#he mourns the Jedi but has moved on and let idea of the Order go | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

phoenixyfriend · 3 years

Note

Re; Ahsoka and Quinlan being the same age, now I'm picturing Ahsoka, Quinlan, and Rex eventually ending up in a weird sorta thruple where Quinlan comes in and out of the relationship but the door is kinda always open for him? And Rex spends a lot of mornings eyeing the tangle of orange and brown skin on the other side of the bed like he has no idea how he ended up here but he's (mostly) okay with that tbh

Context: Commander Buir in chronological order

YES okay so this is wild to me that people are invested in this but like half the time-travel fics with Ahsoka in the same age-group as Quinlan have me wondering if I should ship them. Let me just. Ho shit.

So, okay, I've explored a lot of possible dynamics but there's something really engaging about how Quinlan, trained as a Shadow before the Sith came back, could react to a War Padawan. Ahsoka isn't really infiltration material yet, she's very much a frontline fighter, but she's got a lot more experience with a kind of consistent dark atmosphere that most Jedi don't. They get exposed to plenty of dark stuff, sure, but not the kind of all-encompassing "this is my life for the last two years" thing that is usually reserved for the long-term field agents like Shadows and Watchmen.

The War Padawans, for all that they were supposed to be just normal Jedi Padawans, were living in the kind of consistently negative environment that's normally experienced by those Knighted Sentinels.

So Ahsoka, while still generally pretty young in these AUs, is a very odd kind of person to be around, because she's spunky and vivacious and snippy and affectionate and snarky and knows how to break every bone in your body from harrowing experience as the only thing standing between death and thousands of brothers.

And Quinlan, I imagine, really likes that about her. She gets it, and she's still an energetic and loving and trying to do her best to be a good person despite everything. He gravitates towards her and she... well, she's not blind. She can tell he's interested. And she's not upset about that.

ANYWAY, ONTO REX

So, Rex is... technically twelve. He hasn't exactly got a whole lot of experience with romance. He is also, up until the point of time-travel, legal property of the Senate and the Jedi Order, which means that Ahsoka, or at least her community, owns him. He was indoctrinated to serve her and that community. She also outranks him, for all that she usually lets him take the lead in the field due to experience. He's older than her physically and maturity-wise, but she's also had a grow-up-faster-than-you-should adolescence, and she has superpowers.

What I'm saying is, the power dynamic is fucked up.

(Unironically I spent hours last night realizing that it balances out a lot more than C*dywan does, which I'm censoring because by god do I not want discourse on this post. I like both ships, and don't want to argue about what's the most problematic. It's Star Wars. The only unproblematic ships are Bail/Breha and Owen/Beru.)

Here's the thing, though, because the main thing people seem to argue here is the age/maturity difference as a problem area:

The age difference in actual time is four years, which is smaller than the two main ships of the franchise (Han/Leia and Padme/Anakin, to be clear). The age difference in maturity is ??? We'll say that the clones started aging normally after they hit twenty, so the age difference in maturity is six years... which is still normal for SW ships.

(This is why I don't have any issues with the ship in a post-O66 context, once they've had a few years to move past the traumas and whatnot. The age stuff all evens out with time, they're a good team, and neither was grooming the other. It's not objectively any more problematic than most SW ships at that point, and I'm okay with that. They deserve to be happy if they want.)

But they get yanked away from all that structure of who owns what, who reports where, who has which rank, who's legally a person in the eyes of the Republic when they end up on Dagobah. Once they've registered when they are, the only remaining complications are:

He grew up in a cultlike environment and was indoctrinated to serve her (but has been replacing that indoctrination with genuine respect and affection for her as a person because they've worked together for two years).

She has superpowers (contextually not a big problem: we see several Force-Sensitive/Non-Sensitive ships that don't consider those powers a complicating element)

He's several years younger than her (canonically less of an issue than it could be: Cut got married and has kids) and has next to no experience with what a normal romance looks like except for hanging out on the edges of whatever the fuck his General has going on with the Senator

She's several years less mature than he is (...something of an issue)

So a lot of this is mostly okay. She feels weird about the fact that she's got more knowledge of romance and all that it entails. He feels weird about the fact that, despite her being older, he looks at her and sees someone that's still a little young, not quite a shiny. Except she is older than him, and he's seen her behead four people in a single move, and they've saved each other's lives more times than either of them can count anymore. He respects her, and the fact that she's babyfaced doesn't change the fact that, in terms of who they are as people and warriors, they're on a level playing field.

She still looks at him and mourns his lost childhood, and he still looks at her and takes a moment to see past the too-big eyes and adolescent proportions.

But they really, really care about each other, and maybe part of them is starting to recognize that there's a bit of a crush before they time-travel, but neither one wants to make a move. There's a lot of baggage on both sides, a lot of "but they're a child" and "but they're (literally vs functionally) below me in the chain of command, I can't take advantage of that" and all that fun stuff. It's the kind of situation where two people circle each other for ages without making a move, because actually making that move is terrifying on account of not knowing whether the other party knows they can say no, on top of the usual "what if it ruins our friendship?" thing.

What happens on Dagobah, though... is very tropey. They're sort of stranded until Ahsoka can fix the ship, and that takes time. The area is also very heavy with the Force, dense and heady with the energy it carries, and it's... actually really not great for Ahsoka. She keeps feeling like she's back on Mortis, and has nightmares from the trigger there, but also keeps hallucinating because she wasn't ready for the thickness of the energy (like Yoda) or still new enough to the Force that she couldn't feel how dense it all was (like Luke). She can't work on the engines as constantly as she'd like to get them out of there, and while Rex is a competent mechanic, he's not as skilled with it as the girl who jumped headfirst into lessons with Anakin.

Rex spends a lot of time holding Ahsoka and wiping her brow with a wet cloth while she's feverish and out of it. Yes we're going full Florence Nightingale romance here, let me have my fun.

They get the communications relay working earlier than the engine, find out the year is wrong, panic a bit. All is well. (It's not, but they're holding it together for now.)

Ahsoka keeps working on the engine when she's lucid. Rex keeps hunting up game and edible plants for them while she does. They cuddle at night, because it's not cold but it is empty of the people they care about, and they kind of want that reassurance of someone they trust and love at their back.

(Morai visits.)

(Daughter shows up in the nightmares, tells Ahsoka that age will not come for her beloved until the time is natural for it. The phrasing is dumb but she does manage to convey that the accelerated aging is no longer an issue, if it even was after they hit adulthood. Ahsoka is relieved.)

And, you know, emotions happen. She takes his hand while they're leaning up against each other. He kisses her forehead while she's having a bad spell. They cook together and tell jokes to keep sane and spar. They hug each other through nightmares and panic attacks. There is much blushing. There is much cuddling.

Once, they kiss.

They break apart, flushing and stammering and being very awkward about the whole thing, and make excuses to leave and panic about the fact that they!! Kissed!!!!!

A couple hours later they find each other again, and have a long and complicated discussion about why they like each other (war makes bedfellows, there's trust and affection and all that fun stuff) and why they're hesitant (age stuff, maturity stuff, prior indoctrination), and make the decision to take it slow. They cuddle, and kiss, and blush a lot because both of them are basically just dumb teens having their first real relationship.

They eventually leave the planet, make it to Coruscant, etc. It takes a bit for anyone except Obi-Wan to realize that something's changed between them. Most people didn't know them before, and Anakin's observation skills are currently at a very low ebb. But they sit together and hold hands, and flirt when they spar, and once or twice people find them kissing (both standard and Keldabe) in a corner while holding hands and then just smiling at each other like loons.

They end up rooming together because nobody has the heart to separate them after hearing about all the war stuff. Like yes attachment's bad, but these two do seem to understand loss of loved ones and recognize that they could lose each other at any time and death is natural and they won't lose their entire shit about it, and if even General Kenobi is anxious as hell about being separated from the people he fought side-by-side with for two years, then maybe it's just... really normal for those two to want each other's company, and everyone can just turn a blind eye to the romance happening.

They share a bed, but they only ever sleep in it. Like, there's some goodnight kisses and cuddles, but everything is very G-rated until they've had time to settle into being true equals instead of just the "well, I guess the power dynamics balance out? Maybe?" of before.

And just... yeah. Rex does not believe that he's in this good of a position whenever he has the time to think about it. He's got a girlfriend! A really pretty, smart, strong, skilled one! Who thinks he's a cool dude! How the fuck did a clone like him manage that? He wasn't even legally a person a year ago, how did he end up in bed with one of the most amazing people he's ever met? He spends multiple nights just staring at her while he tries to fall asleep, asking himself how he got here and just like... marveling at her. She's worth marveling at. He's in love and she's amazing and he has no idea how to handle it at all.

...yeah no I have a lot of feelings now.

#Rexsoka #Ahsoka Tano #Captain Rex #Quinlan Vos #time travel #Commander Buir #Phoenix Posts

273 notes · View notes

whatanoof · 4 years

Text

Cal Kestis Headcanons that No One Asked For

So I’ve slowly been going through story mode of Jedi: Fallen Order, and I’m about to go to the Fort Inquisitorius so I haven’t even finished yet but I’m absolutely in love with Cal Kestis, so here are some hc about him, romantic and non-romantic.

SPOILERS FOR JEDI: FALLEN ORDER

Cal x female!reader

You both love it when you play with his hair. The first time was almost an accident on your part, because you were just sitting behind him on the bunk while he’s tinkering with his saber and staring at the back of his head. It’s so red, and you’d honestly rarely seen such a bright color naturally occurring, much less growing out of a human head? Your hand brushed a strand almost of its own volition, and you both just froze. He slowly turned to look at you, and you almost stopped breathing because Did you just mess up did you just fuck up the relationship oh shit shit shit--. And he just whispers, “Uh, could you do that again?” And you’re in such a state of shock and relief that you just scoot back on the bunk and gesture at your open lap. Cere walks in on the two of you later, him dopey and almost asleep with his head in your lap, your fingers running through the silky strands. She doesn’t say anything, even when Greez points out the two small braids that you left at the nape of his neck.

He’s so competitive. Like come on, this man refused to back down from two or three separate fights against fully-fledged Inquisitors and one insane Jedi Master while he was still technically a Padawan. So he won’t let you beat him. At anything. You’re watering the latest seed that he brought back from a planet? Bam, he’s got Greez’s special plant food and he’s giving every single one of them a five-course meal. If you’re a Jedi, and you’re meditating in the back of the Mantis? You open your eyes after ten or so minutes and he’s right there in front of you, doing that little concentration face that you fell in love with so easily. If you’re a Jedi, you’re evenly matched in almost everything that you do in terms of abilities, and you teach each other where you’re not. Greez is terrified of watching you two spar, because you don’t hold back, but you’re also so equal to him in skill that it’s a whirl of light and blocking known attacks.

Him and BD-1 were a package deal, but as soon as you were welcomed aboard the Mantis, Cal couldn’t believe how easily the little droid warmed up to you. Of course, BD sticks with Cal and is his right hand man on adventures, but Cal no longer occupies 100 percent of BD’s free time. You refuse to tell Cal exactly where, but you found a spot right behind BD’s “head” where if you scratch it, the droid is on the ground and kicking a leg in the air in happiness. If you’re a mechanic, you can usually be found in the back, tinkering with BD’s processor to make it run more efficiently, or oiling his joints again, or designing new paint jobs for the happy little droid. Either way, you’ve stolen a decent fraction of the droid’s affection, and none of the Mantis crew has any idea how you did it. It’s actually the first thing that urged you and Cal to start spending more time together, and you remember BD’s happy little hops after you’d finally kissed Cal for the first time.

There is absolutely no backing for this, but I think that Cal can sing. Nothing fancy, of course, it’s not like there are vocal lessons available on Bracca or in the Jedi Order, but he can carry a tune. It’s sometimes the only way you can fall asleep on the Mantis, because even though Greez and the crew make it cozy, it’s not home. But as soon as you’re curled up in the twin-sized bunk, and Cal starts humming to you, you’re out before he’s finished the chorus. Sometimes the songs are happy, but they’re often little ditties that he heard from the clones before Order 66, or mourning songs that fellow workers on Bracca would sing during the night when the rain was pounding on the metal and creating a natural rhythm and harmony for the tired mechanics. They’re songs of lost love, fallen brothers, and vague longings for newer, better lives. You fall asleep to his soothing voice, but you often wake with an ache in your heart for the suffering and pain that Cal has experienced and witnessed in his short life.

He’s ticklish. He hates that you know. He hates that you told Merrin, and now she can blackmail him into getting her favorite foods from supply markets. But you love the childish giggles that you’re able to pull out of him when you finally corner him and run your fingers over his neck. Tickle fights always end in make-out sessions.

+18 NSFW under the cut

So... Cal never had the chance to understand wanting intimacy before you, sexual and non-sexual. He was terrified the first time he looked at you and didn’t recognize that strange feeling in his chest. He’d never felt it before, was there something wrong with him? Was he sick? It takes a sit-down with Greez for him to figure out what’s going on, and it’s even scarier than the possibility of illness. Jedi were forbidden to love, it had always been a taboo in his mind, even if he had never had the opportunity to find out what it felt like.

He pushes it away at first. He ignores the flutters in his chest when you’re laughing with Merrin at dinner. He denies the complete shorting out of his brain when he accidentally brushes too close to you while trying to get to your shared bunk.

He has his first wet dream, and wakes up absolutely throbbing with the memory of the dream that involved you and him and way too little clothes for his repressed childhood. He tries to grit his teeth and go back to sleep, but it’s too uncomfortable, and he can’t get the image of your body out of his mind. Jedi Masters always gave their Padawans the sex talk, and Jaro Tapal was nothing if not a good Master. So Cal knows basically what he has to do to relieve the tension so that he can get a little more sleep. He just doesn’t expect to lose control of himself to the point where he grunts your name when he comes. His heart just about stops when he hears the bed above him creak, and he yanks the sheets over his head until he’s sure that you’re not awake. He gets up early the next morning so that he can clean up without fear of you catching him.

After you get together, Cal is even more scared of the relationship. He had checked with Cere, and though she skews more traditional in her beliefs, she knows that Cal’s trauma and overcoming of it is more than she could hope to understand. Maybe this relationship could bring a stability to his life that nothing else could provide. She cautions him on the power of Dark Side, and how the fear of losing love dragged many great Jedi astray. But she also trusts you, and she knows that you would never do anything to hurt him. She hadn’t missed the lovesick puppy eyes you’d been sending his way.

You start out promising to take it slow. Neither of you had much experience in the areas of relationships and dating, much less sex, so at the beginning, you make sure to clarify that there’s no pressure to rush through anything. It’s mostly just spending more time together, slowly exploring each other. You both learn about each other’s pasts, and spend time talking through the different experiences, rationalizing and comforting each other. Before you even begin to experiment in bed, he’s become your best friend.

When you finally do, it’s short and sweet and perfect for two people who are trying to take their relationship slow. You teach him about what you like, and he gasps out in between moans what feels good and ohhh, what feels even better.

Okay, a bit of a time skip here, but after Cal’s more experienced, he is a sucker for you riding his thigh. He’s built and strong, so the ridge of muscle beneath you and rubbing against every single spot that sparks delicious warmth in your belly brings you to climax so much more quickly than you could have expected. He loves looking up at you, mouth open and eyes half shut in ecstasy as you chase your high, your heat leaving sticky wetness on his thigh that only serves to make him harder. He’ll grind his leg up if only to hear that heavenly little squeal and whimper that he can get out of you. You’re beautiful to him even on the worst days, but when you’re above him, sweaty and on the brink of coming all over his thigh? Stars, you’re the most glorious thing he’s ever seen, and he rode a shyyyo bird over the untouched forest of Kashyyyk.

Sadcanons. Don’t read if you don’t want sad feels tonight

There is no denying that Cal’s not a whole person at the beginning of the storyline. He definitely regains some of himself back, but there are parts of him that I believe died with the clones and died with Jaro. There are times where he has nightmares, and when he wakes up, he doesn’t want to be with anyone. Even you. He’ll lapse into silence for hours and days at a time, staring at the blank wall while you try to get him to eat or drink something because damnit it’s been days and he hasn’t so much as moved. Your heart breaks at every sign of his damage, because you know that there is only so much you can do to help. This is a journey that he has to complete independently, though it doesn’t mean that you won’t be here for him when he wakes up.

You trace his scars to comfort him. He’s insecure about them, and is terrified of the memories that they bring back. But when you’re there, loving even his jagged edges, it’s all marginally better and he can bear to live with himself a little more.

He comforts you too. Whatever your background, the Clone Wars and the Purge gave everyone a little bit of damage, and you were no different. He holds you when you’re crying, and comforts you after your nightmares. He’ll purposefully pick a happy song to sing when he knows that you’re down, and he never fails to make you laugh through the tears.

His psychometry allows him to understand your trauma better than you could hope to understand his. Before you even allow him to sense your past, you make him promise to not internalize any of it. You know that he would, though it makes no logical sense. He promises.

Oops I made myself yearn. Now back to our regularly scheduled program of single life. School’s kicking my ass right now, but this made me feel better so I can’t complain too much.

But in all seriousness, I recommend this game 10/10. The Star Wars content is absolutely impeccable, the graphics are gorgeous, it gives me a thrill in my chest to know that every single second is canon. Cal is a beautifully written character, and even though his story breaks my heart, it’s written so well. He doesn’t lash out in anger, rather internalizing his fears and pain in a way that I can relate to, and he’s scarily powerful. It’s a feel good story for me despite the pain, and I’m looking forward to finishing it this weekend!

#cal kestis #headcanons #cal kestis x reader #smut #fluff #angst #cere junda #greez dritus #nightsister merrin #jedi: fallen order

319 notes · View notes

morganas-pendragons · 4 years

Text

Long Story Short (I Survived) | Din Djarin

Okay, I apparently write for Din now. This is set after It’s A Long Way Down and will feature the same Grey!Jedi reader, I am done with finals and am intending to write a fic between this one and the first one for Chapter 13!

i forgot that din took his helmet off in the first fic i wrote for him, so we’re going to call this - another separate instance in which reader could have seen helmet less din - and change one saber to two

if you’d like to be added to tags for when I write for din, please let me know! until then...

@earthtokace / @demigod-dragonrider-schoolidol / @kyber-queen / @kaikai1324 / @snippy-tano / @fractiouskat / @doctorsteeb

SPOILERS FOR THE BELIEVER

Din is staring down at the Imperial console when he feels it creep up upon him. It’s a niggling fear, one that sinks deep down into the pit of his stomach and very nearly disappears - which gives him hope that it’ll just dissipate and die - until realization smacks him right back into reality.

“You’ll have to take your helmet off.”

He’d felt this same emotion when IG-11 had coerced him into taking his helmet off when he’d been injured. It had felt the same, affected him the same, paralyzed him the same.

Panic. It’s panic.

The last time he’d done this had been out of necessity, out of fear, and that had been the only reason he’d survived. He’d broken The Creed to save his own life and of those who had been with him when the Moff attacked. Now, staring at this console, the life of his son is at stake if he doesn’t take this helmet off.

Din whispers into the corners of his frightened mind. I’m scared.

You had accompanied Mayfeld and Din as the third party (since Boba and Fennec had Cara) and had displayed skill in aiding him with the bands of pirates who had attacked their transport of Rhydonium. His mind was still spinning with the sheer speed in which you had spun those lightsabers. He didn’t think a person could move that fast.

Around the corner and turned away from Din, you allow yourself to feel the whispers of The Force encircling your mind - the newly acquired bond you’d somehow formed with Din since having seen Ahsoka - and whispered in reply I know. A beat of silence passes before you continue. Remember who you’re doing this for.

In the moment that Din’s fear threatens to overtake him, you send waves of comfort and assurance through your Bond in the Force - which shouldn’t exist to begin with, it’s not that easy to create bonds with a non-force sensitive - to coax him into doing what needs to be done. Your eyes are turned. Your focus is on Mayfeld and the dozens of Imperial Officers who surround you.

As he removes his helmet, Din remembers. He remembers your boundless laughter playing with The Child. He remembers the way his son beams at you, the way he falls asleep on specific words of lullabies because that’s always the precise moment your voice goes just soft enough that he feels as if he needs no more comfort. Din remembers the way you’d watched on in silence, quietly mourning a relationship that had yet to reach its peak, and how breathless you’d appeared - and overjoyed, he still hasn’t recovered from the sudden hug you gave him upon return to the Razor Crest - when he’d brought Grogu back inside after Ahsoka claimed he could not be trained.

Remember who you’re doing this for.

Maker help anyone who dared to cross him when his child, his son - the one attachment he has not verbally acknowledged yet, but everyone else has, including you - is the one in danger. When you are the one in danger.

Maker help them.

You are not anticipating what comes next.

This was supposed to be easy. Get in, get the coordinates for the cruiser, and get out. Mayfeld had mentioned to you after Din had entered the mess hall that he’d need to take his helmet off in order to access the terminal, and on instinct you had turned away from the mess to survey the crowd around you.

Your lightsabers - now meshed together into the staff slung across your back - lay comfortably and within reach as dozens of Imperial troops brush past you and congratulate both you and Mayfeld on being the only transport to bring back the Rhydonium.

“Trooper? Hey, trooper!”

Mayfeld’s hand shoots out before you can protest, and your head is whipping back just enough to ensure that Din hasn’t been found out. “No.” Mayfeld murmurs, shaking his head. “Not yet.”

You’re not focused on him. You’re focused on the dark hair that frames the very visible head of the same man you’d resigned yourself to falling in love with.

His helmet is off.

Dread curls itself in your veins as you and the former Imperial turn to the mess hall. You’ve managed to respect Din’s wishes in refraining from both seeing his face - and using his name, you’re only allowed to do that in private - since you met, but circumstances have ruined the reverential act he would’ve saved for marriage. That was when he’d had removed his helmet to allow you to see him.

The thing is though.. You’ve always seen him. You don’t need to see his face to know Din Djarin’s heart, and his heart lays with you and that baby. The one he’s fighting to get back.

“No, son. What’s your TK number?”

Lucky for you, you’d been alive during The Clone Wars. You can worm yourself and him out of this situation fairly easily.

“This is our Commanding Officer TK-593, and First Officer TK-616, sir.” Mayfeld slaps your back as the two of you enter the mess hall and flank either side of Din. You cannot bring yourself to look at him head on. It would not be fair, not in the midst of the pure fear that’s coursing through his mind.

I’m right here. You whisper into the heart of the fear that plagues him, fingers idly tracing the inside of his hand as you stare the Imperial Officer down. As expected, Din visibly relaxes at the gentle trace of your fingertips against his palm. We’re surviving.

“I am Imperial Combat Assault Transport TK-111, sir.” Mayfeld continues, folding his hands over each other as he stands at relaxed parade rest at Din’s side. “I’m afraid you’re going to have to speak up to him a little bit since his vessel lost pressure in Taanab.”

This gives you the brilliant idea of conversing with Din in Tusken sign, something he’d been adamant to teach you after your excursion on Tatooine.

“She’s our interpreter. We call her Whip.’’

While Mayfeld guides the conversation with the officer, you and Din are easing into talking in Tusken about however many ways this can go wrong, but then he changes the topic to something you’re not quite ready to acknowledge.

You can look at me, you know. He signs, hands frantic as he tries and fails to find your eyes. You value him - and his heart - far too much to be the first person he knows to have seen his face.

No. You shake your head. I can’t.

And you don’t. You only look at his side profile for the remainder of that trip, refusing to allow yourself the satisfaction of being the one person he cared about that has seen his face. Seen him.

Like I said. You don’t need to see Din Djarin’s face to see him.

***

Din is almost positive he’s ready to accept how he feels about you.

The minute Mayfeld shoots that officer in the chest, you spring into action and whip that staff off your back - disengaging the lock that holds the two lightsabers together - and the world explodes in a flurry of blue as you perform the sword and shield method he’s seen you do flawlessly at least five times now.

You don’t look at him even after you’re back in Slave One. He and Cara have escorted Mayfeld back to the surface of the planet, and it’s just you and Fett in the cockpit. Despite the clone and bounty hunter being so much older then you, there’s something oddly comforting knowing you’re sitting next to has suffered as much as you have. If not more.

Long story short, we both survived.

“You know, I’ve been with you a grand total of a day and I can already see it in your eyes, Whip.” The nickname Mayfeld had come up with in the facility has already made its rounds on the ship, and Boba feels it’s more then appropriate for the first Jedi he’s met since the kids who put him in the Sarlacc to begin with. Being inside of that thing had mellowed him out. He had accepted his life for what it was now. Oddly enough.. Boba Fett is at peace. “You’re lovesick for the Mandalorian.”

“Boba-”

The older man, one who mirrored what you’d always envisioned the clones - may Maker rest their souls - to look like as they aged, removed his helmet to look at you. “Take it from someone who knows. He gets you. You get him.” Boba turned his gaze back towards the ramp of Slave One where Din was talking in low voices with Cara. “Wish I’d had a jeti like you who saw me despite the armor.”

He stopped speaking after that.

Taking a deep breath, you descend from the cockpit just as Slave One takes off again, the coordinates for Moff Gideon’s cruiser inputted into the navi-computer. Fennec and Cara move by you to join Boba in the cockpit which leaves you and Din alone in the cargo bay.

It’s deadly silent.

Ner jeti. He whispers. You can hear his thoughts as clear as you hear your own. Why will you not look at me?

Your eyes slam shut as his fingers curl around your hips. You cannot do this to him, no matter how much you want to - no matter how much you desire to finally kiss those lips you’ve dreamt idly about so many times - because here’s the truth of it: You have suffered, parts of you have died, everything you have ever known has died, you have lost everything and didn’t even try to save those on the other end of those attachments you’d formed... but something, something good, put you right here. Right here in this moment with Din Djarin mere moments before plunging into the subject of your night terrors after months of being tormented by nightmares of your fellow Jedi being tortured by the Empire for simply existing.

And quite frankly, there’s no one else you’d rather take that plunge with.

That fact terrifies you.

“I can’t look at you, Din.” You whisper. “I can’t look at you because then that would be breaking your Creed for me... and I can’t let you do that when the baby hasn’t even seen your face yet-”

“Oh, believe me.” A clunk echoes in the cargo-bay as the beskar falls from his hands. Your heart stops and your breath catches in your throat as you tremble beneath his grasps, eyes still closed as he steps into the curve of your body - chest to your back - and lowers his entire head to your shoulder. “I intend for him to.”

Din lays a kiss at the nape of your neck. Maker... he’s real. Your head starts spinning as his kiss ascends right to the shell of your ear, in which he then whispers, “Open your eyes, Sarad.” and it’s such an intimate act on the behalf of someone who has not known love until you and the baby showed up that you can’t not open your eyes.

When you turn around, your world is enveloped in a mirage of onyx. Brown eyes.

“Din-” Din chuckles at your obvious reluctance because he is absolutely terrified to let you see him, the real him, vulnerable and waiting and desperate for the same acceptance.

“I told you my name way earlier then I ever anticipated I would.” He begins, taking your hands in his own to lay them against his cheeks. It has been so long since he allowed himself to accept touch, to accept that people in the galaxy were still gentle, that he trembles when your warmth seeps into his skin. “After what Bo-Katan told me and what Mayfeld kept saying in the transport... I’ve done alot of thinking recently, and I’m coming to the conclusion that maybe the way I was raised was wrong. There’s nothing wrong with taking the helmet off.” He exhales on a shaky breath and turns his face to kiss the inside of your hand. “But then again.. I’ve always wanted to around you.”

Your voice is small as you ask, “Why?”

“Because you’ve always seen me.” Din replies. “Despite the armor and the helmet, you’ve always seen me for who I was. You saw me as a father for the-” He swallows the knot in his throat and leans inward until you are a hairs breath apart, forehead resting against yours as he pulls your body into his own. “As a father for our child. Not just as a bounty hunter, but as a man. A man I could never see myself as. When you came around, I stopped surviving. I started living.” He snorted sharply through his nose. “I almost forgot what that felt like.. I think you pulled me back right before I forgot entirely.”

He’s so grateful. It’s hard to live feeling like you’re a ghost.

Din tests the waters of this desire radiating from you both by applying just the barest amount of pressure of his mouth on yours. As to be expected, your entire body quakes at the contact and it takes all his physical control to not allow his spinning head to make his knees give out and send him falling on the floor.

Oh.. he could get used to this. Used to this feeling.

He’s felt this before.

Joy.

“That’s the thing.” Inward, outward, forward and back again, you slowly allow yourself to succumb to Din’s kiss and grip his face in your hands just a little bit tighter. “I’ve always seen you.” You pull away just enough to force your eyes open, and then you are graced with the face of the man you love. You do. You love him, and you’ve accepted it. Kriffing Boba Fett. “And you know what? I thought I’d died before I met you. I never thought I’d make it here, much less be with you.. and I am so lucky.” There it is then, that breathless smile Din has pressed the sight of twice now into his memories, that presses itself into your aspect as the two of you look at each other.

“Why are you lucky?”

You wink and shrug. ‘’Long story short?” You muse. “It’s a good thing I survived.”

Little to Din’s knowledge as he plunges into the mystery of his growing love for you - his flower, the one who made him bloom - that when he kisses you again, your eyes are wide open the entire time.

There’s never been quite so beautiful a sight as somebody who’s survived.

bonus: i am thinking about how beautiful pedro pascal was in this episode

#Din Djarin #Din Djarin x Reader #The Mandalorian #The Mandalorian x Reader #Star Wars imagines #Star Wars oneshots

483 notes · View notes

eyayah-oya · 3 years

Note

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.

#tumblr requests #tumblr asks #obi-wan/bail/breha #breha/bail #obi-wan kenobi #breha organa #luke and leia #commander cody #post order 66 #fluff and comfort #fluff #lizzie writes

51 notes · View notes

crispyjenkins · 4 years

Note

I might spam your box with ideas haha. S U F F E R. I’ve never liked the idea that after the Hardeen mission even Cody and Obi-wans men were all mad at him. There’s no one that would understand more than the troopers and Cody in my opinion. They understand having a duty and Following orders, even if you don’t agree with them. So I need me some Codywan + Obi getting so much more closer with his men and them being his support system now + ahsoka not being mad at her grandmaster. Please & thanks

(i have that one fill about the space fam™ figuring out obi-wan isn’t doing too hot after the deception arc, which is all well and good, but yeah the clones would absolutely understand and support obi faking his death for a mission and the fandom needs more of that. so here is fiori enabling me. and rex loving and supporting his general but also being super unimpressed with his tantrum

thank you for all the prompts, ad'ika ( ˘ ³˘) altho now I've had to shuffle my entire prompt list so that it's not you every other fill for the next month lmao)

“And he just goes right back to work?” Anakin snarls with a vague gesture across the bridge, to where General Kenobi is speaking with Cody and Wooley, and Maker, does the General look young. He had been reluctant to waste time on cosmetic corrections, and had only allowed the Jedi healers to give him some of his hair back; for better or for worse, he's letting the beard grow back naturally.

If the absurd amount of cooing that had happened at the Temple is anything to go by, many of the Jedi miss Kenobi’s baby-face, that he had supposedly covered with a beard as soon as he'd taken Anakin on as his apprentice. When Kenobi had given his first debrief after the Jedi had fixed his features back into his own, Echo had panicked and called him “cadet” in front of three different battalions, and the 501st is never going to let him forget it.

Anakin had not laughed.

“I’m not sure what you mean, sir,” Rex says carefully, turning back to the datapad in his hand to look over the command roster for their coming deployment. “General Kenobi’s injuries from the mission were superficial, he’ll be fully healed before we even make it to the Mid-Rim.”

Scoffing, Anakin continues to glare at his former master. “You can’t tell me you’re not angry, Rex,” he says, and leans against the console behind him.

Ahsoka had warned him that his general clearly wasn't over Kenobi’s supposed betrayal, and Rex is Mando enough to admit he’s been avoiding this conversation; he won’t lie to Anakin, no, they’ve been through far too much together for that, but no matter how close they are, their friendship would not save him from Anakin’s wrath.

So he pretends to be reading the roster for another long moment, wishing he had Kote’s diplomacy. “I am not, sir, just as I was not angry when Kix feigned desertion for the mission on Odos II.” Glancing up, he’s relieved to see Anakin isn’t glaring at him yet, but if Ahsoka hadn’t been able to talk him down, Rex doesn’t stand a chance. “The Supreme Chancellor's life being at stake is no small matter, the High Generals had many factors to consider, including that Count Dooku would be watching you closely in the wake of General Kenobi’s death.”

“Are you saying I can’t act?”

“I’m saying that if Count Dooku thought for even a moment you were faking it, the whole mission would have been in jeopardy. Sir.”

He doesn’t need to know banthashit about the Force to feel it when Anakin goes from simmering to incensed, not with the way Anakin warps the air between them, saturating it with his rage until General Kenobi sends them a concerned frown across the bridge. Anakin doesn’t seem to notice, glare fixed on Rex, and this really isn’t how he would have expected them to fall out.

Or that they'd have to fall out at all.

The tragedy of the thought makes Rex bold, meeting Anakin’s rage with a calm and confidence stolen from far stronger men. “You were not the only one made to believe in the General’s death, you forget there are others who care for him as deeply as you do.” Kote, he doesn’t say, Vos and Ahsoka and the Duchess, Wupi and Choke and Boil. “I perhaps would not include myself in that count, but should you not put aside your anger and be relieved that the General was not actually murdered?” Kote catches his eye and taps at his wrist guard, his concern obvious as he asks Rex in didi if he’s alright, and Rex will gladly take the unintentional out his brother has given him. “Just something to think about, sir. Here is the adjusted command roster, Captain Sage was transferred to the Coruscant Guard following his injury during the campaign on Aslo. Excuse me, sir, Commander Cody seems to have a question for me.” He hands the datapad to Anakin, who is miraculously too stunned not to take it, before Rex moves quickly across the bridge.

Ahsoka sits gingerly across from Rex in the almost-empty mess, murmuring, “I take it the talk didn’t go well.”

He snorts into his cup of caf. “From a certain point of view, it went better than expected.”

Wincing, Ahsoka rubs her own arms and casts her eyes down to the table. “I tried asking him about it before we left Coruscant, I’ve never seen him so angry, not even at the funeral.”

Rex is used to being the little brother, of both his batchmates and the CC track, and this is one of the times where he laments that: when he doesn’t quite know how to comfort the way his brothers comforted him. “If I may, sir,” he says, quiet enough that the few vode at the table across the room won’t hear, “are you not angry with General Kenobi?”

“No?” She chews her bottom lip. “I mean, yes, I mean– I’m happy he’s alive. It hurt, being kept out of the loop, but it’s not as if I was singled out for that, right? And I... I understand why he did it, why it had to be done and why it played out like it did, but it still hurt. But I’m also so relieved that Master Obi-Wan is alive, that I don’t think my hurt matters.”

“And General Skywalker hasn’t come to that conclusion yet.”

She shakes her head. “How... How has Cody taken it?”

“I think he’s more angry that he was forced to miss the funeral than Kenobi faking his death." Rex isn't sure where Kote and Kenobi stand now, they had been heading towards a collision before this Hardeen fiasco, and he doesn't know where they've landed. Brothers? Lovers? Whatever the hell Echo and Fives are? He hadn't been able to ask before the 212th and the 501st split ways. "It was for a mission, wasn't it? We're soldiers, Commander Tano, we're born with 'Mission First' imprinted on our brains."

Ahsoka giggles at the mental image, and Rex is relieved to see her shoulders relax. "All the padawans expected Knight Vos to react the worst," she says, crossing her arms on the table. "He grew up with Master Obi-Wan, you know? But he just... accepted it, he simply understood and... Letting go is part of being a Jedi. Knowing when you can't change things, and accepting failures, and understanding no matter the circumstances."

It would certainly not be the first time Anakin has stumbled on the Jedi path.

"General Vos was a Shadow, no?" Rex asks, considering his watery caf and wishing he knew how to approach his general about any of this. "He would empathise most, wouldn't he?"

"I suppose you're right," she says, bouncing her legs. "How have the others been? Echo and Jesse and them?"

"They're most disturbed by Kenobi’s face, to be honest."

Choking on a laugh, Ahsoka reaches across the table to steal an unused sucrose packet from Rex's tray. "I did hear something about Echo and cadets," she admits. "Oh no, how did Kix react?"

Rex smirks at the memory. "He really does like Kenobi’s hair, doesn't he?"

"He must have been devastated!"

"I think he tried to get the General to let him shave designs in the undercut."

"I suddenly know what I'm doing for the next Disaster Lineage prank war."

Rex winces, remembering the last prank war and how long it had taken Anakin to stop smelling like hot sauce. "Jesse's the best with the razors," he says blandly, mourning his now-empty cup and the broken caf machine in the kitchen, "and will work for extra shower tokens."

is this what you wanted, fiori?? 1,400 words about obi-wan without obi-wan in it for more than two seconds???

Mando’a: didi — a Clone-dialect specific form of dadita, a Mandalorian nonverbal communication similar to morse code. i think the clones would have a modified version of dadita that utilised placement of fingers on their arm as well as the actual taps, for quicker communication in close quarters, so in this case, didi is short for gadi dadita, “wrist dadita”. They would use this alongside standard military hand signals!

vode — “brothers, comrades, siblings”, sing. vod, technically gender neutral but used most often in fandom as “brothers”

#prompt fill #crispy writes #theclonewarsbrokeme #codywan #implied anyways #post-deception arc #captain rex #i think this is my first time doing rex pov?#prequel trilogy #clone wars #ask #anakin skywalker #ahsoka tano #obi wan kenobi #commander cody #actually forgot you'd asked for codywan and slipped that one line in because i'm a predictable bih

394 notes · View notes

siennahrobek · 3 years

Text

Prompt

In a new attempt to turn Anakin Skywalker to the darkside, Chancellor Palpatine orchestrates the disappearances of heavily pregnant Padme Amidala and Master Councilor Obi-Wan Kenobi. It backfired.

Nobody really won.

It had been ten years.

Knight Anakin Skywalker and Knight Ahsoka Tano were sent to a distress call far out in the outer rim, almost in wild space. Anakin didn’t mind the long journey. His former padawan was good company and sometimes, sometimes, it was nice to get away from the Temple for a while. Away from the sympathetic and pitying stares and lingering theories or rumors.

Things hadn’t been the same for many reasons.

Ten years ago, the two most important people in Anakin’s life disappeared, the man who raised him and his heavily pregnant wife. Eight years ago, they had found what was left of her body. Five years ago, the Order declared Master Kenobi one with the Force.

Anakin never truly stopped looking, but he was becoming dim in ability and stamina. It had been so long and there were no leads to follow. No trace or evidence of his old masters presence anyway. Nowadays, it was pretty much just research and keeping an eye out for anything that vaguely resembled him. He was trying to have the life Obi-Wan always wanted for him, balance and happiness. He tried to connect with others, with Jedi. He spent quite a bit of time mediating, walking the gardens, helping as many as he could throughout the galaxy. He was a good Jedi, he thought, at least on the outside. He was working on the inside. He had a jedi’s life.

It was all he had now. And he would do his best to make Obi-Wan proud.

But being happy, truly happy, Anakin wasn’t sure if he could truly achieve it anymore. Being balanced with that type of hole in your heart, it was difficult. He could accept loss better now; there was no stopping that sort of thing. When it was one’s time to leave the planes of this galaxy for the Force, it was something to rejoice. It was supposed to be home. It wasn’t so easy when there were no answers.

Ahsoka had been knighted several years earlier and Anakin could not have been more proud. Her friends had been there, had congratulated her and she was happy, he had to believe that. But even she missed the presence of another who should have been there. Obi-Wan would have wanted to be there, to witness such a great occasion. They did their best and afterwards, they had a good time, were happy with the rank that came with her knighthood. It wasn’t that either of them were mourning during the time. It was just, they could feel the missing piece. It has been a few years but lately, they had found themselves partnered up quite frequently for missions. He hoped Ahsoka didn’t mind too much but there was never going to be an easy way out of this. Around it. Because this was the type of thing he and Obi-Wan did. They were the Team. They did everything together, even after knighthood.

The Council was trying, he gave them that.

He didn’t know if it really helped, though. It was nice, though, that they cared. They kept an eye on him. Years before, he would have read that as they didn’t trust him. It took him a very, very long time to realize that wasn’t always the case. And partnering him up with someone he was close to, someone he trusted above most else, it was some way of caring. He still struggled with those thoughts, even years later, but he was easier now.

The mystery however, was not any easier. There was an abysmal void where his loved ones should have been. A tear in his heart from the mystery. The lack of answers. He still found himself grieving for Padme but it was easier now. Although no one was entirely sure exactly what had happened to her, at least they had found a body, they had a storyline about what had happened and how it happened. It wasn’t sometime Anakin liked to think about particularly, but it was easier to grieve knowing. She was gone and eventually, he had accepted that. Let go, so to speak. She was with the Force and Anakin could feel her in some of the things he did, some of the objects and people and actions he witnessed and saw. There was grief, but there was also knowing.

The same could not be said for Obi-Wan.

No one knew what happened to him. There were no clues, no evidence. He had disappeared one day, alongside Padme and no one ever could figure out how it happened or why or anything. Although they had found a body for her, they never did for him. Not even a glimmer of anything.

Some darker rumors, cynical beings, spread that he had abandoned the Order. That the war had made him go mad. That he had kidnapped the senator or worse, was the one who slaughtered her. Anakin had quickly put a stop to it. Everyone had felt it the moment he knew about these ideas and theories, diminishing and tarnishing Obi-Wan’s name that was atrocious. He was not the only one who felt this way, but he was the strongest and most determined and the most furious…

No one said anything now.

No one dared.

The Jedi kept him in high honors. He was mentioned in classes, with his thoughts and theories on the Force, his research on all the things he loved to learn; animals, plants, cultures, languages. His strategies from the war were taught. His negotiation fame was spread; everyone knew the stories of the Negotiator. He wasn’t just a war hero. He was a Jedi, and a great one at that. His faith in the Order, his faith in people, his faith in the Force, was incredible and Anakin hadn’t really come to realize how that was until years after.

Obi-Wan loved in such a way that Anakin hadn’t understood since he was a child. He wished that he could talk with him one more time, just to show his old master that he was right, that Anakin was okay. That Anakin knew how much Obi-Wan Kenobi loved him.

That Anakin was doing his very best to be the Jedi and person he knew he could be.

The clones continued to think of him; believe the best in their General Kenobi. They always had liked him. He was a high general, one that appreciated and valued their input and their lives. He was their finder, all the cadets – former and current – had been told the stories about how he found them like a true Jedi searcher. Even if it was by accident, it had jumpstarted their journey into being free. He had worked to help and protect them alongside other council members and the few politicians who saw them more as canon fodder. It amazed Anakin how long and intense the memories of the former soldiers were because he was still brought up.

Cody and a lot of the 212th had taken it hard; harder that most of the rest of the military. He was their direct general, someone they followed personally up until the very end of the war. Some of them had been friends, even. They had helped Anakin search for a long time, but it was getting harder for them. They had jobs now, they had to start lives, be citizens. Things were expected of them, like for some reason, they had to catch up to the rest of the citizens. It was a struggle and a fight but luckily, they did have allies for assistance.

Many clones got adopted into or employed at the Temple. There weren’t many force-sensitive ones, none enough that they would have made an actual Jedi knight, but the Order was loyal to them as they had been to the Jedi. Many troopers filled in other roles, of teachers, sparring partners, cooks, guards, and researchers. Waxer and Boil had made it from being aides to a creche master to being crèche masters themselves, with leading their own clan of initiates.

Obi-Wan would have loved that.

“Coming up to origin of signal,” Ahsoka announced from the pilot’s seat, flipping a few switches as she began the sequence for landing and attachment. In the middle of nowhere, Anakin noted. There wasn’t a planet near here, in sight or on the scanners. He wondered how they even got out here. Hopefully this wasn’t a mortis situation all over again. He did not want to deal with something like that again. The ship in front of them was small and broken down, floating aimlessly in the abyss of space.

He doubted anyone survived.

“You never know, master,” Ahsoka tried to keep herself upbeat as she shot him a grin, sharp teeth showing unabashedly. “Perhaps we will be pleasantly surprised,” she suggested with a bit of a shrug. The ship had made a thud as it hit the abandoned one and the latches untangled themselves to strike into the hull of the ship.

Oh. He had said that out loud. Oops.

“Latch engaged,” she added and turned to smile at him, tentatively once again. “Come on master. Let’s see what adventure awaits us.”

“I’m no longer your master, Ahsoka,” he reminded her, idly.

She shrugged once more. “Right,” she replied with a small smirk, her voice laced with sarcasm. It was practically oozing out of her. She remained him of his former master sometimes, with her humor and quick wit. With a mischievous side eye, she continued, slyly. “Let’s go, master.”

Anakin rolled his eyes and followed her out, making their way through their ship’s hatch and towards the abandoned one. He still didn’t think that anyone survived but this was their duty. And the calm silence of their journey and the nature of the mission was a bit of a relief from the fast-paced ones that he was normally sent on. Usually, it was a good way to keep his mind off of everything else. This was a nice reprieve.

As the two of them got into the derelict ship, Anakin started talking and he had absolutely no idea where it came from. It was like his mouth had started moving and his brain had not given it permission. “I’m sorry, Ahsoka.”

She glanced at him, curiously. “What for?”

He couldn’t quite meet her eyes, as they waved a flashlight around, searching the cockpit for life or anything else that could give them an idea into what had happened and who may have been there. “I know I haven’t really been…the same since…”

“Since Padme and Master Obi-Wan disappeared,” she supplied with a frown. It had been ten years since it happened and several years since she had been knighted and she still remembered. It was almost always the reason.

He nodded and swallowed heavily. “I…I got through Padme, to some extent at least. I knew what happened to her. But Obi-Wan…I still wonder.”

“Wonder…?”

“What happened. I know everyone says he wouldn’t leave me, not like that but…” he drifted off, looking down, his light flickering towards the floor, near useless. “I was a pretty terrible person around the time he disappeared, unbalanced and in a bad place. Listening to the wrong people, making terrible choices,” Anakin shuddered at the thought of what Palpatine nearly got him to do in his desperation and fury. It had been a dreadful time and everyone else had nearly paid the price for his mistakes, for his foolishness. Ten thousand Jedi, millions of the clones, all the people in the galaxy. He feared now what would have happened if he had not been pulled from the edge, if he had made that leap into the dark side, into the fear and anger and hate. “Perhaps…. maybe it was just too much for even the great and infinitely patient Master Kenobi.”

Ahsoka scoffed good-naturedly as she rolled her eyes, finding the sliver of humor to work through. “One, Master Obi-Wan was not infinitely patient,” she pointed out, glancing at him pointedly. She wasn’t completely wrong. Obi-Wan had a lot of patience but even he had his limits, generally with those he didn’t care for. His patience with Anakin though, that was legendary. Not that he would ever really admit that. “And two, they are right. He would never leave you out of choice. I mean come on. Master Obi-Wan.”

“Yeah. You’re probably right,” he replied half-heartedly and tried shooting her a smile. It wasn’t very convincing, but it was all he had at the moment. After a suggestion of splitting up, the two of them went to opposite ends of the ship, Anakin towards the living quarters and Ahsoka towards the cargo bay. Perhaps Anakin could find some clues with the former inhabitant’s belongings or Ahsoka with whatever they were travelling with.

It was a bust. There was very little there, aside from some blankets. Anakin imagined there were a couple of people stuffed within the quarters, perhaps a man and a child or two, with the toys he found. There were some handmade wooden carved ship toys laying on the bed and Anakin picked one up. It was a Jedi star fighter, he realized. It wasn’t the most amazing rendition of the ship, but he was probably a little bias, considering he had not only flown one of these during the war, he still had one.

What was really interesting about it was the feelings imbued with it. The signature felt familiar, like he should know it, but it was weak. Whoever made this toy was filled with so much love, for the recipient, for those in general, that he cascaded off the toy in waves.

He wondered if the former inhabitant had been force sensitive. It might explain the feelings in the ship and the toys, especially.

“I don’t see anything!” Ahsoka shouted from the opposite end of the ship. He could hear her just fine, even though she was on the other end, but Anakin was still a bit entranced with the toy and the feelings coming off of it. “You?”

There was a brief silence and a clatter. Not big enough to be her body but it had sounded like she had dropped her flashlight.

Anakin glanced back towards where she had headed. He couldn’t see her but it was more instinctive than anything. “Ahsoka?”

Silence.

“Ahsoka?! Answer me?” Anakin started to panic, his heart beating faster and faster as he moved towards the door, calling her name.

She sounded scared and small, like back in the early days of the war and casualties were high. When she was worried about those she cared about, troopers, jedi, citizens. She sounded like she was in tears. Anakin couldn’t really remember a specific time where had sounded so fearful, so worried, so sad. Not in a way that was as blatant as this. “Skyguy?” Her voice called out. That was a name he hadn’t heard in a while. “You…you have to come see this.”

Anakin raced across the ship, panicked, and leaping over crates and objects. She didn’t make it sound like she was in danger, and she didn’t appear to be, but he didn’t stop until he was right next to Ahsoka. He had nearly crashed into it. She was standing in front of a large gray slab, some kind of relief sculpture of some kind. At least, that was what it looked like, although he hadn’t gotten a very good look at it. His attention was on Ahsoka. But he could tell what it was made out of. He had never seen such a large slab of carbonite before.

“What is it?”

She was crying, he could see a multitude of silent tears. They were running down her face in a cascade and although he couldn’t hear them, he could almost hear her sobs in the Force. But she just pointed up and Anakin followed her hand and gaze.

The face was distorted, like it had been looking down when the carbonite had been applied. The slab was huge and only made bigger by the cloak the figure wore. It was sweeping and wide, like he was trying to cover, hide or protect large objects underneath. Possibly, he was. But even with the odd, defensive pose and the face not looking straight on, even after ten years, Anakin knew that face.

He always knew that face.

Frozen in carbonite.

Obi-Wan Kenobi.

39 notes · View notes

ayo-cowbelly · 4 years

Text

Anakin Everlasting

read on ao3 here

wowww look at me, posting writing two days in a row... here’s to being productive

again, blame discord. those amazing angst-lovers keep inspiring me to write and make everyone sad.

hope you enjoy!

p.s. pretty sure it's a thing that jedi live a lot longer than average people, usually over 100 years. so that's why that's in there.

***

Anakin wandered throughout the temple. Not the Coruscant one, as you might think- no, he was on Yavin IV now. Years ago, the Jedi had decided to expand and, seeing as there was an unused temple on a lush planet, a planet that was strong in the Force- it was perfect for a new branch of the Order.

He stared out at the greenery, so different from what he had been used to. Even though he came to this place almost 100 years ago, Anakin couldn't find himself getting fully adjusted to the new environment.

Anakin was now surrounded by greens, blues, and browns, so different from the golds and tans he was used to. Those colors represented everything he loved, everything he'd lost, and that which he could not bear to see taken from him. That was why, even if it was a bit uncomfortable, Anakin had moved to Yavin IV. He has lost so much- and Anakin had never been good with loss.

Yes, time heals all wounds, and of course he'd spent time meditating with Yoda, learning how to let go; Yoda was the only one who could even begin to understand Anakin's plight. Despite that, however, he still found his heart aching when he thought of his friends, his family, and how they had left him.

Padmé had been the first to go. She lived to be 97, and Anakin never stopped loving her. As she got older, Padmé had insisted on Anakin moving on, finding a younger person who could keep up with him, now that she was too frail to even leave the apartment most days. He knew she'd be gone soon, so he promised he'd try to find someone.

It was the only promise he'd ever broken.

"I don't want you to mourn the moment you spent with me for an eternity," She had told him.

Anakin, tears in his eyes, whispered back, "You are my eternity, Angel."

That, even 1000 years later, was still true. He loved her, as many others in the galaxy had loved someone; fiercely, eternally, even if she was dead. Anakin and Padmé had a love that would always be real, be true, as long as he kept her memory alive as he traveled across the stars.

Anakin cried for days when Ahsoka died.

His first and dearest Padawan lived to be 117, and she had been feisty until the very end (only Leia had been able to keep up with Ahsoka in that regard- oh, Force, Leia-)

When she left, laying in her bed with soft condolences and gentle teases and whispers of "Don't forget me, Skyguy," Anakin had thought that would break him, as he held her now-limp hand.

Obi-Wan was worse. Obi-Wan, the oldest family member he had left, had been gone for a long time. His brother had lived to be around 124 (or maybe not, Anakin seemed to be getting worse at keeping track of time the longer his life went on). Obi-Wan had lived a long life, a happy life; and when his time came, he learned enough of the Force that he could still visit Anakin, sometimes.

Every once and awhile, the two could talk (it used to be always, back when Obi lived- but Anakin would be the only one who would get an always). But it wasn't the same. Not even close.

He'd never admit it, but Anakin cried for over a week when Obi-Wan faded away. At that time, he was sure he would shatter; If Padmé hadn't broken him, if Ahsoka hadn't, surely his older brother would.

Obi's death had to be the worst, he was positive.

He was so, so wrong.

Nothing could compare to the pure heartbreak that came with the death of his children.

Luke, who was bright like sunshine and serene like water- and Leia, who was pure fire and somehow engulfed everyone she met. They were the brightest parts of Anakin's life, both in the Force and not. They were the best parts of him and Padmé, and he loved them so incredibly much. And, being twins, Luke and Leia spent almost every moment together since their birth. Throughout their lives, it was rare to see one without the other, for nobody was as closely intertwined as they; save for Anakin and Obi-Wan.

So, when Death came for his children, Anakin had to watch as they left together (there was no other way they could go). He'd had them for an amazing 156 years, years he would forever cherish.

Now he didn't have anyone. But somehow, he was still whole. He hadn't broken then, and he hadn't broken when his later Padawans had died (death was hard for Anakin to think about. Even though he somewhat feared it, he also wanted it, if it meant he could see his dearest ones again). But Anakin knew Death would never claim him, so he made the most out of his eternal life (but it was a half-life, for what is a life without love?)

He took other Padawans, trained other students and treated them as his own. Though he knew it was a bad idea, as nobody could stay forever, they became his family. Just as Ahsoka once had, when she'd stepped out of a shuttle on Christophsis.

Anakin also found he was good at storytelling. Every night, he made his way to the Crèche and regaled the younglings with his stories. The now-legends of a beautiful queen, a wise Jedi Master, a snarky Togruta (who had become a Master in her own right), an exasperated clone captain; and later the stories of a brave young man and his fiery twin sister, the smuggler she fell in love with, and how through it all were two droids who were the best of friends.

He told the next generations about their adventures, how they found joy while fighting a war, and he told them of how they had managed to discover and overthrow the Sith. He taught them how to find the Light, find love, even when hope seems lost.

The younglings loved the stories, ate them up until Anakin had no more, so he'd retell them again. He told them to the children, to the Padawans, to the Knights, and even the Masters (even if they were old, most had grown up hearing of Anakin's adventures). His only rule for those who heard the tales? Pass them on, so the memories stay alive.

He taught them a truth he had discovered: Nobody is ever really gone, as long as you keep on telling their stories.

Anakin forever would.

He made his way to a special room he had reserved for himself in the Temple, for as Grandmaster (now that Yoda was gone, Anakin had become the Grandmaster. Yoda's death, of all people... that had hit Anakin harder than he'd thought it would. When someone who seems to be forever dies, said death is shocking) he could do such things.

When he entered, he looked around the room. He surveyed the pictures and trinkets that lay there, waiting for him.

By Padmé's picture, there was the old Japor snippet necklace- along with a small flimsi paper flower he'd once made for her, onboard a Star Destroyer while thinking of how he missed her.

Beside Obi-Wan's, there was a lightsaber that hummed. It seemed to have a mind of its own now, and the buzzing got louder as Anakin approached- or rather, his own blade did. Just as their users were connected, these lightsabers were as well. There was also a small holo of Anakin and Obi-Wan on Cato Nemoidia, just after that "business" that Obi-Wan always said "didn't count". In the picture, Padawan Anakin is grinning widely, arm slung around a very disgruntled Obi-Wan's shoulders.

Next to Ahsoka's lay her two lightsabers and the golden headdress she'd worn since she was young. Anakin remembers how he'd gently lifted it off her head at the funeral, for if he couldn't keep his sister, his beloved Padawan, then he would keep this small part of her.

Alongside Luke and Leia's (their pictures were one and the same, since they almost never did something without the other) there were their own 'sabers and two drawings the twins made when they were toddlers. If Anakin remembered correctly (as time went on, he found it harder and harder to look at such things) the pictures depicted their family- which of course included Ahsoka, Obi-Wan, Rex, R2 and 3PO.

The two droids had been shut down long ago, finally going out of use just after Padmé's death.

The room housed other pictures, which showed the rest of Anakin's Padawans- including Ahsoka, there were six in total; But even though he kept all their lightsabers, he only had trinkets for two of them.

Uchani, who had been his second Padawan about 40 years after Ahsoka died, had been a quiet but strong Zeltron. She was a calm person, but there was spunk in her that rivaled Leia's. Uchani was amazing at calming Anakin down when he was angry, the gentle waves of her Force presence dousing out the embers in his. She had become his little sister as well.

Then there was Myn. A young Tholothian, Myn was brave and outspoken, and him and Anakin fit well together. He was the sixth student Anakin had taken, and though he loved all his students, Anakin remembered Myn vividly.

In all his eternal years, Anakin had not been prepared for seeing his Padawan die young. In battle, no less.

Myn was slain by a Darksider in the catacombs of Akiva. Anakin had been too late, moments too late; after cutting down the enemy, he watched as Myn's life dwindled.

Knowing Anakin well after ten years of training, Myn had wheezed, "Don't- Don't do anything- anything reckless, Master."

Anakin refused to look at the wound on his apprentice's stomach. "Myn, we need to get you to a healer-"

"Master- Anakin-" Myn coughed, and Anakin felt the tears in his eyes overflow and run down his face.

"No, please, not you too," Anakin said, but he already knew what the outcome would be.

"It'll be okay, Anakin," Myn murmered, and then he was gone, just like all the others.

Anakin shook off the memory of his last Padawan, and he sat down in the middle of the room. Rex's helmet (Rex, who had lived to be 105 once the accelerated aging was healed, had never stopped standing up for what was right. When his body failed him, he switched to words, fighting until the end. Anakin missed his twin so much), which Anakin had kept in as good condition as possible, stared back at him as he told his family of his day.

When he finished, he felt a presence behind him, and wasn't surprised to see the faint blue glow of Obi-Wan's ghost.

"It sounds like you had a good day, Anakin."

"I did," He said back happily. "But it's not over yet. I'm about to go see the younglings- care to join me, Master?"

Obi-Wan smiled softly. "I'd be delighted, Padawan mine."

235 notes · View notes

tvpeongsstuff · 3 years

Text

Supreme Emperor Obiwan Kenobi

New story idea.

After Mustafar Obiwan and vader do not have another run in for a few years. But, the first time they do Obiwan makes one of his distract my enemies while fighting comments. Vader gets distracted and loses again and Obiwan runs away. It keeps happening.

At first vader does not realize what this means until he and one of his henchmen (inquisitors?) get into a fight with Obiwan and Obiwan starts flirting with the henchman like he does when he is fighting his enemies and turns to vader and flirts with vader like he does with his enemies.

Anakin Skywalker, Obiwan Kenobi's padawan/brother/son, realizes that he is now just another sith obsessed with Obiwan. And, that to Obiwan he is no different than Ventress, or Dooku, or Grievous!

He doesn't handle that knowledge well. He goes even more crazy looking for Obiwan. He cannot handle being just anything to Obiwan. He starts looking for ways to increase his power tenfold. He starts training like crazy.

He pays top dollar for holorecordings (old or new no questions asked) of Obiwan fighting against other darksiders, criminals, and imperials. There are a few new videos. If any of them get in a lucky strike, vader makes them fight him. Inquisitors, the criminal underworld, and officers start getting chopped to pieces or killed. The imperials that survive get cybernetic parts. There are also a lot of older videos of Obiwan fighting with other Jedi, especially Anakin Skywalker. Those were supposed to be destroyed after the fall of the Republic. They make him feel...

Unbeknownst to both vader and sidious, the rebellion realize what's happening and start using vader's obsession to get vader to turn his sith fury on the complacent core worlds. They were the ones comming the info lines saying that Obiwan was on X planet or Y planet. Then when vader and his troops show up, they would broadcast the carnage. And, they carry out covert operations on other planets as they know those planets are vaderfree. For example, creating a spy network on Naboo, moving ammunitions through planet A.

The Rebellion recruits Obiwan to their cause. Bail reaches out to him, tells him the plan. They need him to distract vader. It's twofold: They don't want vader getting suspicious and they need vader to keep destroying coreworlds. He needs to be filmed looking heroic, walking through rich districts, passing by Core senators mistresses second homes, in the same are as a new important imperial's kept man (misters?). He is going to be their Katniss Everdeen (an ancient hero). People are going to get hurt but every jedi knows that the good of the many outweighs the good of the few or the one.

It works! If there is a rumor that Obiwan is on a planet, vader shows up with squadrons and tear the area apart, torture people for information, etc. This backfires on him because he razes so many places the empire can't completely censor the videos before they get out. People stop calling in as much, no matter how good the bounty.

Palpatine is at first happy with vader's obsession. He's all, "Give in to the power of the dark side" and he loves cyborgs. But, vader is single minded in his pursuit. It's like he transferred all of the love he had for Obiwan into this chase. Palpatine knows how much Anakin loved Obiwan so...on the one hand let vader find him and kill him, cementing palpatine's rule and ensuring vader's complete loyalty. On the other hand, vader is wrecking core planets and undermining his hold right now.

Sidious orders vader to stop and concentrate on other things. Vader does not listen. He receives a holo showing Obiwan on Naboo visiting Padme's memorial. He freaks out, goes to Naboo, takes the entire 501st and the 212th. He questions the queen. He rips apart members of Naboo's ruling class. He breaks public monuments. His purge troopers pull people out of their homes and beat citizens in the street. All of this is being broadcast galaxy wide.

Naboo's gentry are comming palpatine on his private line complaining and asking him to control his maniac. The rebel broadcast and the regular broadcast are wondering if this new empire is going to keep infringing on the rights of citizens? Are the people hurt by the rampaging vader going to have any recourse? Perhaps they should return to a republic? Sidious can't let this stand. He looks weak. Vader is destroying his home planet and ruining his image.

He leaves Coruscant and goes to Naboo. This was all part of a plan by the rebellion and it worked perfectly. They sneak Obiwan into Coruscant. They needed both vader and the emperor off planet so that no one powerful would be around to sense Obiwan. The rebellion are going to rally support to their cause, build up the capital's spy network, and film holos of Obiwan on planet to play at a later date to embarrass the empire.

On Naboo, vader is mourning at Padme's tomb when sidious catches up to him. The rebellion have set up holo cameras to spy on vader's every move. Breha told them to set up low tech motion detector cameras at the tomb. When the emperor comes in he berates vader and shoots force lightning at him while Vader writhes on the ground and screams in pain. It all gets captured on holo.

S: "I do not care about these morons, Lord Vader. But, you need to get yourself together and stop embarrassing me. Use your grief to channel the power of the dark side!"

Vader (gasping and panting): Yes my master

S: You have been letting Kenobi make a fool of you. Perhaps he is better than you? Perhaps you do not truly want to kill him? Did you forget how he turned on you and cut you down? Do you not want your revenge?

Vader: Yes I want my revenge

Sidious: Good good apprentice. When next you meet pull on the dark side of the force. Show Kenobi what you are capable of. Let him be the one to suffer.

V: Yes master

S: Good we leave at once for Coruscant. Gather your men.

Meanwhile Obiwan had met with senators and businessmen sympathetic to the rebel cause. He's gone down to the lower levels and spread hope amongst the poor and downtrodden. He's used the force to heal. He's filmed at the barracks and the senate. Finally, he's at the jedi temple. Obiwan has been making poignant propaganda films. Now, he has to make one about the fall of the republic and the murder of the jedi. He does. It's heart wrenching.

He talks about life in the jedi temple. He talks about the camaraderie and love all the jedi are raised with, how he didn't realize people thought jedi were baby stealers. He explains that the jedi only took unwanted children, or children whose parents could not help them with their powers. Every jedi who wanted to could leave the order. No one was kept by force. All jedi were educated on their culture and traditions. And, he talks about that final day, the murder of the jedi in the temple, the slaughter of the younglings. . He talks about finding all their bodies after, the futile search for survivors, the desperate he harboured. He cries.

The rebellion thought that they would have more time. The emperor was supposed to stay on Naboo as is his wont and make nice with his fellow men. They did not expect him to come back immediately with vader, two starships full of clone purge troopers, and 7 inquisitors. They realize they cannot get Obiwan off planet. It's too late. Vader and sidious have sensed his presence.

Obiwan makes a decision. He could die trying to escape or he could make a heroic last stand. He has the rebellion set up holo cameras all around the area and go into hiding. He tells them to broadcast his last recording. Hopefully it will rally people to their side when he diies. They have to get themselves to safety. Obiwan knows he has to push vader into killing him quickly. He hides all of his most sensitive information deep behind his strongest shields. Then he meditates. He is as ready as he'll ever be. He has to trust in the force.

Sidious knows that this is the perfect PR opportunity. He has to counteract Obiwan's emotional appeal. He sends Vader with all the troops and inquisitors after Obiwan. Vader knows better than to fail him but back up couldn't hurt. Obiwan must die! He also orders all the empires holos to broadcast the fight throughout the galaxy. He goes to the senate and announces that "there have been reports that the jedi terrorist Obiwan Kenobi has been spotted on Coruscant. Not to worry. Not to worry. I have sent Darth Vader to deal with him. At long last we will be rid of the jedi menace and our glorious empire can finally know peace." This is also broadcast throughout the galaxy from the senate cameras.

The fight starts. It's epic. Obiwan battles Vader and the Inquisitors from the jedi temple to the senate rotunda. He knocks out 3 inquisitors and badly injures 2 more. He catches blaster bolts and directs away from him back to his enemies. He keeps flirting, and making jokes and puns. Vader is enraged. He starts fighting horribly. He loses focus and jumps in the way of his inquisitors. (They already know he's obsessed with Obiwan Kenobi and the suspect if one of them land the killing blow vader will destroy them.) He chops off one of vader's hands.

Obiwan: Did I unhand you? That must burn.

Vader becomes apoplectic. How is Obiwan beating him? Again? He remembers what sidious said and starts pulling on the dark side of the force. Vader is literally pulling all of the darkside energy on Coruscant into him. Here's the thing, there is no true dark side force energy. There is only the force that can be used for dark purposes or light purposes. The way the force is used taints the force around the user. Vader is actually pulling the force away from darksiders like the Sith.

Vader begins the drain Coruscant of its dark energy. He pulls the force out of all the inquisitors that surround him, draining them. This knocks all of them unconscious. He needs more power! He pulls on the dark energy around him that has been clouding the force on Coruscant. He pulls even harder. Several weak dark side senators fall unconscious. Dark side users around the planet start passing out. Still Vader needs more power!

Palpatine feels a drain on his powers. Too late he grasps what's happening; he tries to reach out to vader. "Stop! Stop!" he screams, " Stop this at once Lord Vader!" He tries to raise his shields but he and vader share a connection, sneakily placed there by him while vader was still a child. Usually the connection goes one way. He pushes doubts, fears, dreams, and pain on vader and sits back and enjoys the emotional turmoil. Today vader has blasted that connection wide open and is taking all of the force from him. He falls unconscious.

Obiwan Kenobi can see dark energy flowing into vader. Dark energy from teh inquisitors on the ground, dark energy swirling in from the air, an ocean of dark energy coming to him from the senate. Vadear is swarming in dark energy. Obiwan can feel the turmoil, rage, and hate. It feels like....anakin skywalker throwing a tantrum when he didn't get his own way as a child.

Obiwan knows how to deal with this, probably Anakin's biggest darkest tantrum. He opens the bond he has with anakin a little, looks into anakin, puts the right amount of force into his suggestion and says "Sleep." Vader collapses and Obiwan catches him with the force.

The flow of energy into vader immediately starts to slow down. From their connection Obiwan can sense all the people vader has been sucking dry. If vader stops draining them they will wake up, so Obiwan keeps the flow going.

All this time the battalions have mostly been standing by idly. They were ordered to take shots to incapacitate or distract the jedi, unless he somehow won. Then they were to kill him. They start firing immediately. With Obiwan's focus and the energy of all the darkside at his fingertips Obiwan is able to catch every single bolt blast. He starts moving towards the senate following the ocean of darkness, parting bolts in front of him like he is parting water. Some of the troops try to run up to him to fight him but they get caught and stuck. He is floating vader and the inquisitors behind him. The caught troopers start floating along with them also. As they pass, the bolts fire.

In the senate, chaos reigns. A few senators and the emperor have collapsed. Medics have been called for them. On their screens, Jedi master Obiwan Kenobi has bested Darth Vader and his inquisitors. He is walking through the blaster bolts of thousands of troopers. He has proven himself unkillable and now he is coming straight for them. Some of the weaker members of the senate try running away. Others call out to the Coruscant senate guards to protect them. An enterprising member orders the doors sealed. It makes no difference.

Obiwan Kenobi enters the senate. and jumps to the emperor's hover chair. Vader is hovering behind him still but he has left the inquisitors and the clone troopers at the entrance to the senate. The troopers are still firing at him indiscriminately. He is catching the bolts and directing them to the walls. He looks down at the emperor who is being treated by a medidroid, throws the droid away with the force, and closes his eyes for a few seconds. All the cameras are on him. Every household in the galaxy is watching. This is being projected to every screen on every warship. Imperial officers the galaxy over are watching from their posts.

He opens his eyes

Obiwan: By the ancient laws of this senate, and pursuant to charter 9 as set forth in the old republic, I name myself the vice chair of the senate Obiwan Kenobi. Alpha Tango Abera Cadebera Seven Five Thirteen.

There is a pause. Then a flurry of sound as all of the technology in the senate updates at the same time. The ancient code of the senate computers accepts Obiwan's passcode and turns the full power of the senate over to him. All connected systems update also.

Obiwan: Commanders execute order 4. Cancel order 66 and stop shooting.

All the clones stop shooting.

Obiwan: All powers are hereby handed over to me and whatsoever remains of the Jedi order. I declare myself Supreme Emperor Obiwan Kenobi.

Part 2

#Supreme Emperor Obiwan Kenobi #star wars #fic #fanfic #fanfiction #au #star wars fanfic #fixit #post order 66 #obi wan kenobi #darth vader #sheev palpatine #bail organa

38 notes · View notes

madhyanas · 4 years

Text

a crack; a chasm

When the factory blows to all hell, the first thing Rex feels is relief.

Then he can’t find Commander Tano anywhere, and that relief curdles into something else.

Read this on AO3!

Characters: CT-7567 | Rex & Ahsoka Tano

Rating: T/PG-13

Word Count: 1.5k

Warnings/Ratings: Spoilers for s2ep6 of Star Wars: The Clone Wars - ‘Weapons Factory’. POV Rex. Missing scene, internal monologue. Mentions of explosions and building collapse. Descriptions of post-explosion wreckage, but no gore/claustrophobia. Platonic relationship. Mild angst. Mild character bashing [Luminara Unduli, from the narrator’s perspective.]

Notes: was rewatching this episode recently and aaaaAAAAAAA rex's body language after the factory explosion got to me. also i adore luminara so so so much do not associate me w luminara h8 i will curbstomp you <3 rex just. doesn’t agree w her very much in this. he’s valid.

masterlist

———

When the factory blows to all hell, the first thing Rex feels is relief. A minor dust storm billows out in the wake of the blast. As he and the men get down for cover, it’s a weight off his shoulders that this battle is almost won.

Then he can’t find Commander Tano anywhere, and that relief curdles into something else.

General Skywalker comms him immediately, ordering for half a dozen tank-lifters. It isn’t the order so much as how he gives it that sets the gears in motion. How many times has the man sounded worried?

This was a bad idea. They sent two Commanders into the catacombs armed with nothing but a memorised map, a handful of explosives, and their lightsabers. Jedi powers or no, it’s risky.

They’re commanders, Rex attempts to reason. Capable. But they are also young — so, so young — and he tries very hard not to think of the words suicide mission.

There are days when he’s grateful for his helmet; this is one of them. Stops the boys in the transport carrier from seeing his clenched jaw, the worry he feels for the girl trapped under a collapsed fortress.

A girl. A child. Adiik.

When the General tells him to start shifting the rubble, Rex is almost offended that he had to ask.

———

The conversation he overhears between the Generals is one he’d rather forget.

Eavesdropping isn’t something he makes a habit of either. Even with his brothers, Rex sticks to his own business unless someone else drags him into it.

But then the words drift over the scorched battlefield — “I won’t let Ahsoka die!” — and Rex has to wonder who the kriff had the gall to suggest otherwise. General Luminara Unduli, as it turns out. The only other person who should have as much at stake in getting to the commanders as Skywalker.

But Rex sees the Mirialan Jedi talk about mourning the commanders as if the debris is just a grave, as if they’re dead beneath her feet already. He doesn’t feel it when he bares his teeth. A silent snarl without a witness.

She was standing with her commander just hours ago. And now she’s offering eulogies like the galaxy could go on as normal. Like the war would ever really mean anything to Rex or General Skywalker without the kid. The procedural instinct in him sets off a slew of warning bells; that kind of defeatist talk has no place in war, before or after the battle.

Someone behind him calls his name, asking for assistance with the debris removal. He pauses for a second, staring at the backs of two generals that should never be so opposed on something as simple as this. Being under General Skywalker’s command is a small mercy sometimes. At least someone can fight for what they should be doing.

General Unduli’s shoulders are too relaxed for two missing children.

He’s this close to telling her as much. Probably for the best that we turns away. It’d be walking the line of insubordination, and his balance isn’t what it used to be.

Rex is grateful for the helmet, but not much else.

———

The General’s comm pings. The voice that filters through is faint, and though she’s far weaker than she ought to sound, it’s Ahsoka.

Speaking, breathing, living Ahsoka.

The pressure on his chest lets up at the sound. His ribs creak, his breathing becomes easier. Alive.

Rex is quick to offer the heavy-duty machinery. If she’s there then they should go get her. But the generals decide on the best move they’ve made all day — bypassing the lifters and opting to levitate the slabs of wreckage themselves.

It’s a marvel, watching two people float an entire wall of duracrete and steel with nothing but concentration. Rex still isn’t sure how it works. He doesn’t need to be.

Because after a handful of tense seconds, drawing the sweat from his brow and the throb in his temple, he sees it. A flash of familiar blue and white, covered in rusty Geonosian dust. A chain of beads glints in the sun; spindly limbs clamber out from under the rock.

Ahsoka’s smile is tired. It is blinding.

And suddenly Rex is grateful for something else, too.

———

He can’t hang around to greet her immediately. That’s always been a job for General Skywalker. Bringing each other back from the brink of death is a regular habit.

Not everyone is so lucky. Rex watches the stretchers dart past, knowing how slim a fraction will be saved. If in one piece, physically or otherwise. So many dead, so little ground gained. His next deployment will be soon. His shoulders ache.

“Hey, Rex.”

He turns at the voice. “Commander,” he greets. It sounds hollow, so he clears his throat. “Good to have you back.”

The kid beams. “Good to be back. Never thought I’d miss the weather up here.”

As Ahsoka glances up to the sky, she wrinkles her nose with distaste. A familiar expression. It cracks through his mind that she might never have done it again.

Again, procedure. Hypotheticals like that don’t help anyone but the Seppies.

A medic’s coming to look her over, he’ll be here in a while. There’s some time till then.

“Listen,” Rex starts, sounding so out of sorts that Ahsoka visibly straightens to attention. He winces.

“What’s wrong?”

Osik, Rex could laugh. What’s wrong, like he was the one inside the factory when it exploded. What’s wrong, like he was the one trapped under rubble for hours, running out of air. What’s wrong like she hadn’t nearly suffocated to death in a war she shouldn’t be anywhere near—

She’s older than him, he realises. Technically, if you go by standard years.

In my book, experience outranks everything.

She barely comes up to his shoulder.

Ahsoka blinks, then frowns. Her brow furrows into a crinkled, concerned splotch of white.

“Nothing,” Rex amends quickly, before realising he must sound like a fool. “It’s just—”

“Rex.”

Ahsoka’s giving him a look. The look, if he remembers Cody’s advice correctly. And now Rex is the one straightening, because even though her eyes are a little sunken and she might be swaying on her feet, that’s almost certainly one she learnt from General Kenobi.

He sighs. Then his arms drift upwards, and he swipes the helmet off.

It takes a few blinks for his eyes to adjust. This dust really gets everywhere.

The kid’s mouth has flattened into an awkward, patient line. But she’s not left yet.

The hand that wavers before him is awkward too. On instinct, it reaches out to hover over her head momentarily — she doesn’t like her montrals being touched — before landing with a gentle thud on her shoulder.

Adiik doesn’t so much as flinch, waiting for him to continue.

“It really is good to have you back,” Rex insists. “We thought you’d—” The word remains stuck on the back of his tongue. “Well. The war wouldn’t… be the same without you.”

He makes a face. What a shitty holocard that would be.

“Thanks, Rexster.” Her eyes crinkle. “Right back at you.”

When the medic eventually comes around, Rex takes it as his cue to leave.

As always, the commander doesn’t agree.

“Stay,” she blurts, one hand darting out to grab his elbow. “Please? Anakin’s still busy with…” She waves her other hadn’t around vaguely. “Jedi Master things.”

The words are blithe. Carefully constructed to be cheerful. Her fingers tighten around his elbow, digging in like hooks. She doesn’t blink as she waits for his answer.

“Sure thing, Commander.”

So he stays. Quiet settles over; the whole battlefield seems to comply, grating machinery tracks and whistling wind muffling to a soft hum in the background. The medic works in silence, offering a sharp nod in return to Rex’s own.

Until Ahsoka speaks up. “The war wouldn’t be the same without you. Some holocard that’d make, huh?”

Rex does a double take as Ahsoka grins, baring teeth. He wonders if she did that Jedi mind-reading… thing. Just for kicks.

Then again, probably not. She’s never needed it anyway.

———

#star wars #star wars fic #star wars: the clone wars #sw: tcw #ahsoka tano #captain rex #ct-7567 #rex star wars #gen fic #no ship #star wars: the clone wars fic #my writing #sw #teaofpeach #a crack; a chasm #sw: tcw s2ep6

35 notes · View notes

ariainstars · 4 years

Text

Feminism (and Not) in Star Wars

Warning: unpopular opinions ahead.

During the last few years, I have often heard and read people arguing that the Star Wars sequels are “feminist”, that Rey in particular is a Mary Sue and, at worst, that “feminism ruined Star Wars.” So, I would like to add my two cents.

It cannot to be denied that the end of the sequels, and with it of the saga as a whole, is highly dissatisfying. But feminism is not what caused it.

The sequels are not feminist at all. Especially not in Star Wars, where the greatest hero Luke Skywalker had ended the conflict through compassion and forgiveness. TRoS in particular is a slap in the face of female dignity and virtue, both for the male protagonist’s mother and for his love interest.

Unfortunately, and that is one of my major issues with the sequels, many things are not being said or explained. This might be due to the fact that Episode VIII was subversive and that so many classic fans ranted and stormed against it; but that didn’t prevent Episode IX from showing, if not saying, a lot of things.

Star Wars is all about subtext, that’s what makes it compelling. Please:

Read between the lines.

Look at what is not being said but shown.

Compare the attitudes of different people in similar situations.

Rey

„You cannot deny the truth that is your family.” Lor San Tekka in The Force Awakens

Rey was introduced as a positive female character but then, over the course of three films, her moral corruption was displayed under the lame excuse of a black and white morality (“I am all the Sith” vs. “I am all the Jedi”).

Rey seemed like a reboot of Luke Skywalker at first, but watching her throughout TRoS we see her fail in all instances where Luke had proved himself a hero.

- Luke had forgiven his father despite all the pain he had inflicted on him and his friends. Rey stabbed the „bad guy”, who had repeatedly protected and comforted her, to death.

- Luke never asked Vader to help the Rebellion or to turn to the Light Side, he only wanted him back as his father. Rey assumed that she could make Ben Solo turn, give up the First Order and join the Resistance for her. She was thinking of her friends and her own validation, not of him.

- Luke had made peace by choosing peace. Rey fought until the bitter end.

- Luke had thrown his weapon away before Palpatine. Rey picked up a second weapon. (And both of them weren’t her own.)

- Luke had mourned his dead father. Rey didn’t shed a tear for the man she is bonded to by the Force.

- Luke went back to his friends to celebrate the new peace with them. Rey went back letting everyone celebrate her like the one who saved the galaxy on her own - the woman who was tempted to become the new evil ruler of the galaxy and had to rely on the alleged Bad Guy to save both her soul and her body.

- Luke had embodied compassion when Palpatine was all about hatred. Where he chose love and faith in his father, Rey chose violence and fear.

- Luke had briefly fallen prey to the Dark Side but it made him realize that he had no right to judge his father. Rey’s fall to the Dark Side did not make her wiser.

- Confronted by Vader’s disclosure of his true identity Luke was forced to face himself, to realize that he had been judgmental, arrogant and biased; and after the initial shock he accepted his origins as a part of himself. - Rey did not reconcile with Palpatine as a part of herself. (When she says to him “I don’t hate you” it’s not a sign of superior attitude. It merely shows that she sees him as separate from herself.)

- After realizing what he had done to his nephew, feeling responsible and disillusioned, Luke went into exile for years waiting for his death. - Rey also was appalled at herself, but she spent just a few minutes on Ahch-To until Luke appeared to her, this time telling her exactly what she would have wanted him to say to her on her first visit on the island. This scene was so ridiculously opposite to his attitude in TLJ that I believe he was a fantasy conjectured by her like Ben’s vision of his father.

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

Rey failed where Ben had been strong.

- Ben killed Snoke to save Rey. Rey killed Palpatine to complete her Jedihood. (Or at least, what she believes being a Jedi means, i.e. “being always right and winning at all costs”.)

- Ben loved Rey despite all she did to him and took away from him, and she didn’t even honour his name in the end.

- Ben knew the stories of Luke, Vader and Palpatine well enough to wanted to end the Jedi and Sith at last and start something new and better. Rey only knew scraps of old tales and wanted to have them her own way.

- Ben had been under an evil influence in his mind since before he was born; when he finally turned to the Dark because he had nowhere else to go, he was 23. Rey gave in to her Dark Side minutes after meeting her “mother” in the Death Star ruin; the same happened to her again with Palpatine on Exegol.

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

On the ruin of the second Death Star, Rey is at her lowest on the same spot where Luke had won over himself thirty years before in RoTJ.

- Vader had provoked Luke to make him turn - Kylo hadn’t.

- Vader hat traumatized Luke - Kylo had protected and spared Rey repeatedly.

- Vader hardly had had a kind word to spare for his son (except perhaps when he said to him “It is too late for me, son”) - Kylo had comforted her and shown her his human side.

- Vader had lured Luke into a trap twice in order to keep him by his side. - Kylo hadn’t, on the contrary, he wanted to prevent her from running into Palpatine’s trap.

- Luke did not know what had made Vader the way he was when he came to find him, but he was adamant to save him. - Rey knew by the time of their duel that Kylo was largely also a victim, and she stabbed him to death.

- Luke always fought fair. - Rey used the distraction made by Leia’s reaching out to him to impale him - the way she had seen him impaling Han.

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

It is ridiculous to say that it’s a victory of Good over Evil when a young woman uses Jedi training to kill her master’s own son, who was on the defensive, with his mother’s help and blessing. That their weird connection, which was already introduced during the first two films, is explained by way of their being a dyad (one soul in two bodies) only makes it worse. Rey will rather kill the man she belongs to, or die herself, than admit that she needs him. If that is supposed to be “feminism”, it’s a very distorted idea of female independence and strength. Just like it’s not automatically “feminism” to make a girl pose as the heroine because she wants to be a Jedi no questions asked.

Fans discussed and argued about Rey’s family for years; it was a great move in TLJ when she admitted her parents were “nobodies” and that they left her on purpose. It was refreshing to see her carve her life and personality on her own. TRoS shattered this by making her the descendant of the most powerful man in the galaxy; and what’s worse, she wound up being a usurper just the way he was, taking over the Skywalker mantle.

The sequels are feminist only when the audience believes that it’s a happy ending if a female ends up alone with no one standing in her way. They are told from her point of view, so as viewers we will automatically believe that she’s the heroine and root for her (or not, but still believe that it’s her story). Looking only at the bare facts, Rey is much less heroic than she first seems.

At the end of TRoS Rey is alone with two dead people behind her, on a desert planet in company of a droid and with an old, wrinkled woman as her only interlocuter, the way she began, and her mind still has hardly developed beyond that of a child. She is willing to embrace the legacy of both Skywalker family and Jedi although the fate of Ben Solo should have taught her how fu***-up both of them were.

Rey doesn’t want to see. She’s in denial like when she pretended that her family was coming back for her on Jakku. Inside, she is still a child - everything she did was motivated by her desire to find the belonging she ardently craved. She can’t be blamed for that. But does that make her a “strong woman”, or even a “Mary Sue”, like many annoyed viewers claim? No.

Leia

“If you will not turn to the Dark Side, then perhaps she will.” Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi

There is something I find much worse than Ben’s patricide or Luke’s panic attack at the Jedi temple. Those were actions spurred by the moment and provoked by Snoke, and both men regretted it immediately. Leia’s behaviour shows an unpardonable attitude for entire decades. Being a trained Jedi herself, she could have taught her son - instead she sent him to his uncle. This seems a practical choice since she was politically active while her brother wanted to start a new Jedi Order, but from the novels we learn that Ben heard his parents arguing and talking about him like he was a monster ever since he was a child, and that when he was sent away this seemed to confirm to him that something was wrong with him and had to be fixed. (From the novels we also learn that he actually had no ambition to become a Jedi and wanted to be a pilot - true Skywalker and also Solo that he is -, but he had no say in the matter.)

After the tragedy at Luke’s temple and the rise of the First Order, Leia fought with the Resistance for years knowing that her own son was on the other side. What if she had met him and been forced to kill him (or if he had come into the situation, as we see in TLJ)? In TFA, she sent his own father to bomb Starkiller Base knowing well that their son might be on board. Leia had felt Snoke’s influence on Ben’s mind when he was still in her womb; so, she knew he had been manipulated for decades, but when she heard of his fall to the Dark Side, she automatically assumed he had made the choice to be “evil”. Only after he had been a part of a criminal organization for years Leia sent her estranged husband to him. She only reached out to him when she was on her deathbed, and I still am not certain whether she wanted to help him, or to make him stop fighting against the girl she had adopted in his stead.

Would Padmé have left her own son in the dumps? Never. Padmé refuted Obi-Wan’s disclosure about Anakin’s fall to the Dark Side adamantly, and went to a volcanic planet alone, with a highly advanced pregnancy, to see a terrorist and murderer because she still saw the good little boy he had been in him. And she would have gotten him out of that hell had Obi-Wan not interfered. If you don’t believe me, watch the scene again: Slowly but surely, Anakin’s expression changes totally on speaking with his wife. Padmé was literally reaching out to him, and she was succeeding. Love, as always, was stronger than anything else in him. And Padmé believed in her husband until her very last breath. “Obi-Wan, there is still good in him.”

Din Djarin, the Mandalorian of the eponymous tv show, is an outcast who earns his living with dubious business and has killed his fair share of people. But had anyone attempted to do to his little protégé what Snoke did to Ben Solo, I don’t doubt he would have marched on the Supremacy and strangled him with his bare hands. (At least, he would have died trying.) Han would probably have done the same, but Leia deliberately never told him of Snoke’s influence on her son’s mind ever since before his birth. By the time she finally does, as we witness in TFA, their son has been Kylo Ren for six years.

Leia, the princess, the general, the war heroine, had feared her son before he was even born because she sensed that he was like her own father. But she had no qualms and no fear accepting and instructing the granddaughter of her worst enemy. Why?

Because Rey doesn’t waver. She has no doubts. She is not conflicted between both Sides of the Force. In Leia’s eyes, Rey is pure Light Side, so she embraces her wholeheartedly as the child she always wanted. As far as I can remember, Leia has never, the way her brother did, offered love to anyone who didn’t fight on her side. And Rey, who had angrily confronted Luke for his moment of terror which “created Kylo Ren”, did not consider for a moment Leia’s responsibility towards her son. Despite training with Leia for a whole year, she never tells her about Luke’s failure which pushed her son into Snoke’s clutches. Nor does she realize that Leia’s love for her is not unconditional but that it is parallel to her Jedi training. Rey literally becomes both a little girl and a Jedi with Leia, down to wearing pure white for the whole of the last instalment of the trilogy.

Most fans admire Leia for her rebellious, spirited nature. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s not necessarily such a good thing if one spends one’s whole life fighting instead of learning how to preserve peace. Leia is adamant that the side she’s on must win. Like every Jedi before her, she does not know, want or even consider that what the Force actually needs is Balance; and that both her father and her son were not evil because they were strong on both Sides, but that this meant they might have found balance, had they not met opposition to this in everyone they knew.

Leia never approached her relationship to her father (at least as far as I know), never tried to understand him better and forgive him the way her brother had. Considering what Vader had done to her and her friends, she can’t be blamed for pushing away her memories and living in terror of the Dark Side. However, on the long run her incapacity or refusal for introspection is not a strength but a weakness. The one who paid the price is her son, and with his fall to the Dark, the whole galaxy again became prey to the terror that she herself had always fought against in first line.

Vader had been right after all: Leia did fall prey to the Dark Side, though unknowingly. Not only did she give up on her son, she actively helped evil come back to the galaxy by believing to do the right thing: she trained Palpatine’s granddaughter, taught her to deny her own fears and weaknesses, gave her justification for her actions, helped her killing her own “evil” son. If that is not the Dark Side’s influence, I don’t know what it is. Leia denied her son’s potential for good and given up on him long before his fate was sealed, and in the same way she closed her eyes on Rey’s potential for evil. The same “bad” son had to prevent the girl she had taken under her wing from becoming what the old devil Palpatine had in mind, at the cost of his life.

Conclusion

I am not an advocate for feminism on principle. If females can be independent and self-assured, if they shed the cloak of “damsel in distress”, on the downside this also means that they can be or become villains just like men. Many people tend to believe that a woman is naturally better, kinder, softer than a man. The Star Wars saga never bowed to this cliché.

The idea that a woman does not necessarily need a man is positive on its own, but it becomes poisonous if it undermines female trust in men. Star Wars has a long story of lonely, unhappy men (all three generations of Skywalkers), who were denied their natural right to be needed by their women and to keep their families together. One of Anakin’s dilemmas was that he saw Padmé as being too good for him and wanted to prove to her that he was equal to her in his own way. Ben, ironically, felt that he was not good enough for Rey because he was tainted by his larger-than-life heritage, so he wanted to “let the past die” and start something new and fresh with her.

A man naturally wishes to protect others, in particular wife and children. But in all three generations, we find these men whose personalities are split in two and cannot reconcile the two halves of their self: Anakin / Vader, Luke / Leia, Ben / Kylo. Due to the similarity in his two names, I expected the last of the Skywalker blood to finally heal the wound in his personality and become one. Had anyone wanted and needed both, Ben and Kylo, he might have. But Kylo was an aberration to everyone including Rey. Kylo was a villainous figure and as a male, he was aggressive and arrogant; but at least he made his own decisions and had chosen his own name, things Ben Solo never got to do.

This is not to say that the sequels are against strong females or prefer the guys over them: no, the guys f** up at least as often as the women do. But to pretend that Leia’s and / or Rey’s portrayal is unrealistically positive and that “feminism ruined Star Wars” is either extremely short-sighted or a mockery of femaleness.

It is true that women have more and larger roles in the ST, but I can’t see anything wrong with that. Not any more than with the fact that in the OT there was practically only Leia (the few other female characters almost had no impact on the story), and that there were few females in the PT, too. The Jedi Order consisted almost only of men, and you hardly hear anyone complain.

I know that many fans dislike Anakin and Ben, but please let us consider why.

One reason is that in an action movie we usually value coolness in a male protagonist above everything, and that the Skywalkers are hot-headed by nature. Most fans prefer Darth Vader, Han Solo and the likes to the Skywalker men.

Another reason is that the filmmakers have deliberately manipulated our emotions. The prequels are told from everybody’s point of view but Anakin’s, and the same goes for the sequels with Ben, despite the fact that the trilogies are about them, not about “the Jedi superheroes saviours of the galaxy” or “the almighty and untainted Skywalker family”. So, as viewers we automatically identify emotionally with anyone but them. We never get to really know the “villain’s” point of view, we only see how other people react to them; and since these reactions are much more often negative than positive, we get to the conclusion that both of them are inescapably evil, that they chose to be so, and that they deserve their terrible fate.

My suggestion: rewatch both trilogies again and this time try to look through Anakin’s or Ben’s eyes. (And possibly also read the novels and the Kylo Ren comics.)

You could be surprised.

204 notes · View notes

coruscantguard · 4 years

Text

@loving-fox-hours - Fox Week - Day 2 - Animal Transformation

Commander Fox, Commander Stone, Sergeant Hound

(Ao3 Link)

timeline note! this is set when they have their phase 1 armor for visual purposes. also, whaaaaaat nooooooo this isn’t five days late whaaaaaaaaat absolutely not. anyway, enjoy.

There is a white fox on top of Grizzar.

"What the kark," Stone says, because kark it, it’s the crack of dawn and he's exhausted. This feels like a what the kark situation. Hound, on the other hand, shrugs, because Hound is the worst, and also probably got six hours of sleep last night, so he’s physically capable of being in a good mood.

The fox has red markings. The fox is asleep. The fox should not be here.

"No idea, sir, sorry," Hound says, and he runs a hand through his too-long curls as he looks over to meet Stone's eyes. "Found 'em here this morning when I went to go feed Grizzar."

Stone sighs. "Has Commander Thorn been around yet?" he asks, because Thorn actually likes animals, and is good with them in a way that few brothers are. Stone supposes that lack of skill most brothers have is a product of their childhood, since it's not like they had pets on Kamino. After all, killing machines don’t need to know how to befriend wild animals.

Which, of course, means that even though Stone has seen it happen a million times during the last few months, it’s still damn weird to see Thorn charming every animal in sight. Brothers and things with fur or scales or claws do not go together in his mind.

Still, in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t really matter. Personal opinions aside, he knows that Grizzar and the other massifs are useful in searches, and since Hound is one his Thorn's men, he usually doesn’t have to deal with them. As long as they all stay out of his goddamn office, he couldn’t care less about members of the Guard having odd friendships with non-sentient beings.

(And yes, Captain Thire, that does include the tooka you're sharing with Senator Chuchi. Go dump it on the Commander if you really must. No, he won't kill you, he's invested too much time into you for that to be a good idea. He’s fine with the tooka, trust me, Captain.)

(Anyway, Stone has seen that goddamn tooka napping in Fox's bunk, and he knows the only way it could've possibly gotten into his private quarters is if Fox let it. So, Fox might complain about it, but Stone is pretty sure he actually likes the furry menace, deep down.)

"No, sir. He’s on a last minute mission for the Chancellor, I believe."

Stone grimaces, and chooses to push that tidbit of information to the back of his mind until later, when he can deal with it. Preferably that later will be after they've managed to get the fox out of the barracks. And hopefully they’ll manage that without bloodshed. "And Commander Fox?"

"I... figured I should just get you, Commander," Hound says, and it’s in a tone of voice that he immediately recognizes as being the tone of voice troopers use when they are purposefully not saying something that’s probably important.

Stone turns from the fox to stare Hound down, because he's not going to let whatever he wants to hide bite them in the shebs. To his credit, Hound puts up an impressive fight against the stare, not even twitching until Stone ups the ante. And that is impressive, really— both Fox and Thorn would have already caved and admitted what they were hiding. But in their defense, that's absolutely because they don't have the time to waste it standing there as Stone glares. Still, caving is caving, and for a relatively new officer, out performing Commander Stubborn Shabuir and Commander Stubborn Di'kut in anything is a feat.

"Commander Fox came in here last night, sir," Hound finally says, and his calm expression is completely undermined by the rush of his words. "I had Balac check the security footage— he went into the barracks, but he never came out, and unless he's hiding somewhere around here..." Hound trails off.

"Sergeant Hound, are you implying something?" Stone demands, because kriff no, he refuses to come to this goddamn conclusion on his own. If Hound has a thought he's gonna have to share it.

"Well, this is a Vulptex, sir, and they’re native to the Outer Rim world Crait. Which is, um, not Coruscant. Or even close to Coruscant.” Stone blinks, slowly, deliberately. Hound continues. “They’re nicknamed the crystal fox due to their crystalline bristles, which help them blend in and survive on Crait. But this one wouldn’t survive very long, because it has red markings, which would catch the eye of any predator. I’ve never heard of one having two-toned bristles, I suppose it’s possible, but it’s never been recorded. And...”

“And?”

“It’s red markings that are in the same places that Commander Fox has red on his armor, sir."

"So, Sergeant, what you’re saying is...?"

“I-think-this-could-maybe-be-the-Commander-if-some-weird-Jedi-osik-happened?”

It takes a moment for Stone to decipher what Hound says, but he groans when he does. "Kark," he says, because that’s... not outside the realm of possibility. He leans in closer, and yep, that is Guardsmen red he's seeing on the fox's chest and shoulders— there are just hints of it, but it's definitely there. "Kark. Any chance it’s blood?"

"I haven't gotten close enough to check, sir," Hound admits. "It doesn't look like blood, but I figured I shouldn't risk waking it up until I notified you."

Stone grunts. Smart move. Still, they need their barracks back. "Close the door. I'm gonna check."

"Your funeral sir," Hound says, because again, he's a bastard who works for Thorn, but regardless of his words, he moves to shut it. Stone leans down close enough to the fox to verify that, no, it’s not actually bleeding, dammit, there might be some truth to Hound’s theory after all, and his face is inches away from the fox’s when the fox opens its eyes.

Stone freezes as the fox makes eye contact with him— it’s eyes are a familiar brown, but he doesn't know what color crystal foxes eyes usually are, so maybe it’s a coincidence— and suddenly, the fox makes a noise that can only be described as a whine, before sitting up quicker than Stone can process and headbutting him.

Oh, kark you, Stone doesn’t say, and Hound chokes on a laugh. Stone sighs. The fox glares at him. Finally, he makes himself ask: "Commander Fox?"

In response, the fox tries to headbutt him again. Stone quickly backs out of its line of fire. The disappointed noise the fox makes sounds uncannily human, and Hound makes a noise that sounds a lot like he's trying and failing to strangle his laughter.

Stone sighs again, and takes a quick second to mourn the loss of his dignity, although he hasn't really had any since that mission with Representative Binks. Then, he obligingly sits down on the floor, just out of the Fox’s headbutting range. "Hound, go contact General Vos and tell him we have a situation," he orders, and Fox the fox stretches on Grizzar's back, slow and languid in a way that Fox only is when he’s on a high dosage of painkillers.

“Get Cyclone too,” he amends, because out of all the medics in the Guard, Cyclone undoubtedly is the best to get when dealing with this kind of nonsense. The worst thing they’ll do is delay getting this mess fixed because they keep breaking out into laughter. And dealing with a slight delay is infinitely preferable to dealing with Naia passive aggressively lording this over both Fox’s head and his own until one of them approve whatever vacation she requests, or dealing with Quill ‘accidentally’ letting the story slip to someone in the 212th.

“Yessir,” Hound says, and Stone watches Fox in silence until the moment the door closes again. Then, he sighs. Really, it’s a miracle the massiff hasn't woken up yet, but considering how loud Galactic City is, Grizzar has probably learned to sleep through almost everything. Including, apparently, Clone Commanders getting turned into foxes and deciding to nap on his back instead of actually trying to fix the situation.

“Sir, with all due respect— ” He starts, and Fox the fox whips his head around, glaring at him through small, beady eyes. Stone shuts up, and Fox the fox nods in what is probably approval.

They sit there in silence for a few seconds before Fox the fox slowly, carefully, leaps off of Grizzar’s back, and lands on the floor by Stone’s leg. Fox the fox immediately turns back to look at the massif, most likely out of worry that the jump woke him up, but Grizzar slumbers on.

Despite the fact that he’s watching Fox the fox, it still comes as a surprise when he walks forward, and nudges him with his nose.

“Commander Fox?”

The fox glares at him, then does it again. Stone stares at him, uncomprehending, and Fox the fox makes a noise that sounds a lot like an exasperated sigh, before jumping up into his lap, and curling up into a small ball.

Stone stares. Fox the fox hits him in the chest with his tail. Stone stares some more.

Kark. Fox better not court-martial him for this.

Reluctantly, he lowers a hand to the fox’s back, and pets it lightly. Fox the fox purrs, and it’s only years of command training that doesn’t have him stopping out of pure shock. Because since when could foxes purr? Since when would Commander Fox be so undignified as to purr?

(Since he was turned into a fox while probably being on heavy painkillers, apparently.)

Stone sighs again, careful not to stop the petting, and Grizzar grunts in his sleep. Kark. Kark. Today is going to be a long karking day.

#commander fox #commander stone #sergeant hound #tcw #the clone wars #commander fox week #my writing #navn rambles

94 notes · View notes

colehasapen · 4 years

Text

(ONE SHOT) tal'galar STAR WARS

The time had come. Lord Sidious had given the Order, and CC-2224 had obeyed, because good soldiers follow orders and CC-2224 is among the best. It follows orders and sees them through to the end, and when it’s orders are given to it -Cody had chosen Misfire to man the damaged canon- CC-2224 hadn’t hesitated. CC-2224 had watched - scared and hoping that his Jetii would survive- dispassionately as -his cyare - the traitor fell towards the green water below.

It had wanted to report the successful termination of it’s target then and there, but a feeling has it shouldering it’s blaster and - send his men in another direction - sets off to hunt the traitor down. It knows that the traitorous Jedi will be dead, because CC-2224 is a good soldier, but it needs to confirm the fact.

It makes it’s way down the sheer cliff face, and it can’t help but wonder what had happened for Lord Sidious to activate Order 66 so close to the end of the War. It’s not like it was the middle of the War when it would have been a tactical nightmare to try the traitors, and there wouldn’t have been enough time to gather a full military tribunal. It’s not CC-2224’s place to question it’s Lord and the Supreme Chancellor, but it finds it hard to believe that [the traitor] was capable of betraying the Republic. - His - It’s [traitor] lived and breathed his loyalty to the Republic -

- CC-2224 shakes itself, pushing the questions away. It’s a soldier, a tool for it’s Supreme Leader; it’s not it’s place to question Lord Sidious.

It continues on it’s hunt, looking for any trace of the traitor’s body and - hoping that he’s left - keeping half an eye on it’s surroundings for any hostiles. There’s no telling if the traitor will be hiding in the shadows, waiting for CC-2224 to let it’s guard down so he can strike. The Jedi were - gentle, loving beings who just wanted to help bring peace back to a broken galaxy - vicious and bloodthirsty monsters that would stab anyone in the back given the chance, and it was a good thing Lord Sidious had recognized them for the treacherous beings that they were. Had the traitorous Jedi Order gotten their way - Cody and his brothers would have been free - the Republic would have suffered.

Lord Sidious had - doomed them all - saved them all.

At the bottom of the large hole, CC-2224 finds the lizard-mount’s twisted, mangled body on the shore of a green river, chunks of it floating in the water and bobbing as they’re swept away by the stream, and - he mourns the beast, Obi-Wan had loved Boga - the traitor is nowhere in sight. CC-2224 figures the Jedi’s body must have been pulled away by a fast current, being lighter than his mount. It’s about to report the successful termination of the traitor when it remembers the Jedi surviving much worse than a fall into the water - and it had always driven Cody mad with worry - over the course of the War.

CC-2224 straightens, turning it’s attention away from the creature, and it freezes. There’s a splatter of blood on the stone by it’s boot - not the blue of the Varactyl, or the rust of a baseline Human, but closer to scarlet. The blood of a Stewjoni Human-variant, CC-2224 notes - and it makes Cody feel sick -, or that of a Kiffar. It must be a Kiffar. But there shouldn’t be one on Utapau, and especially this close to the traitor’s mount.

Not far from the first splatter of blood is a second, and a third, and it becomes a trail for CC-2224 to follow. It should report in, it should be informing Command that Order 66 had been successful. The body had probably just been carried off by an animal, there was no need for CC-2224 to follow the trail. The traitor had been killed in the fall.

He should just move on.

The trooper stills at the mouth of a near-by cave, staring at the smear of blood along the stone, as if someone had leaned up against it to catch their breath before moving further in. CC-2224’s head pounds as he continues to move, and it has to lean against the stone wall itself as it tries to regain it’s balance. It squints against the pain behind it’s eyes as the world around it blurs.

It should return to the ship to seek out a medic. The traitor must be dead, he had to be dead - because Cody couldn’t let himself kill him -. It had done as ordered, no one could have survived that fall - CC-2224 is a good soldier and it follows orders.

Co[CC-2224]dy stumbles forward, deeper into the cave despite the fact that it really should be going back to the ship and filling it’s report. The traitor is dead. ThE tRaiToR Is dEAd - CC-2224 did as oRdEReD .

There’s a limp figure slumped in the shadows, - it’s Obi-Wan - but it’s too dark to tell who it might be. There’s blood smeared above them, as if they had slid down the wall to sprawl in the position CC-2224 had found them in. - Cody is afraid - CC-2224 feels nothing as it staggers towards - his lover - the unknown being. Co [CC-2224] dy falls to [it’s] knees, reaching out with shaking hands to look for any sign of injury. - Obi-Wan’s - The being’s robes are soaked through, and it’s too dark for [CC-2224] to tell, without turning it’s helmet lights on, whether or not any of the wetness is from an open wound.

It’s heartbeat pounds in it’s ears, as loud and persistent as the pain in it’s head.

Blue eyes snap open, and CC-2224’s world goes black-

-and Cody wakes up without a jerk, because he’d been too thoroughly trained to show such an open sign of regained consciousness. His head is fuzzy and his mouth tastes like iron, and he has no idea where he is, but he’s been restrained. His hands have been cuffed above his head, and he’s laying prone on an uncomfortable shelf, the humming of a laser barrier invading his ears like a persistent bug. He tries the strength of the cuffs around his wrists, and when there’s no give Cody opens his eyes to look around his new accommodations. It’s some sort of cell, but he can’t identify what kind, with the dim red glow from the laser barrier as the only thing lightning it - which he’s grateful for, considering how badly his head is aching.

He’s been stripped out of his armour, left in just his blacks, though he can see the white and orange-gold plastoid piled lovingly in the corner with obvious care by someone who knew what order Cody liked his armour placed in. There’s something soft under his head - another confusion stimulant considering the fact that he seems to be a prisoner - and it smells of iron and water, with the faintest hints of a familiar scent that makes his heart and head pound.

Obi-Wan.

- “Commander Cody, the time has come. Execute Order 66.” -

This time, Cody does jolt, rattling the cuffs around his wrists, tugging fruitlessly at them in an attempt to get free. He needs to find him. He needs to get to Obi-Wan - Obi-Wan who was hurt and bleeding because Cody had ordered for him to be shot off a cliff.

The laser barrier cuts out, and within seconds there’s hands on his cheeks - hands with familiar calluses from training to wield a lightsaber from the moment he had started walking. Cody stiffens, goes still, and stares into blue eyes that never fail to steal his breath away.

“Obi-Wan.” He whispers like a prayer, wishing he weren’t cuffed so that he could hold his Jedi and assure himself that he was fine.

Obi-Wan smiles at him, gentle and loving despite the pale-faced exhausted written in every line of his body. “Hello there, my dearest heart.”

Cody, ever stalwart and solid, crumbles. “Ni ceta, cyare - ni ceta!” He’s sobbing - heavy, gasping cries that tear at his lungs and make the pain in his head worse. He hasn’t cried like this since he was a cadet and Priest had carved his face open for the first time. Back then, he had sandwiched himself between Wolffe and Fox, desperately seeking out their protection while Alpha stood watch. Now, he knows his brothers are gone, and whatever had happened to him must have happened to them too.

Obi-Wan kisses his tears away gently, cradling him as if he were something precious. For now, Cody will take what comfort he can from his lover’s touch.

Later, they’ll plan their next move, but for now it’s just them and their pain.

#cole writes #fanfiction #star wars #commander cody #obi wan kenobi #codywan #whumptober 2020 #no.10 they look so pretty when they bleed

34 notes · View notes

swinfinities · 3 years

Text

Long Live the Queen: Part Nineteen

The Star Destroyer Devastator (and its hapless stowaways) dropped out of hyperspace several, very tense hours later. The plan was unchanged, of course. Just that it was going to take place somewhere else in the galaxy they weren’t expecting.

“Do we have any idea where in the galaxy we are?” Padmé asked, looking out the wide viewport of the Ghost’s cockpit.

“The navicomputer is shut down,” Hera replied. “No way of knowing unless we get some kind of visual confirmation.”

“I don’t see anything out there but the blackness of space,” K-2 said.

“That’s not necessarily a bad thing,” said Padmé. “It means you don’t see an Imperial fleet waiting for us.”

“Okay. It’s now or never,” said Hera. “Chopper, go with K-2 and get the hatch open. Hopefully Ahsoka’s team has fared alright without us.”

*****

“Right on schedule,” Lieutenant Kirkaard said. The dagger-like shape of an Imperial Star Destroyer shot out of hyperspace directly in front of them.

“Six-point-three kilometers and closing,” her copilot called out.

“Quickly, transmit the signal to the Ghost before they have a chance to jam our comms,” said Kirkaard.

Her copilot hit a few switches. “Uplink complete,” he said. “The Ghost has sent confirmation.”

“Copy that. Beginning evasive maneuvers,” said Kirkaard.

“It won’t help,” the copilot said. “We’ll be within tractor beam range in moments.”

“You don’t want it to look like we were actually expecting them, do you?”

“Fair point.”

The ship suddenly shook violently. The hull creaked and the engines whined against the invisible force that had taken hold of them.

“Rebel UT-60D transport,” the intercom crackled. “This is the ISD Devastator. You are caught within our tractor beam. Shut down your engines and prepare to be boarded. Noncompliance will result in the complete destruction of your vessel.”

Obediently, Kirkaard switched off the ship’s engines. They began to silently drift through space toward the Imperial ship.

“Well, we’re really in it now,” said the copilot. “I hope there wasn’t anyone that was having second thoughts.”

There was some light laughter from the crew behind them.

Ahsoka got up from her seat and stood between the two pilots. She closed her eyes for a moment.

“He is here,” she said. “I can sense him.”

“Who?” Kirkaard asked.

“Darth Vader.”

“You mean… he’s here?” Kirkaard said. “On this ship?”

“Yes. And he has no doubt sensed my presence as well.

The two pilots shared a frightened look.

“Don’t worry,” Ahsoka said. “That just means that everything is going according to plan.”

“Yeah, I’m not sure I like any plan that involves moving towards Darth Vader,” said the copilot.

“Like you said. It’s too late to turn back now,” said Kirkaard.

The U-Wing was pulled steadily closer to the Star Destroyer. Eventually they passed into its massive shadow as they were drawn underneath, towards the central hangar bay.

They could see an entire platoon of white-armored stormtroopers waiting for them on the floor of the hangar.

“Too many to fight off,” said Kirkaard.

“A good Jedi always seeks to find an alternative to fighting,” said Ahsoka. “Sometimes the smartest move is to surrender.”

“We’ll follow your lead, Commander.”

Ahsoka stepped down from the cockpit to peer through the window on the side of the door in the crew compartment. A squad of stormtroopers was lining up in front of the hatch, weapons at the ready.

“Occupants of the rebel vessel!” A grey-suited Imperial officer shouted. “You are ordered to disembark from your craft with your weapons lowered and your hands raised! If you attempt to resist, I will order my troops to open fire!”

Ahsoka looked back at the handful of Rebel troops behind her. They all nodded, silently telling her to go.

Ahsoka pressed the key to open the door. The stormtroopers raised their weapons.

“We surrender,” Ahsoka said, raising her hands above her head. She stepped out of the ship and onto the deck of the hangar. The rest of the soldiers followed.

“Ah, a smart rebel,” the Imperial officer said, his voice dripping with contempt. “Who would have thought? Take their weapons,” he ordered the troopers. They began to snatch the Rebel’s weapons from them. One of them took Ahsoka’s lightsabers from her waist.

Ahsoka felt a sudden chill. It was a feeling she knew well. She had felt it many times before, surrounding Count Dooku, Asajj Ventress, and even General Grievous. Servants of the Sith. Of the Dark Side. It was an angry feeling. A hateful feeling. It felt like pure, unfettered rage. Like the perfect absence of love.

Now that feeling surrounded someone she never thought she would see again.

Especially not like this.

The tall, black figure of Darth Vader strode into the hangar bay. Each of his steps hit the ground with purpose. Though they were hidden behind that terrible mask, Ahsoka could feel his eyes directly on her.

She could sense the fear of those around her—not just her rebel companions, but the Imperials as well. Fear had always been a weapon of the Sith, Ahsoka knew. And Darth Vader wielded it better than anyone she had ever seen.

Lord Vader marched past his troops, stopping directly in front of Ahsoka. She met his gaze, trying to imagine the eyes of Anakin Skywalker behind the mask—but failing.

No one dared speak. The only sound in the hangar was Vader’s rhythmic, mechanical breathing.

“You are foolish to come here,” he said at last. His voice was low and booming.

The Sith Lord turned to his officer. “What of the Rebel base on the surface?” asked Vader.

The officer stammered for a few moments. “Er—the scanners have revealed several structures, but they appear to be abandoned. If the Rebels were here, they must have fled. However, I should note that the thick jungles make it difficult to get any accurate reading. I have a team standing by to travel to the surface to conduct a more thorough search.”

“Very good. Tell them to depart immediately. Report to me personally, Commander, if you find anything.”

“Y-yes my Lord. As you wish.”

The officer bowed awkwardly and marched off.

Vader returned his attention to the captured Rebels.

“Sergeant,” said Vader. A stormtrooper officer beside him snapped to attention. “This is their leader. Bind her, and deliver her to the brig. Execute the rest.”

“No!” Ahsoka said, stepping forward. “We have already surrendered ourselves to you! We are your prisoners!”

“You have your orders, Sergeant,” Vader said.

Ahsoka reached out with the Force, pulling her lightsabers from the hands of the Stormtrooper. They flew toward her open hands, but stopped midair. Vader’s own power kept them steady.

“Do not be so hasty, Padawan,” said Vader. “Even you must realize you are outmatched. Even if you try to resist, you will save no one. They were dead the moment your ship landed in this hangar.”

Ahsoka did not release her mental grip on the lightsabers. She strained with every ounce of her will to pull them into her hands. But it was no use.

“Ready your weapons,” Vader ordered. The stormtroopers raised their rifles, each aiming at one of the Rebels behind Ahsoka.

Ahsoka finally relented, letting go of her grip on the lightsabers. They both snapped into Vader’s gloved hands. She refocused herself and summoned a storm within the Force, pushing it outward and throwing the squad of stormtroopers off their feet.

“Go!” she shouted at the Rebels, ordering them to get back on the ship. But all six soldiers were dangling in the air, hanging by the invisible threads of the Force. They all clawed at their own throats, struggling to breathe.

Ahsoka heard the unmistakable snap-hiss of a lightsaber being ignited. A blinding red flurry shot past, whipping through the air and through the bodies of the soldiers.

Six dead rebels fell to the deck of Vader’s ship, charred and mangled. The Sith Lord’s lightsaber obediently returned to its master’s wicked hand.

“Now you see the true power of the Dark Side,” Vader growled. He turned back to the stormtrooper sergeant.

“If the base is abandoned, this Rebel group is likely only a diversion from some greater plot. Tell the captain to set a course for Scarif and depart with all possible speed. Ensure that all laser batteries are at high alert. If there are any more Rebel ships, I want them destroyed.”

“Yes, my Lord,” the stormtrooper replied.

“The rest of you,” Vader continued. “Will follow me and this Jedi to the brig.”

Ahsoka looked at the fallen bodies of her comrades. They had trusted her. Followed her into the belly of the beast. She had failed to keep them safe. She had fought a war before—this wasn’t the first time she had lost a soldier. But it never hurt any less. But now was not the time for mourning.

The stormtroopers quickly assembled themselves into a formation surrounding Ahsoka, with Vader at the head. He turned and started to leave, but suddenly stopped—the determination in his gait had vanished. His black helmet swiveled left and right, as if he were searching for the source of an unknown sound.

Ahsoka knew exactly why he stopped. A tremor in the Force. She had felt it too, the moment it had dropped out of hyperspace.

The Jedi were here.

Padmé was here.

3 notes · View notes

gabriel4sam · 4 years

Note

For your celebration of "And then he wakes up...", could you write something on either Jangobi + tooka, or a Ventrobi timeloop, please?

Under the cut, a small Obi-Wan/Asajj Ventress fic, with time travel fix-it!

Asajj is busy inside the motors of her ship when it happens. The little beast roars like no other and can outlast the most determined other bounty hunter, or idiotic imperial, but fickle is a too nice word for it. Half of her money is spent on pieces.

So, here she is, oil on her arms and a swear on her lips when something explodes in the Force. It’s so ferocious and intense that she bashes her head on metal so hard she probably gives herself a concussion, then only has the time to reach for the bucket full of oil she just used to bath a recalcitrant butterfly valve and she’s violently ill.

She reaches into the Force with wobbly intent and is meet with weeping and distress. Something monstrous just happened.

Once before, once only, Asajj sensed such lament, just after Order 66, when the Force mourned Its children. Only, there are no more Jedi to genocide, the Inquisitors, Vader and bounty hunters took care of it. But not Asajj, never Asajj, those bounties, she never took, even if she refused to examine the reason why. But today, the Force had been shaken in a very similar way. What sort of horrors could have been so terrible to be felt this way?

The answer is on the Holonet only minutes after. The Empire really wants people to know about its new toy, this planet killer born of a nightmare.

A whole world. Alderaan is no more, Alderaan of the shining culture, of the precious beauty, Alderaan with its poetry, with its literature, its theatre and songs and food, with its ideas and its history. Alderaan, the world who fought so hard, always, for the disenfranchised, for the slaves, for the forgotten. Alderaan, who always opened its doors to refugee and voted following its heart in the Senate, its Senators the last bastions of resistance in a sea of sycophants.

Alderaan and its millions of sentients, and its billions of life force.

Asajj feels very old and very tired. If she was the sort of self-righteous idiot prone to this sort of gesture, she would probably search and join for the Rebel Alliance on the spot, but she’s smarter than that.

That night, she still buys herself a very, very nice vintage, quite decided to drink herself into stupor. Sometimes, that’s the only thing to do, if not done too often. She’s in that dangerous state for a Force User, not passed out but drunk enough her control on her powers is not the same, her shields not so tights, when she feels the Light flares. She reaches out, more reflex than decision.

“Ventress!” Someone calls in the void, surprised to feel someone reaching out, and the voice brings back memories of a taunting smile and grey eye and then it’s snuffed out.

Asajj sits up, terribly sober. Wherever he was, Obi-Wan Kenobi just died. In any other time, she wouldn’t have feel it, but tonight, drunk and tired, and with so little Force sensitive beings left. She never liked the guy but to her surprise, she feels a wave of grief. She almost reaches for the bottle again, but decides against it. This night, her dreams are plagued by memories and she sleeps so poorly that the next morning, she doesn’t question it when the ship’s hyper drive acts out again. Exasperated, she opens the compartment, searches for the reason of the problem….By the Force, how much did the resonance in the Force of Alderaan’s blowing up affect her? She would have sworn she had done a better job than that, it’s exactly like…. She needs a holiday. Something safe and quiet and far, very far away from the Empire blowing up entire worlds and killing old enemies who were of the last people in the whole galaxy who knew, really knew Asajj. Because it was certainly the Empire: Obi-Wan Kenobi wasn’t exactly the style to die from anything else than a full legion, or at least a full Sith. She’s there in her memories, thinking of that time on Drall when she had tried to cut him in two with an ancient Sith Weapon, and that time on Selonia when Kenobi had foiled her whole plan by, she was quite sure of it, seducing the twin ambassadors… Strangely; all those occasions who had infuriated her at the time are now bringing a half-smile on her pale lips. He had been a ferocious adversary, but a fun one. And it would be a lie to pretend, but only now, now that he was dead, that she had never imagined what sort of adversary he would have made on another battlefield, one of linen and pillows. She’s there, working on the butterfly valve and thinking of twinkling grey eyes, when the Force explodes in pain. Asajj bashes her head on metal, again.

What the…. This time, she doesn’t throw up, breathing careful, sending her pain into the Force.

Not even ten minutes after, the fate of Alderaan is on the holonet again.

Asajj needs to sit down. Didn’t she live that already? A vision, perhaps? No, her visions are rare, fragmented, honestly not very useful, her talents in the Force residing elsewhere. Quickly, she puts her motor in order and starts her ship.

Asajj Ventress is a lot of things but indecisive is not one of them. Run away? Where? If it’s the will of the Force, running away in the Unknown regions themselves would be useless. The Force can’t be outrun and if Its paths can be mysterious, they are stubborn.

Direction Alderaan, or whatever is left of it. Here, perhaps she will find answers. She’s just leaving hyperspace when she feels the Light flares up, once again. Much more closely, she can almost taste the last breath of Kenobi, feel the lightsaber and something…something strange and powerful and like a note in the music of the universe she never heard before.

Even dying, Kenobi can’t do it simply, the overachiever flirt that he is.

This time, it isn’t sleep which makes Asajj leaves this day. This time, it’s the Empire which destroy her little ship, because she had no chance against a Star Destroyer.

The next day, Asajj doesn’t bash her head on metal hull. That day, her ship is already in the system when the Death Star arrives and here she waits, almost in ambush except she has no intention to reveal her presence, all the powers on her ship on shielding it, and too small fry to interest them , ready to collect all information she can.

She sees the destruction of Alderaan in direct and it’s even more terrible on her nerves like that, the Force howling.

And then…then, she feels Kenobi, in a garbage ship. Kneeling on her bunk, she shields herself and she follows him, letting the all she can collect itself in her mind, the useful and the useless, letting it settle, like organic matter in a swamp. When he dies, again, she reaches for him, letting her presence be a last comfort to his light.

Seven days, Asajj does nothing more than arrive before the Death Star, shudder in deep horror for Alderaan and let the fate of Kenobi, every step he takes on that damn space station, enlighten her about the forces in presence.

Before, when she was the Count’s apprentice, she never would have found the patience. She would have raged and yelled and stormed, and probably died even before Kenobi! Now, she knows better. Sometimes, she would swear she can see, at the corner of her vision, her former Master, the first one, the dead one, the Jedi, almost there, almost real, but when she turns, it’s always empty. But she feels it, as she kneels for the entire day, deep in meditation, learning that horrible space station, feeling the lives on board, she feels her dead Master, right there, and he’s so proud a younger Asajj would cry.

So, Asajj learns and Asajj plans, and Asajj thinks to run, but never does. Whatever the Force wants of her, it’s important, too important. Every morning, she jumps from her bunk and goes to repair her motor; to arrive on in the Alderaan system first. She never even checks the date. Now that the Force had put things in motion, It wouldn’t stupidly let time pass normally for Asajj.

Seven days, she waits. She learns. She meditates. Seven days, she reaches for a dying man, and feels him reaching out, sending him comfort. She never need to send peace. Obi-Wan Kenobi dies in peace, like only a Jedi could.

The eighth day, she strikes.

*************************************************************************

When Obi-Wan, Luke, and their pilots arrive on Alderaan, the whole planet is quite busy panicking, in the very polite way they have about it on this world. The old Jedi find Bail and Breha waiting for him the moment he put foot on their soil, and a monstrous blasphemy in the Force high in their sky.

“It arrived hours before you,” the Vice-Roy explains, “and no tentative of contact of our part has been successful. We have been prepping evacuation, but how be sure that any ship leaving the planet won’t be attacked? And there will never be enough ships” At this moment, a technician calls for them and at they move to the holotransmetter, Bail adds quietly, just for Obi-Wan “And we lost contact with Leia’s ship almost three days ago.”

Obi-Wan’s hand claps on his old friend’ shoulder: “She’s alive,” he swears, “I would have felt it in the Force.”

They meet around the holotransmitter and that’s the moment the whole galaxy flickers, like a flame hesitating before going out and continuing….and then it changes and takes a better path. If not an easier one, perhaps simply one with less death. And that’s how it starts, with two scoundrels, one of them quite hairy, one Jedi, two royals and a moisture farmer powerful in the Force, congregating around a blue image of a former Sith, who looks exhausted and a little manic.

“They’re quite busy with me,” she says, “And I have made as much damages to important electronical stuff as I could, so it’s time to board this horror while they’re busy trying to open the command control room to kill me”.

“Ventress?” Obi-Wan asks, after a second of silence.

“Yeah, yeah, Ventress. Don’t tell me I have changed so much, I would be crossed with you, I mean, have you seen yourself? If I hadn’t feel you in the Force, I would never have recognized you. Why have you aged forty years in twenty?”

“Is this a dead body?” Breha interrupted, her gaze fixated on something at Ventress’s feet.

“I have decapitated a Grand Moff,” Ventress admitted, like she was saying space was cold and water wet, “And honestly, someone should have done it long ago.” Her attention was taken by something outside the view of the holotransmitter. “I barricaded myself into Tarkin’s central command, I think it was made in case the space station was boarded by hostiles. But Vader is there, so, you have thirty minutes to help, or it will have all been for nothing, for me and for the young princess in the cells.”

“We’re losing communication,” the Alderaani technician intervened, “someone in the space station understood she was talking to us.”

“I will guide y-“ Ventress had the time to say, then nothing more.

Chewbacca had just the time to extend his arm to stop Obi-Wan from falling.

“Oh.” The Jedi simply said, “Oh. That’s what she meant.”

For the old man, the sensation of Ventress reaching out in the Force was like something long forgotten. Like they had done that already, before, at their most dire times. He was pretty sure he had never reached out into the Force to her, but in that moment…in that moment, it was like coming home, their two Force presences responding to each other, and here, in his mind, Ventress knew just how take the abomination in the sky with minimal blood loss, like she had studied the plans of the Death Star quite extensively, like she understood the thing in and out, and knew what a small determined commando could do, now that she had temporarily blinded the Death Star.

The rest was quite a busy day. The rest, as Han Solo would say later, was history and he would always be proud to have been there, to the first Death Star battle, when the Alderaan security forces had crept into the Death Star, using the mess Ventress had made. Honestly, he probably wouldn’t have been, if Chewie hadn’t insisted. But he saw history, that day, he saw what a small, determined group of people could do, he saw the impossible fight between Vader, Kenobi and Ventress, and the fall of a giant in the Force.

At the end of the day, Alderaan had won a moon, who would stay there, manned by the Rebel Alliance, as a warning to Star Destroyers who would come knocking. They would never use it on a planet, of course, but the Empire would never win it back and the Rebel Alliance had a new base.

At the end of the day, Asajj Ventress and Obi-Wan Kenobi would try to unravel their Force presences, with no success. “I suppose I could do worse than you,” Asajj would admit, when their third try had sent them directly to bed, because there was a limit of the closeness in the Force two Force sensistives could feel before things started to get physical.

At the end of the day, once all was done, which meant it was closer to the dawn of the next day, Asajj would finally meet the Princess, the one who had started everything, and that she had only peripherally felt in the Force before. She would understand, then, the feeling of her dead Jedi Master in the Force, this sort of giddy joy. “Well met, Padawan”, were the first words of Asajj to the young woman.

#star wars #obi wan kenobi #asajj ventress #the clone wars #a new hope #my fics

16 notes · View notes