Chapter 70 – Reunion
Author's Note: Aaaand... we're approaching the grand finale! :D
To Guest: ... Nothing has said that this would be Anidala-centric. Lol. Literally from the title, it's pretty obvious that it's not. xP We never said this would focus on Anidala in any shape or form. All the plot says is that they're engaged. Which they are. End of story. Romance isn't everything. It's nice for a background or side thing in our fics, but it'll almost never be the main focus. Don't like don't read. And no, we're not just going to stop making Anidala the case in our fics unless it's the main focus.
~ Amina Gila
Strangely, Anakin doesn't feel the nervousness that he'd been expecting on his return to Raxus with Rex, Echo, and Fives. He thought he'd be nervous, excited, terrified even. But he's not. Instead, all he feels is a strange, eerie calm, the barest hints of excited happiness on the edges of his consciousness. Or maybe that is partially to do with the long meditation session he had in hyperspace. If he's going back home, he thought he needed to be mentally prepared for however taxing it is; hence, the meditating.
He's still accustoming himself to consciously tapping into the Light, but the amount of peace and serenity that he finds within it is… overwhelming almost. He isn't used to it, by any means, though he nevertheless finds it very welcoming. It feels like such a long time ago when he first consciously tapped into it in Ahsoka's presence. Though it's been months, it might as well have been years for how much he's changed since then.
The tension is starting to creep up when the shuttle lands on the floor of Dooku's private hangar on Serenno, and a feeling of nostalgia washes over him. It's been a while since he's been here, and Serenno, like Naboo, has been a home to him.
Predictably, everyone is waiting for them when they finally disembark from the shuttle. Anakin isn't sure yet how to feel about seeing Dooku in person again, after everything which has happened and changed, but he's extremely relieved to lay eyes on Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, Asajj, Boba, and the other clones who've been staying here. Well, not all of them are staying here, now that the entire 501st has defected. Most of them have been spread throughout the galaxy, working to free all of their enslaved brothers. From the looks of it, only Cutup, Droidbait, and Hevy are here. The rest must be busy or spending time with the remainder of the legion.
Ahsoka is the first to come forward, racing towards him with a cry of his name, and he barely has a chance to catch her without being knocked over backwards. She clings to him, her arms tight enough around his waist that it almost hurts, but he's far too relieved to see her again for it to bother him. He clings to her just as tightly, holding her smaller body against his.
"I've missed you, Skyguy," she murmurs into his shoulder, her left montral digging into his neck, but he's too happy to see her again to care.
"I've missed you too, Snips," he answers, shifting her in his arms so he can kiss the top of her head. "A lot has changed though."
She huffs. "I've noticed." She lifts her head enough to meet his eyes. "I like how you feel now. You're better. Lighter. You feel…" She trails off for a moment as she probes at him through their bond. "Happier," she finally settles on.
Anakin gives her a small smile. "I am happy now," he admits. "It… almost feels like I never truly knew what it meant until now. The Dark Side was…" It's not a sentence that he knows how to finish, but it doesn't matter anyway, because Obi-Wan is next to him, his familiar, warm, comforting Force presence brushing up against Anakin's, and he pulls himself away from Ahsoka to embrace Obi-Wan.
They don't speak though because they have nothing to say that they haven't already said, nothing that the way their presences wrap around each other isn't already conveying.
When he finally steps back from Obi-Wan, it's to see Boba. Anakin hasn't seen him since the explosion that destroyed the mansion, and he had thought that Boba had died then. Somehow, he hadn't, and Obi-Wan had mentioned it to him in passing, assuring him that he'd survived, and that Padme had been the one who rescued him.
"Vod'ika," he says softly, and that's all the invitation Boba needs to jump into his arms. Ahsoka snickers when he stumbles for a moment, but he's too busy hugging Boba to elbow her. The warm, very real weight of Boba against him is what truly lets it sink in that he's alive. He didn't lose him like he'd feared. Boba is alive, and definitely traumatized by his experiences, but it's nothing that they can't deal with. If he's alive, they can learn to heal together.
"I am glad to see you alive," Anakin tells him. "When… everything happened, I was so worried."
Boba buries his face against Anakin's shoulder in much the same way Ahsoka did earlier. "I miss Mom." His voice is quiet, muffled, and for a moment, Anakin isn't sure if he heard right. But his heart breaks all over again at the words, a quiet, distant ache opening up again. It still hurts, the knowledge that his – their mother is gone, but… He did everything he could. It wasn't enough, and she didn't want to come back anyway.
"I… tried to get her back," he responds, unsure how the words will be received. "It could have been possible, through the Force. I spoke to her… spirit."
Boba lifts his head, the curiosity in his dark brown eyes mingled with grief. "What did she say?"
"She was at peace with her death," Anakin answers, thinking back to their conversation. "She didn't want me to pay the cost of bringing her back, and she wanted me to honor her memory and find happiness."
"It's hard," Boba mumbles.
Anakin ruffles his curls. "It is," he agrees, "But we can do it together."
He turns to Asajj next, and he's more than a little surprised to see her and Rex speaking in quiet tones, with Rex touching her shoulder. There's an intimacy there, a familiarity that he hadn't expected to see. "Not interested in that sort of thing," he deadpans. "Really."
Asajj's hand snakes out in the blink of an eye, flicking his arm. "Shut it," she orders, glaring at him, but there's a restrained mirth in her gaze.
Anakin laughs, holding out an arm to her, and after rolling her eyes, muttering something inaudible under her breath, she takes up the offer, giving him a quick, tight hug. "I did miss you," he tells her, "But maybe not how annoying you are."
"You missed me being annoying the most," she assures him loftily, slinking back to Rex's side and sliding an arm around his waist, leaning into him. It's deliberate, Anakin knows, her way of asking him what he thinks.
"I'm happy for you, both of you." Anakin meets Rex's eyes, nodding to him, to them, letting them know that, no matter how he hadn't truly seen it coming – though he teased her relentlessly about her affection for Rex and the clones – he is still glad that they've found closeness and comfort amidst the horrors of war.
Rex's expression relaxes – Anakin hadn't even realized he was tense until now – and he glances at Asajj, a look of fondness in his eyes that Anakin knows all too well. "This is still new for us, mostly," he says, "But we're figuring it out. We're… happy."
"Good," he answers firmly. "Good. I'm glad. You deserve it."
"Well," she quips cheekily, "I wasn't really asking for your blessings. I wouldn't have listened to you anyway, even if you disapproved."
Rex smacks her arm, looking aghast, and Anakin just laughs, far too used to Asajj's sassy nature to be even remotely bothered by the remark. "Luckily, you have my blessings anyway. And we both know that if I had disapproved, you would have either found a way to change my mind, or…" He trails off deliberately and quirks an eyebrow at her.
She rolls her eyes. "Maybe you would have been worried about me taking advantage."
"Why are you two even having this conversation?!" Ahsoka butts in, sounding exasperated yet amused.
"Because we're… us?" Asajj suggests, grinning.
Hevy sighs. Loudly. Deliberately done to draw Anakin's attention to him. "On behalf of all my brothers, I want to welcome you back. We're glad you've returned, Anakin."
Anakin nods to him, acknowledging the words, feeling a wave of emotion crash over him at the clones' easy acceptance of him. Even now, he's still overwhelmed by it sometimes. "I'm glad to be back," he replies as he's said several times already.
And then, he turns to Dooku. The Count has been lingering in the back, an inscrutable look on his face. He's betraying nothing through the Force, either. Of everyone, Anakin had known that this reunion would be the hardest. Perhaps if he had gotten his mother back, or if he had not lost her in the first place, it would be easier to forgive Dooku for his role in everything.
Certainly, before his mother died, he never harbored the resentment toward Dooku that he now does, and while it is true that Sidious cultivated that resentment for his own purposes, the fact still stands that Dooku stood by instead of getting them out. Yes, Dooku helped them at times; he even took punishments for being too "lenient" on Anakin. He offered comfort when Anakin struggled after difficult training or punishments. He helped. But he also didn't. He left Anakin and Shmi in a dangerous situation without ever trying to extract them or help them escape. By not acting, he allowed Sidious to harm them repeatedly.
Anakin can forgive the wrongs against himself, but what Dooku did in leaving his mother there led to her death. Dooku is no Sidious, but he is… a master. That doesn't mean he's too far gone to be reasoned with. They'll just need to talk about it, and that is something Anakin isn't looking forward to. For so long, he has respected the Count and looked up to him. Being at odds with him will be… hard, to say the least.
He and Dooku stare at one another for a long few moments before the latter dips his head in a nod. "Anakin," he says neutrally, and Anakin moves closer to him, not as close as he once might have stood, but closer. "It is good to see you well."
It feels like they don't know how to talk to one another anymore, and that stings. But then, it makes sense, as well, because so much has changed, and Anakin doesn't harbor the same blind devotion to Dooku that he once did. But there's no reason not to be polite. "I can say the same."
Another awkward silence ensues before Dooku breaks it. "I misjudged you," he admits, and for the first time since he arrived, Anakin can feel a flicker of remorse from the elder man. "I thought… you were lost, and I acted accordingly. I made a mistake when I gave Grievous the instructions I did."
"What did you tell him?" Anakin finally queries, a little curious, but mostly dreading the answer. "He made it seem as though he had been ordered to kill me." Which… well, that's not what Grievous said, but he very much had given Anakin the feeling that Sidious was right. Or maybe it was that the Sith's words had been imprinted into his brain, and he merely interpreted it as such, because of how much he feared Sidious could be right.
Dooku flinches almost imperceptibly. "No." The response is fast, harsh, and Anakin can feel his sincerity and his horror. "No, I would never have told Grievous outright to kill you. It – I told him to capture you through whatever means were necessary, but he could use other measures if he couldn't subdue you successfully."
"I… understand why you did it," Anakin admits, because no matter how it hurts to know that Dooku used Grievous against him, he does understand it. Strategically, it makes sense.
"We need to speak sometime at length," Dooku tells him, "But I don't know if now is really the right time, much less place."
"On that, we agree." He glances towards everyone else, noting how they're trying, and failing, to make it appear as though they're not paying any attention whatsoever. He understands their curiosity, but when he and Dooku discuss everything, they need to do it in private. But he also is uncertain if they can afford to take the time for it right now, given that they need to find out what has happened with Sidious.
Obi-Wan steps closer suddenly, as if they've never been separated at all and he can somehow still tell what Anakin is thinking. "We should find out what's happening with Sidious."
Dooku nods, albeit a little reluctantly in Anakin's opinion. "I agree." He gestures towards everyone. "Whoever wishes to come is welcome."
Anakin falls in step next to him as they walk into the castle, the move so practiced and familiar to him that it aches. Even though everything feels as though it's changed, that's clearly not true, not entirely, and he's thankful for these little bits of normalcy. It gives him hope, and proof, that something can be salvaged between them, that everything between them hasn't been broken and isn't totally wrong.
Dooku leads them to the main communication room, deep in the well-fortified interior. As if by unspoken agreement, everyone else who was on the landing platform follows as well, the clones making quiet, whispered remarks to one another as they go, since, with the exception of Rex, none of them have been into this particular part of the castle.
Anakin is strangely calm while they wait, though he should, by all rights, be terrified. He's not. All he feels is… a little sad, actually. He had done what he could when he spoke to Sidious, tried to make him understand. The worst slaves are the ones who deny what they are; they delude themselves into believing that they are free, and in the legends on Tatooine, stories that his mother told him as a child, it is those slaves who have historically caused the biggest problems for other slaves and for those who fight for freedom. They have disconnected themselves from their roots, and they will sooner fight to keep others enslaved than turn a blind eye while they make their way to freedom. They will stop at nothing to crush out freedom under the masters, and normally, the only way to stop them is to destroy them.
That doesn't mean Anakin has to rejoice in Sidious' death.
It's a few minutes of tense waiting before the connection is established and holograms of Yoda and Windu appear. They appear momentarily startled to see so many people standing around, but they recover quickly, though their gazes linger on Anakin for a few moments before they look at Dooku. "It is good to see that Skywalker has made his way back to you," Windu says, surprising Anakin. "The Jedi Order is in his debt."
Despite himself, he flushes, ducking his head and staring fixedly at the floor. "It was the right thing to do," he answers quietly. "Despite all of your failings, I cannot condone your genocide."
Dooku glances at Anakin, obviously understanding what he did, and nodding approvingly. "What is the situation on Coruscant?" he queries. "I have seen Senator Organa's transmission, and I have heard that the Senate has demanded Palpatine be arrested and put on trial, but nothing has been released of his whereabouts."
"He escaped," Windu replies succinctly. "There were… unforeseen complications, but we are tracking him now. Ferus Olin temporarily fell under his sway, but he has transmitted his location to us. We believe that Sidious is hiding on Mustafar with some other rogue Jedi."
"An attack force we must lead to arrest him," Yoda interjects. "Demanded his return the Senate has. Dangerous it will be but allowed him to be imprisoned within the Temple they have. Secure he will be."
"I am willing to go with the strike team," Dooku tells them. "All of us have a great deal of experience with Palpatine; we know how to combat him effectively."
"That is acceptable," Windu answers. "We had hoped that you and Skywalker would be able and willing to come."
"We are," the Count replies, "So long as you can guarantee that neither of us, nor any of our allies, will come to harm. I am aware that the Republic has reason to try and arrest us, and I want your word that you will not let that come to pass. We will willingly cooperate with whatever trial the Republic will grant to Palpatine, but we will not submit ourselves to Republic justice."
"Understand we do," Yoda assures him. "Make arrangements we will with the Senate. Arrested or harmed by us you shall not be."
When Dooku hesitates, Anakin steps forward. In the Force, he feels no ill from either of the Jedi, and while he is still a little wary – it is hard to trust them after everything which has happened – he also trusts the Force when it assures him that this is the right path. "Thank you," he says simply. "We will be there, and we will be in contact to coordinate our attacks."
"I'm coming," Obi-Wan states, as Anakin knew he would, stepping up to Anakin's side.
"Me too," chimes in Ahsoka without missing a beat.
"Snips –" he begins, resigned. Of course, she wants to come, but that doesn't mean he has to let her. He doesn't want her to be anywhere in the vicinity of Sidious; the Sith is far too dangerous, especially for someone as young and untrained as she is.
"No," she interrupts, tone brooking no refusal, "I don't want you to be fighting him alone. Master, you've trained me well. I don't even have to fight him. I just – I need to be there with you. Please?"
How is he supposed to say no to that face?!
"Ahsoka…" He heaves a sigh. "Fine. But if something starts to go badly, I want you to get out of there. I can't be focused on what I need to do, if I'm worrying about you."
She makes a face, but still nods. "Okay."
"We're all in, too," Asajj chirps, because evidently, they discussed it while he and Ahsoka were having their conversation – or maybe earlier, he's not sure. "Well, except for Boba, even though he wants to come. Some of the boys are planning to stay back with him to communicate with us from a distance and rally reinforcements if we need them."
Something that feels distinctly like dread settles into Anakin's gut at her words, but the Force remains elusive. Clouded. He can feel the shift of something dark looming ahead of them, and yet, the Force still indicates that this is the best path.
He slowly takes a breath, blowing it out and trying to trust in the Force that he'll be able to bring his family back home when all is said and done. He can hope, but… hope might not be enough.
"Very well," he agrees, and it's as though something snaps into place, puzzle pieces coming together to cement their future.
"We'll be in touch," Windu says, ending the transmission.
"May the Force be with us," murmurs Obi-Wan, voicing Anakin's thoughts.
"Indeed," adds Dooku gravely as they all exchange looks. Whatever the future may be, Anakin knows it will be a hard fought – and hard won – battle. Nothing ahead of them will be easy.
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