Chapter 29

Anakin woke the next morning warm and comfortable. They had moved around in the night. When he opened his eyes, he found himself facing the wall with Obi-Wan pressed against his back, arm slung over his hip. One of his legs was pressed between Anakin's, keeping him well and truly pinned in place. Not that he minded. In fact it made him feel safe and loved. He could tell Obi-Wan wasn't awake yet and had no intention of waking him. The older Jedi needed as much sleep as he could get. Instead, he simply settled back down and closed his eyes again. He didn't want to go back to sleep so just enjoyed the feeling of being relaxed and held like he was cherished.

It seemed that sleep claimed him once more regardless of his intentions because the next time Anakin opened his eyes he could feel lips pressing on the back of his neck lightly. A gentle hand moved his growing hair out of the way and then the lips made their way back and forth across the back of his neck. He let out a sigh of contentment.

"Good morning." Came Obi-Wan's voice.

"It certainly is." Anakin agreed. He twisted around to face the other man. They kissed good morning. "I think I'm going to see about getting Rex his in depth medical scan today and get a look at that chip in his neck." He announced.

"That sounds like a good idea. Mace will probably have spoken to Yoda so I might end up in meetings all day." Obi-Wan said with a groan of disapproval.

"Rather you than me." Anakin smirked.

"Shut up." Obi-Wan told him, pouting.

"Trust me, I'd rather stay in bed all day with you but we really need to get started on some plans." Anakin said. Obi-Wan sighed.

"I know." They lay together for another half an hour before finally dragging themselves up. They dressed and ate quickly.

"Don't forget to check in with Healer Che. Maybe you can be authorised to come with us to Geonosis." Anakin reminded him. As much as he wanted Obi-Wan with him, if he was still too injured then it would be better for him to stay behind. He would not risk his safety just because Anakin felt a little anxious. Obi-Wan gave a theatrical shudder.

"Oh fine." He said. Anakin snickered. With one last hug they left the apartment. Anakin insisted on walking Obi-Wan to the medical ward under the guise that he probably wouldn't go if not escorted. Once there, Anakin reluctantly left. Aside from checking the clones, he needed to speak to Padme about the Chancellor and visit Skarsuk to pick up his order. Before he could really know what needed to be done about the clones, Rex needed a scan so he commed the Clone commander and said that he was required to take an in depth physical, including a brain scan. Rex was understandably very confused by this but agreed anyway because he was loyal and followed orders. Anakin hated being unable to tell him why this was required. Rex was his friend and he didn't like lying to his friends. It would take an hour or so, so Anakin decided to visit Skarsuk first. He grabbed his disguise and made his way down to the undercity.

"Jake!" Came the pleased voice of Skarsuk.

"Skarsuk. How's things?"

"Not so bad. Not so bad." He said jovially.

"Is my order ready?"

"Yes. 'Ere ya go." Skarsuk handed over two large bags. Anakin did a quick check of the contents. As expected, everything was perfect.

"Excellent as always." Anakin complimented.

"Only the best from Skarsuk." Skarsuk stuck out his chest proudly. Anakin smiled and then left. Then he made his way to the Senate building. Padme was in her office and smiled when she saw him.

"Hello, General Skywalker." She said with a smirk.

"Senator." Anakin inclined his head, smirking back.

"What brings you all the way over here?"

"Council business." He said, dropping the smirk. Padme instantly guessed it was serious and directed him to a side room where they would not be overheard. Anakin double checked just to make sure nobody was listening in and then sat down in the indicated chair. "The Council would like you to keep an eye on Chancellor Palpatine." The name tasted like acid in his mouth.

"The Chancellor?" Padme frowned.

"The Jedi have come into some information that he is not to be trusted. It looks like you were right about him gaining more powers being a bad idea. The problem is we have no proof so we can't arrest him or perform an inquiry."

"So you need someone to check and find proof of why he can't be trusted?" Padme surmised.

"Yes." Anakin agreed. "I hate to ask this of you but it would look suspicious to everyone, including Palpatine, if a Jedi started hanging around the Senate all the time."

"Definitely. I'm happy to help. I've had my suspicions about the Chancellor for a while now."

"But be careful. I'd rather you find nothing than get yourself caught or hurt." Anakin stressed. "The Council is doing all it can to find Dooku to bring an end to this war. If the Chancellor refuses to give power back once the war is over then we will have the proof we need but until then…" He trailed off, shrugging helplessly. Padme shifted closed and squeezed his arm gently.

"I have no doubt you will do everything possible, Anakin." She smiled. He smiled back, glad she had faith in him.

"I'd best get going. I know you Senators are very busy." He smirked.

"Of course we are. You're quite lucky I could squeeze you in. In fact, next time I'll have to ask you to make an appointment." Padme retorted.

"Oh really?" Anakin raised an eyebrow. "And have you put me off forever, like I'm sure you do to all the meetings you don't want."

"I would never." She said, holding a hand to her breast in mock offense.

"Yes you would." He snorted in amusement.

"Maybe." She admitted with a grin. "Take care, Anakin."

"You too, Padme." They stood and hugged before Anakin made his way back towards the Temple. On his way he got a call from Rex saying his medical scan was complete so Anakin said he was on his way and changed direction towards the hangar where the Resolute was docked. Cody was waiting for him and escorted him to the med bay where Rex was lying on a bunk.

"All fine, General." Rex told him.

"Are we all going to be needing medical scans?" Cody asked.

"Maybe." Anakin said. Then he asked the med droid for a report of the scan. Once it was delivered to him he scanned it quickly. It only took a few moments before he spotted what he was looking for. "You have a biochip in your brain?" He said, pretending to look confused.

"We do?" Rex asked.

"Well, you do, according to this, so I assume you all do." Anakin said with a frown.

"Can you remove it?" Rex asked in growing concern.

"Probably. It'll be a dangerous procedure given where the chip is." Anakin replied. He studied the scan.

"Maybe we should ask the Prime Minister what they are for?" Cody suggested.

"Hmmm. I'd rather take it out and have a deeper study. The Jedi who requested a clone army is now dead but he was very secretive. He may well have lied about what the chips do or just asked the Kaminoens not to ask questions." Anakin said.

"If he was a Jedi, I doubt they would do anything too terrible." Cody said.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that." Anakin replied darkly. "Besides, it may have had the right intentions, doesn't mean it couldn't be used in a bad way if the right information fell into the wrong hands."

"Agreed, Sir. Take it out." Rex put in firmly.

"I'll speak to the med droid about getting you prepped for surgery." Anakin promised and then he left. He commed Obi-Wan and told him what he had found.

"Let us know as soon as you have the chip and can definitely tell us what it does." Obi-Wan said.

"Sure thing." Anakin agreed. It wasn't long before everything was ready for the surgery. Anakin stood by and watched as the droid began. He kept a sharp eye out for anything going wrong. It seemed too easy for the chip to just be removed. As the surgery progressed, Anakin felt a slight nudge of warning from the Force. Instantly he reached out and felt Rex's lifeforce. Nothing strange there. Suddenly the med droid stopped.

"If I proceed there is a one hundred percent chance of death." It announced.

"What?" Anakin asked, horrified.

"The chip is designed to kill the host if removed." The droid informed him. Anakin cursed. He thought for a moment and then reached out through the Force. He could sense the chip and looked for a way to deactivate it but there was none. It could never be turned off, even remotely. Another few minutes of thinking. Anything he tried would be experimental and he didn't want to risk Rex's life but there may be no choice. He used the Force to put the chip in a stasis bubble.

"Keep going." He told the droid. At first it was easy to just keep the chip in a stasis bubble but as it was slowly removed, it began to take a lot more power and concentration. It was almost fighting against the stasis now and Anakin was struggling to contain it. Sweat beaded on his forehead, rolling down his temples. Eventually the chip was free. The droid removed it and placed it into an evidence bag that Anakin provided. Only once he was completely sure it was no longer linked to Rex in any way, did he release his stasis on the chip. Nothing happened. Anakin let out a sigh of relief. Then swore again. This complicated things.

Rex was taken to a recovery room and Anakin ordered the droid to do Cody's surgery now. He had enough strength for one more and he did not want Obi-Wan's Captain wandering around with a dangerous chip any longer than required. While Cody was being prepped, he grabbed himself a drink and a ration bar to help keep his strength up. The procedure was exactly the same. Once again, despite Anakin keeping the chip in a stasis, he could feel it trying to obey the command it was given to kill its host if removed. Once it was over and he was assured that Cody would be ok, he instructed the two clones not to say anything to anyone just yet. Then he made his way back to the Temple. He made a pit stop at the apartment to drop off his shopping before heading to find Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan was still in a meeting with Windu and Yoda which was good. Although Obi-Wan looked very tired.

"Masters." Anakin greeted.

"Skywalker." Windu inclined his head slightly. "What did you find?" Anakin held up the evidence bag with the two chips in.

"We removed the biochip from both Captain Rex and Commander Cody. They seemed to be fairly standard inhibitor chips but they were coded to kill the host if removed."

"They are dead?" Obi-Wan asked, horrified.

"No. I used the Force to put the chips in a stasis while they were removed but it took a lot of effort just to remove two. It also means that a Jedi will need to present for every chip that is removed." He informed them. Nobody looked particularly happy at that announcement.

"Well," Obi-Wan sighed. "At least there is a way to remove them without killing the clones."

"It will be a very long process." Windu stated. "One that will have to be done carefully if we wish to avoid alerting the Chancellor we are on to him. I believe we should start with the 212th and 501st legions."

"If we don't wish to tip off the Chancellor, I assume we aren't going to let the Senate know that the clone army could be used to murder all the Jedi?" Anakin asked, knowing the answer.

"No." Yoda stated. "Need to know, the Senate does not. Dangerous that would be."

"What about the rest of the Council? Surely they should be aware." Anakin asked. Yoda and Windu looked at each other.

"Not yet. To tell them the clones could turn on them at any moment would spread distrust through the ranks. We cannot afford such a rift between the Jedi and the clones at this moment." Windu said and Anakin wanted to protest. Surely the Jedi had a right to know. If this was triggered, it could, it would, kill most of the Jedi. Then he thought about it. Would this knowledge change how he treated and acted around Rex, if his chip hadn't been removed? Probably. He knew some of the Jedi already didn't feel like the clones were real people. Thinking they weren't real people and could kill you at any moment, that wouldn't be good. It wasn't an easy call to make. "From what Obi-Wan has told us, Palpatine wants a new apprentice to take over from Count Dooku and is unlikely to act until Dooku is dead." Windu continued.

If they were wrong about that, if Palpatine found out they were onto him, he could activate the clones at any time. They were risking all of the Jedi by not letting them be on their guard. Yet, they were risking the war but telling them and the Jedi having an adverse reaction to the news. Anakin sighed.

"Very well. I shall start removing as many chips as I can from the 501st before we set off for Geonosis tomorrow."

"Good work, Skywalker." Windu said. Anakin almost fell over. Praise, from Master Windu? The galaxy really was a strange place.

"What of my Padawan? Am I allowed to inform her, under strict orders not to reveal this to any other Jedi, as we are about to take the chips out of our clone legion. I could use her assistance in removing them." Anakin asked, suddenly. The other three considered.

"You may inform Padawan Tano." Windu agreed. "But you must emphasise the need not to tell anyone else."

"Yes, Master." Anakin bowed and left the room. As he left, he felt a mental hug from Obi-Wan and a message that he would meet him back at the apartment. Anakin sent his agreement back. He made his way to find Ahsoka. She was in her quarters reading up on Geonosis. Anakin smiled. That was such an Obi-Wan thing to do.

Anakin greeted her and then explained the situation with the clones. As expected, Ahsoka was horrified, having made many friends in the legion and instantly agreed to help. Together, Master and Padawan headed back to the Resolute. Cody and Rex were waiting impatiently.

"Cody, Rex." Anakin nodded to them. He explained what the chip was designed to do and the two clones exchanged concerned glances.

"How many of our brothers are affected?" Rex asked.

"We don't know." Anakin lied. "We plan on scanning everyone in the 501st and 212th as soon as possible. So can you please round everyone up. The scans shouldn't take long as we now know what we are looking for."

"Yes, General." Cody saluted and both clones headed off.

"Why would they have chips like that in their brains?" Ahsoka asked as they got the med bay ready.

"Jango Fett told Obi-Wan that he was hired to be the genetic 'father' of the clones by someone called Darth Tyranus. If a Sith managed to have some involvement in the creation of the clones, it's quite possible they managed to convince the Kaminoens that it was harmless when in reality it's not." Anakin told her.

"What made you get Rex scanned in the first place?" Anakin shrugged.

"A little nudge from the Force. A hunch. Something of that nature."

"It was a bloody good one." Ahsoka snorted. Soon Rex returned with the clones from the 501st. Anakin began scanning some clones while the med droid and Ahsoka each took a queue themselves. It was quite apparent that most of the legion had the chips in. Hevy, Echo, Fives and Cutup did not have the chip implanted. Neither did a few of the others. The chip free clones were all sent to the mess hall to wait. Then Cody arrived with the majority of the 212th in tow. They went through the process all over again, finding only a handful of clones without a chip. Just looking at the remaining crowd made Anakin feel tired already. It was going to take them forever. He decided to do the 212th first and make sure Obi-Wan was safe.

Anakin called Waxer through first. Then he talked Ahsoka through the procedure and guided her to keeping the chip in stasis. Once Waxer was successfully chip free, he did the same with Gregor. When Anakin was sure Ahsoka could handle the procedures on her own he increased the surgeries to two at a time.

"Ahsoka, this takes a lot of energy. If you feel too tired do not do any more operations. I won't judge your ability or strength whether you manage one surgery or twenty. If you get this wrong because you're too tired, a clone will die." He told her sternly.

"Yes, Master." She nodded solemnly and went to a different operating room. Anakin took a deep breath and called Boil through. Hours began to blur together as clone after clone sat in the operating chair in front of him. By the time they called it quits he was so exhausted he could barely stand. Rex had to support him into a bunk himself. Ahsoka then came over looking rather better than him but apparently she had stopped a few hours before he did and he didn't blame her. He had probably pushed himself too hard but it needed to be done.

It was another hour before he felt well enough to return to the Temple. In the meantime, Rex told him they had managed to do around a third of the 212th Legion. That was a lot more than Anakin had expected and also explained exactly why he was so kriffing tired. Ahsoka escorted him to the apartment. Obi-Wan was waiting for him and looked surprised when he came in practically clinging to Ahsoka.

"Ani?"

"He's just tired." Ahsoka assured him. "I think he did too many clone surgeries today."

"Of course he did." Obi-Wan rolled his eyes. If Anakin had had the energy to open his mouth he was sure there would have a witty retort on the tip of his tongue. "Thank you for bringing him home."

"Of course. Can't leave Skyguy to collapse in the middle of the hall." Ahsoka laughed. Once she was sure Obi-Wan had hold of Anakin, she left.

"Really, Ani? Why push yourself so hard?" Obi-Wan asked with a soft sigh as he helped the younger man to bed.

"Time blurred. W..w...wanted you safe." Anakin told him through a huge yawn.

"I take that to mean you started on my legion, not your own." Obi-Wan said with a slight frown of disapproval. Anakin nodded. The older man clambered into the bed beside him and Anakin was only vaguely aware of Obi-Wan talking as sleep claimed him.

When he awoke the next morning, Anakin could tell that Obi-Wan was already awake. Light fingers traced random patterns across his hip.

"Mornin'." He said.

"Good morning." Obi-Wan replied. "How are you feeling?"

"Not bad actually." Anakin admitted. Better than he probably deserved to feel anyway. He looked up at Obi-Wan and kissed him good morning. "How was your meeting with Windu and Yoda?"

"Less productive than your day was." Obi-Wan sighed. "There really isn't much they can do right now. None of my information tells us where Dooku is currently and he is the key to ending this war."

"I forgot to mention, I spoke with Padme and she agreed to keep an eye on the Chancellor for us." Anakin told him.

"That's good. I meant to tell you last night, but you were too tired to comprehend, I've been declared fit for active duty so I will be coming with you to Geonosis today." Obi-Wan grinned.

"That's excellent." Anakin beamed. He leaned up to kiss Obi-Wan again, more deeply this time. "Oh, I have something for you." He said once they broke apart.

"Oh?" Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow. Anakin used the Force to summon one of his bags from the day before. He handed it to Obi-Wan with a smile. Obi-Wan took it, sitting up on the bed so he could see properly. Then he pulled out a brand new utility belt. It quite clearly had far more pockets than the standard Jedi issue.

"These five pockets are protected so only those you allow can open them." Anakin told him.

"How do I do that?"

"There is a tiny button." Anakin indicated the said button. "You need a sample of DNA of whoever you wish to give access to and to press it onto the button."

"Didn't you say you had Ahsoka and myself coded into yours?" Obi-Wan raised his eyebrows further. Anakin gave him a sheepish grin.

"I have my ways."

"It's wonderful, Ani. Thank you." Obi-Wan smiled and pulled him into a hug which Anakin gladly returned. They got him coded into the belt and then he showed Obi-Wan all the medicine he had bought for him. Most of it was basics like painkillers and some generic bacta spray. However he also had some of the rarer general antidotes that covered many of the more uncommon poisons as well as some vials of proper bacta. He had also purchased a chromostring to inject bacta deeper into the body if required. "This is too much." Obi-Wan finally stammered, having been looking through the lot, open mouthed.

"No. It's not." Anakin told him firmly. "Me having this saved your life once. This will help assure me you can help yourself if you get injured and I'm not there."

"I don't even know how to use a chromostring." Obi-Wan pointed out.

"I'll teach you. It's quite simple. Even an old age, technology illiterate man such as yourself should be able to cope easily enough." Anakin teased.

"Oi! Watch who you're calling old." Obi-Wan complained.

"I am." Anakin retorted, smirked at the older man. Obi-Wan swatted him over the back of the head.

"Youngsters are so rude these days." He said with a mock disapproving sniff.

"Well, our elders are just so terribly imcompetent." Anakin replied in mock sorrow.

"Oh, first I'm old and now I'm incompetent am I?" Obi-Wan asked in a challenging voice.

"Incompetent with tech, yes." Anakin smirked.

"Brat." Obi-Wan said, rolling his eyes as he cuffed Anakin over the back of the head again. They both laughed and then kissed once more before dragging themselves out of bed. Breakfast was eaten in companionable silence and then Anakin helped Obi-Wan to put all of his new remedies into his new belt. "I love it. Thank you, Ani."

"You're welcome." Anakin smiled proudly. "Just don't tell Ahsoka yet. I've got hers to give to her but it's not her life day for another couple of days and I want to give it to her then."

"My lips are sealed." Obi-Wan promised. "I'm going to have to travel on the Negotiator so I can continue taking the chips out of the clones." He said with a sigh.

"I can help." Anakin said instantly.

"I know you could but you and Ahsoka need to get started on the 501st. You've already made a wonderful start on the 212th, I'll handle them from here." Obi-Wan told him gently. "Besides, Ki-Adi Mundi will be coming and we do need to try and be more subtle."

"That's no fun." Anakin pouted. Obi-Wan rolled his eyes but smiled fondly.

"I know. I don't like it either but the Jedi still need us for now."

"Ah, now that Mace and Yoda know you have knowledge of the future surely they won't kick you out." Anakin shrugged.

"Perhaps not. However they might simply keep us apart by sending us on completely different missions." Obi-Wan pointed out. Anakin sighed and pouted. He didn't like hiding.

"Fine. I'll behave."

"Thank you." Obi-Wan pulled him into a hug and kissed the top of his head. It made him smile. "We'd best get going."

"Oh alright." Anakin groaned. They stood up and hugged properly once more before grabbing the things they needed and heading out of the door.