#bail organa the man who Obi-wan trusted Leia with

[kryte-col]

Cody Headcanon:

Bail Organa.

That was Cody's 'Senate crush' (since the whole GAR had one)

Come on, an older man who is a literal space gangster with razor sharp wit whose brain could probably power the whole of Curosaunt and is on the circle of Senators who actually do the work.

Bail Organa is a slick, smart and hard working man. You will not convince me otherwise that Cody is a big fan.

(not necessarily romantic but a fanboy type way)

[akali-blade]

The Skywalker Invasion

Family Revelations

The Jedi Council Chambers was filled with Jedi Knights, masters, and senators. Yoda’s eyes were closed, focusing on the Force.

The newcomers were occupying different rooms at the temple, as the Jedi Masters believed they shouldn’t have the time travelers interact.

“We need the names of the people you met,” Mace Windu asked, a frown forming on his lips.

“I met two men, both claiming their name to be Skywalker,” Plo Koon said slowly, turning to look at a certain Jedi Knight who was surprised.

“That’s impossible, I mean no disrespect, Master, but I too have met someone claiming to be a Skywalker,” Aayla was quick to inform them.

Anakin crossed his arms, “I would also like to join this confusing conversation, my padawan and I met this boy, going by the name ‘Ben Skywalker’ I’m now curious to know who these others are.”

Ahsoka nodded her head in agreement.

Obi-wan stroked his beard.

Padmé came forward, “Jedi Masters, I have met two women, a young girl, and a young man, one of the women says she is the empress of the Fel Empire, which just happens to be our galaxy.”

Yoda now hummed, “the last names, I need, yes, to uncover the truth. Your hand you must raise, if you met one, going by the name Skywalker, you must.”

Four people raise their hands.

Aayla Secura.

Anakin Skywalker.

Plo Koon.

Master Yoda.

“Going by the name Solo,” Yoda continued.

Padmé Amidala.

Bail Organa.

Adi Gallia.

Mon Mothma.

Obi-wan Kenobi.

Each raised their hand.

“By the name Fel.”

Padmé Amidala and Bail Organa were the only ones.

“And do not forget the young one who goes by the name ‘Jade’, she was in the company of one ‘Luke Skywalker’.” Mace Windu reminded. Yoda nodded.

Anakin’s brows furrowed, more Skywalkers?

“Something on your mind, young Skywalker?” Yoda prompted, his face softening.

“The…other Skywalkers, I’m curious,” Anakin sighed.

The old green Jedi Master chuckled, “revealed, everything will be, with time.”

“I believe we should gather everyone and question them all at once, they must be very powerful if the Force reacted this way,” Ki-Adi Mundi proposed.

“Agree, I do, talk with them, gain their trust, we will.”

~S~

Gathering the newcomers, the Jedi Council led them all to a large room where privacy can be assured.

Luke and Leia found each other and crashed into each other’s arms, happy to know that the other was safe. Mara and Han only laughed quietly at the sight.

Ania looked around, noticing that she shared certain features with other people in the room. Her eyes stopped on a woman.

“Marasiah!”

Marasiah turned, her face broke out into a grin. The two girls ran forward and brought each other into a hug.

“It has been so long, cousin, I am delighted to know that I will have a familiar face with me here,” Marasiah exclaimed. Someone cleared their throat behind them, and Ania saw her other cousin.

“Why, Cade, this is turning out to be a family reunion.”

Cade chuckled, “a very weird one, the Force is a tricky one.”

Now confused, the Jedi Council watched as Ania, Marasiah, and Cade all chatted together.

“You’re…related?” Adi Gallia wondered, her eyes wide. Ania nodded. 

Now this just got more interesting.

“But, how?” Obi-wan asked, his face scrunched.

“We have the same ancestor,” Cade crossed his arms.

“And who would that be?” Mace narrowed his eyes.

“Anakin Skywalker.”

Said man faltered, “w-what.”

Luke, was just as confused, they too were related to his father?

“Anakin Skywalker? Here?” Han groaned.

Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker came forward, his arms crossed against his chest. The time travelers’ eyes widened comically, gasps were heard, and disbelief rang throughout the Force.

“Impossible.”

Bail Organa coughed softly, “maybe you can tell us what Knight Skywalker means to you.”

Luke casted his gaze over to the man who claims to be Anakin Skywalker, and there he is, standing in all his glory. Anakin Skywalker.

“He…well…Anakin Skywalker is my father.”

Ahsoka’s eyes grew, oh dear, how is Master going to get out of this one?

Leia nodded, “He is…my biological father, Luke and I are twins,” her face soured slightly as she admitted the fact. She had not forgiven him yet, but in the light of things, she believed it was best to just go along with it.

Jacen, Jaina, and Anakin giggled, “we’re his grandchildren!”

“Jacen is the eldest, then it’s me, Jaina, and our younger brother, Anakin!”

The elder Skywalker felt his face grow hot, his heart racing a mile a minute. He caught the gaze of his wife, who sent him a reassuring smile, she too, was having a difficult time handling this.

“Your last names?” Kit Fisto asked politely.

“Solo.”

Han sputtered, “what!? How do you kids have my last name!?”

Jacen looked unimpressed, “it’s cause we’re your kids.”

Anakin Jr. put his hands on his hips, “and Leia is our mother.”

Leia and Han paled at the thought, scooting away from each other.

Mon Mothma could only sigh. A red headed boy stepped up, blue eyes twinkled when he saw his grandfather pale.

“The name’s Ben Skywalker, I’m Luke Skywalker’s son.”

Luke turned sharply to stare at the red headed boy. But, who is the mother? The only woman who popped in his head was the one who was standing next to him. Mara Jade.

Ki-Adi Mundi put his hand under his chin in thought, strange.

Nat and Kol also stepped up, introducing themselves, garnering another round of surprise coming from the Jedi of the Old Republic.

Allana quietly said her name, stating who her father was, making Jacen go red and Jaina to laugh quite loudly, teasing him relentlessly. Ania had a small on her face, watching the smaller versions of the first Skywalker-Solo lineages goof off. 

“What about Marasiah Fel then? If I remember correctly, you said Ania was your cousin,” Mon spoke, trying hard to ignore the fact that the people of the future are Jedi Skywalker’s descendants. Does he ever follow the rules?

“My great great grandmother is Jaina Solo. Ania is Jacen’s descendant, and I, Jaina’s. Making us cousins,” explained the future empress, her hands folded neatly across her stomach.

Ahsoka now only had one question remaining on her mind and she was sure it was on everyone else’s.

“Who’s the mother of Master Skywalker’s children then?”

Several pairs of eyes snapped to her direction making her fix her posture, not wanting everyone to see her as only a child padawan.

The senators and Jedi Masters looked at the future Skywalkers who looked anywhere but at the front of the room where the people of the Old Republic stood.

“W-we don’t know,” Leia finally spoke up, “we thought…well, we thought that our father had a one night stand.”

The people of old looked highly skeptical of this theory.

The other time travelers muttered their own theories, some stating that they thought she was also a Jedi, possibly a smuggler, and other crazy stories.

“We just know she would have to look like Leia, since I look like my father, at least according to Be–I mean Obi-wan Kenobi,” Luke explained.

The auburn haired master coughed as he was now put in the spotlight.

“I’ve noticed that Miss Leia Skywalker,” Shaak Ti started, making Leia sour instantly, “young Allana Solo, young Jacen Solo and Miss Ania Solo all share close resemblances to Senator Amidala.”

The young female senator was now under scrutiny of her colleagues, the Masters of the Jedi Council, and the people of the future.

“Master Ti is right,” Aayla said in her heavy accent.

“Skywalker, do you have anything to say about this?” the face of Mace Windu was clouded, as his anger seeped through. The ones bearing the last name Skywalker all turned to the Korun master.

“What did I do?” The Skywalkers exclaimed in unison, making Mace quickly back track his words.

Anakin wisely kept quiet, his own thoughts getting to the better of him. I have a family…Padmé  and I made a legacy oh how I wish we could talk in private.

Padmé, feeling a headache coming on, could not help the joy that spread through her. She and Anakin made a family, their family made a family and so forth. She was excited and words could not describe the feeling. Oh no, the Jedi Council, she forgot about them in the heat of the moment.

She took a glance to her husband, giving him an unnoticeable nod.

The blonde Jedi Knight coughed, making the attention come his way. 

“Contrary to your…beliefs, I’m married.”

The entire room was not prepared, as a matter in fact, those weren’t the words that they expected to come out of the patriarch of the Skywalker clan’s mouth.

“To who?”

“Me,” Padmé stepped up, her head held high, this wasn’t how she imagined she would reveal their marriage, but no time like the present, right?

Bail and Mon were extremely surprised, their colleague, who had no interest in romantic relationships, was married? They had told her to pursue such things, saying that it was a wonderful thing to be connected to a person, who would love and cherish you. Yet, here she was, steps ahead of them.

“Hm, how many months, were you?” Yoda asked, his glimmer stick thumping softly. 

“Two and a half years, just after the Battle of Geonosis,” Anakin answered, his voice firm, Obi-wan pinched the bridge of his nose.

Force, help me.

“This is going against the Code–”

“What code?” Luke was now confused, while he was thrilled to know that he was a product of his parents’ love, at least he hoped so, he wondered about the code they seem to obsess and worship.

“The Jedi Code states that one should not hold romantic attachments,” Anakin explained to his son.

Kol was now laughing, “that wasn’t in the Code, as a Jedi Master myself and knowing history, Luke Skywalker made the Code after he rebuilt the Order and it never stated that.”

“How can one person, especially a Skywalker, change a code that existed well over two thousand years?” An angered Agen Kolar grit out.

“Rebuilt the Order?” Anakin had a bad feeling about this. Mara rolled her eyes, this was becoming too much, they’ve been here for hours and she needed some rest.

“The Jedi Order was destroyed, Jedi were killed and an empire, under the rule of the sith,  rose the day Luke and I were born, allegedly,” coughed Leia.

There was nothing but silence.

Pure unadulterated silence.

“Take a break we will, come back later, we must, to your rooms, the padawans will take you,” Yoda finally decided, he needed the Force to show him the way.

There were no signs or sounds of disagreement, they moved out of the room, leaving only a few Jedi left in the room.

“Skywalker,” Yoda called out to Anakin, “expel you, I will not, need you here, the Force demands. Until the agenda of the Force is finished, your status of your knighthood, you may keep,” he hobbled away with Mace Windu, Obi-wan Kenobi, and Shaak Ti.

 Anakin slumped against the wall in relief.

~S~

Obi-wan was disappointed. That much was obvious.

But he couldn’t place it.

Was he disappointed at his padawan? At himself? At the Code?

What had happened?

When Yoda had called a recess break, he inwardly refused, he wanted answers.

What happened to him? Anakin? The padawans?

Sitting in a meditation position, he searched the Force for guidance.

Though a small part of him was happy, happy that Anakin had a family, though the Code absolutely refuses such a thing. Spending the small amount of time with the Solo children, he could already feel fondness growing, and knowing it was his padawan’s great offspring, made his fondness grow.

Somewhere in his mind, he was proud that the Skywalker lineage were accomplished Jedi Masters, or politicians.

At least he found the answers to that, knowing how much Anakin hated politics.

Padmé was–is–good for him, no doubt about that, she grounded Anakin when he could not, she gave him peace, peace that the Jedi Knight so often searched for, looked for, meditated for.

He only hoped that it did not end in disaster.

Opening his eyes, he left his room and went to the cafeteria. Already there was talk about the strange occurrence of the strange beings who appeared out of nowhere.

Force help him.

Force help Anakin.

Force help the galaxy.

The appearance of the Skywalkers could either mean two things.

Creation.

Or.

Destruction.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tag List:

@freddykicksasses

[woodfrogs]

another thing that i love thinking about is luke and leia post rotj searching for any information possible about their parents

like they have anakin's name but all they know about their mom is what obi-wan told leia when she was 10. there is nothing publicly connecting anakin to padmé in any way other than a professional relationship. nobody who Knew is alive bc i feel like at most ahsoka suspected something was up but didn't know for sure but i am only at s3 of tcw so i Do Not Know. there's the marriage records but those are on naboo and it would probably take quite a bit of digging to find information on the trade federation blockade or even connect anakin's name to that (given that he was. 9.) but then again they could have also found that palpatine was from there (as well as senator amidala who was associated with bail organa, obi-wan kenobi, AND anakin skywalker. hmmmmm) and realized that this planet is maybe Significant, gone there, and found stuff out.

but also while luke's feelings about anakin/vader are pretty clear i think leia's are way more complicated. people like to say that luke is more like his mother and she is more like her father (and that is true) but she more than anything resents everything they discover about anakin while they still have no clue who their mother is. she gets frustrated over wasting time away from establishing the rebellion and only finding information about her father who tortured her, killed hundreds, and destroyed her home. she tells herself she's only doing this to find out who their mother is. meanwhile luke is happy with whatever they find. so it winds up being mostly luke staying motivated and actively doing research and leia pretending she doesn't care but she chips in ideas and comes along because she really is curious but mostly feels bitter about every new discovery (except for those involving obi-wan because she's curious about this man she met like twice who was important enough to her for her to call him her "only hope". i also think at some point they visit ben's house on tatooine to see if it has any clues and ask around and find out about the boonta eve classic and that there used to be some skywalkers that were slaves and that kinda hits luke hard). plus bail and breha were leia's parents and by searching for her birth parents so soon after their deaths she probably feels a bit like she's replacing them.

of course one of the force ghosts could just tell them padmé's name but where's the fun in that. i want them to go on an intragalactic scavenger hunt for their mom only to discover everything about her has been right in front of them this whole time. i think luke probably asks them at one point and yoda says something cryptic about trusting his feelings and then he never tries again

[ladystoneboobs]

got prequels on the brain lately, and i think i can explain padme in rots, even if it might not be exactly what lucas was thinking of. see, it's not just that she loves her husband and wants to believe there must be still be some good in him, it's also that she is now not just anakin's wife, but the mother of his child(ren) too. like, literally about to pop right as obi-wan/yoda have decided anakin needs to be killed. she doesn't feel she can stay on coruscant anymore as a senator under the emperor's reign, she was already doubting doing that job as a working mom. then she learns the jedi have all been deemed traitors and their order outlawed, while she's carrying offspring very likely to be highly force sensitive since the force itself is pretty much the paternal grandfather there. so, she herself is a potential political target as someone who opposed palpatine's war efforts from the beginning in a more public way than bail organa or mon mothma, and her child(ren) would also be targeted just for existing as potential jedi before ever really using the force against the empire. being a single mom to outlawed and untrained but very powerful l'il jedi while the both of you are being targeted and hunted down on the run/in exile without the skills really needed to protect any jedi child, that's just a no-go. her only anti-palps and anti-anakin alternatives would have to include never being a mother after giving birth, whether going into exile alone somewhere or wearing a mask and playing the long game like bail organa. (even if he still adopted leia as in otl, how much time could she really spend with her without drawing more suspicion from palps? how painful would it be to watch someone else raise your child while possibly never even knowing if your other child is ok?) in that sense, knowing how wanted that unplanned pregnancy was, is it any wonder that she chose to make a last attempt to save their family instead? to run away with her husband, who happened to be the only man strong and powerful enough to protect them all from the empire, the only man she could trust and wanted to trust, with the safety of their whole unsplit secret little family. so it is only after he refuses to run away with her, when he insists that he's only interested in using his new dark powers to protect her, and when he reveals that his only idea of defying palpatine is to replace him, making padme into a new dark empress, a dictator rather than the public servant she once thought she could be, only then that she starts feeling he may just be lost to her after all. but when you've gone so far together already, brushing off his first massacre, marrying him mere days later, and then truly tying yourself to him permanently through pregnancy, it's really too late to ever go back to your ol' "normal" life either.

[stardusthuntress]

You guys! I just had a thought and I need to share it! First off, I firmly believe - because Imma lose it if this ins’t the case - that Cody is still alive, and doing just fine out there somewhere in the galaxy. Which got me thinking. Where is he? (Prepare for a long-winded rant, but it’s a happy one, i promise!)

Well, ya know how it seems that all the senators that were close to Padme just know Rex? While they likely know Rex because he doesn’t leave Anakin’s side, and Anakin is usually not far from Padme, I’m betting most of them have also been assigned escorts by Commanders Fox and Cody. Since Fox deals with everything ON Coruscant, it would make sense that he would turn to someone like Cody and Obi Wan when he needed a senatorial escort near a war zone. Having a Jedi would give them a sense of security, and the best senators also know that in reality it’s the clones that kept the Jedi alive throughout the war, so having a man like Cody who survived at Obi Wan’s side AND managed to keep Obi Wan in good health despite his many suicidal battle plans, is definitely one who’s protection they would welcome.

That being said, we all know that after the way many senators turned their backs on the clones. But we also know of a few specific ones that didn’t. While some senators - like Chuchi - tend to have security details from their own planets, it is less clear for others. We know Bail Organa worked closely with many clone units during the war, sometimes even fighting on the front lines beside them. We know he trusts them with his own life, and that he is doing his best to help Chuchi fight for them in the senate as quietly as possible so that he can also protect his own, newly expanded, family. And speaking of that newly expanded family, he’s likely to be in need of some new security guards who will be assigned to watch over his daughter’s life when he cannot be there. And who better to hire to protect a little, wild, force-wielding child than the same people who did exactly that during the war?

I have a feeling that when Cody went AWOL, he had secretly been in contact with senator Organa who offered him, and whoever he wanted to go with him - Cody was totally testing the waters to see if Crosshair wanted to go with him - a safe escape. A chance at a real job, that would pay well, and keep his real identity hidden. Besides, Bail isn’t going to have time to send new security detachments off to training. The child is in his arms, so he needs the new security team to be ready to start tomorrow. And who better than men who’ve already been trained by war and who are searching for a redemption arc of their own. We know that many of the clones feel terrible for what they did to the Jedi, and many of them want a chance to prove that that wasn’t them, that they weren’t in control when that happened. Bail knows Leia carries the future of the galaxy in her hands, and would protect it with everything she is. Who better to protect her than the men who were created to do exactly the same thing?

We also know that Bail has had contact with Ahsoka, and is likely also communicating with Rex (since it is highly likely that he knows the man well, thanks Anakin and Padme). So there’s comfort in the idea that he might be able to contact Rex and tell him Cody is okay.

But back to Cody. I sincerely hope that it was Bail that smuggled Cody and co. out of the GAR, and took them to that same secret medical facility that he and Obi Wan took Padme to (so she could give birth), but this time to have their chips removed (which I’m betting Ahsoka or Rex told him about). And then brought them home to become little Leia’s new security attaché. I for one would LOVE to see Cody helping to raise the spunky little Skywalker girl. And I have a feeling Bail is completely aware of the clones paternal instincts. And knows that is exactly what Leia is gonna need while he, Bail, has to attend to senatorial and royal duties elsewhere. And Cody is totally a girl dad. He’d also totally teach her how to defend herself.

And I know that we didn’t see Cody in Kenobi, on Tatooine or Alderaan. What if that was one of the few days that Bail managed to convince Cody to take some time off, and Cody blames himself for Leia’s kidnapping? Then he’d have to tell Cody about Obi Wan surviving, giving him peace and hope, and letting him stand in the room when he called Obi Wan, and letting Cody escort him to Tatooine to talk to Obi, and Cody would be in change of monitoring the rescue attempt just like he did during the war when Obi Wan would forget to contact him and he needed some way to figure out exactly where his disaster Jedi trio had run off to.

That’s where I think Cody is. On Alderaan. And I’m betting that after the events of Kenobi, he will never again leave Leia’s side for the rest of his life. Which means that if he survived the Imperial takeover of the Tantive IV, he’s likely fighting in the rebellion, side by side with Rex, watching over the disaster lineage, just like they always did. Just like old times…

EDIT: I’m 100% planning a fic of this. It’s gonna have all the feels. I need a happy ending for Codes where he gets to watch over his little Star Princess and be proud of the strong woman she grows to become. And he needs to see Rex again. And they need a chance to use their talents for something they choose to fight for (speaking of, I wish I could include Gregor in there too, he’d be the most fun uncle for Leia, but the biggest headache for Cody, but I highly doubt she ever met him… and we already know how Gregor’s story ends… 😭)… but Cody, the man who carried the weight of damn near half the GAR, and protected the lives of the disaster trio through the war, is gonna get a happy ending, because I said so (Dave is gonna get an earful from me if something like this DOESN'T happen)

[gffa]

I am still just utterly inconsolable after so much of the first episode is spent establishing that Obi-Wan feels so much grief and pain and loss and guilt about what happened to Anakin, that he still cares about Luke, still watches over him every day, still tries to reach out in small, unnoticeable ways, but Owen notices him anyway, still says, “Like you trained his father?” And Owen’s not wrong to be scared about what can happen, it’s about Obi-Wan being on the planet bringing danger to them, Nari was there for him, but also we have all seen Rebels, we all saw the scene where Haja was helping the family get away from the Empire, Luke was never going to be safe even if Obi-Wan really was dead.  That’s the whole point of Leia being in danger, because the Inquisitors have figured out there’s a connection there, even if they don’t know she’s Force-sensitive, Obi-Wan and Bail know it, and Obi-Wan’s reluctance to help is because he feels like he’ll just fail another child, she’s better off with someone else, and Owen has been reinforcing that for years now, and it’s understandable why but just. Bail Organa coming along and blowing all of that out of the water by asking him for his help, coming all the way to Tatooine because it can only be Obi-Wan Kenobi who helps them, by pleading, “There is no one I trust with my child more than you.” Bail Organa knows most of everything that happened, knows Obi-Wan made mistakes, that they all made mistakes, but he sees beyond that, he sees that it’s time to get the hell over it, he sees that Obi-Wan is still someone who can help people, who is the person Bail most trusts with the child so precious to him, the child that is his entire heart, he trusts no one more than Obi-Wan and I’m just utterly feral about how the entire theme of these two episodes is Obi-Wan learning to open his eyes to the people who trust him, that there are people out there who are helping in the galaxy, that he isn’t limited to small acts of kindness and little gifts, that he can still help people.  That there is still kindness and hope in the galaxy. To have Leia Organa, not just Anakin’s daughter, but more importantly Bail Organa’s daughter say, “If somebody is offering us help, I think we should take it.“ and “Is it that hard to believe you might have friends?” I’m just completely feral about it, that this is something Obi-Wan Kenobi can do and that there are people in this galaxy, people with the biggest hearts you know, who trust him with their lives more than anyone else, trust him with their child’s life because they know him and the good man that he is, no matter how hard he tries to smother it. There is still light in this galaxy, there is still hope in this galaxy, and Obi-Wan Kenobi isn’t just protecting it for the next generation, he is still part of that light.

[shadowmaat]

Old Friends

The thing about the control chips was that once they were activated all they really had to do was rewire the brain. Bypass certain areas/memories, forge new neural pathways to conform with commands, and then just hold together til it settled into place.

It was one final twist of the knife from Palpatine: the chips might have controlled the clones at first, but over time the clones became so used to thinking of the Jedi as traitors and so used to following orders that the chips were no longer required: the clones did all the "thinking" for themselves.

Except there was still a small portion of clones who started to question what they'd "always" known to be true; ones who started to wonder if they really were doing what was best for the galaxy.

Cody was one of those clones. He knew his history and he knew his orders, but something just started to feel... not right. Hadn't there been a time when he'd protected civilians rather than killing them?

Asking questions in the Empire was a dangerous prospect and Cody knew damn well his days were numbered if anyone suspected he was no longer wholly onboard with enforcing the Emperor's will. He did his research and took himself out of the game.

Old habits die hard, though, and he was literally created to be a soldier. He missed it. He needed a purpose. If he couldn't fight for the Empire maybe he could fight for the Rebellion.

It took some time, but eventually he found himself standing before Bail Organa, leveraging what he knew for the chance to put some good back in the galaxy.

Bail was understandably cautious, not only because Cody was a high-ranking death trooper, but because he was Cody. He'd heard stories of the man from Obi-Wan... and heard the tale of Obi-Wan being shot off a cliff by him.

Bail discussed the situation with Breha, wondering what he should do. If Cody's offer was genuine, he'd be an invaluable resource to the rebellion. If he wasn't, it could bring the whole network crashing down.

They decided to give Cody a trial run to see what would happen, but although they'd spoken obliquely and relied on code words lest certain little ears at the dinner table hear and start asking the wrong questions, young Leia laid down her fork, looked Bail in the eye, and said, "you should tell him, Daddy."

That led to a much longer discussion and the revelation that their young daughter had, during her adventures with Obi-Wan, gleaned some understanding of the people who'd once been important to him... and that Cody was one of those people.

In the end, and with no small reluctance, Bail decided to trust his daughter and sent Cody on an intel-gathering mission to Tatooine. He commed ahead and left Obi-Wan a warning about who was coming, why he was being sent, and that any choice to interact or avoid was entirely Obi-Wan's prerogative. Although of course if Obi-Wan was able to get close enough to tell if Cody could be trusted, that would be appreciated.

Cody, for his part, was fine with the mission. It was obvious busywork, but for the purpose of vetting him it worked well enough without putting anyone important in danger.

Tatooine, however, was a wretched place, and the heavy, grabbing hands of the Hutt Cartel could be felt everywhere. While Cody did his best to keep his head down and stay focused on his mission, there came a point where a young slave child was being beaten and between one blink and the next he found himself intervening.

He made short work of the thugs, but although the child was long gone by the time he finished, he still felt a little better for it. It was good to be fighting for a worthy cause again.

One fight led to two, then led to more, and before he knew it he'd developed a reputation. And a name. Tarpuntee. Which was apparently some kind of holy guardian of the people. It was embarrassing as hell, and combined with the head wrap he wore to disguise his identity it made him feel like a character out of those damn comic books Wooley had loved.

Still, the notoriety meant that more of the commoners and slaves were willing to talk to him, so his information-gathering was going well. Perhaps too well. The gossip-mongers told him of strange hermit who occasionally wandered through town for supplies. A hermit called Kenobi.

It was a punch to the chest, realizing he'd failed that mission years ago, but he couldn't say he was sorry, either. He'd developed a strong suspicion that the Jedi weren't traitors like he'd been told and this felt like proof.

Why had Organa sent him here, of all places? He had to have known. Was this part of the test?

He watched. He waited. He fought lowlifes and enforcers. And then one day he caught a glimpse of a hooded face, still recognizable despite the graying of the beard. Great Storms, the man was as subtle as his padawan. He kept the name and the beard? And did nothing to change his features?

Cody followed him, keeping to crowds and what shadows he could find. When he saw his chance, he took it. Grabbing Obi-Wan he hauled him around a corner into a stinking, claustrophobic alley and slammed him against the wall, a vibroblade to his throat.

"You're dead," he snapped.

Faded blue eyes looked down at him, and former General Kenobi smiled.

"Hello to you, too, old friend."

Cody felt a nudge against his ribs and glanced down to see the business end of an unlit saber pressing into his shirt. He snorted, releasing Kenobi and stepping back, the vibroblade disappearing up a sleeve.

"At least you haven't become completely useless," he said.

"And it seems you've found a new use for yourself, Tarpuntee." Kenobi settled his robe, brushing out the wrinkles. "I'm glad to see it."

"Glad to see your stubborn refusal to die hasn't changed either."

A knot of tension he hadn't realized he'd been carrying eased in his chest. Maybe there was hope for this mad goal of the rebels after all. As long as the damn fool of a Jedi before him didn't wind up dead before it could happen.

[firefly-fez]

What if Luke, after Obi Wan’s death, and learning of his father’s fall just cannot stop his mind whirling with confusion and grief. He doesn’t understand what happened to the Jedi, how they all died, not really — there were some things Obi Wan could just… never speak of. He tries to talk to Rex, and Rex is happy to tell him of his father, his good nature, his padawan - Obi Wan had never mentioned a padawan - but even Rex won’t speak of how the Jedi met their end. Leia looks at him with sympathy and pulls Luka aside. She learned the fate of the Jedi from her father, Bail Organa, and Leia explains it to him — oh. That’s why Rex can’t speak of how the Jedi died.

The next time Rex sees him, he can tell by the way that Luke looks at him, that he knows. He swallows. He supposes the kid deserves to know the truth, but that doesn’t make it any easier to talk about. He wishes Ahsoka were here. It’s easier to remember that day when she’s here, when he can remind himself that he didn’t— that she’s safe.

Luke is confused. Leia told me how the Jedi died, but — Obi Wan always said Vader killed my father. But he isn’t dead… If you served with him, were you, there when he — Rex understands.

No, kid. I wasn’t with your father when… when the war ended. He had a padawan, Ahsoka Tano. I guess General Kenobi never spoke much about her. Can’t say I’m surprised. The Jedi were supposed to be keepers of the peace, but they sent her to war when she was still a child. They abandoned her when— well, that’s in the past now. She left the Jedi Order, and she wasn’t exactly on good terms with General Kenobi after that. She returned to the war effort when a former Sith Lord resurfaced on Mandalore — she wanted to help people who needed her. She always did. I went with her. I was with her when — when it happened. Good job I was too, I’m not sure I’d have made it out if I’d been with anyone else.

That catches Luke’s attention. What do you mean? He asks.

Ahsoka was an old friend. A good person. The best Jedi I ever knew, even if she’ll never call herself one. When the chip took over— she still trusted me. Trusted that the darkness that had taken over my mind wasn’t the real me. I tried to fight it, but I couldn’t. All I could do was warn her. She trusted that warning, even as I was betraying her, even as I was trying to kill her. She got my inhibitor chip out. To this day, I’ll never understand how she was able to be so… compassionate, in that moment. To trust that she could recover the good man she knew, even when I was… lost.

And in Luke’s mind, something clicks. Something stands out to him about Ahsoka’s compassion. To trust that the darkness that had taken over my mind wasn’t the real me.

And suddenly, when he thinks of Vader, his father… the whirlwind in his mind settles. he knows what to do. He prays it will work.

[steves-on-a-plane]

Fighting Dragons With You (pt 3)

Part 1 / Part 2 / Words: 1954 Cast of Characters: Young!Leia, Obi Wan Kenobi & Reader   Summary: Obi Wan has arrived to rescue Leia and Reader, but the trio have a long way to go before they are returned safely to Alderaan. 

Leia, ever vigilant in her effort to not leave you behind, had stopped running when you dropped her hand. She could tell from reading your body language, or maybe it was the force, that the man who held on to you wasn’t a threat. She approached slowly and stood behind you. Obi-Wan let go of your wrist. He wasn’t sure where to look.

The ten-year-old girl standing just barely beyond his grasp was so clearly Leia that it made his chest ache. Her hairstyle, though frizzing slightly from her travels was just the sort of fashionable thing a younger Padme would have worn. The scrunch of her brows and the cautious gaze she was assessing him with was all Anakin. That punch he’d taken to the gut? Well, that could have been either of them.

And you. Looking at you, it was as if no time had passed at all. Yes, your jedi robes had been replaced by garments of Alderaanian style. Your eyes looked just a little more tired and the faintest of wrinkles had begun to form on your features. But you were still so completely…you. Alderaan had been good to you. He could feel it in The Force.

With one arm protectively extended to shield Leia, you looked over Obi-Wan. You were searching for some sense of familiarity, but everything about him felt different. The twin suns of Tatooine had not been kind to your old friend. Aside from the tanning of his skin and the permanent lines etched into his face, the sand planet had taken Obi-Wan’s confidence, his trust.

The guilt washed over you in waves. While you’d been living comfortably on the Organa’s credits he’d been left alone, haunted by things you couldn’t imagine. You hadn’t even managed to keep a little girl safe. While he was carrying the weight of the galaxy on his shoulders. As if the ghosts, the grief, and the isolation hadn’t been enough, he’d risked his own safety to chase after you.

Bail had to have been the one to contacted him. The Viceroy was the only person, other than you, who knew how to get in contact with Obi-Wan. He’d put himself at risk by leaving Tatooine, by exposing himself. Still he’d come. Bail had asked and he’d come. Because that’s who Obi-Wan was.

“Are you crying, [Y/N]?” Leia was the first to notice. You brought a hand to your cheek to find that yes, you were crying. When did that start? You wondered. You dried your eyes with the sleeve of your tunic.

“It’s okay.” You reach down and took Leia’s hand again. “We’re going to be okay now.” You promised. “Leia Organa, this is my very good friend…” You paused. You’d been living under pseudonym on Alderaan and assumed Obi-Wan would do the same. Even something as simple as changing your name might keep the Empire off your scent.

“Ben.” He introduced himself. “My name is Ben. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Princess.”

“How do you know I’m a princess?” Leia questioned suspiciously.

“Ben is also friends with your father. I’m guessing that’s how he was able to find us so quickly.” You looked to Obi-Wan for confirmation.

“Bail contacted me as soon as he realized you were missing. He was certain I was the only person who could ensure you were both returned safely to Alderaan.” He nodded. “He also, wanted to make sure you had this in case you needed it.”

It took most of your will power not to snatch the object held in Obi-Wan’s outstretched hands. Not weighing much more than a blaster, your lightsaber had been an extension of your own arms for so long. Beautifully carved with elegant swirls up and down its metal hilt, with leather wrappings for grips. Small coppery accents that had taken the longest to forge. It was a work of art.

“I’ve missed you old girl.” You whispered before accepting the saber and quickly tucking it away. Jedi were supposed treat their saber as a tool. They were not supposed to anthropomorphize them or assign a personality to them. But it was a new era and all the condescending nay-sayers were long gone. You were going to treat your lightsaber like the friend she’d always been to you.

“Is that a lightsaber?” Leia remarked just a little too loud for yours or Obi-Wan’s comfort. Out of habit you both shushed her. “Are you a jedi?”

“We’d better get moving.” Obi-Wan urged.

“There’s not time to explain right now.” You told her. “For now we’re going to do what Ob…Ben says.”

“Oh, so this is Obi-Wan.” Leia gave you a knowing smile.

“How did you…what have you told her about me?” He asked.

“We don’t have time. Have to move right?” You reminded him.

“Yes, very well. This way.” Obi-Wan sighed, agreeing under duress. You were right, you really didn’t have time right now. So he’d plan a lecture for the dangers of oversharing when you were safely on a transport off world. Instead he led you out of the storage facility and onto the streets. Even with a crowded street of eccentrically dressed off worlders you, Leia and Obi-Wan stood out.

“I don’t suppose you’ve got three changes of clothes with you under that robe yours.” You asked him.

“No, I don’t.” He answered a little gruff. “Just as I assumed you didn’t fill your pockets with any credits before getting kidnapped.”

“We’d certainly be in a better position if I had.” You sighed. “So what’s the plan?”

“Did my ears deceive me or did [Y/N] just suggest we have a plan?” Obi-Wan teased. It very strange after everything you’d been through for him to joke so easily. For the two of you to slip into familiar banter. Then again, it had always been easy with Obi-Wan.

“We need to change. Leia and I are overdressed for this place and you…have you been wearing the same robes for ten years?” You tilted your head to the side, pretending to assess his attire.

“I’ve changed them!” He countered defensively. “My cloak isn’t even the same shade of brown.” He adjusted his robes, disappointed you hadn’t noticed. “The shopping stalls are this way.” He remarked impatiently. “There’s a port on the other side of the city, we need to make it to the last transport.”

You and Leia browsed the first shopping stall you came upon. At first the princess protested at wearing the plain green cloak you selected for her. You reminded Leia that half the city was looking for you. You needed to blend in. She groaned but allowed you to wrap her in the green cloak jus the same. You stripped off your tunic behind a rack and quickly replaced it with a pale grey poncho. It had a roomy hood that could cover your face, and a hem that went past your waist which would hide your saber.

Leia had somehow managed to persuade Obi-Wan into purchasing a pair of gloves for her as well. Once the tab was paid you ushed the pair of them away from the stall. If you hadn’t the Princess may have charmed her new Uncle out of all his emergency credits.

“We’ll need a story.” You pointed out. The three of you walked together with Leia between you and Obi-Wan.

“Simple enough. We’re a family of farmers from Tawl.” Obi-Wan answered, it was clear he’d already been thinking of it. “You are my wife and Leia is out daughter.” It was silly, and all a lie of course, but hearing Obi-Wan call you his wife made your heart skip a beat.

“How come I’ve never seen your lightsaber before, [Y/N]?” Leia asked.

“Because it was hidden. If I were to carry it all the time it could get me in trouble. We talked about this in your studies.” You reminded her.

“Yes, but you said all the jedi are dead. You’re both still alive. What else have you lied to me about?” She wanted to know.

“Leia I’ve never lied to you. I said the Jedi were extinct which is true enough. Neither Obi-Wan nor I are Jedi anymore and we’re the last two left, as far as we know. As soon as we’re home, this lightsaber is going right back to your father and we’re both going to forget about it, is that clear?” Leia nodded.

“You’ve taught her about Jedi?” Obi-Wan asked.

“Only what the other children her age learn when talking about the Clone Wars. I’m sure you’ve had similar conversations with…your young student.” You had to remind yourself that it was still much too soon for Leia to know everything. You also weren’t exactly in the clear yet. The last thing you needed was for someone on Daiyu to hear that Luke Skywalker was safe and sound on Tatooine.

“I’m afraid my pupil and I don’t have quite the relationship that you have with yours.” Obi-Wan replied. There was a hint of sadness in his tone. Maybe even jealousy.

The three of you continued moving through the shopping area. You found an alley that appeared empty until a Bounty Hunter rushed forward out of it. You thanked the force for your reflexes as you were able to take the hunter down quietly. His bounty puck still had to be delt with since they sometimes contained trackers. You reached over and detached the puck from the Bounty Hunter’s wrist as Leia and Obi-Wan followed you into the alley. You tossed the puck to the ground about to step on it and reduce it to pieces.

“That’s going to be a problem.” You complained when you realized who the high prized bounty puck was for.

“What is it?” You felt Obi-Wan’s hand rest on your lower back as he looked over your shoulder, trying to see the puck. You tried not to focus on the touch. The alleyway was a little tight and he needed the extra support to balance on his toes. “Oh my! That’s quite a large sum of credits.”

“High treason.” You remarked, reading the bounty puck. “Who did you tick off on the wrong side of the galaxy?”

“I don’t know, but I wouldn’t rule your capture as unrelated just yet.” He sighed.

“You think someone sent those first Bounty Hunters to capture Leia as a way to lure you out?” You sucked in a breath. That was something you hadn’t considered. The idea that someone knew Obi-Wan was still alive and wanted him found badly enough they would place a bounty on him had your stomach turning. “You think they weren’t targeting the Organas at all.”

“I can’t be certain.” Obi-Wan reminded you. “Bail did inform me he’s put forward a fair amount of unpopular legislation as of late. He thought someone might be trying to force him into backing down. I was willing to consider alternative motivations.”

“You though someone was looking for you, but you came anyway?” You asked. You weren’t sure if you would’ve had the courage to do what Obi-Wan was claiming to have done.

“I know you would have.” Obi-Wan remarked. After reading you through The Force. It wasn’t like he was trying to pry into your mind. You just always seemed to be screaming your emotions to him through The Force. He stepped forward effectively crushing the Bounty puck.

“How can you be so sure of something that I’m not even sure of?” You asked.

“You would have come to rescue me for the same reason I’ve done for you and Leia.” He insisted.

“You were offered a large sum of republic credits?” You asked.

“I’d do anything to know you were safe.” He told you.

TAGS: @thejediprincess56​

[motherofagoddess]

Kenobi Part III Spoilers (Kinda) in this minific

The Third Sister brought him back a child. He rage boiled, roaring in his ears as she smugly delivered her report. He found no words to stroke her ego, his words flat as he dismissed her, “Leave us.”

His focus snapped to the girl, the one the Third Sister had kidnapped in a crude, albeit successful, method to draw out the man who left him to burn. She was small, her face a mask of impassiveness despite the fear that coiled around her. He probed at her with the Force, feeling her shove the tendrils of darkness away with the ferocity of a krayt dragon. He cocked his head to the side, studying the child more closely. She was a little old for project Harvester, but no matter. Who was her family? He was so far removed from politics, he couldn’t recall who she belonged to. His voice boomed, making her jump, “Who are you?”

“Leia,” she said, straightening her spine. “Princess Leia Organa.”

Ah, the Senators child. He had liked Bail before the war and he had been her friend, how clever to use his daughter to lure out his former Master. The Force whispered around him, trying to get his attention about something. He stared into her eyes, unable to tell their color through the red tint in his mask, “And did Kenobi tell you where you were going next?”

“No,” she said harshly. He sensed the lie, but allowed her to continue “He won’t tell me lots of things.”

“He’s known for his lies, as all Jedi are.”

“Oh,” she said, flushing. “No, he isn’t good at that. He knows my real parents… but I think remembering them causes him pain.”

As if he knew anything about pain, Vader thought. She was adopted, he could recall that Queen Breha had sustained an injury during her ascent to the throne. Her birth parents must have been very important for the Organas to risk Obi Wan being discovered during her rescue. He pondered this analyzing the things he knew about the child in question: her Force-sensitive nature, the stubbornness, she even looked like a younger-

No.

“Anakin, something wonderful has happened.”

No.

What remained of Anakin Skywalker exploded free of the prison Vader had built within himself. Every emotion came crashing down on him, making it hard to breathe in his mask, despite the respirator forcing the oxygen into his lungs. The suit suddenly made him feel claustrophobic, making him desperately want to rip it off of himself, damning the consequences. Leia was speaking, but he no longer heard it, Palpatine’s words echoing painfully in his mind, “It seems that in your anger… you killed her.”

He forced himself to breathe on his own, each breath helping him rationalize. His Master would see the child as a threat or worse- a replacement. He had sensed Kenobi’s exasperation prior to his fear, his daughter likely the source of it. He looked at Leia, “Where was he taking you?”

She squinted, the action sending a knife into his bleeding heart, “I don’t think I should trust you.”

“You’re probably right,” he said dryly. “But I think it’s in my best interest I return you to him. Before your parents broadcast your absence on the Holo-net.”

She scowled, “You want to hurt him.”

Yep, now he could see it. He exhaled a long, heavy sigh, “You can tell I’m telling the truth, correct?”

Her silence spoke volumes, dark eyes flashing. He continued, “Tell me where Kenobi is and… I will show you how to fly my TIE-fighter.”

“You swear?”

“On my life.”

“Deal,” she answered with a bright smile. Now, he just had to tell the Inquisitors to search somewhere else, far from where he was going. Anakin only hoped that Obi Wan could forgive him enough to accept Leia back as his charge… then he would deal with Reva personally.

[sonoftatooine]

Whumptober 2021

DAY 4: ‘TRUST FALL’ - TAKEN HOSTAGE

Characters: Anakin Skywalker, Wilhuff Tarkin, Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, Bail Organa (mentioned), Obi-Wan Kenobi (mentioned)

Summary: Rebel AU - Instead of falling to the Dark Side, Anakin resists Palpatine’s manipulations, but not without consequences. With Padmé dead, he flees Coruscant, raising their two children in the fledgling Rebel Alliance. However, Palpatine has not forgotten about them. Several years later, Anakin is presented with an ultimatum - give himself up to the Empire or he’ll never see Luke and Leia again.

***

"Anakin Skywalker."

The voice of Moff Wilhuff Tarkin crackled with static as it was played through the holoprojector Anakin had cradled in his hand, his glitching image another flicker of light against the deep blue of hyperspace beyond the viewport of the ship that he had...borrowed without permission from the hangar of the new rebel base that they had set up less than a week past. By now, the message was as familiar to him as those blue lights outside; he had played and replayed it so many times. Every inflection of that smug voice, every minute change in expression on that gaunt face. But no matter the pain it caused him, he couldn't stop himself from watching it over and over, as if this time it would be...it would be—

He didn't know what it would be.

"The Emperor demands your presence," Tarkin continued. Anakin had to fight the urge to clench his durasteel hand into a fist, to crush the holoprojector into dust, as he had once on Kiros when confronted with the presence of the Zygerrian slaver on the planet. "For too long, you have evaded capture. I'm afraid that ends today."

The image jumped and stuttered as two small figures were pulled into the frame. A sob caught in Anakin's throat. Luke and Leia, their small wrists trapped in Force suppressing cuffs. Luke's eyes were full of tears, Leia's full of fury. But no matter how fierce her glare, he could tell she was terrified. They were both terrified.

"You have three standard days to come to the Mustafar system," Tarkin said, thin lips twisting into a small, cruelly satisfied smile. "Alone, unarmed. If you wish your children to remain unharmed, you will comply. Fail to do so in any regard, and you shall never see them again."

Beside him, the tears in Luke's eyes began to spill out onto his round cheeks as he frantically shook his head. Some of Leia's fear began to melt through her mask of anger, dark eyes widening in alarm as she opened her mouth to scream.

"No, Daddy, no! Don't—"

A snarl from Tarkin and the recording cut off. With a sharp clatter, the holoprojector fell to the floor as Anakin bent over with a wounded cry, burying his face in his hands.

It was his fault. All his fault. When their last base was attacked, his thoughts had only been to get them out, get them away to safety. Bail had had them go with Antilles to the rendezvous point, but Anakin had chosen to stay, to fight, to hold back the troopers long enough to allow them to escape. But in the end, it had done nothing to protect them. Luke and Leia had never arrived there. Antilles had been killed, and his children had been taken. Taken because he hadn't been there to protect them. Because he always made the wrong choice, failed the people he loved most. His mother, Padmé, and now...

And now, Luke and Leia—his precious children that he couldn't lose, not like he had lost their mother—were in the hands of the Empire, and there was only one thing he could do to save them.

One thing which the rest of the Rebel Alliance had deemed unacceptable. Most of them had been sympathetic, of course. Bail had been very kind and understanding after they had received the transmission, even as he had rushed to put himself between Anakin and the door to stop his mad dash to the hangar, no thoughts in his head beyond the need to get to his children, couldn't let them get hurt no matter what the cost. "Anakin," he'd pleaded with him, large hands pressing down on his shoulders to hold him back, and for one horrible moment it had struck him that, despite his size, it would have been so easy to just...swat him aside—this man who dared stand between him and the only option he had of keeping his children safe— "Anakin, please. I know you want to protect Luke and Leia, but giving yourself up to the Empire isn't the answer. That won't help anyone, least of all them." Obi-Wan had tried too, but he hadn't been any help. "You are the Chosen One, Anakin," he'd said. "We cannot risk you falling into the hands of the Sith. We will get your children back, but you mustn't allow your fear for them to cloud your judgement."

Obi-Wan didn't understand. He was hardly about to forget that he was the karking Chosen One when it was the very reason Palpatine had targeted his children—the man who had befriended him and manipulated him for thirteen years in order to shackle his power to him, who had taken Luke and Leia for the same end. As if he could possibly have forgotten what it was he wanted from him, when the memories of it still haunted his nightmares. His cajoling in the blood red office in the Senate Dome morphing into snarling threats as the Jedi Temple burnt around them, and then Padmé—oh Padmé—her life force slipping through his fingers like sand and there was nothing he could do—

But none of that mattered. Not now. Not when it was his children's lives on the line. He wouldn't risk defying him this time. He couldn't.

They'd tried. They'd tried to find a way to free Luke and Leia without giving into the Empire's ultimatum. But what could they do? They had no idea where Tarkin was keeping them, and if he caught the slightest wind that Anakin had not come alone to Mustafar, Force knew what would happen. He couldn't risk that. Though he was no longer naive enough to expect Tarkin to simply let them go if he caved to the demands (he steadfastly ignored the small part of him that always felt that if he had taken up Palpatine's offer, if he hadn't angered him with his refusal, that he might have let—he might have let Padmé—), perhaps he could find a way to escape afterwards. He would find his children and then they would all get away. But he couldn't let Luke and Leia suffer because of him. Couldn't let them be killed or-or spirited away and twisted by the Sith into something terrible because their father had refused to act.

He wouldn't make the wrong choice this time.

He hoped that nobody back at the base had noticed he was missing yet. He had left well past dark, slipping past the people on the night watch and away with ease. As far as Obi-Wan and Bail and everyone else were concerned, he was holed up in his room, not sleeping, not eating, and torturing himself over and over with that kriffing recording. With luck that he wasn't strictly supposed to believe in, they wouldn't go trying to talk to him too soon. If they found out he was gone, if they figured out where he was going and decided to go after him, Tarkin could take that as an attempt to breach the terms of the Empire's ultimatum, and what would happen to Luke and Leia then?

He was brought sharply out of his spiralling thoughts as his ship's console beeped at him. Blinking, he raised his head from his hands. The ship was coming out of hyperspace. Oh Force. Oh Force. He felt sick, deep in his stomach. His hands shook. For a moment, overwhelming fear seized him. The fear he had felt in the Council Chambers of the Jedi Temple all those years ago as he stared into the vicious yellow eyes of a man he had thought was his friend. Fear of everything he could do to him, and worse, to everybody he cared about. He could barely breathe. But he couldn't let himself get trapped in that fear. He had to do this. He had to—

The blue lights dissipated as the ship reverted to realspace, revealing the fiery image of Mustafar on the other side of the viewport before him. Anakin's hands trembled violently as he grasped the ship's controls—so hard that they creaked alarmingly under his mechanical fingers. For Luke and Leia. For Luke and Leia. He could do it for Luke and Leia—

He angled the ship towards the planet, and started the descent down towards the surface.

When he had come here to save the Force sensitive children kidnapped by Cad Bane during the Clone War, he had decided that, if there was a planet in the Galaxy that rivalled Tatooine in awfulness, it was Mustafar. The roaring boom of constant eruptions reverberated as fiercely in the Force as it did in his ears as he manoeuvred the ship to land on the platform adjacent to a shielded facility similar to the one he remembered from the last time he had been to the planet. Reaching out with the his Force senses, he searched for Luke and Leia and found...nothing. He swallowed. He hadn't really expected them to be here—too much of a risk that he would simply kill Tarkin, take them and go. Instead, what he sensed were echoes of fear and death, and a familiar presence that he had hoped never to cross paths with again.

Tarkin was waiting for him.

"General Skywalker." After so many times watching the holorecording over and over again, it was odd hearing his that crisp, clipped voice without static or interference. Anakin levelled the man with the fiercest glower he could muster as he stepped out of the ship. "Good evening."

"Tarkin" Anakin snarled through gritted teeth. It was all he could force out without succumbing to the urge to lash out, to let the terrible power within him that the Emperor so coveted reach out and destroy his servant in the blink of an eye. He would deserve it. Would deserve it for taking his children, for daring to threaten them— But his children were the very reason he couldn't do it. He couldn't risk them. With a great effort, he bridled in his rage.

Tarkin smiled—that thin, pallid twist of the lips that he recognised from the twilight days of the Republic. The burning red light of the lava glinting in his steely eyes made him think of the first time they'd met. Lola Sayu. The Citadel mission. Ahsoka had saved his life then. Briefly, Anakin wondered if it would have been better for all of them if the man had died there and then.

"I knew that you would come." The Force sent a flare of warning through him, and he suddenly became aware of the clanking of plastisteel armour as, at a wordless order from the man in front of him, stormtroopers surrounded him, blasters pointed at his back. "The Emperor has predicted your every move."

Tarkin's tone was unbearably smug. Despite Anakin's silence, despite his rage, the smile never left the man's face. The shadows in the deep hollows of his cheeks and eyes made him look even more gaunt than usual. Like a grinning skull, here to taunt him with his fate.

"And now... Now, there is no escape. For you or your children.”

[billowypantss]

Ooooh I’m curious about your obikin WIP babies! 👀🤩

okay i was just gonna give u a summary and then be like "sorry though i'm not going to actually finish it probably :(" but then i went back and looked at it? and it's like.... mostly written ???

granted, it is a VERY rough draft... some of these aren't full sentences, but honestly i kinda think its a vibe... so great news i'm going to post it on this ask below the cut <333

if i actually do end up finishing this for real for real, i'll post it on ao3 too as part of my "til forever falls apart" series, bc that's what i og wrote it for (which is a series of post-rotj anakin and obi-wan shenanigans).

okay enough about me here u go (word count: ~1,000)

BABIES

“She said I could see him. If I wanted.” 

“That’s good news, isn’t it?” 

Anakin shrugged. 

Obi-Wan tilted his head at him. “What’s wrong?” 

“Nothing. I don’t know. I just…” 

Waits patiently. 

“What if I mess it up. Somehow.” 

“Anakin–” 

“No, I know. It’s stupid. But look… I’ve never… raised someone.” 

“You won’t be raising Ben. That’ll be Leia and Han’s job,” gently.

“I know that, but I don’t—” sighs. “Ugh. Nevermind—it’s nothing. Stupid. Sorry for bringing it up.” 

“I’m sure it’s not stupid, Anakin. And even if it is, I believe I’ve had my fair share of stupid from you. It’s not like it’ll be a new experience for me.” Light brush of shoulder, wave of teasing calm from Force. 

Anakin’s lips twitched a little, but then he sighed again. Obi-Wan waits again. Plops down. Lowers his head. 

“I don’t know what to do around a baby, okay?” 

Obi-Wan blinked. “Do?” 

Looks up, frustrated. “You know—like, hold it. And talk to it. And… I don’t know! The things you’re supposed to do with a baby!” 

Obi-Wan almost laughed. “Anakin, it’s just a baby. It’ll come naturally, I promise.” 

How absurdly simple. Only Anakin would make such a small feat dramatic, though he supposed maybe there was more to it. He felt an old sorrow, grief swim up with him along with a fondness for the man in front of him. Ah. That was right, he supposed. Anakin had never known his own children as infants.

(No, that had been Obi-Wan, Obi-Wan who had held them first, who had changed their diapers, who had swaddled them up, cooing and singing and trying desperately not to think about why he was holding these babies, why he was passing one to Bail Organa and taking one to Tatooine, why he was burying their mother, why he wasn’t their father (their father was gone, gone, gone, he left, he was dead, he had to be, because that thing he left on Mustafar wasn’t—couldn’t be—his Anakin) because if he did he would surely break—).

Stop. 

Shook himself.

But Anakin would’ve been a wonderful father. It was what made everything so heartbreaking, holding them. Because he knew that Anakin would have loved being their dad. So why was he—

“I don’t think anyone wants me to follow my instincts when it comes to babies, considering my past experience with children.”

Obi-Wan swallowed. 

Oh. 

That’s what he was worried about. 

Anakin just looked at him, waiting. A testament to how far they had come. Before, Anakin may have taken the silence as disapproval, as Obi-Wan hating him and agreeing with his “stupid” assessment. But they had talked about this (and all the other communication problems they had—Force knows they had more than a few, Obi-Wan thought wearily) and fixed it. 

Obi-Wan, now, though, gazed back at his friend sadly, his form in his twenties but his eyes older than how he looked by far. Obi-Wan was sure it was the same burden Anakin saw reflected in his own. It was a heavy look, in those eyes. Obi-Wan knew how hard it was to hold firsthand. But they had learned that sharing it would help.

Obi-Wan sighed.

He could have said a number of things, about how Anakin was a different man now than he was then, about how if Leia trusted him, then he should trust himself because that woman didn’t trust anyone, or that they couldn’t kill anyone now that they were dead, anyways, so there was nothing to worry about—all true, of course, but what he went with was much simpler. 

“You’re right. You don’t have much of a past with babies, and not a very good one at that.”

Anakin nodded, looking away again. Obi-Wan sent him a nudge in the force, drawing his defeated expression back to his. Smiles gently.

“Luckily for you, your closest and most dearest friend does know a thing or two about babies, and he is happy to share his knowledge with you.” 

Anakin shot him a look. “You never went to the creche, either, Obi-Wan. I’m not so sure you’re an expert.” 

Obi-Wan smiled broadly, “Oh, I’m flattered you think of me so dearly, Padawan, but I was of course referring to your best friend, Master Yoda.” 

Anakin pushed Obi-Wan away, rolling his eyes but he already felt brighter in the force. “I am not asking Master Yoda about babies.” 

Obi-Wan shrugged, his eyes twinkling. “Then I suppose you’ll have to settle for me.” 

Anakin’s lips turned up in a half-smile briefly before fading. Obi-Wan sobered up a bit as well, looking at Anakin seriously. 

“Truly, Anakin. It will be fine, I know it. I’ll be there with you, every step of the way.” 

Anakin swallowed, meeting his eyes in that intense way that only Anakin Skywalker could look at a person.

“You promise?”

Obi-Wan squeezed his hand. “I promise.” 

Anakin took a deep breath and finally, finally, the last of his anguish pushed out and dissipated into the force, and he threw a genuine, though small, smile Obi-Wan’s way. Obi-Wan smiled back.

“Now, our first lesson,” he said briskly, releasing Anakin’s hand and placing his hands behind his back, “Babies are fierce negotiators, but they can be broken with bribes. If, for example, one is crying, they cannot be reasoned with or talked down, but if you offer them a gift—a toy, a finger, perhaps a pacifier, or even better, their mother—then they just might bite.”

Anakin groaned, face in his hands. “I’m regretting this already.”  

“Nonsense—this is valuable information. You should write that down, actually.” 

“Obi-Wan!” 

“What? I’m helping.”

[eyayah-oya]

Would you be willing to write something soft with Bail/Obi-wan/Breha? Maybe Obi-wan returns from a mission with Bail to Alderaan and they both give him kisses?

Hi Anon! Thank you so much for this request! It took me a little while due to school and the fact that for some reason, the scene I came up with was not working in the slightest. But I came up with a new idea and wrote this and I quite like the result. I hope you enjoy!🥰

(also @cacodaemonia, you were interested in this, so I thought I'd tag you when I posted it.)

Bail paced up and down their shared quarters as Breha sat in her armchair, an open book in her lap. She watched him for a few more moments before she set aside her book and approached her husband, wrapping her arms around his waist and leaning her head against his back.

“What has you so upset tonight?” Breha asked.

“It’s been thirteen days,” Bail responded with a heavy sigh. He turned around in Breha’s arms and hugged her close. “I’m worried about him.”

Breha sighed heavily and dropped her mask of composure she so carefully maintained for her people. “I am too,” she said softly, “but you know Ben. He’s survived the absolute worst of the galaxy and has always returned home to us. We have to have faith in him.”

Thirteen days wasn’t nearly the longest Ben had been gone, and this wasn’t even the first dangerous mission he’d been on without them. Breha especially hated to think about those short few days when they’d thought that he’d been killed during the war, assassinated by a common bounty hunter. She hadn’t even been able to attend the funeral, though Bail had. Those days were dark for both of them, kept apart by space and stars and mourning their beloved friend.

The rise of the Empire had brought more fears than even the incident with Rako Hardeen. The Jedi were slaughtered mercilessly—Bail told Breha that not even the little children in the creches had been spared the Emperor’s wrath—and she’d worried relentlessly about Obi-Wan. Millions of troopers that they’d all trusted and even befriended had turned on their closest allies without hesitation and were hunting Force users across the galaxy.

Breha had been so relieved when Bail had arrived with two tiny bundles of joy and Obi-Wan, broken with exhaustion and a bone-deep anguish that went deeper than physical. Anakin, he’d said, was gone. No one knew what happened to Ahsoka for months. It wasn’t until Obi-Wan—Ben now—reunited with Ahsoka and Rex that they learned about the chips that controlled the clones. Ever since then, Ben ran as many missions as he could all over the galaxy, capturing and freeing the clones he’d loved so much.

These missions were dangerous. Of course, they were. Ben was literally being hunted by the very men he sought to save and as they all knew, missions easily went wrong for him.

In the nursery attached to their quarters, Breha heard one of the twins stir slightly. Immediately, both Breha and Bail shifted their attention to their children, hoping to keep them both from crying. It was a challenge they hadn’t anticipated with Force-sensitive twins: their connection meant that if one felt uncomfortable or were crying, the other soon followed if they weren’t soothed in a timely manner. Neither Bail nor Breha would change a thing about their two beautiful little suns.

Bail froze in the doorway of the nursery and then relaxed. He stepped into the room and out of the way to allow Breha to follow him. Inside, two dark figures hovered over the cradles, and above the soft whimpers, she could hear a familiar voice humming soothingly to Leia.

“It’s okay, dear one,” he murmured. “I’ll be here to protect you as much as I can. You can sleep easy.”

“Ben,” Breha sighed with relief.

He looked up and the light from their quarters fell on his face, lighting up his eyes and highlighting the shadows below his eyes and cheekbones.

“Breha, Bail,” he answered. “I didn’t mean to wake them. Leia must have sensed us arriving.” “Is Luke awake, too?” Bail asked.

Ben looked over at the other figure who nodded once. “It appears so.”

“Who is your friend?” Breha asked as she walked further into the nursery. It was a bit too dark to really see who it was, and really, that was something that should probably be fixed. A soft, dim glow would really help them see better in the nursery and would keep them from accidentally running into anything in the middle of the night.

“My mission was a success,” Ben said and his weak smile carried more relief than it had in months.

Breha’s heart lifted in joy and relief. “Cody! It is so good to have you back,” she said, keeping her voice low for the twins but no less filled with how pleased she was to see him safe and sound.

“Queen Organa.” The voice was rough with disuse and likely tears based on how the few other men of the 212th had reacted when Ben had rescued them.

“You must both be exhausted,” Bail said. “We have a guest room off of our quarters that you can use, Cody. I’m sure you could use the rest.”

Cody was silent for several long moments until Ben decided to speak up. “I think it would be best if he stayed by my side for now,” he said quietly.

With a sinking realization, Breha nodded. Cody ordered Ben’s death and likely thought he’d killed him all this time. Of course, he would need to be near Ben if only to reassure himself that he really was alive. Both Bail and Breha had needed that same reassurance at the start of Imperial Rule.

“Of course,” she said. “Let’s leave the children to sleep and go into the parlor. I’m sure we have much to catch up on.”

Ben dipped his head in gratitude. He moved around the cribs, Cody directly on his heels as he came to a stop in front of her and her husband. “It is good to be home,” he said softly.

“It is good to have you back,” Bail answered. He gently pulled Ben into a kiss, soft and caring and a perfect welcome home.

Breha wrapped her arms around Ben’s waist and when he and Bail parted, Ben looked at her with such soft, warm eyes, that she couldn’t help but lean up and kiss him, too. It was so wonderful to have him home. Neither of them would ever attempt to keep him hidden at home, but she was also relieved when he came back to them, safe and whole.

“Come,” she said and grabbed his hand. She smiled at Cody and led both of them from the nursery, Bail bringing up the rear. It was so wonderful to have Ben home and even more so that their dear friend Cody had been rescued from the evil chip inside his head and the horrors of the Empire. Breha couldn’t help the thrill of happiness and content in her heart to have her loved ones close by and safe. She would keep them that way for as long as she was able—it was the least she could do for Ben, the man she’d come to love over the years, and Cody, a friend one of the only blessings to come from the war. They deserved to rest for a while.

Alderaan was safe for them.

[rise-above-the-grave]

[smashes down door] who is Bail and why do you like him? I could look it up but I'd rather you gush over him

OH BOY.

So first off, a quick (canon) history lesson: Bail Organa was the Senator and Viceroy (aka Prince Consort) of Alderaan. If you don't know what that means (because old titles are Weird - I'm not judging the only reason I know this is because of this very character), it means that Breha, Bail's wife, is ruling Queen of Alderaan and was the heir to the throne. She married Bail, making him a ruler by marriage, though technically she still held the crown. He, at some point, was also elected Senator of Alderaan, and was Senator leading up to and during The Clone Wars (and after, but we're getting to that).

So Bail, we come to find out, became (best) friends with Padmé Amidala. We see him in a couple of scenes in Attack of the Clones with Padmé, just kinda vibing and making the occasional commentary. We know he stood with her on the Opposition bill (the bill Padmé was nearly killed over at the beginning of AOTC, which was against the formation of a Republic military), though we don't learn much about the rest of his politics until later.

So he's kinda...there, but obvs isn't the focus of the story, and is really just a minor background character. The first real insight we get into Bail is, actually, a really tiny character moment right at the end of AOTC, when Palpatine and some of the Senators are looking down at the Clone troops loading up onto the ship, watching their new military gear up for war.

Bail looks away. While everyone else is staring down at the (slave) army, some of them smiling (like Sheev), some of them just serious, Bail looks away from them and makes this tiny little hand gesture: a simple, closed fist knocking against the banister of the balcony.

It's this, I think, that first piqued my interest in this character. He was the only one not triumphant in that situation. He was the only one who saw things for what they were: a tragedy, and a horror, and that this wasn't something to celebrate but to mourn.

Then we come to Revenge of the Sith, and boy howdy. The man may have like 10 minutes of screen time, but does he make those 10 minutes count!

A quick bullet point of the Important Things Bail Does in ROTS:

When the Jedi Temple is burning, what does Bail do? He flies to it to figure out what's going on and see if he can save anyone. He then watches as a youngling is shot and killed by Clone Troopers, and manages to escape because he's a fucking badass.

Please note, to our knowledge, Bail is the only one who actually goes to check on the Jedi Temple.

As soon as he escapes the Temple, Bail immediately - like immediately - takes his ship and goes to find any surviving Jedi. He is almost certainly the reason both Yoda and Obi-Wan don't walk into the trap that is the Jedi Temple, or are captured - and even if that's not true, he most definitely is the reason they manage to sneak safely onto Coruscant and figure out what happened.

He's the one who rescues Yoda (again) after Yoda's failed duel with Palpatine in the Senate. Which, let me rant about the SYMBOLISM of that for a second please. Because holy shit, the entire duel between Yoda and Palpatine takes place in the Senate, with the Senate building and pods. Here Palpatine proves to Yoda that yes, he is the Senate, he controls it, the new Empire is under his control and no one can stop him. But then - but then - Yoda escapes, and who saves him? Bail. Bail sneaks in with a speeder, saves Yoda, and gets him back to safety. Which is such a huge fucking metaphor for the fact that Bail will be the one who, ultimately, is responsible for Palpatine's defeat. But, more on that later.

Bail is there when Padmé (remember, his best friend) gives birth to Luke and Leia. Bail is literally one of 3 sentients in the galaxy who canonically knows about both Luke and Leia.

Bail instantly offers to adopt one of the children, saying "She will be loved with us." (And then she absolutely is.)

And he does all of that in line 10 minutes of screen time.

He shows up again briefly in Star Wars Rebels, and again in Rogue One, but I'm going to take a trip down a side alley here into a territory that is grossly unused in the SW EU: the founding of the Rebellion.

So we don't actually know much about how the Rebellion got started. What we do know is that Bail was one of the (if not the main) Founders. Bail was the mastermind behind the Rebellion, by all accounts knowing...everything about it: who was who, who did what, where they were located, etc. He knows (and controls) Fulcrum in Rebels, as just one example, and Fulcrum is considered by that text to be one of the most powerful Rebel operatives at the time. In Rogue One (regardless of whether you liked what they did with the Rebellion which, side note, I did not), we see he certainly has a position of great authority and power. People respect him, and listen to him, and he's on an even footing with Mon Mothma (or Mom Mothma as my autocorrect tried to say) who is canonically one of the most powerful people in the Rebellion, according to ROTJ.

More than what he did, though, we can look to his character as a reason I love him. He is a good, kind, honorable man who does (or at least tries) his best. We see again and again, throughout all of SW media he's in, that he consistently chooses the right path, regardless of whether or not it's the easy one. He fights corruption, fights for justice, fights for freedom, fights against tyranny.

He is also, canonically, an amazing father and (according to EU content, since Breha literally doesn't have a spoken line in any media content) an incredible husband. We know he's well-loved by his people, and by the Rebellion, by the extraneous texts and mentions about him in the wake of his death on Alderaan. He's also respected by many Senators during his time in the Clone Wars (Padmé makes a comment in a TCW episode about how he's the best and most respected speaker and Senator she knows), and regardless of how people felt about him after the Rise of the Empire (which is, unfortunately - or fortunately maybe, because I don't trust Disney to do it right - up to headcanon), the fact remains that Bail played an incredibly tricky position as an Imperial Senator, having to balance fighting for his people, the people of the galaxy, and setting up the Rebellion, with not making himself too much of a nuisance, or too much of a traitor, that Palpatine straight up had him executed.

Which, speaking of that, can we also take a moment to appreciate the fact that Bail knew almost every single secret that Palpatine and Vader wanted??? He knew where Obi-Wan was, and possibly where Yoda was. He knew where both of Anakin and Padmé's children were. He knew everything about the fledgling Rebellion. Like...that man, had he been captured and interrogated (and had he broken) would have damned the entire galaxy. Yet he never was. He played his cards perfectly, and was either never suspected, or was able to somehow hide all of the information they wanted to know from being found. Personally, I suspect a mixture of the two.

Furthermore, Bail Organa is a great father and husband. He is directly responsible for Leia being the amazing woman we know and love. The one shot we get of Breha, you can practically see and feel the love and adoration Bail has for her radiating off of him through the screen. Literally the most unproblematic ship in Star Wars. I have never seen a single person say they aren't amazing (unless they just want to break them up to make Bail gay? Which, come on, bisexual and polyamorous people exist, y'all. But that's a talk for another time).

If you're still not convinced, the only thing left that I can say is: I'm a raging lesbian and like, while I definitely wouldn't fuck him, Bail/Jimmy Smits (his actor) is handsome. Have some pictures that I have saved on my phone for when I'm feeling sad.

Tl;dr: Bail Organa is singlehandedly responsible for putting into motion the events that secure the galaxy's freedom, not only by being one of the founding fathers of the Rebellion, but also by reaching Yoda and Obi-Wan before the new Empire can, and getting them safely to Coruscant. He is a good, kind, and noble man who does his best in shitty times, and even if he has to make hard choices, he always makes them for the right reasons. He is a loving father, husband, and ruler, who does right by his people and his family. He fights for what's right, even when that fight is nearly impossible. He's a badass, and arguably a literal genius (you'd have to be, to do the kinds of things he does in canon).

Anyway, Bail Organa is great and I love him - and you should too.

[avengersassemble-fics]

Ashes

part 07/?? “a trap is set”

previous part // next part

masterlist

word count 2.1k

Alderaan was just like the stories you had heard over the years. Though it was no Coruscant, it definitely held a sense of sophistication and peace. From the minute the Mantis set itself on the ground though, you were uncomfortably aware of the security force presence that appeared. As the ramp was lowered and you joined Cal’s side, you recognized the man who approached with the security detail.

Even all these years later, you would recognize Bail Organa anywhere.

There were deepened wrinkles around his eyes, patches of white hair grazing the sides of his face, but one thing hadn’t changed: the warming smile he gave the Jedi next to you. You remembered seeing the same smile when you passed him in the Senate building long ago. Cal and you stepped down the ramp nearly in sync, as Bail Organa met you at the bottom. “Thank you for accepting our invitation. I hope you travelled well.”

“We wouldn’t miss the chance of learning more about the Alliance,” Cal replied and glanced your way. “And thanks to some unmarked hyperspace routes we’ve slipped through any Empire detection.”

“That’s good to hear,” Bail said. His eyes glanced your way when Cal spoke of the hyperspace routes, but you stayed stoic. The less people knew of your existence the better. He glanced up at the entry of the ship, where the others were coming out. “I’m sure you’re all needing a chance to relax, I’m more than happy to show you the way.”

“That would be great-”

“Father, how much longer do I have to wait before we can go to Cloudshape Falls? Oh-”

A little girl with braided hair had run up from behind Bail and clutched at his cape when her eyes fell upon the weapon on Cal’s side. In her eyes they held bewilderment and awe, but something hit you hard in the stomach as her eyes soon shifted to the strangers before her. The way her eyebrows furrowed just slightly, the slightly unruly baby hairs… This was the other twin. This was Anakin and Padme’s daughter.

“Please forgive my daughter, she’s never seen a Jedi before,” Bail explained as he rested a hand behind her back. “Leia I told you we’d have to go another day.”

Her frown deepened and she huffed at him, and you closed your eyes shut behind your helmet. It reminded you of Anakin when you were children. “But we always go on Primeday.”

“Please don’t let us stop you from going,” Cal cut in. You watched as Leia’s frown turned into a grin and her father wiggled his eyebrows at her.

“I like him,” she told her father, and earned a snicker from him.

“I bet you do,” Bail told her and moved behind her to place both hands on her shoulders. “While you rest I guess I have other duties to see to.”

“Of course,” Cal agreed and looked back at the others and motioned for them to follow. As you stepped off the ramp and Bail Organa turned to lead the way, a familiar sensation filled your chest. It was enough to make you pause, to glance around you in search of the source of the warmth in your chest, which made Cal stop to check on you. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” your modulated voice  said lowly. “I’m going to stay behind for a moment.”

Cal nodded in understanding, but hesitated before catching up with the rest. Your eyes focused on the group slowly disappear into the crowds, and you inhaled deeply. You wondered if it was possible..?

“Never thought I would see the day where we met again,” a voice said close by. You fought all urges to smile, but couldn’t help it when you came face to face with the source.

He was not the man you remembered from five years ago. Adjourned in the same uniform of the other security forces, he held his helmet on his hip as he came up to your side. But his eyes were more calm, as well as the aura surrounding him. You accepted his handshake and clasped your other hand over the back of his hand.

“Dash.. You look like you’re doing well,” you greeted. He grinned and looked down at himself before meeting your gaze behind the helmet.

“It’s been a journey but I’d say it’s been worth it,” he replied before you two removed your hands from one another. “And I go by my given name again, never really liked what he proclaimed me as.. Chordan.”

“Chordan,” you thought over before giving a firm nod. “I like it. Definitely better than what he gave you.”

Chordan motioned in a direction and you began to walk side by side one another. The pace was slow, you basked in one another’s presence and the familiar feeling that radiated off of each other. He led you towards a building that seemed to gleam against the falling sun. “What brings you to Alderaan?”

“I’m accompanying a couple of Jedi on their journey. I’m.. Looking for someone,” you replied cautiously. You both came to a stop as Dash looked you over with a raised brow.

“You don’t mean..?”

“I do,” you cut him off. You couldn’t help but look past him towards the scenery that surrounded the city. “I have to find him without Palpatine finding out.”

The use of the Emperor’s name was quiet, just for him to hear. Chordan had to understand your need to find Anakin, the one in question. He had seen how broken you were that day on Korriban, and the two weeks you spent together after the Purge first occurred. You noticed he straightened himself, nearing you to lean down and whisper something. “I knew I sensed a change in you.”

Before you had a chance to reply someone came up from the building you were nearing, which caused you two to separate. You kept your gaze firm on the distance, to allow Chordan to speak with whoever was coming up from behind. “Sir, we’ve intercepted a message-”

No. It couldn’t be.

You spun around faster than they could finish, impulsively unhooking the holster on your leg and taking a step back. You couldn’t help it, it was yet another person who had attempted to kill you (though it could be argued they had no choice.)

CT-27-5555. Distinguishable by his personality and the faded ‘5’ tattoo on the right side of his temple. One of the ones who saved your life from “Governor” Shuule now six years prior. Setting your hand on your blaster was enough to warrant him to react as well, but Chordan stood between you both.

“I don’t think that’s a wise move,” Fives familiar voice registered in your ears. Your eyes darted between the two men who stood before you, and Chordan focused on you harder.

“Calm down,” he warned you. Fives grew antsy behind him but Chordan narrowed his look at him. “Stand down.”

“Who the hell is this anyway, Sir,” Fives questioned.

Chordan hesitated, which was noticeable by Fives (if that’s what he went by now) who was growing more guarded by the moment. You felt like your breaths were heavy, weighing what you wanted to do, but there was no decision to be made. With a shaky hand you reclaspsed your gun holster and reached up to feel for the latch on your helmet, which for some reason you couldn’t remember where it was. But when you finally got the latch undone and the hissing that sounded after, you lifted it off your head.

You wondered what you looked like to those you haven’t seen in years. Fives had always been one to give his thoughts and feelings away with his facial expressions, and it appears that hadn’t changed. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion, eyeing you then Chordan, before his face softened in recognition. “General.. Sir- I mean-”

He was unsure how to address you, given your last encounter with one another, but he stopped speaking the moment you took a careful step forward. He was nervous as you tried to gauge his reaction, maybe to see if he was going to attack you, but his stomach twisted as you stood before him. Fives wasn’t one to get nervous, but there was a first for everything. What startled him the most was when you reached your free hand up to his face, the leathery feeling brushed over his right cheek and traced over the tattoo on his temple. It seemed to confirm something for you. “It’s really you.”

“I.. I’m so sorry,” Fives erupted, earning a frown from the one who had him in awe. “Palpating he installed chips in us Clones.. There was no way to fight his command-“

“It’s okay,” you reassured him while dropping your hand from his face. “You only just grazed me.”

“I thought.. Thought you were dead,” Fives said lowly. You glanced towards Chordan and came to rest your hand again on his shoulder.

“We had to make it believable.. I asked him never to tell anyone, I had to wait until the time was right before-“

“(Y/N),” Chordan interjected, his tone warning you of what you were doing. You glanced at him and shrugged slightly.

“I trusted him with my life, you’ve trusted him all these years it seems.. I can trust him with this,” you reasoned. Fives watched the exchange in confusion, before you let out a small sigh and turned back to him. “I’m trying to find Skywalker.”

Anakin and you had worked hard to conceal your relationship because of the Council and the ways of the Jedi. But almost like how Obi-Wan knew, there must’ve been others unknown to you. You didn’t know if any Clones had figured it out, but by the expression on Fives face it seems like he had figured it out at some point. But there was another hint of urgency that now clicked for him. “The message-“

“What message?” Chordan asked. Fives explained to him he’d want to hear it himself, and with a stolen glance of understanding, you put your helmet back on and followed the two towards your next objective.

The Inquisitor's incompetence was making Vader irritated. It irked him that his training seemed to befall on those who couldn’t even carry out the simplest task: tracking down any remaining Jedi. He knew there were more out there, he could feel them himself. And with his encounter with Cal Kestis on his own turf.. Vader wanted him to be brought before him once more. He would finish what was started if Kestis didn’t comply.

With his Star Destroyer still hustled amongst the stars, Coruscant was still in sight. Standing at the head of the bridge, Vader looked at the distant planet and was silent. The officers below him didn’t bother him, and it was just the way he liked it. He heard the footsteps of a commander approach, before stopping behind him. “Sir, we’ve got the message transmitting to the parameters you’ve requested.”

“Good,” Vader’s voice loomed from behind his helmet. He knew that if anyone heard this message, they would be sure to come.. They’d fall right into his clutches.

“This is Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. The Jedi Order is rising again. This message is for any surviving Jedi, and those trained in the Force.. We’re awaiting you on Coruscant.”

The message replayed on a loop after that, transmitting on the same frequency that Ben’s real, original message had played on. There were six people listening to it in the command center on Alderaan, but silence befell them. Finally, Fives shut it off and the silence grew to an uncomfortable level before someone finally spoke.

“It’s obviously a trap,” Bail said. Chordan had called him away from his family, while you had called on Cal and Cere, who both looked lost in thought. Bail looked at the group he invited, and furrowed his brows. “Why would Vader go to this length for just you two?”

“He’s probably hoping for more to fall for his trap,” Cere responded, rubbing her chin in thought. “He probably knows that the younger ones may believe the message.. Can’t believe he managed to cut it so believably.”

“We can’t risk him getting a hold of any more Force sensitives,” you remarked behind your helmet. 

“What do you plan on doing? Get captured?” Chordan asked.

“We have to at least try and stop that message, and destroy his chances of creating more,” Cal said. You nodded in agreement, but Bail seemed more hesitant.

“Are you sure about this?” He asked the young Jedi. Cal glanced your way, and you shared a knowing nod.

The Mantis was returning to the fallen temple.

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[siennahrobek]

Future Past

19 BBY

Obi-Wan’s farewell to everyone he had left was rather numb.

He felt numb, even though he knew everything was breaking inside. It was all just movements and motions, barely thought provoking as he strode through the facilities of Polis Massa and later, Bail Organa’s ship. He felt like he was choking on air and nothing at all, breathing was difficult.

He only had a few minutes with Leia, and he had a feeling that he may never see her again. He almost wished he wouldn’t. He would love to, of course, because he loved her so much, but if he did, that probably meant she was in grave danger. He would go the rest of his entire life without seeing or talking with her again in exchange for her being safe and happy. That’s all he wanted.

That was all he had ever wanted for those he loved.

He wondered if he would ever stop failing.

Luke was set within a hospital cradle bed while Obi-Wan said his goodbyes to the tiny girl, the little shining light that should have been his family. Bail had assured she always would be, even if she never got to meet him again. Obi-Wan would be forever grateful that he had a friend in someone like Bail Organa.

Cradling Leia in his arms, she had paused from her constant wail and screeching, rather attempting to reach up and grab his beard. She had gotten a fistful but had not pulled too hard and he let her. Perhaps it was the start of a bad habit, Obi-Wan didn’t know, but he figured this would be the last time with him. Her hair was already a little mop upon her head, dried off with a soft towel. The color reminded him of Padme, especially when she had been younger. When Obi-Wan had met her during her teenage years and reign as Naboo Queen.

Rocking the child gently, he wrapped her up within part of his cloak, although a bit tattered and dirty. She didn’t seem to mind, one hand grasping his beard. She had taken his pointer finger with the other, tightening as much as her little grip would allow her.

He nearly tried to tug it away, but Leia’s face just scrunched up in determination as she held even tighter. Obi-Wan just found a chair to sit in. Perhaps this goodbye would be slightly longer. It was okay.

“I didn’t think babies much look like anyone in particular but you seem to look so much like your father. I know everyone would say your mother,” he started quietly. “But I know, I think. Perhaps I didn’t spend enough time with babies; I wish I did. Now…now they are all gone,” he whispered, lowering his head closer to hers. “Just you and Luke are the only younglings left. I am so sorry that you don’t have anyone else. But Bail will give you a good life, he will always do his best. That you can count on.”

Leia just gargled, blowing out little raspberries in his face. Obi-Wan just chuckled. “Anakin would have loved you so much. So would Padme. Once upon a time, you had wonderful parents, my dearest.”

One of her hands left his beard and traveled up to his cheek, patting it gently.

Something shifted on the ship and Obi-Wan could feel presences coming forward quickly. “I must leave you soon, darling,” he murmured and kissed her forehead. She didn’t have much strength in her tiny hands but what little she did, she tried to bring him closer. “This is my farewell to you; I know you will change the galaxy; it has always been your destiny. How you will do it is completely up to you. You will be beautiful and stronger than anyone else, don’t let a single person tell you otherwise.”

Leia just stared at him, her dark eyes wide and curious. Her fingers moved and curled around his singular pointer finger.

“May the Force be with you, dear Leia, always,” he whispered, projecting the one feeling he knew he wanted her to feel for the rest of her life. If she was to associate his presence with anything, he wanted her to feel this, know what he felt for her.

Complete, unadulterated and untainted love.

***

Leaving Polis Massa was harder than Obi-Wan had expected. Yoda left with little fanfare, a few words of wisdom and the notification about his old master’s presence, with more lessons to be taught. Obi-Wan had always been for learning, he was a seeker, not a saint. He loved to learn and to teach, to see and explore and study.

But for some reason, this felt more like an obligation.

He wondered what it would be like, feeling his presence and hearing his voice again. Qui-Gon Jinn’s. Obi-Wan had thought about him often but tried his very best to keep those memories happy and bright. To remember him in the best light he could.

The goodbye to Bail was a bit bitter, as he was taking away one of Obi-Wan’s loved ones, but he trusted Bail to treat her well. He didn’t think he could trust anyone else more with her. He seemed to understand, at least to some extent, and consistently reassured him of that his love and care for her.

They set up a contact system for the two, just in case. Obi-Wan hoped with all of his heart that it would never be the case. “If anything happens, contact me, Master Jedi,” Bail Organa insisted even going as forth to squeeze his shoulder as for reassurance.

“I will,” Obi-Wan promised, quietly. “Hopefully, that will not be necessary.”

Bail glanced at him, sympathetically and pressed a case in his hand. “There is some currency in there. It was a rush job, getting wuipipi and the transition isn’t exactly great, but it was what I could get on such short notice. If I can, I can try to send you more later.”

“Don’t worry about it, Bail,” Obi-Wan shook his head, keeping his voice quiet. A makeshift slung was created and looped around his neck and shoulders, baby Luke snuggled up closely to his chest. He shifted from foot to foot, hoping to keep the child asleep for at least a while longer. “We shouldn’t attract any more attention to ourselves than necessary. I will make do.”

“You always seem to have a way of surviving, Obi-Wan,” Bail nodded. “But if you need anything, just, try and let me know. I will always help you.”

“Thank you,” he dipped his head. “I should leave before anyone tracks us here. It has been quite some time.”

“May the Force be with you, Master Jedi,” Bail took a step back and bowed lightly.

Obi-Wan nodded, unable to risk such a gesture with Luke to his chest. “And with you, Senator. Be safe.”

He took a few more steps back. Obi-Wan turned and walked to his ship, or, rather, General Grievous’ old ship. He would get to a planet to sell it so he could receive passage to Tatooine. It would be quite the undertaking his imagined.

Bail had watched him leave, even after he had left the station, Luke and a few other supplies tucked away.

The next couple of weeks were spent selling the little ship and finding passage to the planet he needed. He had to work extra hard to find a buyer that would give him a fair amount, away from the new Imperials. His heart cracked a little more every time he saw the blank faces of the clone troopers, now in shifting armor. It was changing. Everything was changing.

He accepted them as family. The jedi had accepted them as family. They had tried so hard. Perhaps it wasn’t enough, but they had tried. Obi-Wan could eventually understand them wanting to shoot down generals, him especially, for how many had he brought to war? How many had he sent to their deaths with his plans in war. How many were sacrificed in the name of the greater good. He could understand their seething hatred for him. He was the one who had done that.

He had been the one who led them.

He could accept that.

He would have gratefully and happily given his life in exchange.

If that was what they had demanded.

But they had marched on the Temple. There were few warriors in the sacred place. In their home. There was the elderly, who had spent a lifetime helping people, who had no part in the war and never had. There was the injured and sick, helpless to fight back. There was no reason to murder them. There was…there was the children, the younglings, the babies.

He couldn’t imagine the clone troopers they had trusted so much to have gone to their home and massacred all of their children. Their babies: those who didn’t do anything wrong, nothing to them. Who didn’t know better.

The youngest baby at the Temple had been three months old.

She had been even smaller than Luke in his arms.

He had seen her, or, at least, what was left of her.

The thought of it nearly made him throw up and his throat gagged at the thought. Tears swelled up in his eyes and suddenly, they were streaming down his cheeks, steadily.

He tried to stop, he wanted to stop. There were other people on the ship, being smuggled across the galaxy. It wasn’t there were many; as there wasn’t, but there was enough to notice. He choked back a sob, trying to stay as quiet as he could.

He could feel their stares.

A warm hand barely brushed up against his cheek. Trying to will the tears away, he blinked several times and glanced down. Luke was awake, bright blue eyes staring up at him, wide and curious. He murmured something unintelligible and reached up again. Obi-Wan lowered his head down to grant Luke better access. The baby just giggled and waved his hand over the older man’s face, apparently liking the texture.

After so many hyperspace trips of crying and wailing from the cold, it was nice to have a moment of quiet.

“Isn’t that a rather darling boy,” an older Mirilan woman cooed, leaning over to glance at the bundle against Obi-Wan’s chest. “You and the missus must be very happy and proud.”

“He’s not mine actually,” the words tumbled out of Obi-Wan’s mouth before his mind could catch up. “He’s my brother’s, but he and his wife are…they can’t take care of him anymore. We are going to a planet with more family.”

“I am so sorry,” the woman said, sympathetically. It laced her voice into something that made his heart crack. He hadn’t felt that from someone else in quite some time.

The woman was pleasant and even helpful for the rest of this leg of the trip, even snapping at other passengers when Luke’s wailing got too loud, in their defense. She scooted closer sometimes, her presence bringing some comfort to the baby; perhaps because she was a female. Obi-Wan knew that babies tended to bond with females closer due to the nature of their relationships.

When they parted ways, she gave him a little knitted hat for Luke…and then even one for Obi-Wan. He hadn’t even seen her make it, but he took them gratefully. They had fit perfectly.

The weeks were long and difficult, hopping from one smugglers ship to another, doing his very best to avoid the imperials but, eventually, he got himself to Tatooine. There was some investigating he had to do, in search of Anakin’s family. He had known that his mother had been freed not terribly long after Anakin had left; a reason why when Padme sent one of her handmaidens to free her, she hadn’t been able to be found.

Ben had picked up a few things from Quinlan, as his old friend was into more investigative and shadow work. He had even done a few of them with him. Ben wondered if the Kiffar was even still alive. Everyone else he loved was dead.

Although Shmi had passed away a few years ago and not terribly long after, her husband, Cliegg, her stepson and daughter-in-law still held up their moisture farm out in the deserts. Ben had eventually learned this, but it had taken some time. He found refuge wherever he could but unfortunately, most places to stay temporarily were around, above or connected to bars. And there were a lot of bars around the planet, especially in the city.

He supposed they had to do something to pick themselves up on such a wretched planet.

It had only been a couple of days since he and Luke had finally arrived at the planet of his family’s origins. Or at least, what was left of his family. It was the cheapest place, but it wasn’t a beautiful hotel either and it was, of course, above a bar. Luke didn’t seem to mind the noise, even trying to clap with some of the music sometimes and the heat didn’t seem to bother him. It was the cold that he really hated.

Ben had been scouting the bar, Luke strapped to his chest, playing with a little toy he had made during their travels. He loved that thing, for reasons Ben couldn’t quite understand.

He wasn’t sure how it had started or who started it or why but of course, with his luck, he ended up in a bar fight.

A bar fight.

With baby Luke strapped tightly to his chest.

Although he certainly disliked being the warrior that he was, Ben was grateful for his education, capacity and competence in the martial and combatant arts. The bar had ended up in an uproar and Ben had restrained himself from pulling out his lightsaber. For the moment he did, he would reveal himself as a Jedi. The destruction of the Order was too new, the bounty on Jedi head too high, for him to make that risk just yet.

The Empire may not have gotten to Tatooine yet, but it was only a matter of time.

Ben had been extremely careful when fighting off brawlers. None of them could particularly fight well so taking them down or avoiding their blows was probably the easiest thing Ben had done in years.

He had nearly been the last one standing. Any others had fled.

Apologizing to the bar keep, he tried to get away, but the Rhodian just laughed, loud and hearty. Ben didn’t quite understand but he wasn’t one to look a gift Tooka in the mouth.

Eventually, he had gotten enough information to buy a steady eopie and start his travels to the Lars homestead.

His heart ached. He knew he was dreading the hours to come.

And honestly, he nearly turned back.

He didn’t know these people. He had never even met these people before. He wasn’t even sure if Anakin had met these people before. To put Luke in their hands may…may have been safer from the Empire, but would it be safer with them? Were they good people? Would they teach Luke well or would they teach him to be resentful and have hate in his heart?

It had taken hours to get to the homestead, even on the strength of the eopie, but Ben had just mulled over this continuously. His heart was breaking, and his chest felt like it was going to be ripped open. Luke was fairly quiet, only babbling softly once in a while and trying to grab at anything near Ben that he could, generally his hair or his beard.

It was sunset when he had finally saw the homestead.

And he nearly turned back.

Giving Luke away was amongst the hardest things Ben had ever done and all he could give him was projecting the strongest feeling he had for the boy and once in a while, throughout the years, small little hand carved wooden ship toys, that he would leave on his grandmother’s grave.

***

The Lars couple, Owen and Beru, were good people. Even Ben could feel that.

Owen just hated him.

He wasn’t exactly subtle in his feelings either. No matter what Ben tried to do over the years, to help, to protect, anything, Owen lashed out at him, blaming him for the death of his stepbrother.

Stepbrother, Ben thought. How could a man be so angry and hate him so much on the behalf of someone he didn’t even know. Ben had spent over thirteen years with Anakin, training and raising and loving him. If Owen had met Anakin, it must have been very brief, and probably only once.

Ben tried not to be resentful.

He found an abandoned little hut cave out in the Judland Wastes, far enough for Owen’s liking but close enough that he could keep a feel for any dangerous the Lars may face over the years. It wasn’t much, but it was something. He didn’t mind. He never needed much anyways.

He had always wanted a peaceful place out of the way to spend his time meditating.

It took Ben quite a bit of time to open up to hearing Qui-Gon’s voice.

It took even longer for Ben to accept his tutelage.

But, like everything else Qui-Gon had ever asked of him, he did so.

18 BBY

It had taken Ben bare a few months to start protecting the Lars and surrounding areas and farms from Tusken Raiders and Jabba’s men. The Tuskens, although ritually and historically furious at the offworlders (even though technically many of them were born on the planet now) taking over their planet and taking their water, had been easier to work with. Once he had figured out some of their language, it was easier to communicate. He always had a knack for languages, he knew. Not only did he learn to be fascinated with them and cultures in general, but when working with and travelling with someone like Qui-Gon Jinn, one had to learn to apologize and ask not to be killed in nearly every foreign language of every planet they had been on.

Because if there was one thing that Qui-Gon Jinn very often did, it was making trouble.

It was exhausting but in the end, Ben had learned a valuable skill and found an enjoyable hobby of learning new languages.

Learning the Tusken sign language wasn’t too difficult, but what had really gotten them to be more open to negotiating was simply a test of strength and prowess. Ben, as much as he was loathed to admit it, was a warrior in the end. And to that point, he could take down near anyone on the planet just with his experience, knowledge and training.

The Tuskens had learned that quickly and ended up leaving him alone.

But it didn’t protect Luke.

That would happen a few months later. One of the Tusken tribes had been having a terrible time with a krayt dragon, a native beast to the planet and one that was said to be even force-sensitive in some cultures. Ben didn’t know if it was true, but the Tuskens were losing people and had resorted to taking others from outside the tribe as sacrifices.

This, of course, had put Luke in grave danger. Whether it had been that year or any year in the future. The Tuskens at first, were skeptical, with his offer to become the next sacrifice, but in the end, his manipulation worked.

The Krayt dragon was a bit bigger than Ben had heard from the stories, but its ferocity was no small thing. But, in the end, Ben had always had a small talent for bonding with beasts of all kinds and in the end, the krayt dragon was no different.

He had sent her on her way with the quiet request to leave them alone.

He wouldn’t reveal what had happened between the two of them, or how the communication went, but he came back in one peace, telling the Tuskens that the dragon would leave them alone, but they had to leave the locals alone as well, for if they didn’t, they would be responsible for their actions. This in turn, protected most of the people around the Lars homestead, including Luke and any friends he may have in the future.

Sometimes, when Ben meditated out in the middle of nowhere, he could feel the rumbling of the dragon under the shifting sands.

14 BBY

Once upon a time, all Ben wanted was to sit in a quiet cave and meditate.

Now, five years later, he just wished he could be back. Even if it was the war, as horrible as that time was, the Jedi would still be around, he could still feelthem and he would have the loyalty and care of his troops, even if it did end up being fake.

Tatooine, at least with its terrain, wasn’t the worst Ben had ever encountered. Yes, the sand got everywhere but it never seemed quite as course and rough and irritating as Anakin had made it out to be. The storms were terrible, don’t get Ben wrong, and he disliked them quite passionately. Sand stung at his eyes, whipping at his skin mercilessly. It was a pain.

But lying in the sand when there was little wind, just a gentle breeze, not enough to stir the land, he could feel some peace. Sinking into the soft grains and able to let everything else melt away.

He just wished it could have been sand in the Jedi Temple, surrounded by loved ones and the light of the Force.

11 BBY

He was too late.

He was always too late.

He wasn’t entirely sure why he was even surprised anymore.

Because it seemed, in the end, he would always to be too late. He would always be not quite fast enough, not quite smart enough, simply not quite enough. Never quite enough.

It wasn’t exactly the Force that gave him the warning, but it did give him awarning.

Let’s just put it to rest that he now believed the krayt dragons were force sensitive.

Plenty.

Ben’s eopie was old now but she did her very best to get to the Lars homestead as quickly as she could. She gave it her all, that was for certain. Ben remembered him cursing himself for letting Owen force him to live further away, further from Luke, further from the homestead. If he had lived closer, perhaps things would have ended up differently.

The Empire had come to Tatooine barely the year before and Ben had done a fairly good job of keeping out of the way.

But somehow, for some reason, they suddenly had it out for the Lars family.

And whoever sent them, they sent clones.

Ben felt only sympathy for the soldiers as he cut them down in defense of Luke. Owen and Beru were already gone, sprawled over the floor, bleeding and glassy eyed. He had let go of his bitterness and anger quite some time before. It was no use. What was done was done. No one could change anything. And revenge, even being not the Jedi way, would do nothing for Ben. It wouldn’t bring the Jedi back. It wouldn’t bring the younglings and babies back.

There was no satisfaction when he fought them.

Although, honestly, it wasn’t much of a fight.

For the first time in years, as Ben bundled shocked Luke up in his cloak and robes, grabbing some of his things, worrying over the fact that more may come, he had ended up contacting Bail Organa.

Ben knew Luke didn’t remember much of that time and in all honesty, neither did Ben himself. It was like going through some slogging motions, but Bail had come on his word and sent him a nondescript space craft.

Ben had sold it and bought a different one. Just in case.

Everything had changed now, and he knew things were never going to be as simple as it had been on Tatooine. No matter where they went, no matter where they would go.

Luke was eight or nine, Ben had thought, musing to himself. Was it ironic, that it was around the age Ben had started teaching Anakin?

Was the outcome to be similar?

Or was Ben to lose yet another Skywalker?

He supposed, like nearly all things, only time would tell.

Present Past

Ben

His head is full.

Awakening was a cloggy mess and a sluggish, laborious process, like trudging through the impossible terrain of the Dagobah swamplands. His feet felt as if he had to relearn rudimentary functions and relearn them in a hurry. The Force pressed against him, light and warm and impatient. Taking the largest and longest inhale he was capable of, he forced himself to open his eyes and then sit up. Step one complete.

Rolling his shoulders and arms indistinctively, he noted they felt sore but lighter than usual, cleaned of sand and grime. The cracking of joints he had been so used to hearing every time he moved, especially after sleep, had ceased significantly.

Looking down, he caught sight of his hands, encased in lack gloves. He hadn’t worn gloves with fingers attached much anymore, he thought absentmindedly. He wondered where they had come from. Bringing them closer in his sight, he studied them further. These were standard issue GAR gloves. And attached to the standard issue GAR gloves was standard issue clone trooper vambraces. These had not worn these in years, certainly not by him. He still remembered the day he had to sell his armor pieces which included the vambraces. His finger trailed up one of his arms through a groove in the plastoid, up to the scratched and slightly faded paint in the middle. His breath caught as he lightly traced the open circle symbol.

Taking a deep breath to fill his lungs, he attempted to stand, keeping a firm grip on the cot and tried to steady himself. His legs were a bit weak and his head a bit dizzy – adding to the full feeling in his mind, but it only took a few minutes to regain his balance and equilibrium.

Even sixteen years later, the medical bay of a venator was still familiar to him as he looked around at his surroundings. Now, what did that say about him? Taking a tentative step forward, his feet slowly started to move and took him to the lavatory, where he filled a cup of water and guzzled it down. Running a hand through the water from the faucet, he raked it slowly through his hair and down his face.

He didn’t want to look up. He didn’t know why. But he did anyways.

There was not a time he could remember having seen himself with so much color. Color in his hair, color in his skin, color in his eyes. His hair had brightened, no longer bleached by nearly ten years under the twin suns of a desert planet, a mix of blonde and brown and ginger. His greying and stretched skin were once again flush with pigment and peach colors. Eyes that were usually tired and dull and grey had a stone blue color come back to them. The wrinkles on his face had lessened considerably. Taking another deep breath, he stepped back to study himself. Amor parts were stuck to his body, not just the vambraces but the pauldrons and gorget and greaves as well. He hadn’t realized how much he had missed this; the mix of soft robes and the protection of the pauldron, the vambraces, the greaves. He should have worn them when he had fought Grievous, he mused.

He was dressed for battle, for war. It was not quite how he was during the beginning of the war, but more of the middle of the fighting, a bit into the skirmishes and conflicts. Hands trailing down the armor and robes, they came down to his belt and the clip that was attached there. His lightsaber wasn’t on his belt. He wasn’t particularly worried.

He sighed, unsure of what to make of this.

In the mirror, it was him, for sure. It looked like Obi-Wan, but he knew he was Ben.

Quinlan

Quinlan wondered how this invasion had gone through the first time.

He felt rather out of place throughout the entirety of the incursion. He was present for the briefings, barely putting in his two cents, generally when it came to anything resembling sneak attacks or espionage. The Resolute and the Negotiator had both broken through the Separatist blockade with surprising and remarkable ease, swiftly rendezvousing with General Tiin’s venator and his forces. He was on his own ship, calling most of the shots as the most senior available general present, and directing the battle within the space around the planet. Although Master Tiin portrayed mostly calm during his calls with the other leaders coming to help him, he looked determined but still a bit rattled and definitely tired. General Krell was on the surface, getting battered down by the local militia. His communications kept cutting in and out, but he demanded reinforcements.

That would come in the form of the 501st, much to Skywalker’s displeasure.

Quinlan could understand, to an extent. He had worked with some clones before, but he didn’t have his own battalion or legion or squad. He would work with whoever was on hand and whoever could work on his current mission, if anyone. But he did know that many of the generals were rather protective of their respective troopers. Not only did generals often get used to the type of troopers and personalities, but troopers themselves often got used to the type of leadership style their general had and often tailored their ways and plans around that. Switching up leaders and troops didn’t always work out incredibly well, especially with invasions and long campaigns.

Commander Cody would leave Quinlan, taking much of his forces of the 212th down to the surface with him. Not to reinforce Krell and his side attack, marching for the Capitol, but rather to assault from the other side and box the Umbarans in. It was a good plan that Commander Cody had come up with, although by the look on his face, General Krell clearly wasn’t entirely convinced. Quinlan apparently had a lot more faith in the commander than Krell did, which seemed rather odd considering Quinlan probably had a lot less experience with the clone troopers.

Just as Master Windu had claimed, Anakin Skywalker himself would lead fighters to pick off the forces in space and if needed, provide direction for the bombers, if necessary, on the surface below.

Anakin himself would lead much of the space fighters as well as the bombers for the surface below. Quinlan had heard plenty about how great of a pilot Anakin was and how much he loved to fly. He found it rather amusing since, once upon a time, Obi-Wan himself had felt the same way. It was almost interesting on how things changed.

Quinlan felt uncomfortable and odd in the position he was in, standing on the bridge of his best friend’s ship, trying to help and order out calls that would bring them closer to victory. He was used to small forces, sneaking around with more missions that included investigating and espionage; it was something that he was good at now. Undercover, intelligence. He was usually the one giving the Generals advice and plans; next and vital places to hit or defend. He wished Obi-Wan was awake.

His friend was much better at this sort of thing.

“Let me know when Obi-Wan wakes up?” Anakin asked gruffly as Quinlan escorted him to his fighter. They had talked a bit on what would happen as time went on after the briefings and breaking easily through the blockade, and Skywalker hadn’t been exactly intently keen on leaving his master to fight in space as much as it was fairly obvious that he was eager on flying.

“Focus on the mission,” Quinlan answered instead, trying to sound like he could give good advice. Somehow, he always felt like this was easier with Aalya. Maybe it was because she wanted to hear his advice and actually tried to listen to him sometimes. “Keep your attention in the here and now. Obi-Wan is safe and he would want you to be too. At least, as much as you can be in this scenario. If you worry too much, it could put you and your men in jeopardy.”

“Fine,” Anakin huffed.

“I’m sure you will be one of the first people he will want to see when he does wake up,” Quinlan pointed out and then paused briefly. “And figures out that he has time traveled.”

Anakin shifted uncomfortably as he glanced at the Kiffar master. He looked rather uncertain, most likely about this entire thing. “If that’s what happened.”

“You don’t think so?”

“I’m just saying that it might… not be the case,” he pointed out, a bit slowly, watching Quinlan like he could get all the answers that way. Quinlan couldn’t really tell what the knight was thinking, for someone so passionate and emotional, sometimes he could be hard to read. Maybe because there always seemed to be toomuch emotion there. Did Anakin not want Luke to be right?

“Luke is telling the truth,” Quinlan answered and looked for Anakin’s reaction. There was very little to work with, he just kind of stared. “However,” Quinlan shot back, gravely. “It is not a bright future.”

He looked away, his brows furrowing. “Well, if it is time travel… then we can change it,” Anakin suggested in some form of insistence, but he didn’t seem too sure on what to think about this. Quinlan thought back to their earlier conversation how their friend may have changed. It wasn’t exactly something either of them wanted to think about too hard. “Obi-Wan won’t be on the run again.”

“We will try our best,” Quinlan agreed carefully. There were no absolutes, no guarantees. He didn’t want to make the future worse but with what he had learned from Luke, he wasn’t sure if that was possible. It was, deep in his heart he knew it was, but he couldn’t quite imagine them changing things so poorly, knowing what they knew, and it coming out even worse than the future that Obi-Wan and Luke knew.

“Is he still with Obi-Wan?”

“Luke?” Quinlan asked before his brain could catch up with his mouth. Of course, that was what he meant, and Quinlan knew it. His mouth just ran off with him. “Yes. I figured if he just stayed there, it would keep him out of trouble.”

Anakin hummed but didn’t seem completely convinced. They had arrived at the docking bay were fighters and their pilots were doing last checks before they would head out and join General Tiin’s forces. Anakin’s togruta padawan shouted and waved him over. Anakin glanced at her with a gesture before turning back towards Quinlan. “That is my cue. See you at the end of this, Vos.”

“May the Force be with you,” Quinlan nodded.

“And with you, master,” Anakin winked.

Ben 2

Regaining his complete composure and erasing the wrinkles within his equanimity and clothes alike, Ben glanced around the medical bay just to sate his curiosity. The door wasn’t locked, medicine and tools, even ones that could conceivably be used as a weapon were not taken away or padlocked and sealed away. Pulling on his boots and making sure his greaves went over them, he simply just walked out the door. The venator and star destroyers were not completely different but there had always been noticeable differences. Whoever was doing this certainly did a good job of restoring the old Republic ship. If Ben didn’t know better, he would have even thought that this was his own flagship, the Negotiator.

It even feltlike the Negotiator.

He nearly felt dreadful for feeling like he missed it. He walked down the halls, they were mostly vacant, although Ben couldn’t say he was terribly surprised. Whoever had set this up did a remarkable job with the ship itself but finding any clones, especially ones that would be willing for this little charade would have been more than just a little difficult. There was also the little obstacle that the clones looked quite a bit older now than they had during the war. All the same, he avoided those that were through the halls, although there weren’t many. They were even dressed in clone trooper armor, much to Ben’s bitter surprise. The armor type itself was a rare find these days.

Often finding himself running his hand along the smooth walls, Ben could only feel mournful. It was a terrible time, the war, of course. He abhorred what they had to do, even though he knew it was right. To protect. He hated what they had been forced to do, he couldn’t stand that he had to lead people such as the clone troopers to their deaths. There was no choice on any end and then, once it was all said and done and the jedi and cloens had done their part, they had been just disposed of.

And no one had even cared.

The Jedi had been exterminated, murdered by those they tried to protect and those they had loved as family.

The clones had been brainwashed and enslaved, stripped of their minds and free will and forced to kill the people that cared about them and loved them as family. Then slowly, as the programming ate away at their mind and psyche, they were killed off on desolate planets as canon fodder and sacrifices.

Tears swelled up in his eyes, his feelings bubbling up in his chest and mind, pressing, pressing, pressing against him in such a terrible friction that he couldn’t get away from. He had tried not to think too hard on what he had lost for some time, there was no use on thinking about it so much. No use on dwelling on things one could not change. No matter how much he wanted to. If he could change anything, what he would give.

Ben hadn’t even realized he had stopped, leaning against the wall, his forehead cooling against the metal of the hallway barriers. He took deep breathes but it didn’t seem like enough. Nothing felt enough.

Sometimes he regretted forcing Boil to leave them. Luke had loved him and having another person around had done wonders for him. Boil was a friendly face, despite how grumpy he often acted during the war, and his skill and loyalty was somethings Ben had always admired from him. He remembered the clone’s desperation, begging him to stay, giving all the reasons he could be useful.

As if usefulness was the reason Ben would have wanted him alone.

Ben knew that it was much too dangerous. Vader would just take another loved one away from him and Luke was in danger enough as it was. But he couldn’t keep Luke away like he could with Boil. He hadn’t been able to subject Boil to the life he was forced to lead, running from and fighting off someone as the likes of Darth Vader.

He still regretted it sometimes though. It had been so nice to have someone else around.

Ben hoped he was happy with Rex. Happy wherever he was, with whoever he was with.

“Sir?” an achingly familiar voice asked, uncertainly.

He sighed and turned, still leaned against the wall. In front of him was a clone trooper, mostly within armor sans his helmet, which was hanging on his belt. With a fairly standard haircut, his face was void of tattoos, but he sported a small scar near the hairline. A bit of scruff was starting to come in around his chin.

“Hello there, trooper,” he greeted, pleasantly. There was no need to be mean to any of these actors or constructs. It was an incredible likeness, he noted. Whoever or whatever this was, the resemblance was uncanny. “May I inquire your name?”

“Seven, sir,” the trooper saluted, perfectly. “But most brothers call me Sev. You can, if you want. O-Or not, that’s fine too. I don’t have much of a preference,” he rambled, shrinking back and a little with a slight flush to his cheeks.

“Thank you, Sev. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

He didn’t remind Ben at all of Alpha-17, but his name had made his mind call back to him. Ben wondered what may have happened to the old captain. Was he stripped away of his free – and very strong – will and forced to become nothing but a droid made of flesh and bone, bowing to the whim of a government and military that used him like he wasn’t even a person? Ben had a hard time thinking the programing and brainwashing would even work on Alpha-17, just because of who he was, how independent and intense he could be. But then again, Ben mused, it had completely erased Cody’s steadfast loyalty and determination, it had taken everything from one of the strongest people Ben had known.

The trooper hesitated; eyeing Ben like he wasn’t sure if he should speak. “Are you alright, sir?”

“Just a little tired,” he admitted. “I’m not entirely sure where I am.”

He wasn’t entirely sure what he meant by that. Sev certainly seemed to have an idea.

Sev straightened and brightened a little. “I can help you sir! I know this ship like nobody else! Don’t get me wrong, I fight a lot, I do my part! But I don’t sit still very well so when I’m not in the field, I’m going around the ship. Sorry, I’m kinda rambling again aren’t I. I can take you to the bridge, sir, if that is where you want to go. I mean, I’d imagine you would want, considering we are in the middle of a battle, but you know, ya never know…”

Although he continued to ramble, Ben’s hearing faded. In the middle of a battle? How did one construct that? It seemed a little extreme in attempt to convince him.

“That would be nice, Sev. Thank you,” he announced suddenly, breaking whatever sentence the trooper was in the middle of. “I would love your help, mind escorting me?”

The soldier nodded, eagerly and Ben straightened, launching himself to stand next to the youngster. He offered his arm. “I’m just a bit unsteady, would you mind?”

“Of course, sir!” Sev nodded and wove his arm through Ben’s so the older man could lean on him if wanted or if he fell, Sev could easily catch him. He took a careful step, just to make sure that Ben could move with him. Ben wasn’t sure if he had surprised the trooper or not but their steps in time got quicker to a normal, but abit brisk, pace.

Few soldiers that they had passed, as limited as there were even, batted an eye, although many of them had their faces covered in helmets. He wondered, although a bit absentmindedly, where one had gotten all these actors to play their parts in such armor.

He wanted to reach out into the Force, if only to try and feel the unwavering and constant calm he knew that had once practically oozed, the sense of loyalty that made him truly believe that they would always be by his side, no matter what they had gone through, no matter what they would go through. Once upon a time, he had taken such comfort in knowing he had such good men watching his back, and his sides and he, theirs.

Closing his eyes briefly, he imagined him feeling it, but he didn’t reach out. He couldn’t be disappointed like that again when he didn’t feel it, when all he would feel was the murky, cold harshness of the dark side, smothering all good things.

“It’s good to see you up and at ‘em sir!” another soldier greeted as he passed. Ben opened his eyes and trailed him. He sounded like a trooper too.

He tried not to think too hard on it.

“Oh wow! General, you are up! You gave us just a tad bit of worry there,” yet another clone they passed spoke as he slowed his gait. “We weren’t that worried, we had complete faith in Helix and that you would wake up.”

He sounded like a trooper too.

Something felt caught in his throat.

“Are you alright, sir?” Sev asked, shooting him a concerned glance.

It felt so real. He could almost feel the trooper’s concern in the Force. Ben pulled back. No, he wouldn’t go through that again. Even if there weretroopers here, even if Sev was somehow a clone from back in the war days, there wouldn’t really be anything to feel if did reach.

He wanted to reach.

“I am fine, thank you,” he replied politely.

It was mostly silence from then on to the bridge but Sev had pause to swipe his card for the door open so they could get inside. Ben had stopped and took a deep breath, preparing himself for whatever was on the other side. He didn’t believe he would like it.

***

Quinlan 2

“Which system are we currently in, Admiral?”

Out of all the things Quinlan had expected to hear at that very moment, Obi-Wan’s voice was not anywhere near the top of the list. In fact, for a moment, he had even thought that it had been just him hearing things, maybe some wishful thinking. But no, looking over – everyone looking over – Quinlan’s childhood friend stood at attention nearing the front of the bridge, gazing out at the space battle before them.

“Obi-Wan!” he yelped, wide- eyed as he reached for him. Everyone turned to look at him, surprised and shocked.

Obi-Wan shifted away from him, his eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Hmm,” he hummed, dryly. “Fascinating.” Then he turned back, no longer interested, towards the admiral and other troops at the helm. He looked tired, even more so than when he was asleep or in his unexplainable coma, but he held himself the way Quinlan had always seen him carry himself during the war, or when he had been with politicians, even before the war had started.

Next to him was a young trooper, face and armor barely marked or scuffed up. Either he was extremely new, or he just kept his armor nice and clean. It could have been either, if Quinlan was being honest.

“This is Seven,” Obi-Wan said, gesturing to the clone that he was attached to. It was a matter of fact, as his tone had been thus far. There was no room for debate for whatever reason. “Harm or touch him, I will take off your heads.”

That…was not a threat that one heard from Obi-Wan very often but by the way he said it, Quinlan had believed him. He was, in fact, quite good at relieving appendages. The stares had gotten even wider and incredulous. Even Seven’s expression was shocked as he stood still with the general. Quinlan was impressed; he figured most would have tried to flee by then.

But then again, Obi-Wan was threatening for Seven, not at him.

“Hey buddy,” Quinlan lowered his voice, as if trying to placate him. He kept his hands a bit casual but open where Obi-Wan could see them. He knew that something would happen when Obi-Wan woke up, although he hadn’t been sure what and he had thought that he wouldn’t have woken up now, of all times. He was probably just confused. “Look, Obes. It’s me, Quinlan Vos, your friend.”

“I know who that is,” Obi-Wan scoffed.

“Alright cool,” Quinlan nodded. “So, you were in this unexplainable coma for a bit, not super long. Not even a day really, but it did kind of freak people out.”

“I would request your hallucination end, please,” Obi-Wan interrupted, his voice cold as steel his eyes flashing in reflection of that. “I am aware of what is happening, and I am telling you, it is not necessary.

And wasn’t Obi-Wan just full of surprises today. Time travel, new padawans, and now belief that this was a delusion or mirage.

“This…this isn’t a hallucination, Obi-Wan,” Quinlan sputtered, trying his best to keep his disbelief under control. It was rather uncharacteristic of him but the thought that his friend didn’t think any of this was real, it broke his heart more than he would dare to admit. It was such a contrast between Luke’s sure thinking and Obi-Wan’s intense cynicism and skepticism.

“Oh yes, I’m sure,” Obi-Wan just hummed, his words biting on sarcasm, but he didn’t even glance over at Quinlan. “This is very real, Sidious. That is fine. You probably used this battle thinking you could use it to torture me and one of my great many failures. But the joke is on you, emperor, I will move forward to save as many lives as I can, even as this is an illusion.”

“You think…you think I am a Sith,” Quinlan’s response ended up falling a bit flat, somewhere between an observation and a question. He wasn’t completely in on all of the Council’s theories and findings but knowing one of the Sith’s name was something that higher level shadows knew, especially those who were investigating it. It appeared, from how Obi-Wan was acting, he knew exactly who that person was.

That was going to change everything.

“Hmm. Well, Vader would certainly not care for this type for mind manipulation,” Obi-Wan pointed out plainly, tightening his grip ever so slightly on his clone companion. “He is much rather the type to just torture and kill me. Especially me. You understand. So yes, Sidious.”

“Why is he me, specifically?” Quinlan asked. He knew who Vader was and the fact that he did made what Obi-Wan said all the more horrifying. What could have possibly been done for Anakin Skywalker to absolutely loathe and abhor Obi-Wan, someone he was generally fairly possessive of?

“My first wartime assignment with Master Vos was the hunt for Ziro the Hutt, which you should know, since it was public record,” Obi-Wan listed, calmly. He seemed a little irate, however, like he didn’t want to explain something that shouldn’t have to be explained. “And I remember any other times I’ve worked with him after that. It was not on a planetary campaign such as this,” he paused, his brows furrowing as he seemed to think more about what he was saying. “…what system is this trooper?” Obi-Wan suddenly asked, his question turning kind and soft as he directed it towards one of the nearby clones.

The clone glanced between the two of them. “Umbara, sir.”

“Master Vos,” Obi-Wan replied confidently, still continuing with the bite of sarcasm. He would have been nearly proud if his friend hadn’t been disillusioned by what was happening and thought that this wasn’t real. “Had not been present at the invasion of…” he stopped abruptly and stared at the planet through the viewing board, his arm dropping from the clone trooper he had been hanging onto.

“Obi-Wan?” Quinlan questioned, taking a small step forward.

“Umbara,” he whispered, breathy and horrified. His pupils dilated and his brows scrunched up into something of dread, like this was worse than he was imagining. Something terrible happened here, Quinlan could see.

“Sir?” Sev questioned, nearly poking at him to get his attention.

“Where are my troops?” Obi-Wan seemed to drop from his trance just as quickly as it had come and asked instead, his voice low and demanding, his gaze sweeping along the entourage of clone troopers at their stations.

“Obi-Wan?” Quinlan tried again.

“Where is Commander Cody and the 212th? Where is Lieutenant Waxer and his platoon?” Obi-Wan barked, his lip curling in the demand, eyes flaring into something of pressure, importance, and panic.

“On the surface sir,” a trooper replied quickly, sensing the urgency. “They’re launching a strike against the capitol. They intend to box the natives in alongside General Krell with the 501st once the latter take the airbase nearby that is supplying the capitol.”

Obi-Wan’s face completely paled, nearly devoid of color as he seemed to fall into that trance again. It lasted even less time this round as his diminished face did something odd, nearly darkening alongside his eyes, which had turned absolutely stony and cold. “Krell.”

The name had sent shivers down Quinlan’s spine. It wasn’t the name itself; he knew, Quinlan barely even recognized the name aside from his position in this invasion, but the way Obi-Wan had said it? Quinlan suddenly wanted to rip the besalisk’s head off. Which, even for Quinlan, that was rather extreme. He quickly realized that the feeling was coming from Obi-Wan. Something happened with General Krell and Obi-Wan did not appreciate him for it.

“Sir?” the trooper who had answered him, queried.

“Get me General Krell,” Obi-Wan demanded, his lip curling. “Get communications up with him immediately.”

“Sir, we can’t,” the brave trooper shook his head, biting his lip a little. It wasn’t exactly fear emanating off of him; Quinlan had yet to find a trooper that truly feared for themselves when it came to their general, but it was something else. Fear for the situation, perhaps. “The local militia has cut off communications, we can barely get anything through, barely a few words, much less consistent transmission.”

Obi-Wan cursed loudly in a language Quinlan wasn’t completely familiar with. The other troopers looked vaguely uncomfortable and glanced away. Perhaps they recognized it.

“Obi-Wan,” Quinlan stared, as he stepped even closer. “Calm down. We can figure this out, whatever it is,” he said, trying to placate his friend when he…he noticed something was not quite right with this. He paused and straightened himself, looking around, curiously. This…this didn’t make sense. Where was… “Wait. How are you up anyways?” he asked, his brows scrunching up together in confusion. “I thought Luke was supposed to be with you?”

His friend stiffened and for the longest moment nothing happened. It was as if time itself had just completely shut down. Obi-Wan’s head swiveled around slowly towards him until finally, Quinlan abruptly found himself pinned to an open wall.

Everyone around them had jumped but didn’t dare make a move.

“How do you know that name?”

His voice was low and deadly. Quinlan hadn’t heard that since…since Anakin had been kidnapped when he was a teenager. It had not been a pretty time and Quinlan had nearly been the only other person who could keep Obi-Wan from completely destroying everything in the way of him and his padawan. Quinlan hadn’t thought he would ever hear that tone again.

“Obes….” Quinlan struggled out. Obi-Wan wasn’t choking him, per say, but his grip was enough that Quinlan didn’t dare to even try to move away with his friend’s armor digging into his chest. He didn’t actually think Obi-Wan would do anything to harm him and schooled his body to quiet himself. “Calm down, he appeared…. he appeared with you.”

Quinlan wished he had better words to explain.

“What have you done with him?”

“Nothing, Obi,” Quinlan stressed as he even leaned forward into his space. He stared straight at him, serious as he had ever been with this childhood friend of his. “I swear nothing. He hasn’t left your side since we found you.”

Obi-Wan stared at him for a long moment. He seemed to believe him and found something in his gaze so let him go and cursed again, although less loudly this time around. He looked back at the troopers and then surveyed the battlefield of space in front of him. “Umbara. Boil. Waxer,” he muttered to himself as he came to some realization. He straightened again and took another quick glance around before spewing out some words and orders that Quinlan didn’t quite understand. The others on the bridge certainly did and they took it completely to heart, using the communications to lay out a different plan of attack and defense than what was used previously.

Apparently, the plan must have been a good one.

Quinlan wondered if it was the same one Obi-Wan had used the first time.

No one dared to move when he stormed off the bridge, the only one immediately following being Seven, the clone trooper that had brought Obi-Wan in. The jedi had given the trooper a gentle tug and he had assumed that meant he had wanted Seven to follow him. Quinlan guessed he was probably right.

It was only moments before Quinlan ran after him.

“Obi-Wan!”

Said man did not stop, just storming through the halls, projecting a cloud of determination and fear. The trooper he had brought with him was no longer led around, just followed dutifully, keeping pace with his general.

He finally caught up but hesitated to touch him. Even though Obi-Wan was covered, from his feet all the way to neck, he didn’t want him to lash out.

“Stop!”

Obi-Wan did and spun around, blue grey eyes flashing. “If you truly aren’t a Sith Lord, you will let me go save my kid,” Obi-Wan snarled, his eyes flaring in such resolve that Quinlan hadn’t seen since Anakin was a teenager and still adored his master. His hiss held such vitriol, shoulders rolling into some kind of subtle stance, waiting for a fight.

“Of course, Obi-Wan,” Quinlan said, softening his voice. Obi-Wan eyed him warily. “I’m sorry I lost your padawan, I told him to stay by you for you when you woke up but apparently, he had other ideas. But if you are going to go after him, you need to calm down,” he insisted, gently, keeping his hands out where they could be seen. “You know how you get when you are all worked up before a conflict.”

Obi-Wan paused, mulling this over for a moment. Quinlan didn’t move while he closed his eyes momentarily, taking a few deep breaths. It was a start, he suspected. It wasn’t Obi-Wan’s completely usual mediation, as he would generally rather find a quiet place – he was fond of gardens and caves – to sit and stay, to calm and meditate. He exhaled.

“That feel better?”

Opening his eyes, Obi-Wan glanced at him, his expression smoothing into the calm and pacify. “That was sound advice,” Obi-Wan hummed, although Quinlan knew him, he was wary of the ulterior motives.

“I would like to come with you, to find your padawan.”

“Absolutely not,” Obi-Wan snorted, turning away and starting back towards what Quinlan assumed would be the docking bay. “I cannot trust you.”

That hurt, Quinlan thought but he told himself it was only because he thought this whole thing was fake and staged by an evil Sith. Quinlan wasn’t entirely sure how that would work but then again, Obi-Wan was the one from the future, he would surely know better than Quinlan would.

“You can trust me,” he insisted, pressing forward. “I know who Luke is, he told me.”

Obi-Wan stiffened and his stride had skipped a little.

“We met in the future again, after the fall of the Order on a tiny planet at a café,” Quinlan explained easily what he had seen in Luke’s memories. He ahd seen several but it Luke had seemed to make sure Quinlan had been able to see his and Obi-Wan’s reunion after the fall of, well, everything. He hoped this would help convince Obi-Wan that he was real, that he knew this and could help. “It was by chance, but it was almost sixteen years after the Empire rose.”

His intended target had slowed his gait a little more as he looked down and away. Quinlan ushered the soldier accompanying them away quietly. The trooper looked a little hesitant as he glanced at his general but eventually did what he was told.

“How…no one knew that,” Obi-Wan’s voice cracked a little.

“Obi-Wan, I am here to help you,” Quinlan insisted, stressing the phrase. “You can trust me. Here,” he unclipped and offered his saber, pressing it into Obi-Wan’s gloved hand. “Since I’m pretty sure the kid took yours,” he gestured to his friend’s belt.

Obi-Wan looked down and cursed once again, shaking his head. He was full of such colorful language, Quinlan would have loved it and teased him about it mercilessly if it hadn’t been for the circumstances. He took the saber and hooked it to his belt, carefully.

He looked at Quinlan and studied him, staring intently. “It’s so hard to tell,” he confessed. “I don’t want to lead the Sith to Luke, but you act just like Quinlan, you are doing things that a Sith probably would never do, you know things that only Quinlan would know or, if Luke had actually talked to him. And if he had, then why would you need me to lead you to him?”

“I’m not a Sith, Obi-Wan. I am just Quinlan Vos, always have been and this time, always will be,” Quinlan asserted.

The next thing Quinlan knew, they were tucked into their respective Jedi starfighters, making last checks to get to the planet surface. A little red and silver astromech droid spun over to them, screeching and beeping at him. Obi-Wan just stared.

“Hello Arfour. It has been quite some time, hasn’t it?”

The reply was slow and a bit mournful.

“Would you mind accompanying me on a mission? Just to the planet surface, your flying is much better and often fancier than mine,” Obi-Wan replied, looking down at the droid as his gaze softened. Quinlan wondered when he had lost the droid, to see it as some kind of familiar face. “I have lost someone quite dear to me and I need to find him.”

Quinlan couldn’t actually make out the droid’s beeps and whirs from where he was standing next to his own ship, but he could hear some sounds coming out. Obi-Wan just smiled, faint and tight and nodded. “I would appreciate that, Arfour.”

The droid got settled into the nest and port of the starfighter and Obi-Wan jumped into the cockpit of his ship. Quinlan quickly followed suite in his own.

Space never really ceased being cold.

To his credit, Quinlan had waited until they got into a lull of the battle. Shots were still being fired but they hadn’t been in the thick of it while he asked.

“Hey Obes, you mind asking me askin’ you a question?” Quinlan asked as he spun around to avoid some fire that chased in his direction.

“I imagine that no matter my answer you will ask nonetheless,” Obi-Wan just replied, rather dryly.

Quinlan took that as permission. “Look, I know it is a war zone and all, but why are you so frantic? He’s an older teenager and with you being around, I’m sure he has had plenty of training, enough to definitely hold his own no doubt. And besides, he’s got a bunch of the 212th around him, I have no doubt they will protect him as much as they can. They’re quite the bunch of guys you got there, buddy. I kinda like them.” In honesty, Quinlan had met very few of the 212thattack battalion at this point but he had met Commander Cody several times and rather liked him.

There was silence from the other fighter.

“Look buddy. I already know you went through this already.”

There was another moment of silence. Quinlan nearly thought that he wouldn’t actually answer but eventually Obi-Wan’s voice came over the commlink and communications, just one between the two of them. “Luke is friends with Boil. He knows Waxer dies during the war. I don’t know how he figured out this invasion is where it happened.”

“Are they your troops?” he knew the answer, really, but it was enough to keep the conversation going, at least for a moment.

“Boil and Waxer are some of my best.”

Quinlan didn’t doubt it. Obi-Wan did not just give out praise that high and blatant lightly. And if Boil had met and befriended Luke, that also meant he had survived the war. At least some of the clones did.

“Well, I suppose we should save them, shouldn’t we?”

There wasn’t much talk after that, as the two of them were more focused on not getting shot and blown away from enemy ships, avoiding them even more so as they breached the atmosphere, even taking out bombers and enemy ships on their way.

Quinlan had gotten a brief message through and even a short response with a place where the two jedi starfighters could land. Obi-Wan had nearly flown out of his cockpit once he had barely touched down. Commander Cody approached, having waited for their arrival with confused concern.

“General Vos, is there-,” the Commander started, his voice thick until he stopped, both verbally and physically once he caught sight of Obi-Wan. “General Kenobi! You’re up, sir, I…”

“Where is Lieutenant Waxer’s platoon?” Obi-Wan ignored him and walked up, although Quinlan had saw a flash of grief and sorrow in his face. He still thought this wasn’t quite real, he realized.

He could feel the hurt thumping from Commander Cody but to his credit, he took in stride. “My apologies sir,” he replied, rather stiffly, but otherwise completely cool and professional. “They had been at the southeast corner when, last I heard, they had received intelligence about natives coming up on their flank, trying to appropriate a sneak attack on them,” his voice turned mournful and wavering as he tried to keep Obi-Wan’s gaze.

Ben stared at him for a brief moment, his breath becoming quicker. His head whipped around, as if looking for the battle. “No,” he whispered. “It’s already happening.”

“Sir?” Commander Cody’s voice shifted. “What has happened?”

The jedi just spun around towards the southeast. “Commander, I need you to stay here. I trust your orders and plan will pan out; you know what you are doing,” he said quickly as he started towards the direction. Quinlan shot after him.

“General! Where are you going?” Commander Cody called after him.

“It’s a trap!” Obi-Wan yelled back. “Those aren’t Umbarans! It’s the 501st!”

*

The men they find are jittery and a just a tad bit slow.

They were on their way back to rejoin with Commander Cody’s forces and although jumped and pointed their blasters at the movement that was Obi-Wan and Quinlan barreling through the terrain, they didn’t fire.

They seemed to fear to.

When Obi-Wan demanded for the appearance of their leader, Lieutenant Waxer, a different clone appeared. That was rather apparent by the look on Obi-Wan’s face. “Where is your platoon leader, Freefall?”

The clone saluted easily but Quinlan could tell his hand was shaking. “He’s not here, sir. We…we nearly shot our own men. If it hadn’t been for the little jedi…” he drifted off, his eyes and voice a bit dazed at the notion.

Friendly fire, Quinlan realized.

Somehow, he doubted this was poor and unfortunate coincidence.

“Where is he?” Obi-Wan pressed, edging on the side of desperation. He looked on the verge of near shaking the clone as if answers would just fall out of him. “Where is your Lieutenant?”

“Lieutenant Waxer told us to hold the ridge,” Freefall explained, trying to quicken his words to appease his general. “To protect Commander Cody’s flank. He and a few others went with the 501stand the commander.”

“The commander?” Quinlan questioned.

“The little Jedi,” Freefall pointed out with an unsure glance at him and then looked back at Obi-Wan. “We assumed he was a commander.” He hesitated and winced, clearly not wanting to speak what else was on his tongue. “Is…is he a General?”

“NO!” Ben cried, the sound tearing from his throat in some mix of emotions. “He doesn’t hold any rank! Where did they go?”

“They went back to the air base where the 501st had made their base.”

“Why?” Quinlan asked but for some reason, he feared the answer.

There was a hesitation so long that Quinlan nearly thought they wouldn't answer at all. Freefall and a few of the surrounding soldiers glanced at one another, something of fear and a touch of sympathy. "We think…they are going to arrest General Krell."

Quinlan blinked. He was missing something.

One of them continued. "He, General Krell, set this up, he told the same thing he told us to the 501st. We almost killed one another. The commander… the little jedi, he saved everyone."

Once again, Obi-Wan's skin paled into something greying and ashy. "No," he muttered under his breath, loud enough for at least Quinlan and Freefall to hear. "He's going to get himself killed."

Quinlan wasn't entirely sure if Obi-Wan's fear was completely founded. For some reason, he felt as though Luke stood, he better chance than he was giving the boy credit for. Then again, these were fairly extraordinary circumstances and Obi-Wan was worried, which was probably overreaching his usual calm and faith.

“Obes,” he said quietly, barely touching his friend’s arm. “How long have you been training Luke?”

Ben stared at him.

“Obi-Wan,” Quinlan repeated, a little more forceful. “How long?”

“Since he was nine,” Obi-Wan choked out.

Wasn’t that just fascinating.

“Is he any good?”

Obi-Wan nodded. Good, he had some faith then. His worry, coupled with the extreme circumstances were just clouding things. Quinlan could work with that.

“Then he has a chance, bigger than you probably think.”

“Krell has double lightsaber staffs. Luke hasn’t even seen that before.”

Quinlan suspected that Luke hadn’t seen barely any lightsabers before, but he didn’t say anything to that. Skywalker had always been extremely talented with a blade. Although it wasn’t guaranteed his son would be the same way, he speculated that it was the case.

He has a chance,” Quin repeated. “Let’s go, okay? Let’s go to the airbase and find him.”

Freefall gave them a speeder. Obi-Wan had even let Quinlan drive without saying a word. Finding and getting to the airbase wasn’t difficult at all but it was eerily quiet. As Quinlan skidded to a halt, Obi-Wan had jumped off before the engine had stopped and jogged into the airbase.

It was dark.

Quinlan had a bad feeling about this.

He caught up with Obi-Wan as they pushed through, going through levels and the doors of the base into an open room where communications and ships alike were held. They both had stopped near in time together.

It was so quiet.

Obi-Wan stood silently, looking and watching, almost in shock but Quinlan moved around to take a peek. There were a few bodies of troopers sprawled on the ground, most of them missing an arm or a leg or worse, a head. It wasn’t a massacre, exactly, Quinlan thought. There were only a couple, as horrible as it was, but over all, it was incredibly messy. The wounds and killing blows had been made from a lightsaber, that was for certain. It certainly wasn’t Luke who did this, even Quinlan knew that.

“Quin.”

Quinlan barely recognized his own name coming from Obi-Wan’s lips. He hadn’t called him that seriously since he had woken up. He hoped that Obi-Wan was coming to realize that this was real, that he had time traveled and it wasn’t a dream or hallucination or cruel Sith trick.

He looked over to where Obi-Wan was kneeling and jogged over to his side.

Obi-Wan hadn’t touched it and Quinlan surely wouldn’t.

It was an arm, thick and burly. It wasn’t a human’s, that was for sure. If Quinlan had to guess, it was Krell’s.

“It’s Krell’s arm,” Obi-Wan answered his unasked question and then carefully used a nearby prod to pry open the hand. A lightsaber tumbled out. “And one of his sabers.”

“He’s a bit like you,” Quinlan muttered, vaguely amused.

Even if Obi-Wan had heard him, he didn’t dignify it with an answer. “They are not here. Everyone is gone. There aren’t nearly enough bodies for this to be the entirety of the 501st.”

“That begs the question,” Quinlan added. “What happened and where did they go?”