(A/N) Thanks for the support, y'all! Hope you enjoy this chapter, please R and R! Also, check out a collab me and ObiAniSoka will be working on, posted hopefully later this week!

"General Kenobi, could you explain to us the extent of your knowledge of Chancellor Palpatine's plans? How did oy come by this knowledge?" Anakin despised Senate meetings. He found little value in sitting through endless droning of people who little of what they were talking about, and cared even less about the people it affected. This, however was different. After his escapade of leaving the medical ward unattended, Obi-Wan had successfully gone through two weeks of physical recovery. He had been moved back into his room at the temple, where Anakin often found himself sleeping on the couch after worrying in the early hours of the morning. Padme understood, he sent most of his time with her, but he found it hard to leave Obi-Wan's side for a whole night, the need to keep him safe outweighing most other priorities.

"When I was being held prisoner on Serreno, many of the Sith's intentions were told to me explicitly by Count Dooku…"

The interrogator, a cold, unfeeling being with silver hair and silver eyes to match, regarded Obi-Wan as one might look at a piece of meat, or vegetable. He interrupted him for the fourth time in these proceedings, and Anakin rolled his eyes, but held his tongue as Padme glanced over at him from her pod. "Why would Count Dooku reveal his own plot to destroy the Jedi Order to a Jedi Master?"

"I believe by that point, Dooku had realized his own master was intending to betray him, and also believed I would die quickly. The passing of that information, in his belief, would have been another form of psychological torture."

"Explain."

Anakin had seen Obi-Wan fight, watched him destroy dozens of droids with what seemed like so little effort. But it was here, in a world encapsulated entirely by words, that his Master, the Negotiator, showed his truly impeccable talent. "You have been told of the extent of my physical torture, Senator, by Clone Captain Rex. For Dooku, this was not enough; each time I have seen him, he saw it necessary to try and goad me into some response. Some sort of anger. It is the way of the Sith. Given my connection to my fellow Jedi, telling me of what he saw as their impending doom does not seem to be a far stretch in his goals." Obi-Wan pressed his hands down into his legs, shifting his body upward in his witness seat. Though the motion was executed with the easy grace that the Senator's would see as being held purely for the Jedi to enjoy, Anakin could see the subtle stiffness. Despite his swift recovering pace, Obi-Wan was not fully healed. "He did not outline the finer points of this plan, only the ones he thought would be enough to make me agree that it was infallible, and attempt to help me lose hope."

"Did you lose hope, General Kenobi?" The question was cruel, and had little to do with proceedings. Anakin saw Bail Organa, seated behind his wife stand up to protest, but Obi-Wan rose his hand to stop him.

"Bastard." On his right, Anakin could hear Rex mumbling under his breath. The clone looked normal again, his blonde hair cropped a small scar running up the side of his head where they had removed his tumor the week before.

"If I had lost hope, Senator, then this hearing would not be taking place." The room was silent to hear his words, and the meaning behind them had the questioner scowling as he realized he had backed himself into a corner. To insinuate that Obi-Wan Kenobi, a man loved by so many, even in this room, would lose faith in the Jedi, the force, himself, the others, was almost a form of treason. One that would not be forgiven. "As a Jedi, there is always hope in both the force and other beings. We are all connected through the living force, that much has always been clear. It is not easy to lose faith in something so strongly believed in."

"Did you know the clones were involved in the plot to destroy the Jedi?" The interrogator chose to abandon that line of questioning, in Anakin's, and most others, view, Obi-Wan's integrity was entirely in check. All he had to say was the truth.

"No. Not explicitly at least." The interrogator gave a short smile that was quickly cut back down, "It was heavily implied. He told me that spread across the galaxy, the Jedi would be slaughtered by those they trusted, and that the Sith would rise again with a ready-made army."

"What is your opinion on continued use of the clones, then?"

"You speak of them as though they are tools." Rex stiffened next to him. "They are beings. Able-bodied, and trained soldiers. Capable of every emotion, thought, and skill that you and I are, Senator. They are equally serving of life, and a place in the Republic. Now, they are the soldiers that we have always had, are fighting dutifully to end this war against what remains of the Separatists. With their tumors removed, there is no reason not to trust them."

"It is stated here, that in the incident that resulted in the death of the Chancellor, Count Dooku, and Jedi Master Fisto; you were almost killed by a clone." Rex stiffened again, and Anakin spared a look at him. He looked distraught, the guilt tearing at the corners of his face. Anakin put his metal hand on his shoulder trying to say what Rex did not understand, that Obi-Wan did not blame him for what had happened.

"Actually, Senator, Captain Rex, who held me, defied his programming and refused to kill me. This is after the pair of us spent close to a month in shared captivity in the slave camps of Kadavo and in the war prison on Serreno. "

The questions continued, Rex visibly relaxing next to him, looking at Obi-Wan with the same kind of admiration that he shared for the man. They asked about the supposed changes to the Jedi Code, and the continuing war effort. The Senate went from silence to cheering as Anakin watched them respond to Obi-Wan's answers, each one laced with the quiet resignation of a man who had been through much.

"That is all for today, thank you for your time, General." Obi-Wan stood and bowed respectfully, turning to leave his pod. "Questioning will resume tomorrow."

Anakin saw, to his own amusement, Obi-Wan's shoulders drop the tiniest amount in disappointment, but his face gave nothing away. "Of course, Senator." And then he disappeared, followed by the dispersal of thousands of members of the Senate.

"I don't understand how he does that, Sir." Rex said, as he stood to follow Anakin out. Anakin turned and gave him a hard look, not knowing what exactly his commander was talking about. "Keeps from getting angry like that, I mean."

Thinking back to the questions, how biased and unfair they had been; Anakin realized that he didn't know either. He didn't have a clue, other than what he knew of Obi-Wan's seemingly infinite patience.

"I'm not sure, Rex." The clone nodded, "It's something I think it would be wise to learn."

He wasn't what she had expected. Frankly, she hadn't known what to expect. A half-bodied, disabled spider-man was not it. His features were twisted with the lines of madness, his face enraged and torn along lines that she didn't understand. He shied away from the pair of them, even as Savage sought to soothe him. He was whispering to himself, or at least, what he thought were whispers. In reality, his harsh sounds reverberated around the cavern they were in, almost endless taunts of horrific madness that cut into her brain as she watched him.

Underneath it, she could feel the thrumming of the dark side of the force coming from him. "Brother, who did this to you?" Savage's harsh voice still grated on her nerves, but she it was the best way to reach him. The appendages of him that were reminiscent of a spider's half crawled him up the wall, twisting him around in a net, and he hung there, the question looking at him like it was almost virulently oppositional to the answer.

Then his lips curled over sharp teeth, his yellow eyes narrowed as he regarded the pair of them. She reached out to him, and watched him react as her own force signature wrapped around his in an almost protective manner. It was not that. It was seductive, curling around his with the intent of drawing him in, not a hard task for one such as herself. Her body was a weapon almost equivalent to the strength of the force within her, men cowered at her feet, or were at least distracted enough. Her own lips upturned at the thought of a certain man, with whom she shared the most particular relationship, being thoroughly distracted by their listless banter as she tried to kill him. She had failed in the past. She would not fail with them at her side.

"Obi. Wan. Kenobi." Each syllable was laced with distaste, hatred, cruel contempt. He spat them out like poison, and she relished in how beautifully this was all going to come together.

"Well, then," She spoke softly. "We have that in common."

And his cold eyes lit up with a dark fire that matched her own.