From Flames, I Soar

by Kurenaino

With the Empire at the height of its power and the shadow of a greater threat hanging above all those who would oppose Palpatine, the Specters, led by former Jedi Padawan Kanan Jarrus, are forced to contend with the Sith Lord that set the galaxy ablaze. Sequel to In Chaos, I Thrive.

61. The Last Battle

AN: Guys, I am SO SORRY this took so long to get up. My summer schedule is a nightmare, with working 80 hour days and me basically unable to stand the heat of Hell's Front Porch. That, and this chapter ended up being WAY longer than I had intended it to be, because it happened to be more important than I anticipated. BUT! Summer's over now, and I've been looking ahead, and the next chapter is actually pretty short, so I should have it up in good time. The one after that, though, is sort of a big deal, so that could take a little bit, but after THAT! Shorter, more frequent updates for five or six chapters.

That's it! As always, my lovelies, I thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think, your thoughts are what keep me going!

Chapter 61: The Last Battle

There was darkness.

Ropes of inky black swirled around wisps of obsidian smoke and tendrils of ebony mist, intertwining in the beautiful swirl of the spectrum of night, a stifling blanket to most, but to those that thrived in darkness, it was as diverse as the clear and vibrant colors of a world touched by the light of the sun. Deep charcoal and dark slate intermixed with midnight purples and navy blues so dark they seemed endless, a bottomless void of surreally, haunting beautiful emptiness that stretched so far time seemed as nothing. It was the end of all things, drenched in the melancholy of final peace, the same peace that echoed through the pervasive nothingness that existed before all things began.

And still, through it all, it teemed with life, the darkness of the Force sluggishly roiling and churning with each breath of the languid beasts that dwelled in the deepest shadows, the absence of the light allowing them to rest, the void too deep for stirring emotions to reach, no spike of wrath or spear of vengeance powerful enough to penetrate such deep, thick darkness. The smooth, even rumble of slow, deep breathing carried across the abyss, occasionally punctuated by soft, distant echoes of muffled, indistinguishable voices from long ago and far from now, like temporal ripples across the aphotic surface of an inky lake. There was no sense of time this deep in the dark, no meaning to past, present and future as the hum of distant voices blended together into the quiet song of the Force and was engulfed by the ever-hungry Dark Side.

Occasionally, a flash of red would illuminate the coiling tangle of darkness, a piercing hiss reverberating through thick, cold air as shadowy beasts recoiled at the intrusion and swiftly lashed out to engulf the bloody light. It happened time and time again, sometimes with the span of centuries between each flicker of glowing embers, sometimes with such great frequency that the writhing dark appeared to be alight with dancing flames before the beasts managed to extinguish it. It was as distant as it was close, just within reach and indeterminable lightyears away all at once, the red glow driving the veil of darkness back just enough to allow the distant voices to grow louder, clearer, nearly recognizable, never for long, but enough to wake the beasts that dwelled so deep within the Force, the darkness lighting up with the glow of a thousand predatory eyes.

In the middle of it all, wrapped tightly in the cold embrace of the Dark Side, was Darth Lumis.

It was nothingness to him, the fire of his soul smothered to charcoal and embers, his consciousness and awareness fleeting and tenuous at best, his thoughts and memories stripped from him by the heavy haze of darkness that enveloped his mind like a thick, viscous sludge, his body numb to all sensations. But occasionally, in the times he managed to catch hold of his consciousness and open tired eyes to the void, he could hear the voices of Luke and Leia, soft and clear and familiar, could see the tangled web of the Dark Side being endlessly woven around him, could feel the cold scales of the languid leviathan coiled tight around his body.

And then it was over, his consciousness fading back into nothingness as the Dark Side dragged him back into the deepest abyss.

He was never sure when he was conscious or not or when his eyes were opened or closed, uncertain if he felt himself stirring or if it was the Dark Side around him shifting and moving, his only thoughts the briefest flickers as he absently wondered if he was living or dead before those thoughts too were snuffed out by the feel of cold, thick water that filled his lungs. It was only when he caught the faintest glow of light, eyes he didn't know were open squinting against the invading red haze that illuminated the stygian maw he resided within with stark shadows and roiling black waves that awareness returned to him. Faint, at first, the smallest voice calling at him from the furthest parts of his mind swiftly silenced when darkness fell again, but when the light returned, more frequently and for longer, Lumis' mind began to sharpen, his attention beginning to come into focus as he sat still and silent, waiting for the red ember to return.

The glowing red mist brought with it a wave of sound, muffled at first, as if the darkness sought to smother it, but as it rolled over him, it became louder, reverberating and echoing in the emptiness as thrashing tendrils of shadows recoiled from it. The sound became clear as he focused, though still indistinguishable, a thousand voices and sounds overlaid in a tangled jumble of cacophonous noise, though periodically, something came through louder than the rest. A maniacal cackle, ponderous, mechanical breathing, the echoing screams of terrified billions at the end of their lives, voices he knew and voices he didn't, things he had heard before and many which he had not, the whispered hiss of Ancient Sith underneath it all.

The visions came after in brief, vague flashes, the writhing dark twisting and shifting to take shadowy form before his eyes, a faint smile touching Lumis' lips as he saw a mechanical moon orbiting a tropical planet, the swirl of the inky currents washing the vision away and replacing it with another, a hundred Mandalorian helmets scattered upon dusty, barren ground as light gray ash fell from the sky like snow. The shadows twisted into two combatants, double sided red lightsabers in their grasps ferociously fighting beneath twin suns, a singular hooded figure looking upon them. The currents swept this too away to reveal three ships flying side by side, Lumis instantly recognizing the silhouettes of the Ghost and the Umbra, but the third was unknown to him.

Again, it changed, this time with a swift and violent current, and out of the darkness came a massive beast, it's many legs stabbing into the earth as two serpentine heads hissed and snapped and tore countless ships out of a storming sky. It melted away as fast as it appeared, and this time, he saw Luke and Leia, their lightsabers in hand as they stood before a towering shadow. He saw Kanan, two sabers in his hands, his entire body awash in a changing spectrum of color that made him seem to glow in the darkness. He saw the Spectres, bright silhouettes in the darkness, and watched as two were dragged down and engulfed by shadows, a small light burning out from the darkness to join those that remained. The shadows fled before a glowing red light, the mist swirling and shaping itself into a small, brightly shining pyramid, and out of the darkness stepped a hooded figure, slight and thin and old, three purple lightsabers blazing to life and gently floating in the air, wielded not by mortal hands, but by the Force itself.

And through it all, not a single one of his visions was tainted by Sidious.

No oppressive vision of the Dark Lords surrounding him, no vision of his capture and defeat, no promise of his return to slavery to his former Master, even though now, closing his eyes, he could feel the searing pain of a lightsaber across his back and the agonizing touch of lightning burns across his body. But even so, that same, torturous vision was gone, and through the sudden swell of pain, he could feel heavy, burning chains slipping from their tight coil around his arms as they were broken and dissolved into rusty dust.

He was free.

Taking a deep breath and reveling in the feel of the frigid, black waters of the Dark Side filling his lungs, Lumis opened his eyes and found himself looking into the golden, glowing serpentine eye of the leviathan that dwelled here in the darkest depths of the Force, the beast seeing him just as it had so many years ago when he had touched mastery for the first time and so many times after that. Here, in the deepest abyss, Lumis felt as though he had come home, his fingers trailing affectionately over the cold, smooth scales as he felt power course through his veins, his heart pounding in his chest with life he hadn't felt in what he was certain was an eternity. Red light once again pierced the dark, the shadowy beasts hissing and screeching in fury, and Lumis turned to look at its source, the small, glowing pyramid now floating before him, and without a moment's hesitation, he reached out and grabbed it.

Blinding pain shot through him as the sharp, golden edge of the holocron cut into his palm and blood flowed on to the smooth, glass sides, and Lumis' vision went dark as he once again found himself before the hooded figure surrounded by the three floating lightsabers. He could see better now, a woman, ancient and wise, her long hair white and the eyes shining beneath her hood milky and blind. The sabers floated effortlessly around her, up and down, softly thrumming in the air as they gracefully spun, smooth, violet trails following the blades. Hot pain shot up Lumis' arm as the holocron in his hand vibrated and hummed, the red glow growing brighter and more intense with each thick drop of blood that dripped from its pointed corners.

Lumis' grasp tightened around the holocron, the sharp edge cutting deeper into his palm and sending pain and power rushing through him, the soft mummers of Ancient Sith becoming louder and more clear. He could feel the Dark Side around him, could hear it screech and roar in a triumphant song that shook the waters of the Force, sending shockwaves up from the depths, though they never reached the surface, so deep was he. Here, even Sidious, for all his mastery, couldn't find him, couldn't touch him as he had before, the depths too dark and too deep to be seen, and next when they met, Lumis would be ready for him. Next time, Sidious would come to his final end.

He could feel the dark water swirling around him like a whirlpool, tearing at him and threatening to sweep him away, but Lumis held firm, his arm shaking with the effort of holding the violently shaking blood smeared holocron as it pulsed with power. All around him, the waters suddenly froze, the dark ice thick and solid, the reverberating hum of power echoing off the cold walls, the Ancient Sith smooth and even and unaffected by the frigid storm. A loud snap echoed across the abyss as the ice began to crack, long, deep fissures spreading rapidly across the once smooth surface to leave a tangled web of deep gouges that threatened to shatter at any moment. The lightsabers were torn from Lumis' belt, the hilts floating just out of his reach, and one by one, they turned on, first his blue, than his red, and when the black blade extended from the hilt of the Darksaber with it's high pitched hiss, the ice shattered, the water pouring over him thick and warm, his vision going dark as it swept him away and he began to fall.

Kenobi struck the cold, hard ground with a wet, squelching thud, and he lacked the inclination to move at all. He just lay there, his face pressed in a thick, viscous liquid that covered the floor, the same liquid he could feel sliding off his bare torso in sluggish drips. Beneath him, he could feel the uncomfortable press of fractured glass digging into his skin, and for a moment, he tried to decide if it was worth the effort to get up. He decided it wasn't, and with a heavy sigh, he relaxed into the sticky goop that covered the floor, reveling in the tingling in his skin and the very tangible feel of the world around him. So long he had been lost in the depths of the Force that he didn't truly know how long he had been gone.

The thought was a concerning one, one worthy of getting up for, but when Obi-Wan moved to lift himself off the ground, his arms would not obey him, his fingers only twitching uselessly in the light green liquid spilled upon the floor. He suddenly became keenly aware of the long, deep burn he could feel across his back, memories coming back to him in sharp, vibrant flashes of Force lightning arching through the air and sending blue shadows scattering along the walls of the ancient Temple of Malachor, in Sidious' malicious cackle and Vader's red blade as it sliced across his back, in Maul's screams to kill him as he lay defeated upon the ground. Closing his eyes, he flexed his back and could feel the knotted chord of scar tissue deep within his muscles, making them stiff and throb with a burning ache at the slightest attempt at movement.

Cursing under his breath, Kenobi slowly smeared his fingers through the thick bacta on the floor, his movements sluggish and uneven, but not impossible. It was a limitation, to be sure, but he had overcome worse before, and with time, it was possible that he could regain full mobility in his arms and shoulders, loosen the muscle and strengthen it so it would be like he had never been injured at all. If kriffing Anakin Skywalker could live a burned, miserable existence inside that suit and manage to defeat him, Darth Lumis could certainly overcome something so small as this. For now...

A soft, gentle hum drifted across the air, and Kenobi looked up and grinned when he saw the Sith holocron sitting upon a small table, a hazy, glowing red mist seen swirling inside the pyramid. Groaning as he turned over and sat up, Kenobi slowly got to his feet, his leg shaking with the effort and weakened from disuse, and the holocron rose into the air and floated to gently press against the hand at the Sith Lord's side.

For now, as always, Obi-Wan had the Force.

The door was torn out of the wall and thrown down the hall, screeching and sparking as it slammed against the walls on its way to the ground, the shrill blare of an emergency alarm sounding through the complex as red warning lights began to flash. With a sigh of contentment, Kenobi stepped out of the room, raising a shaking hand slowly to run his fingers through his hair in a vain effort to remove the drying, gelatinous bacta from it. He felt disgusting, his entire body sticky with bacta, the pants he wore in tatters, his stomach twisting in hunger, and looking down at his body, he found his skin ghostly pale and paper thin, covered with a messy web of scars and pulled tight over prominent bones where strong muscle once was.

It was entirely unacceptable.

"Luke!" Obi-Wan shouted as he shuffled through the corridors of the unfamiliar building, his voice hoarse and raw and his lungs burning from the effort. Two droids shuffled into the hallway Kenobi was staggering down, a panicky protocol droid and an overly cheerful RX pilot droid, and the Sith Lord rolled his eyes. "Leia!" he shouted again, the two droids violently thrown against the wall so hard that their chaises and the walls crushed under the force of the impact. In the distance, over the endless wail of the alarms, he could hear feet pounding and people shouting, but as he turned down another hallway, so similar to all the others he had seen that day, he looked down at the ground and saw bacta footsteps.

He had been there already.

The briefest flicker of worry passed through Obi-Wan's mind when he realized that he had no idea where he was, that for all he knew, he could be on Coruscant in the clutches of Sidious, but the thought passed swiftly. He knew where he was, knew the feel in the Force as their base on Atollon, knew that somehow, he had been saved from Malachor, his former Master, and his dismal fate. What he didn't know was why anyone would build a medcenter like a kriffing labyrinth.

His previous concern swiftly transformed into a flash of rage, his grasp tightening around the glowing holocron in his hand as the Dark Side howled in snarling fury, the wall of the corridor groaning and shrieking as metal bent and twisted and was peeled back like a flimsy wrapper to reveal a room behind it. Obi-Wan stepped through the large, jagged hole as the discarded paneling hung suspended in the air as it continued to twist into a compacted ball of scrap, and as it dropped to the ground with a low, heavy thud, the Sith Lord repeated the process on the next wall. This time as screeching metal was torn from its foundations, the wall was rolled back and let beams of harsh sunlight in, the sudden brightness making Obi-Wan stop for a moment to shield his eyes, unaccustomed to light after having been lost in the darkness for so long.

Allowing his eyes to adjust as he finished tearing a hole in the wall, Obi-Wan stepped out into the sunlight, his feet touching upon red earth, the air hot and dry and the sun high in the sky, so perfectly overhead that the shadow he cast stayed directly under his feet. Atollon, as he remembered it, a row of ships, starfighters and personal crafts lining the long stretch of land they used as an airfield, the sun glinting off the command center in the distance. Ahsoka would be there, as would the Spectres and his children, and he very, very much wanted to see them. Taking a short breath of too dry air, Obi-Wan started off across the airfield toward the command center.

The walk felt far longer than it looked, and it already looked too long, and Kenobi was quickly baking under the sweltering heat of the sun, his pale skin prickling with burn as sweat and sticky bacta caught the dust his shuffling feet kicked up, leaving him covered in red dirt and feeling far grimier than he had been before. He began to miss the simple stickiness of the bacta. It was disgusting, to be certain, but it was at least cool and didn't leave his skin feeling irritated and scratchy as the coarse dust that covered him. He looked like a vagrant and he smelled like a hospital, he knew, and judging by the looks he was getting from the scattering of mechanics and pilots working on the ships that lined the airfield, they knew it too.

Two speeders packed with people in emergency gear raced by, mounted alarms blaring as they rushed to the medcenter to respond to the situation caused by his escape, and Obi-Wan rolled his eyes, making a mental note to talk to Ahsoka about the rebel's poor response time to an emergency. If this was a real attack, if there was a real threat present, such a slow response would see them all dead, all their years of hard work snuffed out in an instant.

Scoffing, Kenobi looked over his shoulder, and frowned when he saw how close the medcenter was, the dragging, smeared footprints of his winding path through the red dirt proof of how little distance he had actually covered. Perhaps their response time wasn't nearly so bad as he believed.

Another speeder came screeching toward him, a sleeker model that was much, much faster than the others, the high whine of the engines rising to a piercing pitch as the speeder cut sharply sideways, a wave of dust flying into the air as it rapidly decelerated. Before the speeder even stopped, the pilot jumped out of his seat, landed right beside Obi-Wan and threw his arms around him in a crushing embrace, heedless of the dust in the air or the filth upon the Sith Lord's body. Not ten feet from them, the speeder came to a full stop.

As the dust settled, Obi-Wan closed his eyes, reveling in the relief that rushed warm through him, and slowly wrapped his aching arms around the trembling body.

"I knew you'd come back..." Luke said in a small voice that shook with the tears that ran down his cheeks and fell upon the Sith's dusty body. "I knew it..."

"You didn't really think I'd leave you and your sister alone with these rebel savages, did you?" Kenobi asked as he ran fingers through the teen's blond hair, and Luke's shoulders shook with quiet laughter, his head shaking as he pressed his forehead against his father's shoulder. Patting Luke's back, he held him out at arm's length and the slightest frown touched his lips as he examined the boy. "Ugh, look at you, Luke, you're filthy!" Obi-Wan chided, mock outrage in his voice as he pointed to the dust that now clung to the boy's tunic, the smear of damp red earth upon his forehead, and Kenobi dragged his thumb across the smiling teen's tear-stained cheek, leaving another trail of dirt behind. "I'm gone for a minute and you've taken up vagrancy."

"I wasn't raised in a palace, Father, I was raised by you," Luke drawled, eying the Sith's disheveled state. "You can't expect me to keep it together when you leave us for two months."

"Two months?!" Kenobi gawked, his jaw slack as he stared at the very serious Luke.

"A lot's happened..." Luke muttered, gesturing to the speeder. "Come on, we need to get you out of the sun, you're burning up. I'll fill you in on everything on the way to the command center."

"Why?" Kenobi asked as he climbed up into the idling speeder with Luke's help. "Is there a shower in the command center?"

"O-oh..." Luke muttered, his a sheepish smile on his face as he climbed into the pilot's seat. "I-I told Leia I'd bring you right back. She'd be here too, of course, but something came up and she couldn't get away. But..." He gently eased on the acceleration, the speeder gently humming beneath them as he pulled around to point it's nose down the long stretch of the airfield. "I guess cleaning up comes first, huh?"

"I should say so, yes," Obi-Wan said as he leaned back in his seat and ruffled his fingers through his hair and frowning when he felt rough sand on his scalp and saw a cloud of red dust come off him. "And something to eat, I'm starving."

"Maybe some bacta for that sunburn?" Luke asked as he gently pushed the acceleration forward, a wide grin on his face when he heard his Father scoff.

"It will be too soon if I never use bacta again," Obi-Wan grumbled, wincing at the sting as he scratched at his chest, and with a heavy sigh, he settled shaking, erratically twitching hands into his lap, the holocron clutched tightly in his unsteady grasp. The tremors didn't go past Luke's notice, the boy nervously looking sidelong at his Father as he eased up on the acceleration, allowing the speeder to drift along.

"We were worried about you having lasting damage," Luke cautiously began, swallowing hard to keep the trembling out of his voice, but knew his father heard it when he saw the Sith's shoulders tense. "Does...does everything feel alright?"

"Besides being filthy and hungry?" Obi-Wan shrugged, the holocron falling out of his hands and into his lap when one of his arms spasmed. "I took a lightsaber to the back, as I'm sure you guessed," he said bitterly. "At the time, my arms may as well have been cut off. The damage has been repaired, but it will take time before they're truly of use again."

"Guess that's going to keep you out for a while longer, isn't it?" Luke asked, and Obi-Wan gave him a withering look.

"Luke," Kenobi said sternly, the holocron rising before him and glowing as it slowly opened. "My strength has never been physical."

"You opened it?" Luke asked quietly, the speeder jolting forward as the teen's hands tightened on the accelerator, and he eased off with a swift gasp and a muttered apology, returning his attention to piloting the speeder toward the Umbra.

"Of course I opened it, I'm a Lord of the Sith..." Kenobi scoffed, and a tight smile crossed Luke's face as he gently eased on the accelerator, the wind rushing through their hair as they picked up speed.

"Leia tried to open it," Luke said smugly. "She couldn't."

"Ooh, I bet she was furious!" Kenobi said with a chuckle, an affectionate smile on his face. "I'm surprised that her wrath wasn't enough to incite it open, an angry Leia is fearsome enough to make even the Dark Side quake."

"Maybe it was just never meant for her," Luke said quietly. "That holocron may not have been what you wanted, but it might be exactly what you needed."

"That very well may be."

"Is...is everything else alright?" Luke asked hesitantly. "Besides your arms, I mean. You memory, your connection to the Force..."

"Since the vision of my defeat at Sidious' hands did come to pass, you'll be pleased to hear that I'm not seeing it anymore," Kenobi said as he reached up a shaking hand and took the holocron out of the air. "Whatever hold Sidious had on me is gone. My connection to the Force is as clear as it's ever been. And my memory's fine, thank you," he said with a roll of his eyes. "I'm not that old..."

"...what happened in there, Father?" Luke asked quietly as he slowed the speeder, bringing it in toward where the Ghost and the Umbra sat next to each other, and Obi-Wan's jaw tightly clenched. "When you were alone with the Sith Lords. We need to know."

"No," Kenobi said tightly. "No, that isn't important. What is important was how I got out." The speeder came to a stop in the shadow of the Umbra, but Obi-Wan didn't take his eyes off Luke, the boy's blue eyes downcast, the corner of his mouth trembling. "I presume you know."

"Yes..." Luke squeaked, swallowing hard and clearing his throat when he heard how small and weak he sounded. "Yes, I know..." He tried again. "Ahsoka went back for you. S-she brought Grandmaster Yoda with her." Luke looked away from the Sith Lord and hung his head. "He's dead, Father," Luke said in barely a whisper. "Yoda's dead."

For a long moment, Obi-Wan just stared at the crestfallen Luke, his jaw slack and his brow drawing together in confusion, certain he had heard it incorrectly. "...dead?" he finally managed to ask, and Luke nodded, rubbing his arm over his eyes to fight back the threatening tears.

"Ahsoka says it was his idea," Luke muttered. "That when he saw your vision for himself, he knew what he had to do."

"He's not really dead, Luke, you know that," Obi-Wan said quickly. "Qui-Gon taught him how to transcend the Force, it's only a matter of time before he shows up again and we can't get rid of him." Luke didn't respond, the Force seeming to vibrate with the wounded boy's loss, and Obi-Wan took a deep breath and laid an unsteady hand upon the teenager's shoulder. "We had our differences and disagreements," he said quietly, "but I like to believe that we grew to be friends. I do not take lightly what it is he did for me, and the galaxy is lesser for his loss. He's one with the Force now," he said as he slid his hand from a sniffling Luke's shoulder. "Sidious can't even understand how screwed he is."

That got a chuckle out of Luke, the teenager giving the Sith a small, tight smile as he powered down the speeder, jumped out, and quickly ran around to help his Father out. "Do you really think Yoda can do anything about our enemies?" Luke asked, the slightest tremor of excitement in his voice as he walked closely beside his slowly shuffling Father.

"He's stronger than Qui-Gon ever was, so who knows what he'll be able to do," Obi-Wan said with a shrug. "But even if he can't do anything different, I can't think of a better weapon against Sidious than being able to train all those Force sensitive Mandalorians any time, anywhere. He had limits before, but now he's one with the Force. He doesn't have limitations anymore."

"What if you're wrong?" Luke asked.

"I'm not," Obi-Wan quickly responded, stopping before the tightly sealed cargo hatch of the Umbra, and with the slightest wiggle of his fingers, the hatch hissed as it depressurize and opened, the ramp slowly extending out toward the ground, and Kenobi closed his eyes, reveling in the blast of cool air from inside the cargo hold. "Give him some time, Luke," Obi-Wan said quietly. "You'll see him again."

"I believe you," Luke said, keeping at his Father's side as he started up the ramp, wincing as a loud, savage roar echoed from inside the hold, and he smiled sheepishly up at the Sith. "Oh...I should have mentioned..." Luke started meekly. "Without you, your rancor's gone feral. We had to lock him up, none of us can control him. We've been taking care of him the best we can, but-"

"I'll have him tamed in short order," Kenobi grumbled, his lips curling into a wide grin as he stepped inside the refreshingly cool hold and saw the badly bent bars of a large cage at the other end of the space, the entire thing covered in a patchwork of welded, hasty repairs and long, deep gouges from sharp teeth and claws. Inside the cage, fearsome as could be was the large white, Felucian Bull Rancor, his eyes dark and beady, his stubby nose sniffing at the air as thick saliva dripped from a snarling, dangerous mouth. With another ferocious howl, the rancor clawed at the ground and charged, his horned head slamming into the bars so hard the ship shook beneath them, the cage's metal creaking and groaning from the impact.

"Hey there, you big idiot!" Kenobi said, the slightest gesture tearing the welded door of the cage open, and with a loud, sharp bark, the rancor charged again, this time through the open door, and Luke swiftly hid behind the Sith Lord, tightly grabbing hold of his dusty, sticky arm. The rancor barely took two steps free of the cage before it stumbled, long arms catching itself from falling to the ground, but those too quickly gave way, the beast crashing to its belly with an outraged howl as he began dragging himself upon the ground toward Obi-Wan and Luke, its powerful, stubby legs kicking out behind him. Still, the Sith Lord didn't move, didn't flinch when the sharp claws of the rancor's long arms slammed on either side of him, the snarling beast pulling himself forward and opening it's large maw.

Luke squeezed his eyes shut and clung tighter to the Sith Lord when he felt the rancor's hot, humid breath, and steeling his nerves, he held his breath and peeked out from behind his Father's back and found himself looking into the rancor's eye, jet black slowly being overtaken by glowing, molten gold. With a soft grunt, the beast slid forward, his head lifting off the ground to loom above them, the large mouth with jagged teeth open wide, and a long, slimy tongue lolled out of the rancor's mouth to land squarely on Kenobi's chest and face as the creature licked him.

And still, Obi-Wan didn't move, only stared blankly ahead at the rancor as the beast dropped back to the ground and rolled on his back, his eyes never leaving the Sith Lord, the long tongue sliding out of his mouth and onto the floor when Kenobi slowly laid an affectionate hand on his nose.

"Just when I thought I couldn't feel any more disgusting..." Kenobi grumbled, dropping the holocron into the much cleaner Luke's hands and shuffling toward the elevator as he made a vain attempt to shake some of the thick saliva from his arms, a chuckling Luke patting the rancor once on the head before running after the Sith Lord. "So," Obi-Wan asked as they stepped into the elevator and the doors slid silently closed. "Anything else happen while I was out?"

"Well..." Luke said slowly, a hundred things running through his mind that he wished to tell his Father, all the things he needed to tell him, all the things the Sith Lord had to know, and looking at his dirty, saliva covered, sunburned Father, Luke decided that business could wait until he was feeling more himself. The most important thing to his Father had always been family, and for now, that was enough.

"As soon as we found out you were lost to us, Leia took over here," Luke said as they stepped out of the elevator and walked down the hall toward the Sith Lord's room, Kenobi's pace swift and purposeful now that his goal was so close. "She's been working close with Ahsoka, running missions, collecting intel from-"

"Wait a minute, Leia's in command?" Obi-Wan asked as the door to his room slid open and he stepped inside, an almost proud smirk upon his lips before he rolled his eyes, a gesture of his fingers opening the bathroom door. "I'm not surprised, she'll be intolerable now. As if she wasn't already difficult enough to put up with."

"Well, she is a princess," Luke drawled as Kenobi turned on the water in the shower as hot as it could go and reveled in the steam as it began to rise. "She was sort of raised to become a tyrant the moment the opportunity arose."

"I know, I'm so proud of her," Obi-Wan said as he closed the door, stripped off his tattered, dust-caked pants as quickly as he was able, and stepped beneath the stream of hot water, reveling in the feel of it pouring on his shoulders and stinging his burned skin, the tile at his feet red and brown with the dust and sweat and slime that the water swept away from his body. For the first time in what felt like eternity, Obi-Wan began to feel like himself again.

He took his time rubbing shampoo into his hair and scrubbing soap over his body so hard that the sunburn stung terribly and his skin became red and raw, made more difficult by the weakness in his hands and the occasional, painful jolts through his arms that left him dropping bottles and brushes until he got so frustrated that he turned to manipulating them with the Force instead. His thoughts slowly wandered, going over all that had happened since he had awoken, the events that had led him to that state, all the things that Luke had spoken about, and he slowly froze, his thoughts grinding to a halt as one sentence Luke had said repeated over and over in his mind.

The steady stream of water cut off with a push of the Force, and Kenobi got out of the shower, a towel sliding off the rack with a flick of his wrist and wrapping tightly around his waist. Not bothering to dry himself, he opened the door and looked into the bedroom, Luke quickly looking up from where he sat on the bed to stare with wide, startled eyes as he tried to figure out the cause of the intensity in those vibrant golden eyes.

"You said Leia couldn't leave because something came up," Obi-Wan said quietly, a soft menace on his words that made Luke shiver and the holocron on the bed beside him begin to glow red in response to the waves of the Dark Side. "What came up."

"W-well..." Luke stammered, biting down on his lip as he tried to decide how to give voice to the string of disasters that Phoenix Squadron faced while the Sith was out, and with a sigh, he decided that the most direct approach was the only way to go. "The Spectres came back this morning from an aide run to Ryloth," Luke said somberly. "It failed, but not only that. The Imperials there destroyed the Free Ryloth movement and executed Cham Syndulla." Luke looked up at his Father, the Sith's jaw tight and his shoulders tense, his chest still with breath held in anticipation of what he knew would come next.

"It was Thrawn," Luke whispered. "Thrawn's here, Father, he's hunting us, and he lured Hera to Ryloth and used her to end her father's rebellion."

"Thrawn..." Kenobi said under his breath as he leaned back against the wall and slowly stroked his beard as he thought. "Here? In the sector?"

"On Lothal," Luke quietly affirmed. "His Seventh Fleet is around the planet, led by the Chimaera."

"Do we know it's the Chimaera and not one of his decoys?"

"We know," Luke said firmly, a hard edge in his eye as he looked at the Sith. "I've seen it."

"You?!" Obi-Wan asked as he pushed himself off the wall, a look of concern on his face as he took a step toward the teenager. "Personally?!"

"I couldn't just stay here on the base, Father!" Luke said, his voice tight with exasperation and nerves he didn't know were on edge. "Without you, we needed help, I couldn't just sit here waiting for you to come back to us when none of us knew if you ever would! Most of the time, I stayed around here, but Thrawn killed a good number of our pilots, so if we needed a pilot, a good one, I'd go!" He held his breath, staring at the Sith Lord and just waiting for him to reprimand him, to scold him, to yell or shout or anything in protective, parental fear, but Obi-Wan did nothing, simply stood there and looked at Luke, an unreadable expression on his face, and Luke felt the desperation swiftly leave him.

"I couldn't do nothing, Father..." Luke weakly explained once again. "I had to help."

For a moment that seemed far longer than it actually was, there was silence, and Luke shifted uncomfortably where he sat, reaching out with the Force and trying to get an idea of what his Father was thinking, but now, as always, the Sith Lord was unreadable. He just stood as he stared at Luke, his gaze intense, but not angry or concerned or disappointed or any of the other things he expected to see in his Father's eyes. He simply looked...thoughtful.

"You saw the Chimaera?" Obi-Wan repeated.

"Yeah. We all did."

"Then there's no getting around it," Obi-Wan said with a sigh. "Thrawn knows about you and your sister."

"Father, just because we saw-"

"He might not know who you are or what you are to me," Kenobi said in a swift, clipped tone. "He might not know the details, but he knows you exist and that is enough. You are an unknown element, and before long, he'll know everything." The Sith Lord's intensity suddenly faded with a casual, nonchalant shrug as he turned back into the bathroom. "We just need to deal with him before that happens."

"Oh, is that it?!" Luke asked with a disbelieving, dismissive scoff as he jumped off the bed and followed Kenobi into the bathroom, the Sith making brief eye contact with the teenager in the mirror as he ran his fingers through his beard and frowned as the vibro-razor upon the counter rose into the air in the grasp of the Force.

"That's it," Obi-Wan said flippantly as he carefully and so very slowly maneuvered the razor over his face, the soft buzz cutting the hairs of his beard down short into a much more manageable length. "I'm sure Thrawn's been wrecking havoc on our forces, but this is exactly what we wanted. We can't fight him if he isn't around to engage."

"Yeah, well maybe he's only here because he's certain he can win," Luke said pointedly, more harsh than he intended. "Maybe he's only moved in because he knows we've already lost."

"A good tactician knows victory is never a guarantee, Luke," Obi-Wan said calmly, jerking the razor away from his face when his control faltered as his hand began to shake, and he carefully returned to shaving when he felt the tremor had stopped. "There is no such thing as an unbeatable hand. Just because he's making a move doesn't mean he's already won." Running his slightly quivering hand over his now neatly trimmed beard, he looked at his work in the mirror, nodded when he decided he liked it, and the razor gently floated back down to the counter.

"Do you know when he moved in?" Obi-Wan asked as he passed Luke, walking through his bedroom and into the large walk-in closet on the other side, Luke following him and dropping back on the bed.

"A little over a month ago, I guess," Luke said with a shrug. "That's when we went on the mission where we saw Chimaera."

"Then he's been here longer than that," Kenobi called from the closet, and in the silence that followed, the Sith could feel the dubious look on his son's face. "If you saw his ship, Luke," Kenobi said as he walked out of the closet, his pants on and his robes draped over his shoulder, "then he's been studying you for weeks. The only reason he'd bring the Chimaera into play is if he were testing you, seeing how you'd react, observing if his predictions are correct." He pulled on his shirt, sighing at the smooth feel of soft silk upon his skin, and slowly began buttoning the shirt with fingers that fumbled far too often. "Have we directly engaged him at all?"

"I can do you one better than that..." Luke drawled with a bitter scoff. "We've met him."

"...excuse me?"

"Sabine was first," Luke said quietly. "He captured her during an undercover mission. And he captured Hera and Ezra on this last mission to Ryloth. From what they've said, they spoke to him at length while he was interrogating them."

"...and he just let them go?!"

"Sabine escaped with the help of a Fulcrum agent Ahsoka has inside the Imperial ranks. But the others..." Luke shifted uncomfortably where he sat upon the bed, his brow furrowing in confusion as he looked away from the Sith Lord. "Yeah..." he whispered. "He just let us go..."

Kenobi was silent as he absently finished putting on his robes and cinching them together, his gaze distant as he slowly went through everything Luke had told him and everything he knew about Thrawn, a vast network of interconnected puzzles that now, frustratingly, were not lining up. He was missing information, and Luke couldn't give him what he needed.

"Come on," Obi-Wan said as he smoothed down his robes, a small gesture of his fingers making the three lightsabers rise off the top of a mantle where they had been resting and gently float to him, and the Sith carefully plucked them one by one out of the air and attached them to his belt. "We were going to the command center to see the others, weren't we? I'd hate to keep them waiting."

---

The briefing room was silent as Ahsoka leaned over her datapad, her fingers moving swiftly as she entered in the new information, checked her recent reports, sent out new commands, and with a sigh, dismissed the recent base alert for the fourth time in the hour. She had already told them that the situation was under control, that the response team should be called off and the repair teams sent in, but she had asked for updates and reports, and the woman in charge was excessively thorough.

She looked up briefly to see the Spectres on the opposite side of the round table, the group huddled close together, mostly in comforting silence, but occasionally speaking to each other in soft, muttered tones that Ahsoka couldn't hear, though she didn't need to hear them to know what they were saying. What had happened on Ryloth had rattled them, far, far more than their loss at Skystrike had, not just because of the devastating loss of life and the utter destruction of another rebel group, but because they knew that it had been their fault. They had been masterfully played, their emotions used and manipulated in order to draw Cham into a trap he could not escape from, and instead of reclaiming an important part of the Syndulla family legacy, Hera had lost her father.

To make matters almost even worse, they only escaped because their enemy had allowed it, which was like rubbing salt in a fresh, open wound. It was easily the greatest loss the Spectres had ever suffered, and with how swiftly and decisively the Imperials under Thrawn had ended both Cham's rebel insurgency and Nightswan's before it, it didn't bode well for their own chances against the cunning Chiss.

In the seat beside her, Leia gave a short, impatient huff, and Ahsoka looked over to see the girl's arms crossed over her chest, her datapad with several unread messages ignored before her as she stared at the door, her body tight with anticipation, and Ahsoka couldn't help the small smile that touched her lips. Leia had felt her Father awaken, of course, had wanted to go with Luke to get him, but duty had kept her here, and now, over an hour after her brother had left, and with the current break in the briefing, she was beginning to get restless.

"Shall we continue?" Ahsoka asked, and Zeb, Sabine and Ezra sat bolt upright in their seats, their eyes fixed on Ahsoka, while Kanan and Hera didn't move, the Twi'lek's eyes downcast and her shoulders rising with a heavy sigh.

"I don't know what I can tell you that I haven't already..." Hera muttered.

"And you're sure he figured out who I am?" Ahsoka asked, and Hera finally raised her eyes to meet hers.

"I'm sure," Hera said almost bitterly. "Sabine was right. He takes artwork and he uses it to learn...everything. I don't know how he does it, I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it for myself, but it's true. Everything he learned from us he learned from my Kalikori and the paintings on Ezra's leg." She gave a dismissive wave of her hand. "Including your identity."

"It might not matter," Leia said calmly, her attention finally returning to the people before her. "If Ahsoka was a public figure, it would be another matter, but she's been working from the shadows for years. And the Sith Lords saw her on Malachor, they know she's alive and working with you. If they-"

She was interrupted when the door that was supposed to be locked down slid open, and Obi-Wan and Luke stepped in the room, as neat and put together as they had ever seen him, like Malachor had never happened at all, just a bad dream that continued to haunt them. It was Leia that broke the silence first, a sharp, shuddering cry tearing from her throat as she jumped up from her seat and ran across the room to throw herself into her Father's arms, squeezing him tightly and burying her face in the soft folds of his robes when she felt his fingers sliding into her hair.

The Spectres slowly rose after that, none of them wishing to intrude upon the moment between the Sith Lord and his children, but when Leia pulled out of his arms, they surrounded him, Sabine and Ezra unceremoniously barreling into him and nearly taking him off his feet.

"Guess it was too much to hope for the galaxy to finally be rid of the Sith, huh?" Kanan asked with a slow, disapproving drawl, and Kenobi shot him a wry smirk in return.

"Thousands of Jedi failed to purge the galaxy of us before, what makes you think you could do it now?" Obi-Wan asked, a wry smirk upon his face. "You should know by now we're too stubborn to die."

"Nothing but a disappointment, I assure you," Kanan said as he laid a hand on the Sith's shoulder. "It's good to have you back."

"We've needed you, Obi-Wan," Hera said quietly, and Kenobi bowed his head.

"I've heard..."

"Kenobi!" Ezra said excitedly, pulling on the Sith Lord's arm. "Kenobi, I have so much to tell you!"

"So much has happened since you've been gone," Sabine said swiftly as she tugged on his other arm. "The Imperials are tightening their hold, they need to be stopped!"

"Were you stuck in the Force, or were you just...in a coma or something?" Ezra asked.

"Are you going to rally the Mandalorians?!" Sabine asked excitedly.

"What was it like fighting the Emperor?!"

"Thrawn is collecting my art!"

"Look, I got a new leg!"

"Alright, that's enough, you two..." Zeb growled as he grabbed the two teenagers and pulled them off the Sith Lord, a concerned frown crossing his lips when he saw the shaking in Obi-Wan's arms as he folded them into the sleeves of his robe. "...you alright, Kenobi?" Zeb asked quietly, and the Sith chuckled, flashing the Lasat a slight smile.

"I'm alright," he said as he held out a shaking hand. "Won't be doing any heavy lifting any time soon, but I'm fundamentally opposed to work anyway. So far as I'm concerned, now I've got an excuse to be lazy."

"...can't you just use the Force to-"

"Shhh, Zeb..." The Sith quietly hushed, and the Lasat's mouth closed tightly against his will. "Don't ruin my day with logic."

"Thirty thousand credits worth of damage done to our medcenter," Ahsoka said calmly, the sound of her voice instantly quieting the room, and the Spectres parted so the Sith could see Ahsoka, still seated, her fingers drumming impatiently on the table. "You certainly know how to make an entrance, don't you."

"Well someone in this rebellion needs to have some style," Obi-Wan said with a roll of his eyes. "Otherwise, all we'd be is just a bunch of grungy upstarts, and then where would we be?"

The faintest smile touched Ahsoka's lips. "You're late, Kenobi."

"My deepest apologies, Fulcrum," Obi-Wan said with a respectful bow, a slight smirk on his lips as he looked at the similarly smiling Togruta. "It's won't happen again."

"See that it doesn't."

"I've been told I have you to thank for my survival," Obi-Wan whispered, his eyes averting as he bowed his head. "For that, you have my deepest gratitude."

"...have a seat, Kenobi," Ahsoka said as she gestured to the seat beside her. "We've got work to do."

Nodding in acknowledgment, Obi-Wan slowly strode to his seat, the Spectres falling in behind him to do likewise, a gleeful Luke and Leia pulling on his sleeves to lead him to the place at Ahsoka's side. With a heavy, satisfied sigh, Obi-Wan settled himself into the chair, looked around the table at all those present, and folded slightly trembling hands together upon the table's smooth surface, uttering a soft thanks to Leia as she sat beside him and slid him a datapad.

"Alright..." Obi-Wan said. "Let's talk about Thrawn."

"I've compiled the incident reports involving him in a file on your datapad," Leia said swiftly, a touch of pride in her voice as she sat up taller in her chair. "While we've had several smaller encounters with his forces over the past month or so, three of them are particularly worthy of note. Our mission to Yarma, Sabine's mission to Skystrike Academy, and the supply run to Ryloth."

"Luke briefly filled me in, yes," Obi-Wan said, his hands folding together and his fingers pressing to his lips as he looked at the crestfallen Spectres. "You've met him."

"I wish we hadn't," Ezra grumbled, his arms crossing over his chest. "He's a creepy, weird, art freak. He took my leg off and-"

"Shhh..." Kenobi gently hushed, leaning forward with his elbows on the table, and Ezra seemed to choke on his words, his chest heaving as he began to shiver. "I don't need you to tell me, I need you to show me..."

"Kenobi..." Kanan said in a voice low with warning, the Jedi starting to push himself out of his seat until the Sith's golden eyes darted to look at him.

"My strategy going forward is going to hinge on what they saw in that room, Kanan," Obi-Wan whispered, a quiet menace in his tone that made it clear he was not to be challenged. "There is nothing they can say that will serve me better than seeing it for myself. And I have to know. Thrawn's moving against us, and I need to see how." With a deep, calming breath, Obi-Wan's attention shifted back to the tense, gasping Ezra. "Hush now, apprentice..." the Sith purred soothingly. "Relax, let me in..."

And he did, the quiet compulsion of the Force snapping Ezra's mind into instant compliance, a long, shaking breath falling from his lips as he slumped on the table, his eyes blank and hazy as the Sith Lord combed through his mind. Without taking his eyes away from Ezra, Kenobi raised his hand in Sabine's direction, and the Mandalorian froze, her eyes going wide as he body began to tremble, unable to move as the Dark Side held her tightly in her grasp, the softest unspoken whisper putting her under the Sith Lord's sway as he opened her mind as well.

His jaw clenched tightly, Kanan began to rise from his seat, a flash of protective anger coloring the Force with his need to wrest the teenagers from the Sith's invasive grasp, but Ahsoka's hand swiftly reached out to grab his wrist, the quiet insistence to allow this violation in her eyes. With a low, growl, Kanan sat back down in his seat, his eyes darting between the dazed teenagers and the Sith Lord that reaped the information in their minds, and clenched Hera's hand tightly beneath the table when the Twi'lek lightly brushed the tight tendons in his wrist. A necessary evil, he told himself. They were desperate, and Obi-Wan had the answers to their victory over their dangerous new enemy.

"Oh, Thrawn baby, you aren't playing fair..." Obi-Wan muttered as he released Ezra and Sabine, the two teens shivering and gasping as his presence was slowly withdrawn. "I'm your opponent, you don't get to keep moving pieces when someone else is sitting opposite you..."

"This isn't a game, Kenobi," Ahsoka said firmly, earning her an insulted look from the Lord of the Sith.

"Of course it isn't a game! I can't believe what a cheating slut this Admiral is!" Kenobi said indignantly.

"He's already entirely destroyed two rebel cells and has been slowly picking Phoenix squadron apart," Ahsoka said, pointedly ignoring the Sith Lord's exaggerated outrage. "He's getting very good at anticipating our moves, and if we don't take action soon, it won't be long before he finds our base and destroys us too."

"If we go to ground..." Hera said quietly. "If we don't run any missions for a while, we can-"

"Even if we lay low, he'll find us, Hera," Ahsoka interrupted. "He has his hooks in us already. Even if we do nothing, he'll follow the line right back to us." She folded her hands before her on the table. "I want to relocate the Phoenix Squadron to the main rebel cell on Yavin."

"Absolutely not!" Obi-Wan said firmly, his tone leaving no room for argument, his gaze roving slowly over the concerned and uncertain faces of his children, the Spectres, and finally Ahsoka. "If we run now," he said slowly, calmly, "all we do is delay the inevitable, only then, Thrawn will have the greater rebellion in his sights. It's like you said," Kenobi said as he gestured to Ahsoka. "He'll just follow the line. That happens, Ahsoka, and it's checkmate. Thrawn wins. We need to deal with him now. Here, where he's out in the open."

"You want to confront him?" Kanan asked, his jaw slack as he started to nervously chuckle. "I don't know if that's a good idea, Kenobi. He's kicked our asses every time we've come into contact with him. Running in to meet him again doesn't sound like a thing we should be doing."

"It's the only thing we should be doing!" Obi-Wan snapped, his hand slamming hard upon the table. "It's a risk, I know, but this is still anyone's game! Thrawn may have a read on me, he might have a read on all of us, but he doesn't know what cards I have in my hand! Maybe Phoenix Squadron ends here. Maybe we manage to defeat Thrawn. But what's certain is that if we don't stand and fight here, this entire rebellion, everything we've worked so hard for all these years will be finished."

There was silence, save for the Sith Lord's hard, ragged breathing, and with a heavy, shaking sigh, he leaned back in his seat and ran a badly trembling hand through his hair. They were nervous and afraid, the silence in the room practically screaming with their unease. He could taste Sabine's horror in the air, her very spirit trembling with the violation of her art turned against her, with the almost oppressive guilt of her belief that the gains Thrawn had made in her Shadow King's absence were her doing. He could feel Hera's grief at the loss of her Father, her shame in allowing herself to embark on a personal mission when she knew so much better than that. There was Ezra, angry and frustrated at how useless he felt, Zeb, tense and restless with the need for vengeance, and Kanan...

Well, something was going on with Kanan. Whatever it was, the Jedi hadn't yet said.

"Alright, Kenobi," Hera said evenly, her expression unreadable as she looked at the Sith Lord. "What would you do?"

"Thrawn," Obi-Wan began slowly, "is a master tactician. If he can anticipate our actions, he can counter and defeat us. So we do the unexpected." he said with a sly smirk. "We take the fight to him."

"You...you want to attack him?" Luke stammered, swallowing hard as he looked around the equally shocked faces around the table. "...that's insane, Father."

"I know!" Kenobi said brightly. "He'll never suspect it."

"Probably because nobody with half a brain would be so stupid," Hera said, calm and firm. "I understand wanting to take the fight to them, but charging directly at him is suicide."

"The Seventh Fleet," Ahsoka calmly began, her finger dragging over her datapad and the holotable blinking to life, "consists of at least nine Imperial I-class Star Destroyers and at least sixteen Imperial II-class Star Destroyers." She tapped her finger on the datapad, and the image of Lothal appeared in the holofield, another tap bringing up the red wedges indicating the mentioned Imperial ships. "All of which are currently blockading Lothal. That is to say nothing of the twelve Arquitens-class command cruisers." Another tap, and those ships appeared around Lothal as well. "The nine Gozanti-class cruisers." Another tap. "The four Imperial support vessels." Tap. "He also had five construction modules in the planet's orbit and at least two Interdictor cruisers." Tap, tap, went Ahsoka's finger on the datapad, and she flashed a tight, humorless grin at Kenobi. "These are the minimum number, for the record, based on what our scouts have seen. There very well could be more we've yet to observe."

"Alright, so Lothal's well defended," Obi-Wan said with a roll of his eyes. "You don't have to be so dramatic about it..."

"Even if we launched a diversionary attack, that's still more ships than we can handle," Hera said quietly. "I'm good, Kenobi. We're good. But we're not that good. Even if we did manage to slip by that blockade, what would we do once we're done there? Lothal's under Imperial occupation. It's Thrawn's territory now, and he's expecting us."

"Is he?" Obi-Wan asked with a raise of his eyebrow and gestured to Sabine and Ezra. "I saw in their minds that Thrawn thinks I'm out of the picture, at least for now. After your loss on Ryloth, and with how limited your recent activity's been, I think he expects you to go to ground."

"Or he expects us to attack," Kanan pointed out. "Retaliation, you know. It would explain why he's got the entirety of his fleet around Lothal when he could effectively blockade the planet with a force half that size."

"It's certainly possible," Kenobi said with a nod, the wry smirk on his lips as he eyed the hologram making the gesture seem sarcastic. "But I think not. He'd expect that sort of emotional response from Sabine, or from Ezra, or from Zeb. But not from Hera. No, he'd expect her to learn from her mistake, to move cautiously for a while. An attack of any kind would be..." He grinned. "Reckless. Wildly out of character. Unexpected. And because of the very personal nature of the losses suffered on Ryloth, it's unlikely someone else would lead a retaliatory charge." Obi-Wan clapped his hands together. "So! If he's not expecting an attack, why has he gathered his forces around Lothal, Sabine?"

"...w-what?" Sabine stammered, sitting up straighter in her chair and swallowing hard when she found the Sith Lord looking right at her. It wasn't a mistake. She had heard it correctly. "M-me?" The Sith Lord pointed at her, silently mouthed that he was indeed speaking to her, and Sabine slowly nodded, her arms crossing over her chest for just a moment before realization struck her, her eyes widening and her back straightening as she sat up taller. "Thrawn's secret project!"

"Thrawn's secret project..." Kenobi said slowly, folding his hands before him on the table. "Very good."

"I thought he lied about that," Sabine said, her nose wrinkling as she frowned. "A cover to come in and root out the rebels at Skystrike."

"I think not," Kenobi muttered. "Not with his fleet defending Lothal the way it is. Must be some secret if he'd post that many warships to protect it." He tapped the table and looked over at Ahsoka. "What do we know about what he's doing down there?"

"Nothing," Ahsoka said with a shrug. "I have a Fulcrum agent that reports that there's something going on in one of the factories, but the security is so high they can't get in, and nobody's talking about it."

"Then our course is clear," Kenobi said with a shrug and a lazy smile. "We strike at the heart of Thrawn's stronghold, infiltrate this factory and find out what exactly the naughty Admiral's keeping so very secret."

"And how do you suppose we're going to get past that Imperial blockade?" Hera asked in a flat, deadpan voice, her fingers drumming upon the table. "Even for you, oh Lord of the Sith, an entire fleet is too much to take."

"I have a Fulcrum agent in Thrawn's ranks," Ahsoka said quietly, and beside her, Obi-Wan sat up straighter. "I'll get in contact and see if we can't find a way to get past."

"You might want to be careful about trusting the information you get from that particular agent, Ahsoka," Kenobi warned. "If Thrawn doesn't know who your agent is now, he will soon."

"Kenobi..." Ahsoka sighed as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "We-"

"Your agent helped Sabine escape," Obi-Wan quietly hissed. "Right out from under Thrawn's nose. Whatever secrecy or anonymity they possessed was used up in her rescue. They aren't a spy anymore, Ahsoka, they're a pawn, and Thrawn will use them."

"Knowing that," Ahsoka said slowly after a moment of contemplative silence, "do you believe that we can play that particular piece against Thrawn?"

"It's...possible..." Kenobi said thoughtfully as he slowly stroked his beard, and after a moment gave a dismissive wave of his hand. "But unlikely, I think. Our agent's already made his play rescuing Sabine, and Thrawn's eyes are on them, I can assure you that. That piece is already lost to us."

"Then we need a different way to get past it," Kanan said as he leaned forward and pointed an accusing finger at the Sith. "But I don't like it. Not two hours ago, you were still in bacta. You only just came back to us, I don't think rushing headfirst into a confrontation with Thrawn after a two month nap is the best idea."

"I agree with Kanan," Hera said quietly, sending the Sith Lord a pointed glare when he looked positively outraged. "You should ease back into things instead of jumping at the first suicidally idiotic mission you can find."

"We need time to consider if this is the best course of action anyway," Ahsoka said, swiftly holding up a hand for silence when Kenobi scoffed and began to speak. "Even if we do decide to do this thing, we need time to prepare. We have to see if we can find a way past the blockade, find out if there's a way into this factory, collect all the intel we can about this project and it's location." She looked over at the frowning Lord of the Sith. "I won't be taking unnecessary risks. We can't afford to lose anymore than Thrawn's already taken from us."

"Do you really have nothing?" Obi-Wan asked in a low, dangerous voice as he stared incredulously at the group. "Two months facing off against Thrawn and all you've done is let him move his pieces into position?"

"You know as well as I that Thrawn isn't an easy opponent," Ahsoka said, her calm, measured response enough to cool the Sith Lord's anger.

"Which is why I need a weapon against him," Obi-Wan said with a sigh. "What I have already is good, but it isn't good enough when he's working from such a strong position. You must have something I can work with, Ahsoka."

"We've made contact with Galen Erso," Ahsoka said smoothly, and the desperation was wiped from Kenobi's face, replaced instead with a blank, slack-jawed expression, the words slowly churning in his mind.

"And?" Obi-Wan managed to choke out, and Ahsoka leaned back in her chair, a smug smirk upon her face.

"It sounds like the project's taken so long to complete because he's been sabotaging it from the very beginning," Ahsoka said almost proudly. "He was conscripted against his will to work on it by Orson Krennic."

"So we get him out of there!" Kenobi said excitedly. "We get the man who engineered that monstrosity on our side and we'll have the keys to destroy it!"

"It's not that simple," Ahsoka said with a slow shake of her head. "He believes that if he leaves, Krennic will take over and production will speed up, and it's already close to being completed."

"Alright, so let him stay," Obi-Wan said with a roll of his eyes. "But he still has information we need."

"Information he is reluctant to part with," Ahsoka said, holding up a hand to keep the indignant Sith from speaking. "I know, Kenobi. If he wants the project destroyed, the best way to do so is to give us the information, but Galen Erso is a cautious, suspicious man, an Imperial traitor that has been living among Imperials for years under very close scrutiny. However..." she slowly drawled, drumming her fingers on the desk. "He is willing to give us the information we want and more." Her fingers stopped drumming, her hand laying flat upon the desk. "For a price."

"It's always something, isn't it?" Obi-Wan grumbled. "What does he want?"

"His daughter, Jyn," Ahsoka said, a swipe of her hand across the datapad clearing the imposing image of blockaded Lothal from the holofield. "They were separated many years ago when the Empire came for him, and in us, he sees the opportunity for them to be reunited. If we take Jyn into our custody and promise her protection, Galen Erso will leave the Empire and come join our cause."

"Oh, is that it?" Kenobi drawled, his cheek resting on his hand as his gaze drifted to look at his own two children, a faint smile on his face. "Good thing the Imperials keep such meticulous records, finding her should be no trouble at all." Kenobi was silent for a moment, the small, genuine smile on his lips becoming a wry smirk as he looked at the Togruta beside him. "I suppose it isn't so simple, is it?"

"No, it isn't."

"Of course not..." Obi-Wan said with a roll of his eyes. "So what is it this time? No, wait, let me guess. She's got an assumed name. She's a prisoner in a high security Imperial compound. She's running around with unsavory vermin."

"All that and worse," Ahsoka said with a frown. "She was left in the custody of Saw Gerrera."

"Aw, shit..."

"Who's Saw Gerrera?" Ezra asked, and Leia's eyes narrowed, a disgusted sneer on her face.

"He's a dangerous extremist," Leia ground out through the anger that tightened her throat. "For as effective he is at combating Imperial forces, he's equally destructive to the rebel cause." She crossed her arms tightly over her chest, the Force around her rippling with cold waves as her irritation grew into a tight knot in her stomach. "His actions make our entire cause look like it's filled with a bunch of violent, unhinged terrorists. It discredits any sway we might hold in the Senate and with the people."

"How important is all of that, really?" Ezra asked, and shrank down in his seat when Leia shot him a vicious glare.

"Very," Leia said firmly. "A rebellion can't be won without support, and so long as Saw keeps blowing up the innocent in his crusade, we'll never have it. He's a short-sighted idiot," Leia growled. "Nothing more."

"Do we know what Saw's up to these days?" Kenobi asked, and both Leia and Ahsoka shook their heads.

"We don't," Ahsoka said. "He's gone to ground again, but I have Fulcrum agents keeping eyes out for him. As soon as he resurfaces, we'll know."

"So..." Ezra said slowly, his lips pursing together in a moment as he collected his thoughts. "What does all this have to do with Thrawn?"

"Maybe nothing," Obi-Wan said with a shrug, his eyes meeting Ezra's, and the teenager felt the breath catch in his throat with the sudden rush of cold as he watched those glowing golden eyes begin to swirl with the touch of molten red. "Maybe everything."

"Do you think this big secret project and Thrawn's project are linked?" Kanan asked quietly, and Ahsoka and Obi-Wan looked at each other, thoughtful expressions on their faces as they leaned in toward each other and began whispering, far too quietly for the others to hear.

"An interesting thought, Kanan," Obi-Wan finally said. "It's certainly possible, though perhaps not in the way we believe. We won't know until we learn what it is that Thrawn's working on."

"And we won't know for some time," Ahsoka cut in. "In the meantime, Spectres, we need to start working on rebuilding what Thrawn destroyed." She reached into the pocket in her belt, pulled out a small datacard, and pushed it forward on the table. "I've got something for you."

"Is it even safe for us to leave?" Sabine asked, shifting uncomfortably in her seat. "If Thrawn's that good at anticipating our moves, won't he be looking for us to do something like this?"

"I'm sure he will be," Ahsoka said calmly, the slightest smirk on her lips as she spun the datacard on the table before her. "But Thrawn isn't omnipotent, and even with a fleet his size, even with the information network of the Imperial Navy at his disposal, he can't watch the entire galaxy. He relies on predictions based on patterns. He knows you," she said, gesturing to the Spectres that sat around the table. "He doesn't know me."

"Where did this information come from?" Obi-Wan asked as he picked up the datacard, his eyes squinting suspiciously as he looked at it. "Not your Fulcrum agent in Thrawn's ranks, I hope."

"No, this one comes out of my own...personal archive," Ahsoka said as she plucked the datacard out of Kenobi's hand and slid it into the reader in front of her. "And out of yours."

Before Obi-Wan had the opportunity to question what she meant, a map of the galaxy flashed into being within the blue glow of the holofield and swiftly zoomed into a galactic north sector of the Outer Rim, a collection of planets highlighted before it again zoomed into a single one. The planet itself was unremarkable and unassuming, a bland, gray world of rocky terrain and little else, and before the information crawl appeared beside it, Kenobi quietly gasped, his eyes widening in understanding as he leaned back in his seat.

"Is that Agamar?" Obi-Wan asked, and Ahsoka nodded, a satisfied smile on her lips.

"It is," Ahsoka said, her attention turning toward the Spectres, the confused and inquisitive looks upon their faces making it clear that they were not in the loop. "Agamar was a Separatist stronghold during the Clone Wars," Ahsoka explained as the information crawl appeared beside the planet. "It's remote, off the path of major hyperspace lanes, and even better for us, it's far out of the way of the Lothal sector, placing it comfortably out of Thrawn's line of sight."

"There are a lot of Separatist holdouts still scattered around the Outer Rim," Obi-Wan quietly added. "Most major Separatist bases were taken apart when the Empire rose, but there were far more minor locations that slipped under their notices. Bases that had either been abandoned, or were run by droids that were shut down at the war's end. Without any signals going out of those bases, they disappeared."

"Unless you know where to look," Ahsoka said, a sly smirk on her face. "Which we do. The Agamar base should be well supplied with weapons, explosives, spare parts, all things we are in desperate need of if we're going to fight back against Thrawn's fleet. We're sending a ship to scout the location and bring back everything they can carry." Her gaze slowly drifted over to the Sith beside her, the smirk on her lips growing wider. "You up for leading a mission, Negotiator?"

"Anything to get me off this planet," Kenobi grumbled, running a hand through his hair. "I haven't been in one place for so long since before I was a Padawan. It's ridiculous."

"It'll be good for you to get out, then," Ahsoka said as she took the datacard out of the reader and slid it across the table to the Sith. "Here's the information you need. I'm sending you with Kanan, Rex and Cody. You're all veterans of the Clone Wars, so it'll easier for you to sift through what's useful and what isn't."

"We'll be back before you know it," Obi-Wan said as he rose from his seat. "Luke, Leia, go ready the Umbra, you're coming with us."

"W-we are?" the twins said in perfect unison, excited, tentative smile on their faces that grew wider when Obi-Wan held up both his hands and they trembled visibly.

"I need someone to fly the Umbra," he said quietly. "It's high time you two learned." Jumping up from their seats, the twins gave Kenobi a swift, tight hug before the two of them darted from the command center.

"Kenobi," Ahsoka said quickly, rising to grab the Sith by the sleeve of his robe. "It's good to have you back. Try not to embarrass yourself out there."

"Don't get your hopes up, Fulcrum, I'm generally terribly embarrassing," Obi-Wan lazily drawled, flashing the Togruta a swift grin before he turned from her and made his way toward the door, the Spectres rising from their places as Ahsoka called an end to the meeting.

Stepping out into the hallway, the doors hissing closed behind him, Obi-Wan looked down at his hands, a bitter frown on his lips as he watched the small tremors run through them and felt the dull, painful ache across his shoulder blades. He would overcome this. Weakness from disuse and injury had never stopped the Lords of the Sith, it had only ever made them stronger, and he was no different from his ancient brethren. If he drained the Force out of some poor idiot, if he used their life energy to rejuvenate his body, perhaps this wound would be healed as well, his full strength returned in an instant. And if not...

When he faced Sidious on Malachor, the old Master didn't draw his lightsaber. He didn't need to, so great was his strength in the Force, and in all his years, both as a Jedi and as a Sith, Obi-Wan had never once seen wise Master Yoda ever reach for a lightsaber, and that had always been more than enough. If they could do it, he certainly could, and with enough study and practice, he could learn to wield a lightsaber in the hands of the Force instead of in his own, just as the woman in the holocron did. But if he could learn this technique and recover physically...

Already he could feel the need to consume life scratching beneath his skin, the Dark Side's hunger clawing at the depths of his being, insistent and alluring as he eyed the rebel soldiers that passed by, his half-lidded eyes more predator than man. It would be so easy to touch their mind, to lull them into beautiful submission and lure them away to have their life devoured, to feel the hot pulse of the stolen Force singing in his veins, to-

"Hey, Kenobi!"

The Sith Lord was jolted out of his thoughts, the Dark Side snarling and hissing as he slipped from its grasp, and with a sneer, Kenobi clenched his shaking hand, the heat of anger spreading through him when he felt how weak his grip was, and snapped the chained beast back at his heel, the tightening of his control making the wrathful Force thrash and struggle. It was a futile effort, and before long, the beast had calmed once again, the waters returning to undisturbed peace. With a sigh, Obi-Wan turned to find Kanan and Hera walking down the hall toward him, their fingers lightly, discretely brushing against each other's.

"Need some help getting to your ship, old man?" Kanan said flippantly, a light, easy smirk upon his face. "Since you destroyed a perfectly good medcenter the last time you didn't know where you were, I figured we could save a few thousands credits worth of property damage if you have an escort."

"Kanan, you know me better than that..." Kenobi chided. "I don't need a reason to destroy things."

"Oh, right, my mistake," Kanan said with a roll of his eyes. "I forgot how awful the Sith were for a moment."

"Forgetting things, old man?" Kenobi drawled in a carefree lit, his eyebrow raised questioningly and a mocking smirk on his lips, the levity of his mood quickly sobering when his eyes flicked to the crestfallen, thoughtful Hera. "Sounds like things were rough while I was out. You holding up alright?"

"No," Hera said quietly, her eyes downcast for a moment before she took a deep breath and looked the Sith Lord in the eye. "But I'll manage."

"I'm sorry about your father," Obi-Wan said quietly as he drew closer to Kanan and Hera, the couple's fingers intertwining as the Twi'lek bit down on her lip. "He was a difficult man, but if he was dedicated to anything more than his cause, it was you. For that, he has my respect."

"...I didn't understand that before," Hera said quietly as she squeezed Kanan's hand. "It shouldn't have taken this for me to see it." Sniffling once, she swiftly wiped her forearm across her eyes, and when she looked up again, her face was neutral, her expression hard and determined. "I let my emotions get the better of me, and it cost my father his life and put Phoenix Squadron at risk. I've learned from my mistake. It won't happen again.."

"If Thrawn had Cham in his sights, Hera, there's nothing you could have done," Obi-Wan said, laying a hand upon her shoulder. "He was likely dead before you got there. You being there may have been...incidental."

"That may be, but my being there certainly didn't help," Hera muttered. "We'll never know for sure, in any case."

"Oh, we might..." Kenobi drawled, beaconing for the pair to follow as he began to saunter down the hall. "When I meet Thrawn, I'll ask him."

"Is that really your plan?" Kanan asked as they descended the narrow stairs and made their way through the rebels milling about in the shade of the command center, a few unfortunate groups nudged out of the way with the Force when they didn't move fast enough for the Sith Lord's tastes. "You want to sit down and talk with the man that's trying to kill you?"

"It's true we're having something of a misunderstanding at the moment..." Obi-Wan grumbled, shielding his eyes as they stepped out into the sun. "We just have so many things we need to talk about if we're going to make this work..."

"I don't know, Kenobi..." Kanan said as he grabbed the Sith Lord's shoulder to steer him toward the Umbra when he, half blinded by the harsh sunlight, began wandering off in the wrong direction. "I haven't met Thrawn myself, but it doesn't exactly sound like it's a good time."

"Of course not, Kanan," Kenobi scoffed. "It isn't a party until I've arrived. Honestly, how do you lot even manage without me?"

"It's a struggle," Kanan said with a shrug. "But somehow we manage."

"And once you've met him, what is it you intend to do with him?" Hera asked quietly, suspicion lacing her voice as she eyed the Sith Lord as they approached the Umbra. Any response Kenobi had was swiftly cut off when a lone figure in red and black armor darted down the ramp of the ship and went barreling into the Sith, shoving him hard enough to send the man slamming to the ground if Kanan hadn't managed to catch him, and the man tore off his helmet and threw it to the ground, revealing the furious face of the clone beneath.

"You idiot!" Cody snarled between clenched teeth, his hands balled into fists and his shoulders shaking with barely contained emotion. "Do you know what it would have been like if I outlived you? Me, a clone with half a life, outlasting you, an immortal Lord of the Sith!" Biting down on his lip as it trembled, the fury on his face beginning to crack like fragile glass, Cody threw his arms around Kenobi and buried his head against his shoulder. "I've never heard of anything so absurd..."

"Cody, I-"

"Shut up!" the clone growled, his grip tightening around the man. "You think you're so clever but you never say anything intelligent! How they ever called you the Negotiator is beyond me..."

A soft sigh dissolved into light, quiet chuckling as Kenobi slowly wrapped his arms around his long-time friend, closed his eyes as he felt the rapid pounding of the clone's heart and the ever so slight trembling in his shoulders beneath his armor. It had felt like no time at all had passed while he spent those long months lost in the darkest reaches of the Force, but now, as his hands slid through black hair peppered heavily with gray, it felt like an eternity that he had been gone from his family.

"I told you that you missed him..." an amused voice slowly drawled from the Umbra's ramp, and Kenobi could feel Cody's body tighten, his fingers digging hard into the Sith Lord's back. Obi-Wan looked up and couldn't help the wry smirk that passed his lips when he saw Rex standing in his ship's entry hatch.

"I'm not upset, I'm angry! This is what anger looks like!" Cody snapped as he let go of Kenobi and reeled on the other clone, tears clearly staining his cheeks as he glowered at Rex. "Stupid kriffing slave, we have the same face! You'd think you'd know what we look like when we're angry!"

"Can't say I've ever taken the time to look," Rex drawled as he walked down the ramp. "I sure hope I don't look like you, though..."

"In just a second, you useless slave, I'm going to take your attitude and stuff it right up your-"

"Kenobi," Rex said, saluting swiftly as he stood before the Sith Lord, a bright smile on his face. "It's good to have you back. We've been itching for some action, but that Admiral of yours has been keeping us grounded."

"Yes, I've heard that Thrawn's been something of a bitch in my absence," Obi-Wan said with a shrug, patting Rex on the shoulder before he slid his hands into his pockets and slowly began making his way up the ramp of the Umbra. "Don't you worry about a thing, Rex. We'll deal with dearest Thrawn soon enough."

"I never doubted it, sir," Rex said as he filed in beside the Sith Lord, and laughed to himself when Cody shoved him out of the way so he could take his place beside Kenobi. "I hear you've got a mission for us."

"I do..." Obi-Wan said slowly, letting the words hang in the air for a moment and watching eager excitement spread over the clones' faces. "Don't get your hopes up, boys, it's nothing too exciting," he said with a wave of his hand. "Just a supply run to an old Separatist depot and, as the resident experts on Clone Wars tech, we're the best men for the job."

"I hate supply runs..." Cody said with a roll of his eyes. "You couldn't come up with something better? A raid on an Imperial compound, a heist on the Corellian shipyards, an infiltration behind the enemy line..."

"All in good time, Cody," Obi-Wan said in a calming whisper. "Patience. We will make our move soon enough." Stopping at the top of the ramp, Kenobi turned to look down at Kanan and Hera, the two standing close to each other at the bottom of the ramp, the towering Jedi's head bowed close to his lover's as they quietly spoke. "Hera," the Sith Lord called, and both Kanan and Hera quickly looked up at him. "You want to come along? We could use you." Giving him the slightest of smiles, Hera shook her head.

"I don't think there's anything that you, Kanan and the clones can't handle," Hera said quietly. "I have things to do around here anyway."

"You sure?"

"I'm sure," she said swiftly, flashing the Sith Lord a smile that fell just short of genuine. "I want to be ready for the next mission." Sighing heavily, she took Kanan's hand and gave it a tight squeeze. "Be safe, love," she whispered, lightly running her fingers down Kanan's cheek before she dropped his hand and took a step away.

"I always am," Kanan drawled, a cocky smirk upon his lips as he stepped backwards up on to the ramp. "See you soon, Captain."

"I wonder..." Kenobi said as Kanan joined him at the hatch, the ramp retracting as they stepped into the hold, the door sliding closed with the slightest brush of the Sith's fingers across the control panel on the wall. "Could you two be more sickening?"

"You jealous, bastard?" Kanan asked as he eyed the glowering Sith. "I know it's been a while since you've been with a woman..."

"I was in bacta!" Obi-Wan snarled as he shuffled across the hold toward the elevator, Kanan chuckling softly as he sauntered beside him. "You Jedi aren't even supposed to have romantic relationships!"

"No," Kanan agreed with a shrug. "But I do."

"You're an embarrassment to your dead order."

"Maybe so, but I had sex the other day. Did you?"

"I was in bacta!" the Sith shouted, his voice echoing across the hold and getting the attention of the lounging rancor, the beast languidly rolling on to his back and his tongue lolling out of his mouth. "You act like it's difficult for me to get laid, Kanan. It isn't! I even have my own Twi'lek, if I so choose to have her!"

"Maybe so, but I bet you're going to have a hell of a time undressing your partners with the way your hands shake."

"I hate you so much!" Kenobi snarled, his hand slamming upon the elevator control panel and glowering as he watched Cody and Rex diligently securing crates and cargo, rearranging them to create as much space as possible for the supplies they were going to retrieve. Speaking of which..." Kenobi asked as the elevator opened and he and Kanan stepped inside. "Where are my girls?"

"Your Chiss had some ideas about upgrading the Subjugator, so she's on the ship working to get them implemented. And the Inquisitors..." Kanan paused, his brow drawing together in a mixture of confusion and concern. "They said they felt...something. Out there on Atollon."

"Something?" Obi-Wan asked, an eyebrow arching as he examined the perplexed Jedi. "How wonderfully vague. Have you experienced what they did?"

"No," Kanan said swiftly. "None of us have. They come and go with barely a word and disappear for days or weeks at a time. It looks like madness, but...I believe something's calling them." For a long moment, Obi-Wan closed his eyes, standing still even when the elevator door smoothly hissed open and remained there when the door once again began to close, and Kanan swiftly shot out an arm to hold the sliding doors open.

"I feel nothing..." Kenobi finally muttered, taking a slow step out into the hallway, his eyes downcast as he pondered the shifting tides he felt pulling at the Force.

"Maybe we're not meant to find it," Kanan suggested with a shrug as he followed the Sith Lord out into the Umbra's hallways. "Maybe whatever's calling your girls is meant only for them."

"Maybe so," Obi-Wan said thoughtfully, his gaze snapping up from the ground after a moment of silence, and he flashed Kanan a tight smile. "We'll learn the truth of it when we return from our mission."

The closed door to the cockpit before them slid open as they approached, and with a long, deep breath, Obi-Wan stepped inside, a small, genuine smile spreading across his lips as he watched Luke and Leia at the helm beside a fussing K-2SO as they ran the pre-flight checks and prepared the Umbra for their mission. The twins turned in their seats in unison and grinned at the Sith Lord as he approached, his shaking hand coming to rest on the back of the pilot's seat. K2 looked over his shoulder and drew up with a start when his optical receptors scanned the long absent Sith, the glowing lights swerving up and down in their sockets, and with a disgruntled, electronic sigh, the droid's broad shoulders seemed to slump.

"Oh..." the droid droned. "It's you."

"Yes, it's me," Obi-Wan said with a roll of his eyes.

"The odds of your return were very, very low," K2 said, the flat tone of his voice sounding almost admonishing. "I ran the calculations myself. The chances of your survival were less than one percent."

"I've always been told I was lucky," Kenobi said dismissively as he lowered himself into the seat behind the pilot's chair, and K2 gave an outraged, electronic scoff.

"Oh, it's luck, is it?" K2 said in a flat, sarcastic voice. "Once, perhaps, could be considered the work of luck, but this isn't the first time you've faced disastrous odds and won. That isn't just improbable, it's a statistical impossibility."

"Nothing is impossible with the power of the Force," Obi-Wan drawled, a slight wiggle of his fingers making several switches on the main console flip and the ship vibrated to life beneath them as the main engines engaged, and the twins grinned as they looked back at the Sith Lord.

"You're an abomination to logic and reason," K2 droned, his visual receptors looking the Sith Lord over once more before he turned away and plugged his access arm into the center console to interface with the Umbra's stubborn programming.

"That might be the nicest thing you've ever said to me, droid," Kenobi said flippantly as he leaned back in his seat, a sly smirk spreading across his lips at the sound of the droid's long-suffering, electronic sigh. "Well, kids," the Sith Lord said, turning his attention to the twins in the pilot and copilot seats. "Are we ready to depart?"

"Yes, Father," Luke and Leia said in unison, their hands on the controls before them and awaiting the Sith Lord's command.

"Then what are we waiting for?" Obi-Wan asked. "Let's get this mission underway."

With the smooth, easy feel of the ship rising from the ground, the sound of the engines purred smoothly around them as the Umbra cut up into the sky, swiftly shooting out of Atollon's atmosphere and once clear of the planet, made the jump to hyperspace for distant Agamar.

---

"I'm seeing colors."

Obi-Wan looked up from where he sat cross-legged upon the bed in his private quarters, the Sith holocron open and floating above his upturned folded hands, the hissed, hushed whispers of Ancient Sith roiling through the air like a haze. He frowned as he looked upon the Jedi that stood before him, as concerned as he'd ever seen him. Kanan was far from carefree, but the Jedi rarely showed it, choosing instead to hide worry and fear and nervousness behind a flippant, relaxed demeanor, a quality that helped those around him stay composed and confident. That he was showing it now was worrisome, and Obi-Wan put aside the holocron, the floating open pyramid swiftly closing and the glowing red light fading from its center as the Dark Side's grasp withdrew.

"That's...good?" Kenobi asked hesitantly. "I'd be worried if you weren't seeing in color."

"Of course I see in color!" Kanan snapped so much louder than he intended that he quickly looked over his shoulder to see if anyone had heard. The room was predictably empty, the door closed behind him, and glowering, he turned back to the Sith Lord. "I'm seeing colors," Kanan began again. "Spooky colors. Random colors with no shape or sense, just...colors!"

"The natural result, Kanan, of partying too hard..."

"This is serious, Kenobi!" Kanan groaned as he sat upon the bed beside the other man. "I'm seeing...sounds and emotions and smells. Everything has a color, everything's constantly in motion. One minute, everything's fine, and the next it's like I've been...I've been..." Kanan groaned and put his face in his hands, suddenly feeling very foolish for how insane he knew he sounded. "It's like I've been transported," he began again. "Everything's familiar and different all at once, and I'll have no idea where I am or which way's up."

"...always?" Obi-Wan asked quietly, his voice low and sincere, and Kanan sighed in relief, the tension immediately leaving his shoulders when he felt he had the Sith's earnest attention.

"Not always," Kanan replied. "It happens at random. Sometimes for just a minute, sometimes for much, much longer. It started on our last mission to Ryloth, and it was...pretty extreme. It happened very quickly and very often, and it interfered with my ability to fight." Kanan exhaled sharply and gave the Sith a weary look. "I walked off the edge of a cliff because I couldn't see it. Twice." Beside him, Obi-Wan gave a short, repressed snort of laughter, and Kanan rolled his eyes. "Well I don't think it's very funny."

"No, it isn't very funny," Obi-Wan agreed, giving the Jedi a sly grin. "But it is a little funny."

"It's such a comfort to know you haven't changed," Kanan drawled flatly. "Two months in bacta and a near death experience and you're still an ass." Glaring at the Sith's grinning face, Kanan sighed, the slightest smile on his face as he shook his head. "Alright, it's a little funny."

"This isn't the first time this has happened," Obi-Wan calmly pointed out, his eyes narrowing as he carefully examined the Jedi, and Kanan shivered as he felt Kenobi's icy touch brushing against his mind. "On our mission to Malachor, you saw something when we entered the atmosphere."

"Yeah, but that wasn't...oh." Kanan sat up straighter, his hands tightly grasping his knees and his brow furrowed in intense thought as he wracked his mind, searching through the haze of his muddled memory of Malachor, time and fear warping the details of what had happened. But he found it, tucked away in the shadows of the Sith Temple and the dangers that lurked within it, the shred of a memory that he had dismissed as anticipation before, but now took on new meaning. "It was just for a second, I thought I was just jumpy about the mission, but now..." Kanan exhaled sharply and flopped back onto the bed. "You're right. It's the same thing."

"I saw something in you, Kanan," Obi-Wan said as he too laid back on the bed next to the Jedi. "I didn't understand it before, but I'm beginning to now."

"Let me guess..." Kanan drawled, a wry, easy smirk spreading across his lips as he propped himself up on his elbow to look at Kenobi. "I'm dying."

"Kanan dear, we are all dying," Obi-Wan scoffed, his tone eminently patronizing. "But I believe what you're experiencing has very little to do with that." Reaching his hand up, the holocron gently rose to float above his palm, and he flicked the edge with his finger, making the pyramid rapidly spin in place. Kenobi withdrew his hand quickly when a sharp, painful tremor ran up his arm, but the holocron remained floating above them. "I cannot know for certain, but from the way you're describing it, it sounds like you're being pulled within the Force while you're still firmly rooted within yourself."

"Ah..." Kanan said, nodding in understanding for a moment before he cast a side-long glance at Kenobi, the Sith's brow furrowed in confusion as he rubbed at his hand. "...so what's it mean?" he asked. "Is it good?"

"I don't know..." Obi-Wan muttered, sounding as bewildered as Kanan had ever heard him. "I've never heard of such a thing."

"What are you talking about?" Kanan scoffed. "You walk the Force all the time."

"Mm, that I do..." Kenobi said wistfully, a slight twitch from his finger making the slowing holocron spin faster once again. "The Force has been home to me more than any other place, my closest friend since before I can remember. I know it's shores like the back of my own hand, I know the creatures that dwell in its depths. I know the currents in the waters and the causes of the waves and the origins of every scent upon the wind. I have seen life and death in its ever-changing waters. I have seen the past and the future and the present in places far removed from myself." He gave Kanan a pointed look. "But even I must be in a meditative state to get there. You, Kanan, are conscious. Your mind is still rooted to your body when you're called to walk the Force."

"So...what does this all mean?" Kanan asked, and the spinning holocron snapped down into the Sith's open palm.

"I'm not sure," Kenobi said thoughtfully, his eyes fixed on the holocron as he turned it over in his hands. "There are legends of an ancient order of Aing-Tii monks who learned to walk the Force to pass through time. I don't know how much truth there are in those stories, and while it's not exactly the same as what you're experiencing, there are similarities."

"Stories have to come from somewhere," Kanan said, sitting up when the Sith Lord did and removing the tie from his hair, his long fingers running through the thick brown strands before he smoothed it back and tied it back up. "If there were old masters who studied how to do this, there must be a way to control it, and I need to learn how. This random and out of my control thing isn't working for me." He paused, looking the Sith over as the holocron in his hands began to glow. "...could you teach me?"

"...me?" Obi-Wan asked, his attention pulled out of his thoughts as his eyes refocused on the Jedi beside him. "I'm...uncertain. I believe I could help you in learning to control when you step into the Force, but I can't teach you how to use it. There are things at work here beyond my understanding."

"Maybe it would be worth our time to see if we can find someone who could teach me, then," Kanan said as he raised his arms above his head and stretched as he yawned. "We could find out for ourselves if those legends are true."

"We could," Kenobi said quietly, the slightest smile tugging on the corner of his mouth. "Though I don't know how much help some ancient mystics are going to be. This...thing you're doing is new, Kanan. I doubt there's anyone alive that knows what to do with you."

"Nobody alive," Kanan repeated, his eyebrow lifting suggestively as he met the Sith Lord's gaze, identical devious smirks upon their faces. "How 'bout someone already dead?"

"My thoughts exactly." Obi-Wan flashed a quick smile at the Jedi as he rose to his feet, and he flicked the holocron up into the air and gently tapped it with his fingers, sending the pyramid slowly floating to land gently upon the mantle across the room. "We'll ask Qui-Gon about it when we return from the mission, his understanding of the Force has always been..." Obi-Wan's nose wrinkled, his expression a strange mix of confusion, disgust, and a hint of admiration, and he pointedly didn't finish the sentence, a rare time he found himself at a loss for the proper words. "And if Qui-Gon doesn't know, Yoda might, he's always been better than Qui-Gon. And if he can't help, he'd certainly be able to point us in the direction of someone who can." Tucking his arms inside the sleeves of his robes to hide how much they shook, Obi-Wan gestured with his head for Kanan to follow him. "Come on. I felt us drop out of hyperspace."

With a sigh, Kanan nodded and he jumped off the bed to follow the Sith, and the moment he hit the ground, the world around him seemed to implode and than rapidly explode into an array of dizzying, vibrant colors. The sudden disorientation made Kanan's knees buckle, and before he could make the effort to catch himself, he fell back upon the bed, his heart pounding as his vision exploded with fiery reds and swirling black and beautiful threads of interwoven light blue, the feel in the Force more warm and comforting than the frightening, flickering colors suggested.

"It's happening again, Kenobi..." Kanan called loudly, just in case the Sith had already left the room, and seconds later, the colors around him surged, shifting rapidly through the wide spectrum of color as Obi-Wan approached him, a jet black figure cloaked in multicolored flames moving the Force as he moved through it.

"Let me see," Obi-Wan said softly, a freezing grip tightening around Kanan's chest as the Sith used the Force to sit him upright, the ripples around him becoming stained with heavy, deep red drops at his touch.

Frowning, Obi-Wan drew back as he looked into Jedi's eyes, hissing under his breath at not Kanan's teal eyes staring back at him, but a vibrant, glowing silver surrounded by a stark, multicolored ring. Just before their mission to Malachor, Kenobi looked deep inside the Jedi and saw the fires of a nova star burning beneath the colors of his eyes, but now, it was as if that star had exploded, brilliant silver and blinding white and bright blue fire looking back at him. It was almost as if Kanan had been blinded, his natural color gone in favor of sightless gray and white, but the vibrancy that burned within the man made it obvious that the opposite had happened. Kanan may be blind to the physical world, but within the realm of the Force, it was possible that the unknowing Jedi saw everything.

"What happened to you in that Temple on Lothal, Kanan..." Kenobi muttered under his breath, once again dragging his fingers from Kanan's temple and across his eyes and the bridge of his nose, a burning sensation crawling across his hand as he so gently touched a dark, ethereal scar across the Jedi's face, not upon the man's ruddy skin, but on something deeper within him, visible only now that the Force burned so bright within him it was spilling out of his eyes.

"I don't know, but I don't like it," Kanan ground out, his hands balling into fists in the covers on the bed as the Sith's presence seemed to engulf him, and with a rush of frigid air filling his lungs, the world righted itself, the swirling colors seeming to be sucked into the void of the Sith Lord's presence, the faintest wisps of changing color still clinging to the objects around the room as reality reasserted itself.

"What did..." Kanan began, his brow drawing together as he stared in confusion at Kenobi. "What did you do?"

"Nothing," Obi-Wan said with a shrug, again turning away from Kanan and toward the door. "Come on. We have work to do."

If the Sith Lord had done anything, he certainly wasn't going to say what it was, but Kanan was grateful regardless that things had returned to normal quickly. Looking at the ground and bracing himself, he this time very carefully placed his feet upon the ground and slowly stood up, breathing a heavy sigh of relief when the world remained stable, and he hurried after the Sith Lord.

When they entered the cockpit, Luke was bringing them through the atmosphere of Agamar, the dusty gray ground filling the viewport as they headed for the derelict Separatist facility beneath them. It didn't look like much from where they were, an unimpressive collection of buildings built low to the ground that looked more like storage containers than a military outpost, the faded outer shells the same drab color as the dust around them making them blend nearly perfectly into the environment. If they didn't know where to look, it was likely they wouldn't have found it.

"This is the Separatist base we're looking for?" Leia scoffed, her nose wrinkling in distaste as she looked out the viewport on their approach to the facility. "This place is a dump, no wonder the Separatists lost the Clone War."

"Nobody won the Clone War, Leia," Obi-Wan muttered, and Leia bit down on her lip as she looked back at her Father, the two Clones, and the Jedi that stood behind her, her face turning a fierce shade of red in her embarrassment. "Are the scanners picking up anything, Luke?"

"Nothing significant..." Luke muttered, turning his attention to the scanners for a moment before he began engaging the landing sequence. "Some low level electromagnetic currents, but that's pretty standard."

"If the base is generating power, it sounds like we'll have a good chance of finding something useful down there," Rex said as he leaned closer to the viewport, his jaw tightening as they flew closer in. "I stormed a few bases like this one during the war..." he grumbled. "These things used to be crawling with clankers..."

"How many droids do you think you destroyed?" Cody asked casually, and Rex's shoulders tightened.

"I don't know, thousands?" Rex said with a shrug, attempting to appear nonchalant, but only made himself look more uncomfortable. "Tens of thousands. I didn't keep count like some of the other boys." He shot a sharp look at Cody. "How many clones do you think you killed?"

Cody scoffed dismissively and looked away, the slightest twitch at the corner of his mouth visible just before he slid his helmet on. "Don't ask questions you don't want the answer to," Cody grumbled, plunking down in his seat and sitting in resolute silence, refusing to even look at the other clone.

"Remind me to later thank Ahsoka for sending me on a mission with you two," Kenobi said sarcastically with a roll of his eyes. "Two war veterans with post-traumatic stress, sent to a location much like the ones where they fought in during the war. What could possibly go wrong..."

"You know I love it when you talk that way," Kanan scoffed, and the Sith gave him a weary look as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Don't act like you aren't a part of this, Kanan," Kenobi drawled. "Let's remember the first time you came in contact with Republic clones after the war. Because I remember, and you went just a little bit out of your mind. You know things are bad when between us, I'm the sane one."

"Well, none of that matters, right?" Luke asked, looking back and giving his Father a nervous smile as the ship slowly set down at the base's abandoned landing area. "We're allies now. The Clone War's over."

"It isn't over for everyone, Luke," Kenobi muttered as he pulled his hood up, and with a gesture of his trembling hand, Luke, Leia and Rex's helmets floated up before them. "Suit up, kids. We won't know what's here until we go have a look."

They were waiting at the open boarding ramp before the ship had even landed, and the moment the Umbra's landing struts touched down upon the ground, they were walking down the ramp, dry, fine gray dust puffing up with every step they took upon the barren earth, the air itself swirling with the fine grains that the ship had stirred. The base was every bit as abandoned as it had looked from the atmosphere, the buildings still in tact, but in clear disuse, the usual silver sheen of the metal dulled and worn by sun and dust and rust that it appeared as if it was made from the drab stone that covered the ground.

While it didn't look like much, the facility was otherwise untouched, its walls and doors still tightly sealed, unbroken by the elements or any scavengers that may have come looking for valuable salvage. As they approached the large door at the front of the main building, Kanan took his lightsaber in hand, ignited it, and set to carving themselves an entrance. It was quick work, the metal quickly turning red then molten white at the touch of the blue plasma blade, and Kanan gave Obi-Wan a knowing, cynical look, one that the Sith Lord quickly returned. Separatist construction was almost always shoddy work.

With a push of the Force, the cut metal slab fell to the ground, the booming clang echoing throughout the large storage area, and the group stepped inside, the light filtering in from the hole behind them revealing a large number of crates around the room, some in neat and orderly stacks along the walls, and others strewn almost haphazardly across the open space.

"That's a lot of crap to go through..." Cody grumbled, unfastening the lightsaber strapped to his lower back and igniting the blue blade as he approached the nearest crate. "Any chance we can get some better lighting in here?" Rex flicked on the lights on his helmet, and Cody gave an audible groan. "You're such a smartass, you know that?"

"It's better than nothing, isn't it?" Rex said with a shrug.

"Luke, can you do something about this?" Cody snapped as Rex began to wander off into the darkened corners of the facility. "Scanners picked up a current, we might be able to get the lights on." Without a word, Luke took off for the far wall, his lightsaber flying to his hand and igniting, lighting up the wall with a flash of green, and after a moment, he found a control panel and rubbed his hand over it to wipe the dust away.

"I don't know if we're going to have any luck..." Luke called back, turning his attention back on the panel and cursing under his breath. "Damn it, I know I should have brought R2 with me..."

"I doubt your droid would be able to power the entire facility, brother," Leia said as she sauntered up, her arms crossed over her chest and clearly displeased as she looked around the facility. "This is a real pain. We should have brought additional lighting for a mission like this."

"Stars, I am surrounded by peasants," Obi-Wan drawled, rolling his eyes as he took one of the sabers off his belt, ignited the blue blade, and threw it up into the air, catching it with the Force at its apex and continuing to guide it upwards until the plasma blade sunk into the ceiling. Suddenly catching wise to what he was about to do, the group scattered toward the walls as the Sith began to cut a circle into the ceiling.

At first, the cutting was slow, its movements jagged and uneven as Kenobi toyed with the fine control of his saber from such a distance, his eyes closed in concentration as the calm, controlled voice from the holocron drifted through his mind, lessons in Ancient Sith that played like a melody through his mind. His movements gradually became smoother, faster, more even, and before long, a large circular piece of metal fell down from above, a stream of light flooding the area and illuminating the swirling dust that passed through the sun's bright rays, the falling debris caught by the Force the moment before it struck the ground, and it was gently laid down without a sound.

"...or we could just do that," Kanan said, snatching Kenobi's lightsaber out of the air as it fell and handing it to the Sith Lord. "It looks like there might be a lot of stuff here. We should call in another ship so we can take it all."

"I'll get Ahsoka to send Phoenix Home," Kenobi said, tossing his saber to Rex and snatching his com off his belt, cursing as his shaking hands dropped it and catching the device with the Force. "You guys, get to cutting those crates open. I want to know that what we're bringing back will be useful and not some cheap, late-war Separatist mass produced crap..."

"You know..." Kanan said as he watched the Sith Lord walk away and make his call. "For the leader of the Separatists, he sure doesn't have a very high opinion of them."

"Well..." Cody said with a shrug. "He'd know." Spinning his saber around in his hand, he pressed the tip into the nearby crate, a burning hiss echoing across the room at the touch of plasma to metal. "Boss' orders, boys. Let's get to work."

"I am not a boy..." Leia grumbled under her breath, shuffling behind Luke and calling her own saber to her hand as her brother rushed off to join the clones in cutting open the many crates throughout the room.

"Looks like we hit the payload," Rex said as he peered into his newly opened crate, his helmet lights illuminating neat, compact rows of tightly secured munitions. "Proton bombs. A whole mess of them."

"I have E-5 blaster rifles over here," Cody called, reaching in and pulling one of the weapons off the racks inside and holding it up for the others to see.

"These are...electrostaves?" Luke questioned as he reached in and pulled out a long pole and examined it. "...yeah, it is! Father had us train with these to round out our combat training!"

"Electrostaves?" Kanan asked quietly, abandoning his crate and walking over to peer into Luke's. "I'm not an expert or anything, but from what I remember, the only Separatist forces that used these were the MagnaGuard droids."

"Bad?" Luke asked, and Kanan nodded grimly.

"Bad. They were designed specifically to be able to combat and kill Jedi." Kanan picked up one of the staves, looked at it for a moment, and with a flash of disgust crossing his face, he dropped the staff upon the ground. "Why do I get the feeling that things are going to go horribly wrong?"

"Damn it, Kanan, you know better than to go around saying shit like that!" Rex snapped as he drove his lightsaber into another crate. "You know as well as I, the second you start talking like that, the mission goes belly up!"

"Shield generators..." Leia said after a quick peek inside her crate, her fingers drumming on the outside of the container, a deep frown upon her face. "This isn't just a holdout, they were preparing an invasion force."

"Maybe all Separatist depots were this well supplied," Luke said as he walked toward his sister and he selected a crate near her and plunged his saber into the side of it. "It can't be an invasion force without the troops to wield the arsenal."

A loud, sharp bang echoed throughout the facility, so sudden that the twins nearly dropped the lightsabers in their hands, fumbling them for a moment before they raised the weapons before them. The clones swiftly moved in front of them, their sabers abandoned in favor of the blasters they were more comfortable with, and Kanan stepped between them, his saber defensively raised and positioned to cover them. The first echoing thud was followed by another, then another and another, the ringing in their ears leaving them deaf to all but the piercing sound of heavy falling metal that echoed off the high ceiling. Slowly, the ringing began to fade, and they could hear the soft, rhythmic sound of metal striking metal, the cadence that of disciplined marching.

Before them, Luke and Leia could see Rex's sharp intake of breath and his shoulders tighten as he grasped his weapon tighter.

"Speak of it and it will appear..." Cody growled, casting a sharp look back at Luke. "What did I just say about going go around saying shit like that, boy?! What is wrong with you Jedi!"

Rex began shooting at the first sign of movement, heavy suppression fire aimed at the edge of one of the more distant crates that tore metal from metal in high pitched, surprised cries that warped into the electronic grinding of machines that had suddenly lost power. Moments later, out from the other side of that crate and from nearly other crate scattered out before them, marched squadrons of battle droids, their blasters raised and firing at the small, huddled group, Kanan's lightsaber effortlessly knocking back the shots fired and acting as a beacon that drew more fire from the battle droids, and Luke and Leia quickly tightened the formation, covering their flank as they saw the droids begin to surround them.

"Republic invaders!" they could hear one of the droids call, and the twins turned back to back, eyeing the advancing droids and knocking back bolt after bolt that was fired at them, a swift wave of Leia's hand sending a pair of droids smashing into one of the crates. "They have Jedi with them! Destroy them!"

It happened in a instant, one moment the four of them slowly retreating back toward the way they had come in, and in the next, Rex rushed forward, sliding to take cover behind one the crates, and he turned his weapon on Cody, firing two short bursts at the other clone that only just missed him.

"What are you doing, you kriffing idiot?!" Cody snapped as he ducked between Luke, Leia and Kanan and turned his own weapon on Rex. "I'm on your side!"

"Traitor!" Rex snarled, bitterness and rage heavy in his voice as he fired on Cody again, but this time, the shots were deflected by Kanan, his breathing heavy and his eyes wide and wild as he stared at the attacking clone, heedless of the droid army that was slowly advancing upon them.

"Um, guys?" Luke said in a small, shaking voice, his saber swinging faster as the droids' blaster fire intensified. "This isn't exactly a good time to be doing this!"

"It's never a good time to be doing this!" Leia snapped, rolling her eyes and with a quick push of her hand, a wave of the Force slammed into the droids before them, the suppressing fire ceasing for a moment as the droids scrambled back to their feet. "If you want something done right, you've got to do it yourself. Come on, Luke!"

"Leia, I don't-" Luke began, but Leia was already off, taking the opportunity granted by the temporary cease of fire to advance closer, using the Force to move two crates closer to her in order to guard her flank. With a groan, Luke ran after her, his saber casually swinging to knock back stray bolts that came too close. He looked back at Kanan and the clones for a moment, frowned to see the three of them openly attacking each other, the sound of Cody's uninterrupted cursing filling the air, and with a grimace, Luke turned his attention back to fighting beside Leia. There was nothing he could do about them right now, and they were capable enough warriors that Luke was certain they would have significant difficulty in actually killing each other.

A deep, mechanical voice called over the sound of the droids' renewed blaster fire to fall back and regroup, and the mechanical army instantly obeyed, the clanking of mechanical feet echoing around them as the droids retreated, and Leia took the opportunity to dart out from behind her cover and rush forward to the next crate, Luke close on her heels and the two of them using the Force to move the crates that had guarded their flank before. Looking out from around the edge of the crate, Luke pulled back again quickly when a barrage of blaster fire was shot at him, but not before he caught sight of a droid near the back wall, bigger than the others and covered in thick, green plating inlaid with intricate golden designs. Red visual sensors fell upon him right before he ducked back, and it became very quickly obvious what their target needed to be.

"It looks like there's a tactical droid leading the others," Luke whispered to Leia, grabbing hold of her hand and pulling her close to him when she started to look around the corner herself. "You'll know it when you see it, it's very fancy."

"Think the others will stop if we take it out?" Leia asked as she nervously listened to the new sounds echoing through the room, mechanical footsteps again, but heavier this time, which spoke of a larger enemy.

"I don't think the others would stop," Luke said with a shake of his head. "But without a tactical droid to guide them, they'll become disorganized and easier to destroy."

"Alright," Leia said, her voice brimming with confidence as she stood up straight, her lightsaber spinning in her hand. "Let's finish this quick."

Leia stepped out from behind her cover, and at the sight of a line of sleek, dangerous looking droids that were now advancing upon their position, she darted back behind the crate, a nervous laugh upon her lips as she attempted to regain some of her bravado in the presence of her brother.

"...that bad?" Luke asked nervously, and despite herself, Leia nodded.

"Some had shields, some had electrostaves, all of them are big." She flashed her brother a wry smile. "They look like assassin droids."

"Oh. Great."

The pounding of heavy, mechanical feet was swiftly overtaken by the sound of something rolling swiftly toward them, and within seconds, two large, metal spheres rolled around their flanking crates to come up behind the twins, and they swiftly unfurled into droids resembling large insects. Shimmering blue shields appeared around them as they pointed twin blaster arms at them and began rapidly firing at Luke and Leia, the twins swiftly spinning their lightsabers around themselves to deflect the bolts being shot at them. A few of the bolts were redirected back at the droids, only to bounce harmlessly off their flickering shields, and over the sound of the rapid blaster fire, they could hear the pounding footsteps becoming louder as they drew closer.

"Oh, this is just fantastic..." an irritated voice snapped, and Luke and Leia looked just in time to see the shielded, insectoid droids be swept into the air and slammed hard upon the ground, their flickering shields shorting just long enough for a spinning red lightsaber to slice through the air and cut them in half. Their guards dropping despite the sound of footsteps closing in on them, their shoulders sagged in relief as the red blade returned to their Father's hand, the Sith Lord as perturbed as they'd ever seen him.

"I leave you guys alone for two minutes and what happens?" Kenobi grumbled, releasing the saber and letting it float in the air before him, a red trail left in the air as the blade gently swayed in the grasp of the Force. "The Clone Wars start back up. I just can't take you two anywhere, can I?"

"It wasn't our faults!" Luke said swiftly, looking over his shoulder when the Sith Lord frowned, and with a gentle wave of his hand, every crate in the room behind them screeched along the ground as they were rapidly moved to create a long, unbroken wall before them. For now, at least, they were safe behind the barricade. "We were checking the crates, just as you said! The droids just came out of nowhere! And then Kanan and Cody and Rex went nuts, and...here we are."

"And where were you anyway!" Leia snapped, her temper flaring and getting the best of her. "You should have been here!"

"Oh, don't you get started with me, princess!" the Sith Lord snarled, his floating red saber pointing at the girl for emphasis. "You may think you're some big, bad rebellion leader now, but daddy's back in charge, and I'm not having any of your shit!" Hissing out a sharp, irritated breath, he reached behind him and threw the pieces of the bisected droids over his makeshift wall, the surprised electronic blips and wails making a bemused smirk touch Kenobi's lips. "I was calling Fulcrum, like I said I would, but I couldn't get a signal, probably thinks to our friends here," he said, gesturing to the crate wall and the droids behind it. "I had to go out to the Umbra to boost the signal enough to get through."

"Father!" Luke said sharply, frantically pointing toward the other side of the room. "They-"

"I know, Luke, I'm getting to it..." Obi-Wan sighed, a sweep of his hand sending Rex, engaged in a bitter shootout with his clone, flying across the distance to slam into the hapless Cody, both clones striking the back wall and falling hard to the ground when the Sith clenched his shaking fist. Another gesture, and the clones slid across the floor toward Kanan, the Jedi having taken the break in the shooting to start running, and the two skidding bodies took Kanan's legs right out from under him, leaving him to land hard on top of the two groaning clones. Kenobi lifted his hand, and the three bodies rose into the air, twisting and squirming in the hard grasp of the Force before they were pulled rapidly toward the Sith Lord and dropped unceremoniously at his feet.

"Children," Kenobi drawled, folding his hands behind his back and leaning down to look at the three men, a tight, forced grin upon his face. "Are we done?"

"W-we're done!" Kanan said in a shaking voice as he pushed himself up to kneel, swallowing hard as he looked down at the ground, his trembling hands tightly grasping his knees.

"I'm sorry..." Rex muttered, shaking his head as he pulled off his helmet, his face flushed and his eyes distant. "I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me..."

"I've been told I have a face that people want to punch," Cody said in a flat, humorless tone, his head turned up to look at the Sith looming above them. "Boss, this mission sucks."

"Oh, I disagree, my friend..." Obi-Wan muttered, his golden eyes flashing in the shadows of his face as he pulled his hood back, a wide grin spreading across his lips when the crates in his wall began to screech along the floor as the droids behind them began to push. "A crate full of proton bombs is hardly a prize at all when compared to what we have here. We're going to bring Fulcrum a droid army."

"And how do you suppose you're going to do that, Father?" Leia asked, her saber raising up before her once again as the crates continued to move, and knowing grins spread across Kanan and Rex's faces.

"Because, dearest..." Obi-Wan drawled as he pat Leia's cheek. "I just so happen to be their leader." Snatching the lightsaber that floated beside him out of the air, Obi-Wan quickly deactivated the blade and latched it on to his belt just as he jumped upon the crates, a sharp whistle getting the droids' attention, and every one of their blasters was trained on him in an instant.

"Hello there!" Obi-Wan said brightly, a wide grin upon his face as he looked down at the sea of droids beneath him, super battle droids and droidekas and commandos and MagnaGuard among a sea of standard B-1 battle droids, their movements stiff and uneven, the tole of the years exacted upon an ever dwindling power supply. They were shadows of what they used to be, but with the proper care, they'd be in fighting shape again in no time.

But he still very, very much hated droids. This was a necessity, a resource that couldn't be wasted, no matter how badly he wished to bring Yoda out of the Umbra and let the rancor do what it did best.

From the back of the group, walking slowly through the sea of droids as they parted to make way, was a super tactical droid, one of only seven hyper intelligent command droids that the Confederacy had created in order to serve as general of larger forces, the unit itself acting in much the same way as the massive droid control ships to feed tactics and commands to the units under its command. Given his distaste for droids, Kenobi had never bothered with them, preferring instead to deal with Grievous and Dooku and the members of his Shadow Legion. And when it came time for him to command the Confederacy...well, he was too busy watching the galaxy burn to issue commands to the droid generals. He issued his commands to Grievous, and Grievous conveyed his orders to those lesser beings. Darth Lumis couldn't be bothered to do it himself.

So no, Kenobi didn't know which of the Droid Generals this one was. Not that it even mattered, because the droid would know him.

"Jedi," the tactical droid called, and Kenobi scoffed, dismissively waving his hand.

"Not a Jedi," he drawled, a calm, confident smirk upon his face as he looked down at the droid. "Scan me, fool. I'll be in your records at the very top of your chain of command."

It only took a few seconds of those red visual sensors upon him, but it was still too long, a clear indicator of the droid's dwindling processing as their limited power supply neared empty. But it happened none the less, the physical drawback of realization, the unmoving stare as the information was double checked, checked again, and then confirmed, and finally, the bowing of its head as the sea of droids simultaneously lowered their weapons and slumped where they stood, as if their power had suddenly been switched off in order to conserve their limited remaining supply.

"The Negotiator," the tactical droid said in its deep voice, bowing as the Sith Lord jumped off the crates and came to stand before it. "My Lord, we have kept this base safe, as ordered."

"Well done, droid," Kenobi said, his hands folded behind his back as he stood to his full height, every bit the imitation of the Imperial commanders he had been impersonating and mocking for years. "How long have you been here?"

"Since our retreat from Onderon."

"Onderon?" Kenobi asked, his commanding presence giving way to thoughtful confusion as he stroked his beard and studied the droid, and after a moment, the Sith's eyes lit up, a knowing smirk passing over his lips. "You're General Kalani, I remember now. Dooku gave that evacuation order halfway through the war, you're trying to tell me that after Onderon, you and your entire force just sat here for the rest of the war?"

"...we were ordered to defend the base," Kalani said again. "We have defended it."

"I see that..." Obi-Wan muttered, his eyes darting around them to look at the deactivated droids, ready to be brought back online at a moment's notice with the order from the tactical droid. "After the Jedi betrayal of the Republic, the droid army was given a shutdown command. How are you and your little friends here even operational?"

"It had been a long time since I had received orders," Kalani said, watching Obi-Wan as he meandered through the powered down droids and occasionally ran his fingers across their dusty armored bodies. "I had assumed the order was a Republic trick and overrode the shutdown command."

"Yeah, well, that isn't too far from the truth..." Obi-Wan grumbled under his breath, swiftly looking behind him when he felt the slightest stirring in the Force, followed by the piercing shrieking of the crates scraping against the floor as they were moved. When the sharp echo of the scraping crates faded into the air, he could see Luke and Leia poke their heads out from behind the crate, and taking a moment to survey the deactivated droid army, they cautiously slipped from behind their cover and made their way through the sea of droids, careful not to touch them and beaconing behind them for the others to follow.

And follow they did, Rex, Cody and Kanan creeping out from behind the crate wall and apprehensively making their way through the droids, their weapons raised and ready just in case they were ambushed again. As soon as the clones and the Jedi stepped out of hiding, Kalani rose his own blaster, and with a heavy sigh, Kenobi laid his hand upon the droid's weapon and pointed it toward the floor.

"Republic invaders," Kalani began, and the Sith Lord quickly hushed him, laying his hand over the droid's vocabulator.

"My people, droid," Obi-Wan said lazily, though the hint of something dangerous lay just beneath, the silent threat shining through in the tight smile that didn't reach his glowing eyes. "Surely you've heard of the Shadow Legion, and I've been collecting fallen Jedi for...quite a long time now." He tilted his head, a sly smirk crossing his lips. "Do you accept and submit to my authority, droid?"

Again, there was silence, a moment where the tactical droid simply examined the Sith Lord, the clone, the Mandalorains, the Jedi, the red glow of its visual receptors growing dim as its processors worked, diverting its limited power to the functions it was using most to conserve what it could of its depleting resource.

"You are the Negotiator," Kalani finally said. "The leader of the Separatist Alliance, after the death of Count Dooku. I...accept you as the highest authority."

"Excellent!" Kenobi said, clapping his hands together and grinning at the twins now standing at his side. "The Clone Wars may be over, but we're still fighting, this time against the Empire, which rose out of the Republic at the end of the war." Obi-Wan shrugged and patted the tactical droid on the shoulder. "Pack your things and your friends, droid. We've got a war to fight."

With a brief bow to acknowledge his orders, Kalani shuffled off, the other droids coming to life around them and lethargically making their way back into the crates along the walls where they come from, Rex and Kanan drawing closer together as the droids shuffled by. As they stared at the backs of the stragglers of the droid army, Rex and Kanan's shoulders finally relaxed, the two of them letting out shaky, held breaths.

"I'm sorry..."Rex said quietly, laying a hand upon Cody's shoulder, his eyes cast at the floor. "I thought I was over this, I thought I had moved on..."

"The war wasn't good to any of us," Cody grumbled as he brushed Rex's hand off of him. "This shit doesn't go away just because we've resolved some things." His fingers lightly brushed along the lightsaber hilt he had strapped along the back of his belt. "Some shit just never leaves you."

"Maybe so, but we have to do better," Kanan said firmly. "We were lucky this time, but next time, any one of us could get hurt or killed, and if something happened to Luke or Leia, I..." Kanan sighed, his hand rubbing at the back of his neck as he felt a surge of guilt well up inside him. "Kenobi, I'm so sorry, if-"

"What are you all so gloomy for, huh?!" Obi-Wan snapped with a roll of his eyes. "Guys, this mission was an incredible success! We aren't just bringing back weapons and bombs and whatever the hell else you found in those crates, but we're bringing back a droid army!" His grin widened. "Not just any droid army, but the invading force of Onderon!"

"And that's..good?" Luke asked, and was met with the Sith Lord's wide, maniacal grin.

"Better than good, son, everything's falling into place," Obi-Wan lazily drawled, taking the three lightsaber off of his belt and holding them on his palm, the three hilts raising up to float around each other in the air before him. "That particular tactical droid in the past has been in very, very close contact with Saw Kriffing Gerrera, and he has just become a person of great interest to us in our fight against Thrawn." The three lightsabers ignited, blue, red and black weaving between each other without ever touching, and Obi-Wan shot his companions a smug smirk.

"Not at all bad for my first mission back, now is it?"