Chapter 33 – Interlude

Author's Note: So. Uh. I made a promise a long time ago, and it's finally happening? xD

Next chapter: November 30th :)

~ Rivana Rita

Padme finds herself staring, nearly blankly, at the hologram for a few minutes even after it turns off.

Count Dooku just extended an offer for peace. He's offering a final end to the war, and it – it's something Padme has been fighting for so hard, for so long, no matter how impossible it seemed. She'll do the same now, of course, and with Sidious gone – Anakin told her how he was a major reason for the war in the first place – Padme has hope it might actually work.

The Vice Chancellor has taken Palpatine's place temporarily, and considering the war, there hasn't been time to hold a new election yet. Padme has no idea whether he'll agree or not, but she can hope.

With the Jedi removed from military matters, she doesn't know how successful the effort will be, but it's worth trying. Worth hoping and fighting for. Anakin told her once, briefly, that in the future, she had reached out to Mina Bonteri about trying to end the war. It had gotten close, until Dooku had Mina killed and framed the Republic for it.

As to what happened with Anakin, Padme doesn't know. It's been nearly an entire month since he was lost, and she's desperate to hear word from him. She can only hope he's still alive, but she doesn't know. Padme has no way to know whether he's alright, or if Dooku is hurting him.

She's so, so worried about him, though she's rapidly growing accustomed to that fear. It never really goes away. Padme wants to see him again, and she can't help fearing that he might not come back sometime.

She can't think about it, but she's still so, so afraid of it.

Anakin is her husband, and she knew it would be hard when they married. That doesn't mean she at all anticipated how difficult things actually have been for them.

She can't help wondering why the Separatists are suddenly offering this, though. There's a tiny part of her that wants to believe it has something to do with Anakin, that it's some sort of proof he's fine, but she needs to be realistic. It's... doubtful that he's capable of doing anything right now. Both he and Ahsoka were lost, and that could mean anything.

It certainly doesn't mean anything good.

And she'll have to admit that she's still hurt by what Obi-Wan told her about Anakin, though she has to talk to him again before making any real judgment. He might've been working with Dooku, though a lot... changed in the future, and it's something Padme would have to ask him about. He's not the same as he once was, isn't as child-like anymore, and she understands that. He wouldn't have done it if there wasn't something more going on and she wishes she was able to talk to him.

The best she can do is keep fighting in the Senate as she always has and do her best to bring this war to a close.

**w**

To say that he's struggling without Anakin's constant presence would be an understatement. He's far away, and Obi-Wan has no idea where he is, or what's happening to him. All they do know is that he's deep in Separatist territory somewhere, and Obi-Wan is... admittedly afraid that the person they'll eventually find will be nothing like the one they lost. Anakin was already changing, and it's clear Sidious had far more influence over him than Obi-Wan had any idea about, which... says a lot about how much he failed him.

He should have known, and Anakin should have told him.

The Council could've done something about this a long time ago if they'd known.

It's always the should have's, not about what could be better or different, or...

It would actually make a small amount of sense if Anakin were still here with him. Anakin had a way of making anything work, no matter how outrageously impossible it was. They balance each other, need each other, no matter how hard Obi-Wan tried to fight against that. He realized that after Anakin's Knighting, and everything that's happening now is only driving home the point that he's been trying so hard to ignore for so long.

A Jedi should not be so attached, but that doesn't change how Obi-Wan feels, and nor will he deny how he feels.

Anakin has always been the most important person in his life, even if Anakin is... close with other people too, now. Obi-Wan didn't think it would ever happen, but it's happening, and he still doesn't fully know what to think of the sudden changes.

If Ahsoka hadn't... done what she did, they could've gotten Anakin back.

He still remembers what Anakin told him about Ahsoka, about how he often felt when he was Obi-Wan's padawan. Months later, and Obi-Wan still doesn't understand it. He probably never will. Anakin has always been an enigma to him – he was a slave, and that isn't a life Obi-Wan can begin to imagine. That's where all of his struggles stemmed from, that and his inability to let go of his past.

That's not something Obi-Wan ever knew how to teach him, even if he told Anakin repeatedly. He either never understood, or just didn't do it. Anakin has never actively tried to make things difficult, so Obi-Wan's guess is on the first, though he doesn't know what he could've done differently to show him that.

Right now, the larger concern is the fact that the Chancellor is dead and that the Separatists are offering a peace treaty.

With the Jedi no longer in charge of the war effort, things are... changing. The Council didn't like their role on the front lines, but their presence was still needed there. It's making the war effort significantly more difficult.

It also, unfortunately, means that unless something changes, they have no way of pushing for the war's end. It'll be entirely up to the Senate, and the Jedi don't have any voice in it.

It was Tarkin who got the Jedi removed in the first place, and a dark part of Obi-Wan's mind can't help wondering if this is Sidious's plans continuing themselves, even after his death. He thought it would have stopped, though it hasn't, and he doesn't really know why he expected otherwise.

**w**

Being stuck on Serenno is... it is. Anakin certainly doesn't like it, but he and Ahsoka are learning to cope with it. He's still teaching her as best he can, doing his best to ignore the constant whispering fear of ruining her. They don't have much choice, not here away from the Temple, and for as restless as Ahsoka often gets, she still seems... happier with it.

It's not like the Temple – it was Ahsoka's home, even if it was never his – and Anakin misses Rex and the boys, but it's still... it's not something he ever had before.

Ahsoka asked him to involve her more, and he's making an effort to do it, though there's not much they have to do here. It's not... a pleasant situation, but it's forcing him to remember what it was like to focus solely on training her. It's not something he ever got the chance to do before, and Anakin has to reluctantly admit it might be what they both needed.

He's... getting more used to it, to being alone with just Ahsoka. And he's afraid of something happening again, of something taking them apart, but Anakin doesn't think he'd be able to deal with being separated again.

Ahsoka has meant everything to him from the moment Anakin first accepted her as his padawan. Obi-Wan is his master, and he raised him, and Anakin would do anything for him, but it's... different with Ahsoka. She's his future.

And now, she's all he has.

Ahsoka asks about the future sometimes, and Anakin will tell her things, though they're quick to let it drop before it can get too heavy. All those times, memories, are gone. It's for the best, but it still hurts. It won't ever stop, but it'll get better, just like it has with Ahsoka, if Anakin's able to get back to the rest of his family and they can form new memories and moments together.

And he grieves, too, for – for Palpatine's loss, but maybe being away from Coruscant is what he needed. It would be far harder to deal with it in the place where they spent all their time together. At least out here, Anakin knows not to expect him. He's simultaneously... relieved and hurt that there's no chance to fix it, to change anything between them.

They hurt each other, and it was mutual, and that's... the one thing Anakin will never be able to let go of.

Oddly enough, it's not Dooku who asks to see them again – it's Ventress, who drops by at their room.

"You look as bored as me," she quips when Ahsoka hisses at her.

"Why?" Anakin asks. Maybe he really is bored – okay, he is, but still – or he wouldn't be joking when he talks to Asajj Ventress. It's nearly as insane as how Obi-Wan is sometimes. "You'll be out of employment soon?"

She huffs. "With the war ending, things will change for all of us."

And that, right there, Anakin picks up as some underlying request. She's getting at something, and he doesn't know what. "What will you do then?" he inquires. It's a general, careful question, one worded to get answers more than anything else.

Ventress shrugs. "I don't know. Don't think Dooku will let me keep dealing with your kind."

"If you want a fight, there are people out there who actually could use your help," Anakin points out. He still remembers the promise he and Ahsoka made after Zygerria. It was so long ago, and so much changed, he'd almost forgotten, but it gave him hope. He wanted for years to go back to Tatooine and free his people. He asked Obi-Wan, but his master... always said they couldn't. Ahsoka had asked Anakin the same question, right after Zygerria, and they had a promise.

Just one of many.

That they'd go back and find a way to end slavery, to find a way to make sure no one would have to go through what Anakin did when he was young. Maybe that's not something they'll still keep, but he still wants to.

And that's still something someone needs to do, and it might serve Ventress far better than Anakin and Ahsoka.

"What a most gracious offer," she snips, "You want me to rejoin the Jedi Order?"

"That isn't what I was talking about."

She crosses her arms, cocking an eyebrow at him.

"I'm talking about people the Jedi will never help," Anakin replies, "There are others who need help that the... restrictions of the Senate don't allow."

"Hm," she supplies.

Ahsoka crosses her arms, glaring grumpily at her.

"It's not a job for... one person, but it's something the galaxy needs," Anakin continues, "Someone needs to end slavery. There are people who have been waiting for it for... centuries, but no one ever came. I was. I think you can understand what that was like, too."

Her icy blue eyes narrow, but there's a thoughtful calculation in them which implies strong enough that she's seriously considering it. "Well," she replies, "I'll be off on another removal mission. Somebody's getting annoying." She offers a flippant smile that'd be almost disturbing if Anakin wasn't so used to her. She's cold, icy, but it's a front of trying to protect herself after everyone she lost. It's... familiar, and after Palpatine, he's not going to make the same mistake of misjudging someone.

Anakin's not going to do that again. That's... what the point of time traveling was about. Trying not to make the same mistakes he did before. This one... might've been a mistake he made in his current time, but he can still do better. Can still try.

"Somebody?" Anakin asks, carefully testing the ground. He needs to know if this is someone... important, someone he knows, though the Force whispers a quiet reassurance that it's alright.

She gives him a lazy grin. "Your ranking system bores me," she says sweetly, "But his name was Tarkin."

She shuts the door before they can say anything else, and Anakin finds himself staring at the dull gray of it.

"Well," Ahsoka offers finally, "I didn't like him very much."

"Yeah," Anakin seconds, "Me either." He hates himself a bit for saying so right after what happened with Palpatine, but the Force twists in agreement and approval, that it's his time. And Anakin believes that if nothing else. Tarkin is the one who destroyed everything for him and Ahsoka in the first place. He was pushing for the Council to expel her, and that was where everything started falling.

"He did a lot in the future," Anakin continues a few moments later, finally turning to face her. "He... is the one who told the Council to expel you, which is what led to... everything after."

Her eyes widen the slightest bit, and she looks away. "That was him?"

"Yeah."

He thought, after the Citadel, that they had some sort of common ground no matter how annoying the Admiral was, but he was wrong. Ahsoka saved his life, and that didn't even matter to him.

He should... probably feel something about it, but all he does feel is an overwhelming relief.

Doesn't really know what that says about him.

"What you told Ventress about the Jedi," Ahsoka says finally, "Was that something... important?" She's getting better, Anakin realizes. Better at reading people, at picking up on his emotions. They've grown closer, far closer than he remembers being, maybe more than they were in his past time. He can only hope that'll be enough.

"It was later in the war," he begins, and this is really the first time he's talked in detail about Zygerria since it happened. It isn't something any of them wanted to talk about. It was so soon after Umbara, and Rex took it so hard. "A group of Togruta colonists on Kiros disappeared. We were sent to track them down, and found they'd been taken to Zygerria as slaves."

Anakin feels her muted shock and horror, but Ahsoka doesn't interrupt him.

"We went there," he continues, "Tried to track them down, but we were... captured instead." He looks away, unable to dwell on it or the fear he felt there. So many things could've gone wrong, and they were all so, so fortunate that nothing worse happened. It could've. It easily could have, but it didn't.

"Obi-Wan and Rex were... taken to where the colonists were being held. We were trapped on Zygerria as..." He sighs, trying to figure out how to word it. He'd been so, so afraid someone would hurt Ahsoka, but she was fine, and she... didn't really realize how things could have gone. "You were being kept there as leverage, so the Queen could keep me. Artoo was there, and he helped me escape, and I found you. It... worked out, but it was close."

Getting enslaved again has always been one of Anakin's greatest fears, though really, he doesn't think he'll ever fully understand what it means to be free, anyway. Maybe he is now. Just a little bit. He feels more... just different, away from the Temple and Council and Jedi.

He misses how grounding it was.

He misses Obi-Wan.

"We saved... most of them, but it was still a close call for all of us. We talked about it after and..." We had a promise, everything for a future of siblinghood together, or maybe something more, and she just... walked away, like it didn't mean anything, because she is and always will be what matters and I am... nothing. "We wanted to try ending slavery after the war was over. I... think that's something the boys would like to help us with, if they're able."

The only life they know is war, and Anakin would... like to give them a chance to choose. The Clone Wars was never about them. It was what they were made for, not something they could opt out of if they didn't want it.

"That sounds like a plan," she offers, entirely unexpectedly. He'd think a month together would be enough to get over past-her and readjust to how different she is, but it really isn't. "We... don't know if it's safe for us to go back, right?"

That's fair. "Yeah," Anakin agrees, "No, we don't, and... there are other people we can still help, even if we aren't Jedi, though it's being Jedi that gives us the strength we have." Obi-Wan taught him that years ago, and the lesson stuck well.

"Maybe we can make it something else," she offers quietly. "I... I want to be a Jedi. I really, really do, and it's the only life I've ever known, but when I hear what happened..." Ahsoka trails off, shaking her head and crossing her arms. "I don't know why she made the choice she did, but I think... maybe being away for a while isn't a bad thing."

"I don't think it is, either," Anakin agrees at last, squeezing her shoulder. He just hopes that, whatever happens, they're able to be away together, to find some place they belong. To find somewhere they belong.

"Do you think agreeing to help Dooku would get us out of here?" Ahsoka asks quietly. They talked about it, and she wasn't happy. Anakin certainly wasn't either, and they agreed to just wait a while in the hopes of the Republic finding them.

Anakin is just trying very hard to ignore the part of his mind insistent that it's not worth risking the lives that will be risked trying to find them. "I do," he agrees, "But there's always the risk of being double-crossed. Either way, I don't think we have much longer here."

Ahsoka groans, rolling her shoulders. "Good, because it's getting very boring."

He can't help laughing, reaching out to take her hand. It's so small and breakable, but she squeezes it back tightly.

"You think they're still looking?"

He wishes he could say the Order was, but Anakin knows better. He's a traitor to them, and Ahsoka's just a padawan. She's not any more important than any of their other padawans. "If this Rex is the same as mine, he and the boys will be. So will Artoo."

He just hopes they see each other again soon.

**w**

"When we made it out of the outpost," Hevy gripes, "I did not expect to deal with this."

Artoo's dome swivels towards them before he returns to the holomap.

Under the circumstances, Rex could pull rank on them, but he doesn't want to. He entirely agrees with what they've been doing, so he won't. It wouldn't have gone this far if Artoo hadn't been rolling after him down the halls, beeping an incessant 'Master Anakin is in trouble' that he couldn't ignore.

"We're not gonna find anything now any more than we have in the past five hours," he agrees.

Fives looks dead on his feet, but stubbornly refuses to move when Echo elbows him. "The General wouldn't have left any of us behind," he argues.

It's been a full month. The odds are against them, and Rex doesn't like it any more than the others, but he also needs to be realistic. "He wouldn't want us to risk ourselves for him."

"Sir," Jesse objects, stepping forwards, "If that isn't what we were made for, what was?"

It's a fair question. Rex wants to do more, but he doesn't know what they could do that they haven't already done. "Our purpose was to fight for the Republic." He knows what he wants, but that's not the same as their orders. And yes, Rex would do anything for Anakin, anything at all, no matter what it is, but as a Captain, he also knows when a fight is lost. He knows when it's time to retreat, and if he knew somewhere to go that wasn't a suicide mission, he'd do it. "And this is a fight we've lost, even if we can still find a lead."

Anakin is their General, and he's important, but more than that, he's their friend. Their brother. In the past, Rex would never have felt comfortable saying it, but now? It's the truth, no matter what he wants to think about it.

"He's our General," Fives insists stubbornly, and Rex finds himself wondering, not for the first time, how much Fives remembers. They're... not that close yet, not like he suspects they will be someday, and they don't talk about dreams. "We have to find him."

Artoo whistles a fierce agreement. The droid can't dream like they can, but that hasn't shaken his loyalty whatsoever.

"We can't find him if we don't have a way to," Rex reminds. That doesn't change how he knows, if he did have a chance, he'd leave everything just for his General. That's... always what he's been, no matter how he probably... shouldn't be? It doesn't matter. They're right that Anakin would do the same for them.

He would, and Rex owes everything to him. If they find him... they'll do anything to get him back.

No matter what it takes.

He doesn't care what the rumor says. Rex knows Anakin, and he knows he would never betray the Republic or those he's loyal to. He would never betray his family, not when he knows what that feels like.

**w**

"The Republic has been surprisingly accepting of peace negotiations," Dooku says, standing across from Anakin again.

He's admittedly lost track of time since Mustafar, but it's been... a while. Too long. He misses his entire family, but this is the first chance he may actually have of seeing them again. On getting out of here, and trying to give Ahsoka something... more, though Anakin still isn't fully sure what it is she needs.

Probably, they may never know.

And it's actually not at all surprising, considering Sidious is gone. That will probably never stop hurting, either, and the most he can do is try to live with it.

"How does that affect Ahsoka and I?" Anakin inquires at last.

"If you desire there to be success, I recommend you come. The Jedi will listen to one of their own."

"You want us to go as your representatives?" Anakin asks levelly. He tries not to make it obvious how ludicrous he finds that, or how obvious it is that Dooku's trying to keep him from being able to go back to the Republic. It's... The galaxy is more important, though, and it always has been.

Rex and Padme, Anakin knows, would understand. He... doesn't know about Obi-Wan.

"Or you can remain my... guests."

Ahsoka scoffs quietly. Anakin seconds it. They're prisoners here, even if it could be far worse than it is.

He throws a glance at her, trying to gauge Ahsoka's opinion on the matter. He can't really tell. It's... not an easy question to answer, but he knows what they need to do, for all that he hates it. Just like before when he had to out Sidious.

"As Jedi, we have always been meant to be peacekeepers," Anakin replies slowly, "And that includes ending the war, even if we don't like the circumstances under which we do it."

Briefly, he'd thought Dooku had helped Barriss with the Temple bombing. Suddenly, he can't help wondering if it was actually Sidious, but it doesn't really matter. That was something in another lifetime.

"Yes," the Sith agrees, "It is."

Anakin can feel Ahsoka's fierceness and resolve, feelings that he mirrors himself. He doesn't know that he entirely believes in the Republic the way he once did, though Padme does, and it's still what he fought for so long. He can't just... give that nothing. "We accept," Anakin replies, "The war's been going on long enough. It's time to end this."

Even if he doesn't like it, for the first time, it feels like he knows what he needs to do.

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