#and rex is sorry but also very much on obi-wan's team

[tennessoui]

Okay but wait “civilian” mob Anakin just absolutely wreaking that guy and obi wan is like “how’d you learn to do that? Are you military?” Anakin just having flash backs to Rex teaching him how to fight when they were kids and their boxing matches all the time. “I just go to the gym let me outta here.”

(Idk it’s your Au but I was reading ehe post and saw maybe anakin worked for obi wan’s mob when he was younger and so maybe he and Rex were friends because Rex is Cody’s younger brother? And so Rex and Anakin are friends even after Anakin get out of the mob and Rex just does idk casual stuff for them so he and Ani go to the gym and box and stuff just to stay fit.) ((also the absolute delight Obi wan gets when anakin calls padme “the mayor” instead of her name or his wife because he’s using this official title for someone he knows so intimately and for him because after they get together Obi wan is always ruffled when hes reminded that anakin isn’t completely his (((cause anakin isn’t completely deranged but come on Mobi wan always is)))

im thinkin im thinkin

i think to spice it up a lil bit, this mob obi-wan isn't nearly as deranged as obi-wan in pbatmb; at least, he could be and has his moments--especially where anakin is concerned, but he does care a bit more about the city and its people than mobi-wan in pbatmb does. he just cares with intensive violence as befitting a mob fic

but oh!!! rex & anakin! i think it's a great idea to have them be friends before, because youre right i do think it'd be interesting if anakin had a past working with obi-wan's mob when he was a kid and then met rex that way

but instead of them just staying friends, i think in this au it would make more sense for someone---cliegg?---to find anakin and adopt him/take him in after his mom died, and he gets kind of forced on the law-abiding path by cliegg and his new brother owen who is a very overbearing but also protective of him

and so he doesn't keep in contact with any of his old friends, maybe cliegg even moves cities to try and keep anakin in line for the sake of his future

but then they meet when anakin's grown up and back in the city, on the arm of his wife the mayor. i think it'd be interesting if palpatine was the police commissioner that padme and the city council trusted and respected and anakin trusted and respected too. and he's overjoyed when he runs into rex who is now a cop because look at them!! they both made it out of the mob life without losing themselves!!!

only to find out that's not really true when it's rex who brains him and brings him in to meet obi-wan after he kills (in self defense) idk tup or someone

[saphronethaleph]

Offer accepted

Leia’s comlink chimed.

She yawned, stared at it for a moment, then two synapses connected and she snatched it up.

“I’m here,” she said. “Is something wrong?”

“Leia,” Luke said. “I’m sorry for waking you-”

“Luke?” Leia asked, now almost entirely awake. “What happened?”

“...you’re probably not going to believe me if I tell you,” Luke replied. “Can you get the command team to the west side of the village as soon as possible?”

Leia held back a yawn, which was a struggle, and checked her chrono.

“Everyone should be asleep, it’s not even dawn,” she said. “Everyone from the command team who sleeps, anyway. I can do Threepio and Artoo, and myself on about… five hours of sleep? Maybe four?”

She paused, thinking. “Chewie might be awake, I honestly don’t know. Han almost certainly won’t be.”

There was a long pause, and Leia frowned.

“Luke?” she asked her brother.

“That’ll do,” Luke decided. “See you then.”

“All right, I’m here,” Leia told Luke, unnecessarily. “Han and Chewie were both asleep, so I got another commander in their stead… what’s this about?”

She stifled a yawn, and took a drink from some caf. “This had better be important.”

“Skywalker knows what he’s doing,” Commander Rex said.

“Yeah, you weren’t speaking to him last night,” Leia muttered, glancing at Luke. “I believe Luke knows what he’s doing, I’m not so sure that what he’s doing makes any kind of sense.”

“You might need to think again on that, Leia,” Luke said. “It turns out, it was surprisingly easy… I think we’re ready.”

He gestured, and Darth Vader stalked out of the pre-dawn gloom.

Leia nearly dropped her mug of caf, but the dark and imposing impact of the scene was immediately and drastically undercut when Darth Vader actually did drop his lightsaber.

“...what in the name of Padme Amidala are you doing here, Rex?” the Terror of the Galaxy asked, his vocoder apparently suffering some strain.

“Who would-” Rex began, his blaster covering the Dark Lord, then he dropped the weapon as well. “...General? You’re – you’re Darth Vader?”

“...yes?” Vader replied, looking down at himself as if he actually had to check. “I believe so?”

Then he did a double-take.

“What are you two doing here, exactly?” he asked, his helmet turned towards Artoo and Threepio. “Is this some kind of reunion? Am I going to see Snips come out from behind a tree? Is Obi-Wan going to appear?”

He sounded slightly frazzled. “Where is Hondo Ohnaka?”

“Father,” Luke said, his voice calm. “Please, allow me to explain as much of the situation as I know myself.”

“I’m not sure how to explain this situation,” Leia said. “What is going on?”

R2 beeped something that indicated that he knew exactly what was going on, and found it very amusing, thank you very much.

“Well, I don’t,” 3P0 said, with a sniff. “Why don’t you introduce everyone, you tin can?”

“Don’t worry, 3P0,” Luke told him. “None of us are in any immediate danger.”

Leia wasn’t sure she believed that.

“Oh, thank the maker!” C-3P0 sighed.

“You’re welcome,” Vader replied, crouching down to pick up his lightsaber.

“...okay, that bit I didn’t know,” Luke admitted. “But I’d better get started or we’ll be here all morning… I went to confront my father, and turn him away from the Dark Side.”

He glanced to his side. “I… don’t know if it’s worked, but I’d say it’s working at the moment.”

“How exactly did you pull that off?” Rex asked.

“I said that the Dark Side forced me to obey my master,” Vader intoned. “Then my son told me, quite passionately, that I was not a slave – that I was a person, and my name was Anakin Skywalker.”

His shoulders moved in a slight shrug. “He also asked me to come with him. As you can see, I chose to take up the offer.”

Vader let that stand for a moment, then pointed in succession. “That is Rex, formerly the commander of my personal legion in the Clone Wars. Those are the droids C-3P0, who I built on Tatooine, and R2-D2, who worked with me during the Clone Wars after a swap of C-3P0 for R2-D2 with my wife Padme Amidala. And that is… actually, I find myself unaware of your current personal situation. The only connection between us that I am aware of is that you are the daughter of one of my wife’s close friends, and that I should probably apologize to you at some point.”

Luke coughed, and R2 made a sort of beeping giggling noise.

C-3P0 still seemed to be in shock, which was fair enough, because so was Leia.

“Furthermore,” Vader went on. “Since I have defected, I will tell you the following. The Emperor is aware of your plans. He has an entire battle group ready to ambush your fleet. The shield protecting the Death Star is to be disguised by jamming. And an entire legion of the best troops the Empire has are waiting in ambush for any attempt on the shield generator.”

“So… what you’re saying is that our enemy has an overwhelming numbers advantage, an excellent tactical and strategic position, and they know we’re coming,” Rex said, having recovered his aplomb slightly and picked up his blaster. “And the only advantage we have is that we’ve got two Skywalker Jedi on our side.”

“I am still a Sith,” Vader replied. “Not a Jedi.”

“Still,” Rex protested. “Because… yeah, they’re karked.”

“This is the place?” Han asked.

“This is it,” Chewbacca agreed.

“Still can’t believe we’re going with this plan,” Han muttered. “Still can’t believe we’re doing what Darth Vader suggested.”

“I know,” Chewbacca noted. “You said.”

“I said because it’s true, fuzzball,” Han retorted.

He glanced around at the other commandos, then to either side of the draw they were in. It was a minor flaw in the deployment positions of the Imperial legion, a small blind valley through which troops could get close enough to attack by bypassing just a few Imperial guards… with a judicious mind trick from Luke, of course.

Not many troops, though. No heavy equipment. Just men and blasters, with two blaster cannon hauled up the draw.

“Stand by,” Leia said. “Who’s in position?”

“Team Besh, in position,” Rex reported, levelling one of the blaster cannon and being careful not to skyline himself.

“Team Aurak, ready,” Han said, as Chewie readied the other blaster cannon.

“Ten seconds,” Leia said, then activated her commlink.

A commlink set to Imperial scramble frequencies.

“Execute Alderaan,” she said, firmly. “Alderaan, Alderaan, Alderaan. Open fire!”

Rex opened fire, and so did the commandos on his side of the draw. His cannon shot hit the neck of an unsuspecting AT-AT, knocking it to the side and sending up a shower of sparks, and the commandos fired out a volley of shots at troopers and officers before ducking into cover.

At almost exactly the same time, Chewbacca and Aurek team opened fire as well. With different targets to aim for, Chewbacca elected to shoot out the knee of an AT-ST, and it fell over before exploding in a cloud of smoke.

A dozen or so stomtroopers fell in the fusillade of blaster fire, and then all the Rebels were behind cover as the Imperial battalions reacted.

Each had just taken fire from the direction of the other. Each had suffered casualties and taken hits.

And they’d just heard someone give a clear codeword. And when they looked in the direction of who could have been firing… all they saw were other Imperials.

Within seconds, blaster bolts were flying back and forth over the draw, as the Rebels began evacuating back down the way they’d come in. Leia flicked her comlink away from transmit mode, then nodded, and Han took out his own.

“They’re shooting,” he said.

“We’re far enough down the valley,” Rex pointed out. “We can run now, and we’ll need to – go!”

“Admiral Piett,” Vader said, his override codes cutting him on the Executor’s main viewscreen without preamble. “Your assistance is urgently needed. The Rebels have sprung a trap.”

“Lord Vader!” Piett replied, startled. “I thought – there were reports you were missing?”

“I was investigating the Rebel presence,” Vader retorted. “I am ordering immediate orbital bombardment, coordinates seven four two aurek nine, eight three six leth two.”

“But – I don’t understand-” Admiral Piett protested, glancing at the nearest reports.

They showed that firing was going on on the surface, and two defending battalions were already reporting losses.

“I do not require your understanding, Admiral, I require your compliance,” Vader said, his voice like iron. “If your mewling causes our defeat then you will have to answer to me personally.”

Piett could almost feel the forceful grip around his collar.

“Don’t just sit there!” he snapped, turning to the command pit. “Get a shield window ready and open fire!”

The Executor’s port turbolaser batteries opened fire, two volleys blasting into the sphere of the planetary shield, then a third one passed right through the now-open shield window and raised hell on the ground. The explosions hit like the mightiest ground artillery available to the Empire, raising huge plumes of smoke, and harried officers and ratings called reports back and forth.

“Correct north, fourteen,” Vader said, firmly.

“Correcting north fourteen!” one of the officers said, and the turbolasers spat fire again.

And destroyed the main shield dish in a fountain of explosions.

“What?” Piett demanded. “What just happened? Lord Vader, what is going on?”

The channel had already closed.

About ten seconds later, one of the Executor’s escort star destroyers opened fire on it, and Piett lost all track of what was happening.

“All wings report in,” Lando called, flicking a switch as the Falcon closed in on the Death Star, then frowned at his scanners as Wedge and Arvel and the others reported their squadrons ready.

“...well, I don’t know what’s going on there, but it sure looks like Han and the others have pulled something off,” he said.

There was some kind of battle going on in sector 3-7, what looked like an Imperial battlegroup tearing itself apart with turbolaser fire flashing back and forth in every direction and a boil of fighters trying to work out who was on what side. There was also a battle on the surface going on, one far more intense than anything Lando had expected the commandos to need to do.

Or be capable of.

“It looks like the Imperials are doing our job for us,” Nien suggested.

“Yeah, but we’ve still got a job to do,” Lando muttered. “Other squadrons on combat patrol; red group, gold group, all fighters follow me! Let’s pop that grenade!”

He shook his head. “And I thought rescuing Han was chaotic! I wonder who came up with this?”

[bushisbisexual]

intro to my acc 🤭

about me

i’m bush, i go by any pronouns and i’m from Wales CYMRU AM BYTH RAHHHH 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿‼️🙏💪

i have an uncountable amount of interests but this blog is mainly going to be related to media i like such as star wars, dc, yellowjackets, jurassic park etc etc, my other notable interests are: marine biology, football (💔) there's more but i can't be bothered to name them

star wars

i’m personally a big prequel fan but also really enjoy the main trilogy :)

i like majority of the characters in star wars but some of my favs are: padmé, anakin and obi-wan, cody and rex, ahsoka, leia and han, qi’ra, din and a few others

dc

my favourites are the batfamily and the teen titans, i do really like the suicide squad though and other characters in the dc universe

yellowjackets

i am not normal about this show (i never shut up about it)

laura lee love of my life justice for my gal

jurassic park

i have come to terms with the fact that i’m actually a massive jurassic park fan, the film and novel are both exquisite i’m sorry i literally live for ian, ellie and alan

football

i don’t expect to post about football much as i have another silly blog with @userblaney that we post on every decade @neco-williams

my fav team is liverpool

cody gakpo is my babygirl (real)

tagging

my knowledge of tagging is very limited, to be frank i have no idea what i’m doing so bare with me but my main tag is #bushisbisexual

dni (i will block you x)

the typical criteria (racist, homophobic/transphobic, ableist, misogynistic etc), any form of religious intolerance, terfs, pro lifers, south park fans (derogatory), obnoxious marvel fans, ginger haters (justice for gingers fr), english “people” 🤢 /j

that’s all my dm’s are always open if you want to talk :))

[shadowthestoryteller]

FNF Ch. 7 Back at It Again with the Popcorn PoV

This story really jumps all over the place with PoVs, doesn't it? But considering how many characters are roamin' around, is it really surprising? Ch 8 is more of the same, so y'all have that to look forward to! This Obi-Wan PoV almost was in Ch 6 but after some very stressful rearranging it is now in a separate chapter. We also get a one on one Cross and Shadow talk, with some small hints at events in TtFR! Sorry about the eye, Cross.

As always, all Patrons get chapters two weeks early! Big thanks to patrons Jesse, Dragon, and Lil!

CW: Authority trauma mention, subtle sexual humor, mentions of past physical abuse. 

Masterlist

----------------------

Interrogation? Is that really what the Realm Walker thought of him? Of the Order? 

Based on Cody’s description of Shadow, Obi-Wan expected a timid fighter who preferred to avoid conflict. Shadow was… not exactly timid. A bit of a spitfire if anything. Sharp tongued and defensive, he understood why Cody felt a degree of animosity towards them but he also could respect Shadow’s mistrust. 

The Order and the Republic were… not always right. 

Shadow was… a bit rough, to be sure, but no worse than Anakin. Or even Ahsoka when the Togruta teen was younger. But, oddly enough, Obi-Wan found he didn’t mind the snarky attitude even if the Realm Walker frustrated him. That was not to say they did not worry him. Their emotions swirled in a violent whirlpool through the Force; anger, excitement, fear, worry, protectiveness. The sheer intensity of emotions from one so powerful alarmed him, but Shadow was more compromising than he expected. As long as he respected them, and did not threaten them nor their team, Shadow’s mood remained stable. 

A comforting and reassuring discovery that he eagerly shared with the Council.

“Shadow was cooperative, then?” Master Windu asked. 

“I would not use cooperative, but they seemed open to conversation as long as they were not forced to do anything,” Obi-Wan replied. “Agreeable, even.”

“Hmmm. A problem, do you see them becoming?” 

“Certainly not anytime soon. They refused to share anything about the future, as Cody warned, but I did not want to press them and cause them to shut down.” 

“Are they as hostile as Commander Cody suggested?” 

“Not at all. I am uncertain of the specifics of their altercation, but Shadow did not attack him on sight so it may not have been as terrible as we feared.”

“Why have they called you to Naboo?”

“They rescued Corporal Echo, and now seek a week of leave for both him and Corporal Fives.”

Master Windu and Master Yoda exchanged shocked glances. “Rescued Corporal Echo? Was he not declared killed in action by the same explosion that took out your rescue shuttle on Lola Sayu?”

“Yes. But while burned and sadly missing his legs below the thighs, Corporal Echo is very much alive. Shadow spoke of some terrible fate befalling him in what I assume to be the original timeline, hence their anger with the Skakoan scientist.” 

“Know the future then, they do?”

“It certainly seems that way. They were not eager to share what they knew, and frequently expressed distrust of the Council and Order as a whole. But they were open to speaking with us in exchange for the two troopers’ week of leave.”

“Are they a flight risk?”

“Not at all. They do want to be involved in keeping troopers alive, that much is certain. Cody has also revealed that they are particularly fond of Captain Rex and the 501st.”

“Yet they will not cooperate with the Council?”

“They appear to have suffered authority trauma in the past, and while I did not pry it seemed quite severe. Enough to make them wary of anyone who holds a rank of any sort”

“Caused by your commander?”

“I believe the issue runs deeper, given Shadow’s tolerance of Cody. He is not the primary cause, I wager. But I did not press the matter in case it backfired.”

“A wise call,” Master Windu agreed. “When they come back with you, we may be able to put some of their worries to rest.”

“Should I confirm the week of leave for the men, then?”

“Yes. May the Force be with you.”

The Force better be with him, because stars above would he need it. 

Realm Walkers weren’t even supposed to be real, and yet one was out in the galaxy getting very entangled with many people close to Obi-Wan. Did they know of Anakin’s prophecy? They must have known of the war’s outcome, so would they also know the fate of Obi-Wan’s former padawan? 

Walking back to the transport with Cody and Rex, Obi-Wan waited until they were out of earshot of the commando group then turned to the latter. “Captain.”

“Yes, sir?”

“If I may ask, what did you and Shadow speak about? Were you successful in your talk?”

Rex remained quiet for a moment, glancing over his shoulder. “They… were concerned about sharing what they knew due to fear of a mole within the ranks, although they didn’t spill on who it was.”

Another insider threat? Wonderful. Just what they needed. 

“Ah. So no success?”

“Not exactly, sir. They agreed to tell me, or at least what they could.”

“They’ll probably swear you to secrecy,” Cody grumbled. 

Obi-Wan thought for a moment. While the lack of information would certainly hamper the Republic going forward, it would be far better to have at least one person outside of Shadow’s immediate circle aware of what lay ahead. Not to mention the progress made with the Realm Walker if their trust was built up. To see that one person from the Republic could be trusted may, in time, persuade them to trust others from the Republic. Perhaps, even, members of the Council. 

So long as the Council did not house the mole Shadow feared. 

Continue on Wattpad!

[sarcastic-sketches]

Order 66 Aftermath

Context for the Kitsune!Anakin AU here and a direct continuation of this.

Order 66 has kicked off and the Jedi are in chaos, along with the rest of the Galaxy. Meanwhile, Padme has been pregnant with Luke and Leia for the past few months.

Despite the casual FWB relationship she had with Anakin - and the emphasis both of them put on being safe with the physical side of it - Force Fated Twins are gonna happen whether you like it or not. Whoops. Padme was not that worried about it when she found out and decided she would like to keep them, especially as they were with a friend she was still in regular contact with. She’s more than financially stable and has a good support network. Anakin was slightly more worried about it because he’s now got a thing for Rex he was intending to commit to after the war and this complicates matters but he’s gotta be upfront about it. Also, all those times he wondered about what it would be like having his own children come back full force.

Rex, however, has no prior expectations of relationships or the implications of having sex within said relationships so he has a complete non-reaction to the news other than how his General feels about it.

Rex: Is this Congratulations or Condolences sort of news? Anakin: Well that answers my next question. Anakin: I’m happy about it Rex: Oh, then Congratulations!

Padme still never goes to see a doctor (only had droids) because she’s worried the parentage would have become obvious. She’s picturing them randomly showing up with tiny little fox ears or tails on a scan and people to be like ‘hmm, wonder who that could have come from?’.

Which is something Obi-Wan picks up on when he comes back to Coruscant after everything and does the rounds to try and find out what the fuck happened. Only to encounter Padme who is still on Coruscant despite everything with a very confused R2. I think Obi-Wan probably knew about the pregnancy too because it genuinely was an accident despite both parties trying to be careful and Jedi having accidental kids cannot be unheard of. So, Obi-Wan’s less ‘I’m so sorry’ about the whole thing and more ‘how are you doing?’ before he then fucks off to find Anakin. Taking R2 with him.

He’s still gonna side-eye his former Padawan hard for why he didn’t just ask to bring Padme to the Temple for a check up. Any child of his would undoubtedly be force-sensitive.

Anakin: She said she was handling it!

Padme retreats to Naboo in preparation to have the babies because yikes the Republic just succumbed into an Empire.

Meanwhile, Anakin has been playing eeny meeny miny mo with which planet to hide out on since he’s travelling with a pack of vulnerable children when Obi-Wan finds him. Given the lack of Skywalker Twins to commandeer his attention in this universe, he teams up with Anakin who feels so much better that the kids now have a Jedi Master because holy shit. Playing with the younglings in the Creche is one thing, being the designated adult is very different. It’s nothing like being a General or a Teacher to Ahsoka..

I’m not actually sure where they go to be honest. Maybe Florrum so Obi-Wan can bully Hondo into keeping them safe because that sounds hysterical. Probably Tatooine though because it’s literally the last place Sidious would expect Anakin to run to and he doesn’t think Anakin would attempt a double bluff. Also Anakin wants to see his mother, sue him.

Owen and Beru are surprised to say the least when not one but two fully grown Jedi tumble out of the massive ship that’s just parked outside their farm. Then they see all the displaced children.

Owen: We are not keeping them all Beru: Not all of them.

She is absolutely going to be adopting at least one though and Owen cannot stop her. Especially not when she has Shmi as back up. Cliegg had died sometime after the events of AotC but Shmi had already grown to deeply care for Owen and by extension Beru so she stayed. They are delighted to hear that there is about to be a new baby Skywalker soon though.

Shmi: I hope you can bring them here. I’d like to see them. Anakin: Mother, of course! Shmi: I can’t believe I’m going to be a grandmother… Anakin: How do you think I feel?!

There’s probably a joke in there about Anakin at least having a reasonable expectation of children happening so it’s not too much of a shock. Compared to y’know, immaculate conception out of fucking nowhere. He is slightly mollified by this, but then they can both celebrate the fact that this child is about to be born free and he’s going to do his damnedest to keep it that way.

Anakin tries not to make it obvious that he's trying to find Rex and Ahsoka because he knows what Obi-Wan will say but he's not subtle and the kids are nosy and talk loud. But Obi-Wan is totally on board with locating them and trying to see if they can reverse Rex's conditioning if he's still alive. Anakin does not almost throw up at that.

They get lucky though when Ahsoka pings through their bond again and they manage to slice the last known coordinates of the Resolute. It's a tracking mission from there and all the younglings are very eager to help out and make it into a lesson of sorts. They are a little hesitant about looking for a clone after what they faced in the Temple but they are assured by Obi-Wan that they will be safe. They will try to save Rex if they can but he will not let any of them come to harm for his sake.

Anakin is… less sure. Sure he dealt with the clones from his 501st in the Temple before but this is Rex. His Rex.

Then again, if Rex tried to harm any of the kids, Anakin would know it was no longer him in there. And these are His Kids. In the end, Anakin never has to find out how he'd react because Rex finds them and saves them from Bounty Hunters.

I'm just picturing The Team stopping on some planet to pick up supplies and news. Anakin has taken some of the younglings with him into town because they're getting cabin fever and they're trying to be low key. Robes on, hoods up, no lightsabers, and keeping to the edges but Anakin is still highly recognisable (those tails are hard to hide and he still can’t shapeshift them out fully). They get the attention of prowling Bounty Hunters who have a list of unaccounted for Jedi and Anakin's trying to keep himself between them and the kids. Teeth and claws out. Only for a shot to come out of nowhere, nailing one of the Hunters and spooking the other into running. A clone comes out of the dark. A clone with blue painted Jaig Eyes on their helmet.

Rex had been on planet searching for rumours of escaped Jedi that he could then put in touch with Ahsoka, and was planning to steal the Bounty Hunters list. Until he saw who they had cornered. He's not about to look a gift horse in the mouth if the Galaxy just wants to hand him back his General. Who is alive.

Anakin just rips that helmet off and then there’s crying and a lot of kissing before they get back to the ship.

This of course then puts everyone back in contact with Ahsoka. There’s more crying. Everything has gone to hell in a handbasket but the crew is back together (minus Cody, I’m sorry lad, we’ll get you back) and they’re all doing OK. Plus, Anakin managed to save a fraction of the Jedi Order.

A call comes for them a few days later from Bail on the Tantive IV with a set of coordinates. Padme has gone into labour. Ahsoka leads the way immediately, since Anakin is about to be responsible for two more kids and hot damn does she wanna be there for that.

Padme has the babies - surprise twins! - and at first they both seem human, until one of them sneezes and suddenly there’s a different pair of ears on their head (if you’ve ever seen Wolf Children, yeah it’s like that). They are both also incredibly bright in the Force.

Then Padme is handing them off to Anakin.

She can't have two obviously force sensitive children with her on Naboo when it’s the homeplanet of the newly self-titled Galactic Emperor. Especially not Anakin's kids - the former target of said Galactic Emperor - with parentage that obvious. She, Bail, and Mon Mothma are about to build a Rebellion. He can stay with them at the base of operations they are establishing when not in the Senate and help if he wants or he can go into hiding with the twins. Plus, he's had a lot of experience with children because of all the time he spent in the creche. He’ll be fine.

He chooses to stay and help form a Rebellion. Him, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, Rex, the little twins. Plus a dozen or so young Jedi.

Rex is suddenly a dad. He takes it rather well, even if he keeps referring to them as ‘tubies’.

[phoenixyfriend]

In Which Palpatine Leaves the Door Open

So, @purronronner suggested this on discord:

au where anakin finds out about palpatine during clone wars era like, coming in for a visit and overhears a conversation with Dooku about war planning he’s been pulled between palpatine and the Jedi/obi-wan/various things but I want to see him pulled between palpatine and his men could go either way on the sith part of the reveal even

palpatine is not aware! unless anakin’s course of action is to go “hey palpatine I must have misunderstood something right? :(“

(This was a group effort but there's a thing I wrote that requires this context so please bear with me.)

I'm just imagining Anakin backing out, closing the door, and turning to the Corrie Guard by the door to say a thing... and not finding words.

Eventually "Did you guys know he was evil?" "He's a politician, sir." "But like the evil ranting..." "He's a politician. Sir."

He's willing to use his men to save R2, but that's because R2 was part of the team and helping, not arranging battles to make things worse.

Anakin: Normally, I'd go to Palpatine to talk about my problems, but right now he is the problem... Obi-Wan and Yoda are off-planet.... Anakin, phoning up Padme: Help?

Per @atagotiak we also have some Intense Thoughts

Oh hey. The deception arc. And the subsequent argument that we don't see and stuff. Like there's all the ways you could justify it especially from an opsec standpoint (If Anakin acts like that around Padme why would anyone assume he can keep a secret about anything?) And it was a pretty tactically important thing for the war as far as anyone knew. But just. I've heard some people say that perhaps also Obi-Wan reasoned that hurting Anakin is an ok price to pay to make sure someone Anakin cares for doesn't die for real which seems plausible enough.

Anyways. My point is. Anakin gets a front row seat to sheevception when he actually sorta knows whats going on. Gets sidetracked halfway through yelling and stuff to think about how convoluted this whole mess is.

For more clone-centric things all the times Palpatine's like "I wish I could do more, it's truly regrettable, but..." Would just seem awfully fake now.

Anakin, belatedly: Wait, does this mean that, behind all the layers of bullshit, Palpatine was the one trying to kill Padme at the start of the war???

WHICH IS WHAT LEADS TO A WHOLE LOT OF FUN and yes this is the part I'm sort of proud of.

Okay so: Anakin's a shit liar, yes?

After he meanders over to Padme and has a breakdown, he then goes off to tell the Council about all this. I imagine she goes with him as moral support, and also because she wants to protect him from them calling him out on his legitimately terrible decisions. They're trying to come up with a plan to take Palpatine down without tipping their hands too early, because they need to investigate; for the sake of this plot point, we'll say that Palpatine mentioned a contingency plan while talking to Dooku, even if he didn't directly name the chips.

Someone mentions that Palpatine is going to ask to see Anakin, because he does regularly. And, as experience has shown, there is very little that will stop Palpatine from insisting that Anakin come see him. They can stall for a bit, maybe, but not for long.

"You could send me to the other side of the galaxy," Anakin suggests. "Short notice, so sorry, won't be around for a bit."

They point out that won't work forever.

"So... arrest me, or put me on a mental health hold?" Anakin tries. "Say I got violent at civilians or the clones for no reason and you need to make sure I won't hurt him, and then even if he visits me in the cell, I don't have to act normal 'cause he'll EXPECT me to be upset."

Palpatine presumably has spies all over, so he'd know that hadn't actually happened. Also, Anakin's too important to the war effort for anything short of a cold-blooded murder of an innocent, and they can't just take him off the field without an absolutely massive violation of the Code or his orders.

"Tell him I Fell," Anakin offers.

A Sith Lord would be able to feel that from across the galaxy, if it had happened, especially with the amount of time that he's put into grooming Anakin.

"Oh," Anakin says, and his stomach drops out as he realizes that he can either keep his secrets, or keep people alive.

He thinks about how Palpatine had targeted Padme already, and how if Palpatine thinks Anakin's betrayed him, then he'll probably do that again.

He thinks about 'a Sith Lord would know' and realizes... well.

Anakin values his freedom, but he also values his men, his padawan, his master, his wife... the wife that's in danger if Palpatine knows that Anakin caught him out.

The Order has to keep Anakin away from Palpatine. They need an excuse to arrest him. They need an excuse to hide him away, one that Palpatine won't question too hard.

A Sith Lord would know if Anakin fell. Even if he came back afterwards.

"So... so tell him you found out about the Tusken Massacre."

The what.

"...tell him you found out about the time I actually did Fall," Anakin says, squeezing Padme's hand. She knows. She's the only one who knows, on Coruscant, other than the Sith they're hunting. "On... on Tatooine. You can claim it was an anonymous tip. He already knows about that one. He's one of the only two people outside Tatooine that do. He might not question it."

(He won't question it.)

What did you do, Skywalker.

"I killed... a lot of people. A Tusken tribe. Including the children. Right before the war hit."

----

It's a hell of a way to fall on his figurative sword.

(Mace is... both impressed that Anakin would take the hit to make sure they can handle the Palpatine problem, and horrified about the Massacre, because... who wouldn't be.)

(Mace is unfortunately Anakin's main handler on this project.)

Anakin puts in so much effort, all the time, into not Falling, so it’s surprisingly (terrifyingly!) easy for him to fake a 'near miss' with the Dark just by thinking really hard about things that make him angry. Nobody wants him actually Falling for the ploy if they can help it, but they need to sell the bit, and Anakin's... well. He's Anakin. It's easy to think about his own emotional volatility until any control goes out the window.

He's sacrificing a lot for this mission! It's fine! He's fine!

(Padme, the council is judging you so hard right now.)

Palpatine comes to visit Anakin in prison, and it is very easy for Anakin to disguise his anger as... a different anger. I have a very intense mental image of Anakin working himself up into a frenzy when Palpatine comes to visit, and then at some point in the following conversation he just snaps something about how "you said they were animals who deserved to die."

The Council can even eke it out a bit, make it so they don't want to admit why Anakin's in prison or under a psychiatric hold or whatever they claim it is, so their "I'm hiding something vibes" look like "I'm hiding the fact that one of our most recognizable war heroes just came clean as a mass murderer and we have no idea how to handle it" instead of "I'm hiding that we know you're a Sith Lord and are working to take you down."

Obi-Wan comes back from an off-world mission to find out that Mace arrested his former padawan and Ahsoka hasn't stopped crying for three days because nobody will tell her what's going on.

(The Council decided this couldn't be risked on even an encrypted comm.)

(They maybe tell him soon enough? But also they might treat it like the Hardeen thing and use his reaction as fuel to keep Palpatine convinced.)

SKYGUY GOT ARRESTED AND NOBODY'S EXPLAINING WHY.

Rex is overwhelmed because it's been his job to keep her calm.

Anyway, padawanship has been temporarily transferred to the grandmaster. You were half-training her anyway.

Insert a subplot about Obi-Wan being horrified and betrayed and aiming the feeling at Padme because she knew about the Tuskens and never told.

[swbumblebee]

The group of Jedi Generals and senior clone officers were clustered together in the hanger, watching with keen eyes as troops from both the 212th and the 501st were suiting up and organising themselves into ground teams, ready to ship out.

Marshall Commander Cody let the usual Skywalker/Tano banter wash over him, as much background noise as the whirring of machinery and the thud of boots. Instead he focused his gaze on his own General, who was standing silently with an uncharacteristically distant look on his face.

“Sir, everything alright?” he asked in a low voice, positioning himself so the question was as private as possible.

The Jedi didn’t move for a solid twenty seconds.

Cody dithered.

“Sir?”

“Hmmm?!”

General Kenobi finally acknowledged him, seemingly quite startled to find Cody so close. “Oh ah, yes. Sorry Cody I’m just…” he trailed off, and Cody watched with a sinking feeling as the vacant look took over his face once more.

He was starting to recognise that look:

Force Oisk was going down.

“Padawan” the General cleared his throat suddenly and Cody was instantly alert.

To his amusement, both the younger Jedi looked up at the summons, stopping their horsing around immediately.

“Would you run and fetch my Shoto from my room please?” the senior Jedi asked politely, addressing Commander Tano.

Both younger people looked at him with the most confusing expressions. General Skywalker tilted his head in surprise and Commander Tano’s eyes widened in excitement as a smile formed.

“Really?” She asked in an endearingly childish tone, as if her Grand Master had just announced life day had come early. Cody half expected her to start bouncing on the balls of her feet.

General Kenobi only hummed in confirmation, tilting his head as if listening to something. If he wasn’t so used to the aforementioned Force Oisk, it would have been decidedly creepy to Cody.

“Yes…” he tapped his chin thoughtfully. “I’m not quite…but…yes” the General finally said, nodding firmly once at the end of his sentence. “Would you mind?”  

“Err Sure! I’ll go get it now!” she exclaimed enthusiastically. Turning back to the group seemingly as an afterthought, halfway to the doors, “I call Master Obi-Wan’s squad!” she called as she bounded out.  

General Kenobi shook his head fondly.

“Sorry, Sir…what’s a shoto?” Cody asked, hoping to jump in before it became any more of A Thing.

“Ah apologies Cody, that was rude of me” his C.O apologised. “A Shoto is a second lightsaber blade, slightly shorter than a main sabre. One uses it when performing double bladed fighting forms.”

Cody blinked.

He knew there were Jedi who had two sabers, Commander Tano for instance, but he’d never seen his own use anything other than his trademark single azure blade. Force knows he was lethal enough with it.

“Yeah, Jar’Kai” General Skywalker chimed in. “Master’s really good at it.”

Of course he was. Cody would have been surprised if his breathtakingly competent General was bad at anything.

“I don’t suppose it’s telling you why?” Skywalker asked drily.

“Unfortunately not” his Master replied flatly.

Before Cody could ask what the hell they were talking about now, Commander Tano positively skipped back over to them waving a lightsaber hilt that was slightly stubbier than the one Cody was used to seeing.  

“I’ve got it!”

It would’ve been a very cold person who didn’t smile at the enthusiasm of the young Jedi, and like the sun coming out from behind the clouds Cody’s General gave a soft smile as he took the hilt in his hands, briskly clipping it to his belt.

“Thank you Ahsoka.” The senior Jedi cleared his throat “hopefully I won’t have call to use it but” he shrugged “at least I can be prepared.”

Cody had A Bad Feeling about this.

“Master please can I go with Master Obi-Wan?” Commander Tano’s excited plea cut off his next question as she bounced in front of Skywalker, who rolled his eyes.

“I hope you’re as excited to hang out with me one day” he teased.

“We’ll hardly be ‘hanging out’” General Kenobi corrected. “But, Anakin if you have no objections, Ahsoka you’re with me.”

Skywalker nodded and shook his head fondly as Commander Tano punched the air.    

“Try and learn something Snips” he tugged playfully on her Padawan beads “I’ll see you later.” He looked at them all, suddenly serious “May the Force be with us.”

---

Cody had tried to prize an explanation from his mystic Jedi before they found themselves in the middle of the fray:

“General, why did you have to bring your shoto blade?”

He got a shrug in return.

“The Force told me to.”

Well. Ask a silly question.

But an hour or so later, as Cody paused (rather unprofessionally) mid-way through kicking a clanker into the other end of next week, it became apparent that the Force knew what it was doing.

Gradually the others around him, separatist and clone, were pausing and looking up as one, as on the top of a low building just up ahead their General was showing them just what this “Jar’Kai form” in the hands of a Jedi Master could do.

Once the spectacle had caught his attention Cody found he couldn’t look away; his General was moving almost faster than the eye could follow; blue and yellow blurs following him as he quite simply decimated the forces in between him and his goals; both the rusty old bastard that was Grievous, and the all-important controls for the shield generator.

Flips, turns, twists and jumps. So far away from his usual contained, tight style. Every so often the sun glinted off red hair, highlighting intense blue eyes and a determined grimace that spoke of utmost concentration, and the whole picture looked like a scene from one of the stained glass windows Cody once saw in a place of worship on some long forgotten planet.

He could’ve stared at the scene quite happily for hours.

“Still with us Commander?”

Waxer’s voice, clearly amused, in his ear brought him crashing back down to earth.

He cleared his throat, infinitely glad his helmet concealed his blush at being court staring (he did not moon, thank you very much Rex).

“Lieutenant. Keep that flank covered” he instructed, with a vicious kick to a nearby grenade bot.

Waxer, the impertinent shit, snorted in his ear.

“Don’t you worry Codes, if you ask Tano nicely she might let you borrow her recording. Maybe just tell her you also want some pointers on your Lightsaber work.”

That little-

The click of the radio signaled the dead air that met his insults.

---

There was no denying the very small voice at the back of the Commander’s mind that was seriously considering nabbing the footage, but by the end of the battle reality was sinking in. It occurred to Cody that there were now twice as many lightsabers to catch when they inevitably fell from a great and dangerous height.

Wonderfull.

[jokerscrazybrilliant]

Survive - Chapter 2 - (Captain Rex)

Chapter 1 · Chapter 2 · Chapter 3 · Chapter 4

Story on other platforms:

Quotev · AO3

________

“Master Kenobi,” I bowed my head to him as I entered the briefing room, reciprocating the smile he gave me.

“Hello Nimra, I hope you’re doing well today?” Master Kenobi was, as always, kind and warm, I had only heard about him before being assigned to Master Skywalker but now that I had met him, I wished I could’ve gotten the opportunity to learn from him sooner.

“Well, I’m glad the two of you are getting along.” Anakin commented, seeming to feel ignored. I smirked as I turned to face him, bowing deeply and exaggeratedly.

“Master Skywalker, you’re important too!” I grinned as Obi Wan laughed behind his hands at my teasing.

“Very funny Nim, we’re actually in the middle of a debriefing if you hadn’t noticed.” He gestured to the conference table where Captain Rex and Commander Cody of Obi Wan’s 212th battalion stood.

“Gentlemen,” I greeted as we joined them at the table, earning a polite nod from each in return. “My first mission?” I turned to ask Anakin, unable to hide my excitement. It had only been a few days onboard Master Skywalker’s ship, but that paired with my time on Coruscant, I had been out of the action for far too long.

Anakin shook his head at me with a small smile, “Not for you, not a mission. Just routine inspections of the outer rim outposts.”

“However, I think it would be good for Nimra to join the captain and Commander Cody. I believe it will be good for her to familiarize herself with the standard procedures and how these bases operate.” Master Kenobi said, stroking his beard in thought.

Anakin shrugged at me. “It won’t be too long, and as long as the commanders don’t mind, I don’t see anything wrong with it,” he looked to the clones in question.

“We don’t mind at all, General.” Commander Cody said, giving me a small nod.

“Alright then, that’s settled. You three can get underway then. And don’t forget to check in.” Master Obi-Wan said, then turning to analyze some information on screen.

Anakin pulled me aside before letting me follow them out. “I know you’re here to learn from me, Nim, but these clones have more experience than you and I combined. Make sure you show them the respect they deserve, and use this opportunity to learn from them, as well.”

I bowed my head respectfully, showing him I understood. “Of course, Master.” With that he gave me a pat on the shoulder and a small smile and headed to Master Obi-Wan.

“Have fun!” He gave a wave over his shoulder, and I smiled and walked out to catch up with the commanders.

I might’ve been offended that Master Skywalker felt the need to tell me to be respectful to the clone commanders, but I had heard enough comments from my peers to show that not all Jedi, and not all people, were as respectful as they should be towards our soldiers. While they fought valiantly and gave their lives to protect us, we had people insulting them, and viewing them as less-than. I couldn’t stand that, I had ended friendships with such disrespectful people, and I just couldn’t understand where they were coming from.

Shaking these thoughts out of my head, I quickly made my way to the hangar, not wanting to be left behind.

***

Inspecting the bases was very, very far from interesting, and I huffed as we finally settled in the ship, setting the route for the final base we had to check, the Rishi Outpost. It was definitely a learning opportunity, but I felt like I was back in the classroom, learning all sorts of codes and procedures I needed to have memorized. However, thankfully I didn’t have to do very much, rather I just observed, Commander Cody taking the lead on all the inspections thus far.

I could see how the commander and Master Obi-Wan got along, both of them having a high regard for protocol and rules, whereas Captain Rex was a little more flexible to adjust more to Anakin’s… unique way of doing things.

“You doing alright, commander?” Rex turned to look at me in the small open cockpit, smirking slightly at my slouched posture in the chair.

Giving him an expression that should’ve fried him where he was, I sat up straight, cursing him in my mind. “Fantastic, captain.” I forced the most polite smile I could muster.

“Good.” I didn’t miss the amusement that shone in his eyes, making me thankful I had been assigned to this particular battalion. I wasn’t sure I would’ve made it with Cody’s more serious personality.

“I’m going to contact the Generals, let ‘em know where we’re at.” The commander in question spoke up, gaining both Rex and I’s attention.

I nodded. “Good idea, commander.”

Me and Rex watched silently as Cody opened the frequency to contact Master Obi-Wan. “General Kenobi, General Skywalker,” Commander Cody greeted as they appeared in the transmission.

“Cody. How goes the inspections?” Obi-Wan asked.

“The tracking station at Pastel is fully operational. Captain Rex, Commander Nimra and I are proceeding to the outpost in the Rishi system.”

“Good. Report back once you’ve arrived.”

“Copy that. Cody out.” He ended the transmission as Rex set the ship into hyperspace.

“How long to the Rishi outpost?” I asked

“Feeling tired sir?” Rex turned his head to eye me in question.

“No of course not, I just want to know so that I can prepare myself.” I glowered at him.

“It won’t be a long ride, commander, Rishi isn’t far from here.” Commander Cody piped in.

“Thank you, Cody.” I gave him a sweet smile, wanting to be on his good side since he and Master Kenobi were friends.

“Not a problem sir.”

***

The trip to the outpost really wasn’t far and I was excited for the boring protocol checks to come to an end. Commander Cody signaled the base as we made our approach. “Rishi Outpost, this is Commander Cody, do you copy? Rishi Outpost, please respond.” My brows furrowed as it took them a while to respond to our hails.

“Sorry, commander, we’re experiencing technical difficulties.” A voice responded from over the comms.

“This is the inspection team,” Cody responded.

“Inspection? Negative, we do not require an inspection. Everything is fine here, thank you.” I shared a look with Rex at this strange response. They knew to expect us, and they were speaking with a superior officer, so what was with the unwillingness to comply?

“We’ll be the judge of that. Prepare for our arrival.”

“Roger, roger.” At this Cody shut off the comm, looking uneasy.

“Something’s not right here.” Rex commented, frowning as we approached the landing pad.

“Well, good luck. I’m putting you in charge of this one. I know Commander Sayla has been taking notes, let’s see how well you’ve been paying attention.” Cody said to Rex, me smirking at him behind Cody’s back teasingly.

“Well, you two go ahead, I’ll join you in a moment, I’ll just contact Master Skywalker and update him on our whereabouts.” The two men nodded at me before exiting the ship, leaving me to turn on the comm, tuning in to the correct frequency to reach Master Anakin. A small frown formed on my face as I was met with nothing but static.

Confused, I turned to follow after Rex and Cody. They were talking to an officer out on the deck. A flare showed in the sky, briefly catching my attention before I turned back to see Rex pulling out his pistol, shooting the officer in the head. “Rex are you mad?!” I shouted, running up to the two quickly.

“Relax, commander,” Rex responded, unconcernedly. He reached down and pulled off the dead officer’s helmet to reveal the faceplate of a droid, but not an ordinary battle droid. “Just as I thought. Looks like one of those new commando droids.”

“That flare must have come from the survivors.” Commander Cody noted.

Shots rung out around us as more of those droids revealed themselves, and they had us surrounded. Well, this is going well, I thought to myself sarcastically. “Ambush!” Rex shouted, moving back to find cover.

“Really? And here I thought it was just the welcome party.” I responded over the noise of fire, deflecting bullets to cover the two soldiers behind me.

“Those clankers have tough armour!” Cody commented frustratedly.

“Yeah, I never thought I’d miss those lousy B-One battle droids!” I responded, wanting to laugh but finding it difficult with all the shots I was taking. The droids had caught us unawares and had us completely surrounded, boxing us in between several storage crates and coming at us from all directions.

“We’re cut off!” Rex shouted between shots. Suddenly more commandos came out from inside the base, tossing handfuls of detonators in our direction. While I found it slightly flattering that they felt it necessary to devote so many explosives to destroying us, it also left us a very small chance of surviving the explosion. “Off the platform!”

“You don’t have to tell me twice!” The men jumped before me and I quickly followed, unsure of what I was diving into, but I had no time to think if I wanted to make it out of the small area before being blown to bits. Before I could fall too far, I felt the wind knocked out of me as someone grabbed me around the waist, stopping my descent.

“I gotcha, commander.” Rex spoke into my ear, causing a warmth to rise to the back of my neck.

“I appreciate the sentiment captain, but you forget, I’m a Jedi.” I turned to look at him with a crooked grin. “I have these cool magical powers that allow me to catch myself before I go splat.”

“Of course, commander.” I didn’t miss the amusement in his voice as he let go of me, and I landed gracefully on the ground, watching as the two soldiers lowered themselves using their cables.

“This certainly complicates things, commander.” Rex addressed Cody as we took in our surroundings.

“No worse than that time on Tibrin.” Cody responded lightly.

“We had the Generals with us on Tibrin. They helped.” My brow raised at how quickly he dismissed my presence. That paired with how he caught me when he certainly wouldn’t have caught Skywalker made me think they didn’t realize what I was capable of.

Well since you don’t think I can help, have fun on your own, I thought to myself, slightly annoyed. Master Kenobi and Anakin had sent me to observe and learn, after all. So that’s what I would do.

The approach of three unknown clones drew our attention and pulled me from my thoughts. I could feel their force signatures, and they were indeed clones, but I didn’t cut in to say that as Rex demanded them take off their helmets. They took them off, albeit confusedly, and introduced themselves as Fives, Hevy, and Echo. Rex and Cody introduced themselves, and me, and I gave a little wave from my spot in the back, but remained silent.

It was interesting to see the way they dealt with these younger clones. It was a new side of Rex I hadn’t yet seen. I stayed with my arms folded across my chest, leaning against a wall of the cave even as a giant eel like creature attacked, watching with only mild interest as the captain took it out with one shot. I was more interested in the young ‘shinies’, as Rex called them.

They were young and inexperienced but they had a firm determination that was refreshing to see. I walked in the back alongside Echo as we found better ground. “So, you’re a Jedi, sir?”

“Almost,” I responded with a warm smile. “Have you met a Jedi before?”

He nodded. “General Shaak Ti helped train us on Kamino. Without her belief in us, me and my batchers would never have succeeded.” He clearly had a lot of respect for her, and it made me smile to see.

“Of course. I have only met Master Ti a few times but she seems very wise.” Our conversation came to an end as we quickly climbed up closer to the outpost.

“Look sharp, rookies. As long as those tweezers occupy this post, our home planet of Kamino is at risk.”

“But there’s so many of them.” Echo’s nervous comment made me smile. They really were shinies.

“Doesn’t matter, kid. We have to retake this base, so we will retake this base!”

“And how do you propose we get through those blast doors, Rex, old boy?” Cody turned to look at Rex.

“I have a few ideas.”

He didn’t share his idea until we took out all the droids on the platform, me taking care of the stragglers before they could call for backup or notify anyone to our presence. But his brilliant idea was… well I could see how him and Skywalker got along, or perhaps they had spent too much time together because his idea was a very poor plan I could see Skywalker coming up with.

“This is never gonna work.” Cody sighed from beside me, making me chuckle and nod in agreement.

“I mean I could’ve just sliced it open with my lightsaber but I figured I’d let him have his fun.” I commented as we watched the captain faking taking off his helmet and holding up a decapitated droid head up in its place.

To our collective surprise, the blast doors opened, his plan succeeding. These droids might’ve had tougher armour than the standard B-One but they certainly weren’t much smarter. “Clones!” One called out in surprise, far too late, unfortunately for them.

“Roger, roger.” The captain responded coolly, shooting at it before we all jumped out and dismantled the rest of the droids. “Right, let’s move.”

“Permission to take point, sir?” Hevy asked, no doubt excited to be seeing some action.

“I’malways first, kid.” Rex responded, making me grin.

We were able to overtake the base quickly, Fives and Echo making me laugh as they argued over who got the kill on a droid. “Sorry Echo, that one really was Fives.” I gave him an apologetic smile.

“Get to the window. It looks like we have more visitors.” Commander Cody pointed out at the sky.

“It looks like a Separatist fleet.” I frowned at the sight above us. This was not good.

“That’s why they commandeered this outpost. They’re mounting a full-scale invasion,” Rex stated.

“Can we get a message out?” I asked.

“No good, they’re jamming all other communication and they’ve hardwired the all-clear signal. It’ll take too long to fix. And we’ve got company.” Rex pointed to the shuttle full of droid reinforcements that was making its way to us.

“Well buddy, you always said you wanted to be on the front lines.” Fives nudged Hevy lightly.

“We can’t protect the outpost long against that army of clankers.” Hevy said, turning to look at Rex.

“Then we’ll destroy the outpost instead.” My brows raised at this idea. It certainly wasn’t orthodox but it would cut off the all clear signal, which would capture our fleet’s attention.

Rex quickly got everyone on board with the idea and Echo came up with a solution on how we would manage to destroy the base itself, a plan quickly coming together. He really is a great leader, I thought to myself as I watched Rex divide the men into teams.

“Are you alright to go with Hevy and the boys to hold off the clankers, give us more time?” The captain asked me, fully aware that while he was in charge, I was above him in rank.

I nodded. “Of course, captain. Don’t worry about me.” I gave him a little smile as I followed after Hevy to the building’s entrance.

“Reinforcements reporting. Open up.”

Hevy opened the blast doors, blaster canon at the ready. “Didn’t say please.” He quipped, opening fire on the droids.

I laughed as I dove in front of him, deflecting bullets to cover him and taking out as many droids as I could reach. Many more took their place and I cursed at General Grievous in my mind, there was no doubt that he was behind this. “Just some routine inspections, they said, just to pick up some standard procedure. Yeah right.” I muttered, swatting away battle droids with my lightsaber as I grumbled to myself.

“Time to go commander!” Hevy called to me. I nodded at him and quickly jogged inside, still deflecting laser bolts back at the enemy. Quickly the blast doors sealed behind me and we made our way back to the command centre.

“Rex, time’s wasting.” Cody called out as we entered.

“Almost ready. The handset isn’t linked up with the detonator. Hevy.”

“Yes, sir?”

“This detonator isn’t working.” Rex said, handing it over to him.

“I’ll take care of it. It’ll be fixed in no time. You guys get out of here.”

“Just make it fast. Those droids are getting close.” Rex opened the ventilation shaft, gesturing for me to enter it first.

“I’ll wait, I’ll go last,” I opposed.

“Please commander, we’ll be right behind you. Besides, if you get hurt on my watch, the General won’t let me hear the end of it.” He made me laugh lightly.

“Fine then. Hurry up, all of you.” I quickly made my way through the tunnels, exiting and trying to find a good vantage point to watch the sky from.

The rest of the team was right behind me, and Rex looked up at the base. “Hevy, hit the – where’s Hevy?” I quickly turned at his words, noting that Hevy was indeed missing.

“He must still be trying to fix the detonator!” I quickly turned back and tried to make my way up the slope we had just come from, the rest of the team trying to get a hold of Hevy. He just needed to wait, I would be right there. Before I could clamber back into the ventilation shaft someone yanked me back by the arm, holding me back.

I watched in horror as the base exploded before me, debris flying everywhere, flames erupting from the pipes in front of me, nearly reaching my face.

I stared into the flames for several moments, face blank, before turning and walking away, the arm that had held me back finally letting go. How many lives now? How many lives had been given to save my own?

I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply through my nose, the smell of smoke and scorched metal filling my nostrils. Trust in the will of the force, I repeated the line to myself. Quieting my mind, I turned back to the group, putting a reassuring hand on Echo’s shoulder as he looked up at the flaming base. “Hevy always did hate that place.”

Our own fleet appeared in the sky momentarily, clearly getting the message that something was wrong, and gunships quickly appeared to pick us up. Suffice it to say I was more than eager to get off that rock.

“So, what have you learned from your trip, Nim?” Master Skywalker asked as I joined him in the hangar bay.

“That you and your captain deserve each other.” I joked with a grin, earning a laugh from Anakin and a look from the helmeted captain himself.

“I’ll take that as a complement.” Anakin responded.

“You should.”

***

After a small ceremony indicting Fives and Echo into the Five Hundred and First and awarding them on their bravery and success, there was a small informal celebration in the mess hall. We had staved off an invasion on Kamino, and we had two new recruits, so there was some celebration to be had. However, I knew Fives and Echo had the recent events still in their minds, and someone else who was nowhere to be found.

Making my way back to the hangar bay I found the captain sitting in a corner on a workbench, helmet on the floor in front of him. I came to a stop before him, unsure if my company was welcome or unwanted. Several moments passed before he spoke.

"I should've stayed behind and made sure they all got out. I should've known he'd try something stupidly heroic." His head was in his hands, elbows resting on his knees as he stared at the floor hollowly.

I sighed, sitting down on the bench beside him, staring ahead as I fell into my own thoughts. "It's not easy, when I think about all the people who have given their lives to save me. So many soldiers on the battlefield, like Hevy, like my Master," My voice broke at the mention of my old Master. Talking about him still brought up so much pain, and so many memories I tried to forget. "Some days I feel like I wasn't worth it."

"And other days?" He looked to me questioningly.

"I realize that it was never about me." I said, giving him a small smile. He nodded at me, considering my words. "When those people give their lives, it is because they are selfless. It is because they want to save lives so desperately they are willing to sacrifice anything. In that moment they are not thinking about me, and whether or not I am worth it. They are only thinking about saving anyone they can." I let myself speak my thoughts aloud, needing this conversation as much as he did.

"We should do our best to live well. To honour their sacrifice."

I looked at him thoughtfully, drawn to his dark golden orbs that held such meaning. What had those eyes seen? What emotion did they harbour? What knowledge did they hold?

I resisted the urge to sigh wistfully as I looked into his eyes, wishing I could know what they hid. "And so we shall." I gave a small smile and stood up, gesturing towards where the others were. "Now let's go celebrate the newest additions to the five hundred and first."

[themusicplayedherlife]

To Love is the Greatest Gift

1. The Return

pairing: obi wan kenobi x f!reader (past!din djarn x f!reader) characters: f!reader, anakin amidala-skywalker, padmé amidala-skywalker, mentiones of din djarin, obi wan kenobi, others word count: 2.6k+ warnings: angst, fluff, mentions of rent: the musical (death, second chances) uh... I think that’s it? summary: au!it’s never been the right timing for you and obi wan kenobi; maybe this time will be different. a/n: i started working on this story so long ago it’s ridiculous, but I suddenly had a surge of motivation to continue this story after some tragic family news. this was also very much inspired by @martlands and their amazing obi wan stories, made me want to write my own and here it is

all || next

“You broke up?”

One would think that the immediate reaction to someone asking if you broke up with your significant other would be to cry or begin to ask them what could have possibly gone wrong. But that’s not the reaction you give. 

The reaction you give is just a shrug and a strong pop, as you spoon more gelato onto the little spoon his twins love collecting. “Yep.”

“After only three weeks of dating?” Anakin doesn’t know why he’s surprised, but he is. This is probably the shortest living relationship you’ve ever had. “Why?”

“Why not?” you answer easily, nonchalantly and you know it frustrates him. “It wasn’t working out, so we decided to call it quits.”

Not even a month ago, you had been genuinely excited about finally getting out there and meeting someone new, and even more excited when you were telling him all about this person you met while out with some old friends. You had said, word for word, “he might be the perfect contender!”

Where did all that excitement go?

You sigh, finally looking up at him and away from your white chocolate gelato that's just to die for. “Ani, it’s fine. It just didn’t work out. It happens.”

He grimaces. “What happened between you and Din—“

You bristle at the mention of your ex, narrowing your eyes and his widen in defense. You know what Anakin and Padmé think of him and it’s not entirely pleasant (particularly from Anakin’s part). It’s completely unfair. Din is lovely, sure a little socially awkward, but lovely nonetheless. “Has nothing to do with why Gar and I ended things.”

“But—“

“Nothing,” you reiterate with a bit more force and he sighs, lifting his hands in defeat while holding his own cup of gelato.

“Okay. Okay, I’m sorry.” And then, like a light switching, he turns playful. “Was it his name that turned you off—Gar?”

You resist the urge to groan and roll your eyes. “Oh maker, you are annoying!”

You huff as you make the trek back to the trolley that’ll take you both up to the observatory. The rest of your conversation is forgotten as he navigates it towards continuing to tease you and the latest exhibit you had helped set up.

The Coruscant Observatory is one of the most popular attractions in the city aside from the Exotic Animal Sanctuary (where most zoologist work to help rehabilitate wild animals before reintroducing them back into the wild, only housing the ones that have been assessed to not be able to function in the wild on their own—which are unfortunately many).

Your place of work is known for its large, ground telescope; its monthly constellation exhibits; the multiple planetarium theater rooms that house lectures, activities, star projections, etc.; and its Astronomer Q&A program where visitors can ask astronomers questions and even get a tour of the space station.

However, most of your days are spent in your office, planning for the next exhibit or actually executing them with your team; meanwhile, Anakin spends them in tech, sometimes maintaining the telescope, other times helping with IT issues, but mostly making sure the theater rooms worked perfectly for their 4D immersion.

(You like to joke that out of the two of you, he has it easiest; sometimes he’ll run by your office to get to another part of the building while you’re doing something and you’ll yell out, “slacker” and he’ll respond with, “you just work too much”.)

“Are Padmé and the twins stopping by today?”

“Not today, maybe tomorrow,” he says as you both step out of the trolley along with a few tourists. ���I think today they decided to stay for some school thing.”

“Shouldn’t you know what that school thing is?” you chide him out of jest.

He scowls, there’s hardly any heat in it and it makes you grin. “It’s a music performance that the CN Theater is putting on.”

“Ah, and we all know how much musicals bores you.”

“I just don’t understand them,” he murmurs defensively as you climb the few steps leading to the entrance. The two of you smiling and greeting Rex at his security post and bypassing the ticket gate with your IDs.

“You mean you don’t have any taste,” you tease.

“It’s weird! I mean, most of them are all about tragedies and betrayals. What happened to the good ol’ romance and happy endings?”

“Not all of them are tragedies, Casanova.”

The main rotunda lobby is full of people milling about, looking at maps or the foucault pendulum in the middle of the room. Low chatter fills the room, shoes clicking and clacking against the marble flooring.

“Name one.”

Spotting the trash can and recycle bin, Anakin holds his hand out for your disposable cup and spoon and throws them away in their proper bin.

“Rent.” There are probably better examples, but you had been listening to the original cast album the night before and have all the songs still stuck in your head.

“Don’t two characters die?”

“Angel and Mimi.” You nod. “But Mimi is brought back to life by Angel, and is given a second chance at life.”

“She may have been brought back to life, but that doesn’t take away from the fact she died.”

“I’m not arguing with you on that, I’m just saying the ending was hopeful—not necessarily a happy ending, but it left you thinking—maybe things can get better.”

“And that’s not what I’m looking for. I’m looking for—“

“What you and Padmé have?” you ask him as you both reach the door of your office.

He pauses, mouth opening and closing before finally rubbing the back of his head sheepishly and saying, “Yeah.”

You smile, genuine and happy for your childhood friend. Who would’ve thought that years ago when you introduced them, they’d be here years later—married and with twins. You and Anakin sure as hell didn’t. For most of your childhood, you both believed you’d live out your life on Tatooine, hang with the same friends you’ve known since your pre-kinder days and eventually get married to each other—much to the dismay of your parents—because of benefits or whatever, until your parents decided they wanted to send you off to a private school in one of the major cities, derailing your and Anakin’s plan (for the better, if you’re being honest).

“You’re still coming over for dinner, right?”

“Yeah,” you answer, unlocking your office door with your key. “I have a meeting that might go over the expected time, but I should be able to make it on time.”

“Just let us know,” he says, rapping his knuckles against the door frame. “But you better be there! We have some planning to do!”

You roll your eyes and wave him away, promising he and his family will definitely see you at five. With a hearty chuckle he salutes you and leaves the door slightly ajar, just like you usually do. It’s your “you can come in to ask me questions, but knock first, please” visual telling.

With a soft exhale, you drop yourself into your creaking office chair, eyes landing on the first picture on your right—a younger you, only 18, fresh out of your uniform smiling wildly with a large bouquet of flowers that you can still distinctly remember the smell of.

“I am in love!” Padmé exclaimed, squealing in absolute delight at the flowers put in your hand.

Blue eyes crinkled with amusement, staring down at you. “Are you?” His voice was low, teasing and almost smug. He had obviously heard the gasp that escaped your lips when he presented you the colorful bouquet created with your favorite flowers that his father grew in their little garden.

“Irrevocably,” you answered, not able to hide your smile as you gently held it against your chest and smiled up at him. “They’re beautiful, Obi. Thank you.”

Obi Wan’s arm is wrapped around your shoulder, caught in the action of a booming laughter. He was always laughing in pictures. There isn’t a single picture you have of him that he isn't smiling.

Your finger gently trails over his smiling face. Maker, you miss him.

Is he still traveling? Or has he finally settled down again? Will he show up and spring some unexpected news on you again? Stars, you hope not. Shit didn’t go as planned last time and it probably wouldn’t again.

Your hand falls limply and you swivel in your seat, looking out the large glass window overlooking the majority of the city and sigh softly—an exhale of wary hope and sadness.

A bird soars by your window, it’s wings flapping effortlessly, diving before flying higher and away.

He’s not coming back. You know this. Coruscant just isn’t the same anymore. Not when he feels this city has taken everything from him.

One more year visiting Gui Gon without him.

The meeting runs longer than it usually would, just like you had expected. Checking the time, you let out a curse and quickly throw your belongings into your car.

Without wasting time, as soon as you switch on your engine, you place your phone on the dock and say, “Hey C-3PO, call Padmé.”

“Calling Padmé,” your phone’s AI answers through the speakers of your car.

“Are you outside?” Is how she greets you. There are loud noises in the background, children squabbling about something or another, and Anakin’s weary voice trying to rally them. 

You snort, pulling out of the undergroundparking lot. “Not yet, barely got out of my meeting and am on my way.”

“Please hurry, the twins really want to see you and are dying from hunger,” she says, amusement in her voice and not at all trying to hurry you. “They might start eating Anakin soon.”

“Hey, don’t bite that!” He yells from a distance.

“Hurry, please!” you hear over the phone—Luke. “I miss you,” he says, closer now. Which you immediately reply saying you miss him too, almost cutting off the next voice.

“And I’m hungry!” Leia’s voice follows his, practically yelling into the phone.

You laugh fondly, just imagining the childish glee on their faces at your scandalized gasps and your exaggerated “me too” answers.

“Leia, no yelling,” Padmé scolds her, gentle and kind. “Softer, please.”

“Sorry,” she says. “I’m hungry,” she repeats, softer, almost a whisper.

“Give me twenty minutes and I’ll be there,” you promise. “If not, you have my permission to start eating your dad.”

Leia and Luke break into a fit of laughter, yelling something away from the phone to Anakin, who once again lets out a loud, “Hey!”

Padmé chuckles, moving away from the voices of the children tackling their father and their play fighting. “Take your time, we’re not in any hurry to start eating. The kids had a hearty lunch and a snack after school.”

“What about you and Anakin?”

“We’re fine, don’t worry. Just get here safely and we’ll see you soon.”

You end the call with one last reassurance from her and let out a loud sigh when your car comes to a stop behind a long line of glaring red lights—traffic. You hate traffic.

You might be surrounded by blinding lights and different models of vehicles, but it leaves you alone with your thoughts, the low hum of your engine and music from your stereo drowned out by the chattering in your head. 

It’s never just one thing that you think about. It can go from one thing to another, to all of them trying to climb over eachother and be the most present: your friends; your family; the dog next door; Din and Baby; cinnamon apple cookies; the beach house in Naboo; sneaking out of the prep dormitories at 2am with Padmé keeping an eye out and Obi Wan holding his arms out for you; rose gardens and peach tea; freckles on blushing skin; drunken singing in a small living room; 21st birthdays crying in a bathroom stall; that stupid movie quote about choosing life; death; but sometimes (most occurring) it’s Obi Wan that weaves into every thought.

He’s a constant plague in your mind, has been since the first time he left Coruscant in search of himself. 

Sometimes they’re pleasant thoughts, memories kept in a nostalgic trunk that you occasionally like to sift through. Other times, they’re not so pleasant; those are the ones you constantly struggle with, try to push into the recesses of your mind and keep them under lock and key. But for some stupid, strange reason, your mind only ever remembers the bad, even when there are better things to dwell on.

“I just—I just don’t understand why you have to leave—Obi. Obi!” you practically yelled, watching him move around his room, grabbing and throwing things he pulled out into his duffel bag. “Listen to me!” 

He didn’t stop, not until you reached for his duffel bag and plucked it out from his hands. He stared at you, his duffel bag carelessly thrown to the floor with his clothes spilling out. 

Your breathing was labored, a sick feeling swimming in your stomach, words stuck in your throat now that he wasn’t hiding his beautiful blue eyes from you��his devastatingly heartbroken eyes. “I have to,” he finally said, breaking the silence. “I need to leave. This house—this city, it's suffocating me. I can’t—I can’t stay here anymore.”

“Obi… Obi, please.” You can’t leave me. You can’t! Please! Please, Obi.

“I need to do this for me, darling. I’m sorry.”

You should’ve fought harder that night, should’ve convinced him to stay, but instead you helped him pack again with tears obstructing your view and sobs escaping your lips. Maybe if you had, you wouldn’t have lost him.

No, your breath stutters as you lean back into your car seat, there was nothing you could’ve done. Either times. He had made up his mind long before that night.

A car honks their horn to your left and you jump, eyes focusing once more on the red lights of the car in front of you. You wipe at your face harshly and straighten your spine. 

That was years ago, little one. Shake it off. 

Sighing softly, you look up at the street name and make a turn onto the Skywalker residence street, your shoulders relaxing when their two story home comes into view.  

Shake it off.

Parking isn't easy to find in their neighborhood, not when it’s so close to the observatory and some of the most visited parks in the area, but you manage to find one just two cars away from their house. 

Gathering your things, you lock the door behind you and quickly make your way down the sidewalk, phone in your hand and typing out a message that you’re here.

It’s while you’re hitting send that you don’t notice the body in front of you, staring up at the house with an almost wary expression on his face, or how his eyes widen when they see you. It’s not until you collide into his body, soft with a fleece cardigan, that you notice him. Embarrassment begins to boil in your blood as you quickly apologize to him, berating yourself for not being more aware of your surroundings.

“Kriff, I’m so sorry—“ you start, but the apology catches in your throat when you look up.

“Hello, there.” Blue eyes, so soft and kind, like the ones you once used to dream of stare back at you—so unlike the pair of eyes you saw years ago. “It’s been a long time, darling.”

You can’t shake him off.

next

[ashthewaterghoul]

“What if Ahsoka Went to Mustafar”

Chapter 7

Rex’s voice came over the comm link, “The Chancellor is here with a division of the Coruscant guard led by Fox”

“We’ll be right there.” Anakin replied. He looked at Padmé, confusion on her face made him feel guilty; he kissed her and said “I love you, never forget that.” Then he ran out of the room with Obi-Wan. Ahsoka and Yoda were in the hallway and joined them in running to the front of the station. When they got there, Rex was stationed with Organa’s men and they had already engaged the enemy.

“Well, you’ll need these!” Ahsoka said while tossing Anakin and Obi-Wan their weapons. All the force wielders, including Palpatine, had their lightsabers ignited, ready for battle.

“Come, Lord Vader.” Sidious demanded.

“No.” Anakin replied “You lied to me!”

He ran at Sidious and started to attack him.

“Your hatred is giving you strength, you aren’t even trying to supress it, see how powerful the dark side can be?”

Sidious knew what he was doing been as this made Anakin so angry that his eyes glowed red. From then, flashes of red and blue replaced the two men. The fight went on for some time, Palpatine’s acrobatics and Anakin’s lightning fast strikes caused both to start losing their stamina. As Yoda witnessed this, he quickly came up with an idea.

“Ahsoka, Obi-Wan, apart help me push them!”

The two nodded as they all called upon the force to separate the two. Yoda brought Anakin back over to them but the success was short lived as the clone battalion’s incredible combat training paid off and quickly started to overwhelm the opposition. The Jedi’s team were doing their best to keep the clones at bay but it was taking its toll on the Alderaan troops. Being in close proximity to Fox allowed Rex to tune in the frequencies only carried in clone helmets.

“This is Commander Fox to Commander Cody, we need your help, I repeat, we need your help.

“Cody?” Rex thought, but before he could relay the message, Yoda stated his new plan.

“Attack Sidious I will, join one by one you will to assist.” he said.

He used the force and jumped over to Sidious. The Sith was surprised to see the little green Jedi was alive, which briefly played to Yoda’s advantage. The momentary surprise allowed Yoda to slide past Sidious and take his gaze away from the station. Sidious called his second lightsaber down his sleeve to his hand and ignited it, the crimson blade illuminating his disfigured face under his hood. He was determined to finish their business. As his back was turned, Ahsoka ran to join in but Sidious used the force and held Ahsoka back, but she was soon released when Obi- Wan jumped in to attack also. Ahsoka ran to aid the Jedi masters. Even though it was 3 vs 1, Sidious was somehow still getting the upper hand.

“Any time… now… Anakin!” Obi-Wan said struggling and panting.

The flashes of the lightsabers clashing made it almost impossible for Anakin to see where he should jump in. He remembered what Qui-Gon said about staying on the light, he pulled himself into a brief meditation and used the force to see the action. He saw what to do but all the clones were in the way. He couldn’t get past them without killing them, which he didn’t want to do. He looked at Rex who seemed to know what he was thinking.

“You have my permission, if that’s what you were going to say.” He said, after what happened to Fives and Ahsoka, the Coruscant Guard had a lot less respect from Rex.

Anakin nodded at his friend, gripped his lightsaber tighter and practically ran through them, slicing each one of them like a Tusken Raider. It took some time to get through them but in the end he saw his friends becoming more and more fatigued by the very quick combat of the sith. He didn’t know how to do this while staying on the light, he couldn’t, it was impossible; he just dipped back into the dark then, Anakin could already feel it’s seductive nature intoxicating him, clouding his conscious.

“Don’t worry. I am with you, Anakin.” Qui-Gon said through the force. Anakin swore he felt his master’s large hand on his back like he did all those years ago. While he had the courage to do it, he leaped up and flipped over the lightsaber caused chaos. As he landed, he sliced Palpatine in vertically in half. Palpatine grunted before he could take his last breath, and fell to the ground. The three of them stared at Anakin with complete and utter shock. Ahsoka couldn’t look at the mutilated corpse so she turned and ran back to Rex’s aid. Yoda, Obi-Wan and Anakin’s gazes went from each other to the body, all were expressionless. The moment was over powered by the LAAT’s of the 212th legion arriving. Obi-Wan saw his old battalion and flashes of what happened on Utapau invaded his mind.

“Oh, not good.” He said as the orange clad clones descended from the gunships and immediately started to attack.

Rex saw his brother, Cody, for the first time in weeks and decided to try and talk some sense into him. He tried to act like his chip was still in to blend in with the rest.

“Cody!” he shouted,

“Rex!” he replied, happy to see his brother alive. “Or should I say Commander? I do believe that congratulations are in order!”

“Not anymore, demoted.”

“Why?”

“I’ll tell you another time but for now, what do we do now the Chancellor is, well, dead?” he motioned to the decapitated body. Cody hadn’t even noticed, he was shocked at the sight and left speechless. Before he could respond, Fox ran towards them and said “We carry out Order 66 and execute the people responsible for treason.”

The mention of the command made Rex wince. He saw Cody straighten up and look almost robotic, just like the droids they fought against, programmed to do whatever is needed of them.

“Yes sir!” Cody said and started to run off but stopped when he realised that Rex wasn’t following.

“Aren’t you coming?” He asked.

“What? Oh right yeah.” Rex started to follow Cody, but while he wasn’t looking, he ran to the Jedi generals.

“Order 66 has been activated again for yours and Ahsoka’s termination.” The Captain said.

“Lovely.” Obi-Wan said completely monotone.

“A laughing matter this is not, Obi-Wan.” Yoda scolded “Stop this how do we, Captain?”

“All the clones have an inhibitor chip implanted in their brains; Ahsoka was smart enough to remove mine, but the rest of my men weren’t as lucky.” He turned to Skywalker “Remember when Fives told us about them?”

“He was right?” Anakin responded.

Rex nodded.

“How do we remove these chips?” Obi-Wan asked.

“We need a scanner and a surgery droid or capsule, it’s a short procedure and then they can function normally right after.”

“Look for one of these capsules inside, I will.” Yoda said, he then quickly ran through the commotion and into the station.

The three men ran back to help the other troops, Rex wanted to fight alongside Cody again, but he couldn’t betray his General. He could feel Cody’s confusion as he ran past him to the man-made trench.

“Rex, what are you doing?!” Cody shouted over the comm. Rex quickly thought of an excuse for his behaviour, “Doing it from the inside.” He shouted back.

“Smart move!”

Rex hated that his brother’s unique personality had dissolved to become just like all the other clones. The laser bolts flew between the two sides for a long time until Yoda’s voice finally came through the comm.

“Found the resources for the surgeries I have. Many of the capsules are there.”

“Understood, Master” Obi-Wan replied.

“How do we get them in?” Ahsoka said while blocking rounds of blaster fire.

“Try to pull them over with the force while Rex stuns them. Then Anakin, put them inside and the droids will get to work.” The Jedi master replied.

They all nodded their heads in agreement.

Obi-Wan and Ahsoka called to Rex as a trooper flew his way, Anakin dragged them one by one into the lobby onto a gurney which was quickly whisked away to a med-bay.

The clones started to see that there brothers were being forced behind enemy lines.

“They’re taking hostages!” Fox yelled out.

“We need to recue our brothers!” replied Cody.

They started to charge at the station.

“Rex! Get out of there!” Cody shouted.

“No can do, Cody.” He stunned his brother and dragged him in to Skywalker.

“There are too many of them!” Ahsoka said.

“Fall back!” Kenobi ordered.

Everyone went into the station and held the doors shut.

“How many are left out there?” Anakin asked.

“About half, sir.” Rex said.

“That’s too many.”

Bail Organa ran around the corner, “We have clones coming in the south entrance by some of the other med-bays.” he said.

“That’s where Padmé is!” Anakin said “Rex, how many are out of surgery?”

“We have around 20 left to go.” The Captain responded.

“Take them to the south entrance and get ready to evacuate the place if we need to.” he ordered.

“Yes sir.”

Yoda came round the corner.

“Skywalker.” Yoda called

“Master.” Anakin responded.

“Subdue the clones from here we can. Together we must work to do this. All their heads, hit against each other make them, but not too hard or kill them it will.”

Anakin nodded and they both held their hands out, reaching deep into the force. The clones all rose up in the air and all crumpled into a pile on the floor with a loud clang.

“To the med-bays, get them.” Yoda ordered. Everyone there obliged and carried a trooper onto a gurney. Rex ran back from the south entrance.

“All the troops are ready for the procedure.” He reported.

“And Padmé and the twins?” Anakin asked.

“I … I couldn’t see them sir.”

Fear once again rose in Anakin.

I’m sorry this chapter is so long, I couldn’t condense it or find a place to split it into 2. But I guess it makes up for how short the last chapter was😅. Also there is one chapter left of this and then its the epilogue! I hope you enjoyed it and please leave any feedback or suggestions for future fics. Please interact with my posts as much as you can! You can follow me on Instagram if you want @siriusly_a_jedi.

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[newswcanonprompts]

prompt #37 - Jedi are like Magpies and love their clones

sorry we haven’t posted in forever! to make up for it, i’m posting one of our longest and detailed prompts (maybe even the longest)- this came from a LONG discussion a few weeks back, and it was a lot of fun. this idea morphed a ton, and it became this huge thing. this is personally my favorite one, so hope you enjoy!

Jedi collect trinkets and wear them!!! Hand them to others as a very important gift

The Clones dont really get it, but they are happy

The jedi make them things like jewelry, keychains, little beaded things, colored strings, they’ll give them feathers, you name it 

Its another way to show that they are individuals, and that the jedi know them specifically 

The veteran clones have long keychain type things and the shiny clones want them very much and it’s something they look forward to 

The padawans hand the commanders things and being sad when the CC’s tell them they can’t take them into battle 

Krell gets found out earlier.

“Okay, look, i know krell is… well, he is *something* and i don’t want to accuse a master of the order but have you looked at his men?! where the hell are their keychains?!”

The padawans stage a protest at the senate because how else are they going to make sure that their troops know they are loved and get their trinkets 

This idea can get angsty really quickly (finding trinkets after battles, in ship crashes, or post-order 66), but we won’t do that because of how angsty this server already is, we need some fluff sometimes

Palaptine can commit self delete 

Clones will paint armor for padawans cause that is how they show honor and stuff 

The clones, upon figuring out what they mean, give their jedi trinkets also

Mirialan padawan holding armor they got: “ITS GREEN LIKE ME!” 

There are little figurines, some painted rocks, some little shiny things found on the battlefield

The clones who aren’t as good with their hands singing songs or telling stories

The jedi record them and keep them on little datachips that they keep on them at all times

Barriss doesn’t go bad because this is happy time

The jedi padawans start a riot / protest outside the senate building because some clones got their trinkets taken away by asshole civilians because they’re “not human”, just copies

The (now very pissed off) jedi sprung into action

If a snooty senator(s) takes away a clone’s trinket, the jedi just sit back and grind to a halt. Because if the clones, the PEOPLE WHO PROTECT THE REPUBLIC, are gonna get treated like that, the war can wait 

The jedi knights and masters just meditate wherever the padawans are protesting

This is done to ‘keep the peace’

If anakin hears a snooty senator degrade the clones, he starts ranting and shouting about their individuality and accomplishments, while pointing at each trinket.

Someone live streams this

Luminara joins in (barriss is right behind) 

Aayla too 

Luminara, anakin, aayla, tag teamed shouted speech 

Ahsoka and barriss are being held back by the CC’s (ahsoka is making some very crude hand gestures and barriss is like “i can name every bone in your body as i break it” - cause barriss has all that healer knowledge) 

Once these three are done, mace windu comes along with the council. They think mace is going to scold the three of them until mace starts shouting at the senators too. The council just lets mace do all the talking. 

This is the most watched live stream this year. It’s very funny and starts a ton of memes (obi wans face, yoda meditating, the look of “oh shit” on the original snooty senator’s face, the look of surprise on everyone when mace starts shouting too - there is also a gif made of the council looking at the situation, looking at themselves (mostly mace) and then they all step back to let mace do the talking, the clones faces when they see that three jedi and then the jedi high council are defending them)

Mace, rolling up his sleeves: “okay let’s do this” 

The senators: backing away in fear 

Obi wan might commit a war crime right now because no way people can talk about his troops like that

Obi wan: “am i allowed to kill a senator?”

Cody: “General, do not-”

This whole thing leads to a massive debate and overwhelmingly good PR for the jedi and clones

Shady sheev doesn’t like that. Good PR for the jedi? No thank you. But since this is a fixit he gets his ass kicked later on so everything’s fine (skeevy sheev has to scramble to try to fix his plans though) 

All the padawans from that one lightsaber episode (the one on ilum where the younglings got their kyber crystals) are there and SHIT’S GOING DOWN

Petro in particular is very close to kicking someone’s ass 

Caleb dume is there also.

“Master depa said we should never raise our blades in revenge or anger. But this is not revenge.” this is war, this is justice, this is defense of a defenseless group 

Padme also joins in all of this (but much more calmly)

She also might make some passive aggressive comments about the snooty senators trash outfit 

She and all her senator friends are gonna blacklist the original culprit 

Padme and bail organa (they also got help from many jedi) put in the clone rights bill the next day

In the halls outside the debate chamber, padme threatens to gut people with her hair pins if they don’t vote in her favor

sure, it’s *technically* extortion, but come on, who’s gonna stop her? those pins are pointy y’all

Anakin tried to help draft / present the bill but he spent most of his time ranting about the injustices the clones have to face (leia had to get it from someone)

Anakin, out of breath: “AND ALL YOU SENATORS JUST SIT HERE, DOING NOTHING, WHEN THEY’RE OUT THERE DYING FOR YOU-” 

Padme: “okay ani i got this, drink some water please” 

Ahsoka also jumps in 

Plo, who’s watching the debate: “little ‘soka, please don’t hurt anyone” (but he’s not about to stop her, after all these are his sons we’re talking about) 

If someone said “well they’re not slaves?” anakin would go OFF. if you thought he was angry before… you got another thing coming.

“I AM A FREED SLAVE! I KNOW WHAT IT IS LIKE! THESE MEN HAVE LESS RIGHTS THAN I DID AS A SLAVE!” 

If the public doesn’t know about his childhood before, they do now

Imagine the shock 

Padme: “Ani, deep breaths, it’s gonna be okay.” 

Also padme, to the other senators: “well i mean he’s not wrong you assholes”

Padme is also making very well timed comments and suggestions. It’s the most successful day she’s had since she became senator

She’s also revealing all the senators��� dirty secrets

Padme: “oh, senator so-and-so, i released all your finances and your voting history on the holonet. I’m sure your supporters will love that you’re embezzling funds. Oh, you lost your support? Tragic.” 

The jedi also have dirt on everyone and they just casually let everything slip like they weren’t secrets 

Shady sheev Palpacreep is in his little podium thing during the debate, and he is very pissed, because his plan is getting ruined, but he can’t let it show or else people will discover the truth about him

Anakin: “isn’t it great that we’re finally doing something about it?” 

Sheev, pained: “Of course-” 

This whole debate is still live streamed - and it’s very popular

The senate who made the original comment and started all of this is #cancelled 

This is the greatest thing the galaxy has ever seen / watched because drama 

If a jedi dies, and they aren’t brought back to the temple, they are burned with the other dead on the battlefield. Young padawans take their master’s trinkets in remembrance, wanting to follow their path and have tangible proof that the master passed into the force but that they left their mark in the world

You do not burn the trinkets. Krell tried once. It almost started a jedi civil war (maybe that’s how he gets found out) 

Or maybe krell was found out because he gives zero trinkets to his men, and everyone caught on and were like “hey wtf man” 

But if you wanna make it angsty ( cough cough umbara ) then krell tells the 501st to remove / burn / throw out their trinkets or he’d do it for them 

He gives them an example by slicing a very special one that anakin and ahsoka both gave to rex 

Krell also slices one of dogma’s. It was the only one dogma had because  he was newish to the battalion at the time and wasn’t sure if accepting the trinkets was against regs or not. Krell slashes it and dogma doesn’t say anything but there were tears in his eyes 

All the jedi who find out what happened replace all the trinkets so fast. They also give krell’s men a shit ton of presents.

Krell’s men have no idea what to do with them, but they are so touched a few shed tears when they get them 

The clones get small tattoos of patterns that the little padawans drew for the men

The tattoos are small because some of them *might* just be random squiggles but the padawans looked so happy the clones just had to get them tattooed

Anakin orders japor wood with padme's bank account to make snippets for the clones because it’s not only a jedi thing, it’s from anakin's homeworld - and that’s like the highest praise you can get from him

The clones might not know exactly what it means but they know its super special 

Padme figures out a way to buy japor wood in bulk. Anakin is very touched by this 

When snooty senators start badmouthing clones, yoda just sits there and meditates to drive the senators nuts

“Sitting, i am, because stand you bitches, i cannot” 

Padme gets many trinkets from the 501st because they all *know* about her and anakin

Any trinkets that she gets she likes to incorporate into her outfits (like the warrior fashionista that she is) 

She embroiders some of them into her dresses and hairpieces 

They both get a TON of trinkets when the twins are born

Padme also gives trinkets to the 501st, some of the 212th, and all of the coruscant guard. Especially fox cause she sees all the work he does and the senators he has to deal with 

She’s besties with the coruscant guard. Like yeah, she knows the 501st and they know about her and anakin (and she’s one of them because of it) but the guard is who she’s always with

She probably wore red on debate day to represent them

[evabellasworld]

Storm of the Republic

Chapter 28

AO3 Link | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28

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Summary:  When Tup murdered General Tiplar during a battle, Anakin Skywalker and Captain Rex dispatched Ahsoka, Fives, and Yara to solve the mystery that was plaguing the Clone Army. Meanwhile, Senator Padme Amidala contacted Commander Fox, Commander Tori, Riyo Chuchi, and Dipper to help her continue investigating the death of Palpatine, suspecting that Dooku was behind the evil plot. But when Dooku send an ISB agent to stop them, the team had to race against time to search for the truth, which could alter the course of the galaxy.

————————————————————————————

Bulldozing through the jungle, an Imperial officer was seated on the transport, recording a list of crates inside the inventory. There were 6 crates of Angel’s Heart that were collected from the mines, and he had to make sure that everything was accounted for. The last thing he wanted was his superior giving him a demerit for his performance at work, or worse.

The Empire isn’t like the Republic. Everything has to be in order, otherwise, he would have to pay the price for his failure. As harsh as they are, the officer thought the Imperial is more organised and fair, unlike the previous administration. Back then, Aaron was stuck as a clerk for 27 years. He hoped that his last boss would notice all the effort he had contributed, but that didn’t happen.

Instead, his deserved position was given to the boss’s son, leaving him disappointed. Most of his friends also had a higher position than him. While they were enjoying life with a higher salary, Aaron had to get by with his husband and two daughters back home. He always dreamed about pampering them with whatever they want, but that only happened once a year.

After this, I’m going to treat them to a steakhouse tonight, he smiled to himself, as he peeked through the Angel’s Heart. And I can finally get the makeup palette Lia has been saving up for months.

The soft pink crystal was shaped exactly like a heart, reminding him of Valentine’s day. It was common for Aaron to see the Angel’s Heart crystal in a fancy jewellery store, but he wasn’t sure why the Empire would want a huge crate of them. To him, they were just there for the pleasure of the eye. There’s no healing properties from the Angel’s Heart at all.

I hope everything goes smoothly this time. The last time I transported these to HQ, we had to deal with raiders.

Unfortunately, that was only a dream. Before Aaron could sit down, the transport braked abruptly, causing him to fall on the metallic floor. “Ouch,” he yelped, as he got up and rubbed the side of his face. “What’s going on up there?”

“Sir, we have a pregnant woman crossing the street,” the B1 battle droid reported to him. “Should we fire, sir?”

Aaron shook his head. “No, don’t open fire. I’ll see what I can do for her.”

As he stepped out of the vehicle, Aaron saw a dark-skinned woman strutting in front of him, cradling her baby bump with one hand and carrying a sack with the other. With a tattered hood, he noticed her feet were adorned with worn-out slippers, prompting him to approach her gently. “Excuse me, but do you need help?”

Odd Eye widened her eyes as she turned towards the Imperial officer, realizing that she was dealing with someone who was flesh and blood. “Thank you for your kindness, but I can handle it myself.”

“I can help you,” he insisted, keeping a safe distance from her. “You’re pregnant and you look like you’re struggling to walk.”

“Are you sure about that, sir?” her voice shook, hiding her hands behind her. “I’m sure you have a lot of things to worry about right now.”

Aaron shook his head as he offered his hand. “Don’t worry about me, miss. I’ll be alright, I promise.”

With a hint of hesitation on her face, Odd Eye took a deep breath and held his hand as they crossed the muddy road together. He was kind, just like Erhan.

She never expected that an officer who worked for their enemy was helping her. She wondered if he was happy with his current job, given that the Imperial didn’t treat anyone with kindness and compassion. Her shoulders slumped as she thought about his fate in Imperial’s grasp.

“Thank you for your help,” said Odd Eye, as they reached the other side of the road. “You’re too kind, sir.”

“No worries miss, I’m glad to help,” Aaron gave her a warm smile. “Though I don’t mean to pry, but are you currently living with your partner?”

She frowned, her head hanging low. “He’s not here anymore.”

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” he replied. “I’m sure he was a great man.”

“He was a decent man,” Odd Eye sat down, nestling her bump. “My partner was overjoyed by the news. It was too bad he would never get to meet his son.”

He nodded, pressing his lips together. “I bet you miss him very much. It must be painful to carry your baby all by yourself. I mean, I can’t imagine being separated from my husband and my two kids. It’s the saddest thing you could experience in life.”

“You have a family back home?” she looked at him, forcing a smile. “Are you close with them?”

“They’re the joy of my life. My family is the reason I’m still here, even if life turned gloomy. We always have each other’s back, no matter what.”

Odd Eye bobbed her head silently as she noticed Boil, Faven, and Hyewon infiltrating an Imperial Troop Transport, taking down the droids without a single sound, along with Thire and Stone taking on the second vehicle. Thire and Stone assisted the three of them, giving them a thumbs up.

They seem to understand the assignment. I'm impressed.

She then shifted her focus towards Aaron, who was showing her a picture of his family, which was taken in a professional studio. “Lia is my oldest child. We adopted her from a foster home when she was 2 years old. She likes makeup and fashion, and she wanted to be a stylist after she graduated from trade school.”

“That’s cool. What about your other daughter? What does she like to do?”

“Mika loves to sew dolls in her free time, especially creepy dolls. She likes them very much, even though it scares me from time-to-time.”

Odd Eye chuckled, watching Nygma pulling out a droid’s head from its sockets. “Well, it’s good she enjoyed her hobby. I would kill to make myself a doll like her too.”

“You have no idea what she’s capable of,” Aaron gleamed, as Odd Eye signalled Tarot and Draco to take on the first transport, without the officer paying attention at all. “She loves horror movies a lot. She doesn’t even flinch whenever she sees blood. It’s pretty creepy, if you ask me.”

“I see a bright future for your daughters, sir,” she praised, as she glanced at Cody stabbing a droid with a knife. “I have faith that they will thrive in the future. Say, may I know your name? You seem like an interesting person.”

“Aaron, my name is Aaron Koo,” the officer introduced himself, not knowing that Obi-Wan had slashed the enemy with a lightsaber. “What about you, miss? What is your name?”

Before Odd Eye could answer him, Aaron heard the blaster clicking behind him, causing him to turn around with his hands up. “Surrender, Imperial scum,” ordered Cody, pointing his weapon at his face.

“Take it easy, Codes,” Odd Eye stood up, holding out her hands. “He doesn’t mean any harm. He’s only doing his job, that’s all.”

“You heard the lady, trooper,” Aaron gestured towards Cody. “Drop your weapons. No one is getting hurt here.”

Reluctantly, Cody lowered his blaster as Obi-Wan and Mina approached them, putting down their weapons. “You’ll be safe with us, officer,” reassured Obi-Wan, before turning to Odd Eye. “You did a splendid job, commander. Well done.”

Aaron froze as he stared at Odd Eye. “You were going to kill me? After what I’ve done for you?”

“I’m sorry, Aaron, but you have a good heart, and I didn’t want to hurt you at all.”

“Please don’t do this,” he begged, dropping to his knees. “I still haven’t told you about my husband. I don’t want to die without saying goodbye to him. I love him so much. You would understand, miss, considering you’ve lost your partner without any closure.”

He’s right, thought Odd Eye.

“You’ll be safe with us, officer,” the Jedi kneeled towards him. “You have my words. We won’t let anything happen to you and your family.”

Aaron could only stand up with his arms behind his head as he saw Thire stepped out of the transport. “We have successfully taken over all the vehicles, general,” the Coruscant guard reported. “Permission we proceed with our next plan?”

“Granted, commander,” Obi-Wan approved. “Let General Gomez and General Almarez-Guttierez our status report.”

“Sir, yes, sir.”

[songbird-wings]

maybe like some Ahsoka and padmé bonding time with some anidala or something like that. feel free to go any direction with it :) love you!!

Thank you for this prompt Maddie! I love Ahsoka and Padmé’s dynamic as well as Anidala so this was fun to write! Hope you enjoy it! (Also read it on ao3)

I Will Always Hold You Close 

Padmé knew their last mission was a disaster. An ambush. They were outnumbered, and flanked. The 501st lost too many men, more than they needed to. It’s always too many. Padmé hated seeing Anakin's face after missions like this. He always had a faraway look in his eyes and the corners of his mouth never twitched up in that smile she loved so much. She wanted to reach inside his mind and pull everything he saw, everything he experienced, out and lock it in a box so he wouldn't have to suffer anymore. 

It was late now. Coruscant shimmered with the bright lights from the city contrasting against the black sky. The air was cold as a breeze blew into her apartment from the open balcony. But she didn’t mind. Padmé was warm enough with Anakin's arm around her. She tilted her head to look up at him, he still had that look on his face and it made her heart ache. He hasn't said much since they returned. 

She remembers him and his men getting off the transport. Too many were injured, she didn’t want to think about those that didn’t make it. She saw Rex first as he took his helmet off, a stoic face as always, and then helped his brother step down from the ship. Behind them was her Anakin. He was helping a trooper with a limp walk down the ramp and once at the bottom a medic took the Clone and Anakin turned around and walked back onto the ship, emerging a few moments later with Ahsoka whose arm was in a sling. Anakin placed a hand on her shoulder as the transport took off after unloading its passengers. Ahsoka looked up at her master, who in return gave her a sympathetic smile and squeezed her shoulder a little tighter. Padmé began stepping towards them, but she heard footsteps from behind and she turned to see Obi-Wan, he greeted her and then looked around at the crowd on the hanger bay. 

“Have you spotted them yet?” He asks, she can hear the concern he tries so hard to hide in his voice. Padmé points in their direction.

“Over there.” She tells him, and they make their way over through the mass of medics and the injured. 

“Master!” Anakin calls once they get into view, but his gaze quickly shifts to Padmé. “Senator.” He says a bit softer. Ahsoka gave them both a small smile, but closer up, Padmé could see she was not in good shape and she was leaning on Anakin to stay up right.

“What happened?” Obi-Wan crossed his arms. Anakin sighed Padmé resisted the urge to embrace him in that moment. 

“It was an ambush. My platoon went above the cliffs, while Ahsoka and Rex’s team took below.” He started, he looked down sullenly at his padawan. “The droids came from the caves in the cliff. It was dark and we were outnumbered. They dropped a rock slide on Ahsoka and Rex after they tore through my men.” Anakin looked down at his feet. But Padmé noticed his grip still strong on Ahsoka's shoulder. 

“We spent more time digging out our men from the rubble, than we did fighting the clankers.” Rex interjects stepping into the conversation. Padmé noticed the condition of his armor. It was scratched all over and so coated in dust it couldn't be considered white anymore. “I’d be crushed right now if Commander Tano hadn't stopped that boulder.” He says to her with a grin. 

“Anytime.” She said, her voice hoarse and raspy. 

“Have you seen a medic yet, young one?” Obi-Wan stepped in front of Padmé and got a better look at Ahsoka's injury. 

“She said she’d wait until the rest of the men were checked. I’ve tried to convince her otherwise.” Anakin groans. Padmé smiles. She liked watching him fuss over her, it showed one of his best sides. 

“Sounds very much like someone I know.” Obi-Wan mocks, but Anakin didn’t respond. “Anyways, come on Ahsoka, I’ll bring you to the Temple medic or your arm will get infected soon.” Obi-Wan says wrapping his arm around her and taking her from Anakin's grasp. Padmé notices how Obi-Wan's robe nearly engulfs Ahsoka as they begin walking away. 

“Look after her-” Anakin mumbles quietly, but the other two Jedi were already out of earshot. Padmé looked around and noticed that Rex had gone back to tending his men and her and Anakin's eyes met. She couldn’t help but smile and through his sorrow she saw his expression melt for just a moment. He was about to reach out but his hand flinched as they both seemed to realize where they were and who they were surrounded by. Padmé blushed, and Anakin's name was called from across the room. 

“It seems your men need you, General.” Padmé smiled, looking out again over the injured clones. It made her sick. 

“See you later tonight.” Anakin whispered to her before he went and disappeared among his men.

Padmé, now back in the present, reached up and ran her hands through Anakin's curls. He needs a haircut, she thought. “Ani, it’s not your fault.” She says gently, her hand moving from his hair to his cheek. His eyes close at her touch and she can see reflections of light in the tears that escape from the corners of his eyes.

“I almost lost my entire regiment. I almost lost Ahsoka!” He whimpers quietly. Padmé can feel him tense up and she wipes at the tears. 

“And I almost lost you.” Says Padmé. He opens his eyes and looks at her. “Ani, you care so much for your men and your padawan that you don’t see that they care the same for you.” 

“But we almost didn’t make it-” He winces, holding her hand. 

“You did make it! You, Rex, Ahsoka, you’re all back safe. You got them back, Ani!” She reassures him, sitting up on the couch and turning his head to look at her. She leaned forward and kissed his cheek then moved to his lips. She felt him relax suddenly at her touch and he pulled her closer as they melted in each other's embrace. 

“I need to go back to the temple.” Anakin breathed after a few minutes. Padmé pulled away. She wants him to stay forever, and she knew he would if she just asked. But she couldn’t. He cupped her cheek in his palm and placed a kiss on her cheek before getting up from the couch. 

“Ani?” Padmé called to him as he gathered his saber and robe. He raised a brow at her. “How long will you all be on Coruscant?” 

“I don’t know.” He admitted, latching the lightsaber to his belt. “With the injuries, probably a few weeks. Why?” There was a smile she was waiting for. 

“I was thinking I’d host a dinner.” She tells him, getting off the couch and walking around the living room to face him. 

“A dinner? For who?” He asked, as Padmé straightened his robe. 

“For you, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, and Rex.” The Senator looks up at her husband. That crooked smile on his lips. “I think you all deserve one. We can do it here, I think that would be the easiest.” 

“That sounds wonderful, my angel.” Anakin replies, leaning down and kissing the top of her head. “You think anyone will question it?” 

Padmé leaned back pursing her lips. “Well, we can always say I’m hosting the dinner as an offering of gratitude from the Senate for your bravery in the war.” She smirks, pushing some loose curls from Anakin's face. 

“Sounds good to me.” He tells her. “I’ll pass the word onto them, we can do it once snips is cleared.” Padmé saw the twinkle in his eye. She knew he just needed something to look forward to. 

“It’s settled then. Now, go or you’ll be late!” 

The night of the dinner Padmé was busy double checking the food, the table settings and the drinks. She wanted, she needed this evening to be perfect for them. The bell rang and on the other side of the door were three Jedi and a Clone Trooper. “Senator.” Rex greeted, standing up a little straighter. 

“Oh, you can drop the formalities tonight Rex.” Padmé laughed. “Just relax tonight, you all deserve it.” 

“Good to see you, Padmé.” Anakin winks at her as he passes. She follows his eyes as he walks into the apartment. 

“Thank you for having us.” Obi-Wan says to her. She looks over at him.

“It’s nothing Obi-Wan. Please, have a drink.” She leads him over to the table. Anakin hands Rex and Obi-Wan a drink from the tray on the bar. Obi-Wan made a comment that sent Anakin into a rant, causing his captain to chuckle, but Padmé’s eyes wandered over to her sofa. A pair of montrails poked up from behind the couch. Padmé snuck away and found Ahsoka sitting on the couch. Her robe was still on and it made the Togruta look even smaller than she was. 

“How are you feeling, Ahsoka?” Padmé asks, sitting next to the Padawan. Ahsoka seemed to be shaken out of her thoughts and looked startled to see Padmé sitting next to her. 

“Oh, Padmé. Sorry, I didn’t say hello at the door.” She says lowering her head. Padmé could tell something was off with her. 

“That’s alright.” She affirmed. “How’s the arm?” Ahsoka looked down at herself. The injury was nearly healed. 

“It’s better. Nothing a bacta-pack won’t fix.” Ahsoka looked up at the senator, forcing a smile. 

“Alright,” Padmé sighed. “What’s going on with you? Sitting alone at a party, while your Master is being mocked just isn’t like you.” 

Ahsoka glanced back behind her and Padmé saw the expression of sadness on her face when she looked at Anakin. “It’s just-” She pauses and looks back at Padmé. “This is the third mission I’ve been injured on in the past month. I feel like I'm letting Anakin down. I hate that he has to worry about me all the time. I feel like a liability.” Ahsoka spills. Padmé can’t help but grin. She reminds her of Anakin so much. Padmé puts her arm around Ahsoka's shoulders and pulls her into a side hug. Ahsoka doesn’t resist the comfort and puts her head on her shoulder. Padmé wished in that moment that Ahsoka knew she could always count on her. 

“Anakin does not see you as a liability, Ahsoka.” Padmé tells her. “Trust me. If anything he enjoys making a fuss over you. He may not always show it, but he has a big heart.” 

“How do you know?” Ahsoka questions. Padmé winces. 

“Well, Anakin and I are very old friends. We confide in each other.” She explains, the half-lie she’s told so many times rolls off the tongue. 

 “Oh.” Was all Ahsoka said. 

“He’s very lucky to have you as his padawan.” Padmé reminds her. “I can tell you both learn a lot from each other.” They were silent for a moment. The only noise was coming from the men behind them. Padmé so enjoyed Ahsoka’s company. She glanced down at the girl laying on her now. Still so young, and yet, in the middle of a war. Thinking about the situation made her dizzy with frustration and regret.

“Thank you, Padmé.” Ahsoka mumbled quietly, pulling Padmé from her terrible thoughts. 

“I will always be here for you, Ahsoka. Anytime.”

“Are you two ready to eat?” Anakin's voice called, he was walking over to them. “Everything alright, snips?” He asks, eyeing them as his padawan sits up from the sofa.

“I’m good, master.” She claimed, getting to her feet. 

“Alright.” He smiled, watching her walk past and sit at the table. Anakin stops Padmé before she can pass. 

“She okay?” He asks her quietly. Padmé nods. 

“She just needed a little reminder, that’s all.” The senator replied. “Now, let’s eat.”

[gabriel4sam]

Hi! I’m so sorry you’ve had this news. If you need distraction, how about Carry On by Fun. For Cody/Obi-Wan, Rex/Obi-Wan, or Cody/Obi-Wan/Rex, whichever you prefer!

Thank you for the prompt! 

Under the cut, a little CodyWan ficlet!

 Cody remembers Obi-Wan on a space station, just at the beginning of the night shift. For a moment, it seems the pain will break him. And not only emotionally: his heart is determined to beat itself out of his chest, his stomach is revolting, his skin is clammy, and his guts are tying themselves into knots.

For a moment, Cody thinks of not carrying on without the man he loved until Order 66 put his soul offline. He doesn’t think about blasting his brain out alone in his bunk, no, but he thinks of going to the machine rooms and taking the entire ship with him in an explosion worthy of the Team, or to arrive on the bridge and kill the Grand Moff they are transporting to their new posting.

For a moment, he thinks of revenge, and the sweet oblivion of death and the desire for an end is so intense he can taste it on the tip of his tongue, the moment he will spat blood and his last breath.

But he doesn’t. He simply takes his shift hours later, and when they disembark the Grand Moff in the Outer Rim, quietly slips out and loses himself on a planet which name he doesn’t even care. He doesn’t care where his feet upon its foreign ground take him only that it’s away from slavery.

Little by little, Cody learns that he can carry on, despite the ghosts roaming his brain. Despite the memory of Obi-Wan’s body falling in that fourth-damn canyon and despite his brothers lost free will and not knowing what happened to so many friends.

He doesn’t search for the Rebel Alliance. It’s still a burgeoning movement, and he could help build something, but he knows himself too raw yet. He knows his first engagement against the Empire would be the last one.

Cody build himself up, pieces after pieces. He finds a job, for an herbal tea vendor in the market, and doesn’t smile when thinking how Obi-Wan would find that hilarious, since Cody always classified his own beloved teas as dirty water. After a time, the former Commander even develops a taste for some of them. But only some of them.

Cody carries on. He learns who he is. Not the Commander, not the vode, not Obi-Wan’s lover, or Rex’s friend, or the older brother, or the soldier, or the warrior.

He learns who Cody is.

Cody loves the scent of spring on his new world and hates rain.

Cody loves shellfish but has no particular taste for meat, whatever the animal.

Cody falls asleep when he tries to read poetry, but can watches dozen of not-so different plots in Rhodian soap operas without getting bored.

Cody adopts a little singing lizard with blue scales and a missing leg, which he rescues one day of a band of little miscreants in the market.

Cody learns gardening of his old landlady, a charming Mon Calamari.

Cody, twice a month, authorizes himself two drinks, no more, at a local cantina, and sometimes he even lets people picks him up. Whoever tries that night and is aesthetically pleasing. He learns that he loves all sort of gender and species and that what Obi-Wan and him explored was only scratching the surface. He refuses to feel guilty. If he was dead and Obi-Wan alive, he would wish for him to move one.

Exactly four years after arriving on the planet, Cody packs his belongings and his lizard and goes in search of the Rebel Alliance.

He has learnt that he can live without war. He has also learnt that he can’t live letting the Empire grows more every day.

He has learnt more about Cody. He has learnt that Cody can stand on his own. That Cody can carry on without Obi-Wan and build a life. That he isn’t just a half, a lover, a missing piece. He’s a human being, no matters how unorthodox his birth.

Of course, the first person he sees in the freshly founded Alliance HQ, when he arrives with Rex, Gregor and Wolffe, is Obi-Wan, greyer, more tired, something he didn’t think possible, but very, very much alive.

Cody almost goes back up that ramp and into the ship.

But he’s strong and is own person. If he can carry on thinking he killed Obi-Wan, he can do too, if Obi-Wan doesn’t like that new person he discovered inside himself. And if Obi-Wan does, they can learn together who they are in this new world, not a General and his Commander, but two rebels, simply two men.

Cody descends from the ship and carry on.

[ilonga]

Got some Avatar Au Questions! So I'm assuming mustafar deviates significantly from canon, but how do obi-wan and anakin sort things out? How do obi-wan and Ahsoka escape palpatine's purge? When Anakin joins up with the rebellion, what is the reunion like for obi-wan, anakin, & Ahsoka? (The last one might be spoilery, so I completely understand if you do not want to elaborate on it)

oooh these are questions I’m super excited to answer!!

ok, to start with answering these questions, let’s first explain how Order 66 goes down in this au. 

As I already mentioned, Palpatine has some sort of team up/deal with Vaatu that allows him quite a bit of control over the spirits, and he’s been using this power to orchestrate the spirit attacks starting with Maul so long ago. As the years passed, Palpatine increased the spirit attacks and the destruction and death they caused, and used this to gain more power himself and, eventually, create an army to fight them. At the end of the AOTC-adjacent era, he, despite Padme’s fighting against it (”We have had peace with the spirits, respected them, for centuries--we must find out why they are attacking, not escalate the conflict!”), creates the Grand Army of the Four Nations to fight back against the spirits in the first Spirit War in centuries. He then conscripts nonbenders into the army and places members of Raava’s Order, benders, at the head of various battalions. 

When it comes time for Order 66, Palpatine orders the spirits to posses various nonbenders and has them attack their Generals/Commanders with intent to kill, taking most of them by surprise. Similar to canon, most of the benders are slaughtered while some manage to escape. A lot of the nonbenders are then killed/disposed of, so Palpatine doesn’t have many people who know the truth in the way (and also, he can claim that the benders killed them in their quest for power and turn the public against them even more). In addition, for benders not in battles/in the temple, Palpatine sends the Inquisitors, firebenders that he’s kidnapped and trained in secret over the years. 

Ahsoka in this au (an airbender) is a bit like Jinora from Legend of Korra; she has a strong spiritual connection and connection to the spirit world. Because of this, she’s able to save herself and Obi-wan, and save some of the nonbenders from the spirits’ possession, such as Rex and some others. In the chaos, they get separated and don’t really have time to figure out what just happened, but they both know, to an extent, that Palpatine is behind this, and that most of Raava’s Order has just been slaughtered.

Then, Obi-wan learns that Anakin killed the avatar (Shaak Ti).  

He’s betrayed, and confused, and furious, and in complete shock. He’s also mentally not in a great place; he’s just seen his friends and comrades slaughtered in cold blood. He thinks that Anakin was in on the plan to wipe them out completely (Anakin, meanwhile, doesn’t know about Order 66 and doesn’t learn about it until he wakes up after the Mustafar-adjacent battle), and had been working with Palpatine (because why else would Anakin kill Shaak Ti? How could Anakin kill Shaak Ti?). 

So he goes to confront Anakin, and in a bit of a reverse of canon, Obi-wan’s the one who’s angry and on the offensive here, and initiates the fight. It’s worth noting that Anakin’s also not in a great place mentally; aside from having just killed the Avatar, he thinks his wife and unborn children were murdered because of the Order and that the Order he’s spent years fighting for has just been trying to gain power and suppress nonbenders all along (Pong Krell, anyone?). When Obi-wan attacks him, the conclusion he draws is “Oh no, he was in on the conspiracy too. He was in on the thing with Padme too.” because why else would Obi-wan be attacking him so viciously out of nowhere? So now they’re both sure they’ve been betrayed by the other, and they’re fighting. Usually, in a fight between benders, there’s some tradition, some honor. The swords, a big part of duels according to the traditions of the Order, are used. In this fight, none of that is used. Obi-wan forgoes them entirely; it’s a very much “how could you”, emotional, blunt force, unrefined kind of fight. Obi-wan blasts water, shards of ice, waves at Anakin, Anakin dodges, responds in turn with spurts and jets of fire. Both know each other’s techniques inside and out, obviously; it’s a very even fight. At one point Obi-wan yells something adjacent to his “you were my brother” line in canon, a “how could you betray me, us, like this?”, or a “how could you?”, smthing like that, and Anakin has a split second of distraction because what is Obi-wan talking about? What happened to the Order? 

Obi-wan takes advantage of this distraction and his next hit knocks Anakin unconscious; he then freezes Anakin in a massive block of ice. He flees, then, it all being too overwhelming. He can’t bring himself to strike any kind of killing blow. He doesn’t know, then or later, if he left Anakin there hoping he would die or hoping he would survive. Years pass and Obi-wan seriously regrets the fight, especially regrets that he never found out why Anakin sided with Palpatine, or killed Shaak Ti. He realizes that there must have been something he didn’t know, and wishes he hadn’t attacked him so rashly and had at least gotten answers.

As for Anakin, Palpatine’s lackeys find him hours or maybe even days after the fight, and get him out of the ice. The time spent in the ice leaves him with frostbite and he ends up having to get three limbs amputated (his right arm and both legs). It also leaves him with permanent tremors. He gets prosthetics, which he can power with a low level-lightning type technique, and armor and a helmet, which Palpatine forces him to wear. He’s forced to wear the armor for a couple reasons; to hide his identity as a former member of Raava’s Order and a beloved hero, to hide the tremors, which Palpatine views as a sign of visible weakness, and because Palpatine enjoys the feeling of owning Anakin and the armor is a way to mark that.

Anakin physically joining the Rebellion happens right after he tries to sacrifice himself in Palpatine’s throne room so that Luke can escape, and though he manages to take out all of the guards/inquisitors and hold off Palpatine for some time, he gets blasted with a hell of a lot of lightning and fully expects to die right there. Luke goes into the Avatar state and gets them both out, and is able to do enough healing so that Anakin survives the encounter. He gets them to the Rebellion and basically? Begs Obi-wan to heal Anakin. 

“I know he’s Vader, I know what he’s done to you, to the Order, but he sacrificed himself to rescue me and he’s dying, you have to help him--”

Obi-wan, of course, does, and has been living with his regrets and missing his little brother for so long that he probably would have done it without the begging anyways, at the very least so he can finally get answers from Anakin.

So Anakin is being slowly but surely healed by Obi-wan (it probably takes him months to recover tbh), and there’s plenty of angst because Obi-wan sees the extent of the injuries he caused and guilt, and because the first time Anakin wakes up--

Well, Anakin fully expected to die, right? And now he’s not dead which makes no sense, he was ready to die (and he wakes up and he thinks, even if I’m not dead now, I’ll be dead soon enough--either the lightning will do me in or Obi-wan will, if he had any sense he’d kill me--obviously he’s not mentally in a great place but being tortured and manipulated and slowly fighting back against the Firelord for years will do that to you), but it’s also good because he’s been Blue Spirit, a double agent, for years ever since Luke revealed himself to Anakin, and this means he has a chance to give the vital information he has on the Empire’s attack plans, ship schematics, etc. 

So the first time he wakes up, when he can finally get his eyes to focus, he gets Obi-wan’s attention and basically starts babbling about attack plans, schematics, weaknesses, etc etc. And Obi-wan’s like “no, wait, you’re still weak, you need to recover, go back to sleep--” and Anakin’s like “no time, you need this information before I die--” and a stressful time is had by all. The next time he wakes up, he’s a bit less all over the place and it slowly starts to sink in that he is going to survive after all, so the urgency dies down a bit. Obi-wan gets the full story of how Palpatine manipulated him, what happened that night, etc, and Anakin gets the full story of what exactly happened during Order 66, what actually happened to Padme, what happened to his kid (kids, he has two--major shock is had). Ahsoka is the one to tell him that Palpatine was controlling the spirits all along. 

He’s surprised, of course, but also somewhat resigned. The grandfatherly veneer of Palpatine has fallen further and further away as the years have passed and his true nature has been clearer and clearer; Anakin has known for a long time that Palpatine is not the good guy (hence his personal rebellion).

Ahsoka, like in canon, manages most of the intelligence networks of the Rebellion in this au. So she’s been getting and processing Blue Spirit’s messages for years, and when she realizes it’s Anakin--well, lots of emotions all around.

Obi-wan and Anakin do mend their relationship, as do Anakin and Ahsoka. Some of the kids Anakin saved over the years are at the Rebellion and recognize him--this also helps things along. And his information as Blue Spirit has saved many lives. 

Obi-wan has been Luke’s waterbending teacher for a while, and Ahsoka has been his airbending/spirit world teacher, so eventually Anakin does take his place as Luke’s (and Leia’s!) firebending teacher.

Thanks for these asks and sorry for making the response so long!! Honestly I think I’ve been hoping for these questions, I’ve been wanting to talk about how this goes down forever :) 

shorter summary: Obi-wan encounters Anakin just after Order 66 occurred and Anakin’s killed Shaak Ti. Believing Anakin to have been in on Palpatine’s plan all along and having betrayed them all, he attacks and initiates the fight in something of a reverse of canon. Anakin, seeing Obi-wan attacking him, comes to the conclusion that Obi-wan must have been part of the Order’s conspiracy (that Palpatine has convinced him of), which he would have never believed of him but why else would Obi-wan be attacking him like this? Neither of them are in a particularly good state of mind or particularly mentally sound during the fight. Obi-wan knocks him out and freezes him in ice, then flees. Palpatine finds Anakin a sizable amount of time later, and Anakin is left with three amputated limbs (which he gets prosthetics for) and permanent tremors (which the Vader armor hides). 

Obi-wan and Ahsoa escape the purge because Ahsoka has a spiritual connection akin to Jinora’s in LOK, and is able to purge the spirits from some of the army such as Rex. In the chaos, the two are separated.

Obi-wan and Anakin reunite first, when Luke brings Anakin back to the Rebellion severely injured from the confrontation with Palpatine. He begs Obi-wan to heal him and Obi-wan agrees. It takes some time for Anakin to move past the fact that he’s not dead, but eventually, he and Obi-wan communicate, they both get the full story of what happened twenty years ago, and their relationship starts to mend. It’s faster once Obi-wan and the Rebellion realize that Darth Vader and Blue Spirit (the Imperial double agent whose information had saved so many) are one and the same. Same with Ahsoka, although it’s a quicker fix for her and Anakin’s relationship since she only found out about his actions secondhand, from Obi-wan, and it makes so much more sense once he gets his side of the story, and because she’s the one who’s been processing his info as Blue Spirit. 

hope you liked!!

[phoenixyfriend]

That One Fucked-Up Rexwalker AU

OKAY so people showed interest in this! Cool! This is... actually you know what, yeah, this falls into dead dove territory. It's kind of angst with a happy ending? At the very least it's hurt/comfort.

Warnings: rape as psychological torture by an enemy party, later dubious consent by parties that are at least trying to make it consensual but the situation makes it difficult to navigate

This was inspired partially by the first chapter of this collection by @the-writing-mill, which features Obi-Wan getting absolutely railed by a fucking machine set up by droids who don't understand consent. I got to thinking about the set-up and slid sideways into a slightly different context.

So Anakin, in all his shitty luck, gets captured, as one does. Whoever captures him has strict instructions to avoid physically damaging him or permanently fucking up his connection to the Force, because they'd like to use him as a weapon eventually, but to play around with his psychological damage in whatever way suits.

We'll say it's Ventress, who vastly prefers horrifying physical damage for torture, or killing/hurting people's loved ones in front of them, and now has to get creative to deal with Skywalker, because for whatever reason, she only managed to get Anakin and not any of his friends.

Obviously, Palpatine is the one saying 'don't damage the good.' She doesn't know that, though, just that Dooku said His Sith Master said to leave Skywalker intact for later.

So the easy route to psychological damage is, well, rape. But she's not into him, and there aren't really any other sentients in her little torture castle, but last she checked Skywalker is really needy? She's picked up on the fact that this guy really loves Having people.

She handles it: strip him down, strap him down, and get a fucking machine involved. Naked and cold and with a pipe leaking from the ceiling. Let a protocol droid keep an eye on things so he doesn't have some kind of permanent physical damage, but basically just have him unceasingly fucked for like a week, sometimes edging and sometimes forcing and sometimes just really digging into the oversensitivity, whether he's awake or asleep or what. Nothing but air and metal, and sometimes Ventress when she comes by to taunt him. There's magic involved to up his sexual craving without making it any easier on him.

It's fucked up but he does get saved! Eventually!

Ventress did her job, didn't enjoy it, and doesn't care that he's gone. She has people to kill, okay, she's bored.

So, you know, Anakin needs time to recover. He doesn't try to argue that he doesn't, at least partly because he's having trouble standing. He'll be fine! Stop worrying, guys! It's fine!

It's not fine, everyone tells him, because that was fucked!

It takes a while to get back to Coruscant. It's normally a few days, but there's a disruption on the hyperlane they'd use, sooooooo they're stuck.

Anakin tries to make some calls to Padme. When the calls connect, she helps. Obi-Wan was part of the rescue team, so he's there to do what he can, but Anakin keeps flinching away. Ahsoka is helpful because Anakin's hindbrain reads her as Not A Threat, but nobody's telling her what kind of torture Anakin was dealing with, because she's Designated Baby.

Anakin is alternately overwhelmed by physical touch and craving it, and the fact that he just got the Force back isn't helping.

(It later comes to light that the reason he flinches from Obi-Wan and Ahsoka is because they've got the Force and a person with the Force approaching for that week meant Ventress, and that's--not great. And it's just a LOT and REALLY BRIGHT after his time in the Force-nullifying cuffs.)

So Anakin spends a lot of time alone, craving people while being deeply unnerved by the ones he's most able to ask for that sort of thing (his master and padawan). Rex is one of a handful of clones that volunteer to check in on Anakin until they get to Coruscant. He's not the only one who walks in on Anakin shifting uncomfortably and looking red in the face, but he's the one that actually asks about it.

Anakin, with some prodding, does not admit to the problem. He does, however, admit to a different problem, and asks if Rex would be okay with a hug, or maybe putting an arm around Anakin's shoulder, or--actually, no, this is stupid, forget he said anythi-- Rex sits down next to him and pulls Anakin into his side and just lets Anakin relax into him.

Anakin starts shivering. Shuddering. Crying, after a while. Rex lets it happen and tries not to panic, just rubs an hand up and down Anakin's arm.

They don't really talk about it, but Anakin does end up cuddling with Rex for a few hours a day while they try to get everyone home, and Anakin's kind of on enforced medical leave, so he can't really help until Obi-Wan comes up with a solution that gives Anakin a job directly.

Rex finally gets an answer to why Anakin keeps looking uncomfortable and close to tears but embarrassed about it. He doesn't, for the record, press for that answer. Instead, he accidentally walks in on Anakin three fingers deep in his own ass and whining into his pillow.

Which is. Awkward.

Obviously.

Turns out whatever Ventress did to him has him feeling incredibly empty without something to plug him up! It sucks! He hates it! He's been trying very hard not to submit to this need, but it's still there and he needs to be filled up and just snapped and had to do something about it!

This is, as you can imagine, not a comfortable conversation for anyone, but Rex tries to cheer him up with "Well, Jedi have stipends, right? You can probably find, uh, a toy, right? Once we're back on Coruscant? Or the Senator...?"

Anakin doesn't want Padme to know.

Anakin is also near tears but that's. Well. Rex is used to that by now.

(Anakin isn't using shipboard fabricators to make a dildo or plug because have fun explaining that on the expense report!)

So Rex is in this awkward position of having to comfort his recently-more-traumatized-than-before superior officer, whom he just walked in on furiously and tearfully masturbating due to said trauma...

And Rex is pretty much just like "Dude, please call your wife and have her talk you through the... whole... thing... I'm just, I think you'd probably feel less upset about having to fill yourself or whatever if she was talking you through it?"

They drop the subject for a bit, but Anakin is still Fucked Up in many ways, including new and exciting ones, and it turns out he hasn't been sleeping! And only sleeps if there's someone he trusts nearby!

So obviously Rex volunteers because fuck it, it's not like there's anything about his General he hasn't seen yet, right? So, yeah! Sleepy cuddles! Intended to be platonic!

Rex wakes up hard and flushed and with a very much still asleep Anakin grinding his ass against Rex's crotch.

Which, under significantly different circumstances, he'd not be upset by... But given literally everything going on, um. No?

Rex has no idea what to do, so he just kind of lays there and tries to shift away so his back is pressed to the wall and Anakin isn't accidentally trying to fuck himself in his sleep. Which works.

For about fifteen minutes.

And then Anakin is whining and shuffling back and Rex just tries to wake him up like Dude, You Don't Actually Want This, You Told Me You Don't Want This

And they separate and avoid each other and shower, and Rex leaves to go do Things while Anakin continues to try to meditate away what trauma he can before they get back to Coruscant for extremely long mandated therapy.

Rex shows up that evening to cuddle again, but Anakin tries to turn him away because He Can't Be Sexually Assualting His Friends In His Sleep, so he should honestly just sleep alone, right? Right, okay, bye Rex, Anakin is so sorry about this morning--

And Rex interrupts that he's not actually upset about it, he's just upset about Anakin being in this position, and Anakin doesn't actually want Rex so that's kind of upsetting, and Rex would be very open to this later after the war when they're not in a position to fuck up their entire legion with a change in dynamics--

And this goes back and forth for a bit before Rex realizes that Anakin does actually want him, and did before this whole Situation happened, and Anakin realizes that Rex is interested in him and NOT just trying to 'do his duty for his Jedi' or whatever.

And anyway, it turns into some very sweet lovemaking every night where Anakin gets to fall asleep with a cock in his ass, filled with cum, with Padme's blessing, until they get to Coruscant and he can find a plug for the nights they're not together (and also some therapy).

When Obi-Wan finds out they're fucking, he's actually furious and ALSO unsure of which one's taking advantage of the other.

Initially assumes Rex is taking advantage of Anakin's recent emotional traumas. Anakin protests that he asked Rex for this, and Obi-Wan is asking in horror if Anakin ordered one of the soldier under his command to do this, and it all just kind of goes very poorly.

Everyone means well. Nobody really succeeds at it.