Breakfast had been held upstairs. Although they were far more exposed than they would've been down in the bunker, Anakin's protests were silenced by the onslaught of assorted meats and breads that their host - Kohma - generously provided. And General Skywalker couldn't deny that the view from the second floor, was something to behold.
They could see the entire landscape of the village stretch out below them. The shy morning sun peaked over the horizon. A fog had settled in between the tall red grasses, like it was emerging from the forrest to greet the villagers as they started their days. Piles of wood stacks sat collected in the village centre, with men carrying wheelbarrows more to add to it. Beside it, lay several large bundles of cloth. Anakin looked away, a pang of guilt settling in his gut.
To say it was a quiet breakfast, wouldn't be accurate. The rustling treetops was a comforting white noise. It certainly helped to blanket the awkward chewing sounds erupting from the table. Granted, these sounds were mostly produced by himself and Ahsoka. Obi Wan sipped his tea, the picture of Jedi sophistication. Kohma did little else but smile at them, occasionally engaging in polite small talk.
"Ms Tii, how long have you lived here for?" Obi Wan asked.
She tapped her nose in thought. "Since Shaak was a little girl. I moved here after she was born."
A question hung in the air, kindly untouched. Obi Wan thought it best not to press for details, worried about being intrusive. Ahsoka noticed his hesitation and tactfully picked up the subject.
"Kohma-" she began.
"That's Aunty Kohma to you, little one!" She jested, winking at her.
A brief moment of pain crossed Ahsoka's face before she quickly replaced it with a warm smile. Anakin noted her tightness. Ever since they'd discovered that their host was Shaak Tii's mother, each one of her actions had a new tinge of longing attached to it. Her eagerness of his Padawan's presence was obvious. With an old melancholy, he wondered when the last time was that she had seen her own daughter…
"Of course. Aunty Kohma - what happened to Master Shaak Tii's father?" She posed, ready to accept her silence as an answer.
Kohma's breath hitched. Her tense excitement faded. The elder slowly turned to gaze out the window to face the village. Smoke begun to rise. Her eyes became glossy once again.
"He passed on a few years back. After the Jedi took Shaak away, he couldn't forgive me. He left Shilli and I never heard from him again..."
Under the table, Ahsoka balled her fists, staring down at her almost empty plate. Anakin glanced toward Kohma, an old pain stirring within him. How long had this mother been waiting for her child to return home? Obi Wan gently placed his cup on the table.
"If you didn't know of his whereabouts, how did you discover that he passed on?" he inquired, delicately.
Her demeanour shifted. She smiled at the Jedi Master. A strange gleam sparked in the woman's eyes with an ancient mischievous wisdom he had only seen perfected by one other.
"The Force is all around us, Master Kenobi. It whispers to us constantly. I may not be a Jedi, but I know how to listen."
Ahsoka finally looked up at her, surprised. The woman patted her hands under the table and Ahsoka's grip loosened. Shili's hostility towards the Jedi was evident. Again and again, she was forced to justify her life in The Order and the part she played in the war. A nagging feeling had begun to eat away at her that perhaps they were right.
She recalled the previous night, marching the palace tunnels with Vance and Obi Wan. Their guide hadn't exactly warmed to them but she had asked her some strangely personal questions.
"How old are you, Padawan?" Vance said, not bothering to slow down or turn around.
Ahsoka caught Obi Wan exchanging her a quirked eyebrow in the light of his sabre. She answered as simply as she could.
"16."
Vance's stride faltered and the two had managed to catch up to her.
"You've been commanding troops all this time?" She said, continuing ahead.
"Yeah..." she replied, unsure of her point.
Obi Wan chimed in, ready to be included in the chat. "It's been a long war for everybody. Hopefully, you've helped us bring it to a swifter end."
That had been the extent of the conversation, yet, it reinforced so many arguments she'd heard levied against the Jedi Order over the last 24 hours.
To have Kohma indulge her with such reassurance in her beliefs was a refreshing change.
With great caution, Kohma stood up to clear away the plates. Anakin immediately shoved his chair out behind him to help. This behaviour was highly unusual for the infamous General but he barely spared Obi Wan or Ahsoka a chance to tease him for it.
All of them moved downstairs, thanking Kohma for the meal as she bid them farewell before venturing into the village, not specifying her reasons for it. She hurried off with a strange intensity, flying out the door at a speedy waddle.
The door remained open. Obi Wan briskly shut it behind her. Still holding the handle, he turned to his friends.
"So... the plan."
Anakin folded his arms, straightening up with a huff.
"We'll need to locate Rex and the men. We can probably guess that if they've taken the city, they'll be held somewhere within the palace," he started.
Ahsoka leaned back against the kitchen table, arms folded.
"If that's the case, it'll be heavily fortified. Even sneaking around the tunnels, it'll be difficult to evade their forces without a diversion," she replied, matching his tone and pace.
Obi wan remained silent and unnoticed, watching and waiting for their conclusions.
"Better than trying to attack the long range jammer ourselves. No, getting the others first will be key. We can't risk getting captured again, now we know they're after the Nexus Route," her master responded. There was an implied "you" in the statement that he graciously left out.
Ahsoka unfolded her arms, caught in the momentum of brain storming.
"Any move that we make for Rex will tell Greivous that we're going to attack the Jammer."
Anakin sighed and began pacing the tiny wooden hut.
"I know. We'll also need to know the lay of the land if we're going to navigate our way from the palace to wherever the Jammer is..."
Ahsoka paused for a brief moment before speaking up again. Her voice was neutrally hopeful.
"Maybe we can ask Kohma if there's any Shilli warriors willing to help us?"
Anakin laughed. "They already made themselves clear. We can't count on their help."
"We don't know if all of them were here last night," she protested.
"Ahsoka, I'm not willing to risk the fate of the Republic on some soldiers who didn't turn up to a meeting." Anakin said firmly. "Besides, I don't want to give the rest of them more reasons to hate us. Our alliance has gotten off to a shaky start as it is."
Ahsoka was about to spit back a remark, but halted before she could. She held herself steady, staring at Anakin. Amidst the silence, he turned to the still Obi Wan.
"Master? Would you like to contribute anything to the conversation?" Anakin sniped at him, annoyed at their quickly dwindling options.
Obi Wan looked him in the eye, stoic and calm as ever, before walking to the middle of the room to address them both.
"We can't take out their long range jammer by ourselves, and any attempt to rescue our men without a diversion or reinforcements will result in our capture and subsequent torture for the intel," he opened, chilling the sunny room.
"Loving the optimism so far, Obi Wan," Anakin muttered.
Obi Wan shot him a glare before continuing.
"If the Seperatists obtain that information, they'll attack Coruscant. Our duty as Jedi Generals is to the Republic. There's no question here of what we need to do."
Anakin clenched his fists, his gaze falling to the floor. He knew the exact move his master had pulled off. He'd done the same to Ahsoka a couple of times during the war whenever she tired desperately to look for a win/win scenario. Sometimes, there just wasn't one there and you needed to accept defeat. Ahsoka stood up from the kitchen bench, stepping forward.
"We're not running," she said, as if stating the obvious.
The older Jedi Master sighed, the headache from before beginning to return in full force.
"Ahsoka, freeing our troops and Shilli is going to be impossible without Republic reinforcements-"
"They don't have to be Republic reinforcements! If you just let me ask, I'm sure if I could convince the others to help us," she burst out. It had been a while since Ahsoka had acted out of line in such a vocal way. Anakin could barely remember his own procedure for dealing with it.
"Snips, you know I hate to admit this, but Obi Wan's right. We can't go back for Rex and the others." He spoke gently but the words tasted bitter in his mouth. "We to retreat offworld."
"No, there's got to be another way," she said, picking up Anakin's previous bout of pacing.
Obi Wan looked to Anakin, surprised at the ease with which he came around. He decided to make it easier on him and took the lead. He walked up to Ahsoka and put a grounding hand on her shoulder. Like her Master, she seemed more responsive to tactile feedback.
"I know it's a difficult choice to make but Rex and Cody are good soldiers. They'll understand why."
Her breathing became stiff.
"Maybe they shouldn't have to..." she muttered, locking eyes with him. "And what about my people?"
Obi Wan was stunned. He hadn't imagined that Ahsoka would be the one to put up such a fight. He removed his hand and crossed his arms inside the sleeves of his robe.
"They'll have to hold out a little longer. The security of the Republic capital must come first, especially during war time-"
"I can't just abandon them. Not after everything I said in the negotiations about being proud to be a Jedi; being ready to protect them."
She was on a roll and Obi Wan was ready to throw in the towel. The Jedi master had had enough. With a beleaguered sigh, he walked away, sitting down at the table. His former Padawan marched forward to step in front of her.
"Ahsoka, your duty is to the Republic," he started off strong, pulling on a facade of restraint.
"I'm a Jedi. My duty is to those who need us," she shot back, on the balls of her feet and craning her neck upwards in an attempt to stare him down.
Anakin readjusted himself. He still had a few arguments up his sleeve.
"The best way to help them right now, is to let the Queen know you're safe so she can send reinforcements."
"And it'd be far quicker to send her a transmission if we convince the locals to help us destroy the jammer."
Ahsoka's reasoning was secure. She wasn't going to back down.
"You have the Nexus Route. We can't let that intel fall into Separatist hands," he tried once more, struggling against the temptation to agree with her.
"It never would. I'd die before I let that happen."
Her words cracked his mask as the weight of the vow struck him. His face turned stony and the restraint from before melted away. From the table, Obi Wan lifted his head up, sensing Anakin's dramatic change of mood.
"We're leaving this planet." His hair obscured his eyes but his voice was steely.
"No," she protested, defiant and unaware of how fragile his control was.
His cold rage snapped.
"You have no choice in the matter, Padawan. You will leave this planet and deliver yourself to Coruscant. That is an order!" His sudden roar shook the nearby tubs of fruits and spices. Ahsoka blinked up at him, refusing to look away or even breathe. He met her gaze with twice the intensity. "Is that understood?"
For as long as it had been since she had defied him like this, it had been even longer since he had silenced an argument like that. The formality with which he had called her "Padawan" stung. In the recent months, it had felt like they were on the same footing. That he trusted her judgement like he might Obi Wan's.
Ahsoka Tano broke first. She let go of her held breath, defeated.
"Yes, Master Skywalker."
His nod to her was almost imperceptible. Obi Wan felt a well of sympathy stir within him for the adolescent. He knew he'd been tough on Anakin during his apprenticeship, but he'd never recalled arguments of that caliber. But then again, maybe he just didn't want to.
The smell of smoke wafted through the hut as the trio drank in the silence. In the tiny spaces of the windows inbetween the leaves, grey clouds bloomed into the sky. Ahsoka respectfully closed her eyes upon hearing the distant wailing from the ceremony. She knew the others couldn't hear it as well as she could, thanks to her montrals. But she was certain that they sensed the pain resonating in the force.
Ahsoka let her own feelings mix in with the swell, aware that by the end of the day, she would abandon them, as her people and their Queen had refused to do for her.
I hope everyone is safe and well! As usual, here's your chapter of the week - thanks for all your reviews, it really helps to keep me enaged in writing this.