AN: Thank you to anyone leaving reviews, you are the best of the best! :D

Chapter 9 - A Moment of Peace

Keynote: So much happened in the last chapter that we are overlapping the last scene a bit, Maul and Savage arrive on Mandalore after the 212th lands on Mandalore.

Cody wasn't sure why the entire assembly had been called to order, nor why General Kenobi ordered them to turn off all communicators.

It was odd for them to be spoken to all at once, well it wasn't usual for Kenobi to accuse the Chancellor of treason and for them to be deserters either, but every single clone was present in the hanger, which was the only space onboard to comfortably stand for them all.

That was another odd thing, their General almost never preferred them to stand at even file like they had been trained to on Kamino. But today was an echo from the past.

"Medics, please step forward to the front group," General Kenobi said.

No one said a word as they stepped back and adjusted for the medics to come forward.

The medics were never called forward unless someone was bleeding or dying, but not a single man failed to show them the highest level of respect. Rank was irreverent in regards to them.

"I will start by saying that there is nothing fair or just about the information I'm about to tell you. And the reason we are doing this in secret is because I am afraid of the Chancellor getting wind of it and activating the chips within your brothers before we can get them out."

Cody had a sickening feeling in his gut.

The medics shifted, and one asked, Caswell, who had taken his name from a scientist who had discovered a cure to something, asked, "What chips?"

Their General explained, their General even explained what would have happened if the inhibitor chips.

No one really spoke after that. And as Cody realized that Kenobi's mumbled words that had been half dream and mostly nightmare had been a true vision.

If the chips were not taken out, Cody would have been forced to kill his own his General.

They would have been forced to exterminate the Jedi in their entirety, from elder to Generals, from Padawans to younglings.

Cody was the first to volunteer for the surgery.

The medics took their time on the first hundred men, taking them out entirely. After that, they realized they could just use a fine laser with an even smaller incision to fry the chips.

For those with visible scars, General Kenobi asked them to hide the marks in public, no pictures could circulate that might indicate that the Sith's plot had been uncovered until after everyone cleansed.

Their brothers on Kamino would be the last to know. The Republic would be very lucky if their brothers didn't rebel. But the Kaminoins would be taken out. Perhaps not killed, but imprisoned? Yes, and their younglings would be taken care of by their troops. The long-necks had lost their rights to remain free people.

Cody doubted that any more of their brothers would be produced after this. The Jedi weren't going to be informed or consulted on any of this. General Kenobi knew, and he had told him. The rest wasn't Jedi business.

After Cody's surgery, he contacted his fellow commanders that he trusted most, Wolffe, Trauma, Rex, Monnk, and Doom.

Only Rex didn't answer.

The only thing that saved them was that they had been in an alcove rather than inside the main hall. The building had literally fallen on them, but there had been just enough support from the caved-in alcove around them that the full weight of the building hadn't crushed them.

But Bail Organa, Rex, Fives, and Ahsoka, Force help them all, Ahsoka was still in critical care. When Kix had told Anakin that it was a good thing they had all been knocked unconscious was a good thing as it prevented them from moving with broken spines, hips, and well, Anakin couldn't think through the list of his Padawan's injuries.

He wasn't even allowed into the room with the healers and medics. He had been sitting outside the room, hardly able to think, hardly able to breathe.

"Anakin," Padme said softly, touching his good wrist, "Give it a rest."

"No," he said, voice trembling with fury, "I have to fix them, I have to."

Ahsoka's lightsabers had faired about as well as she had. Anakin had been tinkering with the damn things for some time now. Hardcase had even brought him new parts.

But nothing he did seemed to balance the crystals. The freaking heart of her sabers, the kyber had been damaged.

And he couldn't fix it.

Which was unacceptable.

"Anakin, no matter what happens to the sabers, it won't affect Ahsoka."

"Yes, it will," he said sharply, "A lightsaber is a Jedi's life. If I can just fix-" the kyber gave a particular angry spark and her cursed, "Why did both of them break?"

Padme didn't answer, but the answer wasn't something he wanted to picture.

By rights, Rex should have been worse off because he had been shielding her. But he had been wearing armour. Ahsoka would have been in better condition too, but she must have resisted being tackled because had just let Rex keep her safe-

He squeezed his eyes shut, and he gasped when he remembered he was still holding the unstable crystals in his metal fist.

He felt a tremor go up the metallic limb, and when he opened his hand the crystals were…

"I broke them," even to himself his voice sounded small, "I made it worse."

Padme hugged him, "She's going to be okay, Ani, I promise."

"You can't promise that," he said, but he let himself be held, even if for the first time he couldn't bring himself to hold her back.

He had failed to fix Ahsoka's lightsabers, just as he had failed to keep her safe.

Though the Temple had survived and no one in the Temple had been harmed, they still had losses. A group of Council members had been in attendance at the Senate building.

Of the ways Mace thought he would lose some of the highest respected members of the Order, a building falling on them hadn't been it. But they had been too close to the detonation areas. Mace, Plo, Kit, Shaak Ti, and Yoda had remained to watch the rest of the Senate meeting, little did they know it had saved their lives as the others had been returning to the Temple.

Only Depa, on assignment with her men, and Obi-Wan, who had been leading the victory on Ilum, hadn't been involved in this terrorist attack.

So of the twelve seated members of the Council, only seven remained, excluding Obi-Wan who was technically exiled, that left them with half a Council.

Of the Order, Mace was hard-pressed to pick half a dozen new Council members, it wasn't for lack of Master Jedi, but rather lack of Master Jedi who could take on extra responsibilities and assume a position that they wouldn't have much time to train them for.

"Perhaps Anakin?" Plo suggested.

Mace shook his head, "As a consultant in the military, yes, I believe we should include him more. But I don't think he has the emotional stamina to handle the rest of our Council's duties."

Not that they had been handling things well, stretched thin as they were, but a Council position could be life-long, and Mace didn't want to see the young Skywalker sacrifice more parts of himself to accommodate the burden of a Council position. He had graduated too fast, missed out his initiate years and the years as Padawan that were supposed to be about self discovery and a partner having your back. The last years of an apprenticeship were the time when the Master and the Padawan became near equals.

"Has Ahsoka's condition-?" Plo began.

But Mace shook his head, "She's still in intensive care. And given that she survives, I do not wish to ask Skywalker to give her up as his Padawan."

Because while Masters did have Padawans on the Council, newly elected Jedi did not. It wasn't so much a mandatory rule, as the reality that newly elected to Council position, time management was nearly impossible until years of holding a seat.

"Aayla Secura," Kit said, "She has no Padawan and though she's not quite ready to become a Master, she has proven herself capable."

Plo nodded, "She would certainly offer something new to the Council if she accepts."

Depa sighed over hologram, "So that's one."

They were all quiet for a long moment.

And Mace spoke with what was troubling him most, "Chancellor Palpatine will remain in power, whether we catch him red handed wielding lightsabers around or not, no one is going to believe he was working with Dooku. They will not want to believe. And for those who do, well, it will simply add to the hysteria. This war is going to get bloodier. The homeworlds of those Senators lost will not be cowed, they will be furious."

Shaak nodded, "This could very well be the end of the Republic."

"Caught in the middle, are we," Yoda said.

"If Palpatine is clever, he will take the clone army away from us. He could turn them on us if enough propaganda is published on us defending Ilum over the Senate."

"We would have to run," Shaak said. "Leave Coruscant indefinitely."

Mace shook his head, "I have an idea, but I'm pretty sure no one is going to like it."

Yoda stared at him, "Quickly we must act."

Mace almost smiled, when Master Yoda cautioned you to make haste, things were bad.

Very, very bad.

Kix came out of the room, Ani sprang to his feet so fast that Padme hardly had time to catch her feet under her.

Kix looked more grim than usual. Which wasn't surprising given how many clones Padme had seen go into medical, which had puzzled her a bit considering most of them had looked uninjured to her, even if all of them had radiated anger and fear.

But Padme was too tired to find an answer, she was so tired. She no longer knew what day it was, but she knew it had been terrible, and her stomach had been rolling before the bombs went off.

But her physical concerns were all secondary.

And her Ani was barely holding himself together.

Losing Ahsoka wouldn't be something either of them could recover from.

Padme had been in contact with Breha too, all travel to and from Coruscant had been suspended and the woman's iron will only reavealed its cracks in the sorrow and desperation in her eyes.

Kix, however, offered them a grim smile, "All four have made it through. No lost limbs, no permanent damage outside of scarring and their recovery time. They were very, very lucky, no cranial damage was found on any of them. You have Rex and Fives to thank for Commander Tano's and Senator Organa's lives."

Padme felt the tears fall from her cheeks, the relief was so strong, she could hardly hold her datapad as she messaged Breha that her husband would be coming home safely.

"Can we see them?" Anakin asked.

Kix shook his head, "I'm afraid not. They are all stable, but especially in Commander Tano's case, her injuries are quite extensive. It will be a few days before we can even move her safely into a bacta tank. We are going to keep her sedated for that time. Commander Rex and Fives are already in tanks and should be on their feet by tomorrow evening, but I am mandating bed rest for at least a week."

"And Ahsoka?" Anakin asked.

"Two to three months of recovery. She may need to relearn how to walk. But like I said, all her injuries are such that we have the resources and technology to heal. It's just going to take time."

Ani nodded numbly.

Padme hugged his waist, and he put an arm around her, almost clinging to her as she asked, "Are there any more details you can give me about Bail, his wife-"

Kix pulled up a reader on his own datapad, "I will be happy to speak with Queen Organa myself. But I need you, Senator Amidala to get our General to bed."

"I'm fine," Anakin said at once.

"You're not, Sir," Kix said, "Commander Tano will not be conscious for a few days, you won't be able to see her until the day after tomorrow at the earliest."

"Why not!?" Anakin bellowed.

Kix straightened, "Because I am the medic, and she is my patient before she is your Padawan, Sir. Let me do my job."

Padme pulled on his arm, "Ani, we can't help her any more tonight." Anakin looked as if he was going to protest, so she played dirty, "Please, Ani, I'm tired."

He looked down at her, then he scooped her up off her feet and she let out a little yelp, "Anakin!"

But he said nothing, just held her tighter to his chest.

She wanted to argue with him that people would talk, but right then, she felt so safe, and so very exhausted, her head heavy with days events. She let herself rest against his chest, and though Kix told her to take care of Anakin.

She was the one asleep before they made it back to her apartment.

Despite their speedy victory at Ilum, they wouldn't have had time to make it back to Coruscant to be of much use. Though the other two battalions returned to Coruscant, Ben and the 212th continued on their way to Mandalore.

Ben was both impressed and not at all surprised that the medics assigned to his Battalion got all the chips out before they landed on Mandalore.

Where their welcome had been… confused.

The only thing that really got the Palace guards to allow them to land their Star Destroyer, (which Waxer had named, The Obstinate, after a conversation in which Ben had refused to elaborate on his reasoning to throwing caution to the wind), had been Ben's insistence that Death Watch was planning another attack.

Which wasn't a lie, and the last attack Satine's guard had been woefully unprepared, and they knew that.

As Satine herself…

"Obi-Wan," she growled, "What are you doing here?"

Ben smiled at her, "Duchess, I thought you would happy to see me."

Her glare would have broken lesser men, "You brought an army with you. Mandalore is neutral-"

"Mandalore is a target, and as it happens, we've, or rather I, have been exiled from Coruscant and the Order. So I thought I would come and offer Mandalore our support."

She pointed at him as if she would lecture him, but there wasn't much she could say unless she actually wanted him gone.

He smirked at her, and she turned that ire on Luke, "Who the hell is he?"

"My Padawan, Luke," he answered, finding that he didn't want to lie to her outright.

But one of her guard, however, clearly had been keeping up on Coruscanti gossip because he leaned in to whisper to Satine.

"Your son!" she exploded, turning back on Ben with a renewed fury, "You had a son with another woman!?"

Ben flinched.

She turned back on Luke who took a step back from her, "How old are you?"

"Nineteen," Luke answered, holding up his hands in a universal 'I mean no harm' gesture.

The look Satine gave Ben was withering.

And yes, Ben had done the math on how old he would have been to have sired Luke, he had just forgotten that the timeline would have matched up with the year he spent with Satine in the Mandalore system.

Kriff.

"Satine, I can-"

She shook her head, glaring at Luke, before confusion swept over her face and she tilted her head, "Are you Padme Amidala's son?"

Luke blinked at her in shocked speechlessness.

Ben stepped in front of him, "Satine, Luke's mother died. And I can explain everything if we could just speak privately?"

She glared at him for a long moment, before turning on her heel and giving him her back. Without looking at him, she said, "Fine, follow me. The guards can escort your son, somewhere he can freshen up."

Ben said nothing, just did as he was told, and Luke seemed to relieved to part ways with them.

He was a bit surprised when she brought him to her private rooms, but he was too concerned with the emotions that were radiating off of her to be overly concerned with their surroundings.

The moment the door hushed shut, she turned on him.

"How dare you bring an army here? How dare you land on my planet without my clearance."

"You did allow-"

"I said you could come down, you know I didn't mean your entire battalion!"

"They are Mandalorians by heritage, Satine, they could be your people-"

"You know how hard I've fought for peace! And you brought soldiers here!" she got closer and poked him in the chest, "You brought your son here who you had with another woman!"

Ben's heart constricted, he hated the pain he had caused her. And yet… He had thought of her as being dead for so long that seeing her like this, alive, passionate…

Alive. Actually alive.

He could only look at her, and thank the Force that he had been given this second glimpse of his old life.

Satine was alive and she glimmered in the Force like a light in a harbour.

Tatooine had been his duty, Coruscant was his nightmare, but Satine, she was his home.

And it wasn't until he stood before her that he really felt one with this time, that it fully sunk in that he was here and here was now.

She lashed out at him with scathing words, "What no comeback? No sarcastic comment?"

Would his life had still ended in disaster if he had chosen her over his duty to Qui-Gon?

Could they have saved Mandalore together?

Would Anakin have even fallen without his mistakes?

When he still didn't respond she nearly growled, unpinning a piece of her headdress she flung it at a chair, "You drive me to violence, Obi-Wan!"

He choked on a laugh, "Satine-"

"No," she cut him off, "You will listen to me Obi-Wan Kenobi." She put her hand flush against his chest plate, he thought she would push him away, but she didn't.

Instead, she looked up into his face, her blue eyes clearer than any sky he had ever seen, and she said, voice trembling with emotion, "You told me once that if I gave the word that you would have left the Order for me."

He nodded, "And I meant it."

"Word."

He frowned, "What?"

She pressed her hand more firmly against his chest, but not to push him away, so he stood in place, holding the weight she gave him, "I want you to stay with me. I want you to leave the Order for me."

It took his mind a second to catch up with her words, and in the next he found himself wrapping his arms around her.

He didn't kiss her, though he wanted to, badly, instead, he lifted her to his height and rested his chin on her shoulder. Breathing her in, he said what he wished he had said from the beginning, "I have always loved you, Satine, and I always will."

She clung to him for a moment before pulling back and he set her down on her feet. She looked up with mournful eyes and her voice was empty as she said, "But you won't stay."

He kissed her forehead, not letting her leave the circle of his arms, "I will stay, Satine, but there are things I need to tell you first."

She frowned at him, "Luke-"

"Is adopted. He's my adopted son, Satine, there was no other woman."

She relaxed, then smacked his armour, "You couldn't have led with that?"

Ben smiled, "My name is protecting more than just him."

"Protection?" she asked, "I love you, Obi-Wan, but you have enemies, and the Council couldn't have been happy about your 'attachment'. How can your name be protecting him?"

"I honestly don't care what the High Jedi Council thinks about me, but you were right about Luke's mother being Padme Amidala."

Again Satine frowned, even as she relaxed further in his arms, "So you lied about her dying."

"No, I didn't. Padme would have died after delivering Luke and his twin sister who didn't return to the past with us."

She shook her head and this time when she pulled back, he let her go, "I'm confused." She motioned him to her room, as she began to take out her earrings then the rest of her headdress. "Padme isn't even old enough to have given birth to a nineteen-year-old son."

"No, she isn't."

Satine shook a hand through her hair, letting the waves fall freely.

It took more mental restraint than he was proud of not to reach forward and touch her platinum hair.

"Then how is Luke her son? And who's the father?"

"Anakin."

Satine paused, her brows going up, "Ah, I see what you mean about your name protecting him. But again, Anakin would have been what? Four, five years old at most? Obi-Wan, that is physically impossible."

Ben spoke softly, "Not if Luke and I are from the future."

She stared at him, "What?"

"Twenty-one years in the future to be exact. I know it doesn't look it, but I grew old, Satine."

She stared at him, and he could see her mind spinning, "Padme died, and you adopted her children?"

"Just Luke. Leia, his twin, went with Bail and Breha. The Jedi Order fell with Republic."

Her eyes widened, "You time travelled? I didn't know that was possible. The Separatists win?"

He loved that she just accepted what he was saying. He shook his head, "Neither did I, but it was the Force's will. But no, on the eve of the Republic's victory, the Senate voted Chancellor Palpatine in as the Emperor and the Jedi are blamed for the war. We were executed in mass, what was left of us went into hiding. Force sensitives were routinely hunted down afterwards."

"No," she said, "no, the Jedi-"

"It happened to your people too," he said gently, "Death Watch starts another civil war within the next month in this time. The Empire sweeps in to cease control and once the people inevitably rebelled against a foreign power, the Empire crushed them. By the time Luke was old enough to apply to Mandalore's Imperial Academy, there was hardly any true Mandalorians left. A few groups of bounty hunters remained in the Outer Rims was all that survived of your people's culture."

She stared at him, and they sat together in silence on the end of her bed. Any romance between them was thoroughly ruined.

But he was still happy to be at her side again.

"Where was I?"

He forced himself to look at her, "I tried, Satine. I almost rescued you. But you died in my arms, brought down by one of my enemies. It was my fault you died, my failings that I couldn't save you."

She touched his face, "Shhh… Obi-Wan, it wasn't your fault." She smiled a bit, "A lot of people want me dead."

He pressed her forehead to hers, "That's why I brought you an army. Satine, you rebuilt Mandalore, but pacifism cannot endure here, you need to be able to protect your people. You must allow them to protect themselves."

She closed her eyes, "It isn't that easy, the clans-"

"Then let me help you find ways to mediate between them, I can help you avoid civil war, but war will come to Mandalore from the outside. Your system is too strategic to the rest of the galaxy to be left in peace."

Tears spilled down her face.

"Satine," Obi-Wan said wrapping his arms around her.

She curled into him, "Stay with me, please."

He held her tighter, "I promise."

She pulled back enough to see his face, "Marry me?"

His lips twitched, "Even if I'm an old man?"

She laughed and shook her head before cupping his face, "Obi-Wan, I have always loved you, and I always will, no matter the years, no matter the distance, I will always love you."

"Then yes," he said, before capturing her lips with his, and for the first time since returning to the past, he felt at peace with the universe.

He was home.

AN: Thoughts, puppies, or feedback? Pretty please?