Author's note: Helloooo... It's been awhile. Sorry for the long break between chapters, but the wait is no more! Also, I realize I'm posting this on a Friday, but I just have to get it out there this week, I can't bear to wait until next Thursday. Maybe if you're lucky, I'll get out a new chapter then... but don't count on it. I'm remarkably unreliable. XD

No content warning. Enjoy!

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Chapter 16

Anakin moved through the hallway quickly, barely giving his feet time to push off the floor of the Jedi Temple. Obi-Wan's summons had been brief but urgent over comm. Anakin wondered what could've happened now.

Three rotations have come and gone since that blasted High Council meeting, and not a word passed between him and Ahsoka. Anakin decided that was fine by him. Eventually, she'd have to acknowledge him if she wanted to continue her training, but until then, Anakin was free to do as he pleased.

He'd been spending a lot of time with Padme, feeling rich from three evenings with her at home. It was a profound pleasure to drink her in, to hear her voice from its source instead of through a hologram, to see the honey in her eyes and the wit in her smile. As usual, her presence was a balm that sweetened the air with lotus and millaflower. It was the same perfume she wore on their wedding day and reminded him of their early days on Naboo, rolling in the fields, talking and sneaking touches. Though holding her here on Coruscant as his wife rather than his mission, her dark hair soft and curled and falling down her back like a waterfall, her fingers curled into his hair at the nape of his neck, her body warm against his— Anakin was grateful those passed days were past, and she was his.

Of course, Padme was still a senator, which meant speeches and bills and meetings and long days investing in a better Republic, which meant she was gone to the Senate Dome in the daylight hours, and which meant Anakin was astronomically bored without her. He'd resigned himself to adapting lightsaber techniques for droid combat, studying battle schematics performed by General Grievous, and modifying his starfighter in the Temple hanger, waiting all the while for a summons from the Jedi Council to come beeping through his comm. But just as he hadn't seen Ahsoka in three days, neither did he hear anything from the High Council.

Anakin was surprised it took that long. In this war, missions rotated quickly and unless he was injured, it was rare he spent a single day on Coruscant, let alone three. Obviously, the Council was holding some sort of grudge against him... Due to Ahsoka's trial, most likely. He grunted at the thought. If they were waiting for an apology, they wouldn't get it. In fact, he figured if anyone was owed an apology, it was him. And Ahsoka.

Flying through the hall, Anakin slipped around Jedi Masters and younglings, checking the chrono on his wrist. The Communication Center, where Obi-Wan requested his presence, was in the southwest corner of the Temple, three floors up. Stairs would take another ten minutes and, at this pace, a hundred extra breaths, so Anakin swerved toward the turbolift he knew was nearby. Slowing his steps and rounding the corner, Anakin evened his breathing and smoothed his countenance, feigning like he'd never run a day in his life. But he stalled when he looked down the hall.

There was Ahsoka, fifty meters away, stepping into the lift and panting hard.

Anakin pressed his lips together. What was it Obi-Wan said— like master, like padawan? He watched as she bent at the waist, hands on knees to catch her breath.

A part of him wanted to turn around and take the stairs, just so he didn't have to deal with her icy attitude—but that would be like retreating in the heat of battle… And he was a general, not one accustomed to shirking his duty.

Anakin stalked towards the lift apathetically, like he didn't see his Togrutan padawan, like she was some figment that didn't truly exist. He did see her though. She wasn't in those baggy borrowed Jedi robes anymore; instead, she went back to her white leggings and red mini-skirt, but she'd changed the tube top for a sturdy-materialled cropped jerkin topped with a thin plate of shoulder armor— and she wore arm bands across her biceps, likely a gift of good luck and protection. Since Obi-Wan didn't believe in luck and Anakin hadn't been anywhere near the past few days, he suspected they'd been a present from Master Plo, probably while she was in the halls of healing. Anakin swallowed.

Some part of him was relieved to see Ahsoka well. More than relieved, actually— glad. He'd dropped by the healing halls while she was asleep, asking her doctor for her scans and a summary of her treatment. She never knew he was there, and he asked the Jedi healers to be quiet about it to keep it that way. When he asked, they assured him she was healing well. So that was that.

Matter of fact, why was Ahsoka even on this lift? She should be catching up on her lessons, or studying at the library, or running drills in the dojo. Anakin frowned as he walked, the distance between them shortening to thirty meters or so.

Until now, he'd supposed the summons was to brief him on a mission and send him out, probably on a wild bantha chase as a punishment for his behavior in the Council meeting. He'd been berated enough by the Jedi Council to know how this went down. As long as he nodded along with their words and kept his tongue in check, he would be alright. And then it would be back to the warfront like nothing ever happened. The Council couldn't restrain him to Coruscant forever. The war demanded its generals.

But if Ahsoka was requested for this meeting too, that complicated things. They couldn't be sending them both back to the front… Three rotations weren't enough rest for a fully-fledged knight after a life-threatening injury, let alone a padawan. She'd nearly died on that transport and then they exasperated her condition by transferring her to Coruscant. Anakin felt his hands ball into fists. Sending her back into battle wasn't an option and if the Council didn't know that— he would make sure they did. Unless… a mission was Ahsoka's idea.

Anakin felt his blood pressure spike. The indifferent gaze he'd been wielding through Ahsoka fell across her. He sized up the distance between them, and she must've felt the heat of his gaze on her montrals because she raised her head and met his eyes.

He watched everything play across her face. Never mind their disconnected Force bond— when they stood point-blank like this, twenty-five meters away, Anakin could see her thoughts. He watched her white brow markings rise when she spotted him, and her blue eyes narrow the moment after. He saw her flick a glance at the door controls inside the lift. Anakin lengthened his strides. Ahsoka saw that too, and though Anakin scowled at her, the corner of her mouth turned up in the tiniest smirk.

She didn't touch the controls, but the doors inched together anyway. Ahsoka didn't reach to stop them; she crossed her arms over her chest and a glimmer shone in her eye.

Anakin realized what she was doing. If their bond was still intact, he would've… reminded her that revenge was not the Jedi way. But the bond was sealed and there was no time anyway, so Anakin kicked himself into a run. There was probably 75 feet between them. The doors were more than half closed already.

He flicked Ahsoka's Force bond shield. Her lip twitched in response.

Anakin flew down the hall, his footfalls padding quiet like a cat's despite his speed. The doors lurched together another two inches. The gap was only a foot wide now. He was still three full strides distant.

"Ahsoka!" Anakin warned. She pressed her lips together and for the first time, he saw a flicker of guilt cross her features.

Six feet away, Anakin lunged for the lift, the doors no more than eight inches apart. He forced his torso to contort sideways and slipped through the narrow passage, stumbling against the lift's glass wall and shaking the cylinder carriage. With a soft thoop sound, the doors sealed behind him.

Heaving in a breath, Anakin brushed a limp lock of hair across his forehead and slowly wheeled to face his stubborn, errant padawan. She held her chin high but didn't meet his eyes.

"Payback?" He asked coldly.

She didn't so much as frown or nod, but he saw her lips thin to a line.

"Revenge—"

"—is not the Jedi way, I know." Ahsoka said with a huff. She sounded irritated, but her body sagged with a weariness that Anakin recognized. Like well-fought adrenaline draining away after a battle though neither of them had been on the warfront in days.

Anakin's temper faded the same way, and he let it go.

Silence stretched between them. What more was there to say? They'd said plenty after the Council meeting, in the shadowed recesses of the Temple halls. Anakin hadn't slept through a night since; he heard her words echoing through his mind every time he laid his head down.

I don't need your help! She'd said, hands balled into fists at her sides. Anakin half-agreed with her. Most of the time, she excelled in her training, plus she had many advanced skills for her age and ambition worth a dozen soldiers. She could be very independent of him sometimes.

Luminara would train me better than you ever did. She'd snapped. He almost agreed with her there too. He was young and freshly knighted, not six months into his new role as General and Jedi Knight when Ahsoka walked into his life. He was good at war, Anakin didn't mind that, but how was he supposed to train a fourteen-year-old in these conditions?

You should have left me. She spat.

Anakin caught his breath. She meant— he should have left her on Geonosis.

To die. Buried under a mountain of debris.

At the time, her words triggered a rushing heat into his chest, anger so complete that he shook trying to rein it in. Anakin knew it evolved from a rift within himself, one of fear and guilt that he'd attempted to close so many times… and failed to do so. The longer the anger lingered, the more deplorable the aftertaste and the more straining to his self-control. How could she ever think he would leave her to die?

What in the galaxy did Bariss say to her in that hospital room?

Anakin blinked. That's a new thought. He breathed in a breath and reached out to the Force, saturating it with his curiosity— the same as asking a person "was that you"?

The Force remained a peaceful pond of thought. There was no confirmation or denial. Only the Force. He allowed himself a moment to sway in its waves, feeling the tug and push of its current; and then pulled back to himself, grounding in the steady ascension of the turbo lift and the prickling tension around his padawan.

Though, maybe not quite as prickling as before.

Despite remaining physically statuesque in front of the lift's control panel, Anakin felt Ahsoka's Force presence slip closer until she tucked against his side. It wasn't a conscious thing, he knew. She'd reached over unknowingly, in need of… something from him while lost in her own thoughts. Their bond was blocked, but her presence still blinked at his six like they were two of a kind, Master and Padawan, watching each other's backs. It was a habit they'd gotten into in close combat until it felt like a dance, moving in synchrony, defending and occupying space where the other was most vulnerable to the enemy. When they were apart, Anakin felt the absence like a void.

So now he didn't shift away. He didn't block her. He didn't breathe.

He let her presence remain snuggled into his like an orb of light embedded in his side. It was warm and sparkling, hope even in wartime. She remained oblivious, or else Anakin was sure she would pull back to herself. He imagined her unwittingly leaning against the shield blocking their Force bond, infusing the barrier with a dose of her presence, while she fended off the worries crowding her attention.

Suddenly, the lift dinged and the moment between them crumbled.

Her Force presence retracted from his six like he'd stabbed her in the back. The void at his side hollowed out and itched. He sucked in a breath. The turbo lift doors slid to the side and his padawan bailed into the hallway beyond.

Anakin stepped out silently, turning toward the Communication Center, biting back a groan when he saw Ahsoka was headed there too. She'd definitely been summoned. At which thought led Anakin back to worrying about the implications of combat without their training bond.

In every battle Anakin could remember, they'd utilized their Force bond as an instantaneous, close proximity comm device for simple orders or checks. Things like go, or mark, or clear, or incoming, fall back, from your nine, reinforce, tag team, tally, check point, screen, and a thousand more three-word communications.

At Point Rain, they'd almost died, even with the bond. They ran through IED fields under fire from Geonosian bugs and droid squadrons. The super tanks, the cannon fire, the fortified wall. They'd scaled it under heavy rain, deafened by the explosions. On top were B-1s and B-2s, and then when those were killed, hatches in the floor clicked and two destroyer droids (fast, deflector-shielded, and heavily weaponized) leapt to the surface. Anakin was sparring with one when Ahsoka came running, chased by a destroyer in its rolling ball form. Through the bond she shouted, tag team- shield, dove into a front handspring, and flipped over his head. Anakin whirled around, switching targets, and felt Ahsoka press into him, back-to-back. His saber flashed, deflecting fire aimed at her montrals. Her lightsaber zinged, blocking a bolt meant for his spine.

That was what it meant to watch each other's six. Trust. Anakin sucked in a short breath.

I want a master who trusts me. Ahsoka's words echoed through his mind, immediately followed by a torrent of frustration. Hadn't he trusted her with his life countless times? Hadn't he given her command of his troops' lives? What more was there?

He felt the Force swirl around his ears and then more words came to mind. You made your own decision, and I lifted a half-ton of rubble off your body!

He'd been angry then. Not at her necessarily, but at himself, for letting her go into those catacombs and then off on that supply mission when the Force had been whispering warnings the whole campaign. Still, he was angry, and Ahsoka was the perfect punching bag right in front of him, so when her blue eyes clouded over and her whole body tensed, Anakin didn't care. He suggested she made a dumb decision. He guilted her for his pain. He told her Luminara wanted to leave her to die. Anakin knew he'd hit a nerve, and he wondered if his yelling re-buried her under those rocks, but he ignored her to win the argument. Only, it didn't feel like winning anymore.

Anakin restrained a grimace and pressed a question into the Force. It was a simple question. One he'd asked a thousand times before with people, droids, pod racers and starships: how can I fix this?

He didn't hear it so much as the Force impressed it on him, and it shocked him that he felt anything at all, but the response was as clear as crystal and remarkably straight forward. Trust her with her own life.

Anakin balked. Trust Ahsoka with her life? He trusted her with her life. It was her life!

His eyes darted to her montrals and her back lekku and the beaded padawan braid swaying as she walked. She was tense and solemn and far from her normal snippy self. Their Force bond was a dry riverbed, overflowing with blatant silence that Anakin still hadn't gotten used to. Nor would he most likely, but under the overarching realization that reticence in battle could be a death sentence, his personal feelings were the least of his concern. He scrutinized Ahsoka as she stepped up to the Communication Center's entryway.

There was no way they'd survive anything like Geonosis without the bond.

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I've rewritten this chapter four times now. This is draft five, so I hope you liked it. Also, originally it was significantly longer (like 2000 words longer) but now that portion is being written into chapter 17. This is all insider, behind-the-scenes info. Maybe you don't care. Maybe you do. I'm gonna tell you anyway because to me, the process is important and I desperately want you to acknowledge my hard work. :)

So leave a review if you have feedback; I love to hear it. Unless you're one of those people who like spamming and asking me for money for your concept art. If you're that person, shove off. I don't like you. I don't want to talk to you.

But to my devoted readers, thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed another Anakin chapter. The next one is Ahsoka's POV again. Good things are coming! I'm beyond excited to share with you everything I'm planning!