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ihathbenobiwankenobied · 1 year

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heat and electric

Part eight of 212th Medic Skull Has Had Enough on ao3

Summary:

Eventually, Obi-Wan looked up, eyes bloodshot, and offered what Cody assumed to be a meager attempt at a smile. “I’m– I am alright.” His voice was weak, coated in a thick grumbling tone, unconvincing at best. Cody grimaced.

“It’s– you don’t have to be.” Cody reminded him, stoking a thumb over the small bruises along his jaw hating the way Obi-Wan flinched slightly under his touch. “You had a seizure, that must be–”

“It’s not the first time.”

(Or, the aftermath of Obi-Wan's seizure. Later, heat stroke.)

Word Count: 5,781

“Everyone out, besides Cody and Oxy. Get out.”

Cody could barely hear Skull’s words.

Seizure.

The word stuck in his brain, but he could barely think. Whatever focus he had was far gone, his mind preoccupied with thoughts of Obi-Wan.

Seizure.

He had heard of them, sure, but Cody didn’t know what they entailed, didn’t know that he would ever witness one. Yet, he had watched Obi-Wan, already bruised and covered in electric burns, fall victim to one. It still didn’t feel like reality.

Cody couldn’t move, frozen in place and time.

The remaining medics and Quinlan shuffled out of the room leaving the stale silence of the room, save for Obi-Wan’s whistling breaths where he lay facing away from Cody. Skull had arranged him into a position on his side– he’d called it a recovery position. Cody just watched numbly, unspeaking.

“Cody?” Someone– not Obi-Wan– asked eventually, and the Commander glanced upward, trying to stop the trembling in his fingers where they gripped at the sides of his chair. Skull had finally helped Obi-Wan into a sitting position, and was now staring in Cody’s direction expectantly.

How long had it been?

“Cody?” Skull asked again, worry evident on his face, “It’s been ten minutes, he’s going to be okay, just unwell for… awhile.”

Cody blinked. Ten minutes? He swallowed, and grasped the edges of the chair.

Without his express permission, Cody’s body moved, and he walked around the outside of the bed.

Numb. His entire form felt numb.

Obi-Wan’s back was covered in blood stained bandages, which was already alarming, but when Cody caught a look at his front, he could barely stand the obvious discomfort written on Obi-Wan’s face.

He was pale, eyes shut tightly as he shivered in place.

“Just a second, General. Just going to apply pressure to these…” Oxy worked quickly, pulling back the bandages trying to stop the reopened wounds from bleeding anymore than they already had.

“Obi-Wan…” Cody said softly, tentatively sitting down on the medical bed by Obi-Wan’s side, ignoring the way that Skull hovered inches away, almost like he was waiting for him to keel over.

Obi-Wan failed to respond, his trembling hands pulling towards his face to press over his eyes. He shuddered once, opening his mouth like he might say something, then shut it abruptly.

“It’s okay, I’m right here.” Cody whispered, moving closer so he could gently press up against Obi-Wan’s arm. He wished he could hug him, pull him into an embrace like he wanted to, but the burns were everywhere, a distinct reminder of all the impending questions Cody needed to ask.

Not now. Obi-Wan didn’t need that now.

“...I don’t–” Obi-Wan spoke softly, then gently shook his head once.

“Do you feel sick, General?” Skull asked, leaning down a little to take a proper look at Obi-Wan’s face. He seemed less concerned now, but it did little to ease Cody’s own nerves.

“Mhm.” Was all Obi-Wan said, voice muffled by his hands. He paused for a few seconds, “I just– I want to go to my quarters.” He spoke the words unnaturally quickly, “Please.”

Cody glanced up to Skull, who looked somehow horrified and skeptical all at once. He pursed his lips, arms crossed over his chest. Cody already knew the medic wouldn’t want to allow it, not now, not with unexpected seizures and open wounds, and blood everywhere. Cody wished he could protest, demanding that he be allowed to take Obi-Wan home and tuck him in bed, safe from all the reminders of pain and suffering that the medbay seemed to elicit.

Yet, Skull wasn’t stupid, and Cody wasn’t a doctor.

He needed to find a compromise.

“Skull,” Cody started, “Give me time alone with the General, only a few minutes.” Cody said, hoping his tone sounded as commanding as he meant it to.

Skull looked no less skeptical, and reached for a datapad sitting on the table by the medical bed. “I have tests to run, Cody. There’s a poss–”

“Can it wait ten minutes?” Cody cut in, noticing the way that Obi-Wan shifted uncomfortably by his side, sucking in a pained breath as Oxy pressed another bandage against his back.

“Yes– fine. You will alert me if anything– anything at all – seems off.” Skull said, tone clipped but somehow still empathetic. He looked between Cody and Obi-Wan and sighed. “Almost done, Oxy?” He asked, impatient as ever.

“All set, General.” Oxy said, and rounded the bed, “Try and stay still; don’t lay on your back.”

Cody nodded when Obi-Wan didn’t, then pulled the curtain around the bed when the two medics walked away, Skull heading for his storage closet, and Oxy toward the lab.

When he returned to the bed, Obi-Wan had lowered his hands to his lap and the trembling had been reduced to a few odd shakes every few seconds. Cody pulled the chair in front of him, sitting down and leaning forward, pressing the palms of his hands on Obi-Wan’s jaw gently.

He wanted to ask about Kadavo, about the thousands of little wounds that littered Obi-Wan’s body. Who hurt you? Where do I find them?

Cody resisted the urge, knowing it would do little to smooth out the already existent tension that filled the space between them

“It’s not the first time.” Obi-Wan cut him off, then suddenly clamped a hand over his mouth, skin seemingly becoming a shade lighter in the matter of seconds.

Cody reached for the bin left by the side of the bed and managed to push it into Obi-Wan’s arms just in time. Obi-Wan emptied his stomach of whatever liquid still remained and breathed heavily, lips red. I’m sorry, Cody wanted to say, but the words didn’t quite make it out.

Not the first time .

The prospect of it made Cody’s skin crawl. Had he missed something? “Not the first time?” He asked, placing the bin aside and wiping Obi-Wan’s lips with a tissue he’d found on the table by the bed.

“When I was young– a padawan. Triggered by… electricity, among other things. It has been… a very long time.”

Cody didn’t want to ask why, as a padawan, he had any exposure to raw electricity on more than one occasion, but he kept his mouth shut.

“I– they beat me, constantly, for days with electro-staffs on Kadavo.” Obi-Wan said after a momentary pause, then looked up, searching Cody’s eyes as if he wanted approval, like he wanted to know if the admission would offend the Commander.

Cody was left with nothing to say, nothing productive at least. I’ll kill them all. Fury spread through his veins, but he was level-headed enough to know that Obi-Wan wouldn’t want him to say that. Cody was too empathetic to even allow the thought to simmer for more than a few seconds before he wiped it away.

“You need to tell, Skull.” He murmured after a few minutes. He had pressed his forehead against Obi-Wan’s.

Obi-Wan leaned back, eyebrows raised. “I need to?” He asked.

“Yes– he needs to know. What if this happens again? What if it happens again when you aren’t in the medbay? There has to be some sort of medication or–” Cody caught himself rambling, then shook his head, eyes trained on a tiny fleck of dirt left on the floor next to Obi-Wan’s soiled clothes. “I can’t lose you.”

Obi-Wan sighed, tipping his face into his hands again. “I– I don’t feel well.” He said quietly, and Cody caught him as he swayed. Fuck. They were going to have to talk about it, but Cody knew he had pushed too far. Obi-Wan looked exhausted, he was hurting, body barely keeping him upright.

Suddenly, Skull’s head poked into the enclosed space, his eyebrows raised as he observed Cody’s position between Obi-Wan’s legs. “Oh– am I interrupting something?” He asked, in that tone that made Cody’s blood boil.

Sure, Skull knew things now, but Cody thought the admission would at least keep him quiet. No– that didn’t seem to be Skull’s style at all. It was almost as if Skull liked to push his buttons even more now.

“No.” Cody answered bluntly. It certainly hadn’t been five minutes, much less ten.

“General, I brought you some new briefs– thought you might appreciate Cody’s help putting them on instead.” Fuck . Cody cursed internally, already imagining all the ways he could throw Skull up against the nearest wall, but Skull only threw the clean set of briefs at him and closed the curtains before leaving.

Karking Skull .

Cody eyed the wet patch on Obi-Wan’s groin, grimacing as he saw the red that had spread across Obi-Wan’s cheeks.

“I-I’m sorry– that just happens.” Obi-Wan whispered the words.

“Oh, Ob’ika, it’s okay. Let me help.”

Cody made quick work of slipping off Obi-Wan’s old briefs and getting the new ones on him, only cringing once when Obi-Wan winced in pain as the fabric brushed against his ankle.

They sat quietly for a few more minutes, Cody hoping the momentary freedom from medical attention would be enough to keep Obi-Wan calm. Then Skull returned, Oxy behind him rolling a mobilized tank of bacta, the strong medicinal smell already causing Cody’s toes to curl.

“Alright, General, let’s get that leg fixed.”

Skull had endured two days more of Obi-Wan in the medbay.

And really, Cody as well. The Commander had only left once, just to return with a new set of tunics discreetly tucked away in his pack.

Obi-Wan felt ill for a day, his post-seizure state keeping him pinned to the bed. In some ways, that was a good thing. Typically, Skull would have fought him to keep him laying down, but Kenobi had barely protested.

Cody was truly to be blamed for the General’s strangely cooperative behavior. He was a beacon of consistency and reason and care. He slept in the uncomfortable chair by the medical bed without a question or complaint, even convincing the usually stubborn General to agree to a short stint in the bacta tank to get his electrical burns healed up faster.

It was both fascinating, and horrifying watching them interact.

Skull watched the General closely for both days, watching for the prolonged stares and signs of an aura. It almost worried him more when none of those symptoms presented. While a single seizure could have been an isolated event, Kenobi had seemed… relatively unphased. Sure, he was sick, suffering from a number of other injuries, but he hadn’t tried to deny the fact he had a seizure at all.

Out of character. Stange.

So Skull discharged him, albeit with some reluctance, but with a firm look sent in Cody’s direction, and his famed command to, “Keep the physical activity to a minimum, Sir, even if Cody insists.”

That earned him a glare from Cody, and a reminder that his face would look better not smashed into a wall. Cody loved to bluff, and Skull really liked to call him on it.

Days later, Skull began his in depth research.

“I find it hard to believe that this was his first seizure.” Skull murmured, eyes scanning over the General’s documents, yet again. It seemed to have become a trend these days.

“He never explicitly said it was his first– but I think you’re right, he was… too calm.” Oxy had taken half of the stack of flimsies and had kicked his legs up onto his desk as he scanned over them.

“There’s nothing– not since he was an adult, at least.” Skull shook his head, rubbing over his eyes before he arranged the last of the flimsi that pertained to Obi-Wan’s twentieth to twenty-fifth years. He reached for the next stack, “Onto fifteen-to-nineteen.” He said, mostly to himself.

“Don’t you think he would have mentioned it?” Oxy said, forcing Skull to glare at him. How many times had he complained to Oxy about the General withholding information? Hundreds? Thousands of times?

Skull scoffed, “Of course not– he probably would try and explain it away with some Force-osik.”

Skull scanned through another page, then another, then–

His eyes caught on something notable.

– triggers include excessive alcohol consumption, prolonged malnutrition, prolonged exposure to extreme heat, and/or dehydration, contact with electrical current–

Skull stopped reading– it was textbook, completely obvious to his trained eye as a medic, but apparently diagnosed as something called, “Trigger-Based Vision Events (TBVE).”

Really, it was banthashit, some kriffing made-up Jedi idiocy for an easily diagnosable issue.

Epilepsy.

He ripped the page out of the file folder and held it up to Oxy. “No wonder I missed it– guess they’re blaming the Force. Typical.”

Oxy took the flimsi into his hands and read it quickly, mouth drawn into a hard line. “Fucking Jedi. Doesn’t explain why there isn’t anything in his more recent files.”

It was a good point; Skull struggled to believe that there hadn’t been a single event noted since the General was a teenager, but if the triggers listed were true to his condition, it was entirely a possibility that Kenobi had managed to avoid seizures for years. Skull was sure he wasn’t medicated either, it wasn’t something he would miss in all the time knowing the General.

Then, an idea came to mind– Quinlan.

Quinlan was a Jedi, and from what Skull had collected, he and the General had grown up together, and had remained rather close. Of anyone, including Cody, he was probably the one with the most information.

If he asked Kenobi, of course he would downplay things. Cody would be honest, but he had very little material to work with, given he had never reported a similar event to Skull.

A third party seemed like an obvious choice… and perhaps a good excuse to see Quinlan.

Quinlan.

Skull loathed himself and the stupid, endlessly irritating way his brain kept conjuring up his image whenever his thoughts were clear. Truthfully, Skull hadn’t been around many natborns, most of his time spent with Kenobi, Skywalker, and Ahsoka. Sure, he had seen others beyond the three Jedi he worked with, but none of them quite as distracting as Quinlan.

“I have an idea.” He said to Oxy, hoping he wouldn’t catch on, “What if I talk to Quin? Kenobi’s old Jedi friend. He probably knows something.”

Oxy had stopped flipping through Kenobi’s file and snorted as he dropped his feet onto the floor. “Oh the tall pretty Jedi you had your eye on? Whatever you want, Cody.”

Fuck, Oxy was observant.

“Whatever Ox, you’re the one who called him pretty, not me.”

Skull figured Quinlan would come alone, but much to Skull’s surprise, then immense dread, Cody followed not far behind.

Kriff. Cody, to his credit, at least looked on edge enough that he would hopefully miss any of Skull’s lingering signs of attraction. Hopefully.

“Skull! Great to see you when Obes isn’t halfway dead.” Quinlan said, his whole face smiling as he held out his hand for Skull to shake.

Unexpectedly, Skull was pulled in for some strange natborn pseudo-hug that started with a handshake and ended with a slap on the back. “Erm– hello Quin.”

He tried, and failed to keep the warmth from creeping into his cheeks, but Quinlan’s smile, a thunderous laugh did little to help. “Cody.” Skull said after a moment, noticing the way that Cody stood off to the side, something like curiosity painted across his face.

“Skull. You wanted to speak with Vos about the General, and I thought I should be present.” Of course, how could Skull forget that Cody was now the General’s partner; they were so kriffing domestic.

Skull led the pair of men over to his desk, motioning to the two seats across from him as he sat heavily in his chair.

“Well, if you need a full rundown of all the shitty things Obes has let himself go through, I can name about one-hundred and thirty-seven events– just off the top of my head.” Quinlan leaned back in his chair, getting comfortable, and offered Skull another warm smile.

Skull returned it, his cheeks still burning despite his best efforts. “Oh well– I had something a little more specific in mind.”

“Kriff it– I’ve been itching to tell someone. You look like you enjoy a good story.” Quinlan said, earning him a glare from the Commander.

“C’mon Vos, we don’t have all day.” Cody said, eyes still on Skull, now just a hint, a horrifying hint, of a smirk on his face.

Skull was going to have to do better at schooling his face.

He cleared his throat, looking down at his notes. “I’ll start with this: the General has epilepsy.”

Neither of the men blinked, or said anything. Cody, however, didn’t look particularly surprised. Skull made an educated guess that the General had told him since the seizure had happened. Knowing Cody, he would have had more to say if that wasn’t true.

“The Jedi called it ‘Trigger-Based Vision Events,’ which frankly, is stupid.” Skull continued, earning a chuckle from Quinlan.

“Agreed.” Quin said. “Go on.”

“Quin, I specifically need to know what you can remember about these seizures? They started when he was a teenager– caused by triggers– but they didn’t seem to continue into his twenties.” Skull tried not to make the question sound too accusatory, not wanting to imply that the General wasn’t taking care of himself. Cody would have his head if he did make such an accusation.

Quinlan thought for a moment, giving Skull a chance to observe the curve of his jawline, and the way his full lips curled downward as he thought.

Cody’s eyebrows rose as Skull glanced in his direction, now a fully smug look spread across his features. Shit. Shit shit shit.

“I don’t remember it happening often, but sometimes on a mission, he would have these small… blanks. He would be gone for a few seconds– then back to his old boring self. He called those visions, but they weren’t. Haven’t seen one of those in five years.”

Skull considered that for a moment. Of course they hadn’t been reported, it sounded like most of his seizures had been absence seizures, barely noticeable when compared to the tonic-clonic. “Any like the one you saw the other day?” He asked Quin.

“No– unless you want to count the time–”

“No, that doesn’t count.” Cody cut in, voice deep and gruff. Quin held back a laugh, clutching his stomach, bicep flexing as he did so. Skull ignored said flexing as best as he was able to.

Skull glanced between them before turning to Cody, “And Cody? Seen anything?”

“No– neither.” He answered, to the point like always, “I just found out about them myself. I asked him to tell you, but I figured you would figure it out anyway.”

Idiots, the both of them, wasting his time like that. Nevertheless, Skull continued, getting to the point just like Cody liked to.

“Anything since the seizure the other day?” Skull asked, just to make sure, if anything; he hadn’t received much of an update since the General left the medbay.

“Yes Cody, anything you noticed in your shared quarters?” Quinlan chimed in, echoing exactly what Skull thought he might say. Damnit, he was perfect.

“...no.” Cody answered as evenly as possible.

There was more discussion, more questions, more banter, and Skull could feel his own fondness creeping into his tone, Cody still watching with wide, observant eyes.

Quin stood, hands on his hips, some time later and grabbed his lightsaber from his side. “Well boys, duty calls, and I should have been out of here three hours ago.” Quinlan turned to face Skull, offering another warm smile, “Skull, might need to schedule a check-up with you next time I’m on the Negotiator, you’re much nicer than Vokara Che.”

“Oh– of course… Quin. It was nice to see you.” Skull hated how the awkwardness layered his tone, and the way that he could feel Cody’s burning gaze on his face even as Quinlan walked toward the exit with a wave.

“Oh this is unbelievable.” Cody’s voice cut into Skull’s consciousness.

“What?” Skull said, standing abruptly and rounding the desk, trying to lead Cody toward the door as quickly as possible.

“Oh, you know what.” Cody said and Skull could hear his stupid smile in his voice. “Wonder what he needs checked, Skull– bet I can guess.” Skull could have never predicted this, would never live it down. Fuck, he needed more blackmail material on Cody.

“You’re full of shit, Cody.” Skull shot back, “Now get out of my medbay, or I’m gonna give you a reason to be here.”

For the first time ever, Skull saw Cody laugh.

One week and one day after Obi-Wan’s seizure, they were assigned a mission on Jakku, one of Obi-Wan’s least favorite planets, he’d told Cody.

While bacta had closed the open wounds, their ache had continued long afterward. Not that Obi-Wan would admit that, it was mostly Cody’s observation.

But the thing was, there wasn’t time. There never was really time to heal, or rest, or even sit in silence for an hour or two; Cody understood, he was as much a member of the GAR as anyone else. Extra rest had a high cost, and no one soldier, especially the Jedi, wanted to be responsible for that.

But the General, Obi-Wan, hadn’t even allowed himself a minute of rest it seemed. Did he really ever, though?

His skin was pale under the Jakku sun, sweat reflecting the bright light and lips cracked and dry. Cody could see the sweat stains across Obi-Wan’s back that had been slowly curling around his sides in the past hour they had been stalking through the desert just outside of Reestkii. They had been waiting for an informant, now an overly late informant, who seemed to be unbothered by keeping them waiting in the blazing heat.

There were few times Cody was thankful to wear full armor, but the cooling mechanism, though it barely made an effect on the blazing heat of Jakku, offered some mild relief.

Obi-Wan was not so lucky, his tunics made of thick material.

Cody had watched him switch from pacing, to standing arms crossed and brow furrowed, to head hanging and shoulders sagging where he stood.

Skull glanced at him from where he stood with a number of the vode, conversing about something unimportant. Their resolve to wait in formation had since gone to the wayside and Cody could hardly bring himself to care, not when Obi-Wan looked like he was finally letting the heat get to him.

General alright?

Skull signed to Cody quickly and discreetly, eyes glancing to where Obi-Wan had sunk to a crouch, one hand planted in the sand, the other held over his brow like he was searching the horizon for something.

Standby .

Cody signed back to him, not bothering to wait for a response before approaching Obi-Wan.

“Obi-Wan? Cyar’ika?” Cody spoke the words low as he approached, not wanting the surrounding troopers to hear his lack of formality. He crouched next to Obi-Wan, who startled, jumping lightly and looking at Cody with wide eyes. He licked his chapped lips and offered an unconvincing smile.

“Oh! Cody– hello.” Obi-Wan said back, voice unusually coarse. Cody eyed the waterbottle sitting in front of him in the sand, then reached out to shake it.

Kriff. It was empty. He could have sworn he saw Obi-Wan pick it up and drink from it moments earlier. Cody wondered how long it had been since he had gotten water into his system.

“You doing alright?” He asked, trying to keep the concern in his voice at bay.

“Of course�� just is… rather warm.” Obi-Wan said, breaths coming in quicker than Cody thought they should. He swayed on his feet, Cody catching his arm, then he stood, wiping off the front of his tunic like that might eliminate the sand that was stuck to the sweat stains that now seemed to trail around the majority of his upper body and behind his knees.

“Maybe it’s time we head back into town? The informant should have come by now.” Cody realized it was a longshot, and maybe too obvious of a ploy to get Obi-Wan out of the direct heat, but to Cody’s surprise, the General took the bait.

“You’re right, I suppose. No use waiting any longer.” Obi-Wan glanced around, squinting in the bright daylight, then blinking profusely, “Can you tell the men?” He asked politely, but Cody could see the weariness reflected in his stare.

“Of course.” Cody answered.

And so he did. The men were relieved, all except for Skull, who sidled up next to Cody, a short distance behind the General who led the group with a slow, unsteady trudge alongside Waxer.

“The heat is getting to him– did he have water?” Skull asked, then answered himself, “Bet you he doesn’t… di’kut.”

“Hey–” Cody tried to come to Obi-Wan’s defense, which wasn’t exactly justified, but it was Obi-Wan; he would defend in any case.

“Oh come on, Cody, you know it’s true.” Skull said, scoffing and shaking his head. “The minute we get back into town, you are corralling him into bed and he is drinking at least three water bottles. It’s– that’s one of his triggers, dehydration.” Nevermind the heat, which Skull had also mentioned as a possible trigger.

Cody sucked in a breath, remembering what Skull was referring to. Right, epilepsy . Even a week wasn’t enough time for Cody to fully process the information, the sudden reappearance of a forgotten health issue that Obi-Wan seemed to take less seriously than he should.

“I will.” Cody said, nodding in affirmation.

He and Skull watched Obi-Wan from behind, observing how his gait became more labored the closer they got to town. Then– he stopped.

“Kriff.” Cody heard from beside himself as he rushed forward, watching Obi-Wan bend at the waist, knees buckling into the sand before Cody or Skull could reach him.

Kriff was right.

Skull hadn’t gotten to him fast enough, and Obi-Wan’s palms dug into the hot sand. “Help me get him sitting.” The medic said to someone, but probably Cody. Waxer stepped back from Obi-Wan and Cody took his place, kneeling heavily in the dirt, now noticing the droplets of sweat curling down from Obi-Wan’s forehead to his neck.

Together, he and Skull got Obi-Wan sitting down, but it didn’t make much of a difference in Obi-Wan’s appearance.

“Obi-Wan?” Cody called softly, trying to use his fingers to wipe away the beads of sweat that were close to falling into his eyes. Obi-Wan ignored him, eyes trained on something in the distance.

There was movement, sounds of yelling right by his ear, then Cody turned to find that Skull had scanned Obi-Wan’s temperature. It was high– far to high. Skull offered him another water bottle, and Obi-Wan sipped at it greedily before setting it aside.

“He’s overheating– we need to get into town, need to find shade. Now, Cody.” Skull looked at him, uncompromising, unwilling to wait for Cody to be ready.

The Commander swallowed, thirsty and tired himself, but nodded, taking Obi-Wan’s arm and hoisting him to his feet. Obi-Wan swayed, feet barely holding him prone.

“Sorry. Sorry.” Obi-Wan whispered, trying to regain his footing, but failing. Cody clung to his arm, Skull holding him up with the other. Skull eyed him, waiting for something.

Right, Cody needed to say something. “Obi– General,” He corrected himself, noticing the group of his men who had formed a circle around them, “We have to move. It’s just a short way.”

Skull nodded in affirmation, and they moved, slowly.

They were hardly more than a klick away from the outskirts of the city, but the walk took twice the time it should have. Obi-Wan made attempts to walk, but that almost made the walk worse. Cody’s heart thumped heavily in his chest with each bead of sweat that dropped off of Obi-Wan’s face and landed on his armour.

Is he supposed to be sweating this much? Cody wished he could ask Skull, but they were approaching the edge of the city, and the medic was already barking out orders. “Waxer, go ahead and see if anyone has cold water– or ice. Priority on the ice.” Skull looked in the other direction, “Clip, find somewhere for us to take him, we need shade.”

Both troopers saluted, then ran in the direction of the first groupings of tents and old metal buildings.

“The rest of you go ahead and see if you can clear the way for us.” Skull said to the remaining troopers, and Cody nodded when a few of them looked in his direction for approval.

“I’m not–” Obi-Wan stopped between them, digging his heels into the ground. His eyes had gone wide, lips stuck half open.

“What’s wrong? Do you need to sit? Water?” Cody asked as Skull held up the bottle once again. Obi-Wan pushed it aside, bending at the waist to throw up what little water he had consumed before.

Kark it all.

“Shit, Cody– we need to move, just– pick him up.” Cody blinked at him, then nodded hesitantly like he was a shiny in training, unsure of his objective.

Cody nearly ran, Obi-Wan whimpering in his arms, Skull just a hair in front of him.

Cody hoped, practically prayed to the fucking Force, that someone had found shade and water and ice. He couldn’t take it, the way Obi-Wan’s pained moans rang out, and the way his hair and clothes were too damp.

When they reached the outer limits of the city, eyes of locals all trained toward the three of them, Waxer was standing underneath a tent.

“We’ve found a location– follow me.” Thank the kriffing Force.

They followed closely behind Waxer, and Cody’s arms began to burn, Obi-Wan’s weight becoming heavier by the second.

“Heat stroke– that’s what it is.” Skull said abruptly from behind him as they weaved through a few alleyways. Cody noted that several of his men had been posted at the entrances of the alleys, keeping the path clear for them, “When we get there, we need to get his clothes off and get him cooled down. Got it?”

“Yes.” Cody answered, holding back the tears that threatened to well in his eyes.

It was all too much– the electric burns, the seizure, the epilepsy, and now, heat stroke. Cody needed Obi-Wan to be fine, to be himself, but the Jedi had only gotten a few days to breathe. Cody had only gotten a few days to breathe. They needed time, but there wasn’t any time to spare.

They reached the entrance of an old, metal building when Waxer stopped, motioning toward the open door where two troopers were posted.

Cody nodded his thanks, and walked in, immediately overtaken by sight before him. While there was no bed, a large wooden table had been cleared in someone’s rickety old kitchen. Someone threw a blanket over the table and Cody gently lowered Obi-Wan onto the table.

One look at him revealed just how bad the situation was. Obi-Wan’s neck had become red and swollen, a rash curling up the sides. His hair was completely soaked through, and clothes nearly in the same condition.

“Everyone out who doesn’t need to be here. Water?” Skull’s voice was commanding, capturing the attention of the surrounding troopers.

“Right there, Skull.” Someone said, then they were gone, all of them in a split second. Or maybe Cody had frozen again.

Cody assumed the latter when he looked up to find Skull staring at him, “Cody– c’mon, this isn’t the time to space out– help me get these off.” Then Skull was pulling at Obi-Wan’s belt. Cody followed suit, pulling at Obi-Wan’s boots and then pants.

“General, we’re going to cool you down, hold tight.” Skull said, offering a weak smile as he ripped the undershirt from Obi-Wan’s torso.

“Don’t feel so… Cody?” Obi-Wan looked at him hazily, fever blazing in his half-lidded eyes.

“Right here, always right here.” Cody answered as he pressed a hand on Obi-Wan’s head for a moment. He wished he had something better to say, something that could fix everything.

Skull brought over a soaked rag, and placed it on Obi-Wan’s neck over the heat rash which had steadily crept down his torso.

Obi-Wan exhaled with the cool contact on his blistering skin. Skull handed Cody a few soaked rags, “Put these under his armpits.” Cody followed instructions and noted the way Skull had pressed more rags around Obi-Wan’s head and shoulders. Skull handed him more, “And around…” He pointed down toward Obi-Wan’s groin. No wonder he’d put Cody in charge of that.

Cody did as instructed, and watched Obi-Wan begin to shiver. The water was barely cold, maybe even lukewarm.

“Alright– alright.” Skull said, stepping back and pulling his scanner from his utility belt, “We will give it five minutes, then I’ll check his temperature– it should go down by then.”

Cody nodded, numbly, and let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. He crouched by Obi-Wan’s head as Skull rummaged through his medical kit for something, “Obi-Wan?” He asked– his eyes were shut as his shivering slowed.

Obi-Wan blinked open his eyes. He looked confused, disoriented almost, like he could barely remember the events of the last hours, “Hmm…?” It was phrased as a question.

“Feeling better at all? Cooler?” The rash hadn’t disappeared, his flesh still red and irritated. Warmth still radiated from his skin, almost burning the tips of Cody’s fingers when he reached to stroke across the outside of Obi-Wan’s ribs.

“...no.” Obi-Wan answered eventually. Hesitantly.

No. Something wasn’t right– Obi-Wan wouldn’t say no unless–

Cody looked up to find Skull staring at him. Dehydration, extreme heat, both were listed as triggers.

“Sir– do you think you’re going to have a seizure?” Skull asked tentatively, crouching opposite of Cody, grimacing when Obi-Wan didn’t answer for several long moments.

“I think–”

There wasn’t time for Obi-Wan to think, much less warn them–

It happened again, equally as shocking as it had been only a week earlier–

“Fuck– fuck!”

Skull swore, and Cody could only watch helplessly as Obi-Wan’s body convulsed.

#well here I am on part 8 of what was supposed to be a one shot lol #SKULL IS back #in this edition roles are reversed for Skull and Cody #codywan #fanfiction #ihathbenobiwankenobied #fanfic #cc 2224 #commander cody #obi wan kenobi #hurt/comfort #whump #seizures #sickfic #heat stroke #The Clone Wars #OC 212th lead medic Skull #212th clone medic skull #skull

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lamaenthel · 5 months

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Tivaevae | Chapter Fourteen: Tivaevae

Still struggling to emotionally recover from Master Obi-Wan's deception, Ahsoka discovers in the aftermath that twelve-year-old Boba Fett has been locked up among adults in the Republic Judiciary Central Detention Center. After convincing Chancellor Palpatine to grant him a pardon, she manages to secure his release on the condition that she serve as his legal guardian. Now, with the help of Master Plo and the Wolfpack, she vows to help him track down what family he has left.

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Fandom: Star Wars Characters: Ahsoka Tano, Boba Fett, Plo Koon, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Mace Windu, Kanan Jarrus, Sheev Palpatine | Darth Sidious, CT-27-5555 | ARC-5555 | Fives, CC-1119 | Appo, Dexter Jettster, FLO | WA-7 (Star Wars), Shaak Ti, ARC Commander Blitz (Star Wars), CT-6922 | Dogma, Original Clone Trooper Character(s) (Star Wars), CC-3636 | Wolffe, Clone Trooper Sinker (Star Wars), Clone Trooper Comet (Star Wars), CC-2224 | Cody, CT-5597 | Jesse, CT-4860 | Boost, Aurra Sing, Tobias Beckett, Null-11 | Ordo Skirata, Kal Skirata, Original Mandalorian Characters (Star Wars), Original Droid Characters (Star Wars), Original Jedi Character(s) (Star Wars) Total Word Count: 123,000 Chapter Word Count: 12,578 Chapter Summary: Ahsoka and Boba say goodbye.

Ahsoka took a deep breath of the heavy, wet air. It smelled like petrichor and mud, wet stone, moss and ozone, but most intensely of all was the smell of freshly-opened tiarek flowers that had opened to greet the morning sunlight; a sweet, floral smell that tasted like sunshine and citrus in the back of her throat.

It was a pleasant, delicate smell, and one that ironically didn't suit Rex at all. Rex smelled like clean soap and warm musky skin, not citrus flowers and sunshine. She could picture Rex sneezing if he got a whiff of them. She did know that Padmé would absolutely love them though. The wind blew their heavy scent straight to her nose from her spot atop the hill that bordered the creekbed. They were gorgeous, if tiny; small and plush, a vibrant yellow pistil surrounded by six-petaled starbursts of creamy platinum the same shade as a certain captain's hair.

Rex had been named after a flower. A flower. And she couldn't even tease him about it without traumatizing him.

Ahsoka split the stem of one flower with her thumbnail and carefully threaded another through the hole. She almost had enough of a chain to circle Boba's head, though she knew that she'd have to sit on him if she wanted to get a holopic of him with it on.

If Cody woke up, maybe he could hold him down. He had been performing eyelid maintenance on the blanket next to them for the last half hour, stripped to the waist and face down to let his fresh ink breathe, using Robert the Rancor as a pillow. Ahsoka followed the diamond-dash pattern of dadita names along the sunburst to the newest addition; Ponds.

Her heart broke a little, remembering the holorecording Aurra had sent to taunt them. She looked away before Boba saw where her eyes had settled. He lay between her legs, leaning back against her chest with his face tucked next to her lek. He hadn't left her side since he had returned except to strip out of his sodden flight suit and into his civvies. As for her, she'd changed back into her white and red robes, the ones that Obi-Wan had seamed up for her on the way to Corellia.

"The Force is not a power that Jedi wield, as many believe it to be." Obi-Wan sat cross legged in front of Boba's brother, who'd dragged himself from his hoverchair to join the Master on a blanket atop the damp grass. Obi-Wan's aura was a warm, sunny blue with happiness-peace. "It is the energy between all things. It is the tension and the balance that binds the universe together. One can learn to wield it if they have the natural ability, which you most certainly have." Obi-Wan's lip twitched and the air shimmered soft gold with humor around him. "Catching a plasma bolt, for example, is a remarkable feat without any training. Ahsoka can't do that."

Ahsoka frowned. "I also haven't tried!" she called down defensively.

Obi-Wan winked at her. "Would you like to learn how to meditate, Cassus?"

Cassus nodded eagerly. He was starved for contact with any sentient that wasn't his mother or the droids he had programmed himself. He wanted to learn so badly, but this would most likely be the only lesson he ever received; not just because of Kaisa, but because of their own Jedi dogma. It didn't seem fair that Cassus had to let his own natural affinity wither away because he'd had the misfortune to be born to Jedi-hating bigots. His naturally turquoise aura was radiating vibrant green curiosity-excitement-joy. His little BD droid made an offended series of beeps at being jostled on his lap and took himself to the corner of the blanket, where he curled up and pouted.

Obi-Wan smiled wide. Getting the opportunity to teach an eager student that was interested in more than just how to use a lightsaber must have felt like a novelty to him. "Very well. Close your eyes and reach out. What do you feel?"

Cassus shut his eyes, still beaming, and extended his hand. It trembled, but Ahsoka didn't see anything in his aura that said it was a result of his nerves.

Obi-Wan chuckled and gently pushed Cassus' hand down. "Not like that, young man. Reach out with your feelings. Take a deep breath and sense the forest around you. Tell me what you see."

Cassus, pink cheeked and aura yellowed like a bruise with embarrassment, took a deep breath as instructed. "The bunker?" he said hesitantly, eyes still closed.

"Yes, the bunker. What else?"

"The trees. The bugs in the moss." Cassus' breathing deepened and his aura flowed out like soft smoke around him. "A herd of shatual does. A convor. Life, so much life. It sings around us."

"Very good. The Living Force is strong in places such as this." Obi-Wan smiled. "What else?"

Cassus' face screwed up in concentration. "Death. A tree fell in the storm. It had a banshee bird nest in it, and the babies died when it hit the ground." Cassus sagged a little and his aura darkened to purple. "I think it was fast."

"Their bodies will nourish new life, will they not?" Obi-Wan's voice was gentle. "They will be eaten by scavengers and insects, who in turn feed the moss, the trees, all of it. Do not linger there, keep going. Take all of it in."

"Warmth. The sun is warm." Cassus tilted his head. "But the ground is cold from the rain." He turned his head towards Ahsoka, Boba and Cody snuggled together on their blanket. "Peace." His head tilted the other way. "And violence."

Ahsoka's arms tightened around Boba.

"And between it all?" Obi-Wan encouraged him.

"Balance. An energy… a…"

"The Force. That is the Cosmic Force." Obi-Wan's aura was lush green with pride-appreciation. "Very good, Cassus."

"Mama said the Force isn't the Manda. The Force is what Jedi call on to do their magic."

Obi-Wan laughed quietly. "On that, we disagree. I think that the Manda and the Force are simply two names for the same concept. You listen to the song of the Manda, and we strive to follow the will of the Force. It is not so different, those two philosophies."

Cassus blinked his eyes open. "You're not going to make me live at your Temple, are you?"

"No." Obi-Wan shook his head. "No, dear boy, even if your mother consented to it, you are unfortunately too old to be trained as a Jedi. It's a shame. Your temperament is very well-suited for this life."

"It is?" Cassus' eyes went big and round, and his aura flared staticky white with surprise.

"Yes." Obi-Wan smiled, but his aura pulsed with red-violet regret. Ahsoka could see why. Cassus was desperate to learn, but even this small lesson toed the line of impropriety. Teaching the ways of the Jedi to someone outside of the Order was forbidden, and Obi-Wan was a shabla Council member.

"Mama… she's said a lot about the Jedi, but I don't think she was told the truth. And she ran into some bad ones, maybe." Cassus reached for Buddy, his aura gone white with anxiety; Ahsoka watched the little droid crawl up his arm and snuggle next to his ear, cooing the whole time.

"I think you may be right. I know that she suffered at Galidraan, and combining her own experience with, well…" Obi-Wan hesitated and chose his words carefully, "Salacious rumors about the Order, her prejudice runs deep."

"So you don't steal babies?" Cassus asked, looking up at Obi-Wan with shining gray eyes.

"We do not. I do not doubt that it has happened, unfortunately, but if such a thing were ever to be discovered then the child would immediately be given the choice to return to their old life."

"Oh." Cassus wrung his hands in his lap and squirmed with violet guilt-shame. "I'm sorry that Mama tried to hurt you and Ahsoka. When her friends in town called to say that they saw two Jedi and a clone trooper heading for us, she… she got so scared. I've never seen her that scared."

Obi-Wan patted his hand. "Given her trauma, that is understandable."

"So you're not mad?" Cassus blinked at him from under his lashes.

"Holding a grudge is not the Jedi way." Obi-Wan didn't look at Ahsoka but she felt a gentle nudge through their bond, almost like a hand slipping into hers. She returned it with a copper tendril of affection.

"Can we do that again?" Cassus asked shyly. "Meditating, I mean."

"I'd love to." Obi-Wan grinned broadly and closed his eyes. "First let's try a breathing exercise."

"She'd shit if she saw this," Boba said wryly. "Cassus learning from a Jedi? It's her worst nightmare come true."

"Seems like it." Ahsoka gently rubbed her lek against his cheek. "How are you doing with all of this?"

Boba shrugged. "Can't you tell?"

"To an extent." She eyed the confused kaleidoscope of colors that circled around her vod'ika. "But you've got a lot going on inside, I think. I'd rather hear it from you. And talking it out usually helps."

Boba didn't answer, choosing to silently watch his brother instead. "He's not like Dad at all," he said after a minute. "He'd be horrified if he saw how soft he is."

"There's a lot of sharp edges in the galaxy, especially when it comes to Clan Fett." Ahsoka huffed a quiet laugh. "Maybe a little softness is needed to balance it out."

"He's not Clan Fett," Boba said glumly. His aura solidified into solid purple sadness before spinning back up into its fractal rainbow. "He doesn't claim that name. He's Clan Skirata."

"That doesn't mean he's not Jango's son," Ahsoka said.

"Yeah it does." Boba watched a fat pink butterfly flap around Cassus' head and smirked when it landed in his curls. "Once you declare someone dar'buir, that's it."

Ahsoka hugged him tighter. "Did he, though?" she asked.

"I… I guess I don't actually know," Boba admitted. "I assume he did, if he goes by Skirata."

"You should probably talk about it with him."

"Yeah. Probably." Boba sighed. "I don't think my dad really loved me."

Ahsoka blinked, too surprised to respond. "What?" she finally managed, her voice jumping an octave. Beside them, Cody cracked an eyelid, his aura tinted green with curiosity. "How can you say that? Before, you said–"

"I said a lot of things before," Boba interrupted. "That was before I knew why he shot them down. Why she left us behind. Everything I thought I knew was based on banthashit."

His aura went spiky and deep violet; Ahsoka recognized it as the warning of a meltdown and bit her lip. "When we were on The Babasta–"

"He told M– Kaisa, he told Kaisa he loved her too. All the time." The violet spikes in his aura spun and sharpened. Ahsoka smelled salt. "He told Cas and Tiarek he loved them. He tried to kill all of them." He squeezed his eyes shut too late to stop a tear from escaping. "I don't understand how he could do it, but I'm… I'm glad he's dead. I hate him."

Ahsoka sucked in a breath. "Boba…"

"I do. I hate him. He tried to kill my brothers, my mother, and for what? Because Tiarek looked at junk in a stupid box? Because my mother was trying to protect Cassus from the longnecks? We weren't…. He never loved any of us. Not really.” He stared at his hands, his aura throbbing yellow-green with disgust, and Ahsoka had to wonder if he was thinking about how much they looked like Jango's. "And I’m just like him. I tried to kill Windu in some stupid, half-assed revenge attempt. You've almost died for me twice already. My donor was a monster, and I'm going to be a monster too.”

Ahsoka couldn't help the tears that escaped from her own eyes, though it was hard to tell if they were truly hers or an echo from the boy in her arms. “I didn't know him," she said quietly. "And what he did to Cassus and Rex is unforgivable, but–"

“But nothing, Ahsoka! He was a monster!" Boba's face crumpled and he seemed to shrink in her arms. "And I am too. I shot Kaisa. I-I threatened to use the same poison on Cas if she didn't give us the antidote."

Ahsoka's brow markings raised. "You did?" she asked, trying to keep the shock out of her voice. "When?"

"When you started going all glitchy and babbling." Boba shuddered and grayed with the memory of fear. "I was so mad at her, so scared that you were going to die, I couldn't… I couldn't…"

"Sssh, udesii." Ahsoka rubbed his back and purred. "I'm sorry, vod'ika. I don't…" she took a deep breath. "I don't think you have the whole story. I don't know that you'll ever get it without Jango, but right now, you only have a few pieces."

"I wish Kal would have just minded his own fucking business," he sniffled, hiding his face under her lek. "Now everything is… it's different. It's not like I didn't know that it had happened, b-but…" He took a deep breath. "But I know now that he couldn't have loved them, which means he couldn't have loved me." Boba stared down at Cassus with a bruise-dark aura of grief. "You don't hurt people if you really love them. Not for a stupid reason like that."

She looked down at Obi-Wan, laughing silently at the butterfly that had landed in Cassus' curls, and felt her left arm throb for a brief second. "Do you love Cassus?" she asked Boba, gently enveloping him in a warm copper blanket of love-safety-comfort.

"I don't even know him." The spikes were slowing, going dull.

"That's not what I asked."

"I don't know. I used to." Boba flared soft copper with love-humor as he watched Cassus finally open his eyes and dissolve into a peal of laughter at the discovery of his new friend.

"Would you like to know what I see in your aura when you look at him?" Ahsoka asked softly.

Boba's lip trembled and he looked down. "I can't love Cas. I was going to hurt him. I was so mad that I didn't even hesitate, and… and…" He took a deep, shuddering breath. "Fuck, I really am just like him."

"That's not a bad thing," Ahsoka said.

Boba whipped his head around. "How the fuck–" he began hotly, but she shushed him.

"Because he was more than just the bad things that he did, Boba." She threaded their fingers together. "He also could make a drawing out of pencil that looked as real as a holopic. He played quetarra and sang for his boys. He fell asleep on the couch snuggling them, and he told you that he loved you every single day, even when he was mad at you. And he raised an amazing boy. With all of the things that he did wrong, he still made you into the person that you are today. And that person is pretty amazing."

Boba turned in her arms so that he could hide in her neck. It quickly started to feel hot and wet where his eyes were pressed. "How can I believe that he ever meant it when he hurt everybody else he said he loved?" he whispered, a dark-green cloud of noxious misery.

"You love your brother. But in the heat of the moment, you lost your head and were fully prepared to hurt him. Right?"

Boba nodded, clouded with deep yellow shame.

"But now that the sun is up and everything is okay, I have a feeling that you really regret it."

Boba nodded again.

"Don't you think it's possible that your dad felt the exact same way?" Ahsoka pulled him out of her neck so she could look him in his tear-swollen eyes. The purple had faded to green, at least. "What your dad did was wrong. There's no way to rationalize it, kiddo, no matter how angry or scared or drunk he was, it was wrong, and that's just something that you're going to have to live with. The difference is that he didn't have an ori'vod to stop him back then, but you do. And I won't let you get away with that shit." That earned her a shocked little laugh. "So we're going to nip it in the bud now. We'll work on our anger before it gets out of control and we do something we can't undo, 'lek?"

Boba nodded, his face still all screwed up and teary, but his aura glowing soft gold with humor.

"We're more than the bad things that we do. They just stick out a lot more than the good." She wiped his eyes. "Change is hard. Trust me, I know. But you can't stop change any more than you can stop the suns from setting, Boba. You just have to keep going."

"How?" Boba whispered.

"You just do." Ahsoka smiled sadly. "You are a survivor, Boba. You've been through so much, and you've gotten this far because of what your dad taught you. You can get through this, too. And it'll be better this time, because you won't be alone. You're not meant to be alone. None of you are."

Boba nodded, soft green with coppery green affection-acceptance. "Thanks, ori'vod."

"Any time, vod'ika." She kissed his temple, slipped the chain of flowers around his head, and snatched Cody's helmet to take a holopic before he could shake it off like an uncooperative tooka.

"Seriously?" Boba asked, then burst into laughter that echoed with bright gold.

"You look beautiful," she teased.

Boba gingerly pulled it off with a roll of his eyes, then glanced at Cassus. "We're not meant to be alone," he repeated quietly. "But Cassus is alone."

"He has Kaisa," Ahsoka said, watching him gently rotate the flower crown in his hands.

Boba snorted. "Yeah. And look how that turned out." He took a deep breath and went silvery-green with determination. "But if I go back with you, I'll be alone too. I know there's that school that Plo talked about, and yeah, you'll visit when you can, but I'll be on my own there most of the time."

Ahsoka's heartbeat sped up. "That's true."

"I have to stay here. For Cassus. He needs an ori'vod, even if he is technically older than me." He looked up at Ahsoka. "Plo won't be mad, right?"

"No," she said. "No, I think Plo will be so proud of you when I tell him why you stayed." And so was she, though her first instinct was to put him under her arm and run. She couldn't do that. She had already come to terms with letting Boba go when it was time, it was just… now that it was actually time, it was proving a little more daunting than she had expected.

"Maybe I can bully Kaisa into moving to Coruscant," Boba jokes, going soft gold again. "She's been locked in this fucking hole for a decade, after all." He adjusted his legs and his aura lightened to pale blue with surprise. He reached for the pocket above his right knee. "Shit, I keep forgetting to give you–"

"Breakfast!" Gotika toddled out of the bunker entrance, trailed closely by Pinky. The astromech was wearing a frilly black apron. "Cas'ika, breakfast is ready, it's time to–" She stopped dead at the sight of her maker on the ground. "Cas'ika, what do you think you're doing?" she wailed, waddling at hyperspeed towards him.

"I'm fine, Gotika," Cas said, exasperated. He quickly clambered back into his hoverchair before he could be scolded again.

"But the ground is wet! You could get sick, or–"

"I'm fine!" he said crossly, his aura yellowing with embarrassment. "Let's go in."

"Finally," Cody groaned, flipping over and reaching for the top half of his blacks.

Boba tossed the flower chain to his brother as he zoomed by. "Ahsoka made this for you," he lied casually, smirking.

"Really?" Cassus put it on his head and grinned at her. "Thank you!"

Ahsoka smiled at Cassus and kicked Boba's ankle. "You are very welcome," she said sweetly.

"He's a natural," Obi-Wan said softly, coming up behind her. They watched the two boys and Cody follow Gotika up the short ramp to the bunker door.

"I noticed." Ahsoka allowed him to put a careful arm around her shoulders. "It's a shame that he can't be taught. I could see him in the Agricorps."

"He has a Force Talent. Mechu-deru. A very rare gift, one once thought to be linked to the Dark Side. We know better now, thankfully."

Ahsoka raised her brow markings. "What is mechu-deru?"

"He has an intuitive understanding of mechanics, and can manipulate them with the Force. He said that he rebuilt and programmed Gotika when he was five." Obi-Wan shook his head with an aura of green disbelief. "All of these droids, the drones, the turrets– those were all built from scrap by him with absolutely no guidance. He would have been a wonder if he'd had a teacher."

"Reminds me of Anakin," Ahsoka said quietly.

"In a way, yes." Obi-Wan squeezed her a little as they walked. "How are you feeling this morning?"

"Like I was put through a laundry pod and hung up to dry," Ahsoka joked. "Otherwise, I guess I'm fine."

"And the leg?"

Ahsoka twisted her leg to show him. "It's already closed up," she said with a smile.

"Good." Obi-Wan returned her smile but his eyes were tight, and his aura thrummed with staticky-gray anxiety. "Thank you, Ahsoka."

She side-eyed him. "For what?"

"For allowing me to accompany you on the final leg of your journey. I know…" he took a deep breath and his aura flooded with pewter determination. "I understand, now, how deeply my actions affected you, but I need you to know that none of my decisions were made out of malice, or indifference towards you, but out of my duty to the Republic."

Ahsoka nodded, feeling cold resignation sink down into her guts like an iceberg. He wasn't saying that he regretted it. He wasn't even really apologizing for it. He was just asking for her to understand that it wasn't personal.

Somehow that felt even worse than everyone telling her to get over it.

"I care deeply for you, Ahsoka," Obi-Wan said, his voice cracking. He stopped and took her hands, looking frighteningly young without his hair and beard. He looked almost like the Padawan Bobi of her youth, and it hurt to look at him for too long. "More than even you, with your marvelous gift, will ever know." His aura shone like a star with intense copper and his eyes pleaded for her forgiveness, for her to tell him that they could go on again as normal, but she couldn't make the words come out.

She had been furious at him at first, almost more for what Anakin had been through than her, but now that anger was gone and all that remained was just… sadness. She wasn't angry anymore, she was in mourning; not for the man, but for the trust that was gone for good. She loved him, and she could see how much he loved her, but the unshakeable faith that she'd always had in him was gone. She was expendable to Obi-Wan in a way that she had known in the abstract, but had never been forced to confront before now.

"Would you do it again?" she asked him, trying and failing to not let her grief leak into her voice. "If you could do it all over again, would you put me in that alley and let me hold you while you died? Make Anakin watch them burn your body? Or would you trust us enough to bring us in?"

Obi-Wan looked away, darkening with a familiar shade of yellow shame-regret. "Hindsight is notably clearer than foresight," he said quietly. "Perhaps I should have had more faith in the two of you, but the life of a Jedi requires us to sacrifice everything in service of the greater good. I regret that I hurt you, Ahsoka, I truly do. And… I may have gone further than I needed to in order to sell the lie."

But he would do it again if he had to. He may even hate it, but he would do it, because that was what a Jedi did. They sacrificed everything and held onto nothing, all for the greater good.

And Ahsoka… she was a Jedi too, and it was time for her to follow her own advice. To keep walking, and not look back. She'd always looked at him as the closest thing as a father that she'd ever have, and his aura matching the color of her actual father's had only cemented it for her, but he wasn't her father. He was her mentor and one of her dearest friends. He had shaped her into the person that she was, guided her lightsaber forms and taught her about the Force, but it was long past time that she let go of Bobi and what he represented to her and move forward with Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. She quieted her mind and took a deep breath, then opened herself up to the flow of the Cosmic Force and surrendered her dull, icy grief to it.

"Ahsoka?" Obi-Wan asked softly, teal with concern over the way she'd gone quiet.

The gentle hooting of a convor sounded directly above their heads; she craned her neck up to search the canopy but saw nothing but a sea of green against a sunny blue sky. "I'm starving," she said, looking back down with a watery smile; she felt lighter now, but empty in a way that she couldn't describe. "Let's get inside before Cody inhales the table."

She felt her wound throb as she walked away, but it didn't reopen.

"So is this an everyday thing?" Ahsoka asked, staring at the spread before her. Roba sausage, scrambled nuna eggs with little pieces of spicy peppers, a giant pot of hominy, some sort of cake crusted with sugar and amber syrup, a bowl the size of Pinky's dome full of sliced-up shuuras, snozzberries and meilooruns, all sprinkled with shredded kokanini… It was the sort of breakfast feast that was served to a busy working family in a holovid that would have two bites taken then be promptly abandoned in favor of the plot.

Cassus blushed, fogged with yellow embarrassment, and fiddled with the napkin on his lap. "No, but I-I thought since we haven't really been good hosts, I could at least make sure you had a nice meal before you left."

"You kicking us out?" Boba asked casually, dipping a fork full of nuna eggs into the amber syrup before shoving it in his mouth.

"No, of course not, but I didn't… didn't think you'd want to stay after you got your armor."

Boba swallowed the whole mouthful in one go. "You don't want it?" he asked, flaring white with surprise.

Cassus shook his head. "It would be wasted on me," he mumbled. "I'm not a warrior. I'm–" his bronze cheeks were nearly puce and his aura was getting more yellow by the moment. "I can't walk. My hands shake too much to shoot straight. I made my drones to try and be useful, but I'll never be able to fight someone face-to-face no matter how much beskar I'm wearing."

"Well, not with that attitude," Boba grumbled, shoving more eggs in his mouth.

Ahsoka gave him the look that she so often received from Rex that said behave. "Is your mom going to join us, Cassus?" she asked.

Cassus shook his head. "She's packing the armor up now," he said, not meeting Ahsoka's eyes.

"Then I'll go take a plate to her." Ahsoka stood up and almost walked face-first into Gotika.

"Mistress Kaisa needs to rest while she recovers from her injury, Master Jedi," she said brightly.

Ahsoka nearly choked at being addressed as Master, and she saw gold flicker around Obi-Wan out of the corner of her eye. "I'll make sure she's abiding by your recommendations and take her some food," she said pleasantly, stepping to the side.

"I already brought her a plate." Gotika matched her step.

"Then I'll join her so she doesn't have to eat alone." Ahsoka stepped to the left, mirrored by the ominously pleasant protocol droid.

"No need."

"Gotika, let her pass," Cassus said sharply.

Gotika's eyes dimmed and she immediately stepped out of Ahsoka's way.

She tossed a tiny smirk over her shoulder at the droid as she made the hallway. Gotika's left eye strobed as though it was twitching.

Ahsoka rapped softly on the door at the end of the hall before opening it. Kaisa sat on her bed, dressed down into a sleeveless undershirt and a pair of loose pants that ended at the knee, both black and well-worn. There was a green bacta sleeve wrapped around her left knee. She stared at Ahsoka as she came in, her aura pulsing like orange smoke with distrust-anxiety-fear.

"Thought you could use some company while you ate," Ahsoka said gently, projecting a cool sage aura of serenity-trust.

"Why?" Kaisa's aura cautiously bled back into her base of coral, tinged with a bruised line around the edges.

"Maybe it's the Togruta in me talking, but I hate eating alone." Ahsoka set her plate down on her wooden dresser and leaned against it, taking in the room. It was rather plain in comparison to the vibrant colors of the karyai; the walls were gray and she had a carpet thrown over the plascrete floor that was a soft blue, but the only decorations she kept in her room were a few holopics on her dresser and a knitted blanket on her bed that faded between ripples of orange into purple, like a sunset reflecting off the surface of a lake. Boba's beskar plates lay in front of her on the bed, along with four bright blankets folded into neat squares.

"I think we got off on the wrong foot." There was a rocking chair opposite of Kaisa's bed; Ahsoka gestured at it. "May I?" She took a seat after Kaisa's nod, careful to respect her boundaries. Ahsoka was in her bedroom now, her most intimate space. She was going to be defensive no matter what, but she would also be unbalanced, too wary to be able to lie convincingly.

Kaisa's aura developed a telltale pewter line around the edges, preparing to go on defense.

"I apologize for screaming at you last night." Ahsoka watched the pewter shiver.

Kaisa tilted her head. "I poison you."

"I'm fine now." Ahsoka shrugged. "I could hold a grudge if you'd prefer, but it isn't the Jedi way."

Kaisa snorted. "Jate, if you speak it." Her gaze fell back to the bed and softened as she looked at the plates, her aura flooding with violet so dark that it was nearly black with grief-despair. "I hear Jango die many time. Six, seven, more. I before hear he die on Geonosis, I think same again." Her shoulders fell. "Not rumor, this time. Jango nari taabi'an."

"Elek." Ahsoka watched the woman carefully, curious as to why she would mourn the man who had done such terrible things to her. "He tried to kill you. He tried to kill your son. You had to stay in hiding for a decade because of him. I admit that I don't know you very well, but his death seems like something you'd celebrate."

"Not simple, my Jango." Kaisa took a deep breath. "Long story."

"Then start at the beginning," Ahsoka replied easily. "How'd you meet?"

Kaisa's eyes flicked up from the beskar plates. It was eerie how close the colors matched. "My Clan, my home in Kyrimorut, Death Watch burn. My ba'vodu take me in. Kal."

"Kal's your uncle?" Ahsoka asked, surprised. "I didn't realize you were blood related."

Kaisa raised an eyebrow and her aura went chartreuse with disdain. "No blood. My buire find me when kih'ad. Aliit ori'shya tal'din."

Family is more than blood. She didn't disagree there. "I agree. I didn't mean to imply otherwise. Please, go on."

"Kal join with Jaster Mereel. Haat'la Mando'ade. I meet Jango there. We grow up together." Kaisa's aura flooded to mauve with love-yearning. "We happy, for while. Then not. We always fight. Too… too same. He never back down, I never back down." Kaisa gently bopped her fists together. "Like gotaliise, Jango and me." She smiled softly in wistful remembrance.

"What happened the night you left Kamino?" Ahsoka asked. "Why did you leave?"

Kaisa's face fell. "Cassus almost... Jango not does trying hurt him. Our fault, together." She took another deep breath, flaring bright red with the memory of anger. "One day, I find Cassus does floating with his toys. I know we must leave. Not safe, he does singing around kaminiise. They will take him, they want his blood. Want everything." Her aura flared to bright violet sadness. "I speak Jango, we does leaving, with him or not with him. I want take all my boys. All." She wiped her nose. "Jango stop us on landing pad, speak Tiarek and Boba his. I fight him, I not does leaving without my boys."

Ahsoka's heart lightened. She'd fought for them. She hadn't just gotten in her ship and accepted Jango's claim, she'd fought for them. That changed things.

"He… he hit ner sen'tra."

"Your jetpack?"

" 'Lek. He hit it, he… he want disable it. Make me stop from does flying. But it make me fly hard. Very hard, very fast." Tears leaked down in twin trails on her cheeks. "I hold Cassus when happen. Sen'tra fly me at wall before I can stop."

Ahsoka had seen how violently a person could be jettisoned with a malfunctioning jetpack more than once, and felt ill to imagine it happening to a toddler. "That's how Cassus was hurt?" she asked.

Kaisa nodded miserably. "I hit wall hard, h-his spine break." Her face crumpled and her aura darkened with even more violet sorrow. "Jango… he scream. He think he kill him. I never hear him scream so loud, long. He want my death, I see in his face."

"So it was an accident," Ahsoka said softly.

"I have stasis pod on my ship for bere, for I does hunting." Kaisa stared at the four blankets, haunted. "I run. Cassus does dying, kaminiise not help if I stay. I try reach my ade, my Boba and Tiarek, but Jango…" Kaisa looked up at her. "I put Cassus in stasis pod, fly. No choice. He die, if I stay."

Ahsoka couldn't answer for a few moments, her mind racing to picture the scene. Kaisa and Jango arguing in the Kaminoan storm, Rex and Boba being held back by their father. Jango sabotaging Kaisa's jetpack, and Kaisa being rocketed into a wall hard enough to break the spine of the baby in her arms. Being forced to choose between fighting for her remaining children and saving the one actively dying.

It was a choice that Ahsoka wasn't sure she would have been able to make. She had been forced to leave troopers behind on the battlefield and it destroyed her every time, but to have to make that choice about her own children? If Boba knew, it might change how he looked at Kaisa, but Ahsoka feared it would also erode his father's memory even more.

"Jango shoot. I drop escape pod, missle hit it." Kaisa sniffed. "We call move goteni muun'lan, when we Haat'la Mando'ade."

Ahsoka raised a brow marking. "Laying an egg?" she asked, unsure if she was translating correctly. "Because… because you drop the pod to be blown up?"

" 'Lek." Kaisa looked at Ahsoka with eyes shining with tears. "He think Cassus dead, or will be. My fault. He want kill me, not him."

She sniffled again. "I get away. I make Corellia. Cassus… No does feeling under here." She drew a line under her large bust, but above her navel. "We hide. Jango kill me, take Cassus back if he does finding us. So we hide. I…" she started crying again. "I know Boba and Tiarek alive on Kamino. Not in danger, not like Cassus. So I hide. I pray for my boys one day does finding me. I not expect jetiise with him."

She really hadn't had a choice. Ahsoka's heart twinged with sympathy for the woman who was practically drowning in her own guilt on the bed.

"I not understand how he hurt Tiarek." Kaisa's eyes looked far away. "Boba, he… when almost two year, climb up front of traciyam. Pot of tiingilar does boiling on top, Boba pull off, miss him by inch. I hit him on his shebs, two hit so he not climb again. Jango hit me." Kaisa showed Ahsoka an open palm and huffed a soft laugh. "He speak I hit anyone, I hit him. Never his ad'ikase. He hold ad'ikase in his heart. He never hurt them."

But he had. How broken had Jango become to have hurt Rex the way he had? To abandon him?

"You speak Jango…" Kaisa swallowed hard. "He beat Tiarek? He…"

"Yes." Ahsoka nodded and felt her heart clench. "About a year after you left. He and Boba were going through the things you'd left behind and he walked in on them. He had forbade them from going in it, and he struck Tiarek with the box." She swallowed. "Hard. After his head trauma was treated, he was reconditioned and reassigned to the Marshall Commander batch under Dred Priest."

"Priest?" Kaisa's voice cracked and she doubled over, drowning in black despair. "Ner ad'ika. Ni ceta, ni ceta ner kar'ta."

Ahsoka cautiously examined her aura. She saw no sign of any deceit silvering its edges. Her grief and guilt looked real enough. She strengthened her projection of serenity and waited for Kaisa to catch her breath.

It took her almost a minute for her to compose herself before she sat up, wide-eyed and trembling, and looked at Ahsoka with yellow desperation. "You know…He alive? Or he die in war?"

"He's alive." Ahsoka moved from the chair to the bed, and took Kaisa's hand. "He serves directly under me as a Captain in the 501st clone battalion."

Kaisa blinked, going white with shock, then shook her head. "Good boy," she said laughing, flush with blue relief-pride. "Good boy always. Sweet always. Naughty never, listen Mama always. Take care of kaysh vode."

"That sounds like him." Ahsoka couldn't help but smile. "He goes by Rex, now."

"Rex?" Kaisa raised an eyebrow. "What wrong with Tiarek, eh?"

"I think he remembered it, to an extent. That's why he chose it." Ahsoka shrugged. "Reks'ika. Rex. It makes sense."

Kaisa nodded. "It makes sense," she repeated softly. "Shabla kaminiise. They had no right. No right." She squeezed her eyes shut. "But maybe… maybe better, he not remember me. Boba has pain, much pain. Easier Rex does forgetting. Not open a wound with good, clean scar. Stay heal." She wiped her eyes and turned to the folded blankets, sniffling. "You before see this?" she asked, changing the subject.

Ahsoka shook her head.

Kaisa unfolded the blue blanket. Dozens of tiny tiarek flowers had been cut from cotton and sewn to the front of it in a pattern that mirrored itself in four directions, like a mandala. "Called tivaevae," Kaisa said softly. "Tradition on Concord Dawn, not Mandalore. Buire make together for they ade. Meant as a…" Her hands flailed. "I not know word, ah… symbol speak? Sa'johaa."

Ahsoka thought for a second. "A metaphor?" she asked, as it was the closest thing she could think of to like speak.

Kaisa shrugged. "Not know, but needle, thread, fabric, all sa'johaa. We stitch up our ade and make them strong with thread, weave our fabric and create for them. We make our ad like we make tivaevae." She brushed at an invisible piece of lint. "Not only thread. Holes from needle. We must be gentle, or more big, more big than we can does hiding. We… give violence on our ade, in does making them." She stared at her boots instead of Ahsoka. "But I make one for all my boys. Not finish, but I make. Give on his verd'goten, if return. This for Tiarek."

"It's beautiful." The appliqued flowers had been sewn flush to the front of the lake blue fabric with thousands of miniscule stitches. It was clearly still unfinished, with a half-dozen flowers still loosely basted on and almost a meter of blank blue space between the flowers and the edge, but hundreds of hours must have been poured into it already. Ahsoka glanced back at the other blankets. "But there's four?"

" 'Lek. All need more work. Take more long, only one parent." Kaisa smiled sadly and her aura darkened with grief again. "Cassus." She patted the bright turquoise square, then the lush, fern green square beside it. "And Boba."

"And the orange?" Ahsoka asked, eyeing it curiously.

"Gavin." Kaisa unfolded it. It hadn't been worked on as much, with only a few bright-red laceleaf flowers attached in the center. "Our first son."

Ahsoka nearly fell backwards off the bed. "You have another son?" she asked, her voice pitching up sharply.

"He die." Kaisa's bruised aura retreated on itself, stuck tight to her skin like a bandage. "Death Watch kill him on Galidraan. Five years old." She trailed her hand over the red flowers, her face haunted and distant. "They make me watch."

Ahsoka covered her mouth. The pain in Kaisa's voice was indescribable, an agony that split the Force with a shriek like a knife on porcelain. "I'm sorry," she managed after a few seconds.

Kaisa refolded the blanket. "You take Boba and Ti… Rex, take they tivaevae when you leave. Maybe you finish." She shrugged. "You his ori'vod. Close thing like buir for him."

Ahsoka watched the pain on Kaisa's face echo in her aura. She was dar'buir to Boba, now, and the declaration was as much a wound to her as the gash on the back of Ahsoka's leg. "Boba's staying," she said.

Kaisa's aura turned bright white with shock-disbelief, and her mouth fell open in a small o. "He stay?" she whispered, almost too quietly to hear.

Ahsoka nodded. "He's staying for Cassus. He doesn't want to be separated from his brother again."

"H-he speak, though–" Kaisa began, her voice shaking.

"He's staying. Consider this a fresh start. Cin vhetin." Ahsoka squeezed Kaisa's cold hands. "Give him some time. He's been hurt badly by the adults he's trusted in the past. Don't demand anything of him, show him that you can be trusted. As hard as it may be, he's not ready for you to be Mama again. Not yet."

Kaisa nodded as Ahsoka spoke, pale pink hope swirling around her like smoke. "Any chance, I take," she said desperately. "Any price I pay."

Ahsoka fought the urge to smirk. "In that case, have you ever considered moving to Coruscant?"

"Coruscant?" Kaisa's eyes nearly bugged out of her head. "Dangerous place. Not… Cassus, he not go city in many year…"

"Boba has an invitation to a prestigious academy there." Ahsoka's lip twitched. Anakin would have been proud of her for that not-lie, but an offer of a scholarship was still an invitation even if it was extended out of pity. "I'm sure that a spot could be arranged for Cassus, too."

"I… I think." Kaisa looked disturbed at the notion of moving; her aura matched her face with ugly green disgust.

Ahsoka had to wonder if it was because she was a country girl, or because she just found the notion of living on the Jedi's home planet so despicable.

Kaisa shook her head and straightened her spine. "Now, you does coming with me. You must eat, too skinny. More food. Come. Later speak me, I have tiingilar spices. I give for you later cook, ad'ikase love tiingilar." Kaisa got to her feet and carefully hobbled back out to the karyai, Ahsoka's cold plate in her hand and her coral aura suddenly missing its bruised tinge.

"I've programmed in everyone's private frequency—mine, Plo's, Anakin's, Obi-Wan's, even Master Shaak-Ti's. If you need anything, anything, just call one of us right away." Ahsoka smoothed down the shoulders of Boba's jacket. "Even if one of us can't come, we'll send someone. Someone you can trust."

"Take a breath, Tano," Boba said, smirking down at his kneeling ori'vod.

"I'm breathing just fine." Ahsoka scowled at him and got to her feet. "Can you blame me for being cautious? You can't go more than a day without somebody trying to kill you."

Boba shrugged. "Yeah, well, I got a guard dog now." He jerked his head back at Gotika, standing at the door of the bunker next to Kaisa, glaring pleasantly at their departing guests in the creek bed.

Ahsoka's eyes narrowed. "Yeah," she said, not sounding convinced. "I guess that's true. I'm allowed to be worried a little bit, though, right?"

"Yeah, I don't think I've much say in that. You're a fucking worrywort." Boba smiled like his heart wasn't pounding in his ears.

Ahsoka was leaving. He was staying. It was all over. She had a war to get back to, and he… well, he had a brother that wasn't dead, but who needed to learn how to grow a fucking spine. What he had left of one, anyway. And he had a former mother he needed to somehow convince to leave her bughole and move to Jedi home base. He needed to get to work on her now, or he'd never see a Biscuit Baron again.

"You be a good ori'vod to Cassus, alright? And watch your language, he's sensitive."

Boba snorted. "Oh, you noticed?"

"And when you talk to Kaisa, keep in mind what I told you about what I saw in her aura. Her guilt and remorse… that's all genuine. She didn't want to leave you."

Boba looked away. She wouldn't tell him exactly what Kaisa had said, just that she now understood why she'd made that choice and that he should ask her about it. "So, um, there's a long-range communicator at the cantina. It charges by the second, but we can still talk on holocall. If you want." Boba rubbed his wrists anxiously.

"That's why I put my frequency in your commlink, vod'ika." Ahsoka smiled and opened her arms.

Boba dove in and buried his face in her neck, his eyes suddenly stinging. He felt Kaisa's eyes burn a hole in his shoulder blades. Was it jealousy over freely giving Ahsoka affection, or was she afraid he'd kill Cas in his sleep? "Will you come back for my verd'goten?" he asked, hating how whiny his voice sounded.

"There's no telling where the war will take me, but I will do everything I can to make it back, I promise." She purred and rubbed her soft lek against his cheek.

Boba took a deep breath of her weird, spicy pollen scent and tried to commit it to memory for when he already knew he'd feel alone, even with Cas, and for when Kaisa would inevitably try to mommy him.

He didn't want her to go.

"I don't want to either," Ahsoka said quietly into his scalp. "But we have to let go of each other for now. Our paths might divide here, but it's not for forever. We'll always find our way back to each other."

"Fucking sap." He closed his eyes and tried not to cry.

"Comes with the job." She seemed in no hurry to let him go either. She really was too sweet for her own good, tooth-rotting sweet like a—

"Oh shit, right." Boba sniffled and reluctantly pulled back, shoved his hand in his pocket then pulled the tooth out, hidden in his fist. "I found this on Geonosis when I took your belt off. It fell out." He opened his hand and showed her.

Ahsoka stared in pure shock, her jaw hanging down to her chest. "You've gotta be kidding me," she whispered, gently taking it from him. "You've had it this whole time?"

"Yeah. Not on purpose, I just kept forgetting to give it back to you." Boba awkwardly kicked at the damp moss underfoot.

"I—do you know what this is?"

Boba shook his head. "I've never seen that animal before. Must have been big."

Ahsoka bit her lip and closed her fist. "He was pretty big."

Boba stilled and glanced up at her. "He?" he asked sharply, his eyes darting between the tooth in her hand and her face. "That… that's from a sentient?"

"Os'ika," Cody called. "I know it's hard, but wrap it up. We're going to miss our train."

Ahsoka glared at him. "Go ahead without me, I'll catch up!" she called, then gestured with her head for Boba to follow her. Cody and Kenobi shared an exasperated look but began to climb the steep hill in the opposite direction.

She dragged him to the tiarek grove. "Did you kill somebody?" Boba asked, impressed.

"No. I'm not the one who killed him. I'm the one who took his teeth, though." Ahsoka took a deep breath. "My people have a ritual. We don't execute our murderers and rapists. Instead we pull out their teeth one by one before releasing them to wander clanless in the forest."

It was a pretty hardcore punishment, but Shili was a hardcore place. "Nice." Boba nodded.

Ahsoka rolled her eyes. "This tooth belonged to a Jedi. Pong Krell."

Boba's eyebrows hit his stubbly hairline. "No shit?"

"I don't think that he's been widely reported on in the media, but, uh…" Ahsoka bit her lip. "There was a battle he led on Umbara. Anakin was called away by the Chancellor and Krell was left in charge of the 501st on the ground. I was in orbit, leading the space battle." She swallowed hard and looked down, and Boba saw tears glinting in her eyes. "We had no idea, but Krell wanted to become a Sith, so he was trying to get the attention of Count Dooku by throwing battles, which he did by killing clones. He had casualty rates ten times that of any other battalion. He used them like cannon fodder. His one and only strategy was to overwhelm the battlefield with clones and attack until they completed their mission, no matter how many died. On Umbara, he… he tricked the 501st and 212th into attacking each other by telling both of them that the enemy had stolen clone armor. Over four hundred men were murdered through friendly fire." She looked away, squeezing her eyes shut.

"Fuck." Boba stared at the tooth. "So you ripped his teeth out?"

Ahsoka nodded. "Yeah. Seemed… seemed like the right thing to do."

"You ever see a bayleg?" Boba asked her and glanced up; she shook her head. "It's a huge, scary, dragon-looking fuck. Nasty creature. My dad had me face one, once. Told me to bring him back a tooth."

"Is this a flying lesson?" Boba asked, craning around to look at the jetpack Dad had just snapped onto his back.

"Sort of. Remember those fluffy little chakaare we flew over on the way here?" Dad spritzed him with something that smelled foul. "This is their piss."

"Dad!" Boba squealed, sticking out his tongue and gagging. "Why would you put pee on me?"

"Because they're the prey of the bayleg."

"The what?" Boba squawked. He heard a roar from deeper inside the cave.

Dad handed him a blaster and grinned. "The bayleg. Go bring me a tooth. I'll wait here."

"How old were you?" Ahsoka asked, crossing her arms and frowning.

"Ten." He snickered at her horrified look. "I fucking lived, obviously. But it tried to eat me, and when I came back I was crying like a bitch and asked Dad why he would do that. He told me it was because now I'd faced my own death and knew true fear, so I'd never have a reason to be afraid of anything else." He shook his head. " 'Course he was wrong about that. I'm afraid of all sorts of shit. Some days I think I'd rather be back with the bayleg. But I've been keeping the teeth of monsters ever since. They remind me that I lived, and they died, because I was stronger than them."

"We don't actually keep them. Dogma's the one who stepped up and finally executed Krell. It's for him, for the ceremony once he's back with us, if he wants to do it." Ahsoka untied a small leather pouch from her belt. "They're not trophies to us. The ritual varies among clans and cultures, but the Binishii, my people, we toss them away, usually into a body of water, while singing our grief. No words, just the emotion of it. It's hard to describe without being there." Ahsoka looked up at him sadly. "It's ironic, you know. I forgot too." She put Krell's tooth in her pouch and withdrew a different one, a more humanoid one with a gold filling in it.

"What the—" Boba glanced up at her. "You keep a jar of these somewhere?"

"No," Ahsoka huffed. "Why do people keep assuming I've got a jar? Why would I have a jar?"

"You're the one pulling teeth out," Boba said, taking it from her and examining it. "So whose was this?"

"It's Aurra's."

He dropped it, just like his heart dropped out of his ass and into Corellia's mantle. He dove to his knees and picked it up immediately with shaking hands, staring at it. Now that he actually looked, he knew exactly which tooth it had been; the second-furthest molar on the bottom right. He could still remember what it tasted like when he kissed her. "I… what the f…" He looked up at Ahsoka, feeling dizzy. "Why? When did you take it?"

"Anakin took it, actually." She sank down on her haunches to be at eye level with him. "He thought I could do the ceremony with you."

We don't execute our murderers and rapists. Boba slowly turned the tooth over in his hand.

"But I think you should keep it." Ahsoka closed his hand over the tooth. "My peoples' way is to throw them away, to dispose of them in a lake or a river so that their memory will be washed away from us. Your way, and your father's way, is to keep the teeth of monsters, and to remember so it makes you strong."

Boba stared at it for a few seconds longer, then nodded decisively and put it in his pocket. "Yeah. Yeah, you're right." He swallowed hard. "Vor entye, ori'vod."

Ahsoka pulled him into a hug and gently pressed her forehead against his in a kov'nyn. "I'm going to miss you," she said quietly, swaying with the breeze. "You're really something else, kid. Thank you for letting me into your life."

"You're not bad." Boba sniffed. "For a Jedi."

"Sure, tough guy." Ahsoka laughed and squeezed him in one last spicy-smelling Togruta hug. "You have to admit, this was unexp—" She suddenly stilled, then tilted her head and clicked with her mouth open. "No way. No, what is he doing here?"

"Who?"

Ahsoka spun, her eyes huge. "Rex?" she squawked, taking off east.

"Are you fucking daft, Tano?" Boba called, jogging after her. "He's on that shitho—oh." No, there was Tiarek, alright, and he had an armful of squealing Togruta rubbing her head all over him and laughing. There was a break in the canopy ahead, and he had put down a Y-Wing neatly in the center of it.

"What are you doing here?" Ahsoka asked once she was back on the ground, blinking like a tooka kit with eyes all shiny from the tears that had popped up when she spoke about Umbara.

Boba took a weary breath. Her teacher had to see this shit all the time, right? Was he okay with it, or was he as stupid as they were?

"The General had a bad feeling. You know the kind. Seeing as you were all out of comm range, he sent me to check in on you." Tiarek yanked Boba into a hug as soon as he was within reach. "You behaving like I told you to?"

"I'm always a fucking delight." Boba closed his eyes and gave the Manda a silent prayer of thanks for letting him say goodbye to his brother one more time. It hurt, knowing that he wasn't going to be seeing him now that he was staying… with…

His heart started pounding and he locked panicked eyes with Ahsoka. "Fuck," they said simultaneously. Tiarek could not go down to that bunker. Kaisa and Cassus were there, and fuck, fuck, this wasn't how he needed to find out—

"What is going on here?" Tiarek asked with a suspicious look.

"Nothing!" Ahsoka said brightly. "Nothing, we were, um, we just forgot something?"

Boba stared at her. Was she lying badly on purpose, or was she that bad at it?

She shot him a look. "We, um, we…"

"She doesn't want you to know that when we first got here, Kaisa sniped at Kenobi and nearly fragged him with a slug," Boba interjected. "Got her all shook up. She knows how protective you all are of your pet wizards."

Tiarek's brows went up. "She almost got General Kenobi?" he asked, turning to her.

Ahsoka nodded solemnly. "He's fine, but she's not very Jedi friendly. It was a hard welcome."

"That's one way of fucking putting it," Boba grumbled, then stilled at the way Ahsoka's eyes had gone perfectly round and black like a porg's.

A sharp whistle sounded from behind them. Boba's heart stopped and he spun to look. "Su'cuy, verd'ika!" Kaisa called out aggressively, her slugthrower butted up against her shoulder, pointed at the ground.

Tiarek immediately put himself in front of them. He took a step forward and snapped into a perfect salute. "CT-7567, Captain Rex of the 501st Clone Battalion, Sergeant," he said briskly, then lowered his hand.

Kaisa dropped the rifle to her waist and stared. "Tiarek?" she asked hesitantly. She put a hand to her chest. "Tiarek… tion'gar kar'tayli ni?"

Tiarek shook his head. "Sorry, Sergeant, early years are a bit fuzzy for me. Got a little too close to a grenade as a cadet."

Boba stared daggers at Kaisa, mindlessly begging the Force that Plo had assured him was in everything that she'd shut up—don't fucking tell him, don't fucking tell him, you have no right, no fucking right—and he felt like he was going to throw up from the way panic was squeezing him. He just knew that if she told him, she'd rip open something that he would never heal from. He'd believed at first that he needed Tiarek to know, needed him to remember but that was before he saw how… fine he was. Boba was lonely, and he thought that Tiarek remembering everything would somehow undo something that they'd lost a decade ago, but Tiarek wasn't torturing himself with the need for answers at night like Boba was. He was fighting a fucking war and watching his vode die on the daily, he didn't need to be haunted by memories of Jango telling him he loved him and trying to murder him on top of it.

Boba was Tiarek's ori'vod long before Cody was in the picture. Back then, it was his job to protect his little brother. It didn't matter who was bigger, Boba was older. He had to watch out for Cassus, now, but that didn't mean he couldn't still protect Tiarek—no, not Tiarek, he had chosen Rex—from this. Boba willed Kaisa to understand that if she said a word, he'd tackle her off the edge of that fucking hill and take them both down to the creek.

Boba could let go of Tiarek, for Rex's sake, and Kaisa would too if she knew what was good for her. He caught Ahsoka's eyes; she looked sad, but nodded in understanding.

Kaisa swallowed hard and gave Boba a small nod. "Wer'cuy," she said in a shaky voice. "I… I before does teaching. I think you before remember me."

"Apologies." He crossed his arms. "So what's this I hear about a sniper shot taken at a High General?"

"Misunderstanding, right?" Boba asked sharply. "She won't do it again."

Kaisa nodded and gave Boba a flat, meek smile. "No. Won't do it again."

Rex harrumphed and turned to Ahsoka. "You're alright, then? Nothing happened that I need to tell the General about?"

"Nope." She gave him a bright smile. "I'm fine, Obi-Wan's fine, everyone's fine."

"If you say so." Rex pulled Boba into a kov'nyn. "Cin vhetin, ner vod," he said quietly. "Don't waste this. Ahsoka worked hard to get you here."

That was a fucking understatement. "I won't," Boba promised Rex.

"Good man." He nodded at Kaisa. "Nice meeting you, Ma'am," he said.

"And you," Kaisa whispered, trying to smile.

"Mind if I hitch a ride to Goran with you?" Ahsoka asked Rex, bumping him with her shoulder.

"Sure, but where's General Kenobi and Cody?"

"Walking back to Bockin proper to catch a turbo-train." Ahsoka shrugged. "But we've got a battle to get to."

Rex chuckled. "I'll brief you on the way there, then." He winked at Boba. "See you around, Boba."

"See you." Boba nodded at him, nearly blind with relief, and Rex turned to go back to the Y-Wing.

Ahsoka pulled Boba into one last, last hug. "This is going to be hard, but I know you can do it," she murmured. "I am so proud of you, Boba, and I am so lucky to know you."

Ni kar'tayli gar darasuum. Boba squeezed his eyes shut and memorized the sound of her purr, but didn't dare say the words out loud. He knew she wasn't allowed to say it back. Nothing was forever, that wasn't the stupid fucking Jedi way.

Ahsoka hugged him tighter, and he wondered if she had heard that thought too. "Vercopa gar mar'eyi mirjahaal, ner vod'ika," she said softly, pulling away after one last rub of her soft lek.

Boba took a deep, shaky breath, "K'oyaci, ori'vod." He meant it literally. If she got her shebs blown off by a battledroid after this mess, he'd pay a Nightsister from Dathomir to bind her stupid fucking ghost to a toilet.

Ahsoka's eyes went wide; she'd heard his thought. She threw her head back and laughed. "Never change, Boba." She let Rex put an arm around her shoulders as they walked back to the Y-Wing.

Boba cupped his hands around his mouth. "Oblivioussayswhat?"

Rex turned and squinted at him. "What?" he called back, and Ahsoka clapped a hand over her mouth too late to stop her bark of laughter.

"Use a condom on the ride back, your kids would be fucking ugly!" Boba bellowed right before they closed their cockpits, and he cackled at their identical looks of mortification and their mouths silently bellowing his name.

Rex shook his head and started up the landing sequence. Ahsoka blew him a kiss as they ascended. Boba tracked them until the ship turned into a tiny dot, then stared at the place in the sky where they disappeared until it all went blurry. He felt cold, even though it was so warm and humid that he was sweating through his jacket.

Ahsoka was gone. He was on his own, again.

Or no. No, he had Cassus now, and he was going to be a good ori'vod to him or kill one of them trying.

Kaisa shifted, in clear discomfort from being on her knee. "Ahsoka bal Rex, eh?" she asked with a small smile.

Boba rolled his eyes. Even fucking Kaisa could see they were more than vode, even if they didn't want to acknowledge it, but that didn't mean he wanted to gossip about them with her. "He's her ori'vod, that's all," he said frostily.

Kaisa nodded and her smile faded. "Tion'gar copaani uj'alayi?" she asked him timidly. "Fresh. I make, not Pinky."

Boba looked at her sideways. "Let's get one thing straight," he said. "You're not my mother anymore. I am here for my brother, not for you. I know we have a lot of shit to talk about, but right now I'm not up to it. I'm going to go to my room, take a nap, and nobody's going to bother me. I don't want fucking Five Nights at Flimpo's down there stalking me, or any of the other droids spying on me. Leave me be. That's all I want from you."

Kaisa nodded and looked away. "Ni kar'tayli gar darasuum, Boba," she said softly. "Darasuum."

"Yeah, that's great. I'm still not fucking calling you Mama." Boba stalked past her and down the hill, his hand throbbing. He'd squeezed the tooth so tight that he'd drawn blood with its razor sharp roots. Awesome. He was off to a great fucking start.

He strode over to Cassus, who had parked his hoverchair at the top of the ramp and was casting something onto a set of knitting needles. Buddy was perched on the back of his chair, playing soft quetarra music. "Are they gone?" Cas asked, his hands still making complicated loops around a needle while he looked at Boba.

"Yeah." The song sounded familiar, like an old memory, but he couldn't place it. Boba swallowed hard and tried to breathe normally. "I'm gonna lay down for a bit, alright? I'll see you at dinner."

"Alright. Gotika made your bed up." Cas looked back down at his knitting and started humming along with Buddy's music.

Boba jogged to his room and locked the door behind him. He looked around. It was plain, with just an empty wardrobe, an armor stand with his beskar carefully displayed, and a bed of white linens with a blanket made out of a hundred crocheted squares laid over the top. Robert the Rancor and the silver tooka doll had been placed together on the pillow.

He kicked off his boots and laid down on his new bed, facing away from the beskar, and let loose a muffled sob into Robert's belly.

Cody checked his chronometer and let out an uncharacteristic growl. "Sir, you go on ahead. I'll run back and make sure Os'ika didn't fall in a hole."

Obi-Wan bit down a laugh. "Cody, you are aware that I know what that nickname means, correct?" he asked.

Cody met his eyes shamelessly. "Is it inaccurate?" he asked dryly.

"Not in the slightest." They both snickered, and Obi-Wan's commlink blinked with an incoming transmission. He raised an eyebrow and opened the channel.

"Master, you're never going to believe who I ran into," Ahsoka said wryly.

Cody leaned in. "In the backwoods of Corellia? We know for sure that all that poison's out of your system, right? You're not snuggled up to a mother nexu in a den somewhere?"

Ahsoka laughed. "Oh, he's definitely a mother nexu."

"Very funny, Commander," a familiar, disgruntled voice said.

Obi-Wan and Cody both did a double take at his wrist. "Rex?" Cody asked incredulously. "What the heck are you doing all the way out here?"

"General Skywalker had a bad feeling. Sent me to check it out."

Obi-Wan sighed. "Of course he did," he said wearily. "And I suppose simply sending a message to us was out of the question?"

"To be fair, Sir, you were out of range." Rex sounded like he was smiling.

"Did you…" Cody cleared his throat and met Obi-Wan's eyes nervously. "Did you meet Kaisa?"

"Yes. She seemed nice enough, though more timid than I expected for a Mando."

Cody almost choked. "Is that so?" he asked, his voice squeaking comically. "Did she say anything to you?"

"Besides hello?" Rex asked. "Not really?"

"Oh." Cody looked relieved.

"Is it true she shot you, General?"

"Why would Boba lie about her shooting Obi-Wan?" Ahsoka snipped.

"I didn't say he lied, I'm only asking."

Obi-Wan could almost hear Rex's eyes rolling. "A misunderstanding, Captain, no worries," he assured him. "Boba will be perfectly safe with her."

"If you say so, Sir."

"I'm hitching a ride to Goran with Rex, Master. I'll see you soon."

"Are you leaving now?" Obi-Wan asked, dismayed.

"My instructions were to join Skyguy as soon as I returned to the Temple, Master," she reminded him.

"Yes, but…" Obi-Wan stopped, pulled himself together and stopped trying to argue his illogical case. "Yes, that makes sense for you to skip the trip back to Coruscant. Very well. Be careful on Goran, Padawan. May the Force be with you."

"And you, Master." Ahsoka disconnected the channel, and moments later Obi-Wan felt her Force signature fade as she presumably entered hyperspace.

Cody frowned. "Well, that was… abrupt."

"Indeed." Obi-Wan pulled his cloak around him and tried not to visibly sulk. "Let's keep moving, then."

"Yes, Sir." Cody was clearly unhappy, chewing on the inside of his cheek as he walked. They walked in silence while Obi-Wan stared at the ground and brooded. Something had changed after he'd apologized to her. She'd not broken their bond, nothing so dramatic as that, but it was different. Lighter, in a way, though that didn't make sense. It had never felt like a weight before, but now he keenly felt a new absence, rather like an overdue haircut that was shorter than desired.

"Give her a bit more time, Sir," Cody said after a few minutes of listening to only the starry-leaved strings of leaves whip in the wind and a convor that occasionally hooted sadly overhead. "She'll come around."

"She has come around, Commander," he said pleasantly. "This is what that looks like."

Cody clearly didn't like that answer, and his unease thickened the Force around him. He was far too used to coming up with a solution to any problem that came his way. "I… expected this to end differently, I think," he admitted.

So had Obi-Wan, though he'd never admit it. "How so?" he asked Cody anyway.

"I suppose I expected the two of you to have a go at each other, but then go on as you always have. Not sure I like the way this is turning out."

Obi-Wan patted him on the shoulder reassuringly. "Ahsoka and I will always hold deep affection for one another," he reassured him. "But nothing is permanent except the Force. We have both become unduly attached to who we were to one another. It's best that we both let go and move on."

Cody huffed, still displeased. "Are you sure, Sir?"

"We must, for her sake," Obi-Wan answered blithely. "She cannot heal unless we do. Unfortunately, my deception has had longer-lasting repercussions than I anticipated." He never would have agreed to the Rako Hardeen mission if he had known the real cost.

Cody frowned. "Seems a bit… extreme, is all."

"It isn't. It is the foundation of our beliefs, after all. We must not allow ourselves to become so attached to the past that it impacts our future." It was the truth, so why did it hurt so badly? Obi-Wan had told Mace that he understood that his actions had consequences, but he hadn't anticipated that the consequences would be… so permanent.

Ahsoka forgave everyone everything. She couldn't help it, it was part of her nature. She could feel when one's remorse was genuine and she always, always capitulated, but she hadn't in this case and he had no one but himself to blame. She would grant a blank slate to everyone except for him, but their slate was far too full to be wiped clean. A lifetime of memories had been etched past its surface and into the foundation beneath.

Their slate needed to be discarded entirely and started anew, and so he would. He would do whatever Ahsoka needed to be able to heal. No matter what words he chose, nothing seemed to stop the bleeding. Clinging to her even harder had done nothing but left new bruises behind, so now he would do the opposite. He would let her go for her own peace. His attachment to her was the shrapnel in the wound causing it to fester, the broken thread causing the whole tapestry to unravel.

Kyber did not shatter as easily as Kaisa Skirata seemed to believe, and a real buir knew that sometimes one had to let their child go, especially when holding onto them would harm them far more than help.

"Bo-bi," Ahsoka said with a quivering lip and eyes almost completely swallowed up by her pupils. She waved at Obi-Wan over Plo's shoulder as he walked away. "Bo-bi!" They turned the corner and were gone.

They broke the treeline, and Obi-Wan could see the train station just ahead. "I've been meaning to ask you, Sir, what does mo nighean mean?" Cody asked.

"My girl," Obi-Wan answered with a smile he didn't feel. He didn't tell him that it also meant daughter.

Notes:

MANDO'A TRANSLATIONS Ori/vod/ika: big/brother/little Dar'buir: no longer parent. Essentially a parental divorce/disownment Udesii: calm, easy Cas'ika: Little Cas Gotika: Little Machine Jango nari taabi'an: Jango is marching (marching being a metaphor for the afterlife) Elek/ 'lek: Yes Ba'vodu: Uncle Buir/e: Parent/Parents Aliit orshya tal'din: Family is more than blood Haat'la Mando'ade: True Mandalorians, a mercenary group composed of mainly former Mandalorian royal soldiers formed by Jaster Mereel, who was considered rightful king (Mand'alor) of Mandalore. Jango took over leadership (and possession of the darksaber!) after Jaster's death Kih'ad: small child (ad'ika is the more cutesy and commonly used term) Gotaliise: Gotal people Kaminiise: Kaminoans Ner sen'tra: My jetpack Goteni muun'lan: Laying an egg Traciyam: stove Jetiise: Jedi (plural) Tiingilar: Spicy Mandalorian stew Ad'ikase: Children Ner ad'ika, ni ceta, ner kar'ta: My baby, I'm so sorry, my heart Kaysh vode: His brothers Reks'ika: Little Tiarek (s added for ease of saying, as otherwise it would be a hard stop in the center of the word) Shabla kaminiise: Fucking Kaminoans Sa'johaa: Metaphor Verd'goten: Mandalorian rite of passage into adulthood, usually done at 13 Cin'vetin: Fresh start (literally fresh snow on a field) Karyai: Large central living chamber of a traditional Mandalorian home Os'ika: Little shit, a pun on the normal diminuative of Ahsoka, Ahs'ika Chakaare: Assholes Vor entye: Thank you Kov'nyn: headbutt Su'cuy: Hi Tion'gar kar'tayli ni: Do you know me? Wer'cuy: It was ages ago Ni kar'tayli darasuum: I love you/I hold you in my heart forever Vercopa gar mar'eyi mirjahaal: May you find peace of mind K'oyaci: Stay alive Bal: and Tion'gar copaani uj'alayi: Do you want some uj cake? MAOR-GRASTA TRANSLATIONS Mo nighean: my girl/daughter OTHER NOTES GIRL YOU'RE NOT EXPENDABLE BOBI LOVES YOU HE ALMOST STRAIGHT UP MURDERED SOMEONE FOR YOU AHHHHH *is dragged off stage by a comically large shepherd's hook*

Taglist: @starwarsficnetwork, @soliloquy-of-nemo Dividers: @saradika-graphics

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2dayihaveaheadache · 1 year

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Obikin AU. The idea of Anakin as Macbeth and Obi-Wan as King Duncan, quite the lovebirds, never quite left my headspace. So here it is.

Lord Anakin of House Skywalker, Thane of Cawdor, has been injured on the battlefield fighting off the rebellion in Scotland, led by Count Dooku. The Count has been exiled for various years due to his political activities as a separatist. Years ago, he had been Anakin’s mentor and even helped the young man to knighthood. He is to Anakin more than a father than any other man had ever been. Now, the mentor and apprentice are forced to meet again on opposite sides of the battlefield. Both are willing to sacrifice everything, their title, their honor, or even their life for their beloved ones and their beliefs.

In the Aftermath, Ahsoka Tano remains to save what has been left of Anakin, only the shadow of the man, that he used to be, physically and mentally drained.

A few miles north of Nairn, the land drops in close to the hillside bank of the coast and molds the spikes of stone and deep clefts to a rutted cliff. Murray Firth, the people whispered to each other behind closed doors in the fishermen’s villages around, is a chasm, the maw of a leviathan. Only the forsaken are damned to cross its path and fight the wave crests every day. When the fog hangs low over the coast, only the spikes of the slate-grey stone peak out of the veil like the rotten teeth of a Sea Monster. The air tasted of festered fish and salt from the fishnets spanned between the huts. Life was hard, the people haggard, the skin weather-beaten, the eyes without a sparkle of hope.

A horse neighed and two riders peeled out of the thick fog, darkly dressed in cloaks and leather armor. Their faces were hidden under a hood but their swords were openly shown in pride. Steel that carried a title as it carried the shed blood of its nemesis. They were royal horsemen, the burgundy emblem of the royal house embroidered on their back, riders of the king’s brigade. When they passed the gate of the settlement, two wooden pillars pushed into the muddy ground, the smaller one of them unveiled herself. Under the hood had been hidden a girl in the bloom of womanhood, the hair braided with blue and white beads in the custom of clan Tano.

“I am Lady Ahsoka Tano, first to her name, ward of the Thane of Cawdor of the house Skywalker.” The girl dismounted from the horse and let herself fall to her knees, her cloak disappearing into the mud. She had stretched out both arms, her palms of her hands upwards, and placed the iron sword on them. A gesture like a prayer. “My warden has been injured and I am begging for shelter.”

II.

Heat and the smell of burnt coal hit Anakin’s nose as he lifted his eyelids. Some Straw tickled the back of his neck. He had been laid out in a barn and undressed. He felt utterly exposed and vulnerable in his linen undergarments without his leather armor. The steel of his sword was nowhere in sight. Yet another smell was recognizable among the others. Anakin had spent enough time on the burnt earth of battlefields to sense the misery of the wounded in the air. Now, however, he smelled of dried blood, which seemed to mix again and again with fresh one. An open wound. As he straightened up, pushing himself up on the cot made of hay, he discovered that the linen had been pushed up to his collarbones to reveal a gaping sore on his chest. The wound had missed his heart by a mere centimeter. A new scar in his collection, he grinned.

"Master," a female voice called out, panic resonating in it. “You are not to be up again.” Someone leaned over him and pushed him back onto the hay. Where the hands touched his skin, a gentleness shook Anakin to his core. The tenderness of the hands of a beloved one. “’ Soka?”, he asked weakly, his voice hoarse and only a rasp shadow of its usual strong character. “Yes, it’s me, Master.,” the girl assured him, running a wet cloth over his feverish forehead. She lowered her head so that her Master could see her face, and recognize her as his savior.

The youthfulness had disappeared from her features, her tanned skin was stale, and her lips bitten. The expression of sorrow had appeared in her eyes, which otherwise were brimful of life. The girl, his ward, who had always been a source full of bubbly youthfulness, suddenly seemed to have aged years. “Soka…,” he tried again, bringing one hand to her cheek. “Are you unharmed?” A weak smile curved her lips It did not reach her eyes. “Of course...,” she broke off, voice high-pitched and on the verge of crying. For a moment, she turned her head away. A single tear ran down her cheeks.

When she turned back to him, her voice was firm, the weakness overcome. " You’ve won the battle. Count Dooku fell by your hand. When you raised your sword against him, it seemed as if two comets were colliding. Two warriors armed with blood-stained steel and blessed by Fortuna with a talent for dueling. He was the one who had taught you the art of the sword back when you were a knight’s attendant, wasn't he?"

Anakin just nodded absently. Years had passed since his days as a lad on the Orkney Islands of the noble House Dooku. He had spent his days in the Yard of Notland Castle, often falling into the sand of the training ground when the Count had beaten him once again. Wooden sticks clawing into one another. He remembered the excitement when the prince had watched him from afar, the urge to flex his chiseled upper body, and then the Count punishing him for his state of distraction with yet another epic defeat. Years later the Count had committed treason on the Scottish Crown and with that on Obi-Wan, the lad, his ward, the prince, that he had parented like his own son, the man who was to Anakin like a brother.

Ahsoka continued with her battle report. "You have surpassed him in his own art, beheaded and thus killed the traitor of the Scottish crown."

Beads of sweat stood on Anakin's forehead in the heat of the coal-fired barn. He straightened his back, suppressing the sting in his chest and the smell of fresh blood tickling his nose. The wound had been ripped open again by his movement but he wanted to get his head clear. He was now the slayer of a traitor, a war hero. An incredible sadness filled his core. He had killed the man, who had been like a father to him, and now would be honored for it. Granted a title. Sweat prickled on his skin.

"Then why am I here?", he asked, looking around the barn, catching no glimpse of his sword. Ahsoka had wisely put it out of his eyes, not wanting to burden him with the sight of the Count’s blood. It would be dried on the steel by now. The air in the barn tasted bitter on Anakin’s tongue as he swallowed, like coal and burned wood.

"Count Dooku was a deceitful man. He was aware of his age and the weak flesh, that came with it. Should your steel overpower him, an ambush had been planned. His army, the troops that had landed a mile north of Elgin were not the only ones, that had become pawns in his game. Thousands of mercenaries attacked us after his death, all led by the young Lord Maul.”

A vision of a young man came to Anakin’s feverish mind. A face adorned with black inking, the Celtic runes of an old Tribe. Lord Maul, a second cousin to King Kenobi, had recently inherited his family title. Some evil tongues whispered that witchcraft had been involved as similar Celtic runes had been found on his father’s deathbed. The young lord was the wielder of a claymore, that was told to have been forged in a volcano in Iceland. A vicious weapon, spiked with thorns of steel to almost appeal like a flail. “A Norwegian Lord fought on the battlefield?”

“Yes, under the Banner of Dooku’s noble house. The Count must have conspired with the Norwegian crown. For centuries they have been trying to claim the Scottish throne. Now that King Obi-Wan, the heir of the royal House Kenobi has, not wed yet and therefore no legitimate offspring has been born, they sense their chance.,” Ahsoka explained with a lowered voice.

"But enough of the war, Master. Your wound needs to be cleaned." She glanced at Anakin’s chest and the gaping wound, which seemed to only worsen by the minute. His skin was pale, almost yellowish by fever. The wound was inflamed. She bent down to pick up something from the floor of the barn. A bottle of brown, scuffed glass. “Smells like home, doesn’t it? " She grinned, and a piece of her former mischievous self glimmered underneath her expression. The bottle was uncorked with a pop and the burning smell of homemade Schnaps rose. Anakin grimaced.

“Normally, the two of us would have celebrated our victory in a tavern with that.” The cool liquid hit Anakin's feverish skin and he bit his lip to suppress a cry of pain. It burnt to his core, fighting the inflammation. ”Not finished yet, Master," Ahsoka warned him, "The worst is yet to come." Without a thought, Anakin reached for the piece of leather that Ahsoka gently handed him. A mouthpiece so he would not bite off his tongue in Agony. Closing wounds with fire was no unknown custom to him. When he had lost his hand, he himself had burned off what had remained of the stump with his own heated blade, most of the pain suppressed in the adrenaline of the moment.

This time, when the metal of the sword heated in the coal fire touched his skin, he bent his back in agony until his muscles and sinews were impossibly stretched. The pain penetrated him through and through, his mouth torn open into a silent, shrill cry. The world became a single white panorama before his eyes. The moment seemed to drag on forever until Anakin had lost all sense of time, place, and identity, trapped in an eternal cycle of pain, heat, and anonymity, crying out for help, although only a few seconds had passed.

The color returned to his vision as the metal left his skin. His body collapses, suddenly battered by exhaustion that slackened his muscles and tendons. A hand moved up to his chest, hesitantly brushing over the spot where the wound had once been. A new scar in his collection. He turned his head to his ward and grinned, “Indestructible. A Skywalker is indestructible.”

He fell back into the cushion of the hay. “Has…”, Anakin tried again but Ahsoka broke him off too soon, tenderly brushing with a wet cloth over his feverish forehead. “A messenger has been sent. Lord Palpatine has ridden to court and brought King Kenobi a word of your epic victory. He knows about your remains here in Nairn and sends his best regards.” Then she leaned closer and almost whispered. “He fears your wellbeing, Master. He is frighted to see how much you are willing to sacrifice for him.”

“I…”

“You love him, Master, I know. He is your family. You grew up together as lads in Orkney Island. That is a bond, you share, similar to brothers. This attachment clouds your sense of judgment and your self-preservation instinct. This love, I fear, devours you from the inside.” Ahsoka had started to fidget with her fingers in the middle of her sentence. Then she fished an envelope out of her pocket, the seal still unbroken.

“A messenger brought it for you. You shall read it in the privacy of your chamber, no other eyes than yours shall see its content. A letter from the king and yet not from the king, a message from a lover.”, she paused. “Promise me to care of yourself whatever may be written in it.”

Anakin nodded even though deep down he knew that he could keep no such promise.

.... that's the snippet. Hope you enjoy it!

#Obikin #Obikin au #star wars au #Star wars meets classics #felix's weird thoughts and drabbles #anakin and ahsoka #game of throne-ish?#macbeth #had to get it out of my head #anakin angst #star wars prequels #Anakin as Macbeth #author is a literature student so way too much lit references here #Anakin has issues #Anakin is emotionally vulnerable #macbeth au

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fanfictasia · 2 years

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Angstober Day 5

Hearts to Cinder

Spoiler: This is an excerpt from Fading

Idly, he suspects Anakin may be too overwhelmed to react. He is, too. He has no idea how to deal with everything he just witnessed. “Can you… tell me what happened in your time?” Anakin asks, lifting his head. He looks exhausted. “I want to know exactly what I did that you judged me for.”

Obi-Wan’s heart clenches. He has no idea how to start explaining all of this to Anakin. he doesn’t want to, either. But Anakin is asking, and it only seems fair. “I saw the recordings,” he replies, “I saw the destruction in the Temple. I saw everything Vader did there.”

Anakin pulls back, rubbing his flesh hand over his face. “Why,” he asks roughly, “Why did you do that?”

He saw. He knows, and Obi-Wan doesn’t know what to think about that. He had to help Anakin, regardless of the consequences. He never thought about the aftermath until right now. “I couldn’t kill you.”

“I would have preferred it if you had.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Obi-Wan argues, “It didn’t happen. It’s not going to.”

“But it could have. It would have, if you hadn’t come here, and I would be – would be living in the aftermath of that, wanting to know. What would make you, Obi-Wan, do this?” There’s a weighted look in his eyes, one of both pain and honest confusion.

And under the face of it, he has no idea how to react or answer it. “I couldn’t,” he repeats, hating how helpless he feels. “And I… wanted to hurt him.”

“But that’s not you,” Anakin objects. “You would never. You’re… too good for that.”

And really, what can he say to that? Because Anakin is wrong. For the briefest moment, he can’t help wondering if this was what Vader thought, too. So, he doesn’t say anything.

Not even when Anakin turns away from him and buries his face in his arm again, body shaking with a shuddering sob.

He loathes feeling this… helpless. Hesitantly, he reaches over, touching Anakin’s shoulder. It strings more than he cares to think about when Anakin doesn’t immediately lean into it like he once would have.

“I would’ve done it,” Anakin murmurs, “I thought… it was for the best. Palpatine told me if the Jedi lived, there would be civil war without end, and I know what the galaxy has endured with the Clone Wars. I knew you would be… angry at me, but I believed it was… the only choice.”

He wishes he knew what to say to that. He doesn’t. “Anakin,” he says, softly. It’s all he can find in himself to say.

He inhales shakily. “I love you too, Obi-Wan. So much I wish I didn’t.”

It hurts. It feels like it’s burning what’s left of his heart to ash – he felt like that on Mustafar, too. He doesn’t know what to do. He raises his hand, lightly running it through Anakin’s hair. Obi-Wan never considered what that would do to Anakin. He doesn’t know why.

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missypup · 2 years

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The Space Between Us

Chapter one of the Cody-Wan fic is available on AO3 here! Snippet below!

Summary: (This is a sort-of prequel fic to a later chapter in my next fic 'This is the Way Home'. Reading this is not necessary for plot, just for feels.) Snippets of the life Obi-Wan Kenobi and Commander Cody shared during the war, followed by Order 66 and the aftermath. 3 chapters.

The way of the Jedi was a way free of attachment. That was what all Jedi were taught as Padawans. The Clone Wars, however, were proving to be very good at testing the resolve of many of their forces. Standing beside the same men for countless battles made the continued losses harder and harder to take, even for long established Jedi Masters.

‘Attachment’, after all, was really a very loose term. One that no Jedi Master truly agreed on. The overall consensus after months at war became ‘loss and grief’ being the enemy, not attachment. They could not help being attached to those around them. Compassion was a strong trait - one every Jedi had to have. Without compassion, they would have nothing.

Obi-Wan Kenobi was easily one of the most compassionate Jedi in the Order. The Sith slayer. He had been knighted young, given a Padawan young, then made a high general in a war that stole the lives of millions. A war that tested his willpower against grief, especially for a man that knew each clone in the entire 212th’s name. And knew the names of the 501st, since they worked together so often.

Such as now.

“Some days I’m just not quite sure how you do it, Cody. How do any of you?” Obi-Wan leaned his head back against the cave wall, openly wincing when Cody pulled a piece of plastoid out of his shoulder.

They’d either lost or been separated from their whole squad in an ambush on Ryloth. They had no way of knowing which it was. Both of them were nursing injuries, and their comlinks were broken. Help was most likely not coming soon, if at all. The Separatists had pushed them well behind their lines. It was only a waiting game now.

They’d been surprised with an explosive that destroyed Obi-Wan’s armor on the left side, sending pieces of it far into his skin. Cody likewise had damage, his helmet had been knocked off entirely and he was sporting a large cut around his eye. They had already gotten bandaging on Cody’s head to stop the bleeding, and now it was Obi-Wan’s turn.

“Do what, sir?” Cody asked, carefully cauterizing the wound after he’d removed the shrapnel.

One positive, they were both at least thankful to have had the medical supplies in Obi-Wan’s backpack.

“There are so many of you, all brothers. Clones. To see one another die is to see the death of yourself and family… We’re taught about detachment in the Jedi Order. They encourage compassion for all, but ensure we know that attachment is not compassion. We’re not to grieve, or worry about loss. It’s a complicated thing.” Obi-Wan scrunched his face, finding talking through the pain easier, as always. “Master Yoda’s always taught: Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”

“We were taught by Mandalorians, General.” Cody looked up at Obi-Wan’s face, giving him a moment to breathe. “We are vode, but that doesn’t mean we should fear our losses. There’s a Mandalorian saying, ‘Ni su'cuyi, gar kyr'adyc, ni partayli, gar darasuum.’ It’s a daily remembrance, meaning those you lose will never die, because they’re remembered through you. The Jedi could learn something from the Mandalorians.”

“Learn… That we can have attachment without fear. Because they’re never gone.” Obi-Wan sighed, as he had been considering those exact words for some time now.

“Precisely. You should take that to heart.” Cody looked up when a light flashed at the opening of the cave. “And, have more faith in all of us to survive another day in the sun. Rex! We’re here!”

“Cody, General Kenobi, glad to see you both.” Rex pressed a button on his vambrace, “I’ve got them. Send Kix, we need medical support.”

“Didn’t expect to see you so soon.” Cody remarked.

“General Skywalker heard General Kenobi was trapped behind enemy lines. We cut a line pretty quickly.” Rex said as he fully entered the cave, bolstering his blasters.

Ah. Obi-Wan thought to himself, That’s not a good example of not fearing loss, that Anakin.

“What are the losses from the battle, Captain?” Obi-Wan asked, keeping himself level about the possible answer.

Maybe, just maybe he was not the best example at times either.

“Fifteen troopers total, sir. Many more were injured, but they held their own.” Rex moved closer and offered Obi-Wan help to stand, then looked at Cody. “Ready to go, vod?”

“The troops get better with every battle. Something clankers can’t do.” Cody moved to stand, and immediately his whole body tilted to one side.

“Cody!” Obi-Wan reached out, easing his fall with use of the Force.

The feeling that sprouted in Obi-Wan’s chest at seeing Cody fall was something he would have to push aside for now. But it was definitely against the rules.

**AO3 Link**

#star wars #commander cody #obi wan kenobi #codywan #pre and post order 66 #fanfic wip #ao3

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tennessoui · 3 years

Note

would you ever do a hunger games au? like anakin and obi-wan in the arena and doing a katniss and peeta thing where they both survive? anakin maybe killing the competitors so obi-wan wouldn't have to? (just thinking that child killing is in character for him) anyway no pressure or anything I just haven't stopped thinking about a hunger games au of obikin and. I thought maybe you could do something with it!

i need you to know i shamefully snorted at the child murder thing i'm sorry and i'm also sorry this took so long and it's a bit all over the place and doesn't actually get into the Games at all (+ it's been years since I read the books so all inaccuracies should be tastefully ignored pls) this may not be what you asked for tbh but here you go!!

(content warnings: hunger games typical discussion of child murder, but nothing graphic)

(1.7k)

Anakin’s first emotion after his name is called is a strange sense of relief.

Good, he thinks. I’ll get to go with Obi-Wan. He won’t be alone.

He dutifully steps forward out of the crowd towards the stage, where the announcer is waiting next to Obi-Wan.

Obi-Wan who is looking at him with an expression of naked devastation.

Anakin tries to convey that it’ll be alright, that it’s fine, that they knew this was a possibility. Sure, it’s Anakin’s last year eligible to be in the Games. Sure his nineteenth birthday is in two weeks, at which point he would become too old to qualify as a child to the Capitol, but what’s done is done.

Obi-Wan will be his mentor, because Obi-Wan has been the mentor for District Four ever since he won his own Games seven years ago when he was sixteen and Anakin was twelve.

That year’s known unofficially as the most boring Games in Panem history, but the Capitol loves how handsome Obi-Wan’s grown to be. So what if he didn’t kill his competitors messily or with a bloodthirsty joy? He’s so polite in his interviews all these years later, and look at those dimples!

It makes Anakin sick, every time Obi-Wan has to leave District Four and travel to the Capitol to be fawned over and stroked and used. His nightmares are always worse the weeks after he gets back, and he never lets Anakin hold him during them.

And it’s even worse during the actual Games, when Obi-Wan is put in charge of two children’s lives only to see them brutally murdered on screen a week later. The cameras always show his reaction when the competitors from District Four die. They must think he cries pretty or something.

Anakin hates the Capitol. He hates them for what they’ve done to Obi-Wan. What they’ve made him into

As he gets close enough to the stage, he notices that Obi-Wan’s hands are shaking slightly.

He doesn’t even listen to the name of the girl being called. She’s not important. She’ll be dead in a few days time. What’s important is Obi-Wan. What’s important is comforting him, is reassuring him. Is coming back to him.

This is the moment when Anakin resolves that these Games will become known as the quickest in history.

---

The girl is understandably sullen and upset on the train. “I should get a different mentor!” she demands. “It’s obvious you’re going to play favorites with him.”

Anakin doesn’t snap back because she’ll be dead in a few days. Though she really shouldn’t use that tone with Obi-Wan.

“I’m not playing favorites,” Obi-Wan insists. “I don’t have favorites.”

“You literally just wiped sauce off his mouth with your finger,” the girl points out. “And then he licked it!”

Anakin smirks at her. Of course Obi-Wan has favorites. Of course Anakin is Obi-Wan’s favorite. It took him years to wear down Obi-Wan until he allowed him this close, and years after that until he finally got to kiss him for the first time, just a few months ago.

If she thinks he’s going to give up any of his Obi-Wan time so she can get her hopes up about not dying in a few days, she’s got another thing coming.

But Obi-Wan shifts away from him and he looks guilty.

If Anakin could get away with killing the other person from his district, he would. But it’d probably make Obi-Wan sad.

“Is whining part of your strategy?” he asks waspishly instead. “I don’t think it’ll make you many allies.”

She has the nerve to look offended.

“Anakin,” Obi-Wan chides. Underneath the table, he squeezes his knee.

“Everyone in the district knows about you two,” she glares at him. “You haven’t exactly kept it a secret.”

Anakin hasn’t exactly tried to keep it a secret. The first night Obi-Wan had kissed him, he went straight home and told his mother, his neighbor, his schoolmates, his cat, and his ex-girlfriend.

(No one had been surprised, except maybe the cat.)

“It’s not fair,” she cries. “Who can I talk to to get a different mentor for me?”

“The ethics board,” Anakin smiles, all teeth, settling back into his seat and slinging an arm around Obi-Wan’s shoulders.

“Anakin,” Obi-Wan says again, this time more exasperatedly. “Robin, I promise I will be the best mentor you can ask for. It is my wish to see you survive as long as possible in the next few weeks.”

The girl jumps to her feet in outrage. “You can’t even say you want me to win!” she yells. There are tears at the corners of her eyes. If she were a little less annoying, Anakin would feel quite bad for her. Obviously Obi-Wan doesn’t want her to win. Anakin’s right here.

She storms out of the train compartment, her face in her hands. Anakin barely waits for the door to close before he’s slipping into Obi-Wan’s lap and throwing his arms around his neck with a groan. “God, I thought she’d never leave.”

He isn’t pushed away. Obi-Wan must realize they only have a handful of days left to be together before he goes into the arena.

“Anakin,” Obi-Wan says wearily, even as his arms encircle his waist.

Anakin presses a kiss to his nose and then another to his cheek. “It’s alright to have favorites, Obi-Wan,” he murmurs. “And she should know there’s no way she’s winning anything. Don’t waste your time.”

“I will do everything I can to make sure she survives as long as possible,” Obi-Wan repeats. “I don’t think I can survive anything else.”

Obi-Wan’s voice sounds shaky, so Anakin presses their lips together. Best not to talk for awhile.

------

“We should discuss strategy,” Obi-Wan says later that night through frantic kisses. “Sponsors, story, training--”

“I have a strategy,” Anakin murmurs back as he moves further down the bed, rucking up his partner’s shirt. “Win.”

----

“You look absolutely radiant,” Anakin tells the girl in an undertone while they’re in line for their interviews. She turns around to glare at him. The designer for their district has gone for the typical fish designs that people always associate with District Four, and they’ve dressed her up in a shimmering iridescent gown that flares at the ends like a fish’s tail.

Anakin’s own outfit is mostly a fishing net draped over one shoulder and a pair of tight pants. The designer, much to Obi-Wan’s embarrassment and Anakin’s satisfaction, had taken one look at his shirtless chest and decided to dress him in as little clothes as possible.

“Weird braid,” is all she says.

Obi-Wan had done it late last night when both of them had tired each other out and Anakin had curled up on his chest. After his Games, Obi-Wan’s hands like to do something. The repetitive motion of braiding and unbraiding Anakin’s hair soothes his demons.

It’s one of the reasons Anakin’s grown it out to his shoulders, much longer than is practical for his district.

Obi-Wan had gone to unbraid it, and Anakin had stopped him. He wanted to keep it. To wear it into the Games.

“Thank you,” he says generously. “I saw your score. 7’s not too bad.”

She sneers at him. “Did you celebrate your 11 with your boyfriend?”

“Oh sorry,” he winces. “Did you hear us? I’m just so bad at biting my tongue when he does this thing with his.”

She scoffs in disgust and turns back around. “I hope he has to watch you die.”

Anakin glares at her back. He knows he can’t kill her himself. But there has to be a way to hurt her and her chances and still have plausible deniability.

When it’s her turn for an interview, she’s vapid and pretty. She laughs and touches the interviewer’s arm.

“I’ve never spent much time in District Four,” the interviewer says jovially. “But tell me, really. Is everyone there as beautiful as the people you keep sending us? I mean. Obi-Wan Kenobi, ladies and gentlemen, am I right?” The audience laughs and hollers. Anakin hates them all. “And now you, Robin, and Anakin Skywalker. Damn!”

Robin--Anakin needs to stop forgetting her name--giggles high in her throat. “It was a very, very enjoyable train ride up,” she says with a stupid wiggle of her eyebrows. “Just this side of too long.”

The audience loses it.

Anakin loses it.

He can’t believe she’s sitting there publicly suggesting that Anakin shares Obi-Wan with anyone. With her. The nerve.

The camera pans to Obi-Wan in the crowd, who looks shocked, embarrassed, and deeply troubled.

Anakin won’t let this stand. He just hopes Obi-Wan forgives him.

The interviewer greets him excitedly when he walks out, and Anakin gives him a sheepish sort of smile.

“Lady killer Skywalker!” the interviewer says. Anakin laughs along with him. “All the girls back home must have been heartbroken to see you leave.”

“But I’ve heard they love watching me go,” he jokes with a charming smile. If that girl--Robin--can do it, he can do it much better. “There’s really only one person for me though,” he murmurs, letting his smile die.

“Oh?” The interviewer asks, leaning forward with interest.

“But sometimes I wonder if they’re only using me for my body,” he says, casting his eyes down. “I love them. Heart and soul, everything I am. But when I told them, they just laughed.”

This is technically true. The first time Anakin had told Obi-Wan that he was in love with him, the older boy had laughed his confession off, saying he was too young to know what he wanted.

“Oh, to be young and in love,” the interviewer sighs theatrically. “So your plan is to win the Games and then win her heart when you get back home?”

Anakin makes himself look sad. Tragically sad. Like he can’t bear to go on.

“They came with me,” he says.

If the audience’s reaction to Robin’s fake confession was huge, its reaction to Anakin’s words is even bigger. Of course they think he’s talking about the girl. That’s exactly what Anakin had wanted. Now he’s the broken-hearted boy and she’s the vapid, self-absorbed bitch. She'll have a hard time finding sponsors now.

It’s very, very hard to hide his smile, a task made exponentially more hard when he sees Obi-Wan bury his face in his hands.

“It’s alright,” Anakin tells the interviewer, without taking his eyes off of Obi-Wan. “I’ll survive.”

#asks #hunger games au #anakin's a bit dark here lets be real i love writing him like that #his games are the quickest games for sure #he does lose his right arm #but he wins #and then moves in with obi-wan #and obi-wan kisses every mechanical finger of his hand before bed each night #anakins just so heartbroken over the death of the girl #that he leans on obi-wan to help in the aftermath #(the story he'll tell the capitol people)#thank god his friend obi-wan is such a strong rock in these times #he has to write the girl's name on his hand so he doesnt forget it #the capitol thinks its so he can carry a piece of her with him into the games #shes furious but how is she gonna set the record straight without admitting to lying herself?#she started it anakin was just finishing it #bitchy dark obsessed anakin my love #obi-wan would be just as obsessed remember #he spends anakins games avidly watching and worrying and going around trying to get sponsors for him #but like within 50 hours the games are over anakin won #obi-wans gotta call everyone back and be like 'um never mind haha'#prompt fill #obikin

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cabezadeperro · 2 years

Text

post-umbara codywan oneshot

pre-relationship, umbara aftermath. missing scene & canon compliant. angst, miscommunication. ~800w.

----

The mess is empty. Obi-Wan places his tray on one of the tables at the back and then places himself on the bench, his back to the wall. He rips out the plast seal and starts eating without thinking too much about it, sipping from his water pouch now and then to wash out the taste of the rations. Bland and chalky and bitter, all at once. Everything has that chemical aftertaste, even water. Cleaning products and whatever they use to make them last in the holds of ships and in storage rooms all over the front.

Obi-Wan leans his back against the wall. It’s cold and hard and too far away to really be comfortable, but he does it anyway, his back slouches and his head hanging between his shoulders. He sips more water, meal unfinished, and stares at nothing.

The mess tent smells of food, like it always does, no matter where they are or how long they’ve been there. Food and bleach and, underneath, the stink of Umbaran soil, sulphurous and fertile and dark. It stinks to clothes and hair and skin, no matter how many times one tries to wash it off.

The mess—most of the buildings—have UV lights. It helps, but not as much as Obi-Wan thinks it should. They’ve been on there too long, and. Well.

Obi-Wan shakes off the self-pity and sits up. He reaches for the spoon and keeps eating, elbows on the table and hair in his face, greasy and tangled. He rubs at his face, at the scab under his jaw where a bit of shrapnel hit him, and keeps an eye on the chrono on the wall. He timed his dinner to take place between guard shifts: he shouldn’t be in the mess when the troopers return. He chews and swallows, chews and swallows. His stomach hurts, but he hates how the food makes him feel better. It feels like it shouldn’t.

The door clatters open. Obi-Wan blinks up. Cody’s there, armourless and still flushed from his shower. His dark eyes find Obi-Wan quickly, easily: his mind is a bulwark, and Obi-Wan’s too tired and too damn busy wallowing in his own self-pity to try and guess what the expression on his face means. He watches him while Cody makes his way through the wide, quiet room, his steps echoing and sure. Walk to the counter, grab a tray and a water pouch. Let the droid scan his wrist, walk towards Obi-Wan’s table, drop the tray carefully, sit on the bench.

“Commander.” There: easy and mild and polite. Cody blinks up at him and smiles. It doesn’t reach his eyes.

“Sir,” he replies. He rips out the plast cover from his tray and starts eating.

Obi-Wan tries to finish what’s left on his plate, but suddenly it feels—impossible. He scowls down at his food, his stomach a giant knot. He can feel the weight of Cody’s attention on him.

They haven’t talked about it. They have discussed the consequences, and they’ve talked their way in circles around the event itself.

Obi-Wan doubts they ever will. He has nothing to say: apologising feels trite, useless, and Cody’s too professional to bring it up.

No: that’s a lie. It’s not professionalism.

The mess is empty. Cody’s schedule doesn’t overlap with his: they keep the same hours, spend quite a lot of time in each other’s company, but he’s free to take his meals whenever he wants.

He’s throwing his presence in Obi-Wan’s face and demanding him do something about it; what, Obi-Wan doesn’t quite know. He wonders whether Cody does. He could ask him, but he has a feeling Cody would just—sidestep the question. Look at him with flat dark eyes and tilt his head.

No, sir. Of course, General.

He’s polite and respectful and professional and distant and Obi-Wan hates it, hates the distance Cody’s carefully rebuilding between them, and he’s letting him do it anyway because it’s what he deserves.

He didn’t like Krell. Obi-Wan doubts anyone did. He was rude and disrespectful and stubborn and arrogant.

But he dislikes many people, oftentimes for dumb, petty reasons. He’s just human: it’s what they do.

Nonetheless, there’s being a rude, unpleasant bastard, and then there’s purposefully sabotaging a military campaign in order to enjoy the grief and the pain the fallout will cause, and Obi-Wan should have seen that coming. The signs were all there: but he saw the tunic and the saber and the rank, and did not look further or deeper.

Cody shifts. Obi-Wan blinks and looks up at him. He looks exhausted. His eyes are red and there are dark circles underneath, and his hair is too long, starting to grow wild. He stares at Obi-Wan expectantly, and Obi-Wan doesn’t know how to tell him that he wishes he could fix this without making it sound like an excuse or making it all about him and his own feelings.

Everything he could say would fall short, so he says nothing at all.

#codywan #maría writes #commander cody #obi wan kenobi

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x-childish-x · 3 years

Note

obi wan x femreader fanfic idea where they go with padme to mustafar to confront anakin. after force choking padme, anakin’s like “you turned her against me! now i shall take away what you love most” and at first obi wan’s confused, “what i love most?” then he realizes anakin’s talking about reader. reader starts to be force choked by anakin and then obi wan says prompt #22 from the main prompts.

What You Love Most

Pairing: Obi-Wan x fem!reader

Fandom: Star Wars

Warnings: force choking!, angsty Anakin, fluff, soft!Obi-Wan, Padme dies

Word Count: 1,476

A/N: Hello lovely Anon! This was really fun to write, and was such an incredibly interesting idea! I really hope you enjoy this and that it's what you wanted. Thank you so much for the request! Feedback is ALWAYS appreciated and welcomed! (e/c): eye color

Summary: Anakin tries to get revenge for Obi-Wan "turning" Padme against him, and you're both left to deal with the aftermath of the Sith's decision.

(gif not mine!)

You glanced toward C-3PO before rushing out of the ship after Padme. You watched as Anakin wrapped her up in his arms, your arm slowly twitching back towards your lightsaber, but you forced yourself to remain calm. Padme was your best friend, you knew you couldn't harm Anakin while she was still here, but everything Obi-Wan told you made it extremely tempting.

You stopped a few feet away from the pair, listening silently, and at the mention of Obi-Wan's name, Anakin's gaze flicked up. His eyes landed on you. His glare was so intense it left you feeling nauseous, feeling like Anakin thought you shouldn't be alive. You gave a soft nod of acknowledgment to the younger boy, your face neutral as he looked back to Padme.

As Anakin's speech continued, you felt yourself getting more riled, the idea of justice getting hard to keep away. Padme turned her head, using her peripheral vision to ensure you were still behind her as she slowly backed up, realizing how crazy Anakin was beginning to sound. Your hand locked around your lightsaber hilt as Anakin yelled at Padme, the urge to protect her taking over your body, not causing you to spare a glance back at Obi-Wan, who had now made his presence known.

"You're with him!" Anakin growled, "You brought him here to kill me!"

"Anakin, stop!" You yelped as he began force-choking Padme.

You went to unleash your lightsaber, prepared to battle the new-come sith, but you felt the force wrap around your waist and begin yanking you back. Obi-Wan's yell for Anakin to let Padme go filled your ears as you realized Obi-Wan was pulling you further away from the deranged boy. He was trying to protect you, pull you out of the line of fire.

A cry escaped your lips as you watched Padme fall. Obi-Wan flinched slightly at your cry, standing in front of you in an attempt to shield you from Anakin.

"You turned her against me!" Anakin screamed, his eyes filled with rage, "Now I shall take away what you love most!"

"What I love most?" Obi-Wan questioned, watching Anakin slide off his robe.

Anakin's eyes locked on you, watching you fight against the force around your waist, trying to get to Padme as tears streamed down your cheek. Obi-Wan's eyes widened, immediately filling with anger and panic as Anakin raised his hand and your gasp filled the air. Your hands fly to your throat, desperately trying to get away from the force on your neck, as the force on your waist drops, and you try to gasp for air.

“If you don’t let her go right now, I swear I will break every bone in your body," Obi-Wan practically growls as he yanks off his robe, his hand flying to his lightsaber.

Your vision is beginning to fill with spots. Your body is panicking, going into fight or flight mode as it tries to keep you alive. Anakin, the little boy you helped Obi-Wan train, is trying to kill you. You realize, as Obi-Wan's eyes meet yours, your hands feel numb now, and your legs surely wouldn't hold you up if it wasn't for Anakin's force around your neck.

Without wasting another second, Obi-Wan lunges at Anakin, shocking his old Padawan, who didn't expect his Master to make the first move. The shock makes the younger boy let go of you, and you crash to the ground, a wretched gasp for air leaving your lips. Tears begin to rush quicker down your cheeks as you struggle to gain focus again, your vision completely blurry as your ears just barely register the sound of lightsaber's clashing together. You struggle, trying to crawl to Padme at the very least, but instead, the darkness consumed your vision before you could.

⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅∙∘☽༓☾∘∙•⋅⋅⋅•⋅⋅⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅

You groaned slightly at the feeling of your body being moved, jostled awake by the movement.

"I'm sorry," Obi-Wan's voice whispered, his eyes locked on your face in worry.

Your eyes slowly fluttered open, "Obi-Wan?"

You winced. Your voice sounded terrible. Cracking and hoarse, you sounded like you'd screamed for hours, making Obi-Wan frown, "Yes... I'm here."

"Don't..." You winced again, your throat burning, "Leave me."

Obi-Wan nodded. The distraught look on your face was more than enough to have him cradling you in his lap as he flew to Master Yoda. You'd fallen unconscious again, and although your force life was strong, Obi-Wan was immensely worried about you. He handed you off to Bail Organa, rushing back onto the ship to get Padme.

The next time you awoke, you felt significantly better than the last time, and you smiled as R2-D2's beeps filled the air. Looking down, you spotted the droid at the side of your bed, whistling and beeping far too fast for you to understand, as you were still learning binary.

"Good morning, sleepy," Obi-Wan teased, a smile on his lips as he entered the room.

"Morning," You mumbled back. Your voice sounded much better but was still sore, making you wince, "Thanks for saving me."

Obi-Wan walked further in, coming to sit on the side of your bed and grab one of your hands, "They said your throat will still be sore for a while."

You nodded, squeezing Obi-Wan's hand as a desperate feeling filled your body, "Where is Anakin? And Padme? What happened? Where are we?"

"Calm down," Obi-Wan smiled, projecting calming feelings through the force to you, "Anakin's... he's gone. I had to... he couldn't be saved anymore."

You frowned, squeezing the man's hand once more as you pushing comforting feelings to him, "I'm so sorry, Obi... I know how much he meant to you."

Obi-Wan simply nodded, nodding his head, "(Y/n)... Padme's gone... she passed during labor."

You gasped, your eyes widening in horror as you looked away from the older man. You supposed Anakin's visions had been correct. Padme was sentenced to die, but Anakin had never realized he was the reason she died in all his visions. Tears filled your eyes as Obi-Wan shifted, standing up.

"She... she left something for us-- for you. She asked if you would..."

You scrunched your eyebrows, confused by Obi-Wan's sudden nervousness. He quickly left the room before returning with a small bundle of blankets in his arms. Your eyes widened as Obi-Wan walked closer, and you realized what was inside the bundle of blankets.

"She had twins. They're being separated for safety, but... she asked if we'd take care of him, of Luke," Obi-Wan spoke softly, leaning down to show you the sleeping baby boy in his arms.

You reached out, taking the small baby from Obi-Wan, scooting over to allow the older man to lay beside you, "Normally I would expect to be married, hell even have at least gone on a date, before having a baby."

Obi-Wan smiled slightly, knowing you felt honored that Padme had asked you and Obi-Wan, "That could be arranged."

"Is it true?" You rasped, gently brushing Luke's tiny baby hair with your fingers. Obi-Wan hummed, watching you in awe, "That I'm what you love most... as Anakin said. Is that true?"

Your eyes flicked up to Obi-Wan, and he immediately felt himself smiling, getting lost in your beautiful (e/c) eyes. How could he not be in love with you? He grew up with you in the temple, trained with you, went on missions with you, and it was always you. Even his old master, Qui-Gon Jinn tried to get you two together, but Obi-Wan had always insisted there was a code to follow. But... not anymore.

"Of course, you're what I love most," Obi-Wan smiled, "I have been since you slammed me to the ground on my first day of lightsaber training."

You laughed lightly, looking back to the baby in your arms as you smiled, "I love you too... it scared me, knowing I couldn't help you against Anakin."

Obi-Wan flushed. The idea of you worrying about him made him frown. He turned, lightly kissing the top of your head as he had many times before, only this time it was different, "There is never a need for you to worry about me."

You sighed, knowing Obi-Wan wouldn't admit that he'd been scared of fighting Anakin also, "So, it's just us three now?"

"Just us three. I was thinking, we could go to Tatooine, build a life there, raise Luke."

You smiled, sure this wasn't what you wanted. No, you wanted Anakin and Ahsoka bickering over who could hold one of the twins. And you wanted Padme here, watching everyone coo over her babies. You wanted to be teasing Rex about his armor scaring the children. But... this would do. This, just you and Obi-Wan and Luke, was more than perfect. As long as you have Obi-Wan by you, you knew you could handle anything thrown your way.

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the-last-kenobi · 3 years

Note

Hi! I love your writing and was excited to see you're taking requests! Could you do 10 with majorly hurt Obi-Wan and the 212th like trying not to completely freak out?

Aww, thank you! <3 Happy to oblige darling. And ooooh, the underrated 212th! I’m so happy to write them. I hope this does them justice.

From this various prompts list.

“Cody! No! Pull the men back!”

“What?”

“There!”

A burst of flame that lit the world up in blinding heat. A strange echoing noise.

A scream.

Cody thought that he would see that moment burned behind his eyelids for the rest of his life.

It was still swimming before his eyes even as he frantically tried to deal with the aftermath, as he tried to force his brain to engage with the present moment.

Right now, right here, Obi-Wan was gasping for air, his whole body twitching and writhing beneath Cody’s hands, blood staining his face, his chest, everything. Everything was painted with hot, metallic red and Cody for the first time wanted to vomit at the sight of blood.

“Hold him still!” the medic beside him barked. Cody didn’t even know his name. He always knew their names, but right now nothing was lodging in his brain except General Kenobi and his ragged screams.

“I’m trying,” he snapped back. “Help him!”

The medic gave him a strained look and then returned his focus to the man bleeding out on their watch.

“Does he need bacta?” Cody asked desperately. This time the medic didn’t glance up at him at all absorbed in pressing down forcefully on one of the darkest red stains pooling across the pale tunics, his other hand searching far more gently along the other side of the torso.

The General groaned, his feet kicking involuntarily, scraping the dust.

“No,” the medic said brusquely. “Bacta is for repairing clean injuries and accelerating healing. The General has internal injuries that need to be patched before we dunk him in bacta.”

Dunk him in bacta? Cody had never heard of such a thing. Bacta came on swabs and patches and ointment jars, not tubs to throw a whole person in.

He pinned the Jedi’s shoulders more firmly in an effort to keep him — both of them — as calm and still as possible.

Leading his men up the gorge, with its dry soil and faded patches of grass, hoping to make it over the crest and down into the ravine before dawn.

Cody walked a little ahead of the others, taking point.

He heard the clankers first.

The Commander gestured back to his men, silently ordering them to take whatever cover they could while he crept onwards, keeping low. The enemy sounded few in number, maybe twenty, outnumbering them by only 2 to 1. That was easy. His men could take two droids each without breaking a sweat. The real issue would be keeping the fight as quiet as possible. Their approach still needed to go unnoticed.

Cody hesitated a moment, then shot forwards and flung himself behind an enormous old tree with withered leaves, pressing himself against the trunk.

Nobody had seen him.

Taking a deep breath, he peered around the edge and took in the oncoming droids. He had been right. There were only fifteen, in reality, even better than he had hoped.

Their behavior was odd, though.

They all walked close together, not in their typical line formation, but centered around one droid in the middle of the pack that he couldn’t make out clearly. It was a different model from the others, but not one he was familiar with.

Cody zeroed in on it. Whatever this was, that droid needed to be dealt with.

He retreated back to the other vode, who were awaiting his word. “Fifteen clankers,” he hissed. “One of them is different from the others. Leave that one to me.”

They all murmured assent, a few of them tossing a salute in his direction, and at his signals began placing themselves strategically along the path, concealed behind bushes and stones.

All fell silent except for the sound of the oncoming droids.

A dry breeze rattled in the sun-dried branches like a tired sigh.

“Cody! No!” the sudden shout shattered the silence, shattered the oncoming ambush, ruined Cody’s plans — but he looked around sharply, searching for the owner of that familiar voice.

“General?”

“Pull the men back!” Kenobi roared out over the comm line, and still he was nowhere to be seen. “It’s a trap!”

“Where the fuck is that evac?” the medic muttered. Then he turned his head and screamed, “Where the fuck is that evac?!”

“Five minutes out!” a brother replied.

Cody looked to his medic companion for a reaction, waiting to see. Was five minutes good? Bad? Salvation? ...A death sentence?

The medic closed his eyes briefly.

“Keep him steady,” he said, “and either give him something to bite on or gag him. I need to remove some of this shrapnel before it penetrates too deeply.” He reached behind him for his bag. “And I may need to cauterize the wound to his thigh.”

Cody looked down at his Jedi, watching the blue eyes flutter open and closed, shockingly bright in the midst of all the red. Blood, and dirt, and burns.

Obi-Wan didn’t seem to be coherent enough to understand what was being said, but he was trying to speak, still writhing on the ground as much as his Commander tried to hold him still.

“It’s okay, sir, we’ve got you,” Cody said. He bent down lower to bring himself closer to the General, hoping to make himself understood. “We’ve got you, General, it’s going to be okay.”

“No,” Kenobi protested weakly, the words coming up with a cough and a hoarse sob. “No — it’s — have you — what —”

He dissolved into a fit of coughing. Tears sprang up in those blue eyes that had only ever smiled for them, and leaked down over the grime on his face, glistening in the blood, clinging to his eyelashes.

“Shhhh,” Cody hissed out in desperation. He didn’t know what to do. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be.

General Kenobi was a magnet for trouble, but he always survived, always managed to keep a level head, to smile for his men. And they, in turn, protected him as best they could so that he could do all those things.

He was untouchable because he was a Jedi.

He was untouchable because he was their Jedi.

...He was bleeding out in their arms.

“Cody,” his General choked out, eyes fixing on his face, a look of relief dawning in them that Cody didn’t understand. “Cody?”

“Yeah, it’s me,” his Commander said earnestly. “I’m here. We’ve got you.”

“But — I...” the General’s face pinched with pain, but his eyes remained wide and desperate and so, so blue as he stared up at Cody, fighting to speak. “The others? I... trap...my men?”

“They’re all right, you — you saved them,” Cody told him, his voice breaking.

His General’s face looked confused, uncertain. Uncomprehending. “...I... where... the plan. The men. The... we...” More blood seeped between his teeth, and Cody wondered slightly hysterically if his reassuring smile would ever be the same after this. “My men,” whispered the General. “The plan. I have to, I have to—!”

“No!” Cody cried, and he saw his Jedi flinch. “No,” he repeated, a little softer, leaning forward to make sure those blue eyes were looking into his own. “Don’t worry about that right now, just hold on. Hold on.”

Obi-Wan opened his mouth to speak again, and then the coherency in his eyes was ripped away at the same time as his back arched off the ground; his shoulders strained against Cody’s restraining hands.

“Hold him!” the medic barked.

Cody tried desperately to comply, but the General was shaking so hard it felt as if he were about break.

And then Obi-Wan screamed — a ragged, uncontrolled wail of agony.

The Commander searched the area for his General, but there was no sign of him except the voice yelling in his ears.

“Stay back, Cody! They have a new weapon!”

“What?” Cody asked.

Obi-Wan’s voice was strained. “There! It’s— go! Get back, all of you, get back!”

Cody scanned the droids through the trees but saw nothing. His General wasn’t making much sense.

But Cody was trained to obey his Jedi, and more than that, much more, he knew he wanted to. He trusted Kenobi, more than almost anyone.

Or maybe it was just that he trusted his General more than anyone else, full stop, because he didn’t protest when the Jedi came hurtling out of nowhere, dropping from a nearby ridge, and put himself directly between his men and the droids.

And he didn’t protest as he kept shepherding his men back down the way, while Obi-Wan ignited his saber just as the droids created the slope.

And he didn’t protest as Kenobi let go of his lightsaber, his weapon, and used the Force to guide it through the air, cutting down fourteen droids in a matter of seconds.

Cody trusted his General implicitly right up until the point where he flung out his arms, standing still, like a human shield between himself and his troops, as the last droid, the strange droid with the odd markings, erupted in a surge of flame that swallowed the world.

Even as Cody was thrown backwards, he saw, as if burned into his vision, a glimpse of Obi-Wan standing with his arms outstretched like a sacrifice, holding the hellfire at bay as if by some unseen wall, his expression serene.

And then, as Cody hit the ground and struggled to regain his feet, that invisible wall broke, and Obi-Wan took the impact of the bomb.

His General’s scream went on and on for what felt like an eternity but which could only have been seconds, and there was blood on his lips and his side was torn open and there was shrapnel everywhere, and—

More hands joined Cody’s, gently but firmly taking hold of the General’s wrists and elbows, clutching his ankles, cradling his head and keeping it still.

Cody looked up.

There was Waxer, and Boil, Barlex, and Longshot.

He could see others framed in the background, shielding the General from view and from the dust and debris stirred up by the relief team. Wooley had crouched next to the medic and was handing him items from his bag as soon as they were requested.

Waxer had tossed his bucket aside and was looking Cody dead in the eyes.

“We’ve got him,” he said reassuringly. “We’ve got him.”

Cody chose to believe him.

To trust his brothers and his Jedi.

Obi-Wan’s gaze was unfocused, but he looked at each of his men in turn, studying their faces, searching for something. Bloodied lips formed their names, faint beneath his unsteady breathing and periodic coughs, the moans of pain triggered by the medic’s steady hands.

Each trooper murmured a response, something soothing, something far, far calmer than the worry in their eyes allowed for.

Lastly, General Kenobi looked at Cody.

“Evac is here!” a trooper nearby shouted. “Sticker, prepare him for a lift! Med team is prepped for emergency surgery during the flight!”

The medic — Sticker, Cody registered, relieved that his panicked unrecognition earlier was gone — breathed a sigh of relief, rubbing his eye. With his wrist, because the fingers were stained deep red.

“You’ll be all right now, sir,” said Longshot.

“Oh, I know,” the General breathed, a smile peeking through the blood. “I have all of you, don’t I?”

#oh my god #I nearly killed him this time #my poor boy #the clones love their Jedi #obi wan kenobi #212th attack battalion #commander cody #longshot #waxer and boil #star wars #my writing #star wars fic #tw blood #tw medical #tw bomb #tw injury

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purplefangirl42 · 2 years

Text

Fazed (Part 7)

Series Summary: With Anakin out of commission and Obi-Wan sent elsewhere, the 501st needs a new General. Lena Orim has stepped up to take Anakin's place and has rattled the 501st's usually stoic Captain Rex. His feelings are not one-sided, which may lead to some questionable decisions.

Pairing: Captain Rex/Jedi! OC (Lena Orim)

Parts: Series Masterlist ~ PREVIOUS ~ NEXT ~

Part 7 Summary: Everyone deals with the aftermath of the battle

Warnings/Tags: Injuries, Background Pairing (Blaze/Keebo)

Language Guide: Eswo: Twi’lek (Ryl) term of endearment. Means beloved. Cyar’ika: Mando’a word for sweetheart.

A/N: Short chapter that switches viewpoints a lot

This chapter is now edited to a new and improved version!

Keebo sat on the floor of the transport holding her arm still to keep it from jostling with the movements of the ship, as she was pretty sure it was broken and was not enjoying the stabbing pain every time it moved the smallest amount. She looked down at her unconscious master's head that was resting in her lap, worry creasing her forehead. A broken arm she could live with, but Lena had been blown backward by an explosion and hit her head. An explosion that she had been nowhere near when Keebo had last seen her. Keebo glanced up at Blaze, wondering if he knew what had transpired in the short period between Dooku’s capture and the explosion.

“Blaze, how did she get hit? She wasn’t anywhere near the place the explosion originated from,” she asked.

The clone commander shook his head, giving his unconscious General a look that was half disapproval and half admiration.

“She pushed Commander Tano and Captain Rex out of the way, getting too close in the process.”

Keebo sighed as she looked back down to her master. She knew it had to be something like that. Lena would always put herself in danger if it meant saving others. Keebo reached out to touch her mind with the force but found nothing but the faint hint of Lena’s lifeforce, which concerned her. They needed to get her medical help soon.

The transport landed in the hangar of the Monitor, the sides lifting as soon as they touched down. The med team hurried to where Keebo was sitting, lifting Lena onto a hoverbed to transport her to the med-bay. Blaze helped Keebo to her feet and wrapped his arm around her waist to guide her from the transport to the med-bay. She leaned into him, still cradling her arm against her midsection. When they reached the med-bay, Blaze released her into the care of one of his brothers so he could brief the head medic about Lena’s situation.

“What happened down there, Blaze?" Chip asked as he ran the scanner over Lena to assess her injuries.

“We managed to destroy the droids in the camp, but they brought Dooku with them. He shocked her, which took her down. She was eventually able to move past it and continue fighting and they were able to capture him. But that bald chick that serves him dropped explosives on us before we could get him on the ship. Lena put herself in danger to save others and she was blown backward by the explosion."

Chip looked at his datapad as the scan finished, looking at the scan results. His brow furrowed in concern as his eyes skimmed the information.

“We need to get her into a bacta tank immediately. It doesn’t look like she has any bleeding in her brain, but she probably still has a concussion. I’m more concerned about the burns from the explosion,” he said as he pointed to areas where Lena’s clothes were burned.

Blaze nodded in understanding, glad to hear that her head injury wasn’t as serious as it could have been. He backed away from the bed to give Chip space to work, making his way back to where Keebo was sitting. Her arm was in a sling across her chest, and a med-droid was currently applying bacta-gel to scrapes on her exposed mid-drift.

“How much pain are you in?” Blaze asked quietly, taking her other hand in his.

“The bacta-gel and pain meds help, so not much at the moment. Small scrapes and a fracture in my arm. I'll be alright, cyar’ika,” Keebo said, giving him a reassuring smile.

Blaze sighed in relief. When he had heard Keebo shriek in pain, his heart had nearly stopped. A broken arm was nothing compared to what could have happened.

“I don’t think I would have hurt my arm as badly if Ahsoka hadn’t landed on me,” Keebo continued.

Blaze chuckled at her comment. “I don’t think she meant to. I’m glad you are alright.”

Keebo’s smile faded as she saw Lena’s bed float by in the direction of the bacta tank. Blaze squeezed her hand gently to comfort her.

“She will be alright eswo Keebo. Chip said her head injury isn’t as bad as it could have been. The bacta solution will help her burns and give her a chance to heal. She’s been through worse.”

Blaze wasn't entirely sure of his own words even as he said it. Lena was strong, but he was concerned that the shock she took from Dooku’s lightning could have caused damage that couldn't be picked up on the scan. He didn't pretend to know much about the force and its effect on people. He just hoped Lena would pull through this.

Once the arrangements had been made for troops to secure the area and keep more droids from moving in, Rex returned to the Resolute with Skywalker and Ahsoka. Silence was present between the three of them, but even without the force, Rex could feel the frustration coming from Skywalker and the worry coming from Ahsoka. He knew she was concerned about Lena. They all were. It bothered him that he hadn't noticed the explosive until it went off. On top of that, how had he not been hurt? When they reached the Resolute, Rex stopped Ahsoka before she could walk away.

“Hey kid, did you pull me away from the explosion?”

Ahsoka gave him a look of confusion, shaking her head. “No. I thought you knocked me out of the way.”

“I didn’t even know it was coming, so I couldn’t have.”

Ahsoka’s eyes suddenly widened, concerning Rex.

“It was Lena. She pushed us away from the explosion. She saved us,” Ahsoka said, her face falling.

Rex felt a sting in his chest. Lena had put herself in danger to save him, a clone trooper she barely knew.

“Why would she do that?” he asked in disbelief.

“Because she has a kind heart,” a voice behind them said.

Rex turned around to see General Skywalker standing behind him. He could see the tension in the General’s face, which didn’t mean good news.

“Master, how is Lena? Is she alright?” Ahsoka asked, her voice breaking slightly.

“I spoke to Blaze. He said that she most likely has a concussion and has been put in a bacta tank to help heal the burns she got in the explosion. But, that's all he knew. Until she is out of the bacta tank, they can’t do anything more for her.”

“What about Keebo?” Ahsoka asked, “I think I landed on her when Dooku threw us. She looked hurt when they left.”

"She has a fracture in her arm and a few small scrapes. But, she will be alright."

Rex was glad that Keebo was alright, but he still felt sick that Lena was hurt saving him. He said goodbye to the two Jedi and made his way to his quarters to clean himself up from the battle. Once he was cleaned up and in his nightwear, he laid down to rest. When he closed his eyes, all he could see was Lena's limp form in Blaze's arms. His eyes shot open, and he sat up in bed. He cursed out loud to the empty room.

He had been having a hard enough time keeping his thoughts off of her, but now she had gone and saved him not once, but twice in the same battle. Because of that, she was severely injured. Rex wracked his brain to figure out how to deal with his guilt over that. He had to find a way to make it up to her no matter what.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed this part! Please reblog, like, and comment! If you would like to be added to the taglist, go here.

Taglist: @jonesandjoanna

#captain rex #captain rex x jedi oc #captain rex x oc #fanfiction #star wars: the clone wars #star wars #OC:Lena Orim

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lamaenthel · 5 months

Text

Tivaevae | Chapter Thirteen: Matelassé

| AO3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |

Fandom: Star Wars Characters: Ahsoka Tano, Boba Fett, Plo Koon, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Mace Windu, Kanan Jarrus, Sheev Palpatine | Darth Sidious, CT-27-5555 | ARC-5555 | Fives, CC-1119 | Appo, Dexter Jettster, FLO | WA-7 (Star Wars), Shaak Ti, ARC Commander Blitz (Star Wars), CT-6922 | Dogma, Original Clone Trooper Character(s) (Star Wars), CC-3636 | Wolffe, Clone Trooper Sinker (Star Wars), Clone Trooper Comet (Star Wars), CC-2224 | Cody, CT-5597 | Jesse, CT-4860 | Boost, Aurra Sing, Tobias Beckett, Null-11 | Ordo Skirata, Kal Skirata, Original Mandalorian Characters (Star Wars), Original Droid Characters (Star Wars), Original Jedi Character(s) (Star Wars) Total Word Count: 123,000 Chapter Word Count: 8,248 Chapter Summary: Anakin gets a bad feeling, Boba and Cody desperately search for an antidote, and Obi-Wan tries to keep Ahsoka alive long enough to get it.

Strongly recommended listening for this chapter

Goran CXXV was the smallest, farthest terrestrial planet from the massive star of its namesake system. It didn't have a breathable atmosphere, but it did have a surface that had been glassed by a particularly violent solar flare from the blue supergiant into pure trinitite, which was in high demand by both mercenary miners and Techno Union industrialists for use in radiation-resistant microchips. A legion of battle droids had taken the planet a month ago. If they didn't take it back now, there wouldn't be a planet left once it was stripped to the core.

Anakin drummed his fingers on his vambraces, thinking hard as he stared at the holomap of their drop zone. Something was breaking his concentration, an annoying metaphysical itch of a feeling that felt like an invisible sand flea had crawled down his back and latched onto his skin. He rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck.

"You alright, Sir?" Rex asked on his left, leaning in with a low voice.

"Yeah, fine, I'm just…" Anakin knew it wasn't an actual itch, it was the Force telling him that something was wrong and he'd regret it if he kept ignoring it. "Let me get this call out of the way, first."

"As you say, Sir." Rex leaned back. Across from them, Appo popped the seal on his helmet and hooked it on his belt.

"Ridge, get Master Koon up on holo for me," Anakin ordered.

"Right away, Sir."

Plo Koon's hologram flickered into view, Commander Wolffe standing at attention beside him. "Koh-to-yah, young Skywalker."

"Koh-to-yah, Master Plo." Anakin bowed. "I hope the journey here has treated you well."

"Oh, indeed, as did the one previous." Plo chuckled. "Captain Rex, Sergeant Appo, it's good to see you both. Have you had a chance to review the simulations Wolffe prepared for you?"

Anakin rolled his shoulders again, trying not to twitch. "We have. I wanted to run an idea by you, if you don't mind."

"By all means."

Anakin brought up a topographic map of the surface. "Taking a look at what has bounced back from the scouting team, there's suspected to be a large ipsium deposit in sector eighteen. This is obviously not where we want to be staging a firefight."

"Agreed." Master Plo tucked his talons into his sleeves. "Unfortunately, that is also where there's the highest likelihood of a ground ambush. Those valleys are rife with blind spots."

"Exactly." Anakin pointed at a small canyon between two jagged, trinitite hills. "I'd like to send in a small team to see if we can get this pack of B1's away from the ipisium. I'd prefer we recapture the sector without blowing it into a crater the size of ten limmie fields, not to mention destabilizing the neighboring plateau."

"Agreed. Excellent catch, Anakin."

Anakin kept a neutral face but his back did straighten a little. "I'm thinking that we have Appo lead Akul Platoon down to these coordinates, let them lure the B1's over to the canyon to swing around behind here." Anakin pointed to a small dead end. "We'll box them in, have a LAAT/i grab Akul before they get pinned down, then you mop up with a bombing run. Hopefully we can clean up the battlefield and lower the odds of blowing the thing sky high."

"Any additions, Commander?" Plo turned to Wolffe.

"Sounds solid to me, Sir."

"Let me run some sims so we can get our timing down. I'll send them over to you as soon as I can, Master." Anakin jumped like something bit him.

"Are you alright, Anakin?" Plo's head tilted curiously.

"Just fine, Master." Anakin smiled a little too wide.

"We shall speak soon then, I hope." Master Plo disconnected the channel with a bow.

Anakin shook his arms and legs out as soon as the hologram disappeared, the glowing warmth from Plo's compliment quickly fading at the reminder that something was wrong. Kriff, he had a bad feeling about something; he had no idea what, but if he had to guess, it concerned his conspicuously absent sidekick that normally would be running the simulations for him and complaining about it the entire time.

Ahsoka was with Obi-Wan and Cody, taking Boba to go meet his mom and get his armor back. She was fine. He was being a worrywort for nothing. She was probably just… arguing with Obi-Wan. Hopefully she was letting him have it and getting it all out of her system. He couldn't message her, as all of them would be out of comm range for the day; rural Corellia wasn't exactly flush with public long-range communications that they could tap into.

"What's eating you, Sir?" Rex asked wryly, looking him up and down.

"I've got a weird feeling." Anakin swiped through the holomap. "You haven't heard from the kid, have you?"

"No," Rex said. "Cody said that they'd be off-grid for a while. Public holonet connection doesn't go past Bockrin limits." He paused. "When you say a weird feeling…"

"Yeah, one of those." Anakin brought up a bomber simulation. "Maybe it's nothing. I can worry about it later. Right now, we need to focus on the mission. Let's get our timing nailed down so Appo's boys don't get turned into falumpeset cheese."

"I appreciate that, Sir," Appo deadpanned from the other side of the table. "I'll head down and start prep, if that's alright with you."

"Absolutely, Sergeant. Dismissed." Anakin returned Appo's parting salute and turned his attention back to the holotable to start throwing numbers into his flight simulations.

Ten minutes later the feeling wasn't going away, no matter how much Anakin tried to stomp it down, and what was worse was that now his knee was throbbing. Well, not his knee, it was actually a few inches below his knee on the back of his calf, but it was so sore that he figured his knee had to be the source. Had he pushed it during his katas that morning?

"Sir?" Rex finally asked, fed up with watching him shift his weight and make annoyed noises.

"Ugh." Anakin let out a long groan and let his head droop. "Do me a favor, Rex, and–"

"Eight hours."

Anakin popped his head up. "What?"

"From here to Corellia. Eight hours in a hyperspace ring."

Anakin winced. "I hate to even ask."

"No you don't, Sir." Rex sounded amused under his helmet. "If I leave now I can be back before the fighting's completely over."

"We're not even staging for another twelve hours. Plo's still got all of our AT-TEs on his Venator for maintenance. I'll be shocked if we fire a shot within twenty hours." Anakin slung an arm around his captain's shoulder and gave him a conspiratorial squeeze. "I owe you one."

Rex laughed. "Vaughn's in charge of Jaig Platoon until I'm back. Not Jesse, I don't care what he tells you. Vaughn."

Anakin laughed loudly and patted him on the back, relief washing over him like a rainstorm. "I'll send Skirata's coordinates to your commlink. Get going, Captain. There's a ticket to a Gungan shaak roast in it for you if you make it back before Plo realizes you're gone."

"Don't worry, Sir. I'll update you as soon as I'm on the ground." Rex gave him a parting salute and left the bridge at a pace brisk enough to set his kama swishing.

Anakin turned his attention back to the holotable, feeling like a bantha had been lifted off his shoulders, and started the simulation over.

The room around Boba exploded into action. Cassus buried his face in his hands and started sobbing, clearly horrified at what he'd just done; Gotika raised her glowing palms and aimed at Kenobi, and his mother swung a knife at Cody. The trooper ducked the blow and snared her hand before she could slash again. He yanked her arm forward and cracked her elbow over his knee, forcing her to drop the knife with the strike to her nerve, then put her in a headlock, drew his carbine, and held it to Gotika's faceplate with his free hand.

"Kid, stop crying and take the droid to your room," Cody said calmly, like he didn't have a squirming, snarling Mandalorian fighting to get loose under one arm.

"Mama…" Cassus whimpered.

She wrenched herself out of Cody's grip and pushed her hair out of her face, but didn't try to attack again. "Udesii, Cas'ika. Mama ven'cabuo cuun, ner ad'ika. Ni kar'tayli darasuum."

Cassus' lip quivered. "Al–"

"Ke'cuyoli gar haav'yamika. Ke'hiibi Gotika bal beskar'ade. Tion'jate?" She whistled and Pinky appeared a few seconds later.

Cassus nodded miserably then hung his head. "Jate, Mama." He hovered to the bedroom hallway, followed by Gotika, Pinky, and Buddy quivering in a little ball on his shoulder. He turned and gave Boba a last, desperate look. "Please don't hurt her," he begged, then disappeared. His bedroom door beeped with three descending notes as he locked it behind him.

"Don't fucking move, bitch," Boba spat, pressing the WESTAR against her temple again.

"Boba, stop this," she growled in response. "Jetiise ne'baati par gar, ner ad'ika. Ni–"

"Shut. The fuck. Up." Boba hissed the words through gritted teeth and pushed the blaster harder. "You're a fucking monster. You tried to fucking kill us!"

"Nayc gar!" she barked. "Beskar'ade be'Cassus ne ru'leneda gar, bic du'cari."

"Sure, the drones were just delaying us, not shooting to kill," Boba said mockingly. He wanted to pull the trigger. Behind them, Ahsoka thrashed around in Kenobi's arms, whimpering like a beaten massiff. "Sit the fuck down."

"You does making mistake, ner ad'ika," she said softly, but didn't fight Boba as he pushed her over to one of the few chairs with armrests.

Cody yanked off her cuirass and gauntlets and ejected a length of whipcord, then began to tie her to the chair with the same inescapable knots he'd used on Ordo. "Now, Sarge, you're going to–"

"I know you," his mother interrupted, watching him. "Jetii before speak your name Cody, 'lek? You are–"

"CC-2224, Sergeant," Cody said stoically, crossing his arms. "I remember you. You specialized in close-quarters combat and knifework."

"Cody." She smiled. "Sound like kote. I before speak you what it mean, 'lek?"

"Yes." Boba saw him bite back the automatic Sir that nearly followed it. "Glory. But like I said back then, I don't care about glory. I care about ner vode." Cody leaned down until he was at eye level with her. "And you just poisoned my vod. Tell me where the antidote is."

She blinked in surprise. "Jetii not your–" she began.

"Don't you dare try to tell me who is and isn't vode to me," Cody said silkily, and Boba felt a shiver go down his spine at his tone. "Commander Tano is a vod in all but genes. She has fought at my side and my brothers' side for years. She says the Rememberance, she leads from the front, she's put her life on the line for us more times than I can count. Now tell me where the antidote is–" Cody brandished the knife he had just taken from her, " –or I start cutting things off."

She scoffed. "Do you think you scare me, ad'ika?" she growled.

"I know he does," Boba snapped. "You're not used to seeing them grown. All you can see is Jango. He scares the hell out of you, I can practically smell the piss in your pants."

Her face screwed up in anger. "You forget, Boba," she snapped. "I Mama. I raise you, I nurse you on my breast, I hold you in my heart second I see your face."

"And then you fucked off!" Boba snarled, eyes stinging. "I don't care if you loved me once. You obviously don't anymore, so tell us where the antidote fucking is."

"How you speak it?" She looked horrified. "I never, never stop, Bo'ika, you believe me. I have no choice when I leave."

"I don't care." Boba's face was wet and he didn't know how long it had been that way. "You tell me where the fucking antidote is, now."

His mother looked at him with heartbreak plain on her face. "Mama kar'tayli darasuum, ner Bo'ika."

Boba saw red. "I fucking hate you," he said venemously, then shot her in her exposed knee.

She shrieked at the top of her lungs and bent over in pain, while the rest of the room jumped a foot in the air. "I need to focus!" Kenobi barked; one hand hovered over Ahsoka's rancid blue knife wound, the other over her heart. "Do not fire that infernal thing inside again!"

"Fine." Boba grabbed the knife Cody had taken from his mother, fisted the bitch's curly black hair into a handle, then tugged her head as far back as he could without breaking her neck. He held the knife an inch away from her eye. "I'm not going to fucking ask again, you evil cunt," he spat. "Because if you don't tell me, I'm going to dig out your eyes one at a time and make Cassus fucking eat them." He dug her nails into her scalp and bared his teeth. The tilted blade caught the firelight at just the right angle; he saw the subtle rainbow sheen on the kal's edge. "This one has manax root on it too, doesn't it?" Boba whispered. "But you won't give it up for yourself, we both know you're too stubborn for that. How about I go see what Cassus is up to–"

"Boba!" She gasped. Her beskar-colored eyes were already bugged out from the angle he held her head at, but now they bulged even further from terror, or maybe horror; he could have asked Ahsoka which one if she hadn't been poisoned for no fucking reason at all.

"You don't think I'll do it?" Boba seethed. He wanted so badly to put the knife in her eye, slip it behind the globe and sever her optic nerve, scoop up to pop it right out–

"He your brother," his mother said, trembling.

"That would mean that you're my mother. And you aren't. Not anymore." He spat in her face. "Gar cuy dar'buir, shabla dalgaan."

"Boba…" his– no, Kaisa, whispered.

"I choose my family, now. I chose Ahsoka, and she chose me too. She's my ori'vod." Boba's voice cracked and he tasted bile. "I swear, I will jam this fucking knife down Cassus' throat if that's what I have to do to save my sister, so tell me where the antidote is. Fair trade, right? His safety for hers?"

Kaisa's eyes rolled desperately to Cody.

"I'd do what he says, Sergeant," Cody deadpanned. "He's a civilian and a citizen of the Republic. I have no authority to tell him not to do anything."

Her big silver eyes rolled back over to Boba, full of tears. "Go out, walk creek. Follow until see tiareke. I before bury there, over by bush." She swallowed hard. "I plant for gar vod, Bo–" She froze when the poison blade kissed her eyelashes.

"General, we're going now." Cody put his helmet back on and picked up his carbine.

"I'll stay here," Kenobi said, still concentrating with his eyes closed. "I've slowed the poison down enough to where we should have a bit of time if she stays calm and you hurry, but I need to maintain the trance."

"Roger that. Come on, kid." Cody put a hand on his shoulder.

Boba let go of Kaisa's hair and tucked the blade into his pocket. "You better hope we fucking find it in time," he spat. He looked at Ahsoka one last time, moaning and twisting like she was on fire inside, then turned and followed Cody out into the storm before he put the dagger in Kaisa's heart.

They'd only made it five meters away from the door before it made the same three-note melody as Cassus' door had when he locked it. "Fuck," Boba said faintly. If the bunker was locked, they didn't have the ordinance to get back in. Even if they found the antidote in time they wouldn't be able to give it to Ahsoka, she'd be dead and they'd be fucking useless out here and–

"Boba!" Cody barked through his vocabulator. He went to one knee in front of him. "Focus, trooper. We have a mission to complete. Commander Tano is counting on us to get her that antidote, so that's what we're going to do. We don't have time to waste panicking. General Kenobi will figure out a way to let us back in."

Boba stared at Cody, caught between laughing, crying, and punching him; he wondered if that was the speech he usually used on shinies when they were on their first drop, trying not to soil themselves. "Sure thing, Commander," he choked.

"Good man. Now let's move!"

Boba cursed Cody's long fucking legs as he hustled behind him, trying not to trip over the slick pebbles. They ran through the pouring rain until the dry – or not so dry anymore – creekbed ended. Just ahead, there was a ring of wide-leafed flower bushes that looked nothing like anything else in the forest around Bockrin.

"Right there. See those flowers?" Boba pointed at the bushes dotted with small, pale, yellow-white flowers, curled up in protective buds from the storm.

"Those are tiarek flowers, eh?" Cody held out a hand and helped Boba down the steep hillside.

"Yeah." Lightning strobed overhead, thunder crashing moments later.

"Well, the name's accurate." Cody turned on his headlamp and shined it around the flower bushes.

"No." Boba used the flashlight on his commlink to search underneath the dark-green canopy, but saw nothing. "Where the hell…" he whispered to himself. "I don't get it. I don't see anything out of place, do you?"

"She must have put the sod back," Cody said. "I'll start on this side, you go the other way. Work in a circle, we'll find it."

"We don't have anything to dig with," Boba said, trying not to shake. They didn't have time for this banthashit, they needed the antidote now. Kenobi had said she had time but they had to hurry, and if they had to dig up every single bush–

"You've still got her knife," Cody reminded him. He'd already yanked out his own vibroblade and was carefully cutting at the grassy ground, trying to see if anything was looser than normal.

"Right." Boba started poking around in the grass under the bushes, trying not to panic again. He just had to keep looking, he'd find it. Ahsoka's Force or whatever would guide them. Hopefully.

He found nothing under the first bush, nothing under the second, and by the time he had crawled on his hands and knees under the third he was shaking so badly that he could barely loosen the dirt. He was going to be too late, wasn't he? Ahsoka had almost died for him going after the armor on Geonosis, but it was his own mother who would be the one to actually finish her. The armor was cursed. He should have let it rot with whatever was left of Dad in that bughole. His soul didn't deserve to be retrieved.

Boba continued to dig, hating himself more and more every moment that went by without finding it. He was useless, nothing more than the defective clone of a murderer. All this time, he'd thought that Dad had to have had a good reason to shoot Mama and Cas down. He couldn't have imagined what it was, but there had to be some reason.

"Mama wanted you and Tiarek to come too, but Dad wouldn't let you leave. He kept telling her that he couldn't go and she wasn't allowed to either because of the clause in her contract. Ten years, that was the deal."

He was enforcing her fucking contract. She wanted to leave because Cassus had powers, obviously, and she was right when she said the longnecks would have cut him open and taken his cells for their clones. But Dad wouldn't let her leave, and when she'd tried he shot their ship out of the sky. It was something that Boba had known his whole life had happened, but he'd trusted that his dad had a reason. Nobody just shot their wife and kid out of the sky for nothing, and his father had a code of honor. He had to have a good reason.

"Listen well, Boba, and remember our code. Be polite to clients, especially to enemies. Never complain; never say more than necessary. Face your fears. Die with valor. He who hires my hand, hires my whole self." Dad looked down at him. "And remember, never tell the truth in a trade."

The only reason Jango Fett needed was his fucking name on a signature line. Whoever hired him hired his whole self, after all.

Boba crawled to the fourth bush, gulping down silent sobs and trying not to puke. He was thankful for the rain, in a way; it made digging easier, but more importantly Cody couldn't see what a little crybaby bitch he was.

Every memory was poisoned by knowing. Dad playing quetarra and singing to Cassus, helping Tiarek blow out birthday candles, falling asleep on the sofa during holofilms, taking Boba on jobs, showing him how to fly the Slave I, teaching him how to shoot, telling him he loved him–

"He told me he loved me every day. Even when he was mad at me because I'd done something stupid or messed up, he still always told me he loved me."

Was everything some sort of act? Were Jango's sons ever anything but pets to him, pets that had to be put down once they were too disobedient? He'd shot down a ship with Cas on it. He'd almost beaten Tiarek to death and had him reconditioned afterwards. What would he have done to Boba if he'd lived?

Boba crawled to the fifth bush, feeling like a dog. He was no better than Jango in the end, who was he kidding? He'd threatened to poison Cassus, he'd threatened to feed him his own mother's eyeballs. What the fuck was wrong with him? Was he rotten down to his DNA? Jango's DNA?

He wanted to say it was because he just wanted to save his sister at any cost, but he'd be a fucking liar if he did. He wanted to hurt Kaisa. He still wanted to, he wanted her to feel a fraction of what he was feeling inside now that he knew that she had been alive this whole time and had left them both there, had accepted that they were someone else's property and gotten on her ship to leave anyway.

Kal had known she had survived, had somehow been in contact with her, but she'd hidden herself and Cassus away. She hadn't tried to get them back. She probably hadn't even asked about them, just pretended that they never existed. Maybe she'd added their names to the Remembrance after her parents' names and Gavin. It was probably easier to pretend that your kids were dead instead of acknowledging that you'd abandoned them.

"Why now?"

That's what Cassus had asked. He hadn't been surprised that Boba was alive, only that he'd shown up.

"He's dead, isn't he?"

Boba had meant that he had nowhere else to go, but maybe Cassus thought that Boba knew they were alive and it was only because their father was dead that he could finally find them safely.

Ahsoka would be disgusted with him if she knew what he'd threatened to do to Cassus, and she'd be right to be. Whatever had happened to his brother, it had led to Kaisa keeping him soft. It wasn't his fault. Maybe… maybe if they made it through this, that could change. He couldn't consider Kaisa his mother anymore, not after everything she had done, but Cassus didn't deserve to be disowned. She was the one who had separated them, Cas never had a say in it.

Boba moved onto the seventh bush, then the eighth, then by the time he got to the ninth he was crying too hard to see straight in the pouring rain. He already knew he wasn't going to find it. Ahsoka was dying, but there was no larty coming to save them this time. She had a fucking Jedi Master doing everything he could for her and it still wasn't enough.

Boba couldn't pull through for her. He was a fucking failure in every way that mattered. His hand tightened on the kal. So much for a fair fucking trade.

"Never tell the truth in a trade."

Fuck.

"Fair trade, right? His safety for hers."

The world spun around him as he realized what she'd done. "It's not here." Boba looked over at Cody, shoulder deep in a tiarek bush and covered in mud, and felt panic claw at his insides like he'd swallowed a wolf. "Cody, it's not fucking here! She just wanted us out of the bunker! She's going to kill them!"

Ahsoka's lekku were twitching, curled up on themselves unnaturally. The capillaries and veins closest to the surface of her skin had turned dark blue, eerily mirroring the image that was still forever burned into Obi-Wan's brain of her curled up on herself in a crumpled heap, tainted with Dark Side corruption.

At least the manax root hadn't affected her eyes. He didn't have to stare down at his little girl and see yellow glaring back. Her pupils were so blown that he could see the reflection of firelight in them and she twitched constantly, her jaw clenched in pain.

"Bobi…" Ahsoka said weakly, still tucked against his chest like a child.

"Easy, mo nighean," he said soothingly, scratching little circles at the root of her rear lek and rocking her.

"Cràdh mo chnàmhan," she mumbled. Her brain couldn't seem to decide on a language to speak, but she didn't understand anything but Basic whenever Obi-Wan replied. He feared her brain was beginning to swell.

"All of your bones hurt, or a specific place?" He kept scratching her lek. Her chest vibrated with a weak purr.

"All."

"Hurt only worse from now on," Kaisa said quietly. Cody had tied her wrists together tight enough for her hands to turn red, and she held her wounded knee at an unnatural angle. Blood had begun to pool under her boot. "Bring Boba back, and leave. She may live if you hurry."

Obi-Wan glared at her while Ahsoka shivered in his arms. "K'uur," he said icily.

"Bic cuyi ner yaim, chakaar."

"Ni ne'baati."

Ahsoka laughed into his robes. "Thas' rude," she mumbled. "There are other ways of… altering speech. Instead of shut up."

Obi-Wan craned his head to look down at her. "What?" he asked.

"Shut up. Ndi zoipa kunena. Plo sakonda." She nuzzled deeper into his robes. "You used to call me a tick," she said through a mouthful of linen.

"Call you…" Obi-Wan laughed softly as he remembered. "Oh. Oh, that's right, I did call you that, didn't I? I'd forgotten." He smiled and hugged her tighter. "My little tick."

If only she was still as small and easy to hold as she had been back then. A remarkably portable little creature, by four Ahsoka had mastered the skill of clinging to him while bearing enough of her own weight so that he would barely even notice he was holding her until she shifted dramatically, or if he needed to change his robes. He'd walked into more than one fresher with her sneakily hanging off his back.

"Am I dying?" Ahsoka asked softly. Questing fingers danced over the back of his head, seemingly searching for a long-gone Padawan braid to tug on.

Obi-Wan's heart raced hard enough to burst from his ribcage. He forced it to calm, then refocused the healing trance he had laid upon her. "No," he answered immediately. "You are not dying, Ahsoka. I've slowed down the absorption of the poison. You are going to be fine." He kissed her sweaty forehead; she was boiling hot to the touch from a dangerously high fever. "You'll be just fine, mo nighean," he continued over her purring. "We need to keep your heart rate nice and slow until Cody returns. There we go. Take a little rest. You're safe. I've got you."

Ahsoka's breathing slowed and deepened. The room went silent except for the crackling of the firepit. "Tion'solet gar kar'tayli kaysh?" Kaisa asked after a minute.

"What makes you think I know her?" Obi-Wan asked sarcastically. "I've obviously never met this girl in my life." Ahsoka stirred and whimpered in his arms, twitching pitifully. "I'm sorry, little one. Keep resting." Ahsoka's breaths turned slow and even again. She wasn't sleeping but not quite awake, instead lingering in the twilight between the two.

Kaisa watched him with a thoughtful expression. "Gar ori'canara, ni mirdi," she said quietly.

Obi-Wan heaved a long sigh. "Yes, a long time," he whispered.

Kaisa rolled her eyes. "Boba speak you know Mando'a."

"Yes, I'm fluent."

"So speak it," Kaisa said with a resentful look on her face.

"I'm not in the mood to make anything easy on you, actually, so no." Obi-Wan gave her a brittle smile. "It seems like you could use the practice anyway."

Kaisa snorted. "My Basic enough."

"Tion'vaii Boba?" Ahsoka mumbled.

"He's outside, dear. He and Cody'll be back soon. Don't worry."

Ahsoka sniffled loudly. "I'm sorry."

Obi-Wan craned his neck down. "Whatever for?" he asked, bewildered.

"Za kale." She nuzzled further into his robes. "Bha mi eas-urramach."

"Don't you worry about that." Obi-Wan continued to rock her and closed his eyes, regretting every complaint he'd made about her attitude. He had to focus on the moment and not dwell in the past. For now, he had done everything possible. He had reached out with the Living Force to dissolve as much of the poison in her bloodstream as he could and slowed her metabolism, but she had absorbed so much already. It was ravaging her system like a rancor in a glass factory. There was nothing he could do but watch her suffer, and the one person who knew exactly where the antidote was wasn't about to share its location more specifically than over by bush.

Force suggestions wouldn't work on her, he could already see that, and trying too hard would only break her mind. There was nothing else to do except maybe beat it out of her. It was a more tempting proposition than he was comfortable admitting, sitting there with Ahsoka twitching in his arms as she faded slowly like a spider who'd been sprayed with insecticide. The urge to put his hands around the Mandalorian's throat and squeeze the answer out of her grew stronger with each passing moment.

"You hold her in your heart," Kaisa said suddenly, breaking the silence.

Obi-Wan glared at Kaisa. You love her is what she meant; holding someone in your heart was how it was stated in Mando'a. "Of course I do," he said quietly. "I've known her since she was three. I've watched her grow from a sweet, curious child into a strong, talented young woman with a heart filled with endless compassion. When her training is complete, she will be a far greater Jedi than I could ever hope to be."

A crash echoed from the hallway that led to the bedrooms, followed by a loud sob. Kaisa flinched in her chair and looked at her feet.

"Cassus?" Ahsoka mumbled.

"Presumably," Obi-Wan answered. "He's been crying in his room since you fell ill. I got the impression that he was terrified to use the Force in front of two Jedi."

"Not your Force," Kaisa snarled. "Cassus manda'laarii. Not jetii."

Obi-Wan paused. "Manda singer?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Kaisa sighed loudly. "You know why beskar is urman'la par Mando'ade, 'lek?" she asked. "Or story not before speak to jeti'kase?"

"I don't really care," Obi-Wan said stonily.

"Copaani sulusu," Ahsoka murmured against his shoulder.

Kaisa smirked. "Long, long before memory, enemy of Manda'yaim does attacking. Manda sees suffer, pain, death of ade. Manda'laariise call out, beg for it help. Many day, many night, they sing until they voice break. Manda cry for it ade, reach into… into it haalas, squeeze heart for blood. Blood harden and change, later become beskar in ground. Manda tells manda'laariise, dig for blood, for beskar, and song will guide hammer when does forging. But only manda'laariise does forging, other ade not hear song."

"Armorers?" Obi-Wan asked. "Mandalorian armorers are Force sensitive?"

Kaisa bared her teeth. "No. You not does listening. Manda not your Force."

Obi-Wan had spent almost a year at Satine's side. While she had never spoken of this specific story, they'd had many philosophical discussions about the nature of his Force and her Manda, and they'd eventually agreed – for once – that they were almost certainly the same thing. "I've heard differently," he said blithely.

Kaisa snorted. "Who speak it?"

"An old friend."

"Satine?" Ahsoka murmured.

Obi-Wan smiled against her montral. "Indeed."

"Satine Kryze?" Kaisa's eyes suddenly blazed with disgust. She spat on the ground. "Hut'uunla chakaar. Dikut'la ad, kaysh ru'trika–"

"Yes, yes, we get it, you are not a fan of House Kryze," Obi-Wan said irritably.

Ahsoka patted his chest. "Is that why your people believe their souls live in their beskar?" she asked Kaisa.

"Our soul live in beskar because beskar is our soul, our Manda. Manda shed blood for it ade. Manda'laariise let song guide hammer, forge first beskar'gam and defeat enemy. Wear time always, our family live in beskar always." She suddenly chuckled, low and slow. "I before know one Jedi. Kiffar, brown big eyese, stripe, ah… shi'yayc, what it…"

"Yellow."

" 'Lek, yellow. He have yellow stripe on eyese."

"Wait." There was no mistaking that description. "Quinlan Vos? You know Quinlan Vos?" he asked sharply.

" 'Lek. He very good man. More good for jetiise, you not deserve him."

Obi-Wan's eyes bugged out and he made a mental note to comm his old friend the second they were back at the Temple. "How do you–"

"It is my business, jetii." Kaisa chuckled again. "He before speak about it, call it, ah, attachment. Ke'gar ne'kartayli, or it will make you evil." She snorted. "Shabla dinii'la jetiise. How it will make you evil?"

"It's a vast oversimplification, to start," Obi-Wan said flatly. "I could just as soon say that winning a duel for the Darksaber automatically endows you with the wisdom and knowledge to be a competent ruler."

Kaisa threw her head back and laughed. "Strong Mand'alor make strong kingdom. But our heart, I already speak, it beskar. We wear it on our beskar'gam, not hide it. Jetiise hide it. Mando'ade not afraid to wear our heart."

"Jedi are not afraid to love," Obi-Wan shot back. "Love and compassion are intrinsic to our very being. Following the will of the Force is impossible without love. What we forego is attachment to that love, to individuals and possessions alike. We understand that all things are temporary, and that we must be prepared to let them go at any moment for the greater good."

Kaisa scoffed. "Never let go of your child, real buir know. You have weak jetii heart. Kyber will shatter. Beskar, never. If she your child, you would not allow me live when she does dying."

Obi-Wan's heartbeat quickened. "So you believe that because I am not torturing you, I don't care about her?" he asked frostily. Ahsoka shivered.

"Revenge for your ad'ika, 'lek? Look at her. Her blood on fire. She not can breathe, her brain swell. She will die crying for you, and you do nothing."

There was a tug on Obi-Wan's robes. He startled and looked down into a pair of the biggest, bluest eyes he'd ever seen. There was a tiny orange Togruta youngling at his feet, barely coming up to his knees, with stubby blue-and-white lekku framing her face. She whimpered, eyes brimming with unshed tears, and held up two fat little arms in the universal request for up.

"Tha i a’ feuchainn ri do dhèanamh feargach, Bobi," Ahsoka murmured. A soothing warmth settled over him; even now, poisoned and fading, she was still comforting him with her Empathy.

Obi-Wan tucked his face into the crook between Ahsoka's lekku for a few moments and breathed in her warm, spicy, pollen scent while he centered himself. "You should be thankful that revenge is not the Jedi way," he said softly, pressing a kiss there. He had to trust that the Force would guide Cody and Boba and they were close to finding the buried antidote. The alternative was unacceptable.

Kaisa clicked her tongue. "Is mine. She make my son hate me, shoot me. She use her magic and change his brain. Take your revenge or no, but I have mine."

"You poisoned her long before Boba ever raised his blaster," he snapped.

"I could be… serim'shya. But not now. Not after she make him hate me."

"I didn't make him do anything," Ahsoka said quietly, but he could feel her agitation leaking through their Force bond. Being accused of manipulating emotions was the last thing Ahsoka needed with poison flooding her bloodstream; Obi-Wan rubbed a soothing circle on her back and sent the feeling of calm through their Force bond.

"Never my son does shooting at his Mama. Nu draar. Neret'yc. She hurt his mind."

"You hurt his mind when you abandoned him," Ahsoka growled, surprising Obi-Wan. "Both of them. You made them believe that you loved them, and then you left them behind and ran."

Kaisa's eyes nearly bugged out of her head. She opened her mouth to reply but Ahsoka beat her to it.

"You made sure you took the son you bore, though, didn't you?" Ahsoka laughed an ugly little laugh. "So much for a heart of beskar. Gar ne buir, gar hut'uunla dalgaan."

"Ke'shab!" Kaisa snarled. "You not know. I leave because I have no choice, not if I keep Cassus safe. Kaminiise–"

"And Boba's safety? Tiarek's safety?" Ahsoka raised her voice. "Do you know what Jango did to them because you left?"

Kaisa's face crumpled and she looked away. "No," she whispered. "No, you lie. Jango know our ade. He never hurt them. Neret'yc."

"He shot down a ship with his son inside of it," Ahsoka hissed, struggling to get out of Obi-Wan's shocked arms. Her eyes were unnaturally bright. "Do you really think he wouldn't hurt Boba and Tiarek, too?"

"No," Kaisa whispered miserably. "No, he not does thinking. He hold B–"

"He hurt them." Ahsoka tried to push herself up, but Obi-Wan kept his arms firmly circled around her. "And it's your fault. You left them unprotected with a fucking psychopath!"

"Calm down, Ahsoka, please," Obi-Wan said desperately, struggling to keep his hold on her.

Kaisa's face twisted into an ugly mask of guilt and grief before she started to cry. "I have no choice!"

"You could have taken them too!" Ahsoka snarled. "First Jango nearly beat Tiarek to death–"

"No," Kaisa sobbed.

"Yes. He smashed him upside the head with a metal lockbox full of your things." Ahsoka growled like a raxshir and Obi-Wan's hair stood up. "He split his head open, and then when he was done beating him with it, he put him back into rotation and had him reconditioned!"

Kaisa turned her face away, heaving ugly, gulping sobs.

"Stop!" Obi-Wan begged her, trying not to panic at the way her veins were rapidly darkening.

"I can't stand hypocrites," Ahsoka snarled. "She wants to sit there and say she has a beskar heart, that a real parent would never give up on their child? She gave up on two of them!" Her voice escalated into a shriek that pierced his eardrums.

"You not understand," Kaisa wept. "If kaminiise know Cassus does singing, they want… want yo'baare, val ru'hokaani bal hibii par eyayade–"

"Enough!" Obi-Wan barked. "Both of you, stop!"

"B…" Ahsoka's eyes rolled back into her head and she went stiff in his arms, violently convulsing.

"No, no–" Obi-Wan sank to the ground with her stiff in his arms and carefully lowered her onto her side. "You're alright, you're alright, little one, you're alright," he said frantically, She twisted and shook on her side, her jaw clenched so tight that he feared she'd crack her teeth. He slipped his outer robe under her head as a pillow and sank back, holding his breath and helplessly waiting for it to be over.

"I not want this," Kaisa began, still crying. "You go, this not–"

"Shut up!" Obi-Wan snarled.

Her lip trembled. "I protect–"

"Shut up!" he roared, on his feet before he knew it. "I don't care who you're protecting, she's dying! She's dying for nothing!"

"I not let you take him," Kaisa said, trembling. "I will protect my ade, any price I pay. Horrible price, but I will pay."

"Who– who do you think we came here to take?" Obi-Wan asked in disbelief. "Cassus? He's nearly thirteen! The oldest human child that has ever been admitted to the Order is nine, and the Council's arm had to be twisted to allow it!"

Kaisa shook her head. "I not believe you. You take my boy, I know jetii lie."

"We're not here to take your child, we brought Boba here to be reunited with you!"

Kaisa stared at him. "Tion'meg?" she whispered.

"If she dies…" Obi-Wan turned, choking on his rage, his hands clasped on the top of his head so he didn't wrap them around her neck.

"Booo…" Ahsoka slurred, then whined like a kicked shunka.

"I'm here." Obi-Wan dropped to the ground and immediately pulled her into his lap. He pressed his face against her boiling hot lek and squeezed her tight against his chest. "I'm here, I'm here. You're alright, mo nighean, you're alright. Cody's on his way back now. He's almost back, little one, just hold on a little longer."

She shuddered and clung to him, in visible pain.

His mind raced for anything, anything to soothe her. There was nothing he could think of, but a memory returned to him. "Qui…" Obi-Wan cleared his throat. "Quietly while you were asleep, the moon and I were talking…"

Ahsoka, even in her agony, stirred at the lullaby he had made up for her as a youngling. He felt her pulse race weakly in the lek pressed against his face.

"I asked that she'd always keep you protected." His voice cracked. He didn't care; not if he was in tune, or if Kaisa was watching, only that he could give Ahsoka even a tiny bit of comfort. He rested his head between her montrals. "She promised you her light, which you so gracefully carry… You bring your light, and shine like morning."

Ahsoka's breathing slowed and evened; she was asleep, or more likely unconscious. "And as you so gracefully give, her light as long as you live…" He carefully lifted her up to the padded bench and laid her on her side, just in case she began to seize again. "I'll always remember this moment."

Obi-Wan stroked her forehead for a few seconds and watched the rise and fall of her chest with paranoid eyes, afraid it would stop if he looked away. "If she dies, you will rot in a Republic prison for the rest of your life," he finally said, trembling from rage, or fear, or grief; he didn't know anymore. He could see small puffs of his breath in the air as he spoke. "Do you truly think that we'll walk away with our tails between our legs, content to leave you alone after you've murdered her?"

"Bunker has lock," Kaisa said quietly. "Only I know code. Not Cassus, not Gotika. Without code, door not unlock until after one Corella rotate. Not you does leaving unless I allow."

Obi-Wan slowly turned to look at her.

"Cassus room, different air," she continued, and gave him a watery smile. "Gotika have… command. Ret'lini. I protect my ade, any price. Even me."

Obi-Wan squeezed his eyes shut and turned back to his little girl. He couldn't watch her die senselessly like this right in front of him while he did nothing to stop it.

"Please, p-please Bobi, open your eyes, open your… no, no, no, please no, Bobi please–"

Obi-Wan opened his eyes and reached for his saber with a shaking hand.

"Mama!" Cassus sat at the mouth of the hall leading to his quarters, his face red and puffy from crying. Gotika lumbered ominously behind him, but the boy had a hypospray in his lap. "Tion'vaii cuun ijaat? Bic cuy ori'dushla, Mama, gar kar'tayli bic ori'dushla."

Kaisa squeezed her eyes shut and silently shook her head.

"Cassus, please," Obi-Wan begged, ripping the hand away from his saber and holding it out to the boy instead. "Please don't let her die."

The boy tossed the device to him over Kaisa's head. She dissolved into loud sobs that flew in one ear and out the other as Obi-Wan dove for Ahsoka and jammed the hypospray directly into her neck. He watched her without blinking for ten solid seconds, nearly collapsing in relief when the sickly blue in her veins finally began to recede from the injection site. "Oh, mo nighean," he murmured, tugging Ahsoka into his arms. He kissed her forehead and whispered it into her skin over and over, rocking her like she was three again.

"General, come in. You need to get out of that bunker right away, do you copy? General!"

Obi-Wan's commlink blinked at him. He slapped the channel on. "Cody," he managed.

"General, I've torn up this entire grove and there's nothing. She just wanted to separate us. You need to get out of there, now!"

Obi-Wan stared at Kaisa, feeling sick. "It was never out there, was it?" he asked softly.

"Kenobi, get the fuck out of there before that crazy bitch kills you both!"

Kaisa's lip trembled. "You before should go. Not Boba."

"And you would have shot us in the back as we left and left no witnesses as to where you were hiding." Obi-Wan closed his eyes. There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no emotion there is–

"General? General, we're coming back now, just hold on. I've got a thermal detonator, I can–"

"Come back, Commander," Obi-Wan said quietly. "I've just administered the antidote. Ahsoka's going to make it. I'll explain everything when you get here." He distinctly heard a child's relieved sob before he disconnected the channel and went back down to his knees. He gently stroked Ahsoka's forehead and took his first deep breath since the ambush. "And then the wind pulls the clouds across the moon, your light fills the darkest room, and I can see the miracle that keeps us from falling…"

Notes:

MANDO'A TRANSLATIONS Udesii, Cas'ika. Mama ven'cabuo cuun, ner ad'ika. Ni kar'tayli darasuum: Easy, little Cassus. Mama will protect us. I hold you in my heart, always Ke'cuyoli gar haav'yamika. Ke'hiibi Gotika bal beskar'ade. Tion'jate?: Stay in your bedroom. Take Gotika and the droids. Okay? Beskar'ade be'Cassus ne ru'leneda gar, bic du'cari: Cassus' droids didn't lock onto you, they delayed. Tabiriise'tatugirii: lit. Marchers' litany, the repetition of names of the dead (it took me 250k to realize that it didn't have it's own proper name? Wtf Karen) Gar cuy dar'buir, shabla dalgaan: You are no longer my mother, fucking bitch. Tion'solet gar kar'tayli kaysh?: How long have you known her? Gar ori'canara, ni mirdi.: You've known her a long time, I think. Urman'la par Mando'ade: holy to Mandalorians Copaani sulusu: I want to hear Ke'gar ne'kartayli: You must not hold in your heart/you must not love Jeti'kase: Little Jedi/Padawans Hut'uunla chakaar. Dis'ne. Dikut'la ad, kaysh ru'trika: Cowardly asshole. Person who spits on their heritage. Stupid child, she will regret Serim'shya: More accurate Gar ne buir, gar hut'uunla dalgaan: You're no mother, you're a cowardly bitch Yo'baare, val ru'hokaani bal hibii par eyayade: Cells, they would cut and take for clones Ret'lini: Just in case/plan b Tion'vaii cuun ijaat? Bic'cuy ori'dushla, Mama, gar kar'tayli: Where is our honor? This is evil, Mama, you know it's evil TOYDARIAN TRANSLATIONS Ndi zoipa kunena. Plo sakonda: It's bad to say. Plo doesn't like it Za kale: For before Gwiritsani ntchito ubongo kuphulika zinthu: We use our brains to blow things up MAOR-GRASTA TRANSLATIONS Mo nighean: My girl Cràdh mo chnàmhan: My bones ache Bha mi eas-urramach: I was disrespectful OTHER NOTES Me: how do I write a conversation between two characters fluent in Mando'a in a way that readers can understand? Oh make Obi-Wan a bitch?? Okay. anyway that song has had a gorilla grip on my heart for months and I finally got to use it ayyyy Also yes I'm a Cody≠kote truther sorry lmfao

Taglist: @starwarsficnetwork, @soliloquy-of-nemo Dividers: @saradika-graphics

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