Chapter Eight

The invasion of Umbara did not go well.

No, that was too much of an understatement. The invasion of Umbara was a disaster, horribly mishandled in almost every regard. Republic forces were totally unprepared for the situation on the ground, being caught off guard by everything from the hostile environment to the Umbaran weapons. Ahsoka had been away from most of the heaviest fighting with Ghes and his men, acting as pathfinders for the initial landings, but even from a distance she could feel the disturbance created by the carnage. When they'd finally linked back up with Republic forces after twelve hours, she couldn't bring herself to look at the casualty list.

The ARFs mission was over now though, they were being withdrawn from the campaign, and, according to Ghes, returning to Coruscant for R&R. Ahsoka wasn't entirely enthused about this. After all, the whole reason she'd been with Ghes's battalion was to avoid returning to Coruscant. But she also realized that she couldn't avoid Galactic City forever, and, after a week spent laying in the mud, she was sick of field work.

The first thing Ahsoka noticed when she stepped out of the gunship that had brought her, Ghes, and around a dozen other men back to Retaliation was how crowded the landing bay was. Ironically, it looked almost like you'd expect a military starship's hanger to look, rather than the droid run ghost town it usually was. Disturbingly, however, most of the extra personnel were walking wounded, many of whom watched over more severely injured comrades on stretchers.

"What's going on?" Ahsoka said, unable to understand why so many wounded were being brought here of all places.

Ghes, standing next to her, stopped a nearby crewman and took his datapad.

"Some brain trust forgot to requisition a medical frigate." He said, swiping at the device's screen as he scrolled through information. "General Kenobi wants us to drop these men off at medstation Commenor on our way back to Triple-zero."

Ahsoka looked around at the casualties. Almost all of them were either from the 501st and 212th, though she didn't recognize any of the individual troopers. The sense of relief that gave her was more than a little uncomfortable.

"Ahsoka!"

She heard the voice at almost the same time as she felt his presence.

"Master?" She said, turning to look at Anakin as he pushed through the crowd of clones toward her. What was he doing here? Was he wounded?

As he drew closer, Ahsoka saw that, no, he wasn't wounded. That still left the first question, though.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, hugging him.

"The Council called me back to Coruscant." He responded. "And Obi Wan said you were heading back as well, so I decided to hitch a ride."

Ghes, briefly forgotten, coughed to get their attention.

"General." Ghes greeted, saluting.

"Colonel." Anakin said, returning the gesture. "I hope my Padawan didn't give you too much trouble."

"Not at all, general." Ghes responded, smiling.

Outwardly, Ghes appeared completely calm in the face of his commanding officer, but Ahsoka knew better. He was panicking, she could feel it, and that made her want to panic, because if she could feel it, there was no reason Anakin couldn't. It was something she should have considered, that helping Ghes, for a lack of a better term, "turn off" his mental defenses would expose his mind to other Force users as well. And, as far as she could tell, Ghes hadn't turned them back "on" because she could still read him.

If he feels Ghes panicking, She thought, he'll definitely know something's up, then he'll start asking questions…

Anakin raised an eyebrow, and Ahsoka felt her heart stop… until he started laughing

"Now that can't be the truth." He said, then, looking at Ahsoka, asked; "What did you do to him?"

"Nothing!" She insisted, perhaps more defensive than was appropriate.

"It's true, general." Ghes said. "Unless you want to count a few bruises from training."

"Training?" Anakin said, nudging Ahsoka with his elbow. "I hope you didn't embarrass him too much."

"Hard to when he cheats." She responded.

Anakin gave Ghes a questioning look.

"I do." He admitted. "But she beats me every time I don't, so…"

That was a bit of an exaggeration, if only because he rarely didn't have some dirty trick up his sleeve when they sparred, but they normally only worked once, and, after that, she usually had him.

"I'll have to watch you two go at it before we get to Coruscant." Anakin said, making Ahsoka blush.

"Have you gotten your cabin assignment yet, general?" Ghes asked, once again tapping away at the datapad, and thankfully changing the subject.

"No." Anakin answered. "Not yet."

"Then here," Ghes said, handing the datapad to him. "Cabin number and lock code are on here, and there's a deck plan if you have trouble finding it."

"Thank you, colonel." Anakin said, starting to walk away. "I'll find both of you later!"

Once she'd lost sight of Anakin, Ahsoka finally allowed herself to relax.

"That went… well." She said.

And she meant it, too. That was honestly the best way that interaction could have gone, and it threw her off.

"Yea." Ghes said, laughing nervously. "I was freaking out."

"I know." She said, joining his laughter. "I almost did to."

"I know." Ghes said, laughing louder now.

But then he suddenly stopped.

"How did I know that?" He asked.

How did he know that? Ahsoka thought. She considered this for a moment alongside Anakin's apparent inability to notice anything up with Ghes when she'd been able to quite clearly feel his panic. The answer she came up with was… simple.

"When our minds were…" She didn't know exactly how to describe it, touching, intertwined? "…together, we must have established some sort of bond."

"So no one else can tell what I'm thinking?" Ghes said, scratching his head. "You just have a 'back door'?"

"Sort of." She agreed. It was a crude way of putting it, but, in truth, Ahsoka didn't have a better way to explain it.

"Th Force is weird." Ghes said without a hint of irony, and Ahsoka just had to laugh.

He didn't know the half of it.

Of all the stupid scenarios Ghes had ever thought of for their training, why did he pick a fistfight?

Or, rather, why was this the one he decided to do in front of Anakin?

"Keep your guard up!" Her master yelled from the sidelines.

Ahsoka sighed, sidestepping another blow. As if she didn't already know that. She swore, sometimes Anakin's "help" wasn't very helpful. Ghes threw a right hook, which she ducked. He was willing to let her win, she could feel, but she made sure he knew that that wasn't what she wanted. The sentiment was appreciated, if a bit insulting, but she was going to win on her own. It helped both that he wasn't wearing armor, and that there wasn't really any way for Ghes to cheat in a fight like this short of biting. She got the feeling he know exactly how that would end.

Ghes threw another hook, this time with his left. Ahsoka back stepped, then kicked Ghes in his exposed side. He was knocked back and she followed up quickly, sweeping his legs low and sending him falling to the mat with an audible slap. Then she pounced, straddling his torso and pinning his arms with her knees.

"Nice, Ahsoka!" Anakin yelled behind her, but she hardly heard him.

There, breath still heavy and blood still running hot, Ahsoka and Ghes's eyes met…

Anakin was concerned.

It had been a little over an hour since Ahsoka and Col. Marczak had very abruptly ended their sparring session and disappeared. Ahsoka in particular had looked very…, for a lack of a better word, flustered when she'd left the gym without saying more than three words to him. Anakin knew that he tended to worry about Ahsoka a little too much, but, in this case, his concern felt pretty justified.

Now if only he could find her.

"Trooper!" Anakin called out to the first clone he saw.

"General." The man said, snapping to attention.

"At ease, trooper." Anakin said, waving dismissively. "I just need directions."

"Of course, sir." The trooper said, relaxing visibly. "Where to?"

"I'm actually looking for Commander Tano." Anakin admitted. "Do you know where she is?"

"Well…" The clone said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Her cabin is around twelve forward, C-deck, I think, but I saw her with the colonel less than an hour ago, so you might want to ask him."

That was odd. Ahsoka and Marczak had left the gym separately. Maybe they'd met up again afterward to discuss their training session?

"Thank you, trooper." Anakin said, nodding curtly as he walked away.

He could always just ask Ahsoka why she'd met back up with Marczak when he found her. He'd start by looking in her cabin.

Ahsoka wasn't sure how to describe how she felt at this moment, after they'd, for the lack of a better term, "moved forward" with their relationship.

Part of her felt odd being so coy after what they'd done, especially in her own thoughts, but another part of her seemed to believe that it gave the whole affair more of a mystique about it. Though this was somewhat ruined by her link with Ghes, who's own thoughts were far less… poetic.

"Don't say it." She groaned.

"Say what?" Ghes asked with feigned innocence.

"You know exactly what you were going to say." Ahsoka continued accusingly. "Don't ruin this."

"I was…"

Whatever Ghes's undoubtedly witty response was going to be, it was interrupted by a knocking on the door.

"Colonel," Came Anakin's voice from outside. "Have you seen Ahsoka? She's not in her cabin and some of the men said she was with you earlier."

Oh no, Ahsoka thought, panicking.

"Colonel?" Anakin repeated. "Hello?"

Ahsoka looked up at Ghes. Despite his somehow calm outward appearance, he was panicking as much as she was, but Ghes wasn't one to freeze. Reaching around her, he opened a drawer under the bunk upon which they lay and grabbed two undershirts. He handed one to her and pulled the other on himself before returning to dig their respective undergarments out of the pile of discarded clothing on the floor next to them.

"Colonel?!" Anakin yelled a third time. "Are you even…"

Ahsoka realized too late that she should have been trying to hide herself in the Force, not that it would have done much good when Anakin began actively searching the room with his senses. As he extended his awareness to encompass the cabin, their minds touched, and Ahsoka retreated from him. But the damage was already done.

Anakin Skywalker was a man prone to bouts of extreme anger, and Ahsoka knew this well, but rarely, if ever, had he become so enraged so quickly. Within seconds, the tip of a blue lightsaber lanced out of the door control panel, filling the air with the scent of fused wires and melting metal as it burned its way through the locking mechanism. The door was dragged open, screeching along its track, and Anakin burst into the room, lightsaber no longer active, but still in hand.

"What's going on here?!" He shouted, reaching out with his free hand and pinning Ghes to the wall at the rear of the bunk.

"Anakin!" Ahsoka pleaded, sitting on the edge of the bunk and clutching the sheet to her breast. "Stop!"

She could see it, the look in her master's eyes. He was ready to kill Ghes.

"Ahsoka…" Anakin growled. "How could you do this?"

She didn't know what to say, didn't know what she could say to make him understand. After all, it was something she'd had to think so hard about…

Ghes laughed, a pained laugh through compressed ribs, but a laugh all the same, and that drew Anakin's attention back to him.

"What's so funny?" He snarled, pressing harder on the already pinned man in the Force.

"You…" Ghes responded, wheezing from the pressure on his chest. "You're a hypocrite…"

Anakin flinched, Ghes had struck a nerve.

"What's he talking about?" Ahsoka said, standing off the bed and letting the sheet drop.

"Nothing!" Anakin shouted, thumb hovering over the activation switch on his lightsaber. "He's a liar!"

"He's sleeping with a senator." Ghes said, struggling against the invisible grip holding him down. "Has been for years."

Padme. It was Ahsoka's first thought, and it made far too much sense for her to deny. So many things began falling into place; how they always seemed to spend more time around her then any other senator, how Anakin always disappeared when they were on Coruscant… Why hadn't she seen it before?

"How…" Anakin whispered, stunned.

"Soldiers talk, general." Ghes said, a pined smile barely touching his lips. "and you're not as subtle as you think."

"It's Padme, isn't it?" Ahsoka accused, taking a step toward her master. "You've been sleeping with Padme for years and you have the nerve…"

"Yes, I do!" Anakin cut her off. "Because it's not the same!"

"How's it any different?" Ahsoka demanded. "What, are you two married or something?"

Anakin didn't want to answer that, she could tell by the way he was avoiding her eyes. No, she thought, it couldn't be…

"You're married!" She screamed. "And you were going to lecture me about the code?!"

"You don't understand…" Anakin tried to explain.

"No, I forgot, you're Anakin Skywalker!" She continued, shouting down his explanation. "The rules don't apply to you, do they?"

Maybe it was because he realized there was no talking to her, maybe he realized she was right, but, for whatever reason, Anakin didn't answer. Instead, he released Ghes, replaced his lightsaber on his belt, and walked away.

"Whoa…" Ghes said, breathing heavy as his lungs refilled with air. "Are you all right?"

Ahsoka didn't know. As her blood cooled and she began to calm down, she realized how terrible it had all been. Anakin had been, for whatever reason, ready to kill Ghes. Why would he react so violently, though, when he'd made the same choice she had? Anakin was married, a concept she had trouble wrapping her head around, and that was far worse in the eyes of the Jedi than anything she'd done with Ghes. No, she thought, there has to be another reason.

"Ahsoka?" Ghes said again, pulling himself to the edge of the bunk. "You okay?"

"I have to go after him." She admitted.

Ghes's eyes widened in surprise, but he soon began to nod.

Ahsoka didn't need his leave to do anything, but it made her feel better to know Ghes agreed.

Anakin hadn't made it very far by the time she'd left the cabin and started after him, not even to the end of the hallway, and he didn't look like he was going anywhere in a hurry now either. Was he expecting her to come after him? Maybe, but it was more likely he just kept stopping to punch the bulkhead.

"Anakin, wait!" Ahsoka cried out as she ran after him.

He stopped, but he didn't turn around.

"What?!" Anakin snapped over his shoulder.

"I don't want to leave it like this." She said, stopping a mere meter from him. "Please."

Anakin sighed.

"You don't understand, Ahsoka." He said, shaking his head.

"Then make me understand." She insisted

"Marczak?" Anakin said, finally turning toward her. "Do you care about him?"

"What?"

"What you're doing with him," Anakin restated. "is it just a physical thing, or do you care about him?"

"What kind of question is that?" She asked, dumbfounded, but, from Anakin's expression, she knew he demanded an answer.

"Of course I do." She said.

Anakin sighed again.

"It's not easy, you know." He said.

"I do know." Ahsoka answered.

"No," Anakin countered, shaking his head. "I don't think you do. Doing this, keeping my marriage a secret, not being able to really be with Padme, it's the hardest thing I've ever had to do."

"But you do it anyway."

Ahsoka had never really been able to read her master through the Force, he'd always been too chaotic, but she also knew him well enough that she didn't need to. He wasn't a reflective man, preferring instead to live in the moment, but now…

"I don't know what you want me to say Ahsoka." He said finally. "I won't give you my blessing, not when I think you're making a mistake, but this isn't a mistake I can stop you from making."

Author's Notes:

Two reviews this week (thankfully, I was starting to worry after last week), so I'll get right into things.

nightwish635; not giving me much to respond to, but nevertheless appreciated! As previously stated, updates are on Wednesdays, though we are sadly nearing the end of this block of updates. See the author's notes for the prologue for further information.

8th, once again bringing the grade A discussion material, I see. No offense to the rest of you who leave reviews, but this guy(?) just gives me a lot more to work with. Glad to see you once again mostly agree with me, while I try to be open minded, it's good to know that someone else is out there who is so unassailably correct about everything.

I remember that episode of Rebels quite clearly, and how utterly ridiculous it seemed at the time. I've since realized that, while it hasn't become any less of a stupid idea (adding in any element of time travel into Star Wars other than the pseudo time travel that is flow walking is, in my opinion, a horrible mistake), I've since realized that it was more a one off Deus ex machina to bring Ahsoka back to life, which is really a shame if you ask me. Despite my obvious love for the character, I really do believe that Ahsoka should have died fighting Vader on Malachor, for the same reason I would have liked TLJ more if Finn had died destroying that laser-ram thing on Crait. For both, it would have been a satisfying end to their respective character arcs, with Finn finally realizing that he can't just run away from his past, instead facing it and sacrificing himself to save him newfound friends, and, in Ahsoka's case, facing the past she'd spent so much time trying to get away from (a path she started down at the end of the Ahsoka novel when she became Fulcrum). Feel free to tell me if I'm off base, but that's how I've been interpreting it, and I honestly came to terms with Ahsoka's seemingly inevitable violent end the moment she first appeared on screen. Then again, I currently have no intention of writing her death in a story, so maybe I'm just talking out of my ass.

As for the recent announcement of the upcoming show The Mandalorian, I'll admit I'm not super optimistic about it. Part of that is, of course, how horribly mangled Mando culture was in the transition form Legends to the Disney canon. There was just something about Karen Traviss's Mando'ade that I connected with, probablyl the idea of a warrior culture that valued family, loyalty and strength while being inherently free from prejudice against anyone other than outsiders (not racist, sexist, etc.), and what ended replacing it just seemed so shallow and generic by comparison. Another thing that didn't fill me with confidence was the photo they released, supposedly of the titular character. It took me less than ten minutes to find more than a dozen fan-made suits in all sorts of varied patterns that looked leagues better than what was apparently the best a costume department backed by Disney's resources could do (especially sad since the only thing they seemed interested in keeping about Mandalorians was the armor). Combine that with a broad disappointment with much of what this new era of Star Wars has had to offer, particularly on screen, and I can't really bring myself to be excited for much these days. That doesn't mean I won't be watching, though, and I do hope they manage to surprise me.

Oh, and I'm sorry that it always takes a few hours for your reviews to appear, I have to moderate guest reviews now because of an issue a few months ago with suspicious reviews appearing on my, as well as a few other authors', stories. I hate that I have to do that, but I suppose it's better than whatever my somewhat paranoid mind is convinced the alternative is.

Alright, finally getting to this week's chapter. If there's thing I can actually thank Rian Johnson for, albeit begrudgingly, it's that he introduced more arcane Force abilities into the "mainstream". None of the "new" Force powers in the TLJ are unprecedented (both the idea of projected images and strong individual links were present in various post-ROTJ works), even if they're different from their Legends "counterparts". But at least the idea of Ahsoka and Ghes more or less accidentally creating a special sort of link/bond between them in the Force seems less out there than it would have otherwise, right? Eh, at least it's not the weirdest idea I've ever had, and let, like 8th said, what the Force can do tends to change depending on who's telling the story.

I said I was going to start switching up the point of view character form time to time, and this is the first, albeit short, example. This is mostly going to be something I reserve in the future for times when I feel the story will benefit most from showing a scene from the perspective of a character other than Ahsoka. Most of the time, this will be because Ahsoka's not there to witness what I feel is a plot relevant/crucial event, but in at least one case it will happen while she's in the room (though I don't think you'll begrudge me for it when you read who's that scene is from.

I really didn't want to drag out Anakin finding out about Ahsoka and Ghes's relationship to more than this chapter. While there's a good case to be made that keeping him ignorant would allow for more comedic possibilities, I don't really write comedy to any great degree. Besides, Obi Wan fills that role just fine when necessary.

Next, I feel the need to make something perfectly clear because it seemed to confuse some of my test readers; Ghes didn't know about Anakin and Padme. What Ghes was talking about when he called Anakin a hypocrite was an assumption based on various things he heard Coruscant Guard troopers, who you'll recall he worked with at the beginning of the war, say about Anakin sneaking around the Senate building and ducking into Senators' offices (well, one particular Senator), and otherwise doing odd things that would lead one to believe that he's either conspiring to overthrow the Republic or having an affair. Since Ghes isn't stupid, he figured it was the later, but had no idea or inclination to learn who he was having an affair with, and didn't even suspect that he was secretly married. While I thought this was all pretty clear without me having to lay it out, because the pieces are all there waiting to be put together, I'm also open to the idea that it might have been a little too sub textual, at least for my friends.

Something that I most definitely laid right out but that some people might disagree with is the idea that Ahsoka, even at this point, didn't really suspect that Anakin and Padme were anything more than friends. Now, we know that Ahsoka was most likely aware of this by the time she left the Jedi Order, if only from that memorable little exchange with Anakin right before she essentially walks away from her life up to that point as well as the show. What we don't know is exactly when she figured this out, and the Battle of Umbara was significantly before that point. Additionally, I'm working off the idea that people tend not to notice things they're not looking for (which is the only explanation why everyone in the damn Order didn't figure out other than willful ignorance), and she does put everything together pretty quickly once she does start thinking about the two's relationship in that light. Ahsoka's a bright girl, but when you live most of you life assuming everyone around you just doesn't have romantic relationships, why would you be looking for evidence that they do? Obviously she figured it out in canon at some point, and I'll say that if I hadn't written it this way, the confrontation with Anakin had never happened and Ghes had never brought the idea up, the context for a lot of the things Anakin does around Padme that Ahsoka gained from being in her own relationship would probably have led her to figuring it out for herself the next time she saw the two together.

Okay, I think that's everything I wanted to talk about. Next chapter's pretty low key as Part I comes to a close, and I'll sadly be leaving in just a few weeks, but I have a few plans for before my departure that I don't want to discuss just yet.

Until then, thank you for reading, don't forget to follow/favorite if you enjoyed, and keep the reviews coming, every one of them really does brighten up my day.