Chapter 23 - Defenders of Peace

DISCLAIMER: We (unfortunately) do not own Star Wars. :P

Author's Note: In which the crashed Jedi and clones resolve the situation on Maridun. :)

Many thanks to loldelegate here on ff. net who has been giving us advice and suggestions for this fic! We never could have made so many unique plans without you! :D

~ Amina Gila

Destroying the probe droid was simple, all things considered. And, most importantly, it led them to a nearby tree from which they can observe the Separatists at a distance while remaining in hiding. Rex is helping Anakin walk still, and Ahsoka suspects he will be for a while. She would have no objections to doing it herself, but it's mildly uncomfortable to have someone leaning their weight on her like that because it crushes her back lekku, and since Rex doesn't mind, she'll take the easy way out and try to plan a way off this rock.

"They have a shuttle there," Ahsoka reports to the others as she scans their lines with macrobinoculars. "We can sneak in there and get it and be gone before they find us. Wait –"

They're taking a tank out into view, she realizes. Except it's not an ordinary tank. Please tell her they are not turning this place into a testing ground.

"See if you can get a closer look," she instructs, looking to Bly.

The clone climbs down from the tree, sneaking towards the gathered Separatists. Ahsoka watches the proceedings from the macrobinoculars in the meantime. The Separatist general seems to be giving a speech to his droids – seriously? – before sending two of them off by themself.

Then all at once, the tank open fires. The cannon blast flies through the air, and Bly makes a dash back for the tree. The ground trembles as the missile touches down, and the area explodes into flames that rapidly burn outwards. He barely makes it back to the tree without the flames catching up to him. The fire burns furiously, coming only a short distance away from the tree before it starts to die down. Everything living has been reduced to ash.

"That's some toy," Rex breathes, the first to find his voice.

"It took out every living thing in the entire area," Ahsoka realizes with mounting horror.

"And didn't even affect the droids," Anakin adds.

"We can't let the Separatists keep a weapon like this," she declares firmly.

"We're going that direction anyway," the padawan points out.

"They're heading out again. To... the Lurmen village?" Aayla observes, looking through her own pair of macrobinoculars.

"They're going to test that on the villagers?!" Anakin exclaims, voice mingled with horror. It's not really a question. There's nothing else the Separatists could be doing, that direction. "They'll never stand a chance!"

"They're probably still planning on not fighting," Ahsoka grumbles.

"We have to help them!"

"We can do that by taking out the weapon and then getting out of here before the Separatists realize what's going on."

"But if we take out the weapon, they'll use the droids to attack the village!"

His insistence amazes her, she has to admit. It reminds her a little of herself back when she first became a padawan, before she could understand that Jedi cannot always help everyone. She's older and more experienced now, but it's still relieving to see Anakin feels the same way she once did. "Do you have something else in mind?" Ahsoka asks.

"We need to go back and defend them," Anakin insists, "Maybe we can steal the shuttle and then go back there?"

Ahsoka frowns, contemplating the situation for a few moments. "We could, but I think it's most important to first take out the weapon. Perhaps you can take the shuttle back to the village, while I blow up the main Separatist ship from the inside."

**w**

They wait until after nightfall to make their move. Ahsoka silently wishes the moon wasn't so bright, illuminating the grass so much, but the droids should still be easy enough to get past. Hopefully.

She glances back at Anakin for a moment, to make sure he's alright. His injuries are healed enough that he can at least walk, but it's not easy. Leaving him behind in the grass to distract the droids, she and Aayla sprint forwards, ducking the moving spotlights as they go.

They take down the droids as quietly as they can, as they go. Most of them go down before they even see it coming.

So far, so good. At least they've managed to keep this quiet. Leaving the others to finish dealing with the shuttle, she heads deeper into the main Separatist ship.

Ahsoka creeps along stealthily through the shadows, ducking back against the wall of the larger ship as several droids pass by on patrol. Hopefully by now the others should be picking up that shuttle so they can get back to the village, or make a quick escape if from here if it comes down to it.

As soon as the droids have passed by she sprints off again, moving into the next hall of the ship. She's been in enough ships to know the general design of them. it's more or less the same in all of them.

She goes in search of the main weapon first. Wherever it is, it's the most important target here. There's an entire battalion of droids guarding right outside the room that leads to it. Perfect. Not. So much for trying to keep this quiet.

It doesn't help that she doesn't actually know specifically where the Separatist general leading the forces here are either. If he's right around here, he could easily activate all the droids and order them to attack her. Alone, it would be a very difficult fight, to say the least, and the others are much too far away to get here in time to help. But they have to do this. It's better than the alternative. On that, she does agree with Anakin.

Creeping along the wall, she listens for any movement. Nothing, other than the droids in front of her. None of the others should be coming this way. Well, until they hear the fight break out.

Fine. There actually is another way she can at least start going about destroying them.

Moving a little closer, Ahsoka reaches out with the Force. Technically this is really not a very Jedi thing to do, but if she's getting the job done, that's all that should matter, right?

The first droid crumples beneath her grip, and that instantly gets the rest of their intention.

"What's happening?" squawks one of them.

"Get up!" chides another, staring down at their destroyed companion.

Obviously, nothing happens. Seriously, couldn't Dooku have had these things designed with a little more intelligence? Not that she's complaining...

She doesn't wait for them, reaching out and crushing a second, before she throws several of them back into the wall behind them as hard as she can, letting them collapse to the floor, mostly destroyed.

Igniting her lightsabers, Ahsoka finally charges at the droids still standing. "Jedi!" screams one of them. She deflects away their shots furiously, taking down one with it's own blaster bolts before she lunges at the others, bisecting them. The last of them falls to the ground, one of them still shooting even though half of its body has already been destroyed. She hastily cuts through the blaster, then glances up and down the hall again to see if anyone is coming.

From the sound of it, there are more droids headed this way already. She needs to move quickly.

Running forwards, Ahsoka stabs her lightsaber through the lock on the door, then shoves it open. It opens to reveal the tank, along with a bunch of the large explosives for it.

If the ship blows up, will that detonate all of those too? Will it destroy all life right within the area? She's not sure, but there's no way she's going to take chances either. They need to be far away from here when the bombs she has yet to plant go off.

Darting into the room, Ahsoka reactivates her lightsaber, cutting through the firing part of it, before she makes quick work of the rest, maybe going a little overboard in the process. Still, there's no way this thing will be working without a lot of maintenance, something they aren't going to be giving them time to do.

Outside, she can hear the familiar clanking of the droids approaching. Time to get back out there.

"Uh, I don't see anything," she hears a familiar droid's voice say.

"Someone destroyed them!" the other objects.

She races into the hall, throwing her lightsaber to take off the heads of the droids before they have time to scream in a panic. Calling it back to her, she takes off again. Hopefully none of the others are going to come down this way and see the damage before she has time to finish up her mission.

Several droids are standing guard outside that leads to the weapons room. Glancing back and forth to make sure no one else is coming, she sprints out of the shadows, activating her lightsaber and lopping off their heads before they have time to finish screaming "Heyyy!"

They clatter far too loudly to the floor, and she cringes internally at it. If someone finds her here, it could be bad. There's a large number of droids here, even if most of them are currently deactivated.

Opening the door to the weapons room, she drags the fallen droids inside, moving them to a corner where they won't be noticed right away, just in case.

Then she scrambles over to the explosives area, collecting an arm load of them, before slipping back out of the room.

Now, to make it to the main reactor without getting caught.

**w**

With Ahsoka gone, Anakin, Aayla, and the clones continue to run through the shadows, taking down droid after droid before finally meeting up outside where the shuttle is. Everyone, that is, except Ahsoka, who's still gone to destroy the Separatist weapon and then blow up the main ship.

"Shield generators," observes Rex.

"We can take them," Anakin suggests. He doesn't know if they'll need them, but it can't hurt. He has to admit it feels satisfying to steal from the Separatists, anyway.

They drag the shield generators onto the shuttle, and Anakin and Aayla stop at the top of the ramp.

"Perhaps if we remained here, we might be able to take care of the droids more easily," Aayla comments, looking around, "Most of them will likely be destroyed when we take out the main ship."

"They probably have explosives of the type they were testing earlier on board," Anakin points out, "What if those go off and incinerate us?"

"That is a good point, Padawan," Aayla compliments.

Anakin peers out into the darkness, but there's no sign of anyone approaching, or of movement. They did already destroy all the droids on guard. "Where is she?" Aayla murmurs.

The Force is humming with danger now, and he can only hope it's because Ahsoka finally got the bombs set, because they're about to be attacked. He doesn't know how much use he'll be in the fight, since he's still having a hard time moving around, but the others should be able to manage.

Right on cue, he sees a sudden movement in the shadows back by the camp.

Moments later, Ahsoka sprints into view, running over to the ramp where Anakin and Aayla are waiting. Rex and Bly are in the cockpit, ready to take off on a moment's notice.

"How'd it go?" he asks.

"The bombs are counting down," she reports, "Ready to head to the village?"

"If we stay clear of the area of the explosion, staying here to finish off the droids might be a wiser idea," Aayla points out.

"I agree," Ahsoka declares, "But we better hurry now."

The three race into the cockpit without another word, and Bly flies the ship off the ground, away from the Separatist encampment. Anakin would have offered to fly himself, but his injury is slowing him down, and if the ride started to get a little bumpy... Well, he isn't going to risk everyone else needlessly.

They're still hovering in the air above the encampment when it happens. All the way up here, Anakin can hear the deafening explosion. Watching out the cockpit viewport, he sees the entire center of the large Separatist ship explode in a ball of flames.

It lights up the entire surrounding area, giving them a brief glimpse at a few of the droids on more of the outskirts of the camp. Some stragglers are definitely going to survive this. Then, just like during that test run, the flames seem to practically roll outwards, furiously burning everything in their path. Only this time, it's expanding in all directions, catching the trees and grass all on fire.

For a moment, Anakin is almost afraid that it's going to keep on expanding even further, but the fire finally starts dying down. Well, there's no way the villagers didn't see all that. They should be safe now, though. There's no way the Separatist general wasn't killed in the explosion. Which also means no one will be recovering anything about the weapon, so at least they won't be able to reproduce it.

"Good job, Snips," Anakin chirps. Ahsoka shoots him a grin.

"Come on, what are you all waiting for? Let's get out there," the Togruta urges.

His body is starting to ache in protest at the constant movement, but Anakin heads off ship anyway, activating his lightsabers and jumping into the battle. It's easy enough, considering that most of the remaining droids are regular battle droids. Most of the more sophisticated ones appear to have been destroyed in the explosion or are too badly damaged to put up much resistance.

Watching Aayla and Ahsoka fight side by side, he can tell that they've obviously worked with each other frequently in the past. They seem to know each other a little better than he thought.

Watching them cut through the last of the droids then go in search of any stragglers, Anakin moves over to the ramp of the shuttle, and sits down, breathing hard. He knows he ought to be resting now, but there's still a fight to finish, even if they technically don't need his help.

"Are you alright, sir?" Rex appears at his side, a worried look on his face.

"Of course," Anakin insists, climbing shakily back to his feet.

"Perhaps you should go wait in the shuttle," he advises.

"I'm fine!"

"I know you would never rest until the mission was complete, if that were true," Rex replies, giving him a pointed look.

Anakin doesn't bother to withhold grumbled protests as the clone leads him on board the shuttle.

Rex ignores it. "They're almost done," he tells Anakin, as though he hadn't figured as much already, "Then we should be leaving."

And then they can leave this whole fiasco behind them. Hopefully Obi-Wan isn't too worried about where in the galaxy they disappeared to.

**w**

It's been a while since Ahsoka has ever talked to Obi-Wan about anything that's not mission-related, so it's surprising when he pulls her aside, asking if he can talk to her. Instinctively, she thinks through everything that happened recently – something that he might have a complaint about. She's not his Padawan anymore, but sometimes he really seems to forget that fact, even now.

"How are you doing?" Obi-Wan queries, and the question catches her totally off-guard by.

Ahsoka blinks. "I'm... fine?" What is she supposed to say?

"I know the war has been hard on everyone. It's not what I trained you for," he replies, which she takes to mean that he really didn't buy her last answer. Really, though, where is this concern coming from suddenly?

"Well, I had to learn to manage it quickly," Ahsoka answers, carefully, "I'm sure you can tell from my battle reports."

"I know you've been mostly successful in battles," Obi-Wan replies, and he almost looks like he's feeling uncomfortable now, "But I meant how you're doing beyond that."

Honestly, this is weird. Is he expecting her to randomly confess all her inner feelings to him, or what? She'd hid them from him for years. Why would she want to talk about them to him now? All he'll do is criticize her anyway. Or act as though she has no right to feel how she does, and she's had enough of that for a lifetime, thanks. Still, it almost seems like he's legitimately concerned, though she doesn't where that's coming from out of nowhere. "I'm fine," she assures, "It's taken a lot of getting used to, but it's easier as time goes on." That's about the most she's willing to say, so she really hopes he'll drop it.

He doesn't seem the happiest with her answer though, unless she's reading him wrong. "That is good to hear," he replies. "I know we haven't been around each other that often," Obi-Wan speaks up again after a moment, "But I've noticed that you –"

What now? Seriously? Can't he ever ask her anything because he's concerned, not because he feels like giving a lecture? She's long since stopped caring that maybe she isn't always being fair in how she thinks of his actions even before he's done talking.

"– seem... less balanced than when you were my Padawan."

Oh. He means that she's getting darker. Her first instinct is to snap at him, but she remembers that she was thinking the same, not long ago. Before the war, she would never have considered collaborating with a Sith. Everything has become about the mission, the greater good. She doesn't know if she wants that to change, but as she remembers what she was thinking as she watched Anakin's unconscious form, she doesn't know what to say.

"I suppose it's part of adapting to the war," Ahsoka answers finally, slowly.

"Yes," Obi-Wan agrees, "That is what concerns me. And the war is dragging on with no end in sight. Would you, perhaps, want a meditative leave?"

"Don't really have time for that, do I?" she points out, "The war won't be won by lounging around."

"No, but it is risky for you to become unbalanced," Obi-Wan responds, frowning.

"Don't worry, Master, I'm not about to start using the Dark Side or anything."

"Of course not, but I believe a short meditative leave is something you should consider."

On second thought, she's beginning to agree. There's a lot she needs to think about, and besides it will give her more time to finish up her Project. It's almost done, and once she finishes it, the Republic will have another advantage against the Separatists.

"I'll consider it," Ahsoka decides finally.

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