Chapter Text
Ahsoka thought that she couldn't possibly feel any more horrified than she had when the wave of death had overwhelmed her. Then she heard what had happened. She wanted to disbelieve the report, to deny it was possible. It certainly sounded impossible. But she couldn't. She couldn't even try. Not after feeling it.
All those people... she had always felt lucky to be able to feel the force, to be connected to the rest of the galaxy so deeply. But when the trillions of deaths were flowing through her, she would have given almost anything to not be connected. She still felt them echo in her mind. It made all her past efforts to save people feel... insignificant, meaningless, compared to so much emptiness. How much life and hope was gone? How many people had lost-
She gasped. Anakin was on Coruscant. Or at least he had been - maybe, maybe, he had left. Before she realized what she was doing, her feet were running, down the hangar, through the halls, towards the nearest communications room. As she ran, she frantically went through lists of everyone she knew. Barriss was on Coruscant. Obi-wan was - here. Okay. Yoda - she wasn't sure. Most of the 501st - Rex, Jesse, Kix, Fives, Vaughn, Tup - they were all there. Did anyone survive? Could any- she slipped while rounding a corner too fast and tumbled to the floor.
The shock of the fall brought Ahsoka's mind back to her somewhat. She forced herself to slow down her movements, to get up to a kneeling position and take several steady breaths. Not calming, exactly, but controlling her thoughts. Nothing I can do now will help Anakin - or any of the others. They're either alive, or not. The report, and the brief recording she had seen, had made that very clear. There would be no wounded.
Perhaps it shouldn't have been a surprise that, when Ahsoka did reach the communications room, she couldn't contact anyone. Not just her calls to Anakin went unanswered; all long range comms were down. Coruscant was one of the biggest communication hubs in the galaxy. With it taken out of the picture, and the flood of messages from everyone seeking news, the network was completely overwhelmed. After an hour of standing by, watching as the clone technicians tried to reestablish communications, Ahsoka had given up and left.
She remembered Obi-wan contacting her, him saying they were headed for Corellia, as she walked to her temporary quarters in what was almost a daze. Something about a contingency plan to regroup in the event of widespread communications failure.
She reached the door and entered. The room was familiar, identical to every other Venator cabin she'd been in, even though this one was new to her. The quarters she had shared with Anakin on the Resolute had begun to feel like home after a while - enough belongings left around and particular wear patterns in places to distinguish it from others. They were long gone, though, destroyed with the rest of the Resolute in the battle of Sullust. It hadn't bothered her too much at the time, certainly not compared to the men they had lost with the ship. But the Jedi temple was gone now too. That had been her home since she was too young to remember things clearly. She had grown up there, and even though she now moved constantly from place to place, she'd always known she had somewhere she belonged to return to. And now she didn't. What did she have left? Her quarters on Anakin's new cruiser hadn't really started to feel like home yet. The Twilight did, she remembered abruptly. The nights and meals they'd spent there when away from the rest of the legion. The studies and lessons she'd had there when she hadn't had time to return to the temple. That was a piece of home that hadn't been shot down over Sullust. But, of course, if Anakin... if Anakin was gone, those would be too.
Was she ever going to feel at home again?
After a few more seconds, Ahsoka shook her head to scatter her spiraling thoughts. This isn't helping. Drawing on her earliest lessons, Ahsoka took several controlled breaths and cleared her mind of everything, as best as she could. "Okay," she said out loud, as she let out a deep breath and did her best to refocus.
Just then a knock from the hall outside broke the silence of the room, and Ahsoka welcomed the distraction from her thoughts. She opened the door to see a clone she didn't know. His armor was painted in 212th orange, and looked rather new. Not quite a shiny, but close to. That was probably why she didn't recognize him.
"Can I help you, trooper?" she asked.
"Commander. General Kenobi sent me to deliver a message: he said that he was able to contact someone in the fleet massing at Corellia, and they confirmed that General Skywalker is there."
The wave of relief that rushed through Ahsoka left her feeling like she needed to steady herself against the wall, but she recovered quickly.
"Thank you," she responded. "Do you know when we'll get there?"
"Should be under an hour, sir," said the trooper, politely not commenting on what Ahsoka was pretty sure had been a very visible reaction to his news.
"Good. You can let master Kenobi know I'll be there when we arrive."
"Yes, sir." The trooper turned and headed back down the hall, leaving Ahsoka standing in the doorway, her breath still a bit shaky with relief. All of a sudden, she noticed she was quite hungry. Thinking back, she hadn't actually eaten since before arriving on Illum, which was... not as long ago as it felt, what with everything that had happened, but sill quite a while to go with no food. She set off towards the mess hall, heartened by the fact that Anakin was alive, and she was going to see him again soon.
***
The quagmire of ships at Corellia, many of them from legions which no longer had a general, had grown to an impressive size by the time Ahsoka and Obi-wan joined it. Long range comms had been mostly restored by then, but sorting out the hundreds of vessels was clearly going to take a while. Ahsoka had spent longer than she expected in the mess hall (turns out fighting pirates, then Grievous, then your own thoughts, leaves you quite hungry indeed), and she only made it up to the bridge a short time after they arrived. Looking out the window at the mess outside, she suspected it was a small miracle that there had been no collisions yet.
According to Obi-wan, Anakin was now on his way to join them. They had made contact after communications were restored, and Anakin had left Admiral Yularan in command of his cruiser so he could take a shuttle over to Obi-wan's. Now that Ahsoka was ready, the two of them set off down to the hangar. Partway there, they turned down a hallway to find Anakin walking towards them from the other end, apparently not having felt like waiting for them to arrive.
Ahsoka took off down the rest of the corridor, only slowing just enough that she wouldn't knock Anakin over as she collided with his chest, wrapping her arms around him.
She felt him hug her back immediately, tightly, and she sagged against him, at last feeling like she could truly relax. Anakin leaned his head against her montral.
"It's good to see you, Snips." he said softly. She knew he wouldn't have been worrying about her the same way she had been about him, but she could feel how her presence was still a comfort to him. It also sounded like he had been crying. After all, he had also lost countless- ...Oh. Padme. She hugged him tighter.
Several more seconds passed before they parted, Ahsoka opening her eyes and stepping back, both of them feeling a bit calmer and more grounded than they had before. She moved to stand to Anakin's side, perhaps a bit closer than normal, as Obi-wan approached and put a hand on Anakin's shoulder.
"I'm glad you're alright, Anakin." Obi-wan may have been a bit stiff when expressing his feelings, but Ahsoka knew he cared deeply. "We were worried about you."
Anakin nodded. "I can tell. I'm glad you're alright too, both of you."
He looked at Ahsoka. "You were leading a Gathering mission, right? How'd you end up on Obi-wan's ship? Shouldn't you be on the Crucible?"
"That's a long story," said Ahsoka. It felt strange to think about the things she had been doing before everything was thrown into chaos. "The Crucible got destroyed, but Huyang and the younglings are okay."
"Well that's good," Anakin replied. "We haven't been able to get much news here."
"Neither have we," said Obi-wan. "It's been tense, waiting to hear from people." He paused. "Do you know how this happened?"
Anakin shook his head. "I was in orbit above Coruscant. I didn't... make it to the window until shortly after, but from the recordings it looks like the planet practically turned inside out. By the time I saw it, it was just a ball of magma."
The three of them were silent for a moment, reliving the terror and pain of earlier. It must have been even worse for Anakin, so close to it. Ahsoka wasn't sure if she wanted to see for herself what Coruscant had become, or not. Steeling herself, she decided to broach the necessary subject they had been avoiding.
"Do we know who we've lost yet?" She hadn't had any news, but Anakin and Obi-wan had been in contact with the rest of the fleet while she was eating.
Obi-wan's face grew grim. "Practically the entire Senate, and the Supreme Chancellor. Most Jedi are spread across the galaxy, but there was a significant population in the temple, and we just recently had a council meeting. It will be a long time before we can confirm every Jedi's status, but here's what I know: Masters Windu, Yoda, Billaba, Mundi, Fisto, Rancicis, and Tiin were in the temple. Shaak Ti is on Kamino, and Plo Koon is leading his troops in the outer rim - neither of them attended the meeting in person. Eeth Koth and Adi Gallia were at the meeting, but may have left the planet prior to its destruction. We know they left the temple, but haven't been able to confirm where they went after."
Another moment of silence. There was too much for Ahsoka to process right then, and fortunately Anakin spoke before she could get caught up thinking about it.
"So, the Jedi council is down to five, maybe less, people."
Obi-wan nodded. "Five if Master Koth and Master Gallia are alive. Either way, the position of Grandmaster passes to Plo Koon, by order of seniority."
"...Barriss?" Ahsoka asked after a second.
Anakin looked down at her sadly. "Barriss and Master Luminara were both in the temple earlier, and we have no indication they left."
She nodded in acknowledgement. She'd known they were there, but needed to check just in case. After all, Anakin was here, standing in front of her, which went a long way to make the rest of it more bearable.
"I hate to ask," said Anakin, "but how is this going to affect the Republic? We're still at war, after all."
"News from the front lines has been limited, but it sounds like things are chaos," said Obi-wan. "There are reports of some separatist commanders calling for a ceasefire, and others launching attacks to try to take advantage of the Republic's weakness."
It turned Ahsoka's stomach to think about having that kind of reaction to this tragedy, and she had to remind herself that most people hadn't felt it, hadn't been forced to fully comprehend the loss. But if some were talking of a ceasefire, that was promising at least. She thought of her visit to Raxus, and wished that Mina Bonteri was still there to help push for peace. And Padme. Ahsoka's heart clenched around the hole left by her and so many others.
The rest of the day passed as a blur for Ahsoka. News was exchanged, losses were tallied. Decisions about troop movements and logistics that would normally have been debated for days were made on the spot by whoever happened to be in the position to choose - there was simply too much to do and organize, and not enough time to do it.
A small bright spot came when it was discovered that Eeth Koth and Adi Gallia had in fact left the planet before its destruction. Shortly thereafter, an even more significant message came - the separatist parliament wished to open negotiations for a formal ceasefire. Plo Koon, who had rushed back from the outer rim after hearing about Coruscant, stood with Anakin and Ahsoka and what was left of the Jedi council to discuss the offer. With Palpatine and the entire line of succession gone, Plo Koon was now the de facto leader of the Republic army, and essentially the Republic itself.
"Do you think it will amount to much?" asked Eeth Koth. "In the past, such negotiations have broken down quickly."
"I believe that the Separatist Parliament has generally tried to negotiate in good faith," said Obi-wan. "But Count Dooku has always sabotaged such efforts without their knowing."
"While I do not wish to speak ill of the victims of this tragedy, the actions of our Senate have also hindered such peace attempts," added Shaak Ti.
"Yes," Plo Koon agreed. "We may have greater success now, with Jedi-led negotiations. Furthermore, while Count Dooku surely has great control over the Separatists, he must maintain the appearance of civility and democracy in order to prevent systems from abandoning him. There is a great amount of public support for this ceasefire on both sides, far more than at any other point since the war began. I believe we are likely to reach an agreement. How long it will last is another matter."
"Regardless, we must take advantage of this opportunity," said Obi-wan. "Any chance of peace is worth pursuing."
It was decided that Plo Koon would attend the ceasefire negotiations on behalf of the republic, along with a few of the republic senators they had been able to contact - those who had been off-world when Coruscant was destroyed. Ahsoka was glad to hear that Lux was one of them.
By the time the decisions and plans had all been made and the meetings were over, the time was late and Ahsoka was exhausted. She could tell the others were tired too, though some of them would no doubt be staying up all night to continue their work. None of them were as long without sleep as her, though, she was pretty sure. She hadn't slept since... the Jedi temple, before leaving for the gathering mission. Her last time in the Jedi temple.
She slowed and then stopped; Anakin noticed and turned to face her. The two of them were on their way back to his cruiser for the night.
"Master?" Anakin cocked his head. "I..." She hesitated. She didn't know how to start putting her feelings into words, so she just let them flow out into the force between them for him to see.
"Can we sleep in the Twilight tonight?"
Anakin sent back his understanding as he put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it gently. "Of course we can."