Anakin watched Obi-Wan walk ahead of him, a slight limp accompanying his old master's confident strides. Ahsoka was walking beside Anakin, Rex, Cody and the rest of the clones trekking with them. The vast forest was spread out around them, weird and wonderful plants of various colours and sizes decorating the forest floor. The three suns shone down on them with savage intensity, many clones sweating underneath their helmets. Anakin showed no discomfort though - growing up on a desert planet had its perks. Still, his comfort was short lived as his worry for Obi-Wan seemed to be increasing by the hour, along with his suffocating curiosity.

To say Anakin was concerned about Obi-Wan was an understatement. The night before, Anakin had watched Waxer bandage up Obi-Wan's leg, an injury that Anakin had beat himself up for not noticing. Anakin was quite jealous, and frankly surprised at how Giac had been able to read Obi-Wan like an open book. Logically, it made perfect sense – Giac was Obi-Wan's older brother after all. However, that didn't make it hurt any less. He should of been the one to see the signs, to see that Obi-Wan had been leaning heavily on his right side and that his robes were stained with small patches of blood.

When Waxer had bandaged Obi-Wan up, his former master had explained he'd hit his leg on the rocks at the bottom of the river bed, insisting it was nothing to worry about. Of course, when Boil had torn his trouser leg, revealing the wound, it was anything but something not to worry about. There had been a long, angry gash down the side of his leg, and although it had stopped bleeding, it didn't look very good. Anakin had been astonished about how he had missed it, a sudden rage boiling up at the same time. He'd pestered Obi-Wan to tell them if he had any other injuries but the Jedi Master remained stubborn, refusing to tell them if he was hurt anywhere else. By the end of the argument, Anakin had stormed off to sit at the other side of the clearing closest to the campfire, not wanting to be near Obi-Wan a minute longer.

Anakin admired Giac. How he had managed to put up with Obi-Wan for so many years he had no idea. When he met him, he would have to ask him how he did it, along with what happened on Mandalore. Obi-Wan had avoided answering that too.

And then there was the fact that Obi-Wan had not even mentioned he had an older brother, let alone that he was a prince. The facts themselves didn't bother Anakin – he didn't care if Obi-Wan had wealthy blood or not, but he did care that he had been lied to. He didn't understand why Obi-Wan had not trusted him enough to tell him or Ahsoka. He kind of understood why it wasn't public knowledge; being a prince publicly would mean not only would Obi-Wan have more bounty's on his head, but also so would Giac and his wife, especially with the war on. The separatists would leap at the chance to use Giac against Obi-Wan or vice versa. On the other hand, Obi-Wan could have maybe not told them because his past was too painful. However, Anakin couldn't see that as an excuse. How could being a prince have a painful past? It wasn't like Obi-Wan had been something as bad as a slave like he had. Plus, Obi-Wan would have joined the Jedi order when he still was very young, way too young to remember anything about his home and parents…Right?

Whatever the case, Anakin was still furious with him, and very confused. Anakin glanced at his former master, his robes now dry from the day before and leg freshly bandaged. He seemed to winced a little as the group began to trudge up a slight incline, the terrain full of rolling hills and uneven grounds. Giac's words still rang in Anakin's head. And that's not including what I can't see. That what scared Anakin the most: he couldn't see what was wrong with Obi-Wan but he knew he was hiding something, something painful.

And Anakin was right; he just didn't realize how right he was.

Anakin was really trying not to think about any of it, instead focusing on putting one foot in front of the other as they all trekked across the ruff terrain. Obi-Wan had insisted on not staying in one place for too long that morning, explaining that Grievous would be scouring the planet for them. Since the camp had been still quite close to the crash site, Obi-Wan had used it as another excuse to get moving, as it made them vulnerable to being found. He'd even explained that R2 could send an encoded message to Giac to track R2 rather than follow the co-ordinantes he had been given, destroying any excuse Anakin might have had to make sure Obi-Wan rested. This was why Anakin had decided to spend most of the morning sulking and glaring at Obi-Wan's back, trying his hardest to develop the ability to shoot lasers from his eyes so he could burn a hole through his old master's back. Not that that would ever happen, of course.

Their recent arguments hadn't gone unnoticed by Ahsoka and the clones either, the other people in the group opting to stay unnaturally quiet in the tense atmosphere. Moreover, Obi-Wan had not tried to diffuse their arguments either, as well as choosing to avoid talking to Anakin no more than necessary, which was all very un-Obi-Wan like, and Anakin hadn't even realized he could be un-Obi-Wan like. The whole situation was a mess and Anakin had no idea how to clean it up. It just made him more miserable, an emotion that seemed to be passing through the whole group.

"I'm bored." Ahsoka said.

"We know." Anakin replied back, not even sending her a glance.

"This would be a lot more fun if we were blowing stuff up."

"So you've said."

Fives jumped up on a rocky outcrop and looked at forests that surrounded them, rolling up hills all around them. "Check out this view. I mean, seriously. How could you get tired of this view?"

"I've managed it," Ahsoka said, passing him with her head down. "It's the same view we had this morning. It's the same view we had yesterday. I bet it's the same view we'll have this evening." Fives jumped down and quickly caught up so he could walk beside her.

"You're just grumpy, Commander."

"I'm not just grumpy. There is no just here, Fives. I am grumpy on an epic scale. I'm used to ferocious, adrenalin filled battles and tense stealth missions. This walking thing is...silly." Ahsoka looked up ahead to where Obi-Wan was walking, more or less in the lead. "You know, the younglings always talk about how you're such a good storyteller, Master Kenobi. Maybe you could lighten my mood up a bit with your storytelling skills?" She proposed, making Obi-Wan stop momentarily as he considered the request.

"If this is a ploy to get me talking about my past, padawan, evidently you're just as bad at subtlety as Anakin is." He shot back over his shoulder, his voice laced with an unexpected bitterness. The reply made Ahsoka frown, her plan easily seen through by Obi-Wan.

"Nice try snips, but I don't think Obi-Wan is in the mood to talk right now." Anakin scowled at Obi-Wan's back as he walked beside her, making sure to keep his voice low so that Obi-Wan couldn't hear them.

"Yeah, I take it back, Commander." Fives commented from his position walking in between her and Rex. "You're not grumpy, but the General certainly is."

"I heard that, Fives." Obi-Wan shouted over his shoulder from far up ahead, making the arc trooper stop in his tracks in surprise.

"How the hell did he hear that?" Fives exclaimed in a whisper, turning to Anakin and Ahsoka. "You Jedi don't have super hearing as well as weird force powers do you?" He asked when he started walking again. Anakin was about to reply with a no when Obi-Wan beat him to it.

"No, Jedi don't." Obi-Wan answered in Anakin's place, stopping and half turning to face Fives, a smug smirk on his features. "But Selencians do." Obi-Wan turned back around quickly, resuming walking almost instantly after he had spoken. Meanwhile, Fives, Anakin, Ahsoka, Rex and pretty much everyone else had frozen in shock at the implication.

"Wait, are you saying you're not human, Obi-Wan?" Anakin asked after sharing a glance with Ahsoka. They had all assumed that Selencians was just the name for the people who lived on Selencia and it hadn't occurred to them that maybe 'Selencian' was actually a totally different species.

"Depends on your definition of human." Obi-Wan muttered, making his way up the steep incline. "If you're talking about being biologically human, then yes, I'm not human."

"But, you look human." Anakin stated, puzzled.

"Technically, Anakin, you look Selencian." He corrected, choosing to not look at Anakin as he spoke, instead keeping an eye on where he was placing his feet for the ground had quickly got more uneven and harder to walk on.

"What?"

"Selencians came first, way before humans even entered this galaxy. Therefore, you look Selencian." Obi-Wan explained, only succeeding to confuse Anakin more, rather than satisfy him.

"But what's the difference? Do you just have better hearing than us?"

"Better hearing, better sense of smell, better sight - the whole lot. Originally, my people were nocturnal most of the time, so our sight during nighttime is probably one of the best in the galaxy."

"Force, anything else to add to that large pile?" Anakin asked, not expected Obi-Wan to carry on.

"We heal faster, have a higher metabolism - that sort of thing. We're much stronger and agile I suppose. To be honest, I've never really thought about it before." Obi-Wan explained in an off-hand way.

"Of course you haven't." Anakin muttered, rolling his eyes. Obi-Wan frowned again.

"Anakin, I'm a Jedi. I've got much more important things to do than debate the biology of my own species. I leave that to healers." Obi-Wan remarked, closing the conversation. Anakin had other ideas.

"That's it. I don't think anything you say will surprise from now on." Anakin declared to no-one in particular, though his eyes flickered to Obi-Wan.

"Nice try, Anakin, but I'm not talking about my past."

Oh, come on! Obi-Wan, you can't reveal that you've lied for the past decade - probably more than that - and just keep walking away like nothing happened."

"I never lied, Anakin." Obi-Wan protested, frowning in disapproval at Anakin's accusation.

"Really, then what did you do, Obi-Wan?" Anakin raised an eyebrow as Obi-Wan struggled to find an excuse.

"I just...withheld certain bits of information, that's all."

"That's all? You're absolutely right. That's all you did." Anakin used a lot of sarcasm to make his point, causing Obi-Wan to turn so he could send him a glare. Obi-Wan didn't reply to Anakin's snide comments though, instead choosing to keep quiet. His silence only made Anakin scowl harder. "Come on, Obi-Wan. Just give us something. Anything at all."

"If I tell you something, will you all stop pestering me?" Obi-Wan chided.

"Depends on what you tell us." Anakin shot back.

"Anything at all?" Obi-Wan echoed, as if he was actually considering it now. Anakin and Ahsoka shared a glance, not truely believing he had finally decided to share.

"Yes, anything, Master Kenobi. Anything at all." Ahsoka confirmed, hope sparking in her eyes. In the end, Obi-Wan seemed to make a decision, eyes resigning a little as his face opened up to show a flicker of his beaten emotions.

"Before I joined the Jedi, every year, my family would stay in a cabin at the foot of the northern mountains on Selencia during the winter solstice, surrounding by forests and frozen lakes. Myself and my brother would play in the snow and skate on the ice during the day, often until we couldn't feel our own fingers, not that we cared." Obi-Wan paused, chuckling a little. "At night, when our parents had gone to sleep and we were supposed to be asleep too, we'd talk to each other until dawn and then sleep in till noon. Then, on certain nights when the force was on our side, the skies would clear be of clouds, revealing the millions of stars that littered the sky at night. And if the conditions were right, the northern lights would light up the sky too, mixing green and pink with the white light of the stars. Those were the nights when our mother and father would teach us the constellations of our solar system, all of us sat around a fire that danced and radiated warmth." Obi-Wan smiled fondly, his eyes turned to the sky.

"Why wouldn't you want to share that?" Anakin softly asked, awed by what Obi-Wan had shared. In a split second, Obi-Wan's gaze hardened again, his face completely closing off as he turned to look at Anakin.

"The same reason why you don't talk about your past, Anakin." He stated, starting to walk forward again.

"Obi-Wan, you know why I don't talk about my past. There's a lot that happened that I'd rather forget." Anakin's eyes seemed to harden in response, images of harsh memories flashing behind his eyes. "But you were a prince, Obi-Wan, and judging by that memory, you have a lot to be happy about."

"I wasn't referring to my memories, Anakin."

"Then what-" Anakin stopped abruptly, realization dawning on his face. He didn't like to talk about his past because of two reasons: his bad memories of being a slave on tatooine and because of his mother. He loved his mother and every memory he had of her, but she had died. The grief made him reluctant to talk about any happy memory he had of her because it reminded him that she was no longer alive, no longer here. More than that, it made Anakin shut everybody out, just like Obi-Wan was doing.

Anakin looked up to meet Obi-Wan's gaze, suddenly everything clicking into place. For the first time, Anakin finally saw the sorrow and grief painted behind Obi-Wan's eyes and Anakin found himself not understanding how he had missed it.

"Oh." Anakin finally managed to say, rather numbly. Ahsoka and the clones were giving him odd looks as they hadn't come to the same conclusion as him. How could they? They didn't understand what Anakin had gone through when his mother had died.

But Obi-Wan did.

Anakin watched as Obi-Wan turned back around without a word, resuming his trek through the forest before Anakin could ask anything else.

"Master, what was that about?" Ahsoka asked quietly as she turned to Anakin, even though she kept glancing over to where Obi-Wan was now walking ahead. However, Anakin didn't respond at first, his eyes distant and skin slightly paler than before. "Master?"

"Giac is King." Anakin breathed, his voice so low Ahsoka barely heard it.

"What?"

"Ahsoka, Giac is King." Anakin turned to face Ahsoka this time, his eyes wide with realization.

"So?" She asked, not understanding his point.

"So, the heir to the throne only becomes King when the predecessors die." Anakin explained, pausing to let the information sink in. "Ahsoka, his parents are dead. That's why he won't talk." Ahsoka's eyes widened in shock and horror, just before she shook her head, confusion crossing her young torgutan features.

"But that doesn't make sense. He would been excepted to order when he was a youngling, too young to even remember his parents, right?" Ahsoka looked to Anakin for confirmation, who could only shrug in reponse

"Snips, Jedi are allowed to search out their family. Since Obi-Wan is a prince, I'm sure he's allowed more contact than any other Jedi."

"Yes, but he still wouldn't know them very well. Unless..." Ahsoka trailed off, Anakin picking up her train of thought.

"Unless he was an exception like me and joined later." Anakin realized, his head starting to spin. Both of them shared a glance, each thinking the same thing.

Surely it was impossible right? As a padawan, Anakin had always struggled to learn the rules and beliefs of the Jedi because of his late entry to the Jedi Order. As a result, he found it hard to be the model Jedi everyone seemed to expect him to be, with no attachments and no emotions. Anakin had believed that was why Obi-Wan was so good at being a Jedi, because he had grown up with the Jedi, with the rules and the beliefs, meaning they had been practically hardwired into his brain.

But what if that was not the case? Anakin certainly knew nothing about Obi-Wan's padawan days. He had met Bant and Garen, who were supposedly classmates of Obi-Wan's, but apart from that, he knew next to nothing. Well, nothing except for amusing tales he's managed to pry from Garen's lips when he got the older Jedi Knight drunk that one time. Even then, Garen never mentioned Qui-Gon and neither did Bant or Obi-Wan, for obvious reasons.

"It still wouldn't make any sense, Master. It doesn't make any sense at all." Ahsoka repeated, drawing Anakin from his thoughts.

"What do you mean?"

"Think about it. Why would royalty give one of their heirs to the order? They could have asked the Jedi to just teach him the basics so that he could control his force abilities, but they wouldn't need to give him to the order, and that's only if his force abilities were instinctual, which rarely ever happens. It doesn't make sense." Ahsoka explained, Anakin realizing she was right, again. His heart blossomed with pride the same time his head came to the realization that Obi-Wan was just one big unsolved mystery.

"To be honest snips, Obi-Wan has never made sense. I spent most of my padawan years trying to decipher what he was thinking and even I still have no clue half the time." Anakin commented dramatically, causing a wry smile to cross Ahsoka's lips as he passed her.

"I didn't realize that you ever had a clue about anything, Skyguy." She retorted, making the clones snicker as Anakin whirled round to glare at her.

"Hey!" He indignantly shouted, obviously offended. "Watch it, snips!"

"Or what, Skyguy?" She challenged as she crossed her arms in front of her chest, making Anakin glare harder. That was the exact moment that Obi-Wan chose to interrupt from up ahead.

"Stop it you two. We need to keep moving and I'd rather not have to listen to your childish squabbling." He abolished with an exasperated tone, not even turning around to address them. After all, if he and Anakin argued like brothers, Anakin and Ahsoka argued like younger siblings, but much, much worse.

Both of them didn't argue with Obi-Wan though. It was dangerous to anger the Jedi Master at the best of times and with the mood Obi-Wan was in, neither of them wanted to test their luck. So, after Anakin sent a firm look to Ahsoka that said their argument wasn't over, he moved away and carried on walking, Ahsoka following behind him. She sent a grin over to Fives and Rex, who both tried to hide the snickers that escaped from behind their helmets. The clones from 212th were in similar positions, though they quickly sobered up when Anakin sent them a deadly glare.

Hours later, they set up camp again before darkness consumed the forest, night descending upon them like a ravenous predator. They couldn't build a fire as it could alert their position to the Separatists, so they settled to sitting near each other for warmth instead. The wounded clones were tended to and they passed the few rations around, resuming to friendly chatter once more. Obi-Wan seemed to be a lot more guarded though, and barely smiled through it all. Anakin noticed this, as did everyone else, but no one commented on it. He wasn't ready to talk so they wouldn't push him - at least not yet.

However, due to them being in hostile territory, everyone was more anxious than usual, often jumpy at any noise that came from the forest. Most of the time, the clones just clutched their blasters tighter until the Jedi confirmed it was another animal stepping on a fallen branch, but this time it was different. A loud snap filled everyone's ears, making them all whirl to pinpoint the source of the noise. It was Boil that asked the question everybody was thinking.

"What was that?" He asked, not tearing his gaze away from the forest that concealed under a thick layer of darkness.

"Probably an animal, right General?" Cody turned to Obi-Wan, who was also staring into the darkness. His eyes had narrowed and his brow had furrowed, trying to reach out with the force to find life, which would confirm it was an animal.

He didn't find any.

Obi-Wan shared a glance with Anakin, who by the look on his face, had come to the same conclusion.

"General?" Cody whispered this time, the clones now on high alert. Obi-Wan still didn't respond, instead standing up. Many clones followed suit, grabbing their blasters from where they'd put them on the floor.

"We can't sense any life." Obi-Wan finally explained, his voice low and eyes still set on the forest. At the Jedi Master's comment, Waxer instantly reached up to turn on his helmet lights on, but Obi-Wan quickly but a hand on his arm and shook his head. If the clones turned their helmet lights on and it was a droid, then there was no doubt that they would be found. As it was, they had the cover of darkness on their side. Obi-Wan intended to keep it that way, and the clones soon understood the message.

Obi-Wan slowly walked further into the forest, Anakin following close behind while Ahsoka stayed with the clones, just like they always did. All three of them had grabbed their lightsabers of their belts by now, the force humming with warning.

"How are we going to see without the lights?" Anakin whispered to Obi-Wan when they stopped together, unable to see any further than a good ten feet ahead of them. Obi-Wan just frowned, before taking a deep breath and closing his eyes. "Obi-Wan?" Anakin hissed, though he got no reply.

Then Obi-Wan's eyes opened.

For a second, Anakin was stunned, as instead of the crystal blue orbs he was used to seeing in Obi-Wan's eyes, they were a dazzling silver. They glowed in the dark a lot like a cat's, except Obi-Wan's pupils were not thin slits, but round just like any normal humanoid. And with the change in eyes, came also the change in sight.

Obi-Wan could now see everything as if it was the middle of the day, the forest lit up with light. He could see the shrubs, the plants and the trees all in great detail, his sight also improving when looking from a long distance. The force throbbed at his fingertips, itching to be used against the danger it seemed to sense, but Obi-Wan ignored it. He had to find the danger first.

He scanned the forest, taking a few more cautious steps as he kept his eyes focused ahead. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he caught the slightest movement, his ears picking up a quiet scuffle the same time his eyes saw it. With his now heightened senses, Obi-Wan had no trouble located the figure that was hidden behind vegetation, a blaster aimed right at him. It only took a second for Obi-Wan to register what the figure was.

"BX Commando droids! Get down!" Obi-Wan yelled in warning, just in time as blaster bolts sailed over his and Anakin's heads.

And that was when all hell broke loose.