Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Running, panting, wheezing.

Fives couldn’t believe it. Everything he thought he knew was a lie.  

He was a soldier for the Republic. He was his own man. He was more than just a droid!

No. He was made for war. To be used and then discarded. 

No. It couldn’t be!

He ducked into a dark alley and pressed himself flat against the dirty wall. He held his breath whilst patrolling lights flashed by, once they passed, he gasped and gulped for air.

What am I gonna do?

Minutes passed and he knew that he couldn’t stay in this alley forever. He needed to move. He had no idea where to go though. Maybe, if he could find Rex and General Skywalker, they could help him. That is, if they’re even on Coruscant. If the 501st is on planet, he could check 79’s, but the Guard would have put the word out by now, so going there would be the same as turning himself in. 

He started walking with no real destination in mind and re-entered the busy walkways of Coruscant. Keeping his head down as much as he could.

He heard the tell-tale sound of blasters clicking behind him, “Freeze, Trooper!”

The guards had found him. Fives ran.

He ducked through the busy crowd, dodging, weaving, and pushing past people desperately. After putting a good bit of distance between himself and the guards, Fives darted into another alley and ran headlong into a cloaked figure. The world turned as the stranger quickly pivoted, grabbed his shoulder and flipped him into the alley wall. Then he slumped to the ground. His vision blurring continuously, as it had since Nala Se drugged him.

Dazed, he stared up into the shadowed face of the being who studied him in turn.

“Fives?”

He’d recognize that accent anywhere, “General Kenobi,” he rasped.

They stared, frozen, at each other for moments. Then the general startled into action as he realized that he had just thrown the soldier to the ground. “Oh dear, I’m sorry, Fives! What are you–”

“There he is! CT-5555, you are under arrest for treason.”

Three Coruscant Guard troops blocked the alley entrance, weapons raised and trained on Fives.

The general lowered his hood and stepped to place himself between Fives and the guards, raising his hands as if surrendering, “Stand down.” He said confidently, “Surely this is nothing more than a misunderstanding.”

“Step aside, General Kenobi. You are in great danger.”

“Please, Lieutenant. I know ARC-Trooper Fives. He’s no danger to anyone.” 

“We have our orders, Sir. Please, step aside.”

General Kenobi shrugged and made a motion with his hand, “You saw no one here.”

The guards' helmets tilted, then they looked at each other, “There’s no one here,” the Lieutenant said in a distant voice, the clones beside him nodded.

Another hand motion, “You will continue your search elsewhere. You have your orders.”

Together, the three clones turned, and marched out of the alley. Saying into their comms, “This sector’s clear. There’s no one here. Moving to sector I-19”

The alley was then empty save one Jedi and stunned clone.

Fives groaned and rubbed the back of his neck; everything was still spinning. Karkin’ Nala Se . He couldn’t even think straight. 

The Jedi turned back to Fives, and blue eyes bore into his own, like the Jedi was reading his very thoughts. Fives then briefly considered taking his chances with the Coruscant Guard instead of staying in the alley with the Jedi. He didn’t have the opportunity to think much about his options as the General broke his silence and offered a hand. 

Fives stared at the hand, after a moment’s hesitation, he took hold.

General Kenobi commented conversationally as he pulled the clone to his feet, “I never took you for the treasonous type, Fives.”  

Fives froze, “General, I–”

“All in due time, Fives. Let’s get out of the open first. Come. I know a place where we can discuss things in peace.”

Fives jerked away, “No! How do I know I can trust you?”

The Jedi raised his hands slowly, then responded, “I guess you can’t know, but,” the general slipped off his cloak and offered it to Fives, “I imagine that you don’t have much in the way of options for friends right now,” The general gently shook the cloak in his direction, prompting Fives to accept it, “You’ll just have to trust me, Fives.”

Fives shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. Then he nodded and reached for the cloak, draping it over his shoulders.

General Kenobi nodded back at him and gestured for him to follow. He led him further down the alley and eventually back into the Coruscant night crowd. Fives was quick to pull the hood up over his head and followed closely behind the Jedi walking confidently in front of him. The crowd parted in recognition of the Jedi General then closed behind them. The citizens, already continuing on with their lives unaware of bigger events around them.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

 They had walked for only minutes when they arrived at a small cafe. Fives was led by the Jedi around to a back entrance where the general looked both ways then hauled open the door.

It was a diner. The smell was amazing! Fives’ stomach growled suddenly, and he tried to remember when the last time he ate was. 

A massive Besalisk noticed the pair of them and squeezed out from one of the small booths, approaching them with open arms, “Obi-Wan! I thought I heard my back door opening,” Fives’ jaw dropped in shock as the Besalisk wrapped the General in a tight hug.

The Besalisk stepped back, keeping a large hand on the Jedi’s shoulder, “Now, what can I do for you and your friend here?”

The general made a small hand motion, “I’m quite famished Dex. My friend and I would appreciate your special.”

The Besalisk – Dex , Fives tested the name in his head – nodded and winked at the Jedi, “Coming right up, let me get you a booth.”

They were then led back through the steaming kitchen to a small room that had a pair of wide chairs with a compact table. The door closed automatically behind the three of them, leaving them in close quarters – within arm distance.

General Kenobi spoke first, gesturing to Fives, “Dex, this is Fives of the 501st”

Dex smiled, “Ah, one of Anakin’s boys. Glad to meet ya”

The general then smiled calmly at Fives, “Fives, I’d like you to meet Dex. An old friend of mine”

Fives lifted off the hood of the Jedi cloak and nodded cautiously in acknowledgment.

Dex motioned for them both to take a seat, “Take a moment, boys. I’ll be right back with ya.” He turned and shuffled out of the room, the door shutting after him.

They sat in silence and Fives was grateful for the moment to be able to breath and gather his thoughts.

Dex entered and dropped an overflowing plate of food between the Jedi and the soldier, “You’re looking skinny, Obi-Wan. Eat up.” Then Dex was gone again. 

Fives’ jaw dropped again as he stared at the pile of what could only be called “junk food.” This was High General Kenobi , civilized drinker of tea, and whatnot. Yet here he was, digging into a Nerf burger with relish.

“I never took you for the type to like grease,” he remembered who he was talking to, “Sir.”

General Kenobi chuckled, “I think you’ll find that most types like Dex’s food.” He pushed a serving of some purple tuber-like things in Fives’ direction, “Here. Cody enjoys these.”

Then those piercing Jedi eyes focused back on him, “Now, what have you gotten yourself into.”

Fives shifted uncomfortably and groaned. Now that he had the sole attention of a Jedi and no fear of interruptions, he had no idea where to start. “It’s a long story, General.” He sampled the tubers and was surprised that they were actually good.

“Well, considering you likely scared off my informant, I’ve got nothing but time right now.” He pushed a drink towards Fives, “Jawa Juice?”

Fives nodded and accepted the drink, “I’m guessing you heard about Tup… and General Tiplar?”

The Jedi paused and looked at him with sad gray eyes, “I did.”

“Well, there are organic chips that are placed in every clone in the early stages of growth – the Kaminoans call them “inhibitor chips.” Fives rubbed his eyes tiredly, “Nala Se said they’re meant to keep us from being aggressive, and, well, Tup’s chip malfunctioned.”

 Obi-Wan leaned back slowly in his chair, “And so killed Tiplar. These chips keep clones from...what? Killing?”

Fives nodded, “Supposedly. The thing is General, I removed my chip.”

The General shot Fives a teasing grin over his cup of juice, “Ah. But you don’t seem like a crazed killer, Fives.” 

“General, I don’t know what the chips are meant for, but I do know that something went wrong with Tup’s, and he killed General Tiplar. Tup was a good soldier! He only ever wanted to do his duty. I only want to do my duty!”

The General was silent.

Fives continued, “I also know that the Kaminoans are hiding something about the chips – from the Jedi, against the Jedi! Nala Se tried to keep Tup’s chip from being brought here and drugged me on the flight over!” 

“That’s…concerning, Fives.”

“That’s not even the worst of it! The Chancellor is in on it, I don’t know to what extent. But I know he orchestrated much of this. He told me as much. I know this! Beyond the shadow of a doubt!”

Obi-Wan stared at Fives in shock. “The Chancellor?!”

Chapter Text

Fives turned pleading eyes on the Jedi, “I know it sounds crazy, Sir, but please, you have to believe me! You’re my only hope!”

Quickly re-gathering himself and his shock. Crazy indeed , Obi-Wan thought, but these are crazy times. He raised a calming hand to the clone across from him, “I can sense you’re telling the truth, Fives. I believe you.”

Pure relief washed over the soldier’s face, “Thank you, Sir.”

Obi-Wan continued, “However, there’s too much we don’t yet know. I can’t –”

Suddenly, it clicked with him, and the recently ever-present tension in the Force snapped, then eased, whispering Finally to his mind. Things became clearer than they had in months. 

The mysterious circumstances surrounding the creation of the clone army…Mace had told him that Jango Fett was working for Dooku – a known Sith – when he was killed, and he was in the middle of the cloning facilities when Obi-Wan happened upon him. Then this whole mess with Fives, the Kaminoans with their insistence on keeping the Jedi out of the loop. 

Then he remembered Dooku circling, ray shields flowing around him, “The Republic is being controlled by a Sith Lord.”

For all that Anakin would sing his praises, Obi-Wan had never liked Palpatine. He could never put a finger on why though. He had just looped all his feelings about the Chancellor together with the general dislike and distrust that he had for most politicians. 

Could it –? Could he be? If he was then–? How had they been so blind?

“Can’t what, Sir?”

Obi-Wan snapped back to the present moment. He could almost hear Qui-Gon's voice reminding him, “Keep your thoughts on the present moment, my padawan.”

“... We can’t be hasty, Fives.” He finished the thought. “We don’t know the extent of what we’re dealing with.”

“So, what can we do?”

Obi-Wan stood, “You should rest, for now. Dex may be able to figure out what it is that you’ve been drugged with. You’ll be safe here, though.” He made for the door, then turned back, “Trust me, Fives.” 

Fives looked steadily back at him, “Yes, sir.”

 xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx 

Anakin watched the never-ending lines of Coruscant night traffic as he waited for his former master from the window of Obi-Wan’s apartment.

He heard the door swish open behind him and listened as boots were tugged off and set beside the door.

“Where did you run off to?” Anakin questioned without turning around.

Obi-Wan chuckled at him and feigned remorse, “Oh! I’m sorry Master Skywalker! I’ve just been out podracing and searching the lower levels for droid parts that I can leave outside your door for you to trip on in the middle of the night.”

Anakin laughed and turned to face his former master, imitating his Coruscanti accent, “You ought not be so reckless, my young padawan.” He noted his master’s lack of cloak, “Speaking of recklessness, where’d you drop your cloak this time, Master?” Anakin teased. 

Obi-Wan headed for the kitchenette, lecturing as he went, “Ah, see Anakin? I didn’t drop it. I gave it to someone in need.” He pulled out a kettle and put water on to boil for tea, “You should watch and learn. My compassion knows no bounds.”

Anakin paused. The joking…and the tea. Obi-Wan was upset about something and was trying to deflect any inquiries by pretending everything was fine.

Not today, Old Man. He changed topics and got serious, “Well then? Did you find what you were looking for?”

Obi-Wan blinked at being caught out so quickly and familiar sadness returned to his friend's eyes, “No.” Obi-Wan sighed then shrugged with one shoulder, “I’m guessing the Coruscant guard scared them off.”

Anakin’s mood plummeted to join his master’s. Fives. “Right. There’s a manhunt for Fives right now. He’s not well and tried to assassinate the Chancellor.”

Obi-Wan nodded distantly and leaned against the counter, “Yes, I heard something about that.”

“Rex and I have been tasked with helping to find him, hopefully we can get him some help.”

No response. Anakin looked at his former master, who was clearly zoning out. He reached out and snapped his fingers in front of his friend’s nose. “Hey! You with me?” 

Obi-Wan blinked and then massaged the bridge of his nose, “Yes…apologies my friend. I have a lot to think about right now.” He hesitated, “Did you see the Chancellor today?”

“Nope, haven't had the time. He’s probably recovering from almost being killed.” Then he made a half-hearted attempt to bring the mood up again with a teasing jab, “If you’re old then he’s ancient.” 

Not even a breath of a chuckle in reply. Anakin quieted and placed a hand on his master’s shoulder, “Anyways, I hadn’t seen you today and wanted to check in.” He then headed for the door, “Get some rest, Master.”

The door shut behind him and Anakin walked down the hallways of the temple, towards the hangar where Rex must be waiting already.

Obi-Wan had felt off – more so than usual. After Mandalore and Ahsoka’s leaving, he hadn’t been the same. Who could be the same after all that? Just with Ahsoka leaving, I’ve been miserable. I can’t even imagine losing someone I loved the way he lost Satine. If I lost Padme…

No. He couldn’t bear to think about that. Obi-Wan will be fine, he always bounces back. He just needs to rest a bit.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx 

The kettle began to whistle in Obi-Wan’s apartment. He prepared himself some tea, then walked over and collapsed into the chair by his desk, spinning it to face forward. 

“Rest.” He said wistfully, then huffed, “That’s not likely.”

Time to try and find some answers. He grabbed a data pad and started his search with Jango Fett’s history, and then Palpatine’s background.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx 

“Yup. You’ve been drugged.”

Fives gave Dex a deadpan stare from his uncomfortable slouch on the floor. “Really.” He drawled, “I couldn’t have figured that out on my own.”

Dex chortled, “Them Kaminoans pack a nasty punch though, don’t they?”

He scoffed, “I don’t know about them and punches, but whatever they gave me…” He trailed off and rubbed at his eyes again.

“Well,” Dex clapped a hand on the clone’s shoulder, “Nothing to do about it now, but wait. I think gettin some food in ya, has helped a bit.”

Fives had to admit, the food had helped… a little.

The Besalisk then hummed and clambered to his feet. “Best thing you can do for it is to sleep it off.” 

The thought of sleep had his eyes drooping and then all he knew was darkness.

 xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx 

General Kenobi arrived at the diner, too early for any sane person. “Up and at them, Fives.” Kicking lightly at his still booted feet, and far too brightly said, “We’ve got some planning to do.”

Fives groaned from his spot on the floor and lifted his head from the Jedi cloak turned pillow. Sure enough, there was the General’s silhouette. He dropped his head back down. Obi-Wan opened the door wider to let more light in.

“Come now, no need to be so dramatic,” the Jedi pulled the cloak out from under the clone’s head. “Dex has more food for you, and it’s approaching mid-day.”

Fives levered himself upright, and squinted up at the general, who in turn blinked expectantly down at him. 

“Alright, alright.” Fives relented clambering to his feet, “Galaxy won’t save itself, right?”

 xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx 

The general had been kind enough to bring some supplies for Fives to clean up with fresh blacks, clippers, toothbrush, and the likes.

Fives made his way back to Dex’s little office where the General and Dex were discussing something in hushed tones. Food and caf had been spread out on the low table, he wasn’t sure if he should intrude. However, it wasn’t like he could go anywhere else.

The General beckoned him over distractedly. “Fives, please. Come sit.” 

Dex got up to leave, “Well, I’ll leave you boys to it. Let me know if you need me.”

Fives took the recently vacated seat and eyed his options, settling for just caf at the moment, while the general spoke.

“Well, if my intuition is right, and the Chancellor is the Sith that we’ve been searching for,” he paused, “then that means that the whole war is a farce.”

Fives blinked, It’s too early for this . “I’m not sure I follow, Sir. Sith? Like Count Dooku?”

“Don’t you see, Fives? Count Dooku is a Sith Lord, and he has a master – he himself told me that the Senate is under the control of the Sith. Now, whether that means that the Chancellor himself is the Sith or if he is simply a puppet of the Sith, I haven’t the faintest. But we must find that out.”

He told you that? “...How do you propose we do that?”

“Well, we need to disrupt his plans by whatever means possible. He’s been playing dejarik with himself this whole time. The only one who will win at the end of this – unless we can stop him – will be the Sith. If we can keep the Sith busy or distracted, then we may be able to discover the extent of their plans.”

Now Fives looked at Obi-Wan as if he was the crazy one but shrugged and helped himself to the caf in front of him.

The General continued, “The only thing I can think to do, would be to introduce some actual opposition – not this double-sided game that they’re playing– and to do that…” He trailed off, “I would need to leave the Order.”

Fives promptly choked on his caf.

Chapter Text

“I’m sorry, Sir. You’re going to what?!”

A slight wince, “It’s not ideal, I’ll admit.” The Jedi grabbed a napkin and handed it to Fives, who dabbed at the mess of sprayed caf. “But, it would serve to get both of us off of Coruscant away from the eyes of the Chancellor and allow us an opportunity to investigate and disrupt his plans.”

“I guess so, Sir. But you’re… The Jedi.” Fives exclaimed, raising both hands to gesture at the man sitting in front of him. “If we’re doing this to save the Republic, then I don’t know if you leaving the Republic would actually help.”

The general sighed, “The Jedi were never meant to be generals, or even soldiers. Yet, I’ve found that as the war has gone on, we’ve been forced into those roles with increasing frequency.” He lifted a hand and a small jar of Phindian honey floated to his hand. “Lately, all my time and efforts have been devoted to the war effort…and in order to save the Republic, I need to leave and be free to move as the Force guide.” He thoughtfully stirred some honey into his tea.

“For the benefit of us who don’t have ready access to the Force, where is it guiding you?”

“To Mandalore… then we will create an army of our own.”

“An army?!” Fives gaped then laughed at the idea of it, “Where in the furthest galaxies are we going to find an army?”

“You’d be surprised.” The General replied in all seriousness. 

Oh, ha ha. Fives bit back the sarcasm. I forgot who I was talking to. Mr. I-discover-secret-armies Kenobi.

He couldn’t help but let a bit of the sarcasm sneak out though, “Oh?” Fives questioned, “We’re going on a trip, then?” 

Obi-Wan chuckled warmly, “It seems so.” 

Fives watched as the General suddenly frowned thoughtfully, raising a hand to stroke his beard, “Now, I just have to figure out a way to tell Anakin.

Fives failed to fully stifle a laugh, and it came out as a strangled snort. He did not envy General Kenobi right now. General Skywalker truly was a force to reckon with. Especially when it came to people he cared about, like Kenobi.

Kenobi shot a quelling look his way as he rose from his seat and left.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Lord Sidious scowled as he watched Coruscant’s sun approach its peak, casting blinding light on this half of the city planet. He was not pleased. Somewhere out there, was a rogue clone, with the potential to ruin all his carefully thought-out plans. Years of planning in jeopardy from a clone of all the things.

Where are you, Little Clone? He thought as his scrutinizing gaze swept over the buildings.

A beeping from his desk drew away his gaze. He adopted his usual grandfatherly mien as he attended the Senate aid.

“Senator Taa is here to see you, Chancellor.”

Many irksome Senators had requested urgent meetings with him today, most of them to show their concern for the poor traumatized Chancellor. The fools. 

“Ah, Senator Taa.” He nodded slowly, collectedly. “Please send him in.”

The aide nodded and closed the connection, as soon as he had the harmless smile gave way to a disturbing scowl.

Unfortunately, he hasn’t had time or opportunity to think much about it – let alone make plans or orders for Tyranus – as “well-meaning Senators,” have occupied his every free moment. Someone will die for this. He thought as he transformed into the Chancellor of the Republic and received the Senator for Ryloth.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

He was making a concerted effort to project the calmness of the Jedi Master that he was, letting only a fraction of the nervousness that he felt shine through. 

This is a bad idea. Obi-Wan thought as he walked calmly up the stairs to the Senate cloak flowing behind him.

He nodded greetings to Senators that he passed, 

He arrived at his destination,

“Master Jedi,” a nod. “How may I assist you?”

“I would like to meet with the Chancellor, if he’s available.”

“I am sorry, but the Chancellor is absolutely booked—"

“Master Kenobi, what a pleasant surprise.” Called the voice of the Chancellor himself.

I doubt it. Obi-Wan thought as he forced a convincingly polite smile.

The Aide looked at the Chancellor, “Chancellor Palpatine, I was just explaining to—”

The Chancellor clapped his hands together gently, “Never mind that. I will always make time for my Jedi friends. Please, join me, Master Kenobi.”

Obi-Wan nodded to the poor aide and followed the Chancellor. If he is the Sith Lord, he’s a very good actor.

The Chancellor moved towards the large window, overlooking the city, “Now, Master Kenobi,” the Chancellor questioned, his back to the Jedi, “what brings you here?”

Let’s see if my acting can rival his, “Chancellor, I am terribly sorry if this puts you in an awkward position – but Anakin speaks so highly of your advice – and I find myself in need of advice.”

The Chancellor cast a shocked look over his shoulder, “You? Advice? Master Kenobi, whatever could you need advice on?”

“A personal matter, Chancellor. As you have said.”

“Ah, I see. This regards Mandalore, does it not?”

“…Perhaps…” He allowed a glimmer of hope to flitter across his face and in the Force. “Chancellor, I would ask if it is at all possible to allow me personal leave, to attend to matters on Mandalore?”

The Chancellor hummed and remained with his back turned, “What does the Jedi Council think of this request?”

“I have not spoken with the Council,” “You oversee the GAR, and ultimately the decision would fall to you.”

Palpatine finally turned fully to face him, “You must know, Master Kenobi, I cannot condone this. You have a duty to the Republic. To leave now would be desertion at the very least…treason at the worst.”

“I understand, Chancellor.” He said nod doubling as a bow.

The Chancellor steepled his hands together and said forebodingly, “I trust you will make the right decision.”

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Anakin parked his speeder, ran his hands through his unruly hair and climbed and began his long walk back towards his quarters.

It had been a long night, with no sign of Fives anywhere, the man had disappeared without a trace. 

The Coruscant Guard was still searching. The Jedi mounted their own search, Shaak Ti and Jesse taking Rex and his place to continue searching. And now… he was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to sleep. Maybe he’d go bother Obi-Wan into treating him to dinner at Dex’s later, but for now, sleep.

He trudged into his own quarters, toed off his boots, tossed his cloak in the general direction of its hook, then collapsed onto his sleep mat.

Anakin drifted somewhere between sleep and consciousness. Distantly registering the door to his quarters opening and the warm presence accompanying it. Oh, it’s you.

His master’s voice reached his ears, “Anakin?” 

“Hey, Master,” he called out groggily.

He heard light footsteps and shortly Obi-Wan appeared in the doorway, “Anakin, I need to speak with you.”

That got his attention and drove away any trace of sleep from his mind. Nothing good ever came with that tone of voice paired with those words. He sat up quickly, “Whatever it is, I didn’t do it.”

Obi-Wan shot him a doubtful look that said, I know you, Anakin. Whatever it is, I know you did it. He then took a breath, “This isn’t easy for me to say, Anakin, but I’m leaving the Order.”

Anakin was positive his brain was finally short-circuiting. Did he just say…? No. I’ve taken one too many hits to the head and I’m hearing things now. 

“Anakin, are you listening? I said I’m leaving the Order.”

Anakin’s eyes widened and his mouth dropped open as Obi-Wan's words finally registered with him. He blinked rapidly, then gaped.

“What!?” Anakin bellowed, leaping to his feet, towering over the shorter man. “No! You can’t! Wait! I mean – WHAT?!”

Obi-Wan silenced him with a hand on his shoulder, “It isn’t a decision I’ve made lightly.” 

Anakin breathed deeply. The world was falling out from beneath his feet, and he felt powerless to stop it. “Master, please! You can’t leave! Not after Ahsoka–”

“I have found my hands tied, and I need to leave.”

Despair quickly turned to frustration, raising clenched fists as if to fight or prepare to strangle the man in front of him, “What does that even mean? Is someone making you leave? Tell me who it is, and I’ll…I’ll… I’ll talk to the Chancellor, and he can fix this.” 

A firm shake of the head, but the sad eyes still stayed, “No. Anakin.” Then he gestured behind him towards the common room. “Please, come sit. I’ll make tea and we can discuss things.”

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

This is not going well. Obi-Wan thought as he watched Anakin storm past him into the common room. Then kick aside Ahsoka’s abandoned meditation cushion and plop down angrily onto his own. 

His former padawan folded his arms. “You want to walk. Fine. Let’s talk.”

Obi-Wan sighed, then followed. Anakin glowered as they tracked his movements. He picked up Ahsoka’s cushion and restored it to its rightful place, and then sat down across from Anakin.

Obi-Wan opened his mouth to speak, but Anakin beat him to it, gesturing wildly.

“You can’t leave the Jedi, Obi-Wan! What about the Council, and, and the 212th? What about the younglings?!” He broke off into a whisper, “What about me?”

Obi-Wan had to bite back the desire to shoot back that not everything was about Anakin. However, he needed to remain calm in the face of difficult conversations, and this was proving to be very difficult indeed. He certainly couldn’t tell Anakin about Fives or what he suspects about his friend – the Chancellor. Anakin and Palpatine were close…too close for Obi-Wan’s liking, but anytime he even looked oddly at the Chancellor, Anakin was there to defend him, loyal as he is. He drew in a calming breath.

“My leaving has nothing to do with you, Anakin.” He held up a hand to stave off any more interruptions. “…It is mostly to do with Satine.”

“She’s dead, Master.” Obi-Wan winced, That’s my Padawan, brutal and to-the-point. “What about ‘no attachments?’”

Obi-Wan sighed, sinking inward with the weight of exhaustion, sadness, and hopelessness of it all, “Unfortunately, my Padawan, I’m not a perfect Jedi. I struggle too, and this is something I need to do. For her.”

He pulled a comm from his belt and handed it to his friend, “Here, if you ever need me. Please, don’t hesitate to reach out. At any time. You’re my brother, Anakin. I love you.”

Anakin’s eyes were suspiciously wet as he looked down at the comm in his hand then back up at his master.

“I still don’t understand, why?”

Obi-Wan shot Anakin a conspiratorial look, Oh really? It’s not Padme that you would drop everything for at a moment's notice? My mistake. Then simply said, “Search your feelings, my friend.”

Anakin merely folded his arms and looked to the side in reply.

Obi-Wan sighed sadly, “I know that I haven’t been worthy of your trust these last few months, and I’m so sorry for that, Anakin.” Then offered his former padawan a halfhearted shrug. “I don’t suppose you’d accept it if I asked you to trust me once again?”

Anakin barked out a watery laugh, “I trust you, Obi-Wan! I just want you to trust me!”

“And I do.” Obi-Wan said, spreading his hands, “I just need to take care of some things, and then I have every intention of being right back at your side to keep you out of trouble.”

His former Padawan outright laughed at that, “Yeah…Right.” Concern overtook his smile, “Who’s going to make sure you stay out of trouble, Master?”

Obi-Wan smiled in response, rolled his eyes and folded his hands into the sleeves of his cloak, “I have survived much before you, and I will continue to do so. Besides, I do have some friends, Padawan.”

Anakin smiled slightly at the title, and Obi-Wan nodded and broke off any more conversation, “Now, shall we meditate for a bit, it may be some time before we see each other again.”

Chapter Text

Fives and Obi-Wan said a brief goodbye to Dex. The Besalisk gave both men a four-armed, rib-crushing hug, then leaned over towards the Jedi, telling Kenobi conspiratorially, “Don’t know if you need a ship,” he passed the Jedi a scrap of flimsy with coordinates and a passcode scratched on it, “but I got one for ya boys. Key’s under the mat in the cockpit.”

He then chuckled darkly, “Not much of a ship, but it’ll get you off planet and away.”

The General suddenly looked concerned, but Dex cut off any protests by clapping a hand to the Jedi’s shoulder and ushering them both out through the back door.

“Good luck, boys. Stay out of trouble, best you can.”

Night had fallen, and Fives once again donned the Jedi cloak and followed behind the equally cloaked general as they once again took to the darkened streets of Coruscant.

They turned corner after corner, avoiding cameras and patrols. After what seemed like forever to Fives, they arrived at a small shipyard.

The General sighed in despair as he looked through the fencing and took in the state of the ship that would take them off planet.

Fives also looked over the ship that was meant to get them off planet. Dex hadn’t been joking when he said it wasn’t much of a ship: a two-seater, with maybe a bunk and a small fresher on board. Its patchy paint job was rusting in some spots. He tilted his head slightly to one side and confirmed that it was in fact lop-sided.

General Kenobi entered the code that Dex gave them, opening the gate into the yard. “I suppose we were hoping for something inconspicuous,” he said with forced cheer.

Fives nodded. No one would look twice at them in that piece of junk.

They approached the ship and the general reached up for the door release. The door opened halfway, accompanied by a loud grinding noise, before suddenly dropping the rest of the way with a loud clang!

Fives flinched. Both men winced and looked around to see if they had been heard. All was quiet.

The inside of the ship was cramped, but there was a small fresher, a single bunk, and two seats in the cockpit. The general made his way to the pilot’s seat and started flipping switches, running pre-flight checks on all systems. Fives squeezed past into the co-pilot chair and looked over the controls. Systems checked out; things were good.

He directed his gaze towards the Jedi, “So, General. Where are we headed?”

The general didn’t look up from the nav-computer as he responded, “Mandalore. Or at least the system.” Then he met the clone’s gaze, “I’m no longer a General, Fives. You can call me Obi-Wan, or even Kenobi if you prefer.”

Fives wasn’t sure how to respond to that other than with a simple, “Yes, Sir.”

The soldier would swear that he saw the Jedi roll his eyes exasperatedly, as he returned his attention to the computer.

After everything had been checked and the general confirmed with Fives that the ship was, “Not the best, but certainly flyable.” They took off.

They entered the lane for leaving Coruscant, and shortly received a message over short range. One of his brother’s voices coming in staticky over the ship speaker, “Vessel CB-36542. Please submit off-planet travel clearance codes.”

Fives shot a worried look at the Jedi sitting next to him. Kenobi held up a calming hand and with the other hand sent the requested clearance. Responding with a respectful, “Thank you, Trooper. Transmitting now.”

The trooper’s voice came back over, “Received. Clearance confirmed. Safe travels.”

Once they passed the security stations, Fives turned and asked incredulously, “How?”

The general smiled mischievously, “Technically, my resignation from the GAR and the Order won’t be effective until received by the council tomorrow morning. So, officially the last thing I’ll do as a Jedi Master is use the Jedi’s clandestine operation clearance. It gets us through with no questions asked.”

Wonders never cease. Fives thought to himself, I’ll never not be surprised by the Jedi.

The general then turned and entered the coordinates for their destination and pushed a lever forward.

Fives breathed out a soft sigh of relief as the stars blurred into lines – finally relaxing. Things will be alright.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

The sun was rising, casting the council chambers in a fiery, golden light.

The Council was in session, and Master Plo Koon was concerned. Obi-Wan usually arrived at the meetings early and they would chat briefly before the meeting would start. Plo always looked forward to chatting with the young master. However, the session had started and Obi-Wan was nowhere to be seen.

Master Windu cleared his throat, “Before this meeting, I received a message from Master Kenobi addressed to the Council.”

Obi-Wan’s pre-recorded form flickered to life in the center of the chambers, “Esteemed Masters, I regret to inform this Council that I am resigning from my position as a general in the Grand Army of the Republic,” a moment’s hesitation, “and from my seat on this Council as a Jedi Master.” Looks were cast around the room, Plo Koon’s gaze did not leave the recording of his young, reckless friend.

“At this time, I have no reason to offer that I am at liberty to share. By the time you receive this, I will no longer be on Coruscant. I leave you with my gratitude, may The Force be with you all.” The recording closed, plunging the chamber into shocked silence.

Master Windu cleared his throat, “We also received notice early this morning of a ship leaving Coruscant using clearance codes for a clandestine operation. I can only assume now that Kenobi was on that ship.”

Plo Koon wanted to both groan and chuckle at young Kenobi’s antics, but now was not the time for that. His fellow councilors, however, soon erupted to voice their views, talking over and to one another.

“This is bad.”

“That brash, young fool!”

“Is he allowed to do that?”

“This has happened before, and what we have to show for that is a Sith Lord and a war!”

“Obi-Wan is firm in the light. Of that I have no doubt.” Declared Master Depa Bilaba.

“Dooku is his Grandmaster!”

Yoda’s gimmer stick slammed the floor, “My padawan, Count Dooku once was,” punctuated with a jab of the stick. “Judge the younger by the weaknesses of the elder, we should not. Speak with Master Kenobi and discover the root of this, I will.” One final jab to end the argument. “Other, more urgent business, we have.”

He turned towards the Togrutan master, “Master Shaak Ti, any news have you, regarding Clone Trooper Fives?”

Shaak Ti shook her head slowly, “None, Master.”

Plo Koon glanced around the room and knew that Yoda would not be the only one who would try to contact young Kenobi. As soon as this meeting was over, he would be one of the first to do so.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx  

Blasted Jedi!! He threw the datapad informing him of the Jedi’s resignation from the GAR in a fit of anger. It crashed and broke against the wall.

It would seem Master Kenobi doesn’t care about committing treason then. Does the idiot have no sense of self-preservation? He could feel the hatred burning beneath his skin and manifesting as sparks at his fingertips.

First the missing clone, and now Kenobi. It would be too easy to assume that the clone had simply died, and he refused to allow that loose end to remain untied. He needed to know what happened to it. It knew too much. Yet, none Dooku’s hired bounty hunters had found anything, yet.

And Kenobi… too important a piece in this game to be left alone. Especially, with the Jedi’s annoying talent to survive and stumble into secrets best left unknown. No. Kenobi would need to be dealt with, and quickly. Whether that meant being brought to heel by the Jedi Council or…

Sidious chuckled evilly; this might actually be just the thing he needed: The separation of Kenobi from Anakin could be what he needs to severe the boy’s loyalty to the Jedi Order. Plus, he had the added benefit of finally ridding the galaxy of Kenobi once and for all.

He sat down, steepled his fingers, and opened a call to Master Yoda.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Padme moved about languidly, enjoying – for a moment – the peacefulness of her morning. She nabbed a pastry and a jogan fruit from her kitchen and turned on the morning news for some background noise. Watching briefly, the hosts discussed the recent assassination attempt on the Chancellor’s life, then moved onto the social events that they normally gossip about. Padme then sat and began looking through her schedule for the day.

“And what everyone is talking about today is the resignation, uh hum, desertion, of High Jedi General, Obi-Wan Kenobi.”

What? She dropped her pad in shock and focused on what was being said about her husband’s former master and her friend.

“Apparently, the Jedi Master resigned from the GAR the morning.”

“I didn’t know Jedi were allowed to do that.”

“There will be a Senate hearing at some point in the next few days to decide what to do about the missing General.”

What is he doing? Missing? She questioned to herself. Nobody could have seen this coming.

“We’ve reached out to the Jedi Temple for a statement and haven’t had a response yet but stay tuned for the --” Padme dragged a hand down her face as she turned the report off.

Obi-Wan? Resign from the GAR? Was he missing? Could he have been kidnapped or captured by the Separatists?

The Senate would have a field day with this. Speaking of, her comm decided to start chiming with messages from her fellow Senators.

She needed to talk to Anakin. Surely, he of all people would know something about this.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Obi-Wan pulled the ship from hyperspace, and it shuddered in protest. He shot a look at the control panel – daring it to give out on him. The sad excuse for a ship jolted and hiccupped to a stop. Obeying, for now.

Fives had gone to sleep back on the single bunk, saying something along the lines of, “At least it has a bunk.”

Now, we wait. Obi-Wan thought to himself as he sat down. His attention drawn to his comm – which finally noticing that it was no longer in hyperspace began to light up with messages and many, many missed calls.

From his fellow councilors, from Bail and Padme, the Chancellor’s office, from Cody, from Anakin. Not looking or responding to any of the messages, he pulled out the singular comm linked to Anakin. Many more missed calls from his former padawan and then a message. CALL ME!!

The force suddenly and insistently pulled his attention away from his comm. The ship controls starting beeping as three Mandalorian fighters dropped out of hyperspace in front of their pathetic little ship.

Obi-Wan eyed the fighters and released a slow breath. And so, it begins. He thought, before standing to go wake Fives.

Chapter Text

Anakin was frustrated, Obi-Wan did not say that he would be leaving immediately after their meditation – he didn’t even get to say goodbye or see his master off, apparently last night was goodbye.

Obi-Wan had also apparently neglected to let anyone else know. He thought that his master would have given at least two weeks’ notice, or something polite like that, but he didn’t. So now, Anakin was getting calls and summons from everyone wanting to know if he knew anything. Which is how he found himself standing before the Council, trying not to notice his master’s empty seat.

“So, Master Kenobi, visited you last night and told you he was leaving the Order?” Master Windu queried.

Anakin shifted, unsure of what else to tell them, should he tell them about Satine? He quickly decided that no, he wouldn’t betray Obi-Wan’s trust like that. If Obi-Wan had wanted to tell them about Satine in his message, he would have, but he didn’t, and Anakin wasn’t going to be the one to tell them. Not about Satine or the comm link that Obi-Wan had given to him.

He bolstered his shields, “He told me that he needed to go, and that it wasn’t a decision he was making lightly. We meditated for a bit, and then he left.” He let some of the frustration he felt for his former master slip through, “He didn’t tell me that he was planning to leave immediately.”

The Knight watched as glances were cast around and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He hated when they did this, why couldn’t they just say whatever was on their minds?

Windu spoke up after sharing a glance with Yoda, “Thank you, Skywalker. Please let us know if –”

A message from the temple guards came through interrupting Windu, “Apologies, Masters,” the voice rang through the chambers, “Commander Cody would like to speak with Master Kenobi. What should I tell him?”

Plo Koon spoke up, “Please, let the commander know that someone will be with him in a moment. Thank you.”

Anakin looked around at the seated masters, then he asked, “What is going to happen with the 212th?”

Plo Koon jumped in again before anyone else could say anything, “I have a proposal. Where we have no available Jedi generals, I recommend that the 212th be divided into thirds, then integrated into battalions under Jedi command. I would be happy to have them, for the time being.”

Anakin took the opportunity to chime in as well, “Me too. The 212th and the 501st have worked together many times. It might be good for them to have some familiar faces around.”

Windu spoke up, “Then I will take the remaining third. It is decided.” Then the Korun master glanced at the Kel Dor, “You will speak with Commander Cody?”

Plo Koon nodded.

Windu then looked at Anakin, “Thank you, Skywalker. You are dismissed.”

Anakin bowed, the picture of respect, then promptly left.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Cody and the 212^th were still on Coruscant, with still another week left of leave. Cody had been enjoying his leave, walking a short distance from the barracks, heading to a diner that the General had introduced him to. Everything was fine.

He was walking past a monitor that had some popular talk-show hosts. When he saw his general’s face suddenly appear on the screen. General Kenobi had apparently deserted the GAR and was now missing? The hosts continued talking and making jokes about it as though it wasn’t one of the worst things possible that could happen to Cody and his brothers. He stopped in his tracks and stared in disbelief – people milled about him, bumped into him, shot him annoyed looks.

When Cody finally snapped back to himself, he quickly turned around, and pushed his way through the crowd, careless of the angered grunts or scoffing words. Heading as quickly as he could in the direction of the Jedi Temple, he punched a button on his wrist as he walked. Nothing. He tried again and hoped that the General would message him back that he was in a meeting. Something, any sign, that what he’d just seen and heard was a mistake.

He broke into a run when he saw the spires in the distance, sprinting up the stairs, two at a time.

Cody was stopped at the doors by the temple guards, they must have recognized his armor though, as they kindly ushered him aside to a room where he waited.

While he waited, calls from his men were coming in. No doubt they’d heard the news too. That their General had left them. Cody quickly sent notice to all his men,

“I’m going to take a guess and say that the reason I’m being spammed, is because you all have heard news about our General. I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know if it’s true or not. But I’m at the Jedi Temple right now, and I’m going to find out.” He paused before adding on, “I’ll let you all know as soon as I can. For now, sit tight.” He cut the connection and silenced his comm.

He waited for about ten minutes when General Plo Koon entered the room. Cody immediately stood to attention, relief and trepidation filling his mind at the same time. He had worked with the Kel Dor before; he was a kind man. However, if General Kenobi was at the temple, he would have come to meet Cody himself.

Cody couldn’t read the General’s expression, but the Jedi’s shoulders slumped slightly, “Cody, how are you?” The Kel Dor’s deep voice had a calming effect.

Still at attention, “I could be better, Sir. Is General Kenobi available?”

A quiet sigh that came out as a puff from his mask, “He is not. I’m sure you’ve heard some news by now, and I’m sorry that you have learned of it in this way.”

Cody sat down in shock, “So, it’s true then? General Kenobi has left?”

A slow nod, “It would seem so.”

The Commander looked up at the General imploringly, “Did he say why?”

“He only said that he was unable to explain his reasons at this time.”

Cody lowered his gaze and stared down the visored helmet in his hands, Then what would become of them?   

The General folded his arms into the sleeves of his cloak, and straightened as if sensing Cody’s thoughts, “But don’t worry Cody, the 212^th has not been forgotten. For now, the 212^th will be split into three companies and will join with the 501st, the 187th, and the 104th, under Skywalker, Master Windu, and myself.”

It was little consolation, but he felt a tiny spark of hope at General Koon’s wording, For now.

The General continued, “I have been placed in charge of the transition, and I would appreciate your assistance and insight, if you’re feeling up to it.”

The spark brightened into resolve, and Cody stood up again becoming the perfect soldier that he was. “Yes, General. I would be glad to.”

For now. He thought to himself. Just for a bit, and then he’d go find his wayward general and drag him back himself.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

The rogue Jedi and soldier stood together in the tight cockpit as Bo-Katan Kryze’s stern form reflected in their comm center.

Well, she certainly looks like a ray of sunshine. Fives thought sarcastically to himself.

“Lady Kryze.” Obi-Wan bowed, and Fives moved to follow his lead.

Bo-Katan raised a brow at both of them, before leveling a glare at Kenobi, “You never showed on Coruscant.”

Fives shot a knowing glance at Kenobi. So, that’s what you were doing in that dark alley.

“Yes. Well.” Kenobi paused and shot a glance at Fives, “Something important came up.”

Bo-Katan tossed her head in Fives’ direction, “Something to do with the clone?” She questioned derisively.

Now, that’s just rude. Fives opened his mouth to tell the woman – lady or not – exactly what he thought about her and her shiny armor. A hand from the general stopped him from doing so.

“Yes,” he answered, a warning tone entered his voice, “His name is Fives.”

Then he turned fully towards the soldier, “Fives, this is Bo-Katan Kryze. Sister to the late Duchess Satine,” the Jedi paused, “of Mandalore.”

Bo-Katan paused, the comm center humming in the silence, she gave Fives an appraising look. Then met Kenobi’s gaze and nodded.

“Follow us to these coordinates on Kalevala.” She ordered, “We’ll discuss the plan there.”

The ship beeped, letting them know that it had received the coordinates.

“Of course,” Kenobi bowed again, “After you.”

The comm center turned off, and Fives turned to Kenobi smiling fiercely, “Well, she’s charming. Isn’t she?”

A half-hearted smile, “Not half as charming as her sister, I’m afraid.”

Fives could tell there was a story to be told there, but the sadness in the general’s eyes made him pause before he could ask about it.

He decided to fill the sad silence, “To Kalevala then. After the incredibly charming lady.”

 xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Cody left the Jedi Temple and strode down the long stairs. The long walk gave him time to think about everything that had changed in only a few hours.

The General had seemed fine, hadn’t said anything that would have indicated that something was wrong. To up and leave like this… something must have happened. He just needed to find out what, but before he could do that, he needed to tell the men the news.

Reaching the end of the stairs he headed towards the barracks.

He wasn’t particularly looking forward to working with Skywalker, but he had requested it. After all, ‘Where Kenobi goes, Skywalker follows,’ and vice versa. So, any chance Cody had of finding the General would be with General Skywalker.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

A stormy gray sky and a dark blue sea rolled by above and beneath them as they made their approach to the house of Kalevala.

The three Mandalorian ships landed with grace, and the little ship carrying Kenobi and the clone shuddered then landed. Bo-Katan tilted her head, subtlety was one thing, but a lopsided ship?

The sun began to set, making the water glitter with a thousand suns.

The odd pair exited the ship and looked to her for direction, she jerked her head and turned, expecting them to follow.

She talked as she walked, “We have scouts in the city. Watching for movement from Maul.” She climbed stairs and faced them as she sat in her seat. “We’ll wait for an exact location, then go and liberate Mandalore from his rule.”

“Stealth is our best weapon,” She continued, “We’ll get you in and cover you, while you take care of Maul.”

Kenobi finally spoke up, “I would prefer to capture Maul. There are questions that he may be able to answer.”

How curious. “What kind of questions?”

“The kind that could help to end the Clone Wars.” The Jedi said in a tone that left no room for any more questions.

Stubborn Jedi. “Well, either way. Your questions will have to wait.”

“Of course, Lady Kryze,” Kenobi bowed, and Bo had a feeling she was being treated like a child, “All will be as the Force wills.”

She was about to snap a response back at him when they were interrupted.

“Lady Kryze! We’ve got a visual, he’s moving!”

She turned to the Jedi, who was now smirking, she wanted to punch him. Instead, raising an incredulous eyebrow, “Seems the time is now, are you ready?"

The Jedi’s eyes hardened with resolve, “Yes.”

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Anakin hopped in a speeder and headed for Padme’s apartment; he had received orders to ship out. He also received notice of the members of the 212th that would be joining the 501st.

Cody? That was a surprise. He was fairly certain that Cody strongly disliked him. This would either be great or not so great. It would be like having Obi-Wan with him on every mission. Spouting off rules and disagreeing with his plans. Then, he remembered again that Obi-Wan wouldn’t be joining him for missions any time soon, and suddenly was very glad to have Cody joining them. Rex would be happy for sure.

There would be time to think about all of that later, he smiled softly as he approached the familiar landing pad.

He climbed out of the speeder and entered the apartment. Padme was there already; she must have just arrived from the Senate. Anakin grabbed her from behind and swung her up into his arms, she dropped the datapad that she was reading as she laughed and wrapped her arms around him.

“Ani!” She chuckled. Then they kissed.

Padme pulled away first, whacking his chest, “I have been trying to call you all day.”

Anakin set her down gently, “I know, I’m sorry, Angel.” He sighed and looked away, “I’ve been kept busy today and I’ve received orders: Mid-rim patrol.”

Padme reached up and cupped his cheek, drawing her husband’s gaze back towards her, “I heard about Obi-Wan,” she whispered. “What happened?”

“He told me last night that he planned to leave the Jedi. Something about Satine. He wouldn’t tell me more than that.” He moved to pull the comm that Obi-Wan had given him, “He left early this morning, and I’ve been trying to reach him.”

Padme looked at the comm link, “Anakin…” She paused, “They’ve issued a warrant for his arrest. Tarkin wants to prosecute for treason.”

Anakin flinched back as if slapped, “What?! Treason?!” The next time I see Tarkin, I’m going to rearrange his face. “What is it with Tarkin and treason? Obi-Wan has done more for the Republic than most people have! Couldn’t they cut him some slack?”

Padme took his hands in hers, “He will have a trial, if they can arrest him. Bail told me that he would defend. If it ever happens.”

Anakin sighed and smiled lopsidedly, “They’d have to catch him first.”

Padme smiled in return.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Dressed for stealth, Obi-Wan, Fives, Bo-Katan, and three other Mandalorian commandos were met by two other Mandalorians at the edge of the city. They entered the city together, quietly. Night had fallen and the city was dark, lit only by unattended fires, some small, others raging.

Obi-Wan looked around sadly at the destruction of the once beautiful city that Satine had built up. This was his fault; Maul had come here because of him. He would make things right. I promise, Satine.

They worked their way around to the palace, the lead commando turned with a hand signal, that Obi-Wan chose to interpret as "We're here." They entered quietly through a broken stained-glass window. However, it was quickly apparent to the small group that no one was there

“You said that Maul was here!” Bo-Katan hissed at the commando to her left.

“He was!” Came the defensive response.

Fives shifted the borrowed rifle on his shoulder in annoyance.

Obi-Wan paid no attention to the hissed arguing, stretching out his senses and searching for the familiar cold, dark presence.

“He’s here. this way.” Obi-Wan whispered, walking quietly to the right and entering the darkened corridor. Fives followed at his right shoulder, just as quietly. The Mandalorians ceased their bickering and followed.

Obi-Wan led the way, lights flickered behind them.

The hallway led to an open area with different levels. One could see down two levels or so in the flickering lights from the hallway, pitch blackness any further down.

“Stay up here.” Obi-Wan ordered Fives and the others over his shoulder, before removing his cloak and stepping over the edge.

Air rushed past him, billowing through his robes. He used the Force to pillow his landing, his boots coming to rest softly on the floor five levels below.

It was quiet. Then he felt a dark presence surround him.

He ignited his lightsaber and turned slowly within the small circle of blue light. Darkness surrounded him. Suddenly a voice came from the darkness in front of him.

“What a pleasant surprise. I heard you had left the Jedi.” A chuckle, “I thought I would have to hunt you down, but here you are.” Maul taunted softly, “And with more friends. If you surrender now, I promise to make their deaths quicks.”

Obi-Wan brandished his lightsaber, spinning it back and upwards, fingers pointed in the direction of the voice, “We shall see about that.”

Maul laughed and flew forwards, a double-bladed saber igniting and spinning, striking hard.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Fives had a bad feeling about all of this. He had since they entered the corridor, and the feeling only grew worse when the General had disappeared off the edge and down into the darkness. He couldn’t see anything. Bo-Katan made a hand motion to her men, and they moved off to the right, leaving Fives alone.

A blue light ignited below him

He heard whispering, but couldn’t make it out, before a smooth voice rose out of the darkness, “And with more friends.” He felt the Sith’s attention focus on him, pinning him like a bug under glass. Fear filled his mind, and his limbs felt frozen. His rifle dropped, landing with a clunk at his feet.

Kenobi spun his saber, drawing away the being’s attention, and the Jedi’s voice rang out, “We shall see about that.”

Fives heard a disturbing laugh, and a red light ignited and swirled moving to clash against the blue.

He wiggled his frozen fingers and sighed softly in relief. That was the most terrifying thing to ever happen to him, and a lot of things have happened to him.

He shook himself, C’mon Trooper! Now’s the time for action. Get moving! He moved quickly to the left. He heard blaster shots ring out and shouts from Bo-Katan, Maul clearly wasn’t the only enemy around. He figured the lady and her men could handle themselves though. He was staying with his General.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Despite having fought Maul many times, it never got any easier.

There was no time for banter as the two duelers focused solely on the fight.

Obi-Wan fell into his familiar defensive form as Maul attacked viciously and quickly. Attacks fueled by hatred and rage battered Obi-Wan’s impenetrable defense.

Block. Disengage and block again. Seeing a small opening Obi-Wan struck forward, but Maul saw it coming and pushed the Jedi away.

Obi-Wan recovered from the push and flipped over Maul’s head. He landed crouched, then turned and rose to meet Maul’s downward strike. Arms shaking with the effort as the Sith pressed him down.

While engaged in the saber lock, Obi-Wan noticed a light blinking on his wrist, Anakin was trying to call him. He inwardly sighed, Excellent timing, Anakin. As always. He disengaged from the lock and spun way, coming around to strike at Maul from a different angle. The light continued to blink.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

For what seemed like the billionth time, Anakin tried to call Obi-Wan. The light blinked continuously but no one ever answered.

He worried about his master. He’d called over and over again with no response, and maybe Obi-Wan was just busy, but fear niggled at the back of his mind. Obi-Wan would jump into things – like out of a window of one of the tallest buildings on Coruscant, or into a nest of gundarks – when he did those reckless things Anakin was always there to help him out of the inevitable mess he’d get himself into.

Anakin stuffed the comm in one of his hidden pockets and angrily mimicked Obi-Wan’s accent, “It’ll be all right, Ahnakin, call me anytime.” He huffed, “Yeah, right.”

He stormed down the halls of the Resolute, his men scattered from out of his path, not wanting to get caught up in the whirlwind that was their general’s anger.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Fives moved determinedly, squinting through the scope of the sniper rifle. He couldn’t line up a decent shot! How was he supposed to provide support, when the two force users moved too quickly to follow? He lowered the rifle in frustration, he needed to be faster.

The Jedi had been to bat for him too many times to count in the last few days alone for Fives to just let the man fight this battle alone. He wasn’t an ARC trooper for nothing.

“That’s not going to happen.” He said to himself.

He moved to try another angle, growled in frustration, and then ran. They’d moved again!

He spied a staircase in the flickering light. There!

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

“Where is your loyal foal, Kenobi?!”

Obi-Wan didn’t bother to grace that with a response, blocking Maul’s strike and slapping it away. Answering with a quick strike of his own.

They’d been dancing around each other, both vying for the offensive.

Maul laughed madly and lunged forward, “You think you’re going to accomplish something here? You’re too late, Kenobi! You don’t even realize the ability that your precious padawan has to destroy!”                                                                                                                                                      

That threw him. Obi-Wan quickly blocked the two strikes in quick succession. What?

“Anakin?” He force pushed Maul back, but the Sith was ready for it and stayed on his feet in a predatory crouch.

“Your Padawan,” the Sith spat, rising from his crouch, and lazily spun his double-bladed saber behind him. He laughed cruelly as realization dawned on Obi-Wan’s face, “YES! Your Padawan. Skywalker. He is the key to destroying everything and destined to be my old master’s new apprentice.”

Anakin. His gaze snapped to his wrist where the light was no longer blinking. The bright smile and joyful laugh of his Padawan danced warmly through his mind for a moment. They were then overshadowed by more recent memories of Anakin’s fierce anger. Anger leads to hate… He recited to himself. Blast! He’d been so blind!

Maul quickly took advantage of his momentary distraction.

Obi-Wan lightsaber was kicked from his hand, it extinguished and clattered somewhere off to his right. Pain shot through his arm; something had broken. He desperately reached for his lightsaber with the Force, but another kick from a metal leg sent him to the ground hard.

Obi-Wan was lifted from the ground with the Force, then an unfortunately familiar hand wrapped around his neck, he clawed desperately at the hand, and kicked out, but Maul was not fazed.

“Palpatine’s your master.” He choked out.

The hand squeezed tighter in shock; anger filled eyes boring into pained gray ones. “I answer to no one.” Maul hissed. “I have no master.”

The Sith pulled the Jedi ever closer, whispering, “I will break you. I’ll use you to lure Skywalker here, so that I may destroy him while you watch. Sidious will never have his prized apprentice.”

Obi-Wan’s vision began to darken, but managed to wheeze out, “You’re right. He won’t.”

Blue light suddenly ignited and the hand around his neck loosened and Obi-Wan fell to the floor.

Chapter Text

Three Months Ago

  ARC Trooper Fives strode confidently down the main corridor of the Resolute, helmet tucked against his side. He could hear the excited chanting and cheering of his brothers echoing through the halls.

He rounded the corner just in time to see Ahsoka put a shiny hard on the mats, knocking the wind from the soldier.

The rule was this: If your back touches the mat. You’re done.

General Skywalker was watching things – unnoticed – from the back of the room with his trademark smirk on his face. He nodded at Fives as he passed by.

"Hey, Fives! Watch for her guard to drop on her left side. She forgets it sometimes, but you’ll have to be quick.” General Skywalker whispered conspiratorially.

Noted. “Thank you, Sir!” He whispered back with a grin.

Fives had sparred with the Commander many a time, since she’d grown up some. Back when she’d first joined with them, she’d challenge them and they’d laugh then pat her on the head, and tell her, “Maybe, when you’re a bit taller, Little Commander.”

Now, they challenged her, and they were lucky if they came out of it with fewer than three bruises. She’d grown up a lot, he pondered, as he threaded his way to the front. Fives had yet to beat her. However, with the tip from the general, he had a good feeling that today would be the day that fact would change.

He watched as Ahsoka helped the shiny to his feet and patted him on the shoulder. Then he put his helmet on the ground and step onto the mat.

“Alright, Little Commander. Let’s see what you got today!” He teased her.

She turned towards him and rolled her eyes at him, “What you will be seeing is the roof from the mat, Fives.”

His brothers collectively, “Ooohhhh!”

He smiled openly at her, “I’d like to see you try.” Then beckoned her forward with a hand.

She was fast, but he managed to skitter out of her way for a bit, blocking her punches, and even returning a few of his own.

The General decided to make his presence known and Ahsoka – eager to please her master – looked to him immediately.

There. He had no time for hesitation. He took the opening on her left side.

Ahsoka noticed him a fraction of a second too late. Her eyes widened and she moved to block him, but his momentum took them both to the ground, the Commander’s back hit the mat first though.

His brothers  cheered for their brother and their commander. 

Ahsoka looked at Fives and giggled as she placed her hands firmly on the mat beside her head and leveraged her legs up and flipped to standing. Then she offered the victorious soldier a hand up, which he took with a mischievous grin back at the young commander.

She grabbed his wrist and raised their hands above their heads, “You’re crazy Fives!” She chided him while beaming.

Present

This is crazy. I’m crazy. Fives thought to himself and hoped that the Sith wouldn’t bother to notice or care about the clone approaching from behind.

Moving ever so slowly forward, he watched as the Sith drew Kenobi forward and hissed something softly to the Jedi. Concern turned to horror as he watched the General’s eyes begin to close and his struggles falter.

He had to do something. There was no time for hesitation.

He picked up the lightsaber, praying, Please, let this work.

Fives met the Jedi’s shuttering gaze and saw the General’s lips move as he said something to Maul.

The soldier ignited the lightsaber, and immediately – as if it had a life of its own – the saber thrummed forward, pulling him with it. Blue light flashing, its aim true.

Maul’s body collapsed to the ground, beheaded. Fives stood still breathing harshly. The lightsaber extinguished and fell from trembling hands to the ground beside its rightful owner.

The General choked on air as he rolled to sitting. He stared in shock at the corpse of the enemy who had sought his destruction in every possible way for years, then lifted his eyes to the man standing before him.

“Fives?” He rasped out, barely a whisper.

Bo-Katan and several other warriors arrived at that moment, jetpacks roaring then shutting off. The woman took note of Maul’s body, then was moving again. She pulled the Jedi to his feet saying, “We’ve got incoming. We’ll need to act quickly.” The Duchess’ sister moved to kneel beside Maul removing the dark saber from the finally deceased Maul’s belt. She looked between the two of them then held the hilt reverently towards Kenobi.

“It wasn’t me.” Obi-Wan said quietly, stepping back away from the hilt, one hand rubbing at his throat, the other gestured to Fives.

Fives wasn’t sure if it was disbelief or awe that crossed Bo-Katan’s face, but he chose to interpret it as awe. Remembering the terrifying and electrifying feeling of wielding Obi-Wan’s lightsaber. He was in awe himself. Did that actually just happen?

Bo-Katan held out the hilt of the dark saber to him, not without reluctance, “Mand’alor Fives.”

Aw, kark.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Sidious felt a quiver in the dark side and immediately knew that Maul had finally – officially – officially perished. Kenobi would have been the one to kill him, which was…frustrating. He had hoped that the two of them would kill each other off, clearly that was too much optimism on his part.

What a waste. He growled to himself. Maul had shown so much promise and taken up much of his time being trained.

No matter though. He had a much better and stronger apprentice being prepared, and his fall to the dark side would be glorious, and the Kenobi issue would sort itself out soon enough.   

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Sunlight peeked over the horizon, shedding new light on the city of Sundari.

Bo-Katan led their little group out of the palace and into the smoke-filled streets where fighting had broken out between the remainder of Bo-Katan’s forces and the warriors who were loyal to Maul.

“Cease fire!” Bo-Katan shouted, “Lord Maul is defeated, and we have a new Mand’alor.”

She turned to the clone, grabbed his wrist and raised it to the sky. She looked at him and hissed, “Turn it on.”

The clone squinted at her, annoyed, but thumbed the activation and the dark saber thrummed for all to hear.

The fighting ceased as red and blue clad Mandalorians gathered around.

Bo-Katan released the clone’s wrist, and the soldier let the dark saber extinguish as he dropped his arm to hang limply at his side.

A disbelieving scoff arose from somewhere within the crowd followed by a mocking voice “A Clone?! As the Mand’alor? You’re not serious. You expect us to believe a clone capable of defeating Lord Maul?”

Bo-Katan glared in the direction of the voice, “It does not matter what I expect. Only what is.”

A commando sporting red armor moved a step forward, “You’re right. That doesn’t matter!”

Kenobi decided to join them, stepping forward lightly to the opposite side of the new Manda’lor, raising his voice, “It does matter. Maul is defeated. The proof of that is before your eyes.” The Jedi gestured to the dark saber and continued, “He is every bit worthy of your respect. Not merely because he is a warrior, but because he is honorable. Isn’t that what being Mandalorian is about?”

Only silence and ashamed shifting answered the Jedi’s question.

Bo-Katan shot the Jedi another appraising look, He’s good at this. People listen to him. She thought to herself. Like they used to listen to Satine.

An angry roar came from the other side of the crowd, “He has done nothing to earn our respect, and I refuse to let Mandalore be ruled by a clone!” A blaster was raised and fired at the clone quicker than any Mandalorian could act.

Kenobi moved in the blink of an eye to defend the new Mand’alor, lightsaber igniting and snapping upwards deflecting the shot straight back where it came from. It impacted the armored chest of the shooter.

“You are more than welcome to try that again,” Obi-Wan invited cordially, spinning the lightsaber in a quick twirl before coming up in front of him again. His gaze and voice hardened, “Perhaps your respect is not worth earning.”

The Mandalorian growled, moving forward only a few steps before several other Mandalorians stopped him.

“You di’kut!” One hissed through her helmet, “Did you not just see what the Jedi can do? If you crave death so much, I’ll give it to you! Otherwise, fall in line, Vizla!”

Vizla grumbled but ceased his attempts to break through the crowd.

The female Mandalorian, who had hissed at Vizla, turned and nodded her helmeted head to Fives saying, “I follow you, Mand’alor.”

That was surprising. Bo-Katan looked at the clone again in time to see shock pass over his features before he hid it with a respectful nod to the speaker.

He’s in as much shock as we are… She turned to the gathered commandos, once more raising her voice to be heard by all.

“We will allow Mand’alor Fives to prove his worth to us. If he cannot earn our respect, then he will not have it and be challenged.”

There was some shifting and then muttered agreements.

The clone then looked to the Jedi, who stared back before he stepped forward, “The first thing to do is see about putting out the fires around the city and arresting any members of crime syndicates. Arrange yourselves in groups of three to five and go.”

The Mandalorians all dispersed, and Bo-Katan turned to the clone and the Jedi.

“We’ll need to figure out the leadership

The clone looked both frightened and overwhelmed by the sound of having any part in what she was suggesting, thankfully Kenobi stepped in.

“I’d recommend representation of each group, the True Mandalorians, New Mandalorians, and even Death Watch. Each group could select someone to advise you.”

“And what about you?”

“Me?”

Bo-Katan nodded to them and moved away to give them the semblance of privacy, but she kept a listening ear towards them.

“You could be a Senator?”

A startled laugh, “Oh no, there’s no chance of that. I’d be happy to help you though, in any way that I can.”

Bo-Katan tossed, “He does need a Prime Minister,” over her shoulder from where she had been pretending not to eavesdrop.

The Mand’alor glanced at her, crossed his arms and leveled a look at the Jedi, “Alright then, Prime Minister?”

Arms crossing as the Jedi sighed in reply, “I don’t suppose I could refuse?”

Bo-Katan laughed, “No chance of that!

Her new leader chuckled softly and whispered, “Sorry, but no. We’re in this together now.”

Chapter Text

Obi-Wan trudged tiredly back into the palace alone. It would seem that word traveled quickly here, almost as fast as gossip traveled through the Jedi Temple.

A group of True Mandalorians had appeared shortly after Fives had been announced as Mandalore and he declared a cease fire among all Mandalorians. The group had then whisked Fives away to be properly armored, they seemed trustworthy. So, it was fine with Obi-Wan, he needed some time alone to meditate and to take care of Maul.

His heart was heavy as he walked through the throne room, colored glass crunching under his boots, towards the place where Maul’s body had been left in their haste to stop the fighting. He picked up his pace, breaking into a run as the terrifying thought suddenly occurred to him that Maul may decide to come back from death a second time just to spite him. He ran to the once darkened room, where the late morning light had broken through in spots, letting in just enough light to see by, he breathed out in relief at the sight of Maul still there.

Obi-Wan then set about building a funeral pyre around the Sith. It was a strange feeling, building a pyre for someone who had been – directly and indirectly – the source of so much pain for so many years.

A glint of silver caught his eye, Maul’s double-bladed saber. The crystal inside called out, howling like a wounded creature. He knelt down on one knee and reached for it with his uninjured hand, but the crystal lashed out in the force spitting hatred at him, and he jerked his hand back.

Still kneeling, he cocked his head quizzically at the saber. Something about it was telling him not to burn it with Maul.

“What am I to do with you, then?” He asked it rhetorically.

He decided to worry about it later, then cradled the force around it and lifted it off to the side. Then he resumed the construction of Maul’s pyre.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Anakin sighed internally and glanced briefly at a chrono on the back wall behind Rex’s head. This had to be one of the longest and most frustrating days of Anakin’s life, and it was all Obi-Wan’s fault. If he hadn’t decided to up and leave in the early hours of the morning, then he wouldn’t have had to deal with the Council, Padme wouldn’t have been called in for extra sessions in the Senate, and they would have been well on their way to their patrol route.

The 501st and their new members from the 212th were still preparing to leave Coruscant and getting settled. Anakin himself was in the middle of a long briefing with Admiral Yularen, Cody, and Rex when he felt Obi-Wan’s comm link vibrate in his pocket.

He would never admit it to anyone, but he may have slightly jumped at the feeling, drawing confused glances from both Cody and Rex. Yularen – thankfully – seemed not to notice.

Unwilling to let the opportunity to finally talk to Obi-Wan pass by, he cleared his throat and excused himself from the holotable.

“Sorry,” He forced an unconvincing cough, “I think I need some water. Carry on. I’ll be back shortly.” He ignored Cody’s look of disapproval and Rex’s look of suspicion to step out of the small room then he quickly walked down the corridor. He slid into a maintenance closet and tugged out the comm link and answered it.

“Oh boy, Old Man, you have got some explaining to do.” He said, scolding, “I’ve been trying to reach you all day.”

Silence crackled through the comm briefly, before Obi-Wan’s voice came through, “I’m sorry, Anakin…I’ve been…busy.”

He sounded exhausted; Anakin wished that this comm could do image transmissions instead of voice only, but he’d take what he could get.

“Hmm. You sound tired.” He commented to former master.

A sigh, “I am.”

Anakin wanted to crack a joke, but felt something inside him break at Obi-Wan actually admitting that he was exhausted.

“You should rest then. Before that, though…Do you want to tell me what you’ve been up to since I last saw you?”

“Maul is dead now, for real this time.”

“…You don’t sound too happy about that.” Anakin commented.

A hum. “I suppose I feel that his life was a pathetic one. So much anger and hatred.”

Anakin winced at his own memory of anger and hatred that accompanied his killing the Sand People. Suddenly, he was grateful that this wasn’t a full image transmission, even tired as he was, Obi-Wan would have picked up on it.

“Anyways, enough about that. You’ve called me about 20 times today, is everything alright?”

“Oh yeah, that’s right!” Anakin remembered ironically, “Other than the fact that you just up and left without a word to anyone else and I have been the one to have to deal with it! Other than that, things have been okay.”

Silence on the other end, then, “I also wanted to ask you…what happened with the 212th?”

“They’ve been divided among three battalions, Master Windu, Master Koon, and me. I’ve got Cody and he helped to keep the companies mostly together, so you don’t have anything to worry about there.” He paused in his rant, remembering what Padme told him, “Also, you’re wanted for treason.”

He heard Obi-Wan scoff through the commlink, and he could almost see his master rolling his eyes.

“This is serious, Obi-Wan.” He scolded, “The next time I see you, I’ll have to arrest you.”

Obi-Wan took the opportunity to start bantering, “You’ll have to catch me first, my very young friend.”

Anakin chuckled, “Right, Old Man. But I won’t be the only one for you to worry about.”

“I’ll always worry about you, my friend.” His master said fondly.

Anakin’s head snapped upward; he could hear voices in the hallway. Yularen must have finished the briefing with Rex and Cody, he couldn’t stay in the closet for much longer, or they’d send out a search party after him.

“Hey, Master? I’ve got to go now, but next time I call you, answer your comm!”

“I will do my best, Anakin.” Well…that was probably the best that he would get out of Obi-Wan right now.

“You’d better.” He warned before closing the connection.

He listened for the voices to pass him by – it wouldn’t do for Yularen, Cody, and Rex to see him stumble out of a closet, especially when he said he was only going for water. Once the hall had quieted he entered the hall again

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Fire from Maul’s pyre crackled and popped, smoke and embers rising to towards the high, broken ceiling.

Silence filled the room in the absence of Anakin’s voice, and he let his hand holding the comm fall into his lap.

Not Anakin. He can’t fall. He promised himself that he would stop Sidious, even if it would be the last thing that he would do. The Sith wouldn’t enslave his Padawan, not while he still breathed.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Mandalorian armor was the armor of legends, and now Fives knew that to be true without a shadow of a doubt. It was lightweight and breathable, and he had heard that it was the only stuff in the galaxy that could hold its own against a lightsaber. He wondered if he would be able to convince the General to test that theory with him.

His new armor remained unpainted, for now. He’d choose colors later, and his helmet wasn’t quite finished yet, but it would be soon.

“Hey, General?” Fives called out as he jauntily approached the Jedi, “Check out the new armor!”

When he received no response, he took a closer look at the man. The general was sitting on the floor, slumped against the wall, facing a bonfire. His right arm was held close to his chest. He looked tired.

Fives was concerned now, “General? Are you alright?”

He heard the General whisper something about blindness, then the General turned his head to look at him. Sad blue eyes locking with his own brown, “He’s after Anakin, Fives.”

The soldier remembered then why they had come on this little side quest, “The Sith Lord is after General Skywalker?” He asked while coming to sit against the wall next to the General. “Why?”

Kenobi dropped his gaze to a comm link in his left hand, “Maul said that Sidious will have Anakin for his next apprentice.” He then tightened his grip on the comm, “Palpatine is the Sith Lord we’ve been searching for. I have no doubt of it, but we have no proof of it, and with Maul dead–”

Fives winced and interrupted, “Sorry about that, General. I completely forgot that you wanted to capture him.”

The general sat up straighter and looked at him, surprised, “No, Fives! You saved my life. And besides, I doubt Maul would have been a reliable source of information anyways. That doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t have liked to try, but regardless, you have my gratitude.” Then he smiled, “And once again, you don’t need to call me General.” His voice turned teasing, “You technically outrank me now, Mand’alor Fives.”

Fives groaned and slumped further against the wall, “Don’t remind me. I’m not cut out to be the planetary ruler of anywhere.” He tossed a glance at the Jedi, “It should’ve been you. Bo-Katan wanted it to be you.”

The general waved a hand dismissively, “Oh no. I’m not brave enough for politics. All is as the Force wills it, and apparently it wishes for you to be the planetary ruler of Mandalore.”

Fives attention was drawn to the waving hand, it didn’t…look right.

“Uh, General?” He gestured to the hand in question, “Your hand.”

Attention drawn to his hand, “Ah. Yes.” The Jedi paused, “It would seem that Maul’s metal extremities don’t mix very well with non-metal ones.”

“You should get that looked at.”

Another dismissive wave, “I’m fine. You don’t need to worry.”

Fives gave the General a deadpan stare, then remembered how much General Skywalker would complain about Kenobi not taking care of himself like he should have when things weren’t what he considered ‘life-threatening.’ Sure. Maybe a broken hand wasn’t life-threatening, but they had supplies available. So why not?

“Right, then.” Fives got up and stood before his general, trying to look official.

“My first order – as the Mand’alor – is for you to head to a medic to get your hand taken care of.” He wanted to laugh as the Jedi’s jaw dropped in shock. Fives continued before the Jedi could interrupt in protest, “My second order as the Mand’alor is for you to get some much-deserved rest. After that, Lady Kryze wants to get some armor for you too.”

The General’s mouth snapped shut, and he glanced around as though looking for any possible way out of this conversation. He turned back to Fives and opened his mouth to speak again, but Fives beat him to it.

“No arguments, please, Prime Minister.” He said officially and held out a hand, “We’ll need you at your best if we are to succeed in taking down the Sith.”

Kenobi smiled slightly and rolled his eyes at Fives’ antics but grasped at the offered hand and let himself be pulled to standing.

“Quite right, we’ll see about the armor though.” He answered, he reached out with the force and pulled Maul’s double-bladed saber towards him – it seemed to have calmed down somewhat as it didn’t lash out at him this time. He clipped it to his belt and ignored Fives’ questioning look, then gestured for Fives to lead the way.

“Also,” Fives remembered, “One of the commando teams that we sent out has come back with some members of the Pike syndicate. They want to speak with me, and I’d like you to be there too. After we rest of course, they won’t be going anywhere.”

Chapter Text

“Several months ago, the planet of Mandalore lost their ruler – Duchess Satine Kryze – and fell into disarray under the attack of Crime Syndicates and the Death Watch group. Earlier this week, The Senate received an announcement that Mandalore is now united under the rule of a new Mand’alor, and that former High General Obi-Wan Kenobi now serves as Prime Minister of Mandalore.”

“Does that mean he can be put on trial for treason then?”

“As of present, the warrant for arrest still stands. So, I guess we’ll find out. Stay tuned Coruscant for any updates.”  

 xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Master Windu leaned forward in his council seat and stared impassively at the announcement from the Senate. A new leader had been declared as Mand’alor and Obi-Wan Kenobi was at this individual’s side as Prime Minister of Mandalore. The image with the announcement gave away little about the new ruler, armored and helmeted with no discernible markings, there were four beings at this individual’s side. On the right stood Kenobi – appearing calm and unperturbed as ever – on the left, a fierce looking woman with short red hair, and two other armored Mandalorians.

He was concerned and he could feel a headache coming on. He couldn’t imagine that Obi-Wan would throw his support behind anything that wasn’t a good cause. However, he had been wrong before – thinking of Dooku.

 Master Yoda’s chortling broke through his thoughts.

“You find this situation amusing, Master Yoda?” He questioned snappishly.

“Much like his master, Obi-Wan is. Reminded of this I am. Refreshing it is, in this time of darkness and uncertainty.”

Oh, truly it was. If Qui-Gon Jinn were here I’d be telling him a thing or two.

Then, pulling himself out of the past, Master Windu cleared his throat.

“In other news, we have received notice that Members of the Coruscant guard found pieces of clone trooper armor, confirmed to have belonged to CT-5555, in the lower levels. It is presumed that CT-5555 fell and died.”

“Only armor, though?” Master Luminara inquired, “Are they certain this is the case.”

Master Mundi interjected, “Can we be sure of anything, these days? It would not be difficult for a clone soldier to blend in when there are millions of other beings with the same face.”

Plo Koon hummed, “If Clone Trooper Fives had managed to rejoin with a battalion, someone would have noticed. All the commanders were alerted that he was unwell. There would be an extra trooper somewhere.”

Shaak Ti sighed sadly, “I remember Fives from training. He was a good soldier, I’ll let Knight Skywalker know. However, I believe that we should continue quietly with our investigation, just to be sure. Fives was clever and resourceful – even when unwell, and something isn’t right here.”

Mace couldn’t help but agree and he just knew that if Kenobi were here, he’d be saying “I have a bad feeling about this.”

 xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Fives barely managed to block a fierce punch aimed at his face. Bo-Katan was brutal and wicked fast. Having sparred with Ahsoka time and time again, he didn’t think he was doing too miserably. However, Ahsoka lacked the aggression that Bo-Katan had in spades.

She dropped low and kicked a leg out sweeping his feet out from under him. He crashed to the floor.

Bo-Katan stood over him, “You must be able to fight like a Mandalorian if you have any hope of being the Mand’alor.” she said sternly.

Fives rose from the floor, breathing deeply, trying his best not to look like he was as out of breath as he was. Sweat dripped down his face, but he met her glare with one of his own.

She held his stare for a few seconds before she scoffed, then turned and grabbed a towel. Throwing it at him, she growled, “You’re too slow.” Then she stormed out of the room without another word, nodding in passing to the general on his way in.

With the dragon-lady gone he could finally show some weakness. Fives crumpled, hands moving to brace himself on his aching knees.

“I can tell you two are getting along so well. Never have I seen a closer pair of friends.” The General noted sarcastically striding towards the sparing ring.

“Nice outfit.” Fives shot back.

Despite the general’s many protests, someone had managed to get the Jedi to wear shoulder, wrist, and shin guards – similar to what the Jedi had once worn into battle. The New Mandalorians had made new Jedi style robes in Duchess Kryze’s colors that were accompanied with a short cloak that attached beneath his shoulder armor. The New Mandalorians, in particular, had developed a fondness for the General and his tragic love for their late Duchess.

“A lovely story,” several women had swooned when Fives had – mischievously – told them a romantic and dramatic love story. He may have embellished it a little.

The look on Kenobi’s face was worth it though. Especially when an old, widowed Mandalorian woman had patted his bearded cheek, with a, “There, there. My Dear. Your heart will heal with time.”

“Ha.” The Jedi barked out a single laugh, stepping down into the ring with him, “If you have breath to joke with, then you have energy to train with a saber.”

Fives winced, then chuckled. Kenobi was as brutal – if not more so – than Bo-Katan. The General was just better at hiding it, he supposed.

“Right. Saber training. Maybe we could –”

Kenobi interrupted, folding his arms, the barve. “If you’re going to ask me to spar with you again, I would ask you to reconsider asking me that question.”

“I wasn’t going to ask that.” He lied. “I was going to suggest – before I was so rudely interrupted – that we could do some, uh, katas or drills.”

Blue eyes stared at him, clearly not believing. “Indeed. Drills would be good for you. I’ll meditate while you do that.” The general promptly turned and walked to the opposite corner of the ring.

Fives wrestled down the urge to groan as he pulled the dark saber from its place on his belt and thumbed it on.

It felt like holding a live wire in his hand, the vibrations turning his muscles to jelly.

He shifted his stance and began doing a few simple drills. Moving through strikes and jabs, blocking shots from imaginary foes. Tossing a glance over at where Kenobi had plopped down cross-legged, he knew that while the General wasn’t actively watching him, the Jedi would be aware of every movement he made.

When he finished the first drill, the dark saber felt heavy as it thrummed in his hands.

The General’s voice behind him startled him, “That was well done, Fives.”

Fives swore and just about jumped out of his armor. The Jedi moved so silently.

“Apologies,” Kenobi offered unapologetically, then ignited his own lightsaber and then whirled into some katas of his own. Fives may not be an expert on Jedi lightsaber forms, but whatever the General was doing now, it wasn’t the defensive katas that he was used to seeing from the peaceful Jedi. This form was aggressive.

Kenobi paused, “Bo-Katan has informed me that our Pike Syndicate visitors are still requesting your presence. Perhaps we ought to see what they’re about.”

Fives nodded his agreement as he began another drill. Right. He thought. In all the commotion, Fives had completely forgotten about the Pikes.

“Yeah. We should probably do that. I’ve also been thinking about how we could go about finding out about the chips… Sneaking onto Kamino might not be the best idea.”

Kenobi raised his hand to stroke at his beard, “Yes, I’ve been thinking the same.” He paused then shrugged one shoulder. “The only thing that I can think of otherwise would be essentially to kidnap another soldier, tell them about the chips, then hope for the best.”

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Rex was frustrated. Don’t get him wrong. He admires General Skywalker. He really does. The man just makes it hard sometimes when he asks Rex for help to keep things – AKA whatever it is that he and Senator Amidala have going on – under wraps.

They were in a debriefing meeting to report on the goings on in this sector and the General could not stop smiling at his comm.

There’s no way – in any galaxy – that somebody hasn’t noticed General Skywalker’s adoration for the Senator. He may as well declare it from the top of the Senate Building.

He looked away from the General, aware that if he looked for too long it would only draw more attention to the General. He turned his head and caught Cody’s unimpressed gaze. Scrap. Cody knows.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Anakin loved getting messages from Padme, it was like getting a present on life day every time he opened his messages to see her name.

Although sometimes, he groaned internally. The content of the messages could be better. Padme had forwarded him a clip of the Coruscant News along with an image.

Anakin could tell that Obi-Wan hated the new outfit, but he had to admit that the colors did his friend justice. Anakin was a little jealous. For years he’d tried to get Obi-Wan to switch out the plain beige robes for something more colorful, but he had no luck with that. After all, Obi-Wan could be as stubborn as a bantha, but now there he stood, in blue and green with a bit of purple.

He almost wanted to try and tease Padme with a quippy, Should we get matching outfits too? But he decided against that.

The young Jedi general then looked up to find both Cody and Rex staring at him. Rex’s face exasperated and Cody’s unreadable.

“...Okay, then." He clapped his hands together, "Now that we’ve finished that, I’m going to go get some sleep. You know where to find if you need me.” He promptly excused himself and briskly walked out of the room and down the corridor.

“General Skywalker! A moment please, sir?”

Anakin turned, painting an innocent look on his face, and waited for Cody to reach him, “What can I help you with, Cody?”

“Sir,” Cody stood at attention, “Have you had any contact with General Kenobi?”

Anakin hesitated as he looked at the earnest Commander – Cody was trustworthy, he decided.

“Yeah Cody, I have.” He admitted quietly, “Obi-Wan’s okay, for now.”

Cody nodded and Anakin could feel his relief in the Force. “That’s good, sir. Has he mentioned anything about returning soon?”

Anakin sighed and shook his head, “He hasn’t,” raising his voice again, he continued, “and I don’t like it. Obi-Wan always manages to get into the worst kinds of trouble. Who knows what kind of trouble he’s getting into now.” 

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Obi-Wan walked at Fives’ side to the holding levels trying not to linger on memories of the last time he’d been here. They passed cell after cell and Satine’s voice echoed in his mind questioning, “Here to do more of your master’s bidding?” Then he thought to himself, I do my own bidding.  

They reached a cell holding a single Pike, who looked up at their approach.

“I was beginning to think I’d been forgotten.”

Fully armored and menacing, Fives stepped forward, “Sorry ‘bout that. Been a bit busy, you understand.” The vocoder made his normally friendly and carefree tone a bit less friendly than he would have hoped for.

The Pike locked eyes with Obi-Wan then glanced between Fives and the former Jedi.

“Jedi… You are not the Mand’alor? I assumed –”

Obi-Wan cut him off, discouraging this line of thought, “You asked to speak with the Mand’alor, here he is. I am merely here because he requested my presence.”

The Pike blinked at them, “Yes... I have information that I hope to trade for my freedom and the possibility of friendship between the Pikes and the Jedi.”

Fives turned his helmeted head towards him then gestured one hand towards the Pike and stepped backwards, “This one’s all yours, Kenobi.”

Obi-Wan stepped forward and crossed his arms, “I am no longer a Jedi. I have left the order. I am unable to make any promises of friendship with the Jedi.”

If the prisoner was surprised by this, then he didn’t show it. “That may be so, but my information may still be useful even to a former Jedi.”

Obi-Wan shifted slightly, “I’m listening.”

“I was once a prison guard on Obadiah, and I used to guard a prisoner who was under the care of a certain Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas when he died.”

“Sifo-Dyas?” Obi-Wan asked, surprised.

The Pike smiled darkly, knowing the his freedom would be secured shortly.

Chapter Text

Wind jostled the HAV Juggernaut as it plowed through sand.

Master Plo Koon stood stoically, listening to his clone officers discuss the elusive distress signal, as the vehicle rocked violently.

“All of our information pinpoints it is here.”

“I don’t know what to tell you sir; we’re getting no visual and no recognition on the scanner.”

Plo Koon rocked forward with the movement of the vehicle and then turned face forward. “We must locate the source of the signal, Commander. Press on.”

“Wait. I think I found something…it’s very faint, Sir.”

Plo Koon moved to lean over the officer’s shoulder, “That is it.”

The Juggernaut’s brakes engaged, its pistons squealing to a stop with a jerk and a clank and a hiss.

Master Koon and several other clone troopers dropped down from the Juggernaut into the shifting sands. The wind jostled their little group roughly, but they pushed onwards to the downed ship.

The Jedi listened intently as his troops called out what they could find.

“The hull shows substantial scoring and wear. Whenever it crashed, it wasn’t recently.”

“General Plo! The scans check out; it’s a T6 Shuttle all right! Serial number 775519.”

Plo crouched as he moved towards the cockpit of the crashed ship. He felt a whisper in the force and then saw a glint of silver on the sand covered ground. A lightsaber.

He turned back to his men, “I want the entire area cleared, we’re taking everything back to Coruscant.”

“Everything?”

“Everything.” Plo confirmed.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

“My understanding was that Sifo-Dyas had been killed on Felucia.” Obi-Wan commented, beginning to pace in front of the cell.

“Not so.” The Pike hissed, eyes following the former Jedi. “My freedom?”

Fives stepped in, “You’ll have your freedom. For now, how about you tell us what you know?”

The Pike leaned back nonchalantly, “Sifo-Dyas was not killed on Felucia as records say, he died on one of Obadiah’s moons.”

“In an altercation with the Pike Syndicate, I assume?” Obi-Wan fixed the Pike with a piercing gaze.

“The details are unimportant.” The Pike answered, waving a hand.

“However,” he said leaning forward, “The prisoner may be willing to share more information with you.”

Fives shrugged his armored shoulders, “Well. I guess we’ll be making a trip to Obadiah, then.” He started back down the hallway, “I’ll go get our inconspicuous ship ready.” He added with a chuckle.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

“Go with Master Windu you will, Skywalker. Discover the truth of what happened on Obadiah, we must.”

Anakin bowed to the ancient master, “Yes, Master Yoda.”

The comm connection blinked out.

“Come Skywalker. We shouldn’t delay our departure.”

“Right.” He said, taking one last scanning look around the scenery of Felucia. The last time he’d been here, he’d been with Obi-Wan and Ahsoka, fighting off pirates alongside bounty hunters. He frowned a little, missing the presence of his master and padawan. But there was no time to be sad about it. They had a mystery to solve.

Thankfully, the jump from Felucia to Obadiah was a relatively short one. Master Windu didn’t exactly make for the most entertaining company. Anakin didn’t really know what to talk about with the man, other than missions and reports. Who would want to talk about that for hours on end? Other than Obi-Wan. He thought fondly. Rather than make small talk with Windu, Anakin decided to stay back near the engines and do some tinkering.

The ship started beeping as they approached their destination, and Anakin finally decided it would be a good time to head back up to the cockpit as Windu brought the ship in to land.

Anakin and Master Windu walked slowly down the ramp of their ship, some Pikes paused in their work to look at them dubiously, before returning to their duties.

“Not the worst welcome, I’ve ever had.” Anakin muttered to Windu at his side, as they entered the Pike’s stronghold, they were met by guards at the entrance and then led to the head of the Syndicate.

Time to do some talking.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Their Pike prisoner – their friend, Fives self-corrected – guided them to land in a lesser used hangar. Away from the main entrance.

“Follow me.” He said, as they left their dilapidated ship behind. They walked down hallways and past guards, who paid them little attention, then down a dimly lit corridor, before stopping in front of a closed door.

“Here.” The Pike hissed as he tapped in a passcode, “Our business is complete.”

Kenobi stepped over the threshold first, Fives followed in his steps.

The room was dark, save for one skylight that shone down onto a spherical platform, and some eerie green lights around the perimeter of the room.

“Hello?” Kenobi called to the room.

A small voice answered from the darkness, “Wh-who’s there?”

Fives took off his helmet and tucked it under one arm and squinted at the darkness.

“My name is Obi-Wan Kenobi, former Jedi Master –"

The voice interrupted, “Jedi?” A skittering of bare feet was heard, then a pair of sunken eyes and a sallow face peaked over the sphere. “Why have you come?”

Fives shared a glance with Kenobi.

“We were hoping that you could tell us how you came to be here.”

The man began to weep, “Oh poor Silman! Betrayed and forgotten.” The crying abruptly stopped, dropping into a whisper, “Long ago.”

“Silman? Is that your name?” Kenobi questioned.

Silman, Fives assumed, ignored Kenobi and hopped up onto the platform. “Quick! Maybe you have some food, have you any food?” he implored, looking at them squarely and rubbing his fingers together.

Fives shook his head, This is getting us nowhere, “You must come with us, now.”

Silman tilted his head at Fives, looking at him as if he’d grown another head, “Why would I leave?”

Fives shook his head slowly, “I don’t understand…you want to stay here?”

Silman threw his head back and laughed outrageously, shouting in a sing-song voice, “Yes! Yes! Yes!” Then softer – turning his gaze on the worms at his feet, “I would never leave my babies.”

Babies? Fives mouthed incredulously to himself.                                        

Kenobi shifted and coughed uncomfortably, “You’ve been here a long time.” Then he took a tentative step forward, “Before you were…brought here. We understand you were traveling with Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas.”

Silman laughed again, “Sifo-Dyas?” Then tilting his head at an uncomfortable angle, “He died.”

Tapping his fingers on the platform beneath his feet, he sang, “Died a died a died a died.”

“We were betrayed. By someone… someone who wanted to be Sifo-Dyas. Someone powerful. Another Jedi.”

Fives eyes widened, “A Jedi?”

Silman said no more as he skittered around the room mumbling about finding food for his babies.

Fives tapped on Kenobi’s shoulder and muttered under his breath, “This isn’t getting us anywhere."

Kenobi hummed, “Perhaps not, but we can’t leave him here.”

Fives sniffed, looking back at Silman dancing around wildly in the center of the room, “I’m not helping him bring his…babies. If that’s what we’re doing.”

Fives noticed Kenobi stiffen beside him and turned to him, “What is it?”

Kenobi’s attention was clearly elsewhere, “Anakin’s here. And close.”

That’s not ideal. He thought as he shoved his helmet back over his head. “We need to go then.” He said, then jerking his head in the direction of Silman, “He can be their problem.”

A moment of hesitation before he gave in, “Right.” Kenobi nodded, “Let’s be off then.”

As they left the room Kenobi paused, “You head back to the ship, Fives. I’d like to stay nearby and listen to what they’ve found out.”

Fives nodded, “Happy eavesdropping, then.” He turned, glad to be leaving this creepy place behind as soon as possible. He started his walk back to their dilapidated little ship. Then he paused turning back, “Try not to get into any trouble, huh?”

Kenobi folded his arms, “I shall certainly endeavor to do so.”

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Anakin could not wait for this wild goose chase with Master Windu to be finished.

He also couldn’t keep the disgust from showing on his face as Silman – the former Chancellor’s aide – danced about the room singing about betrayal, death, the Jedi, and food for his babies.

He turned his back to the sight, and leaned over to murmur to Windu, “We might have a problem here.”

Windu – stern as ever – stepped forward, “What can you tell us about Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas?”

“Sifo-Dyas? Again?” He tutted at them, “Oh no, no, no, no.”

Suddenly, Silman started to choke, grasping at his throat desperately, before collapsing dead to the ground.

Shocked, the two Jedi turned together to face a hooded figure standing at the entrance. A red lightsaber ignited, and the figure pulled their hood away from their face.

“Dooku! For once you decided to do your own dirty work.” Anakin scowled and ignited his own saber.

“Some things are just that important.” The Sith taunted with a smirk before he force pushed the two Jedi further into the room.

Anakin clambered to his feet and looked at the doorway. Blast! Dooku was already gone.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Dooku rounded a corner only to narrowly miss having his nose removed by a familiar cerulean saber held by his grand padawan.

“Well. Master Kenobi -- pardon me. Minister Kenobi.” Dooku smiled placatingly – mindful of the saber now at his throat, “What a pleasant surprise. What brings you out this way, so far from Mandalore?”

Obi-Wan smirked, “Prisoner exchange.” He stepped forward as Dooku stepped back, lightsaber poised to strike, “You are the man called Tyranus, I assume?”

Dooku smiled condescendingly, “Oh, very well done, Kenobi. You really are quite clever; I’m surprised it’s taken you this long to piece that together.”

Quick as lightning, Dooku drew his saber and smacked Kenobi’s away, and their duel began.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Anakin skid around the corner in hot pursuit of Dooku, Master Windu followed close behind.

To his surprise, they hadn’t lost Dooku. Rather, he was dueling with another figure, red and blue lightsabers clashing.

“Obi-Wan?!” Anakin exclaimed. Both shocked and elated to see his former master.

Dooku seemed to decide that it was time to make his escape like the coward that he was, “It seems I’ve stumbled into a reunion of sorts. I’ll leave you gentleman to it.”

Obi-Wan brandished his saber, blocking Dooku’s path, “Oh, I don’t think so.”

“Now, now, Kenobi.” Dooku tutted, “That doesn’t seem like a very neutral thing to do.”

Windu ignited his saber as well, “You’re both under arrest. Surrender now.”

Neither Obi-Wan or Dooku disengaged, casting both affronted and offended looks – respectively – at the Korun master.

Dooku rolled his eyes and sighed, “Not today, Master Windu.” He quickly gathered the dark side around him and sent it exploding towards the three men surrounding him sending them sprawling, then moved quickly down one hallway.

Obi-Wan recovered quickly, rolling to his feet and bolting in the opposite direction. Then lifting a wrist and murmuring something into his commlink.

Master Windu took off after Dooku, shouting as he went, “Skywalker! Get Kenobi!”

Sure. He could do that – they had played this game before – and he was off, chasing after Obi-Wan.

This is where the fun begins.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Padawan Skywalker sat at the kitchen table in their rooms, fiddling half-heartedly with the same cluster of parts. He would put them together, scrutinize them – his young face screwing up in frustration – then dismantle them.

From a meditation cushion, Obi-Wan listened to his Padawan do this same thing four times before speaking up, “Anakin? What has that poor mouse droid done to deserve such treatment from you?”

Anakin mumbled something unintelligible, his gaze flickering briefly to his master before focusing back on his sad looking project.

Obi-Wan opened his eyes and contemplated his padawan’s sullen mood before smirking mischievously and popping to his feet to walk jauntily over to his eleven-year-old padawan. Standing over the child with hands folded in his cloak, “What do you say you take a break from that?”

Anakin glanced up cagily at his master, sensing something amiss, but not sure what to make of it. “No thank you, Master.”

Obi-Wan hummed, “Well, then you leave me no choice, Padawan…” Without any warning, the knight snatched the deconstructed mouse droid, darted out the door, and down the halls of the temple.

Anakin sat and stared at the spot where his project had been mere seconds ago, What just happened?

It finally registered with him that Master Obi-Wan had stolen his mouse droid and who on Coruscant knew what he would do to it? Visions of trash compactors rushed through his mind. He let out a shocked shout and chased after his master. Down the hallway, blowing past older masters, ignoring any confused looks, following the shining and teasing sense of his master ahead of him.

The padawan rounded a corner – boots sliding on the polished marble – catching a glimpse of his master bowing apologetically to Master Plo Koon. Anakin could feel the embarrassed shame bubbling through their training bond, and a laugh escaped him. He could almost imagine Master Obi-Wan nearly mowing down the kind Jedi master in his haste. He’s lucky it wasn’t Master Windu.

Obi-Wan sensed his padawan and tossed a look over his shoulder. Bowing once more to Master Koon, he moved quickly around the corner – cloak billowing behind him.

Anakin didn’t even slow as he sped around the corner, he was catching up! Within a few moments he was on his master’s tail, Almost, got him!

Rounding another corner, padawan on the heels of the master. Suddenly – with boots squeaking on the floor – his master stopped. Anakin felt horror from his master just before he smacked right into his back with a muffled “Oof!”

Master Windu stood disapprovingly before the young master and padawan, leveling an expectant gaze at Obi Wan.

Obi-Wan unperturbed, bowed, “Master Windu.” When he stood straight again, Anakin noticed that his ears were bright red. He muffled a giggle in his master’s side.

Master Windu dropped his stern gaze to the Padawan then took the mouse droid from Obi-Wan’s unresisting hands, and passed it to Anakin, “Try not to let your Master break anymore mouse droids, Padawan.”

Anakin smiled slightly and nodded.

Master Windu eyed Obi-Wan and winked at the young knight, then walked calmly away. Obi-Wan’s ears burned ever darker as he turned to his Padawan and ushered him back toward their quarters.

Walking side by side, Anakin giggled, “I caught you, Master! I won!”

“Alright, Padawan. You won.” His master laughed brightly – joy lighting up the force – as he ruffled Anakin’s short hair. “This time.”

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

He wondered how long Obi-Wan could keep up a sprint like this. His former master was running as fast as he physically could.

Anakin’s heart pounded in his ears and his calves were screaming. But even with Obi-Wan’s force assisted sprint, Anakin was gaining on him.

As soon as he was within reach of his friend, he stretched out with his prosthetic and grabbed ahold of Obi-Wan’s arm, and he smirked, Gotcha!

His smirk quickly disappeared as Obi-Wan planted his feet and spun, grabbing at Anakin’s forearms, letting their momentum bring them both to the ground. They rolled about three times, before they stopped.

They tussled on the ground, each vying for the upper hand. Anakin yelped. Whenever their spars came down to hand-to-hand Obi-Wan would fight like a small gundark, especially if he felt cornered, and Anakin wasn’t overly enthused by the idea of having his hair pulled today. He managed to get behind Obi-Wan, put him in a headlock, and pin him face first on the ground. Anakin laughed in victorious disbelief.

He realized that his celebration may be a bit premature when he felt Obi-Wan’s hand yank off the glove on his right arm then felt fingers quickly probe for the tiny switch that powers his prosthetic arm.

Anakin squawked at him and tried to pull his arm away, “Obi-Wan! No!”

He was too late, as his arm made a buzzing sound before it turned off, useless. Obi-Wan scrambled out of Anakin’s grip, staggered to his feet, and took off again. Anakin cursed as he struggled – with one useless arm – to his feet. Growling as he jogged in pursuit and worked to power on his arm. As soon as he felt the tell-tale pins and needles, he shot off like a rocket in the direction that his master had gone. His arm would be stiff for the next few minutes while it ran systems checks after a hard power off like that, but he had bigger things to worry about and he wasn’t having fun anymore.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Fives stood with his stunner at the ready as Kenobi’s comm signal charged towards his location.

The General ran past in a blur of white, blue, green, and maroon.

He saw a dark blur, aimed, and fired. Mandalorian training pays off.

He was a bit shocked to see the dark blur be revealed to be General Skywalker – not Dooku like he’d thought. He whispered a quiet, “Sorry, General,” as the young general collapsed bonelessly with a moan,

Kenobi caught him and gently lowered him to the ground, while checking his vitals “Apologies, Anakin. But we really must be going.” He rose gracefully to his feet, “It has been good to see you. Hopefully, next time under better circumstances with more time available to us.”

Skywalker moaned once more. Fives and Obi-Wan wasted no time, running for their little ship that Fives had already prepped to go.

Once safely in their ship and underway, Fives tugged off his helmet, “Well. That was a disaster.”

“But not a complete waste of time.” Kenobi tossed over his shoulder while piloting the ship out of the hangar, “We now know that Dooku is Tyranus – the man who ordered the creation of the clone army.”

Fives sat heavily in the co-pilot’s seat, listening as Kenobi continued, “So, while we may not know what the inhibitor chip’s purpose is. We do know that ‘controlling clone aggression’ is not the answer. We have you as a testament to that.”

Fives nodded, “So then the chips must have something to do with the Sith creating the army.”

Obi-Wan nodded, “I sense a plot to destroy the Jedi and the Republic."

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Anakin came to slowly; he had been electrocuted enough to recognize the feeling of it by now. This was mild though, compared to other times.

He had the strangest feeling, a familiar voice, ‘Sorry, General.’ Somebody had been with Obi-Wan and managed to clip him.

“This was a disaster.” He said to himself as he rolled to his feet. Obi-Wan was long gone by now. He made a mental note to remind himself to call and rail on him later. For now, though, he needed to find Master Windu. Hopefully, he’d had better luck than Anakin and managed to capture Dooku.

Chapter Text

Anakin felt his frustration reaching new levels.

He hadn’t seen Padme in months, no one knew where Ahsoka was, Rex had started being by the book since Cody joined them, and Obi-Wan was off doing who knows what. 

And here he was. Still scrapping droids and deflecting blaster bolts. Day in and day out. On another mid-rim planet. It stopped being fun when Ahsoka left. It was downright unbearable now that Obi-Wan was gone.

This last week had been miserable, especially after the fiasco on Obadiah. Dooku had escaped Windu too, so they had no new information, and they had made no progress. In any way.

The 501st had been on Cyphar for almost a week now with a mission to destroy another droid factory that had been built, displacing the Cyphari from their homes. It was proving to be more difficult than they initially anticipated.

“Cody!” He shouted into his comm, “Please tell me some good news. Have you and Rex set the charges yet?”

Cody answered breathlessly, “Working on it, Sir.”

Anakin bit off a curse and batted away another few bolts then charged the squadron of droids firing down on him from one of the flat roofs of the abandoned homes. A force leap carried him up to the roof and over the battle droids.

“Oh no. Now I’ll never get that promotion.” One of the battle droids buzzed to another before being deactivated by Anakin’s saber.

The young Jedi made short work of the few droids, then crouched down beneath the lip of the roof, “Do either of you have an ETA?”

“Twenty minutes, tops. General.” Rex answered just as breathlessly as Cody had. They must be running.

“Alright.” Anakin stood and looked over the battle that his men were fighting. Homes were on fire, and broken droids and wounded clones lay scattered. This isn’t working. He thought desperately.

“Fall back to the cliffs!” He ordered, shouting from the roof. “Help as many wounded as you can! We’ll cover you!” 

Anakin ran and jumped from rooftop to rooftop until he reached the front line of droids again. Flipping down into the midst of them to start scrapping again.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Obi-Wan sat cross-legged on the floor of his quarters staring at the double-bladed saber hilt laying on the ground. It had stopped screaming and lashing out days ago, when one of the two crystals inside had broken and died – but not before giving him a migraine. Now the remaining crystal merely emitted a deep sadness. 

Remembering what Fives had said a few days ago while the Jedi sat contemplating the hilt again, “ So, if to bleed a crystal they flood it with hate…and Jedi are the opposite of Sith. Couldn’t you just…flood it with love?”

“It’s not that simple .” He had replied and chuckled fondly at the idea. Fives possesses a childlike simplicity in how he views the world of the Force. It is impossible to come back from the dark side. It is all consuming and dominating. It pollutes and twists everything it touches until it becomes unrecognizable.

Anakin had once said something similar, if he remembered correctly. His young padawan had said that he would fix everything with the power of love. He couldn’t remember how he had responded to the child, but his childlike trust and simple answers to problems always endeared him to Anakin.

Having been carried away in his thoughts and fondly thinking of Anakin. His attention was snagged again by the bleeding crystal. Did it just…? It had. It had responded to his feelings, seeming to almost sigh in relief.

He wanted to laugh, because perhaps everything he thought he knew was wrong and Fives was absolutely right.

He leaned back and asked the room, “Flood it with love?” 

Placing his hands on the cold floor behind him, he looked up at the ceiling as though it held the answers to all of his questions. “Stranger things have happened…” he whispered to himself moments later. Then sat straight again to focus on the remaining crystal.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Obi-Wan loved his master, even though they had some rough times. Their mutual stubbornness made for many clashes of opinion, and Obi-Wan remembered being extremely embarrassed on several occasions.

Ahsoka reminded Obi-Wan of Qui Gon in all the best ways. She was stubborn and strong in the living force. She was fiercely brave and kind. He had hoped that she would be his padawan, but that was not to be.

The first time the two of them went on a mission together. He had been so nervous.

“What kind of food does she like?” He questioned his former padawan as he paced, “What kind of tea does she like?” He stopped, an unbearable thought occurring to him, “Does she even like tea?”

“Obi-Wan!” Anakin moved to grab his master’s shoulders. “You’re fussing! You need to stop.” He released his friend and returned to packing, “Besides it’s only a scouting mission for three days, you’ll be fine. Ahsoka’ll be fine, she’s actually excited!” Then continuing under his breath, “Though I couldn’t tell you why…” 

“I heard that.” Obi-wan scolded his former padawan.

She won’t be if I serve her tea that she doesn’t like. Obi-Wan thought to himself crossly and crossed his arms in lieu of pacing.

Anakin laughed, exasperated, “If she doesn’t like whatever tea you have, then she’ll learn to. But you really don’t need to worry about it!”

The young Jedi zipped up his pack and swung it over his shoulder. “The only thing you need to worry about is keeping her alive.”

Obi-Wan's eyes widened as though the thought hadn’t even occurred to him. Anakin could practically see visions of explosions and assassins rattling around his master’s head.

Anakin cut him off as he walked past him to the door, “Forget I said anything!” Then the young general turned to lean against the now open doorway, “But…just so you know. If anything happens to her on this mission, I’ll have no choice but to disown you as my master.”

“The amount of faith you have in me is truly humbling, Anakin.”

A parting wave, “It’ll be fine, Master.” 

Obi-Wan followed Anakin out of his quarters and watched his young friend stride down the hall before heading the opposite direction.

The Jedi Master arrived at the Skywalker/Tano quarters moments later, he arranged his tabards briefly before raising his hand to knock at the door.

She must have been waiting for him, as the door immediately slid open, and she met his gaze with a nervous smile of her own and a respectful bow. “Master Kenobi.”

“Padawan,” he smiled back at her, “Shall we?”

Her smile broadened into a bright grin, and she nodded. Obi-Wan could feel her excitement in the force. They walked side-by-side down the hallway, towards the hangar where a ship would be waiting for them.

The mission itself ended up being more like a meditative retreat, one of the few calm missions that he had been on since the war began. Obi-Wan smiled, remembering how she chattered about her master, how they had been getting along, and what she was learning about in her padawan classes. He laughed inwardly at his earlier antics, he truly had nothing to worry about.

A pang of sadness. He wondered where she was now. He hoped she was alright.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

The droid factory had been destroyed. Rex and Cody had made it back a little burned and a little bruised, but otherwise fine.

Anakin couldn’t help but wonder if it was all worth it, as he felt pain and death fill the force around him. 

In the midst of all of this pain, he suddenly felt Obi-Wan latch onto him across their bond, effectively giving him a bear hug. Love and pride filled his mind as memories were pushed at him.

Anakin was surprised, he never imagined that Obi-Wan felt things so deeply, but now was not a good time for this, not while dealing with the aftermath of a messy battle. No, he had to stay focused.

He made a mental note to call Obi-Wan later – once all the wounded were back on the Resolute and being taken care of.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Fives felt that his life was beginning to consist of just training and studying. He supposed it was a step up from just training and fighting. He missed his brothers though, and while they were making some progress, it was incredibly slow progress.

He was sitting, leaned against the wall by a recently repaired stained glass window, reading up on Mandalorian history. It was interesting, but he was pretty sure that he had just read the same paragraph about five times, and couldn’t remember anything he just read. 

He gave up on it – for now. Shutting off the datapad, he sat up with a languid stretch. 

A young Mandalorian in full armor ran up to him.

“Sir? We’ve received a planetary distress signal from Gesa. They’re part of the Council of Neutral Systems. We received a transmission that they’re being invaded by the Separatists, and then the transmission was cut…or jammed.”

“That’s not good…and the Republic?”

A disappointed sigh and bitter laugh hissed from the helmeted young man, “Unfortunately, the Republic is unable to spare the resources at this time to assist a neutral planet.”

Fives muted his helmet for decorum, and took the opportunity to swear loudly to himself. Then unmuting himself, “Go and get Kenobi and Kryze, have them meet me in the Council Room.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

The crystal sang and floated in front of him, lighting his quarters with a bright white light. Pieces of the hilt lay scattered.

A disbelieving laugh broke free from his chest as he gazed at it in wonder. It worked. 

He had no way of knowing what the crystal had been like before it had been bled. All he knew was that the crying crystal that had been haunting his quarters for weeks was gone, and had changed into something new, beautiful and white. 

He’d never heard of anything like this before. Love. Tears came unbidden to his eyes, as he smiled at the crystal.

“Hello.” He whispered softly to it and held his hands out.

The crystal came to him, stopping softly in his hands, humming contentedly.

Everything I thought I knew. 

You still have much to learn, my Padawan . He could have sworn that he just heard his old master chuckling just over his shoulder, but when he turned to look, no one was there.

Looking again at the crystal he used the force to float it gently in front of him and set about constructing another lightsaber. 

There was a quick rap on his door, and he waved it open with the force. “Please, come in.” He called without looking. Opening his eyes to look at his visitor…who wasn’t someone he knew.

“Oh. Hello there.” Looking over the individual, their height told him that they were a youth, they were wearing full armor that was painted blue, but not much else could be discerned.

The armored figure shifted uneasily under his scrutiny, “Hello.” Then they cleared their throat and stood tall. “The Mand’alor requests your presence. In the Council Room.” 

They were clearly uncomfortable, but something about them was vaguely familiar.

Obi-Wan finished assembling the lightsaber and called it to his hand briefly gauging the feel of it, before hooking it on his belt and rising to stand before the stranger, “Forgive my asking, but do we know each other?”

The question seemed to catch them by surprise, they looked away and lifted a hand to rub at their neck, “Ah, no. We don’t, sorry.”

Obi-Wan was about to ask them for their name when they interrupted, “I am very sorry, sir, but time is of the essence, and there’s a bit of an emergency

“Ah. Right. Best to not waste time.”

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Fives stood with his arms crossed, watching a Republic report on the events unfolding on Gesa.

The more he watched the deeper the frown on his face became.

Kenobi and Bo-Katan arrived at the Council Room together. 

“Fives?” The General queried, “What’s going on?”

“Gesa, a mid-rim planet – and neutral planet – is being invaded by the Separatists, and the Republic has opted to do nothing. Because of their neutral status.”

Bo-Katan scoffed and huffed, “Typical.” Then she crossed her arms, mirroring Fives’ posture, “So, what are we going to do about it?”

“Help them. If we can.” He received two expectant looks in reply. “I’m open to suggestions.” He prompted.

Bo-Katan shifted her hands to rest confidently on her hips, “I say we fight. It’s time that we show the galaxy that Mandalore is far from weak.”

“We don’t want to pick fights we cannot win. We have neither the numbers or the resources to launch a full scale attack.” Kenobi tossed in his two cents.

“Then let's make sure we win.” Bo-Katan side-eyed the former Jedi.

Fives opted for a compromise, “Right. Since we don’t have the resources,” he held up a hand to stave off Bo-Katan’s protests. “We can send in a stealth team to take out the leadership and droid control. Bo, gather some volunteers to go, you’ll lead the team in sort of…a fight for neutrality.”

Bo-Katan looked a mixture of smug and displeased, “Kenobi? You’ll come?”

Kenobi nodded and sighed, “Fighting for neutrality . Satine would not be pleased.”

Bo-Katan let out a single “Ha.” Then said matter-of-factly, “No. Satine would kill you.”

Chapter Text

Bo Katan strode out of the Council Room ahead of them with fiery determination in her eyes. Fives moved to follow – a mission of his own to complete. A hand caught Fives by the elbow, halting his steps, accompanied by a quiet question, “You’re not coming with us?” 

The clone shifted slightly and the hand dropped from his elbow, “Um. No.” Fives answered simply, placing his helmet over his head and walking on. Praying silently to himself, C’mon Soldier, don’t be suspicious. 

Fives heard the Jedi’s quiet footsteps follow after him, “What are you up to?” 

Drat . The general was too perceptive for Fives’ own good.

Fives spun and began walking backwards, “Just some Mand’alor stuff.” He answered tritely – and perhaps a bit too chipper.

“Mand’alor stuff?” The Jedi parroted back, then folded his arms and shifted his weight to one side, visible doubt clear on his face. “Really?”

The Mand’alor in question mirrored the Jedi’s stance and firmly said, “ Really.”

They stood squared off – staring each other down – in the hallway.

Bo-Katan – Fives’ saving grace – rounded the corner in search of her missing accomplice, “Kenobi! You coming or not?” 

“I’m coming.” Kenobi called to the woman behind him without breaking eye contact with Fives. The Jedi narrowed his eyes at the clone before chiding, “ Whatever it is, try to stay out of trouble while we’re gone.”

The former Jedi/Prime Minister turned smartly on his heels and clipped down the hallway to where Bo-Katan was waiting expectantly.

Fives watched as they began talking plans. He willed himself to appear nonchalant as Kenobi tossed one more suspicious glance over his shoulder before being led round the corner. Heaving a sigh Fives turned and paced quickly in the opposite direction. He had some plans of his own to prepare.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Palpatine looked over the Senate, adopting an expression of genuine concern, hiding the relish that he felt. The fear of many was tangible with the outright attack by the Separatists on a neutral planet – a planet of little to no value to the Separatists. Why had they attacked?

A test. He had proposed to his apprentice. Kenobi on Mandalore had been left alone for too long, and things had been too quiet. Nothing good could come of that. 

So, a little skirmish on Gesa to test the reactions of the former Jedi and new Mand’alor. Nothing ostentatious, just enough to draw Kenobi out, to test the Prime Minister’s reaction. He had no doubt that Kenobi was the one pulling strings behind the scenes of Mandalore. The Mand’alor a mere puppet. There was nothing left to do but wait, and he was well practiced in the art of patience.

Mas Amedda arose and stood stoically before thousands of Senatorial pods, “We recognize the Senator from Naboo.”

Padme Amidala’s pod hovered smoothly forward, her voice projecting clearly and boldly. “Fellow Senators. If we do not come to Gesa’s aid, then who will? They have requested assistance, there must be some way to help. We cannot stand idly by while the –”

Palpatine allowed her voice to wash over him, not truly paying any attention to her idealistic words. She was impressive in her abilities to get to the hearts of individuals, but it wouldn’t be enough.

A cacophony of voices arose to meet her in a mix of anger, fear, and hope.

Mas Amedda called them to order as Palpatine stood.

“We all know that this time has been difficult for many planets and peoples. It is at times like these that we must ask, ‘What are we fighting for?’” 

He turned his head, gazing upon them as though breaking up a spat between children.

“We are fighting for our Republic. How can I knowingly divert resources from faithful planets, like Ryloth, or systems that are crucially important to the war effort, like Geonosis?” He paused, before deciding sadly, “No. We must protect the Republic’s interests. Gesa as a neutral planet will need to struggle through this hard time, but I’m sure they’ll come out of this ordeal stronger than before, and if the opportunity arises to provide aid, rest assured that we will take advantage of the opportunity.”

Scattered applause rose like a wave, and the Sith Lord smiled.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

It had been two hours since Obi-Wan and Bo-Katan had left with their stealth team. However, based on all the heavily armed commandos on the team – Fives doubted they would be stealthy. 

After shaving his face clean, trimming his hair to shiny style regulations, and learning about some of the amazing things one can do with makeup, he was ready for his own mission. 

Feeling vulnerable without his armour, and nervous with the darksaber tucked snuggly – almost uncomfortably – into his boot, Fives wrung his hands in front of him with every step closer to the hangar. He couldn’t say why he was nervous. He was going to see his brothers again. Why should he be nervous? 

He’d been keeping tabs on the movements of the 501st, waiting for the opportune moment to meet up with them. He planned to sneak onto the planet, borrow some armour, join the battle, then, if possible, speak with Rex. About the chips.

The chips had been weighing heavily on his mind – even though his had been removed – after finding out that their creation had been by the Sith. His gut instinct was telling him that the chips were the key to finding the answers to all his questions.

He decided that going with the General to “kidnap” one of his brothers would not work. He has nothing but the utmost respect for the General, but the man really has the worst luck. Everybody but the General knew it, and that was mostly because Obi-Wan insisted, emphatically, that there was no such thing. Either way, any mission he went on was practically doomed to end in chaos, and guaranteed to put them both in over their heads.

So, he’d be going on his own. The 501st was just an hour or two hour jump away fighting a battle on the planet Centares. The GAR must be stretched thin, as the 501st had been moving from one battle to the next, completing their own battles then rushing off to rescue another battalion. 

He, unlike Obi-Wan, did believe in luck…a little, and he thanked his lucky stars that the hangar was mostly empty. The few individuals that were around gave him only respectful nods.

One of the perks of being the Mand’alor was that no one asked questions whenever he took his dilapidated little ship out for a spin. It wasn’t such a bad little ship, it had gotten him this far after all.

He just hoped he could make it back before anyone noticed he’d left the planet.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

After finishing the battle on Cyphar they were immediately called in to reinforce Vos on Centares. The clone looked truly remorseful as he relayed the message, “ Apologies, General Skywalker, but there are no other options.”

Now, the Resolute was locked in battle over the airspace, vying for the upper hand. Soon enough, he expected that he would be flying to join the fray. Rex and Cody had taken some troops down to the surface an hour ago and barely made it through. He couldn’t see a way through this battle that wouldn’t result in devastating loss.

A comm in his hand blinked and blinked, but connected to nothing. Which told Anakin that his master had either thrown away his comm (not likely), damaged it (more likely), or he was in hyperspace (most likely). He tried the comm once more – C’mon Master, I could really use some unhelpful advice right now. 

Truth was, Obi-Wan’s advice was always helpful, just not always wanted. However, now that he did want it, Obi-Wan wasn’t there to chime in. 

Honestly, if anyone knew that he’d been communicating with Obi-Wan and that he hadn’t said anything about it. He would be in deep poodoo for sure, and then he’d get that “ Sharing Top Secret Information with Civilians lecture .

But…if in their talks he phrased things as a hypothetical situation without really divulging any details… that was fine, right? Besides, he’d done this a few times and Obi-Wan had been nothing if not helpful. Anakin found no reason not to trust Obi-Wan with possibly sensitive matters. His former master never asked questions about their deployment, but merely offered hypothetical solutions in response. 

Also, he wanted to ask about the sudden outpour of uncharacteristic love. Not that he would complain, it was nice but just wasn’t typical of Obi-Wan. 

He pocketed the comm and ran a shaking hand through his sweaty curls before dropping his head into his hands. His phone a friend hadn’t worked. He racked his brain for possible strategies, but he was stuck. 

They were being run ragged, and if he was exhausted then his men were probably worse off. He had no idea what else to do.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

White lines coalesced into stars as the ship dropped out of hyperspace behind an asteroid belt, within the Gesan system, but just outside of sensor range with coverage.

“There’s no blockade,” one of the pilots observed, zooming in on the viewport. “They call this an invasion force?”

Bo huffed, sliding an arm to rest on the back of the seat. She leaned over the pilot’s shoulder and looked out the viewport. “Why would there be?” She questioned bitterly, “They’re not expecting anyone to come to the rescue.”

Kenobi’s light footsteps joined them in the cockpit, “Which should make things relatively simple. If we can capture the general, then we could negotiate a withdrawal of their forces.”

The former Jedi General continued, shrewdly taking in the single battle cruiser, “I imagine that there wasn’t much of a fight, so it’s likely that the general will be in the capital holding planetary leadership.”

Bo-Katan turned to look the Jedi over, “And the rest of the droid forces?”

He shook his head in reply and folded his arms, shoulders shrugging, “We have no way of really knowing for sure until we obtain more information.”

The co-pilot chimed in helpfully while looking at the information on their scanners, “Gesa’s a wet planet; we'll have plenty of cloud cover to hide our entry into the atmosphere.”

Bo-Katan nodded, slapping her hand on the back of the pilot’s chair, “We’ll wait until the cruiser moves to the other side of the planet, then we’ll head in.”

“As you say, my Lady.”

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Fives considered himself an excellent pilot, but no one could have made it down to the surface unscathed – okay. 

Maybe General Skywalker could have managed it, but as soon as he entered the air space around the battle, he found himself swarmed by a group of overzealous vulture droids. 

He cursed as he jerked the ship into sharp turns and descended quickly towards the surface, but it was no good. This ship was not meant for dogfighting. Alarms and lights went off as he took a hit and his ship spiralled down below the tree line. Branches thwapped at the viewport as he fought to get the ship under control.

The little ship collided hard with the ground and spun out of control, before eventually, painfully grinding to a stop, he distantly heard the vulture droids roar past above his head. 

Alarms shrieked at him, amplifying his newly budding headache. He groaned as he unbuckled his harness. Something popped and sparked on the instrument panel and  the little ship shuddered then died, the only light coming in from the viewport..

Fives wobbled unsteadily to his feet, and leaned heavily on the seat to give himself a moment to regain his balance. He stumbled the few steps down the corridor to the hatchway before pressing the release for the door. It barely popped open, letting only a sliver more of light in. Fives growled, stiffly levering himself to kick at the door. With a final grinding sound, it gave up the fight and dropped the rest of the way, creating a small puff of dirt. 

Stumbling out of the ship, he looked around. The battle raged a short run through the trees from his position. Shouts, blaster shots, and explosions could be heard. It all seemed so small when standing on the outside looking on. Not even a few months ago this war had meant everything to him. It was what he trained so hard everyday for. It was what he would have died for. Was all this fighting really worth nothing?

Fives shook his head and banished these thoughts for now as he approached the rear of the battle front. He ran headlong for the nearest gunship – ducking behind trees and rocks.

He leapt into the open side of the gunship, and immediately froze, raising his arms above his head as one of his brothers leveled a blaster at his chest.

“Soldier!” The clone barked at him when a medic interjected at the same time, “Don’t shoot him! I’ve got enough injuries to deal with!”

The clone – who must have been guarding the wounded soldiers and the medics – immediately lowered his blaster, before asking confused,  “Where’s your armour?” 

Fives adopted the wide-eyed innocent look that most shinies wore, “It – uh – broke, Sir.”

Dumbfounded silence answered him, and at least three pairs of eyes stared at him before the first clone asked, “It broke?...All of it?”

Fives nodded innocently, “I was told there may be some extra armor here?”

“...Yeah…in that locker, there, Kid.” One of the medics piped up and gestured at one of the small ship lockers.

Fives nodded, letting real relief show on his face, “Thanks.”

The same medic who pointed out the locker spoke again, “Did your blaster… break too?”

Fives started putting on the familiar – and very white armour – and laughed nervously. He hoped to the stars that it came off as embarrassed, “Ah– no. It blew up.” He paused, staring at his not-standard-issue-boots. He just continued doing up the straps on the armour and prayed that the others wouldn't notice his boots. 

“Nice boots there, Brother.” The guard commented from his spot by the door watching for droids, “Where’d you get those from?”

Fives forced a laugh and pulled a blaster from the locker, “It’s a long story…and there’s a battle that I’d better get back to out there. My batchmates will be wondering where I am…”

The guard nodded, “Brand new, then? You got a name yet?” He then pointed to Fives’ boots, “Cause if you don’t, my vote’d be for Boots.”

Fives stepped down out of the open door, “I’ll keep that in mind…?”

“Wooley. Try to stay alive out there, Kid.”

Fives nodded and sprinted away to join the battle, the familiar battle ready feeling sinking again into his bones.

Chapter Text

The Gauntlet jolted and rocked as it descended through the atmosphere and into darkened clouds. Stormy winds moved to toss them and heavy rain splattered across the viewport. 

Obi-Wan could feel his stomach tighten as he watched the pilot wrestle with the controls from his spot standing – holding onto a loop attached to the ceiling of the ship – and he willed himself to relax. He had a bad feeling about this.

They hit a powerful downdraft and he suddenly felt his stomach in his throat. The pilot cursed and pulled back on the controls while pressing blinking buttons. He gripped the strap a bit tighter and shifted his feet to widen his stance. 

Bo-Katan did the same to his right, she glared – almost affectionately – at him, “Scared of flying, Kenobi?”

“No,” He replied shortly. “Just not overly fond of it.” Then, thinking to himself, I’d almost prefer Anakin’s flying to this right now. His knuckles tightened around the strap.

Finally – gratefully – they broke through the storm clouds, descending quickly past sheer, black cliffs that were draped with roaring waterfalls. 

The co-pilot spoke again, breaking the silence, “The cliffs have veins of magnetic ore, we could clamp onto one of them and then make our way down to the city. Scanners say…about 20 clicks out.”

Bo-Katan nodded once, “Good. We can make it to the city in an hour or two if we move quickly.”

The pilot nodded and began readying the ship to clamp. While the rest of their little group moved with purpose to gather the necessary gear to make the climb down the cliffs. Obi-Wan and Bo-Katan remained as black cliffs grew to fill their view. 

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Fives dashed between tall trees – ducking under branches and wading through bushes – as quietly as he was able. A blaster bolt impacted the trunk of a tree directly in front of him. The Mand’alor bit off a curse and scrambled for cover behind a tree. Back slamming with a crunch into the bark and heartbeat pounding in his ears, he scolded himself for not noticing them and listened as they approached.

“Did you see that?” One droned to another.

“See what?” The same mechanical voice whined back.

“It looked like a clone.”

Fives rolled his eyes and clutched his borrowed blaster closer, this had to be a scouting pair left behind to pick off any injured clones. He prayed that there would only be two, then he ducked to the side, blaster at the ready. 

He counted himself lucky. There were only two and they chorused in unison, “It IS a clone!” and “Blast him!”

He leveled two quick shots at them, Bo-Katan’s training was paying off, and the two clankers crashed to the ground.

He waded cautiously through the bushes towards the fallen droids – wary of any others. Reaching them he scuffed a kick at their heads with a muttered scoff, “Clankers.” Then he continued on his way following the sound of the battle. 

Fives stopped short of clearing the trees, taking a moment to look over the battlefield, it didn’t look good. Seppie tanks were firing mercilessly on one area – most likely a battalion pinned up against the cliffs. 

He bit his lip, what good could one clone do? Mulling strategies over, he glanced behind him, and then up. The trees were tall, he could get some higher ground and pick off the droids. The soldier made his way over to a sturdy looking tree, secured his blaster and began to climb.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Rappelling down the cliffs was proving to be more difficult and time consuming than they initially imagined. Mist from the waterfalls had made the rocks slick, and with sharp handholds, any slip could be damaging. 

Obi-Wan noted the Gesan sun had begun to make its descent, slowly sinking lower to touch the tips of distant cliffs. He cringed to himself, they were not making good time, and it would be dark soon. If climbing down was proving to be difficult now, it would be near impossible in the dark.

There must be a faster way. The former Jedi paused in his descent and sank into the Force searching for a way forward. There . He opened his eyes and craned his neck to look downward to a barely visible path that ran along the cliff face. Surely only wide enough to fit one person, single-file. However, it would likely lead them to the capital.

“Bo!” He called out,  “There’s a path there!” He tossed his head in its direction.

He didn’t hear Bo’s grunted response from below him as the Force niggled at his senses, drawing his attention to the boot of the commando above him. The young man’s foot slipped and the cable securing him went taught and then was sliced on the rocks above him. The warrior let out a choked gasp as he fell.

Reacting quickly, Obi-Wan anchored his feet, and snapped a hand out to snag the cable. He winced as his shoulder was jerked from halting the commando’s sudden descent. The warrior flailed for a moment before righting himself, moving to cling to the cliff face.

“You good, Woves?” Bo-Katan called out.

A low and embarrassed grunt answered her inquiry.

Bo hollered orders while Obi-Wan met the helmeted gaze and wordlessly tied what was left of the Commando’s cable to his own harness. Woves gave him a single nod of gratitude before continuing their descent now adjusting to connect with the trail.

The sun dipped even lower.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Rex silently waved his squad forward, and they ran crouched towards where the Seppie tanks were bombarding Cody and his squad. 

Red blaster bolts echoed around them. There were too many droids, and they couldn’t see through the dust being kicked up, which also sort of ended up working in their favor by giving them cover. 

They’d tried several different strategies, and nothing was working. They weren’t managing to gain any ground, locked in a stalemate. 

“Jesse!” He hissed into the dust around him, “Jesse!” A hand clasped him on the shoulder and Rex snapped his head to his left. 

“It’s me.” Jesse shushed. “What’s the plan?”

Rex unclipped two grenades and handed them to Jesse, “Here, I’ll round up whoever’s left and draw their fire. You just need to get close enough to pop them.”

Jesse nodded, “Yes, Captain.”

Rex nodded back, “Good luck, Jesse.”

His brother nodded once more then disappeared into the dust.

The captain then ran blindly towards where he could hear shouts of this brothers. They would make it out of this, somehow.

Several blue blaster bolts came from above, finding their targets with ease. Battle droids scrambled. 

“Huh? Where are those shots coming from?” Another bolt struck it, silencing it. 

The hatches of one of the tanks popped open, and the head of another droid popped out, “What’s going on, Captain? Did we win?” Once again another droid dropped to a precise shot. Jesse must have been close by as the tank suddenly exploded, damaging the others next to it, then another. Scattered shouts of relief and joy began to fill the air.

That was some darn good shooting. Rex couldn’t think of anybody who could shoot like that in their battalion, except for maybe one person.

The dust settled a bit more and he craned his head towards where the shots had come from, and was expecting to see General Skywalker lazily grinning and carelessly twirling a blaster with a “What are you waiting for Rex? We’ve got a battle to win.”

It wasn’t the general though, it was…a shiny? In a tree? Wearing fancy boots of all things. He tugged off his helmet, but the soldier was gone again. Maybe he had hit his head too hard when tossed by one of those explosions.  

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Explosion after explosion reverberated in Cody’s ears. Debris and dust pelted his armor from all sides; he grunted as something sharp lodged itself in his shoulder. He could hear shouts as his squad scrambled for cover. They were pinned, communications were being jammed, they had been cut off from the rest of the battalion, and they were being bombarded.

He knelt on the ground, his ears were ringing and the ground was spinning. The soldier glanced around trying to get his bearings. Things were not looking great. 

Yet another explosion shook the ground around him, but this one seemed farther away, then another. Then there was silence. Cody struggled to his feet only to stumble back to the ground, everything was spinning. 

Suddenly, hands grabbed at his shoulders – he winced – and dragged him up to standing, his uninjured arm was slung over the shoulders of one of his brothers, he managed to lilt in the other’s direction. Rex. He let his head flop onto his brother’s shoulder as they stumbled away from the ravaged uneven ground towards awaiting LAATs. 

The battle must be over, he thought to himself with relief. Stars . I’m exhausted.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

The battle had been messy, and they had a lot of wounded. No casualties though. Not yet at least. Rex filtered around the hangar bay, keeping out of the way of the medics, but helping wherever he could. He couldn’t rest just yet. 

He had just finished treating a minor blaster wound on Jesse’s shoulder when he heard someone approach him from behind, “Captain Rex, sir?”

Rex turned, taking in the once pristine armour, and the rifle slung over one shoulder. It was the sharpshooting, fancy boot, shiny from earlier that saved their tails.

“Soldier,” He nodded in greeting. “That was some excellent shooting out there. You ever think of training to be an ARC trooper?”

The shiny choked off a chuckle, “Uh, I had a bit of ARC training, Captain. But it’s a long story.”   

That certainly sounded interesting, but Rex could tell it was a bit of a sore subject for the soldier. 

He clapped a hand on their shoulder, “Another time perhaps, Brother. We’re glad to have you with us at any rate. You got a name yet, kid?”

“I do, Captain.” The shiny hesitated momentarily.

Rex tried to put the shiny at ease with a joke, “If it has to do with those boots, I don’t care if you keep ‘em. Just don’t let the Commander see you wearing ‘em.”

The shiny’s gaze dropped to his boots and he laughed nervously before straightening to attention.

“Can you keep a secret, Sir?”

“You wanna keep your name secret?” Odd behavior from a shiny, but alright.

The soldier didn’t answer, he simply looked imploringly at Rex.

Rex scanned around them and his gaze landed on General Skywalker across the way where Cody was being treated. 

Yeah, he could keep a secret. He heaved a sigh and focused back on the shiny, “I’m trustworthy.” He said steadily. “The real question should be: Are you worthy of my trust?”

Hope sparked in the soldier’s eyes and he stood ever slightly so taller, “Yes, Sir. I am.”

“I’m guessing this is a conversation to be had elsewhere, then?” He turned, leading the way to a conference room. He noticed that the trooper walked beside him instead of behind him, and seemed to know his way around too. Also odd for a shiny.

Once inside the room, Rex faced the shiny and asked, “Now, what is it that you need to get off your chest?”

The shiny reached up and scrubbed a hand at his forehead, when he pulled his hand away there was a tattoo of the number five.

“I need your help, Rex.”

Chapter Text

Night had fallen and their little stealth group trudged along single file. Water dripped onto Bo-Katan’s head, and she scowled at the narrow path at her feet. This was supposed to be a quick mission, but it felt like they were crawling at an Endorian snail’s pace towards the city, and the ever-present dripping and mist were slowly invading the seams of her armor

She began to hear a growing roar paired with a humming from electricity. She exhaled softly with relief. Finally, we’re almost there.

Bo led the group around a bend in the cliff, where an enormous wheel was attached to the cliff face and spun without resistance as a waterfall crashed into it.

“We’re close.” Bo-Katan shouted over the thud-thud-thud of the wheel.

The path widened into a cavern hollowed out behind the waterfall where a generator glowed and hummed.

Bo strode past the generator and stood at the cliff’s edge overlooking the city. A few lights from homes in the city were beginning to flicker on. However, no ships were flying, and the streets were quiet. No one would know by looking over it that the city was under attack, everything seemed peaceful.

Her brow furrowed at the thought. A deceptive, painted peace that masked a city in turmoil.

That hit a little too close to home for her liking.

She unclipped her bag from her shoulders and made short work of pulling out her grappling equipment, then carefully took aim at a window of the main building. Any droid forces or Separatist leadership would be there. She was sure of it.

“Bo!” She heard the Jedi’s shout at the same moment he arrived at her shoulder, messing up her aim and pulling her away from the edge, “We cannot go in there blasters blazing! This is a stealth mission. We need to assess things first.” He sighed, “It has been a long day. We should camp here, then continue in the morning.”

She decided at that moment that she didn’t like taking orders from him, and hissed, “You sound like my sister. Now get out of my way. This is my operation, you follow my orders.”

Bo-Katan didn't wait for a response and shoved past him, driving her shoulder aggressively into his. She could feel his exasperated stare on the back of her head and the tired stares of her squad as she stalked away.

She paid them no mind as she squinted and once again took aim. A quiet pop and whirring as a line attached itself. Then another as she anchored the other end into the wall of the cavern.

She clipped herself to the line, “Let’s go.” She ordered.

Bo stepped into the night air and dropped. She grinned at the feeling of wind rushing in her ears and tossed her short hair back.

She fired three shots into the large window and stretched out her armored legs in front of herself. Glass crashed around her. The rest of her team and Kenobi had boots on the polished floor moments after. The warriors made short work of checking the area, every room, every corner. They came back with no one in tow and signaled to her. They were alone.

“You said the General would be here!” She spun and pointed an accusing finger at the Jedi.

Unruffled, the Jedi reminded her, “I said it was likely, which was also why I said we needed more information.”

Frustration bubbled in her, simmering.  Instead of yelling at the arrogant man, she barked out orders, “Alright, spread out. Look for anything that may be useful.” She breathed deeply, priding herself on her self-control for not strangling the infuriating man.

The five commandos scurried to search the room again, Kenobi paced calmly to look out the windows that were still intact.

“Absolutely wonderful.” Kenobi drawled sarcastically, peering out of one of the building’s –unbroken – grand floor to ceiling windows, “It seems I’ve found your missing Separatists.”

“What?!” Bo-Katan ran over to look out of a different window. Droids were in fact approaching the building they were in. She sharply tilted her head to glare at the Jedi, “And you’re just saying this now?!” She then promised herself, When I get back to Mandalore I’m gonna beat this dikuit Jedi into the training mats!

He snapped back without looking at her, “Well, I haven’t exactly been looking out of any windows before now, have I?”

“Well,” She imitated his accent, “Do you have any bright ideas?”

He side-eyed her, “This is your operation.”

Her hands twitched at her sides before clenching into fists. The desire to strangle the Jedi with her bare hands rose once more in her.

Surprising sentimentality cooled her temper as she suddenly remembered often feeling the same way with her sister when they were children. Regret replaced anger, I can see why Satine loved you. You’re frustrating in the same ways that she always was.

She was still not happy though.

“Yeah. It is.” She hissed. Trying to think of anything that could get them out of this situation that they were in. Any order to give. She looked out the water drop-covered window once more. What did she have to work with? Her gaze darted from building to building, then to a glass bridge the army would have to cross to get to them, and an idea came to her. Surely, if there was anyone here who could handle a large amount of battle droids, it would be the man before her,

“Can you bottleneck the bridge?”

Kenobi contemplated the bridge and the hundreds of battle droids that were entering the lower city, “I’d need at least two of your best shooters, there.” He pointed to one rooftop, “And there.” Pointing to another. “But yes.”

She smirked at him, “Well, one of them would naturally be me, but someone has to lead.” She spun and pointed to two of her commandos, “Rij! Woves! Get yourselves to those rooftops and cover the Jedi.”

“What is the plan exactly?” the Jedi queried.

A feral smile, “You’re the distraction. Go buy us some time to find and free any hostages.”

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx 

Rex stared in disbelief, “Fives?” His voice cracked. “You’re alive.” He grasped his brother in a hug, “I thought you were dead.”

Fives laughed wetly as he clung to his brother, “I thought I was too for a moment there.”

Rex pulled away, but didn’t let go, gripping his shoulders, “What happened, Fives? You tried to kill the Chancellor?”

“No, Rex, I didn’t.” He swallowed, “I was drugged by the Kaminoans, and then I ran into General Kenobi, he helped me.”

Rex let his hands drop, “You were drugged? Kenobi?” He bit off an incredulous laugh, “Of course. It all makes sense now. You’re the reason he left the Jedi?"

Fives spread his hands, “I didn’t ask him to do that, but he’s been there for me at every turn – he believes me.”

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Obi-Wan took a running leap out of the broken window and dropped several stories. His boots landed on a smooth, steep rooftop, he slid to the edge and leapt again. He descended from rooftop to rooftop, then flipped off a lower-level building and hit the street running.

It was a beautiful city. Glass sparkled in the night lights, a shame he couldn’t have visited under happier circumstances, but hopefully they could put a stop to any more destruction.

Their apparent surrender of any stealth was signaled by the roaring of jetpacks above him – Rij and Woves. Obi-Wan could only pray that he was right in assuming that there would only be a battalion or two of basic battle droids. Otherwise, this may go differently than they imagined.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Rex ran a stress hand over the buzzed hair on his head, “Fives…”

Fives splayed his hands placatingly, “I know I’m asking a lot, and I’m sorry. But, please Rex? The chips are the key to everything, I know it.”

“No.” Rex sighed and tossed a hand, “It’s just brain surgery…and treason.”

Fives shrugged, “Is it really treason if it’s true? Besides, I underwent brain surgery and I’m fine.”

Rex pierced him with a stern look, “How do you know that?”

A pause and another shrug, “I feel fine.”

Rex lifted a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose, “You feel fine. That’s all you’ve got for me?”

Another shrug.

Rex stared at his brother then moved for the door, “Wait here.” He ordered, “I’ll see about getting a med droid down here to check you over.”

Fives pulled his helmet on, “I’ll come with. It’ll be nice to at least see the others.”

Rex stopped and blocked his way, “How’re you gonna explain your boots if people ask you about them. They’re not the most inconspicuous attire.”

Fives waved him off, “I’ll come up with a story to tell if anyone asks.”

Rex chuckled, “You’re as annoying as ever.” He then reached over and lightly punched his brother’s shoulder, “That’s a good sign, I guess.”

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Obi-Wan skidded to a halt at the opening of the bridge – small stones crunching under his boots. The first line of battle droids paused in confusion at the sight of the single Jedi and started chattering with each other for answers.

“Well, well, well. This is certainly a pleasant surprise. General Kenobi himself! Here to liberate Gesa.” A reptilian being slinked from behind the single tank, bowing shallowly – mockingly – “I’m honored to meet you! Surely, your capture will earn me a great promotion.”

Obi-Wan stood still in the middle of the bridge, a single immovable force, “Where are the leaders of this planet?”

Dread filled the former Jedi as he sensed the malice in the creature before it even spoke.

Obi-Wan lifted his wrist and spoke brokenly into his comm, “Bo…There are no hostages. I need you at the bridge.”

Static, then a low, “Understood.”

The Separatist General confirmed his bad feeling, “They’re dead. Far too stubborn to be left as prisoners. You understand.” The creature laughed – reveling in the former Jedi’s horrified and heartbroken expression – and threw his lanky arms askew, “This is WAR , Kenobi!”

“Gesa is a neutral planet!” He shouted back, voice hoarse with anger. Blue and white lightsabers snapped to life, snapping and crackling as he spun them into his opening stance.

The reptile chuckled and lazily waved a hand. “And yet, here you are. Fighting.” The surrounding droids opened fire.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx 

Fives’ hopes of a quick and mostly inconspicuous walk through the hallways of the Resolute were dashed with a shout.

“Boots!” Wooley ran over and threw an arm around Fives, rapping his knuckles on Fives’ helmet, “I’m glad the captain’s letting you keep the look!”

Rex tossed Fives an expectant look that turned into a smirk, “Actually Wooley… Boots and I are gonna go have a quick chat about that very thing, while he gets checked over.”

Fives nodded and turned to Wooley, “Yeah, gotta make sure everything’s in order after… everything.”

Wooley gave Fives a slight hug that felt more like a headlock, “I hear you, Little Brother, and I look forward to hearing the whole story of your life,” Wooley raised his arm and waved it in front of him, envisioning, “Boots: The Broken Armor and Blown-Up Blaster. It’s going to be great.”

A nervous laugh escaped Fives, “So, the name’s gonna stick, huh?”

Wooley hummed, “Not unless we can come up with something better.”

Rex chimed in unhelpfully, “I think it suits you.”

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Obi-Wan stood his ground, not moving more than a step to the right or the left, lightsabers moving sharply to deflect shots back into the droves of advancing droids. The Force flowed around him as he settled into a familiar defensive rhythm.

He focused on deep and even breathing. He had faced a greater number of droids before, granted not usually on his own.

A pair of shots rang from flanking rooftops picking off droids. Not completely on my own. He amended himself.

The single tank droned as the cannon raised itself, taking aim at the distant buildings.

Rij and Woves could probably get clear in time, but there was no way of knowing if there were people in those buildings, and they were out of time.

Obi-Wan darted forward, deflecting bolts and slicing through droids as he went. When the opportunity presented itself, he flipped himself onto the tank and sliced his saber through the main cannon elevator. The cannon dropped with a clang , nozzle now hanging low. Oh dear. Obi-Wan thought to himself as he heard the charge up of the tank.

The tank misfired downwards into the glass of the bridge. The force of the blast jerking the tank itself backwards and causing the barrel of the tank to swing around madly.

Obi-Wan’s knees met the hard metal of the tank just in time to miss being smacked by the wild barrel. Then he leapt free of the out-of-control tank.

The Jedi landed hard on the glass in the midst of droids – blasters leveled at him. “Don’t move, Jedi.” Obi-Wan rolled his eyes and lifted his hands in surrender, this was shaping up to be an absolutely wonderful day. Several droids moved forward to appropriate both lightsabers and secure his arms.

The reptilian general reappeared from his safe space at the back of the battalion, chuckling as he moved forward – claws clicking on the glass. “Most amusing, General. But…also most ineffective. I will – ”

Any more grandstanding was interrupted by a loud creaking that filled the air as fractures spiderwebbed from where the tank had blasted it. Said wild tank finally whined to a stop and dropped onto the bridge with a crash. A deafening and strained creaking replaced the crackling, nobody dared to move. Then, silence as the bridge settled.

That was when Bo-Katan and her small stealth group arrived, blasters blazing.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx 

“Hey Kix. This here is Boots, he saved our shebs out there today. Can you spare a med droid to check him over?”

Kix glanced up from where he was treating a burn on another soldier’s leg, “Is it serious?”

Rex looked to Fives who stepped forward, “Well, no, but—”

Kix had already moved on, “If it’s not serious, then it can wait. I have a lot of wounded to help, so either sit down out of the way, or try and make yourself useful elsewhere.”

Fives sat down – maybe he’d gotten a bit too used to being the one in charge. Lately, he hadn’t had to ask for much of anything, it was just available.

Kix had always made him nervous, anyways. The guy was intense.

Rex looked at him like he was about to say something, before the comm on his wrist chirped, “The General needs me. You comin’ with?”

Fives would have loved to see the General, but he also knew that Skywalker would be able to pick him out of a crowd. He wasn’t really sure how the man would react to one of his men being alive after supposedly trying to assassinate the Chancellor – a close friend of the General’s.

Obi-Wan could’ve told Skywalker everything, but didn’t. Not yet, anyways.

Fives leaned back, “That’s okay, I’ll wait here.”

Rex looked at him, “Alright, but maybe I’ll have you wait in my quarters. Just to be safe.”

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Obi-Wan Forced his sabers back to his hands and ignited them, slicing through the droids holding him.

 Bo and her group had taken cover at the mouth of the bridge and were taking every opportunity to fire at any droids who got close.

“Take out the bridge!” He shouted to Bo through his com. Slicing through droid after droid and following determinedly in the path of the Separatist general who had slithered away when blasters began firing again. His crimes would be answered for.

He turned back towards the opposite entrance and could sense her confusion and hesitation.

He deflected another bolt and raised his wrist once more, “Do it, now!” He ordered.

 “Get clear, then!” She ordered back.

He put his back to her, trying to sense where the creature had gone. It would seem that they wouldn’t be taking anyone prisoner today. The commandos covered his retreat.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

The medical droid hummed around his head while it assessed Fives’ mental health. Eventually, it must have been satisfied with what it found and reported to Rex, “There are no abnormalities present. CT-5555 is medically and mentally sound.”

Rex nodded and uncrossed his arms, “Excellent. Now, I need you to conduct a brain scan on me,” He moved to take Fives’ place on the exam table. “And remove any biochip you can find.”

The droid beeped, “Understood. I will administer an anesthetic and you will regain consciousness in a few minutes.”

Rex leaned back and shut his eyes. Fives looked away.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

The mission wasn’t a complete failure, they accomplished what they had set out to do. The Separatist General and any remaining droid forces retreated from the planet. The people in the city began to make their way out of where they’d been sheltering. There were some tears shed at the sight of the demolished bridge.

She watched as Kenobi milled about amongst the natives. Speaking with them and offering comfort. The rest of her team had sat down and busted into some of their rations

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

“I can wear my helmet over this, right?” Rex questioned, as he touched a hand to the seal on the right side of his head.

The droid hovered near the Captain, “I do not recommend doing any strenuous activities for the next few weeks.”

“Ah.” Rex replied. “Right.” Then he shot a look at Fives.

Fives shut down the droid and opened its access panel.

“Now we just have to erase that we ever did this. You feelin’ okay, Rex?”

Rex sighed, “Never better, just a headache and some dizziness. We’re headed back to Coruscant for leave anyway, I’ll make sure to get some rest.”

“Coruscant?” Fives looked up from the droid at this.

“Ah, you probably don’t want to end up there, huh?” Rex sighed again, “We’ll be stopping at a station for some quick repairs. You could sneak away there and someone could pick you up?”

Fives returned to his slicing, Just a bit more. “Got it.” He stood up, “Yeah, that’d probably be for the best. I’ll figure something out.”

Rex looked at him sadly, “It was good to see you alive, Fives. Try to keep it that way, yeah?”

Fives picked up the slide with Rex’s intact chip and pocketed it, “I will. Thanks, Rex. You’re a good man.”

Chapter Text

With some new boots and a shoulder bag borrowed from Rex to store his beskar boots and the dark saber in, he managed to avoid any unwanted attention. Single clone soldiers were unusual but not the strangest thing one would see at a spaceport.

Fives gazed sadly out at the stars watching ships docking and leaving the floating spaceport. The Resolute departed only a few moments ago, and he missed his brothers already. He drew himself to attention though. There was a mission to complete and a galaxy to save, and now he had a call to make.

The normally calm and cultured accent sounded stressed over the com, “You’re where?! What in the blazes are you doing there?!” Fives winced and covered his com – muffling the sound – then glanced around him to see if anybody was listening. Busy Republic Spaceports and all that.

“That was a foolhardy thing to do, Fives. What were you thinking?”

“He’s the Manda’lor! He doesn’t need your permission to do anything!” He heard Bo’s voice snap at the Jedi from a distance. The mission must not have been great then. He had suspicions based on the news that he heard, but Republic news often exaggerated events out of proportion. He rolled his eyes. This meant that he’d be doing damage control once he could finally get back to Mandalore, and he did not want to be the middleman between Kenobi and Kryze.

A sigh, “Of course he doesn’t.”

Fives decided to play peacemaker, “I am sorry, Sir. But, I did find something. Is there any way you could spare a ship out to this sector? I sort of…crashed the one that Dex gave us.”

A pause. Fives imagined that Kenobi would be looking to Bo to see what options they had.

Bo-Katan’s voice carried, “If he wants to do whatever he wants, then he can figure out his own problems.”

Fives winced. Oh, buckets. She was also unhappy with him.

Obi-Wan’s sigh crackled over the comm, “I’ll figure out a way. Stay where you are and let me know if anything changes.”

Fives could hear Bo-Katan starting to rant at the Jedi as the comm clicked off.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Good Morning Coruscant! Early morning traffic is moving at a crawl due to a pipe burst at one of the main junctions.

On the War Front, our Hero with No Fear, Anakin Skywalker is returning to Coruscant after a successful six-month long campaign in the Mid-Rim.

And finally, today in politics: There’ve been some worries in the Senate after hearing of the aggressive takeover of Gesa by Mandalore. Former Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi was confirmed as present during the takeover. The Senate is meeting later today to discuss possible courses of action.

And now, for your commute, some uninterrupted tunes.

 xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Senate aids rushed through the halls of the Senate. There was a nervousness in the air, an unease that hadn’t been felt since the start of the war.

A session had been called, and Padme had little doubt that it would be regarding whatever was happening on Gesa. Anything that she could gather – which wasn’t anything solid – from the reports ranged from barely a scuffle to a full-on declaration of war and rise of the Mandalorian Empire. A Mandalorian team? A full-scale army? Some level of force had arrived on Gesa in response to the Separatist occupation.

Quite frankly, she was glad to see a small planet like Gesa receiving the assistance they needed to take a stand for themselves. It hit far too close to home for her to see a small planet being bullied into anything – neutrality notwithstanding – with the people who should be there to help them standing by, tied up in the bureaucracy of politics, unable to do anything.

“Senator?” Padme turned, she recognized the nervous young man, one of the Chancellor’s, “The Chancellor would appreciate your presence. Now.”

She pressed an exhausted hand to her forehead. There was so much to do, and she didn’t have enough time. Anakin would be back today, too. She had been looking forward to seeing him, but now with everything going on here, she wasn’t sure that she’d be able to slip away until much later.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Fives had walked several laps around the many looping walkways of the port. Before finally plopping down in the bay of a window to watch the occasional ship enter, and droid crews clean and refuel them.

“Well, I’m certainly glad to see you in one piece.” A garbled voice came from directly behind him.

Fives absolutely did not jump, he was merely surprised. A figure in smuggler’s garb and a mask stood before him. “General?” Fives asked, hushed.

The smuggler shrugged and gave him a 501^st salute, then gestured for Fives to follow him, “Come on.”

Fives wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t the fancy and sleek, red and gray, trimmed with gold ship that was docked in front of him, but Kenobi typed in a code, the door opened, and he entered. The clone followed.

Once safe behind closed doors, Kenobi removed the mask. Fives looked around incredulously at the luxurious ship, spinning in awe, then fixed a stare at Kenobi. No Force sensitivity was necessary to read the question there.

Obi-Wan stared back at him, then explained simply, “I called in a favor from a pirate.” The former Jedi turned to head back to the cockpit.

Fives nodded slowly, running a hand along the smooth walls of hallway, “Of course a pirate owes you a favor. That makes perfect sense. How did I not guess that immediately?”

Kenobi sat heavily in the pilot’s seat, “Well, I couldn’t exactly come in a Mandalorian ship. Even if Bo-Katan would have deigned to allow me to use hers.”

“Right, Gesa.” Fives reminded himself, “What exactly happened over there?”

Obi-Wan sighed and flipped several switches in preparation to undock, “Not as much as you would be made to believe, but I am quite interested to learn about what you found on your outing.”

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Contrary to popular belief, being Supreme Chancellor of the Republic was not the career that most beings believed it to be. There was an astounding amount of busy work, countless meetings, appearances to be kept, and loose ends to be tied.

Dooku forwarded his report of the happenings on Gesa. Kenobi did not disappoint. The lack of the Manda'lor there was telling as well. Dooku’s source on the planet claims that the Manda’lor has not been seen since Kenobi left.

He drummed a beat on the corner of

his desk. How very interesting.

A disgustingly clear and surprisingly bright – for a non-Force sensitive individual – presence approached.

“Ah, my dear Senator Amidala.” He met her halfway and clasped Padme’s hands in his own, “Thank you, for humoring my request on such short notice. I hope I didn’t interrupt anything of importance.”

Padme withdrew her hands and gracefully moved to sit before his desk, “Chancellor. How may I be of assistance to you?”

Palpatine chuckled, “All of you young Senators, always in such a rush. Tea, my dear?”

Padme hesitated, but nodded, “Apologies, Sir. Things have been hectic today.”

“Indeed they have, which brings me to why I’ve asked you here.” The Chancellor handed the young senator a cup of tea, “You see, we don’t entirely know what all is happening on Gesa, or on Mandalore for that matter. However, we certainly don’t want to face the possibility of a war on two fronts. Especially not when the…leadership…knows all too well about how we operate as the Republic.”

He paced to his desk and took his seat, “I would ask, if you would head a committee to arrange a gala of sorts, to invite the leader of Mandalore here to put the Senate at ease.”

Padme nodded, “Senator Taa is hosting the next gala. I could collaborate with him on this.”

Palpatine clapped his hands together, “The sooner the better. Thank you, my dear.”

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

A pirate ship it may have been, but it flew smoothly. He wouldn’t have known it was even in hyperspace if he hadn’t seen the stars blurring together himself. There wasn’t much to do when traveling through hyperspace, and apparently General-Jedi-don’t-get-angry-Kenobi was mildly upset with him. Upset enough to not enjoy any small talk with him after reporting what he’d found with Rex.

He recalled Skywalker complaining on occasion about how stubborn his master could be when upset with his padawan. Skywalker was always miserable to deal with whenever he and Kenobi were at odds. Fives had always sort of thought that General Skywalker was exaggerating – as he tended to embellish at times – but now he’d spent hours in hyperspace being given the silent treatment. Sure, Kenobi was polite, he listened to Fives and answered any questions asked of him, but his responses were distinctly shorter than they’d ever been.

Granted, maybe bringing Rex in on this whole thing without talking to Kenobi first, was a bit foolish. However, what was done was done. He couldn’t go back and undo it, and he didn’t regret it either.

With lack of company, Fives lay on the padded floor of the borrowed pirate ship pouring over files of Kaminoan cloning jargon copied from the Resolute’s computer. It wasn’t much, but it was something. Both he and Kenobi had been trying to make heads or tails of what Fives had discovered, and it all was beginning to make his right eye twitch. He sighed and massaged his temples.

His comm beeped at him, both heralding their exit from hyperspace and offering a welcome distraction from the medical babble. There were several messages, a few from Kryze and one forwarded from their Planetary Comm Center. He opened it and read it aloud without fanfare or introduction, “Our kind regards to the ruler of Mandalore. The Supreme Chancellor of the Republic cordially invites you and your retinue to grace us with your presence at a Gala for the Neutral Systems on Coruscant.”

He rolled his eyes over to where his former Jedi friend was perched cross legged in the pilot’s seat, pouring over datapads.

“What do you think?”

“I think it sounds like a lot of fun for you,” Kenobi muttered distractedly, continuing to read.

Fives mulled over the invitation, “This is definitely because of Gesa, they’re worried about us being left out here to our own devices. You could go in my place.” Fives suggested, cheekily.

“What?” Obi-Wan asked, confused, finally looking up from his reading. “No. Of course not.”

“No. No. You could!” Fives sat up and moved across the room to plop down in the copilot’s seat. “Look, I’m not any good with the speaking part of this. I’d end up insulting them all. You know how to do that, though! You’re YOU! The Negotiator!” He waved both arms in Kenobi’s direction as if announcing him.

“I dislike that title, Fives.” Obi-Wan sounded as close to whining as he would ever get, the Jedi began preparations to bring them back planetside. Then his friend wagged a finger in front of Fives’ face, exasperated, “Besides, my young friend, you’re forgetting something: I’m still wanted for treason in the Republic.”

Right. I forgot about that. Imagine General Kenobi wanted for treason. “You could…you could…” He snapped his fingers, “You could wear my armor and go to the function. Woo the senators – whatever it is that people do at things like that.”

 “And…” He clapped a hand on the Jedi’s shoulder “You’ll have the added bonus of getting to snoop around the Senate building. I could make it an order though.”

Kenobi sighed, “I don’t suppose you’d change your mind and send Bo-Katan instead?”

Fives chuckled and shook the former Jedi lightly, “Never. Bo-Katan has the diplomatic skills of a rock. A real mean rock. The kind that punches…she can go as your bodyguard.” He watched his friend’s face as he paused to let that register with him, then brightly said, “Whether you like it or not, you are great with words and negotiating.”

He shook the Jedi once more, “That’s why you’re my Prime Minister.”

With that resolved, Fives popped to his feet and began packing up everything he left splayed out on the floor.

Always one to have the last word, Obi-Wan raised his voice, “Except I wouldn’t be going as the Prime Minister, I’d be going as the Mand’alor.”

Fives rolled his eyes but continued arranging his small collection of datapads. “I trust you. You’ll do great.”