6. After the Wreckage

Artoo trilled and beeped, nearly vibrating out of his durasteel casing.

"I know, buddy," Anakin said, patting the top of Artoo's dome with his free hand, his other arm hooked firmly around Obi-Wan's shoulders. "I'm sure she missed you too."

Obi-Wan's heart was fit to burst. He almost hadn't believed it when they'd first heard her voice over the open comms, but her presence in the Force was strong, brilliant, and more importantly, alive.

The emergency airlock above, where her ship had docked, hissed open.

And then, she dropped down and landed in the narrow hall before them, still dressed in her blue, Mandalorian battle dress, heavily concealed by a tattered gray cloak. She straightened up and took them in with her big, blue eyes.

"Anakin, Obi-Wan," she said, breathless.

Ahsoka launched herself against Anakin and Obi-Wan steadied him before he could stumble back. Anakin wrapped his arm around her, and Obi-Wan held them both, a painful kind of relief weighing in his chest, throat ragged with emotion.

Both of his padawans were here and they were safe.

Artoo warbled a series of clamorous beeps, teetering back and forth.

"I missed you too, Artooie," Ahsoka laughed wetly against Anakin's shoulder. She tried to pull back, but Anakin refused to relinquish his hold on her.

"I thought I'd lost you, Snips," he said, voice choked.

"Me too," she said, the words muffled against his robes. "You suddenly went cold and I thought…I thought you'd died."

"I'm sorry, Ahsoka," he said, "I'm so sorry."

"What happened?" she demanded. "You feel…wrong."

The ensuing silence bore down on them, the crushing weight of every word unspoken. Anakin's grip slackened and Ahsoka finally stepped back. Her gaze flickered from Obi-Wan's grim countenance to Anakin's deadened, yellow eyes.

All expression instantly drained from her face. "Anakin, your eyes…"

Anakin closed his eyes, features pained.

"…Maul was right." Her voice was so small and quiet, Obi-Wan nearly missed her words.

"Maul?" he cut in. "You were able to capture him after all?"

"Yes," Ahsoka said slowly, reluctantly dragging her gaze back to meet Obi-Wan's. "He said…"

"What did he reveal to you, Ahsoka?" he prodded gently.

"He said…that Anakin would destroy us all," she confessed, eyes, wide and uneasy, still locked on Obi-Wan. "That he'd been long groomed for his role…as Sidious' new apprentice."

The following silence settled over them with a leaden weight, oppressive and stifling, seizing the breath from his very lungs.

"But," Ahsoka spoke again, voice cracking, "I told him his vision was flawed. Because Anakin would never…"

"But I did," Anakin said, the words lifeless. The fire in Obi-Wan's heart convulsed and seethed vengefully. "I―"

"What's done is done," Obi-Wan gently cut him off, unwilling to hear the confession himself. More than that, he didn't think he could bear to see Ahsoka's reaction. She didn't know that Anakin had lead the Temple massacre, that he'd had a hand in the slaughter of the children they were meant to protect. As much as Obi-Wan was envious of that ignorance, he was unwilling to take it from her; to snatch away the pure love and admiration she still held for Anakin.

One day, she would know. He could not protect her forever. But for now…

"Palpatine had a role destined for each of us," he continued to say. "Anakin was not the only one who was blind to it. We all failed."

Obi-Wan more than most.

"Still," Ahsoka bit out angrily, eyes dropping―

She inhaled a sudden, strangled gasp. "Anakin, your feet…"

Anakin's expression softened, in the only way it ever could for Ahsoka. "S'not so bad."

"It is," Obi-Wan blatantly contradicted him, with all the self-hatred that burned in the furnace of his chest. "Both legs were cut off at the knee. And his left arm, above the elbow."

The blood drained from Ahsoka's face. "Should you even be standing?"

"I'm fine," Anakin bit out, shooting Obi-Wan a scathing glare. "It's just taking some time to get used to."

Ahsoka crossed her arms and stared, unimpressed. "Is that why you're hanging onto Obi-Wan like a limp noodle?"

Anakin scoffed. "Like Obi-Wan's doing any better. I can't remember the last time I saw him eat."

Ahsoka's cool gaze found its new target. "Yes," she agreed. "I can see that."

Obi-Wan huffed a small, exasperated laugh. "Do I truly look that terrible?"

"Yes," they replied in unison, along with an affirmative beep from Artoo.

"Then I suppose we may catch up in the refectory," Obi-Wan replied blandly.

In reality, he couldn't find it in himself to feel the slightest bit insulted. The relief was still far too great. Both of his students were standing before him, alive and safe. It was more than anyone in his position could have hoped for.

"You suppose right," Ahsoka snorted lightly and turned to follow after Artoo, who noisily lead the way.

Obi-Wan watched after her fondly, glad that he'd cut off Anakin when he had. He briefly caught Anakin's pointed look, but he did not explain himself. Instead, mindful of Anakin's pain, Obi-Wan followed them at a slower pace, supporting his weight without protest.

Inside the refectory, Obi-Wan helped Anakin get settled on a bench while Ahsoka swiped a stack of ration packs. She sat across from them and distributed them while Artoo happily parked himself beside her.

"You succeeded in your mission to capture Maul," Obi-Wan recalled grimly. "What happened next?"

Ahsoka's expression dimmed, features going rigid. "I'm sure you know," she said. "We were on the Tribunal, on course for Coruscant, when the order went out."

And for a moment, Obi-Wan was drowning again, lungs seizing, water pressing in from all sides as he sank far into the black depths of Utapau's ocean.

"The clones turned against me. All of them," she said hoarsely. "Even Rex."

Beside him, Anakin paled.

"But, there was a moment in which he fought the command," she revealed, brow furrowing. "He told me to look for Fives."

"What?" Anakin said, startled. "Why would he ask you to do that? Ahsoka," his voice unexpectedly softened, "Fives is dead."

"I know that," she snapped, "but there was a report. After Fives died, Rex submitted a grievance report requesting further investigation regarding the incident, but it got buried. Seeing as Palpatine was behind all of this, I can only assume it was his doing."

"Ahsoka," Obi-Wan said, "what was on the report?"

"He believed Fives was right―that the inhibitor chips served another purpose than just counteracting aggression. After the incident with Tups and General Tiplee, Fives discovered the real purpose behind the chips: They were meant to control the clone troopers; to turn them against the Jedi and kill them. And it worked."

Obi-Wan reeled back.

Cody's betrayal…it had not been so.

Obi-Wan swallowed thickly around the jagged pressure forming in his throat.

"Fives was right," Anakin repeated, pale and shaking. "And I didn't believe him."

Ahsoka bowed her head. "No one did."

Not even Artoo made a noise in the wake of her revelation, the memory of Fives' death lingering bitterly.

Grimly, they listened to the remainder of Ahsoka's tale, from unleashing Maul against the clone troopers, to capturing Rex, to removing his inhibitor chip, to escaping the star destroyer after it was caught in the gravitational pull of a nearby moon.

"It was at Padmé's funeral that Senator Organa found me," she finished quietly. "I couldn't believe it when he told me she was alive, but I plan to see her for myself."

At the mention of Padmé, Anakin's eyes grew frenzied. "Ahsoka, do you know where she is?"

She shook her head. "I'm not allowed to say; as a precaution, in case we're captured."

Anakin stared blankly at her. "We're floating on the edges of the Unknown Regions, Snips. Forgive me if I'm not seeing a lot of opportunities to be captured here."

Obi-Wan grimaced. "Unless…"

Ahsoka dipped her head in a nod. "Padmé has safely delivered the twins. She wants you to meet them, Anakin."

"They're alive? All of them?" Anakin choked on his words, looking to her with drowning eyes.

Ahsoka reached forward and gently gripped her prosthetic hand. "All of them."

Anakin remained caught under her gaze, fragile, on the verge of shattering. Obi-Wan cautiously pressed his shoulder against Anakin's, warm flesh and frayed robes.

The silence stretched as Anakin struggled within himself, but Obi-Wan and Ahsoka remained steady, a brilliant duo caccooning the wild, seizing pain of Anakin's tattered presence in the Force. And Obi-Wan realized just how desperately he'd needed someone; someone who loved Anakin as much as he did. The Force hadn't forsaken him; not if it had brought Ahsoka, well and alive, to them.

For the first time, Obi-Wan began to glimpse at the hope he'd thought had perished alongside his world.

"I…I want to see them," Anakin rasped, as though it were a confession.

Ahsoka squeezed his prosthetic hand. "Then let's go see them."

Beside him, Anakin straightened, slowly regaining a new, but frail, confidence. "We'll have to get a new ship," he said. "This frigate doesn't have any fighter capabilities."

"We were in a medical facility. We weren't exactly swimming in options," Obi-Wan griped good-naturedly.

Artoo chirped something that sounded vaguely like an insult.

"We'll take my ship," Ahsoka decided, patting Artoo's dome. "It's a small freighter. It'll draw less attention than a medical transport."

"Then I suppose there's no time to waste," Obi-Wan said and pushed himself to his feet. Anakin hastened to follow with Ahsoka not far behind. No further words were needed. The trio seamlessly fell into their old roles, as though it were yet another mission assigned to them by the council. It was a sad kind of comfort.

While Ahsoka went to load their remaining supplies onto the freighter and Anakin headed off, with Artoo's assistance, to the med bay in search of the toolkit to maintain his cybernetic limbs, Obi-Wan returned to the cockpit. He wiped all the memory banks, including the navigation and fuel computers, making sure that none of the ship systems contained any record of their time aboard the frigate.

Obi-Wan then returned to his cabin and retrieved one last item before going to find Anakin. Like him, Anakin was working to wipe the surgical droid's memories of the procedures he'd performed, leaving no record of Anakin's injuries.

"Finishing up?"

"Hm? Oh yeah," Anakin muttered distractedly, sifting through the wires below the casing on the back of the droid's head. "Just about."

Obi-Wan waited patiently, and when Anakin turned to him at last, held the item out towards him.

"What is that?"

If the air between them weren't so thick, Obi-Wan would've huffed out a quip. As it was, all Obi-Wan could do was maintain a steady expression.

"Your lightsaber."

"I know," Anakin retorted, nerves suddenly frayed. "But why are you giving it to me?"

Obi-Wan arched an eyebrow. "Do you still plan to kill me?"

Anakin scowled and snapped out a short, "No."

"Then by all means, take it."

Anakin stared at the lightsaber in Obi-Wan's proffered hand, aggrieved.

"Or shall I continue to hold onto it for you?"

Anakin cast his gaze aside, yellow eyes glassy with unshed tears. "Yes. I think that would be best."

Obi-Wan slowly withdrew his hand and clipped the lightsaber back beside his own. "Very well."

A/N: Thanks for reading! :)