"If I don't get some shelter,
I'm going to fade away."
- The Rolling Stones
Crimson Tides
Obi-Wan left the apartment complex bewildered and in danger of letting his fears overcome him. While he rushed down hallways, passing through a plethora of confused residents, he allowed some of his most critical thoughts about himself plague his mind. Part of him held himself accountable for the events to come. For Anakin's downfall after Obi-Wan neglected him and his inner turmoil.
Attachments produced a variety of problems for the Jedi mind, as Obi-Wan had been taught since his early days as a Padawan. Jealousy, fear, and anger on some level. Anakin's situation with Clovis and Padme had proven all of these things.
And the fact that Obi-Wan had allowed the "secret" union between the two to take place made him delve even further into his regret. If he could find his apprentice and coax him back into his old self, then Obi-Wan would feel as though he could continue his position on the Council without as much shame.
The Clone Wars had been brought to the heart of the Republic. When Obi-Wan eventually made his way through the lower levels of the apartment building, he moved through the streets as stealthily as possible. People were shoving others while they stampeded to the nearest building. One mother was pushed to the ground while her small child defended her against the attacker. Obi-Wan helped her up and escorted her off the street.
"Are you alright?" he asked her.
"Yes..." she breathed, holding her child close to her. "Just this morning, I had taken a walk down these streets. Now I can't even stand there."
Obi-Wan turned his head down the path. He witnessed some clone troopers pushing a small crowd down a perpendicular road from where he stood.
"Are we not even safe in our own homes?" the blue-eyed woman asked Obi-Wan.
He shook his head. "You're not the ones they're looking for." he told her. "Get to shelter and stay there."
Screams, cries, and remarks about the war echoed all around him.
"The Jedi have brought this war upon us!" one shouted.
"No, it was the Separatists!" Another said.
Obi-Wan had to spend a short amount of time determining his priorities. From his location, the Temple wasn't too long of a distance. That would most likely be where Anakin was sent to. But he could see that it wasn't just him, or possibly the rest of the Jedi, that were involved in this conflict.
In an effort to pacify the panicked crowd, Obi-Wan raised his arms and stood atop of a higher platform.
"Everyone! All of you need to remove yourself in these open areas and head as far away from here as possible." he told them, knowing that his voice could attract the attention of the clone army. "Take refuge and do not leave your shelter under any circumstances!"
The crowd left rather ungracefully, as people now started bumping into each other in a hurry to conceal themselves. But Obi-Wan figured that they would have been safer further away from the Senate building and the Temple.
Now it was his turn to cloak himself. In his youth, he'd received lessons about "becoming invisible" within the Force from Qui-Gon Jinn. It had taken much training and much skill to obtain even a hint of this ability, which wasn't one Obi-Wan deemed necessary for a majority of his missions. Master Qui-Gon had told him that it didn't just require intense focus, but trust in his own attributes. Low confidence wasn't an option. Obi-Wan gathered his nerve and kept his breathing steady while he attempted to use it this time.
It worked for the remainder of his trip through the residential areas, where the buildings became more war-torn and damaged. When he reached the Temple, heavy artillery was aimed at the building. The Republic's own fighter tanks unleashed fire upon the building and though it was holding well against the attack, Obi-Wan could see large cracks forming at the sides. Debris began to fall from the highest levels of the Temple.
The Council members and the rest of the Jedi were gathered before the entrance, sabers clashing with blaster fire. Obi-Wan could see through the blazing lights that Mace Windu was struggling on his own. The clones appeared in such higher numbers than Obi-Wan had seen. He jumped into the attack when he saw Mace Windu's saber knocked out of his hand and himself pushed to the ground.
"You look like you could use some help." Obi-Wan said as he helped his fellow Jedi up.
"Well, I'm glad to see you made it here in one piece." Windu said, retrieving his lightsaber from afar.
"Where's Anakin?" Obi-Wan asked while waving his saber from side to side.
Windu made use of some of the larger pieces of the building. "He was sent to the Chamber hours ago."
"We need to get to him. Fast."
Both of them leapt out of the way from an incoming missile. A small piece of concrete scraped against Obi-Wan's skin, near his eye.
"What's going on with Anakin?" Windu asked as he shielded them both from yet another loose piece of the Temple.
Obi-Wan force-pushed several clones behind. "I'll explain everything another time. Let's just say that everything happening around us is just the beginning."
All of a sudden, the blasters stopped and the clones paused. One held his hand up and told the rest of the army to cease fire. Through the smoke and fire, Obi-Wan couldn't see what quelled them. He kept his saber lit in case an even worse enemy was approaching them. Then he sensed a presence. The same one he'd detected for many years.
He turned to see his own apprentice standing a few meters behind. Though, it didn't seem like the same Jedi Knight that had been so eager to aid in the Council's doings earlier that day. This version of Anakin seemed darker. Angrier. The boy's face was shrouded in a menacing glare as he looked at Obi-Wan. The Jedi Master held his ground but kept his lightsaber at his side. He had yet to determine Anakin's fate.
Anakin stormed through the clones and approached Obi-Wan and Windu had stayed close by, his own lightsaber buzzing in the eerie stillness. Anakin made it clear he wasn't here to battle by keeping his weapon at his side.
"Anakin...?" Obi-Wan spoke, his voice low and unsure. This boy didn't seem like the one in his visions, but the feeling Obi-Wan had in the Force made it seem as though he was at the halfway point.
The Knight inhaled deeply and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he seemed as though he was trying to put out the fire within.
"Where's Ahsoka?" were the only words he said.
She had been soaring through the Force after her brief, heartfelt message to Anakin was sent. In its channels, she hoped she would find the rest of her Jedi kin alive and well, but there wasn't much luck. Plo Koon's flame appeared to have died out, Aayla Secura, and several others whom Ahsoka wasn't able to spend much time with. Each one made her heart ache a little bit more and made her wish she'd taken the time to know every one of them.
To believe that Plo Koon had met his demise added more to Ahsoka's guilt of leaving the Order. She didn't grant herself the time to say goodbye to him, after everything he had done for her. At the time, she believed she was sparing Master Plo the disappointment upon seeing his closest friend forfeit everything he held significant. But the teachings she'd received from him and the other masters were not completely wasted, she told herself. It was the ways of the Jedi that helped her through the worst of times. Ahsoka wanted to be able to tell Master Plo this for herself.
The Force was disconnected from her yet again and she massaged her temples as a minor pain appeared in them. It wasn't clear if it was because of how much she was straining herself surging through all corners of the Force, or because Maul and Rex started bickering while she was trying to savor some peace for herself.
"I thought you said you had resources," Rex told Maul. "We're fighting against our own government with your crime buddies? That doesn't seem like a fair fight for us, at all."
Maul sneered at him. "It isn't as if your faction has an army to rely on, anymore. My syndicate holds weaponry that surpasses that of the Republic. Have you forgotten that I managed to seize Mandalore with their support?"
"Give me a break."
Having been around Obi-wan and Anakin in the same room, she was used to either being the mediator or making herself scarce and letting the two settle their arguments. As long as there was no drawing of weapons, Ahsoka figured she was free to keep to herself a little longer.
Politics have not been her expertise and it still didn't make sense to her how one man could obtain so much power in such little time. It wasn't in little time, she reminded herself. The time she'd been brought to the temple was at the age of three and all memory of the state of the Galactic Republic eluded her. As she'd learned from her brief lessons about the Sith, they had undergone brutal and physically demanding training, and mastered a hasty and passionate version of the Force. But ultimately, the Sith and the Jedi were equal in strength, regardless of what Maul or any other Sith could tell her.
Palpatine couldn't have acted alone in this, hence why he had an apprentice. In the earlier days of Ahsoka's training, the existence of Sith had only been a rumor, which meant that Maul's presence could have been kept a secret from not only the Jedi, but the entire Republic. It was possible that Maul had a hand in Palpatine's gain of executive power, which ultimately paved the way for a longer term in office and powerful political allies.
And Palpatine had been sneaky. If he was as skilled in the Force as Maul made him out to be, he could have been casting this hypnotic spell that made the entire galaxy believe him to be the genuine leader the Republic needed.
"Let me tell you what'll happen once we get there: they'll be waiting for us to dock, they'll see us with our backs turned, and either kill us or take the ship." Rex stated. He was now pacing back and forth and the feeling was shaking Ahsoka's cross-legged form.
"I'm offended that you believe my allies would steep to such a low level." Maul responded, maintaining his position in the captain's chair. Ahsoka groaned softly.
Rex scoffed at him. "You're pen pals with the galaxy's most wanted gangs and mob bosses. I need a new word for how low of a level you people fall under."
Maul leaned back in his chair and rested one of his legs on his thigh. "I suppose being a dense waste of a soldier's potential is better than being a criminal."
Ahsoka rolled her eyes and stood up. "Will you two knock it off? I'm starting to get a headache."
She seated herself on the passenger's chair and buried her face in her hands. A part of her wished she did leave Maul back on the Venator. When he wasn't being his assassin self, he was being provocative. The destination to Coruscant couldn't have come fast enough.
When her headache settled, she turned to Rex. "If the Jedi are under threat from the protocol, we should try to draw the clones away from the Temple." she told him. "The rest of the Jedi members probably went there for shelter after Coruscant turned into a warzone."
"Maybe," Rex said. "But we might be bringing the war to the public if we do that."
She pursed her lips together in thought. Further away from the Temple and the Senate building were the homes of most of the civilians. "But... the clones are only after us, right?"
Rex shrugged. "Sure, but the other people might get caught in the crossfire. It happens a lot more than we'd like."
"Right." She knew it happened quite often. Perhaps there weren't as many ways she could have prevented more deaths within her old clan as she thought. Ahsoka turned to Maul. "There's something else bugging me. Is it possible that your old master would know we're coming?"
The way his eyes widened made Ahsoka's hands sweat again. It looked like he'd just forgotten the entirety of Sidious's power and when he just now remembered, it was already too late. Any second, the Nu-class shuttle would reach the end of this wormhole. Sidious's reinforcements were probably calculating their landing as they spoke. But Ahsoka wasn't too angry, as she had also been aware of Sidious's capabilities.
"Well..." she began. "We'll just have to work even harder at going by unnoticed."
Right then, she wasn't speaking in terms of battle strategy, but saying words to hide the fact that she had lost a bit of hope. Maul may have had a readily available army to aid in their fight, but they were still only three against thousands of soldiers. Obi-wan, Master Windu, Master Yoda, and the other Jedi did not have the upper hand against their own heavily armed vehicles. They were meant to keep the peace.
When she looked up, she noticed Maul had kept his eyes on her, looking as if he wanted to ask her a question. She kept a firm expression as she wasn't too keen on fully opening herself up. "What is it?"
"You are unsure that we are fit to win this fight." he stated.
Ahsoka rubbed her arms. Sometimes when he spoke, she could feel a cold chill seep through her slender body. "It doesn't look good when almost all of our allies are concentrated in one space. We're capable, but we do have to consider the possibility that we might lose."
"We probably shouldn't ponder what'll come next after that." Rex said. "If we lose, we lose. We won't be able to contemplate anything else afterwards."
Yet another thing she'd been taught her whole life. There was no consideration or what-ifs after dying in combat. The best thing to do was to strategize beforehand and give everything you can. She was more worried about what would happen to Anakin if they lost.
"I guess my head's not as in the game as I want it to be." she replied. "We'll have to land in a safe place and make it our main goal to find Anakin. If he's already turned, we don't stand a chance. But it doesn't matter. I'm not going to say we're invincible, but we should be more careful than we were in any other battle. He'll be watching us."
She watched Maul shudder slightly. It seemed almost impossible that he could be afraid to face any opponent. Whatever kind of treatment Sidious gave him during his days of being a Sith Lord, Ahsoka felt her own skin fill with goosebumps without even knowing.
Rex came over to her. "If we do win, I say 'if' but I'm pretty confident in you, kid," he started. "What are you gonna do afterwards?"
It seemed a bit premature to think of it, but Ahsoka took a second away from the war to think of the answer.
"I don't know," she said. "I... haven't really had time to think about what life would be like after the war."
"You think you'd come back to the Order?" Rex asked.
Ahsoka lowered her eyes. "I... don't know." She fiddled with her hands. "I kind of left on not great terms with them."
Rex shrugged. "Well, if we manage to save the galaxy," His lips curled into a grin. "I think the Order will need someone like you to keep it in check."
She gave him a half-hearted smile. "Thanks, Rex."
She didn't want to be the one to break the news about not returning back to the Council. It felt wrong to return after walking out, after saying and feeling everything she had about the Council. It felt hypocritical, which might have made her the right person to be apart of it in these times. But perhaps something new could arise from the rubble that was the old Republic.
The shuttle jerked slightly forward. It was the end of the line and there was no time for overthinking. The flash of explosives could be seen from the surface of the planet.
And once the ship crossed through the atmosphere, everything that was visible below made her heart sink.
There was smoke and fire and buildings that were either completely destroyed or rapidly falling apart. Lives disappearing from the ravine of the Force, people being tossed from unnatural heights, lightsabers flashing and colliding with the troopers' light armor. A small group of Jedi were trying to defend themselves against an AT-TE. Innocent civilians who were interfering with the protocol were gunned down. No corner any of them could turn to was safe. Cries of desperation and fights over supplies filled the air. People ran from falling pieces of skyscraper buildings. Those were the first things Ahsoka could sense only having been there for five minutes.
Even the stratosphere above was stained with the crimson tint of death.
She'd heard the cries and the screams from parsecs away in the visions and now, being so close to the source made her tremble. They were amplified. They reverberated against her skull. This was not an unfamiliar sight or sound, but having it close to her own home and everyone she'd loved was an entirely new and terrible experience. It was like a nightmare she couldn't wake up from.
"Look out!"
Rex's cry was heard much too late when a missile collided with the shuttle and the ship descended rapidly. Ahsoka could only recall the loud ringing in her ears and sparks falling above her before she blacked out.
