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phoenixyfriend · 3 years

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Hey, I have a question? I hope I'm not imposing though. You've done Ben being Dad-Shaped to Anakin and Ahsoka, and Anakin being Dad-Shaped to Baby Ben and Baby Soka. And all of them being flung into the past. Have you considered Ahsoka being Mom-Shaped, or older sister-shaped to little Obi-Wan and Anakin? To complete the set? :)

I have, actually, but not really with Ahsoka being a mom? It's more like. Okay.

Trauma time!

Ahsoka is about three bad minutes away from having a meltdown. She holds it together, because she has to. The adrenaline is still holding her up, but she has no idea how long that's going to last.

"Did someone call Cody?" she asks.

"He's on his way," Jesse assures her.

Good. Great. Okay. Cody can be in charge.

"Who's Cody?" Anakin Skywalker, age nine, asks. "Is he another Jedi?"

"No, he's the Marshall Commander," she says, and then clarifies with, "It means he's ranked very high in the army, and we need his opinion on how to handle, um, this."

"This being..." Obi-Wan Kenobi--age... fourteen? She thinks fourteen--prompts her.

"Well, er," she dithers, because even if Obi-Wan's been polite enough to not demand an explanation from her when she'd tossed tiny little Anakin at him in the middle of a warzone and screamed at him to take cover while she handled the droids, she hasn't had the mental energy to figure out how to explain what's going on. "You... being here... like that."

One of the clones laughs for a fraction of a second, choked and a little hysterical. She thinks it's Hardcase. She doesn't bother to acknowledge it; the situation is insane, and he deserves to find humor where he can.

"Like...?" Obi-Wan prompts again.

"Fourteen?" She says, voice pitching up in hesitation for the explanation, and also a little because she's not sure he's actually fourteen and not a different age.

He stares at her, both disbelieving and waiting.

"Where's Master Qui-Gon?" he asks, after a few long moments, clearly thinking she's insane. Anakin perks up, recognizing the name, and the way he's clinging to Obi-Wan's robes is really just adorable. It's probably because Ahsoka had charged him to take care of little Anakin, and Obi-Wan had actually followed through...

"Um," she says instead. "Dead. About twelve years ago, now."

Obi-Wan's eyes widen, face paling beneath the dirt and soot of the battlefield, and he steps back. Anakin moves with him, still clutching at the tattered padawan robes that Obi-Wan's dressed in.

"Right," Ahsoka says, grimacing and running a hand over her face. "You need a sitrep."

"A sitrep?" he demands.

Right. Nobody really used that military terminology until the war started.

"This morning, you were thirty-seven," she tells him, as plainly as she can. "Anakin was twenty-one. You've lost about twenty-five years, and he's lost about twelve. I'm not going to pretend to know why that much, but since Ventress was mucking around on the battlefield with what I'm pretty sure is Nightsister magics, I'm going to go ahead and say it was her fault."

"I have no idea who that is," Obi-Wan says, and Ahsoka's eyes track how he tucks Anakin into his side with that.

"Yeah, she crawled out of the woodwork when the war started," Ahsoka mutters.

"...there's a war?" Obi-Wan asks, and he sounds scared and resigned, and her heart pulls, but... no. She needs to keep it together.

"What's the last thing you remember?" she asks, fighting the urge to lean over. They're not crechelings, or at least Obi-Wan isn't.

"Mister Jinn was taking me to the Naboo ship," Anakin says, voice quiet and hesitant. "I just said goodbye to my mom, and Mister Jinn was going to take me to Coruscant to be a Jedi."

Ahsoka only barely knows the surface details of the Naboo clusterfuck, but she's pretty sure the worst parts of it happened after Tatooine.

"Melida/Daan," Obi-Wan says. She doesn't recognize the name, and he must read it in her face. "Planetary civil war, two factions, blood feuds. I've spent the past six months... well, the past six from my perspective, aiding a third faction made up of the children of the planet that wanted that war to end. I didn't expect to be welcomed back into the Jedi, but I gather that I was invited back at some point, since you seem to know my older self personally."

Oh great, Obi-Wan's come out of one war where he was in charge of child soldiers and directly into another... where he's in charge of at least one child soldier--Ahsoka herself--and the clones that are technically younger than--nope! Nope. She has to keep it calm and cool and handle this. No philosophical misery. She's got shit to do.

She shakes her head, hand to her forehead. "Right, that. Okay, as of two years ago, the Jedi were put in charge of an army of clones by the Senate. I am not the right person to explain all the political kriffery that went into that decision, but suffice to say, we didn't get much choice about it. All considered, I'm pretty sure you guys don't remember the future at all, so that means that, as the more senior padawan here, I'm currently the highest ranking Jedi on either of the ships."

"How big are the ships?" Anakin pipes up.

"Big," she says. "Over a thousand meters long."

"Each of the Venator class ships are set up to house a force of seven thousand, four hundred personnel for long-term campaigns, with cargo space for up to two years worth of supplies when rationed, but they can carry up to two thousand additional troops if necessary," Rex rattles off behind her. She thinks he'd be amused at the questions, if this were an actual child. It's not. "The one we're on is called The Resolute."

"Cool," Anakin whispers, and then immediately clings to Obi-Wan's robes again.

"Yep," Ahsoka agrees with him. "Unfortunately, I'm... not sure what to do with either of you, since I don't know how to get you back to the ages you're supposed to be, and I'm sure as hell not dragging a nine-year-old into battle--"

"I can help!"

Obi-Wan looks pained. Given what little information he's just given her about Melida/Daan... yeah. No.

"Cool, then you can help the engineers do repairs after," she says. "Still not taking you into battle. You're small, you can help fit into weird places that need wires fixed."

Anakin wrinkles his nose, but nods. Obi-Wan is relieved. So is Ahsoka, admittedly.

"Right," Ahsoka says. "Okay. With you two no longer fit for duty... until Cody gets here, Captain Rex is in charge. If anyone questions this, point them at me."

"Why would they question it?" Obi-Wan asks.

Ahsoka eyes him for a moment, and then sighs. "Just... I mentioned they were clones. Some of the admiralty--the natborn officers we picked up from planets with active militaries that could contribute to the war as tactical advisors--don't always respect that the clones know what they're doing. Also Rex isn't technically ranked as a commander because of some really stupid reasons, so isn't the SiC of the 501st on paper, but that's what happens in practice, so he's in charge until Skyguy's an adult again."

She senses Rex give a jaunty, jaded salute from behind her.

"Commander Cody is the CMC of the Third Systems Army," she continues, "and the SiC for High Jedi General, Master Kenobi."

Obi-Wan's eyes are already on her, but Ahsoka gets to the feeling that she'd have snagged his attention with that no matter what.

"You said I was thirty-seven," he points out. "I can't be a master y--"

"Master and Council Member," she corrects. "As of age thirty-six, I believe. And, well, you're only a month away from thirty-eight."

Anakin's whisper breaks the silence. "You're old."

Obi-Wan's irritation can't pick a form.

Ahsoka grimaces. "Most Council members are High Generals; I'm pretty sure you were elevated to the Council in order to make you a High General because you had more prior experience than most Jedi; I only know about the stint in Mandalore, but I've been told there's more; I'm guessing this Melida/Daan thing is included."

Obi-Wan is going a little less 'irritated' and a little more 'upset' as she talks.

She keeps going anyway. "The GAR consists of ten systems armies plus special forces. Your older self, as a high general, is in charge of one of those systems armies, which is... just under three hundred thousand clones, plus assorted Jedi, admiralty, civilian officers, and other personnel."

Obi-Wan is currently full of horror.

"I can't..."

"And you won't," she says, sharp as she can. "You're fourteen. You're the same age I was when I was thrown into this, which means padawan, which means commander, which means two thousand, three hundred, and four troopers maximum, and even then you'd be relying on the battalion majors to do most of the leadership until you got accustomed to it. I am damn well not suggesting we put a teenager in charge of a systems army; I may be just a padawan, but I'm pretty sure the Council will say the same."

Obi-Wan just stares at her.

"Which... I do need to talk to them," she admits. She sighs and rubs at a montral. "Kix is our CMO; follow him to medical to get a full workup. He can check for the normal stuff, but please be patient for the other scans. If we're lucky, the bloodwork or something will turn up whatever Ventress used. Unless you have questions?"

"You were friends with older me, right?" Anakin asks.

"Ah, you--I mean, he?" She waits for Anakin to shrug, and then forges on. "He's my Jedi Master, my teacher. Basically my older brother, since the age difference is only five and a half years instead of the usual twenty or more. So, um. Yeah. 'Friends' works?"

Anakin nods seriously. He seems to be thinking very hard about something.

"Ani?" Obi-Wan prompts quietly, running a hand over Anakin's hair.

"We have our clothes," Anakin says carefully. "So it's not just our bodies that changed, right?"

"Your older self has a prosthetic arm that one of the shinies managed to grab from the battlefield, so we have proof that that's happening," Jesse confirms.

Ahsoka waits for Anakin to put his thoughts together.

"Mister... um, Master Qui-Gon turned it off already," Anakin says, eyes on the ground, "so I don't think I'm going to blow up, but what if this stuff accidentally turned it back on again and it explodes?"

Ahsoka feels her stomach drop, and she's not the only one. She's not sure what he means, mind jangling with ideas, but there's a haunted look in Obi-Wan's eye that says that maybe... maybe he does.

"Anakin?" Ahsoka asks, going to one knee in front of him and tugging his chin up to look at her. "I don't know what it is that you're talking about. Why would you blow up?"

He blinks at her, innocent as anything. "My slave chip. If I get too far from the remote, boom!"

He does a little move to emphasize it, and Ahsoka freezes.

"Kix is going to do a scan for it and take it out," she says, not even asking for confirmation from medical. She doesn't have to. They'd do this, of course they'd take it out. "You're not going to blow up. I promise."

"Okay," Anakin says. He's relieved, but blase about it in a way she hates. "What do I call you?"

"Your older self calls me Snips," she tells him, still feeling a little far away. "But if that feels too familiar, you can call me Ahsoka, or Padawan Tano."

"Okay, Ahsoka."

Kix leads Anakin away, but Obi-Wan hangs back. They don't look at each other, just Anakin walking off and listening to Kix explain the basic shape of a medical exam.

"You knew what he was talking about before I did," Ahsoka says.

"I have experience with such things," Obi-Wan tells her. "It was only a few days for me, though. Explosive collar with Force-nullifying properties."

She sighs heavily and presses the heel of her palm to her eye. "Right. He seems attached to you already; do you mind taking point on childcare until we can get him to the Temple? I'd ask one of the desk jockeys to handle it, but--"

"But I'm a Jedi," Obi-Wan interrupts. "And I'll know what he needs better than someone Force-Null would, and until I learn your protocols and regulations, I'm less useful than the so-called desk jockeys are."

"No, you're still more useful than the natborn officers," she assures him. "Half of them cause more problems than they solve, just by hating the boys. But no, it's more that Anakin trusts you, and since your future self was his Jedi Master..." she trails off, trying to untangle the look on his face; she's better at reading humans than she used to be. "Ah, yeah, you guessed already?"

"There's a ghost of a training bond," Obi-Wan admits.

"Yeah, you'll have an easier time handling him," she says, relieved. "Right, um, you catch up with those guys, and I'll go... explain things to the Council, I guess. Rex, with me?"

----

When Ahsoka finishes explaining to the Council why she's the one debriefing, and not either of her more qualified teachers, she gets a round of silence.

Half the council is eyeing Yoda, as if it's his fault that the entire lineage is prone to... this sort of mess.

(Ventress is Dooku's fault, and Dooku isn't actually Yoda's fault. Probably. Ahsoka's pretty sure.)

"Kenobi's most recent memories are of six months into the Melida/Daan conflict?" Master Windu asks. This is not the first time someone's pinged off of that part in particular.

"Yes, Master." It's not her place to question this. Master Kenobi never brought it up for a reason, and she's not going to dig while he can't make informed decisions about what to tell his grandpadawan.

She wants to know why he was there, and where Master Qui-Gon was, and why he thought he wouldn't be allowed back into the Jedi, but it's not her place to ask.

It's not.

"Is there anyone nearby that specializes in this sort of Force trick?" she asks instead. "I have no idea how to go about reversing it myself, and need to request aid from a Master. Barring that, I'd like permission to send a trooper to Coruscant with Anakin. He's Initiate age and I'd like to keep him off the field if we can't get him back to normal."

"You think it's a good idea to keep Kenobi with you?" Master Ti asks.

Ahsoka shrugs, not quite able to meet Master Ti's eyes. "He's the same age I was for Teth. Keeping him with me isn't my call, but I assumed he'd be shuffled into an open commander position with an active general. I can handle things for now, but I'm just a padawan."

"Tutor him, you would?" Yoda prompts. "To teach him, you intend?"

"I mean, if we can't get him turned back into an adult?" Ahsoka tries. She wishes she could look to Rex for support. "I don't know that I know much I could teach him that doesn't relate to the war. I'm only barely older than him, and my grades are... not the best, considering."

"If we cannot reverse the the age adjustment, then keeping you two together may be our best choice," Master Fisto muses. "You're not old enough for a knighthood, of course, but that wouldn't be what we're asking for. Admiral Yularen is a talented tactician, and your field skills are comparable to a General's. It would be a stopgap measure, but you and Padawan Kenobi combined are likely equal to a Knight in this regard."

She doubts it.

"Nobody's asking you to take him as your own padawan," Master Tiin says, and she thinks he's laughing at her behind the stoic, stern face. "Just to take point and keep him alive until we can either reverse the situation or adjust for it."

"Well, yeah," she says, trying not to show that she'd been weirdly concerned that it was what they were angling for. "Master Skywalker was barely old enough to take a padawan, and he was twenty, and had been a padawan for over ten years. I'm sixteen, and I've been a padawan for two."

Nobody argues with this.

"We'll not be sending in a knight ready for a padawan," Master Billaba muses, slow and considering. "Nor can we spare a master, I think."

"Depa?" Master Windu prompts, low enough that Ahsoka thinks he wasn't planning on the microphones picking it up.

"A fresh knight with the two padawans as support, but not actually the master to either," Master Billaba proposes. "It's an experienced legion, one that can largely run itself; it'll be fairly easy for this theoretical new knight to manage until Skywalker is returned to his more competent self. We need a more comprehensive plan for the Third Systems army, the council seat, and the 212th, but I believe that may be the best option for the 501st."

Realization seems to dawn on the rest of the Council. Ahsoka has no idea what that realization is, but she stifles the questions. They have a plan. They definitely do.

"My fleet is near enough that I can come to assess possible solutions to the age problem," Master Plo offers, and that, that right there, is what Ahsoka needed to hear.

"We look forward to your arrival, Master Koon."

----

"Barriss!"

Ahsoka throws herself at her friend, squeezing tightly. Barriss hugs her back, if hesitantly. "Hello, Ahsoka."

"What are you doing here?" Ahsoka asks, pushing away and looking the other girl up and down. "Did you change your look?"

Barriss smiles faintly. It doesn't reach her eyes. "Ah, a little. I've been knighted. They've asked me to head the 501st until your Master is well again."

A fresh knight with two padawans as support, but not Master to either, Master Billaba had said.

"I'm glad it's you," Ahsoka tells her.

Barriss smiles, but it's pained. "I hope it is only temporary, both for the sake of your masters, and for your chain of command."

Ahsoka's brow furrows. "What?"

"Your legion is deeply loyal to you, Ahsoka. I've seen that. I outrank you now, but what is to happen the first time we disagree on a course of action for a battle?" Barriss shakes her head. "The council did make it clear that this wouldn't last very long, at least. Transitioning a legion to new leadership hasn't gone smoothly more than a handful of times, especially when a padawan remains. With my knighthood being as fresh as it is--"

"You are willing problems into being." Ahsoka knew all of this already. She claps a hand on her friend's shoulder and squeezes. "We can make it work, okay? And when in doubt, we just make Cody or Rex decide."

"I outrank Captain Rex now," Barriss points out. "I already did, even as a commander."

"Ehhhh, debatable," Ahsoka says, wincing. "Rex has functionally been the commander for the legion since Skyguy got it. They couldn't officially promote him high enough because he's a CT, so he's technically a Major since that's how high they could promote him, but everyone knows he's basically the clone commander for the legion."

"...if he's a Major, then why does everyone call him Captain?"

"He says it feels like part of his name at this point, and if he's not going to have an official rank in line with his responsibilities anyway, then he might as well have people call him the one that sounds cooler."

"...I see."

Ahsoka gets the feeling that Barriss does not, in fact, see.

That's fine.

----

"Ahsoka!"

She turns and kneels, catching the nine-year-old flinging himself into her arms before she can even think. Barriss and Yularen pause in their conversation, but Rex keeps going.

Good man.

"Hey, Skyguy," Ahsoka greets, and she pulls back to look at the brilliant grin this tiny human child is giving her. It scares her, how small Anakin is. She's used to him being the tallest person in the room, even if she's catching up. "I thought you were supposed to be packing?"

"Obi-Wan said to come find you. A clone called him, someone called Cody?"

At that, Rex stops talking too.

Ahsoka doesn't frown, but it takes some effort. "Okay. Do you know why he called Obi-Wan?"

"He said he'd be arriving soon and wanted to know if Obi needed to be updated on anything before he got here," Anakin says. He bites his lip and looks away from Ahsoka. "I think he was worried about Obi."

"It's a worrying situation," Ahsoka tries to soothe. "Cody's pretty close to the older Obi-Wan, and the two of them are responsible for a lot of people. So Cody's stressed because he has to manage the army, and he's already worried about Obi-Wan, so it's making that worry stronger."

"Yeah, okay," Anakin says, pressing his face into her shoulder. "Can you come talk to Obi? He's being sad, too. I think he was looking at stuff about the war on the holonet, and I think he was trying to figure out if his friends from that other war he was in that he remembers are still alive."

She'd known it was coming. She'd known it when she gave him a datapad from the commissioned officers' storage. She'd known it when he'd wandered off, Anakin at his elbow, to sit in the rooms they were still occupying.

(She'd brushed off Anakin's questions about why they couldn't get their own datapads from their older selves with a comment about classified information. Obi-Wan's look had been almost too knowing.)

"I'm still sharing the general's quarters with Anakin and Obi-Wan, since it's set up for multiple people as a knight-and-padawan suite," Ahsoka says to Barriss. "We prepared one of the empty officer's rooms for you, if that's alright?"

"It'll suit just fine," Barriss assures her. Ahsoka has no idea if she's actually fine with it or just putting on a face. She's gotten harder to read, and being refused the actual general's rooms is arguably an insult to her new rank. Barriss is rational, though, and probably recognizes that it's worth keeping the two-bed suite for Ahsoka and her masters. It's not that much bigger than the empty room they've prepared...

"Do you mind if I take Anakin back to our rooms?" Ahsoka asks. "Admiral Yularen and Captain Rex should be able to handle anything that crops up, I think."

She hopes Barriss gets the message that she wants to check in on Obi-Wan. Ahsoka has no idea if she's been briefed on exactly when and where the other two's memories cut off, but... Obi-Wan's memories and body cut right into the center of his traumas. It's a horrid time to be pulled from, and the present a horrible one to be pulled to. Ahsoka's kept a montral out for his distress all day.

"Of course," Barriss says, dismissing them with a short nod.

Ahsoka picks up Anakin and sets him on her hip, ignores the slightly disapproving look from Barriss, and heads for their rooms.

(Anakin's too old for coddling, sure, except he's been torn from everything he knows and thrown into a war. If he finds comfort in Ahsoka carrying and cuddling him, then she will oblige. The rest of the Jedi can argue about it 'til the bantha come home, but Ahsoka's the one that actually has to deal with having a youngling on board.)

"Hey, Obi-Wan," Ahsoka says, and doesn't acknowledge the sniffles she hears, or the sleeve her grandmaster is rubbing at his eyes. She sets Anakin down, and while he hugs her for the moment, he runs back to stuff himself under Obi-Wan's arm as the door hisses shut. "Okay. I'm thinking we all need some tea. How does sapir sound?"

"You have sapir?" Obi-Wan asks, voice rough.

"Your older self visits our ship often enough that we keep a stock on board," Ahsoka tells him. She goes to the kitchenette and starts up the electric kettle. "I can't promise I'll make it perfectly, but it should be passable, at least. Sugar or honey?"

"No, thank you."

"I can have honey?" Anakin asks, and Ahsoka hears Obi-Wan pull the younger boy closer. She imagines she'd see something stricken and protective in his face, if she turned around. She doesn't.

"Sure can," Ahsoka says instead. "You'll have to mess around with how much, though. Older you mostly drinks caff, and tastes change with age anyway, so I don't know how much honey you'd want."

By the time she gets to the table with everything, the honey bobbing along in the air behind her, Anakin is still tucked into Obi-Wan's side. He pulls away a little when Ahsoka starts pouring the tea, and Obi-Wan...

Ah. He's an ugly crier. She wouldn't have guessed. His face is... very splotchy. His eyes are all reddish. She's not sure if that's normal for humans. She hopes it is.

"Thank you," he says, when she passes him the cup. He takes a sip, and contemplates. He meets her eyes, and smirks just a little. It doesn't reach his eyes. "Adequate, I'd say."

She snorts. "I'd certainly hope so."

You taught me, after all.

----

IDK that’s where I ran out of steam

#disaster lineage #ahsoka tano #anakin skywalker #obi wan kenobi #captain rex #Barriss Offee #star wars #the clone wars #de aging #phoenix answers asks #phoenix posts

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