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Chapter Text

Anakin stood outside of the med bay watching his two tiny children who were bundled in their bassinets. He had a very long night and desperately needed sleep, but maybe it was the smog from Mustafar or exhaustion induced delirium or maybe it was the excitement from finally having a family that kept Anakin glued to the window as he watched his children sleep. 

“Anakin,” a gentle voice said behind him. Nevertheless, he jumped at the noise. Obi-Wan placed his hand on the former padawan’s shoulder. “You should sleep. The children will be okay.”

“I can’t. I mean how could I? What if it isn’t real?” This was the first time he had properly spoken to his friend since they had gotten back from the Battle of Coruscant. Sleeping meant he would be vulnerable again. It meant he couldn’t protect Padme. 

*Six Hours Earlier*

Anakin stood in the mines of Mustafar. He was wracked with guilt. The chancellor , the man that Anakin had trusted like a father, was the sith lord they had been hunting. When he finally landed his ship on Mustafar, he didn’t move. He forced himself to look around the mines. When he saw there were separatists there, he knew he had to stop them before they could sound an alert. He needed to help the Republic. After killing the last separatist, a Neimoidian officer, Anakin stood in the wake of his destruction. 

Suddenly, the bodies of the separatists changed into the bodies of the younglings in the Temple. For the first time since exiting Coruscant, he felt as though he could think clearly. Anakin barely remembered what happened at the Temple. Now, the Force was making him realize his actions. He walked through the bodies in the vision. At his feet, laid a boy no older than Anakin was when he was first brought to the Jedi. He knelt by the boy’s body. A tear slid down his cheek because he knew that he had killed the innocent boy. Not just Jani, whose name came back to Anakin as he stared at the boy, but he also killed the boy that had been rescued from Tatooine. 

Though he knew it was impossible– his mother wasn’t force-sensitive– he heard her speak to him. 

Oh Anakin , she said.

“Mom?” His voice was small. 

I’m here. You must return and apologize. 

“But what if they don’t like me anymore.” Anakin was no longer seeing Mustafar, but he was back in the slave quarters where his mother had raised him. He remembered that when he was around seven, he took a power converter off another kid’s bike to use on his podracer. He had apologized and returned the part within a few hours, but for weeks after his mom would find him crying about not having any friends because he couldn’t bear to go near the other kid for fear of rejection.

Ani, it is time you learn that your guilt does not define you. You define your guilt. If Kitster does not want to be your friend anymore, it is not worth crying over as much as you have. It will be okay, but you must face him first.

“I’m scared, Mom.”

I have seen you be the light, though the darkness inside got the best of you, you care for your friends so deeply. It will only hurt more if you do not try.

“Are you sure?”

Be the light, my son.

Anakin still kneeled in front of his mother. 

“I love you,” he whispered.

I love you too, Ani. Make sure you are home by the time the suns set, she called, her voice getting further away. The bodies of the separatists reappeared. He was no longer with the younglings he had slain. Artoo whirred into the room beeping frantically in binary. 

“What is it, Artoo?” he asked the droid though he thought he had told the astromech to stay with the ship. Two short beeps told him that another ship was approaching. Anakin glanced out of the window to see a shining Naboo star skiff descending next to his interceptor. Immediately, he sensed who was inside.

Racing through the mine and the fumes, Anakin met his wife on the platform. Padme raced down the platform, enveloping him in a tight embrace. 

“I saw your ship,” the jedi said. “What are you doing out here?”

His wife ran her hands up and down his cloaked arms. She had done it for as long as he could remember. It was her way of grounding herself. “I was so worried about you. Obi-Wan told me terrible things.” 

“What things?” Though, he knew what happened. 

“He said that you’ve turned to the dark side. That you…” She breathed in deeply before coughing, “killed younglings.” She couldn’t look him in the eyes and she was crying. Padme’s breathing was getting more labored the more she spoke. 

“I–” Anakin started. He wanted to stand there and defend himself. Tell her he was doing all of this for her to save her, but he could see how the constant burning from the lava surrounding them was affecting her. “Let’s get you into the ship.”

Padme let herself be led back into the ship. Anakin closed the airlock behind them so that she could breathe the uncontaminated air. After a few minutes, she spoke again. “He knows about us.”

“Us?” 

“He knows. He wants to help you.” She took a deep breath. “Anakin, all I want is your love.”

“Love won’t save you, Padme. Only my new powers can.”

“At what cost, my love? At what cost?” When she looked at Anakin again she didn’t look frightened. She looked like the young girl he had met who was saddened to see Anakin in bondage. 

“I–” This time, he didn’t know what to argue back. All he wanted was Padme, and here she was risking herself and the pregnancy for him. What kind of father was he that let his own desires get in the way of their baby? “You shouldn’t have come here,” he said quietly. “It’s probably bad for our daughter.”

“Or our son.” She smiled a bit at the guessing game that they had been playing since he came home from the war. “I came here because I need you, Ani. If your visions are right then our child will need you.”

“But if they’re right then I could’ve saved you.”

“And you can say ‘I told you so’ at my funeral. But if you turn to the dark side to save me, you would never meet your child.” 

He knew how she was looking at him. She would follow through and he would never meet his child. Padme was anything but weak. Anakin realized that he would lose her either way. 

“Well, I’d like to see my ten credits when our child is a girl, so I guess I’ll hold onto your promise.” Anakin tried to smile. It was hard, but he almost fell to the dark side so he figured it wasn’t the worst thing to happen. Anakin felt a rush of emotion through the Force and suddenly his wife was clinging onto him. Her tears dampened his robes and he knew he smelt of smog and blood but he held her all the same. He didn’t realize it, but he was crying too. They would be okay. 

“Anakin?” A new voice echoed in the ship. 

“Obi-Wan.” Anakin’s head whipped up and his grip tightened on his wife. Anger bubbled in his chest. “What are you doing here? What is he doing here?”

His former master looked too exhausted to actually care about Anakin’s anger at the moment. “Your wife is eight months pregnant. I refused to let her fly on her own, much less face a newly formed sith alone.”

To his surprise, his reasoning didn’t cause him to be angry. He was actually thankful that Obi-Wan had decided to help Padme. 

“I’m glad you’re back, Anakin.” Obi-Wan smiled. 

“You’re not mad?”

Obi-Wan huffed. “Oh I’m seething, but I’ve realized you don’t need me to be mad right now. You need someone to be there for you.”

With all of the smog she had inhaled in the few minutes she was on Mustafar, visions of Padme dying played in Anakin’s head. Obi-Wan had then told the couple he was piloting them to a small med-bay on an asteroid called Polis Massa. Anakin tried to help, but the older jedi forced him to stay with his wife in the cabin. They waited there together as they flew with Padme eventually coughing from time to time. For the first time, Anakin let himself talk about his fears. They talked about the health of their baby and Padme’s health. They had made a rough plan for what they would do if Padme did die. They also discussed what could possibly happen to Anakin because of what he did on Coruscant. 

“I’ll be exiled.” Anakin sounded almost relieved. “Would the Senate do anything to me?”

“I don’t know. Technically, it is considered jedi business, but the use of the clones, which were for the Republic through the jedi…” his wife drifted off before delving into a coughing fit. Anakin rubbed her back to try to comfort her. 

“Enough what-ifs,” he said when she had recovered. “Has the nursery been finished?”

Padme’s eyes became wide. “Ani, with everything that’s been happening the past few months– before I told you I didn’t even know we would raise the baby on Naboo– nothing has been started. I had been wanting to go and begin planning at the lake house, but then the war ramped up and… What are we going to do?”

“We still have time. They’re not here yet.” He reassured her. “Do you have any ideas on what you want to do with it?”

“There’s a bedroom that overlooks the water,” she began to explain to him. She wanted to be able to have her office and their room close to the baby’s. When her maternity leave was over she was planning on slowing her involvement with politics, but with the chancellor, the sith lord, declaring the Republic to be an empire now, she had no idea what it would look like. “I think we could still do a nice set up back on Corusc–”

“No,” Anakin said firmly. “I will not be bringing our child near that place while he is still there. I almost lost you two once. I won’t do it again.” He knew that part of what he said sounded ridiculous. Padme was a senator, he had no qualms about becoming a trophy husband, but he could not stomach the fact that Palpatine would be so close to his family. 

Padme reached up and ran her thumb over the crease between Anakin’s brows, smoothing it out. “Okay. So Naboo it is then.” she smiled. 

When they landed on Polis Massa, a medical droid began scanning and fussing over Padme. After the scan was complete, they quickly informed both jedi that she needed to be rushed off to surgery. 

“Surgery?” Anakin yelled, whipping to Obi-Wan. “She seems fine? What’s wrong?”

Before the older Jedi could respond the droid cut in. “The toxins from the atmosphere on Mustafar have made the risk of miscarriage much higher. At this point in her pregnancy, death will be likely if the children are not delivered now. We must do the operation to save all three lives.”

“Three?” Obi-Wan asked.

“Yes.” The droid nodded. “The senator is carrying twins.”

Chapter Text

Three hours later, Obi-Wan stood next to his former apprentice. Padme was recovering and the children were safe. Anakin was a father now. Never did he think that this day would happen– probably because Jedi were forbidden to have attachments, but that was semantics. 

“You never told me their names,” Obi-Wan commented into the comfortable silence. 

Anakin laughed a bit. “Padme named the boy Luke. It was her great-grandfather’s name or something. I chose the name Leia for our little girl.”

“Any reason?”

“When I was a kid, my mom would tell me stories about the desert myths. One of the stories she would tell was about a young girl who was very poor, all she had was a father and no mother. One day, when she was wandering along the dunes, she found a piece of stardust. It was said that only the pure of heart could touch stardust. Leia carried the star home to her father. When he and everyone saw who she truly was, they named her queen of Tatooine. When she died, the story says that she disappeared in a wind of stardust waiting for the next person to find her.”

“That is a beautiful story, Anakin.”

“I tried to find the stardust for years when I was little. And then,” his voice began to shake, “when I was in the mines on Mustafar, the Force, it showed me my mother. She spoke to me. Well, not like a ghost, but it replayed a memory for me. My mom was telling me to be the light again. Luke and Leia are my stardust.”

Obi-Wan was speechless. He hadn’t heard Anakin speak like that for so many years. When his padawan left his care, he became even more closed off than he normally was. When they returned back from the Battle of Coruscant, Anakin almost never spoke to him unless there was Jedi business. He had even gone so far as to ask Anakin’s droid, Artoo, if he knew what was wrong with the man. The astromech simply told him that Anakin didn’t speak to him that much. At the time, Obi-Wan had taken that moment as simply Anakin’s way of growing to see droids as machines rather than sentients. However, now, Obi-Wan saw what it truly was. 

“I am proud of you, Anakin. I know I wasn’t the best teacher you could have had. Hell, I wasn’t ready to become a knight when I took you under my wing, but I am so astronomically proud of the man you've become. And– and–” Tears began to well up in the older Jedi’s eyes. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for everything.”

“Obi-Wan,” Anakin started, “you didn’t do anything.”

“No, I did not let you feel safe to come to me about your fears. I tried to make you a perfect Jedi when you needed a parent or a brother. In the end, I’m most sorry that I did not see him for what he was and that I allowed you to be placed in danger.”

“We had no idea he would be the Sith.”

“No we didn’t, but it was my responsibility to protect you and I failed. I should have been a better master for you.”

Silence hung like thick glue. 

After several moments, Anakin spoke again. “It is still not your fault. You were forced to become my master when you were not even done with your training. It is like telling a child to raise a child. You were doing what you thought was right.” He shrugged, trying to convey his acceptance of the situation. 

Anakin had become so wise over the years, and Obi-Wan had been a fool not to see it. “Do you remember when you told me you wanted to leave the Order?”

“I don’t even remember why I wanted to leave, but I felt a calling. Then after we went to that planet where they were fighting each other for years… what was it called?”

“Carneilion IV.”

“Yeah after that, I decided I wanted to stay and continue to help people. Why do you ask?”

“Because, Anakin, if you would have left the order, I would have gone with you. I told Master Yoda as much before we left for the mission. I would no longer have a place at the order if that meant I would no longer be training you. I say this now because,” Obi-Wan sighed. “I don’t know what your plans are now that you have children and a wife, but I would make the same choice today as I would have before.” 

“And what if I don’t?”

Obi-Wan closed his eyes and let himself feel through the force. There were not many Jedi left. He sensed that there were maybe a few that had escaped, but most were gone. He tried to feel out to find anyone specific who had survived but couldn’t.

“I don’t know. Anakin… we might be the only–” he was cut off by a loud beep of his comm going off. 

“Master Kenobi?” Ahsoka’s voice rang out. 

“I am here, Ahsoka. Do you have a ship?”

“Yes.”

“Are you safe?”

“Yes. Where are you?”

“Sending my approximate coordinates. Be careful, Ahsoka. Things are not good.”

Chapter Text

After being reassured that Ahsoka and his wife would be safe, Anakin returned to Mustafar. Because he had taken Padme’s ship off of the planet, Rex took him back to the system to wait for the chancellor. 

The two friends sat in rigid silence. Anakin was too anxious to talk and he could sense that Rex didn’t want to speak either. The flight gave the jedi time to form a plan for when he arrived. He allowed himself to be lulled into a meditative state. Normally, he found the practice boring and lacking, but here in the silence with only the hum of the engine, it was peaceful. Anakin knew Obi-Wan and Ahsoka were safe and that Padme was alive and healthy. His babies were healthy. He thought about what his life might be when this was all over. It was full of light. 

“Well, General,” Rex spoke up. “Here we are.”

“Thank you, Rex. Be safe.” Anakin nodded as he left the cruiser. 

“Always am, sir.”

The cruiser shot back into the atmosphere leaving Anakin back on the deserted Separatist base. The smell hit him first. He didn’t think that I realized how bad it was the first time he was here but the smell of burning overwhelmed him. 

“ Kankee karking planeeto ,” Anakin muttered in Huttese. He tried to quit swearing in front of Ahsoka during the war… at least in Basic. In his native language, Anakin had the mouth of a smuggler. Unfortunately, Ahsoka was able to figure out some of the less offensive words like ‘sleemo’. He walked around the mines hoping to find a spot that didn’t reek of rotting flesh, but was unsuccessful. 

He felt the cold before he saw him. Chancellor Palpatine was flanked on both sides by Coruscant guards. Anakin recognized Fox among them. The jedi knelt before the sith lord. 

“Master, I have done everything,” Anakin laced his voice with desperation. “Now please, how can I save Padme.”

“Anakin, my boy,” The sith’s voice dripped with false sincerity. “It seems that in your anger, you killed her.”

Very real fear ran through Anakin’s mind. Was this true? Did Padme die while he was on his way here? No, he reminded himself, she was safe. However, he let his fears guide his reaction to the chancellor. “I– She was just–” He began to cry.

“Lord Vader, rise.” He commanded. “Together we will rid the galaxy of the evils like the jedi who killed Padme. They drove you to kill her in your madness.”

Devastation knotted itself inside Anakin’s stomach. He knew what was being said was not true, but if it had been, he would’ve never forgiven himself. Hundreds of banthas fled through his stomach as it churned. 

“Padme,” he whispered. Instead of the images he was being flooded with, he remembered their twins and her smile and Obi-Wan’s approval of Anakin. He allowed his emotions on the surface to radiate out in waves of despair and loyalty.

The chancellor placed his arm around the younger man to comfort him. Anakin let tears roll down his cheeks as he thought of his dying wife. When he could feel the chancellor relax around him, he swiftly pointed his still hilted lightsaber behind him and ignited it. The weight of the sith lord fell on Anakin before the clones, whom Anakin had forgotten about, began to fire at him. 

The chancellor’s body crumpled to the floor as Anakin deflected the blaster fire trying to save as many clones as possible. 

“Fox!” He yelled over the fighting. “Stand down!”

“Good soldiers follow orders,” is all he replied. 

“I am Lord Vader, and I order you to stand down.” Suddenly, the clones ceased their firing. “Good. Now, let’s go.”

“But, sir, the chancellor,” one of the other Coruscant guards reminded him. 

“Leave him. He deserves to burn here. This was not what you and your brothers were meant to do. He was a tyrant.”

“But sir, he was the Republic, does that mean you are the chancellor?” Fox asked.

Anakin sighed. It was done. He was tired. He wanted to find his wife and kids and figure out what the hell he was going to do now. “No. Senator Amidala might have an idea but it is not safe to stay here.”

“Isn’t she dead?” Anakin heard one of the guards whisper to another, but now was not the time to deal with this. He needed to get these clones and himself out of the Mustafar system before anyone else came looking for them. 

The flight back to Polis Massa was silent. As they neared the asteroid, Anakin had quietly alerted Rex and Obi-Wan that they would need to begin the chip removal as soon as possible and to not let any of the clones see Obi-Wan or Ahsoka until after procedure.

Chapter Text

When Ahsoka woke up, she found herself in a hard chair next to Padme’s bed. If she was being honest with herself, she didn’t remember getting there in the hours before she fell asleep. Either way, her muscles were sore from the odd positing she had been in or from the fight her and Rex had fought to get here, it was probably both. She glanced around the room and locked eyes with her former master. From what she could remember, he hadn’t slept in several days. 

“Anakin, what–” she started to ask.

He held up his hand to stop her. “I am so sorry, Ahsoka. I failed you as your master. I failed as a jedi. I will never allow that to happen again.”

The togruta shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “What happened to you?”

Anakin looked weary. She could tell his breathing was laboured and there were deep half moons under his eyes. His wavy hair was tangled and crusted with dirt and blood, his clothes too. “I let myself fall victim to the dark side.”

She could help but let out a small gasp. Sure, Anakin had been a bit quick to judge, but was he really capable of being a sith?

“I began having visions that Padme was going to die just like the ones I got before my mother died. I refused to let the same thing happen.” He continued. “The chancellor was my friend. He told me about an old sith legend and told me he could teach me how to save Padme and our child.”

“He was the sith lord.”

“Yes. I–I did unspeakable things to the jedi… I went to the Mustafar system, but Padme followed me and convinced me to come back. Our babies were born and she was alive. I knew there was nothing he could teach me and that I needed to kill him. I went back and did it. Fox and some of his men have been de-chipped and are being updated by Rex.”

Ahsoka took it all in. She knew about the chips in the clones, but she almost couldn’t believe in Anakin’s involvement. “So what now?”

“What do you mean?”

“What now? Is there even still an Order? Is there a Republic? What about your family? Are we meant to rebuild the Jedi Order?”

“Woah, woah, Snips. I think right now, we rest.”

“What? As far as we know there’s anarchy.”

“Ahsoka, I was able to put an end to Order 66. Hopefully, many lives were spared because of it. I’m sure that the Senate will be okay without the chancellor playing both sides of the war. Neither of us, nor Obi-Wan, have gotten the chance to actually rest and heal in a very long time. I was told that everyone would be given a room to sleep now that the clones are taken care of. You need to sleep more than the few hours you have today.”

“You too, Sky Guy.” Ahsoka smirked.

“Sky Guy?” A weak voice said from the large medical bed in the room. Padme shifted so that she could sit up a little bit.

Anakin rushed over to her. “Padme, are you alright?”

“Ani? Where is our baby? Everything hurts.” 

The jedi took his wife’s hands into his own. “Everything is alright, Angel. We have two beautiful babies, Luke and Leia. You are safe. I am safe. The galaxy is safe again.”

Ahsoka took this heartwarming moment between her master and his wife to sneak out of the room. She wandered the dimly lit halls for a bit until she stumbled across Rex, Obi-Wan and Fox.

“I don’t care if you think he’s alive, Commander. Find him.” Obi-Wan glared at Fox. 

“With all due respect, General, we haven’t heard from his unit since the fighting began. He’s most likely dead. We’ve been able to contact almost every clone legion since Order 66 ended. The 212th was not one of them. I suggest you let it go.”

“Kark off, Fox,” Rex interjected. “Did you come out of your tube with a stick up your ass? We know out of all the clones Cody is most likely still alive. Just give out another call for the general.”

“Thank you, Rex, but it seems Commander Fox may be correct and I should just let it go.” Ahsoka watched the jedi master wipe away a tear from his cheek. She tried to back away as this was not her place to be, but Obi-Wan saw her. “Ahsoka, how are Anakin and Padme?”

“They’re doing well, Master. Are you okay? Are you still looking for Cody?” She asked. 

He smiled warmly, but she saw the pain behind his eyes. “I’m hoping for the best, but it may be futile. As a jedi, and as a friend–” 

Fox snorted a laugh. Rex glared at him. 

“I must be prepared for the worst outcome.”

“I hope you find him, Master Obi-Wan. Cody was amazing.” She gave an encouraging smile. 

“Me too, Ahsoka.” The pain was still in his eyes when he smiled, but it was sincere. “I’m sure the room is done if you would like to go to sleep. I can stay up until all of them are finished.”

Ahsoka used his words as her way to leave the conversation and walked back down the darkening hallway. She glanced into Anakin and Padme’s room where they were talking quietly to each other, each of them holding a baby. When she reached the bed in the bright room made up for her, she turned off the lights and shut the door before falling into a dreamless sleep.

***

Obi-Wan sat on his medical bed and stared aimlessly at the wall. He had cried over Cody enough tonight. He had tried to contact him several times all in vain. 

“Cody, my dear,” the jedi said desperately into the quiet, sterile air. “Where are you?” 

Obi-Wan tried to reach out with the force, but it was futile. He tried to busy himself instead feeling restless. In a hospital wing that was already pristine, there was nothing for him to do, so he stripped down to his undertunic and leggings and laid on the cot. Obi-Wan tried meditation earlier in the evening to no avail. Eventually, he used the force to turn the lights off. Frivolous use of the force as Cody would say, but he wasn’t here. For the first time in many nights since the start of the Clone Wars, Obi-Wan’s battle weary bones were able to rest, yet he stayed tossing and turning waiting for sleep and for his commander.

Chapter Text

Falling off the side of a cliff wasn’t how Cody thought he would spend the battle, but never one for getting what he wants, he fell several feet probably to his untimely demise, and it was all the general’s fault. Seriously, Cody thought as he fell, how hard is it to keep your weapon on you? When he got pushed off the edge, he had just caught the general’s falled lightsaber two inches from the edge when some clanker fell from one of the higher ledges and pushed him over the side. The battle above fell farther from view until he landed on the dusty ground. Pain shot through both of his legs and on the back of his head. He knew that if he screamed out in pain, some droid would hear him and finish him off. He gripped the general’s lightsaber in his hand as a way for his last defense. 

His comlink flashed. He tried everything he could to stay awake, but between the pain and his fatigue from battle he barely heard the blue figure’s words. The only words he could make out before losing consciousness was his name and the word execute.

“Commander? You all right? Took quite a spill there.” One of Cody’s brothers asked as they shook his shoulder. 

“Wha–?” When the commander tried to open his eyes, pain shot through his visor. 

“Don’t worry, Commander. Once medical gets here, we’ll get you back to the ship and try to get word to other units. Comms stopped working a few hours again. Don’t know why.” Cody knew his brother’s well enough to know that it was Gregor by his side. 

“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Cody said meekly. “Where’s the General?”

Gregor drew in a sharp breath. “About that, we don’t know. He was joining the fight, but we haven’t heard from him since you last saw him. We were hoping he would be here. We don’t think he’s dead either though.”

The small bit of relief he felt was no match for the fear that ran through him. Crys, their medic, began barking orders at the other soldiers to get Cody on a stretcher and to their ship.

***

Rex was within an inch of chucking his comm at the durasteel wall just to see what would happen. Fox may have been okay with accepting Cody’s death, but Rex wasn’t. Rex couldn’t lose him, much like he couldn’t lose Anakin or Ahsoka. Cody was family. Cody was also half of the kriffing reason that the clones were treated better than they had at the beginning of the war. Most of his brothers thought it was Rex, he did all the talking, but it was Cody who formulated the plans. He wasn’t ready to lose him. He wasn’t a jedi who could just let it go. 

The captain was about to give up waiting and turn in for the night when the small comlink in his hand lit up with hope. He had never been so happy to hear its trill. 

“Rex.” Gregor looked distraught and battle weary. “Where are you? Who is Darth Vader? What the hell is going on?”

“I’ll explain when you get here. Sending coordinates now.” Rex punched a button on his vambrace. “Is the commander with you?”

“He is. Definitely seen better days, but Crys is treating him. These coordinates… do you have a medic there? A lot of our men need treatment.”

“We do, and Gregor?”

“Yes, sir?”

“Tell your men, we won.”

Chapter Text

Anakin stood with Obi-Wan outside of the operating room as they waited for Cody.

“You know, Master, pacing won’t make them finish any sooner.” Anakin stood still with his eyes closed in the hallway meditating. He could feel waves of anxiety coming off of his former teacher through the force.

“I don’t know what else to do,” came Obi-Wan’s reply. 

“If it comes down to it, you must be prepared to let him go,” Anakin said calmly. Obi-Wan was the epitome of the jedi code. If the younger man was being honest with himself, he was still trying to prove that he was a good teacher and, despite all of his faults, at least half of the jedi that Obi-Wan taught him to be. 

“Like you did with Padme?” Obi-Wan shot back.

Pulled from the calm sway of the Force, Anakin’s eyebrows raised into his hairline. “I’m sorry?”

“Nevermind.” He could tell something wasn’t right.

“Tell me what it is?”

“Get off the high ground, Anakin. You have no room to talk about letting go,” Obi-Wan yelled.

Fine. If he wanted to play this game, Anakin would too. “Padme is my wife. She is the mother of my children. Cody is just your commander.” 

“I care for him, Anakin. Am I not allowed?”

“You are, but jedi don’t have attachments. You are better than I am.”

Obi-Wan scoffed. “You think I don’t have attachments? You don’t think that I spent every hour here worrying that the man I lo– my commander was dead in a ditch somewhere and I didn’t even get the chance to say goodbye?”

“Okay, okay.” Anakin held his hands up in defense. “I’ll drop it.”

“Thank you.” He was grateful that his former padawan dropped the subject quickly. He did not need to explain that he did, in fact, have romantic feelings for his commander. Not only would that be a gross abuse of power, but Anakin would never let him live it down. Besides, Cody would never see him that way.

Chapter Text

The night before they left Polis Massa was the night Anakin finally wished for sleep. The first two nights that his children were alive, he refused to sleep. It was only after Ahsoka and Rex promised to wake him if anything happened that he finally decided to let his exhaustion take hold. The third and final night of their stay, Anakin wanted nothing more than to fall into a dreamless haze. He was no longer on guard. His body finally felt what it should’ve felt like after everything he had gone through. His cot was comfortable and his children and wife were asleep, so why couldn’t he?

After tossing for so long, he decided he needed to walk the energy out. As he paced the dark halls, he let himself think about the war– mostly in the weeks leading up to this night. However, once he started, he couldn’t stop thinking. The first memory that came to his mind wasn’t about the war at all. 

He was fourteen when he went on an outing with the chancellor. He liked them. Growing up on Tatooine and with the Jedi, never allowed Anakin to explore a lot of the culture outside of his small circle unless it came to a diplomatic mission. These outings with the man gave him the opportunity to do so. It was night time when Palpatine had picked him up from the Temple. 

“Look what I built today!” Anakin beamed as he showed the older man his newly built lightsaber. 

“Anakin, that is amazing.” The chancellor smiled back. “I am so proud of you, my boy.”

Obi-Wan walked behind Anakin, greeting the politician. “Make sure he is back by midnight.”

“Of course, Master Kenobi, I wouldn’t dare keep him a moment later.”

Together Anakin and the chancellor rode in his personal speeder past the city lights. Even after being on Coruscant for five years, he still loved to watch the lights blur past him. 

“Anakin,” The chancellor began, “have you ever been to Coruscant’s lower levels?”

The padawan turned to face the older man. “No, sir.”

“I thought as much. It is not a place the Jedi would take you.”

“Obi-Wan mentioned it once.” Anakin shrugged. 

The chancellor’s tone shifted. “Oh? And what did Master Kenobi say?”

“Just that I shouldn’t go there.”

“Well, he surely meant that he didn’t want you going alone. You’re with me now.”

Anakin still felt uneasy about going to the lower levels. “Are you sure?”

“Of course, my boy. I would never harm you.” The chancellor smiled down at him. 

Anakin shivered at the memory. He didn’t have to think hard to remember what happened when he reached the lower levels. They walked into a bar where the owner seemed to know the politician, personally, so he looked the other way when Anakin was shuffled into the dingy space. He still could remember the smell of the place. It would take a week of showers, before Anakin felt clean after that night. They had been guided to a booth where a green Twi’lek woman sat. From that point, he had tried to block out most of the night including the woman’s hands on him.

Anakin watched as the lights blurred on the way back to the Temple. 

“Anakin, are you alright?” The chancellor asked. 

“Yes, sir.” Anakin mumbled back. 

“It is normal for humans to have feelings, Anakin. However, that is something the Jedi do not understand.”

He didn’t have to ask what the chancellor meant. The implication to not tell his master about this night was there. 

When they had reached the Temple, Obi-Wan had been on the landing platform waiting for him. 

“Did you have a good time?” Obi-Wan asked. He was smiling, but when he caught sight of Anakin’s face, it fell. 

“Yeah. Just tired,” the padawan lied. 

“Very well.” Obi-Wan fell in step with his apprentice. Anakin wanted him to push the subject. He wanted him to tug at the very thin shields he had on his mind, but he knew Obi-Wan wouldn’t do that. He knew that Obi-Wan had long given up on proding Anakin for information about his feelings. He also knew– deep down– that Obi-Wan trusted him to ask for help if he needed it. 

Anakin slumped against the wall of the hallway. His energy had fizzled and was replaced with guilt. How could I have let this happen to me? He thought. As he sat thinking about all of the times that he should have noticed Palpatine using him, he began to scratch at his flesh arm with the mechanical one. He wasn’t aware of it though, being too lost in his thoughts. Eventually tears began to prickle at the corners of his eyes and eventually fell as he thought about someone doing that to his son. When he let himself think about Luke and Leia and all of the destruction he caused, the tears started to flow silently. He knew he couldn’t be a good father no matter how much he wanted to be one. He was too vulnerable, too susceptible to the dark side. His family would only suffer. They didn’t need him. 

Anakin felt like he was suffocating. It was hot in the hallway. Though, he was pretty sure it was very cool a moment ago. He let the sway of the ocean guide him. 

“Anakin?” 

He was underwater.

“Anakin?”

The water was seeping out onto his clothes. He could feel the ocean taking him.

“Anakin?”

Chapter Text

Obi-Wan couldn’t sleep the night before they were to depart from Polis Massa. He had too many emotions to deal with. He began writing them down to make sense of what he was feeling and why. Anger– the boy he trusted killed so many people. Hope– the boy who fell was able to come back to the light, he had a niece and nephew, and the people he held dearest were alive. Sorrow. That was the emotion that Obi-Wan was struggling to put into words. He knew that he tried his best to raise Anakin, but also knew that his shortcomings were the reason that he fell in the first place. He also could feel the lack of light in the Force after the death of so many Jedi. The hardest reason for his sorrow as he wrote the list was the body that laid behind the glass window. Cody, his beloved commander, almost died. 

With the thought of Cody, so many other emotions appeared with it. He knew that he could never be with him, but was that still true? Obi-Wan didn’t know. The Order was in shambles, but the war was over. The Jedi who survived were able to revise the failings of the past. That all did not matter unless Cody saw him the same way. He knew that his chances were low, but there were moments during the war that made him wonder if his commander held the same attraction. 

As the Jedi watched over his commander, he wanted nothing more than for him to wake up and to be able to wrap his arms around him when he did. The Jedi needed to collect himself. He had been staring at Cody’s unconscious form for too long. He stretched and began to wander down the cold hallways to see if this place had a decent cup of tea somewhere. When he rounded the bend, he was caught by the sight before him. Anakin was slumped over against the metal wall as blood pooled around him. 

“Anakin?” Obi-Wan ran towards him, but got no response. “Anakin?” Once again, nothing. He looked underneath where the younger man’s hair fell across his face to see tears falling down. “Anakin?” As he scanned over him, he saw the blood was coming from his flesh arm. His mechanical hand was repeatedly scratching against the skin until it bled. He must have been sitting here for a while as the gashes were deep. Obi-Wan pried the metallic fingers away from the flesh. He tore part of his robe to try and stop the blood before he lifted Anakin. Since he wasn’t far from where he had left Cody, he alerted a medical droid of his former padawan’s injury. Once in the room, Anakin held a blank stare against the wall behind Obi-Wan’s head as the wound was stitched up. 

“So, you finally gonna yell at me?” Anakin asked, not meeting his former mentor’s eyes.

“Why would I?”

“Because of what I did. You should’ve killed me on Mustafar,” he replied matter-of-factly.

Obi-Wan’s heart fell into his stomach. He knew that Anakin felt remorse over what he had done, but to suggest his death was different. “You are my brother, Anakin. I could not have done that.” 

Anakin shrugged. “You would’ve. I would have if I were you.”

When the young man before him was just a boy, he would’ve pushed to ask how he was truly feeling. After failing so many times, he began to push less and less until one day he stopped. He trusted Anakin to come to him with his emotions. Like many things in the past few days, Anakin had broken that trust, so he pushed. “Is that what you were trying to do?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re trying to kill yourself.” Obi-Wan knew that he was putting it bluntly, but he didn’t know how else to talk about the subject, might as well get to the point. 

“I–”

“Don’t lie to me. I may have allowed you to keep your emotions hidden before, but not now.”

Silence followed. 

Finally, Anakin spoke, “I– I don’t know.” 

For the first time since he was a boy, Obi-Wan felt a little of the emotions through the Force that he kept so hidden. “Tell me how you got to the hallway.”

“Okay. I couldn’t sleep. I wanted to, but I felt restless. I decided to walk down the hallway for a bit so I would tire. Eventually, I started thinking and that’s when you found me.”

Clearly, Anakin was going to make this harder than it needed to be, but for once, Obi-Wan didn’t hold it against him. “So you were thinking? About what?”

“Just old memories.”

“Your mother?”

“No.”

“The chancellor?”

Anakin opened his mouth to protest, but he faltered and let it close. He fully avoided eye contact with Obi-Wan, confirming his suspicions. 

“How old were you?”

“Fourteen, I think.”

“Was it one of your outings with him?”

He hesitated before answering. “Yes.”

“Can you tell me about it?”

Anakin absentmindedly went to move his mechanical arm to scratch at the wound. He looked at Obi-Wan when he realized it was missing. “You took my arm?”

“It was a safety precaution. I didn’t want–”

The broken man on the hospital cot burst out laughing. “It’s okay. I just can’t believe I didn’t notice immediately. It was a good idea to take it though.”

“Do you do that a lot?”

“What?”

“Scratch your arm.”

Anakin shrugged. “I guess. I don’t really remember when I started it. It just sort of happens.”

“Does it ever get this bad?”

“Never. I always had the war give me enough injuries to keep this from happening.”

“What do you mean? ‘Enough injuries’?”

Anakin shrugged again. “I don’t really get it, but having a lightsaber burn or a wound helped to keep me grounded I think.”

Now that the air was lighter between the two, Obi-Wan steered the conversation back to Sidious. “So, what outing with the chancellor were you remembering?”

Taking a deep breath, Anakin began to tell him what he remembered. “I’ve tried not to remember a lot about it, but I remember parts of it. He took me to the lower levels. We were at this bar. I was dark. It smelled bad. The owner, I think, led us to a booth where a woman was sitting. We sat there for a bit before she moved to sit next to me. I think she had an agreement with him.”

Obi-Wan didn’t need Anakin to say who ‘he’ was. 

“She smelled like dead flowers. It was overwhelming. He said I could trust her. Then she began to…” a sob escaped from the young man’s chest. 

“Oh, Anakin.” Obi-Wan rushed to his side and placed a protective arm around his shoulders. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“He told me you wouldn’t understand.”

Obi-Wan’s frail heart fully shattered at that moment. His padawan, his brother, had been abused under his watch. 

Anakin continued. “I didn’t do anything to stop her, so it’s not like I’m completely innocent.”

Obi-Wan had enough. He gripped Anakin by the shoulders, forcing him to meet his eyes. “You are not guilty. The chancellor, that scum, took advantage of you. He abused you, Anakin. That woman too. You were a child. I am so sorry I didn’t let you feel safe enough to come to me.”

“It’s not your fault, Obi-Wan,” he replied nonchalantly between sobs. 

“Yes, it is. I had the full authority to deny the chancellor when he first asked. I was naive and didn’t see him for the evil that he was. I put you in danger.”

“I don’t blame you,” Anakin mumbled. 

“Don’t blame yourself either. Blame him .”

Chapter Text

When Cody opened his eyes, he knew something was wrong. His head hurt. That wasn’t new. There were bright lights above him which also wasn’t new. Then he realized it: no engines. He wasn’t on the ship anymore. He could hear the beeping of medical droids and equipment, but nothing for the gentle hum of the ship's engine. It was eerie without it. Cody tried to sit up, but hands forced him back. 

“Woah there, you took quite the fall.” It was Rex who had pushed him back onto the pillows.

“Rex, the hell are you doing here? Where are we? Where’s the general?”

“Calm down. Okay?”

Cody didn’t realize that he was fighting against his brother again. He let his muscles relax back onto the bed. “Okay.”

“What do you remember?”

“Catching the general’s lightsaber, then falling off of a clif is pretty much it. I remember that Gregor found me. A bit of the ship maybe? I don’t really know.”

“Okay, then. Guess I should start explaining.”

After his brother explained everything, how the war had been rigged, how there was a plot against the Jedi, how it was the chancellor all along, Cody’s stomach began to churn.

“So the longnecks, they put chips in us to aid in a Seppie plot?”

“That’s what I’m told.”

“Well, shit.” Cody shrugged. His whole life was a lie. His creation was seemingly meaningless, yet, he couldn’t help but find a bit of humor in it all. 

“Shit exactly.” Rex smiled back. 

The commander had long since given up trying to hide his morbid sense of humor with his closest brothers. “Where’s the general?” 

“General Kenobi is alive. He’s in Skywalker’s med room,” Rex explained.

“What happened to him?” Surely, the Jedi would have managed to keep himself safe during peacetime, but it was General Skywalker they were talking about. Anything could happen.

Rex’s face became stormy. “Do you remember Cyrus?”

Cody wracked his brain to remember the clone. There were millions of them, even though he was a genetic marvel, Cody was still a man. He shook his head.

“He was one of my men. Bright clone, but the war got to him. He saw the destruction we caused– the people we… Anyway, he started to question our duty. He began to blame himself for the death of his brothers. Eventually, we found his body in the weapons hanger. Kix told me afterwards, off the record of course, that Cyrus had been hurting himself for months.”

“What does this have to do with the general?” Cody asked. 

Rex sighed. “Codes, when I said Anakin stopped the chancellor, I was telling the truth. However, he still helped to kill thousands of his own–even tubies– because he fell for the lies of the chancellor. He thought he was helping, but he wasn’t. He sees that now, but not without a cost.”

The puzzle fell into place. “He’s in there because he’s like Cyrus.”

Rex nodded, solemnly. 

“Did Kix ever try to help him?” Cody asked. Though he never enjoyed Anakin’s presence, he didn’t want it to end. 

“I think so, but you have to remember that it was war. He didn’t want anyone to know. He didn’t want to be decommissioned.”

“In the end it’s the same outcome.” Cody pondered for a bit. “Who found him?”

“Cyrus?”

“No, Anakin.”

“General Kenobi.”

Cody let the information settle like dust. He didn’t speak when Rex eventually sat back down. Cody let his eyes glaze over and get lost in his thoughts. When he was far too deep in his own mind, someone knocked on the door, startling him. Rex let the visitor in. 

“General.” Rex greeted him as he nodded. 

“Captain, I’m sorry to intrude at such a late hour, but Anakin has kicked me out of his room.” Rex’s eyes grew wide. “Don’t worry, Rex, he is speaking with Padme about everything. Why don’t you get some rest? I can barely sleep, so I can watch over the commander for you.”

Cody watched as Rex was replaced by Obi-Wan. When he finally looked over at him, the Jedi drew in a sharp breath.

“Cody.” A smile grew across his face. “You’re awake.”

“Yes, sir.”

“No need for the formalities. Call me Obi-Wan.” Obi-Wan sat in the chair that was recently occupied by his brother, but instead of leaving it in its place, he moved it closer to the side of Cody’s bed. 

“Of course, si– Obi-Wan.”

“How are you?” The Jedi gently placed his hand on Cody’s wrist. Warmth spread from his touch through the rest of Cody’s body and straight into his heart. 

“I’ve been better. Nice to see a familiar face though.” 

Giving his wrist a slight squeeze, Obi-Wan said, “I’m so happy to see you alive, my dear.”

If his touch wasn’t enough, those words certainly did something to the clone. He had known about his feelings for his superior officer for several months now. However, according to Rex, he had been in love with the Jedi since he laid eyes on him. It became somewhat of a running joke between Cody’s brothers in which they tried to subtly mention his crush as much as possible during GAR briefings with the Jedi. Wolffe even got General Plo involved during one meeting. The Jedi seemed to find his situation quite funny for some reason. He knew they would never work. He even made a list one night about all the reasons that it wouldn’t work:

1. They were at war
2. Obi-Wan was his commanding officer
3. Jedi can’t form relationships
4. Does Obi-Wan even like men?
5. Legally Cody wasn’t considered a person

His list was perfect. He thought about it anytime he considered acting on his feelings like right here in this med-bay. Except now, the list wasn’t true. If Rex was correct, the war was over. If the war was over, that meant the top reason they couldn’t be together didn’t exist. Which, okay, fine. Cody thought as he revised his list. That still doesn’t mean there are still four good reasons that I can’t be with him.  

1. They were at war
2. Obi-Wan was his commanding officer
3. Jedi can’t form relationships
4. Does Obi-Wan even like men?
5. Legally Cody wasn’t considered a person

So he settled with his four good reasons as to why he can’t pull the Jedi into a searing kiss. He wanted to say kriff all and kiss the man, but he had four reasons.

Chapter Text

Padme watched her husband carefully as they began to board a shuttle to Coruscant. Though she had fallen back to sleep after their conversation, her mind was still reeling as she studied the information. Anakin had received his prosthetic arm back from Obi-Wan in the morning. With the death of the chancellor, Anakin had agreed to return to the planet so that Padme would be close to the senate and Obi-Wan. He tried to argue against it, but to no avail. 

“I still don’t see why we can’t take your ship back to Coruscant,” Anakin grumbled as he sat next to her. 

She chose not to give him a response as they had carried that conversation a hundred times over. “Ani, I want to discuss what I want to happen when we get home.”

“What’s there to discuss?”

Her lips pinched together. “You know what. Can we speak in another room?”

“But the kids…” Anakin protested.
“They are with Rex and Ahsoka. They will be okay.” Padme rested her hand on her husband’s shoulder as she rose to her feet. She led him to a smaller compartment of the transport near the escape pods. 

“Ani, when we get home, I want you to see a mind healer.” Padme started.

He attempted to smile. “Angel, I’m fine.”

She did not find her husband’s antics amusing. “You’re not. My love, you should not be ashamed of getting help.” 

“Padme, I promise you, I am okay.” Anakin tried to reassure her, but she knew it was a facade. 

“You– You tried to…” Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes as a lump in her throat grew. Looking to the ceiling, she attempted to regain composure. “Anakin, last night, you tried to kill yourself. That is not okay.”

“What are you talking about? I didn’t try to–”

“You did. Maybe not premeditated, but the outcome would’ve been the same had Obi-Wan not found you. I want to help you, my love, but I’m not a healer.” 

“I–” He started. Padme was prepared for anything that he could say about the subject. She knew of clinics they could go to. She knew of friends who were mind healers. Gods, she even went to one for many years.

“I don’t know,” He finally relented.

“Sit with me.” She motioned for them to sit. “What don’t you know?”

“I don’t know what they would do.”

“I’ve been to them. I could tell you to give you an idea.”

“You’ve been to one?”

Padme rested her head on his shoulder. “After the battle of Naboo, I started to meet with a woman to help me deal with the loss. Mind healers were common for the queens. I continued to meet with one when I became a senator and all. I still talked to one until recently.”

“Why didn’t you come to me?”

“This has nothing to do with me trusting you, Anakin. Sometimes it is nice to talk to someone who doesn’t play a part in my life. I love you, but your love can make you biased. Most of the time though, I need someone to help me create coping mechanisms. When things become too much for me, I can rely on mental exercises to help me balance,” She explained.

“Oh. That doesn’t sound horrible,” he said. “If I go, will you come with me to meet them?”

“Of course.” Padme kissed her husband’s cheek. She knew this was going to be a long road for the both of them. 

Chapter Text

Obi-Wan had offered to stay on the asteroid for another day so that Cody could heal, but he was starting to regret that decision. Being around the clone made his skin prickle, and much to the Jedi’s dismay, he was fully aware of why Cody’s presence caused him anguish. 

“General, can I ask you something?”

“Of course, Cody.” Obi-Wan sat across from the clone’s bed, watching him intently. 

“The war, is it really over?” 

“Yes. Granted there will be some uprisings here and there, but for the most part, it is over.” 

Cody didn’t look pleased with the answer. “So what about us?”

“I’m sorry?” Was Cody really asking about their relationship?

“The clones, I mean. What will happen to us?”

“Oh. Well, I suppose that the Senate will provide full rights to the clones as well as set up a way for you to live freely.”

“So we’re no longer at war.” It wasn’t a question. It was a statement. Cody continued, “Does this mean that you’re no longer my general?”

“Technically, no. I am no longer your superior. Why do you ask?”

Cody shrugged. “What’s going to happen to the Jedi?”

“I don’t know. I’ve only recently learned who has survived the Jedi purge. There are so few of us that we could barely be called an order.”

Cody waited expectantly for him to tell him who was still breathing. 

“I’ve learned that along with Anakin, Ahsoka and myself, Master Yoda, Depa Bilaba and her padawan, Kelleran Bac and a youngling that he saved all survived. However, many perished.”

“What do you think will happen now that Skywalker is married? I know the Jedi don’t really do relationships.”

Obi-Wan groaned. The Jedi let his head fall into his hands as he stared at the pristine tiles on the floor. “I never really liked that rule,” he said after a few moments. 

“What was that?”

“I never liked the rule banning relationships. It didn’t seem natural.” Obi-Wan looked up to meet Cody’s eyes. 

He huffed. “I never thought you were one for breaking rules.”

“I’ve had… relations over the years, always in secret, mind you, and I never let it

interfere with my work as a Jedi.” 

Cody mulled over the information in front of Obi-Wan. “Relations… as in…?”

“I was in love with the duchess of Mandalore as a padawan, even after I was in love with her to some extent. Most of the other ones were beings who attracted me. Rarely did they become more than casual dates and sex.”

“Have you ever wanted anything like Skywalker?” Cody asked. Obi-Wan wished it was easy to read his commander, but he had long given up on doing so. 

Obi-Wan sighed. “Constantly, but I had already committed to the Order. My life is the Jedi and I could never leave. Now that there is barely an Order to go back to… I don’t know what I want. The war– the war changed some things for me.”

“Like what?”

Like you . Obi-Wan wanted to say. Instead he answered, “I started to question the council and what we were really doing in a war. I questioned why we used life forces to fight droids. I suspected Anakin had some relationship with the senator. I planned on telling him that I did not care if he had a relationship with her or not. I even did research on the ancient Jedi.”

“There’s ancient Jedi?”

Obi-Wan’s face lit up. Growing up in the temple meant learning all subjects but his favorites had been history and linguistics. “Thousands of years ago there were ancient Jedi called Jed’aii Rangers. These rangers had families and relationships with other beings. I don’t understand why we stopped this way. Surely if we stayed like this then Anakin wouldn’t have almost fallen.”

“Interesting.”

“So what about you?”

“What about me?”

“What are you going to do with the war over? Have your eye on someone?” Obi-Wan teased. He felt more at ease talking to his commander. It was like they had been during down time on the ship. 

Cody’s demeanor changed. No longer was he smiling easily as he had before, but now his face fell. “I don’t know.”

“You’re telling me there isn’t anyone who hasn’t caught your eye?” he laughed.

“Drop it, Obi-Wan.” He glared sternly at the general. 

Obi-Wan’s heart fell back to his stomach. It wasn’t sitting there because he was nervous, but now because he had hurt Cody and couldn’t figure out why. 

Chapter Text

Kriffing hells. Cody thought. Why did he have to stay here? Obi-Wan deciding to stay with the clone had really bothered Cody. Why couldn’t he stay away for once? He knew why. He hated that he did. It was because Obi-Wan cared for all his men. What made it worse was that the war was over and Obi-Wan was officially not his superior anymore. That made Cody’s important list of four reasons he couldn’t be with the general into three. 

1. They were at war
2. Obi-Wan was his commanding officer
3. Jedi can’t form relationships
4. Does Obi-Wan even like men?
5. Legally Cody wasn’t considered a person

Still, he had three good reasons to not be with the general. Even though Obi-Wan has been in relationships before, that doesn’t mean that he would continue it. He had told him as much when he said that he would never leave the Jedi Order for someone. That meant that Cody’s suffocating emotions towards the ginger man couldn’t remain. They would be back on Coruscant in a few more days and then he would be able to get as far away from the general as possible. 

Much to Cody’s dismay, this is exactly the opposite of what happened. 

“Really, general– sorry, Obi-Wan– I don’t need to stay here.” 

Obi-Wan helped guide Cody’s hoverchair down the halls of the Jedi temple. He flapped his hand in a dismissive way. “Nonsense. You are my friend and you have nowhere to go. I would feel horrid if I were to send you back to Kamino to heal. Please, it is the least I can do.”

He knew that the Jedi only really wanted to help, but staying in his quarters was another issue. However, Obi-Wan was right. It was either here or Kamino with the long necks. If Cody never had to see another one again for as long as he lived, he would die a happy man. Obi-Wan hadn’t left his side since they had landed on the planet. As they continued towards the Jedi’s quarters, Cody took into the black scarring on the temple’s walls. Some of his best men were part of this horror. It made his skin crawl. 

“I hate it too,” Obi-Wan said into the silence. 

“Things will get better,” Cody tried to help. 

Obi-Wan huffed in response. “Here we are.”

The door in front of him slipped open. It wasn’t unlike his barracks aboard the Venator class ship, however, there was more of Obi-Wan in the room. There were threadbare blankets piled in a corner next to a well loved sofa. On the opposite side of the small main room, there was a kitchen. It was slightly larger than the one the former general had been granted during the war, but what caught Cody’s eye first was the large collection of glass jars lining one of the walls. 

“What?” he breathed out. Cody was more amazed by the size of the collection than anything else.

Obi-Wan stepped out from behind the hover chair and into Cody’s view. It looked like the general was blushing. “My tea collection. I have tea from almost every planet I have been to– not counting the ones during the war of course. Would you like some? I know you really only drink the shit caf that the GAR provided, but I’m sure I can find a blend that might suit you.” Obi-Wan began taking the glass from the shelves and reading the labels. Cody laughed at the sight of his frazzled jedi. 

“What?” Obi-Wan whipped around. 

“Nothing.” Cody stifled another burst of laughter. “I just– I’ve never seen a place that was so you.”

“Oh.” The man in front of him grew to an even darker shade of pink before turning back to the jars. “I… um… thank you.” The air was charged. Cody’s heart pounded in his chest. A beat, then “I think you would like this blend.”

Cody shook his head in disbelief at his jedi. “I’ll try anything once, but I probably will still hate it.”

“Oh that blend from Cato Neimoidia was an acquired taste. I promise you’ll love this.”

“Whatever you say, Obi-Wan.

Chapter Text

Anakin paced around the twins’ room for what was probably the third time that night. He had stopped returning to his wife in bed after the second time. Leia was swaddled soundly in his arms as he waited for her to drift back to sleep. He expected to feel tired. Logically, he knew he should be tired, but the war changed him. He had always been a creature of the night, but during the war he became a habitual insomniac. It got to the point where he would go whole cycles without sleep and when he finally did find solace in the darkness, it would be haunted by the nightmares of losing his family. 

He smiled down at the bundle below him. Leia’s tiny fist was curled tightly as she slept. As he placed her gently in her bassinet, he was never more thankful for his skills in the Force. After exiting their room, he moved to sit on the balcony overlooking the city. The constant hum of the speeders passing by lulled him into a meditative state. He allowed himself to be transported back to Tatooine. The constant noise of Coruscant speeders were vastly different from those in Mos Espa, but the engines were all the same. 

“Ani,” Padme’s soft voice pulled him from his trance. 

“Padme, what are you doing out here? You should be in bed.” He held out his arm inviting her to sit with him. He wrapped his thin outer robe around her shoulders as she pressed her cheek to his bare chest. 

“I sleep better when you’re with me.”

***

Comfortable silence fell around the senator and her husband. “Credit for your thoughts?”

“Hm?” Anakin sounded. 

His eyes were in that far world that Padme wished she could enter. She picked her head from where it had been resting near his heart. “Ani?”

The fog cleared from his eyes. “Yes?”

“Thinking about anything in particular?”

He sighed. “Tatooine. The Senate. Me.”

The senator wracked her brain for something she had learned in therapy until she grasped onto the idea. “What about Tatooine?”

“Nothi–” Anakin started then he found Padme’s watchful eyes. His expression shifted and became more relaxed. “I was thinking about the sound of the engines. I remember we used to have a lot by our home. It sounds the same.”

“And the Senate?”

“I’m worried.” He stated.

She wanted to prod deeper. Her mind healer told her that the first part in addressing the anxiety was stating it. “Worried about what?”

“Um, mostly the election. Someone good has to win. Someone who has the people’s best interest at heart.”

“I hope they do. I can only vote for who I believe to be best.”

“I don’t know what politicians to trust anymore, besides you of course.”

“Well, I know that Bail Organa is a contender as well as Mon Mothma, the senator from Chandrilla. I trust them with my life. We worked together on our delegation.”

“What delegation?”

Shit. Padme thought. It wasn’t like she was never going to tell her husband about her work with the Delegation of Two-Thousand, but what she had been doing was essentially treason. He was loyal to the Republic, and she didn’t want him to see her as a threat.

Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she explained, “Bail and I started a delegation of senators to bring terms of impeachment against the chancellor. What he had been doing with his emergency powers was illegal according to the senate charter.”

“That’s good.”

“What?”

“That’s good. He was breaking the law.”

“And you? What were you thinking about?”

“I was thinking about the mind healer. I was going to speak with Obi-Wan about it. I don’t know who to go to.”

Padme let her head settle back near his collar bone, listening to his heart drum a steady beat. “And you’re okay with going to see one?”

“I don’t like it. I don’t fully agree with it, but you’re right.” Anakin planted a kiss on her head and pulled her closer. Together they drifted off to the land where dreams waited for them.

Chapter Text

The stench of dying filled the air. All around him, he could see the fog rising among the greenery. His bones felt heavier than they had in days. Mud from the morning’s rain caused his boots to sink into the ground. 

“There’s a unit of clankers coming in from the south,” his comm informed him.

“Thank you lieutenant.”

Blaster fire and blood filled the air as another unit of droids approached. It was terrifying. He never told his men that he was scared shitless in moments like this. If he believed in the Maker, he would be on his knees praying too many times to count. This war had dragged on too long. As a droid aimed towards him, something flew over him and towards the epicenter of the mele. 

“No!” He tried to scream. Men screamed before him as chemicals burned through their blacks. They tried to shake whatever gel had been inside the explosive that coated their armor in vain. The fabric and armor melted away, falling off in long strips as it took the troopers’ skin with it. Blood poured as the men before him screamed in agony. He couldn’t help but stare at the sight. Droids and men were desecrated but droids could be built, these were lives. Instinctually, he tried to run, but his legs were stuck in the mud, watching the horror before him. 

“Hey, look at me. Come on. Look at me,” a voice out of his view pleaded.

Cody’s eyes shot open to find Obi-Wan kneeling next to him on the bed. 

“Cody? Look at me,” the Jedi frantically spoke.

The commander tried to sit up, but found that he was in too much pain. “What? What’s going on? Where am I?”

Trying to calm him, the Jedi placed his hand on his shoulder and rubbed a comforting path with his thumb. “You’re on Coruscant. You are in my room. You are safe. The war is over, you just had a nightmare.”

“Over?” Cody asked, mind still racing with the images of his brothers’ deaths. 

“Yes, my dear, over. It has been for months.” Obi-Wan moved to sit rather than kneel over Cody. He was so close, he could feel the heat radiating off of the other man. Obi-Wan was careful as he extended his legs, making sure that he didn’t accidentally graze his injury. Obi-Wan’s comforting touch on his left shoulder was replaced on his right as he extended his arm behind Cody’s head. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” the Jedi asked.

Cody swallowed the lump in his throat. “I’m okay.”

“You are allowed to discuss the war with me, my dear. I was there too.”

“No, no.” He shook his head furiously. “I’m okay, really. Just a bad dream.”

Obi-Wan shuffled closer so that they were touching. “You are not a droid, my dear. You are allowed to feel things, even fear.”

“I know, sir.”

Obi-Wan fixed him with a friendly glare upon hearing the formality. 

Cody smiled. “I know, Obi-Wan.”

“Do you mind if I stay for a bit? My sofa is quite uncomfortable.”

“I told you I could sleep there,” He replied sarcastically.

In the darkness, the Jedi’s lips quirked up into a smile. “Yes, I know, but you wouldn’t have healed as quickly.”

“I’m a clone, si– Obi-Wan. I already heal faster than the average human. Plus, you’ll get your bed back soon enough. I get my casts off tomorrow.”

Obi-Wan yawned. “We’ll discuss sleeping arrangements tomorrow.”

Cody rolled his eyes at his Jedi. “Whatever you say.”

As Cody drifted back to sleep, he realized that he was quite literally falling asleep in the man’s arms. If his life wasn’t some cruel cosmic joke, he would’ve been sure that this was a sign. As his eyes grew heavy again and all the images of his brothers’ deaths were banished from his mind, he reviewed his list of reasons why he couldn’t fall for Obi-Wan.

1. Jedi can’t form relationships
2. Does Obi-Wan even like men?
3. Legally, Cody wasn’t a person

***

“Codes, the general likes you,” Rex chuckled as he listened to Cody relive the previous night's events. In front of the former commander, a healer with a metal saw cut through the hard plastoid casts. 

“Of course he does, we are friends.” Cody shrugged.

Leaning against one of the yellow walls of the healer’s office, Rex fixed him with a glare. “You know that’s not what I meant at all. General Kenobi has feelings for you, vod’ika.”

“No he doesn–”

“Think about it: he stayed with you on Polis Massa, he invited you to live with him, and just last night, you fell asleep in his arms.”

“One, there was no one else to stay with me. Two, there was nowhere else to go. Three, it was a coincidence.”

“Cody, I told Kenobi I would stay with you. There are literally hundreds of vacant rooms at the Temple– like the one I’m in. Why would he do all of this if he didn’t have an inkling of a hint of affection for you.”

The healer sat back on her chair as Cody’s second cast clattered to the floor. 

“Done,” she said. “You healed well. I want you to use the chair when needed as your muscles have atrophied and you’ll need to go to physical therapy to reach full recovery, but other than that, you are healed.”

“Thank you.” Cody reached out, shaking her hand.

“For the record,” she started, “I think your friend is right. If I continued thinking like you did, I would’ve never married my wife.”

Rex snorted. “Did you hear that? I’m right.”

The healer helped to place him back in the hover chair and sent him and Rex out the door.

Chapter Text

Obi-Wan sat surrounded by the only few surviving members of the Jedi order. 

Anakin sat to his right as he said, “All I’m saying is that Jedi should be allowed to love. We are told to be compassionate. We are told to love, yet when it comes time to do it, we are told that attachment is forbidden. You can not feel any empathy for a creature unless you have some form of an emotional attachment to the being. Master Yoda, the Jedi had become so apathetic– so detached from the reality of the galaxy– that the idea of being minutely attached was forbidden. It is at the core of the Jedi to love. Why must we love when we are forbidden to create a connection to care?”

“Understand you, I do, but turn to the darkside also you did. Because of your attachment this was. Think it wise to bring others to the brink of falling do you?” The small green alien replied. 

“I… um…” Anakin stuttered.

Obi-Wan was tired of this banter. It had gone on like this for months. Ever since the war ended, the idea of how the order should proceed had been a debate. 

Sighing, Obi-Wan spoke up, “I think what Anakin is saying is right. Are we not at all to blame for him going to the brink? What you say, Master Yoda, is true, but he was manipulated by the Sith lord that we were too blind to see.” Anxiously, the older Jedi continued, “While I think that attachment should remain forbidden, the idea of it must be changed. We must dissuade young Jedi from becoming so attached to one person that they lose sight of their mission, but to ban all attachment as it was before? That is insanity. I have been attached to people before. I– I still am, but my connection to them makes me a better man– a better Jedi. However, my work with the order has always been my top priority. If this model is taken up, then I do not see why we need to strictly forbid relationships among the Jedi.”

“Think more on this I will. Session adjourned.” Master Yoda hopped down from his small council chair and hobbled away. 

Obi-Wan stood and stretched. His bones were weary and his joints cracked, but he had gotten better sleep with Cody last night than he had in months on the sofa. The sun was beginning to set outside of the council chambers. The whole planet was turned from its usually silver tone to a golden landscape set ablaze. 

“Do you think he’ll ever give this up?” Anakin asked next to him. 

“Gods, I hope so.”

“Thanks for what you said for me back there.” Anakin collected his robe that had sat next to his chair. 

“I didn’t say it for you.” It wasn’t meant to be rude, just matter-of-fact, however Obi-Wan saw how his words hit the younger Jedi. He sighed. “Anakin, that’s not what I meant. I just meant that I wasn’t just saying it for you. I was saying it because I also want the rules banning attachment to change.”

Anakin’s face brightened with curiosity. “Really?”

They exited the council chambers that led into a long hall. In the months since the war, the temple had begun to see improvements. The clones offered to help the remaining Jedi try to fix what had been broken during the purge. Obi-Wan had tried to tell them that they didn’t need to do any more, but they refused. Rex eventually explained that some men, especially his men, felt guilty for their role in the desecration of the Jedi temple. Despite trying to reassure them it wasn’t their fault and therefore they didn’t need to do anything, Obi-Wan failed. Around him and his former padawan, clones painted the columns that had been scorched with blaster fire admiring their handiwork. 

“Yes, really,” he replied. “I want things to change.”

“Not because of your old girlfriend?” Anakin teased as he nudged Obi-Wan’s shoulder.

“Satine and I had outgrown each other, but attachment doesn’t always mean romance. I am attached to you, Anakin. Why do you think I piloted your pregnant wife– who you shouldn’t have had in the first place– to the Mustafar system and managed not to cut you down limb by limb if I wasn’t somewhat attached to you?”

“Aww. Obi-Wan, are you saying that you love me?” Anakin teased further. He placed his mop of brown curls on his shoulder and looked up at his former master with tooka eyes. 

With a quick shove of his shoulder, Obi-Wan managed to get Anakin off. “Of course I am, you dikut .”

“Woah, watch your language, old man.” Anakin held his hands up in mock offense.

“Who are you calling an old man?”

Anakin shrugged. “I’ll race you to the training rooms,” he said before taking off. 

“Anakin! Wait!” Obi-Wan ran after him.

“Old man!” Anakin called back. 

Chapter Text

Padme yawned as she sat at her desk. It was one of the first days she had been in the Senate since giving birth to the twins, and she wanted nothing more than to go home. However, returning to the apartment she lived in meant going back to where there would inevitably be two very loud children as well as her equally as hyper husband waiting for her. The bill in front of her began to shift as she tried to focus on the text, reading it over and over. 

She groaned before dramatically resting her head on her desk.. “I give up.” 

While the senator debated whether or not to power through the document or to go home, a knock sounded on her door. 

“Come in,” she said without looking up from where she rested. “Bail, if this is about the ‘Free Ryloth’ movement, I still don’t have an answer. Just because you’re chancellor now do–”

Padme was face to face with, not the former senator from Alderaan, but rather Riyo Chuchi. Senator Chuchi had been elected to represent one of the moons of Orto Plutonia at the start of the war. Padme had spoken to her a few times, usually at political gatherings, but never truly one on one.
“Senator Chuchi, I’m so sorry.” Padme smiled sheepishly. “I thought you were Ba– Chancellor Organa.”

“No worries, Senator. It has been a long day and I’m sure coming back from leave isn’t easy.” The young woman smiled. “I was wondering if I could speak with you about a bill I would like to propose.”

“Go ahead.”

“I want to propose a bill to give the clones full sentient rights. I know you are close with a few of them, and I was wondering if I could count on your help?” She wasn’t asking Padme for her support as most senators did. She was asking for help constructing the bill. 

Padme smiled at her determination. “Of course, and please, call me Padme from now on.”

“Of course. Call me Riyo.” The girl looked to be bursting with excitement. “I was thinking that first we would gather a few more sen–”

“Riyo, dear, would you be able to meet to discuss this in the morning?” Padme admired the girl’s excitement, but the idea of discussing more legal logistics intensified her growing headache.

A bit of the spark behind her eyes died. “I’m sorry. I’ve never proposed anything this big.”

“It’s not you, I’m just exhausted. You are doing everything right. If you’ll excuse me?”

“Of course.” Riyo nodded her head before leaving. 

Within only a few minutes of the young senator leaving, Padme was boarding a speeder back to her home. When she arrived, she was surprised to see that the inside was dark. She had expected Anakin and the twins to be running around when she arrived home. Instead, she found that there was a path of soft light leading her from the doorway to the fresher. 

“May I take your coat?” Anakin asked.

Padme jumped as she hadn’t realized that he had been standing there, but let him guide her heavy outer layer off of her shoulders. “Where are the kids?”

“Luke and Leia are with Cody, Obi-Wan, Rex, and Ahsoka for the night.” He replied, snaking his arms around her center. She let herself lean into him.

“All night?”

“Yes, all night. It is a special night after all.”

Now this confused her. As far as she could remember, it was just another day. She spun around in his arms. “What is it?”

A smile tugged at Anakin’s lips. “Our anniversary, Angel.”

“How could I forget?” Padme replied. She was shocked to say the least. 

“Don’t worry.” Her husband pulled her in close. “I didn’t remember until this morning after you left. Too much has happened this year. That’s why I prepared you a bath with all your favorite things. I’ll be working on some modifications for Rex while you relax. Whenever you’re ready we’ll order from Little Niamos and watch a holo. How does that sound?”

“Have I told you how much I love you?” Padme was ready to cry at just the proposition of their night.

“I wouldn’t mind you telling me again.”

Padme rolled her eyes at her husband before pulling him into a searing kiss. 

Chapter Text

Obi-Wan sat across from his commander as they ate in silence. 

“I think I’m going to move out,” Cody said, breaking the silence. 

Obi-Wan’s fork clattered to his plate. “I’m sorry?”

Cody shrugged. “My casts are off. Ahsoka and the other Jedi are helping some of my brothers set up a home here in the temple. Plus, what happened last night won’t have a chance to happen again if I’m gone.”

“What do you mean?”

Cody’s eyebrows knit together. Surely, Obi-Wan knew what happened. “What do you mean?”

“What happened last night?”

“Um…” Cody rubbed the back of his neck. He had spent most of his day trying to scrub the memory of their night together from his memory. “We slept together?”

“We’ve slept together in the field before.” Obi-Wan shrugged again.

This man was infuriating. “Not like we did last night.”

Obi-Wan remained silent at the table. Cody waited for a response but received none. 

“I can’t be sleeping in the same bed as my commanding officer,” Cody said as anger began to rise in him.

Obi-Wan shook his head. “I’m not your CO anymore.”

“That doesn’t matter.” Cody shook his head bitterly. 

“And why not?” Obi-Wan’s blue eyes pierced him harder than a blaster wound ever did. 

“Because.”

“Because why?”

Because I think I’m falling in love with you , but he could never say that. Instead he chose, “Because you should be free to have your own bed back without me there.”

“I suppose, but– and if I’m being honest here– I quite liked having you there.”

And little gods, if that sentence didn’t go straight to his heart… Cody didn’t know how to respond. Truly, how does one respond to a wonder like Obi-Wan Kenobi? He decided to remain with Obi-Wan until he was more mobile. The blasted jedi had even convinced him to stay sleeping on the bed so that he could heal more. 

That night, Obi-Wan helped Cody walk around the bed and use his legs to climb onto it. Cody curled under the covers and then saw Obi-Wan climb in after him. He hoped that Jedi couldn’t hear heartbeats because Cody’s was racing. Once Obi-Wan had settled, he used the force to turn the lights off. There was still a wide chasm between both men on the bed, so even though he’d much rather be on the couch, he accepted two truths: one, Obi-Wan deserved to sleep in his own bed now that Cody was healed, and two, he didn’t want to put Cody on the couch. Cody turned on his side to face away from the jedi. His mind raced with what was happening. Obi-Wan was only inches from him, yet he may as well have been lightyears away. As sleep began to take a hold on him, he heard the jedi whisper into the dark. 

“Please don’t go, Cody.”

He turned to find the ginger haired man facing him with tears in his eyes. 

“Sir?” Cody whispered back.

“I don’t want you to leave.” A tear slipped down his face and left a darker spot on the grey sheets where it had landed.

Cody reached out and wiped the damp freckles. “It’s okay, Obi.”

“Obi?” Obi-Wan smiled at the nickname. Cody could feel his cheeks burning and physically turning a shocking shade of red. Another tear fell near his thumb and wiped it off of the other man’s cheek. 

Cody felt the blood rush to his face. “I– Um…”

Obi-Wan leaned into where Cody’s hand rested on his cheek. 

“I have to ask you something, Cody.”

Cody’s throat ran dry, but he powered on. “Of course, Obi. What is it?” 

Obi-Wan shifted so that he was propped up by his elbow. The window allowed for lights of passing speeders to be seen. The glow of Coruscant outlined Obi-Wan’s features in the darkness making him look like the most beautiful creature. 

Taking in a breath to seemingly steady himself, Obi-Wan began to ask his question. 

That’s when they heard the shouting.

Chapter Text

It was a peaceful night at the Skywalker-Naberrie apartment when it happened. It wasn’t anything new for Anakin to have mystical dreams of the Force, but this one had been different. He was back on Mortis with Ahsoka and Obi-Wan. The events of the mission folded out in the same way that they had lived it until the end. The Son ran to the Father in an attempt to kill him and this time, he succeeded. The keeper of the balance of the light and dark sides of the Force lay dead at his son’s feet. 

Anakin ran towards the Son. Lightsaber at the ready to bring him down, except when he went to drive his sword through the god, Anakin saw his own face. His scar was longer, deeper than he thought it was. His hair was as dark as night and his eyes… Anakin knew he had blue eyes, but now, they were as dark as gundark pits. 

“No, don’t let me die. It is not the Jedi way,” The Son pleaded. 

Anakin hesitated as his own familiar face talked back to him. The face flickered back to the Son’s and Anakin felt a stabbing pain in his gut. The Son’s blade went through the jedi. That was when Anakin Skywalker stopped breathing.

***

Padme ran alongside the stretcher that her husband laid on. Medical droids whirled around as she sprinted through the temple. People– jedi survivors and clones– began to find out what the commotion was at such an early hour. Before them, the “Hero-With-No-Fear” was still as a corpse while the Republic Senator from Naboo raced alongside his body in her dressing gown. Padme was sure that it was a sight to see at the early hours of the day cycle, but she wasn’t focusing on that right now. Anakin needed help. She needed to find her babies. They needed their dad. 

They reached the double doors that lead into the jedi medical center and tried to explain what was happening. However, she had no idea. 

“We were asleep, and he– he had a nightmare, I think. Then, he made this choking sound and stopped breathing. A MediDroid from the twins saved him and helped me bring him here. He still hasn’t woken up,” Padme said between sobs. 

“Is this new?” The droid asked her. It pointed to the dark veins coming from Anakin’s eyes and traveling down his arms.

“I-I don’t–” She gasped for air between her sobs. How could she not have noticed? “It was dark, and I didn’t– no. Wait, yes. They are new. He didn’t have them last night… Is he going to die?”

“We don’t know yet. Trust in the Force.” An elderly jedi placed her hand on Padme’s shoulder. “I have healed everything from Force induced mental illness to a loss of limbs. He is in the best hands. I think Master Kenobi is outside for you.”

Padme’s tears had slowed, but when she saw Obi-Wan waiting for her, they began again. He wrapped her in his cloak and let her tears wet his tabard all the way down to his tunic. 

“It will be okay, Padme.” Her friend kissed the top of her head. 

Suddenly, she shifted in his arms and looked up at him. Her heart pounded no more for fear of Anakin, but for her children. They were gone. Their father was dying and she lost her children. With wild eyes she asked Obi-Wan, “Luke, Leia, where–?”

“Hush, now. They are with Rex and Ahsoka. We had a whole team take care of them tonight. Come sit with me.” Padme followed the jedi to a bench. On the bench, she let herself once again be pulled into Obi-Wan’s side and under his cloak. 

“I’ll comm Rex and get him to bring the twins down.”

Padme could only nod in agreement. She tried to stare at the pristine white floor to stop the tears and to stop the nausea that threatened to take over her stomach. As she focused on the floor, the senator tried to understand where her mind was going. She couldn’t tell if she should ignore everything until they actually have bad news or if she should start planning for the worst case scenario. Despite her anxiety, her training as a politician kicked in. 

She remained next to Obi-Wan, but no longer with tears in her eyes. Padme let her mind go to a different place as she began to think of all the things she would need to do if Anakin died. She would step down from politics first. She would need to focus fully on the twins. However, she knew that the twins would always be too much to handle, especially if they inherited Anakin’s force abilities. She could move back home and be with her family. Sola was still living at home, but would be attending university soon. Padme figured that her and the twins could stay in her childhood bedroom until Sola went away for university, and then, the twins would move into her sister’s old room. Being with her parents and sister meant having help, but what if they were Force-sensitive. No one in her family had any of those abilities. What made the prospects of returning to Naboo harder, was that her parents didn’t know Anakin. They had met once, around five years ago when he was her bodyguard, but they never knew she was married. Hells, they had no idea she had been pregnant. They would barely understand who Anakin was to her. She would be met with pitiful eyes, not ones that shared her pain. 

On the other hand, staying in Coruscant meant doing this alone. She would need to work and wouldn’t have any help with the children. If either of them were force sensitive that would be amazing, but they wouldn’t be trained until they were a few years older. Her main grieving period would be spent with two infants, a shaky republic, and no one to be there for her. However, most of her friends and all of the jedi knew Anakin. Though they may not have known she was his wife, they would share in her grief. As she thought it through, Padme felt selfish for wanting to stay on Coruscant. Naboo was better for her children, but to leave Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, and- ultimately- Anakin’s resting place felt too hard. 

“Master Kenobi?” The elderly woman from earlier stood in the waiting area. “A word, please?”

“Of course, Master Nu.” Turning to Padme he said, “I’ll be right back. Rex and Ahsoka should be here soon. Try to get some rest.”

She looked past him towards Master Nu. “Is he–?”

“He is stable, senator,” she said in her clipped tone.

Obi-Wan left his cloak with Padme, allowing her to wrap herself in the comforting fabric. She leaned up against the arm of the bench as her mind began to worry. However, the tears and the adrenaline that ran through her body the last hour had left her body making it feel weary. Eventually, the exhaustion took over.

Chapter Text

Obi-Wan looked upon his former padawan. Black lines coated his skin. The force around him was chilling, almost cold. It was dark. 

“You sense it too,” Jocasta Nu commented next to him. 

“What happened to him?” Obi-Wan asked.

“I do not know.” She shook her head.

“It– It’s dark.”

“That I do know. Something from the dark side has taken the boy. In all my years, I have never known anything like this. It is ancient.”

“Is he really stable?”

“Yes… for now.”

***

Anakin woke up to stars. Entire systems looked to be just a touch away. Wherever he was, it was cold, but it was inviting. It was the inviting cold that Anakin imagined as a child on a desert planet. 

“Anakin,” a voice behind him said. 

The young jedi turned to face a man he had not seen since he was a boy. It was the man who changed everything for Anakin. The first person outside of his two person family that believed in him.

“Mister Qui-Gon. Sir, what are you doing here?” Anakin asked. Despite the years he had spent in the order, the way he addressed Qui-Gon Jinn remained the same as it had when they first met. “Where am I?”

“We call it the world between worlds.” Qui-Gon nodded towards the intersecting paths above their heads. 

“Between which worlds?”

“Life and death.” 

“Am I…?” Anakin couldn’t bring himself to finish the sentence. He couldn’t leave his children. 

“No, no. Not yet at least.”

“Why am I here? Who brought me here?” Anger bubbled inside the jedi’s chest. 

“Walk with me.”

Anakin trudged behind the older jedi as they passed windows to different events. Some of them he recognized, others he didn’t. He recognized battles won, rescuing Echo, laughing with Ahsoka. However, he stopped in front of one of the circular portals. A young girl stood in front of what Anakin could only assume was some sort of bounty hunter. If he knew better, he might’ve thought that the woman was Padme during the years they spent apart. 

“Governor Tarkin, I should have expected you to be holding Vader’s leash. I recognized your foul stench when I was brought onboard,” the girl spat out. 

Anakin chuckled at the scene. He had no idea who this girl was, but he knew that whoever she was, he would’ve liked her. 

“Anakin, come along.” Qui-Gon had stopped several paces ahead. 

Mesmerized by the image, Anakin stayed put. He felt like he knew her. 

“Anakin, now.”

“Sorry, sir.” Anakin bowed his head and hurried to reach his former master. 

***

Ahsoka had been reading through the archives for hours. Her eyes had stopped keeping things in focus a while ago, but she needed to save Anakin. Something about the way he looked in the medical center pulled at her mind. She had seen that patterning before. She knew that dark, cold feeling, but couldn’t place it. It was like her memory of the event had been locked away in a box and shoved deep down into her mind. 

“Any luck?” Rex plopped down on the other side of the long table. 

Ahsoka groaned before letting her head fall onto the wooden table. Anakin had been in medical for three days now without any idea on how to help him. At least nothing had changed since Padme brought him in.

“No,” she said looking up at him. 

“Brought you something.” Rex shoved something wrapped in a green cloth across the table. She pulled the string holding the shape and steam exited. Inside was warm flat bread with soup in a metal container. She opened the lid to the soup and found that inside was a vibrant red dish that she remembered from her childhood.

“Where did you find this?” Ahsoka asked, her eyes still on the food. 

“I have my ways… Okay, I actually just found this Togrutian place around the corner and thought it would help.”

“Force, you’re amazing.”

“Was that to me or the food?” Rex laughed.

Ahsoka shrugged as she tore a piece of the bread off and dipped it into the soup. “Both.”

“You want some?” She asked. 

“I’m fine, kid. I don’t really care for spicy things like some of the boys. So,” Rex started his expression becoming serious. “Do you have any idea on what it could be? Have you ever seen anything like it?”

Ahsoka sighed. “I wish. I feel like I’ve seen those lines before, but I can’t remember where.”

As if sensing her frustration, an owl sounded in the library. Animals rarely entered the temple, but with the war, it was more than likely that one had slipped in to create a home. Ahsoka’s eyes found the offender, but instead saw someone she recognized.

“Moirai?” she whispered in disbelief.

Rex turned to see what she was staring at. “You know that creature? Thought it was one of the wild ones that made it into the temple.”

Moirai cocked her head as if trying to communicate with Ahsoka. 

Suddenly, the padawan shot up from the table she had been studying and almost knocked over her meal. The lines. The dark. It all made sense now. 

“Rex!” She shouted. “I know what’s wrong.”

Chapter Text

“Master! Obi-Wan!” 

Obi-Wan turned to find Anakin’s padawan bursting into the med bay. A familiar creature followed in tow. When she reached him she gasped for air. 

“I know what’s wrong,” she said in between laboured breaths. “Well, I don’t know, but it’s connected to Mortis.”

Obi-Wan remembered where he had seen the bird that was now perched on Ahsoka’s shoulder. 

“This bird, she was the Daughter’s, correct?” he asked.

“Moirai. Yes.”

“What is she doing here?”

“I don’t know. I was talking to Rex and all of a sudden she appeared.”

Obi-Wan looked at Rex for confirmation.

Rex shrugged. “Bird’s been here since Skywalker got sick.”

Ahsoka whipped around to the man standing behind her. “She’s been here for three days? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Didn’t know she was important.”

Obi-Wan watched the two as they dissolved into a bout of bickering. 

“Either way,” he started, “she is here now. We know what we are dealing with.”

Obi-Wan turned to the elderly jedi at his side. “Master Nu, do you know anything about Mortis?”

“Only the stories of old. It would not be useful.” She paused, contemplating her next words. “You may find your answers in the first Jedi temple.”

The location of the temple was shrouded in mystery. Obi-Wan had spent years as a padawan obsessing over the ancient history of the Jedi. He knew that the true location of the first temple was yet to be discovered. Even the worlds that it is said to be on are not on any galactic star chart. 

“Master Nu, the location of the first temple is unknown. Anakin is my brother; I cannot let him die,” Obi-Wan pleaded. 

“Trust in the force you must, Master Kenobi.” A small green alien walked through the doorway and into the medical center. 

“Master Yoda, how am I supposed to find the temple if we don’t even know where in the galaxy they are located?”

“Guide you, the force will. Friend in the force you have here.” Yoda nodded towards Moirai who gave an approving chirp. 

It was set then. Obi-Wan would travel the entire blasted galaxy to find something– anything– that may lead to an answer. He would leave in the morning with Ahsoka and Moirai. Nodding his head to the two older jedi, Obi-Wan made his exit. Instead of returning to his quarters or to the archives to find more information, he commed Padme and informed her that he would be arriving at her apartment with news. 

***

Padme saw Obi-Wan’s speeder pull on the balcony as the sun began to set. She had waited anxiously for him to arrive with the information he alluded to. She knew that Anakin’s condition had not changed as she was to be the first person informed of the change. When Obi-Wan arrived, she ran into his arms. 

“What happened?” She asked. It had been three days without Anakin and she already felt as if she were drowning. Obi-Wan led her to her sofa where he began to inform her. 

“Did Anakin ever tell you about the Mortis gods?” Obi-Wan asked.

Padme shook her head. She knew that the jedi philosophy focused on the Force as a being, but nothing entirely tangible. 

“During the war, Anakin, Ahsoka and I were transported to a place called Mortis. I’m still not even sure if it is a real place, but when we were there, we met The Ones.” Obi-Wan took a breath before continuing. “The Ones are physical embodiments of the force. There was the Father, Daughter, and Son. The Son corrupted Ahsoka and caused her to fall to the dark side. Once he deemed her no longer useful, he killed her. His plan was to kill his father that represented balance. Instead, the Daughter stepped in front of the dagger and was killed. As she died, the Daughter gave her life force to bring back Ahsoka. The Father would use the dagger to kill himself and Anakin would kill the Son.”

Padme gasped. 

“The Father confirmed that Anakin was the Chosen One. We think that what happened on Mortis might be connected to what is ailing Anakin. Once Ahsoka reminded me of Mortis, the lines on his skin reminded me of the ones that were on Ahsoka when she fell. Somehow, I think that something– or someone– managed to try to corrupt him again.”

Padme’s throat was dry as she tried to speak. “But– but how? Why? He killed this Son person and Palpatine. You said he eradicated the darkside.”

“It seems that we have been deceived again.”

“Obi-Wan,” she started again. “I love you and the jedi, I really do, but please, I just want my husband back. I want this to be over.”

“As do I.”

Chapter Text

Obi-Wan sat in the co-pilot seat of his courier. Ahsoka sat in the pilot’s chair with Artoo behind her. 

“I really do hate flying,” the older jedi muttered. 

“Master, it’s really not that bad,” Ahsoka countered. “At least without Anakin.”

Obi-Wan cracked a small smile. “That is true.”

As they began to hover off of the ground and Obi-Wan’s inflight nerves began, the ships comm rang out. It was Rex.

“General, Commander, I think we found something that might help. I am running to the landing pad, don’t leave.”

Ahsoka immediately landed the craft. Obi-Wan’s stomach managed to lodge itself in his throat with the sudden movement. Moments later, the clone captain was at the ship's side. 

“We found this in the chancellor’s possessions,” he said. “Master Nu thinks it’s a compass. It may be able to help you.”

“Thank you, Captain.”  Obi-Wan nodded. 

“Yes sirs, and uh…”

“What is it Rex?” Ahsoka asked.

Rex cleared his throat before continuing. “Good luck. We all miss him.”

“Thank you, Rex.” Obi-Wan smiled.

Rex nodded before turning on his heel. 

When they situated themselves again for take off, Ahsoka spoke up. “Ossus, Master?”

Obi-Wan looked at the compass in his hand that pointed away from their projected trajectory. Something in his gut told him that this was the key to helping Anakin. 

“No,” he said. “Follow the compass.”

The pair found that the compass was attuned to different points in the hyperspace route so Ahsoka didn’t need to be constantly following the compass. The pair had spent a day on one of the few hyperspace lanes. They occasionally stopped to refuel or to get food. By the beginning of the next morning cycle, they had exited the lane near Kinyen and made another jump towards the Outer Rim. Their jump through hyperspace ended at Xala, just on the end of the Outer Rim. 

“The compass wants to keep going,” Ahsoka said.

Obi-Wan studied the star chart in front of him. They had entered the unknown regions and were officially in uncharted territories. 

“Follow the compass.” He instructed. 

“But Master, there’s no planet there.” She gestured to the map in front of her. 

“I know, but things can be forgotten. Do we have enough fuel?”

“Running low. We should refuel before heading out.”

“I agree.”

Obi-Wan and Ahsoka agree that they should land on the Outer Rim world of Batuu. Xala was a Wild Space planet and there was nothing in the archives about any civilization there. 

Once on Batuu, they landed at one of the many hangers in Black Spire Outpose. Obi-Wan and Ahsoka changed into flowing civilian clothes that allowed them to conceal their weapons easily. 

“So,” Ahsoka started as she appeared at Obi-Wan’s shoulder. “What’s the plan?”

“What do you mean? We need to refuel and get more supplies. In and out.”

“What if someone asks why we’re traveling?”

“Vacation.”

Ahsoka's face scrunched in disbelief. “Here?”

“Maybe it’s all we could afford?”

“Who am I to you?”

“I’m sorry?” 

Ahsoka shrugged. “If someone asks me who I am, do I say that I’m your adoptive daughter or something?”

Obi-Wan shrugged and shook his head in defeat. “Sure.”

As they walked down the ramp of their ship, Obi-Wan began to wish that he took the chance with Xala.

Chapter Text

Black Spire Outpost was packed shoulder to shoulder with all kinds of hustling from storefront to storefront. Ahsoka had never seen so many different kinds of people crowded together. 

“Master?” Ahsoka began to ask as she looked up at the older jedi.

“It’s Ben and you’re my daughter. We are traveling around the galaxy now that the war has ended. If anyone asks, your mother died during the war. You were only a few years old when your mother and I married. Understand?” Obi-Wan explained.

“Of course.” Ahsoka began to smile. “Looks like we did need a cover story after all.”

The older jedi rolled his eyes as he walked into the hanger’s maintenance office. The Nautolan behind the desk informed them that because of the influx of beings coming to the planet, it would take a few hours for them to refuel the ship. Ahsoka groaned when she heard it, but knew that it would be enough time to restock their supplies. After they restocked on the many supplies they needed, Obi-Wan led her into a small tavern. 

Despite its size, the tavern was packed wall to wall. Ahsoka spotted the one corner that wasn’t occupied and led Obi-Wan to the booth there. 

“So,” she started, “do you have any ideas where we are going?”

Obi-Wan shrugged, but kept his voice low. “There are some who believe that the first temple was on a planet in Wild Space. Some say that it was on Coruscant or another planet closer to the core.”

“What do you think?”

“I–”

Before Obi-Wan could respond, a Torgrutian couple approached their table. 

“Do you mind if we sit here?” the woman asked. “It is the only available seat.”

Ahsoka looked towards Obi-Wan before she nodded approvingly.

“Of course!” Obi-Wan said, much more enthusiastically than he had been before. “What brings you to Batuu?”

“We are here to celebrate the end of the war,” the man stated. “I am Nak-il and this is my wife Pav-ti. We traveled all the way from Shili to be here.”

The woman– Pav-ti– leaned close to Ahsoka. “Are you also from Shili?”

Ahsoka smiled a bit. “No, I’m from Coruscant. My dad and I are traveling and just needed to refuel here.”

Pav-ti’s expression changed when she looked at Obi-Wan. “Your father?”

Obi-Wan put an arm around Ahsoka, laughing to himself. “Doesn’t she look just like me?”

Nak-il and Pav-ti stayed silent. Ahsoka grimaced.

“My dad married my mom when I was really little.” She rolled her eyes to play up the teenage daughter angle. “Technically, he is my step-father, but he’s the only dad I have ever known.” 

Obi-Wan let his expression turn from lighthearted to somber. “My wife was Torgrutian. She– she died during the war. She loved to travel, so we decided to travel in her honor.”

Pav-ti placed her hand on her heart and glanced at Nak-il. “That is so sweet.”

“I’m Ben, by the way.” Obi-Wan stuck out his hand towards the couple.

Ahsoka used this as her cue to introduce herself. “I’m Ashan-ti.”

Later that night, while she and Obi-Wan loaded their supplies into the cargo hold, Ahsoka began to speak about the couple from earlier.

“Master, did that couple seem odd to you?” she asked.

Obi-Wan shrugged as he placed a crate of drinking water down. “In what way?”

“I don’t know. They felt familiar.” 

“The Force works in mysterious ways.”

Ahsoka placed the final crate in a corner before heading to the cockpit.

Chapter Text

Fox missed when he had days off. He missed when all he would do was stand outside the chancellor's office and wait for something to happen. It never did. Now, Fox’s days were spent filling out acquisition flimsiwork and reviewing old security footage. 

One day, while he was sitting in the chancellor’s old desk space, his foot found a crevice underneath the table. Absentmindedly, Fox nudged the crevice open. The desk made a small click before his chair began to lower.

“What the hell is going on?” Fox muttered to himself.

The chair descended into a room below the former chancellor’s office. Unlike the red velvet room above him, this one was sterile. The walls were durasteel and were lined with glass tubes. Inside almost every tube was a creature suspended in some sort of goo. 

“Well.” Fox sighed as he let his datapad clatter to the floor. “Shit.”

***

Rex almost couldn’t believe what Fox had told him. The information hung thick in the air. No matter how much he wanted to shake it off, it clung to both men like a parasite. Cody sat rereading Fox’s datapad like the information would change. 

“He– he was cloning himself?” Rex managed to ask.

“Looks like it. I don’t think he wanted us for just Republic use. I think he wanted to use the Kaminoans' knowledge to live forever,” Fox said as he looked through Rex. 

Cody let the datapad fall out of his hand. “But how? I mean, we’re all different in the Force. We all think differently.”

Fox rolled his eyes, but kept his mouth shut.

“Fox’ika, you don’t understand the Jedi like Cody and I do,” Rex explained. “We are not expendable like we were told.”

Fox pinched the bridge of his nose. “Okay, but that still doesn’t answer how he managed to put his mind into these clones. It looks like the clones have all been altered, but not mentally.”

Cody picked up the datapad and began reviewing the notes. “Except that they’re dead.”

Rex spun around. “What do you mean ‘dead’?” 

“Here.” Cody showed the datapad to his brothers. “Yeah they may be breathing still, but look at the brain scanner: no activity.”

“So this is a failed experiment?” Rex asked.

Fox turned back to the pit that led to the room beneath Palpatine’s office. “No, this is the prototype.”

***

Rex sat back in his chair watching his brother. Fox refused to look at him. Cody picked at his nail beds as he thought. Finally, it was Rex who broke the silence. He had enough. 

“Why didn’t you tell the Jedi about this?” He asked, though to most in the room, it was a demand. 

Fox halfheartedly shrugged. Rex knew that his brother was never the biggest fan, but Anakin was his friend. Obi-Wan and Ahsoka needed to know if the chancellor was behind this. 

Seemingly pulled from his thoughts, Cody spoke, “I think he’s right, Rex.”

Rex spun around to face his brother. 

“What do you mean you agree with him? Don’t you want to save Anakin? Don’t want Kenobi to come back?” 

Cody huffed. “Of course I do, but we can’t be rash about this. If the chancellor– the sith– is involved in what is going on, we can’t let anyone else know what we know.”

Rex shifted in his seat. Telling General Kenobi and Ahsoka about what they found could be vital to their mission. But, as the captain mulled it over, he knew that what his brother was saying was correct. If the Jedi’s comms had been jeopardized, someone might be able to locate them. 

“So we do nothing then?” he asked. 

“I never said that,” Cody replied. “I’ll contact Tech on Kamino. He might know something about what we found. For now though, don’t mention it to the Jedi.”

***

Padme stared at the Jedi Temple as the sun began to set. Her children had finally fallen into a deep sleep and she could finally rest. However, for reasons unknown to her, she couldn’t. She was restless. For the first time since losing– no, leaving– Anakin, she no longer felt exhausted. She wanted to contact Senator Chuchi to discuss the clone rights’ bill. She wanted to call Bail and finally allow him to pester her about her stance on the Free Ryloth movement.  

Padme Amidala– no, not her , she thought– Padme Naberrie craved her old life. She craved simply being the senator of Naboo. Not the secret wife of Jedi General Anakin Skywalker, not the mother of two infants, and not at all the mother of two infants whose father lies in a magical coma. 

But then, Padme actually thought about her life and suddenly felt guilty for wanting to go back to who she used to be. She used to be so jealous of her sister, Sola’s, life as a mother. She had always loved children. Even Anakin, whom she loved despite everything in the galaxy trying to tear them apart, was immovable. 

The desire still gnawed on her insides as she let her mind wander. It wasn’t her life before, it was the simplicity of it. She only had to care for herself and her people. She wrapped herself up in one of Anakin’s robes that had been thrown over the back of their sofa. The rough, brown fabric tickled her cheek as she inhaled its scent. It smelled soap and droid oil and burning and something that was distinctly Anakin. 

Finally, against her better judgement, she called her sister. 

Chapter Text

Slowly moving through space, Obi-Wan felt himself drift into a meditative state. He allowed himself to feel the Force around him. It was stronger and weaker than it was in the Core. It was almost like there were two beings pulling him back and forth. The jedi master allowed himself to be pulled by the waves. He saw Ahsoka’s force signature. It was vibrant fabrics among a dark forest. A cloth that sported a violent shade of fuchsia caught his attention as it rustled in the wind. However, despite the calm of Anakin’s padawan in the cockpit, Obi-Wan was pulled further into the Force. The waves– which Obi-Wan often thought of as having a mind of their own– pulled him into a rip current. 

Suddenly, he was sent plummeting deep into his memories. The first memory he experienced was when he was still a youngling. Obi-Wan had waited patiently for a master to choose him. He was sure that he would be placed with Knight Windu or Master Yaddle. However, when he was called to council chambers one afternoon after his lesson on interplanetary warfare, it was not Windu or Yaddle who were waiting for him. Inside the windowed chamber was a young man Obi-Wan couldn’t name. The man’s hair was a sandy color and sat just below his shoulders. He was clean shaven and had a friendly smile, but there was an annoyance behind it. 

“Master Yoda, like I said, I do not feel that it is the right time for me to begin my journey as a teacher,” the man was saying.

Ignoring the man in the middle, the elderly green alien hopped down from his council seat and hobbled over to Obi-Wan. 

“Not ready you say, Qui-Gon, but in fact ready you are,” Master Yoda said.

Obi-Wan followed him deeper into the chamber. 

“Your padawan this will be. Obi-Wan Kenobi he is. Well you will do with his training. Wise you are, Qui-Gon. Ready to share the wisdom you are.” 

Obi-Wan watched the young man’s– Qui-Gon– face as he processed the Jedi master’s words. Suddenly, he bowed to the council and motioned for Obi-Wan to do the same.

“Thank you, Master Yoda,” he said as his long hair fell into his eyes. “I will train young Kenobi here to become a great jedi.”

The languid state of the Force shifted around Kenobi and brought him back to another memory. This time, he was back on Mortis with Anakin and Ahsoka. Dark clouds circled around them as he watched in horror. The Son, who was so cold in the darkness and the Daughter, full of her warmth, were held back. The man in the middle, the young man Obi-Wan had watched grow up, held the two siblings at bay.

It was awe inspiring. It was a miraculous feat, and yet, Obi-Wan was horrified. He always knew that Anakin was destined to be the chosen one, but never had it been so glaringly obvious. 

As he fell deeper into his subconscious, something tugged at his robe. 

“Master Kenobi.” Ahsoka was pulling at the corner of his sleeve. “I think something is wrong.”

Chapter Text

Cody was racing towards a door when Kenobi held his hand out to stop him. The sudden action made him stumble backwards in the dark room. 

“General?”

“Not now Cody, I sense something.” 

Cody squinted at his general in the darkness. Their campaign had lasted longer than intended and Obi-Wan’s usually ginger hair had taken on a much muddier shade. He knew that they had lost a lot of their men in the aftermath of the most recent skirmish. They had been hunting down Ventress, yet every time it seemed as though they would catch her, she would slip out of their hands. 

“Is it–?” Cody was cut off by the screeching sound of the door sliding open. Kenobi had his hand out as he used the force to move the door. “General, what is it?”

“Just– kriff just get inside.” The jedi all but shoved the commander into a cramped storage closet. Cody looked at the holo on his vambrace that showed the map of the separatist compound. This door was supposed to lead into a hallway, not a closet. When he looked at the map again, they were totally in a different spot than before. The hell? Cody thought. 

The general took a step closer to Cody in the tight closet. He was close enough that he could feel the heat radiating off of the jedi even through his armor. 

“Cody,” the general purred. “Take off your helmet.”

“Uh, sir?” Cody was confused however he did as he was told. In an instant, Obi-Wan’s lips were on Cody’s. Cody all but melted into the general– no, Obi-Wan’s – lips. It was exhilarating. Cody’s mouth slotted against Obi-Wan's, allowing to slip his tongue into his mouth. Why did I wait so long? Cody thought as his jedi pressed him against the wall. 

Suddenly, and without warning, Obi-Wan breathed out– almost involuntarily– and crumpled to the floor. Asajj Ventress stood above the corpse. Obi-Wan’s lifeless body below her shining red blade. Cody tried to scream out, but he suddenly realized how far away he was. Obi-Wan was lying on a platform below him, not at his feet. Cody tried to scream again but to no avail. His heart pounded as energy buzzed through him, however, his feet wouldn’t move. 

Cody shot up in the darkness. Still on high alert from his nightmare, he quickly assessed his surroundings. 

1. It was still dark out meaning it was night time
2. He wasn’t in the barracks that he was used to
3. This was one of the dorms in the Jedi Temple
4. He was safe
5. The war was over
6. Rex was snoring like a freighter 

Cody fell back on his brother’s pull-out sofa. He tried to differentiate what was real and what was a nightmare. He knew Obi-Wan was gone, but that as far as anyone knew, he was safe. It was the uncertainty that ate at him. After tossing and turning for what felt like an eternity, Cody decided to leave the dorm. Sleep had never been his strong suit, but he used to be able to sleep through the night, albeit the night never lasted as long as it did now. He wandered the halls of the temple as the early morning stillness was still in the air. Eventually, he found himself near the Halls of Healing where he woke up only a few months ago. 

When he walked into the pristine white hallway, he noticed that he wasn’t alone. There was a woman looking through one of the patient windows. Her cheeks were tear stained but dry. Her usual ornate hair styles were forgone in favor of her natural curls. 

“Mind if I–” 

The woman jumped when Cody spoke. 

“Sorry,” he apologized, bowing his head, “I didn’t meant to scare you there.”

Senator Amidala shook her head. “No, it’s alright. How are you doing Cody?”

“How is he doing, sir?” Cody glanced at the former GAR general as he laid in a coma. 

“Hasn’t changed one bit, and please, Commander, it’s Padme.”

“I’ll only call you Padme if you call me Cody.”

She chuckled at his bluntness. “Of course, Cody.”

“How have you been doing since he left?”

Cody shrugged. “I was never personally a fan of your husband, but he was a good soldier.”

Padme shook her head again. Her curls bounced as she did so. “That’s not what I meant, Cody. I mean how have you been since Obi-Wan left?”

“The General is a fine man and even a finer soldier. He should be back soon.”

The way the senator’s eyes met told him that she didn’t believe his excuse. Frankly, neither did Cody, but what was he meant to say?

Her gaze softened. “You don’t have to be ‘Commander Cody’ with me. I see how you look at him.”

To mask his sheer horror at her insinuation, despite its truth, he cleared his throat. In response, he said, “I don’t have any idea what you are referring to.”

“Okay.” Padme rolled her eyes and fixed him with a stare that told him that she would be a great mother, if not a terrifying one to cross. “Want to think again? I’ve been in a secret marriage for three years. I know what it’s like to hide.”

“Obi-Wan– We’re not–” Cody sputtered. 

“Even if you’re not, I’ve seen the way he looks at you. I’ve known him since I was fourteen years old. Only rarely does he look at someone like that.” She moved to sit near the bench in the hall and motioned for him to join. He reluctantly did. 

“When Anakin almost fell to the darkside, Obi-Wan came to me. He knew all along about our relationship. He said that he and Anakin simply pretended to not know about each other’s affections outside of the Code. At the time, I had only given a fleeting thought as to who he was interested in, but I was so focused on finding Anakin that it was left forgotten.” She paused as if awaiting Cody’s protest. He gave none. 

She continued, “Then, when I first saw you two, you were walking through the halls talking. I could see the ways his eyes crinkled and he laughed. It was a laugh that was more than his normal sarcastic chuckle. I had only ever seen Anakin cause him to laugh like that until I passed you two. I may not be force sensitive, but I saw how he looked at you like the galaxy revolved around you. Don’t lie to me and tell me you don’t feel the same because I’ve seen the way you look at him too.”

Cody breathed out as the words settled around him like dust. He remembered during a campaign one time they were on a dust planet and it was so hard to breathe. Any time the dust would kick up, it was almost impossible to see. This moment was worse. 

Finally, Cody spoke, “It’s been hard. I miss him so much.”

He kept his eyes trained on the white tile as he tried not to cry. However, the weight of his secret had lessened a bit as they both waited for their jedi to return to them.