#the second part and the breha chapters are here!

[varpusvaras]

Coruscant gets its own Guard.

As her duty as the Queen keeps her on Alderaan, Breha wishes to see more of what happens on Coruscant, and how the troopers stationed on the planet are doing, as the war rages on all across the Galaxy. Bail sends her pictures of the Guard, and one Commander catches her eye.

Then she hands Commander Fox her comlink frequency.

Then he picks up her call.

Part 2 of Up that Mountain, from Breha’s point of view.

[vi-does-stuff]

I Thought It Was Over — Chapter Seven

Sith!Obi-Wan Kenobi x f!reader

Warnings depictions of violence, smut

Word count 5.6k

You didn’t say it, but you hoped Obi-Wan was right. Putting down what you were reading, you got a shower before getting changed into one of the nicer outfits you’d been given by Breha yet had never had the chance to wear, a relatively simple dress by the Queen’s standards and yet something that made you feel prettier than your old Jedi robes ever had. Part of you wondered why you were putting more effort into how you looked — Obi-Wan had never cared in the past about what you wore, neither of you had — but you fussed a little over your appearance anyway. It wouldn’t hurt, you reasoned with yourself.

When you paid attention, tapping into the Force, you could actually feel Obi-Wan here. Next to Bail, Breha and a group of others, in one of the larger palace meeting rooms. His thoughts were guarded, as you’d expect from any adept Force-sensitive person around people they didn’t know too well, but you could sense the feelings of the others in the room if you focused. And it seemed alright, to your utter relief, no arguments or boiling-over emotions.

After a little more restless time, you felt Obi-Wan reach for you again. I’m done. Can I- could I come and find your room, or?

You paused. Should you meet somewhere else? Perhaps another room might be nicer, but here you were guaranteed privacy. Yeah. Come to my room.

Focusing on his Force signature as he walked through the palace to find you, you could just about feel his excitement bubbling up, and you yourself could hardly keep still (so much for Jedi stoicism) as he got closer. You felt him pause on the other side of your door, taking a deep breath before knocking.

You stood, walking over to the door. After a second’s hesitation, you pressed the button to open it, watching with bated breath as it opened, letting you see Obi-Wan face to face for the first time in years.

For a moment that stretched out into forever, neither of you moved, just coming to grips with the fact that you were there. Together again. Obi-Wan was different, and yet exactly the same, looking at you in that way he always used to, like you were the only thing that mattered. The only thing was his eyes, catching you off-guard with their new golden hue that you supposed you should’ve expected. He seemed a little hesitant, as though gauging your reaction to his appearance, and for a second you were unsure of what to do.

But then you sprang forward, rushing into an embrace, wanting to feel him and have tangible proof of you being reunited. He seemed to have the same idea, and his arms around you were tight, pulling you in closer to him.

“You’re here,” you murmured into his chest.

“I’m here,” he said. “I only wish I was here sooner, it’s been too long.” Too long didn’t even begin to cover it; you’d almost forgotten how it felt to hold one another like this.

As you both relaxed into each other’s arms, your Force signatures eased as well, mixing and mingling and getting all tangled up, and you took a deep breath, feeling that satisfaction that always came with the bond being able to freely and easily exist between you.

“I thought I was never going to see you again.”

Obi-Wan placed a kiss on the top of your head. “I’ll admit, for a little bit I was worried about that too. But the Force seems to favour us, darling. One way or another, we’ll always find our way back to each other.”

You moved a little, so you could look at Obi-Wan’s face again. He gave you a small smile, a hand moving up to cup your cheek. Aside from his eyes, his face had barely changed in the time since you’d seen him, aside from a few lines in his skin deepening and him getting a few more grey hairs.

“So… are you going to give me that explanation you mentioned earlier?” you asked.

Obi-Wan nodded. “Of course. Shall we sit down?”

You led him to your bedroom, and you sat down cross-legged on the bed opposite one another. “Go on.”

He took a deep breath. “For some of this… it’s hard to explain. It might be easier if I could just show you, if that’s alright.”

“Yeah. I just- I just want to know, Obi-Wan. I feel like all I’ve done is not known for the past few years, and I hate it.”

“Well, I promise that you’ll know everything.”

“Can I ask one question first?”

“Go ahead.”

You’d been curious about it since you discovered that Obi-Wan was a Sith. “Were you- had you already turned to the dark side by the time you left the Jedi?”

“No. When I left the Order, my genuine intention was to lay low and go my own way. I knew I’d have to speak to some dangerous people to keep my location secret — hence me not wanting to bring you with me. But Dooku found out of my desertion, looked for me, and tracked me to where I was living at the time. He sensed my deepening conflict regarding the Jedi, and manipulated me into becoming his apprentice.

“Then, Palpatine started to take an interest in me. He saw my value, he said, he always had, but he’d never predicted that I would be the one to turn to the dark side. I was never used against the Jedi — it wasn’t completely necessary, and he said he’d prefer for me to remain a secret — but I was used to dispatch of his other opponents, where there’d be no chance of my wider discovery.”

So that was why, until the Order fell, nobody had any idea as to what Obi-Wan was doing now. You guessed that the death of those non-Jedi ‘opponents’ was a lot of what you saw in your nightmares, and it made sense as to why none of them were people you recognised: they weren’t supposed to be.

“I wasn’t told much. Sidious used to speak a lot about his “plan”, but I had no clue what most of it entailed, only that returning the Sith to power was the end goal. There were small hints at it though — when Dooku was killed, he was really happy. And that made me worried — Dooku had been his apprentice for quite a long time, and he was willing to let him die because of Anakin? Was- was I disposable too?

“Order 66 came as a massive shock to me — I never expected anything of that scale from him, especially not so soon. And- while I was glad the Order was done with, I didn’t agree with what Sidious did to achieve that. When the Jedi were- dealt with, I was sent to Mustafar to kill the Separatists, but before I could leave…”

“Anakin,” you finished.

“Yes.” His voice seemed a little shakier now. “I- I was glad he’d survived Order 66, but- I knew that it wasn’t possible for both of us to survive that fight. It was him or me. And, when you spoke to me through the bond, right as I saw Anakin approach, there was no chance I was going to die before I saw you again. So- we fought. He seemed so disappointed in me, saying that he’d always considered me the perfect Jedi even when we used to argue, and- it hurt.”

He showed you the fight you’d seen so many times before, and while you’d always seen Anakin’s reluctance, this was the first time you’d felt Obi-Wan’s own. “And then he brought you up. He said you’d be so ashamed, you were too good for me, that you didn’t believe I could ever fall to the dark side and yet there I was.”

Obi-Wan paused, taking your hand. The movement was hesitant, unsure of whether you’d let him, and you almost shocked yourself at the fact that you didn’t move it away. “Darling, you’re my one weakness. You always have been. And- kriff, something about what he said affected me. This is not me blaming you, not by any means, but- it felt like Anakin was exploiting my weakness, and I gave into my anger. I struck him down, and left him to die.”

“Where I found him.”

“Yes. After I’d left Mustafar, after alerting Sidious that I’d- killed Anakin, I cooled down. And I felt so much guilt for what I’d done. So much regret. I still feel it — he was my brother, and I loved him, and I killed him. He didn’t deserve it, not at all. I don’t expect you to forgive me, I know I wouldn’t forgive me, but you deserve to know my reasoning.” It wasn’t hard to spot the tears welling up in his eyes.

“Obi-Wan…” you sighed. “You’re right. What you did was awful. But- you clearly regret it, and you’re not going to be able to move on from this if I can’t either. And… I’m going to try not to hold everything you’ve done over your head.”

“Thank you.” His hand squeezed yours a little. “The thing is, after Mustafar… I knew Sidious wasn’t happy. He could sense that I wasn’t fully devoted to him — our bond proved that — and I’m almost certain that he wanted Anakin to kill me, to get him to fall to the dark side so he could have a ‘better’ apprentice. And when I won out, he realised that maybe I was what he wanted after all… and that meant that our bond had to go, in his eyes.

“I’m not sure whether he knew how often we’d started to talk to each other, but he could gauge the depth of our bond. And then, he called me to him and said that our bond was restraining me, stopping me from reaching my full potential in the dark side, and that I had to sever the bond. Right there. I- I obviously didn’t want to, but… you know I did. Not fully — I think if it was severed properly, I wouldn’t have been able to reconnect with you like I did — but I cut you off. And I couldn’t warn you because he’d know, and- I was terrified about what he’d do if he thought I wasn’t completely loyal. I’m so sorry, darling. I really am.”

You sighed. “At least that explains why. I- I thought you were just playing with my feelings. Obi-Wan, it was so awful. It felt like there was just a hole inside me that I couldn’t fill without the bond there.”

“I would never want to play with your feelings, darling,” Obi-Wan said. He moved, taking you into his arms, and you closed your eyes for a second, just appreciating the feeling of being held. “I felt how bad it was too… like everything good was gone from the galaxy. And Sidious- he used that to increase his influence on me. For a few weeks, I could hardly think straight, and… he convinced me to travel to Tatooine to kill Padmé and her children.”

“So that was you,” you said. “I knew it.”

Obi-Wan nodded sadly. “It was. I- I wasn’t even thinking as I killed her and the people she was staying with. It wasn’t until after I dealt with the kids — just looking at them laying there in their cribs — that I came to my senses. I realised what I’d done, the stupid things I’d been doing because of Sidious, and I knew I had to defeat him, to take him on, to try. It would be difficult — he could beat multiple Jedi without breaking a sweat — but I couldn’t stand by and let him continue his tyranny over the galaxy without doing anything.

“So after a few weeks of waiting, of planning, I struck. And- it felt impossible. He was so strong in the Force, so adept with his saber and lightning, and I was already at a disadvantage because I could still feel the effect of the bond’s loss.” He showed you the battle, the rage on Palpatine’s face, the horrible pain that came with being attacked by his lightning and the difficulty with blocking it. “It felt like it lasted forever, and I nearly died countless times. But somehow- I won.” You could feel the shock on both sides as Obi-Wan sliced Sidious into pieces, shortly before dropping to his knees in tiredness.

“He wasn’t going to have power over me anymore. Over anyone,” Obi-Wan said. “After I defeated him, the first thing I wanted to do was reopen the bond with you, to try and tell you what had happened. But- I’d just left the Empire without its Emperor, and I knew that if I spoke to you, I’d throw everything aside to just find you. So I waited until after I’d spoken to some of the senators and started to put my own plan into motion for a change before contacting you again. I’m quite glad you’re here on Alderaan, I was worried I’d have to travel to the other side of the galaxy to find you.”

You took a few seconds to think over everything Obi-Wan had told you. You didn’t know what to think; he’d done inconceivable things for the Empire, but he was manipulated by one of the most powerful Sith to exist. He was responsible for the deaths of almost everyone you loved, but he’d rid the galaxy of the one man behind everything. You just had to know…

“What next?”

“What do you mean?”

You swallowed. “You’re having all these meetings with senators. What’s your plan?”

“Well, politics aren’t my thing at all. But I want to return to a Republic, like what we had before. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but it’s better than tyranny. I can’t sort everything out myself, so I’ve been speaking to the leaders of the most influential worlds about dismantling the Empire, and hopefully moving towards a Republic less prone to malicious takeover. It will take a while, but in my opinion it’s worth it.”

You took a relieved breath. “I- that’s good. I’ll admit, I was worried about your political ideas changing. No Emperor Kenobi, then?”

He laughed. “No. Well, I am technically for now, but no. That’s not the life I want.”

“What life do you want?” you found yourself asking.

Obi-Wan gave you a small smile. “All I can think of… is one with you.”

You couldn’t help the way you smiled in response to that. “I- I have to agree with you there.”

“Will you-” Obi-Wan paused. “Will you come with me when I leave? I don’t want to pressure you, of course, but… I don’t think I can go for too long without you anymore.”

You sighed. “I wasn’t sure about this earlier. But- I don’t want to be without you anymore either. So, if I’m able to, I would like to come with you, Obi-Wan.”

At that, his smile deepened, and you could feel his Force signature practically glowing with happiness. It must have been contagious, because your own smile impossibly widened, and it felt as though your heart was soaring. “Thank you, darling,” Obi-Wan said, before fixing you with a slightly nervous look. “If this is alright… I’d really like to kiss you.”

“I- I’d really like to kiss you too,” you said.

Obi-Wan’s hand came up to cup your jaw, thumb resting on your cheek, and he leaned in. Your stomach fluttered as you kissed, enjoying the feeling after having waited for so long, and you were both still smiling when you pulled apart.

“Kriff, I love you,” Obi-Wan sighed.

“I love you too. Nothing can change that.”

“My bonded.”

“Exactly. You’re my bonded.” You paused for a second, revelling in the feeling of satisfaction rolling out from your mingling Force signatures. “So… where do you stay?”

“I live on my Star Destroyer, for the most part,” Obi-Wan explained. “But I want to buy a house somewhere. I haven’t decided where, yet — there’s obviously a lot of choice — but we could look together if you’d like.”

You smiled. “That sounds nice.”

House shopping with Obi-Wan. It felt so odd to think about, doing something so couple-y together, but you weren’t going to complain.

”When we’re on the Star Destroyer later, I’ll make sure you have your own room,” Obi-Wan said. “But, obviously, you can come to my room whenever you want. If you want.”

“Thank you.” You appreciated it, the fact that Obi-Wan was giving you the chance to have your own space, and not rushing into things. It made sense — the Obi-Wan you knew didn’t exactly rush when it came to things like this — but it still made you feel good, made you feel like he still really could be the good person you loved. “How long do you think we’ll be on the Star Destroyer?”

Obi-Wan thought it over. “Hopefully not too long — the second I’m not needed as much anymore, I want to move out. I don’t want to be surrounded by other people.”

You nodded. “I understand. Nor do I.”

He smiled. “I believe we should still have some time to ourselves while we’re there, though. We have years of time to make up for, after all.”

“We do indeed.”

A few hours later, after gathering together your belongings, you stood on the landing pad of Alderaan’s palace, saying goodbye to Bail and Breha.

“Thank you again for everything you’ve done to help me,” Bail said. “Having you around to help with the cell has been very useful.”

“Thank you, Bail,” you said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “I don’t know what I’d have done if it wasn’t for your generosity over this past year. You’ve been a lifesaver.”

He gave you a quick hug, and you turned to Breha.

“And- thank you too, Breha,” you continued. “You helped me through a really difficult time. I’m going to miss you.”

“I’ll miss you too,” she smiled, embracing you, before adding more quietly, “I’m glad things are getting better with that man of yours.”

“So am I,” you replied with a smile.

When you pulled apart, she still kept hold of your hand. “Don’t be a stranger, okay? I’m only a holocall away if you ever need me.”

You nodded, before looking over to Obi-Wan, who was standing on the boarding ramp of the small ship which would take you back up to his Star Destroyer, which you could see waiting patiently in the distance. “Are you ready?” he asked.

“I am.”

With one final goodbye to Bail and Breha, you picked up your things and followed Obi-Wan up the ramp and into the upper deck, where in the centre, there was a table with a holoprojector surrounded by some chairs as though it was designed to be a meeting room. Through an open door was a cockpit, and you could see two troopers in the pilots’ chairs.

“Are you good to go, my Lord?” one of the troopers asked. Obi-Wan’s eyes flicked over to you, as though trying to gauge your reaction to him being called by that title. You didn’t like it — obviously — but you forced yourself not to outwardly react.

“Yes. Let’s get back,” Obi-Wan said.

Against the wall of the room were a few sofas, and Obi-Wan went to sit down on one. You put your bag on the table, before sitting down next to him as you felt the ship lift off.

Obi-Wan looked over at you, and his nervousness was palpable. You gave him what you hoped was a reassuring smile, and he moved his hand to take yours. You squeezed it, before relaxing into Obi-Wan’s side and resting your head on his shoulder.

As you travelled closer to the Star Destroyer, you wondered what Obi-Wan would be like with the people on his ship. You’d seen him in action as a General for a little bit, before he left, but would he be different now? As the Emperor, even if it was only for a short while, there were- well, there were expectations. It was hard to imagine Obi-Wan being the typical image of a cold Emperor, but you knew he’d changed. It would be impossible to guess how he’d act around those under him.

Your internal question was answered when the two of you stepped into the hangar of the Star Destroyer. You’d caught him straightening up beside you, before walking down the ship’s ramp at your side and stopping to talk to a clone commander who must’ve been waiting for him.

“Welcome back, my lord,” he said. “Your rooms are ready for you, exactly where you requested.”

“Good.” Obi-Wan turned to you then. “Do you remember Commander, now General Cody?”

“Oh, yes-” you hadn’t seen him too many times, but back at the start of the war Obi-Wan used to tell you about how great Cody was- “Hello again.”

“Nice to see you again, sir,” Cody said.

“Well, if the rooms are ready, we’ll go there now.”

“Yes, my lord.”

Obi-Wan started walking again, as did you, the two of you followed by a small droid who was carrying your bag. He led you through the ship, which was thankfully similar in layout to how you remembered your own Star Destroyer, and it wasn’t too long until he stopped in the middle of a corridor by a door. “So, here are your quarters,” he said.

You opened the door, stepping inside. “This is more fancy than I remember my old quarters being.”

Obi-Wan laughed. “Yes; after the war, quite a few of the Star Destroyers were upgraded so the higher ranking officers had nicer rooms for some reason. It’s odd, but I’m not exactly complaining.”

“Nor am I.” The quarters did look very nice.

You looked around for a minute. There was a living room with a kitchen area off to the side, and a bathroom attached to the bedroom. “It’s basically the same layout as mine,” Obi-Wan explained. “I’m right next door if you want me.”

“Great.” You watched as the droid placed your bag next to what was now your bed, before turning back to Obi-Wan. “Can I see your room? If- if that’s alright?”

Obi-Wan nodded. “Of course. Now?”

“I mean, I don’t have anything else to do.”

“Great.”

He led you back through your front door and into his own quarters. They looked very similar to your own, without much decoration aside from a few plants here and there, and some evidence of food having been made in the kitchen. His bedroom was also quite bare, although he’d swapped out the basic dark grey bedding for a blue set.

“Not much, but I must’ve been living here for more than a year now.”

“No apartment on Coruscant?”

“I do have one. But I like staying there even less than here. It’s too… I don’t know exactly, but I don’t like it.”

You pulled a sympathetic face. “Hey, at least soon we’ll be able to find somewhere you do like.”

Obi-Wan smiled. “Yes, we will.”

Having another look around the room, you sat down on Obi-Wan’s bed. “So… do you have anything planned for the rest of the day?”

“No, I don’t,” Obi-Wan said, sitting down next to you. “Why?”

You just smiled, turning and pressing a kiss to Obi-Wan’s lips. “Mind if I spend it with you?”

“That sounds like a perfect idea,” Obi-Wan said, before going to kiss you again. He moved so his body was facing you, as did you, and one of his hands went to rest at your waist.

You sighed softly. “Kriff, I really have missed this.”

“Language,” Obi-Wan joked with a quick kiss to your cheek. “But so have I.”

“I can’t believe we couldn’t do this for so long. So unfair.”

“Very. At least it seems that the Force is rooting for us.”

You smiled. “It does look that way,” you said, before going to kiss him again. Wanting to feel more of him, you cupped his jaw in your hand and put your other hand on his upper arm, pulling him closer. It felt as though your Force signatures were buzzing slightly, and you couldn’t stop yourself from smiling at the way everything felt.

Obi-Wan moved his other hand to your waist as well, and almost subconsciously pulled you onto his lap. A little surprised, you paused, and Obi-Wan’s expression turned to a guilty one. “Sorry about that- I don’t want to-”

“Obi-Wan, it’s fine, I don’t mind,” you huffed, before going back to kiss him even more passionately than before. You moaned as his tongue slipped into your mouth, and felt Obi-Wan tense as he held you.

“Darling, I-” he started, pulling away for a second. “If we carry on, well- we know what happened last time. Do you want to-?”

You thought about it for a second. Did you want to possibly maybe have sex with Obi-Wan? Part of you felt that it was too much, too quickly, but-

“Yeah. I do want to- as long as you do,” you decided.

Obi-Wan smiled. “I do. Wait- what about protection? I mean, I’m pretty certain I could find a morning after pill somewhere on the ship, but-”

“It’s alright,” you said. “I got the Implant after the first time. Just in case, you know. And that’ll work for another few years at least unless I remove it.”

“Oh. I didn’t know that.”

You laughed. “I didn’t tell anyone, that’s why. And- I didn’t want it to seem like I was expecting us to hook up or anything. I just- on the off-chance we did, I didn’t want the stress of taking a pill again.”

Obi-Wan smiled. “I understand. I get that it might’ve been awkward to talk about.”

“Thanks. Hey, at least we’re good for now, right?”

“Right.” He grinned. “Can we go back to what we were doing before now?”

You laughed. “Of course,” you said, before being cut off by Obi-Wan pressing his lips to yours once more. You went to touch his jaw again, running your fingers through his beard, your other hand going to touch his arm before resting on his chest. He felt even more muscular than the last time you’d seen him, based on what you could guess at through his robes, and you found yourself anticipating what he’d be like when you got him undressed.

It seemed Obi-Wan was doing that himself, as he went to undo the zip at the back of your dress before lowering it over your shoulders and starting a trail of kisses from your jaw to your collarbone. You’d almost forgotten the feeling of his beard against your skin, and it was hard to focus as you yourself went to help take Obi-Wan’s robes off.

“I love you so much. You know that, right?”

Obi-Wan grinned. “Are you only saying that because I’m shirtless now?” You sighed and rolled your eyes, and he pressed a placating kiss to your nose. “I love you too, darling. Ever so much.”

You returned your focus to Obi-Wan’s trousers, undoing them and pulling them down and out of the way as he shifted to help you take them off. He, in turn, took the rest of your clothes off, and you both watched each other for a few seconds, taking in your bodies for the first time in years.

You’d been correct in thinking he’d got more muscular — kriff, his arms — and you spotted a few more scars littering his torso that he’d gained over the course of the war. You were likely the same way; despite rarely fighting in any battles, you were certain you’d picked up a mark or two the few times you did fight.

“Can we stop staring at each other now and get on with it?” Obi-Wan asked with a grin, and you sighed jokingly.

“Fine, if we must,” you said, before leaning forward to kiss Obi-Wan at the same time as taking his hardening cock in your hands. He moaned into the kiss, and you felt yourself grin. Those sounds he made were another thing you hadn’t realised you’d missed, and in that moment, you’d do anything to hear more of them.

It seemed Obi-Wan had other ideas, however, using one hand to push yours away and the other to press you down against the bed, shuffling so you were no longer in his lap. “Obi-Wan?” you found yourself asking, watching as he lowered himself down your body before pausing between your legs.

“I didn’t get to do this last time,” he said, “so I had to make sure I did it this time.”

And then he leaned down and licked a stripe up your aching cunt. You’d had time to guess what was going to happen, and yet you’d never expected it. Let alone that it would feel this good, your toes curling with the sensation. You like that, darling? You heard Obi-Wan say as he pressed his mouth to your pussy again. Go ahead, tell me.

“Kriff, Obi-Wan, yes-” you got out, moving your hands to push into his hair. Whether it was to anchor yourself or to get him to keep going, you didn’t know, but you could feel how pleased he was with the extra contact through the bond.

Any other day, Obi-Wan might’ve taken his time, but you could feel how much he wanted to get you off with the way he was working his mouth, the sensation of his beard somehow increasing the intensity of everything you were feeling. Unconsciously, your hips bucked against him, and your fingers tightened in his hair. You could feel your climax getting closer and closer, and so could Obi-Wan apparently, as he chose the perfect moment to move his hand and circle your clit with his thumb.

At the last second, you decided to project some of what you were feeling through the bond, and you could hear Obi-Wan’s muffled moans as he continued to lick into you through your orgasm. After a few seconds, you took in a deep breath, letting go of Obi-Wan’s hair and relaxing against the bed, eyes closed.

“So you liked that?” Obi-Wan asked.

You laughed. “You think?”

Opening your eyes again, you saw him smiling down at you, and you clenched around nothing when you saw the evidence of your arousal in his beard. “I’m glad.”

You moved to sit up, placing your hands on Obi-Wan’s shoulders and going to kiss him again — and kriffing hells, you could taste yourself on his lips. That simple thing was enough to get you ready to go again, and you looked at Obi-Wan with your best puppy-dog eyes.

“Hey…” you said slyly, going to touch Obi-Wan’s dick again, which you felt had been sorely neglected up to this point, and moving your hand up and down a few times. “You want to fuck me now?”

Obi-Wan let out a strained laugh. “Just because you’re trying to get me off with your hand doesn’t mean you can use such filthy language,” he said, pushing you back down into the mattress and covering your body with his own. “But- who am I to deny my impatient girl what she wants?”

He lined himself up with your pussy, and you watched his face as he pressed himself into you. He had to go slowly, as expected, but you didn’t care; you just basked in the feeling of joy that emanated from your Force bond. You’d almost forgotten how brilliantly the bond reacted to yours and Obi-Wan’s intimacy, and with the strengthened bond, that reaction seemed to have increased tenfold.

You were both surrounded by a feeling of rightness, of satisfaction mingled with yearning for more, and for a second you forgot why you’d both waited this long to have sex again. There was a hint of darkness there, deep in Obi-Wan’s signature, and as you reached for it you were met with incomprehensible desire, and possessiveness, and you could just about catch a glimpse of the fear that Obi-Wan would never be able to have you in this way again.

“Obi-Wan,” you found yourself saying as he thrust into you, “I’m here now. You’re never going to be without me again if you don’t want to.”

He met your gaze, looking down at you as you moved your hips up to meet his. “Oh, darling- I love you so much.”

“I love you too,” you said, breath hitching as Obi-Wan hit a particular spot deep inside of you.

Heat was spreading throughout your body as you neared orgasm, and it felt as though your bond was beginning to buzz again. Obi-Wan’s thrusts sped up, feeling more desperate as he chased satiation inside of you, and you grasped his shoulders, haphazardly pressing a kiss to the crook of his neck before you fell over the edge.

And fall over the edge you did, feeling Obi-Wan come deep inside you just as you felt your body spasm underneath him.

For a second and for eternity, you were stuck in blissful limbo, feeling the contentment radiating from the bond as you slowly came down from your high. Obi-Wan slid out of you, looking down at you with a pleased smile before laying down next to you.

“We should do that more often,” he said.

“I agree.” You moved onto your side then, to look at your bonded in this state of relaxation. You went to cup his jaw with your hand, stroking his cheek with your thumb as he smiled at you. Even with the change to Obi-Wan’s eyes, the affection within their gaze was no less clear, and you smiled back at him. “I meant what I said, though. Nothing’s going to take me from you now.”

“Good. Because I’m damn sure nothing’s taking you from me, either.”

and there's chapter seven! sorry for the slight delay — work for uni is pretty intense atm, so there might be another longer wait for a new chapter — but I hope you enjoyed it anyway! :)

@blondekel77

chapter eight » fic masterlist » main masterlist

[helbertinelli]

I’ve been reading some of the Clone Wars tie in books and have been liking the Anidala moments. There is one chapter where Bail gives Padme an update on the mission Obi-Wan and Anakin are on and he can tell there is more to her concern. And when Bail is leaving Padme says she’ll rearrange her schedule so she a Breha can catch up at Alderaan’s Crystal Bird Festival and it gave me an idea.

After the mission Padme goes to the Festival with Anakin as her escort and Bail also comes. On the second day, I don’t know anything about the Festival and am just making things up, Breha and Bail are going to meet Padme and Anakin is a small private park to watch the release of the Crystal Birds. They have a set time to meet so Padme and Anakin go to the park to be alone with each other. Bail and Breha decided to go early and see Padme and Anakin sitting on a bench. They’re leaning close together, closer than friends would, Padme gently rests her hand on Anakin’s chest and he covers it with his left hand. Padme kisses Anakin on the cheek. They’re smiling and laughing.

Bail and Breha carefully walk away and return at the scheduled time. They say nothing about what they saw. Later in their bed chamber Breha and Bail talk about what they saw. Bail says he now understands why Padme becomes concerned when she hears news of Jedi being killed, not that it is not distressing, and why she seemed concerned about the last mission

(Now this part is from an early book. Bail thought there was something between Padme and Obi-Wan and Obi-Wan thought there was something between Padme and Bail - for context)

but that he thought Padme’s concern for Obi-Wan. Breha looks at him confused. Bail explains he had thought someone was going on between Padme and Obi-Wan. Breha comes over and sits next to him on their bed and places a hand on his shoulder and says “My love, Obi-Wan is my friend as he is yours but in the area of attractiveness he doesn’t hold a candle to Anakin Skywalker.”

Bail looks at her warmly “Should I be worried?”

Breha gives him a loving kiss. “I’ve found my soulmate and it seems Padme and Anakin have found theirs.”

“You think it’s that serious?”

Breha nods. “The way Anakin was looking at her reminded me of how you look at me, dear.”

“Padme did remind me of you, my love,” Bail said smiling. “When the moment presents should I tell her we know in case she wants to talk or wants reassurance that Anakin will be fine when he next goes off on assignment?”

“I think we can help Padme and Anakin by keeping our knowledge of their secret to ourselves. So they aren’t concerned with what we know and if something were to happen to Anakin or is reported to have happened to him you can be there for her.”

“Since this war began all I’ve done is send condolence messages. I don’t think she’d want something like that.”

“Sometimes having a friend at a dark time can be a source of light. Knowing the reason for the darkness can help you find the way out of it. You’ll know if you should tell Padme you understand her fears if unconfirmed news of Anakin’s fate is reported. You know what that fear is like.”

Bail looked at her and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “Yes, I do.” The memories of when he almost lost Breha filling his mind. “I almost lost you and the support I had while you fought for your life was something I didn’t know I needed at the time but now I don’t know how I would have made it without it. We’ll be that for our friend.”

“Friends,” Breha amended. “Once this war is over I feel we’ll be seeing more of Anakin too.”

Bail nodded. “You’re right. I’ve only talked with Anakin a handful of times. I’ll try to get to know the man better. They’re going to be here for two more days.”

“Wait until you’re back on Coruscant for that. We should let them know some unexpected Royal business has come up and we won’t be able to spend as much time with them while they’re here as we thought,” Breha said with a smile.

“My dear, I loved the way you think,” Bail said with a smile.

“Passing a favor forward my grandmother did for me.” Bail looked at Breha with a questioning look. “Grandma knew I had eyes for a certain man and made small arrangements to allow him to be in my private company after seeing him look at her granddaughter with ‘unyielding affection’.

Bail kissed Breha. “And I thought she didn’t like me.”

This is very beautiful! Thank you for sharing. I really love your idea.

[damn-stark]

Broken Revenge Ch.1

A/N- I feel insecure about starting this series, mainly because lately my chapters haven’t gotten the same notes as before but it’s okay, I’ll continue to write because I simply love it, so don’t forget to Leave your thoughts!!

Warning- violence, swearing, angst, talks of death, long chapter.

Pairing- Poe Dameron x Solo!reader

Takes place during- the ending of TLJ

(Let me know if you want to be tagged)

———

“Leave here with me, come home. We miss you.”

It had all happened suddenly. A cold feeling that followed with confliction. Time had seized to exist and the once peaceful scenery became nothing but a dark and ominous space. Familiar voices echoing loudly and without a pause, pain heard behind each word.

“I’m being torn apart. I want to be free of this pain. I know what I have to do, but I don’t know if I have the strength to do it. Will you help me?”

Everything was confusing until the voices became recognizable. Their was a moment where it seemed like a dream, but dreams have never been so vivid before, no, this was real.

“Of course anything.”

Their was a moment of silence and wait that increased every emotion tenfold. A moment that was suddenly cut off by the violent sound of the lightsaber impaling...your father. And in a brief singular moment the face of the killer flashed through the dark space, the red blade basked his face in a terrifying way, revealing the killer, reminding you of something someone had once told you long ago.

Betrayal never came from enemies, but from those closet to your heart. You never believed it was true. Until now. When you saw the face of the man that you once called brother.

The pain became to overbearing, it hurt every part of your body and broke every inch of your heart. You didn’t know if you wanted to cry out, or scream and kick. All you did was fall to your knees, hitting the ground with a loud thud. It was moments like these where you wished you had someone else at your side to comfort your pain. But their was no one. You were utterly alone.

Suffering through the pain of losing your father alone, trying to digest the truth that your brother, or rather step brother, or correction...Kylo Ren had been the one that killed him. It was a truth you didn’t want to accept, but needed to. He had killed your father. The man that adopted you and took you and raised you like one of his own, the man that loved you when your own parents didn’t. The man that regardless of what you did, regardless of what happened last loved you.

Now. He was gone. And you weren’t there to save him. No one could. The only thing you could do, the only thing that came to mind was to revenge his death. As cruel as that sounded, it was just something you needed to do, who cared who the killer used to be. And you knew you weren’t the only one who thought that, you weren’t the only one mourning his death. All you needed to do was reunite with them. After years of not doing so, it was finally time.

—

The door to the crowded cantina slid open, the cloak on your back flipping against the hot wind, the shadow of your figure painted on the dirty floor. Every other pair of eyes watching as you took off your hood and revealed your face to everyone inside, curious eyes watching as you slowly walked in, striding along like you owned the damn place, eyeing every person in the room.

“Death stick?”

Without looking at the stranger you waved them off and continued forward, trying to locate the familiar voice of the person you were looking for. The one person you knew was going to be here—he was a scoundrel after all, like every person in the Cantina.

Upon looking, your search was looking to be in vain as you didn’t spot him anywhere around. You looked to crowded booths, towards the small buzzing stage and then the bar, where you found someone, a familiar brunette. Not exactly the person you were looking for, but one you didn’t mind actually finding. Your brother Beckett.

He had his head hung low, ignoring whatever it was that some girl was trying to say to him as he stared off into nothing but the drink in his gloved hand, his narrowed gaze noticeable even if half of his face only showed. Their was a still moment where all you did was stare at him from afar, realizing that their was no one else in this damn galaxy you would have rather found first. Before you could take a step towards him he lifted his head, slowly turning to meet your wandering gaze.

Immediately he let go of his drink as he stood from his chair, leaving the girl at his side talking alone. You smiled sadly as the both of you walked towards each other, wrapping each other in a tight hug once you reached one another; He towered over you, that was true, but that didn’t stop you from shoving your face into the crook of his neck.

Out of your other siblings, he and one of your other brothers, Rio were the ones you were most closest to and you were also the one Beckett was closest to, the one he trusted out of everyone else.

You knew Beckett had felt the same thing you did, and with more reason since Han was his real father. When you broke apart you could see the pain in his eyes, the blue irises glistening with kept in tears. He might not show his pain like the others but you knew he felt it.

“You felt it too?” He questioned.

You nodded as the both of you began to maneuver through the crowd. “You here alone?”

He shook his head, his eyes looking through the crowd, “no.”

“Oh?” Their was a brief second where you thought he was here with a girlfriend or a wife, or that girl that was now glaring daggers at you, but when you followed his line of sight to one of the crowded booths you spotted who he was referring to. “Oh.” Your brother Rio.

Rio as per usual had a crowd around him, people he liked to call his “followers”, and like always two girls at each side with a smug look on his thin face. Only this time that smugness was gone and replaced by a feigned smile, the emotion and confliction shown through his brown eyes. He had his boots on the table and one arm around a beautiful red Twi’lek girls shoulders.

You walked up to the booth, noticing that he had his gaze lost somewhere that wasn’t in this room, only noticing you when you called to him, “Rio.” His eyes landed on you, taking a few seconds to register that it was really you. But once he did he basically jumped out of that booth to pull you in for a warm hug.

“Y/N.” He hugged you tighter, the both of you holding back your emotions at the gesture. Once you parted away, just like the girl Beckett was with, the girls Rio was with glared at you. How fucking nice.

“What are you doing here?” Rio grinned, briefly glancing back to Beckett, that alone silently answering his question, “right.”

“We need to find Breha and Akakios.” You mentioned whilst pulling your two brothers out of the Cantina.

“Breha might be difficult to find. You know how weird she is.” Rio responded, looking over his shoulder to wave goodbye to his “followers”, and shooting a wink to the girls he was with—Solo men, unbelievable.

“Akakios?” You continued.

Rio was about to answer, but Beckett beat him to it, “I might know where he is.”

—

As the ramp opened, instead of the smell of fresh rain on the jungle soil greeting your nose, the only thing that did, seemed be the past, painful memories that began the downfall.

Nothing of what you liked to remember was the same. Your uncle Luke Skywalker’s Jedi Temple that once stood proud on Yavin-4 was now nothing more than ashes and sprouting greenery. Only those who lived after the fire knew what it was once.

“Of course he’d be here.” You remark turning to Rio with furrowed eyebrows, “how much more sentimental can our older brother get?”

Rio grinned, “You know how he is. A big heart and a troubled mind.”

“That’s what mother used to say.” You point out, earning another grin from Rio.

Before you could walk deeper into the jungle, their he was, sitting around a fire, alone and like you found the other two, lost in his own mind.

“It’s weird,” Akakios spoke out, his brown eyes reflecting the burning fire as he kept them trained on the flames. “when I felt...fathers death I tried to reach for him like if I were there. I tried, I really did, but he fell either way.” Tears slipped past his cheek, his eyes finally looking up to follow you and your two bothers slowly sitting across from him. His face basked by two bright lights, making his dark complexion shine through the darkness of the night; half of it by the red flames dancing in front of him, and the other half by the beautiful blue that was provided by the moons light. Something that also showed in full view the hurt he felt.

“Hi guys.” Akakios greeted softly, a forced smile tugging on the corner of his lips.

“Hi Ki.” You smiled, “it’s been a while.”

“Too long.”

A moment of awkward silence passed, neither of you knowing what to say exactly, where to start off. It was all too much to unravel and well you were still missing a member of your group—well two, but he didn’t count, not anymore.

“We—” Beckett was suddenly cut off by a voice that came from the darkness of the jungle, a familiar one that sounded cocky and sweet.

“I’m sorry I’m late.” Breha. Said girl ominously walked out of the jungle with her head held up high and half a smile decorated on her soft freckled face.

“You’re here, that’s what counts.” Akakios responded.

Breha greeted each of you with a stiff nod while she took a seat alone across the fire, her lips parting to add an unnecessary comment, “It took Kylo Ren’s betrayal for us to reunite. How poetic.”

Akakios looked to her with a narrowed gaze, sighing before correcting her, “no Breha it’s over fathers death. Dad died, we’re here to mourn his death.”

“No.” Rio added whilst shaking his head in disapproval, “we can’t do it yet. What about mom? Chewie? It’s great that we want to mourn dad together, but it won’t feel complete without them. Dad wouldn’t like it either.”

“Moms busy.” Breha retorted, “like always...she doesn’t have time for any of this. She never did.”

“Breha.” You warned.

She shrugged, the fire raging in her blue eyes. “It’s true is it not? She was always busy with her work, she—”

“Breha.” Akakios seethed, causing said girl to shut up and pull her eyes back to the fire, hearing what Akakios had to say, “Rios right, we need her and Chewie. We can’t do it without them.”

Silence fell over again, creating a tension that wasn’t here before and only got worse when Beckett spoke up. “What about Kylo? What are we going to do with him?”

“What do you mean?”

Beckett scoffed at Akakios response, “he killed our father, what are we going to do? Let him go on with his day? Let him live without knowing what he did came without consequence?”

“He’s our brother, Beckett.” Akakios argued, making Rio and you share a knowing look on what you knew was about to happen.

“He’s not mine!”

“He is. Ben Solo was your brother just like Kylo Ren is, more yours than ours since you both are blood. Nothing is going to change that. We can’t kill him.”

Beckett stood up in a fury, a burning gaze directed to Akakios. “Ben solo died a long time ago. Whoever the hell this man is means nothing to me. He killed our father, so I’ll kill him with no remorse.” He turned to face Rio, Breha and you. Pulling you into the conversation you had been successfully avoiding until now. Great. “We take a vote then.”

Without waiting for the question, Breha jumped in, “I’m in.” Seconds later Rio did the same. He was a bit more hesitant to respond but he did so nonetheless, after all neither of you were thinking clearly, not with the pain clouding your judgement.

After Rio answered, all eyes fell on you. Not that it would matter. The choice was uneven, Beckett had already won—And yet he looked for you to agree with him, let the burden to choose fall on you. Even if you had made your decision before it even came to choosing— “I...I’m with Beckett.”

Akakios closed his eyes for a brief moment, retorting an unexpected comment, “of course you are.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” You quickly shot back.

“Nothing. I just—mother won’t like it.”

What did he mean by that? It wasn’t nothing. He said it for a reason. And you would’ve pressed further but their was no time with Beckett arguing with him.

“Mother and you are the same, hoping that Ben will somehow just decide to change sides. You both are holding on to stupid hope.”

“And we have the right to be.” Akakios defended. “He—”

“He tried to kill you! He cut off your legs because you held onto that hope!” You snapped. “And you still defend him?! After he killed dad? He’s a monster!”

Akakios parted his lips to argue, but your words were true their was nothing that could change that. “We don’t know where he is.” He responded softly.

“Crait.” Breha spoke up, “he’ll be in Crait.”

Rios eyebrows knotted at her knowledge, “how do you know?”

“I” she began to hesitate before she was quick to recover, “I heard the resistance make a call to their allies. Whatever is left of them are held up in Crait, waiting for help. Which only means that they’re running from the First Order.”

You nodded, “okay. Then let’s go help mom and then once and for all do what needed to be done long ago. We all in?”

Everyone stood from their seats, glancing to one another and sharing an unspoken word. Looking as you all did once, united. “We’re all in. Forever and always.”

—

“Where have you been?” Rio spun in his chair to face you, before throwing a nut into his mouth.

“I was with uncle Lando for the most part, but recently I’ve been on my own.” You tell, turning to him and picking a nut from his bag.

“All alone?” He probed with a hidden smirk.

You roll your eyes before bluntly answering him, “yes.”

“It’s okay if you have a boyfriend, you can tell me.”

You quirk your eyebrow and smile, “can I really? Or will it be like last time when you told dad and he and Beckett got all protective.”

Rio chuckled but before he could answer Breha cut into the conversation. “Rio you know how our sister is with guys. She can’t get one to even save her life. What makes you think she’ll get one to be with her for the years not spent with us.” She shows a mischievous smirk before she snatches the bag of snacks from Rios hand. “You know I’m not even sure she likes guys.”

You did! What would she know? She was always focused on her own vanity to even focus on being your sister, or even bother to have one normal conversation.

“At least I don’t obsess over the first guy that looks my way or talks to me pretty like you.” You scoff.

Breha feigns a laugh, her smirk never faltering for a second. “At least they look my way.”

Your eyebrows furrow and just as Rio was about to interrupt your next argument, Beckett announces the arrival to Crait. As soon as he does and the ship enters the planet, Akakios stands up and looks out the ships window, focusing on the huge walkers lined up outside the now destroyed base gate.

“He’s here.” Akakios whispers, “so is mom.”

A smile makes it on your lips at the mention, but that moment wasn’t one that lasted because of the sudden movement Beckett did to avoid incoming blasts. “Shit! Y/N, Rio got on the guns at the side of the ship and take out those ties.”

Rio and you don’t hesitate and do as Beckett commanded; just as you climb onto the gunners seat, two ties welcome you at your end, attempting to shoot at your gun, but were quickly dodged as Beckett flew past them and then spun back around to face them, letting you take this time to shoot the both of them down with one shot!

“You still got it little sister, who knew?!” Rio joked through the comms.

“Learned from the best!”

“Me, I know.” Rio adds smugly whilst shooting down his own TIES.

Dad really but you let him believe otherwise; Anyhow shrugging that aside, the main transport ship came to view, the one you knew Kylo Ren was in. Without giving it a second thought you aim your gun at it, your thumb hovering over the button and just as you pressed on the red button the ship began to spin out of control, loud beeping coming from your headset.

“Hold on!”

Their was nothing to hold on to, but you tried your best—the ship kept spinning until it crashed onto the floor, skidding until it stopped inside the dark base. You let out a loud groan, carefully unbuckling yourself and kicking down the window of what used to be one of the guns.

“Fucking stars,” you grunt, pulling one hand up to your head while with the other one you crawled out of the ships gun seat. The pain began to radiate all over your body, being unable to locate if one part of your body was really injured. Before you could attempt to stand up, someone rushes to your side, carefully grabbing your arms to help you up.

“Hey, are you okay?” The voice asks. You groan, losing your balance and almost falling back to the ground if it weren’t for the person still holding you up. “I got you. I got you.”

Finally you manage to blink up at the person in front of you, seeing a tall, lean muscular man holding you still, his warm brown eyes expressing worry for your current state, and if you weren’t—well that actually didn’t matter at all, he was handsome, their was no denying that fact.

“I don’t know you tell me, am I missing a body part or something?” You try and joke, but it comes out sounding pained more than anything else.

The man chuckles at your lame attempt at a joke, his eyes scanning your body for a second before he met your gaze, and in that in that single moment when your eyes met their was a new sensation, for a single minute it felt like all the air had been sucked from your lungs. It felt like your heart had stopped beating and in that moment of mayhem it was like their was no one else but him and you. As crazy as that was and weird as it was, it felt like that.

But it was just a quick feeling and everything returned to what was called normal now. All the illusion broke and the pain returned, just like everything else around you, leaving nothing but the delusion.

“No you’re okay and intact .” He assures you with a smile and a joke, only letting go as Breha joins your side, feigning worry for your state.

“Y/N, are you okay?” Breha wraps an around your shoulders and smiles sweetly at the mystery man that had helped you. “Thank you for helping her...”

“Poe.” He looks away from your sister and again the both of you meet each other’s gaze, almost seeming like if he were directing his comment to only you, “Poe Dameron.”

“Breha. Breha Solo.” She greets, batting her eyelashes at him and carrying that stupid smile. She doesn’t even bother to introduce you, or leave you space to express your gratitude before she turns the both of you around and walks to join the rest of your siblings who were already walking your way. “I like him. He was cute.” Breha whispers.

So much for you even trying to talk to him when she liked him. She had the tendency to get overly attached and possessive with people she liked—It was a problem

Akakios broke you from your thoughts to ask you exactly what question Rio was about to ask you too. “Are you okay?”

You nod and pull yourself away from Breha’s hold, something that doesn’t bother her as she notices Poe walk past her. “Never better. We should go to mom, she’s probably—” you cut yourself off as someone unexpected appears from inside of the room placed in the base. Someone that you haven’t seen since the downfall at the Jedi Temple happened, for some time you had thought he was dead since neither of your siblings or you could ever find him.

Now that you saw him he seemed like a ghost, which you were grateful he wasn’t. Breha hesitantly began to walk towards him, a smile on her lips at the sight of him. After all he was like a second father to her, he had raised her more time than your parents had, unfortunately; “uncle Skywalker.” Your uncle looked to all of you and did a small head bow and showed a half smile, before he looked back to the army outside the burning doors, silently informing you what he was planning to do, so you all began to follow him, an action he quickly stopped.

“Stay with your mother,” he looked to Breha directing his next comment to her especially, “all of you.”

“But—”

Akakios stopped Breha from walking any further, a hand gently placed on her shoulder, “you heard what he said.” All of you continued to watch as he walked forward until he was completely out of view, causing all of you to follow after Breha as she rushed to the entrance.

You didn’t know what you were expecting to happen really, but you surely weren’t expecting for multiple guns to be shot at one single man (than again it was Kylo Ren.) As your sister watched the events unfold, her eyes went wide. She wasn’t one to really express her emotions, but now and even if she didn’t say it out-loud, you could see the pain in her eyes as the guns kept shooting without stop.

Again she wanted to rush to help, but your brothers stopped her, and before she could force herself there, the shooting stopped, the red mushroom cloud that stood over the same spot your uncle was, slowly began to vanish and revealed him perfectly fine.

“What the hell?” You whispered.

“Medpack! I need a medpack!” A man exclaimed as he dragged an unconscious women behind him, causing all your siblings and you to fall back into the base, smiling as your mother walked out from the inside, her eyes carefully examining all five of you with a warm smile of her own.

Neither of you hesitated to go up to her, before an old golden droid walking in-between and blocking the path to her. “General Organa, look who it is. It’s the children.” Threepio looked back to see your mothers knowing smile, making said droid scoot out of the way.

“Mother.” Quickly she was wrapped in a group hug, one that if it weren’t for the other people around would have turned emotional. But alas neither of you spoke about the past events. Just yet.

“What happened?” Rio worried, as he noticed the cane in her hand. She simply shook her head and dismissed his question by changing the subject.

“I’m glad you’re all here together. I’ve missed you all.”

“We’re here for you.” You smiled, moving behind her as Rio wrapped an arm around her shoulders in a protective manner. While the rest of your siblings stood close by her as well, letting you think of something that caused your smile falter.

What kind of kids were you? Never coming to join your mother’s cause or coming to visit and check on her? As noble and kind hearted as Akakios was he never came, and Rio who loved mother more than anything in this galaxy never came either. Beckett being her biological son didn’t come, he mostly watched from afar but he didn’t stay, and you as much as you hated to admit were like Breha and the rest of them too. Not even a single and simple check in. If she was mad, she deserved to be...but knowing her she didn’t care as long you were here now.

“There’s gotta be a way out of this mine. Hell. How did he get in here?” You focused back into the room as Poe began to question the small group.

The golden droid walked to the curly headed man, already explaining his knowledge, “Sir, it is possible that a natural unmanned opening exists but this facility is—” not far into the droids explanation you tune him out, noticing that the crystal critters you noticed when crashing here were gone, letting you realize that they had found a way out, one the group could could use too.

“Threepio.” You quickly interrupt, “as knowledge as you may be, please shut up and listen.”

The droid turns his head around confusingly, “oh my audio senses no longer detect the—.”

“Exactly,” Poe interjects as he moves forward.

“Where’d the crystal critters go?” Breha asks as she moves behind him.

Poe gasps and looks over his shoulder with determination, “follow me.”

The small group of resistance fighters look to your mother for assurance, something she quickly gives them. Your siblings and you are about to follow behind the group, but Beckett stops you from doing so, an action that causes your mother to stop too.

“Mother go, we have to make sure Kylo won’t follow.. we’ll catch up after.” You knew what Beckett intended to do, what his plans were for the man your mother and Akakios still loved and held hope for.

“Beckett.” Your mother muttered softly.

Akakios surprised you with his answer (even if he did say he was with you all); “we’ll join you this time, promise.” He pressed a soft kiss on her forehead before he motioned for one of the resistance members to take her with them. “I’ll take care of them.”

—

Master Skywalker had vanished in the middle of the field after his fight with Kylo, leaving all of you more than confused, leaving Breha to cry minutes later and be overcome by rage, with emotions she didn’t even express about fathers death. It was confusing, but you kind of figured by the long faces shared that something had happened to your uncle.

You would have felt it too, if you hadn’t...well if you were still connected.

The mourning for your uncle was short lived just like your fathers, as it had to be put on hold when Kylo Ren saw all of you walk out together. A cool sight that caused goosebumps to anyone watching. An action that Akakios was still unsure of.

“Come to join me?!” Kylo Ren shouted. He was to far away to really notice his features, but from what you could see he still had the same hairstyle, the same guarded and stiff posture, same anger in every word.

“You would like that wouldn’t you?” You seethed. “For us to join you? After years you still can’t seem to let us go? But you’re wrong, we’re not here to join you.”

Rio, Breha and Beckett pulled out their lightsabers, activating them and revealing each different colored lightsaber blades; While you pulled out your twin vibro-blades, and Akakios remained weaponless.

“We’re here to kill you.” Beckett finished for you, digging his heels into the salt covered ground, “like I should have done years ago.”

Kylo tightened his grip on his saber, scoffing at Beckett’s comment. “You? You’ve tried twice. You lost your arm in one attempt, or don’t you remember?”

Your eye flicker over to Beckett, but only notice that his hands are hidden by his gloves. Impossible to notice if Kylo’s claim was true. Then again why wouldn’t it?

“You killed dad, we have no choice.” Rio added sadly, his eyes glistening with tears.

“He was weak and—”

“Shut up!” You bark, pointing one blade his direction, “shut the hell up you monster!”

Kylo hesitates for a moment before he looks to Akakios, not giving away if he had been hurt by what you said, just simply ignoring it, “You did this. You turned them all against me! We could all have been together! But no you made them hate me!”

“You did that yourself brother!” Their it was, that word Akakios couldn’t let go.

“If I was your brother, then you would have joined me when I asked, but you didn’t. Instead you chose them.” He shot a burning glare to all of you before he spun his unstable lightsaber in his hand, “so this is the end once and for all of, forever and always.” With those last words he ran your way, swinging his lightsaber first at Beckett, a move he easily dodged.

“You’ll pay for what you did to uncle Luke.” Breha growled as she spun her blade to her right, to hit Kylo, but as she tried, he met her violet blade with his unstable red one. He pressed down on her, but before he could press further, you lunged forward, one of your sharp blades only managing to cut the tip of a strand of his hair.

His eyes slid to the side to meet your own, kicking back Breha and spinning to meet his raging blade with one of your own. He tilted his head slightly before he seemed to figure out your force dilemma and smirked. Noticing that sight you pulled your other blade to trap his, but he saw that move coming and froze your arm mid way. You groaned to be set free, but nothing helped.

Fuck. Now you regret disconnecting yourself from the force.

In a swift movement you flipped over and kicked his face, causing him to lose concentration on your arm and stumble back. That was an opportunity Beckett took and tried to strike him, but as he tried, Rio came forward, twirling his double bladed lightsaber to swing at Kylo. Something that Kylo used as an advantage to force move Beckett’s bronze blade to hit one of Rios blue blades.

Rio shrugged innocently, mouthing an I’m sorry before Breha in a rage swung down at Kylo’s shoulder, a quick action that he barely managed to avoid, a move that ended up cutting part of his shoulder; Kylo spun back on his heels and glared at Breha. His glare seeming to burn holes into her as he kept his eyes trained on her, almost as if he were trying to read her thoughts.

That was a movement that caught everyone off guard, he was just standing there, and before Beckett could lunge forward, Kylo began to force choke her, catching said girl off guard and even more so as he rose his lightsaber to strike her down. Before he could he hit her, a green blade came in-between and stopping Kylo’s attempts.

“I can’t let you do that.” Akakios asserted, force pushing Breha back to let you catch her as she tried to gasp for air. “Leave, now. I don’t want to kill you.”

Kylo glared at Akakios, his eyes blinking up to meet your own, before he met Rio’s and Akakios again. “But I do want to kill you.” In a fast movement, Kylo deactivated his blade, force pushing Akakios back and for Beckett to try his lunge again. Something Kylo quickly dodged as he turned to his side, throwing his hilt to his other hand whilst activating it and aiming at Beckett’s chest.

Your eyes went wide and without a second damn thought you threw your blade to hit Kylo’s lightsaber off his hand. You left Breha’s side and sped towards Kylo, jumping up to bring one foot down on his chest and flipping behind him, using your other blade to have it threatening on his back.

Beckett was quick to think, summoning Kylo’s lightsaber to use it against him, having it crossed and hovering above his throat, shooting him a nasty remark; “You never were my brother. My brother died a long time ago. You. You’re nothing but a monster. Who will pay for what you did to my father.” With a move of his wrists he began to uncross the blades, however before he could hit Kylo’s throat, one of the guns behind you was beginning to sound. You looked back to see the bright red blast getting ready to fire, and before it could shoot off, Kylo force pushed your siblings back, swiftly spinning back to grab you and tackle you to the ground. The blast seconds later hitting the spot you were on previously.

You only managed to lift your head up a couple inches, meeting Beckett’s worried gaze. He looked to Kylo who still had you in his arms and back you before he had to tear them away as more blasts began to shoot at him and your siblings. Knowing that their was no other choice and that their was no way for them to get to you, Akakios led your siblings back inside the base, with Beckett halting by the entrance and mouthing, “I’ll come for you.”

You showed a assuring smile before he disappeared leaving you to kick Kylo away from you. Your eyes frantically searched for your twin blades that were a couple inches away. In a hasty move you attempted to grab it, but Kylo was quick, summoning his lightsaber and threatening his crackling blade at your throat.

“Poor choice to not be connected to the force, sister. I thought you smarter than that.” Kylo remarked.

You scoffed and slowly pulled your hand away from your blade, “well I’m sorry that my fathers death was hurting me. It was overwhelming, but you wouldn’t understand.”

“You never were one to know how to deal with your emotions.” He smirked, deactivating his lightsaber ans leaning in closer to your face before whispering a lie, “I’m happy to see you again.”

He waved his hand over your face, an action that was quick to overwhelm you, making everything go blurry and for you to lose your balance. Kylo was quick to put one arm under your knees and the other one under your shoulders, lifting you up before you heard his lasts words to someone approaching.

“I’m taking her back with me.”

—

(Akakios P.O.V)

“We need to work better together, we did horrible.” Rio commented to Beckett, who’s attention was not even in the ship they were entering.

Perhaps if Akakios hadn’t just lost his sister then he would feel nostalgic, maybe even happy to be back on the Falcon, but he had failed his mother, his siblings and y/n. He had lost her to Kylo when he told his mother he was going to take care of all them. He failed...again.

He failed Ben when he didn’t stop him from joining the dark side—even if the moment Ben asked, Akakios hesitated and he would again.

What was wrong with him? He was supposed to influence his siblings to do good, but out all of them. Out of Breha even, Akakios actually thought of joining Ben. He hesitated just like moments ago, if he hadn’t then y/n would be here at his side, probably happy to be on their fathers old ship. But she wasn’t and seeing his mother find out that she was missing hurt him.

“I’m sorry. I promise I will get her back. I promise.” He began to apologize, a crack heard in his voice, “I’m sorry mother.”

Leia showed him a reassuring smile, even if he knew that y/n missing worried her. “I know.” She wrapped him in a tight embrace, assuring him in a whisper, “don’t blame yourself. I know you tried.” It was in this moment that he realized that he had really missed his mother’s hugs, as old as he got those were things he was never going to hate.

Akakios soon pulled away, smiling kindly, his attention getting stolen by Rio jumping Chewbaccas back, shouting to him in excitement. The Wookiee knowing exactly who it was matched Rios energy and threw him on the ground—as they did. Seconds later pulling him up, and rubbing the top of his head before he pulled Rio in a tight hug. Rio laughed and tried to match the Wookiee’s strength.

At the sight of seeing Chewie then pull a stubborn Beckett into the hug, Akakios grinned, joining his mother in a soft chuckle.

“He’s missed you all.” Leia mused.

Before Akakios could respond or join them, his attention was completely stolen by a brunette. Her hair was half down, half up, she had a bruise on the side of her face, but it was something that didn’t take away from her soft brown eyes and her sweet smile. In that moment she noticed Akakios gaze and turned to meet his, making said man grin turn into a shy smile. Feeling as if time had slowed when they locked eyes, feeling his heart hammer in his chest wildly as she began to walk over. This was something he never felt until now, with her.

When she was finally before him, she smiled, a beautiful smile, before she kindly introduced herself, “Rey.”

He showed a charming and yet a shy grin, “Akakios.”

Was this going to be the start of something new?

.

.

.

.

A/N- what? The sisters like the same guy, huh? What? Secret relationships? Sister on sister rivalry? Brother likes the same girl as his evil brother? Huh? I don’t know guess all those questions will be answered in the next chapters! Also also, who’s your favorite character out of the siblings, i know it’s the first chapter but,so far? Beside reader of course.

Permanent taglist- @ms-dont-care​​ , @commondazy​​

[alexseanchai]

@bookity101 , @flamelordytheking , @beatrice-otter , @galahadwilder , anyone else interested in time-traveling Leia: I have now recalled there exists a third (Leia lands on Tatooine before the Phantom Menace and poses as a bounty hunter and gets in Padme's good graces that way, and I think Shmi knows the truth), but do I remember title or author? of course not!

here's the two I do know where to find:

.

Like Fire in Our Bones (139377 words) by acuteneurosis

Chapters: 46/?

Fandom: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Major Character Death

Relationships: Leia Organa & Shmi Skywalker, Leia Organa & Luke Skywalker, Padmé Amidala & Leia Organa, Leia Organa & Darth Vader, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker, Leia Organa & Anakin Skywalker, Anakin Skywalker & Shmi Skywalker

Characters: Leia Organa, Shmi Skywalker, C-3PO (Star Wars), Padmé Amidala, Anakin Skywalker, Anakin Skywalker | Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, R2-D2 (Star Wars), Obi-Wan Kenobi, Shea Sadashassa, Cordé (Star Wars), Eirtaé (Star Wars), Dormé (Star Wars), Senator Darsana, Sheev Palpatine | Darth Sidious

Additional Tags: Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, Skywalker Family Drama, Politics, Grief/Mourning, Ghosts

Summary:

With all of the most important things in the galaxy literally exploding around her, Leia is given the chance to go back and help keep a promise she never personally made.

But then, for Skywalkers, saving the galaxy was always a family matter.

.

Of Queens, Knights, and Pawns (531162 words) by chancecraz

Chapters: 26/?

Fandom: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Original Trilogy

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Relationships: Leia Organa & Darth Vader, Leia Organa & Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa/Han Solo, Bail Organa & Breha Organa & Leia Organa, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Leia Organa

Characters: Leia Organa, Anakin Skywalker | Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Bail Organa, Breha Organa, CT-7567 | Rex, Mon Mothma, Davits Draven, Evaan Verlaine, Ahsoka Tano

Additional Tags: Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, Skywalker Family Feels, Implied/Referenced Torture, Angst

Series: Part 1 of Of Queens, Knights, and Pawns

Summary:

I went to sleep on the worst day of my life and woke to find myself in the past on the second worst day of my life. As experiences go, I don’t recommend it.

[gffa]

Guess who’s crying because STAR WARS is full of feelings again? ALL OF US, THAT’S WHO. This is another collection designed to have at least a little something for almost everyone, whether you’re here for a ship or a certain era of the Saga or the greater SW tapestry, whether you want to cry about Anakin Skywalker or want to keep crying about the Rebels, whether you’re here for Leia Organa feelings or just want to roll around in a time travel that will hopefully eventually fix everything, there should hopefully be at least one fic that appeals! Star Wars fandom is so good at providing things to read (so much so that I still have at least a dozen novel-length fics on my reader that I haven’t even been able to start yet!) and so many of them are so, so worth your time to read. Bless all the authors making it even better to be a fan of this ridiculous series about space wizards and aliens and smugglers and good kids doing their best against an evil regime that wants to crush everyone! STAR WARS FIC RECS: TIME TRAVEL RECS: ✦ Drifting Starlight by Pandora151, obi-wan & anakin & ahsoka & qui-gon & cast, time travel, 60.3k    Just before the fateful Battle of Naboo, Qui-Gon Jinn is brought to the future, to the Clone Wars. He doesn’t know why or how, but he knows one thing for sure: He never, in a million years, expected the galaxy to end up like this. ✦ The Dark Path Lit by Sun and Stars by A_Delicate_Fury, obi-wan & luke & leia & han & cast, time travel, 33.8k wip    After a disaster on the cosmic scale that Obi-Wan is still trying to wrap his mind around, he finds himself back in the early days of the Clone Wars, Commander Cody loyally at his side, Anakin at his back, and Sidious plotting against the Jedi at every turn. ✦ Death, Yet The Force (so rise and shine) by EclipseMidnight (EternalEclipse), obi-wan & mace & tahl & cin drallig & qui-gon & depa & cast, time travel, 14.9k    In which the most eclectic group of time travelers wake up in 949 ARR (51 BBY) and attempt to unravel what the Force wants them to do and begin to take the necessary steps to ensure the survival of the Jedi in the future ✦ In Time by Ripki, obi-wan & anakin, time travel, 23.6k wip    When a mysterious holocron sends [Obi-Wan and Anakin] through time, they don’t only have to confront their past and future – but the present as well. ✦ Worldwalker by rainglazed, ezra & kanan & cast, time travel, 25.5k wip    Time travel AU where Ezra Bridger meets Caleb Dume the day after Order 66. ✦ twin suns by tripletmoons, obi-wan & cast, time travel, 1.5k    Obi-Wan Kenobi is six years old when he meets Ben. It goes like this: he falls asleep in the Temple and wakes up in the sand. PREQUELS RECS: ✦ So, How Was My Funeral? by Ibelin, obi-wan & anakin & yoda & mace, 5k    “Obi-Wan, I need you to know two things. First, I love you so much.” Anakin looked his master in the eye, demanding full acknowledgment. “And second, I am going to kill you.” ✦ Though Lovers Be Lost by panharmonium, obi-wan & cast, 4.5k    When they tell stories about his life, will they speak of loss or love? You cannot have one without the other, after all. ✦ Catechin by ambiguously, mace & depa, 2.1k    Three times Mace Windu and Depa Billaba took tea together. ✦ untitled by swhurtcomfort, obi-wan & anakin, 1.7k    Anonymous asked: Hey, can I request an Obi-Wan with a bad fever getting taken care of by Anakin who is too stubborn to admit hes also sick? ✦ Old Sins Cast Long Shadows by zarabithia, ahsoka & obi-wan & anakin & padme (& building background obi-wan/padme), 12.8k wip    In this universe, when Palpatine asks if Anakin is going to kill him, Anakin does. While Anakin ultimately wins, it costs him his life. In this universe, the twins are raised by Ahsoka, Padmé, and Obi-Wan. ✦ We Will Abide by naberiie, plo & shaak, 10.3k    Light. Dark. Balance. Beneath the Jedi Temple, far below the chaos of Coruscant’s Galactic City, ancient halls and corridors sleep in silent darkness. Padawans Shaak Ti and Plo Koon are determined to explore them. ✦ memories like ashes at our feet by ambiguously, anakin & ahsoka, 4.2k    Darth Vader was gravely injured in the explosion of the Sith Temple. Now Anakin Skywalker has no memory of what he’s doing here with Ahsoka. ✦ valley of the shadow by darlingargents, obi-wan & luminara (& barriss), 1.6k    In which Luminara finds out. ✦ Queen of Peace by Sassaphrass, obi-wan & padme & cast (background anakin/padme), 20.2k    Padmé Amidala lives. Democracy is dead, The Jedi are Dead, and her beloved husband Anakin Skywalker is dead. But, Padmé is still alive. Her children are still alive. And maybe, just maybe, there is still hope. So, she’ll just have to keep going, and pray that someday all these terrible sacrifices will have been worth it. ✦ The Mathematics of Repair by panharmonium, obi-wan & anakin, 4.6k    For raw teachers and rough-edged students building in the rubble: tiny steps are enough, provided they carry you in the right direction. Immediately post TPM, in short snippets. ✦ Scavenged Parts of Broken Hearts by crowleyshouseplant, mace & paxi, 3.1k    Paxi Sylo meets Mace Windu a second time. ✦ On the Third Day by victoria_p (musesfool), anakin & bail & breha & leia, 3.4k    Vader’s patience has run out. ✦ Nothing by Pandora151, obi-wan & anakin & dooku, ~1k    A single split-second decision changes everything. ✦ A Ghost’s Embrace by AceQueenKing, shmi & padme & leia, 1.4k    Shmi Skywalker watches over her granddaughter, but she isn’t alone. ✦ Space Twins by glorious_clio, obi-wan & luke & leia & bail, 1.1k    Obi-Wan is tasked with bringing Luke to Tatooine. For his part, Bail brings Leia home to Breha. ✦ Eternal Darkness by Darth_Vodka, jedi & cast (& jocasta), 5k    When the newly anointed Darth Vader leads the 501st Legion to the Jedi Temple to execute Order 66, a last ditch effort to preserve the Jedi Order has unintended consequences. ✦ these little things called pyrrhic victories by RestlessWanderings, obi-wan & anakin, 3.6k    Or, the one where Obi-Wan follows Yoda’s orders and kills Anakin, which changes some things but leaves others the same. ✦ Tag by Imadra Blue, obi-wan & yoda, ~1k    A three-year-old Obi-Wan follows Master Yoda around the Temple. ✦ See No Evil by GirlwithCurls98, ahsoka & anakin & yoda & cast, 9.7k wip    When Ahsoka suffers a head injury, she loses something she thought would always be there. With the help of her friends, she learns how to adapt to her new reality, and how she can use it to her advantage, all while searching for a cure. ✦ A First Time for Everything by Ossian, obi-wan & anakin, 1.1k    Post-TPM, Obi-Wan and Anakin find a connection ✦ Time to Go by JediShampoo, obi-wan/padme & cast, 4.9k    Obi-Wan is leaving Alderaan and taking Luke with him. He and Padme must say their goodbyes. Stuff happens. ✦ An Interlude (The Passing of Some Days) by victoria_p (musesfool), obi-wan & leia & bail/breha, 1k    Bail makes some calls. ✦ buy a dog by panharmonium, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon, 2.4k    You ask of my companions. Hills, sir, and the sundown, and a dog as large as myself that my father bought me. They are better than human beings, because they know but do not tell. -Dickinson OBI-WAN/ANAKIN RECS: ✦ Titles, Traditions, and Other Forms of Attachment by MarchofBirds, obi-wan/anakin & cast, NSFW, 25.5k    Or: How Anakin’s relationship to the term “Master” changes throughout different stages of his life. ✦ Both Deserve Happiness by zarabithia, obi-wan/anakin, 1.3k    The Republic falls, but Anakin doesn’t. Together, Obi-Wan and Anakin lead the hunt to find Palpatine. Eventually, they have to face the fact that their relationship has changed. ✦ Tumblr Prompt Drabbles by Adelphrexia, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, 1.5k wip (sort of)    A collection of Obikin drabble requests originally posted on my Tumblr. Mostly smut, any warnings will be posted on the chapter they apply to. ✦ Lucky me by orphan_account, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, hooker au, 1.9k    Anakin might never have been found by the Jedi, Obi-Wan and he still are lucky enough to meet each other. ✦ Cuddle by Captain Starseeker, obi-wan/anakin, 1k    When having a rough, over worked day, it’s nice to just sit down and cuddle with your loved one. ObiAni fluff ✦ Yes, Master by Little Green Voice, obi-wan/anakin, 12.1k    It wasn’t only the words. It was the way they were said. And, if he was completely honest, it was also a little the words. Not so much about the ‘yes’ though, as it was about the “Master”. ✦ Pursuit by Icse, obi-wan/anakin, nsfw, modern au, 16.3k wip    Ben Kenobi wasn’t interested in taking on a working student, […] still, he can recognize talent when he sees it and agrees to take on Anakin as his working student. He certainly didn’t plan on falling for him. ✦ Tagalongs by zarabithia, obi-wan/anakin & luke & leia, modern au, 3.4k    Leia has cookies to sell, and her father is along for the ride. Had he known that someone as handsome as Obi-Wan Kenobi was going to purchase some, Anakin might have taken more than five minutes to get dressed. ✦ Naughty Padawans by salixbabylon, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, spanking, 1.4k    Obi-Wan, completely fed up with his padawan, tries something definitely *not* in the Master’s Handbook. ✦ Secret Fire by ambiguously, obi-wan/anakin, nsfw, 2.7k    Masters, especially human masters, would sometimes take their young students aside and offer them this experience. It was perfectly normal. ORIGINAL TRILOGY RECS: ✦ As Old As Rhyme by ambiguously, padme & luke, ~1k    Every night, someone sits next to Luke on his bed and sings a lullabye in a low voice in a language he doesn’t know. ✦ The Belonging You Seek by WiliQueen, luke & leia & ahsoka & cast, 30.9k wip    A chance discovery gives Luke and Leia a glimpse into who Anakin was, and leads them to more than they ever expected. More questions, more answers… and more family. ✦ Hear Me by crowleyshouseplant, anakin & leia & luke & cast, 3.2k    Leia struggles to reconcile Luke’s experience with his father and hers with Darth Vader. ✦ Spar by glorious_clio, liea & luke & wedge & han, 3.2k    Luke is desperate to learn the ways of the Force. Leia can’t really help him there, but she knows how to wield a blade. REBELS RECS: ✦ Is It Gremlins? by ncfan, sabine & kallus, 8.3k    This was not how Sabine expected to spend her afternoon. ✦ pas de deux by glorious_clio, kanan/hera, 1.9k    After spending all day in the cockpit, and with one more chore to complete, Hera Syndulla feels the urge to move. But even a simple moment can come with a hangup or two. Luckily, she has a supportive partner. ✦ Celestial Navigation by ambiguously, zeb/kallus, 1.7k    Kallus doesn’t understand why Zeb’s not sad. ✦ Bank of Coals by Eclectic_Goddess, kanan/hera & ezra, 1.4k    “You should get some rest.” “I’m fine.” “That would be more convincing if you could keep your eyes open when you said it.” ✦ The Joy of Nescience by ambiguously, kanan & depa & ahsoka/rex, 2.1k    Three times Kanan Jarrus did not want to know. ✦ Symbios by bam_cassiopeia, ahsoka & sabine & aphra, 4.1k    Sabine and Ahsoka go on a quest for a boy and his purrgils. ✦ An Unexpected Encounter by codenametargeter, kanan/hera & hondo & katooni, 2k    It’d been enough of a surprise when Ahsoka Tano had turned out to be alive. Kanan definitely wasn’t expecting to find another member of the Jedi Order so soon and definitely not amongst Hondo Ohnaka’s pirate gang. SOLO RECS: ✦ Feelings Are a Luxury and This is War by igrockspock, han/qi'ra, 1.3k    Feelings are a luxury Qi'Ra can’t afford. ✦ tell me, get my shit together by paperclipbitch, han/lando & chewbacca & cast, solo spoilers, 5.3k    “I thought we were actively avoiding each other after the Trandosha Shitshow,” Han says. “We’re actively avoiding each other after the Iridonia Shitshow,” Lando corrects him, “the Trandosha Shitshow is That Which We Do Not Speak Of.” ✦ Falcon Heart by crowleyshouseplant, lando & l3, solo spoilers, 3k    Lando is reunited with an old friend. SEQUELS RECS: ✦ Relax and Fly Casual by igrockspock, han & ben & cast, 4.1k    A father-son smuggling trip is not the kind of quality time Ben had in mind. ✦ each offering of tenderness by victoria_p (musesfool), rey & leia & finn & poe & chewbacca & rose & r2-d2, 3.1k    “I can fix it,” Rey insists. “I can fix anything.” ✦ Waste Management by shadydave, leia & rey & finn & poe & rose, 10.4k    “Uh, hi,” says Finn. “We’re here to rescue you?” FULL DETAILS + RECS HERE!

[myfanfictiongarden]

Our Path Between The Stars- Ch 2

Prolouge, Chapter 1

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When you grow up in a world where oppression is the norm and peace a dream you learn that to fight is the only way of survival. Leia knows that her childhood was a good and safe one, compared to many others while the Empire ruled, but while it may have been a good one it was never a sheltered one. Both Bail and Breha Organa were active in the fight against the new rule, each of them in their own way. The first few years were just as one would imagine them to be for a princess of Alderaan, living in a magical world a child´s imagination idealises into paradise. But the truth is both her parents could not hide from her the looming presence of the dark shadow that was swallowing the galaxy moment by moment. Her mother the Queen, her father the senator, and she a child in-between that could see far too early how gruesome the reality around them really was. There was much she learned from them, much she thanked them for. At the age of 14 she began her active political career, following her father to every meeting he would allow her to attend. And he rarely forbad her anything.

And so the years passed, and so the things changed. Even now, years after she last held her adoptive parents in a hug, she likes to think back to those happy moments they shared, imagining them at peace, knowing that what they fought for became reality.

-

That is why she still, 20 years after Endor, spends most of her time in meetings and discussions, holding to the idea of the New Republic. It is a constant task to satisfy all the expectation the people of the Republic hold for their senators, but as exhausted as she may feel at the end of a many day, the feeling of doing good, the feeling of having back lasting peace just as it once had been, is enough to throw all exhaustion away.

And, as much as the senate and politics were her world, there was something she held even higher, something she was thankful for every morning she awoke.

-

There was something of a routine they came to establish, a way of combining who they were in the best way. While initially the guilty feeling of being to much at work would nag her, she soon found a way to settle most of her one-goings from home, or she would simply take Ben to the senate and her office there. There were always enough people there- people she trusted- that were more than happy to fuss about a cute toddler for a few hours. The wanderlust of Han would often enough be the reason he would agree to do some traveling for the Republic, and given that he knew most of the systems by heart, it was not the worst of moves. She would miss him in the weeks or months he would be away, but somehow she knew he always came back. She had her politics, he had his travels. Together they had Ben.

Since the first time she had held their son in her arms, his skin still wrinkled and rosy, time had gone in an unstoppable speed. Before she knew it he had opened his eyes and started to look at his surroundings with interest. The cute sounds he produced with his mouth turned soon into words and then sentences. Before she knew it he stopped crawling over the floor and started walking, and with that started growing. More then once did she wonder how often a child could outgrow his clothes, but there was no help to it and so she was just left with the comforting knowledge that her son was fed well and healthy.

As time passed he was less “hyper active”- as some would remark with a smirk- and at the age of nine capable of following his studies with powerful determination. She liked that, it was like her at his age. He was also interested in mechanics and technics; something Han liked to point out came from his side. The two of them would spend hours working at the Falcon, or Ben would tinker with loose parts his father would give him. She liked to stand in the doorway of Ben´s room, looking at father and son working on some technical problem, being enthusiastic over something they both enjoyed. These were the moments she loved the most.

But not everything was always brightly coloured. There were habits that were hard to break and so the occasional bickering between her and Han was sure to never disappear. The reasons for their arguments would differ, but on recently they were mostly concerning on topic. Ben.

She couldn´t blame Han for looking at everything so relaxed, it was after all one of the trails that had made her fall in love with him in the first place. But as Ben had reached his teens, their parenting methods and arguments around it would often clash together. Their son was a good student, his education was never a problem. He was interested in the world around him, he had a few friends and a growing interest in piloting. And yet at the same time she could see that not everything was as it should have been.

How often did she wish for her mother being there, her father being there, her parents who knew how to raise a child. Were her parents back on Alderan faced with the same problems like she was now? Had she herself been a difficult child? But things were different then, there had been danger everywhere and so many other things to worry about, that looking back, childhood and youth went by fast. Now it is better. Isn´t it?

-

There were moments when Ben would start a fight over matters she could not understand and Han would later most often comment it as youthful spirit. But it weren´t the teenage years and what came with it that concerned her, it was something else. The childhood tantrums he would have at the age of 5 or 6 with loud crying were long gone, and yet the quiet mood he would have at the age of 16 made her feel even more helpless. There were nights when she would lie in bed and ponder over things she feared to name.

It is like life offers a countless amount of moments that are only there to let or let not your heart stop. A charity race can be one of them. She lets him fly because it’s for a good cause, because he is good at it- of course with a father like his- and because she can’t say no to it, of course she can’t. She knows he is eager to win, to prove how good he is. When the race starts everything is still fine, he starts off perfectly. Then one of the other racers cuts him, it’s unfair but that’s how races go. She is happy he gets through, no matter what spot.

When she walks to the hangar to congratulate him later for the excellent race he did she can feel something cold.

- “It’s not like we can ground him. At the age of twenty it’s ridiculous, but he is sure going to hear his fair share when he gets home.” Han ensured as they entered their apartment, but she was too made up to say anything. She could still feel the cold, the something she will not name, deep in here bones. All tropical daylight heat had left the hangar, empty with only him standing there, when she came in.  What she saw in his face there from afar, oh she doesn´t want to name.

“We shouldn’t have allowed him to race. It’s bad for the character.” she simply said.

“Bad for the character? I did pretty many races at my time and it didn’t hurt mine. And besides, what do you mean with we? It was you who brought up the idea to him in the first place.”

“You could have said something concerning the matter too. It’s not like you tend to hold your opinions back.”

“What could I have said, princess? Better not race, son. It can be dangerous and full of disappointments.”

“No, look you don’t get it.” she said with a huff, hand covering her face.

“You can’t protect him from everything!”

“Parents are supposed to protect their children!!!”

Her voice had reached a peak she didn’t even know was possible and suddenly the silence that followed was even scarier.

“Leia. I’m sorry, look...”

“I’ m scared” it burst out of her just like the tears that filled her eyes.“It’s Vader. I fear... I fear so much that shadow will never leave, never leave me alone, never leave us alone! I... I know- Luke and I talked-it turned out well, that Anakin is now one with the Force, that he came back. But... the darkness. The darkness is still hanging over us, over me. It went down from him in my blood, and I can’t loose the feeling that it lives on, that it lives on because I was a mistake.” she finished with a sharp note, seconds from breaking down.

“Hold it now woman. Don’t you talk like that about yourself ever again!” Han said and with one strode was at her side pulling her in his arms. The shock of the sudden embrace was too much. Now the tears were streaming down her face, a flow just as endless as the emotions that she felt shaking her through the very mark.

“Leia, please don’t talk like that.“ was all that he managed to whisper, over and over again, his voice soft and quiet.

“Han...” she tried but her voice left her. “Han, I don’t know what I would do if he... if it...”

“We are not going to worry about things that are not and may never be.”

“Since when are you the old reasonable parent.”

“Old I’m not. Reasonable? Well one of us two should be, right sweetheart?”

Despite everything she had to smile at him, but it did not erase her fear. “I’m sorry.” she said slowly pulling out of his arms, stroking her dress straight. “I can’t explain what came over me.”

“I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have yelled. You are right to worry; you wouldn’t be a parent if you didn’t. And to be honest my reactions at times may have fuelled it. At times I don’t know how to behave with him either. Guess we both try our best.”

-

For a while, everything comes back to normal. Ben apologized for his reaction and Han accepted it with a voice that still showed disapproval for what happened- although his tone was still harmless enough to not sound provoking. And she, she gave her share too, but afterwards was left just as clueless as before.  

Then one day, she comes home and sees him sitting on the couch, looking out the panorama window. There is nothing unusual in the sight of him sitting there in the living room, the sun is shining and the view on the city is magnificent as always, and yet… she feels like she cannot move out of the hall to the room. Something… something else is there. She sees her son staring at something distant, so distant, and it is like he is miles away. And there is something in that picture that made her freeze, a feeling hidden away suddenly awakened. It is a matter of only a few moments before he notices her presence, before he turns his head and greats her with a warm welcoming smile.

“Mother! You ´re home! How was the journey this time? Anything accomplished?” he asks as he raises from the couch to great her.

She breaks out of her revere, and greats him too with a smile.

“The journey was more than perfect Ben.” She says while she searches for his hand to hold. “Is your father home yet?”

“No, not yet. But he promised to come earlier.” He answered as they both now stood in the living room.

There seems to be nothing unordinary in this moment, and she looks at his young face, at the eyes he is said to have from her and at the smile he sure has from his father. And at that instant realisation grippes her, and she knows she and Han will have much to talk about in the evening.

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

It was very interesting writing this part from Leia´s POV, and yet very challenging too. I believe that both Han and Leia, while not always perfect, were loving parents only wishing the best for their son. The more sad it is to see how things turned to be.

[morhath]

@autisticminyard tagged me in a thingie where you list the good things that happened this year, going month-by-month.  Some stuff was obvious (NaNo! my job!) but some months were really hard and I had to dig through my blog archives to see what I was up to.  There were also some things that happened over multiple months, which I’ve listed at the beginning.  (That wasn’t part of the original post, it was just my idea.)

Some overall stuff: I got a lot of writing done this year!  I did NaNo, but I also worked a lot on fic, as well as some original stuff.  I also auditioned to be in the dance concert and got cast in a really cool piece that’s all about individuality, so I’m allowed to modify stuff so I can use my cane.  On a related note, I took ballet classes during the summer.  I was in with professional dancers (I am Not That) and I very quickly learned how to be okay with sucking at stuff.  (2016 was the year of Actually Thinking My Creative Endeavors Are Good, and then 2017 was the year of it Also Being Okay If They Suck Though.)  I think I also got a bit better at being organized and cleaning up my own messes (physically, at least) as well as planning out my food better.  I made a huge breakthrough when I realized that you can freeze so much more food than I thought you could, and I got really into making various meals and freezing them for later, as well as cutting up and freezing veggies.  I got to expand a really cool project from last year into an independent study, which may have some exciting and statistically significant results, if my supervisor hurries up and emails me back to help with the stats stuff.  Oh and I got really into the Stormlight Archive books, which are some of my faves now!

January: I made this cool Queen’s Thief fanart for the ARC contest and started reading the Southern Reach trilogy, which I now love.  I went to study abroad in Scotland and even though that was an unmitigated disaster, I was pretty excited about it in January.  I’m pretty sure that’s when I went to the Scotland Against Trump rally, which was fun while I was there, and it taught me that I cannot go to protests without lying in bed in severe pain for a week.  So now I know for sure and can stop feeling guilty about not going.

February: 21st birthday!!!  While I basically don’t drink, it’s nice to be able to get into bars to socialize--now I can go dancing with my friends at the unofficial gay bar that does ‘80s night, and I went on a pub crawl to celebrate winning NaNoWriMo.

March: This was the Hell Month when I started to get really sick and fall really behind in my study abroad classes.  I leveled up in trusting people, though?

April: I posted my first fic on AO3!  It’s from the Imperial Radch exchange--a character study of Basnaaid Elming.

May: THICK AS THIEVES!!! THICK AS THIEVES!!! THICK AS THIEVES!!!  Also I fucked off from my ongoing failure in Scotland to go hang out in London for a few days and I saw two cool museum exhibits and two plays at the Globe!

June: I went to Spain for a week and lived in an apartment that was a five-minute walk from the beach.  I love beaches!  I love Spain!  I ate a lot of paella!  Then I came back to the US and had some medical problems, but one thing that finally happened was a root canal.  This tooth had been bugging me for a year or two, but it wasn’t quite at the point where I needed a root canal.  But it finally got there, and it was great because as soon as it was over, that whole side of my mouth stopped hurting!  I also moved into an apartment to live with my college friends for the summer, which is nice because a) friends! and b) I live in rural nowheresville and I turn into a depressed lump with nothing to do in the summer, so living in my college’s town got me to actually put clothes on more than once a week and go outside and do shit.

July: Good summer shit(TM) continued, I got to actually see my friends and get up and do stuff.  I played Abzû, which was really nice.  I read Raven Stratagem and was blown away by all the twists!

August: I got a job!!!  It’s kinda in my field!!!  It’s only moderately soul-sucking!!!  I STILL HAVE IT AND DIDN’T IMMEDIATELY GET FIRED OR ANYTHING!!!  KNOCK ON WOOD I CONTINUE TO NOT GET FIRED!!!

September: I went back to school--as stressful as school is, I really thrive in an environment with a lot of scheduling.  It turned out that my failed semester in Scotland wasn’t gonna fuck things up as badly as I thought.  I also got my first paycheck!  And I did a bunch of writing, mostly fic but some original.  I became better friends with @horaetio and @corvidfeathers (and also @antinoan but we were already pretty close) because of our Horrible Shakespeare Class.

October: Obviously good because !!!Halloween Month!!!  I kinda almost got kicked out of college but managed to recover pretty well.  And while Provenance came out in September, I think I actually didn’t read it until early October, so that goes here.

November: I WON NANOWRIMO so obviously that’s the big one for November.  I also made some Etsy sales and got into Animal Crossing Pocket Camp.

December: O hey that’s this month.  I did a creative writing piece for my Horrible Shakespeare Class final and people loved it.  (My other two finals aren’t due until January, rip in pieces.)  It was really encouraging and I might??? expand it??? into a full script???  (It was presented as the script for “selected scenes” from a fictional movie.)  I also got a lot of really nice, practical gifts, like a handheld vacuum cleaner, a postal scale, hiking boots, slippers...  And a bunch of books!  EDIT: also I just wrote a bunch more a few days ago and may post a Second Entire Fic soon.  (This one is longer!  There are chapters!)

I’m tagging the three nerds I tagged earlier when talking about the Horrible Shakespeare class, since I can’t tag you twice.  Also here’s a random selection: @aconfusedbird, @phle-botomy, @tiniestwarboy, @mirandatam, @whatagrump, @mazarbor, @kallistoi, @bookaddict7342, @breha, @sqbr, @genehazard, @bb-ace, @thesirennebula, @sword-omens, @swordsnowprano, @adhdronanlynch, and anyone else who wants to do it but I totally spaced out and forgot about!  And also you are not at all obligated to do this if I tagged you, I just picked some people I could think of off the top of my head whose years I’d love to hear about!

[shadowsong26fic]

Character limit won't let me post the whole thing, but from “I’m fine,” he said. “I want to...want to see the baby. Please?” to "Starbursts, he realized. These--the twins--they’re are my starbursts." from Part 1 chapter 8 of Precipice. I love that section so very much.

Yay! I’m very fond of that bit, too!

[Full quote and commentary behind the cut.]

[Ask me about a scene!]

“I’m fine,” he said. “I want to…want to seethe baby. Please?” He tried to smile, as reassuringly as he could, and thoughthe managed to pull it off.

She quirked a smile of her own, but he could still feel worrybleeding after her. He did his best to look fully alert and awake and not asbreathless and pathetic as he felt. “All right. Don’t move.” She slipped off,out of view, returning a few seconds later with a squirmy little pile ofblankets. “This is Leia,” she said, very carefully setting the baby on his lap.

Leia.

She was so tiny.

“Hi,” he breathed, barely noticing when Padme slipped off again.“Hi, Leia. I’m…uh, I’m your dad.”

Leia made a faint noise, batting around with her tiny, tiny fists,narrowly missing hitting him.

“And this,” Padme said, carefully perching on the edge of the bedholding–

Wait, what…?

“This is Luke.”

??????!!!!!!

“Luke…?”

“Mmhmm.” She shifted her hold on the baby–the other baby, there were two babies how werethere two entire babies–so hecould see his son’s face a little clearer.

Luke was asleep, or at least he had his eyes closed and he wasn’twriggling like Leia. But he had the cutest little nose Anakin had ever seen–isthat a weird thing to notice?–and then he sighed faintly and burrowed deeper into Padme’s arms.

“Oh,” Anakin breathed, realizing he’d been silent for way toolong, staring. “Oh, wow.”

Padme grinned at him. “They’re pretty perfect, aren’t they?”

Starbursts, he realized. These–the twins–they’re mystarbursts.

So, this was always going to be a Big Important scene–this is the first time Anakin actually meets his kids, right? Well, I mean, they’ve been there, but he’s been kept sedated for the last week, so he hasn’t been really aware.

Anyway, he notices them pretty much as soon as he wakes up–only he doesn’t know it’s them; he senses these two entities that are full of Light, but sort of unfinished, and he doesn’t quite know what to make of them. Especially since he and Padme hadn’t figured out they were having twins.

(My personal theory on why not, incidentally, is that the Force is sort of hedging its bets; prepping for the Worst Case Scenario in which it would be very bad for Anakin to know that there are two babies.)

Which brings me to what is one of my favorite funny lines I have ever written: how were there two entire babies.

Ehhhhh, maybe I’m easily amused, but it makes me giggle every time I reread it. ^_^

Right. Yes. Tangent aside, Anakin’s first meeting with the twins. So, he sensed these two presences, but he’s a) got no frame of reference to figure out they’re his babies, and b) still coming out of sedation, so all he really knows is that they’re good and comforting and the three of them all gravitate towards one another, which is why he starts thinking of them as starbursts. They absolutely light up his life. And there’s this moment of…just pure joy. I mean, slightly confused joy, because Anakin’s still pretty heavily medicated and also in a fair amount of pain, but…

Which brings me to–so, part of where I was going for with Anakin, at least in this particular moment, was…you know that one Buzzfeed video, with the drunk girls and the puppies, and that one who’s all “I can’t protect them!!!!!”?

Basically, this gif:

Yeah. That definitely informed how I wrote Anakin in this moment XD

And Padme–Padme’s just so relieved that Anakin is conscious, and that they’re all alive and together and she knows she’s going to have to break this moment and get to the serious questions in a minute but, dammit, they’ve earned this.

Let’s see, what else…oh, the way/order she introduces the twins is important here. I’d decided from the beginning of planning out this fic, that Anakin was going to raise Leia and Padme was going to raise Luke. And, unlike in canon, there’s really no logical way to decide which twin goes where, once the decision is made to split them up.

(In canon, of course, Bail and Breha have specifically discussed adopting a daughter, which is why Leia goes to them and Luke goes to Owen and Beru.)

So, Padme hands Leia to Anakin, then goes back and brings Luke over. And this wasn’t that Anakin bonds first/more with Leia, so much as how they make the decision later is–Anakin is holding Leia, and Padme is holding Luke.

Also, going back to how this was such an Important Moment–I wanted it to be a fairly quiet one, all things considered? Just like when Anakin and Obi-Wan meet, it’s a Huge Deal because of the larger context we already know going in and all, but in the moment, for the two of them, it’s pretty much barely a blip on the radar. I like that–when The Most Important moments of a character’s life and/or a particular relationship are small ones.

…I think that’s pretty much what I have to say on this bit. It’s happy, and quiet, and it’s important that it’s happy and quiet because of everything else that happens in this chapter, and everything that’s happened leading up to it. This little island of (slightly confused) joy. And a funny moment, and a sweet moment, and…yeah.

Hope that was enlightening/entertaining/somewhere along the lines of what you were looking for!

[humandisastersquad]

let’s face it,,,, star wars canon is depressing as hell and we all wish that someone could just go back to the prequel era and prevent some, if not all, of the depressing fuckery that happens in ep1-3. so without further ado, here’s a bunch of time travel fix it fic aka my favourite sw trope 

(note: all of these are largely gen, the relationships in italics are the key platonic relationships in each fic)

Tano and Kenobi by FireflyFish ahsoka & obi wan; wip

Master Skywalker always said “The Force works in mysterious ways” and Ahsoka Tano has to admit, getting thrown backwards in time by about forty years was very mysterious. Now she just needs to figure how to get back home and how to get Master Qui-Gon Jinn to take Senior Initiate Obi-Wan Kenobi as a Padawan before the young boy is shipped off to Bandomeer to take up the quiet life of a farmer.

Of course, that’s assuming she doesn’t take him as her Padawan first.

went back and put up a fight by springsoldier (ladydaredevil) ahsoka & anakin, ahsoka & anakin &obi wan; complete

She probably shouldn’t trust the wish-granting Sith artefact. (In which Ahsoka makes a brave attempt at hugging the Dark Side out of Anakin)

Deviation by minhui anakin & obi wan; wip

“Anakin, the Force has shown me a way to go back in time,” Obi-Wan said plainly, as if it were an everyday type of thing. “What?” Anakin’s jaw dropped, “Wait, how?”

Of Queens, Knights, and Pawns by chancecraz leia & luke, leia & bail & breha organa, leia & obi wan; wip

I went to sleep on the worst day of my life and woke to find myself in the past on the second worst day of my life. As experiences go, I don’t recommend it.

[tfa leia’s consciousness gets transplanted into her anh body and everything changes. despite the summary, not in first person]

I Can't Actually Post The Name of This Fic Here Because It Isn't Clean (aka Mace Windu Unfucks The Timeline) by lilyrose225 mace windu & anakin; wip

Basically, the story of how Mace Windu accidentally goes back in time and fixes all the things. Plus a lot of cursing. Seriously, I've run out of new curses to use. "I had a vision" becomes a mantra. There are lots of windows and space ice cream.

Back to the Beginning by Nuro_chan and phenomenology kanan & ezra; wip

When Ezra and Kanan find themselves transported fifteen years into the past they must face many challenges and trials. But the biggest they face is a simple question; Do they dare change anything, for fear of loosing what little they have?

I Didn't Believe Them/When They Called You/A Hurricane Thunderclap by HkHk ahsoka & anakin; wip

Her hands covered her mouth even as she mentally processed what was going on right before her eyes. It was impossible sight. He was dead. He was dead. Nothing of him was left but the piercing cold.

Anakin Skwywalker stood before her as if stepped out of a holovid, his brown hair swept back, blue eyes meeting hers. "Hey Snips." His presence in the Force blazed at her, a beacon of light in the suffocating darkness.

Something crumbled inside her even as her emotions clawed up her chest. "Master?"

Fundamental Force Carriers by tanarill anakin & obi wan, ahsoka & anakin; complete

The Sith Lord Darth Vader lived his life. He probably didn't live it well, but he lived it as well as he knew how. At the end there, he'd even managed to woman up and kill Sidious. But he was dying, and at peace with the past.

The past wasn't at peace with him.

Wake the Storm by bedlamsbard anakin & obi wan; complete

Considering that he had picked up what was probably a Sith artifact, promptly passed out in the middle of a war zone, and apparently woken up twenty years in the future with Obi-Wan having taken up residence in his head, Anakin thought he was entitled to have a few questions.

Part 1 of Ouroboros but can be read as a standalone if you ignore the last chapter like i do

And now for my Top 3 Favourite Star Wars Fics of All Time:

Shadows of the Future by stormqueen873 obi wan & qui gon, obi wan & anakin, obi wan & anakin & qui gon; complete

ObiWan lost the duel on Mustafar, but instead of dying, he finds himself on a ship leaving Tatooine, with his old Master and a familiar young boy. As events begin to unfold, can he stop the future he knows from occuring? TPM AU

Reprise by Elfpen obi wan & qui gon, obi wan & anakin; complete

Ben Kenobi dies aboard the Death Star in the year 0 BBY. He wakes up shortly thereafter in the Jedi temple in the year 41 BBY. Haunted by memories and regret, Ben must forge a new path for himself in the Jedi Order of his youth while navigating the murky waters of time travel. Crafting a better future from bitter experience is hard, but learning to heal is even harder. Major AU.

Part 1 of Reprise (part 3 is a wip, but nearing completion)

A New History by Annie Walker anakin & obi wan; wip

During a heated battle, Dooku escaped into the past! Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker follow to stop him, but discover that Dooku went to the past where Obi-Wan is a young padawan to a very much alive Qui-Gon Jinn. Now, the two must go undercover to stop Dooku's plans from coming to fruition in order to save not only the future, but also young Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn.

[magicalforcesau]

Dancing With Ghosts in Your Garden~ Chapter 18 - Year 2: February

(ao3 link)

In lieu of the incident with the sleeping draught, all prefects were mandated to enroll in Professor Palpatine’s brand new weekly Potions seminars. As the misstep with the Vitamix potion along with Maul’s nearing presence showed, it was ideal that all prefects be properly trained in the event that professors were once again subdued. This, they felt, combined with Professor Fisto’s ongoing dueling club, would prepare them.

Obi-Wan’s doubts of how prepared they could possibly be for something so unpredictable grew stronger with each day. Although he was already enrolled in the advanced potions class, he would never deny the opportunity to learn more. If anything, it would at least offer more practice.

“Given that it’s February, I figured it best we start with a common favorite amongst the masses of troublemakers,” Palpatine’s shoes clicked on the ground as he paced at the front of the room.

From what Obi-Wan understood, Palpatine didn’t receive any punishment for the accidental sleeping potion brew. Yoda had, of course, received a rather scathing howler from the Ministry at his supposed flightiness, of which he took the blame for. It seemed Anakin had stepped up and claimed it was he who accidentally knocked the draught in the already brewing potion.

That all certainly added up and did not help Anakin’s reputation amongst his peers.

“Any guesses to what that would be?” Palpatine asked, eagerly taking in the small crowd of Hogwarts’ best with expectant eyes.

Because this was a class full of prefects, each were considerably decent students and wanted to learn. There were exceptions, Obi-Wan realized as he looked over to a nearly snoozing Zeb, but they were outliers.

“Love potions?” Breha Organa said rather dreamily. Obi-Wan didn’t need to turn around to know she’d been looking at Bail as she said it.

“Right you are, Breha!” Palpatine smiled, “Amortentia is the most powerful love potion in the world, at that. Many of you and your students are for the first time diving into the wondrous and mysterious landscape that is romance. Some of you aren’t even aware that you are.”

Did he look at Obi-Wan on purpose? No, that would be silly. Palpatine always took care to rove eye contact throughout the classroom. It was a sufficient method of maintaining focus and Obi-Wan knew this, but he still shifted his gaze immediately elsewhere like he’d been caught copying homework.

“Love and potions aren’t all that different, really.” He continued, “The right and organic combination makes a fruitful and prosperous brew. The wrong and inauthentic combination is bitter and not made to last.”

“And if you’re not careful, you could end up with a wrinkly, scrawny little creature.” Zeb added knowingly, earning a few chuckles throughout the group.

“As if you’ve got anything to worry about there.” Caleb muttered, and much to Zeb’s dismay, acquired a more popular response.

“Boys, please.” Palpatine chastised, “I don’t want word to travel that Gryffindor’s prefects lost them points.”

“Cody would have an aneurysm,” Satine whispered and Obi-Wan only nodded in response. It was no secret to either of them that their friend was less than pleased with how bleak Gryffindor’s odds of obtaining either the House or Quidditch cup were becoming. If he heard that Caleb and Zeb worsened those odds, neither would be awaiting a very pretty conversation.

The troublesome two seemed to recognize this and justly shut their traps.

The class turned back to Palpatine, who seemed rather satisfied with the change in their mood and circled around the cauldron at the center of his desk. From it, emerged a pink fog that resembled a cloud at sunset and judging by the smile its scent drew from Palpatine, it smelled as pleasant as it looked.

“A love potion manufactures the deepest desires from the person who ingests it, manifesting them all at once in an intoxicating fashion that causes them to see the intended target in a different light.” He said almost reverently, “Ironically, it’s called a love potion, when it should really be called an infatuation potion.”

“That’s because you can’t build love from a substance.” Satine muttered from beside him. “Try as some might.”

Obi-Wan stared at the cauldron. He’d heard of amortentia. Evidently, a cheap ineffective version was sold at Zonko’s in Hogsmeade, though he never took much care to notice. He didn’t know much about love, save for the fact that it seemed highly unlikely for anything to recreate something as complicated as attraction.

She raised her hand, “Professor? Aren’t love potions banned at Hogwarts?”

“That they are,” Palpatine said with crossed hands, “Though that’s not to say they haven’t been smuggled in before.”

“Why would they do that?” A familiar high pitched voice from the back called.

Despite his interest in the subject, Obi-Wan couldn’t resist snapping his neck in turning to see none other than Anakin Skywalker sitting at the back desk, looking incredibly small in stature next to Onaconda Farr. Farr, in his defense, looked just as confused by Anakin’s presence as Obi-Wan felt.

“What are you doing here?” Obi-Wan asked him, “This is supposed to be for prefects only.”

“Not to worry, Mr. Kenobi, I did grant Anakin permission to attend.” Palpatine answered before Anakin could muster up a smart response, “Anakin shows a real knack for potions and given the circumstances, I would say it’s best that he be included whenever he could be protected.”

Obi-Wan slumped back in his chair, feeling properly admonished. It wasn’t that he didn’t think Anakin was capable. It was quite the opposite, actually, but there was an order to these things and learning advanced spells before one was ready did not seem indicative of a sound idea. Anakin needed to learn the building blocks still, whether he believed it or not. Despite his talent, he knew there was an absence of maturity to handle heavy source material. Dueling was one thing, as there was an obvious precedence for it right now and it was typically taught to some degree during second year anyway. Teaching Anakin about love potions felt more like giving a dog a steak and telling him not to eat it. He could try to convince everyone that he was over his crush on Padmé all he wanted, but it simply wasn’t true.

“To answer your question, Anakin,” Palpatine continued, “When someone is too blind with desperation to see reason, they will do just about anything to acquire what they want. A love potion, while sounding frilly and fun, occludes all rational thinking from the person it's given to.”

“And typically, it’s not ingested voluntarily.” Satine added.

Obi-Wan frowned, thinking of the potentially dastardly effects such a tool could provide for a desperately lovesick person. It was no different than being under a curse, in a sense, because the poor sap trapped in such a state had no agency whatsoever.

“How does one tell if someone is suffering from the effects of a love potion?” Fenn Rau asked.

“Why, you see them every day in young and happy couples as you walk through these halls. They’re starry-eyed, flushed, unspeakably happy, practically in a trance.”

“How are we to tell the difference then?” Obi-Wan asked.

“These features tend to be a good deal more exemplified and elongated.” Palpatine said, “For instance, while the honeymoon phase is technically normal, it’s really not meant to last. There’s also known to be loss of memory in the person as the potion begins to fade. We advise that you all keep an eye and see if you notice any excessively clingy and almost controlling couples.”

Obi-Wan thought about his parents, finding it very hard to believe they ever had any semblance of a honeymoon phase. They were so professional all the time that he’d rarely seen them even smile in the other’s presence. Of course, he was always splitting up sneaky couples that tried to sneak off to snog, so he supposed he did have some experience witnessing what Palpatine was referring to. Part of him was having a difficult time reconciling with the fact that it was their ancient potions professor who was explaining to them the complexities of romance.

“Because of the dangers that this possesses,” He waved a little pink vial around for all to show, allowing the light to catch it in a way that made it sparkle, “I believe it’s important that you understand these properties quite well and that you take care not to share this information outside of this room.”

There was a warning tone to his voice that was rarely used and Obi-Wan swore everyone sat up even straighter, though he doubted that was possible for Satine, who already appeared quite alert.

“It’s okay to take notes, of course, right?” Hondo asked from the other back corner of the room opposite to Anakin.

“Yes, but-” The older man did a double take as he whipped back around, “Hondo, what are you doing here?”

Obi-Wan thought it was fairly obvious what Hondo was doing and why he was suddenly so apt to take notes. He hadn’t thought to say anything when he originally saw him, seeing as if Anakin was invited, maybe he’d thought to include another unexpected guest. Hondo was possessed for a significant amount of time, after all.”

“Just trying to perfect my recipe is all.” Hondo had the gall to shrug, “What’s so wrong about that?”

“You mean besides intruding upon a meeting where you are not welcome and admitting in advance that you intend to sell an illegal substance throughout the school?” Palpatine asked, “I suppose we could discuss your time management skills, seeing as you have plenty of potion’s homework that you could be catching up on.”

Reading the room for a change, Hondo sighed like a great disservice had just been done to him, “You can’t fault a guy for trying.”

“Actually, I can. 15 points from Slytherin.” Palpatine crossed his arms, “And I expect your essay on Felix Felicis on my desk tomorrow morning.”

“My tutor isn’t going to like that.” Hondo grumbled as he walked by Obi-Wan, “He’s not even finished my Charms presentation.”

“Why would you say that to us?” Satine hissed, knowing full well that they were now going to have to look up the legitimacy of Hondo’s new “tutor” in their dwindling free time.  

“I’m honest to a fault!” He shrugged as he fully exited the room and was promptly locked out by Palpatine. He even took the effort of using two padlocks to secure the job. To be fair, Hondo was quite slippery.

“Now,” He said as he clapped his hands together once, “Why don’t we get to the important part? Brewing!”

***

This was a colossal waste of his time, skills, and resources.

While Sidious normally enjoyed when the school devolved into chaos, he did not appreciate when it stood in the way of his plans. Right now, his former apprentice was the obstacle that could feasibly destroy everything he’d worked tirelessly to achieve, all before it could truly start.

He knew he should have killed him when he had the chance, but Azkaban just seemed all the more fitting for the murder machine to waste his days away at the hand of his own failure. He would not make that mistake ever again.

So, it seemed Sidious’ own interests aligned with the rest of his colleagues: get rid of Maul. It felt peculiar- to be on the same side as the enemy, but if he wanted to defeat them, he needed this loose cannon of a pawn to be decimated before it was too late.

And through it all, the putrid “open-minded” community only served to remind him why they needed to be brought to an end. In what world would enlisting the Potions professor to teach love potions be useful? How he managed to seem convincing, he was unsure, because there was no greater waste of time than the frivolous pursuit of love. Well, unless it was being manipulated as a fulcrum for change.

Even with as little soul as he had remaining, if any, he still found the smell of amortentia to be utterly arousing. They certainly wouldn’t enjoy to know what he smelled when he breathed in amortentia: fire, ash, rubble, stained blood.

They should be barricading, sending students out in troves to hunt the demon down, and utilize the muggle-borns as bait in a trap to be sprung. Maul couldn’t resist the hunt. He knew such instincts never changed, not even from the waning sense of purpose that Azkaban reduced men to.

Instead, here he was, giving a pointless lecture on the dangers of love potions. After which, they’ll have another practice dueling session with snowballs. It was pitiful. At the very least, they should be using stones. Children needed to learn pain at an early age. They needed to become so familiar with the sensation that they found home in it. In the hearth of that home, is the power that exists from within. Only then, can they prevail.

He glanced to the back corner of the room and felt his lips twitch. Between this year and the last, Skywalker was becoming quite acquainted with pain. He grimaced as he took in the rest of the lot, noting how soft they all were as they nervously discovered what attracted them when they leaned over their brewing cauldrons. At least he’d been able to kick that waste of blood Ohnaka out. He was spared of that particular headache, especially when just looking at the boy angered him to no end when he considered how deeply that botched experiment failed. Truly, that family couldn’t do anything right- not even when under hypnosis.

He had no doubts that Maul was scoping out the land, realizing just how weak these wizards had gotten since he was in school- that his lessons from Sidious had always reigned supreme and that no one stood in his way, save for Yoda and Sidious, himself. That would be disastrous if anyone witnessed a reunion between the two. They would know instantly.

Then again, if Sidious were to capture and kill Maul, he would only further his popularity amongst the simpletons that allegedly “ran” their community. Perhaps, there could be salvaging of this wreck. Tyranus need not be the only one to pull strings in the wake of Maul’s drama. It was only fitting, since Sidious was the marionettist and this was to be his show.

Not only that, but such a feat would certainly impress the boy, who clearly had a sound reason for disliking Maul. While Sidious loathed the concept of needing to work towards the trust and approval of a child, understood that in due time, it would be worth it.

Even if such a boy nearly killed them all with his own klutziness.

Sidious breathed a steadying breath, just barely turned away from any possible lingering gazes.

He moved over to his desk and opened the top drawer. He needed a drink.

***

Satine, like many of the curious girls in her year, had done fair research on the subject of amortentia. Apparently, it had ruined its fair share of marriages as well as mental health states, making it completely illegal to produce for private or public subsidization. It seemed, curiously, only the aurors could do so with Ministry approval. That, much to Satine’s confusion, was the case for many subjects.

“Because I would hate to have a bunch of little zombies in my class, we’ll just be smelling the potions today.” Palpatine announced.

Despite her knowledge that amortentia affected everyone differently, she still wasn’t quite expecting the drunk-like sensation that filled her up from head to toe as she took a deep breath in from the fumes that emanated off the surface. Everything around her seemed to move in slow motion and her chest rose and fell with the relaxed notion of falling asleep, except she simultaneously never felt more stimulated in her life.

She’d never known that you could smell so many wonderful things at once yet still differentiate them for what they were and more importantly, how it got her flushed in a way that made her shift in her seat.

New books, homemade apple pie, crisp fall air, the lingering remnants of a minty aftershave wrapping around her like a scarf…

She started out of her reverie, blushing too mad to even consider looking to her left no matter how curious she suddenly was. Her heart was beating out of her chest and if she wasn’t absolutely certain of the potency of amortentia, she’d have the decency to be more embarrassed. Instead, she willed herself to calm down and refused to breathe through her nose any further, no matter how warm she felt when she had.

While none of what she witnessed was news to her per say, it wasn’t like she made a habit of lollygagging and daydreaming in the middle of a classroom setting. It was quite disarming to be so vulnerable yet also so close to what (or who, for that matter) was driving her crazy to begin with.

“Problem, Mr. Kenobi?” Palpatine was suddenly standing in front of them, which was at least a little bit of a distraction.

A ringing in her brain wanted desperately to ask him what he smelled, but she felt herself frown deeply when she noticed Obi-Wan was leaning with his entire face in his little cauldron, trying desperately to catch a whiff. Surely, if he got any closer, he was going to accidentally inhale the potion through his nose.

“I might have brewed it incorrectly.” He muttered, echoing a bit from still having his head in the cauldron.

“Let me see,” Palpatine urged him to lift his head and under normal circumstances, Satine might tease him for the little creases that the rim brought to his face.

The professor raised his nose to the fumes that still wafted through the air and smiled dreamily. She wondered if they would ever know what he was seeing when he inhaled the scent. It was none of their business to ask, but she really couldn’t picture Palpatine being in love with anyone.

“No, no, it’s perfectly correct,” He said with the airs of residual glee, “Why?”

Instead of giving him a straight answer, Obi-Wan turned to Satine, “I think I need you to move.”

Any previous concern, as per usual with Obi-Wan, was replaced with a scalding sort of annoyance only reserved for him, “What? Why?”

As she held her own special adverse reaction to him, he had one for her that matched. His eyebrows furrowed as he gestured to his cauldron. Sometimes, he was far too serious for his own good, “As lovely as your perfume is, you don’t need to go so heavy-handed with it! I can’t smell the potion.”

Satine, who initially believed they were going to get into an argument, found that she had no points to be made, because all that came out of her mouth was a little puff of air. Palpatine, if she had the eyes to spare him a look, was equally as surprised, even if not nearly as emotionally invested in such a rebuff.

“What?” Obi-Wan finally asked, growing more annoyed at not being in on the punchline.

Everyone else was suspiciously quiet too, much to Satine’s growing unease, but she could hardly spare a thought other than to say, “I’m out of perfume, actually. I sent Copikla home yesterday so my mum could send me a new bottle.”

Instead of being annoyed, the clouds seemed to clear, if only a little bit, and he flickered back to the potion, “But how-”

“-It smells different to everyone.” Palpatine, who looked between the two of them with his face stretched in discomfort and eyebrows raised beyond physics, clarified with a tone that was clearly meant for only them, “Based on what the individual finds attractive.”

All of the color seemed to wash out of Obi-Wan’s charmingly embarrassed face as his mind worked rapidly to wrap his head around that answer. Even though she hadn’t breathed in her potion again, Satine still swore she was suddenly feeling the effects of it.

“I- Well,” He tried to formulate a response, but to his credit, he had just admitted that he was at the very least attracted to her perfume (which she made the mental note to stock up on more frequently), in front of the entire class of prefects and Anakin.

“Oooooooh Obi-Wan likes perfume.” Anakin, while completely missing the point and a big teasing opportunity, shattered the tension that previously froze the entire room and everyone burst out into a fit of needed laughter. Even Obi-Wan laughed, though nervously, as he flashed Satine the occasional glance here and there through lowered lashes, as if trying to gage her reaction to this accidental admission.

She smiled. Clearly, it was to her benefit to read ahead of him.

“For what it’s worth,” She said in the midst of the uncontrollable chatter that erupted thanks to Anakin’s offhand comment, “You smell nice too.”

He blushed, which she found she quite liked the shade of pink on his face, “Thanks.”

It didn’t address the underlying implications, just as neither of them seized the moment to do so on Christmas Eve. She found it was just as frustrating trying to guess what was going on inside of his head as it was waiting for him to do something about the things she did know.

As much as she wanted the cat to be fully out of the bag, she knew the middle of Palpatine’s potions class wasn’t the time or place.

***

“I believe it’s a mistake to have any more Hogsmeade trips this year,” Qui-Gon said to his other heads of house and to Yoda, who was staring quite pensively out the window, “Not when we know what we know. It’s quite possible that Maul has an entrance to the school if he truly is behind what happened to Bultar Swan.”

“We have no real proof that he is, though.” Shaak Ti said, “It certainly doesn’t seem like his style.”

“While I know the usual term “innocent until proven guilty” is our mantra, I think we should consider being more hesitant with Maul.” Qui-Gon said.

“I agree,” Windu nodded, standing firmly next to him, “Though having more students out of the school would allow us a proper amount of time to sweep the school and see if he had any secret entrances.”

“We have that same opportunity at night.” Qui-Gon said.

“You know this school shifts and changes between night and day,” Palpatine said warily, “It is ever-moving and Bultar Swan was attacked in broad daylight in a common room.”

“Why are we not interviewing more Ravenclaws then?” Windu asked, “We’ve got to do something! Skywalker’s mother is missing and we all know that boy isn’t going to lay down and allow for speculation to simply rise without doing something foolish.”

“I don’t appreciate your assumptions of Anakin.” Qui-Gon said, “He’s a bright, even if impulsive boy, who is going through an unspeakable grief.”

“No one twice his age should have to endure what he’s going through,” Shaak Ti said kindly, “Let alone as young as he.”

“I’m not saying he has no reason to act out.” Windu raised his hands, “I’m merely stating that it is only a matter of time before he takes matters into his own hands.”

“That would make it easier for Maul, unfortunately,” Palpatine agreed, “Perhaps we should motion to shut off the Floo network?”

“Done that, I have.” Yoda spoke up, “Because used it, he did.”

“For what?” Qui-Gon asked eagerly.

“Unknown location, he accessed.” Yoda mused, “Unregistered through the network, it is. Talk to Dooku, I suspect.”

Palpatine frowned, “That can’t be good.”

“No, it can’t.” Windu agreed, “Can you extend your protective charms to Hogsmeade, Yoda?”

“Do that, I did, after we woke up from the sleeping incident.”

“Oh, so it’s safe then.” Shaak Ti shrugged, “The dementors haven’t detected Maul on the inside and he was last seen on Diagon Alley.”

“I’m sure this is quite exhausting for you, Headmaster.” Windu acknowledged.

It was true. Extending his powers over an entire settlement as well as the castle at all times would have drained any normal wizard to death. Yoda, as it were, was not a normal wizard. Even still, it was visible on his worn features that he was exhausted.

“Safe, the students should be,” He said instead, “But careful we will still be. Search the school we will for secret entrances while they are gone, we will.”

***

“Are they gone yet?” Anakin asked, ducking up from where he’d been digging furiously through his trunk. Rex who was sitting on the window sill keeping watch over the massive gates of Hogwarts nodded slowly.

“Yeah I think so,” He confirmed, stretching his arms above his head and yawning, “I dunno mate, don’t you think a nice Saturday in might be nicer than trying this again. Don’t you remember what happened last time?”

“Psh!” Anakin waved a hand, “Well we’re certainly not trying anything like that again. Although I would like to get another look at that sword.”

“I figured you’d seen enough swords in your short life,” Rex rolled his eyes, “Didn’t Dooku intend to sacrifice you with one?”

“It was still cool, but I’m not really trying to go to Hogsmeade, just give off a good impression.” Anakin shrugged before he pulled out his nicest T-Shirt, swiftly pulling the one he had been wearing off and switching them out, “Well how do I look?”

“The same but in green,” Rex deadpanned leaning his head on his hand, “If all we’re doing up here is playing dress up then I’d much rather get this show on the road.”

“Oh come on,” Anakin checked himself out in the dingy mirror on the back of the door. He was really hoping he’d run into Padmé; he thought she’d like it. He’d already seen her leave, but overheard her talking to her friends about Rabé meeting them later and taking the tunnels. His mum had bought it for him over the summer and he tried to push past the rising feeling of sadness, “We had to wait until all the prefects left anyways, I’m not really looking to be caught and dragged back here by any of them and especially not Zeb, who was eyeing us up pretty hard at breakfast.”

Rex shuddered, “Definitely don’t need him tossing us through the portrait hole again. It’s not our fault that the rest of the second years left without us!”

“I’d hate to see what happens if we’re caught alone of our own accord,” Anakin grinned, despite the true statement, such a thing wouldn’t stop them, “Well, let’s go before Windu gets here to babysit.”

“Right,” Rex grimaced, standing up and grabbing his wand. Anakin grabbed his as well, throwing it into his robe, it was much too cold to go around without it, and they headed down and out of the common room. He really hoped no one would snitch on them.

The two traversed the halls carefully. Keeping quiet for once to listen for approaching footsteps and ducking into a few empty classrooms to avoid the ghosts lurking around the otherwise empty halls. It took much longer than they’d have liked to make it down to where the tunnel’s entrance would begin. Luckily, the map showed Rabé’s little figure moving in that direction too, marking a bit of a clear path. She would lead them straight to Padmé.

Anakin’s heart rate increased for more reasons than being caught.

He thought better of it. Obi-Wan would probably kill him on the spot if he slithered out of the tunnel and into Hogsmeade. Not to mention, Maul was lurking around in the area looking for him. Maybe, if they caught up with Rabé in the tunnel, he could simply give her the necklace to give to Padmé.

It didn’t sound incredibly indicative of his house in terms of bravery, but he knew at least Obi-Wan would approve of his method.  

“Almost there!” Anakin grinned at Rex, but almost had his head knocked clean from his body when Rex grabbed his robe and yanked him hard into an empty classroom, “Wha-?”

“Shh!!” Rex was very much alert and his eyes narrowed as they both heard footsteps echoing off the walls. The footsteps paused just outside of the door and Rex cursed under his breath as a shadow moved towards the entrance. Rex glared at Anakin for a few minutes before mouthing, ‘You owe me!’ and straightening.

“Mr. Fett?” Palpatine’s confused voice echoed off the stone walls, “What are you doing here? And all alone?”

“Sorry Professor,” Rex gave Palpatine a rather over the top concerned look, “It’s just, I haven’t seen Anakin since breakfast and he did mention he was thinking about coming to see you.”

“To see me?” The professor sounded a little more surprised than Anakin thought he should, but perhaps he was trying to avoid looking like he picked favorites, “Well I certainly haven’t seen him. I’ll keep an eye out, but I’m going to need to escort you outside with the other second years.”

Anakin winced, of course even Palpatine wouldn’t be willing to overlook a student wandering the halls without an escort. He’d have to bring Rex back something good from Hogsmeade.

“Alright, thank you Professor,” Rex nodded, although he didn’t look very thankful in Anakin’s opinion.

Their footsteps faded away, but still Anakin waited a minute longer before darting from the classroom himself.

He wandered the empty halls, being extra careful to listen and flicker his eyes to the map. Rex was a little more perceptive than he tended to be. Anakin certainly didn’t want to get caught, but at least he knew what story to go with if he did.

Finally, he reached the entrance of the tunnel, looking around carefully, he quickly slipped inside and hurried to close the entrance, plunging him into complete darkness.

Anakin pulled his wand out, lighting it with a, “Lumos Maxima,” They’d been working to improve their maximizing skills in charms recently and Anakin felt it was paying off. The tunnels were rather boring and unremarkable. He remembered them being pretty long, though he’d never made it all the way to the end the last time.

He took his time, kicking away rocks and humming softly. He still didn’t want to give his position away if there was someone scouting the tunnel for mischievous students, but boredom without Rex crept in fast.

He paused a moment at an odd noise and listened hard. It was a soft shuffling noise and despite the echo, it sounded like it was coming from behind him. Could it be another student trying the same thing he was? Unlikely, most of the houses were pretty locked down outside. He wasn’t sure why the professors had been so insistent on a supervised snow day, but most students went for it.

That left the possibility that he was about to be caught.

Letting the fear of boring evenings in detention spur him on, he picked up the pace until he was running rather swiftly. With the way his wand was swinging, the light bounced around enough to make him motion sick so he gave it a quiet, “Nox,” not letting up on the speed of which his shoes pounded the ground.

He slowed when he nearly tripped over something lying on the ground, but wasn’t quick enough to avoid running right into someone.

Anakin fell backwards with an, “oof,” He tried to catch his breath for a moment, “Sorry, Rabé,” He said softly standing up, “While I’ve got you, I’ve got a question for you. Lumos.”

His wand tip glowed again, revealing him face to face with a student’s face frozen in a scream. This was not Rabé. Anakin stumbled back, tripping on what felt like the fabric of a scarf, before he saw the glint of eyes reflecting the light off his wand.

Yellow. Bright yellow eyes narrowing as they realized they’d been caught. Anakin felt his heart leap in his chest. Fear filling his lungs, causing him to nearly choke on a scream. He heard the eyes take a step forward and he scrambled to his feet and fell into a sprint. His wand light faded as his concentration waned and he shoved it into his robes.

He shouldn’t be running from Maul, because that’s who it was, of course. He’d vowed revenge even if Qui-Gon always gave him that sad sort of look when he said it. He should be back there giving that kidnapper a piece of his mind. He was the Chosen One, it was his job to save everyone and take down the bad guys.

Even as these thoughts played in his mind, he continued to sprint, fear pushing him into overdrive. He nearly screeched again when he ran full tilt into something human knocking them both to the ground.

“Bloody hell!”

“Rex!” Anakin was relieved to find someone he knew, but it wasn’t enough to stop the adrenaline that had him back on his feet and pulling desperately on Rex’s arm to get him to move, “We have to go now!”

“Great, I just escape Palpatine only to get caught again. Who is it? Windu?” Anakin nearly growled at the slow pace Rex was moving at.

“It’s Maul! We have to go!” That was enough to get him moving.

They didn’t stop to even breathe again until they burst from the wall and right into Professors Palpatine and Qui-Gon who nearly got bowled over.

“What-” Qui-Gon looked ready to start a lecture and Palpatine even looked like he was ready to dole out a few point reductions, but Rex cut them off quickly.

“Anakin saw him!” Rex was pointing his wand at the entrance to the tunnel like Maul was about to come out right then and there for a fight.

“Saw who?” Palpatine asked head tilting to the side in curiosity and Anakin nearly spat the name out as he joined Rex in his battle stance.

“Maul.”

***

The deafening screech that stretched from Hogwarts through Hogsmeade with painful clarity was one that very few students attributed meaning to. It wasn’t unreasonable that students, particularly younger ones, immediately leapt into disorder, running hither and yon, terrified they were about to be dive-bombed. It was a horrible sight to see, even if it didn’t make his job all the more difficult.

Designed with the vocal cords of mandrakes, the emergency siren was only used in times of utter duress and was a means of warning students and faculty to return to Hogwarts at once. Historically, it hadn’t been officially sounded since the early twentieth century. Even still, prefects were always trained on what to do in the event of hearing the siren.

All the training in the world still didn’t fully prepare Obi-Wan for the very real visceral reaction that the ear-splitting sound brought. Of course, he could not spare a single moment to think, a tough reality for a Ravenclaw, and immediately moved forward with what he’d been taught: gather his house, ensure they were all in company, and get them back to the school.

While not given a direct message with it, everyone seemed to share the same thought as he did. There was only one true reason that the archaic alarm would be used right now accompanied by the dementors that jetted across the sky: Maul was close.

Not only close, but likely in their midst.

Shop owners wasted little time in evacuating their premises and battening down the hatches, effectively snuffing the warm glow of Hogsmeade in a singular swoop. His brain was busy scanning the hysterical crowd that was amid constant motion, searching for every and any blue-robed student that he might come across. It occurred to him now that there was perhaps more meaning to the explicitly placed Hogsmeade dress code than the professors led on to. It certainly made rounding up students a lot easier when they were color-coded.

Moving around on the ice-laden stone walkways? Less easy. He’d not only had to catch his own balance in his haste, but many other wobbly students. Even Satine’s elbow was caught by him a time or two, of which she spared no time to thank him, though he knew otherwise she would. She was just as stern as him in their mission, practically grabbing students and sliding them across the way to the huddle of other students, hardly blinking in the process.

It was with this goal in mind that he was able to develop a razor focus that practically tuned out the alarm. That, or the pounding in his ears did a decent job of it. Silently, he found the space to be relieved that Anakin was safe back at the castle with the other younger students.

It couldn’t have taken more than a couple of minutes to successfully corral all of the students that lingered about. It wasn’t as though any of them truly wanted to sneak off, after all. The horror on everyone’s faces spoke volumes of their concern.

Each of the prefects did their headcounts rapidly, trying not to dawdle for a moment longer than necessary, all praying they reached the same number they started with. He felt capable of breathing again when Ravenclaw reached that quota. Gryffindor prefects, it seemed, had forgotten to include themselves for a moment, which briefly induced a panic that was quickly assuaged by an irritated Mace Windu.

Perhaps it was a bit presumptuous to be relieved that Mace Windu and Kit Fisto were the supervising professors that day, but it certainly helped their odds to have experienced fighters of dark magic alongside them. The sky grew dark above them, not from the descending sun, but from the mere presence of the dementors swarming together like an ominous storm cloud.

No one looked back as they were ushered down through the storm cellar beneath Honeydukes, which remained open only at Windu’s order.

“Move quickly, don’t linger, don’t stop, don’t pause!” He ordered in a booming voice that didn’t even need to be amplified with a charm.

While Gryffindor’s prefects had nobly volunteered to lead the charge of students down and through the tunnel, the others remained on the side, performing last-minute counts to ensure all made it safely while urging them to hurry it up. No one seemed to have a problem with performing the latter, but some were getting a little rowdy in the process.

“Hey, hey, this is not an excuse to push or shove!” Satine chastised a few overeager Slytherins, “The only way this works is if you work together!”

She was right, of course, but Obi-Wan believed it was falling on deaf ears. They were terrified and rightfully so. Perhaps they shouldn’t have allowed the Hogsmeade trip to occur in the first place with everything going on. It was almost like they were trying to lure Maul in. If that was the case, it was a very sadistic choice.

Padmé Amidala as well as her friends had been some of the last people to filter in, surprisingly, and tears stained their cheeks.

“Keep it moving, ladies!” Kit Fisto ordered.

“We can’t find Rabé!” Sabé, the girl who looked most like Padmé, cried.

“I’m sure she’s here somewhere.” Windu said, “Slytherin house reported no missing students based on their earlier count. Now GO!”  

“She came later!” Padmé insisted, pushing back against the hands of Fenn Rau, who was trying to make them descend down the ladder. “We never saw her!”

“Then maybe she never came at all?” Satine tried.

“She came.” Padmé looked between both of them, “I know she did! She wouldn’t flake out on us like that. What if something horrible happened to her? What if-”

“-We can explore these possibilities back at Hogwarts.” Windu said, “If she is indeed missing, I will waste no time in coming back for her. I promise you.”

“That is already a waste of time!” Sabé protested, “What if she’s hurt?”

“I cannot risk all of you, including these prefects, for one possibly lingering student. I need to get you back to safety. The tunnels will be locked behind us.” Windu said and waved his wand to provide a gust of air, sending all of the girls down the tunnel against their own will. Satine looked horrified at the choice and frankly, so did Windu for a moment, before he began insisting the prefects follow.

For Obi-Wan, time began to slow down as his brain methodically and almost mechanically traced back through that day, desperately trying to recall if he’d seen Rabé. She stood out among Padmé’s friends in that she was the only Slytherin and yet it was still odd to see them apart. Before the alarm had turned the world on its head, it had been a rather mundane and peaceful day at Hogsmeade. The weather had been nice, if not quite nippy. He’d popped into Tomes & Scrolls with Satine while Cody lingered around Spintwitches, but none of them bought anything. If they had, surely, it would have been lost in the chaos with many other student’s purchases.

He’d debated getting a box of every flavor beans, since Hondo said he had a game of Russian Roulette, but with the beans, brewing. Cody seemed interested and it sounded like less of a consequential gaming experience than Hondo’s usual ventures. He wasn’t afforded the opportunity to go into Honeydukes, but…

Obi-Wan felt his heart stop altogether in his chest. He hadn’t gone into Honeydukes, but he almost did. And who was lingering by the butterbeer stand when he was busy deliberating with Cody?

Rabé.

He’d only caught a glimpse of her for a fraction of a second before he turned around. Clear as daylight and standing at the far end of Hogsmeade. There were other Slytherins around her, but like Padmé, her hair was always intricately woven and this made her stand out.

Where did she go so that none of her friends saw her?

“She was here today,” Obi-Wan lurched forward, grabbing Satine by the arm on instinct.

“How do you know?” She began to ask, eyes searching his own with growing concern.

“I saw her.” He said and then shoved against the stream of students that were still pouring down the tunnel.

“Ben,” It was her turn to grab him, “Wait!”

He didn’t wait, though. Instead, he slipped out of her grasp, which had been firm enough to take his robe with it, and pushed through the crowd. Windu, never the slouch, noticed him instantly and his eyes widened as he realized what Obi-Wan was trying to do. Unlike Padmé and the girls, he didn’t give him the opportunity to stop him, instead lunging forward and falling into an immediate sprint out the door- the cold wind whipping his face so hard that it caused tears to freeze in their wake.

He vaguely heard his name shouted from behind him, but he could only think of finding Rabé before it was too late. It might have been impulsive and it was definitely foolish, but he wouldn’t be able to leave with a clear conscience unless he did everything in his power to bring every student back safely. He understood that the professors needed to do their duty, but Obi-Wan was to be an auror someday. Running into the line of fire was surely a requirement of such a field.

All he could think of was how he knew what it was like to be forgotten. If there was even a small chance of preventing someone else from befalling that fate, he had to try.

Running across the slick stone walkway proved itself to be even more difficult than walking had, but Obi-Wan was utilizing the forward motion that the ice provided him for acceleration. The sky above him was almost completely black- as though Hogsmeade was at risk for being sucked into outer space. Suddenly, the cold that Obi-Wan felt no longer seemed to be as a result from the climate.

He’d studied dementors a good deal over the years and objectively understood how they drained a person from their hopes and dreams, removing the parts of them that basically made them human, but he realized then that he never really knew. He wasn’t even the target for these dementors and just being in their presence made him feel like all color was depleting from the landscape.

He forced himself through it, focusing on the task at hand and what purpose that gave him. He decided to slide by the (now closed) butterbeer stand at the end, where he’d last seen Rabé. After all, it was entirely possible that he was the last person to see her alive. That certainly didn’t give him much comfort.

He turned his head from side to side, trying with a last stitch effort to see if she’d taken refuge in one of the closed shops. The keepers were kind and would more than likely house a lost student during a crisis such as this.

As dread pooled deeper in the pit of his stomach and his body struggled to fight off the shaky chill that climbed its way up his spine, he dared to look up, noticing that the dementors were no longer searching, but swarming. The snowfall only seemed to thicken, which was rather unfortunate as Obi-Wan had to swipe his arm over his eyes several times to continue seeing.

They congregated at the Three Broomsticks- in front of which, Obi-Wan did not stop, but in his haste, did meet the bloodshot amber eyes of none other than the Dathomirian known as Maul. In their midst, Obi-Wan found he would rather embark on a lengthy stay with a dementor than look another second into the killer’s eyes. He was leaning back in his seat with casual aplomb and raised his stein of butterbeer as though in cheers or celebration, selling the chilling lack of regard for life with a cruel smile curling his black and red lips.

It was if he was saying, “I’ve won.”

Obi-Wan swallowed thickly and averted his gaze immediately, understanding that this might be his final moment. If that were so, he would use it wisely.

“No, you won’t.”

Maul’s smile broadened, resembling the actual devil as he did so.

Yes, Obi-Wan was definitely about to die.

However, the moment ended as quick as it started, for once the dementors dive bombed past Obi-Wan and straight for Maul, he flipped a galleon into the air and caught it, allowing himself to disappear to whatever rock he dragged himself from before.

Obi-Wan only thundered forward until he arrived at the end of the limits of the town, sighing deeply and wincing at the wreath of frost that circled his head as he caught his breath. He was immensely cold and with nothing to do about it and worse, began to feel quite defeated. Part of him wanted to rationalize that Rabé did likely go back to the castle. However, whether it was intuition or simply an unknown magic in the air, he could practically feel the presence of another.

Then, from the corner of his eyes, he noticed something poking out of the snow- just next to an old townhome, and drew closer. His steps were heavy and without hopeful anticipation as he regarded the gray fingers breaking through the massive snowdrift.

He knelt down slowly, and raised his wand to blow away the piles of snow and ice and used his hands to remove the last remnants on his own. Attached to the outstretched hand, which served as much as a warning as it did a signal of distress, was the petrified gray face of Rabé.

***

“You have to go back for him!” Satine demanded as she was practically carried by Fisto all the way back to Hogwarts. It had been the only way they were able to prevent her from slipping after Obi-Wan in a panic-induced gut-reaction. She believed he was an idiot for running off the way he did, but that wasn’t to say she didn’t understand the feeling.

“The dementors are mobilizing, Satine!” Windu turned on her with fire in his eyes, “Had Mr. Kenobi not been so uncharacteristically impetuous, we wouldn’t be here.”

“And there would still be a lost child out there!” She growled, not usually one to ever speak to a professor so brazenly, but this was Obi-Wan they were talking about, and she would always be a bit irrational when it came to him. “It doesn’t seem like anyone really cares about that though!”

“Not care? I would lay down my life for every single one of you. Do you think it pleases me to know that not one, but two students could be suffering at the hands of that animal on my watch?” Windu said hotly, “But I cannot jeopardize the dementors potentially catching a murderous sociopath. Obi-Wan would not want me to do that!”

She knew deep in her bones that he was right, but she didn’t take to it any better, instead feeling bile rise up her throat- only subdued by the way it seemed to constrict at the wretched thought of losing her best friend. The cold weight of pure dread settled on her chest, evaporating her fury and nearly suffocating all logical thought.

Nearly.

She turned on her heels back to Ravenclaw house, who were staring at her with a mixture of sympathy and shock. Satine knew she had the capacity to lose her patience, but she tried to always do so with some semblance of professionalism.

“We’ll go find him ourselves then!” Cody, equally as heated as she had been, raged alongside Echo and Fives. All were still dressed for the winter and had their wands at the ready.

“You will do no such thing.” Professor Fisto pulled Cody back by the arm, “Headmaster Yoda is the only one who can save your friend now.”

“What was the point of teaching us all that stuff if we aren’t going to use it?” Cody fired.

“In the event that there is an inescapable situation, Cody.” Fisto said, “I commend your bravery, but there is a line between courage and stupidity.”

“So, that’s it?” Echo chimed in, “We’re just going to run and hide every time a bad guy comes knocking on our door?”

“Yeah, you’re supposed to teach us defense against the dark arts!” Fives added, “I’d say Maul qualifies.”

“Maul is much more than any of you can understand or handle.” Windu’s voice no longer spoke with anger, but from a deep place that teetered on remorse and pity. There was a defeated look in his eyes that Satine would never forget, as though Maul had already won.

“Glad you’ve all been effectively wasting our time then.” Cody snarled, “Propping us up and making us feel as though we’re really doing something all year. What has all of this been? Some show for the Ministry?”

A few other Gryffindors pooled around him and it occurred to Satine just then that if Cody hadn’t been so set on pursuing Quidditch as a career, that he’d make a mighty fine commanding officer. People rallied behind him. They believed in him.

She just wished that call to order wasn’t coming from a place of wishing to fight a dark lord.

“Cody, I highly recommend that you stand down.” Fisto said, “I get that you’re upset, but we need to remain calm. Take your brothers back to the Great Hall and wait for further instructions.”

Cody was teeming with anger- she could tell just looking at him and for a moment, she feared he was going to act brashly. Windu seemed to think the same thing judging by the appraising look he gave him.

He didn’t move, but he did send Echo and Fives back with the Gryffindor prefects and the rest of the house. The other houses and their respective prefects trickled afterwards, each going to the Great Hall for what was surely to be another lockdown.

“Great, another sleepover.” Fives huffed as he went.

“Yeah, telling ghost stories by candlelight altogether will surely keep us safe.” Echo complained under his breath.

“I thought I said-” Fisto began.

“-I’m not leaving until Kenobi is found.” Cody said, “Dead or alive.”

“Don’t you dare talk like that.” She seethed, grabbing his attention instantly and Cody, to his credit, did appear riddled with guilt at her reaction.

“Sorry.” He muttered.

“I expect this level of irrationality from Cody.” Windu said and eyed Satine, “But not you.”

“I’m not leaving either.” She said, clutching Obi-Wan’s robe tightly between clenched fists, “Consequences be damned.”

Where she thought there would be retribution or even more yelling, there was not. Fisto, of the two of them, actually appeared more upset. Windu, instead, nodded slightly. It seemed he understood that this was a battle he would not be winning today.

Satine scanned the area, remembering someone very curious to be missing from the pack. As if it were possible, more horror gnawed at her nerves, “Where’s Anakin?”

That was Maul’s whole purpose for scouting out the school, right?

Windu grimaced, “He did try to sneak out to Hogsmeade earlier.”

Her eyes widened, “But he’s alright?”

“It is to my understanding that young Skywalker is with Professor Jinn.” Palpatine swerved around the corner, dark cloaks flowing behind him dramatically as he reconvened with the professors, “Any update on Maul?”

“No,” Windu said tartly, “But seeing as our students have been debating on staging a coup, it might have been useful to have your presence, Professor.”

The tension, as it was, seemed unbreakable.

“My apologies, Professor Windu, but I will say these students have the right to be upset. All of our efforts to protect the school have thus far failed.” Palpatine said.

Satine also couldn’t blame everyone for being upset. In their effort to make everyone feel safe, they only propped them up with delusions of grandeur. There was a fine line to walk between keeping the student body informed and propagating debilitating fear- at least in this predicament.

“You’re here now.” Fisto said, “That’s what counts.”

Satine wasn’t so sure, but then again, Maul hadn’t broken in yet.

“Surely, it’s not wise to have students so close to the entrance.” Palpatine said.

“Yes, well, it also wasn’t wise to allow Anakin so close to your Vitamix potion.” Windu countered, “I guess we’re all doing things a bit differently right now.”

Palpatine seemed properly slapped by that, because there was little argument that could be brought up to counter the comment. That was, indeed, what happened and it left the school wide open for possible attack.

“Yoda should be back any minute.” Fisto paced the floor, his wet boots making a squeaking noise as he did so, “And hopefully, he has good news.”

“If not?” Cody asked.

“If not, we might have to help him and if that’s the case, you two will stay back.” Windu ordered.

Even Cody didn’t argue with that logic.

Not but a moment later, erratic banging came from the metal door, growing more desperate as the seconds went on. Palpatine leaned forward as if to open it and Fisto grabbed his wrist before he could perform the charm.

“There’s a password.” Fisto said.

“And why would Maul just come knocking on the front door?” Palpatine scoffed.

“Maul is anything but conventional.” Windu reasoned.

Cody and Satine looked between each other as the three professors deliberated. They were beginning to understand why it sometimes felt like it took forever for anything to get done. No one could agree on the simplest things.

“What if it’s Ben?” Satine stepped forward, “You’ve said it yourself that the tunnels are blocked off now.”

“Yoda would have found him and brought him back by apparition.” Fisto said.

“And if he didn’t?”

Windu opened his mouth to respond, but then from a familiar voice, “HELLO THERE? IS ANYONE THERE?”

She glared between the three professors, who were all a bit dumbstruck as they hastily moved to open the door. As it swung open unceremoniously, her heart resumed beating as Obi-Wan Kenobi, pale, drenched and speckled with snowflakes, practically fell through the entryway.

She moved on instinct rather than thought and caught him in a tight hug, combatting the sharp chill that traveled up her spine at his frigid body with the warm relief that he was alive. She only removed herself enough to tightly wrap his robe around his shoulders before pulling him closer.

“Get him some blankets!” Windu ordered while Palpatine was simultaneously brewing a warm beverage from thin air. Satine, for her part, could not let go.

“N-nice t-to see you t-too.” He shivered and did not reject the warm contact.

“You’re an idiot, Obi-Wan Kenobi.” She muttered into his shoulder, but it really didn’t have as much fire as she would have liked it to- not when he looked so pitiful with wet hair in his face, teeth chattering, and a nose and cheeks red from the cold.

“I’m aware.” He said.

“You could have been killed!”

“I know.”

“And you really couldn’t have at least brought your robe with you if you were going to go running off on a deadly mission?”

“You’re right.”

“Stop agreeing with me!” She leaned back and glared at him.

“My apologies,” He smiled ruefully, but it faded almost instantly, “All the trouble I’ve caused, I’m afraid it was for nothing.”

“What do you mean?” Fisto cut in.

“I saw him.” Obi-Wan’s voice was hollow when he said it. His eyes became downcast as he reminisced, “And Rabé. I couldn’t move her on my own… She was frozen in carbonite.”

Windu cursed, scrubbing a hand over his bald head, “And Maul?”

“Gone.” Obi-Wan said, “He used a portkey before the dementors could get to him.”

***

The dementors separated like parting clouds, allowing for remnants of dwindling sunlight to cast a yellow beam onto Hogsmeade. Even with the sunset behind it, the usually buzzing and quaint town looked barren without the lively folk that inhabited it. It was to their best interest to hide, of course, and he knew that once this awful storm passed, they would return again. Yoda moved slowly through the snow, feet unbothered by the crunch of the ice beneath him.

He had no doubt that Maul was here, but held equal assurance that he no longer was. His protective charms were supposed to stop people from getting in, not out.

He grimaced as he knelt to the Slytherin girl’s motionless body- frozen in time with a horrific expression painting her features. She would need to join the growing group that took up beds in Madame Nema’s hospital wing. He just hoped with everything in him that they could make this right.

It tugged at his heart that children always seemed to be the ones to suffer for the choices of adults. This one was not excluded as Yoda and the other professors deemed that it would be safe.

It should have been safe.

He cursed as he thought back to the extensive lengths he’d gone to in protecting the school. He was exhausted, constantly firing off on all cylinders to keep this place safe. Even Hogsmeade hadn’t been exempt from his reach.

Well it had, but it seemed the small window of Maul’s murder in Diagon Alley to Yoda waking up from the botched Vitamix potion was the hole he’d crawled through. The dementors hadn’t detected him, which was a whole other concern that he would need to investigate at a later time.

There were so many ways that they failed.

Yes, well, this girl’s parents will not enjoy a meager response like that, so he ought to think of something better. Either way, he would not be sleeping well for his hubris. Maul might not storm the castle with his being there, but he was not above dancing around it. He was boxed out for now, but there was only so much that could be done. He had managed to convince them to disallow apparition for the time being without Ministry approval. This combined with the monitorization of the Floo network, limited Maul significantly.

However, there were always portkeys, which was the most secure way for a person in hiding to quickly transport. You didn’t need a license for it and you didn’t even leave a trace on your wand in the process.

It seemed Maul was getting significant joy from toying with them by instilling fear. It was just like a dark wizard to play on people’s emotions as such.

And yet…

He looked back down at the girl with a different sort of befuddlement. Not that he was complaining, but why hadn’t he killed her? Was it because it would have drawn too much attention for his liking? That didn’t seem right, though, because he had no problem murdering the guards at Azkaban or that store owner on Diagon Alley. Why utilize this mysterious alternative method now?

It hadn’t been the first time, obviously. There was the first official occurrence in December, not to mention the carbon remnants found in Shmi Skywalker’s flat, and Obi-Wan and Satine’s discovery at the Shrieking Shack.

Maul had certainly developed a predilection for the long con in his time locked away in Azkaban. Yoda would say it was out of character if he didn’t understand how much a man could change from trauma. He’d seen it in his own face and he’d seen it in many other’s. Maul didn’t want to mess up this time. He wanted his target and he wanted it done right.

But why Anakin Skywalker? Surely, Maul didn’t buy into the Chosen One prophecy. And if he did, why the sudden malevolence towards the boy? Nothing from the ancient texts seemed to make any reference to Maul in the slightest. It wouldn’t have affected him in Azkaban.

Would it?

As Yoda waved his wand once to lift the casket of carbon from the ground to float aimlessly behind him, he turned back towards the castle, realizing not for the first time that the more he learned, the more he had to ask.

***

“We were worried you became a popsicle out there,” Cody said as he took off his own robe and coat to also wrap around Obi-Wan. They all sat in the Great Hall with the rest of the student body, each positioned on their own sleeping bag as they faced each other. Despite having been inside for over an hour, Obi-Wan still clutched the blankets that were given to him tightly and didn’t reject Cody’s addition to the pile.

“I’m sure he was more concerned about seeing Maul.” Satine said.

“I’m sure he was.” Ventress sauntered by with her trademark smirk painted on her black-stained lips.

“Come off it, Ventress,” Cody scowled, “Kenobi wouldn’t lie about such a thing. Dementors were there too.”

“They’ve been here the entire time, Fett.” Ventress said, “How many false scares have there been? I’m beginning to believe it’s all conspiracy, myself.”

“It’s that level of thinking that’s going to get someone seriously injured.” Satine said, “Or worse.”

“Maybe then someone will start to take legitimate action,” She sighed almost dreamily, like she was fantasizing about the possibility.

“And I suppose Rabé basically turning to stone was just nothing.” Cody barked.

“A pity, truly.” She inspected her fingernails, which were actually quite noticeably jagged and cracked with chipped black polish, “Have we not noticed that every victim has been pureblood? You don’t hear the Ministry talking about that, of course.”

“What are you getting at?” Satine growled.

“I’m just saying, Duchess,” Ventress displayed her best pout, which coming from her, still had all the appearances of a cat ready to pounce, “I would hate to see a group marginalized by their blood type.”

“Listen here, Ventress-” She clutched his sleeping bag tightly and was surely ready to fire off on a meaningful tangent of her own, but was interrupted by the sound of barreling footsteps coming their way.

Anakin and Rex came sprinting down the aisle and slid onto their knees towards where they sat. Anakin, for his part, skidded right into Obi-Wan and nearly knocked him over by the velocity at which he traveled.

“Where have you two been?” Cody asked.

“We were with Qui-Gon!” Anakin said and looked around to Obi-Wan, “Fives just told us about what happened at Hogsmeade and I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

Obi-Wan’s heart melted at the thought of Anakin’s concern and ruffled his hair, “Not a scratch on me.”

Anakin nodded in relief, “That’s good. It’s crazy that we both saw Maul today and he didn’t even do anything to either of us!”

Obi-Wan, Satine, Cody, and the briefly forgotten Ventress all snapped their attention towards Anakin in surprise.

“I’m sorry, what?” Satine was the first to speak.

“When and where did you see Maul?” Cody followed shortly behind.

“And you lived?” It was unclear whether Ventress was surprised or disappointed.

Obi-Wan, in all fairness, was still processing the small twelve year old boy, who presumably alone, faced the bloodthirsty killer that had it out for him. He knew he must have looked horrified, because Anakin’s own worry seemed to grow by just looking at Obi-Wan.

“I’m okay!” He said first, knowing that this was the most important thing, “And for the record, it wasn’t my fault.”

“It was a little your fault.” Rex winced.

“Rex! You’re supposed to be on my side!” Anakin whined.

“What did you do?” Obi-Wan pinched his brow.

“I already told Qui-Gon and he promised me immunity and while I don’t know for sure what that means, I’m pretty sure it means you’re not allowed to get mad.”

“That’s not what it means.” He said.

“Well, then, who’s got a decent ghost story to share?” He tried, looking around to each of them, “Ventress? I’m sure you’ve got some just by looking in a mirror every day.”

“Anakin…”

“Fine…” He sighed, “I… Might have sort of tried to go give Padmé her Valentine.”

“Of all the foolish and impulsive things to do!” Obi-Wan roared instantly.

“You said you wouldn’t get mad!”

“No I did not!” He snapped, “Do you not realize how incredibly dangerous that was? And the kind of risk you were putting yourself at? What would have happened if he had gotten you? I swear, I know you’re young but you need to think in terms of the long-”

“-Mate, not sure you are in the best position to be giving that lecture today.” Cody said, “Seeing as you also ran right into Maul’s clutches.”

“Yeah, really!” Anakin defended, “I heard all about what you did!”

“To save someone!” Obi-Wan rounded on his friend, “Not to retrieve a pretty trinket for a girl I fancy!”

“Based on your taste that’s a good thing.” Ventress scoffed.

Satine, who was admittedly calmer than Obi-Wan, frowned and looked at Anakin, “What happened?”

“If I’m allowed to continue.” He said pointedly before going on, “I wasn’t actually going to go to Hogsmeade. Believe it or not, I’m not completely stupid.”

“You just said-” Obi-Wan’s voice cracked.

“-Ben, let him finish.” Satine admonished.

“Thank you,” Anakin nodded and the kid really had the nerve to look smug, “I wasn’t going to Hogsmeade, but Rabé was and believe it or not, I get nervous too sometimes. I wasn’t sure I would have the nerve to give it to her in person, so I was going to ask Rabé if she could give it to Padmé for me. So, I used the map to follow her, obviously, and was never going to leave the tunnel system. But then about halfway through, I saw him.”

“Maul?” Cody asked in awe.

“No, the boogeyman. Yes, Maul.” Rex rolled his eyes.

“Seems like the same thing to me,” Ventress yawned, clearly unimpressed, “Seeing as Maul can’t be in two places at once, I would say one of you is lying.”

“I’m not lying!” Anakin asserted and looked to Obi-Wan, “And he’s not either.”

“Rabé didn’t just turn to carbonite on her own.” Obi-Wan said.

Anakin’s eyes widened, “He got Rabé too?”

“What do you mean too?” Satine asked.

“I mean, Tiplee was also frozen in carbonite down in the tunnels. I only managed to get away because I must have caught him off guard. I ran as fast as I could.” He patted his pockets, “Dang! I think I dropped the map in the process. Again.”

“Seriously, no more of those for you.” Satine said.

“Not like it’ll be of much use now that Yoda is closing the tunnels again.” Cody said.

“That’s horrible.” Obi-Wan frowned and stroked his chin thoughtfully, “But I wonder why he wouldn’t have come into the school.”

“He’s afraid of Yoda.” Ventress scowled, “Everyone knows that, but clearly, he’s a fool to be leaving all of these little clues around.”

“There’s got to be a bigger plan at play here.” Satine said.

“Like what? Two Maul’s?” Ventress rolled her eyes, “I could see the creep going after Skywalker as that is clearly his primary intent, but Kenobi? Who would bother to go after someone who cowered at his own shadow at one point?”

The particular incident that Ventress was alluding to happened when they were only five years old, he might add, but even in his head it didn’t pack the same impact that she wanted it to. Instead, Obi-Wan flashed her a disapproving look.

“Rabé is a member of your house.” He pointed out, “I didn’t see you running back to save her.”

“Actually, I didn’t see you at all.” Satine added.

Ventress, nonplussed, rolled her eyes dramatically, “Good to know the two of you are still conjuring nonsense that would rival The Quibbler, but if you must know, I was tutoring in the library.”

“Wait a second,” Obi-Wan allowed some of the blanket to slide off of him when he sat up straighter, trying his best to suppress a shiver that immediately followed. He was grateful that Satine set it back into place, “Don’t tell me you’re Hondo’s tutor.”

Ventress furrowed her brow, “Be wary of the tone, Kenobi. My marks often rival your own.”

She wasn’t wrong. Horrible personality aside, Ventress was an exemplary student. Like him, she sort of had to be, given the reputation their respective families upheld.

“I wasn’t underestimating your intelligence,” He said, because he wasn’t a total fool, “But I never took you for a good samaritan.”

“Surely, he’s paying her.” Satine groaned as she leaned back on her hands.

“I don’t need the money, muggle-born.” She hissed.

“Since when has galleons been his only form of currency?” Satine shrugged, “Everyone has a price, is all I’m saying.”

“Fools,” Ventress shook her head as she walked away, “All of you.”

“Yeah, well, when you turn to stone, it’ll match your heart.” Anakin said and stood up, “I’m going to go apologize to Padmé.”

Obi-Wan watched him sadly as he walked over to where the crestfallen group of usually chipper girls huddled together. At least they were able to comfort each other in this trying time. Obi-Wan looked to Cody and Satine, who were both wearing a considerable amount of concern on their features.

He knew their responsibilities as older students and prefects, alike, were only going to rise as the fear and sense of danger increased. Anakin had nearly come to his end if he hadn’t been so quick on his feet. He supposed those dueling classes did have their uses if implemented properly. As it were, Maul would likely not make the same mistake twice.

***

The atmosphere was much more subdued than most Quidditch mornings. Even Cody found himself sitting quietly across from where Obi-Wan was falling asleep over a plate of pancakes. Ventress was the only one not subdued, she was glaring around at her team, snarling at anyone not paying attention to her. He didn’t think she’d get very far with an attitude like that. As captain, sometimes the best thing you could do was read the mood of your teammates.

Obi-Wan’s head dropped forwards almost landing in the syrup before Satine managed to pull him back without even a glance over. He blinked, looking around like he hadn’t even been aware they were in the Great Hall in the first place.

“Might want to eat something, mate,” Cody suggested, gesturing to his plate that he seemed surprised was loaded even if he had done it himself.

“Right,” He did so without another word. Satine looked fairly volatile this morning, having woken up extremely early for a morning patrol so there wasn’t much conversation for them to be had. He was tired too, having been picking up a few patrols of his own. Palpatine’s accidental sleeping potion may have been an unfortunate idea, but a few extra hands that could take on prefect duties were still welcomed. It’s not like Cody could say no after watching his friends be run ragged.

“You sure you’re going to be awake enough to stay on a broom?” Cody asked as they both watched a piece of pancake fall slowly off his fork. Obi-Wan just nodded looking up with a sigh.

“We’re all tired,” He nodded towards where Koth had passed out at the breakfast table. Aayla and Cin were awake enough to doodle on his face so it maybe wasn’t the entire team, “Hopefully this will make for a short game.”

“Hopefully,” He nodded, but he wasn’t sure he was honest in his statement. Ventress was looking especially poisonous this morning and wouldn’t take anything sitting down, “Maybe we shouldn’t be playing anyways.”

Obi-Wan and Satine both looked at him like he’d just grown a second head and he met their looks with a glare.

“Who are you and what have you done with Cody?” Kenobi squinted at him as if checking to make sure he hadn’t been cursed.

“I think hell must have frozen over,” Satine added with a nod, “I never thought I’d hear Cody Fett, not want anything to do with Quidditch.”

“Hey! Woah!” He shook his head quickly, “I never said that.”

They both raised an eyebrow at him and he rolled his eyes.

“Even I am not enough of a sports fan to look past the elephant in the room,” He jabbed his fork at them, “Maul’s close and we’re just going to take the whole school outside? Again? Plus, morale is down,” Instead of gesturing to the two obvious examples in front of him, he pointed to Koth, who had just woken up and hadn’t figured out why everyone was laughing at him yet.

“When you put it that way...” Obi-Wan flicked his eyes to the professors, who were desperately trying to keep warm inviting facades. He took a sip of pumpkin juice.

“Why go through all this trouble for such a barbaric game anyways,” Satine glowered, “We need a break from potential violence not more.”

Cody knew explaining the dynamics of Quidditch would not change her mind any so he kept his own thoughts to himself on the matter. He thought of Quidditch as a much needed break most of the time. But it was hard to deny the fact that only a few people would be having a good time today and that wasn’t how he felt a healthy Quidditch environment should be.

The screech of an owl alerted everyone to the arrival of the morning mail. It was always a little hectic, but it didn’t stop them from being able to spot one of their three owls if it chose to show up. The only owl Cody could recognize was a large tawny one. Well manicured and, if memory served, sharp talons. Obi-Wan barely avoided getting his letter dropped on his head, his hand flicked up to catch the falling parchment with deft precision. As most letters from his parents, he was careful to shield it so Satine couldn’t see, something that always had her frustrated despite knowing that it was fair given the nature of these letters.

Obi-Wan read the whole thing in lightning speed, eyebrows furrowing the further he got, although he nodded before swiftly depositing it on the table next to his plate. His owl swooped down again landing on his head causing him to wince.

“Alright message received,” He tried to pick up the pesky owl, but it looked rather indignant to be manhandled. Still because he was gentle and fed him a bit of breakfast, the owl allowed itself to be set on his arm, “Tell them they’re early,” He tried saying it quietly enough so neither of them would hear, unfortunately they were both rather intune to his voice. If an owl could show emotions, which Cody had, up until this moment thought untrue, Obi-Wan’s owl would look almost melancholic for a moment. A hard thing to do for a bird that had permanent angry eyebrows colored into its feathers.

It took off in a hurry, nearly taking off a few heads as it went and disappeared back into the flock it had arrived with.

“What did they say?” Satine asked, as she usually did, but he just shrugged.

“Nothing out of the ordinary,” He gave her a smile, but she frowned.

“That never makes me feel better,” She told him sternly. He just shrugged.

There was a loud pop and they all looked up to see Palpatine and Qui-Gon standing at the head of the Great Hall, the two of them would be escorting both teams outside and to the pitch. It was best to have an experienced teacher at the helm and who better than those who had earned their titles as Heads of House.

Obi-Wan stood swiftly, accepting their well wishes and good lucks, before falling into line behind Eeth. Satine was watching them leave with narrowed eyes and Cody wasn’t sure what was going on, but she certainly looked much more focused than earlier. She slid her hand across the table, snatching the note from where he’d left it, clearly for the trash pile, and spread it open.

“Should you do that?” He asked even if he was curious himself, he wasn’t about to get accused of reading other people’s mail.

“It’s a suspicious piece of parchment I found unattended,” She lied as she peered down at it. Her nose scrunched up in disgust as she read it just loud enough for him to hear.

“Obi-Wan Kenobi,

As you are about to turn 17, we remind you once again of your duties and expectations. In one year you will turn 18 and we’ll discuss then your future. Despite your best attempts to undermine our plans we will do what we can to work around your failure.

Don’t expect a gift this year, you received one last year and we’ll be happy to give you one when you turn 20. Consider continuing to go to school despite your constant disappointments gift enough.

-Mother”

Cody felt the grip on his fork tighten as he stared a hole through the paper. A correspondence with Obi-Wan’s family really was never pleasant, but did they have to be so outwardly despicable? What surprised him most was the excitement lighting up Satine’s eyes as she read the letter over again.

“Brilliant!” She grinned and he practically snapped his fork in half.

“What’s so brilliant about those two bastards continuing to tighten the noose around his neck?” Cody growled and Satine looked up, having the decency to look aghast.

“Oh heavens no,” She looked sick at the thought, “That’s not what I was referring to at all. How could you think-?”

“-How could I not? Maybe hell is freezing over,” He ran a hand down his face as she rummaged around in her bag before shoving plates and goblets out of the way, nearly toppling a few over. She set down a massive book-like object with a white exterior and silver rings. It was full to the brim with pages and she opened it up excitedly.

“It’s a binder,” She told him at his look before moving on to what must have been the important thing at hand, “You know how Ben’s rather dodgy about his birthday?” Cody nodded, “Well I’ve been tracking him ever since 2nd year,” She flipped around in the binder and Cody could see so many color-coded graphs it made his head spin.

“You did this? For what?”

“If he won’t tell us, I’ll find out on my own,” She glared sternly at a picture of Ben that blinked up at her from the page, “That’s what I told him,” She flipped through it, pointing at various sections, “I was able to surmise that his parents tend to have a letter pattern. They only send him mail on major holidays or if he’s done something they disapprove of.”

“When is that not the case,” He muttered.

“I was able to narrow it down after a few years to February or March,” She was in the back of the book now where a calendar full of crossed out dates sat, “It was confusing, sometimes they sent him a letter end of February like this one,” She waved the letter at him, “Sometimes it was in March. This is the first time I’ve been able to read one,” She grinned proudly tucking the letter into the back pocket for evidence purposes.

“What good does that do? They didn’t say what day it was,” Cody studied the calendar in interest.

“It does a lot of good!” She pulled a fancy highlighter from her bag, “He said they were early, meaning it can’t be any of these dates,” She ran her finger through most of the month. They only had a few days left until March though, maybe she’d figured out the month, “Most importantly!” She looked at him face as serious as it was when she was taking her OWLs, “They said they got him a gift last year-”

“Yeah a ruddy gift,” Cody frowned, “What good is an antique quill if it doesn’t even work?”

“I agree,” She said impatiently, “That’s not the point. They said they’d get him another one when he turned 20. He turned 16 last year-”

“Your point?” Cody was beginning to get lost and would rather she hurry up her point than leave him thinking.

“He doesn’t have a birthday this year at all!” She announced and Cody straightened, staring at her in shock.

“Well that’s not possible!” He declared, “Everyone has a birthday once a year! Even those who don’t care much like Kenobi.”

“It is possible!” She grinned proudly drawing a line on her calendar right between the 28th of February and the 1st of March, “He was born on February 29th! A leap year!”

Cody blinked. That actually made a lot of sense. Kenobi wasn’t a liar and he was sure he’d asked about specific days and been told he was wrong. He’d only seen Kenobi get a birthday present their first year (a pack of gobstones) and their fifth year (the aforementioned broken antique quill). Cody had just figured they wouldn’t ever figure it out unless he told them himself, so he usually just tried to get him a good Christmas present every year. He had noticed Satine had started to give him a present around this time of year, but now they had the exact day.

“Does this mean his parents use that as an excuse to never get him anything?” He frowned and Satine angered instantly.

“I’m almost shocked they haven’t forgotten the date themselves.”

“So,” Cody looked at the little highlighted line indicating the fruition of 5 years of work, “What are we doing about it?”

***

“I still say we should have gone with March 1st,” Cody said from where he was balanced rather precariously on a ladder taping the end of a streamer, “Then we’d be celebrating him having turned 17.”

Satine, who was holding onto the ladder to make sure she didn’t have to take anyone to the hospital wing today, glared up at him, “Absolutely not! He has a February birthday, we’re celebrating it in February. Otherwise he’s going to assume we’ve forgotten it!”

“He doesn’t even know we know it,” Cody rationalized, but came down from the ladder anyways to admire his work with her.

“Alright,” She looked down reading her list. She’d had years to plan this event, he’d never had a party before that she knew of and she wanted it to be perfect, “We’ve got the streamers and the balloons. The guests have been told what time to arrive...” She checked off the boxes as she went, “Can I trust you to go and get the cake without dropping it?” She looked up at her friend and he grinned giving her a thumbs up.

“Oh yeah definitely,” It didn’t instill in her a lot of hope, but he was at least eager to do it.

“Alright go, but hurry!” She checked the time off the clock in the corner. “They’ll be here soon.”

“On it!” He saluted her and raced out the door.

Satine observed her surroundings once more. They’d chosen an empty classroom rather than something elaborate like the Great Hall or too intimate like Qui-Gon’s office. She’d gotten approval, Qui-Gon was to arrive any minute now to supervise. He’d been the only professor she could think of that would understand how important this was to do. She was sure if she’d talked to Windu or even Headmaster Yoda, she’d have gotten shot down before she even began. Qui-Gon knew about Ben’s family though and like her, seemed to want to give him the best experience he could.

There was a spot for the cake on the teacher’s desk as well as plates, utensils, and napkins. The ceiling was practically drowning in streamers of all different colors and balloons were floating around aimlessly. Her and Cody’s presents to him were sitting in a neat pile on a couple of tables pushed together. She hoped he’d get a few more, but hadn’t explicitly said anything on the invitations. It was rather short notice after all.

“You’ve done a wonderful job,” She turned to see Qui-Gon in the doorway. He was holding a colorfully wrapped package which she gratefully took from him placing it on the table next to the other.

“Do you think it’s too much?” The last thing she wanted to do was overwhelm him, but she’d learned over the years it was hard to figure out what would.

“I’m sure we could all do with a little cheeriness,” He said in lieu of answering. Maybe he didn’t know any better than she did.

It didn’t take much more time before the students she’d invited began to arrive. The entirety of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team poured in along with Stass. They’d been a little downtrodden at being beat so terribly by Slytherin, but seemed happy enough to be there. The clones were the next to arrive with Anakin in tow. Anakin proudly added his gift to the stack before going back over to Rex.

Cody arrived again, loudly kicking in the door gingerly holding the cake. It hadn’t gotten squashed which she was thankful for. Behind him was Breha and Bail, both levitating trays of food and a bowl of punch, letting them settle into place on a row of desks.

More prefects appeared as well as a few other students. Hondo had seemed rather pleased to have been invited, but Satine was a little worried about what he had possibly brought as a present. Soon the room was pretty full and Satine shushed everyone as well as she could without shouting.

“Alright I’m going to get Ben,” She announced, “Be ready.”

“Yes ma’am!” The Fett’s all saluted her and the others in the room nodded keeping their chatter to a minimum.

***

Obi-Wan was growing a little concerned. Satine had been the one to ask him to meet her in the library, but she had yet to appear. He’d kept himself occupied with his textbooks, but he was tempted to go out and look for her. It was no sooner than he closed his textbook and stood that she rounded the corner looking rather flustered.

“Sorry I’m late,” She panted as she flipped her hair back and out of her face. It was down today, which was becoming a bit of a rarity and he smiled.

“It’s no trouble,” He said sitting back down, “Was there something in particular you wanted to work on? I’ve already finished my essays, but I can help you with yours.”

“Actually,” She was fidgeting nervously and he gazed up at her in concern, “I was hoping you wouldn’t mind if we went on a walk first.”

“A walk?” That was an unusual request.

“Yes I- I just think it would be nice, don’t you?” Well, he was hard pressed to deny her anything. Especially something as simple as a walk around the castle.

“Alright,” He agreed, sliding his text book back into his bag. She was scrutinizing him and he looked down to make sure his clothes were straightened, because the last time he’d gotten that look his fly had been undone. Rather embarrassing.

He looked up again, starting in surprise, when he felt a hand in his hair. She gave him an apologetic look as she stepped back.

“Sorry, your hair was messed up,” She told him and he felt his face warm slightly, but she just coughed awkwardly and started walking. He ran to catch up.

He couldn’t help, but to run his own hands through his hair, just to ensure that it wasn’t still a mess, “It’s fine Ben,” She told him as she walked just far enough ahead to force him to follow her path.

“I didn’t think you minded much if it was messy,” He said instead of removing his hands.

“I don’t, I just-” Satine cut herself off with a shake of her head. Obi-Wan was confused, but let his hands finally drop to his sides.

“Well alright?” He wasn’t sure what else to say. She was acting off and he couldn’t pinpoint it. Maybe she was upset? But she didn’t look it. Even if she was, the library was perfectly quiet that evening. His heart beat a little faster in his chest as he remembered another time the two of them had been alone, the Christmas party. Did she- were they going to talk about it? He wasn’t sure he knew what to say about such things.

“Ben?” He looked up at his name and she was frowning at him, “Are you alright? You look pale.”

“I’m completely fine,” He confirmed, “Are you?”

“Yes?” Maybe they were both acting a little off this evening.

“Good,” He smiled at her and she returned it easily.

She turned then and walked towards the door of an empty classroom, disappearing inside. What on earth could she want with him in an empty classroom?

He refused to lose her though and quickened his pace until he was pulling the door open only to be assaulted by many loud cheers. It took him a moment to register what they were saying in the first place.

“Happy Birthday!”

His birthday? He blinked, taking in the scene. Many of his close friends were there, his Quidditch team, Anakin, Qui-Gon. All of them were standing there watching him which made him more than a little nervous. The ceiling was decorated in nearly every color of the rainbow and it was complete with balloons. He gripped the strap of his bag, unsure what was expected of him. He certainly had never had a party for himself before.

“Happy Birthday, mate!” Cody appeared in front of him practically dragging him into the room and pushing him towards the professor’s desk. It broke the tension in the room and chatter resumed much to his relief. There were less eyes on him.

“Uhm, thank you,” He managed a smile.

“Look at your cake! We had it made special.”

He looked down in surprise at a white cake decorated with 17 silver candles. Written in delicate blue icing was, “Happy Birthday Obi-Wan!” He’d never had his own birthday cake before, but he’d seen them when Satine or Cody had celebrated theirs. It was kind of them to think of him, he just wished he knew the proper way to respond. The parties he attended usually had scripts to follow and he had never been instructed for one like this.

“It’s chocolate,” Satine’s hand landed right next to his on the desk and he looked up catching her eyes, “I know it’s your favorite.”

“It is,” he agreed almost solemnly.

“Do you like it?” She asked and he nodded quickly, his face heating up, how rude that he hadn’t immediately offered them a thank you.

“Yes of course! I- Thank you,” He told them both seriously, “I’m sorry, I’m just not at all sure how I’m supposed to react.” Satine’s eyes flashed sadly at him for a moment before it was gone and she smiled at him softly, bumping her fingers into his.

“You can react however you’d like,” She assured him, “Yell at me that you hate it for all I care,” He took a step back and nearly tripped over Cody at the insinuation.

“Absolutely not, I’ll treasure it!” He vowed with a stern expression and she laughed a little, it was a sound he quite liked.

“Don’t treasure it too long,” Cody warned him, “Because after we sing to you we’re all going to eat it.”

“Sing?”

Neither of them answered, but he found himself pushed into the professor’s chair and everyone seemed to gather all around him. He felt his face get warm and he hoped it wasn’t too noticeable. Both Cody and Satine were lighting the candles on the cake and right when they were done a rather off-key rendition of “Happy Birthday” was sung and shouted at him. There wasn’t much for him to do except sit there and try to look less uncomfortable. When Fives and Echo finally finished drawing out the last “you” Satine told him to make a wish and gestured for him to blow out the candles. It took him two attempts and he wondered if he looked as foolish as he felt.

Soon, however, everyone was preoccupied with their slices of cake and mingling with one another. Obi-Wan had to admit despite his embarrassment of having so many eyes on him, the cake was rather good. It was certainly his favorite kind from the Great Hall and he was quietly delighted when Satine offered him another piece.

“You know today’s not my birthday,” He told Satine as she sat down next to him cutting into her own slice.

“I know,” She smirked, “I know that your birthday isn’t today or tomorrow, but is actually February 29th. Despite what anyone else may say about this though, is that it’s still worth celebrating even if the day won’t appear again for a few more years.”

He blinked at her, shocked. He knew she’d been interested in figuring out his birthday, but he had assumed she’d dropped it by now, “How did you find out?”

“Years of observation,” It wasn’t a helpful answer, but he had to admire her intelligence in getting this far, “So am I right?” She leaned in close to him, her eyes searching his for the answer.

“Yes,” He answered quietly.

“Kenobi!” Hondo nearly knocked him into his cake when he slapped him on the back, “Why have you not shared your birthday with me before! Hondo gives fabulous presents that one would not wish for in their wildest dreams!”

“Ah thank you Hondo,” He peeled Hondo’s arm off his shoulders. He was fairly sure Hondo was correct in his assumption that he definitely wouldn’t have wished for whatever lurked in Hondo’s present in any of his dreams.

“You’re welcome, my friend! Only the best for one of my closest associates,” He winked at him before waltzing away back into the crowd. Obi-Wan watched him go as Satine stifled her laughter.

“I assumed you’d want to open your presents later?” She asked.

“I have presents?” He looked around the room until he spotted them and blanched. There had to be at least 10 sitting there in a pile just for him, “I can’t accept that,” He looked at her with wide eyes and she narrowed her eyes.

“It would be ruder for you to reject them,” He looked between her and the presents. A catch 22.

“I’m not opening Hondo’s in front of anyone,” He decided and she laughed again.

Suddenly there was a loud crash and they both looked up to see Anakin sprawled out on the floor. Obi-Wan’s heart flew into his throat thinking of a similar event at the last party he’d gone to at this school. Before he could run over there though, Anakin was sitting up with a dopey smile on his face. He giggled.

Obi-Wan let out a sigh of relief, but something still didn’t seem right. Anakin had Qui-Gon’s help to stand up, but he wobbled. He looked a little bit like he was drunk, but he doubted Satine or Cody would spike the punch at his birthday party. Cody seemed to have a similar guess because he took a sip of his own punch and frowned.

“Don’t you think,” Anakin giggled so hard he almost fell down again, “Don’t you think that Miraj Scintel is the most beautiful girl you’ve ever met?”

The room went silent.

“She’s really beautiful,” He said again giggling wildly. He tripped and Qui-Gon just barely managed to catch him.

Half the room broke out into laughter, it was a ridiculous sight, but Obi-Wan was more worried about what the cause of this was. Qui-Gon was too and immediately slapped a cookie out of Hondo’s hand.

“Someone’s snuck a love potion in,” Satine said standing up, looking particularly mad.

“Miraj Scintel by the sound of it,” Cin Drallig raised an eyebrow as they all quietly set their food down.

“Must have been after you Kenobi,” Fives pointed out, “After all this is technically your party.”

“Me?” He barely talked to the girl and found her quite detestable, they were as different as they came.

“It’s possible any of you were the target,” Qui-Gon frowned as he picked up Anakin to keep him from getting anywhere.

“Hey put me down! I need to go tell Miraj Scintel that I love her!” Anakin cried, “Rex, do you think she’ll like me back.”

Rex was looking at Anakin as if he were contagious, but he just gave him an awkward nod and a, “Sure mate.”

“I’ll take him to Madam Nema,” He told everyone and gave a steady gaze at Obi-Wan, “He’ll be fine. In the meantime I’m sorry, but it looks like we’ll have to cut this party short.”

Before long the room had thinned out leaving just Obi-Wan, Satine, Cody, and a mess to clean up.

“You don’t have to help, Ben,” Satine said with a sigh as she pulled out her wand, “It’s your birthday after all.”

“And leave you to do all the work? I don’t think so,” He stood beside her as they both pulled the streamers off the ceiling with their wands. Cody made short work of sending all their food back down to the kitchens. The three of them moved the desks back to where they were meant to before collapsing together at a section of desks in the center of the room.

“Who knew a party would be so much work?” Cody complained as he picked a bit of streamer out of his hair.

“I did,” Obi-Wan answered quietly, “I really appreciate the thought, but I’m not sure I like having all the attention on me.”

“The point of a birthday party is just to be around those that love you,” She told him, “Yeah it’s a little embarrassing being sung too or opening presents, but there are some things in life you just have to accept.”

“I’m not sure,” He would really rather not make such a big fuss about something as mundane as the day he was born. Satine gave him a rather scathing look for a moment before sighing deeply and reaching into her bag.

“Do you remember when I was late coming back to school?” She asked them.

“Only every day,” He complained and Cody just nodded. She sized them both up before pulling out her wallet and, as if it was physically painful for her she pulled out a thin white card.

“I was late because I was getting my driver’s license,” She set the card down in front of them, revealing Satine in rather bad lighting. On the right was a list of identifying information and quite interested, Obi-Wan picked it up to look at it.

Cody immediately had broken into a fit of laughter, catching the end of Satine’s fiery glare, “It looks like a mug shot!”

“That’s why I wasn’t too interested in telling anyone!” She snatched the card out of his hands and Obi-Wan just blinked looking over at her.

“What’s wrong with it? You look lovely,” That comment just made Cody laugh harder and earned him Satine’s glare as well.

“It’s a bloody terrible photo!” She shouted shoving the thing far back in her wallet and stashing it back where it belonged, “The point is,” She emphasized, “Sometimes you have to suffer through some embarrassment in life, I doubt having a birthday party is as terrible as having that as an identifying picture.”

“I don’t see what’s so bad about it,” He looked between Cody and Satine. It showcased her hair and although she wasn’t smiling, in it he could see the softness in her eyes.

“You are unbelievable, Obi-Wan Kenobi!” Satine’s face had gone red, “I show you the worst picture of me forced to exist and you still think being sung too is worse?”

“Let’s open presents!” Cody changed the subject quickly, shoving a shoddily wrapped gift into his hands and trying to whisper, “Come on mate, open it! She already has a mugshot, what’s going to stop her from murdering us.”

“Cody!”

[swfanficbyjz]

SW AU - Fate of the Master Chapter 26

<- Previous Chapter

"Thank you for coming on such short notice, I know you both just returned." Obi wan said as Anakin and Ahsoka came in the room behind him. He was busy trying to move furniture around the newly remodeled council room.

"Is everything alright?" Anakin asked concerned.

Obi wan finished moving the last chair into place and turned to look at them. "Yes and no." He said at last, wiping the sweat off his brow.

"How can we help?" Ahsoka asked.

Obi wan slumped down into a chair and gestured for them to sit too. "I've been giving some thought to this whole grandmaster of the new Jedi order thing, and I'm not sure I'm up to it after all."

"How can you say that, master? You're the most qualified person out there." Anakin said quickly. Obi wan half smiled but then stroked his beard in deep thought.

"Well, not exactly. But the reason I called you here is because I need a favor."

"Of course," Ahsoka said without hesitation.

"I will continue my role as grandmaster on one condition..." Obi wan said slowly. Enjoying their anxiety more than he should. "That the two of you agree to sit on the council."

"What?" Anakin exclaimed standing up.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea, Master Kenobi." Ahsoka said.

"Calm down, Anakin, hear me out." Anakin grumbled something under his breath and sat back down. "Look, I know that given all we've each been through, none of us is truly qualified to restart the order as it once was. Both of you have pointed out its many failings on more than one occasion. And even though I used to believe strongly in the old code, I see now that it was outdated and did not truly serve the best interest of both its members and the people of the galaxy. So even though you two have both severed ties with it, I feel as though I cannot truly serve others without your perspectives and ideas."

Obi wan went silent for a few moments so that Anakin and Ahsoka could mull over what he was saying.

"Anakin, you taught me time and time again, that though I tried to help people, I never really saw them. Or understood them. Your perspective on delicate situations, I regret to say, I never fully appreciated before. I spent entirely too much time believing I knew better and you just didn't get it. But I see now that I was the one that didn't get it. You showed me faces and individuals when I only saw numbers. Ahsoka, you taught me that wisdom comes at all ages and in many forms. You showed me that the path ahead is not black and white, but that with confidence, fearlessness and love, even impossible tasks become possible. You've shown me resilience and maturity that not even the old masters possessed at such degree. Your thoughtfulness and insights would be invaluable in creating an environment that would truly serve the people of this world and all the others."

Obi wan watched as they glanced at each other, hoping that he had convinced them.

"I know you both have doubts about rejoining the Jedi order. I know that you feel as though you are unworthy to hold that position again. I understand, but I need you here. I can't do this without you."

"Will you actually listen to us this time?" Anakin asked finally.

"Yes." Obi wan replied.

"Then we'd be honored to be a part of it again." Ahsoka said, reaching for Anakin's hand. He still looked a little uncertain but he nodded in agreement.

"Thank you." Obi wan said with a sigh of relief.

–-

*New Jedi Order Open House, 19 years after the great Jedi Purge*

"Uncle Owen! Aunt Beru! I'm so glad you came!" Luke exclaimed happily, greeting his aunt and uncle with kisses on their cheeks as they walked nervously into the foyer of the restored Jedi temple. They looked around timidly. Anakin smiled to himself as he watched them take in the contrasting world of force users and the big city to what they were used to on Tatooine. It had taken a lot of convincing to get them to come, but ultimately they'd agreed. Anakin was pleased. It was important to Luke that they be a part of such a momentous occasion, even though they'd always been against him being a Jedi. "This is my twin sister, Leia!" Luke introduced her to the Lars'. She greeted them politely. They looked a little overwhelmed.

Anakin stepped forward at last, "Hello brother, glad you could make it." He extended a mechanical hand to his half brother, Owen who looked up at him in surprise. Owen shook it hesitantly, as Anakin pulled him apart from the group for a moment. "It means a lot to Luke, that you're here." He spoke low so they wouldn't be overheard.

"I didn't want to come," Owen admitted. "But I realized that even though I don't agree with his choice to follow in your footsteps, we did raise him and we do love him."

Anakin nodded thoughtfully brushing off his pointed remark. "I know you do. And I'm eternally grateful for all that you've done. You did what I could not. And I want you to know, that it's because you loved him and raised him well, that he will not become like I had. He will be a Jedi. And he will not fall like I did."

Owen seemed satisfied with Anakin's response. "I thought Jedi were secretive, what's this all about?"

Anakin smiled, "we used to be, but we've learned a few things over the years. We used to think it was better to isolate ourselves from the rest of the world, believing that distance would enable us to do what we must to save as many as possible. Now we've come to understand that relationships with the outside world, contact and support from our families and friends, is immeasurably important. Luke and Leia are the best examples of that. Because they both were given a chance to be raised in loving environments with great support systems, there is a far smaller chance for them to be tempted by power or anything else the dark side could offer." Anakin could tell that his brother didn't fully grasp what he was saying, but seemed to be pleased to hear the more progressive views of the Jedi. And it occurred to him that he would likely encounter that reaction a lot throughout the day. Between the holonet news and the rumor train, views on the Jedi were as varied and mysterious as Coruscant itself. He hoped to change that.

"Uncle Owen! Look at this," Luke called, and Anakin let him rejoin the rest of the group as Luke pointed out places and things as they moved the tour throughout the temple.  

---

On the second level, they met up with Bail, Breha and Ahsoka. As introductions were made all around, it was Leia's turn to lead the tour and they all continued along as a big group while Anakin and Ahsoka followed a few steps behind.

"How do you think it's going?" She asked him, slipping an arm around his waist.

"I'm feeling a lot of positive energy." He replied resting his arm around her shoulders. "People seem excited about the changes and getting to be a part of it."

"Indeed," Ahsoka responded. "It's different, but it feels good. Like we're finally doing something right, you know?"

"Yeah, I do." He said squeezing her closer.

"How do you feel about Leia's choice to join the government leadership academy rather than finish her Jedi training?" She asked him.

"I think it's the right choice for her. I admit I would have loved to see her as a Jedi knight, just like Luke, but her strategy and leadership skills far surpass my own. I think she'll make a brilliant general."

"Me too," Ahsoka replied. "And of course, she'll still have some classes here, so it's not like we won't ever see her."

"True." Anakin replied.

"Hello there," Callista said as her and her husband Geith came through a door on their right.

"Callista! It's so good to see you!" Ahsoka said excitedly and embraced her.

"It's been too long," her friend said. "You remember Geith?"

"Of course, how are you both?" Ahsoka asked, shaking his hand.

"We're doing well," Geith replied in a deep voice. "Have you met our daughter, Karmen yet?" He asked indicating a tall thin, red headed girl behind them.

"I have not. How do you do?" Ahsoka asked.

"It's nice to meet you." Karmen curtsied.

"Karmen is a Jedi marriage counselor and officiator now." Callista said proudly. "Which I know was something you weren't very comfortable with a long long time ago." She giggled.

"Ah yes... well time certainly changes things," Ahsoka said squeezing Anakin's hand. He smiled back at her. "Is master Altis and the others still alive?"

"I'm afraid not," Geith said sadly. "We're all that's left of the Altisian Jedi."

"I'm so sorry to hear that. But I'm hoping that all those that were lost will find a home here forevermore." Ahsoka replied. "Both in flesh and spirit."

"I'm certain Master Altis would be pleased to see the Jedi order now. I know you weren't so open minded when you were just a padawan, though I can't say I blame you. It's hard to break tradition." Callista commented.

"Ain't that the truth?" Ahsoka replied. "I guess it took life forcing us to change perspectives to figure out what was wrong with our traditions."

Callista smiled. "Well, we should get going, Karmen wants to see the gardens."

"Of course," Anakin nodded to them. "See you around!"

Anakin and Ahsoka caught up with the rest of their group.

Last Chapter ->

[senatorrorgana]

Young Gods - One

a/n: i've risen from the grave! as i expected, i got inspiration back after the trailer dropped thank god! down to business though, this is sort of officially a re-write of my old damerey fic 'Twin Suns'. i lost inspiration for it entirely, and to be honest, i wasn't like the direction i was taking it, i wanted to explore so much more but i wrote myself into a corner. between taking the basic idea from that, adding in the new ideas i've had brimming in my head wanting to write some skywalker family drama and traveling down some dark paths story wise, along with the trailer inspiration - here we are! this fic is going to go back and forth between rey and ben a lot and really explore the bond they had before - well - before ben ruined everything, but for a reason; fear not though, there will be damerey though it might not be as prominent as it's been in the past since i really want to explore this bond rey and her brother share and what drove them to where they are now! anyway, i'll stop talking, the tags (which i will update as the chapters go on so i don't spoil too much) and the chapter will do the rest of the talk, i hope you guys enjoy!! <3

rating: m 

ao3: (x)

        The Skywalkers were known for losing limbs, it’d almost become a family joke of sorts over the years. Rey and Ben used to talk about which limb they’d rather lose; Ben always picking his left hand while Rey picked her left leg. This, however, was far worse, this was losing a part of herself that she couldn’t live without, a part of her soul that couldn’t be replaced. She could still see the lightsaber so close to her neck, feeling the heat sizzle against the skin of her neck and forming a scar, feeling him plead to her through the Force, begging her to go with him, to not leave him as their parents had left –

        “Rey?” A scratchy yet familiar voice pulled Rey from her meditation, chasing the negative thoughts and memories away.

        She jumped slightly, she knew Uncle Luke would notice it but she couldn’t help it. That one recurring memory scarred her in more ways than one, the scar on her neck stinging slightly as if she had just gotten it all over again.

        “Rey, are you ready to go?” Luke questioned.

        “Yeah, I’m ready.” Rey replied, nodding and collecting her thoughts, wiping away the stray tears she shed and focusing on boarding the Resistance U-Wing parked and waiting for them.

        “Do you want to talk – “

        “No.” Rey cut him off. “No, I don’t want to talk about it.”

        “Let’s get you home then.” Luke sighed.

        “Yeah…home.” Rey mumbled.

        Ben could feel her scratching at the back of his mind, clawing her way to where she shouldn’t have tried to go. Before he could push her away she was gone, and despite everything, he still always missed her presence after she left. He couldn’t allow such distractions though he did indulge in them when he was weak; once she’d been the only thing that held him together, they were inseparable – now they were strangers, and Ben still didn’t know if it was for the better or the worse after all these years.

        “Ren,” Hux hissed as soon as he walked onto the bridge, it was times like these where he wished he could choke the life out of the man, “Supreme Leader Snoke wishes to see you.”

        He didn’t bother with a response, instead Ben simply walked past him, feeling the General’s anger as he did so. The thought crossed his mind of choking the life out of him, of silencing that barking tone the General had once and for all, but something always stayed his hand and kept him from doing so.

        The hall for the Supreme Leader wasn’t far from the bridge thankfully, though it felt like it stretched on for miles whenever she had gotten in his head. Ben clenched his fists and took some deep breaths under his helmet. This meeting was more than likely about the Resistance spies, more specifically, about the girl he left alive because she bore a resemblance to her, his sister whose name he couldn’t even speak without feeling rage.

        ‘Ben, please don’t, please!’ He heard her voice over and over again, sparks hissing from nearby counsels.

        She haunted him as much as he haunted her.

        Rey had been running for so many years now that it felt odd to sit still, it had just been her and Luke for the longest time, trying to run and hide without risking calling for help and getting more people killed along the way. They’d been hunted like animals, chased down across systems and given few chances to catch their breath. A few days ago, Luke had finally told her that he reached out for help against his better judgement, he knew that she was unravelling and needed a place to gather her thoughts. Rey only wished that the safe place he promised her hadn’t been with the Resistance of all places.

        The ship jostled and rumbled slightly as it made its landing down onto the tarmac, Rey already feeling the lively static in the air from all the hustling Resistance officers outside the door. She took some deep breaths, preparing herself for the gawking and stares she knew she’d receive as soon as she set foot outside this ship.

        It’s her, that’s the General’s daughter!

        She’s Luke Skywalker's padawan, one of the last, she’ll know what to do with the First Order.

        She has to be different from her brother, she can’t be so evil, she won’t take after Anakin.

        Rey hung her head and squeezed her eyes shut, trying to drown out the voices already. It’d been so long since she’d been near so many people that she’d almost forgotten how to handle drowning out crowds.

        “Breathe Rey, it’s alright.” Luke assured her, his hand resting on her shoulder.

        He offered up the silent solace of his thoughts to help her gain her focus again and once she felt sure she could control it, she gave a brief nod to Luke to let him know. The pilots of the ship wasted no time after that to open up the ship's door, the sound of boots running across the tarmac being the only thing Rey heard.

        She slowly got to her feet, feeling a bit dizzy from having to expend so much energy already just to control her thoughts. Despite the busy nature of the base, she was caught off guard by noticing the crowd that had gathered around the ship, officers and pilots alike, along with a few senators who openly supported the Resistance after the recent attack from the First Order. There at the heart of the crowd standing front and center was the one no one other than her mother, dressed as if she were ready to march out to war herself with her lightsaber strapped to her hip where her trusted blaster should have been – Rey knew that meant the threat was serious and imminent.

        Her mother’s emotions were mixed with joy and sadness, tinged with regret; the exact same emotions Rey remembered her feeling the day she left her at the temple with Ben. It’d been so long since she’d seen her mother that she almost didn’t recognize her, if it hadn’t been for those eyes – Ben’s eyes – she would have mistaken her for someone else.

Leia took a few steps forward, testing the waters between them to see how she would react. Rey knew there was no escaping this moment even though she desperately wanted to turn and run, she had to face her here and now. With Luke at her side and guiding her forward, Rey kept her eyes locked on her mother while all the officers surrounding them kept their eyes on her and Luke, the last of the Jedi in the galaxy. In a matter of moments they were face to face with one another, no way of escape, and Rey wasn't sure whether she was ready for this moment yet.

“Breha, look at you.” Leia spoke, a fond smile on her face and eyes watering, she was itching to reach out and hold her though she restrained herself. “You've grown so much.”

That's what happens when you leave your child alone for six years, Rey so desperately wanted to say. Instead she bit her tongue and nodded, wanting to keep the moment peaceful in front of strangers.

Leia reached out and wrapped her arms around her tentatively, Rey stiffened up at the contact before barely putting her arms around her mother, just enough to give a slight hug yet stay away from an embrace. She pulled away slowly, not wanting to let go of Rey just yet, before she turned her attention to Luke who gave her the loving embrace she hoped to get from her.

“Let’s get you two inside, you must be exhausted.” Leia said, breaking away from her hug with Luke and turning her full attention to Rey again.

With that, the officers around them dispersed and went about their business again, all except for three at least. One was a short blonde about her mother’s height with buns in her hair and a data pad clutched to her chest, waves nervousness radiating from her while she stood in their presence. The second was a taller dark man in uniform, standing tall and proud yet had a warm smile on his face as he gave a brief nod to both her and Luke, the pins on his uniform told Rey he was a Lieutenant. The last was a man about the same height as the Lieutenant beside him, bronze skinned and brown eyed with dark curled hair, something about him made Rey think he’d be a great poster boy for the Resistance - something pretty to look at and catch people’s eye. Despite his looks, he seemed to be the highest ranking one of the three, his uniform telling Rey that he was a Commander.

The three followed them in, the blonde girl staying right at Leia’s side and typing away at something while the two men stayed behind both Rey and Luke. It made Rey feel like she was being escorted, as if she needed protection from something she didn’t know was even a threat yet. Then again, with the First Order’s last attack hitting so close to the Resistance’s base planet, perhaps it was for the best that they were kept under guard.

The blonde girl, Lieutenant Kaydel Ko Connix, as Rey came to learn her name, showed Rey to her room while Leia herself escorted Luke, the two men lingering in the debriefing room and talking among themselves.  

“If you need anything while you’re here, I’d be happy to help.” Connix said, lingering by the doorway while Rey tried to get used to her surroundings.

It’d been years since she had a bed, longer since she had a room to herself; she didn’t realize how much she missed the privacy until she was finally given it again. The room was small and only one bunk, but it was more than Rey had since the Order destroyed the temple, and part of Rey with it.

“Thank you.” Rey acknowledged her.

The Lieutenant was about to leave, though something held her back and made her hesitate, the flare of her anxiety being more than enough for Rey to sense and cause her to stare at the girl.

“Uh, the General requested to have dinner with you tonight.” Connix stated, her voice meek and gaze no longer fixated on Rey, but on the objects behind her to avoid eye contact. “Or, rather, she asked if you would join her, it wasn’t an order, more like a request - “

“I’ll join her.” Rey cut the girl off, she didn’t need to ask or pry into Connix’s mind to know that she knew of the tension between Rey and her parents, it was written all over her face and the way she acted.

“I’ll let her know.” She replied with relief written all over her face, this time leaving as quickly as she could and the doors shutting behind her.

For the first time in years, Rey finally had some peace, but now the silence seemed more deafening than the voices of others. She used to love having her space, but years of travel and losing Ben...the silence only reminded her of how alone she truly was.

[rubybluewrites-blog]

chapter iii. the dark truth

Padmé Amidala stares blankly at the ceiling of the room the Stormtroopers placed her in. Despite the fear and anxiety building within her, she lays almost peacefully on the gray bed in the room. She’s been panicking so much for the past few hours that she just feels numb now, like all the feeling has just drained out of her.

She’s already exhausted all of the possibilities why Vader sent her here, all of which end badly. There probably isn’t much she can do the save Leia, either, not unless she can escape. But without outside help, escaping from a high-security Star Destroyer didn’t seem very plausible. Padmé can’t even get out of this room—she already tried—let alone an entire ship.

If she dies, perhaps she would see Anakin in the afterlife, if there is one awaiting her. Padmé smiles weakly to herself; it is a nice thought among many grim ones.

Padmé sits up on her bed when she hears the doors to the room slide open. Darth Vader is standing in the doorway and tentatively takes a few steps forward, almost as if he is nervous. She just peers at him, completely silent and still, waiting for him to speak rather than taking initiative herself. There’s an anxious knot gathering in the back of her throat, she just wishes he would disappear. She wants this all to just disappear; she wishes to be back on Alderaan, watching the snow fall outside the window that looks into the courtyard.

Padmé doesn’t want to talk to him at all, but she knows she doesn’t have much of a choice. While she may not be in a cell, she is most certainly a prisoner.

“Are you afraid?” he asks her. Vader must sense her apprehension through the Force; Padmé remembers that Anakin and other Force users could usually interpret others’ emotions just by being in their presence.

Yes, she answers in her head, but she would never admit that aloud. She won’t give him the pleasure of knowing that she fears him.

Instead of answering, Padmé says nothing. She just looks into that empty stare of his and crosses her arms in defiance.

“You don’t need to be,” he continues once he realizes that he isn’t going to get a vocal answer from her. She supposes that he doesn’t really need one; she doesn’t even understand why he asked her that question in the first place, when all he has to do is reach out through the Force to know.

This time, she says something in return. “And why is that?” she inquires, truly curious. His intentions are still a mystery to her, and it makes her beyond nervous not knowing what he wants.

Vader does not answer her question. Instead, he replies with a question of this own. “In the ship, you said you wouldn’t tell me anything because you ‘hate me.’ Explain that to me; I have not seen you in nineteen years. What have I done to warrant your hatred?”

Nineteen years? Padmé ponders. Could Vader have been someone she knew? A former Jedi, perhaps?

“What do you mean, ‘nineteen years?’” she asks. “I’ve never seen you in person until today.”

“You have,” he replies. “You just don’t know it.” Before Padmé can say anything, Vader continues. “I would like for you to answer my question. Why did you say that you hate me?”

He demands nothing of her, Padmé realizes. One would think that Vader would only give orders, give her commands. But he doesn’t—instead, he requests this information of her.

She gulps, but the nervous knot in her throat remains. Though she has heard his voice many times now, Padmé still hasn’t gotten used to the deep, mechanical voice that still sounds somewhat human. Nor has she gotten used to his respirator, which is unnervingly loud in the thickening silence.

Padmé stands so that she is more level with Vader, trying to muster her courage. Even when she is up on her feet, the shadowy figure of Darth Vader still looms ominously over her. She feels trapped, like a caged animal being prepared for slaughter, despite the fact that Vader has made no move to harm her. He hasn’t even threatened her.

But it is impossible for her to not be comfortable when she is standing in the same room as a Dark Lord of the Sith. Her room is a relatively standard size for a spacecraft, but still smaller than most bedrooms in a house or an apartment. Vader is standing on the other side of the room from her, but he not actually many feet away from her.

She looks at Vader, regards the man who murdered her husband with nothing but disdain. “I said that I hate you because I do,” she responds. “You killed my husband.”

“Did I, now?” he replies. If his voice wasn’t so flattened and distorted by his mask, Padmé may have thought that she had amused him. “And who told you that lie? Obi-Wan Kenobi?”

Padmé tenses up and furrows her brow in both confusion and frustration, easily betraying to Vader that he is correct. It was Obi-Wan who told her that Darth Vader was the man who took away her husband, but how could Vader simply assume that?

Darth Vader takes a step toward her, and Padmé nearly staggers back, but the edge of the bed stops her.

“Padmé,” he says, almost softly. Vader speaks her name with such familiarly that it unsettles and flusters her. “Obi-Wan lied to you.”

“Don’t say my name like that,” she snaps, glowering at him now. “Don’t say my name like you know me.”

“I know you better than you think,” Vader counters. “And unlike Obi-Wan, I’m not a liar. I didn’t kill your husband.”

Padmé’s heart flutters in her chest like a caged bird. She wants that to be true. She wants Anakin to be alive so badly, so desperately, and Vader must know this. He’s using Anakin against her, but for what, she doesn’t know. There is a part of her, a dark, despairing part of her, that wants to fall right into Vader’s lie. But she knows better than to trust a Sith; Padmé is no fool.

“It is true that Anakin Skywalker is gone, but he is not dead,” continues Darth Vader. “In order for me to live, he had to cease to exist.”

“What do you mean by that?” Padmé presses, crossing her arms. She doesn’t believe one word that comes out of Vader’s mouth, but she is curious to see how whatever twisted plan he’s conjured up will unfold. Besides, she has a gut feeling that if she gives him most of the responses he wants, he would be less inclined to choke the life out of her or her daughter.

“I was Anakin Skywalker.”

He may have pushed it too far with this one. Padmé hasn’t said a single word in several seconds, but he can feel the turmoil in her Force signature and see the bewilderment on her face. She seems to have shut down; it’s like she has caved in on herself. It’s like she was glass and he shattered with just those four words—“I was Anakin Skywalker.”

Darth Vader does not rush her. He is not a patient man, but he would wait for Padmé, especially in such a delicate situation.

Finally, Padmé opens her mouth to speak, and Vader is hanging on to every last word. “You’re—” she starts, but then her voice breaks as her brown eyes become glossy with tears that threaten to brim over. Padmé draws in a deep breath, and Vader can feel her through the Force, struggling to push her maelstrom of emotions into a corner.

“You’re lying—that’s not true. That’s impossible!” Her voice is slightly raised now, but it is not out of anger, but rather in tumult.

Her emotions are haywire. She’s losing it on the inside, but Vader doesn’t need the Force to tell him that.

“The only reason you are upset is because you know that it is possible.” Darth Vader is slowly pushing her over the edge, but he figures that perhaps that is exactly what she needs to the see the truth.

His gaze moves up and down Padmé until it finally settles on her necklace. He had noticed it before on the Tantive IV, and he knows exactly what it means. Padmé may say that she hates him, that she hates Darth Vader. But the japor snippet she wears tells another story: that after all these years, she still loves Anakin Skywalker.

She still loves Anakin Skywalker—in spite of her romance with the princess’s father. Vader never saw Bail Organa as a threat in the days of the Old Republic, when he was still a Jedi hero. It makes his blood boil to think that all that time he was with Padmé, Bail may have had his eye on her. Of course, Bail would have been unaware of their relationship, but he was married to Breha at the time. There is the slightest possibility that Padmé and Bail may have been together while Padmé carried on with him, but Vader tries to put that thought to rest immediately. His anger has not completely blinded him right now, and he shouldn’t scare Padmé with any assumptions.

“The japor snippet around your neck?” he says. “I gave that to you when I was nine. And you still wear it after all these years, despite your relationship with Bail Organa.” And there it is—a little flame of his outrage at Padmé and Bail’s relationship. Ever since the Princess of Alderaan had spilled that to him, he hasn’t been able to stop mulling over it in his mind. Padmé and Bail together is an utterly miserable thought; her lips against his, them spending the night together… His insides twist abhorrently.

Perhaps he should kill Bail in his spare time, he ponders. He would make him suffer, of course, perhaps cut off his limbs and stab holes into his body before he lets him die. But he would neat about it, ensure that it didn’t look like Vader was responsible for his death. Padmé would never know.

His anger is kindling within him, but he is on his best behavior right now. For once, Vader is actually trying to mind himself. Padmé’s presence in calming enough to prevent him from lashing out, luckily.

“Leave Bail out of this,” Padmé tells him sternly. The fire in him grows as she defends her lover, and he vows silently to himself that there is nothing she can do to protect that rebel scum from his wrath. It would hurt Padmé if he killed Bail, and that fact alone makes him want to cut every piece of furniture into pieces with his lightsaber. The fact that she actually cares for him is what hurts him so deeply. He can feel it through the Force that Padmé does genuinely love Organa. She isn’t just using him, stringing him along like a toy. But he wishes that she was. It wouldn’t take away his inflamed jealousy, but it would soften the blow.

“You have no business in my love life.” Padmé’s features are no longer fearful. He can tell that she is trying to be more austere, to compose herself, but she cannot stop the moisture from gathering in her eyes. She can only fight them from falling.

Vader doesn’t want to see her in pain like this, but he tries to reason that the pain is necessary for Padmé to accept the truth. And once she does, perhaps it won’t hurt her anymore.

“I mourned you for years, Padmé,” he tells her. “And I still did until today. But clearly, you didn’t do the same.” His voice is full of venom and he knows that what he said was cold, but he’ll have to make her more vulnerable if he’s going to make her believe him. Padmé has these walls up, and Vader must break them down.

“You don’t get to tell me how I feel about my husband’s death,” Padmé retaliates. Along with the sadness in her features, there is anger, too. He can feel it rise within her, and though it is directed at him, he likes the way it looks on her. “You know nothing.”

Inside of his mask, which Padmé cannot see, Vader is raising his brow. “Must I continue to prove that I am who I say I am?” he asks her. When she doesn’t answer immediately, he continues. “We married on Naboo, by a lake. Our twenty-second anniversary passed just weeks ago.”

He seems to have struck a nerve, because a single tear finally falls from Padmé’s eye. She isn’t glaring at him anymore, and the anger that once twisted her features has no relaxed and given way to her realization. The truth is starting to sink in—he can feel it.

But Vader doesn’t stop there. “There was once a time when I gave you my lightsaber in your office on Coruscant. We were arguing about your duties as a senator getting in the way of our relationship,” he says. Vader recalls the moment like it was yesterday. He was a young, naïve Jedi, and Padmé the responsible Senator of Naboo. He had suggested going on vacation for two weeks, but Padmé told him that presenting a bill to the Senate was more important. Vader had given Padmé his lightsaber to prove how important their relationship was to him—after all, a Jedi’s lightsaber was his life, as his former master had once told him.

“And you thought I was making fun of you,” Vader finishes his little flashback. Though he doesn’t mention it to Padmé, he remembers pulling her close and kissing her in that office. He has not kissed his wife in nearly twenty years, not since that night on Coruscant after the attack on the Jedi Temple. And he realizes, with a sinking feeling in his chest, that he would probably never be able to again. Not only is Padmé against the Empire right now, but he is also confined to this suit, and his injuries… he would never allow Padmé to see him like that.

Padmé is shaking her head at him, and he decides to take a look into her mind. It isn’t difficult to intrude on her thoughts; her guard has fallen.

Anakin and I were completely alone in my office, she is thinking. He couldn’t know that, unless… unless…

Vader’s heart swells with hope that she’ll believe him, that he’s gotten through to her. As Padmé remains silent, deep in her thoughts, Vader decides to continue to peek into her mind. He has never read her thoughts before, and he has never been more intrigued by the workings of someone’s mind. Vader has interrogated countless rebels, flipped through their deepest thoughts and memories, but this is different. He isn’t forcing his way into Padmé’s thoughts, either. He is just barely grazing the surface, reading only what is going through her mind at this instant. Vader could delve deeper, but decides to allow Padmé her privacy.

His onslaught of nostalgia has sent her mind whirling. A moving image appears in Padmé’s head, one of that day in her office. He is quite pleased, but also somewhat haunted, by the exact moment Padmé has captured.

Padmé holds his lightsaber in her hand, looking up at him doubtfully. She is wearing one of her senatorial dresses, grand and beautiful and elegant.

“It’s yours,” Anakin tells her. Anakin, not Darth Vader. Anakin Skywalker, with his light brown hair, gentle sky-blue eyes, unmarred and handsome features. “Believe me now?”

Padmé’s eyes are copper in the sunlight that pours into her office. She scoffs and her gaze flickers down to the ground, but then returns to Anakin. “If all you want to do is make fun of me,” she sighs, “I think you should just go.”

She begins to walk away, but Anakin puts his hand on her shoulder, stopping her. “That’s not what I want,” he replies, caressing her cheek with his gloved hand. “Not at all.”

The disappointment on Padmé’s face falls and is replaced by warmth. She smiles up at her husband and leans into kiss him, and—

Padmé’s thoughts are suddenly cut off as she shuts herself down. Vader realizes that while he was listening in, he had been holding his breath, and the room had gone utterly quiet without the sound of his respirator.

Her incredulous stare bores into him, but the truth is setting in. The turmoil, the chaos within her begins to subside, leaving clarity in its wake. Padmé knows the truth and he can feel it, knows it just as well as she does.

Another tear falls down her cheek. He wishes she wouldn’t cry like that, and if he didn’t think she would recoil from him, he would have wiped it away with his hand.

“If you’re Anakin,” she says, her voice almost cracking as she speaks, “then show me. Remove your mask, and then I’ll know the truth.”

He can’t—he won’t. Despite having almost all of the power in the galaxy, Vader’s appearance and injuries make him feel absolutely pathetic and weak. He can bend the Force with a simple raise of his hand, cut down armies with his lightsaber, but at the end of the day, Vader is forever crippled by what Obi-Wan did to him.

“No,” he tells her. “You already know the truth.” And he’s right, he knows he is. Padmé knows that he is—was Anakin. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be so upset. She wouldn’t be crying.

“Why?” she asks. “Why do you wear it?”

He decides to enlighten her. Though it may be embarrassing for him, Padmé deserves the truth, and he is hoping that this new information will unveil the truth that Obi-Wan is not the man Padmé believes he is, that he is deplorable.

“Obi-Wan did this to me,” Vader replies acerbically. “On Mustafar, we battled. To say the least, it did not end well for me. He severed the three of my remaining limbs, and I fell near a river of lava. The flames caught onto my clothes. Obi-Wan stood there, watched as I burned alive.”

Padmé inhales sharply. Her brow furrows in disbelief, shock, and pity. “Obi-Wan wouldn’t… he cared about you, he—”

“He is the reason I have been imprisoned in this suit for the past nineteen years,” Vader snaps. His voice raises slightly for a moment as his anger flares up, but he tries to calm his tone. “Do not defend him, Padmé. He did everything in his power to drive us apart, to hurt me.”

“Obi-Wan didn’t drive us apart,” Padmé argues, shaking her head. “I didn’t leave you, Anakin.” He wants to correct her and tell her that Anakin is no longer his name, but given her emotional state, he decides to let it be for now.

“You left me when you turned to the Dark Side,” she continues. “I could never be a part of that. I always knew you had anger, but I never thought… I never thought it could be so strong to drive you to… to this.”

Padmé no longer regards him as a stranger, but she still looks at the darkness within him and is utterly disappointed. And there’s something else, now—despair. He feels her spirit slowly being crushed and knows, with a pang of guilt, that it is because of him.

“Anakin Skywalker was weak,” Vader says, his hands clenched into fists. He’s trying not to lose it, but the fire within him has blazed into an inferno now. This is all Obi-Wan’s fault; he’s poisoned Padmé’s mind and she’s still turned against him after all this time. “I destroyed him.”

Two more tears dribble down Padmé’s cheeks. “Don’t talk like that,” she says. “There is good in you. I know it, I—I know you.”

But she is wrong. There is no conflict within Vader; he is fully realized as a Dark Lord of the Sith, and if not for his injuries, he would have risen far above his master by now.

“In time, you will realize that things are better this way,” he tells her. His fists are still clenched at his side, but there is nothing to release his anger on right now. Vader had made the mistake of taking his rage out on Padmé, and he has regretted it for nearly two decades. He will not repeat that mistake.

“Anakin—”

“That is not my name,” he cuts her off. His words have grown harsher, and Padmé seems to realize that, because she flinches when he snaps at her.

“I—” she begins, but then she stops. Padmé sits down on the bed looks down at the ground, refusing to look at him. “Just go, please.”

She buries her face in her hands to shield her tears from Vader’s eyes. “Just leave,” she tells him again. Her voice is firm despite the sobs that begin to rack her body.

Vader wants to apologize, but he decides to do as Padmé says. He turns and walks out the door, leaving Padmé alone in her room.

The moment he is gone from her presence, Vader is no longer able to contain himself. That calming aura of Padmé’s has vanished, leaving him to succumb to the inferno of his own fury. Vader storms down the hallway and turns the corner to the passageway that leads to the main hall of this floor. As he emerges into the main corridor, several of his men glance at him in fear, but they quickly look away, knowing not to stare when Vader is in one of his moods.

Guilt, despair, shame—these grim emotions always have a way of manifesting themselves in the form of rage within Vader. And when an Imperial protocol droid passes by him and says, “Greetings, Lord Vader,” he quite literally loses it.

Vader turns to the droid, absolutely seething, and grabs it by the neck. Several Imperials stop dead in the hallway, while others move along, minding their business, not wanting to be next. He smashes the droid against a wall again and again, until the light that illuminates its eyes flickers and dies and it is nothing more than a scrap of metal. It doesn’t even look like it was once a droid.

He turns and looks at the railing at the end of the hall. Below him are several other floors, where Imperials march and meander about. Some of them are probably actually having a pleasant day, and he instantly hates them for it.

Vader takes banged up metal that was once a protocol droid and thrusts it over the railing. It falls down several floors, hitting a group of armored Stormtroopers. A few of them fall to the floor, while the others help them up.

“Ow!” one of them exclaims. “What was that?”

But by the time they look up, Vader is already gone, rushing down the main hall to the elevator.

[gffa]

I was going to try to do a Star Wars novels post this week, get back in the swing of things, but I can never stay away from STAR WARS fic for too long, there’s just too much that’s incredibly good! There’s so much that’s either just spot on to the characters or just hits the id or does something so clever that I’m enthralled (or does all three!) that is amazing and everyone should come scream about them with me! STAR WARS RECS: ✦ Cataclasm by dendral, obi-wan & anakin & ahsoka & waxer & cast, 45.6k wip    For reasons unknown to all but himself, Obi-Wan Kenobi has left the Jedi Order in the midst of the Clone Wars, taking with him a single clone. Anakin Skywalker has been unofficially tasked by the Order to find Obi-Wan and bring him home. Unfortunately for Anakin, it seems his former master is always ten steps ahead of him. ✦ Fountain of Force by esama, qui-gon & cast, final fantasy 7 crossover, 8.9k    In which Qui-Gon Jinn comes from Gaia. ✦ Shih by esama, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon, time travel, 8k wip    Obi-Wan Kenobi has a vision of the future, and tries to change it while elsewhere Ben Kenobi dies. ✦ Equinox by lilyconrad, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, sith!obi-wan, 40.8k wip    During the Clone Wars, Obi-Wan and Anakin crash on a remote planet and take shelter in the ruins of a grand estate only to find they are not alone. ✦ At Your Service by DonkerRood, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, crossdressing, spanking, 1.9k    Anakin dresses up in a maid outfit and he and Obi-Wan have some fun. Just smut. ✦ untitled by stonefreeak, shaak ti & yoda & kit fisto & mace windu & cast, 1.3k    When Shaak Ti returned to Coruscant she had not expected anything remotely as dire as an explosion at the Senate—injuring several senators and staff, killing two, and leaving Master Kenobi in a critical condition—to happen. ✦ Respite by GirlwithCurls98, anakin & ahsoka & rex & cast, 4.9k    After a particularly grueling mission, Anakin Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano, and the 501st are sent to Kamino for some much needed medical care. ✦ Pursuit by Icse, obi-wan/anakin, mildly nsfw, modern au, 6.8k wip    Anakin Skywalker is a Grand Prix jumper transitioning into the Eventing world. While his scores are good during the cross-country and show jumping phases of Eventing, his dressage scores are abysmal. His sponsor sets him up as a working student for two-time Dressage Gold Medalist Ben Kenobi to help him pursue his dream of competing in the Olympics. ✦ Untitled part 1 + part 2 by glare-gryphon, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, a/b/o, 2.4k    Prompt: Anonymous asked: Hi are you still taking prompts at the moment? If yes how about Alpha Obiwan who when in rut tends to loose himself in his (very protective) instincts, while Omega!Anakin very much keeps his head and is very aware of what goes on around him but still willing to indulge Obiwan’s somewhat ridiculous alpha instincts ✦ On the Day After by victoria_p (musesfool), anakin & bail & breha, ~1k    Vader has many questions, and only one place to turn for answers. ✦ i’m just a kid of ill repute (and this skin i wear is my only suit) by SashaSea (SHCombatalade), obi-wan & anakin & padme & cast, kingsman fusion, 5.6k    “This is a disaster,” Anakin huffs out a near laugh, passing his remaining grenades to Obi-Wan. He accepts them with a grin and a few spare magazines for Anakin’s pistol, bumping their shoulders together. “This is fun.” ✦ Ain’t No Light Without the Dark by lumenbriide, obi-wan & anakin, 2.2k    “You should have joined me all those years ago, Kenobi.” Anakin overhears Dooku remind Obi-Wan about the temptation on Geonosis, and suddenly, Obi-Wan isn’t as infallible as he seems. He has secrets, just like Anakin; and their bond can only get stronger. ✦ Rewrought by esama, obi-wan & qui-gon & maul, time travel, 4.4k    Bit o time travel ✦ Faithless by esama, obi-wan, 2.5k    Obi-Wan loses his faith in Tatooine full details + recs under the cut!

✦ Cataclasm by dendral, obi-wan & anakin & ahsoka & waxer & cast, 45.6k wip    For reasons unknown to all but himself, Obi-Wan Kenobi has left the Jedi Order in the midst of the Clone Wars, taking with him a single clone. Anakin Skywalker has been unofficially tasked by the Order to find Obi-Wan and bring him home. Unfortunately for Anakin, it seems his former master is always ten steps ahead of him.    Chapter 10: This is an update rec and will focus on this chapter, rather than the fic as a whole. This is the end of the first arc of this fic and it’s a good place to leave off, including the previous chapter, as there’s been at least enough resolution to be a good stopping point, even though the major things are still in play. This is a chapter that’s about Ahsoka and her visions, how it starts to explore a bit of what it means to be a Jedi in contact with the Force, to have to struggle through being unsure if it’s your own anxiety that’s making you feel bad or if it’s a warning from the Force or some twisty, turny combination of both, and how they desperately need control over themselves to not spiral out, to not be consumed by all of this. The moments between Anakin and Ahsoka as he comforts her after a series of bad dreams, lightly touching on how Obi-Wan used to do the same for him, was really lovely and wonderful and worth the read alone! But also the really sweet moments with Yoda and Ahsoka!    I continue to love that this is a fic that’s spot on for the Jedi, if they’d ever managed to catch a fucking break or to have things brought to a head sooner, that they’re all struggling through this dark time, but they care very much and work so hard to do the best thing, and there are still moments of joy (Ahsoka and Yoda saying they’d ask Anakin to join them for meditation, which they’re surehe’ll love, I had such a smile on my face!) that it’s one of the best fics out there right now. ✦ Fountain of Force by esama, qui-gon & cast, final fantasy 7 crossover, 8.9k    In which Qui-Gon Jinn comes from Gaia.    I wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked up this chapter to read (which stands on its own, it’s part of a collection of shorter fics, but they’re unconnected), but I was curious and I’ve always liked this author’s work. What I got was something that was half-world-building and half character piece, wrapped up in the setting of a crossover, all of which came together just exactly as it should. The two worlds blended very well together, the River of Light and the stone Qui-Gon picks up that’s Force-sensitive, the way everything on Gaia just bubbles over with the Living Force, the way this is used by Qui-Gon to gain a deeper understanding of himself, in a lovely and incredibly Jedi sort of way, is wonderfully done. This is a piece that I thought really captured his character, this felt like the character I recognized and was incredibly engaging! It’s not just about Gaia, it really is a piece centered on Qui-Gon Jinn as a character, about his life as a Jedi and the antics he gets into (the sense of this being an actual galaxy is very nicely done as well! I enjoyed the helium-breathing planet just as much as I enjoyed Gaia just as much as I enjoyed everything else), it’s about self-reflection and understanding his own flaws and working on them, just as much as he understands what he’s good at.    It helps to be familiar with FF7, especially to understand the connection of the rock that Qui-Gon picks up and what happens later, likely because of it, but you absolutely don’t need to know it to enjoy this fic, it can just be a cool background world for Qui-Gon to have come from while you read the characterization stuff! It’s one of those fics that I read and made me fall back in love with the potential of Star Wars, it’s one of those fics that I felt like it understood what a Jedi would actually go through and how they’re such good people and the kinds of things they struggle with, it’s one of those fics that made it genuinely interesting and engaging to read! It’s a great piece for someone who has trouble finding Qui-Gon fic that suits my feelings, but also it’s just a really good fic. ✦ Shih by esama, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon, time travel, 8k wip    Obi-Wan Kenobi has a vision of the future, and tries to change it while elsewhere Ben Kenobi dies.    Oh, well. This fic is only two chapters at the time of this rec and already I’m So Very Sad about it, because it’s such a lovely, aching look at these characters and the impending doom hanging over them all, that Obi-Wan is plauged by unspecific but inescapable visions, that he knows something is going to go terribly wrong, but he doesn’t know what and trying to figure that out, trying to navigate between this sweet child in front of him versus the cloak of darkness that swirls around him, that visions don’t necessarily always come true versus that this one is one he knows is more important than that. I absolutely adored the scene where Obi-Wan goes to talk to moppet Anakin, the glimpse he gets into the child’s fears and uncertainty, the kindness that Obi-Wan naturally extends to him, it’s so true to his character, even as there’s a vague current of hurt and unease that Qui-Gon has so easily replaced him. But it’s not bitter, because that’s not who Obi-Wan Kenobi is, instead it finds just the right amount of sad versus knowing that he’s capable of walking forward to whatever comes next.    I would have read this fic just for that first chapter, the relationships Obi-Wan has with both of these people! But then the second chapter came along and, oh, Ben is so tired and worn down, there’s something so difficult about all the hard-won experience he’s gained, the balance between regret that he couldn’t do more, that it felt almost wasteful to stay on Tatooine, versus knowing that it was the right decision. That, when he realizes there’s a chance for change, it’s not a simple thing and that complicated tangle is so much more interesting than a straight-forward fix-it (much as I love love love fix-it fics, don’t get me wrong, I’m hoping for a fix it here, I’m hoping for good things, but I love that it’s not ever meant to be easy, if it were, then the original canon wouldn’t mean so much) and the conversation they have, the things that Ben understands because he’s seen so much more, are perfectly done. Because he’s right, it wasn’t just one thing or one person. And the ending of that chapter is the perfect hook to make sure I’m going to keep reading, because, damn, I’m definitely invested now! ✦ Equinox by lilyconrad, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, sith!obi-wan, 40.8k wip    During the Clone Wars, Obi-Wan and Anakin crash on a remote planet and take shelter in the ruins of a grand estate only to find they are not alone.    Chapter 8: This is an update rec and will focus on this chapter, rather than the fic as a whole. Also, there are likely to be spoilers beyond this point! One of the best things about this chapter is just how high the tension of it was, that the reveal wasn’t the end of it, but instead yet another racheting up point, that learning how the Sith versions were visions more than anything, the research that Obi-Wan had done (and I really enjoyed the difficulty with the translations and poetic language, it’s one of those little touches that really works for me) and how they both had to work to figure out what was going on in a way that felt spot on to them, that they would investigate and discuss things this way, but without feeling like the story had hit pause for the characters to become talking heads, which is something that can be hard to avoid. Instead, this felt like two characters who were genuinely on edge, little touches of Obi-Wan drumming his fingers on the datapad or the way Anakin curled up in the blankets add to this, that show what they’re feeling, rather than telling us. This adds to the creepy atmosphere of the house, whatever’s going on with the Force here, how run-down and dilapidated everything feels here in a very spooky way.    This is also the chapter where the Jedi versions, the real versions, first tumble into bed together beyond just a shard kiss or curling up together, and that made sense to me, because I really felt this sense of isolation with them, that they’re the only two people here in this house. When the Sith were there, sure, they were on edge and wary of them, couldn’t trust them, but at least someone else was there, but now there’s just nothing but them and whatever shadow is lurking around the corner and trying to sneak its way into them. This twines around the confession from the night before, Anakin learning to trust Obi-Wan just a little bit by telling him the truth, Obi-Wan helping to shoulder that burden with him, and so it’s pulling a whole lot of feelings and sexual tension to the surface, resulting in how they tumble together in a way they might not have in other circumstances, but makes sense for them in this moment. The connection is still real, it’s about what was already under the surface, even as it’s heightened!    I also really loved the smaller reveal in this chapter of what was happening with the beacon–the answer was the only one that made sense with what we already knew, but even having guessed it, it doesn’t detract from the creepy scene and the build-up of the tension when Obi-Wan was following Anakin, the way his whole demeanor was just weird and unsettling, like a shiver-inducing fugue state, until something seemed to be trying to dra him away into the dark, something that wasn’t just a physical presence, but was getting at his mind. And that’s far more creepy than just some physical monster that can be fought with a laser sword!    And then there’s the sex itself, ahhhhh. As much as I would have enjoyed penetrative sex, I think the handjob/blowjob combination probably works better here, because they’re just starting out, because it’s more about the desperate need for contact with the other person–especially Anakin, who is so afraid and feels whatever’s in the house so keenly, even more than Obi-Wan does. Not that the verbal comfort wasn’t lovely as well, I loved so very much that Obi-Wan was extra careful with his words because he knew how brittle and on edge Anakin was here, that Obi-Wan was so careful not to blame him for turning off the beacon, because that’s not what his concern was about. And that he’s hyperfocused on Anakin a way the situation warrants, so of course he makes even more effort than usual to make sure Anakin understands the lack of blame–another way where their interaction is heightened from normal, but in a way that’s pulling up what was already there underneath and makes sense for them.    But, okay, also Obi-Wan’s hand in Anakin’s hair, the visions of what their counterparts had done, what that says about what these two want, the darkness that looms in this place, even when these characters are both such good people, that this was about desire and want and heat and fear all rolled up together. It was the perfect balance between my affection for the way the (Soft) Sith versions are used in fic against how the Jedi are good and so valuable, that it’s about these characters as people and what they’ve been through and what they want, yessss.    All of that is true, there’s so much I love on a narrative level, on a more intellectual level, but then I whip right back around to: But Obi-Wan’s hand in Anakin’s hair. The way Anakin’s mind goes blissfully blank, the way he so desperately wants to belong to his Master, that desperate step forward that crashes right through his usual knee-jerk reactionary “I don’t belong to anyone!”, to show that if he choose to give himself to someone, chooses to let that person have power over him, then it’s different and comforting and so good. It’s about safety, it’s about being able to relax, because everything in his head isn’t dragging him down, that there’s someone there to take so much weight off him. But also I just really loved the image of Anakin all pliant and messy and sprawled out beneath his Master, cast in shadows, like he’s still very much a Jedi, but the imagery and potential thematic meaning in a house full of so much shadow is really, really lovely. ✦ At Your Service by DonkerRood, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, crossdressing, spanking, 1.9k    Anakin dresses up in a maid outfit and he and Obi-Wan have some fun. Just smut.    This was one of those fics that was just exactly what I needed when I picked it up, one of those that appeals right to my id and gives me the fun, light-hearted, smutty things I apparently enjoy a ridiculous amount. Anakin in a maid’s uniform, roleplaying with it and acting out to be bratty and so he’ll get Obi-Wan’s attention, who will spank him before fucking him, and it’s exactly what it says on the tin, if you go into this fic, you know exactly what you’re getting and you gotta roll with that. But it’s warm-hearted as well, it’s meant to be fun and joyful, that it’s about giving Anakin what he wants, satisfying something in him and making him feel so loved and content, that Anakin is so very gorgeous like this and Obi-Wan enjoys seeing him being able to whine for more, that Anakin gets to do that, that Obi-Wan gets to fuck the noise and restlessness right out of Anakin’s head. And by the time he’s finally pushing into Anakin, finally fucking him, it’s just nicely satisfying sex and exactly what I needed during shark week, bless and thank. ✦ untitled by stonefreeak, shaak ti & yoda & kit fisto & mace windu & cast, 1.3k    When Shaak Ti returned to Coruscant she had not expected anything remotely as dire as an explosion at the Senate—injuring several senators and staff, killing two, and leaving Master Kenobi in a critical condition—to happen.    This is part of the Supreme Chancellor Obi-Wan series and should be read in order by this point! And, ahhhh, this was such a lovely tide-over until the next piece, where it’s not really about resolution, but about the Jedi reacting to the explosion that happened recently, the chaos they’re trying to help tame, and one of their own being injured and what that means for young Skywalker. This is so spot on for them, how they work to remain calm in the face of such awful circumstances and they work so hard to do the best for everyone, to break the news as best they can, consider what’s the best thing for everyone in the situation. There’s such consideration of Anakin’s reactions, knowing how close he and Obi-Wan are, and it’s just so good and warm-hearted and kind a fic that I’m in love all over again. ✦ Respite by GirlwithCurls98, anakin & ahsoka & rex & cast, 4.9k    After a particularly grueling mission, Anakin Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano, and the 501st are sent to Kamino for some much needed medical care.    This was a cute little fic about Anakin and Ahsoka having pushed themselves so far that they need to rest, that they’re on the edge of physical collapse from how hard the Jedi are running themselves in this war. And there’s a lot of complicated feelings in here, especially Anakin who still doesn’t really understand the Jedi (so the line about the Code is unreliable, considering Anakin doesn’t really get it), but mostly it’s a healing fic, where Anakin cares so deeply about her, how his relationship with Obi-Wan helps him even when they’re not anywhere near each other at the moment, how the clones care so deeply about the Jedi and vice versa, how they Ahsoka and the clones help each other when they need this moment of respite. It was such a sweet fic in the middle of such a horrible war and I really enjoyed it a lot for that! ✦ Pursuit by Icse, obi-wan/anakin, mildly nsfw, modern au, 6.8k wip    Anakin Skywalker is a Grand Prix jumper transitioning into the Eventing world. While his scores are good during the cross-country and show jumping phases of Eventing, his dressage scores are abysmal. His sponsor sets him up as a working student for two-time Dressage Gold Medalist Ben Kenobi to help him pursue his dream of competing in the Olympics.    This is one of those fics that appeals directly to what I want sometimes when I’ve had enough of the heartbreak of canon and when fandom has gotten extra spirit crushing about things–where it’s a light-hearted, warm, embracing-the-fluff modern AU where Anakin is a horse jumper training for the next level, while Ben trains him and Anakin desperately, desperately wants to fall into bed with him. Where it’s all about Anakin being an adorable, soft disaster who does everything he can to get Ben’s attention, who is trying to stay away from doing anything with him because he feels its not proper. It’s just fun when you’re in the mood for something completely, ridiculously warm-hearted and cute and fluffy and with a little bit of smut mixed in. Which is exactly what I’m here for and I just sort of wrapped myself up in this like a warm, fuzzy blanket! ✦ Untitled part 1 + part 2 by glare-gryphon, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, a/b/o, 2.4k    Prompt: Anonymous asked: Hi are you still taking prompts at the moment? If yes how about Alpha Obiwan who when in rut tends to loose himself in his (very protective) instincts, while Omega!Anakin very much keeps his head and is very aware of what goes on around him but still willing to indulge Obiwan’s somewhat ridiculous alpha instincts    The first part is this cute, light-hearted, fluffy thing where Anakin has to put up with Obi-Wan’s rutting instincts and the nests he winds up making and it’s really adorable! And the second one is just ridiculously satisfying a/b/o porn, together the two of them are just an absolute delight to read! I am always here for Anakin in heat, just desperately wanting wanting wanting, wanting his Master to fill him up and fuck him and get this noise out of his head, I am always here for Obi-Wan who tries to be considerate and thoughtful, but it’s contrasted against the rutting instincts, where he just wants to flip Anakin onto his stomach and drive into him, wants to finally claim him and hold him and take care of him. And these two just hit me right where I live, they’re charismatic and, oh, the way Obi-Wan ground against Anakin’s backside, almost lost to this desire to push into him fast and hard, but holding back just enough to ease the way for Anakin, until he’s finally open and relaxed enough that Obi-Wan can properly fuck him, it’s sosatisfyingly delicious. I have a thing for Obi-Wan grinding back and forth, trying to hold himself back while Anakin writhes and tries to adjust, but they both want more, and this fic just delivered that so very well for me. ✦ On the Day After by victoria_p (musesfool), anakin & bail & breha, ~1k    Vader has many questions, and only one place to turn for answers.    This is a follow-up to On the Day Before, which should be read first! This was a lovely sequel piece to the previous one and it walks a fine line, because Vader isn’t someone who is kind or does good things anymore, but also I can believe that he could be inspired to follow Padme’s daughter, that there’s just enough of a spark of good and some misguided intentions, and it absolutely nails that Vader has never wanted power for himself, it’s always been about being someone else’s sword, someone he would do any amount of dark things to protect. And this fic walks that fine line very well, that Vader sees that he can’t just brute force strength his way through this, Leia would never be won over, but instead he has plans about her and, oh, it’s a disaster in the making and it’s spot on, this was so much fun to read! ✦ i’m just a kid of ill repute (and this skin i wear is my only suit) by SashaSea (SHCombatalade), obi-wan & anakin & padme & cast, kingsman fusion, 5.6k    “This is a disaster,” Anakin huffs out a near laugh, passing his remaining grenades to Obi-Wan. He accepts them with a grin and a few spare magazines for Anakin’s pistol, bumping their shoulders together. “This is fun.”    This was a fun fusion piece that just sailed right along and had the right kind of charisma and charm to keep me engaged the whole way through, there was just the right amount of sparkle and whatever-it-is that makes a fic fun to read! It’s fairly light-hearted and it’s centered on Anakin, as well as his relationships with Obi-Wan and Padme that are each complicated and each something more than friendship, something deeply rooted in him, if in different ways–and I really loved that with Padme it was more overtly romantic, but with Obi-Wan it felt more like he was woven into the fabric of Anakin’s life, both made for satisfying dynamics! I do think you should be familiar with the first Kingsman movie to read this one, but it’s definitely a delightful pick-me-up when you need something fun to read! ✦ Ain’t No Light Without the Dark by lumenbriide, obi-wan & anakin, 2.2k    “You should have joined me all those years ago, Kenobi.” Anakin overhears Dooku remind Obi-Wan about the temptation on Geonosis, and suddenly, Obi-Wan isn’t as infallible as he seems. He has secrets, just like Anakin; and their bond can only get stronger.    A lovely little story about Dooku trying to tempt Obi-Wan away from the Jedi and how it doesn’t really work, that’s not who Obi-Wan is at heart, and the conversation Obi-Wan has with Anakin afterwards and what that pulls to the surface between them. This is a story centered on Anakin’s complicated feelings and the relationship between these two characters, one that works towards giving them a little bit more understanding and showing the depth of care between them in an understated but entirely genuine way. It was a very nice read, one that engaged me from beginning to end and I’m very glad I picked up to read! ✦ Rewrought by esama, obi-wan & qui-gon & maul, time travel, 4.4k    Bit o time travel    This is one of those fics that’s the kind of thing I daydream about sometimes, what a time-traveling Obi-Wan Kenobi would do, had he a chance to do the Naboo invasion all over again, and written in an incredibly engaging, easy to imagine sort of way. It’s not precisely a happy fic, but it’s balanced between standing well on its own if this is all there ever is, it’s short glimpse into the canon being shifted to another track, or it could spiral out from here, if it was ever continued. I’m fine with either way, really, because what the point was focused on was the moments where Obi-Wan makes his move, where he springs his plans into actions, and seeing that through the eyes of people who have no idea what’s going on. The loss of Obi-Wan in their eyes, the grief Qui-Gon has to work through, the chaos that comes from the actions of the “Sith Lord” that escaped Naboo, it’s all super engaging and interesting and fascinatingto watch unfold! It’s beautifully characterized and written, it’s got great action and great emotional impact and so much potential that sets my thoughts spinning around it, which is exactly what I wanted from a quick time-travling oneshot! ✦ Faithless by esama, obi-wan, 2.5k    Obi-Wan loses his faith in Tatooine    Oh, this one definitely hurt to read, all the more so because Obi-Wan is sort of right about some things and sort of terribly wrong about others, but that’s kind of the point of his time on Tatooine, that he’s struggling through so much. It’s not ultimately where he’s meant to end up, because Obi-Wan is someone who comes back to his faith, but as a piece where he loses his way, it really worked for me, that this is one part of a bigger cycle that Obi-Wan goes through in his isolation. The writing is so sad and lovely, so self-reflective and you can feel the loss from the character without it being hammered home into the reader, there’s something almost understated here, except also there’s beautiful imagery–I’m not explaining this well, but it’s just a really well-done piece. It’s very much a piece about Obi-Wan being lost, even as he manages to continue to get up every day, some days harder than others, that he continues forward on this path he’s on, that it’s not just the loss of his family and culture, but a loss of faith and the slow, horrible feeling that instills in me, reading this. So sad, but lovely.

[gffa]

I have such enduring love for STAR WARS in large part due to the incredible authors that keep me coming back. I have such fun with the canon, there’s so much of it and so many things about it are wonderful, but there’s something really magical about the fandom and the fic that explores things in a way that canon can’t, that it can change things or ponder a What If scenario or can just take a moment to let the characters breathe and be still or just to provide some resolution that canon is unable to or won’t do. Fanfiction is wonderful and I’m glad that there are so many Star Wars writers who care passionately about it and share their wonderful talents with us! ✦ [remember us - if at all - not as lost] by wreckageofstars, obi-wan & anakin & rex & cast, 6.2k    There’s nothing like a cold, dark pit to put the end of a war into perspective. ✦ Equinox by lilyconrad, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, sith!obikin + jedi!obikin, 35.2k wip    During the Clone Wars, Obi-Wan and Anakin crash on a remote planet and take shelter in the ruins of a grand estate only to find they are not alone. ✦ Cataclasm by dendral, obi-wan & anakin & ahsoka & waxer & cast, 42.9k wip    For reasons unknown to all but himself, Obi-Wan Kenobi has left the Jedi Order in the midst of the Clone Wars, taking with him a single clone. Anakin Skywalker has been unofficially tasked by the Order to find Obi-Wan and bring him home. ✦ The Best Dressed Lie by igrockspock, leia & bail & breha & tarkin & cast, 5.4k    Leia begins showing signs of force sensitivity at an early age. Her parents struggle to dissuade her from investigating her new powers before Vader discovers the daughter he never knew he had. ✦ On the Day Before by victoria_p (musesfool), vader & leia & mon mothma, ~1k    Darth Vader eavesdrops on a very interesting conversation. ✦ untitled by glare-gryphon, obi-wan/anakin/bail, NSFW, d/s, spanking, modern au, 2.1k    If there is one thing Anakin does not expect when he walks into Bail Organa’s office, it is finding his composition professor perched on the edge of the man’s elaborate desk, sipping tea from one of Bail’s expensive tea sets and talking with the man as though they’ve known each other forever. ✦ untitled by darthcuddles, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, modern au, d/s dynamics, spanking, ~1k    Anakin sits and waits, his knees on the soft carpet and the diamond collar he got from Obi-Wan firmly around his neck. ✦ Outlander by writegowrite, obi-wan/anakin, wing fic, ~1k    Anonymous asked: If you want a prompt. How about Anakin with wings? Like force child born with wings ✦ Supreme Chancellor Obi-Wan AU / untitled + untitled by stonefreeak, obi-wan & padme & riyo & boil & cast, 6.6k    “Happen, something did. Cry out, the Force did.” Master Yoda’s ears droop. ✦ Failures of Rhetoric by Mithrigil, obi-wan/satine, nsfw, 4.1k wip    Or, five times Obi-Wan Kenobi should’ve kept his trap shut. And once he should have said something, anything, anything at all. ✦ untitled by themoosejthm, obi-wan/anakin/padme, nsfw, 1.1k    obianidalasuggestion: Anakin loves cuddles. When he’s bored, he’ll snuggle up to Obi-Wan or Padme, no matter what they’re doing, until one of them pays attention to him. Even if it’s just scratching his head like he’s a cat. ✦ you know what they say about assumptions by darlingargents, obi-wan/anakin/padme & ahsoka & cast, modern au, 5.4k    Padmé, Anakin, and Obi-Wan are dating. For some reason, the media doesn’t know what to make of it. ✦ Do Not Go Gentle by Glare, obi-wan/anakin & cast, a/b/o, 10.5k wip    Anakin Skywalker is only six months into his Jedi training when he goes missing on a mission, bringing his Master’s life crashing down. Unable to recover from the loss, Alpha Obi-Wan Kenobi grieves his Padawan’s uncertain fate, unaware that his life would once again be turned on end with the arrival of an Omega Sith Lord to the Temple ten years later. ✦ A journey of a thousand miles by greyathena, han/leia & luke & cast, 149k    Relationships have to start somewhere. Or, once you’ve jumped into a garbage chute with people you kind of either decide to like them or you don’t. ✦ When Dark burns as much as Light. by HellsBellsSinClub, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon & luke & cast, time travel, 8.4k    Darth Vader dies in the arms of his son, fully expecting to be sent to the Void for his sins. Instead, he wakes up in a sandstone hut on what seems to be Tatooine with a ghost of an old friend who has a lot to say to him. full details + recs under the cut!

✦ [remember us - if at all - not as lost] by wreckageofstars, obi-wan & anakin & rex & cast, 6.2k    There’s nothing like a cold, dark pit to put the end of a war into perspective.    Oh, I utterly adored this fic, there’s something so exhausting about it, something so tense and hard, in exactly the way it was meant to get across, that this war has dragged on for so long, it’s almost like a physical ache to read about how badly off Anakin is here, it does such a lovely job of showing the long, grueling grind that wore him down. I love love love Rex’s point of view in this fic, all that he sees about this Jedi he so admires, what he knows about Anakin Skywalker, yet there’s that distance, because the Jedi are kind of weird and it balances how much he cares very, very much, but he can’t reach Anakin the same way Obi-Wan can. And, oh, when Obi-Wan shows up he is perfect in this fic, that the relationship there isn’t the focus (the focus is on Rex and Anakin and the exhaustion of the war) but the way Obi-Wan touches him, the way Anakin lets him in, the way Obi-Wan carries Anakin in a way Anakin would never allow from anyone else, the way there’s so much good in all of these people, yet they’re marching on towards ROTS, all of it is beautifully done and such a great, great fic. It’s angsty while being subtle about that angst and it’s gorgeous for it, one of the best things I’ve read this week. ✦ Equinox by lilyconrad, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, sith!obikin + jedi!obikin, 35.2k wip    During the Clone Wars, Obi-Wan and Anakin crash on a remote planet and take shelter in the ruins of a grand estate only to find they are not alone.    Chapter 7: This is an update rec and will focus on this chapter, rather than the fic as a whole. As I’m sitting down to write this rec, I’m realizing that it would probably be impossible for me to do what I want to do (which is half entice people into reading something I love and half giving myself the space to flail as much as I want) without spoilers, so the first half will be my usual light-on-spoilers style and the second half (which will be marked) will go ahead full tilt. This chapter is an important one, it’s the aftermath of an important conversation that Obi-Wan and Anakin just had, where that aftermath is as important as the first conversation, which is how a fic should be, I should look forward to the reactions after the big reveal just as much as that moment itself–and, boy, did I enjoy that part here as well! Their conversation was beautifully in character for the heartbreak of it, but also that they’ve spent enough time here that it’s softer than it might have otherwise been, it’s happier than it might have been without the lead-up and presence of those other two versions of themselves lingering around in the background.    And then there’s the growing tension of the greater plot and point of the story, there’s this amazingly built up moment at the end of the chapter, that even when I was pretty sure it was coming, I was still on the edge of my seat, and left with my mind spinning about all the possibilities and things I wanted to see and explore. This is a fic that’s meant for me, so I’m biased about all the fun iddy things it’s doing, but it’s also a fic that has clearly been plotted out from the beginning and has laid down the path that it wants to walk from the first chapter–I know that’s a vague thing to say, but it’s hard to say more without being spoilery! But it’s a thing I’ve noticed with the author’s longer stories, that when I read them and look back on them, it’s clear that they set out for where they ended up from the beginning, that the right details were laid down all along the way. And that makes for such a good story, especially one where the characters have to face these two Sith Lords that look just like them and how unsettling that is and what it drags up that they’ve tried to keep from each other.    Okay, from here on, there will be SPOILERS for this chapter! Because a big chunk of the reason I do fic recs is to give myself a safe place to flail in the manner that works for me and I really, really wanted to write this down somewhere and so here we go. I suspected the reveal in this chapter, I’ve been wondering about it for the last chapter or two, ever since the comment about the mirror in the journals, but that took absolutely nothing away from the tension and build-up that was present in the story, I think I almost would have been disappointed had it gone any other way. And, as I was talking about this chapter, I remember the prompt I gave Lily for this one, that I liked the idea of the Jedi versions meeting their Sith versions and having to face that they weren’t as different as they’d have imagined they were–that is exactly what this story is, that is exactly the role Veris and Isten play in this story, and it doesn’t matter that they’re not real, because they are real in the sense that matters. They’re real in that they’re elements of what’s been hidden away in Obi-Wan and Anakin both, what they’re afraid of, what they want, what they’re not looking at, what they think they can never have. The reveal, Obi-Wan thinking about them, after the confession about the Tuskens and Anakin being more open to him, the thought that he hated Isten because he didn’t want to Fall, that Isten was everything he was afraid of, just itches at Obi-Wan’s thoughts, until he puts everything together. The scene where he wakes Anakin up and leads them to the other bedroom, the tension of that building and building realization, where it’s just about to break, soon, soon, any moment now it’s going to happen, was so, so deliciously done!    But I’m getting ahead of myself, I’m skipping over the conversation in the immediate aftermath of Anakin’s confession about the Tuskens, and this is what I was getting at earlier–I wanted the rest of that conversation as much as I wanted the reveal there, I wanted to know what was going to happen next?, just as much as I wanted that moment of shock and surprise! And it delivered that as well, I think I enjoyed it just as much or maybe even more, because, oh, the fic got Obi-Wan’s reaction, that he doesn’t just wave away what happened, he doesn’t ignore that this was a terrible thing that was done, nor does he say it’s all his fault and absolve Anakin of any wrong-doing. Instead, the fic gets that difficult balance of Obi-Wan feeling responsible, of putting this weight on his own shoulders, without taking away his understanding of Anakin’s agency and choice in those actions. That it’s about what this whole fic is about–that Obi-Wan is responsible for Anakin, not in that he’s obligated to do it or that it’s his fault, but that he chooses to do this just as Anakin chooses to leave himself in Obi-Wan’s hands, that that’s the point of Veris and Isten, to make them confront what they were avoiding. It’s partly that he’s Anakin’s Master, he trained Anakin, he was supposed to be responsible for making sure that Anakin didn’t go down that path, because they’re Force users and this is part of what it means to become a Jedi, to learn control, that’s what your Master helps you with. And Obi-Wan sees it as his failing, that he failed to see Anakin as he was, because he loved him so much and believed in him so much, but there’s something else there, that it’s not Obi-Wan berating himself or feeling pathetic about it. It’s Obi-Wan who joins Anakin in sharing this burden of responsibility–not because Anakin is a burden, but because there’s weight to what Anakin did. It mattered. Obi-Wan would never hate him for this, but neither would he just handwave it away.    And that balance between all those things is spot on for who Obi-Wan actually is and how he would feel about this, that it’s about joining Anakin in responsibility, rather than shifting entirely onto one or other of their shoulders, that he’s the Master in this relationship, that is his lifelong and cherished role, so he will always join Anakin, which naturally leads right back to thoughts of Veris and Isten, the way Veris pulled Isten back when he would have ran at the Jedi half-cocked, when Isten explains how choosing to give his Master that authority, to accept the firm hand of his guidance, helps him, keeps him from going out of control. It of course makes me look back on every single thing either Sith has said to the Jedi, how it’s been about confronting something they had chosen to set aside or were desperately hiding (even from themselves at times), realizing how carefully chosen and planned those moments were, entertaining on their own, but even better when recontextualized like this!    All these elements are all wound together so beautifully in this fic and I cannot wait to see where they continue to go, where sure I’m biased, but I also think this may genuinely be my favorite fic of the author’s yet, as you can see by how much I just had to talk about it! And, oh, I love so much that this isn’t about how the Sith are so much better or that the Jedi versions are terrible, but instead that this is about possibility, ones that were set aside or ignored or shoved down for various reasons, that they took a step forward here, they kissed and it made sense to me, after everything they’d confronted and the realization of just how entwined they are with each other already, how they can balance each other, that it’s not about them becoming exactly like the Sith versions, but instead finding a new balance of themselves. And just what all that exhibitionist and really, really good sex says about what each of them want with the other, yesss. I mean, who knows, maybe I’m way off-base about all of this! But that won’t take away from how much fun I had theorizing about things or that I enjoy each chapter as it comes out and the careful way it’s walking the path it’s on and how it’s just SO GOOD FOR ME. ✦ Cataclasm by dendral, obi-wan & anakin & ahsoka & waxer & cast, 42.9k wip    For reasons unknown to all but himself, Obi-Wan Kenobi has left the Jedi Order in the midst of the Clone Wars, taking with him a single clone. Anakin Skywalker has been unofficially tasked by the Order to find Obi-Wan and bring him home.    Chapter 9: This is an update rec and will focus on this chapter, rather than the fic as a whole. This continues to be one of the best fics in the fandom, it does such an incredible job at what it’s aiming for–examining the effects of the war on the characters it hurt the most and what that’s like from the inside, as well as highlighting what is so spot on for them, had they just been in slightly different circumstances. This is a fic that really understands what characters like Obi-Wan and Anakin and Ahsoka and Mace and the clones were going through, that there were no good choices available to them, that greater themes of choice and lack of choice were going on–and that’s really highlighted beautifully in this chapter, when Obi-Wan and Waxer run into a group of Sith. It was a fun chapter for the action and plotful stuff, I’ve been enjoying their relief mission and wherever the Force is taking them, but this one really went hard on the emotional impact and even further showcased why Waxer is here, what this resonates with him, as a clone who was literally born for this war. It’s a fic that doesn’t shy away from the difficult things, but neither does it villanize anyone who isn’t actually a villain, it gets what The Clone Wars was putting down, it’s one of the most in character fics I’ve read for characterization, but also for themes of the Jedi and the Sith and the clones and the war and politics.    Of course everything goes exactly how you know it’s going to go, but that just makes the fic all the stronger for it–though, I also really enjoyed the OCs used for this chapter, they felt right to Star Wars and they meant something, they had an emotional impact on me, I cared about them and their fates after only one chapter here, which is pretty damn great. I loved the bits of world-building, I love that the author has clearly thought about what it means to be a Force user, the way Obi-Wan describes the building they head towards as like he’s being suffocated genuinely gave me a shiver, the way the fic gets that having visions about the future, having vague feelings that something isn’t right, is a lot like anxiety and then outright causes anxiety, this fic really shows just how muchdarkness there was in the galaxy, how the Jedi were tasked with putting out so many fires that they couldn’t get to them all, so many really horrible, traumatizing fires, and never enough time to recover before another fire was starting up.    And that’s how I feel about this story–it’s earning that sense of exhaustion and heart-sickness, for the characters and for me as a reader, in exactly the way it’s supposed to. So when they can’t fix everything perfectly, I remember everything that’s come before, and I feel the emotions right along with the characters, I’m sad because they try so hard and this is never going to be the end. I’m just emotionally sore when something else still yet happens and even when there’s a hug, it’s painful because it’s so wrenching and they’ve both given so much to this war and just EVERYONE DESERVED BETTER and this fic does a gorgeous job of showing that. ✦ The Best Dressed Lie by igrockspock, leia & bail & breha & tarkin & cast, 5.4k    Leia begins showing signs of force sensitivity at an early age. Her parents struggle to dissuade her from investigating her new powers before Vader discovers the daughter he never knew he had.    This was a lovely look at a young, fiery Leia dealing with how she just knowsthings and how it haunts her and makes her wonder and all of it is wrapped up in her fierce, determined, often angry personality. There’s such an intensity to her here, so many little details that really show the sheer amount of determination packed into one character, how she is recognizable as a child even to her adult self. That this was not always an easy childhood, for Leia or for her parents, that there were so many sharp edges and I love that it’s hard not to think of Anakin, even as he’s not actually a presence in her life at all. It’s a lovely read for a character that I find endlessly fascinating! ✦ On the Day Before by victoria_p (musesfool), vader & leia & mon mothma, ~1k    Darth Vader eavesdrops on a very interesting conversation.    This was a short but lovely fic about Vader overhearing a conversation not meant for his ears and having a pretty giant revelation dropped on him–in a conversation I can very much imagine Leia and Mon Mothma would have had! And there’s a moment that was just so perfect, when Leia put forth her assumption about her father, that had me laughing because of course. It’s a really fun fic, Vader is such an utter creeper and yet you kind of feel sorry for the murderous baby killer! It’s a difficult line to walk sometimes, but this fic does it with such charm and charisma that I greatly enjoyed it. ✦ untitled by glare-gryphon, obi-wan/anakin/bail, NSFW, d/s, spanking, modern au, 2.1k    If there is one thing Anakin does not expect when he walks into Bail Organa’s office, it is finding his composition professor perched on the edge of the man’s elaborate desk, sipping tea from one of Bail’s expensive tea sets and talking with the man as though they’ve known each other forever.    I’m usually more of an Obikin reader and that’s what I picked this fic up for–the established pairing is Bail/Anakin and that’s a good portion of the foundation here, Anakin’s thoughts are often with him, even as it’s Obi-Wan touching him and fucking him, but it’s not like the Obi-Wan/Anakin part is unimportant, that it doesn’t hold weight in the fic in comparison, because I definitely enjoyed reading this for that part of it! I’m a sucker for d/s dynamics with these characters, especially how much more settled Anakin feels, and when it’s combined with having two people to trust to take care of him? When it’s combined with some really, really satisfying sex as Obi-Wan fucks him over the desk, then Anakin is guided to his knees to suck Bail off while Obi-Wan pushes back into him, different feeling and sparking something very good in Anakin? Hell yes that was a fun pwp fic to read that hit all the buttons I was hoping for, this was lovely and satisfying and I’m delighted to have read it! ✦ untitled by darthcuddles, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, modern au, d/s dynamics, spanking, ~1k    Anakin sits and waits, his knees on the soft carpet and the diamond collar he got from Obi-Wan firmly around his neck.    Speaking of things that appeal right to me and satisfying me! The d/s dynamics of this fic, as it gives Anakin structure and allows him to be more settled with himself, how he trusts that Obi-Wan loves him and will take care of him? How he’s beautiful here and how he can push for just a little bit of a punishment that he wants, just the right amount, always done with so much love? How Obi-Wan puts him over his lap and does what Anakin’s been needling him for, then has him stand against the wall to fuck him, rough and deep? It’s a short fic, it’s not even a thousand words, but it’s one of those that’s a delicious little treat for when you want it and I appreciated it so much for embracing everything my id wanted, bless. ✦ Outlander by writegowrite, obi-wan/anakin, wing fic, ~1k    Anonymous asked: If you want a prompt. How about Anakin with wings? Like force child born with wings    This is not quite 400 words, but it got me, it’s one of those that captured my attention and had me thinking about the potential here, the way it just sort of blossomed in my mind and the things that could have lead up to this and where it would go from here. All from a single scene of Obi-Wan meeting an Anakin with wings and some really beautiful imagery in the descriptions of Anakin. It’s a fic for when you want a delicious little treat to read, something to perk up your night or morning, and maybe give you a few lingering beautiful images in your mind’s eye! ✦ Supreme Chancellor Obi-Wan AU / untitled + untitled by stonefreeak, obi-wan & padme & riyo & boil & cast, 6.6k    “Happen, something did. Cry out, the Force did.” Master Yoda’s ears droop.    These are part of a larger AU (masterpost here) that should probably be read in order by this point. This rec will focus on these two together, rather than the series as a whole! I really did try to wait until the next part was posted before reading, because I knew they were going to end on a cliffhanger, but I just cannot resist them! They’re so well written and so beautifully true to Star Wars and do so well with a cast of characters, that it pulls in various Senators or clones or Jedi, all of whom show a different point of view and bring something to the scene they’re narrating, and continuing the plot forward. I love this AU for how true to the spirit of Star Wars it is, but also just that it’s absolutely engaging, how I’m on the edge of my seat for these entire fics, as Obi-Wan is wounded in the bombing and how there’s an excellently done sense of chaos screaming around everyone. There’s so much good worldbuilding here, the way the Jedi just know something’s happened, the way the Senators have different cultural backgrounds that are woven into the story (I loved the veiled face Senator and the sheer amount of kindness and empathy Riyo showed her, yesssss, that is my Star Wars!), I loved that I felt everything right along with Padme, as she watched in worry about her friends and colleagues, unable to do anything to help but keep out of the way.    And there’s the Obi-Wan scenes. Which just absolutely are heartbreaking for how much pain he’s in, how much danger his life is in, and the absolute utter crushing sense of suffering I, as a reader, felt when he was so alone and in pain and believed he was going to die without someone there to be with him. The simple line of how he thought perhaps it would have been Anakin who was there with him at the end just casually destroyed me, it was woven into the story in such a lovely way and perfectly done, that he faced death as a Jedi, his reactions so empathetic and understandable, yet he found as much peace as he could with it. This is why Obi-Wan Kenobi is my favorite character and this fic just hits that spot in me that loves him so much, it does justice to him, it gets him right, it’s so good. ✦ Failures of Rhetoric by Mithrigil, obi-wan/satine, nsfw, 4.1k wip    Or, five times Obi-Wan Kenobi should’ve kept his trap shut. And once he should have said something, anything, anything at all.    Chapter 4: This is an update rec and will focus on this chapter, rather than the fic as a whole. I continue to love this series so much, it’s so sharp and has this really deft way of having all these unsaid things crowding into the room, in a way that really fits with Satine and Obi-Wan, that I understand why they’re like this, even as they can be terribly infuriating as well, it’s a spot on balance for them. That this is a moment where Obi-Wan doesn’t say anything, that saying something would ruin it, that even for all the banter here, the real heft of the story is in the atmosphere, the undercurrents beneath them, the sheer amount of unsaid emotional weight between them. It’s just so sharp and so good, it’s everything I fell in love with when it came to these two. ✦ untitled by themoosejthm, obi-wan/anakin/padme, nsfw, 1.1k    obianidalasuggestion: Anakin loves cuddles. When he’s bored, he’ll snuggle up to Obi-Wan or Padme, no matter what they’re doing, until one of them pays attention to him. Even if it’s just scratching his head like he’s a cat.    Oh, this was a lovely fic based on the adorable prompt, it’s such a good example of the different kinds of warm-hearted affection each of these characters displays towards each other–the way Anakin wriggles his way onto Padme’s lap, lays his head against her, the way she casually pets at his head, the way Obi-Wan does something kind for her to show his thoughts are with her, I am entirely here for this with these three, that easy way they balance each other so well. The little details are wonderful, the way Anakin is guileless in the way he’s so attractive, the way Obi-Wan and Padme both center around him even as they gently touch each other, the way Padme’s suggestions for what she wants in the morning, wants to see Anakin ride him, so beautiful when he’s filled up with Obi-Wan and how much he loves them, how she wants to watch Obi-Wan finally lose control and flip him over to fuck him thoroughly, which was only a brief description but certainly filled my head with pleasant thought as I drifted off to sleep. I am so very here for warm, sweet, kind, suggestive, lovely OT3 action and this was such a good treat to read! ✦ you know what they say about assumptions by darlingargents, obi-wan/anakin/padme & ahsoka & cast, modern au, 5.4k    Padmé, Anakin, and Obi-Wan are dating. For some reason, the media doesn’t know what to make of it.    This was a really cute, adorable modern AU that’s just completely fluffy and a fun read! Where the three of them are in a relationship and the press has a field day with possible cheating going on and how they’re having fun with playing with that and silly, light-hearted antics. It’s one of those fics that you read when you want something entirely kind and zero angst in sight and that’s an easy read, which is exactly what I was hoping for, especially with all the angst that often goes in in fandom. Really cute, adorable fun! ✦ Do Not Go Gentle by Glare, obi-wan/anakin & cast, a/b/o, 10.5k wip    Anakin Skywalker is only six months into his Jedi training when he goes missing on a mission, bringing his Master’s life crashing down. Unable to recover from the loss, Alpha Obi-Wan Kenobi grieves his Padawan’s uncertain fate, unaware that his life would once again be turned on end with the arrival of an Omega Sith Lord to the Temple ten years later.    –>Chapter 5: I know I’ve recommended this fic at least once before, but I can’t remember where the recs left off, so I’m going to start over again! This is one of those fics that I gleefully read as soon as it puts a new chapter out because it is right up my alley with the a/b/o stuff and Obi-Wan and Anakin finding each other again so many years later, Anakin just so ready to find his Master again, feral and wild, only able to be put under control by the one he loves, by his Master, by Obi-Wan. Who cares so much about him, wants to be kind and gentle to him, but there’s that underlying streak of possessiveness that comes out in this universe because of their biology and the time spent apart and the how of how they find each other again, the amped up intensity of the emotions. All of that hits my buttons just right on, and then you add in a/b/o to it, with scent smelling and cuddling up together because Anakin doesn’t want to be parted, how Obi-Wan gently bites at him in their sleep, how he marks Anakin because neither of them want to be separated, how they’re vaguely trying to take things slow to do it properly, but you know it’s going to be a clusterfuck.    That’s everything I’m here for! I love every single one of those tropes, especially when they’re done with charm and charisma. I love that there’s angst, but the delicious kind that I’m eating up, rather than feeling exhausted by, because I know they’ll eventually work things out and in the meantime, I get unconscious snuggles and nibbling, I get Anakin this hurricane of a storm in the Force who just settles when he’s with Obi-Wan, who will take care of him, who wakes up and looks at Anakin underneath him, all sprawled limbs and trust, and it’s all so damn good for me. ✦ A journey of a thousand miles by greyathena, han/leia & luke & cast, 149k    Relationships have to start somewhere. Or, once you’ve jumped into a garbage chute with people you kind of either decide to like them or you don’t.    I do have one caveat about my rec for this fic: I’m only ten chapters into the fic at the moment, so only about a quarter of the way through, but I’m a slow reader on this one, and I wanted to write the rec now! I do what I want and all that, basically. Where this fic really shines is in the Han and Leia perspectives, the fic does a really lovely job of making them have all these sharp character traits, but without reducing them to only that, that even when Han is a scoundrel or Leia is a stone-hard princess who has lost her world or when she’s less than five feet of pure rage, it never loses that they’re people, that Han is kind of Totally Unsmooth and that Leia is unsure of her place in the Rebellion for a long time and unsure of her relationship, that they’re stumbling towards something, but it’s going to take awhile to get there. It’s got some fanon tropes that it joyfully embraces (like Chewbacca thinking of them as cubs or wondering when they’re just going to have a cub of their own, etc.) but that’s part of the warm-hearted charm of the fic! And it nicely pulls in a lot of details from current Disney canon, so this feels like an OT fic, but one that fits with the current events! But mostly it’s just a really, really well-written piece for Han and Leia’s characters, that it’s smooth on a technical level but also you can feel how much affection there is for both of them from the writing. A lovely, fun and very lengthy, satisfying read if you’re into these two, all the more so because it doesn’t drag, but still takes its time to show the length of the journey and all the fumbling along the way. ✦ When Dark burns as much as Light. by HellsBellsSinClub, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon & luke & cast, time travel, 8.4k    Darth Vader dies in the arms of his son, fully expecting to be sent to the Void for his sins. Instead, he wakes up in a sandstone hut on what seems to be Tatooine with a ghost of an old friend who has a lot to say to him.    I do have one caveat ahead of time, that there are a lot of typos in the fic that could use a good scrub with the editing brush, but I mention this only because I want to encourage people beyond that, as I found a really solidly good and fun story here, that it was so satisfying for being an Anakin time travel fic (which is very rare for me to find one that works for me!) and how he has to face all the shit he did, all the terrible things and all the people he hurt that didn’t deserve it, but done in a way that makes me love him all the more for it. There are a lot of little details I really love, the way being back in a healed body changes some things (what he can do that he couldn’t in the suit) and not others (the way he’s so used to pain), that this is about dealing with that as well as the tangle of emotions that he just buried away for so many years as Vader. That he has to actually accept the horrible wrongs he did against people (Obi-Wan especially, who did not deserve any of that), how angry he is in a very bad way, but maybe there’s hope for him yet. That he’s not just monstrous acts, but that he can find his way back to the light, that he cries for everyone that he cut down and those he made suffer, and cries for how much he didn’t see (especially how much Obi-Wan loved him) and it’s this really satisfying embracing of all those things that had me tearing through this fic and enjoying it SO MUCH.