Alright, so here's how this is gonna go.

I'll be posting this story both on Archive of Our Own and here. Chapters will be posted here first, and then any critique I get in the comments will be used to edit the chapter before it's posted on AO3. So if you're interested in reading a slightly better version of this story, feel free to come find me on AO3! My username is the same, but the fic is called "As We Fall" and it's part 1 in the series "Ataraxia."

That being said, any and all comments and criticism is welcome! I'm going to be honest, this chapter probably needs a bit more work, but I've had a rough couple of days and frankly I need some sort of win right now, so posting this chapter tonight is going to be it.

If you like my writing and want more or want to fangirl about Star Wars with me, hit me up at obiwanwhat on Tumblr.

Enjoy!

Part 1: As We Fall

Six Months Earlier

"Ahsoka, are the charges set?" Obi-Wan asked over his comm. He crouched behind a rock for cover as blaster fire flew around him .

"I just primed the last of them, Master Kenobi." Ahsoka's voice responded through the communicator on his wrist.

"Then get out of there as fast as you can. We won't be able to hold the door for much longer." He said, ducking down further as a blaster bolt nearly took off the top of his head.

"Copy that, Master Kenobi." Obi-Wan ended the message before jumping out from the rock, igniting his lightsaber.

"There's the Jedi!" A battle droid pointed toward him before Obi-Wan sent a blaster bolt spiraling back at its head. The droid went down, but others had heard it and were taking aim at him. Redirecting their bolts back toward them, Obi-Wan glanced around, trying to assess the situation. From his vantage point on top of the boulder, he had a decent view of the battle before him. Clones were spread out in a formation guarding the door to the underground base, and several pockets of clones were hiding behind cover further ahead of the door, sniping at the oncoming droids. Overhead, their gunship roared, spraying the advancing droid forces with heavy gunfire. It wasn't enough, however - it seemed like for every droid that was shot down, two more appeared to take its place. Obi-Wan grimaced and then jumped down from the rock, charging the droids. His lightsaber was a blur of blue light as it sliced through droid after droid, leaving a trail of broken metal in his wake.

"General, we're taking heavy casualties," Cody's voice came from the communicator on his wrist. "We're not going to be able to hold those doors for much longer."

"Copy that, Commander." Obi-Wan said shortly into the wrist comm, shifting his lightsaber into a single handed grip. Twisting his wrist slightly, he changed comm channels. "Ahsoka, where are you?"

"Almost...there," was the breathless reply, and Obi-Wan guessed she'd run into trouble on her way to the doors. A blaster bolt flew by his head, barely missing his ear. He refocused on the fight, trying to lead the droids away from the base's open door to give Ahsoka more time to get out. Frankly, he wished Anakin was with him. Another lightsaber to hold off the droids would have been helpful, and Anakin's piloting skills would be useful for avoiding the planetary defenses when escaping the planet. Unfortunately, Anakin had been in the middle of investigating a potential traitor in the Senate when this mission had been assigned, so it had fallen to Obi-Wan and a squadron of the 212th to serve as a diplomatic liaison to a planet that was supposedly undecided in its allegiance. Since the Anakin's investigation had been top secret and on a need-to-know basis only, he had sent Ahsoka along with Obi-Wan, claiming that she could use the experience as a diplomat, and that she certainly wasn't going to get that from him.

Anakin was probably going to laugh himself sick once he heard how the supposedly diplomatic mission had turned out.

"Striker, bring the ship down as close to the doors as you can. We'll need to evacuate quickly once Ahsoka gets out of the bunker, we're taking heavy losses." Obi-Wan said into the comm, speaking to the pilot of the gunship.

"Yes sir." Striker replied.

"Cody, order your men to fall back to the door. As soon as the ship lands, get everyone aboard. Ahsoka will be out of the door in a few minutes." Even as he said it, his wrist comm beeped to indicate that another message was coming through.

"I'm out, Master Kenobi! I can trigger the bombs as soon as we're a safe distance away."

"Good. Get on the ship with the clones as soon as it lands, I'll be there in a moment." Obi-Wan began to draw back from the fight. He continued to reflect blaster bolts back at the droids, but he retreated back toward the door as he did so rather than pressing forward. Behind him, he could hear the gunship landing, and the movement of Ahsoka and the clones toward it.

"We're all on board, Master Kenobi," Ahsoka's voice rang through his wrist comm a few minutes later as he continued to hold off the droids. "We can take off as soon as you get on board."

"I'll be there in a few minutes then. Tell Striker to prepare for takeoff." Obi-Wan cut off the transmission and was considering the best path to the ship when, without warning, a wave of pain shot through his skull. Caught off guard, he stumbled and nearly fell, barely holding on to his lightsaber. His skull felt as though it was splitting apart. What in the name of the Force...? A stray blaster bolt grazed his arm, and it burned, pulling him back to his surroundings. Through the haze of pain, he could only focus on one thought: get to the ship. Forgetting all strategy, Obi-Wan turned, deactivated his lightsaber, and began to sprint toward the ship, which lay about five hundred meters away. He tried to reach for the Force - both to release his pain and to draw the strength from it to move faster. Nothing but another wave of pain through his skull - even more intense than the last - answered him. This time, he did fall, tripping over an uneven patch of ground as the agony in his head began to overwhelm him.

He knew there were droids coming behind him, and he knew they would kill him if he didn't move. But the burning in his skull was beginning to spread throughout his body - every muscle tensing in agony, every bone aching more deeply than he would have imagined to be possible. He tried to block out the pain, to release it to the Force, but again, trying to touch the Force only lead to more pain. Something's wrong with the Force he thought - or did he say it aloud? He wasn't sure. He thought he might be screaming, but it was hard to tell when reality was nothing more than an absent blur around him. In agony, unable to move or even to think clearly, Obi-Wan reached for the Force one final time, desperate for answers to what was happening. The overwhelming surge of pain came again, but this time he pushed through it, reaching out further even though touching the Force grew more and more torturous with each passing second. He was rewarded by the faintest sense of a force-signature - a force signature he knew all too well. No, Obi-Wan thought, it can't be him, he's safe back on Coruscant.

"Anakin." The name slid from Obi-Wan's lips as finally, mercifully, everything went black.

Back in the ship, Ahsoka screamed without warning and fell to her knees, clutching her head.

"Commander? Commander Tano, what's wrong?" Cody asked. She shook her head mutely, tears streaming down her face.

"General Kenobi, there's something wrong with Commander Tano, we need to get out of here. Sir, where are you?" Cody waited for a response, but nothing but silence came over the radio. He turned back to Ahsoka.

"Commander, please, can you tell me what's wrong?" Ahsoka was lying on the floor now, curled up in a fetal position. She'd stopped screaming, but it was clear that her pain hadn't decreased. She turned slightly toward him, her eyes glassy with pain.

"Something's wrong with the Force," she managed to choke out. "It-ahhh" She broke off, gasping in pain.

This had to be some sort of new Separatist weapon - one designed to cripple the Jedi. It didn't seem to be affecting any of his men yet, but they needed to get out of here. Where the kriff was General Kenobi?

If the General was being affected by the weapon the same way Ahsoka was, he would be in no shape to make it back to the ship. Cody looked away from Ahoska, scanning the men around him.

"Boil, Breaker, Jeck, Bomber, and Crys, you're with me. We're going to get the General. The rest of you, cover us as best you can from the hanger opening." The men he'd selected nodded and fell in step next to him. Cody turned to Gregor. "If we don't make it back, or the ship starts taking too much fire, tell Stryker to take off."

"Yes sir," Gregor said. "But you'll be back, sir."

"I hope so," Cody muttered, drawing his blaster. The other five he'd chosen did the same. Stepping off the ramp of the ship onto the planet's surface, the first thing he heard was the screaming. It was a tortured, nearly animalistic shriek that seemed to go on, and on, and on. Cody scanned the ground in front of him, looking for the source of the noise. To the left of the ship, about 200 meters away, a twitching body lay in the dirt, the ground around it being splattered with blaster bolts. Cody's trained eye took in the situation: his General was defenseless on the ground, and the droids would be on top of him in a moment. If they didn't act quickly, the General would die. It looked like he'd already taken several blaster bolts, and that was already more than a normal human could survive.

"On me, now." Cody barked, gesturing toward General Kenobi. "We'll have to carry him back to the ship." Boil and Breaker went in front, clearing the ground in front of the General Kenobi. The rest of the clones followed them, shooting around the two in the front. They moved quickly, reaching the General after a few minutes.

"Crys, grab his legs - I'll get his arms. The rest of you, cover us." The General was unconscious now, but Cody could still see the rise and fall of his chest that proved he was still alive. Cody grabbed the General under his shoulders, as Crys grabbed his ankles, and together they lifted him off the ground. Even in the middle of the fight, Cody couldn't help but register just how badly General Kenobi was wounded. His face was a mess of blood and his nose was at an unnatural angle, making Cody think it was broken. His shoulder was shifting beneath Cody's grip, suggesting a fracture somewhere. Obi-Wan's meager armor had barely protected him from the blaster shots. Somehow, nothing vital had been hit - Cody suspected that after General Kenobi had fallen, the droids had assumed he was dead, and returned to sweeping the area with blaster bolts rather than targeting him. The General still looked bad, though - his robes were torn, singed, and covered in dirt stains. His left leg especially was a mess of burned flesh, blood, dirt, and ruined cloth. Frankly, Cody was grateful that General Kenobi was unconscious, because they were almost certainly making his injuries worse by carrying him like this. He was better off injured than dead though, and they hadn't had time for anything else.

Blasterfire ricocheted around them, causing explosions of dirt where bolts hit the ground. When the clones had been moving toward Obi-Wan, they'd been moving quickly, and the clankers had still been focused on searching for Obi-Wan. Now, the droids' entire attention was focused on them, and carrying Obi-Wan slowed them down. Cody knew it was only a matter of time until one of them got shot.

Even as he thought it, a blaster bolt slammed into his side, just above his hip. Cody gasped in pain, but managed not to drop the General. His armor had protected him from the full effect of the bolt, but damage had still been done. The ship was only fifty meters away. He could make it that far before collapsing. They just had to get the General to the ship. They could do this. And then three blaster bolts slammed into Crys's head.

Crys crumpled to the ground. When the weight Cody was carrying suddenly doubled, the General slipped out of his grasp, crashing to the ground as well.

"Stop!" He ordered the other men, before they could crash into him and trip over the General and Crys. "Crys is down. Jeck, grab the General's legs so we can keep going." There was no time for sorrow, no time for any hesitation. If Cody couldn't get General Kenobi and the rest of his men back to the ship quickly, they would all die. Jeck darted around Cody to grab General Kenobi's legs, and Cody lifted up his shoulders once more.

By the time they made it to the ship, Breaker and Bomber were both dead, and Boil was shooting with his left hand after a shot had rendered his right arm useless. The second they were onboard, Gregor slammed his hand over the button that closed the ship's bay doors.

"Striker, they're onboard, take off now," he said into his comms. Cody slumped to the ground, his hand pressed to his side where he had been shot, and Boil stood cradling his injured arm. General Kenobi and Commander Tano were both laid out on the floor, unconscious. Gregor mentally ran through the list of all the clones who had come on this mission. They didn't have a medic with them - this was supposed to have been a diplomatic mission, they hadn't thought they'd need one. The ship was also small enough that they didn't have a sickbay, meaning that they also didn't have much in the way of medical supplies.

"Switch," Gregor called out, naming the only clone on the mission who had some level of medical training. "Do what you can for the General and the Commander, and then take a look at Cody, Boil, and anyone else who was injured in the fight. Wooley, you search the ship for whatever medical supplies you can find - there has to be a basic medkit around here somewhere. Hatchet and Dale, stay with Switch - if he needs an extra pair of hands, help him. I'm going to try to get a message through to Coruscant." The clones he'd named looked briefly to Cody, who nodded, and then moved to start the tasks given to them. Gregor made his way to the bridge, where the main communication system was.

"How long until we can send a message to Coruscant?" He asked Stryker, walking into the cockpit. Stryker glanced at a screen on the display in front of him.

"We're still too far away - it'll be another few hours of hyperspace travel before a message will go through," Stryker replied.

"Let me or Cody know as soon as we're within range." Gregor said. "Something happened to the Jedi, so we'll need to contact the Jedi Temple as soon as possible." Saying that felt wrong, somehow. Clones didn't contact the Jedi Council directly - that was a job for their Generals. But in this case, with both of the Jedi both unconscious and Cody injured, it fell to Gregor to let the Council know what had happened at Takodana.

"Yes sir," Stryker said. Gregor left the cockpit, and walked back to the living quarters of the ship. It was nothing impressive or particularly comfortable - a series of bunks built into a wall of the ship and a small kitchen unit and refresher in the corner. Switch had converted it into a temporary sickbay; General Kenobi, Commander Tano, and several clones were all stretched out on bunks.

"Is there any change in their condition?" Gregor asked Switch, gesturing at the Jedi. Switch shook his head.

"Nothing, Captain. I can't find anything physically wrong with Commander Tano. Maybe if I did a brain scan I could find something, but I don't have the equipment to do that until we get back to Coruscant. And I put some bacta on the worst of General Kenobi's blaster wounds, but that won't do much for the injuries to his leg." Switch's expression was grim. "If he wasn't a Jedi, he'd probably be dead now. The human body wasn't meant to sustain that much damage. He needs to be looked at by a proper medic, probably a Jedi Healer. Until then, all I can really do is keep him sedated for the rest of the trip home."

"Do that." Gregor said. "How are the other injured men?"

"Cody should be fine after some rest and bacta. Pel, Zeke, and Seven all suffered superficial wounds that should heal with the same. But Boil...he'll have to have his arm looked by real medics once we get back, but I don't think his hand will ever be the same again." Gregor cursed. They'd lost nearly half the men they'd came with. Thirteen dead, plus Boil, who would be sent back to Kamino if his hand truly was damaged beyond repair: the Republic didn't waste prosthetics on clones.

"Kriffing Separatists, " He began, but was distracted by a commotion on the other side of the room. Commander Tano had woken up, and was trying to push herself out of the bunk.

"Ugh, my head hurts." She complained. "What happened? Last thing I remember is blowing up the weapons bunker. Did I get hit on my way back to the ship? Anakin will never let me live it down if I did." Her smile suddenly slid off her face and her whole body tensed.

"Captain Gregor, where are we right now?" She asked, fear evident in her tone.

"We're in hyperspace, on our way back to Coruscant from Takodana, Commander." Gregor said, confused. "We'll be within communications range of the planet in a few hours."

"That's not far enough...I should be able to sense him." Ahsoka muttered. She cocked her head to the side, as though she was listening to something. "Why can't I sense him?"

"Commander?" Gregor asked, confused.

"I can't- I think something's happened to Anakin," she said, fear making her lekku twitch. "At this range, I should be able to sense him through our bond, and I...I can't feel him at all. Where's Master Kenobi?" She asked. Gregor nodded to the bed behind hers, and Ahsoka's expression changed from fear to horror. "What happened?" she asked.

"We don't know, Commander." Cody pushed himself off a nearby bunk, wincing, and walked over toward them. "We think there may have been some sort of Separatist weapon designed to incapacitate the Jedi. You collapsed once we got on the ship - you were clutching your head, and you said there was something wrong with the Force. Eventually, you fell unconscious. We believe that General Kenobi was affected at the same time you were, but he hadn't made it back to the ship yet, so he was injured before we could recover him." Cody said. Ahsoka's frown deepened.

"No, it wasn't a Separatist weapon. There was a disturbance in the Force - something that affected me and Master Kenobi specifically." A cold, hollow feeling was spreading through her chest. There was only one type of disturbance that would explain both the psychic backlash she and Master Kenobi had received and the fact that she couldn't reach Anakin now. She swallowed.

"I think Anakin is dead."