well, until he’d get mood swings and grump in the corner or sulk off to his room.

It was then that Obi-Wan remembered where Anakin had come from. It wasn’t like he forgotten exactly, but he’d never quite got the relevance before. Why he discouraged Ahsoka from calling him ‘Master’, the sheer delight in being able to shirk authority. It was like Obi-Wan had connected ‘former-slave’ with the lack of central core history and abundance of desert geology knowledge, but not realised the major psychological effects. Namely, why Anakin never seemed to think his life was worth anything. Or rather, thought he knew exactly what he was worth.

How badly had Obi-Wan screwed up back then? How badly was he screwing up now?

Was it possible that he could not have? Obi-Wan wasn’t even ten years older than Anakin, and he had been looking after him- for lack of a better term- since he was nineteen. Was it really the council’s fault for giving him that responsibility?

No.

Obi-Wan sighed, he couldn’t even tell what was a knee jerk reaction, and what was an inclination from the force. He knew he wasn’t going to get anywhere by thinking over it, not now, and not on his own.

Looking after Anakin now, however, that Obi-Wan could do. He could look after all of them. Force knew he’d failed the first time. But this time, this time he could.

Giving the meditation up as a lost cause, Obi-Wan sighed and left, choosing instead to wonder around the temple, avoiding the medical bay.

“Hey, Obi!” Garen Muln swung into view, and half ran to catch up, “Is Skywalker alright, I heard what happened?”

“Oh, Garen,” Obi-Wan sighed internally. Another person he’d failed. Another one he had the opportunity to save. He focused, strengthening his shields, and said “He should be fine, force providing. I swear I taught him better than that.”

“Well, he’s still young, and young men will do anything for a pretty face,” Garen teased, nudging Obi-Wan slightly, who frowned.

“He’s a Jedi.” He said, “He is capably of rational action, if,” he added as if an afterthought, “Apparently not so on three hours sleep.”

“I can’t blame him for that.” Garen said, “Chosen One or not, not all of us are you.”

No, by this age he’d been taking care of Anakin. Hell, by this age he had been responsible for him for years. But then in theory Anakin was supposed to be taking care of Ahsoka. Not that Anakin chose to take care of Ahsoka. But then Obi-Wan hadn’t chosen to take on Anakin. Not really. But he had. He certainly had this time around. Not that Anakin was a child. Garen was a child compared to any of them. Garen who Obi-Wan was currently blanking.

“Force to Obi?” Garen waved his hand in front of Obi-Wan’s face. “You with us?”

Now that was a question. He blinked at Garen then said, “Sorry, lost in thought.”

“Vision?”

“Just thinking about the war,” Obi-Wan said, it was true enough, after a fashion.

“Well, we got Dooku!” Garen smiled, “Even if one of the best generals is in sick bay, and another is lost in his mind.”

“Hmm.” Obi-Wan grunted non-committedly. “Excuse me, I was going to visit the senate.”

“Now you should be in sick bay.” Garen said, nudging Obi-Wan, “If you’re voluntarily going there.”

“I’m allowed to take an interest in the state of the war, given someone killed Dooku for us.” Obi-Wan objected. He had no idea whether he was going to the senate at this point. After all, Padme and Anakin were in sick bay, and Bail would be swamped in work.

And he was in the senate.

“You sure it wasn’t you or one of yours?” Garen asked.

“Sure.” Obi-Wan shut down any discussion on that note.

Garen shrugged. Taking a moment to process the cold note in his friend’s voice. Then he asked, “So who do you think did kill him?”

Obi-Wan paused for a moment. He considered his options. Then he said, “Ventress.”

“Huh?”

“I think it was Asajj Ventress.” Obi-Wan said. “Revenge is a powerful motivator, and the late Count gave her plenty of reason to want that.”

“Huh,” Garen considered. “That makes sense. I was hoping we had a great new ally.”

“Well, we can hope.” Obi-Wan agreed. They did after all; it just took a while longer. And a much bigger villain. “We’ve still got Grievous to deal with as well as whoever was Dooku’s master.”

“Ugh.” Garen emoted, “I was hoping that would just go away.”

“Were you expecting it to?”

“No,” He admitted.

Obi-Wan sighed. “And we have no idea who or even what species they are. Well, we’ve got the war to finish first. Then the men to take care of.”

“Oh, force,” Garen realised what Obi-Wan was talking about. “I’d forgotten.”

A few padawans passed them in the corridor. The force buzzed slightly, content with the realisation of the men. It did nothing to reassure Obi-Wan that everything would be alright. Neither did the shiver that ran through him.

Something buzzed again and Obi-Wan realised with a start that it was his communicator.

Garen glanced at the vibrating object and grinned. “Looks like someone wants to see you.”

“Probably the council.” Obi-Wan said, giving into the inevitable and opening the communicator.

“Ah, Obi-Wan Kenobi,”

Obi-Wan froze.

No. No.

No it couldn’t be.

This was the temple. This was safe. It was never safe in the end.

If Anakin could manage meetings he could manage a comm call.

Obi-Wan took a deep breath in, held it for a moment, then exhaled, and answered the speaker. “Chancellor Palpatine, what can I do for you?”

“My dear Obi-Wan,” Such pleasant tones for such an unpleasant man. “It’s more what I can do for you, I don’t suppose you can come up to my office straight away can you?”

“I’ll be over as soon as I can Chancellor, but if this is about Anakin, he should be fine.”

Keep it together Obi-Wan, he thought to himself, keep it together.

“That’s good to hear, but I’d rather not discuss this over the comms.” The ‘chancellor’ said, much to Obi-Wan’s disappointment. “I will see you soon.”

“I look forward to it Chancellor.” Obi-Wan said, then ended the call and hurled the comm unit across the corridor, forgetting he wasn’t alone.

“The Chancellor’s not that bad is he?” Garen joked, watching as the comm unit came to a final crunch under Obi-Wan’s boot.

“You have no idea.” Obi-Wan said, his face as grave as his tone. “You have no idea.” He repeated, then started off towards the speeder bay, only to stop and double back.

“Garen, I missed you. And I’ll miss you again.” The Jedi Master told his friend clapping his hand on his shoulder, then giving in once more and hugging him. “Take care of yourself, and let others take care of you too.”

With that Obi-Wan walked off towards the speeder bay, leaving an astonished, and incredibly worried Garen Muln behind.

It would take Obi-Wan about forty minutes to get to the Senate building at this time of day, if he didn’t violate any traffic laws or use special permissions. That meant he had just over half an hour to come up with a viable plan that would result in everyone getting out of there alive.

So no pressure then.

Notes:

*Hides*
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Chapter 10: Keep them guessing

...[Obi-Wan] had just over half an hour to come up with a viable plan that would result in everyone getting out of there alive.

So no pressure then.

He arrived at the senate building none the wiser, although a little calmer. All he had to do was keep his shields up, and keep his nerve. That shouldn’t be an issue. Obi-Wan Kenobi was a Jedi Master of several decades, he should be able to manage a short meeting without giving anything away.

He would be able to manage this.

The distance up the steps seemed much longer than it usually was, even as Obi-Wan passed the spot when Anakin had been shot, and Padme nearly killed. And oh look, there was another spot where Padme was nearly killed. It was a good job that she could defend herself, because danger had come to Coruscant a long time before the general senate thought it had.

Playing dirty in the senate meant that they’d killed their opponent’s children, rather than anything as petty as bribery. Give Obi-Wan the war almost any day. Give him peace far more.

Well, the peace of his childhood where the Jedi were right and just, the senate clear and moral, and the Sith a bad myth.  There was no point feeling nostalgic for something that had never happened.

Obi-Wan walked past the spot where Bail had nearly been killed years ago, he didn’t even notice.

The Chancellor’s office on the other hand, that he remembered. He didn’t have to have been there for the final showdown to remember. He wouldn’t have even had to know.

But whatever else, Obi-Wan couldn’t think about that right now.

“Master Kenobi, come in.” A secretary opened the door ushering him inside. Palpatine was sitting at his desk, tapping away at some paperwork. “He’ll be with you in just one moment,” they told him, as Obi-Wan was left awkwardly standing in the office.

There was the sound of a siren in the distance.

Someone ran past outside the door. Someone else chased them. Possibly a guard. Possibly not.

Obi-Wan coughed, looking at the walls, trying to count cracks in them. So far he’d gotten nowhere. The office was surprisingly well maintained.

Eventually Chancellor Palpatine looked up and smiled at him. “Please, take a seat, I’m sorry about that. Just trying to get ahead on some logistics. It looks like the end of this war might be in sight.”

“Indeed,” Obi-Wan agreed, taking a seat opposite, keeping his voice, and his shields, steady.

“So,” Palpatine set aside the work, “How is everyone at the temple. I was glad to hear that young Skywalker will be alright.”

Of course he was. “About as well as can be expected,” Obi-Wan instead said neutrally. “I don’t suppose you can share any information on Count Dooku’s death?”

“Sadly I’m as much in the dark as you are,” Palpatine ‘apologised’. “Possibly more so. I don’t suppose you have any theories you can share…”

Obi-Wan would not have liked the blatant fishing for information, even if he hadn’t known who was behind it. As it was he chose to smile blandly. “I’m afraid I know nothing more substantial than rumours at the moment. I would hate to waste your time on something as unsubstantial as rumours.”

“Oh I don’t mind my dear Jedi Master,” Palpatine smiled blandly at him. “We could all use a little down time now and again. On that note, how is the schedule now that this terrible war seems to be letting up?”

“More manageable,” Obi-Wan returned the smile, just as bland, and just as fake. “Thank-you so much for your concern. We’re all relieved to have a small break from the action. Though we may be heading out again soon. Grievous is still on the loose, as is Ventress.”

“Of course, of course” Palpatine agreed, “Although I thought Ventress had separated from Dooku and the Separatists?”

“Ah,” Obi-Wan pretended to have slipped, “One of the rumours, that Ventress had killed her former Master to take his place. Nothing we have any evidence for one way or another. It’s about as well founded as the sudden change in heart rumour, the secretly alive and plotting to end us all rumour, and the ‘the Jedi secretly murdered him and are pretending they didn’t to avoid complications’ rumour.” All of which Obi-Wan was sure existed, even if he hadn’t strictly speaking heard them.

Palpatine took the bait. “Oh, do tell me more,”

“There’s nothing much to tell, as I said, I would hate to bother someone as important as yourself with rumours we’ve already dismissed. Well, the secretly alive and plotting to end us all should never be truly dismissed, but given the position the Separatists were in in the war, it doesn’t seem like a wise move to abandon a heavy power base for a one man, or at least one team revenge mission. Not against the Jedi or the republic anyway.”

“You may be right,” Palpatine seemed to agree, but the seed had been planted. “You may be right.” He paused for a moment, as if weighing the consequences, then asked, “So how are the Jedi as a whole, I feel we ask so much of them and get so little feedback?”

“I could not possibly hope to speak for all Jedi.” Obi-Wan insisted. “Or indeed even for all of the large portion that have been involved in the war. Of course we will be instigating an investigative report within the order for our own purposes, if the senate would care to order one too I’m sure the efforts could be combined. I think that everyone would prefer as little paperwork as possible.”

“Obi-Wan Kenobi,” Palpatine chuckled. “I was meaning this to largely be a social visit, not an official one. My deepest apologies for the ambiguity, it just seemed like we saw so little of each other outside of formal events and emergencies. I will of course pass on your excellent suggestion to the senate.”

“Thank-you,” Obi-Wan said, completely thrown, and completely hiding it. He couldn’t possibly be trying to turn him like he had Anakin could he? Maybe with the war ending so quickly the Sith felt the need for some amusement, and this was it. That had to be it. Maybe he was trying to get to Anakin through him. The Jedi Master didn’t like admitting he didn’t know. He liked not knowing even less.

Palpatine let the awkward silence stretch, sitting there, far too comfortably, even for a politician. “So, my dear Obi-Wan, how has your leave been? Done anything interesting?”

“Work mainly, I’m afraid shore leave does not extend to an actual break.” Obi-Wan said.

“Oh that is a shame,” Palpatine sympathised, sounding about as genuine as it was actually false. “Well then, I won’t keep you if you have work to do.”

“Thank-you Chancellor.” Obi-Wan stood up and turned towards the door, taking special care not to relax.

“Oh, Obi-Wan, one last thing,” Palpatine said just as Obi-Wan was about to walk out the door.

So there was the catch.

Obi-Wan turned back. You are an old Jedi Master, he thought to himself, you are an accomplished Jedi Master, and it’s not long now. “Yes Chancellor,”

“Well two more things I guess,” Palpatine smiled at him. “Don’t feel the need to stand on such formalities. But if you, or Anakin were ever in any trouble, say you needed a hand with something the order wouldn’t agree with, please do ask me. The republic owes its heroes a great debt, and anything I can do to help at all.”

“Thank-you Chancellor,” Obi-Wan didn’t bother trying to hide the slight hint of disapproval in his voice there. The distaste oh yes, but not the disapproval.

Without much of a thought other than to his path and his shielding he hurried out of the office and down towards the speeder bay, ignoring any who hailed him. The stench in that office had been overwhelmingly revolting and the whole experience had left Obi-Wan in wonder that Anakin had managed as well as he had.

He hurried past offices, and meeting rooms, senators he knew and senators he didn’t. The whole building was a blur until he sat in his speeder, powered up the engine and left, ignoring all that was behind.

He didn’t go back to the temple. He didn’t even go back to Dex’s diner. Instead he set off as far and as fast as possible, trying to see any parts of Coruscant that weren’t a worse hive of scum and villainy than the Mos Eisely Cantina. Or just as overly familiar. But he flew and he flew and he flew.

 

Someone who wished they could avoid the temple was Ahsoka Tano, who was carefully avoiding keeping watch over Anakin, and instead sitting in her room. She was trying to mediate. In reality she was fiddling with Grey’s Comm.

It buzzed.

“Hello?”

“Ahsoka, good, erm.” Asajj seemed uncharacteristically flustered. “How’s Skywalker, alive at least?”

“He’s alive, what’s wrong?” Ahsoka asked, somewhat concerned.

“You know we all agreed I should stay out of trouble and keep a low profile…” Asajj began, trailing off at the end.

“You haven’t?”

“I may have accidently, well semi-accidently, killed one of your republic’s commanders.” Asajj admitted.

“WHAT?” Ahsoka yelled.

“Not a Clone, don’t worry. Can you come and help?”

“We haven’t been back a week and you’ve already killed a military officer.” Ahsoka said, refusing to acknowledge the rising panic. “I don’t believe this.”

“I needed to in order to keep my secret and he was a horrible odious little man.” Ventress bit back. Honestly they’d worked together for twenty years, give a little faith would she.

“Was it anyone I’d know?” Ahsoka snapped, hurling things in a small bag. She couldn’t believe it had come to this. Asajj wasn’t evil, but boy did random killing make it seem like it.

“Not pleasantly if I’m right.” Asajj said, glancing over at the corpse. She was, of course, more than capable of dealing with it herself, even with limited resources in the middle of the republic’s capital. But, even if she being unfairly judgemental, she had wanted to tell Ahsoka.

“Well then, who is it?”

Asajj took a moment to double check the DNA results. Then she told her.  

There was a vague bustle in the temple. The outer door of Anakin and Ahsoka’s rooms swung open, and a knock was sounded on Ahsoka’s door.

She noticed none of it.

The door opened just as she exclaimed in surprise “The same person I’m thinking of?”

“How many are there?”  Asajj grumped.

“The same one who was involved in-“ Ahsoka asked, turning around to see Anakin there for the first time. He motioned hi.

“Uhuh.” Asajj muttered.

Ahsoka burst into a smile, then a laugh. “Well then. Thank-you.”

“I didn’t do it for you. Well, just for that. He genuinely did need to be killed for my safety. I might have been a bit more vicious.”

‘What’s going on’ Anakin mouthed at Ahsoka.

She sighed. “Grey killed someone and now wants my help disposing of the body and evidence.”

“Anyone good?” Anakin asked.

Asajj scoffed through the comm link. “Hardly.”  She told him who.

Anakin considered it for a beat. Then another beat. Then broke out into a smile. “What did I say Ventress, joint fourth favourite.”

“What?” He said after both Ventress and Ahsoka managed to look at him funny. “Anyone who is capable of not only overseeing, but actively doing what they did as an intimidation tactic on one person is better off not in the universe. I say well done and good riddance.”

“So you’d be up for helping me hide the evidence.” Asajj asked.

“I would,” Anakin swayed a bit, “If I could stay upright for more than half an hour at a time. I left before they could give me painkillers. ” He leant a hand on the door, wincing. “I just wanted to give you these before you left.” He tossed a couple of small, flat, black objects at Ahsoka, who chucked them in her bag. “There the comm units I promised. They’ve only got a range of the radius, rather than the diameter of the galaxy, and they’re text only. But they should work. And they should be secure.”

“Gottcha.” Asajj said, “You know where I am right ‘soka?”

“I know.” Ahsoka said before the semi-retired Assassin terminated the link. She turned to Anakin. “I should go. Is Obi-Wan back yet?”

“No, and I’ve no idea where he’s gotten to.” Anakin admitted.

“Oh well, if I bump into him.” Ahsoka smiled, and passed her former teacher on the way out. “See you around Skyguy!”

“See you around Snips,” Anakin managed before collapsing onto the floor, the second she was out of sight.

He should not have done that. He should not have done that.

Notes:

Happy Olympics for those who watch! Happy August, for those who don't! I hope you enjoyed the chapter, please leave a comment, let me know what you thought!

Chapter 11: Dealing with a certain fool of a human

He should not have done that. He should not have done that.

Story of Anakin’s life really.

Although failing to heed the medic’s advice and stay in the hospital wing was hardly the worst thing he’d ever done. It wasn’t the best though right? He’d done better things in the entirety of existence. He’d saved some people. He’d helped train Ahsoka. He’d attributed DNA to Luke and Leia. That was all good.

Oh why hadn’t he brought another comm link? He should have known better. He should know better.

But there he was, collapsed on the floor of his own apartment, without the energy, or ability to lift himself even onto the sofa right now.

From now on he was heeding medical advice. Or at least, heeding it a bit more. If he got the chance to. Now he was just being silly, he was not going to die from having to sit, well kind of, on the floor for a bit. At some point Ahsoka was going to come back, and then she’d get someone to come and take him back to medical.

Anakin shifted his hand to try to redistribute his balance. Ow that hurt.

“Anakin, what’s wrong?” A voice sounded quietly in his head.

He’d forgotten about the bond with Obi-Wan. He attempted to send back reassuring waves “Fine, went against medical advice. Regretting it. I’m fine.”

What he actually sent was what was coming from his leg at that moment. Notably all the pain of a freshly splintered bone. Well, hopefully it was just splintered. Anakin wasn’t exactly sure.

“THAT IS NOT FINE!” Obi-Wan sent back immediately the knowledge of his friend is pain drowning out his own desire to run. Not when it was Anakin. The only trouble was he was halfway around Coruscant and Anakin needed someone right now. He couldn’t make it in time. Well, before Anakin started going against medical advice again.

Padme.

Quickly Obi-Wan sent Anakin reassuring waves, and the strict instruction not to try and move.  

“Not an option” Anakin managed to send back, if weakly. 

Obi-Wan didn’t believe that that would last for longer than it absolutely had to. He commed his friend.

“Senator Amidala’s unit, how can I help you?” An unusually enthusiastic aide answered.

“This is Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi calling about Republic Business, may I talk to the Senator.”

“Just one moment.” The aide put the comm down.

Obi-Wan sighed and turned the speeder back towards the temple. How fast could he go and get away with it?

The comm unit was picked up again. “Master Kenobi, whatever can I help you with?”

“It’s Anakin.”

“I see,” Padme did not sound surprised. “Can you-“ There was the faint sound of a door closing and locking. “I’m on my own now. What’s wrong?”

“From what I can tell he checked himself out against medical advice and from what I can tell has now hurt his leg. The trouble is I’m on the other side of the planet.”

“And you can’t get hold of Ahsoka.”

Well, Obi-Wan hadn’t actually thought to try Ahsoka. But she was probably busy. “No, is there any way you could-“

“I’m on my way,” Padme said, grabbing her complast. “You don’t need to tell me about Anakin. Might be a few minutes though, the old tunnels still open?”

It took Obi-Wan a minute, “Of course you know about those, yeah, should be. Unless either Anakin or Ahsoka have had them closed up since we got back.”

“Then I’m on my way. I’ll comm you when I’m there. Thank-you, lo-“ Padme startled, “Thank-you, I’ll let you know.” She closed the call. Had that nearly just happened?

Obi-Wan was getting increasingly worried about the waves of pain ebbing over from Anakin. It was only so long before he tried to do something in his typical vein of recklessness.

Ow didn’t really seem to encompass the pain right now. Not that Anakin hadn’t had worse. But OW. Normally he had had a distraction. Like the battle he had been fighting, or people he needed to protect, or even a task that needed to get done. Now all he had to do was sit there and wait for someone.

The pain seemed so much more.

Maybe he should try and focus on moving onto the sofa. That seemed like a good idea. Sure Obi-Wan had said not to move, but moving to the sofa couldn’t hurt worse could it?

Anakin shifted his weight back onto his arms, attempting to pull himself backwards towards the aimed bit of furniture.

“ANAKIN NO” Obi-Wan yelled through the bond.

He needn’t have bothered. Anakin had already gotten that memo.

“Talk to me?” He sent back, then cursed himself. He could do this. The fact that Obi-Wan might not mind was irrelevant. He shouldn’t need anyone.

“What about?”

Anakin thought for a moment. “How did your meeting go?”

“Bad question.” Obi-Wan sent back. “I indulged in some alternate meditation.”

Now that peaked Anakin’s curiosity, as it was designed to. “From me that would mean pod racing. Given that flying is for droids…” he left the question implied.

“Why don’t you talk to me?” Obi-Wan suggested. “Tell me about the first pod race you were in. Or the first one on Coruscant?”

“I was twelve.” Anakin sent, focusing on the memory, sending a jumble of telling and showing. He’d been on Coruscant just over two years at the time, and it had not quite been the first trip to the undercity on his own, but it had yet to become a regular occurrence. The experience had been somewhat exhilarating. He’d had to hire a pod, since he hadn’t got one himself, or rather he’d made a bet with the pod owner that he couldn’t win the race. The pod owner had lost.  He’d also signed on with the owner as an irregular driver.

He should probably be more concerned with showing Obi-Wan this than he was. Or arguably less concerned given that this was the man who’d forgiven him for VADER.

“Keep talking,” Obi-Wan sent him, flying past buildings with slightly more speed than he was usually used. It was fine, Anakin went faster all the time.

Was that a traffic droid?

Obi-Wan slowed down very slightly listening to the ambling track of a blow by blow account of the race. He was astonished Anakin remembered it so well, given all that had happened since. Obi-Wan himself certainly only remembered very few memories from when he was that age. A couple with Qui-Gon, one with Garen, and another one with most of his intake that he only really remembered as the tale that had been told.

He hoped Padme was at the temple by now.

She was, as a matter of fact, just edging up the final stretches of the tunnel into one of the deserted corridors of the temple. She shook down her dress, and picked up the robe left there for her, by Anakin. It had been a long time.

She wasn’t exactly inconspicuous even with the robe on, but it was a short, brisk, walk to Anakin’s quarters, and they had been spliced to allow her entry.

She opened the door.

 “Here,” Anakin sighed with relief, then winced again.

“Hey Husband,” Padme said, closing and locking the door behind her. She knelt down next to him. “Obi-Wan said you might need a hand.”

“Hey,” Anakin breathed, “Sorry about this. Thank-you, love you.”

“Love you too.” Padme smiled, “So how do you want to do this, is your comm around the place?”

“Left it in medical, there’s a hypospray in my room. Third drawer by the bed. Can you get that for me?”

It was easily enough located although, since when was Anakin’s room this tidy? And how did he have medical grade numbing spray in his room? Or more to the point why?

Padme passed his the hypospray, then asked him the questions.

“One mo.” Anakin injected the leg. The absence of pain was immediately noticeable.

“So?” It wasn’t that Padme was worried exactly. Substance abuse had never been among Anakin’s weakspots. But she wasn’t exactly not worried either.

“Occasionally I get into mechanical accidents. Soldering burns and so on. It just made sense to have around.” Anakin dismissed the concern. “I’ll be fine, can you give me a hand up please. It’s a little disconcerting to only feel one leg.”

“I can imagine,” Padme held out her hand. Anakin gripped it.

“Yeah, I’m used to two or none.” He joked, sitting down onto the sofa. That was better. Padme sat down next to him. That was even better.

“I-“ Padme frowned. “I know now why you have that spray, but I’m still concerned you’re using it instead of proper medical attention.”

“I know just-“ Anakin shrugged, “They’ll drug me. The last time I went under…”

“Oh Ani,” Padme didn’t need him to complete the sentence. The last time Anakin was unconscious for a medical procedure, he woke up in a big, black, human shaped box. “I get that, but you could have broken your leg. You need to see someone about it.”

“Can you-“ No, she couldn’t stay with him. Anakin couldn’t even ask.

“I’ll sit with you for a bit.” Padme told him, “I can always distract you with my day.”

“What did happen in your day?” Anakin asked, “You know what mine was like.”

What should she say? I did some paperwork, talked to some people and almost told Obi-Wan I loved him, and she wasn’t entirely sure it was out of habit of talking to Anakin. But she couldn’t tell Anakin that. Oh Force she couldn’t tell Anakin that.

Apart from anything else she needed to think first.

“Generally uneventful I’m afraid. I feel I’ve complained enough at the correlation between democracy and bureaucracy.”

“How’s your people. Sabe, Jar Jar, that aide that always answers the phone. Your sister?”

“Sabe is good, or at least was the last time I talked to her. Sola is also good. I should call her actually. Jar Jar.” Padme considered what on earth she could say about that existential disaster. “Hopefully well meaning, ‘cause he hasn’t done anything right since we’ve been back.”

“Ugh,” Anakin sighed.

“Threepio is good. Fussy as always.”

“Well that won’t change in twenty years,” Anakin said without thinking about it. “I made him too well from that perspective.”

“Well,” Padme considered it. “This time around you can put up with him for that time.”

Anakin looked at her for a while. “Yes, yes I will.”

“Promise?” Padme asked him.

“I promise, for as long as you want me there, I will be there.” Anakin said. “Thick and thin, sickness and health. But this time I have to put the welfare of the galaxy before yours.”

“And I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Padme said. “The galaxy, then the republic, then anything more personal.”

“Agreed.” Anakin said, it made Padme happy, it would have made Luke happy, Leia would never have been happy with him, but she would have approved of that. Even Obi-Wan would probably like the compromise these days. “Huh.”

“Huh?” Padme asked,

“Just wondering if that’s what was originally meant by conquering your attachments.”

Considering it, Padme liked the idea. It was certainly healthier than the current ideas. She told him such.

“Huh, tell Obi-Wan. He’s the one who’s gonna single handedly reform the entire Jedi Order.”

“You reckon?”

“Well,” Anakin considered, “He’s gonna try. And it’s Obi-Wan, so he’ll do it. And you will reform the entirety of the Senate.”

“Really?” Padme was somewhat sceptical.

“Well, with Bail,” Anakin compromised, “And like Mon Mothma and Ahsoka’s friend whatever her name is.”

“Riyo?”

“That’s her.”

“Well, we can try.” Padme smiled, oh boy was she going to. Even if Anakin was still sweetly hugely overestimating her abilities. “What will you be doing?”

“Looking after the twins?” He suggested.

“You want to be a house husband? Won’t you be bored?”

Anakin hadn’t really considered it before. But with the twins, if they were anything like their counterparts, no. He’d always loved children, ever since he was one. Being always there when Padme came home, running errands for Obi-Wan, having lunches with Ahsoka, it seemed almost idyllic. If slavery was defeated and all. When was that going to happen though? Deal with Palpatine first. “Not really?” Anakin smiled slightly, thinking of getting the twins breakfast. What would Leia’s smile look like?

“Well,” Padme doubted that he’d ever settle for long, “you could be right.”

“Yeah, well, we’ll see.” Anakin decided, “I think I can go to medical now. Wait for me?”

“Sure,” Padme refrained from rolling her eyes. She’d wait for him.

Notes:

Do not do any of what Anakin does here. I generally feel like that goes without saying, but I feel like I should point it out once in this fic. As always this in Un-beta'd so science, force and literary mistakes are my own. Please leave a comment, let me know what you think.

Chapter 12: A Long Discussion

“Sure,” Padme refrained from rolling her eyes. She’d wait for him.  

Well, she sat back down on the sofa, at least she know had time to think. Obi-Wan. Why oh why did it have to be Obi-Wan. Why did it have to be anything at all? There’d been nothing lasting since she married Anakin. But she knew somehow that if this was what she thought it was, then it was stuck.

When had this started? Did it matter? Wasn’t there more important things she should be worrying about?

Except, somewhere, in amongst the war, the Sith controlling the senate, and the time travel, Padme had learned the state of her marriage might actually have an impact on galactic security. It was not a comforting thought. 

They hadn’t been doing so badly so far though.

Padme fired up her dataplast. Who knew when Anakin was going to be back, and the senate did not stop for an injured husband. Especially not a secret injured husband.

Her life was a mess. Also, she needed more friends, especially more friends that weren’t Anakin’s, and that didn’t work with her, or worse, for her. She really should call Sola. The time difference was atrocious though.

She could always think. She could always work.

Padme ended up getting a lot done in the three and a half hours it took Anakin to get to the medical wing, get diagnosed, get moaned at by the healers, get his leg fixed, sweet talk the healers into letting him go, and get back to his room.

“Hey,” Anakin closed the door firmly behind him. “You waited.”

“Yeah,” Padme put down the dataplast and got up to give him a hug, “What did they say was wrong?”

“Nothing…”

“Anakin.”

“Slightly broken leg bone, but its fine now. And they fixed the meds so it won’t happen again.” He said, moving over to the couch and collapsing on it. “I got the rest of the comms I made as well. There’s eight of them in total, obviously I gave two to Ahsoka. As in one for her, one for Ven- Asajj. Did I say that?”

“Meds?” Padme asked.

“They’re settling down now.” Anakin said, then tossed her one of the units. “Now you can talk to six other people from halfway across the galaxy.”

“Only halfway?” Padme teased absentmindedly. Force she had to tell him, honesty was the only way this wasn’t going to fall apart. She couldn’t tell him. She had to though, more leverage for Sidious was not something they could afford. But even if she told him there would be more leverage. But less of an increase. She had to. Oh why did this happen? Why did he have to say that? She wouldn’t have noticed otherwise.

Padme didn’t need to be force sensitive for Anakin to pick up on the swirl of unrest in her mind. The anxiety, the worry and the general reluctance yet resignation were all showing very clearly.

“Padme, love, just tell me.” Anakin said gently. This required a clear head, whatever this was.

“Okay, okay,” Padme sat down next to her husband.

“What is it?” Anakin asked softly.

“You know I love you right?” Padme said.

“I love you too, what’s wrong Angel?” Anakin asked,

“Well,” Padme began, then rethought, “You know I’m not planning on leaving you right. I fact I’m not.”

Oh, “Who?” Anakin asked quietly, he should have seen this coming. It didn’t matter he tried to tell himself, she wasn’t leaving him. It wasn’t like he hadn’t thought about another person recently, and he hadn’t even told her. And she was trusting him enough to tell him. He couldn’t get jealous. He couldn’t. He was.

“Who?” Padme repeated,

“Who is it?” Anakin kept his voice as calm as he could. “I’m fine with it, I promise.”

Padme took a deep breath, then deflated, “It’s stupid really, because it’s about as unrequited as you can get. I don’t think he’s ever been interested in anyone, and I’m very firmly taken, and not leaving ever. It’s just, he’s so pretty, and kind, and there are so few people who will stand there and match my intellect like that.”

Oddly a tiny slither of hope was worming its way through Anakin’s mind. It just sounded so much like- well, it didn’t matter if it was. “They sound wonderful,” Anakin said “I don’t blame you if you” – No! He couldn’t lose her. He didn’t deserve her. He couldn’t lose her. Anakin shook himself. Padme was her own person. She could make her own choices, and if she decided she wanted someone else, or even just not him, Anakin had to respect that decision. Think of what happened last time. “If it turns out not to be unrequited and you change your mind about wanting to leave me, I’ll cope. Don’t stay if you’re not happy.”

Padme wrapped her arms around her husband. “I wouldn’t. We’ve still got problems, but I have faith. And there’s no chance it’s not unrequited anyway, given that it’s Obi-Wan.”

Oh! Oh…. Images of them together immediately rose in Anakin’s mind, of her dark hair and his pale ginger together. Of a beard burn over Padme’s face. Of Padme discussing politics at the breakfast table while Obi-Wan moaned about politicians while understanding and offering views. Of Anakin teaming up with Padme over Obi-Wan, and them doing the same to him. Wait. They did that already.

Padme sat there nervously.

 Interpreting Anakin’s silence the wrong way Padme rushed to explain. “It’s not an old thing I promise. I did have a tiny, tiny crush on him back when we first met on Naboo, before I met you actually, he seemed so mysterious and debonair, the rogue Jedi Padawan with the spiky haircut. Then of course Qui-Gon died and he seemed so sad, but we parted and kept vaguely in touch and well, he revealed himself to be, well, Obi-Wan.”

“I know what you mean,” Anakin said.

“So we became friends, and next time we met was the next time we met,” Padme gestured to herself and Anakin, “And so it was more like ‘Oh Hi Obi-Wan, nice to see you again, holy fucking bantha droppings – Anakin!’ because there you were and you were really pleased to see me and trying to come across as smooth and failing miserably and coming off as vaguely creepy and I was so attracted to you anyway and I hated that so very much. And then we were on Naboo and you stopped trying to be smooth, most of the time, what on earth was that about sand anyway, and you were just really sweet and I was a complete goner. And then the Clone Wars happened and it was just you and it was always just you and then we got back, and then we were talking in my office waiting for you because he wanted to be nearby and then he said something and it went from absolute nothing to well, something, just like that.”

Padme studied Anakin’s reaction. “I swear, I’m not going anywhere.”

“I don’t mind.” Anakin said honestly. He didn’t. It was Obi-Wan. So what if it looked like they both had those switches in their heads. “Just out of curiosity, what did he say?”

Padme shrugged, “Something like: you know I’m far more attached to you than a Jedi should be right?”

Anakin smiled. “That is so Obi-Wan.”

“It is,”

“He’s hopeless, and that doesn’t sound particularly unrequited to me.” Anakin said, watching Padme shake her head. “No, that’s more than I ever got from him verbally, well until- . I’m pretty sure that’s the Obi-Wan equivalent of ‘I love you and I’d die for you without a second thought’.”

Shaking her head, Padme denied the thought, “It’s probably the Obi-Wan equivalent of ‘I missed you’ rather than anything deeper. We are friends.” She paused for a moment, “Please tell me that you’re not bottling up rage and envy right now Anakin. I’m concerned how well you’re taking this.”

Honesty had worked as the best policy so far, as she trusted him, and she knew he was Bi, that wasn’t new, but, Anakin took the risk. “I was. I was jealous and not angry exactly and then you said Obi-Wan and it all faded. Because he is that wonderful and kind and patient and I guess – same?”

“Same?” Padme questioned.

“Same- I want to smooch his stupid face off.” Anakin grumbled.

“We are a pair aren’t we?” She said.

“It’s his stupid beautiful mind. It was nothing or, at least, too complicated and then he showed me that and –“

“We couldn’t be a normal couple could we?” Padme laughed. “Look at us, pining after the same guy.”

“At least it’s the same guy.” Anakin pointed out. “He’s just so, Obi-Wan.”

“So eloquent.” Padme said.

“Hey,”

“Sorry dear, had to.” She smiled.

“I know,” Anakin grinned back, “He is though, such a Negotiator.”

“He’d hate you for that.”

“I know. There’s a reason he acquired the name though.” He said.

“There really is.” Padme thought back, then said, with mischief in her tone, “Hey, given it’s the same guy you don’t think?”

“Oh I wish.” Anakin said emphatically. Just thinking about it was torture and heaven at the same time. Obi-Wan and Padme would be wonderful, Anakin and Padme were a sheer delight, but even the idea of him, and Obi-Wan, and Padme was almost beyond compare. The three of them at breakfast, the three of them out on a picnic, the three of them in bed…

“The three of us have always been such a good team.” Padme said, equally lost in fantasies. “What would it be like? What does that beard feel like?”

“I was wondering that.” Anakin groaned, sliding his head down onto Padme’s shoulder. “Does it itch, does in tickle, what kind of marks does it leave?”

“We’re hopeless.” Padme commiserated. “Is he even interested in people?”

“He had a thing with Satine once,” Anakin said, “But I can’t think of anything else. So he probably likes women, or at least isn’t always objectionable to the idea. I know he doesn’t like me.” At Padme’s questioning look he clarified, “Mind share. There was no desire in there at all.” 

“Ah, he could be lying to himself.” She said.

“How likely do you think that is?” Anakin asked rhetorically.

Very. Padme refrained from pointing out. This is the guy whose idea of an appropriate emotional reaction used to be a sarcastic one liner.

“But anyway,” Anakin continued, “If, if it turns out not to be so unrequited, and you don’t leave me, and if he doesn’t mind, in Obi-Wan’s case,” he paused for a moment considering what he was about to say, “Yes, in Obi-Wan’s case I’d be fine with a poly arrangement.”

“As in?”

“As in me and you, and you and him.” Anakin said quickly, “It might need to be a bit more complicated than that, but I could cope.”

“It wouldn’t happen anyway,” Padme said, “And I doubt I’d feel comfortable with it. Him joining us, yes, but even that would require a lot of discussion. And there’s the twins to worry about.”

“They’d be fine.” Anakin didn’t quite dismiss the point, but “Ahsoka turned out fine and let’s face it she had the three of us parenting her. The twins will get the three of us, Ahsoka, Rex, Bail, and, if we let them near them, Asajj and most of the 501^st. They are going to have an awful lot of parental figures regardless of who we’re involved with.”

Padme considered it for a moment. “They really are aren’t they?” Mon Mothma was probably going to try and at least be an Aunt figure, and Sabe at least was going to want in. Let alone her biological family. “Talk about needing a village to raise a couple of kids.” A thought occurred to her, “What are we going to call them?”

“Huh?” Anakin asked, “What do you –“

“I mean,” Padme interrupted him, “Are we going to call them Luke and Leia, or are we going to call them something else, I mean they’ve got the same genes, genetically they’re the same twins, but it is a huge amount of pressure to live up to.”

“I, I-“ Anakin thought about it for a moment, it wasn’t that he hadn’t intellectually known that his kids could grow up to be different people from the ones he knew they could be, that they wouldn’t suddenly appear as mini versions of  themselves, but it hadn’t quite sunk in before. “I don’t know.”

“Would it give them higher expectations if we call them that, or if we don’t? To a certain extent will we always be measuring them against their predecessors? Other selves?” Padme said, glad to be back on the more comfortable ground of the implications of time travel. “What do you want?”

Anakin generally tried not to go with his gut instinct these days. He stopped trusting it a long time ago. But in this case… What seemed right?

“Luke and Leia.” He eventually answered, “They are Luke and Leia. They may be different, in fact I hope they are. But they are Luke and Leia Skywalker Naberrie Amidala.”

Notes:

Please let me know what you thought on this one! Otherwise I will see you next week when you finally find out (for sure) whose body Asajj needs help hiding.

Chapter 13: They've had too much practice at this

Notes:

Warning: This chapter contains a dead body, and describes (in the past tense) how the body died. Nothing too gruesome but if that squicks you out, I'm putting a vague recap on next week's chapter, so you can skip this.

Why Asajj had to hide in such decrepit, run-down, rickety spots Ahsoka had no idea. There were plenty of isolated areas on Coruscant that were not about to collapse over your head, and that you could hide a dead body in. Yet Asajj had done it all throughout their partnership. If she was in charge of finding the hiding place, you could guarantee that in six months there wouldn’t be any hiding place there at all.

This one was no exception. Derelict even by the poorest areas on the undercities standard, it stood in such a dodgy area that Ahsoka doubled back multiple blocks in order to leave the speeder somewhere where there was at least a minimal chance it’d be there when she got out.

She retraced her steps on foot and knocked on the door.

Asajj opened it.

Ahsoka stepped in and closed it before asking: “Where’s the body?”

 “This way.” Asajj led her through a couple of doorways to where there was a body, uncovered, and looking like it fell there.

“Well,” Ahsoka looked at the clammy pale skin, and the thankfully closed eyelids. He was still recognisable even after all these years. Not that it had been many for him. “I can’t pretend to be sorry he’s gone.”

“Grand Moff to be Tarkin.” Asajj said with a slight smile at Ahsoka’s matter of fact statement. “I should hope not.”

“What a dick.” Ahsoka declared.

“Understatement.” Asajj said. “Do you think anyone will miss him?”

“Personally, nah?” Ahsoka didn’t even think about it. Then she sobered up. “It does create some problems though.”

“Any ideas on getting rid of the body?” Asajj asked, taking one last look at the stiff corpse and leading Ahsoka into one of the other rooms in the building. It might have once been a house. Ahsoka honestly couldn’t tell anymore.

“There’s no chance that we could just leave it here until this place falls apart on top of it?” She asked.

Asajj shook her head, “Sorry ‘Soka, he’s kinda got a lightsabre stab wound going right through a sensitive region.”

Ahsoka looked at her friend, judged the meaning of that statement, and shook her head. “How in the force did that happen?”

Asajj shrugged, “I was cross.”

“GREY!”

“And he was coming at me with a blaster, and firing said blaster.” Asajj continued, ignoring Ahsoka’s interruption.

“Still- in the dick?”

“I wasn’t tracking where I was stabbing him until he collapsed with pain, I just lunged out of the way of the gun. Forgot my hip was no longer dodgy.” Asajj defended herself.

“You’re hip was never dodgy,” Ahsoka rolled her eyes, “You just never got used to the bionic replacement.”

“The bionic replacement was so cheap it froze up every time we went anywhere colder than Tatooine.” Asajj shook her head, “A metal pin would have been better.”

“Well it was you who didn’t want to go the proper medical facility when you had an infected stab wound in your hip.” Ahsoka pointed out, while wondering why they were still having this argument. And when they’d stop without Rex or anyone there to stop them.

“Please!” Asajj said. “That facility got attacked two days later. We would have been there. Besides, the wound was self- cauterised.”

“Not a reason to not get it checked out. At least by an Alliance medic.” Ahsoka insisted.

“We did, it took us a week to get there.”Asajj couldn’t actually remember why it had taken them a week to find the nearest Alliance sympathetic person with medical training by this point. She had a vague feeling that it shouldn’t have done.

“And whose fault was that?” Ahsoka asked, “Who insisted on finishing the job?”

Ah that was why. Asajj remembered now. “Would you rather they’d died?”

“It took half a day to see to your hip. They had enough supplies for a month.” Ahsoka pointed out. “It wasn’t an emergency mission. They’d have been fine.”

Asajj scowled at her for a moment, then relaxed her features. “Why are we-“

“Having this argument again?” Ahsoka said. “I have no idea. Shall we get back to the dead weight we have on our hands.”

Asajj looked at her.

“Sorry, been living with Anakin again haven’t I?” Ahsoka apologised. “If leaving him here isn’t an option, what else is? Trash compactors good enough aren’t exactly common, or poorly guarded. I don’t think sneaking him on board a spaceship’s trash section is a good idea, and it’s illegal to jettison trash at the moment anyway.”

“People still do.”

“Yes, but it’s not that common that a dead body, even an unidentifiable one, won’t be noticed, and at least logged.” Ahsoka reasoned. “If we fake a resignation letter then at least people won’t be looking for him.”

“Book him on a flight out of here, one of the big commercial liners?” Asajj suggested.

“Better go for a smaller craft, nothing with camera on, but still with enough people that they won’t notice a passenger isn’t actually there. But then if we do that, change his clothes for something ratty and horrible.”

“And dump him behind one of the big depos in the undercity he might not be noticed for weeks, by which point decomposition might well have kicked in.” Asajj agreed. ”So we got us one way of disposing of a body.”

Ahsoka sighed. It was a little too neat and criminal for her liking but well. This was Tarkin. And Sidious was currently running the government. It was just under a veneer of democracy, rather than outright tyranny this time. “Looks like it.”

“So,” Asajj suggested, “Do you want to change the clothes, or book the fake ticket?”

Ahsoka pulled a face. “Ticket, ticket, ticket. I’m not that awful a splicer.”

Asajj looked at her.

“I’m just as good as you, and probably good enough for this. We can’t all be technogenii.”

“Okay,” Asajj was not convinced. “You do that, I think there’s a terminal café down the street.”

“I parked my speeder near it.” Ahsoka remembered the place. Compared to here it looked positively legit. “I’ve got the cash, I think.”

“Thanks, I owe you Fulcrum.”

“Bet you do Grey.” Ahsoka replied. “Besides, now I don’t have to look at that thing.”

“The corpse or…”

 “The corpse!” Ahsoka got out of there before Asajj could finish the sentence. Why were they friends? She knew why, but still…

Fortunately the ticket site was reasonably easy to use, and numerous customer reviews referred to the ship and their crew as ‘hands off’. Best of all they seemed to be ambiguously shady, enough that they’d avoid law enforcement for anything short of murder on their ship, but legit enough that someone like Tarkin would travel with them at a pinch.

Ahsoka booked the ticket, a single one way, to a semi-legit midrim planet.

Then she got out of there.

Knocking on the door of the house she was greeted by Asajj with a particular noticeable addition.

“Why do you have a peg on your nose?”

“It stinks.” Asajj’s voice sounded slightly squeaky.

Ahsoka grinned.

“Stop it.”

Ahsoka forced the grin wider. It was just so silly.

“I am an enemy of this republic I’ll have you know. A dangerous criminal.”

“I’m sorry,” Ahsoka said, “It’s just you know human boy’s voices break when they get to get to a certain age.”

Asajj nodded.

“Well it’s like that but it reverse.”

“Screw you!” Asajj said, then took the peg off her nose, nearly retched, and repeated in her normal tone of voice. “Screw you!”

“He changed yet?” Ahsoka asked once the peg was firmly back on Asajj nose.

“Fortunately.” Asajj said, the squeak no longer as amusing. “I’ll go get my speeder while you watch the body. It’ll be less conspicuous.”

“I didn’t exactly take a high flash one you know?” Ahsoka told her.

“Still registered.” Asajj pointed out. “I’ll be back in a few. She darted into another room and pulled out a bit from an engine. “Still, she waved the part slightly, “I doubt it’s been moved.”

“Oh,” Ahsoka called after her. “Before I forget.” She tossed the other comm link at her. “Anakin made them for us. Text link with the other six from halfway across the galaxy.”

Asajj was actually fairly impressed, if the claim was true. It probably was. Anakin used to brag a lot, but rarely over falsehoods. “How long did it take him?”

“Couple of days in medical.” At Asajj’s face she added. “I know.”

Asajj shook her head. “Why did he bother with the whole Sith Lord thing?”

Ahsoka frowned at her.

“Sorry, just still…”

“Go get your speeder.” Ahsoka told her.

Ahsoka was not impressed with said speeder when it showed up. “You know, you’ve always had crap tastes in hideouts, but your taste in vehicles used to be impressive. Anakin would use with a little complaint impressive. What happened?”

“New low budget.” Asajj deadpanned. “New high on morals.”

Ahsoka glanced down at the dead body she was somewhat reluctantly carrying.

“I meant personal high. They can still be several miles below yours.”

“Can we just agree not to get into this argument again?” Ahsoka reasoned, dumping the corpse in the backseat and climbing into the passenger side.

“Fair enough.” Asajj let the throttle loose, or at least as far as it would go. They headed down to the under belly of the undercity. Shady even for an ex-Sith Assassin.

They were also full of heat vents. Some of which had remarkably hard to pry off covers. Perfectly easy to hide a body behind though. At least in theory.

“Why is he so heavy?” Asajj gripped as Ahoska finally managed to pry open the cover. “And why do you get to do the breaking and entering?”

 “Your hip. And because you’re complaining so much.” Ahsoka said, swinging the cover down so that the opening was big enough to get a body in.

“I don’t even have that hip anymore!” Asajj retorted.

“Wasn’t that the problem?”

Asajj frowned at her.

Ahsoka stuck her tongue out at her. “Pass me it up then.”

Asajj reluctantly passed the body up.  

“Eugh,” Ahsoka caught it, “He is remarkably heavy isn’t he. What does he eat?”

“Souls of the innocent?” Asajj suggested.

“He does seem the type to eat Sidious’s leftovers doesn’t he?” Ahsoka said, tossing the body down into the space between the cover and the vent. It landed with his head down to the ground and his posterior sticking up. There was no way he’d pass for asleep, or even for having died in it. She sighed. “Toss me your nose peg. And get up here, I’m gonna have to fix this.”

Asajj tossed her up the nose peg, before starting to climb up. She got halfway and topped. “I can wedge this open from here, you’re good.”

“Thanks,” Ahsoka jumped down inside the vent, nose peg firmly fastened.

It made a slight clang.

She stood still for a moment, judging whether anyone had heard it.

“Get a move on.” Asajj hissed. “I think I hear someone. And this is really uncomfortable.”

Ahsoka sighed, bit back the retort she had in her mind, and turned Tarkin’s body over. Vaguely propping his head up she decided that that would do and made to jump out.

The cover clanged shut.

Clanged was the word, there was a ringing sound far worse than when Ahsoka had landed. It rand and rang and rang painful to hear not just for the noise but for what it might mean.  For what it must mean.

No. Twenty years. They had twenty years of partnership. Grey was not going to throw that away on a whim. They were friends forged in fire, literally for some of it. Or at least, literally under fire.

She wouldn’t just throw that away.

Ahsoka tread as lightly as possible to the edge of the container and listened.

At first she heard nothing. Then two men, human by the sound of them, walking away.

“Well, quite a coup for us.”

 “Don’t get cocky En,” said the other man. “For all we know this is a decoy.”

“Still,” The first man, presumably En, said. “We’re foiling some bit of those Seppie plans with this. That’ll get us promoted big time.”

“Or fired.” The other man pointed out. “cause we’re playing right into their hands and wreaking destruction.”

“Aww, don’t be such a downer Lu,” En wheedled. “It’ll be awesome. Maybe we’ll get to meet some big wig from the senate.”

 “Why would you want to meet some big wig from the senate?” Lu pointed out. Ahsoka agreed with him, a few exceptions aside.

“Promotion Lu, more money.”

Lu sighed. “I guess I could actually call a repair man. Let’s call it in. If this all goes horribly wrong I’m blaming you.”

Ahsoka heard a few footsteps and then, even more vaguely. “You always do Lu.”

Then silence.

She sighed. Then tried to push the cover open. Nope.

She jumped, pushing against the top of it. Still nada.

Giving into the inevitable she unclipped one of her lightsabres and cut a small hole near the top. Then she jumped out. So much for a naturally dead body.

But Asajj was more important. She brought the comm link out, and powered it up.

The screen had seven options, and an eighth to contact more than one. With no names Ahsoka selected them all.

[This is Fulcrum. Grey in trouble. Anyone available for assist?]

A moment later a reply came through.

[Majesty here. On my way. Where shall I meet you?]

Ahsoka glanced around.

Well, if Rex was coming…

She sent him the co-ordinates of the nearest thing with co-ordinates. She also edited the number.

Rex: [Nearly there. They will pay.]

Notes:

Thank-you for reading! Please leave a comment and let me know what you thought, I know the fact it was Tarkin wasn't a big surprise to many of you, but did you enjoy the chapter anyway? Otherwise, next week for another chapter, and what happens next. *Ominous music plays* :D

Chapter 14: An Attempted Escape

Summary:

RECAP OF CHAPTER 13:
Ahsoka arrived to help Asajj Ventress hide Tarkin (who she'd killed) 's body. They came up with a cunning plan and went down to the sketchiest place on Couracant and hid the body in a large, covered heat vent. While Ahsoka was making sure the body looked natural Asajj was arrested by the local law enforcement, doing their job for once. Now Ahsoka and Rex have a plan to rescue their imprisoned friend.

Rex: [Nearly there. They will pay.]

Ahsoka paced outside the extremely shady club, Asajj’s speeder by her side. Her own was still outside the terminal café, or at least, she hoped it was.

Rex sped around the corner on a bike model, out of uniform, but hardly unrecognisable. He dismounted, and headed straight for her, speeding Ahsoka up in a bear hug.

“We’ll get her back.” Rex promised.

“I know we will.” Ahsoka said, her voice steady, and resolve clear. “Now come on, this is not the place to have this discussion. You can put your speeder in the back of Grey’s. She got into the driver’s seat without waiting for an answer, checking for any messages on the comm.

[OWK here, finally back at temple. Let us know if there’s anything you can do]

[PNA, ditto]

[ASNA, do I need to say?]

That took Ahsoka a minute

Ahsoka: [when did you take your wife’s names?]

Anakin: [A while ago…]

Padme: [By which he means about two hours ago]

Anakin:[That’s just when I told you]

Padme: [which is therefore when I agreed with it and when you took them]

Obi-Wan: [You two are in the same room. Why are you messaging?]

Ahsoka read the exchange with amusement, then sent. [Will let you guys know. Doing recon]

Obi-Wan: [Okay]

Having stowed his speeder away Rex got in the passenger side and coughed. “Any plans?”

“Not here.” Ahsoka kicked the speeder into gear. Not that she was probably legally supposed to be driving. They wouldn’t care down here.

In the end she drove a windy path back to the building that the body had been in.

“I don’t know where they’ve taken her, But I know who. Two patrol men, unusually diligent, took her to their station. But I don’t know if she’s been moved. It was close to where we met.”

Rex nodded. “I know where the nearest station is. We can go and check it out.”

“Now?” Ahsoka asked as Rex turned to leave.

“Unless we need something else?” Rex said, shaking his comm unit. He was right really, they hadn’t need to come this far.

“A speeder that’s not about to fall apart.” Ahsoka said, leaving Asajj’s where it was and steamrolling past Rex, and around the corner to where hers was parked.

“Um- isn’t that traceable?” Rex pointed out.

“Yes, it’s clearly a temple speeder. Do you remember that trick we used on Cody and the lot?”

“Oh,” Rex had to think a lot, “How are we gonna tell Grey?”

“Well hopefully she’s still quick on the uptake.” Ahsoka offered, automatically sitting in the driver’s seat, then realising how old she was. “Actually…”

“Forgot you were a teenager?” Rex asked.

“Yeah,” Ahsoka switched sides, letting the clone drive. She could get away with it in the real underbelly. She could even get away with it in most of the undercity, but when going to see the authorities, pretending to be the more impressive authorities… Yeah, age limit should probably be at least noted.

“If it makes you feel any better, you’re technically older than me.” Rex said, taking the speeder into the lane.

Ahsoka glared at him. “No, that does not make me feel better.”

Rex looked at her for a moment.

Ahsoka sighed. “I’ll give everyone with a unit a heads-up on our plan.

Ahsoka:[Being v.impressive authorities. Fingers crossed on uptake speeds]

She could feel Obi-Wan sighing from half-way across the planet.

Anakin:[ I’d have come]

Ahsoka:[ better for deniability.]

She thought for a moment then sent again. [I can always go rogue early]

Anakin:[ rather not.]

“Who’s saying what?” Rex asked, unwilling to look at his unit while driving.

Ahsoka gave him an overview.

Rex agreed with Anakin. That was something he never thought he’d say again.

“I think that’s a common sentiment.” Ahsoka said, looking up just as they pulled into an official lot. “We ready?”

Rex looked down at her and nodded.

Ahsoka climbed out the speeder, touching the top of her lightsabres. “Let’s see if anyone’s home.”

The local station at first glance seemed no less run down than any of the other buildings around. The plaster was crumbling, the windows were non-existent and the roof was, well, just about functioning.

But that was only at first glance. With a soldiers eye, and a rebels caution both Ahsoka and Rex saw more than that. They saw that while the plaster might be crumbling, the duracrete walls were thick, and in good repair. The windows were non-existent because they weren’t secure, and the door was solid, and reasonably new. The roof they saw was a fake, the real, reinforced, one hidden underneath. There were functioning sensors all around the building and it was certain that every single one of them was on.

It wasn’t impenetrable. But nonetheless Ahsoka was glad they were not going for the full on assault approach.

Rex stood by the door and waited. “Ready?”

Ahsoka nodded, twitching the position of her lightsabres to make sure they were clearly visible, without looking on display. Considering she’d spent most of her life making sure they weren’t visible, it felt counter-intuitive.

Rex opened the door, and let Ahsoka sail through. Head held high, with the most authority she could muster, she walked up to the guard on duty. “I’m afraid you’ve got one of ours. Mistaken identity following an illusion accident. The documents should have come through?”

The guard looked up in alarm “I’m sorry miss-“

“Commander,” Ahsoka interrupted, the slightest hint of kindness in her smile. “My title is Commander.”

“My apologies Commander, but I haven’t had any orders or documents.” The guard really did seem sorry, mainly that they were stuck in this mess and that their superior officer wasn’t there to relieve them. The lightsabres had been spotted.

Ahsoka sighed and turned to Rex. “Have they had to go through the senate again?” She tutted. “A simple case of mistaken identity, you’d think that the Order could sort it out between themselves. We’ll have to come back later.” She paused, deliberately pretending to wonder, and getting over her disgust at what she was about to say. “Do you think Anakin could get Palpatine to hurry it along…? No it’s too minor to worry about.”

Rex gave her a considered look. “I daresay your master would, is he already at the senate building?”

“No,” Ahsoka ‘remembered’ watching the guard’s reactions out of the corner of her eye. “I guess I could comm Senator Organa. He might be able to at least tell us where in the system the work has been lost.” She flipped her regular comm unit out.

“Wait” The guard said, recognition finally sparking. “You’re Ahsoka Tano!”

“Yes,” She turned back towards the guard. “Yes I am.”

“You know the Hero With No Fear, and the Negotiator! What’s it like?” The guard lent forward knocking something on their desk.

“You know,” She shrugged, “Work, life. Good luck getting your way around them. I’m fortunate enough to work with good men.” She nodded her head back towards Rex.

The guard nodded, moving some more things around on their desk. Almost like they were looking for something.

“Anyway, like I said, so sorry for wasting your time.” Ahsoka said, “I’ll see if I can’t hurry bureaucracy a little.” Just in case they were tracking it, she punched in Bail’s code. She had no intention of actually connecting to him. A nice, out of office answer was all she wanted.

They hadn’t even had a chance to connect when a durasteel shutter slammed down over the door and the guard rolled underneath his desk and out of site. The signal immediately cut out.

Ahsoka ducked instinctively as an alarm began blaring. “HALT INTRUDER! THERE IS NO WAY OUT. YOU WILL BE DETAINED BY THE APPROPRIATE AUTHOR-“

Rex shot the speaker, as Ahsoka shot up and leapt over the desk, aiming to chase after the guard. They were nowhere in sight. She slammed her fist down on the desk.

Rex nodded at the back.

Ahsoka sighed, just slightly, and checked out the reinforced door. It had a biolock, and not one that could be easily spliced. 

“Majesty,” she called.

The old soldier came over to have a look. Shrugging he gestured back towards the desk and mouthed ‘unit’ at her.

Ahsoka nodded. Beginning to search the desk, she opened all the drawers. Well, she didn’t want to see that. Edging around the pile of used tissues, she examined the rest of the drawer. Nothing.

There was nothing is any of the rest of the regular drawers either except- she opened the bottom right hand drawer again. There was something off about it. Something not quite right.

Rex fired at the door.

Ahsoka glared at him, then sighed and tossed him one of her blades.

He caught it with a nod, and began to cut through the door.

Ahsoka turned back to the drawer. It was shallower than it should be. She ran her fingers along the edge. There-

There was a slight click as Ahsoka slid the false bottom out of the drawer. There was a safe underneath it.

“Majesty?” She called.

Rex came over to see what the issue was. “Ah,” He passed Ahsoka’s blade back to her. “You do know that Grey’s the real locksmith here.”

“Yeah well,” Ahsoka shrugged, and resumed cutting through the door as Rex got to work on the safe.

Silence fell, except for the slow buzz of the lightsabre cutting the hole, and the odd tick of Rex splicing the lock.

Eventually there was a soft bang and a slight scrapping sound.

“I’ve got it,” Rex said in a low voice, causing Ahsoka to leave off trying to cut down the door, and see what he’d found. The answer turned out to be what they were looking for, the prisoner’s effects.

Ahsoka picked out the lightsabres and the comm unit, then looked over the rest of the stuff. “I don’t think any of it’s hers.”

Rex just shrugged back towards the door, then kicked it open.

THUD.

Once the ringing had finally subsided, Ahsoka stepped through, lightsabres in the crossguard position, footsteps shaking on the metal.

There were six cells and what looked like a drunk tank. Five of them were empty, with a vague figure crumpled in the drunk tank, so wrapped up in blankets that Ahsoka honestly couldn’t tell what species they were.

The final cell held Asajj Ventress. She was standing with her back to them, back ramrod straight, and giving a death glare to a recorder in the corner. 

Ahsoka paced herself carefully, taking clear strides towards the cell. “Grey?”

Rex shot the recorder.

Asajj turned around and spotted them, smiling slightly, then putting her finger to her lips. They all knew what that meant: no talking in here, they’re recording. She stepped to the back of the cage as Ahsoka whirled her lightsabres out cutting a rough box out of the side of the cell.

Asajj stepped out and surveyed her surroundings. “Took you a while.”

Rex handed Asajj her lightsabres and comm. “Thank-you, now how are we getting out of here?”

Ahsoka looked at Rex. Rex looked at Ahsoka. They shrugged.

 Asajj let out a despondent sigh. “Please tell me the two of you came in here with a plan.”

“We had a plan!” Ahsoka insisted.

Asajj looked at her.

“It fell apart.” Ahsoka admitted. “This is not the plan.”

Asajj rolled her eyes and turned to Rex, “I don’t suppose you managed a back-up plan?”

“Other than fight our way out?” Rex suggested.

“Right then,” Asajj decided, activating her sabres, and twirling them. “How good’s the durasteel here? And what’s the reaction time?”

Another siren sounded in the distance then kept coming, and coming, getting louder and louder. It seemed right outside.

It was right outside.

Reaction time was better than expected. Damm it.

Notes:

Thank-you so much for reading, please let me know what you thought!

Chapter 15: What you're left with

Another siren sounded in the distance then kept coming, and coming, getting louder and louder. It seemed right outside.

It was right outside.

Reaction time was better than expected. Damm it.

Ahsoka, Rex and Asajj exchanged glances.

“No killing,” Ahsoka said, “Not unless we can help it. They’re just doing their job, and they think we’re dangerous.”

Asajj sighed, “I miss fighting the empire, but fine.”

Rex sighed, less at the sentiment, and more at the comment.

“Well I miss fighting the evil separatists.” Ahsoka said.

“Funny, I miss fighting the cold and emotionless Jedi.” Asajj said, a smirk appearing on her face.

“You would.” Ahsoka said as Rex sighed again and half-yelled:

“GUYS!”

The two of them snapped back to attention.

“Right,” Ahsoka said, trying to judge the number of guards coming towards them. “Majesty, if you cover,” She turned to Asajj, “Do you want left or right?”

“Right,” Asajj said,

“Okay, let’s try and get out of this while we can.” Ahsoka readied her blades, running into the outer room, Asajj and Rex quickly behind her.

BANG. BANG. BANG.

The outer door trembled as Rex dived behind the desk.

Ahsoka ran forward, and just in time as the outer door slammed down with an almighty thud.

The soldiers poured in, not clones, but the normal, Galactic City, police.

Ahsoka didn’t know whether to be glad or not. Rex didn’t either. He’d spent so long fighting his brothers, on the other hand they’d spent so long fighting them, they would have known the drill. Asajj was glad for the presumed lack of competence and military knowledge.

One beat passed. Two beats. Ahsoka looked at the soldiers and they looked back at them.

A third beat passed.

Then Asajj struck jumping high aiming the hilt of her blade at the soldier’s heads. One down, two down.

Ahsoka swung low, knocking at feet, tripping them over, shoving the hilts into stomachs, groins, anywhere that would send them down, but not send them out.

Rex winced as Ahsoka body slammed one of the soldiers down as he himself shot the next soldier in the arm. Shoot, shoot again.

He edged round the side of the desk, staying low, making his way towards the door.

Asajj caught herself trying to activate her blade twice more as she hit underneath the chin, inside the shins, and with more groin shots than was remotely decent.

Finally, with a kick from Ahsoka into the stomach, and a flick of the hilt of her lightsabre under the chin, the final guard went down, leaving the door and the way out, open.

Ahsoka looked at the pile of unconscious guards. “Come on,” she glanced at the sensor, “They’ll be after us soon.”  

“Well, I imagine the faces you borrowed will want them back as well,” Asajj said, seeing where Ahsoka was looking. “Why’d you pass yourself off as a clone anyway? Surely another Jedi would have been better.”

Rex shrugged, and tried to remember if the sensors could see the door that they’d opened with the lightsabres. “Only time to get two.” He eventually said.

“Come on,” Asajj said, grabbing the two of them into Ahsoka’s speeder, that was blessedly still there.

None of them relaxed until they were well out of the way into the next district along. They dumped the speeder outside the bar, knowing full well it was better to leave it to get stolen, then for Ahsoka to ever take it back. She gave it a last nostalgic pat.

“It was odd having the same speeder back again.” She said as she led off, away from the bar on foot. “But hey, no attachment right?”

Asajj rolled her eyes. “That joke was old when you first made it.”

“Should one of us update the group?” Rex suggested, reminding the other two that this was not the Empire.

“Sure,” Ahsoka said, taking her comm out of her pocket. “What shall I say, all went to bantha droppings, need a good alibi, got her anyway?”

“Concise.”

Ahsoka rolled her eyes, and typed something not entirely dissimilar. A moment later there was a response.

Anakin: [describe went to bantha droppings]

Rex: [picture everything that could possibly go wrong with the three of us still free. That.]

Obi-Wan: [Oh dear]

Bail: [On a scale from Jakku to Hoth?]

Asajj and Rex both winced at the memories. Neither were exactly a shiny example on a perfect mission.

Ahsoka: [Harsh.] [Takodana 1]

Bail: [I’ll give you a statement]

Obi-Wan: [Go to Dex’s. We’ll meet you there.]

Ahsoka glanced at her companions. It wasn’t a bad idea.

“Shall we?”

It wasn’t exactly next door, but no-one would bat an eyelid at Obi-Wan going in there, and it was a nice in-between of the undercity, and the actually palatable. Rex sent the agreeing message and they set off across the city.

“Traffic’s not bad,” Rex said conversationally as they turned into the right street. “Do you think we’re expected?”

“It’s a diner.” Asajj pointed out.

“Someone will be there to greet us.” Ahsoka said assuredly, “Even if it’s only a forewarned Dex.”

“Someone is indeed.” A heavily disguised Bail Organa stuck his head out of Dex’s restaurant. Where he’d gotten the blue wig was beyond Ahsoka’s understanding, and why he’d thought it was a good idea was beyond any of them. That with some rather interesting face paint, allowed him to be recognisable, but only if you actually knew him.

The three of them called out greetings.

“Well, you look a lot cleaner than you did coming from Takodana” Bail said as they reached him.

“For the last time,” Ahsoka grumbled, “It’s not my fault we were over that lake when the engine malfunctioned.”

The other three hid a smile as Bail pushed open the doors to the diner, letting themselves in. Even in these days Ahsoka was enough of a recognised face that the waitress simply nodded them towards one of the booths.

A round of drinks later they were ready to talk.

“So,” Bail said, “Where should we start? How bad is it?”

Rex looked at Ahsoka, Ahsoka looked back at Rex. Then they both turned to look at Asajj who seemed to be contemplating the evolution of drinks from the earliest sludge that resulted in the contents of her cup. Well, the ex-contents of her cup. She looked up, saw the other three and frowned at them.

“Why me?”

“You killed Tarkin.” Ahsoka said, gesturing to the passing waitress for a refill. “You got captured.”

Even Asajj couldn’t deny either of those. “It was your fault that I got captured though,”

Ahsoka frowned. “How? It was your dead body I was hiding?”

Asajj looked sceptically at her.

“You know what I mean.” Ahsoka sighed, taking a large gulp of her drink. “I think if we get back quickly me and Rex might have got away with being us.”

Bail was less sure, but as long as the others knew, and covered for them. It was possible right? “As long as that holds, it’s only you we need to worry about.” He turned to Asajj.

 “Yay! Another few years spent on my own on the outer rim…” The sarcasm dripped off her tongue.

“Aww, I’ll come and visit.” Ahsoka smiled at her.

“People who can’t drive don’t get to talk back to their elders.” Asajj said.

“Rex, tell her that crazy ex-sith don’t get a say in the matter.” Ahsoka said with a big grin on her face.

“Rex, tell her that crazy ex-Jedi are little better.” Asajj poked Ahsoka while determinedly looking in the opposite direction.

Rex sighed. “Can we focus?”

Bail agreed, “Please, we are really time pressed here. I don’t want this to go even more downwards than it already has. Grey, you’re coming with me. Hopefully the papers will be finished by the time we get back. I’m then sending you somewhere quite horrible I’m afraid, but it’s got good links, and you need to get out of here.”

Asajj sighed. “As long as it’s not Tatooine, Jakku or any planet completely covered in water I’ll be fine.”

There was an uncomfortably long pause.

Asajj groaned.

“It’s not completely covered by water, there are a few islands.” Bail said.

“Any civilisation on them?”

“Not as such…” Bail admitted sheepishly.

Asajj sighed again and beckoned the waitress over. “Can I get a double shot of your strongest technically palatable drink please?” The waitress nodded and left. “Given it’ll be my last for a while.” She glared at Bail, then drained the shot she was given in one.

Bail just looked at her.

“Besides, I’m in the middle of a job.” Asajj said, much to Rex and Bail’s confusion.

“What job?”

“You know, for Padme, the Trade Federation thing.” Asajj said, knowing full well that Bail had no idea what she was talking about.

Bail face palmed. “She’ll just do it on her own won’t she?”

Asajj grinned, “Yes.”

“Fine,” Bail gave in, “But you’re getting off planet regardless. If you go wayward at the stopover I suppose I didn’t know.”

“Well now that’s sorted,” Asajj couched, pleased at having gotten her way. “Anyway,” She stood to her feet, then turned to the others at the table. “Keep in touch,”

“Yeah,” Ahsoka waved the unit at her, “You too, come back as soon as you can.”

“Call us if you need a hand, I’m sure we’ll sort something.” Rex said.

“Wilco, worrier.” Asajj rolled her eyes. “Coming?” She asked Bail, who got to his feet and sighed.

“I’ll see you two soon, or at least as soon as possible.” Bail said, “Take care, and take care of the others.”

Had he been the type to, Rex would have snorted at that. “You know those two.”

“Well, I had to ask.” Bail shrugged slightly.

“Well then,” Ahsoka said, as soon as they had left, “We’d better sneak back into the temple hadn’t we?”

Rex groaned. He knew the passage Ahsoka would want to take. It was not meant for non-Jedi. He wasn’t even sure it was technically passable for non-Jedi. It certainly didn’t seem like it when he was having to climb it.

Meanwhile Anakin was pacing around in Obi-Wan’s quarters, much to Obi-Wan’s annoyance.

“They’ll be fine, calm down.”

 Anakin didn’t bother to dignify that with a response.

“Anakin,” Obi-Wan rested his hand on his friend’s shoulder, forcing him to stop pacing. “They will be fine. We’ll say that they were here, no-one will doubt it, and it’ll be passed as inconvenient that the enemy can make themselves look like us.”

“We’re not that respected.” Anakin protested. He flicked his comm out, shaking off Obi-Wan’s concern.

Anakin: [Where are you guys]

Asajj: [Middle of nowhere]

Ahsoka: [On our way]

Anakin sighed, relieved by the immediacy of the reply, but frustrated by its contents. “I swear I turn my back for thirty seconds and everything goes wrong.”

Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow. “You got shot, then fell down and fractured your leg so badly you couldn’t move without additional painkillers.”

“I wasn’t on any painkillers.” Anakin protested, briefly distracted.

This should not have been news to Obi-Wan. “I correct myself, you got shot, then left Med-bay early, and without painkillers, at which point you fell down and fractured your leg so badly that you couldn’t move without assistance and painkillers.”

Even Anakin had to admit that didn’t exactly sound better. “Sorry…” He ventured.

“It’s alright, just pointing out you don’t exactly have a leg to stand on here.”

“Oh no, I just fractured it this time.” Anakin grinned at him.

Obi-Wan’s eyes widened and is mouth began to twitch slightly as his breath hitched. He brought his hand out towards where Anakin was standing, grabbing his left forearm tightly, almost painfully, and raising it to his eye level, shaking it desperately.

It look Anakin a moment.

“Hey,” he dove forwards letting Obi-Wan have control of his left arm, but grabbing Obi-Wan’s shoulder with his right, cursing the limited feeling in it. “I’m here. It’s fine. I have three limbs, I’m fine, it’s fine.” Fuck he didn’t know what to do. “Can’t you feel the force around you, all those Jedi, they’re here, they’re fine, you’re fine. It’s going to be fine.”

Obi-Wan blinked, then looked straight into Anakin’s eyes. He blinked again.

“They’re blue, I’m here, it’s me. It’s alright.”

Obi-Wan shook his head. Then he took a deep breath in and exhaled slowly, finally realising his death grip on Anakin’s arm. “Sorry,”

“No,” Anakin shoot his head. “It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have said that.” He removed his hand awkwardly from Obi-Wan’s shoulder. “You okay?”

Obi-Wan nodded, then took a step back. “Thank-you,”

“Anytime.” Anakin said, staring straight into Obi-Wan’s eyes and meaning it. Anytime, anyplace. He’d be there.

There was a knock on the door, and Rex and Ahsoka crept in, looking rather worse for wear.

Obi-Wan, rather pulled out of the moment by the sudden arrival, smiled pityingly at them then said something about tea, leaving them and Anakin alone.

 

Notes:

Poor Obi-Wan, there was only so long he could pretend everything was alright. He'll be fine though. As long as Anakin stops putting his foot in his mouth anyway.
Thank-you for reading anyway, please leave a comment, let me know what you thought, and I'll 'see' you next week!

Chapter 16: Not Again

Obi-Wan, rather pulled out of the moment by the sudden arrival smiled pityingly at them then said something about tea, leaving Anakin alone.

“You okay?” Anakin asked both of them, trying to judge as much as he could without being obvious.

Some of the holes in Ahsoka’s leggings had been ripped through, and there was a grey dust covering both of them, with some smudged areas, as if they’d tried to wipe it away.

Ahsoka gave a deep sigh, glanced at the nice clean chair at the table, then shrugged and sank into it. “I’m good.”

Rex nodded as he leant against the wall. “Me too, we had food at Dex’s, the General needn’t bother.”

“YOU HEAR THAT?” Anakin shouted through.

“IT’S FOR ME!” Obi-Wan replied a moment later.

Anakin shrugged. “Anyway, what have we been talking about these past five hours?”

“Huh?” Rex was temporarily confused, then realised and looked at Ahsoka for help.

She had little more clue. “Temple Gossip?”

“For five hours?” Anakin was sceptical. “Even Master Yoda hasn’t got that much gossip.”

“Well, he probably has,” Obi-Wan said, carrying two steaming mugs through and putting one of them down in from of Anakin. “Drink up, it may not be Caff, but you need it.” He turned back to the room as a whole. “Although its less that it’s five hours of gossip and more that it’s an hour’s worth, and he takes five times as long to say it as other people.”

“Cryptic Bastard.” Anakin snorted into his mug.

There was a knock on the door. It swung open to reveal Garen’s grinning mug. “Soooo, someone-“ he spotted the full contents of the room, “Oh, hi guys,”

“Hi,”

“Ah Garen,” Obi-Wan got up, offering his seat, Garen declined without so much as a word. “Have you met Rex? Rex- Garen Muln, an old friend, Garen – Rex, Anakin’s commander.”

“Nice to meet you,”

“You too,” Garen said, then grinned, “Soooo, what are you all doing?”

“Gossip.” Ahsoka grinned, an unusual amount of levity in the statement.

“It started off as a tactical meeting.” Obi-Wan said, taking a sip from his cup, leaning over the back of the chair.

“Ah,” Garen understood that all too well. “I remember those.” He smiled nostalgically, “Hey do you remember when-“

Anakin drained his cup and stood up abruptly. “Anyway, I should go.” His voice softened as he turned to Obi-Wan, “If you’re alright?”

Obi-Wan nodded as he frowned at him, what had happened?

“Anakin… He sent across the bond.

He got a somewhat snappish “Going to Padme” sent back, just before the door slammed.

“Oh yes, well,” Garen said, after an awkward moment had passed. “The Council wants to see you two, and him actually,” he started at the door. “Oh well. I’ll, er, tell the story another day.”

Ahsoka shared a barely concealed panicked glance with Rex and Obi-Wan. What had just happened?

It took Anakin most of the speeder drive to even get why he was in such as snit. Eugh. Jealousy and guilt. Like that combination had worked out for him so well before. He had no reason to be feeling anything other than relieved. Stupid, stupid self.  He sighed, kicking the speeder into a higher gear. Given he was already going there, he might as well really go.

His regular comm unit vibrated. Anakin turned it off. His other comm unit vibrated. He turned that off too. He was in no mood to talk to any of the others. Not right now.

Padme was waiting for him when he arrived. “Obi-Wan called, are you alright?”

“Fine, fine,” Anakin smiled at her, burying everything else. His Angel. No- The Angel. She wasn’t his. He jumped out of his speeder and swept her up in a hug. “Better now,” He buried his head in her neck.

“Ani,” Padme sighed, ruffling his hair before she was lowered to the ground. “Hey,” She smiled up at him.

Anakin smiled back.                

“Come on in,” Padme gave up on getting a straight answer out of him.

Anakin threw himself down onto the sofa, burying his head in it. “Love you,”

“You talking to me or the sofa?” Padme asked, sitting down beside her husband’s feet.

“You,” Anakin sat upright, then leaned over until his head was on Padme’s shoulder. “I should just quit the Jedi.”

“Yeah?” Padme asked, “Now or later?”

Anakin thought about it for a moment. Now had its appeals, but Sidious and- eugh. He didn’t want to think about that. “After. Obi-Wan can sort the order out, you can sort the senate out, and I can look after the twins.” He grinned, as if it was really simple.

“Hmm,” Padme said, “That sounds nice; will I have to do anything else other than sort out the entire democratic system?”

“Nope,” Anakin decided. “Besides Bail’ll help you.”

 Something about the matter of fact way that Anakin said it made Padme pause. So far, he’d seemed to be largely joking, maybe fantasising over what life could be like, but not actually planning. But this time he seemed to be serious. To a certain extent, Anakin was planning on becoming a house husband.

It was a lovely idea.

It was not particularly realistic. Even two toddlers, even their two toddlers, couldn’t keep Anakin engaged full time.

“So what would happen if you weren’t there?” Padme asked. “If you were ill or something?”

Anakin frowned, “I suppose if we couldn’t get a reliable babysitter-“

“I don’t care how old she is, I’m not leaving Ahsoka alone with you and the twins until I’ve seen more than one sign she can stay out of trouble for half an hour.” Padme interrupted.

After thinking about it for half a moment Anakin nodded. Ahsoka, a delirious him and two toddlers: well, it was a fun combination. Half the City might be wrecked by lunchtime though. In reality… “I guess you could take them to work with you? Other people do it.”

That was true, not that the senate was a particularly child friendly work environment at the moment. Padme said as much.

“Yeah,” Anakin agreed, thinking back over all the times he got called into the Senate because of something horribly wrong, then all the times he was already in the Senate and there was something horribly wrong, then added all the others times he hadn’t been on planet and found out that something had happened later. Padme was in trouble those times. He couldn’t protect Padme. He didn’t need to protect Padme. Padme was fine. Padme could take care of herself. Padme could take care of anyone. Padme could take care of everything. Padme could do everything. Padme didn’t need him. Padme shouldn’t want him.

“Yeah,” Anakin repeated in a slightly broken voice.

Get it together, he thought to himself.

“Anakin,” Padme said softly, meaning to convey concern. He only heard disappointment.

“You can do everything,” He said, standing up hurriedly, and switching his ‘secret’ comm on with his thumb. “They’d be perfect though, you don’t need me. Anyway I’ve-“ He glanced down at the comm, desperate for inspiration. Thank the Force. “I’m going after Grievous. I’ll get Obi-Wan back safe and sound. Rex and Ahsoka too if I can manage it. Love you,”

Anakin ran out of the room leaving Padme somewhat confused, standing there looking after him.

A beat later she got out her normal comm and keyed in Obi-Wan.

He answered a moment later. “Hey Padme, is Anakin with you?”

“He just left, said something about fighting Grievous. What happened? He arrived in a dreadful mood, and a fear he’s left in a worse one. The latter of which may be my fault.”

Obi-Wan sighed, “It’s my fault. He told a joke and I reacted-“ He paused trying to find the right word. Eventually he settled on: “Badly,”

“Badly?” Padme asked with a frown.

Obi-Wan tensed for a moment.

“Forget it.” Padme said, “I’m sorry I shouldn’t have asked.”

It was Padme. She’d seen him at his worst. Well, not quite. She hadn’t been aware for most of his worst day. But Theed, even back then, she’d helped him with Theed. She deserved at least a little-

“Obi-Wan?”

He shook himself. “I froze. He made a joke about his leg only being fractured this time. It’s fine.”

Oh, Mustafar, Padme realised. No-one deserved to be reminded of that. Now the three of them had been. The three of them that it meant something to. Padme let out a shaky breath. She needed to react. She hadn’t reacted had she?

“Obi-Wan, that’s not your fault.”

He frowned at her.  “You and I will have to disagree there.”

There was a knock at Obi-Wan’s door. Cody opened it. “Sir, we’re leaving in ten. The 501^st just left in a-“ he reconsidered what he was going to say  -“hurry.”

Obi-Wan sighed. “Thank-you Cody, I’ll be out in a moment.”

Cody nodded and closed the door behind him.

“Everything alright?” Padme asked.

“The 501^st and the 212^th are being sent after Grievous.” Obi-Wan said, “I’m only surprised that it took them this long.”

There wasn’t much she could say to that. Just: “Come back safe, bring him home safe.”

“I can but try.” Obi-Wan said with the slightest of smiles. “I will see you soon Padme, may-“

“One more thing.” Padme interrupted. It was an imposition. It was a terrible imposition. She shouldn’t ask it of him. She couldn’t not. “Just if Anakin wants to talk, talk to him for me will you? And let me know if there’s anything I should know. I need to know what’s wrong.”

“Of course,” Obi-Wan said softly, “But he’s unlikely to talk.”

“If the worst should happen…”

“It’s not going to.” Obi-Wan insisted with far more strength than he felt. He wasn’t even sure which event Padme was talking about. That Anakin would fall, or that Anakin would die.

“It’s his first battle since.”

“I know, I’ll be there.” Obi-Wan reassured her wishing, in a un-Jedi like manner, that he could give her a hug right now. He couldn’t. He had to be a Jedi. One of them had to be a Jedi. That had to be him. He could manage friendships, he thought. Force knew he couldn’t cut them out of his life, so he’d have to.

But Friendships. On the same level with Anakin and Padme as he had with Bail, not whatever in-between state he had right now. That’d have to be okay.  He’d made it through most of the Empire. He’d be okay.

“I know you will,” Padme told him, “I just- I worry. It’s nice to have someone to share that worry with.”

“He’ll be okay, I’m going to be there, Ahsoka’s going to be there. The entirety of the 501^st and the 212^th are going to be there. It’s only Grievous. We got him last time, we’ll get him this time.”

“I know,” Padme said. “Thank-you, and thank-you for being there for me, and for Anakin.”

“You’re quite welcome.” Obi-Wan said, as politely as ever.

“No,” Padme looked like she wished she could reach out to him. “Thank-you for being a part of this relationship.” She stressed the last word.

“You do realise I’m not a part of your and Anakin’s relationship?”

“That’s in your court.” Padme said in a voice so quiet Obi-Wan could only assume he wasn’t meant to have heard. “But you are a part of the team.” She said at her usual volume, and smiled, “Good luck, and May the Force be with you.”

“May the Force be with you,” Obi-Wan parroted as the connection dropped.

What just happened? “That’s in your court” Obi-Wan repeated to himself. Did she mean- surely not. There was no way. He was projecting now.

There was another knock on the door. “Sir,” Cody called through it.

Obi-Wan bit back an irritated reply. This was Cody. This was Cody. Two different meanings. The same man, not his fault, but still hard to shake.

Obi-Wan opened the door to his commander. “Right, sorry, ready to go.”

“Sir?” Cody asked.

“Yes?”

“Haven’t you forgotten something?” Cody glanced pointedly towards Obi-Wan’s belt.

He followed the gaze. “Ah, lightsabre, yes.” Obi-Wan grabbed it off the table. The long memorised words of Qui Gon leapt to the front of his mind. ‘This weapon is your life. Do not lose it’. What would his teacher think of him now?

“Right then,” Obi-Wan shook off the cloud of memories, he was living in them enough these days. “Let’s get going.” They moved into step as they walked down the corridor. “So, how’ve you been?”

 

Notes:

Clarification: For that line Padme is talking under her breath and has no idea that the comm has picked it up in high enough definition for Obi-Wan to see.

Thank-you for reading! As usual, please let me know what you thought with a comment, and I will 'see' you next week.

Chapter 17: Poor Decisions

“Right then,” Obi-Wan shook off the cloud of memories, he was living in enough of them these days. “Let’s get going.” [Obi-Wan and Cody] moved into step as they walked down the corridor. “So, how’ve you been?”

It was a long journey to the asteroid Grevious was on. Or at least, according to intelligence he was anyway. It was an even longer journey when you spent half your time either trying to work out what one of your friends meant by ‘That’s in your court’ or trying to communicate with her husband, your other friend who had shut everybody out. By what Obi-Wan had managed to get from Ahsoka, Anakin had shut literally everyone out, even Kix couldn’t get into see him using the medical override. Even Artwo couldn’t get in.

Obi-Wan spent the other half of his time attempting to prepare for the fight with Grievous. Last time he did this he was at the peak of his abilities. He might not be older in body now, but he was more than a little out of practice.

At least his bones didn’t ache anymore.

One of the many smaller mercies of being back in his younger body.

It would be more than a small mercy for Anakin, to be himself again. To not be that awful mechanised shell of himself that Obi-Wan had made him. And Sidious, Obi-Wan forcibly reminded himself. He was not solely to blame, he had to remember that. Anakin didn’t blame him.

“That’s in your court” His traitorous memory whispered.

He was supposed to be preparing for a battle, not worrying about that. Not right now. Grievous.

He couldn’t focus. He had to focus.

That’s in your court.

NO!

Anakin and Padme were Anakin and Padme. Padme and Anakin. Wonderful, impulsive, intelligent, and a couple. A duo. That were his friends. That’s all that meant. That had to be all that meant. It was up to him whether they stayed friends.

That was easy: they were staying friends.

That sorted he could focus on fighting Grievous.

Mind firmly back in denial mode, Obi-Wan made the motion of going through some Katas, warming up again, first without his lightsabre, then with.  

Over and over, jump, jump, jump.

Someone coughed.

Obi-Wan landed on his feet, deactivating his sabre to turn around to look at the Clone. “Cody,”

“Sir,” Cody greeted him. “You alright sir? Forgive me for saying so but you seemed a little preoccupied earlier.”

“It’s-“

There were lots of things Obi-Wan could say here. It’s the end of the war. True yet fake. It’s just Anakin. Same problem. It’s nothing. Now that was an outright lie. It wasn’t that all he saw when he looked at Cody was running, feeling as the Clones killed the Jedi. As the Clones tried to kill him. It was just that… that was all he saw. He shouldn’t, he should let it go. But until he knew, knew, that it wouldn’t happen again…

A thought came to him.

It was a lie. It was a blatant lie that could easily be checked. It was in fact, a bad idea. So bad a plan it could almost be Anakin’s.

“It’s not something I should tell you.” Obi-Wan said.

“Sir?” Cody asked.

Obi-Wan walked over and sealed the doors. He searched in the force for any signs they were being observed. There were none as far, as he could tell. “This is against orders.” Obi-Wan began. “I have been expressly instructed by the Council and by members of the Senate not to tell you, or any of your men this.”

Cody was somewhat concerned.

“You and your brothers have chips in your head.”

“They restrict aggressive behaviour. The Kaminoans were worried given the gene donor.” Cody knew this. While he’d never got a chance to meet Jango Fett, from what he’d gathered the precaution had seemed safe enough.

“They’ve got a fault in.” Obi-Wan told him. “They’ve been killing people.”

“The Clones have been killing people?” Cody repeated horrified.

“No, the chips have been killing the Clones.” Obi-Wan clarified. Not too close to the truth.  “Not all of them seem to have the fault, we’re not sure what’s caused it. It took us a long while to identify the problem as it’s tending to trigger on the battlefield.”

“Oh,”

Obi-Wan nodded. “They’re trying to keep a lid on this before it causes panic.”

“I see sir, thank-you for telling me.” Cody said.

“That being said, given we have no idea which chips are defective, or when they are going to activate.” Obi-Wan began, this had to be done carefully. “If you or any of your men are willing to undergo the knife, I would be more than willing to defend your actions.”

“If you’d tell med-bay.” Cody nodded, “Then I’ll see if I can talk to the men quietly. The chips aren’t exactly popular, even without knowledge of the defect.”

“I’ll do that.” Obi-Wan agreed, relaxing just a little in the knowledge that maybe, just maybe it wouldn’t happen again. It was one unit. But it was a start. And where the 212^th went, the 501^st surely wouldn’t be far behind. Not on this one anyway. Not this time.

Now all he needed to do was convince medbay.

That was surprisingly easy. The chips were even less popular than Obi-Wan had hoped they might be, even with no-one knowing their true purpose. He might not have even needed the lie, just the show of support.

Feeling a lot more settled, even as the future grew more uncertain, Obi-Wan headed back to the practice area. Cody headed under the knife.

Grievous, he had to focus on beating Grievous.

Now uninterrupted, Obi-Wan performed Kata after Kata again and again, working with different restrictions, what if this arm was occupied, what if he had broken his leg?

He worked out scenario after scenario for as long as he could on his own. But while most Jedi were used to working alone, the only time he ever had was after he’d had no other choice.

With that thought, and having run out of any useful exercises, Obi-Wan reached out to Anakin again.

“Anakin please let me in.”

There was nothing. Just the cold, impersonal block.

“Anakin I’ve found a way to remove the chips, please let me in.” He tried again.

This time there was the slightest softening of Anakin’s rock hard walls.

“What?” Was sent back, short, tense, devoid of any emotion.

“I told Cody that there was an error in some of the chips. That the council was keeping it quiet but that the chips were killing Clones in battle.” Obi-Wan sent, trying to keep it as brief as possible. “He’s under the knife now.”

Even Anakin’s tight control didn’t stop a rush of relief from showing.

Obi-Wan relaxed slightly. He was listening, it would be okay. He’d forgive him. Hopefully.

“I’ll keep the stories straight.” Anakin sent back, then closed his shielding even further.

Obi-Wan yearned to reach out to him. It was a bad idea. He needed his space. He clearly needed his space.

Instead Obi-Wan picked up the comm unit. Normal units were unreliable to say the least during the faster methods of transport, time differences were varied, and while it could be fine, often there was nothing to be done. But maybe the new model wasn’t quite as bad. He flicked it open, opening a channel to Ahsoka instead of the general group message. Then he reconsidered.

[Cody getting Chip removed]

[Told him it was potentially fatal malfunction]

[Council secret to not cause panic]

A few minutes later he got a reply.

Rex: [Good.]

Well, at least Rex knew now, no matter what Anakin told him. In a way Obi-Wan wished the ship would hurry up. At least when they reached Grievous, he’d know what to do. All this waiting…

Another person who wished something would hurry up was Asajj Ventress, who was squished into the vents of the Banking Clan headquarters, on the Outer Rim planet Scipio. Unsurprisingly she was having a miserable time of it.

She’d had to leave all comms behind, including the one made by Anakin, and the one she used to communicate her deals. She’d also had to leave her lightsabres behind, much to her dismay.

Sooner or later, preferably sooner, she would get her break.

This was bad. She was clearly used to running missions with a partner.

She used to run solo. She could do this.

Various members of Trade Federations passed underneath. Muffling a sigh of relief, she edged forwards towards San Hill’s office. It was slow going, not least because of the droids that would pass underneath every couple of minutes. Maybe she shouldn’t have tried the headquarters straight away, but she was never going to get the proof Padme required anywhere else.

The cold metal pressed against her knees. She kept going.

The grates were especially painful. The sections of her legs that were not numb protested bitterly, as they were pressed into the sharp edges. Still, she kept going.

Eventually she arrived above the office. She flattened her body against the bottom of the shaft, and reached out with all her senses. There was someone coming.

On instinct Asajj raised her shields fully, completely hiding her presence in the force to those who might be looking. It blocked her from using the force too. Regretful to lose her good eye, Asajj shuffled backwards so she couldn’t be seen by the grate. Then she took out the recorder, and switched it on.

The two people entered the room, sending waves through the force. There was no pretence here. Maybe he felt no need to. Either way, San Hill knew exactly who he was talking to, and exactly what he was doing.

“Your actions concerning Dooku’s death are disturbing.” Darth Sidious said, rolling many meanings up in the single adjective.

“My Lord,” San Hill pleaded, “We, I mean I, try only to serve. We, I, did only as you requested. To try and find out who killed him. The fact is that all eyewitnesses seem to have dies with him, My Lord.”

Heh. Asajj had never regretted that for a moment. Bastard deserved it.

“Then how come I have heard many a rumour from my own sources.” Lord Sidious told him. “Even the Jedi know better than you, so what use are you to me now?”

“MY LORD, please!” San Hill begged. Asajj could feel the force swelling and broiling even through her shields as thick as she could make them. The stench of rotting grains grew upon her and she knew what was happening.

She began to edge away. Killing, even with the force had never fazed her, but this, this was beyond that.

“PLEASE!”

Then the sense of the force died down, back to a turbulent hum in the background of her mind. Darth Sidious laughed. “You are nothing. But you may prove yourself useful. Do you want to be useful?”

“YES MY LORD!”

Asajj had never met him in person, yet she could still imagine the smile he was making.

“There is a Jedi by the name of Obi-Wan Kenobi. He is their golden boy, their perfect Jedi. They are wrong. Kill Padme Amidala as… decoratively... as possible. If you do this right I will have two to choose from, and you will have your life. Do this wrong, and…”

The Force began to fizz and hiss again as the tendrils of San Hill’s life essence were torn from his body.

It stopped as quickly as it began.

San Hill didn’t even stop to close the door as he fled from the room, leaving Darth Sidious seemingly alone to survey the office.

A moment later Asajj heard a quiet muttering.

“Small, but serviceable at a pinch.”

Followed by the sound of someone leaving the room, slamming the door behind them.

She let out the breath she’d been holding, and ended the recording. Annoyingly, without visuals, it would never hold up in court, and there was no way of proving who either of the two men on the tape were.

Which meant that, despite all that, she still needed more evidence. Asajj flipped the recorder back into her pocket, and removed the screws from the grate.

She did one last scan both with the force and her eyes. There was no one there. There was definitely no one there. Sidious was gone.

She dropped down into the room, landing with a softer bounce than she used to. Guess age got you used to some things.

Asajj stepped towards the desk.

Cold tones crept across the room from a man, no, a monster, who couldn’t have been there.

“Asajj Ventress, I thought that was you. How nice to see you my dear.” Darth Sidious addressed her. 

Notes:

WHAT? This is updating a day early as I'm not entirely sure if I'll have time tomorrow, and I reasoned people would rather it was early than late.
But please, leave a comment, let me know what you thought, grouch at me for the end of the chapter.
And I will see you in eight days time.

Chapter 18: Negotiations

Cold tones crept across the room from a man, no a monster, who couldn’t have been there. “Asajj Ventress, I thought that was you. How nice to see you my dear.” Darth Sidious addressed her. 

“Lord Sidious.  I can’t say the same.” Ventress said, manging not to leap back across the room. She had no blades. She couldn’t -

“Oh, I’m not here to harm you, after all you defeated your master. Surely you know enough of Sith lore to know what that means.” Sidious said almost softly, carefully edging towards her.

“My master was your apprentice, you hardly obey the normal laws of the Sith.” Ventress argued. With some force of will, she turned back to the desk, walking away from Sidious.

“The rule of two no, the rule of succession…” Sidious dangled in front of her.

“From what I hear, you’re dangling after Kenobi, or is that Skywalker? Or,” Asajj turned around and smiled, “Or, should that be both?”

“The antiquated laws of the past have been dropped,” Sidious revealed a sparking crimson blade. “Those that are valued have not.”

“So you are after both,” Ventress opened one of the drawers, “Ambitious. Or are you really just after Skywalker? Using Kenobi would suit your normal tactics.”

Darth Sidious considered her for a moment, then, horrifyingly, he smiled. “You were wasted on Dooku.” He paused for a moment, as if considering the lightsabre in his hand. “Your death would be more wasteful still.”

Ventress slipped something out of the drawer and into her pocket. Then she closed the drawer with a thump. “It would be wasteful wouldn’t it?” She was no longer smiling.

Darth Sidious didn’t ask. He didn’t need to.

Ventress bowed. “Master,”

He smiled. “Meet me on Coruscant, three months. Finish your business first.”

“Yes Master,” Ventress replied, watching as Sidious swept out of the room.

She climbed back up into the ventilation shaft, and began to pull herself up the long climb. Overcome with nausea, she stopped. She had to keep it together, no evidence, no proof.

Up the tunnel, pressed against the solid, freezing metal she edged. Up and up, back and back.

Eventually Asajj Ventress flopped out into the night, and dragged herself into her shuttle. She shut the door, and set off into the atmosphere. Only then did she allow herself to breathe.

She turned on her special comm. She set up a special link to Ahsoka.

In and out, she breathed, she could do this.

She closed the link.

Rex?

No, again, she couldn’t. 

She opened a different link.

Asajj:[ Sidious found me]

Bail: [ ?!?!?!?!]

Bail: [Are you alright?]

Asajj read the replies and sighed, letting the tension drain out of her. She simply sent back “No.”

Bail:[You free?]

Asajj sighed, abandoning the comm unit for a moment to allow her ship passage away from the planet. She had liked this ship, it handled well, and it was oddly nostalgic. But there was no way that Sidious didn’t know the ship was hers. She should get rid of everything else while she was at it. Maybe not the group comm, but everything else she could spare, equipment, clothing, the other comms. She couldn’t allow a single taint. Everything had to go.

Again.

Meanwhile both the 501^st and the 212^th arrived at their destination.

This was good for two reasons. Firstly, they had arrived at their destination, and so now had the capabilities of actual methods of communication beyond talking through bonds and, secret, very high tech communicators.

Secondly, they had arrived at their destination. As a quick scan showed, Grievous was on the rock below. One more stroke and the last of the Separatist Military leadership would be ended. One final battle and this section would be over, for better or for worse. Although Grievous was hardly going to be a walkover, even for the team that now assembled in the hanger bay.

Obi-Wan looked around at the people gathered. Ahsoka gave him a nod even as Anakin ignored him, determinedly staring into space. Cody rubbed the back of his neck, before nodding at Rex as he entered the room.

Rex smiled and nodded at Obi-Wan who cleared his throat to begin.

“Grievous is down there, and I’m not going to say this will be easy. You’ve fought beyond all need of service, and with very little recognition throughout this war, and no-one can thank-you enough for it. This is the last battle, I can promise you that. Most of the Separatists have sued for peace, and the fringe elements hiding out behind Grievous’s banner will not last once that falls.”  Obi-Wan declared. Reality be dammed, there might be a few more skirmishes, but he would make sure that this would be the last battle.

“With that in mind,” He continued, interrupting the low rumble that had started. “While General Skywalker, Comander Tano and myself will say a few words after this battle, there are a few I’d like to say now. Take care of yourselves out there. If it’s between shooting a droid and keeping yourself or your brother alive, choose the later. This is about beating one man, and getting us in the position to do so. I know some of you have concerns about what will happen to you after the end of the war.” The old general glanced around at the men looking at him expectantly. He glanced over at Anakin. Anakin gave the slightest of nods. “I will talk about that later. Nothing is certain, but we have friends working on it. Law be dammed we’re not leaving you in the cold.” He refused to wait for a reaction. “Now let’s get back to business.”

Obi-Wan began to outline the strategy he’d laid out on the trip over, with some help from others. If Anakin had been paying the slightest bit of attention then he might have noticed that at least some of it was incredibly familiar. Rex certainly did, hiding his snort behind a small cough.

Anakin though, Anakin was once again wrestling with emotions. Padme didn’t love him. Padme didn’t want him. He was neither wanted nor needed in their children’s lives. He’d fucked up again. He knew well enough that none of that was likely to be true. Whatever Anakin had first thought, the time spent in space had left him with one inevitable conclusion.

He’d been a fool.

He’d been a complete idiot, blown things out of proportion, and almost certainly worried people who didn’t need, or deserve, to be worried about him right now. He’d hurt them, intentionally or not. He had to make it up to them. He had to.

Grievous. Anakin forcibly brought his thoughts back to the present. He had to deal with the problem at hand. The scheming, murderous monster that was down there right now and that his men were going to die trying to deal with. His people. He was about to go down there and make sure that the scrunching despicable pile of scrap metal was nothing more than that before he’d ever dare to hurt another one of his people.

In and Out. Emotions existent but not ruling. Anakin tried to focus. Obi-Wan seemed to have finished talking, Ahsoka might have paid attention, Rex almost certainly had. He nodded and turned away from the briefing area to head towards his ship.

Ahsoka followed him.

“Skyguy,”

“Yes.” Anakin turned around, then focused again. “What can I do for you?”

“Listen to what the plan is before you disregard it?” Ahsoka suggested, causing Anakin to sigh.

“Sorry,”

Ahsoka shrugged. “Apologise to Obi-Wan, not me. I’m not the one you were blatantly ignoring.”

She was right. Anakin kind of hated that. He’d apologise later. Once this was done, once Grievous was dealt with and couldn’t hurt anyone anymore.  They had to talk.

He wasn’t going to tell Ahsoka any of that of course. He was just going to wheedle her into telling him the plan.

The plan was crap.

That was his official opinion as a General of the Republic fleet, ex-Sith apprentice, and a technically legally Jedi Knight. The unofficial opinion involved a lot more swearing, but no change in sentiment.

But it was the plan. It was practically two old plans stuck together except with everyone that wasn’t there added in. It wasn’t like Grievous knew that, but it did feel a little foolish. Even if they did win last time.

He could always deviate from it later.

“Cheer up!” Ahsoka told him. “I’m the one taking out the shield generators this time.”

It was a good job this was a land base.

It really was, Anakin thought as he and Obi-Wan dived towards the top of the compound. Air whistling, R2D2 behind him, in the speeder, Anakin could almost feel serenity until the wind resistance kicked in.

Bucketing this way and that Anakin kept the ship on target, letting it get just out of control enough that it was believably unmanned as it spiralled desperately towards the roof. Round and round it spun plummeting through the atmosphere with no seeming care for the passenger within. R2D2 bleeped in alarm.

Still the ship tumbled, passing on air currents, almost crashing with debris, dropping down and down and down. Towards the ground. It spun. It turned. It fell.

More than once Anakin had to remind himself that he was still in control of the ship. That he wasn’t actually plummeting to his doom. This was okay. This was the plan. He was going to be okay.

The rooftop shot into view as Anakin’s ship fell.

Three.

Two.

One.

At the last possible moment Anakin shot the thrusters forwards, levelling the ship and bringing it to a level, if far from smooth stop.

Obi-Wan ‘landed’ half a moment later, and got out with somewhat shaky legs.

“Remind me never to trust one of your plans again.” Anakin called out as he hurried over and looped his arms around Obi-Wan’s shoulders.

“I’m alright really. Besides, I’d have thought you’d have liked it, lots of crashing the ship your way.” Obi-Wan protested, making no actual attempt to get Anakin to move his arms as they both made their way towards where there should have been a service hatch.

“Hmm,” Anakin unwound his arms, “Why whenever we crash a ship is it my way?”

“Well, you do crash ships in so many different ways. Maybe if you stopped we might find new ones that you haven’t already claimed.” Obi-Wan smiled at him dodging as a chunk of debris flew overhead. Anakin squashed the impulse to tackle him to the floor.

“Whose plan was this?” Anakin asked.

“This time?”

“You always make the plans.” Anakin said

“You always ignore them.” Obi-Wan pointed out, examining the panel.

“Well if you made better ones…”

“You guys realise you’re on comms right?” Ahsoka’s voice interrupted them.

“Yes.”

“uhuh,” Anakin was holding a scanner in his mouth while he tried to prise the panel open, much to Obi-Wan’s amusement.

“Give it to me.” He snapped.

“Why did I miss these idiots?” Ahsoka muttered to herself.

Anakin, now free of scanners, was about to reply when he finally prised the hatch open and it slammed back onto the roof sending an echoing boom round the corridor below.

The two men glanced at each other.

Then Obi-Wan nodded. “We’re going in. Comm silent for now. You know the plan. May the Force be with you everyone.”

And with that he jumped down.

“May the Force be with us.” Anakin muttered, before taking a deep breath and leaping down into the unknown facility. Well, how badly could it go?

Notes:

Thank-you for reading! Please, leave a comment, let me know what you thought, and I will see you the same time next week, when a wild Grievous appears.

Chapter 19: Some things are inevitable

“May the Force be with us.” Anakin muttered, before taking a deep breath and leaping down into the unknown facility. Well, how badly could it go?

How badly indeed.

At least the corridors so far had experienced minimum resistance. A droid here, a droid there. Nothing else so far.

Obi-Wan reached a corner holding up a hand for Anakin to holt.

He spread out his senses of the force, trying to get a lay of the land.

“All clear.” He whispered.

Anakin nodded, and stalked past him, lightsabre held high.

There, sitting perfectly happily until they spotted Anakin, were two droidekas. He was perfectly happy to deflect the bolts they fired at him, right back at them, and keep doing so until they were destroyed. Trouble was that another two rolled around behind them.

CLANK. CLANK. CLANK.

And there was a load of clankers.

“Obi-Wan?” Anakin made sure that he was still with him.

There was the sound of a muffled sigh. “Just a moment.”

Anakin deflected another bolt, finally bringing one of the droidekas down.  Just three and an army to go. Plus, everything down below. It was only a small army.

Anakin winced slightly as one of the bolts slipped through his defences, hitting him in the knee. 

Just then Obi-Wan walked around the corner and thrust both his hands forward creating a push of air and energy that grew and grew until it filled the passageway and began to move away from them. Almost at a walking pace at first, then faster, and faster still up to the speed of a quick jog as it hit the first of the droidekas, sending it rolling backwards as if behind an invisible wall. An invisible wall that was continuing to accelerate as it hit the next droideka and the next. Still it accelerated as it hit the first of the clankers, those two it send flying, reflecting the blaster bolts that were still flying through the air.

One by one they fell. First the droidekas, then the clankers as bolt after reflected bolt hit clanker after clanker until only a few remained.

“Ut-Oh.” One of them uttered.

“Roger Roger” Another one said as the force wall finally fell.

Anakin rushed forward, decapitating the few left behind. With the final twist of his lightsabre he turned back to grin at Obi-Wan, only to find him leaning on the back wall, and obviously trying to hide the fact.

“I think they know we’re here.” Obi-Wan joked, voice barely above a low whisper.

“You make quite the entrance.” Anakin hurried towards him. “You look exhausted.”

“Force stuff,” Obi-Wan pushed himself upright with a smile. “I’ll be fine. Practiced a lot on the way over here.”

“So did I.” Anakin pointed out, “so did Snips. Are you sure you’re alright?”

“Fine.” Obi-Wan didn’t snap. He didn’t snap because Obi-Wan didn’t snap. But there was something in the tone that implied a shortness of temper Anakin had rarely seen in the man. He usually just got tired. “Do you want to tell the others there’s no point in comm silence anymore?”

Anakin shook his head. “He knows we’re here. He doesn’t know they are.” Or at least, he really hoped Grievous didn’t know the others were there. They should have been hovering just out of sensor range.

They had to be okay. They had to be.

Focus.

Obi-Wan looked to be on firmer ground and was striding ahead over bits of scattered droid.

Anakin hurried to catch up. “Where did you learn that?”

“Tatooine. Twenty years. I got bored.” Obi-Wan explained succinctly. “Usually do it with sand grains not dust particles.”

Anakin didn’t ask why he’d done it so often that there was a usually. Tatooine wasn’t exactly happy memories. For either of them.

There was a sound in the distance.

Right. Grievous. Agonising death, again. Obi-Wan Kenobi being an idiot somehow for some reason.

The two men stalked down the corridor, passing door after door with no sign of either life or movement. Oh, there was- Obi-Wan decapitated the battle droid.

They went down the stairs. Then down the next flight.

“What does the scanner say?” Anakin whispered.

“Huh?” Obi-Wan realised he still had it and flipped it open. “It-“

The necessity for a reply was voided once they passed a rather grand doorway.

“Oh there he is.” Obi-Wan walked through the doorway. “We were looking for you.”

“Is it just me?” Anakin said, walking besides him. “Or is he even uglier than you remember?”

“Well he’s certainly shorter.” Obi-Wan said, sharing the smallest of smiles.

“YOU FOOLS!” General Grievous, the last of the Separatist Elite, yelled. “I have been trained in the Jedi Arts!”

“We’ve met before.” Anakin pointed out.

“Although it is nice of you to remind us.” Obi-Wan told him. “I had thought those lightsabres were just for decoration.”

“Bit gruesome.”

“Well, there’s no accounting for taste.”

“You forget. I was trained by the great Count Dooku.” Grievous announced, spreading all four of his arms wide, igniting the lightsabres one by one.

Anakin ignited his almost absentmindedly, and turned to Obi-Wan “Didn’t we beat him?”

Obi-Wan pretended to consider the question moving to the right of Grievous as Anakin moved to the left. “Not in a fair fight.”

“Well there are two of us, and one of him.” Anakin said, ignoring the other droids that now surrounded them, the loud rhythmic echoing of their feet on the metal floor.

“Same number of arms.” Obi-Wan said, before darting in, only to be countered by two of Grievous’s.

The fight was on.

Anakin struck low, aiming for one of the legs, only for the lightsabre to be deflected high –causing him to spin backwards in order to keep his footing.

They circled.

Blow after blow, Anakin hit and hit and hit. Grievous deflected each with the grace that he deflected everyone one of Obi-Wan’s wide strokes.

Blaster bolt after blaster bolt was dodged as they circled and struck again and again, making no headway. They were better than this surely.

Still they fought and parried and sliced until a thought occurred to Anakin.

They were fighting Grievous like Grievous.

He reached out to Obi-Wan through the bond.

Immediately he received the mental equivalent of a ‘well duh’.

Now they just had to time it.

Grievous stuck at Obi-Wan, just missing his ear as the Jedi ducked down and underneath the general’s legs, skidding to a stop next to Anakin.

Grievous turned, enraged, and stalked towards them muttering about insolence and Jedi. Anakin couldn’t care less, trying desperately to cover Obi-Wan as he staggered to his feet.

They paced left, blocking each other off from the fire, until General Grievous was directly between them and the last remnants of the droid army. There they parried swing after swing, watching the general get more and more irritated.

The two force users shared a glance.

Now.

Palming their lightsabres Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker reached out with both hands and pushed with as much might of Force as they could manage. They shoved General Grievous into the air, causing him to go fling backwards into his own troops. 

Sweat ran down Obi-Wan’s forehead as he tried, tried desperately to focus. He sprayed his fingers, the arms aching, his head throbbing, as he pushed and pushed and pushed.

The droids fell into each other, shots falling wildly.

With the last little bit of energy Obi-Wan pushed again trying just trying to- The guns clattered forward, out of Obi-Wan’s reach as he lurched backwards, desperately trying to cling onto something, anything.

He was okay.

He could stay

He could

He …

Anakin watched as his friend topple backwards, head landing on the metal floor with a crunch. He didn’t move.

Obi-Wan wasn’t moving.

Slowly, jaw clenched, Anakin turned his head to look at Grievous.

Grievous almost smiled. “Oh dear.”

Unclenching his fists, Anakin took three careful steps forward until he was level with Grievous. “You shouldn’t have done that.”

Calm. He had to stay calm. He had to. He had to. He –

Anakin’s jaw began to tremble as he clenched his hand, forcing Grievous into the air. “You really shouldn’t have done that.”

The man smiled, slowly, cruelly and with a touch of vindictive mischief. “Do you have feeling in your legs?” He sliced through both feet.

Grievous gave no reaction.

“I guess not.” The amber eyes almost twinkled. “Maybe further up?”

Once again the lightsabre sliced through the legs, again and again creating a heap of small metal discs on the floor.

He was practically up to the torso by now.

“Oh,” He shrugged, “I guess not. What about arms?”

Slice after slice, Grievous making desperate attempts to get away from the force choke. The man held him fast.

“Such a shame.” The man smiled.

In a beat of silence there was a small, wet, cough.

The two watched as Obi-Wan Kenobi, through sheer force of will, managed to murmur. “Stop.”

“Such a shame,” The man continued, the smile wilder, less controlled. “That we have to cut this short.  He lowered his lightsabre to below the general’s current body. “I guess I’ll cut you lengthways.” 

With that he pulled the lightsabre upwards ignoring the screaming, ignoring the yelling, until the bisected head and torso of General Grievous landed in the dust of his limbs. He cut both halves of the head off for good measure.

He took a step backwards, and looked at the wreckage that had been the Separatists’ last general.

He looked upwards to the balcony’s lining the room, and smiled at the people standing there.  He looked at their faces, full of barely concealed horror and disgust.

Why did they always look at him like that?

He looked back at the ground, and what was on there.

That was why.

Oh force! Obi-Wan! Obi-Wan, Obi-Wan, Obi-Wan.

The man dove towards his friend and clutched at his hand desperately. Please let him be alive. Please.

“Anakin,” The Jedi whispered, clutching at the other man’s arm. “I’m good. Just Force exhaustion.”

Giving a shaky laugh, the man gasped and pulled Obi-Wan into a tight hug, burrowing his face in his neck. “You’re okay, you’re okay.” Squeezing tight, Anakin exhaled, and the blue began to bleed back into his eyes. “Can you stand?”

“I can try,” Obi-Wan said. “If you-“

“Oh,” Anakin let him go and stood upright. “Use me as a crutch if you need to.”

“I’m alright,” Obi-Wan managed, leaning heavily on the wall, but upright. “You rather did a number on Grievous.”

“Be disappointed in me later.” Anakin told him. “We need to get out of here.”

“Right.” Obi-Wan said, offering an arm out. Anakin wrapped it around his shoulders.

“Just lean on me old man. Lean on me. Kix’ll get you the good drugs later.”

“You called them yet?” Obi-Wan asked, as they exited the hall and made their way back towards the roof where hopefully R2D2 and their ships were waiting for them.

“Right!” Anakin realised, and switched the comm unit back on. “Guys, we’re on our way up. We’ll need medical as soon as we land.”

“What did you do?” Ahsoka half yelled.

“Not me, Obi-Wan.” Anakin said, “Although,” he considered his sore knee. “Possibly also for me.”

“What did he do?” Rex asked.

“That is a good question.” Anakin decided, turning to his friend. “What did you do? Also, do you know where the elevator is? Stealth is kind of moot.”

“To your right, three doors down.” Ahsoka told him. “I knew you weren’t paying attention.”

 “I’d have gotten there.” Obi-Wan protested. “It’s just Force exhaustion. I had to control the ship with it on the way down. Debris got me.”

“You idiot.” Anakin sighed. “Come on, we can probably squeeze two in mine. You might have to sit on my knee.”

“How uncivilised.” Obi-Wan muttered as they edged towards the elevator. “How uncivilised.”

Notes:

Thank-you for reading! Please leave a comment, let me know what you thought. I will see you next week with a chapter some of you will hopefully like.

Chapter 20: Oops, I shouldn't have done that

Summary:

After Anakin's brief fall and battle with Grievous, and Obi-Wan's collapse, some overdue conversations are had.

It took them several hours to get back to the ship, even once Ahsoka had blown up the shields. It was another hour later and Kix and the rest of the medical team were still not happy enough that Obi-Wan hadn’t killed himself to let any visitors in. Even if said attempt was by being too stubborn to say anything.

All of which meant Anakin was spending his time staring at the special comm unit.

He’d killed Grievous. That wasn’t the problem. Anakin honestly didn’t have a problem with the fact he’d killed Grievous. The problem was that he’d obliterated him, he’d quite literally taken him apart piece by piece. It had been Grievous sure, but Grievous had still been a conscious being. Anakin hadn’t cared.

They had so many bigger problems right now, he thought, gazing at the comm. Three months. Just under now. With a deadline this short, they couldn’t afford to lose any time.

He had to tell them.

They had bigger problems.

He had to tell Padme at least.

He couldn’t go back to the lying. With that in mind, Anakin opened up the specific link to his wife.

A:[ Think I went V. Back as A now.]

A moment later he followed this with: [I’m so sorry]

There was no reply. The comm remained silent leaving Anakin to his own thoughts in the passage outside the med bay.

Cody walked past, then double backed. “May I, sir?” he gestured to the spare seat.

Anakin nodded, then went back to brooding.

“Any idea when they’re letting us in to see him?” Cody asked a moment later.

Anakin shrugged.

Cody seemed to get the hint, settling in to wait.

The silence stretched on as Anakin went back to staring at his still unanswered message. More than once he started to send another message before stopping. It wouldn’t do any good. He knew it wouldn’t. That didn’t stop the temptation.

A low rumbling sound punctuated with a few beeps interrupted Anakin’s train of thought. A familiar droid rolled into view and made a beeline for him.

“Hey R2,” He reached out with his flesh hand and gave the old droid a pat on the head. Not that the droid was too old these days. Maybe fifteen years, not the thirty- five he’d been used to more recently.  

R2 bleeped back telling him in no uncertain terms what he thought of the angsting.

“Yeah,” Anakin agreed. “You’re probably right. He would do that. But at the moment I’m not sure when he’ll be able to, so I’m waiting for him.”

R2 had some words about that too.

Ahsoka winced, coming around the corner. “Budge.” She demanded.

Anakin slid across.

“Stop moping.” She told him on no uncertain terms. “Or I’ll put sand down your back.”

“Sorry,” Anakin muttered.

Ahsoka sighed. “Oh Skyguy. What happened?”

“I’d rather wait for-“

Rex walked in and sat down on the remaining seat next to Cody.

He’d rather wait for everyone. He’d rather Cody wasn’t there. But Cody had no chip. It was Cody.

And he didn’t think Ahsoka would let him wait.

He coughed. “We were fighting Grievous and the remains of the army. Mainly Grievous and trying to dodge really. We weren’t getting anywhere so we changed tactics and pushed Grievous into the droids and then he just collapsed. I went…” Anakin trailed off wondering how to say it. That didn’t involve something Cody couldn’t possibly understand. He glanced at his own lightsabre. Well, his and Luke’s if he wanted it. “I saw red.”

Given by Ahsoka’s sharp intake of breath she got it.

Anakin detached his lightsabre from his belt and offered it to her. “For now at least.”

Cody watched puzzled as Ahsoka, with clear signs of reluctance, took the lightsabre. “Three is a few too many here.” She said, clipping it onto her already full belt. “Although if we’re going the full hog I don’t suppose you picked up Grievous’s?”

Anakin shook his head, very slightly more relaxed now that his lightsabre was gone. Not that it would stop him, not if he truly went. But maybe everyone else stood a chance.

“Oh well, maybe it’s for the best.” Ahsoka said. “He’s dead right?”

“No chance he survived.” Anakin mumbled. “No chance anyone could have done.”

“Anyone else?” Rex asked.

“Most of the droids. No-one organic. We had a big audience though. They saw.”

No-one knew what to say to that.

Cody nervously cleared his throat. “I feel like I’m missing something here.”

Anakin was about to explain when the door to the med bay opened and Kix emerged. “He’s conscious and he’s stable. As far as I can tell it is just Force Exhaustion, so he should be fine in a couple more days. Providing, he gets enough rest, and actually takes the painkillers.”  The medic glanced around at the relieved faces. “Only one visitor at a time at the moment. I’ve got him on an IV, and if you’re all in there you’ll tangle the leads up.”

Anakin looked at Ahsoka only to find the other four looking at him.

“He’ll still want to see you.” Ahsoka said, having no doubt in her words. Anakin had a lot more. But with none of the others disagreeing he had little way out.

“I’ll try not to be long.”

“Take as long as you like until I kick you out. Just don’t stress him. ” Kix told him, closing the door the second Anakin passed him.

Don’t stress him. So no talking about what happened down there right. Because keeping things from Obi-Wan went so well.

Well, keeping feelings had done so far, in fairness.

Carefully picking his way around the wires and IV lines, Anakin approached the bed where Obi-Wan was lying, propped upright, eyes closed. Even in sleep he didn’t look at rest, but then Anakin had no idea when the last time Obi-Wan had been able to rest was. Mentally at least, Tatooine, surely. But even then, always looking over his shoulder, always looking out for Luke.

Anakin looked at Obi-Wan’s hand, swinging half off the bed. He pulled up a stool, and took the hand in his living one.

Obi-Wan’s eyes flickered open.

“Hey,” Anakin smiled at him, sheer relief that he was okay resulting in a manic expression.

“Anakin,” Obi-Wan’s answering smile was lazier, but no less relieved. “Blue eyes.”

“Yeah, blue eyes.” Anakin told him. “And you’re alive. No thanks to you not saying anything. What happened to the honesty policy?”

“No time. Didn’t want to worry you.” Obi-Wan sighed, his exhaustion, even if had not been evidenced by his face, would have been clear from his virtually non-existent shields.  

Anakin gripped his hand tighter. “I’m so sorry.”

“For what?”

“Falling.”

“Oh Anakin,” Obi-Wan lifted their joined hands to gesture between their heads. “I thought we were past this.”

“Not that time, this time.”

“Oh,” Obi-Wan wasn’t sure what to say. He was too tired to deal with this. “Was it just Grievous?”

“Wasn’t Grievous bad enough? Or didn’t you see?” Anakin asked. “It was bad.” He paused, trying to gauge Obi-Wan’s reaction. The other man was carefully schooling both his facial emotions, and attempting to school the bond. “I gave Ahsoka my lightsabre.”

“Anakin you’re back,” Obi-Wan squeezed their hands together. “You fell and less than a day later you’re back. I’m proud of you.”

Anakin let his scepticism show through the bond.

Obi-Wan took a deep breath in. “I love you. I’m allowed to have a skewed view of things.”

Anakin honestly had no idea what he could say to that. “I love you too. I- I-“ Dammit. “You’re joint one.”

“Huh?”

“My non official list of favourite people. You’re joint first.” Anakin clarified. “You used to be number two.”

Fuck. It was Obi-Wan’s turn to not have any idea what to say. How did this wonderful, extraordinary, if flawed man, manage to do this to him. Why did he have to put him joint with Padme? Why did he group them together? He knew it was different way. He knew it was. But dammit if Obi-Wan didn’t like the way it sounded. He was so tired and just - Him and Padme, unofficial number ones. Together, with Anakin.

Huh. What should he say? Obi-Wan was very aware of the fact he’d been quiet for far too long and it was almost certain that Anakin was taking that the wrong way.

Given by the way the man had dropped their joint hands and was slumped back on the stool both hands pressed to his face, he already had.

“Anakin,” Obi-Wan began carefully, trying to put as much love as possible through the bond and his tone. The bond that, he realised, was wide open.

“Shields.” Anakin whispered. “You forgot your shields.”

This was bad. This was really bad. Obi-Wan wasn’t entirely sure what could make it worse. Of course the bond would be open with him suffering from Force Exhaustion and with a lot of emotional transference. Of course thinking about Anakin in that state would allow him to hear those thoughts. Of course he found out in the worst way possible. Of course he was completely repulsed. And of course he could hear everything Obi-Wan was thinking right now. 

Anakin stood up in a rush and sat down on the side of Obi-Wan’s bed. He leant forward and carefully cradled Obi-Wan’s face in his hands, so that their faces were practically touching. “Repulsed is about the last thing I’m feeling right now.”

“Anakin…”

“No.” Anakin told him, and leant their foreheads together. “Listen for once. Please. I- We- we talked about this. Me and Padme. But we never talked about this. Realistically anyway. The possibility of-“ He took a deep breath. “With the mind share I thought there was no way this wasn’t platonic. I had no intention of ever burdening you with this. Clearly, you were lying to yourself, or this is new.”

“Anakin,”

Anakin gave a slight laugh. “Kix said nothing heavy or emotional.”

Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow at that. Even under the circumstances. “Well that’s going well.”

“Yeah, I know, but I need to hear this. Do you like me and Padme?”

“Yes.” Obi-Wan said very quietly.

“As in together, romantically?”

“Yes.”

“So would you like- would you be interested in joining us?”

“Yes.” The answer from Obi-Wan was his quietest yet, but filled Anakin with excitement from head to toe. He smiled shakily, then kissed Obi-Wan’s forehead.

“I need to talk to Padme. We need to talk to Padme.” Anakin told him. “We need to talk to Padme before we go anywhere or do anything. But we like you too. We like you too.”

The ‘really’ was not so much said as it was felt.

Anakin, very much aware he couldn’t, or at least shouldn’t, push it, let go of Obi-Wan’s face and sat upright, entwining his left hand with Obi-Wan’s again.

“You need to rest.” Anakin told him. “Force Exhaustion, while much better than anything else I’d feared, is no laughing matter.”

“I know, let Ahsoka in on your way out.”

Anakin rolled his eyes and grinned at his friend. Maybe friend wasn’t the right word anymore. That made him grin all the harder. “Sort your shields out old man! Besides, if I didn’t, do you think that would make a difference?”

“No,” Obi-Wan considered honestly. “No it probably wouldn’t.”

“I will talk to you later.” Anakin told him. “And we will talk to Padme. I- dammit I don’t want to leave.”

“Go. Talk to Padme.” Obi-Wan instructed. “I doubt I will be allowed to move any time soon.”

Anakin acknowledged the truth in the statement, then opened the door. “Ahsoka, you’re wanted.”

Ahsoka stood up, “Right, see you three in a few moments then.” She closed the door behind her, leaving the three clones looking at Anakin. 

“What happened?” Rex asked a moment later.

“He’s fine. It really was just Force Exhaustion.” Anakin was incapable of not smiling. The almost lunatic grin was disturbing the others slightly.

“Well that’s good.” Rex said diplomatically. “And the other thing?”

Well the other thing had gotten a little glossed over. “He said he’s too biased to judge.” Anakin told them. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to contact my wife.”

He walked out of there before realising that neither Kix nor Cody had known that before. Oops. Well, those two could keep a secret.

It would have been “uncivilised” to skip back to his quarters. Anakin was tempted anyway. Lightsabre or no, this was something that belonged in dreams. Anakin pinched himself. Yep, still hurt.

It couldn’t be that uncivilised to run surely? Still grinning, Anakin gave into the urge.

Meanwhile three brothers were looking at each other outside medical bay.

“Wife?” Kix eventually broke the silence.

“I think that slipped out.” Rex said, grinning.

“Amidala’s not going to be happy.” Cody smiled.

The three of them shared a grin.

“I think she’ll forgive him.” Rex said. “Someday anyway.”

Notes:

Thank-you for reading! You may have noticed there's now a total number of chapters up, because, you know nothing else happened in this chapter...
Anyway, please leave me a comment, let me know what you thought!

Chapter 21: Accords

Summary:

After his enlightening discussion with Obi-Wan, Anakin talks to Padme. Bail gets fed up with waiting for everything to fall into place after an unexpected call.

It was fortunate that despite the success of their mission, due to all command officers hovering around med bay, neither Anakin nor Obi-Wan’s ships had yet to start back to Coruscant. Which meant by the time Anakin had gotten back to his quarters, and dug out the full comm, he could actually see Padme. Even if she was more blue and fuzzy than in person.

“Angel,”

“Anakin,” Padme placed the comm unit down on the table. “How did the mission go? I got your message.”

Anakin froze. Ah yeah. No. Oh well.  “Grievous is dead.  But that’s not what the call is about.”

“It can’t be bad news, you’re practically bouncing.” Padme tried to guess. “No fatalities?”

“No, well yes.” Anakin considered. “Do you remember when I’d splintered my leg and we were talking in my quarters? After I’d gotten the painkillers?”

“Yes,” Padme said, “About the twins?”

“No, about the other thing. The same guy thing, the one I thought was just a wish.” Anakin knew he wasn’t being very articulate, but he had no idea how secure the link really was.

“Yes,” Padme leant forward towards the comm. She knew what he meant. She knew exactly the conversation. She might have replayed it a few (hundred) times in her head.

“Well,” Anakin began “It’s more reality, if, you know, we want.”

“You mean?”

“He likes you, he likes me, he wants in.” Anakin told her. “He’s suffering from Force Exhaustion at the moment so it all came tumbling through the bond. He knows that I know, and I said I’d talk to you.”

“So if we want?” Padme grinned.

“Well, I suggested we’d all talk when we got back.” Anakin said. “If that’s something you’d like?”

“Talk is code for?”

“Talking, at least to start with.” Anakin said, “This is…”

“Amazing?” Padme picked up. “Yeah, I don’t think either of us really thought that this could be a reality.”

“Are you interested in making it one?” Anakin asked, determined to get a straight answer out of her.

“Absolutely.” Padme declared. “Are you?”

“Yes.” Anakin agreed. “I shall go and tell Obi-Wan. Well, when I next get into med bay anyway.” He jumped up, bouncing, before remembering what he really had to tell her, and sat down again. “About the mission-and that message- I’m fine now, but –“

Halfway across the galaxy Bail Organa was staring at a report for the seventh time. There had been a disturbance on Scipio, which normally wouldn’t have been anywhere close to being his business, except that the Chancellor had been there, which Bail already known, so he’d put feelers out. Thinking of which, he glanced wistfully at the time. It was barely half an hour past the time he was supposed to clock out. He’d loose his workaholic reputation if he went at this point. On the other hand…

Making a quick decision the senator grabbed his comm plast and headed out the door. He’d do the work at home, where he was at least marginally surer that he wasn’t being watched. Jammers or no, Bail couldn’t exactly leave them on all the time in the office. That would be suspicious.

Not that they didn’t exactly have a time limit already. Three months. Down to two and half now. Already Obi-Wan was going to be out of action for another week, even when he eventually got back to Coruscant, and Anakin was very much avoiding any physical confrontations of any kind, from what Padme had told him.

So two months. They were supposed to have double that left.

Bail Organa had pulled off many an impossible feat while running the Alliance, but this was a tall order. They might be able to leak out another couple of weeks if Ventress hid in hyperspace for a while. But there was so much that needed to be done, sure Obi-Wan had managed to start the dechipping process of the Clones, but even the brothers’ rumour mill only worked so fast, and it hardly helped on the legal side of things.

Which was where he came in. In a way Bail missed the Alliance, he hadn’t had to worry about jumping through legal hoops. They had done what was needed to be done, what was right. And well, Bail hadn’t really been around for the eventual fallout.

Although, he guessed, none of them had really, in the end.

Hopefully, this time would be different. If he could do a little more private research into what stopped Sith Lords, then they might actually get somewhere. Not that he was overly happy with being saddled with the brunt of the research, he was just as busy as the others, being a major senator and all. In fairness, Bail considered, he had left the office on time, and he was under by far the least attention from Sidious.

He brought his speeder into the parking bay and headed into his living room, setting the comm plast on the low table, and both his communicators down next to it, leaving them there while he wondered through to the kitchen for a snack. He had to have something edible around here.

There was a calling tone from the other room.

Sighing, Bail turned and answered the call. Was Padme wondering why he was out of office?

Breha?

Bail watched as the hologram of his wife flickered into view. She smiled, wide and welcoming, delighted with the surprise. “B! I managed to catch you, I thought you’d still be at work.”

She was still alive. Breha was still alive. She was alive, and aware and healthy and fantastic and there. She was right there! Bail reached forward towards the hologram, fighting the impulse to wrap the image of his wife in his arms. “I took off early.”

“I can see that.” Breha told him, nearly laughing. “So, anything interesting happen at work?”

“Define Interesting?” Bail said.

 “Not-paperwork.” Breha suggested with a quirk of a smile. “That one from Naboo done anything interesting lately?”

“Padme?” Bail asked, trying to think what he could share.

“No, the clumsy one, although, how is Padme?”

“Padme is as well as can be expected, given Knight Skywalker is off at war. As for Jar Jar Binks…” Bail said, trying to think as to what the gungan had gotten up to lately. “Just his usual antics, tripped over his robes a few times.”

Breha rolled her eyes in amusement. “How did he get appointed? Mind you, he seems better than half the senators.”

“More honest anyway.” Bail said, thinking of the Trade Federation and all their lackeys. Not to mention the actual Sith Lord.

“Stole the words right out of my mouth.” Breha said. “Anyway, before I ask for any more news in your life, why don’t I tell you mine?”

“What’s happened?” Bail asked.

“Well, I’ve talked to lots of people, and traded in a couple of favours, and well, we haven’t had much time together lately. So you’re going to have a visitor in a couple of weeks.”

“How did you?” Bail was flabbergasted. Neither of them ever got any time off. He remembered that most of all. Well, that and a few other moments before the final days.

“Called in a few favours remember.” Breha grinned. “Honestly B, if you can’t remember things from a minute ago…”

“BREHA!” Bail grinned back at her.  

“Now, now dear,” she said. “Why don’t you tell me what non official project you’re working on that takes you out of the office on time?”

Bail took a moment to savour how well his wife knew him. “I don’t want to say much. It’s a rights issue I’m working on with Padme, Obi-Wan, and Knight Skywalker.”

“Why….” The question trailed out as Breha worked it out. “Oh good. I’ll help when I get there and you can fill me in on the progress.”

“Yes Dear.” Bail said. He loved her so much.

“I’m serious B, I’m helping. I’m really glad you’ve thought of that and you’re doing something about it. But you need more than four of you on that.” Breha told him in no uncertain terms.

“It’s dangerous.” Bail warned her.

“As it is for those men.” Breha said. “You are not alone in this. The four of you are not alone in this.”

Somehow Bail didn’t think that telling her Ahsoka was helping too was the right response to that. With few other options he simply said: “Thank-you.”

“You should be,” Breha said, then launched into a recount of how everyone was doing back on Alderan.

A few hours later Bail messaged Padme. [Can you come over? Not urgent, related to 7C]

The comm buzzed immediately. [See you in ten]

It buzzed again. [Assuming you’ve gone home]

Bail told her that he wasn’t so bad to still be at the office.

Huffing a little at his friend’s sense of humour Bail finally managed to get into the kitchen. Glancing at the time he sighed, skipped the snack and went straight for dinner, which he was just tucking into when a familiar speeder landed in his bay.  He glanced at the meal, now getting cold, and then where his friend was landing. Padme could show herself in. He hadn’t managed to eat anything but ration bars since the previous night.  

Padme Naberie Amidala walked in, looked at the scene, heard the muffled “one minute”, and then went to fix herself a glass of water.

“What’s the issue?”

“Breha called.” Bail began, then paused a moment to swallow the final bite of food.

“Oh, how is she?” Padme sat down opposite. “How’s Alderan doing?”

“She’s good, they’re all good.” Bail pushed his dishes away. “She’s managed to get some time off.”

“Oh good, I remember thinking that Breha worked too hard.” Padme said, unsure as to why Bail was so tense.

“She’s coming here.”

“Oh.” Was all Padme could think to say. Oh, that’s lovely for you but she won’t be as safe and I’m sure you’re worried about that. Oh, that’s a change in timeline, not that there haven’t already been many of those. Oh, I wasn’t expecting that. Oh, just oh.

“I know.” Bail said. “I didn’t tell her much about 7C, but she wants to help. She really wants to help, and I think there might be others.”

“Others?”

“Mon Mothma, Riyo, Breha obviously, there will be others” Bail began, trying to think who else. “She said something that stuck with me: You are not alone in this. She meant 7C, but we have been acting like it has just been the seven of us to take on the galaxy.”

“You want to reform the Alliance.” Padme realised. Maybe not in the same way, and hopefully it wouldn’t be needed for as longer period of time. But in terms of people…

“I guess I do.” Bail was thinking along the same lines. “Are you with me?”

“Of course,” Padme said, putting her glass of water back down on the table with a firm clang. “It’s a good idea. Now let’s get this started.”

By the next morning the two Senators had a list of twenty other political movers to approach.

“It’s not much.” Padme said, looking over the list while draining the cup of caff. All-nighters weren’t really her thing anymore. “But it’s a place to start.”

“So who are you going to talk to?” Bail asked, draining his own mug. “Do you want to take Mon Mothma?”

“Yes,” Padme considered, “Riyo as well. We’re closer than you two, I think. Obviously you’re asking Breha.”

“Of course,” Bail said, and continued splitting the list in half. “I take it were leaving Jar Jar Binks out of this.”

Padme thought about the gungan for a moment, then shuddered. “If he wants in when it’s not a secret anymore, then I don’t suppose we can tell him no, but until then, somehow I don’t think it’s wise.”

“My sentiments exactly.” Bail said. “What do you think in terms of time frame?”

“For staying secret or for recruiting people?” Padme asked. “I don’t see any reason to wait anyhow. Obviously Breha isn’t going to get here for another couple of weeks. But I can start talking to people today.” She glanced at her empty mug. “After some more caff.”

Notes:

Thank-you for reading! Please leave me a comment, let me know what you thought! Next Chapter is up next week, as per usual, and I think some of you might like it.

Chapter 22: Final Negotiations

Summary:

They're back, they're together, and they're .... talking? And being adults? WTF?

Two weeks later, after an annoyingly large number of detours, the 212^th and 501^st finally arrived back on Coruscant. With them came an increasingly nervous Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker.

Once again they found themselves standing in the hanger of the Temple, unsure of what waited beyond.  

Ahsoka joined them. “We all know what we’re saying right?”

“Right.” The other two agreed.

“You sure this is a good idea?” Anakin said, “There were witnesses, and if it gets out…”

Obi-Wan placed a hand on his shoulder for a brief moment before letting it drop. “It’ll be fine. They’ve no reason to believe former enemies of the republic over us. Get through this and then you get to go see your wife.”

“Then we get to go see Padme.” Anakin corrected, a slight smile ghosting over his face. “Let’s get this over with then.” He started towards the door.

Ahsoka called after him, “You forgot something.”

“Huh?” Obi-Wan turned around with Anakin to fins Ahsoka holding out a familiar lightsabre.

“You should have it on you in the Temple at least.” She pointed out.

Anakin took the lightsabre gingerly. He wasn’t keen on the idea. He wasn’t keen in the slightest. It hummed in his palm. Giving in to the inevitable, he clipped in onto his belt.

“Right,” Obi-Wan glanced at the two of them. “Let’s go talk to the Council.”

“Right.”

“Right.”

Three agonising hours later, across the city, Padme Naberie Amidala was looking over her notes. Another meeting of the Alliance had just finished, and there was a surprisingly large amount of things she’d noted down, for all that there had been very few productive points made. Other than the fact that Breha had finally gotten in that morning and had therefore been introduced to the rest of the group. But there was one thing that stood out, a throwaway line, not in the meeting itself, but when some of them had been joking around while waiting for people to turn up at the start.

“Why didn’t the Jedi use what they used the beat the Sith last time? They had big superweapons during the Sith War right? Surely the plans must still exist.” Padme repeated to herself. “Surely the plans must still exist.” There was no guarantee that they did, or even, if they did indeed exist, that such a weapon was feasible.

But Padme couldn’t help but wonder.

They needed an edge against Sidious. The Sith Lord was almost infamous for ignoring history. Maybe it would work. Maybe it was worth checking out. Maybe, just maybe.

“Surely the plans must exist.”

“Surely the plans for what must exist?” Anakin asked, standing in front of the doorway into her living room, leaning slightly on the frame. “How to have this discussion? I think that’s different every time.”

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Obi-Wan arrived behind Anakin, for once the far more visibly nervous of the pair, “I can go.”

“No!” Anakin and Padme assured him at once.

“Stay,” Anakin turned around to face him. “Please. In fact,” Anakin detached his lightsabre and handed it to the Jedi Master. “Here.”

Obi-Wan took it and swallowed. “I don’t think they have a place here.” He detached his own from his belt and laid it, along with Anakin’s, on the table at the side of the room. “Although I’m not sure this is the time for this discussion.”

“Maybe not,” Padme put the notes to one side, and focused on the two men in front of her. “But if we don’t do this it’s going to fester, and it doesn’t sound like it’s a good idea to take that into a fight with Sidious.”

Obi-Wan and Anakin glanced at each other. She had a point. She often did.

No-one moved.

“I-“

“er-“

“Wha-“

They all started talking at once. Padme looked at the other two, a glint of humour in her eye, “I am going to go to the kitchen, I am going to get two cups of caff and a cup of tea, and when I come back in the two of you are going to be sat down, with your boots off, and relaxed enough to have this talk.”

“Red if you have it please.” Obi-Wan asked, as she left the room.

“I’ll see what I can do.”

That left Anakin and Obi-Wan alone in the main living room.

To Padme’s pleasant surprise, by the time she returned with three steaming mugs they’d followed her advice. Obi-Wan was sitting on one of the sofas, cross legged and seemingly deep in meditation. His boots were neatly placed on the floor next to him. Anakin’s boots, on the other hand, were haphazardly thrown across the floor, to no great surprise. The man himself was draped across the other sofa, thumbing through Padme’s discarded notes, humming occasionally. He looked up when she put a mug down next to him.

“Thanks Angel,” Anakin murmured, “love you.”

Padme smiled at him before putting the mug of tea down next to Obi-Wan. “Hey,”

“Oh,” Obi-Wan opened his eyes. “Thank-you,” he swung his legs off the sofa.

“You are quite welcome,” Padme said, sitting down next to him, careful to leave a few inches gap. “So, anyone know where to start?”

Anakin finally discarded the notes with the sign that they were starting. “Major concerns?”

“Right, Obi-Wan, shall we start with you?” Padme said.

Right, okay. Obi-Wan took a deep breath. Time to air all the things that had him asking if this was a good idea. Right.  “I’m five years older than you, Padme, and nearly ten years older than Anakin.”

“I have no problems with a five year age gap.” Padme told him, with a brief smile at Anakin.  

“I might have to think about it, were I early twenties and you early thirties. But, while neither of us like any of the years in-between, I am in my mid-forties, and you’re mid-fifties.” Anakin said. He’d been expecting this one to come up. “I don’t see a problem there.”

Obi-Wan took that with a thankful smile. “Related to that, I used to teach you Anakin. I-“

“I feel I’m dragging you into this not the other way around.” Anakin interrupted him. “If that was anything about that. Given my past both recent and slightly more distant, are the two of you sure you want me in this? ”

“Yes.” Padme and Obi-Wan said immediately.

“Can I,” Padme added, before Obi-Wan could raise any more concerns. “I don’t know if you were going to raise this, but if all goes well, and if Anakin leaves the Jedi Order, which it seems likely he will do so, at the moment,” she glanced to see Anakin’s reaction, he nodded, “Then the two of us will likely go public. What would you feel in that case? Would you want to go public with us, would you be happy being unknown, or would you feel like a dirty little secret?”

Obi-Wan didn’t know. In a way it felt like jumping ahead. There was no guarantee this was even happening. Surely this couldn’t be happening? It seemed awfully presumptuous that they’d be a thing by then. Would he feel like a dirty little secret? What about the twins? Obi-Wan couldn’t even imagine being anything other than overjoyed that he could join them.  “I would never want to do anything that would jeopardise either of you.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about.” Padme frowned at him, turning so she was facing him full on. “Would you be okay, we don’t need an answer now as to what would happen, but would you be okay?”

For the chance to be a part of this? Obi-Wan would make himself be okay. He nodded.

Anakin frowned at him. “Verbally.”

“I’d be fine.” Obi-Wan sighed and said. “If you two are sure you want to run the risk of letting me in. You’re a happily married couple and I’m not used to acting on emotions. Well,” he added thinking back to many of his decisions, “Deliberately acting on emotions.”

Anakin glanced at his wife.

Padme nodded.

Slipping off his sofa, Anakin padded across the room and knelt down in front of where Obi-Wan was sitting so their faces were level. “We’re a team. The three of us are a team.”

 “We want you. We want you to be a part of this.” Padme told him, shuffling closer, just far enough not to make Obi-Wan feel uncomfortable. She reached out and squeezed Anakin’s hand.

Obi-Wan gulped.

“Any other issues?” Anakin asked. “Cause I don’t have any.”

Obi-Wan watched the bob of Anakin’s Adam’s apple as he spoke. Was there anything else? He knew he should voice anything now, but he couldn’t think of any reasons that they shouldn’t do this. He couldn’t think of anything. “No…”

“Angel?” Anakin asked.

Padme smiled broadly. “No.”

“Good.” Anakin retrieved his hand from Padme, cupped Obi-Wan’s face and leant in and kissed him, short and sweet. “Because you have no idea how hard it was not to do that on the way back.”

Obi-Wan let out a shaky breath, and ran his right hand through Anakin’s hair. “Yeah, I’ve got some idea.” He felt a weight on his shoulder, Padme was leaning on it. “That angle makes you very difficult to kiss.”

Padme shot upright with a grin, turned Obi-Wan’s face towards her and pounced, wrapping her arms around his neck. She kissed him deeply, noting with pleasure the way the beard tickled against her chin. Eventually she let go. “Oh that is fun. I don’t have to drag you down.”

Anakin burst into a mischievous grin. “I can think of a few things you’d have to drag him down for.”

Obi-Wan turned his head back to look at him. “Is your mind always that bad?”

“Around you two?” Anakin said, then stood upright. “My turn.” He declared, sat down on Obi-Wan’s lap, and leant over to kiss Padme.

“Now you’re even taller than usual.” Padme groaned into his mouth.

Obi-Wan watched with abject fascination as Padme bit Anakin’s lower lip causing a stifled groan. He began to stoke Anakin’s hair, admiring the unusually silky texture.

Anakin broke off the kiss and moved his legs so that he was straddling Obi-Wan. “Hey you,” he grinned at him. “This okay?” He shifted a little.

Obi-Wan nodded then leant in, settling in for a much longer kiss. Their noses bumped.

Anakin let out a small giggle.

Padme lent in towards them so that their heads were all bumped together. “Oops.”

Obi-Wan smiled at the scene. At their scent. It was all so perfect.  Almost under his breath he murmured: “Force, I love you”

Padme beamed. “I love you too.”

“I love you three.” Anakin grinned at them.

Obi-Wan sighed. Why he loved them so much he had no idea. But he did, he really did. And they loved him back. They really, really did.

“Don’t sigh at me.” Anakin said, then turned his head and gave Padme a peck on the nose. He leant backwards and looked at them both. Padme’s flushed skin, Obi-Wan’s dishevelled hair, the heavy breath. Wow. He leant forwards again and flung his arms around both of them. “I missed you both so much.” He said almost nostalgically.

Obi-Wan extracted his own arms from where Anakin had trapped them and draped them across both Anakin and Padme. “I missed you too.”

Padme reached up and squeezed both their hands, then rubbed the back of her neck. “Do either of you mind helping me take this down?” She took a hairpin out of the updo. “It’s making the awkward angle worse. I’d suggest moving onto the bed, but I think that might be moving a little too fast.”

Obi-Wan stopped in the middle of removing another of the hairpins, thoughts arrested by the memory of a joke he’d made months ago. It had sounded like a them two thing at the time. Now… He coloured, letting out a shaky breath, “I don’t mind.”

Anakin scrambled back off his lap, causing Padme to have to lean backwards to avoid a collision. She slipped of the sofa to join him standing, waiting.

They looked at Obi-Wan.

Of one mind, Padme offered her right arm, and Anakin his left, to Obi-Wan.

“You coming?”

Obi-Wan took one of their hands each and pulled himself off the sofa. He grinned, looking at Padme’s half tumbled down hair, Anakin’s bright eyes and the way the force sang. “What do you think?”

Notes:

Woo! Thank-you for reading! Please, leave a comment, let me know what you thought!
EDIT: Oops, forgot what day it was. Have an early update!

Chapter 23: Early(ish) Morning

Summary:

Padme wakes up a little cold, she goes looking for the culprit.

Padme woke up the next morning with goosebumps down her skin, a direct result, she found a moment later, from being bereft of both covers, and one of her sleeping companions.  The covers at least were easy enough to find as she turned her head to see a tuft of blond hair poking out from the top of a duvet roll. She shook her head slightly. Anakin had always been a cover hog.

But that only answered one of her questions.

Padme slid out of bed, stepping over her discarded dress on the floor. It looked almost comical, just lying there, part upright, most fallen over. She poked at it with her toe. It went straight through. Oh well, so it had gotten ripped last night, she thought it had. Snuffling a laugh, Padme retrieved her robe from the back of the door.

The fresher was also empty of any Jedi Masters.

So was the living room, but the door to the balcony was wide open, the wind whistling through it. Padme poked her head through and was relieved to see Obi-Wan leaning on the balcony looking out at the city, outer robe draped around his shoulders.

“I wondered where you were.” She joined him leaning on the rails.

“Thinking.” Obi-Wan said, turning his head to face her. “It’s almost peaceful from up here, at least this early in the morning.”

Padme looked at the already near gridlocked traffic below. “Almost.” She let the silence sit for a moment. Down below a speeder fell into a sharp dive, much to the alarm of the rest of the traffic. “You’re not regretting it are you?”

“No.” Obi-Wan denied quickly.

Padme looked at him sharply.

“No,” he repeated, sounding far more sure. “Just wondering if we were going to tell anyone.”

Ah, Padme hummed her understanding. That, at least, made sense. “I suppose we ought to have sorted that before.”

“No point sorting it out before anything happened.” Obi-Wan said.

“I can see that.” Padme agreed. “I’m not ashamed of you.”

“But you weren’t planning on telling anyone?” Obi-Wan picked up on the cue.

“I was going to say I don’t think I should tell my blood family until all this is over.” Padme corrected him gently. “I was wondering if you wanted to tell Bail. Or even the rest of the seven.”

Obi-Wan considered the idea. “We might as well tell Ahsoka, she’ll figure it out sooner or later anyway. We’d have to ask Anakin.”

“Have to ask me what?” Anakin padded out onto the balcony, duvet clutched around his chest.

“Who we were going to tell.” Padme said, crossing over to where her husband was loitering. She leant up and kissed his forehead. “Good Morning Ani.”

“Morning.” Anakin mumbled. “It’s too early.”

Obi-Wan and Padme exchanged a look. It was so good that some things were back to normal.

“Snips’ll know in a week, tell her or no.” Anakin continued, choosing to ignore his two lovers, even as they exchanged another look.

“We were thinking maybe tell the other four.” Obi-Wan suggested. “At least for now.”

Anakin considered it. “Sounds good. Are you going to come over here?”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t think I can drag this over there, and I’d hate to give everyone a show.” Anakin grinned.

Obi-Wan smothered a grin and gave Anakin a kiss. “Good Morning.”

Anakin ran his fingers up Obi-Wans bare chest. “Morning.”

“Ah ha ha,” Obi-Wan said, stopping Anakin’s fingers. “We should make an appearance in the Temple this morning, before someone notices we’re gone.”

Anakin pouted. “But we were going to tell Ahsoka anyway.”

“Before someone else notices we’re gone.” Obi-Wan said, “I’m not there to cover for you this time.”

“Cover for me?” Anakin asked.

Padme sighed. “How often?”

In lieu of an answer Obi-Wan merely said: “You were never subtle.”

“Sorry,” Padme said, “And sorry for not doing this earlier.” She reached across and gave Obi-Wan a long good morning kiss. “Now, you two have time for breakfast.”

It was Obi-Wan and Anakin’s turn to exchange glances. “We do, do we?”

“Yes,” Padme smiled at them. “Now, Ani dear, as much as we’re both enjoy the view, you should probably at least put leggings on.”

Anakin pouted again, then wandered away, presumably to get partially dressed. Padme turned to Obi-Wan the curve of her belly just visible beneath the thin robe. “You, however, are perfect, and helping me cook breakfast.”

“That might not be such a good idea.” Obi-Wan said following her into the kitchen. “I only know how to cook about six things.”

“Then you can help chop.” Padme decided, passing him several vegetables. “You two clearly don’t have time for a full breakfast, so we can all have omelettes.”

“I don’t suppose you have time either.” Obi-Wan pointed out, selecting a sharp knife and starting to chop.

Padme got a pan out. “I’m already late by my usual standards, as long as I’m there before the session it’s all good.” She pinched a piece of vegetable and ate it. “Bail will have to tell me anything later.”

“That’s a point. How are we telling the other four?” Obi-Wan said as Padme retrieved a carton of eggs.

“Probably not by text…” Padme considered.

Obi-Wan laid the knife down by the side of the chopping board. “That alright? I don’t see we have much choice with Asajj.”

“Perfect.” Padme kissed him on the cheek. She grabbed the cutting board and shifted all the ingredients into a large bowl. Then she cracked a couple of eggs into the pan, and set about making the omelette. “You have a point about Asajj, do you know where she’s hiding?”

“I haven’t heard anything since…” Obi-Wan broke off, unwilling to finish the sentence.

“Me neither.” Padme sighed, “I feel a little guilty.”

“Oh,” Obi-Wan understood why. “You shouldn’t do. If he’d wanted to find her, he’d have found her regardless.”

“I still asked her to get the proof.” Padme said. She flipped the omelette. “Pass me a plate would you. Top cupboard on the right.”

“Got it.” Obi-Wan passed her three. “That occurs to me, where is Threepio? I haven’t seen him.”

“Ah,” Padme turned the omelette out. “I asked him to look after Breha for the duration of her trip. Keeps him out of our hair for a while.”

“That makes sense. So if I receive an annoyed message from Bail, I know why.” Obi-Wan said.

“I imagine Bail will be otherwise busy this morning himself.” Padme pointed out with a smile. She turned the second omelette out.

Obi-Wan took the second plate along with the first. “You have a point. Shall I take these through?”

“Please do,” Padme tipped the last of the vegetables into the pan. “I’ll be through in a moment.”

When she did follow through with her own plate she found Obi-Wan and Anakin discussing something animatedly.

“Sith Superweapons are nothing to be trifled with.” Obi-Wan said, taking a bite of his omelette.

“Is there anything other than the crystals that makes them Sith? I’m not talking planetary destroyers here, we know how those turn out, but what’s so bad about some of the guns?” Anakin countered before looking up and seeing Padme. “Hi Angel.”

“They’re ….” Obi-Wan let out a shaky breath, and changed his mind.  “I suppose no harm could be had by looking into the records. We’re pretty desperate.”

“What’s going on?” Padme asked, sitting down. “And why are we having this discussion at breakfast?” She took the first bite of her omelette. Oh. Hot. She downed a glass of water. 

“Discussing the possibilities of using weapons from the last Sith War against Sidious.” Anakin said. “I found your notes.”

“What’s the issue?”

“The issue,” Obi-Wan said, putting down his knife and fork, plate empty. “Is that the Jedi didn’t have any more weapons then, there were just more of them. The big weapons were all invented and used by the Sith.”

“Ah.” Padme took a more cautious bite of her omelette. Still hot.

“We have some of them on record, I think,” Obi-Wan tried to remember, they were never something he’d had much interest in. “But they’re in the Masters only section at least, and I think they may be in the Council only section of the library.”

Anakin put down his glass. “I hadn’t thought of that. Can you get at them without it being logged?”

“If it’s in the Masters section, yes. But the Council section will log when I go in, if not what I look at.” Obi-Wan told them. “I’ll see if I get an opportunity today.”

“Let me know how you get on.” Padme said, eating her omelette that was finally at an edible temperature. She must have had the heat on too strong. “To go back to an earlier topic of conversation, when are we planning on telling everyone?”

“We could go see Dex.” Anakin pointed out.

Obi-Wan sighed. “We’re becoming regulars, it’s uncivilised.”

Anakin made a noise of sheer outrage, walked around the table and kissed Obi-Wan hard. “Force I love you.”

“I love you too, what was that for?”

“Uncivilised.” Anakin imitated Obi-Wan’s tone.

Padme smothered a smile.

“Really?” Obi-Wan sighed. Then his face relaxed into a rare smile. Although, Padme noted with pleasure they were becoming more common than they once were.

Obi-Wan glanced at the time. “I suppose we should be going then.” He picked up his and Anakin’s plates.

“Right,” Anakin said reluctantly. He glanced at them. “Right you,” he looked appreciatively at Obi-Wan’s bare chest, “need to get dressed. I’ll do your hair.” He moved to behind Padme, retrieving a hairbrush out of a drawer. “Any style in particular today?”

“Something on top of my head, nothing too heavy.” Padme told him. “It may be a long session.

Anakin hummed as he worked braiding and teasing, jabbing pins of various lengths in, until it was a fair approximation the hairstyle he was aiming for.

Obi-Wan came back in the room, disappointingly fully dressed sans boots. Surprised at both the proficiency and the intricacy of the hairstyle he asked: “Where’d you learn to do that?”

“This one,” Anakin said, hunting for his stray boot. Padme pointed towards the door. Ah- ha! “Naboo. It’s what I spent about half of my protection detail doing.” He pulled the boot on and straightened up his tunics. “I look alright right?”

Obi-Wan gave him an appraising look. “Less obvious than usual. But you forgot something.” He passed Anakin his lightsabre. “Do I pass muster?”

Anakin looked him up and down, and up and down again. “You pass muster at something alright.”

“Anakin,” Obi-Wan sighed.

Padme took pity on him. “No-one can tell. Partly because you sleep in your clothes half the time anyway.”

“Thank-you,” Obi-Wan said, “I think.”

“Go, message the group later about Dex’s.” Padme told him.

“Right.” Anakin spun around. “Love you,” He kissed Obi-Wan, “What? I won’t get to do that later. Love you,” He pressed his lips to Padme’s. “Love you two.” He leant over and pressed his lips to Padme’s belly.

“Love you too sap,” Padme said. She looked at Obi-Wan.

He froze. What… He… Not their dad. Want to be there. Too... Not enough… what… help!

Seeing his indecision, if not his panic, Padme stepped forward and kissed him gently on the lips. “I’ll see you later.” She took a step back. “Now go, both of you, or none of us will make it in today.”

She chased them back to their speeder and watched them go off into the distance. All she could do right now, she reminded herself, was hope that everything would be alright.

Fortunately both Anakin and Obi-Wan managed to get back to their individual rooms without bumping into anyone who might say anything. Unusual given the swell in numbers at the Temple since the end of the war.  Once in their rooms, that was a different issue.

Anakin, had the lesser of the problems. A smug togruta was the worst that awaited him.

“Soooooo…” Ahsoka looked up from the holovid she had been watching “How’s Padme?”

“Good.” Anakin sighed. “Seven, or at least Six, outing to Dex’s later?”

“Sure.” Ahsoka turned back to the holovid. Then without a beat she added, in exactly the same tone of voice. “How’s Obi-Wan?”

“What? How?” Anakin sputtered.

“Went to talk to him after you disappeared last night. Nowhere to be found. That along with some pretty loud projection these past few weeks led to one conclusion.” Ahsoka said smugly.

“I told them you’d know.” Anakin sighed, then sat down next to her. “What you watching?”

Obi-Wan on the other hand.  Obi-Wan found what seemed like half the council in his room. Even knowing it was only two of them the very two council members that were waiting did nothing to lessen the sudden fear.

Mace Windu nodded as Yoda stood from the chair where he’d been sat.  “Been waiting for you we have.  Been gone a long time, you have.  Yes, hmmm. A very long time.”

                                                                                                                                        

Notes:

Thank-you for reading! Please leave me a comment, let me know what you thought! The number of chapters is final by the way, 32 in total, I just can't get it to stick for some reason.

Chapter 24: Shields and Lying

Summary:

Confronted by Yoda and Mace Windu, Obi-Wan tries to work the situation to his advantage, with some help.

Notes:

I write all these chapters about two months in advance, to the extent I'm working on the epilogue right now. That being said, if I was writing this chapter this week, I would not have written it like this. Therefore, while it's turned up before, special warning for a character in bad, (not suicidal) mental health.

Mace Windu nodded as Yoda stood from the chair he’d been sat at.  “Been waiting for you we have.  Been gone a long time, you have.  Yes, hmmm. A very long time.”

SHIELDS. Obi-Wan remembered instinctively slamming his down as the hum of his good mood disappeared.

Calm.

Friends. Friendly. Technically.

He closed the door behind him. He bowed.  “Masters, what can I do for you?” he said careful to keep his tone as polite as possible. Bordering on friendly if he could manage it.  

“Who is it?” Mace Windu asked instead of answering the question. The Jedi Masters face was as grave as Obi-Wan had even seen it, but neither hand was twitching for a lightsabre.

“Who is what?” Obi-Wan said, moving further inside the room and heading towards the kitchen, keeping them in sight.

“You’re shielding is stronger than anyone else’s in the order, and it’s carefully maintained. You’re gone long periods of the day, and Garen Muln isn’t the only one to have noticed unusual expressions of emotion.” Mace frowned.

“Know something you do.” Yoda said, thwacking Obi-Wan’s calves with his gimmer stick. “Know who the Sith is, you do.”

Oh.

Oh, thank the force.

Obi-Wan turned to the sink, filling the kettle and switching it on. “I have no proof. I have nothing that ties him to being a Sith Lord or to any other illegal activities. There is just enough proof to tie him to The Trade Federation. But I need time, and I need to be able to go after resources.”

“Knows who the Sith is, Anakin does, hmm?” Yoda said, thinking.

“He does Masters, he’s the one who brought his suspicions to me.” Obi-Wan confirmed. If you ignored how when stretched it was to cover over all the gaping omissions, it might have even have counted as the truth.  

Neither Jedi Master asked why Anakin had gone to him. Which was fortunate. Someone ran past in the corridor outside. Several younglings, from the sound of the footsteps, followed a few moments later.

Then Mace Windu let out a virulent string of mandoan swears.

Obi-Wan nodded. “Don’t say anything.”

“It’s who I’m thinking of isn’t it?”” Mace asked. “He seemed so nice. Weak even.”

 “Think of the timing.” Obi-Wan said, glad no-one had said a name. As much as he hated to admit it, this room was not safe.

“Right you are. Assume more to this there is.” Yoda said.

“There are details I am currently reluctant to disclose.”  The kettle whistled. Everybody ignored it.

“Hmmprph, protect that boy you do.” Yoda said.

Obi-Wan wanted to point out that Anakin was not a boy anymore. But then he guessed everyone in the Temple was a youngling to Yoda.

“No-one was protected during the war.” Obi-Wan pointed out instead. His voice hard and unforgiving. “No-one.”

Neither of the other two masters responded.

“We can’t go after him yet.” Obi-Wan said after a moment of awkward silence.

“Time you need?” Yoda asked.

“That and access to the records. I may have to consult more libraries than just our own. Given we already know the Temple’s records have been compromised as to the location of Kamino, it seems foolish to assume that was the only alteration.” Obi-Wan said, hope beginning to creep in. He squashed it firmly.

Sensing the emotional change, Anakin sent an urgent query through the bond.

“Go,” Mace told him after a moment of consideration. “We can give you a month with no questions from the senate. Call it tying up loose ends from the war.”

“There are enough of them.” Obi-Wan said.

“I can’t promise we won’t call.” Mace added.

“I can’t promise I’ll be able to answer.” Obi-Wan replied.

“Just don’t go to Moraband without clearing it with us first.” Mace warned.

“I Understand.” Obi-Wan said. He had no intention of even going in the same quadrant as Moraband. There was nothing there but graves and traps. He’d had enough of Sith Traps for two lifetimes.

Mace nodded once more and made to leave, clearly sensing, if not understanding Obi-Wan’s discomfort. “Oh, and Obi-Wan,”

“Yes,”

“May the Force be with you. I have the feeling you’re going to need it.” With the last ominous warning Mace closed the door behind him, leaving Obi-Wan and Yoda alone in the room.

“Been gone a long time, you have.  Yes, hmmm. A very long time.” Yoda repeated. “Old eyes, you have.”

“The war was hard on us all, Master.” Obi-Wan diplomatically.

“Hard yes, the war was. But worse for you, what followed was.” Yoda told him. “Tell me the truth, you will.”

“Master, I fear I cannot.” Obi-Wan was getting sick of diplomacy. He wasn’t sure what the point in denying it at this point was. But force dammit he wasn’t even sure if he could trust Yoda. That was stupid. Of course he could trust Yoda.

Anakin caught the tail end of the thought and sent another, more urgent query. Obi-Wan sent back the very bare bones of the situation.

“Nine hundred years old, I am.” Yoda frowned at him. “Truly older, you are. Seen that before, I have not.”

Obi-Wan was getting the distinct feeling he was not going to get out of this conversation. He turned and tested the temperature of the kettle. Sighing, he switched it on again.

Yoda waited for an answer.

In the meantime Anakin had been frantically messaging. He poked the bond with Obi-Wan.

“Everyone but Asajj, who I can’t get hold of, says just tell him.”

Obi-Wan sighed in relief at the decision resting on more than just his shoulders. He’d had enough of being the General a long time ago. After sending a brief burst of thanks and love, he clamped down on the bond and instead broadcast:

“Not here. We’re not sure if it’s bugged. Meet me in the wellspring in an hour.”

Yoda sighed, but followed his example. “Waiting, I will be.”

The second Yoda left his quarters Obi-Wan felt himself physically relax, slumping against the door.

There was a loud knock.

It knocked again. And again.

No. No. Not again. He couldn’t face anyone else right now. He couldn’t, he just couldn’t.

He had to. Come on Obi-Wan, he thought to himself, pulling himself upright and schooling his face. Come on. He could do this. He could. One last check of his shields, which he wouldn’t care to fight Sidious with, but should hold for a normal conversation.

“Obi-Wan?” Anakin’s muffled voice sounded through the door as he knocked again.  

Obi-Wan pulled the door open and his partner stepped inside. “Obi-Wan are you?” Anakin took one good look and noticed. The slightly skewed hair, the focused eyes, the stiff arms with his right just too near his lightsabre to be natural.

Anakin slammed the door shut with the force and wrapped the Jedi Master in his arms. “I’m here, it’s okay, it’s going to be okay.” He murmured as Obi-Wan slowly put his arms around him, then relaxed completely, burrowing his head into Anakin’s shoulder.

“It’s okay,” Anakin murmured into his partner’s hair. “Just because Yoda knows doesn’t mean Sidious does. Yoda is observant. Sidious is not. It’s okay, we’re still safe. We’re still safe. He doesn’t know. We’re still safe.” He kissed the top of his hair.

“Thank-you.” Obi-Wan murmured.

“It’s okay,” Anakin told him, loosening his grip on the other man. “I thought you might want some company. Do you want a cup of tea?”

Obi-Wan huffed. “Kettle’s boiled twice.”

“It’s probably still warm enough for a green then.” Anakin told him. “Go and sit down. I’ll make the brew.”  

Amazingly Anakin still remembered which cupboard the various tins of tea were kept in. He did have to check the labels for which was going to have the most calming effect.

Fortunately Obi-Wan had clearly got over a lot of the shock by the time Anakin placed a warm mug in front of him. It was an unpleasant contrast to the night before. “They agreed to let you do the research.”

Obi-Wan nodded and took a sip of the tea. “That’s good at least. I was just hoping for one of our problems to be solved before that one arose.”

“Technically we beat Grievous and ended the war.” Anakin considered. “We’ve got a solution to the problem of the clones. Maybe Yoda can help make it more official.”

Obi-Wan hummed, unconvinced.                     

“I know,” Anakin sighed, slumping into the chair next to him. “While I knew this would have to happen, I kind of hoped it would happen when I was far away from the Jedi Order.”

Obi-Wan turned his head, alarmed. “I’m not letting them do anything to you. You know that right?”

“Hey,” Anakin slowly put his hand on Obi-Wan’s arm, giving him plenty of time to flinch. The war was hard on them all. “Nothing’s happening. Do you want me to go with you?”

“I’m sorry,” Obi-Wan shook his head. “It just all seemed to be going so well for a moment and I thought that maybe, just maybe we could make it. Now…”

“Now we can still make it.” Anakin told him with a lot more belief than he had. Hopefully his partner couldn’t tell. “All that’s actually happened is that you’ve been given the official go ahead for something you were going to do in secret. We’ve managed three and a half months, we’ll manage the other two, three, however long before we get Sidious, and then hopefully we will manage the rest of our lives.” Oh Force this was hopeless, but Obi-Wan thrived on hope, he had to get him to believe, he had to.

“Rest of our lives…” Obi-Wan repeated and Anakin knew he was thinking about all the time he spent on Tatooine. He wished Padme was here. She’d know what to do. But the senate was in session, Padme unreachable, and Anakin had no real choice but to try to help Obi-Wan on his own.

Would the wellspring itself help?

Well, staying here wasn’t going to. Padme’s apartment might do, but there was no time for that. Anakin would just have to hope that everything would be alright.

“Hey, neither of us are leaving this time.” Anakin frowned at him. “Do you want me to come and talk to Yoda with you?”

Obi-Wan, who had been draining his mug, paused. “Are you sure?”

No. Anakin did not want to go and face his judgment finally. He should, he knew that much. But that didn’t mean he wanted to. Just for a moment, they’d been so happy. And now…

Well, now was now.

Obi-Wan caught the thought. He stood up. Then he tried to project- no. Something told him that was a bad idea. Instead he gestured towards the door, and left.

Neither of them spoke as Obi-Wan led Anakin to the wellspring of the temple.
“What if we present it as a vision?” He asked, sitting on the cold floor.

“Shared vision?”

“Two similar ones,”

“When we were unconscious for that length of time.” Anakin picked up, thinking. It was an out, he shouldn’t take it. He deserved to be punished. But oh- “When we came back. That leaves the others out of it as much as we can.”

“Visions can be intense,” Obi-Wan said, and not even Anakin knew if he was thinking of the time in Mortis, or his childhood. “We’ve got Asajj to consider."

“Not if we’re not believed.” Anakin muttered. “If Sidious doesn’t go down, none of this will matter.”

There was no noise down there in the wellspring, no real smell either, except for each other.

“Vision?” Anakin asked, a moment later.

“Vision.” Obi-Wan agreed.

“It seems like such a cheat.” Anakin sighed.

By the time Yoda arrived at the wellspring, still ten minutes early, Anakin and Obi-Wan were sitting in meditation.

They told him about the ‘vision’. They didn’t tell him about anyone else. They told him about Sidious, about the Empire, about Order 66, and about the end. Anakin brought up Vader, Obi-Wan, Luke.

Yoda assumed both were metaphorical.

Neither of them corrected him.

Yoda asked question, after question after question. By the time he seemed remotely satisfied, the hour was much later than most Jedi preferred to be awake.

But Obi-Wan wanted to start in the library. The Librarians might have disapproved, but he was not an errant padawan anymore. They couldn’t actually kick him out.

The main section of the library was wonderfully helpful if you wanted to research a common topic: speeder models; core history; outer rim history; a wide variety of geography; biology; physics; or even basic force technics. It was utterly useless for researching the Sith, the Sith Wars, or even the current Chancellor’s history.

The Master’s only section, when Obi-Wan gave up with the general section, yielded more information about the general Sith History at least, but it was focused heavily on those who had fallen from the ranks of the Jedi. There was easily two hours’ worth of reading material on Xanatos alone. Obi-Wan skimmed that lightly, wondering how much contact he and Count Dooku had had. The few others that had fallen over the years were even less interesting.

With the singular exception of a paper from over a thousand years before.

It wasn’t the most detailed work Obi-Wan had ever seen, or the most comprehensive. But it was the subject matter that was interesting. Taking inspiration from two pairs of fallen Jedi in the hundred years previously, the work looked at the rates of fallen Padawans, and their fallen masters.

The relative rates of padawans falling if their master didn’t, if they did in their presence, or if they did elsewhere, were still reasonably well known, although never taken as an absolute.

But, according to the paper, if a Padawan was the first of their teacher, and if that Padawan fell, then the master would fall. It didn’t matter where, it didn’t matter when. There was no exception to the rule.

Well, Obi-Wan considered, no exception until now.

Still the paper, while interesting, was of no use to deal with Sidious. Obi-Wan ploughed on.

Notes:

Thank-you for reading! This starts the final arc of this story, but we're far from wrapping up just yet!
Still, leave a comment, let me know what you think, but we quiet about it, next week we're in a Library!

Chapter 25: Research and Development(s)

Summary:

Obi-Wan reaches his last reasonable options for research and we briefly catch up with the rest of the seven.

There was nothing else of interest in either the Masters, or the Council Section of the Coruscant Library.

Neither was there anything of significant use in any of the other Jedi Libraries Obi-Wan visited. Whoever had altered the records had done a very good job indeed. Far too well, at least for Obi-Wan’s purposes. He was nearing the end of his month’s deadline, and he’d only just finished the last of the official records.

But there was one place left, before he was hunting down ghost tales. The Library of Xer. Not technically open to the public, or even the Jedi in general due to its disrepair, extreme force fluctuations, and the lack of knowledge about its contents. Even as a member of the Jedi Council Obi-Wan would not be able to gain access to more than the first three halls.

But maybe he’d find something. He was going to try. He had to.

Even Yoda and Mace had agreed when he’d commed them, managing to get him permission for the first three halls. Obi-Wan could start there. As for the rest, well. Anakin had always said it was better to ask for forgiveness than permission. Of course he was usually asking for forgiveness at the time…

Force Obi-Wan missed him. He missed both of them. Messaging wasn’t the same. He might not even be able to message them in Xer, if certain rumours were true.

Obi-Wan glanced around his small cabin on the ship he’d hired.  He shouldn’t comm them, he was in hyperspace. The time difference was completely unknown.

He opened the comm anyway, selecting the chat with the three of them.

[Miss you] he typed out, then deleted. If they thought he was clingy… Well. It wasn’t that Obi-Wan didn’t know that they still wanted him around. Both Anakin and Padme had made that abundantly clear. It was just… he didn’t want them to rethink that. It was still very new, and he had left virtually as soon as it had begun.

He settled on: [Either of you busy?]

The comm buzzed almost as soon as he sent it.

Anakin: [Nope. You coming home] [???]

Obi-Wan:[Sorry, I’m having to go to Criton's Point. I might be out of touch for a while. ]

He hated disappointing them. He hated being away from them. All of them really, Bail and Ahsoka and Rex and even Asajj. But he missed Anakin and Padme more than he thought was possible. He shouldn’t feel this strongly, not as a Jedi. He did.

At least while he was away now he got sent silly messages like [*frowny face*]. He could talk to them, in a way.

It wasn’t like last time he was alone. They weren’t dead or worse than, well, what he thought in the split second after waking.

Obi-Wan’s comm buzzed again, knocking him out of his brood before it could begin. Oddly it was on the private chat with Anakin.

[Sidious asked about you again today.]

[Then tried to make me jealous of you]

 [again]

[Maybe he just likes you]

[P in meeting]

Obi-Wan steadied himself before replying. Dammit he should be there. Anakin needed him, they both did. But the library held the key. With any luck, somewhere in the Library of Xer was the key to defeating Sidious. It had to be, they were nearly out of time.

A day later the ship landed on Criton's Point, just outside the Library of Xer.

The building was imposing, and designed to be, with large columns of carved marble stretching up the full ten stories of the façade. The curling plants that currently sprawled up the entirety of the front did nothing to disguise the fact that while the library might have been smaller than any building on Coruscant, it was a mighty structure. 

Obi-Wan walked in the front door.

Immediately he felt it.

It was unmistakable. The call.

The researchers had not exaggerated, there was the call of the force in this place, a wellspring not yet claimed. It was almost intoxicating, swirling around him whispering, caressing, far stronger than the pull from the temple, but just as soothing.

Welcome

Come in

Be at peace

Welcome

It called and called as Obi-Wan felt his eyes close, he let it wash over him, breathing in and out, letting everything go.

Peace and Tranquillity washed over him as he completely lost the feeling of the physical, almost barely seeming to exist as a self. It seemed so…

Obi-Wan lost his thought.

Familiar. That was it.

Where….

“Not yet, once again Jedi Master. Not yet Obi-Wan Kenobi,” whispered a lilting voice. “Not yet.”

He blinked. Right, Library of Xer. This was – right. What had just-

“Master Kenobi,” One of the archivists hurried forwards. The mirialan’s force signature was strong, but unfamiliar. From one of the other temples then, probably. “Master Kenobi, I’m Gevia, I mean Knight Ralo, she, her, one of the archivists here. Xe makes quite an impression doesn’t xe?”

“Yes,” Obi-Wan said, trying to subtly shake out the last of the cloud in his head. “Yes xe does. I see why the limit to visitors.”

“There’s nastier things than that in here.” Knight Ralo grinned, oddly feral. “But you should be fine as long as you’re in the cleared areas. Xe gets nippier the deeper you go in. What’re you looking for anyway?”

“Classified, I’m afraid.” Obi-Wan said, looking around at the walls, covered, even in the lobby, with real books. How high did those shelves go? “Do you have an inventory of everything you’ve catalogued so far?”

“Xe’s a beauty,” Knight Ralo watched Obi-Wan’s gaze. She scratched at the diamonds along her jaw.  “We’ve got an index alright, but it’s only for this room, you’re on your own for the rest of ‘em. We need more people really, but you know, the war and all.” She glanced back at the Jedi Master. “Well you’d know wouldn’t you?”

Obi-Wan frowned at her.

Knight Ralo either didn’t notice or ignored it. “Anyway, we’ve got a couple of spare huts down the road, it’s too weird for most of the sen’tivs to sleep in here, and you know, fresh air and all. Supposedly good for you. Claim one sooner or later. Well, before you sleep anyway. The Boss.” She waved a vague hand about leaving Obi-Wan none the wiser. “’s got a bug in their roll about sleep so you got’ter get zzzzs as least every 36hrs. Get away from the books once in a while.”

“That seems sensible.” And irritating, but it was hardly like Obi-Wan was going to say that, even to an unusually informal Jedi Knight.

“Yeah well, you lose time in here, so watch the chrono.” Knight Ralo grinned again. “Not that that’s surprising, it’s amazing here. I literally never want to leave. Anyways this is room one, through there,” she gestured to the doorway at the left end of the room, “is room two, and room three is directly on ahead. We’re doing the room to the right in room two at the moment, so if you ask really nice they might let you in.”

“Thank-you,” Obi-Wan said, taking the index that the knight had finally given him and skimming it. “I’ll focus on a room at a time, if you don’t mind.” He stared at her politely until she got the hint.

“Right, right. See you later. Don’t brake anything. Not that you would and all, but you know.” Knight Ralo grinned again and turned, heading towards the double doors that led to room two. Just as she approached them she turned back and hollered: “FOOD’S BY THE HUTS! ALSO, IN HERE! THOUGHT I’D LET YOU KNOW!”

Obi-Wan nodded. After so many days alone on the ship, she seemed- abrasive.

The Force pulled again.

Come

He ignored it. Instead, beginning to skim the index. Which was more or less just a list of titles of the books. Occasionally an author was added. Obi-Wan doubted that any of them had ever actually been opened and read.

Which was good in that it greatly increased the probability of the information Obi-Wan was looking for having not been destroyed. Even as a Jedi, Count Dooku would have had trouble getting in here, even if it was him who had destroyed the records.  

It wasn’t, however, nearly as good for finding the information in good time. Technically he’d already passed his deadline. There was just under a month until Asajj passed hers.  

Oh well, Obi-Wan turned back to the index. At least he could probably cross off: “Chiss cooking: a hundred and one recipes to get you started.” Probably.

Meanwhile, far across the galaxy there was a small explosion, followed by a series of droids scuttling out under literal fire. A lightsabre bisected them.

Standing alone in the ash of the settlement, Asajj Ventress observed the chaos she’d caused, admiring the way the tower fell and crashed to the ground in the dim light of the moon. It was an amusing lighting effect. The odd droid exploding over the top was a particularly nice touch.

 A shadow fell across the scene and Asajj whirled around in time to see a large ship pass in front of the moon.

Dammit.

She still had most of a month left. It was fine.

Squinting, she could make out a couple of dozen small ships leaving the destroyer. The Republic, fantastic.

Asajj ran for cover, unfortunately it had seemed like a good idea to leave her ship several klicks away. It had made sense when all she was doing was looting around a deserted separatist base looking for proof. When the Republic showed up however!

She broke off her thought train to swear violently.

They’d started searching the area.

She pushed one of the rocks up and over, forming a small v underneath them. She dashed in, flipping her comm out.

[I don’t suppose this is you]

The response came immediately.

Anakin: [huh?]

Asajj looked at the ash on the ground. The scent of the torched building was getting particularly strong.

Asajj: [Republic’s here.] [Checking it wasn’t you]

There was a very, very long pause. Asajj gave up waiting for Anakin to respond and reached out into the force.

One Jedi, lots of clones, probably, maybe some volunteers. Not knowing any of them personally, she couldn’t tell.

None of them had their attention in her direction.

She might be able to make it back to her ship. She might.

Anakin Skywalker Naberie Amidala didn’t have that problem. He had the problem that he was in Padme’s apartment, alone, staring at a small stretch of sofa. It was fine. They’d be back.

He’d be fine.

As long as Palpatine didn’t call again.

His regular com buzzed.

Anakin through it out the window, not stopping to watch as it bounced off one speeder and hit another.

Nope. Maybe someone else was having better luck.

Rex smiled slightly as Kix and Cody passed him in the barracks deep in conversation. Cody stopped and sat down next to him.

“We’re clear.” Cody said in a low voice.

“Huh?” Rex asked.

“The 212^th is chipless. How’s the 501^st?” Cody didn’t look happy to be discussing it so openly. It was hardly like none of the men around knew what was going on. Except, Rex thought, they didn’t.

“We’re done. Wolf’s lot almost all are as well, last I heard.” Rex said.

If the Captain hadn’t been so familiar with the face, he might have missed the signs of relief.  They’d manage. Somehow, they’d manage. They shared a glance of solidarity, even as the guilt nudged at Rex. "It's not enough."

Maybe he should tell Cody.

Maybe after it was over. Whenever that was.

At least this time, it wouldn’t happen like before, not to his men. Not to his brothers, not on his watch. Not to anyone if he could help it.

Padme Amidala was unsettled by the lack of progression. Even for senate standards this was slow. Really slow. It wasn’t even a complicated bill. It was about traffic laws on Coruscant, which was the only reason it was being debated in the national senate at all.

She missed her husband. She missed her partner. Oh Padme missed them. She missed the crinkle in Obi-Wan’s eye as he tried not to laugh, the sigh when he thought Anakin or herself where being ridiculous and stubborn. She missed Anakin’s indignant pout when Obi-Wan tried it on, and the way they’d bicker about things that really didn’t matter, or even that they didn’t disagree on.

He’d been gone more than a month.

They’d had one night, and he’d been gone more than a month.

It wasn’t fair. Comms weren’t the same. They’d cope. She’d cope. It wasn’t like there weren’t bigger problems around. It wasn’t like they hadn’t overcome worse before. It was just…

Padme gave up trying to articulate it, even in her own mind. Something told her this wasn’t just about her personal life.

In fact, to put it in the words of her partners: She had a bad feeling about this.

Notes:

Thank-you for reading! Please, leave a comment, let me know what you thought! I will see you next week, when we will be back in the Library.

Chapter 26: Time and Time Again

Summary:

Obi-Wan, having gotten increasingly frustrated by both the distractions and his lack of progress, makes a rash decision.

To put it in the words of her partners: She had a bad feeling about this.

Two weeks later and Obi-Wan had made it through the first of the halls in the Library of Xer, and half way through the second. The whispering of the force got worse every single day. Every time he entered, every new book he opened. It whispered and it whispered and it whispered.

This way.

Leave that.

Welcome.

Come here.

Stay.

Obi-Wan had never known the call to be so strong, not in life. He’d even asked Knight Ralo about it.

Apparently there was nothing to be done. Xe was always like this.

Come, this way. Come Kenobi.

Calm. Peace. This was the right thing.

No. Obi-Wan dragged himself back to the present. No. He wanted to follow call of the force, but he couldn’t. He had to stay. He had to.

He had to find the records. Anything.

This way. Come on Kenobi. Come this way.

It wasn’t working.

This wasn’t working. This search, the halls. He was halfway through, and getting nowhere. If they had any sort of system this entire room was old senate bi laws and decrees and maybe, just maybe, one of them referenced fighting the Sith. He’d been gone over six weeks from Coruscant now and he’d gotten nowhere.

Please, we can help. Come this way.

Obi-Wan thought of several more expletives in a row than most people thought he knew. He took the index of the first room out of his pocket, and edited the end. Then he put it down in the middle of the hall.

He fiddled with both his comms. Eventually he slipped them both back inside his pocket. Maybe they’d work further in. They certainly didn’t work in the first halls.

Obi-Wan stood up straight. He straightened his robes. Then he took a deep breath in.

One, two, three, four.

Hold, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

Out, two, three…

Obi-Wan only got that far before he felt the force rush up to embrace him and he let go.

Four hours later Knight Ralo wondered through wondering if the Jedi Master wanted some food. She gave a cursory glance around the room, saw no-one there, and assumed he’d gone to get some sleep.

Two hours after that, Knight Ralo was heading back to the huts herself. She walked through the room, and tripped over something. Curious, she bent down and picked it up. Oh, the index. Master Kenobi must have left it behind.

She flicked through, wondering if he’d added any notes.

She read the one at the end.

Ten minutes later the Jedi High Council received an urgent comm. The resulting meeting lasted two hours. Still there was no sign of Kenobi.

Five minutes after the meeting ended Master Yoda placed a curtesy call to Anakin Skywalker, given the unique circumstances. The call lasted two minutes.

Anakin closed his replacement comm and fell back onto the sofa.

Eight hours. He’d been missing for Eight hours. His partner had been missing for eight hours and he was so far away that the bond was so weak that Anakin had only just found out about it. Eight hours.

Ahsoka opened her door and stared at the dropped comm unit. Then she stared at him.

Suddenly self-conscious, Anakin checked his shields and forced them even tighter.

“Obi-Wan?” Ahsoka asked, clearly concerned, but not moving from the doorway. Her tone betrayed what she feared.

Anakin shook his head slightly. “Missing. Eight hours. They’ve never got anyone back from the heart.”

“Comm your wife.” Ahsoka told him simply. “She’ll want to know.”

Anakin stretched out along his bond with Obi-Wan, pushing as far as he could. Alive, and, if he really tried, not in distress. It was almost like he didn’t know how much danger he was in. Maybe it just wasn’t immediate and he couldn’t tell because he was so far-

Padme. He had to tell Padme. Oh force, he had to tell Padme. Anakin scooped his comm off the ground and ran out of the room to the speeder bay.

Padme left the senate building to see Anakin rushing up. He stopped just short of her, clenching and unclenching his fists. With no words she followed him to his speeder and got in the passenger side.

He waited until they’d set off before telling her anything. “Obi-Wan’s missing. Eight and a half hours now. No-one’s ever come out.”

“Where? The Library he was at?” Padme asked, choosing to ignore the last bit. She’d heard they were dead before. They had all been dead before. They’d managed then, they’d mange now.

“Library of Xer on Criton's Point. Comm’s don’t work inside, and they’ve only got the first three halls open to anyone. It’s supposed to be a force trap if you’re not prepared.”

“Was Obi-Wan?”

“As well as can be, but…” Anakin took a deep breath in and checked the bond again. Still alive, still seemingly fine.

“How many halls are there?” Padme asked. “In the Library of Xer, how many halls are there?”

Anakin didn’t know.

Padme looked it up. “Three thousand, one hundred and seventy two, according to the plan they found in the first hall. All of which are of varying size. It does sound like a maze.”

“No-one’s got out.” Anakin said.

Padme looked at him, and finished jabbing at her comm plast. “No-one’s had us.”

Within another (Obi-Wan-less) hour Padme had arranged for a transport off Coruscant, travel visas to Criton’s point, and had gotten a week’s leave for herself.

All Anakin needed to do was persuade the Council to let him go. Because, of course, he’d always got on so well with the council. Anakin began to feel the panic rising up inside him again and took a deep breath out. He should tell them, if nothing else. After all, he was planning on quitting soon. Not this soon. He’d cope.

Two days later and the initial panic had subsided into a consistent stress. Even finally being in the Library of Xer, with the council’s very reluctant permission, did nothing to stop the worry.

Two days and there’d been no change.

Two days, seven hours and twelve minutes, Anakin thought as he stepped off the ship in front of the library, briefly noting the mirialan hurrying towards him. This was where Obi-Wan was trapped. He’d get him back. They’d get him back.

The mirialan stopped just short of Anakin’s personal space. “Knight Ralo, she, her, you’re the one looking for Master Kenobi, right?”

She was the one who’d lost him. She was the one who’d…

No. Anakin corrected himself sharply. Obi-Wan was a stubborn adult. If he was missing through anything other than his own devises it was due to Sith manipulation, or really old force traps, not a possibly slightly incompetent knight.

Deep Breaths. “Knight Skywalker, he, him. I’m the one looking for Obi-Wan, yes.”

To Knight Ralo’s credit, faced with the media’s favourite darling Jedi clearly on a personal mission, she had enough sense to merely nod, and pretend she didn’t know who he was. “I can show you the hall where he was working. But none of us can venture deeper into the halls without being lost. The force pull is too strong.”

Anakin nodded. “My friend may be able to help with that. She’s non-sensitive, but has a familiarity with Jedi.”

“That’d help.” Knight Ralo said, surprised that no-one else had thought to try it. It might be worse. But if the friend was willing to help, and they knew the risks… It wasn’t going to get any worse. She revised the thought the moment she saw who the friend was. If a Senator wanted to put themselves in danger, she wasn’t going to stop them.  

The three of them stood in the second hall looking at the doorway Obi-Wan had, presumably, left through. “We’ll have no way of pulling you out if it goes wrong.” Knight Ralo told her.

Padme nodded, and said with a dry sort of humour more usually possessed by her partner, “It is, I take it, far too far to use anything as mundane as a piece of string.”

If it hadn’t been for the situation, Knight Ralo would have snorted. “Alas no, a strong force bond would normally help, but you know.” She gestured around. “Xe’s not very co-operative.”

Padme nodded. She hadn’t had the strong reaction Anakin had upon entering the building, but even she could sense something about this place.

Normally Anakin would have been grumbling about collapsing. But then, normally Obi-Wan would have been teasing him about it. As the situation as it was, Anakin didn’t even mention it. She reached over and squeezed his hand.

“We’ll get him, okay.” She didn’t dare think of the consequences if they didn’t. Anakin was already shaky. Some of that might have been the Library of Xer. She dressed down the rather ugly concoction she was wearing.

“Right,” Knight Ralo seemed rather nervous. “You’ve got enough rations for three days, but set the chrono for an hour. This is a test run to see if you can make it out. Three halls in only, please Senator.” 

Padme nodded. “Call me Padme.”

“Gevia.” She told her in turn. “See you in an hour, hopefully.” She looked at the two of them pointedly. “I will be next door. Tell me when you’re gone.”

As soon as she walked out of the room Anakin turned back to Padme. “I didn’t even think we were being that obvious?”

Padme looked at him. By their standard they probably hadn’t been, but then she hadn’t picked the most subtle person in the galaxy to engage in a secret relationship with. “It’ll be okay.”

Anakin brought his hand up and stroked her hair. “Be safe. Bring him home safe. I- I can’t lose both of you.”

Padme reached her arm around his neck and pulled him down, resting their foreheads together. “You’re not going to lose either of us.” 

“I love you.” Anakin said, fighting not to add: and I’m coming with you.

“I love you too.” Padme said, then released her husband. “I will see you in an hour.” She turned around towards the door to the unknown, and took a big step forward. Then she started the timer, and stepped through the doors.

An hour later Gevia Ralo and Anakin Skywalker were waiting, the former drumming her fingers on the table, the latter pacing up and down. She gave him a sympathetic glance. He stopped for a moment.

“Sorry.”

She shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. I’m worried and you’ve got two friends in there. I don’t know them.”

Anakin began to deny attachment.

She looked at him.

He stopped, then said instead. “If I didn’t have faith in them they’d kick my butt.”

Gevia’s mouth quirked slightly, presumably at the language. “So what’s the Coruscant Temple like?”

“Big?” Anakin considered. “Bigger than this, if you include the lower levels. The room of a thousand fountains is pretty.” He tried to think. He hadn’t exactly gone exploring since he’d returned.

“That good huh?” Gevia asked. “Planet any better?”

Anakin double checked in the force. They were fine, they were both fine. They just weren’t there. Reassured, he cocked an eyebrow at the Jedi Knight. “Depends how bothered you are by legality?”

She grinned. “As long as it doesn’t involve murder?”

“Pod Racing?” Anakin tried.

Gevia turned to face him as Anakin leant back against the table next to her. “We’d have got on as teenagers.”

“You too?” Anakin asked, trying to remember what he once knew.

“Well, I could never really race them.” Gevia said, “But I loved watching.”

“I won a few.” Anakin smiled at the memory, and of the memory of telling Obi-Wan about them. “Won my freedom on one.”

“Mission gone wrong?” Gevia asked.

“No? Oh.” Anakin said, “I forget that people not from the temple don’t know. I grew up a slave, joined the Order really late.”

Gevia stilled for a moment, then Anakin felt her release something to the force and relax. “Where’d you grow up?”

“Tatooine.” Anakin grimaced, after all this time, still. Eugh. Tatooine.

Gevia was about to say she’d never heard of it when the doors they were looking at opened, and Padme walked through.

“I know I’m early, but I thought you might want to see this.” She hefted a large book over to the table.

“You’re twenty minutes late.” Gevia pointed out.

Anakin caught sight of Padme’s chrono.

“Not by her count she’s not.”

Notes:

Thank-you for reading! The Library of Xer and everyone you recognize is either from Legends or Clone Wars. Gevia Ralo is, alas, not.
That aside, or even including, please leave a comment, let me know what you thought!

Chapter 27: A Suspicous Lack of Ducklings

Summary:

After the discovery of the time dilation Padme and Anakin investigate the Library of Xer further.

“You’re twenty minutes late.” Gevia pointed out.

Anakin caught sight of Padme’s chrono.

“Not by her count she’s not.”

The discovery that by Anakin’s, and indeed the outside world’s, chrono Padme had spent twice as long in the deeper halls than she’d though was equal parts frustrating and disheartening.  The three days of experiments that followed did nothing but amplify those feelings. What was the rate of distortion? How did it vary?  

Other than the idea that the further into the library you went, the greater the difference was, there didn’t seem to be any consistent effect. Eventually Padme called an end to the tests.

“We’re not getting anywhere.” She told her husband and Gevia Ralo. “I’m going after him, just give me extra rations. We’re wasting time.”

Neither of them could, or would give a good enough argument to persuade her otherwise. So she headed in.

Gevia went back to trying to disarm the fourth hall of the library. Anakin sat in the second hall and fretted. Then paced in the second hall and worried. Then he flicked at the books in the second hall and worried and fretted and worried and fretted until -  

Wait what.

Anakin backtracked over what he’d just read. A full day after Padme’s disappearance, five days of a pounding headache, and six days, twenty three hours and nineteen minutes by Anakin’s chrono since Obi-Wan had disappeared.

He read the passage again, then once more to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating. Then he checked the date of the book. There was no chance that it was still valid, right? He wasn’t a politician, far from it, but this was from just after the formation of the republic, there was no way they hadn’t undone it or whatever the legal term was.

Gevia came in from her sleep break. She stopped short, resting her hand on the tall marble bookcases upon seeing Anakin, for once not staring at the door, but huddled over, swearing at a book.

“You alright?”

Anakin looked up, gave a wistful glace at the door, then grabbed the book and ran towards the entrance of the library, yelling as he went. “Watch the door. Back in five”

Gevia didn’t even have time to yell after him before he was out of there.

He returned a good half an hour later without the book. “Any change?”

Gevia shook her head. “Anakin, what-“

“Sorry,” Anakin jumped the end of the question. “I’ve got a friend who’s got problems in the senate. That might just be the solution we’ve been looking for.”

Gevia took a moment to centre herself within the force. “Is it a matter of life and death?”

“Several million lives.” Anakin said, looking her straight in the eye. “If they’re still alive by the time the Senate recognises them.”

Gevia frowned. Who wasn’t recognised as a person by the senate? Who could they be that that many of them had managed to be ignored? “Who?”

Anakin might have answered. He might not have done. The necessity of the choice was obliterated in the second after the question.

The doors creaked.

Anakin felt a sudden swelling in the Force, and a sudden rush of fatigue and hunger. His stomach hurt. His breath hitched and he ran forwards as the doors swung inwards, frustratingly slowly. He reached his arms forward as Padme and Obi-Wan staggered through, arms looped around each other.

Obi-Wan looked up slightly and saw Anakin there, eyes flitting between them, arms hovering just out of their personal space. He lurched forward a step, then forced himself to stop. He reached his spare hand out towards Anakin. Anakin leant across and grabbed it with his flesh hand, interlacing their fingers and gripping tightly. “Partner.”

“Partner.” Obi-Wan repeated as Padme lost the decorum and pretence of unattachment she’d been attempting to keep and flung her other arm around Anakin’s waist. Anakin let go of Obi-Wan’s hand, instead snaking his arm under Obi-Wan’s shoulder and around his back. Obi-Wan placed his now spare hand on Anakin’s back, and tried not to grip.

“Seven days, and forty two minutes.” Anakin whispered. “You’ve been gone seven days and forty two minutes.”

Obi-Wan was at a loss. “I’m sorry.”

At least he didn’t ask how Anakin was on the planet.

Gevia moved two chairs from around the table to just behind the trio. Obi-Wan, having noticed the motion, broke the hug and sank backwards onto it. He sighed, the stiff and old chair still a welcome relief. “It’s barely been two days for me.”

Padme detached the backpack she was wearing and exchanged it for a rations bar from Gevia. The knight gave another one to Obi-Wan.

“Six and a bit hours for me.” Padme said, taking a bite and grimacing. “I’m basically fine.”

Obi-Wan didn’t say anything, too busy eating. Anakin turned around and dragged a third chair over to form a triangle. Gevia leant against the table behind him for a moment, then straightened up. “I’ll leave you guys to get some sleep then. Call the High Council, whatever.” She edged out of the way awkwardly, then walked briskly towards the third hall.

Obi-Wan let out a shaky breath once she was gone, and he’d finished the bar. “You two shouldn’t have come after me.”

“As I told you before,” Padme frowned at him. “Leaving you was not an option.”

Obi-Wan couldn’t object to that. He wouldn’t have left either of them. He couldn’t have. He needed to sleep.  He also needed out of this place, the books, the force. At least the pull had stopped. He glanced towards the rucksack.

Anakin caught the look. “What’s in it?”

Obi-Wan shook his head. “Not here.”

Padme stood upright, then swung the rucksack back on with one fluid motion. “I need sleep, you both need sleep, and one of you should probably talk to the council. Have you talked to Ahsoka, or any of the others?”

“Just commed Bail.” Anakin said, standing up as well, twirling the chair back to its usual place. “Found something he might want to know.” Obi-Wan forced himself onto his feet, Anakin wrapped a steadying arm around him automatically. Padme hovered near them as they walked out the Library and back to the living huts.

She woke up to an empty bed and the sound of two apologetic sounding voices. One of them even might have been genuine. Padding over to the doorway, she poked her head around.

Obi-Wan and Anakin were both talking to a comm unit displaying a large number of the Jedi Council. 

Obi-Wan bowed, follow a moment later by Anakin, “May the Force be with you Masters,”

“May the Force be with you.”

The comm closed. “What did they say?” Padme announced her presence.

“Come back, we can’t justify your absence any longer.” Anakin said in an irritated tone, both of them turning to greet her. “Or possibly,” he turned on Obi-Wan, “So you don’t get lost in a library again.”

“The time effects are unusual.” Obi-Wan protested lightly. “Although compared to Mortis…”

It was a fair point, although Mortis was fairly unique.

“Where are we on deadlines by the way?” Obi-Wan asked after a moment.

“Two weeks, give or take a day.” Padme said. “I assume we’re heading back as soon as you’re well enough to travel.”

Obi-Wan nodded, “The Council has requested it, and I don’t think we can think of a reasonable reason to delay.”

Anakin reached out, hovering his left hand just over Obi-Wan’s shoulder, unsure of how welcome the touch would be.

Obi-Wan reached up and clasped the hand down onto his shoulder. “I’m fine,” he said smiling unconvincingly.

Anakin and Padme frowned at him.

“I need to sleep for a week and meditate for a month, but I’m fine.” Obi-Wan clarified. That mollified the others a little. “We’ve got between a week to a week and a half by the time we get back to Coruscant.” Obi-Wan said, wondering when the next ship off the planet was.  He sighed. “It’s not long.”

“It’s not.” Padme agreed.

“Asajj is hopping around on the Outer Rim, by the way.” Anakin filled them in.

“Oh yes,” Padme remembered. “What were you talking to Bail about?”

Anakin wondered how to explain it. He gave up. “It’s either nothing or Senator Organa can explain it much better when we get back.”

 In took three days before they got back. Four days, before Bail Organa outlined the old law to a group of people that, in another life, would have been the founders of the Alliance.

Two weeks after Obi-Wan had left the Library of Xer he sat watching the holoscreen in Padme’s apartment.

“Stop Fidgeting!” Ahsoka snapped, glaring at her former master.

“She’ll be fine.” Anakin said in lieu of an apology. He sat back down on the sofa next to Obi-Wan anyway.

“She will,” Rex, the final organic being in the room, reassured her.

“I know.” Ahsoka sighed. “It’s been over a week, and we’re only just approaching the debate on this.”

Which was still unbelievably quick for the senate, but then given the nature of the point raised, it wasn’t that surprising, especially with the amount of hushed up material Padme had been ‘anonymously’ sent.  She hadn’t even used most of it.

“Honoured Representatives,” Senator Bail Organa stood addressing the irritated senators, and empathising public. “The question here is not whether to put this bill into action. The question is not whether we choose to ratify it. The question is do we have the right, do we as people have the right to deny these people their rights. These men have known no other life than slavery, no free will, no choice of their own. They have never known the true wonder of the republic, even the simple decision of what to eat for dinner has been denied for them since they were born. Yet still they have fought for us. They have fought through injury, despite prejudice and despite the death of their friends, neigh, their brothers. They have fought to uphold an ideal that they have never got to experience. Do we have the right to deny them peace? To we have a right, not only to deny them freedom, but to actively oppose it?”

Bail looked around the auditorium, all eyes were on him. He glanced at the Naboo box. Padme nodded.

“They may have had an unconventional start at life, but so did many of you, or your families, or your friends. There are many differences in this room, but we work together, we live together. We have no reason to deny these men any different. We cannot deny these men any different. Yes it will be work, yes it will cost us some money, but are you going to stand there, and vote that lives are not worth it? That you would rather enslave good men, then sign a few bits of paperwork, or go without a single meal in a restaurant.”

He took one last deep breath.

“I have faith. I know you wouldn’t. We have disagreed, many of us, in the past, over policies and bi-laws. But despite the fact I raise it in this chamber, this is not a matter for politics, this is a matter of life. Please, give it to them.”

The pod descended and Bail Organa sat down, carefully schooling his face.

After a moment of silence there was the echoy sound of a single person clapping. Mon Mothma. Then a second person joined in, and a third, and a fourth, and then Bail couldn’t keep track as more and more joined in, many rising to their feet.

The sound was almost deafening.

“Any rebuttal?” The Speaker asked once the noise had died down.

A minor senator from one of the mid rim sectors put forward a fair argument about setting a bad precedent using laws from so long ago, just because they technically were never repealed didn’t mean they were still in use or valid.

If Bail had had the opportunity, he would have pointed out that there had hardly been a need to free slaves, who had fought in more than three battles in war, in recent years. But before the speaker called for questions, he called for a recess.

He couldn’t call which way the vote would go. He should have been able to, something this important, they shouldn’t have left it so much to chance.

Bail turned both his comm units back on.

Immediately the secondary unit buzzed, and buzzed and buzzed. Bail opened it and scanned the last few messages.

The first one was from two hours previous, just before the start of the session.

Asajj: [Back on Coruscant. Need to talk. Found something.]

Asajj: [Anyone?]

Asajj: [Never mind caught what was on]

Asajj: [Who caught that old law?]

There was a quarter of an hour gap between that and the next message.

Asajj: [Is that you Kenobi]

Asajj: [lvs b heating vents]

Asajj: [he]

There were no more messages until a few moments ago.

Ahsoka: [Grey?????]

Obi-Wan: [Asajj please answer]

Bail waited, staring at the comm unit.

There was a knock at the door, a moment later Padme stuck her head around the door. “Senator Organa, I wanted to congratulate you on the excellent speech.” She glanced at the comm unit in his hand. “We will just have to hope, and wait, and hopefully see.”

Bail sighed slightly. “I guess we will.”

Notes:

Thank-you for reading! Yes people are in trouble, and yes there are only a certain number of chapters left. And one of those is an Epilogue. So, with that in mind, please leave a comment, let me know what you thought, and I will see you next week!

Chapter 28: For Those Left Behind

Summary:

With Asajj's fate unknown, and the vote up in the air, the remaining six do what they can in the time they have.

[Padme] glanced at the comm unit in his hand. “We will just have to hope, and wait, and see.”

Bail sighed slightly. “I guess we will.”

The recess turned into an overnight adjournment to no-one’s surprise.

Still there was no news from Asajj. Still the comms were silent. Padme and Bail drew up into the speeder bay of her apartment.

Anakin ran out flung his arms around Padme. Obi-Wan arrived a beat later, the others following.

“Still nothing.” Rex said as Padme let go of Anakin and moved over to hug Obi-Wan, kissing him gently.

Ahsoka rolled her eyes, unsurprised.  

Neither Rex nor Bail could say the same. Of course they were both far too dignified, and too practice in schooling their expression, to do anything as vulgar as stare, or gape. But while shock might be too stronger emotion, they were both somewhat caught unawares as Anakin walked forward to join the couple. He wrapped a lazy arm around both of them, clearly not caring in the slightest that Padme was leaning on Obi-Wan’s shoulder instead of his.

Ahsoka followed their gaze. “They never bothered telling you then?” She asked, attempting a smile. It fell flat.

“We should go in,” Padme extracted herself from the embrace. “It’s been several hours, I don’t know what we should assume-“ She glanced around, at Ahsoka and Rex, at Anakin and Obi-Wan, at Bail, at all of them. “But I think we should at least prepare for the worst.”

A moment of understanding passed between them. Bail glanced around, noting just how exposed they were, even in the hanger bay. They went in.

“What are we taking as the worst case scenario?” Obi-Wan asked as the rest of them settled on Padme’s sofas. “Tea, Caff?”

“Caff please,” Anakin said, “It’s a point, are we assuming death or capture?”

“HE” Rex looked distastefully at the word, “wanted her on his side, Capture seems more likely.” Capture meant they could get her back, but capture meant that she was in Sidious’s hands.

Obi-Wan nodded. He understood.

“Caff,” Rex added as an afterthought.

Padme glanced downwards and sighed, “Better make mine something low in caff. I might have a white blend in there somewhere.” Being so pregnant was irritating. “I agree capture seems more likely, providing it is Sidious who’s got her, and not the Order, or Judicial.”

“If it’s the Order-“ Bail began to say before Obi-Wan and Anakin interrupted him.

 “It’s not the order.”

“I’d have been told.” Obi-Wan clarified.

“Right,” Bail nodded, “So if Judicial has her, what can we do? I doubt we’d get away with the same thing twice.” He let that hang for a moment before adding, “I’d love a cup of caff, I have a feeling this is going to run long.”

Anakin agreed. “If Judicial has her, this time we won’t be able to extract her. We might be able to get her into the Order’s custody?” He glanced at Obi-Wan for confirmation.

“Technically yes, but while the president doesn’t exist here, it does speak of the mindset. I severely doubt that even if someone else has Asajj, Sidious will by the end of the day. I mean you-“ Obi-Wan broke off unwilling to finish the horrifying thought.

“Know him best.” Anakin finished. “He’ll have custody of her by tomorrow morning at the latest. We need to act quickly.”

Obi-Wan nodded, acknowledging the statement then looked around. “Ahsoka?”

Ahsoka exhaled slowly. “If we’re going tonight give me the strongest caff you have, if we’re going tomorrow, give me something to knock me out. Because otherwise I’m not going to leave it.”

“She’s strong, she’s endured worse.” Rex said.

“Has she?” Ahsoka sighed. “Sorry. Plan?”

“The three of us, four of us?” Anakin glanced at Rex, who nodded, “The four of us storm Sidious’s lair, liberate Asajj from wherever she’s locked up, and then go and stick our lightsabres through his neck.”

Providing she was there. She should be. But HE had so many hiding places. Anakin didn’t honestly know if he knew them all. Not from this time.

Padme coughed. “Four of you?”

“Me, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka and Rex.” Anakin said, frowning at her. “We’ve got no time to tell anyone else. Who’d believe us? We’re accusing the Chancellor of the Republic, with no solid proof, and little circumstantial. To rescue Asajj Ventress.”

“Give me a blaster.” Padme demanded.

“Padme,” Anakin began.

“No.” Padme said, standing up to glare at him on equal footing. “I’m not going to sit here like some damsel in distress when the two of you, sorry,” she said not meaning it in the slightest “the four of you, go gallivanting off to save the day. Give me a blaster, or at least pass me one of mine, because I’m not sitting this one out.”

“Padme,” Anakin repeated.

“Not when there is a friend of mine in danger I got her into. I’m not staying behind.”

“Padme,” A different voice said, Obi-Wan placed a mug of floral smelling tea in front of her. “I get that.”

“But?” Padme said, voice dangerously polite.

But the twins. But I can’t watch you get hurt. But you’re not trained. But you’d get near Sidious. But I want you to survive. What Obi-Wan actually said was: “But that would leave Bail on his own.”

The righteous anger Padme had been gathering deflated slightly. She glanced towards Bail. Then back towards her lovers. “He can handle it.”

“If this vote goes well,” Bail interrupted whatever Anakin had been making to say. “If it doesn’t, then I’ve made myself far too much of a target. Mon Mothma does not know enough, and neither does Breha. We need you.”

Padme turned to look at him again, then tensed, and sighed, sitting back down. “I don’t like it.”

“None of us do.” Ahsoka drained her mug in one gulp. “None of us like the-“ She broke into a steam of mandoan swears that made Rex raise his eyebrows “-Plan”

“Anyone got a better one?” Anakin asked, more hopeful than angry.

No-one answered.

“I guess that means not.” Anakin sighed.

Everyone sat in silence for a moment, taking sips of their drinks.

“We should leave some sort of record.” Obi-Wan said after a while. “For the Council, for the Alliance, for Breha, Sola, Garen, anyone else we’d want to know what happened to us. Just in case none of us make it. We’d have to make sure it only went when we were dead though.”

“It’s a good idea.”

Everyone looked at Anakin. “What? We have to have a legacy here, I’d rather all of us were there to carry it off in person, but someone needs to know if we fail. We should probably all be in it for the one for the Council?” He glanced at Obi-Wan.

He nodded, “Unless anyone would rather be left out?”

 Bail shook his head, “I think as many of us as possible should be in the one for the Alliance as well, but I’ll do one for Breha alone.”

“I’ll do one for Sola.” Padme said, placing her finished mug down on the table.

“Garen.” Obi-Wan said, thinking of his friend. “Vos too, if I have time. He’s more likely to be able to do anything.”

“Should I?” Rex began.

Obi-Wan shrugged, “It’s not a bad idea.”

“No,” Anakin thought, “It’s not. If you’re doing one to the 501^st I’ll join you.”

“Me too,” Ahsoka found herself agreeing. “They won’t believe us, none of them will, but it’s a start.”

“Maybe they’ll start looking at least.” Rex suggested. “For proof if nothing else.”

Hopefully.

It took most of the night to record the various messages, even with the same message being sent to the 501^st and the 212^th in the end. But by the time early morning rolled around, everyone had had at least a few hours of sleep, even if little of it had been restful.

Once again they gathered in Padme’s lounge, Bail folding the blanket he’d slept under. Rex passed Padme a very large blaster. “I know you have some of these already, but this one has a little more wallop, just in case.”

“Thank-you,” Padme said, giving the old soldier a hug. “Take as much care as you can.”

“I survived this long didn’t I?” Rex joked.

“Yeah,” Padme forced a hollow smile. They’d survived this long by avoiding Sidious. It wasn’t a good indicator for times ahead.

Anakin wondered into the room wearing only his leggings. He caught sight of the blaster. “Ah good, feel free to show your usual amount of restraint with that thing.” He looked around. “Do you know where my-“ he caught sight of a familiar metallic cylinder. “Got it.” He kissed Padme’s cheek on the way past.

Coming out of the guest room, Ahsoka made a face. “Padme, have you got a spare concealable blaster I can borrow?”

“Sure, they’re in the armoury, door next to the bathroom, help yourself.” Padme said, hands checking over the blaster she’d been given. “Rex, what’s this switch?”

“Erm,” Rex glanced at where Obi-Wan had just left Padme’s bedroom, also only in leggings and hair more messed up than he’d ever scene.

“Anakin, throw me mine will you?”

Anakin tossed a lightsabre across the room, distracting everyone briefly. “Go get dressed old man.”

Obi-Wan looked at him pointedly.

Anakin almost rolled his eyes. Instead he nodded, and crossed the room without another word.

Padme watched them leave, then turned back to Rex. “Well?”

“It’s a destruct button, it takes about half a minute to activate and then it overloads the power core and destroys everything within quite a considerable radius, almost certainly including whoever triggered it.”

“Right,” Padme nodded, and hefted the gun up to firing position. Then she lowered it gently. “Thank-you. You’d better go get armoured up.”

Rex nodded, and went to put on his GAR armour he’d retrieved during the night along with the guns for Bail and Padme. And a few for himself of course.

Bail checked over his gun. “How do you think the vote will go?”

Padme sighed, checking over her headdress. “I’d feel more confident if it was held yesterday. I don’t know who people will have got to overnight.”

“I just hope enough of us are alright.” Bail said.

“We can hope.” Padme agreed. It seemed so foolish, that that was what they were reduced to, hope.

The door from her bedroom opened and Anakin and Obi-Wan stepped through, fully dressed if not fully armoured. It wouldn’t have helped much with Sidious anyway.

Ahsoka clenched her hand tightly around something, then held it out, and showed both of them what was in it. The seven lightsabre crystals had a heavy presence. They were all white.

“I picked these up while you two were dealing with the Library. I- I don’t feel comfortable using my old ones since we got back, and two of these feel right, but while I felt like I was meant to take all seven of these, these,” she held out four of them. “Don’t seem meant for me.”

Both Anakin and Obi-Wan considered them for a moment, then shook their heads. “Not for me.” Anakin said, “Although I’m not sure about a lightsabre at all at the moment, so that’s not too surprising.”

“Mine feels fine.” Obi-Wan said. “Asajj?”

Ahsoka nodded. “I’d considered that. They fit her style.” She emptied them into a pouch which she pinned inside her tunic. Then she emptied her lightsabres of their crystals and replaced them with the new ones. Then she turned them on.

Both blades seemed to be pure white at first glance. Ahsoka twirled them, getting used to the hum of the crystals, and the slightly different shift in the weight. Then her guard sabre caught the light. “Oh,”

“It’s cream.” Padme said, surprised.

“Yes,” Obi-Wan said, watching the faint yellow hue for a moment, before forcing a deep breath out. “We all ready?”

Ahsoka deactivated her lightsabres and attached them onto her belt, nodding. Anakin gave a nervous smile. Rex gave everything a brief glance over then said: “All clear here.” Padme also flashed a fleeting smile as Bail nodded, still holding his large blaster.

“Right then,” General Obi-Wan Kenobi, Master of the Jedi Order said, “Let’s go get our friend.”

Notes:

Thank-you for reading! Yes, the Senate is being as ineffective as usual. No, Padme's not going to leave well enough a alone. Come on, it's her. Please, leave a comment, let me know what you thought! Nearly there...

Chapter 29: Incursion: Part 1

Summary:

Darth Sidious has Asajj Venress. Anakin Skywalker has a plan (mostly). Obi-Wan has had enough. Ahsoka Tano has her sabres, Rex, his blasters, and both a really pissed off attitude. A trap or not, the four of them only just managed to get Bail and Padme to the vote on Clone rights, instead of fighting with them.

“Right then,” General Obi-Wan Kenobi, Master of the Jedi Order said, “Let’s go get our friend.”

Anakin led the way, only stopping just outside the backdoor to Sidious’s lair. “He’ll know we’re in there once we go in. He may already know.” He took a deep breath. “We shouldn’t have long. At all.” He turned to Obi-Wan as the four of them crowded around the door. “Ideas?”

Obi-Wan pressed his palm against the flat of the door.

He winced, and recoiled.

Even Rex would have had a hard time not noticing the darkness bleeding out from the other side of the door. “We stay together, go for the most isolated place she’s likely to be being kept first, then work inwards unless they’re much closer together. Unless…” He turned to Ahsoka.

She frowned. “I’ve spent so long shielding the pair bond, I don’t think…” Against her instincts she began to relax the shields just around the bond. “No I-“

“AAAHHHH!” her hands clenched as her knees gave way.

“AHSOKA!”

She slammed all her shields down. Then she took a shaky breath, then another one, then another. Eventually her breathing evened out.

“I don’t know if it’s Sidious doing that, but she is not alone.”

Obi-Wan nodded as Rex bend over and offered her a hand up. “Did you get a direction?”

Ahsoka nodded. “Nothing exact, but we’re not going to have to rely on your old memories of this place.” She said, referring to Anakin.

“Good.” The ex-Sith said, removing his lightsabre from his belt and igniting it. Ahsoka and Obi-Wan followed his lead. Rex removed one of the larger blasters. “How bothered are we by killing in there?”

“As far as I’m concerned if they’re there willingly, kill as many as you have to.” Obi-Wan said. “Just don’t go out of your way, and don’t kill any of us.  

“Never.” Anakin swore.

And with that he gathered the force and pushed the door open.

The corridor inside seemed almost disappointingly ordinary, at least at first. Ahsoka led the way, matched half a step behind by Anakin. Grey walls, duracrete floor. Could be any utility corridor.

Except it clearly wasn’t, Obi-Wan thought, guarding the rear. He wondered how many traps they’d set off already as they inched through.

They turned a corner.

“Does it seem odd to you that we haven’t met any guards yet?” Anakin asked, trying to remember the layout. Sidious hadn’t used the place for long after the Empire was founded, or at least not for his main projects.

Ahsoka considered. “Left.” They turned again. “And yes.”

Rex caught something moving in the corner of his eye. He squinted. No, nothing. It didn’t matter. They weren’t here to be subtle.

Anakin pushed another door down as they wound their way upwards, climbing a long staircase that no-one liked the feel of. They emerged out of the top onto a semi-circular landing. A semi-circular landing lined with guards pointing guns at them. Their black uniforms bore an uncanny similarity to that of an imperial officer.

More guards filed in behind them.

“How do you want to play this?” Obi-Wan asked, as the four of them began to form a square. Pressed back to back they watched the troops. Rex spared a thought to be grateful they weren’t brothers.

“Kill them and move on.” Anakin suggested.

Ahsoka voiced her support. 

The guards frowned at them, clearly trying to work out whether they were being serious or not.  Ahsoka shifted her right hand so that Rex could clearly see three fingers wrapped around the shaft. Then she removed one, then a second.

Rex raised his blaster as she twirled the sabre, then thrust it out into the nearest guard’s chest. Anakin and Obi-Wan reacted at the same moment, the later beheading the nearest guard, the former stopping the blasts from hitting the group.

The guards never stood a chance.

Anakin looked at the corpses, then looked up to where he assumed the sensor was. “You’ll have to do better than that.”

No-one pointed out that taunting a Sith Lord was not the best idea.

One hour, over a hundred troops, and three separate ambushes later the only beings really in the mood to make quips were the defeated guards.

“Oops.” The leader of the current ambush said, shooting Anakin’s right hand.

They were summarily dispatched by a blaster to the head, curtesy of Rex. The quartet fired, and ducked and vaulted, attacking the men they could reach as those on higher levels fired upon them.

Obi-Wan winced as a shot pierced his shoulder. Irritated, he pushed the offending soldier back against the wall.

Anakin tossed his lightsabre from his right hand to his left. The joints were finally beginning to give out. One hit too many for the mechanical limb.

Ahsoka spared him a sympathetic look as she summersaulted over three soldiers’ heads only to be hit in her knee as she passed them, lightsabre swinging. They paid for it a moment later as Obi-Wan removed the first of his hidden blasters and shot them square in the chest, swearing.

The last of the men went down a few moments later, leaving the four of them, now worse for wear, standing among them.

Ahsoka looked around, then, while checking pockets for anything useful said: “I don’t think much of his hiring policy. Very sexist. We knew the racism, but wow.”

Anakin glanced over the corpses. “You have a point Snips. Incompetent too.”

Rex groaned. “Jinxed us.”

“Sorry.”

They moved on, more towards the centre of the complex than upwards now. Ahsoka still led, occasionally wearing groves in the walls with her lightsabres, leaving a smoking trail behind her.  Obi-Wan understood the temptation.

He really did.

The Senate was no less frustrating for Bail Organa, who was getting increasingly impatient. Why wasn’t there news? There should have been news by now. From somewhere at least.  

Mon Mothma looked at him across the room. Carefully she checked no eyes were on her, then she nodded and shrugged.

Right, they should win the vote, but only if everyone they thought was being honest actually was.

They were going to lose.

Bail felt it in his bones.

Those men were going to lose their rights, potentially their lives. Sidious had got to too many people.

The speaker called for order in order for the vote to be cast. Bail spared a glance towards the Chancellor’s box, determined to give the man a glare if nothing else. It was empty.

Sidious wasn’t in the senate.

He wasn’t there.

Bail picked up his comm plast and looked at the pending message. At the moment it was set to send after two hours of inactivity. Bail changed the setting.

“Bail Organa?” A familiar face for an unfamiliar person asked the moment after. “I was asked to give you these.”

The seemingly random changes in décor in Sidious’s lair were grating on everyone’s nerves. They seemed to be getting somewhere, they seemed to be getting closer. And then they didn’t. Then they seemed to be back almost where they started. Yet they were in a new room, and still following Ahsoka’s instincts.

“Just ignore doors and charge straight up as Ahsoka wants to?” Anakin suggested after yet another seeming dead end. Sidious had stopped sending men after them, instead leaving them with an increasing maze of passages.

“I’d rather reserve the energy.” Obi-Wan said, “Given what happened with Grievous.”

No-one could argue with that. They went through another doorway into what looked like a large private library. Anakin froze for a moment. “Let’s go, quickly, I remember this place.”

“Straight ahead.” Ahsoka said,

They hurried through the Library and out into what might have once been a nice courtyard. Anakin perched on the edge of the Fountain. “My ‘room’ used to be off there.” He said by way of explanation.

There was a loud pop from the corner of the walls and the hidden speakers spluttered to life.

“Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano, I believe I have something you’re looking for.” The voice, unmistakably Sidious was followed by some wet spluttering and coughing. “Why don’t you say hello my dear?”

There was the sound of spitting blood before Asajj swore at him.

Ahsoka winced.

“Now, why don’t you four behave nicely and come and meet me without any more pointless violence, or else I might have to take a page out of your book and dispose of her. After all, it’s not like I need her anymore, is it?”

Ahsoka twitched her arms, wanting to lash out, not wanting the consequences.

Anakin took a deep breath in, pursed his lips, and bit back his final shred of pride. This was more important. “Why don’t you show us the way then?”

A panel slid open from one of the walls. The figure standing in it gave a low bow. “If you’d please follow me. My Lord Sidious requires your presence.”

This climb, after that, was at least reasonably straight forward, back to the dark drab grey that had first greeted them. Up another staircase, and around a few bends. Footsteps behind them, a shadowy figure ahead.

 Two hundred and thirteen steps later Anakin Skywalker walked out into the lair of Darth Sidious, followed by Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ahsoka Tano and Captain Rex.

The room Sidious had chosen for the confrontation was large, and while not entirely round, gave off a similar impression. There was a large elevated platform at the far end, upon which a large throne was sunken.

Darth Sidious sat in in, the room bare except for a few pillars and the large double door behind them. That and a large restraining wall where Asajj was stretched out.

“Anakin my dear boy, Obi-Wan, I’m so glad you decided to join us.” Sidious used his Palpatine, nice politician voice. It was particularly weird, given all other pretences had been dropped. At least on Sidious’s behalf. “And of course, Padawan Tano, and Captain Rex was it? So good of you to come to the aid of your enemy. Are you so fond of all of them?”

Calm. They had to stay calm. He had to stay calm.

In two three four,

Hold two three-

Anakin let out his breath. “Darth Sidious, you can judge. No apprentice, you really have broken the rule of two.”

Sidious let out a laugh, surprisingly sane for him. “Oh, I would say I have four. None of you are Jedi, after all, running off to save your attachments, falling in love, getting married. Of course that is just such perfect Jedi behaviour.”

Ahsoka spat at him. “Not Jedi doesn’t mean Sith, and Sith doesn’t mean under your thrall you –“ she let out a stream of Mandoan swears, interspersed with some even Anakin didn’t know.

“Temper gets you nowhere.” Sidious said, then lifted a lazy finger and pointed it at her.

Ahsoka screamed.

Anakin saw red among the blue arching lightening. HE DARED! HE DARED TOUCH THE PEOPLE THAT HE CARED ABOUT! HE WOULD- Anakin let it out briefly. Anger wouldn’t help here.

Instead he snarled. “It seems to be suiting you just fine.”

Obi-Wan frowned at him, barely paying attention.

Rex put his hand on Ahsoka’s shaking shoulder.

“My dear boy, you have so much to learn. That anger could be so useful in the right circumstances. Don’t you want revenge on those who kept you from those you love?” Sidious’s gaze flittered to Obi-Wan.

“Shouting match, sure, genocide, no.” Anakin frowned at him. Keep him talking, he had to keep him talking. “Besides, from where I’m standing that looks like it’s you in the way.”

“Really?” Sidious look at Obi-Wan again. “Do they know? I imagine the dear Jedi Master here would be quite outraged to learn about your levels of attachment. Particularly with regards to himself. Disgusted, even.”  

Obi-Wan frowned for a moment, then straightened his shoulders, and opened up his bond to Anakin.

“Now.”

Anakin opened up his bond to Ahsoka.

“Now.”

Ahsoka did two things, the first was open up her bond to Asajj, wincing a little at the pain she was unintentionally broadcasting.

“Now.”

Then she shrugged Rex’s hand off her shoulder.

It fell to his blaster.

In the same, brief, moment Rex drew his blaster as Ahsoka drew her lightsabres, white blades flashing as she covered Rex’s opening shot. Anakin also drew his lightsabre, holding it in his left hand, but managing to cover Obi-Wan as he focused and released the clamps, dropping Asajj to the floor.

“So that’s how you want it to go.” Darth Sidious rose from the chair and lifted his hand. Then he flicked his wrist.

The lightning came.

 

Notes:

Part II next week.
Thank-you for reading! Please, leave a comment, let me know your thoughts!

Chapter 30: Incursion: Part 2

Summary:

Sidious is going down. Or else.

“So that’s how you want it to go.” Darth Sidious rose from the chair and lifted his hand.

Then he flicked his wrist.

The lightning came.

Asajj scrambled desperately, just managing to get properly behind Anakin and Obi-Wan, if not off the floor.

Anakin, who had been forced down to a crouch slowly extended his knees and stood upright, snarling. “You should not have done that.”

Darth Sidious smiled, and electrocuted him again, activating his lightsabre with his other hand. He deflected the blows Ahsoka aimed at him, as she summersaulted over towards the Sith.

Obi-Wan tried to deflect the lightning onto his lightsabre, but missed when Sidious redirected it towards him instead.

No. NO

Lightsabres. Asajj stretched out, wincing, the pain, so much pain. Where were they? She could feel them. They were here. Taunting. Not right. They were here. She hurt so much. OW. OW. focus.

The doors flew open and people streamed in, most of them humanoid, some of them brothers. All pointing weapons at them.

No-one Rex recognised on the glance he got as he was spun across the room until he crashed into the wall.

“Kill all but one. I’ll deal with the last one myself.” Sidious ordered, deflecting the blows from both Anakin and Ahsoka.

THERE

Asajj pulled her lightsabres towards her. A shot hit her in the back.  

Nope.

She pulled her sabres towards her again and forced herself upright, turning her back on her friends and the main fight. These soldiers wanted a fight, they were getting one.

She activated her lightsabres, wincing slightly at her back as the red blades flickered on.

“Right then, who’s first?”

They started shooting as she twirled her blades, backing up until she was back to back with Skywalker, who was now covering Rex.

“You alright?” She asked, switching one of her blades off a moment to bend down and extract the blaster in Anakin’s boot. She pulled it up, aimed and fired, then repeated until twenty of the soldiers were down.

Just the other a hundred and twenty to go.

And Darth Sidious.

Anakin felt the removal of the blaster from his boot, ignoring it in favour of twisting out of the way of the lightning approaching his head. He would pay.

Anakin jumped up and swung.

Ahsoka dived.

Rex shot.

Obi-Wan jabbed.

Sidious parried and parried and shot.

They dodged, and dodged, and almost dodged.

The shots came and came and came.

OW! Obi-Wan let out a sharp burst of pain into the force as one of the blasters found their mark in the middle of his back.
OW!

Again in the knee, still he kept fighting.

It was three on one, Sidious couldn’t be wining. He couldn’t. He was.

Anakin swung again and again, he was going to pay, he was going to. HE would kill him and make him pay.

Anakin spun around, and glared straight at Sidious.

Sidious smiled, low and lazy as he swung his lightsabre around. Anakin snarled and began running forward and jumped at him, swinging his sabre in his left hand, right trailing behind. He had to-

He missed.

Sidious almost did.

With one smooth sweep he sliced through Anakin’s right wrist.

He watched as the hand he’d called his for the war fell to the floor, a solid lump of now useless machinery.  

It was useless before. It was already. Best- Anakin snarled and redoubled his efforts striking again and again and again. He’d stop him. He had to stop him. Again and again he sliced.

The air fell out of him as he was pushed backwards against the wall.

Obi-Wan whirled around stunned as Sidious caught him in the same lash.

Asajj spun around as Ahsoka struggled as Sidius’s blade pressed against hers.

NO!

The double doors flew open, knocking a piece of debris against her head.

Anakin blinked, and blinked again as just who had blown the door inwards became apparent.

He’d- they’d stayed behind. They weren’t supposed to be there! None of them were!

Anakin blinked again and saw the brothers, brothers he knew, run forwards, no hesitation, blasters blazing.

No! He focused for a moment as he pulled himself upright.

Sidious couldn’t hurt anyone else. Not on his watch.

Anakin twirled his lightsabre before testing his leg and leaping back into the fray.

Man down, man down, man down. He sliced and sliced and sliced.

Then a bolt of red energy hit Sidious’s man in front of him and the guard fell over dead.

Anakin looked up and traced it to where it came from.

His heart stopped. Just for a moment as Padme Amidala raised her large, unfamiliar, blaster. She shot again killing another one of Sidious’s men. Bail Organa, stood next to her, with an identical blaster as was their third and final companion: Commander Cody.  

Sidious spotted them too.

He raised his hand and pointed, smiling as the lightning arched towards Padme. Anakin jumped. He wasn’t sure how he made it. He just did. It was Padme, and Luke and Leia and-

Anakin tried to take a breath in, steady himself. He couldn’t- he could-

 A blaster bolt hit him in the leg.

No.

Anakin felt something buckle inside of him.

No.

No this was not going to happen.

He reached down, taking a shaky breath in amongst the carnage, clenching his hand. Then he let go. He pushed outwards, a wave of sheer force energy whipping around the room.

For a moment all was silent.

Hahahahahaha.

Sidious stood upright, laughing at the man who now opposed him. Everything else fell away.

Said man directed the burst of lightning towards the ground, disregarding it. He faced the Sith Lord angrily.

Sidious smiled seeing the amber eyes and livid expression. Then the smile slid off his face as he was attacked over and over, the blue lightsabre striking over and over, so fast he was barely able to keep up.

One handed, alone, the former Jedi attacked again and again and again, grunting as he was parried blow after blow after blow.

Then there was a sound, like a quiet burst of wind.

Sidious stilled immediately as the red burst hit him in his chest, just avoiding the former-Jedi. The Sith swayed a little, then fell backwards, hitting the floor with a thump.

The other man stood over him. Then instead of checking for a pulse, he considered his lightsabre. Then he took one long look at the body, and decapitated it.

He took two clear steps backwards, then looked around the room. The faces staring at him with shock, with joy, with horror, with disappointment. Padme standing there, the blaster raised, lowering it slightly. Obi-Wan struggling to his feet, his eyes flickering. He blinked. They stopped.

It began to sink in.

Sidious was gone. He was finally free. The man usually known as Anakin Skywalker smiled, slightly at first. Then he broadened it into a manic grin, finally letting the laugh that had been bottling up inside him loose.

It echoed around the room, the burning in his head never ceasing, but amplifying it as he through his head back and laughed, and laughed, and laughed. 

He flexed his hand around his lightsabre, feeling the solid weight, watching the blue flame. So familiar… He turned around again and watched the others, the fear reflected in their eyes, the pleading, the desperation. So familiar… They should die, they should all-

He dropped the lightsabre.

It fell with a loud clang, sitting there taunting. Why don’t you pick me up? Why don’t you take what is yours? See how right they were to trust you? You will make everything better.

“No.” He whispered and pressed his hand to his face, crumpling into a heap.

Someone else might have made a noise. Someone might have moved the lightsabre. The door might have opened, more people might have arrived. He wouldn’t have noticed.

No. He was not doing this. No.

LukeandLeia.

PadmeandObi-Wan

Ahsoka

Rex

Asajj

Bail

ArtooandThreepio

Mom

CodyandKixandFivesandtheirbrothers

Garen

Vos

Gevia

Yoda

Mace

The names flew on and on.

He couldn’t, he couldn’t,

He pressed his palms into his eyeballs, almost relishing the pain it gave him, the burst of light dancing across his blacked out vision.

Luke and Leia.

Padme and Obi-Wan.

Ahsoka.

Rex.

Asajj.

Bail.

He let a very shaky breath out, then straightened his back and took his hand away from his eyes.

Anakin Skywalker looked at his partner and his pregnant wife, blue eyes glowing, and sighed with relief.

“I’m-“

He wasn’t sure what happened first, him starting to get up, or the other two darting forward to try and carry his weight. Either way he leant on the offered arms gratefully. Obi-Wan tilted his head and looked straight at Anakin’s eyes for a moment.

“Hey,” Anakin said softly, “I’m ‘armless.”

Obi-Wan wasn’t the only one to close his eyes at that one.

“Is this really the time?” Ahsoka asked, from where she was slumped on the other side of the room.

“Is it ever?” Rex replied, holding his stab wound.

“What is going on?” Mace Windu, Head of the Jedi Order bellowed from across the hall.

Anakin looked at Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan looked at Padme. Padme looked at Bail. Bail looked at Asajj. Asajj looked at Ahsoka. Ahsoka looked at Rex. Rex looked back at Anakin, who sighed. Then winced in pain, tried shrugging, and got the same result. “Time Travel, Sith, Jedi, Family, Luck, Politics, and the fucking Force. Oh and I quit.”

If Obi-Wan had had any hands free, he’d have face palmed.

Mace Windu seemed similarly frustrated. “Master Kenobi,” he looked around at the scene he was in front of and revised the question. “Obi-Wan?”

“Might have to sit down.” The man offered, the trio sunk to the floor. “Haven’t decided yet.”

Padme stuck her legs out in front of her. “Ugh, I hate being pregnant.” Then she had a thought. “How did the vote go? No- you arrived before us.”

“Vote?” One of the other Jedi asked.

“In the senate, whether or not to give Slaves freedom and rights?” Padme prompted, leaning her head on Anakin’s shoulder. He pressed a kiss to the top of it.

“They already have rights, right?” Garen Muln asked. “Slavery isn’t a thing in the republic.”

“My brothers.” Rex said softly.

Garen swore. He wasn’t the only one.

Yoda broke his silence. “Reparations, not decided are they. But free, you are.” He looked amused at the confusion of the others. “Connections, I have.”

Relax wasn’t quite the right word for what Rex did next, but nonetheless there was something less rigid about his posture, the tension draining out of him. “I could still use a medic.”

Anakin looked at the stump of his right arm. “I’m good. Could use a mechanic though.”

Bail finally put down the strange blaster he’d been hefting. “Your sense of humour could do with some more work.”

Asajj just scoffed. “While those guys are distracted, what do you think the chances are of me getting immunity, or at least a two day head start, for helping to defeat Sidious? And finding some old Sith weapons, which were even useful.”

“She killed Dooku too.” Ahsoka pointed out, rummaging inside her robe and pulling a small pouch out. She tossed it to Asajj. “Catch.”

Asajj emptied the four crystals into her palm. “Yes.” She emptied her lightsabres and inserted the new crystals, debating quickly which sabre they should go in. She turned the blades on, both of them pure white. She turned them off again. “Thank-you, that’s much better.”

Master Windu finally seemed to get that the question had been addressed to him. “You vouching for her?”

Rex, Ahsoka, Padme and Bail nodded.

Obi-Wan said. “She’s good. Well, decent.”

Asajj rolled her eyes. “You’re one to talk.”

“She’s saner than I am.” Anakin admitted. “And on that note, I’d be grateful if you wouldn’t kill me.”

“Skywalker,” Asajj said, using the wall to climb to her feet. “Anakin even, that’s really not saying much.”

“Which bit?” He joked.

Then Padme jerked her head upright and let out a harrowing scream.

“OKAY, OKAy, okay, okay, okay.” She panted.

Once calm she looked around at the faces of utter panic.

“I’m fine, it was just the twins making themselves known.” Padme said, “It hurt.”

Obi-Wan let out a sigh of relief. “I thought you’d been poisoned.”

Anakin let out a slightly weepy laugh. “I thought you were in labour.”

“I’m only seven months pregnant Ani!” Padme said incredulously. “I know it’s not unusual for twins to be a little early, but not two months!”

“I know that…” Anakin said in a tone that implied he’d never thought about it. “I just panicked okay. You’re here. You were nearly-” he left the rest unsaid.

“Can I ask what we’re waiting for?” Ahsoka asked, also trying to climb to her feet. “Because that corpse stinks. Also, why you guys are here?”

“Medical.” Mace Windu told them. “They should be arriving any moment now. Are those Kyber Crystal weapons?” He asked looking at the dropped guns that Padme, Cody and Bail had been carrying.

“Ah,” Ahsoka gave up the attempt. “Good. I also quit, by the way. And you didn’t answer my question.”

“Anyone else?” Mace Windu asked, still ignoring the question, and the fact that no-one had answered his own. “Obi-Wan?”

“Haven’t you already asked me that?” The Jedi Master mumbled. “I think I’m losing more blood than I thought.”

Once again Mace Windu sighed. “Asajj Ventress under my Authority as head of the Jedi Order, you are under arrest under the custody of the Jedi Order. You are to be supervised in medical and reassessed afterwards.”

“Thanks.” Asajj leant back against the wall just as the medical finally streamed in. “Good to see you found the blasters, sorry for dropping that on you.”

Cody considered the ancient weapon he held in his hand. “It turned out for the best. Although, are you actually Asajj Ventress?”

Asajj sighed. “I forgot about that lie. Was wondering why you accepted the message. Yes.”

One of the Jedi medics began fussing over her and jabbed her with something. Ahsoka began to wonder if they should have waited to quit until after they’d gotten medical attention before a different medic jabbed her with a sedative.

It looked like they’d all be getting medical care anyway.

Notes:

WOO! And he's dead! Thank-you so much for reading! Please, leave a comment, let me know what you think! It's a chapter to finish off and then an Epilogue left. While the timing of this chapter is a coincidence, I hope you all have a happy holidays, whatever you celebrate, or even if you don't celebrate at all!

Chapter 31: Dealing with the Council

Summary:

So all is well. Right? All our protagonists have to do is deal with the Jedi Council and- ah. Well, all should be well anyway.

Looks like they’d all be getting medical care anyway.

It was two weeks before Obi-Wan Kenobi was finally released by medical. He, like Anakin was then accompanied to outside the council chamber. Somehow, despite not being able to leave the Temple, Anakin had managed to get his hand on civilian clothing.

Anakin waved his new hand. While not by any means mistakable for a flesh one it had definite benefits over his old model.

“Hey Partner,”

Obi-Wan smiled as Anakin swept him up into a hug, wrapping his arms around his lover. “It’s really good to see you.”

Eventually he untangled himself. “No Padme?”

“She’s running late. Despite the fact that the entire Senate is in recess due to emergency elections, she said she had work to do.” Anakin explained.

“Given she’s a member of the Clones Reparations committee, she probably does.” Obi-Wan pointed out. He sat down on one of the chairs provided in the corridor. “It was nice of them to wait until we could all be there to do this.”

“They probably didn’t want to have to deal with this more than once.” Asajj Ventress said, joining them, lightsabre-less, hands in cuffs, and being trailed by Garen Muln. “Deal with the lot of us as little as possible.”

“That’s true.” Anakin considered. “But I’m not objecting to only do this once.”

“We’re all going to be needed as witnesses.” Obi-Wan pointed out. “Good to see you Asajj,”

“You too,” Asajj replied. “Even if Skywalker doesn’t feel the same.”

Anakin shot her a quick look, then, after judging she was joking, said: “Pft. You too.”

Garen looked slightly less puzzled than he might have done. “Please tell me I’m going to get a better explanation sometime soon?”

“Sure,” Anakin said, “Time Travel, Sith, Jedi, Family, Luck, Politics, and the fucking Force.”

Garen looked at him. “What happened?” he muttered under his breath.

“That’s what we would all like to know.” Mace Windu said as he opened the door to the council chamber. “What happened?”

Obi-Wan stood up, hiding his wince. “Wait until everyone’s here. Including Cody. Then we’ll talk.”

Mace nodded. “We were waiting for you actually.” He stepped aside to reveal a second set of chairs arranged in a semi-circle, further in than the council’s. Padme was sitting in one of them, talking to Bail and Ahsoka who were both standing. Cody seemed to be trying to hover protectively, despite the fact that Rex already had that covered.

They all looked over.

“Hey,”

“Hey,” Anakin grabbed Ahsoka into a hug while Asajj received one from Rex. Obi-Wan looked like he was going to stand there awkwardly for a moment, before instead going forward and sitting down next to Padme.

“How are you doing?” He asked.

Padme sighed. “I’d be a lot better if these two weren’t arguing a lot.”

Anakin looked over sharply.

“The twins,”

Anakin grinned, then considered the world for a moment. “They’re noisy.”

“You can hear them?”

“Yes,” Obi-Wan said, considering, “We can.”

Ahsoka and Asajj tried next, then Ahsoka sighed. “Honestly Skyguy, how did you miss the fact there were twins. It’s clear who those two get their presence from.”

“I was a little preoccupied okay.” Anakin sighed. “War and all.”

“Vision, it was not.” Yoda interrupted, breaking up the atmosphere of merriment.

They turned to face the council, one by one.

“No.” Anakin said. “No, it wasn’t.”

“Metaphorical, it was not.”

Obi-Wan countered, “Some of it was.”

Yoda stayed silent for a moment, looking at no-one, everyone looking at him. Would he say? Would he demand answers? What was he talking about? No-one knew.

Finally Yoda said something. “Over now, it is. Then, now is not. The past only, we address.”

Anakin relaxed very slightly.

Unfortunately that seemed to be the signal for Mace Windu to take over, and Mace Windu was not happy at anything. Well, he was probably happy that the Sith Lord was dead, but he wasn’t showing it.

The eight of them listened to his speech without interrupting, although there might have been a few hidden eye rolls from a few of the not-Jedi.

 “What happened?” Mace Windu finally demanded, “And Skywalker if you repeat those seven words again—“

Anakin was severely tempted. He knew he couldn’t- He could. It wasn’t a great idea, but he had quit. They weren’t in charge of him anymore.

“Time Travel,” Ahsoka said, finally removing her padawan braid and tossing it to Anakin. He caught it and stared at it for a moment, before glancing up at his former padawan. She smiled at him before turning back to the Council. “I would think that would be fairly self-explanatory. Twenty three, twenty four years into the past. I don’t think anyone worked out the precise timings. And yes, it was the seven of us. It makes sense if you lived through those years, or” she added thinking, “didn’t.”

“Sith,” Asajj picked up. “We just killed, you’re welcome. The line of Bane is finally at an end.”

“Not the Sith?” One of the Councillors asked,

Asajj scoffed. “No idea on the Sith as a whole. There’s probably another group out there. I’ve never met them.”  

“Jedi,” Anakin interrupted before Asajj could say any more. She shot him a look. Anakin wondered how to say it. “They were dead. There were two, no four-“ he remembered looking at Ahsoka, “survivors and a part timer, about a year from now.” He glanced around the group. “Unless anyone knows of anyone else.” No-one did. “By the time we came back there were three survivors, and the part timer, and one of those had never even seen the Temple. Remarkably good, given he’d had three months of training by anyone living, at the most.” He tried to hide his proud grin unsuccessfully.

“Family,” Padme matched the grin, “Is what eventually saved the universe, both times around. Attachment, dare I say.”  She smiled at the Council, daring them to contradict her.

“Luck,” Rex said, when it looked like no-one else was going to day anything, “Because there’s no way we should have got out of half the situations we did while alive. There’s no way that Artoo, and Threepio should have found Luke. There’s no way that the three of us should have run into each other in the first place. So blame an old Soldier, but this old Soldier thanks Luck.”

“Politics.” Bail drew the attention towards him. “The Republic was dead. An empire stood in its place. A core planet was destroyed, not by plague or by sanctions, but by being physically obliterated. Running the resistance to try to fight back against the Empire, with a Sith Lord of Emperor, took everything I had. Everything,” he considered the group around him. “we had.”

“Excluding me.” Half the group said.

They all tried to explain at once.

Padme: “I was dead.”

Obi-Wan: “I was pretending to be.”

Anakin: “I’d have been better off if I had been. The system would have been better off.”  

Cody: “This is all new to me too, Sir.”

Bail sighed and waited to see if Ahsoka, Rex, or Asajj were going to contradict him. While they might have been thinking about it, thankfully, none of them actually did.  

“The politics for this is far from over,” Bail finished, then glanced at Obi-Wan. He nodded.

Unlike the others Obi-Wan didn’t start with the key Anakin had used to summarise. Instead he said, “I don’t know what transported us back twenty four years in time. We have an inking as to why, but what, or possibly even who?” He shook his head. “I know enough that it wasn’t a person in the traditional sense. But they talked to me in words. They chose to send us back here, and they chose us as a group to go. They were in the Library of Xer, they knew the dead they knew the living. They were everywhere and everything, and they were conscious.”

 He paused a moment, then powered on with what he knew, somehow to be right. “We talk about the Living Force, and the Unifying Force. No-one has ever considered either title to be literal. I’m not saying they are. But even if it was someone, someone exponentially more powerful than those on Mortis, using the force….”

A chill flowed through the room. Anakin rubbed at his goose bumps.

“Either way,” Obi-Wan Kenobi said, addressing the whole of the room. “The force is involved.”

“We can’t do nothing,” Mace Windu protested a few moments later.

“No,” Padme told him, “You can’t, after all there are several million slaves out there to be freed. The system of your order to completely change. After all, the current one is directly responsible for many of its members having at least one mental illness. While that means nothing less of them, it does expose large flaws in the system.  I think we can manage most of the political change without your help, but if you would care to assist by actually growing a backbone, it wouldn’t hurt. We” she stressed the word, “have already dealt with Sidious, and Grievous. We’ve even started freeing some of the people in danger of having their thoughts overwritten. But regardless of how much we have already done, no, you can’t do nothing.”

One of the councillors muttered something about where they were to start.

“Well we’d all appreciate not being arrested for choosing to live civilian, or” Ahsoka took into account the temperament of her family, “quasi-civilian lifestyle. That seems like a good start.”

The Council, with the exception of Obi-Wan, fell into conversation amongst themselves.

“Fell, you did.” Yoda announced. The buzz immediately fell to silence.

“Yes.” Anakin said.

“Fallen no more, you are.”

“No,” Anakin was more certain than perhaps he should be, but he knew what being fallen felt like, or at least, what him being fallen felt like. “Maybe if I get forced into combat again.” 

“Quit the Jedi, you did.”

“Yes, and I should have done it a long time ago.” Anakin said. Obi-Wan reached out and patted his arm briefly in support. Anakin turned around to face him. “No offence.”

Obi-Wan quirked a smile. “None taken.”

Ahsoka just looked at him sceptically.

“Where are you going with this?” Mace Windu muttered in an undertone.

“Patience you must have.” Yoda declared.

Windu had just enough dignity to look like an irritated teacher instead of a peeved child.

Something passed between them.

Then Mace Windu cleared his throat. “Ahsoka Tano, will you tell us of how you went to kill Darth Sidious, formally known as Chancellor Palpatine”.”

And so they described it, one by one, chiming it, telling their bit, how they’d known Asajj was in trouble, how Asajj had gotten in trouble, the evidence that they collectively had against him, not that it was needed anymore. They told how they’d entered the complex, how Sidious had called them up, and, eventually, how they’d fought him taking the council up to when medical had arrived.

There was silence once they’d finished.

“Alright then,” Master Windu said, “The eight of you, no, nine, Knight Muln, wait outside please.”

It was a long wait. Very little was said. Eventually they were called back in.

The eight of them stood as a clump, Obi-Wan and Padme holding Anakin’s hands. Rex had put one of his hands on Asajj’s shoulder, and the other on Cody’s. Ahsoka had claimed Asajj’s other shoulder, having her own claimed in turn by Bail, who’d also claimed Padme’s.

Together they waited. Was it a good day, or was this the end? The end of everything they’d worked so hard for. Sure the Jedi would survive, as would the republic. But for them-

“Ahem,” Jedi Master Mace Windu started. “The High Council has no authority over non-force users, and as such Senator Bail Organa, Senator Padme Amidala, Commander Cody and Captain Rex cannot and will not be judged here.”

That was of no surprise to anyone. They had been there for testimony, and moral support, nothing else.

“Former Padawan Ahsoka Tano,” Master Windu began, “This Council finds you innocent of all wrongdoing, and wishes you the best for your life ahead.”

Ahsoka sighed with relief. Bail squeezed her shoulder.

“Asajj Ventress,” The moment’s wait was almost too much. Asajj itched for her lightsabres, or even any weapon. A small blaster would do. “In light of your service to the Republic, the Jedi Order finds it fit to issue you a pardon for your past crimes.” OH! “This will not extent to future ones.”

“Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi,” Mace Windu addressed him, “Do you have any plans to leave the Jedi Order?”

Obi-Wan turned to look at his lovers. They shared the same look, it was up to him. He turned back towards the Council. “That depends on what this council has to say, on quite a few matters.”

“You have been cleared of any criminal wrongdoing, and as such you are invited to resume your position on this council.”

Obi-Wan nodded. “Thank-you,” he didn’t move, instead using his other hand to squeeze Anakin’s arm where the other man could feel it.

“Former Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker,”  

This was the big one.

Taking everything into account there was no way that he should not be executed for War Crimes, Mass Murder and being a Sith Lord.

“You fell to the Dark Side, yet in the light we find you. Killed you have, yet live the victims do. Sith you once were, yet Sith you defeated.”

That wasn’t technically- Anakin knew better than to bring up anything that had happened on Tatooine.

“This Council is concerned about your future, now that you have left the order. As such you are ordered to return to this temple for a mental and physical health evaluation twice a year.”

“May I make a request?” Anakin interrupted, not wanting to push his luck at not being executed, but being unwilling to let it lie.

Mace nodded at him.

“That the mental evaluation is done by someone from outside this temple, preferably outside this order.”

He didn’t justify the request, but he didn’t need to.

Yoda nodded. Maybe he understood, maybe he just thought it was reasonable. Maybe he had already been going to suggest it.

“Technically, using the Dark Side is not a crime of the Republic. Nor are events that never happened.” Jedi Master Mace Windu furrowed his eyebrows. He pursed his breath. “So otherwise you are free to go.”

What.

WHAT!

Anakin could feel his eyebrows raising as high as they could. He spun around, releasing his lovers’ hands to stare at them. He wasn’t sure which one moved first. All he knew was their arms around him and his around them as the three of them shared air.

What the?

He didn’t know how to react. It wasn’t right, dammit, he shouldn’t have got off that easily. Not being executed was lucky enough, but -

He wasn’t going to argue.

Other people were presumably reacting, he could feel someone clap him on the back, but just for a moment, just that moment, belonged to the three of them.

He let go, then span around.

Padme grinned at him.

He leant down and kissed her, picking her up and twirling. There were no secrets there. No secrets at all. He set Padme down, and looked wistfully at Obi-Wan just for a moment. Then he turned away and went to give Ahsoka a hug.

He felt a hand on his shoulder.

He turned around.

Obi-Wan pulled him down and kissed him very gently, and very chastely, on the lips. “Not hiding,” he murmured.

“Not hiding.” Anakin repeated. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” Obi-Wan sent along their bond.

Then Anakin turned away and hugged Ahsoka while Obi-Wan had a brief staring competition with the council. Mace smiled slightly and made the briefest of nods towards Obi-Wan’s chair.

That was okay then.

“How old are you?” Garen asked, probably in response to the mental battle.

“Fifty Seven.” Obi-Wan replied without thinking, leaving his friend flummoxed as he went to be hugged by his family.

“We did it!” Ahsoka exclaimed.

Bail grinned at them. “We did! Now we just have to reform the Senate, the Jedi, and the rest of the Republic.”

Asajj scoffed. “We can’t be the first ones to try.”

“Even in recent years,” Rex added, the dark humour causing some eyerolls.

“Seriously though, what’s this got to be?” Padme said, “Take six, take seven?”

“Something like that.” Anakin agreed.

“Well then,” Padme decided. “Here’s to Take eight!”

Notes:

So Fuck you 2016, and Happy New Year everyone! There is an epilogue left, at the end of which will be the sappy author's note, but this is, essentially, the end of the plot! I did warn you all this was heading towards the most horrible of things- a happy ending! So Thank-you, all of you, for reading! Please let me know your thoughts, both for this chapter, and the series as a whole, and I will see you, for the last time, next week!

Chapter 32: Two Months Later

Summary:

Two months later, Padme, now recovered from the birth of twins, and her partners throw a housewarming/ "We have kids" party. Some familiar faces make an appearance.

Two months later…

No-one with even a passing acquaintance with Padme Amidala would have been surprised at how quickly she returned home from the hospital. Nor the fact that she’d managed to acquire the two most stylish baby carriers that Ahsoka had ever seen. She, at least, was a little impressed at how easily Anakin and Obi-Wan had been talked into carrying them. Not that either of them had made any real protest.

 Asajj rolled her eyes as Anakin gushed at the twins in baby language. Ahsoka just grinned as the doorbell to their new place chimed again.

Why Padme, Anakin, and Obi-Wan had thought it was a good idea to hold a “we have kids”/ housewarming party so soon after they had, well, had kids and moved in, was beyond her.

But it couldn’t be denied that Padme was back in her element. Every inch the queen she once was, firmly and gracefully in command. Except, every so often, when Luke or Leia would move slightly, or burble, and everyone would just stop and stare. They were there. They were all there. All of them.

The doorbell chimed again. Seeing that the parents, aka the people who actually lived there, were occupied, Ahsoka went to see who their guests were. She found a sizeable chunk of familiar faces.

“Commander!” what seemed like a quarter of the 212^th and half of the 501^st chimed.

“I quit.” Ahsoka stood back to let them all in with a grin. “And you’re retired. Most of you anyway.”

“Getting that way,” Cody grinned at her.

“Where’s the food?” Jesse demanded.

Ahsoka gestured to inside the apartment. “In there,”

Kix and Fives both grabbed quick hugs before disappearing after Echo and the rest of the men, leaving Rex behind.

“It’s good to not be fighting.”                                                                   

“I thought you were?” Ahsoka said, thinking back to how many times she’d seen members of the Clones Reparation committee, or the Alliance, or both, in Padme’s room in medical.

“You know what I mean.” Rex said. “It’s weird though.”

“So’s seeing more than two of you, or leaving your door open.” Asajj quipped, coming to the door, then accepting hugs from both Rex and Ahsoka.

“I don’t actually live here.” Ahsoka pointed out. She legally did. But then, legally, Padme now owned a small apartment in the upper mid-levels.

“You seen the Sickening trio?” Asajj asked.

Ahsoka nodded and closed the door behind them. “We- They’re expecting more people. But you know, lateness and all.”

“I saw your six billion look-a-likes arrive.” Asajj said to Rex, who rolled his eyes.

“Let me guess, it’s the Politicians.” He asked.  

Asajj seconded. “The traffic has gone up a Bantha’s behind.”

Ahsoka smiled and agreed.

There was a loud crash in the next room, followed by several different people cursing in mandoan.

Rex sighed, and hurried to see what had happened. “What have you done now?”

Asajj and Ahsoka shared a grin before following him.

By the time the doorbell rang next Ahsoka had her hands full of a sleeping baby. As such, she was rather focused on trying not to drop him. For all his technically minimal weight, he felt like a heavy rock in her arms. “Hey Skyguy junior.” Ahsoka murmured, “Luke I do insane things in the pursuit of justice, freedom, and democracy, or whatever your full name is.”

Padme gave her a smile, overhearing. She crossed over, and murmured, “We’re still having an argument about that. Some people,” she shot Obi-Wan a glance, “Are being stubborn about their name being in there.”

“Ah,” Ahsoka understood.

“He says it’s long enough already, I told him there was a solution to that, but err,” Padme caught sight of Ahsoka’s somewhat put out expression. “Aren’t you in your thirties?”

“Not right now.” Ahsoka enunciated, looking around at the steadily increasing number of guests. She spotted green skin and diamonds in the corner of her eye and whipped her head around – Barris? But no, the mirialan’s skin was far too yellow, the diamonds in different places, and the features unfamiliar.

Not to Padme though, who hailed her. “Gevia, I didn’t know you could make it!”

“We were due to make a report into the Council, I just lobbied for the spot.” Gevia Ralo said, coming over and sweeping Padme into a hug. “Unusual for me, because you know, booooooks, but hey, see you three again, should be worth the two days right? Whether it’s worth suffering through the bureaucracy though…” she pulled a face.

What the?

Gevia seemed to notice Ahsoka for the first time. “Hey, sorry we haven’t met, I’m Gevia Ralo, Jedi Knight, well, Archivist, Library of Xer these days, hence me knowing this three.”

“Ahsoka Tano, former Jedi Padawan.” She introduced herself, smiling tightly. Luke chose this moment to wake up. He blinked.

Padme cooed over him as Ahsoka gladly gave the baby back. “Bye Junior.”

Said baby’s mother smiled as she’d been smiling all afternoon, and said, “Excuse me, I need to go find my husband.” before disappearing.

“Sooo… how’s civilian life treating you?” Gevia asked after a long pause.

“Busy.” Ahsoka said, then added, “It’s a little strange.”

“Whole life with the Jedi and all.” Gevia sympathised. “I couldn’t do it. Hey,” she spotted someone across the room. “Is that Vos? I haven’t seen Quinlan in years! Hey!”

However Quinlan Vos, Gevia Ralo, and even any of the other Jedi were upstaged by the Besalisk who appeared an hour after most of the guests, and half an hour before most of the politicians.

“Dex!” Obi-Wan hailed him, “I didn’t know you left your diner.”

“Hmp.” He encased the Jedi in a large hug. “Not that you’d ever know, you’re never there.”

“I’ve been busy.” Obi-Wan protested, glancing around at all the people. Anakin caught his eye and smiled, that carefree, easy “I can’t believe this is real” smile Obi-Wan was thrilled to see every time.

Dex harrumphed. “I can see that.” 

Obi-Wan rolled his eyes, still smiling. “Go get some food, parsecs better than the stuff you serve down at your diner.”

“I’d tell you all the news, but clearly you are the news.” Dex retaliated as the two of them moved companionably towards the buffet table.

“Surely there must be something new since then?” Obi-Wan said.

Later still the senators arrived, with Bail treating everyone he knew to a hug and being very pleased to be given Leia to hold. Breha had somehow manged to get more time off, and was delighted to have more of a chance to catch up with people on a more unofficial basis, and to catch Obi-Wan, which she never managed last time.

Riyo came, as did Satine, who’d just arrived in town, and had invited herself, to no-one’s real surprise.

Garen Muln cornered Obi-Wan after a while and managed to extract a promise of a less minimal explanation of how he’d managed to persuade not just one person, but two to enter a romantic relationship with him.

BANG!

Obi-Wan and Anakin whirled around, their hands falling to lightsabres to where their lightsabres were, or should have been.

“MESSA SORRY”

“Maybe if we ignore it, it will have never happened.” Anakin mouthed.

“Unfortunately, I think whatever priceless classic that has just been broken will remain in pieces.” Obi-Wan sighed.

“It’ll be fine,” Padme said. “But I should probably go see. Maybe it’s that really ugly vase Yoda got us.”

It wasn’t. Unfortunately.

Later on Anakin, Leia in his arms, found himself cornered by a very enthusiastic young senator. “I just love what you’re doing with We All Have Fear, it’s such a great name for a charity, and it’s so wonderful to see someone so high profile to help the war refugees, even those from outside the republic. You have such a great team. Fantastic team. I would be so great if I could-“

“Riyo.” Anakin interrupted her. He was out of practice, and he didn’t know the senator well, but this was still painfully obvious. “Just ask Ahsoka out. She might say no, but she might not.”

Riyo frowned at him for a moment, then relaxed. “It’s not just about that. You really are being to do great work. I- if I contact you during work hours, will you agree to a meeting.”

Anakin nodded. “I will see you there.” Possibly. “If you’ll excuse me, Leia needs some air.”

Bail opened the door to the terrace and wondered out, only to find a familiar group of people already standing there.

“It’s past E-day.” Asajj greeted him with.

Bail hadn’t really considered it. “It is.” He glanced at the twins, one in Rex’s protective arms, the other, in Anakin’s.

“We’ve done alright.” Padme said, considering.

“Step One, Investigate Sidious, done.” Ahsoka remembered. “Given he’s dead and we’re all exonerated. Which also coverers steps six and seven if I remember correctly.”

“I’m good too, so step three done.” Asajj said.

“Grievous is, well.” Anakin was interrupted.

“Grievous is dead, so four is covered, and we’ve now reached the 98^th percentile of men being de-chipped, so step two is well on its way.” Obi-Wan said.

“We’ve started steps five and eight.” Bail said. Reform didn’t happen overnight, and with the Senate not in session, the temporary chancellor had no powers whatsoever. Not that that stopped Mon Mothma from being deluged in paperwork. She’d already declared she wasn’t running for a full term.

Bail didn’t blame her.

He wouldn’t make the same decision, but- Well, he needed to talk to Breha before making any more decisions of that nature.

“We’ve started. We’ll get there. Plo’s being a big help, and Mace and Yoda are trying to edge Tholme into a council seat, which will help.” Obi-Wan considered, thinking of everything that he was trying to do. He looked around, then said, “Later, maybe, this isn’t the time.”

The faint sound of incredibly angry swearing came from below. Anakin leant over the balcony for a moment, catching sight of the traffic incident. He huffed. Coruscant. It hadn’t changed. Not this time around.

Padme leaned next to him. Obi-Wan next to her.

“Hey Leia,” Anakin considered the tiny life in his hands. All that potential, none of it yet realised. “This is your home, this is your mum, and this is your papa. We’re going to take good care of you, I promise.

Obi-Wan looked down at Luke, who was squirming in his own arms. “Hey Luke, this is you dad. He gets some stupid ideas into his head sometimes, but he loves you very much, as do your mother and papa.”

“You two will grow up to be just as amazing, but hopefully less hurt, than your counterparts.” Padme told both of them. “You have several hundred people willing to babysit you, and at least a dozen aunts and uncles. And you will grow up in a democracy, one that’s improving from its roots, and growing. You will be surrounded by a large family that loves you very much. Maybe you will be Jedi, maybe you will never deliberately use the force in your lives. Maybe you will be somewhere in-between.  Maybe you will be politicians, maybe you will be farmers, maybe you will be teachers, or explorers, or authors, or inventers, maybe one of you will never move far away from home and the other cannot for their ship is their home. It doesn’t matter. We love you, we will always love you. And you are going to be legendary.”

The words rang clear and loud, carrying above any background hum. Legendary. They were going to be Legendary.

“Just like their parents.” Asajj, who they had completely forgotten along with the other four of the seven. Who had presumably been behind them the whole time.  

They turned around.

“Just like their family.” Obi-Wan corrected.

Someone huffed.

“Don’t right us off just yet.” Rex joked.

“Oh, but we’re done for.” Anakin said.

“You have twins.” Ahsoka pointed out.

Anakin considered this for a moment, then gestured with the one hand he could spare. “Yeah, but,”

Ahsoka considered this for a moment. “Point.”

It was Padme’s turn to huff this time, as she looped her arms around both her lovers. “Love you.” She murmured.

“Love you too.” Anakin declared.

“Love you three.” Obi-Wan said, with an air of mock reluctance. “Aren’t the guests going to be wondering where we’ve gone?”

Ahsoka peered back inside. “Force that’s an ugly hat. Wait. I know that hat.” She sighed. “Grey, your friends have crashed the party.”

“They’re not my friends.” Asajj protested.

“Is that Hondo?” Anakin tried to determine. “I think it is. Why is Hondo here?”

“I didn’t invite him.” Obi-Wan tried to determine the atmosphere in the room. “He’s really heavily armed.”  

“This is about to be a ransom situation isn’t it.” Padme sighed and pulled a blaster out from underneath her dress. She pulled a second one out and tossed it to Anakin who caught it in his spare hand. She wasn’t the only one pulling out concealed weaponry. Where Asajj had hidden a blaster that large was a mystery. At least Ahsoka’s was a reasonable size.

Obi-Wan passed Luke to Bail, and drew his lightsabre. “I feel sorry for them.”

Asajj smirked, looking around at the heavily armed group. “No-one messing with my family.”

“No.” Padme considered. “No-one is.”

With that Obi-Wan pushed the doors open to see what awaited them now.

It was nothing that they couldn’t handle.

Notes:

Wow. This is over. I started writing this nine months ago and I can't really believe it's done now.
Thank-you so much for everyone who's read, kudosed and especially commented on this work. Those of you who took the time to comment every week, I noticed, and you really helped get this written.
I hope that everyone who's still here enjoyed the fic, if you're interested in similar : my next/ current (eventually obianidala) fic series, My Writing Blog, or My general/ personal blog
Other than that I guess it's just one more enormous thank-you to everyone, seriously, so many more of you like this than I could ever have dreamed, and you've been so encouraging, so just thank-you so much.
And please, the fic is over, so with smiley faces encouraged, please leave a comment and let me know what you thought!

Notes:

What did I say I'd never do? A Star Wars Time Travel fix it! What did I do?

Please let me know what you think. A smiley face or Kudos could really make my day. Chapters should be up weekly.

Note: Fic does not fit strickly with Clone Wars timeline.