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thechaoticfanartist · 4 months ago

Text

Phantom Pain

Gen

Warnings: None

Character(s): Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano, Grim Kennet (OC)

Relationship(s): Obi-Wan Kenobi & Grim Kennet (OC), Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker

Additional Tags: Post-Rako Hardeen Arc (Star Wars: The Clone Wars), Angst With A Happy Ending, Hurt Obi-Wan Kenobi, Hurt Anakin Skywalker, Hurt Grim Kennet (OC), Obi-Wan Kenobi has PTSD, Grim Kennet has PTSD, Protective Anakin Skywalker

Summary: After returning from faking his death, Grim still acts as if Obi-Wan's dead.

Read On A03

Obi-Wan had hated going undercover in the way that he did. When he faked his death he knew he hurt everyone that was close to him. They all had to believe his death was real.

Of course, his Padawan knew otherwise. He knew he would have never been able to have fooled Grim. As the Council was making this plan they had considered that there was a high likelihood of her knowing what was happening - however he decided it was best not to tell her anyways. Nobody knew for sure what Grim did or did not know, and didn’t want to risk it on a mission like this.

She had known. Before he had faked his death she had grabbed his wrist and begged him not to go through with the mission. He had to, he had a duty to the Republic and if that meant he had to fake his death and go undercover to protect the Chancellor, then that’s what he would do.

He had managed to convince her to let him go.

His deception had hurt everyone. It was for the safety of the Republic but what had been the cost? Ahsoka was hurt. Anakin was so betrayed that he avoided talking to him but when he did there was anger in his voice - but he didn’t blame him. He knew he had hurt him. Then there was Grim, she acted as if he really was dead. She avoided him, and never spoke a word, never as much acknowledged he was there.

She completely avoided him and cut him off in any way she could.

At least Anakin and Ahsoka talked to him, even if they were upset.

He had asked Master Windu to watch over his Padawan while he was undercover. Of course he was aware that at some point she had gone off with Anakin and Ahsoka instead as he had seen Grim fight Anakin in order to defend him. He wished she hadn’t done that.

After the Chancellor was safe and he was back home, he spoke to Windu about it later. He learned that Grim had apparently snuck out of the Temple at some point and got injured during this outing. According to Grim her injuries had been from ‘failing at parkour’ but Windu shared his suspicions as her injuries had not matched the claim.

Which caused Obi-Wan to wonder what trouble Grim had gotten into while he was “dead”.

Of course he would not get any answers while Grim was avoiding him - and he knew that even if she wasn’t she still would not tell him. She was a very secretive person after all.

He always respected that and never pushed her. He reasoned that Grim had her reasons, she knew so many things about the future, that knowledge could perhaps be dangerous. Sometimes he worried about the future she knew of, and the toll that took on his Padawan. He had only the vaguest of ideas of what it could hold from what she had said. He knew it wasn’t good. If it was then she would not be here, at least she wouldn’t have chosen to. She chose to stay, because she wanted to change things.

The more the war went on, the more Obi-Wan would occasionally wonder what these things were. He knew they were involved with stopping the Sith. He knew the future was bleak. He now knew that apparently he would die in 20 years. He could only guess at the rest.

What concerned him now though, was not this future. He rarely thought about it when he could. Although he knew his Padawan often did. What concerned him now was Grim. What had happened while he was gone?

He wasn’t blind. He noticed the changes. She was more afraid and she was rarely sleeping. She seemed even more restless than usual. He would ask her - he would talk with her, but he knew she wouldn’t tell him.

She was still angry with him over what he did. He didn’t blame her. He had betrayed her, and everyone close to him. She seemed to take it harder than he expected though. Especially because she knew. It was because she knew that she was so hurt.

Because Obi-Wan should have known that she would have known the truth. But he didn’t. He had no idea what Grim knew or didn’t know. Nobody did. She never told anyone anything. He wished she would be more open with him - but he also knew that he had just lied to everyone. So he was in no place to talk.

Grim was training more often, he noticed. She did that a lot when she was stressed or worried about something. Obi-Wan wondered what it was that was bothering her. Although she wouldn’t tell him, he knew that.

He did his best not to be hurt by the way Grim was treating him. He knew that he had hurt her. It was natural for her to be upset with him.

“Grim, may we talk?” He tried one day.

She said nothing. She gave no sign that she had even heard him.

Obi-Wan sighed. “You can’t keep doing this, you know,” he told her.

Again there was no reply. She instead walked away from him completely.

“Tiny still isn’t talking to you?” Anakin asked, walking over to him.

“No, she isn’t,” Obi-Wan sighed. “She acts like I’m a ghost.”

“Well you did pretend to be dead,” he remarked, crossing his arms.

“Anakin, can we not start on this again?” He sighed. “Grim’s silent treatment is enough.”

“Is it though? You really hurt people. Snips was the one that held your ‘dead body’, you know.”

Obi-Wan winced. “I didn’t mean to hurt her in that way.”

“We thought you were dead, what way did you mean to hurt us?”

“Anakin-”

“No. You’re lucky Grim is just giving you the cold shoulder, she’s your current Padawan, and you pretended to die in front of her. You saw your Master get killed in front of you, you should know what that must have felt like for her.”

Obi-Wan closed his eyes and tried to force back that memory. “I’m sorry, Anakin,” he said, opening his eyes. There were tears in them now. “I had never meant to-”

“It doesn’t matter what you meant, Master. Grim defended you while you were undercover. She knew you were still alive, somehow. I think she went with me to protect you, even though you hurt her in a terrible way. Despite betraying our trust she defended you, she has every right to avoid you now.”

“I never asked her to defend me.”

“No, but that’s the kind of person she is.” With that Anakin walked away.

Obi-Wan stood there. He didn’t know what to say. Anakin was right.

He decided to give Grim some space for the next few days. He reasoned that she couldn’t stay angry with him forever, and would come around at some point.

At one point he found her while she was training. He stopped for a moment before going to watch her. He was concerned with how she had been lately. Although he had given Grim space he still noticed how exhausted and sometimes even afraid she seemed to be.

She was practicing against one of the more advanced lightsaber training droids. She had been doing an impressive job, and had won each match. She was about to start on her sixth one when he noticed something. He walked over to her. “Padawan, I’d advise against it. You’re going to wear yourself out at this point.” And if she did that she could get hurt.

Once again she refused to acknowledge him. The closest he got to the fact that she had even heard him was the fact she did the direct opposite of what he had said. Instead of just starting another round she set it to the maximum difficulty allowed for a Padawan.

He sat back down with a sigh as she readied herself. If she wouldn’t listen to him, she would just have to learn for herself.

Grim was getting tired out from the back-to-back matches just as he expected. Her movements were slower this time, sweat was dripping down the back of her neck, and her chest rose and fell with her breath, but despite this she still remained focused on the droid.

She did well - at first. Her exhaustion took its toll and eventually the droid defeated her. She stared at the droid for a moment, and she seemed to tremble. Although it didn’t last longer than a moment, for she got back up and dusted herself off before deactivating the droid. Obi-Wan was left to wonder if her reaction had just been his imagination.

Grim left the room without a glance towards him. He stayed there for a little while longer. He didn’t want his Padawan to think he was following her - and really, he wasn’t. After debating for a little bit, he decided to practice against the droid himself.

The following day, when Obi-Wan woke up, Grim was gone. This did not concern him, as she woke up early in the mornings. He supposed she was likely in the Room Of A Thousand Fountains practicing her meditation. That’s where she most often was in the mornings in any case.

He went and ate his breakfast for the day. He had decided not to bother Grim again, as she clearly still wasn’t over what he had done, even if it had been a little over a week ago at this point.

When he was returning to his quarters somebody quite literally walked into him. He stopped suddenly and looked down to see Grim. His eyes went wide, as he noticed the various cuts across her body, and there even seemed to be some faint lightning scars. She covered the left side of her face with her hand as if to hide yet another injury. “Grim, what happened?” He gasped.

She tried to shrug him off as she had been doing since he returned but he blocked her path with his arms crossed. “You can’t keep acting like I’m dead, Grim. And now you’re injured, you’re bleeding even, so tell me, what happened?”

She looked up at him, as if she hadn’t seen him earlier. She kept her face covered, and awkwardly replied, “I jumped out of a window?”

She sounded unsure of herself, and Obi-Wan did not buy it for a second. “You jumped out of a window?” He repeated slowly. “Why were you jumping out of a window?”

She better have a good excuse for that.

“Umm…”

It was clear she did not think of an excuse before she ran into him.

Then - all of the sudden she began to cry. It took the Jedi Master entirely by surprise. “Grim?” He asked worriedly.

Then he noticed something else. He saw what she had been trying to hide. On the left side of her face, running from her jawline all the way up to her nose was a lightsaber scar. He recognized it instantly. What happened? He knew his Padawan - that was not from a training accident.

He hugged Grim. She tensed at the contact at first, and Obi-Wan started to release her, but then she melted in his embrace and returned it. She began to sob into his chest. He held her as she cried. “I’m so sorry, Master, I’ve been so petty, acting like you were dead, and now I’ve been such an idiot.”

“Shh,” He told her, gently soothing his Padawan. “It’s alright Grim, I forgive you. What happened?”

She looked up at him, her eyes shimmered with tears, her hair was a mess, there were small cuts all over her bare skin, and the scar on her face. It was impossible to miss that scar. “I was an idiot, I should listen to you more often.”

He could tell she wouldn’t say more. He let go of her. “We should get you to the healers,” he decided.

She let go of him, and pouted. “Do I have to?” She whined.

“Yes,” he replied, gentle yet firm at the same time.

He didn’t want that lightsaber burn to go untreated.

She didn’t put up a fight, and let him lead her to the Halls Of Healing. He kept an arm wrapped around her back to support her upon noticing how weak she seemed to be. He frowned, wondering what had caused her injuries.

Once Grim was getting cared for by the Healers he left to go tell Anakin and Ahsoka. They might be angry at him for what he had done still, but all of them cared for Grim in their own ways.

“Anakin, Ahsoka,” he said, once he found them. “We need to talk, it’s about Grim.”

“Are you going to try and get us to convince her to talk to you again, Master?” Anakin asked. “Because she won’t do that yet.”

“It’s not about me and Grim, it’s just about her,” he said. “She’s hurt.”

“What?!” Ahsoka exclaimed.

“What happened?” Anakin asked, suddenly very concerned.

“I don’t know, she hasn’t been talking to me. She’s in the Halls Of Healing now, I don’t know how long she’ll be there.”

“...how hurt was she?” Ahsoka asked.

“Badly, but not too badly I don’t think,” he replied. “She said she jumped out of a window, but there’s certainly more to it.”

“What’s Tiny doing jumping out of windows?”

“She didn’t say.”

“We should be there for her when she’s okay,” Ahsoka decided.

Obi-Wan smiled at her. “I agree.”

The three of them waited outside of the Halls Of Healing for Grim to be released. All of them were worried about her, and it seemed that had left little room for Anakin to remain as angry as he had been at his former Master. Although a part of Obi-Wan knew their relationship was never going to be the same again.

When Grim exited, Ahsoka rushed towards her and hugged her. She whispered something to her that Obi-Wan couldn’t hear. Grim hugged her right back and said, “it’s alright Ash, I just had an accident is all.”

Obi-Wan frowned. That was entirely different from what she had told him.

Ahsoka pulled back from her hug and traced Grim’s new scar. She frowned slightly.

Grim laughed nervously. “What, is something wrong? Do you not like it?”

“You shouldn’t have a scar like that at our age.”

“We shouldn’t be commanders at our age, Ash.”

“No, but all we’ve done as Padawans is fight, haven’t we?”

“It certainly seems that way.”

Obi-Wan’s heart broke at their words. Both of them were right, this war had taken their childhood away. They were far too young to have gone through what they have - and Anakin too.

The two Padawans walked back over to them. Anakin put a hand on Grim’s shoulder. “I’m glad you’re alright, Tiny, you had us worried,” he told her.

She laughed and smiled at him. “I’m tougher than I look, Skywalker.”

“Yes, I think you’ve proved that many times,” said Obi-Wan. “I’m glad you’re okay, little one.”

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