The Making of Mavericks
Summary: Master Obi-Wan Kenobi couldn't let her just walk out into the galaxy without a lifeline. With Commander Cody and Captain Rex at his side, Obi-Wan tries to give Ahsoka some well-meant advice. But the Force was listening and decided these four souls needed to blaze a better path. With all that has happened to them, waking up twenty-five years in the past shouldn't be a big deal, right?
KEYnotes: I know it's unclear in the references but my version of the clones start aging normally once they reach twenty. Also, I'm relying mostly on legends, but instead of Komari Vosa, I'm using Rael Averross ;)
Warning: I have a language disability. The first chapter, however, was edited by Nauze, yeah!
Chapter 1 - Wait
Obi-Wan shrugged off Plo's hand as shame threatened to drown him.
He had known Ahsoka was innocent. But he had bowed to the Council's wisdom.
But he was on the Council, he should have trusted more in his own wisdom.
But trusting himself was easier said than done. His own Master hadn't wanted him, not at the end, not at the beginning.
Qui-Gon had lost their tentative trust in him when he himself had left the Order, and though he thought their bond had been growing stronger, that was only until the day Qui-Gon found the Chosen One and then all his worst fears had been proven real.
Yet all those years ago, he had left not because he didn't want to be a Jedi, but because as a Jedi, he couldn't leave people to suffer behind.
And now, Ahsoka was in the same position. Again, the Council was wrong, hell, maybe the entire Order was wrong. Fighting a war to force systems to stay in a corrupt government.
He hadn't truly had much time to reflect on the war as a whole over the last few years, but Barriss's accusations had been a slap in the face, and Ahsoka leaving were the nails in a coffin.
He sprinted from the room, going first to his own to grab a spare travel pack with a medkit, and yes, Master Obi-Wan Kenobi always had medkits on hand, and all the credits he had. Then, he went to Anakin's room and emptied his emergency stash too. It still wasn't a lot, but if she was careful, she could get a ride off this planet, rent a room for maybe a month and get a few decent enough meals out of it.
He messaged Cody next, who messaged back that he and Rex were on their way.
Thanks to his sprinting, and his using the Force to add to that speed, he caught up to Anakin on the steps, staring numbly down at Ahsoka's lightsabres in his hands.
Obi-Wan snatched them out of his hands.
"Obi-Wan!" Anakin protested, looking up at him with wide eyes, "What are you doing?"
"I'm getting out of my own way. I'll be back."
"But her sabres-"
"I am not letting her go out into the world defenceless," he said before taking the steps two at a time. That Anakin didn't follow him, spoke to how defeated he felt.
The sun was casting long shadows and Obi-Wan almost regretted ruining her dramatic moment.
Almost.
"Ahsoka, wait!"
She turned, "Master Kenobi?"
He slowed and motioned her to the side of the steps, "We need to talk."
She frowned at him, "You can't convince me to stay."
He nodded, "Maybe not, but Jedi Padawan or not, I'm not going to abandon you."
She glared at him, the temper that Anakin, unsurprisingly, hadn't taught her yet how to overcome, "You already did."
He flinched, bowing his head, "I know, and I am sorrier than I can say, Ahsoka. But please, I just want to speak with you."
She hesitated then nodded.
He was about to sit on the steps but Cody and Rex made excellent time arriving on speeder bikes.
"What is this?" she asked.
Rex took off his helmet to frown at her, "Leaving before you say goodbye, Commander? I'm hurt."
She crossed her arms, "Says the man who shot at me."
Rex's eyes expressed a well of sorrow that mirrored Obi-Wan's own feelings.
Cody patted the back of his bike, "I didn't shoot at you, Tano."
She sighed and a small smile broke through as she rolled her eyes at them, "Fine." And hopped on behind Cody as Obi-Wan followed suit behind Rex.
"Where to, General?" Cody asked.
"Dex's, my treat," he said, knowing that Dex would let him pay with his account so he could give all his solid credits to Ahsoka.
She shook her head slightly but didn't protest as they zipped off into Coruscanti traffic.
By the time they reached Dex's, Ahsoka was clearly lost in her own thoughts, the weight of her decision hanging heavy on her shoulders.
He wanted to tell her that they would take her back in an instant, but she was as stubborn as Anakin and he saved himself the breath.
They took their seats in a booth and Dex came over to jovially take their orders, Ahsoka could hardly muster a smile at him.
Rex looked notably uncomfortable around the besalisk, so much so that Obi-Wan found himself asking, "Rex, what did actually happen on Umbara?"
Rex's face went completely blank and Cody glanced away, refusing to meet anyone's gaze.
Ahsoka looked at Rex, feeling his dread, his sorrow, his quiet fury as clearly as Obi-Wan did.
"Rex, are you alright?" she asked.
The Captain said nothing.
"Rex," Obi-Wan said gently, laying a hand on the man's hand where it had fisted on the table, "I'm about to break a number of rules today. So you can speak completely off the record, and you have my oath that what you tell me will be in complete confidence."
Rex exchanged a look with Cody, and Cody canted his head to the side, staring at Obi-Wan as if he were trying to see into his soul.
Obi-Wan realized that as much as they trusted each other to keep one another alive, neither Obi-Wan nor Ahsoka were confidants for their men.
Another wash of shame came over Obi-Wan. Some Padawan of Qui-Gon he turned out to be.
But Cody turned his gaze back Rex, "I trust him to keep his oath."
Rex let out a long breath, "Pong Krell," and he said the name with venom, "walked us into a slaughter. We tried arguing with him, we even went behind his back to infiltrate that base. Hardcase sacrificed his life to blow up the command battleship."
Obi-Wan nodded, "I remember that was an incredible achievement and a terrible sacrifice."
Ahsoka never took her eyes off Rex.
Rex nodded, and his voice fell into a monotone, "Krell labelled them as traitors. And tried to get us to execute them for disobeying direct orders."
Ahsoka gasped, "What the kriff? Why? You saved so many lives, that doesn't make any sense."
Rex glanced at her, "We didn't do it, we put them in prison instead."
Obi-Wan squeezed his hand, "It gets worse, doesn't it?"
Rex actually turned his gloved hand over to interlace his finger's with Obi-Wan's.
"He told us that the enemy had stolen our fallen brothers' uniforms. Krell had us shoot each other down on opposite sides of the ridge."
Obi-Wan felt his heart break at this, that was too much.
This was too much.
Obi-Wan had been harbouring doubts about the Order, about the part they played in this war, about using men made and grown to die in war, in taking their Padawans into so much danger. But this was too much.
This was a betrayal of everything.
The enemy had already won if this is what they had become.
He felt the others staring at him as he clung to Rex's hand.
Ahsoka reached across the table to wipe at Obi-Wan's cheek. It was only then that he realized he was crying.
Silent tears for the thousands that had died under his watch, and to the depths that the Jedi had sunk.
Cody spoke into that moment, "That's how we lost Waxer. I hate that it's called friendly fire, when it feels like the worst of crimes."
Obi-Wan touched Ahsoka's hand where she had rested it on his cheek as he asked, "Please tell me you killed him?"
Cody flinched.
Rex squeezed down on his hand, near painfully, "He took many of us down with him, but yes."
Ahsoka lowered her hand as she met Rex's gaze, "I'm glad he's dead."
Obi-Wan shook his head, "I don't know how someone that evil could be granted the rank of Master."
"This war is doing more than killing us," Ahsoka said, "It's breaking us."
He closed his eyes. Rex pulled back his hand as the food arrived.
"You alright, Obi-Wan?" Dex asked.
Obi-Wan opened his eyes, "Sure, just send me back a few decades when the galaxy wasn't trying to rip itself apart."
Dex laughed, "Ah, lad, the galaxy's always had an underbelly, you're just the ones in the thick of it." And on that cheery note, he left.
Cody and Rex were the first to taste their milkshakes, and Obi-Wan felt some of his sorrow chased back by the bliss that crossed their faces.
Ahsoka and Obi-Wan exchanged a small smile.
Obi-Wan suddenly had an image of the entire 212th and 501st filling up Dexter's, and promptly decided that if this war ever ended he would take out a loan just to see it done. Sure, the Council would be peeved, but Obi-Wan found the part of him that Qui-Gon had long wished to awaken in him.
Screw the Council.
Obi-Wan let everyone enjoy their meal; Ahsoka, still the growing teenager, munching down a stake at an almost alarming rate. The clones were much slower, savouring their meal. It wasn't as if, officers as they were, they had never eaten out.
But Dexter's Diner was the type of food that was exceptionally good and fed all the cravings. The kind of place that even Anakin, who had a palate of 'if it isn't completely rotten it's edible', came to Dexter's for comfort food. A tradition that Obi-Wan was pleased to see had been passed down to his Grandpadawan.
Yet, knowing that Ahsoka would be eager to leave soon, less her regrets get the best of her, Obi-Wan breached the current crisis at hand.
"So, Ahsoka, what's your plan?"
She looked up from her plate, and blinked large blue eyes at him, "What plan?"
"I mean, you are no longer a Jedi, what are you going to do now?" he asked.
"I don't know," she said.
He sighed and pulled from his side the pack that he had brought her.
"What's this?" she asked, taking the pack.
"A survival bag, medical supplies, rations, credits."
She just blinked at him.
He gave a mirthless smile, "You know, the stuff people use to buy things, such as food, renting rooms, or transportation."
"You can have one of the speeders we brought," Rex told her.
Ahsoka stared down at the bag, "Thanks."
Obi-Wan sighed, "I know you want to do this on your own, but you are not alone. Anakin and I will be quite busy but we can still make time for you when we can and-"
She glowered up at him, "I needed your help and you said nothing."
He shook his head, "I should have been louder. But Plo and I did speak on your behalf. I never believed you capable of bombing the Temple."
"Then why didn't you help Anakin in the investigation?" she shot at him.
"Because I am a Council member, Ahsoka, and I could have been implemented."
"Oh, so you were watching out for yourself?"
He shook his head and gestured to Rex and Cody, "I was looking out for them. The Senate has started making accusations against the Jedi Order. They are blaming us for the war. And while I would love for the Jedi to be removed from the war, the alternative is that our men get placed with people like Tarkin."
"So?" she asked, "Didn't we once risk our lives to save Tarkin?"
"Yes, we did. And maybe the Jedi as a whole don't have the greatest military minds, the Senate trained ones have been prone to treating the troops as if they are not people. With few exceptions, whenever the political-types take to the field our victories are higher, but so too are our losses and civilian deaths."
Cody spoke up, "Sir, you are one of the greatest military minds in the GAR."
Obi-Wan inclined his head, "I was exposed to war at an early age. It stuck with me, sometimes I think I lost things that my other brothers and sisters have, but I have been grateful for those skills in recent years."
Ahsoka was staring at him, "Wait, so you really believed I was innocent?"
He met her gaze, "Of course I did, you were very nearly my Padawan, Ahsoka, until Yoda dictated otherwise. That would have been a bit unfair to you once I was appointed on the Council, but I never doubted you."
Only ever myself, he thought.
She frowned, "Then that thing they said about it being my trial-"
He snorted derisively, "That was Bantha-shit, Mace was feeling guilty. We all were. It isn't often the High Council has to confront being so completely in the wrong."
She narrowed her eyes at him, "So you don't think I deserve to be knighted?"
He smiled at her gently, "No, Ahsoka, I don't. You have had to sacrifice more than any generation before you. But you are only seventeen. And while you are far more in touch with the Living and Cosmic Force than even I am at times, you still have much to learn. Especially when it comes to your philosophical and spiritual training."
She frowned, "That's not really Anakin's style, and he graduated at nineteen."
He shrugged, "Quite honestly, Ahsoka, I gave up faith that there was anything left that Anakin would let me teach him. He stopped listening to me, and once the war started…" his voice trailed off as he remembered the rift that had been forming between them, "Anakin and I were not well-matched as Padawan and Master. We work better together as peers than we had during his apprentice years. I don't think I was old enough to be the person he needed me to be, and what I didn't know how to handle, I made up for with bluster."
Ahsoka shook her head, "Anakin wouldn't have faulted you for having faults, Obi-Wan."
But Obi-Wan remembered all the times Anakin had thrown 'You're not the Master that Qui-Gon was' in his face. The angry outbursts of a young boy, who likely still didn't understand how deeply those words had cut him.
She must have seen it on his face, because she asked, "Obi-Wan, you might not have been my Master, but you have been with me from the beginning of my Padawanship. You are a great Master. Anakin was lucky to have you."
"Perhaps, but we are here to talk about you, and what you need."
She sat back crossing her arms, "Well, thanks for the survival bag, but you telling me I'm not good enough to be a Jedi isn't exactly helping."
He shook his head, "Ahsoka, I would trust you in a fight over most Knights in the Order, but as I was unable to teach Anakin, fighting and power does not a Jedi make."
"Then what does?"
"Schooling of the heart," he answered.
She rolled her eyes at him, "What does that mean?"
"It means giving a damn about the greater galaxy, caring about others above yourself; it means looking into the face of horror and tragedy, and greeting it with patience and compassion. It means giving up everything for someone who might very well spit in your face after you've helped them. And learning to deal with the kind of impact that takes on your soul, learning to find strength and meaning in the Force, that's what means to be a Jedi. And you, Ahsoka Tano, will one day be one of the brightest lights among us, whether you stay with the Order or not."
She stared at him, as were Rex and Cody.
Obi-Wan signalled to the waiter for another round of chocolate smoothies.
When Ahsoka said nothing, as she finished the rest of her meal and started in on the next chocolate shake.
Cody and Rex watched them quietly while sipping from striped straws.
Obi-Wan pressed, "But your choice to leave the Order means you cut yourself off from the community that supports that way of life. Because out there, in the wider galaxy, it is a very selfish place, most people are just fighting to stay alive, to carve out a little piece of happiness for themselves, sometimes, or often, uncaring if that price is paid by someone else."
Ahsoka's face darkened, and her lips pressed together, clearly wanting to argue with him but after the years of respect that she had given him, clearly snapping back at him now wasn't yet instinctual.
Not that she wouldn't sass him if the topic was a tad lighter.
"Perhaps," he offered, "you should consider reaching out to Padme, or Satine, or even Bail Organa, all of whom would be more than happy to hel-"
"I don't need anyone to take care of me," she finally snapped.
"Maybe not," he retorted, "but that doesn't mean there aren't dozens of people who love you and would be more than happy to give you a lighter load. I don't begrudge your leaving the Order, not after everything we have put you through, but you do not have to go through it alone."
"What do you know?" she asked, "It's not like you've ever-"
"I left the Order when I was thirteen," he interjected, "mere months after finally being chosen as a Padawan."
She gaped at him, "What?"
"But why?" Cody asked. "You're the pinnacle of what a Jedi is supposed to be, why would you have ever left?"
Obi-Wan felt gratified by Cody's praise, "My Master and I were sent to rescue a fellow Jedi, as it happens, she was Qui-Gon's lover, Master Tahl, and I was overly moved by the plight of Melida/Daan, and stayed to fight in their civil war."
Ahsoka was gaping at him again, "Excuse me, but what? At thirteen? On your own? And your Master just left you? And Master Qui-Gon Jinn had a lover? In the Order?"
He smiled, "Quite scandalous, I know, but Qui-Gon was the living, breathing definition of a Maverick. I'm sorry that you never got to meet him."
"How can you speak so fondly of him when he left you?" she asked softly.
Obi-Wan shook his head, remembering the look of betrayal on his Master's face still to this day, "Because I was the one who left him." He pulled her lightsabres off his belt and handed them to her.
"Master- I can't-"
"You can. The galaxy is a dangerous place and I will turn in my own sabre before I allow you to run off unarmed."
He wasn't sure if he needed to remind her that the Sith would still be likely to target her.
Ahsoka blinked back tears, "I wish things had been different."
The table began to shake. And Cody and Rex pulled them both under the table as an earthquake- something utterly unheard of on Coruscant began to rip the world asunder as the Force itself opened around them and they fell into blackness.
When Ahsoka next opened her eyes, she found herself in a tunnel under two armoured bodies and crushed into someone who was even bonier than she was.
Rex and Cody came awake with a jolt, both took positions on either end of the tunnel as Ahsoka instinctively checked the boy she had woken up on top of.
He was wearing Jedi robes but had no lightsabre that she could see. She found his pulse strong under her fingertips.
Where were they? Who the kriffing hells was this kid, and why were they not dead? She had felt the world break. Felt the Force rising in a wave of Darkness to destroy -everything.
And she knew at the gentlest touch of reaching out with her senses that they were no longer on Coruscant.
"Our frequencies aren't connecting, Tano," Rex informed her.
"I don't know where we are, but there isn't enough life on this planet to be Coruscant," she offered as she tried to shake the boy awake.
"Tell me that isn't because everyone died?" Cody asked dryly.
She paused, reaching out further, "No, there is death here, but not at that proportion."
If Coruscant was destroyed, the cry in the Force would be heard throughout the galaxy. Which made her wonder why she could feel no pain in the Force, not even considering she had been co-existing with it since the war started.
The boy came gasping awake.
"Easy," she said, "You were unconscious."
The boy rubbed his temples, "Ahsoka?" he asked without looking up, "What happened?"
"I don't know," she said, slightly confused at his familiar Force presence, "What's your name, Padawan?"
His eyes flashed open, "Do not sass me right now, Ahsoka Tano. You know very well who I am."
She gaped at him, this boy with a still cracking voice, with short cropped hair but for one of those ridiculous nerf ponytails some human Padawans thought fashionable and his Padawan braid.
He coughed, as if trying to clear his throat, as if he hadn't recognized it either.
"Master Obi-Wan Kenobi?" she asked as she stared into Obi-Wan Kenobi's blue eyes in a face that was a few decades too young.
Rex and Cody looked back at them as Obi-Wan folded his arms in his sleeves, shoulders thrown back, "Who else would I be?"
She smirked, if this was a dream, she was going to treasure it forever, as she gave a soft tug on his Padawan braid, and mused, "Not sure, someone who hasn't passed puberty yet?"
All the colour drained from his face.
And then came the patter of feet, echoing in the underground tunnels. Ahsoka pulled her lightsabres without igniting them as Cody turned his blaster in the direction Rex had been aiming.
A human girl with copper hair and pale green eyes came to an abrupt halt as she rounded the corner. She stared at the two troopers pointing blasters at her. Cody and Rex instantly lowered their weapons from the unarmed girl.
"Obi-Wan?" she called out tentatively, "who are they?"
Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi, stepped forward, almost tripping over his own feet, "Cerasi?"
"Yes?" she asked, voice concerned.
He stared at her mutely as though he had no words.
Ahsoka supplied, "We are Obi-Wan's friends, we're here to help." She offered help because the poor girl looked as if she hadn't had a decent meal in months.
Cerasi nodded, accepting it on faith that whoever was with Obi-Wan was trustworthy, "Good to have you. Obi-Wan, there is a meeting."
Obi-Wan seemed to come to attention then, "Alright, I'll be right there, just give us a minute or so, Cerasi." He said her name like a question.
But the girl nodded before darting back off through the Temple.
"General," Cody addressed what Ahsoka was beginning to suspect was truly their Master Kenobi stuck in his own thirteen year old body, "What's going on?"
"I think," Obi-Wan said, running a hand over his fuzzy head, wincing when he discovered the nerf ponytail, "that we are in the middle of a small planetary civil war, twenty-five years in the past."
"That's impossible, Sir," Cody informed his General primly.
Rex was more direct, "This has something to do with the karking Force, doesn't it?"
Ahsoka was staring blankly into space as she tried to wrap her head around this, because no dream or vision she had ever had been this solid.
She was left wondering why, by all the stars, bantha-shit like this kept happening to them. Because in her padawanship of three years under Anakin Skywalker she had done a number of implausible things. Like leading battalions into battle, leading stealth missions, getting kidnapped and hunted like prey only to be saved by wookies. Oh, and being forced to the Dark Side by a personification of the Force itself, like being murdered and subsequently resurrected. And now time travel just felt like the next cosmic shenanigans the Force thought so kindly to gift her with.
A bomb went off somewhere above ground and Ahsoka caught Obi-Wan as he stumbled. Her montrals hummed with the vibrations around her as the sounds of screaming children rose and pittered off in the tunnels about them.
"Welcome," Obi-Wan said in a voice that was not yet his, but with enough sarcasm to assure her he was himself, "to the wonders of Melida/Daan."
Another bomb shook the tunnels.
Cody and Rex stared at them, and until that moment, Ahsoka had never appreciated quite how expressive Mandalorian helmets could be.
AN: So one of my ways to get out a depression cycle is to think up a new story. Hope you enjoy, and I cannot thank the people still reviewing enough. Your thoughts and feedback get me through reality :D