Clone Wars era. Ahsoka meets Obi-Wan and Anakin, and is astonished at the silent master. In this AU of The Silent Song, we assume Obi-Wan is still 1) unable to speak and 2) recently elevated to masterhood upon Anakin's knighting, according to canon.
I've posted this to my tumblr (eirianerisdar tumblr com) as a separate fic before.
Silent Laughter
Ahsoka Tano feels the thrum of the repulsors shiver up her new field boots, and quells the shudder before it can travel to her clenched fingers. She is not quite successful.
There is muffled boom as landing struts meet duracrete.
Ahsoka swallows past a throat completely dry and checks herself over. Her boots are shined to perfection, her belt buckled night, her lightsaber clean and oiled at her hip. The weight of the Akul teeth that frame the edge of her montrals carry the pride of her heritage; the new string of silka beads behind her right lekku her hope for the future.
Her hands unclench from beneath her newly-requisitioned bracers.
The transport has landed, and she is one durasteel wall away from Christophsis, war, apprenticeship, and a commission as Commander.
In the short moment before the ramp opens, she straightens her spine and cocks her head to a point just between polite deference and confidence. She is Ahsoka Tano, and she will soon be Anakin Skywalker's padawan. From the stories whispered between the Initiate dorms, he will most likely appreciate a little…attitude.
The thought makes her smile, ever-so-slightly.
The ramp thuds onto cracked duracrete. The light of Christophsis's sun spills into the dim hold, and Ahsoka has automatically descended halfway down the ridged metal before she fully registers the two figures waiting below.
One stands confident and cocksure, his robes a dark symphony of black and crimson, a scar skirting the edge of his right eye - eyes the colour of fire beneath earthy soil. The other, slightly shorter than the other, older, in flowing cream robes and white bracers to match, a curl about his lips that suggests a wealth of hidden humour, and eyes the deep, still blue of a silent sea.
Anakin Skywalker, and-
And?
Ahsoka glimpses the sheet of flimsy tucked into the older Jedi's belt.
Oh.
Her heart skips a little at the realisation that she stands before two legends.
Anakin Skywalker may be the Chosen One, but Obi-Wan Kenobi - Obi-Wan Kenobi is the Silent Jedi. The master negotiator who does not speak; the Jedi that led a generation of young apprentices to wisdom and glory.
Obi-Wan Kenobi is the Jedi. And he has earned that title without speaking a single word.
I should have known it was Master Kenobi; I was sent here to bring a message to both masters.
Both senior Jedi seem surprised at Ahsoka's arrival, though they certainly show it in different ways. Master Kenobi's eyebrows raise just a fraction but relax almost immediately, as though he registers the surprise but accepts it, waiting calmly for an explanation. Master Skywalker's scar tightens, though, as he frowns down at her from an admittedly very high height.
"And who are you supposed to be?" he says bluntly, a broad, Outer-rim accent stretching his words.
Ahsoka almost starts. He sounds far younger than she had supposed.
Master Kenobi tilts his head slightly at this, and though Master Skywalker cannot possibly see the motion from where he stands, he flicks his gaze towards his former Master, a brief look of chagrin flashing over his features.
"I'm Ahsoka?" Ahsoka replies, deciding brashness is best met with confidence. "Master Yoda sent me to tell the both of you that you need to return to the Temple. There's an emergency."
Master Kenobi folds his arms thoughtfully as Master Skywalker explains - just as blunt as before and slightly too heatedly, in Ahsoka's opinion - exactly how pinned down the 501st and 212th are, and the utter mess that is both communications and Christophsis in general.
She replies as well as she can and offers to route a comm back to Coruscant through the orbiting cruiser. Master Kenobi's smile becomes a little less faint at this, as though he sees her move and approves.
One cut-off holoconference to the Temple later - Ahsoka had been quietly impressed at the speed with which Master Kenobi typed replies to Master Yoda's questions - she finds herself once again facing two inquisitive Jedi.
"Well, we'll have to hold out a little longer," Master Skywalker - no, Anakin, because Master Skywalker just doesn't seem to suit him - says, without any real heat.
Master Kenobi gives his head a little shake, pulling a stylus out from under his left bracer and penning a few quick lines across the flimsy at his belt. To Ahsoka's astonishment, he extends the flimsy to her. She bows automatically over it as she takes it, but then a gloved hand is on her shoulder, straightening her.
He smiles and shakes his head at her confusion, as if to say: Forgo the ceremony.
Ahsoka opens the flimsy, and is struck with the smooth elegance of the script.
My apologies, young one. I should have introduced myself earlier. My name is Obi-Wan Kenobi. I am your new master.
She blinks. What? "I'm Ahsoka Tano," she replies as she hands back the flimsy, barely remembering not to bow - The flick of Master Kenobi's eyebrow says the motion does not go unnoticed - but she hurries on to avoid confusion. "I'm at your service, Master Kenobi, but I'm afraid I've actually been assigned to Master Skywalker."
The look on Anakin's face is priceless.
If there is any surprise in Master Kenobi's eyes, it is soon replaced by mischief. His beard does not quite hide his delight.
"What? Nonononono," Anakin splutters. It would appear shock galvanises him into motion; he circles around behind Obi-Wan and back to the opposite side, as though he is a small planetoid that escaped orbit, but suddenly decided it was not that good of an idea and so returned to its proper tether.
Ahsoka's eyes widen. Huh. So Master Kenobi is Obi-Wan to her now? Maybe Anakin's personality is rubbing off on her already.
Obi-Wan runs a hand over his beard as the faint crowsfeet at the edges of his eyes crinkle. Ahsoka is sure he is hiding a grin.
Anakin is still rambling. "There must be some sort of mistake. He's the one who wanted a padawan!" The latter is said as he points one black-gloved finger at his former master.
Obi-Wan gestures mildly back at him, unaffected.
"Hey, Obi-Wan, you can't do this!"
Obi-Wan looks pointedly at Ahsoka.
She folds her arms and narrows her eyes at Anakin. "Master Yoda was very specific. I'm assigned to Anakin Skywalker, and he is to supervise my Jedi training." There. You can't send me back, now.
Amusement leaks over the edges of Obi-Wan's shields. If he is as formidable with shielding as he is with a lightsaber, Ahsoka is sure that inside, he is doing the Jedi-Master-equivalent of howling with laughter.
-That is to say, he pats a wide-eyed Anakin on the shoulder in a gesture of mock comfort, gives Ahsoka's back a firm push in her new master's direction, and then swaggers - there is no other word for it - over to where two gold-striped troopers are conversing quietly.
Ahsoka notices the one with command markings on his armour seems to know the Jedi is approaching even though he faces the complete opposite direction.
A voice sounds above her head. "You don't see how he communicates with his troops."
"No, I don't," she admits, turning back to where Anakin seems to have mostly calmed down.
"He holds all of the 212th Attack Battalion in his mind. At once." Anakin turns and begins to walk, tracing a path through the clutter and debris.
"What?" Ahsoka has to raise her voice above the shouts and orders of the troopers around them.
"Technically he's a High Jedi General," Anakin says. "That means he's in charge of a Systems Army - one of ten really big chunks of the GAR - but he personally commands the 212th. He gives general orders on text through HUDs, but on the ground he gives…impressions and images through his mental link with them. It's usually enough for them to get his commands."
Ahsoka's jaw drops. "But that's…"
"Close to six hundred minds, yes." Anakin makes this statement without any particular awe in his voice, as though this is not unexpected of Obi-Wan Kenobi.
A slight niggling at the back of Ahsoka's mind suggests that perhaps her suspicion is right. Obi-Wan Kenobi is…something. Something different.
"We'll sort this out later," Anakin mutters.
"Sorry, sort out what?" Ahsoka asks, jarred out of her reverie.
Anakin pulls up short, looking back at her. "The…apprenticeship thing."
"Oh." She doesn't know what to say to that.
Anakin raises one hand to scratch embarrassedly at his mop of brown hair. "Uh, it's not that we're going to send you back, it's just-" he pauses. "Let's see how this works out?"
Ahsoka looks up at him and sees a young man Knighted early because of war, just as she herself is now sent to the field earlier than any previous generation, simply because a commander is needed in battle. So different to Obi-Wan's steady, wise humour, obvious and constant even in the ten minutes she has interacted with him.
She can see why Anakin needs a padawan. But she can also see that he will not teach her alone.
"Okay," she says, simply.
Anakin smiles, and it is a flash of white teeth in a confident face. "Come on, then. I've got to introduce you to Rex."
A/N: I always wondered what Silent Song Obi would do if he were in the Clone Wars. The answer to that, of course, is to be epic and hold six hundred minds in his own at once. Reviews are as always welcome 3
Next chapter: Ezhno meets Quinlan. It goes about as well as could be expected of a nuclear explosion.
