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Kanan watched Kenobi from the back of the bridge. She was standing in the front, watching the clones and the civilian bridge workers putter about. She wasn't really paying attention to the holomaps Cody, Rex and Hera were studying.
"You okay?"
Kenobi blinked out of her daze to meet the gaze of Wooley, small and quiet.
"Yes, of course."
"You feel something."
She opened her mouth to reply, but he took her lax hand and she stopped. Her voice was much lower when she responded, barely audible from where he was any longer. "Yes."
"It's not good, is it?"
She pursed her lips. "No. That's why I'm only taking a small contingency. No more than six."
"Are you sure?"
"Wooley, I made you a promise." She squeezed his hand. "Never again."
He ducked his head, but there was no hiding the tears.
"Is he okay?" One of the nearby civ techs muttered.
"Don't acknowledge it." The closest clone, Crys, replied. "Let him have his time."
Kanan felt that this wasn't so much pretending the other clones had no weakness, rather that he was affording the brother what they otherwise would never have had in their previous life - privacy.
He was curious at what Kenobi felt. She must have felt something on their approach to Anastasie. Or someone. And if it was someone, every guess he had were not options he wanted to explore.
"Squad leaders, to the map room for briefing." She said suddenly, letting Wooley go. Fives, one of Amidala's guard that had joined them, gently guided the traumatized brother away, into another part of the ship even as they both watched her go in matching expressions of grief.
Kanan pulled himself out of his observation to follow her lead.
The map room was small, not meant to house many people. Rex and Cody had followed as well, watching her attentively.
"The fortress Amidala wants us to scout is a massive structure on an overlook, atop a canyon. It's a repurposed factory, used to make droids back in the war. Old clone records allow us an intimate knowledge of the layout. We're going in in two tight squads. Kanan, you're going with Kano and Hardcase. Fives, Echo and Rex, you're with Cody. I'll be scouting on my own. We rendez-vous eight hours after arrival at the undefended uppermost ship platform. If I don't meet you at the pad, take off. If I don't at least comm within half an hour after that, leave the atmosphere."
"General-" Rex went to argue as Cody went still.
"You can, and you will." She said, suddenly steely. "This is not an option. I want no deaths and only minor wounds. Am I clear, Captain?"
"Yes, sir." He replied, soft and defeated.
"Prep the men. Dismissed."
The clones filed out, only Cody lingering on the edge of the room. He averted his eyes and left just as quietly as the others.
"Are you sure about this, Kenobi?" He spoke up.
She met his gaze. "You have a complaint?"
"No, just concern." He crossed his arms. "The Commander doesn't seem to like it. Not to mention that you're not exactly stealthy. The thought of you in there alone doesn't really sit right."
"This is far from my first time alone." Her wings were stiff and hard at her back. "They didn't call me the Sith Killer for nothing, Padawan."
The place they were meant to scout could only be called a fortress for a lack of a better word. Built into the side of a formidable mountain, the massive structure took up its entire eastern face and apparently tunnelled a decent way into the rock. It was an old Sith stronghold from the Old Republic that the Jedi had taken at great cost, but had heralded the end of their war.
"Kriff." Fives muttered.
"Yeah." Echo agreed quietly.
Kano grunted. "Seen bigger."
Hardcase punched him in the shoulder. "No you haven't, you hardass."
"And that base that was the entire moon was, what? A figment of my imagination?"
"Yeah, that one was pretty impressive." Rex agreed.
"No chatter." Cody cut in. The clones went silent. "Ready for jump, General."
"Ready, Commander." She stepped up to the blast doors.
"Opening blast doors on right side facing forward." Valor said over comm. "Three. Two."
She cupped her ribs, eyes not sliding away from the doors, but her fingers brushing over the Commander's.
"Happy flying, General." Valor said and the blast doors opened.
She didn't hesitate, launching herself from the troop transport and free falling a couple hundred feet before her wings snapped out and she caught air, soaring fast and straight over the rocky terrain. Within a kilometre of the fortress, the batteries opened fire. Valor closed the blast door, their transport landing a decent clip away from her location.
"She looks to have been a success." Valor reported. "Happy hunting, gentlemen."
The blast door opened again and the clones took off, headed for a small tunnel. Records said it lead deep into the facility and had been built by the Jedi. It was little more than a drain for the snow caps that had once covered the mountain.
Kanan followed Kano and Hardcase as the two groups split in the furnace room, one that still had the machinery for the droids they used to manufacture rotting in the ceiling. The Jedi during the Clone Wars had never needed to retake this place, but he can't imagine what it would look like if they had of had to. Would it have been a huge battle, or something sneaky like this? He supposed it likely depended on who was assigned the task.
The Elder she'd met on Stewjon had been happy to correspond with her as she grew older, telling her of the history of her people and what she could expect from her body. She told him in return about the changes and what she became. He came to calling her Lady Sky, which made her uncomfortable in the most primal of ways, but their conversations had come to an end when he'd disclosed his most final secret to her.
In the early days, she had taken her lifespan and imagined living forever, saving planets, watching over species and teaching as she learned. In two thousand years, she could accomplish anything she wished, see generations of Jedi and guide them with all the knowledge she'd earned. The world and the Order would be made better by her hand.
And then, enslaved and breaking under the weight of her chains, the truth of her mortality struck her for the first time. The terror of it had lingered and never truly disappeared. In the darkness of those caves, she had learned what the cost of such a life was, what would be exacted from her in return for her endurance and strength. She had it tested as she watched rebels she had fought with and killed for get dragged off and executed just to remind her, just to drive home who was in charge. It was a lesson she learned quickly, one that had tainted her view of the galaxy.
Not long after that, Master Jinn died. Slain, right before her helpless eyes, he had fallen. None of her gifts would ever bring him back, would ever undo her failure. His last breaths were stains on her hands, and Maul being in two parts was not and would never be enough to avenge him.
Then, she had been left with Jinn's boy, had to tell him the Master had died. She stood with him and together they watched the man who freed them perish.
"How long will you live?" Anakin had asked her, deep in the dark one night. They were watching the stars after a skydance.
She carefully considered the answer. "A very long time."
"Oh." Anakin cocked his head at her, then laid down on her lap, letting out a big breath. "That's good, then."
She didn't mention how much longer that actually was to him. She was scared to admit it to herself. But then the war had come and taken the worry of an over-long life away from her. That inhibition had led her to Cody, had let her give him her heart, and take his in return. With the prospect of a future together on the horizon for the first time, her overlapping and continual failures crashed back down on her.
She'd told no one, not even the Jedi Council, of the truth. She never told Anakin she would live long enough that his own descendants wouldn't know his name. She's yet to tell Cody that he will wither away and she will not, that she will remain as she is into an age where his body is entirely gone and he is less than a ghost lost in the Clone Wars. Where all she will have of him is a tattoo that she has to get renewed as years pass her by indiscriminately, hoping that she never forgets his face, even if any lingering warmth of the memory of touch has long since faded. She's not strong enough to let herself acknowledge it, let alone cope with the fallout from her most close loved ones.
In the end, she understood what the Elder had been trying to tell her.
"You don't belong with them. You belong here."
As long as she stayed here, in the great world beyond the mountains of Stewjon, she would be haunted and hunted by tragedy, misfortune and misery. She would never be able to detach herself enough, to divorce from the procession of time enough to live here in happiness. Everything would be fleeting and crumble through her desperate fingers like dust. And atop all of that, she had chosen a man who's life was already limited, made more so by his creators.
As she looked out over the hall full of orphans and the repossessed children of the disenfranchised in the casual dress of privates and corporals, this dread flooded her again as if it was the first time. These children were the new clones - the Stormtroopers - and would be driven on and into death. Thrown away, much the same as the clones, but with somehow even less humility.
She wondered, truly, what she would face. If it was worth surviving past Cody. Were prisons of child soldiers always going to be a reality? Would she ever be able to purge her galaxy of the evils that kept a lingering poison in her heart? She doubted it, even with her impressive time allotment. Would the galaxy ever be a place worth living in if all the ones she loved now were dead?
She shook herself of the morbid thoughts and continued her progress. This was not the time or place to be overcome, by anything.
"This is messed up." Fives muttered.
"Quiet." Cody hissed back, Echo shaking his head.
"They're children! Not even cadets, like we had. Just normal kids." Fives continued regardless.
"They blew up Kamino - of course there wouldn't be any more cadets." Echo murmured.
Cody spun around on them. "Are you ARC troopers or not? Keep quiet."
"Yessir." They both replied promptly, immediately falling silent right afterward.
Rex sighed softly to himself. Cody was right - one doesn't get to the rank of Marshall Commander without knowing what they're doing - but they all knew General Kenobi's safety was weighing on him more than anything else. he was worried about the consequences of her appearance there, if there were others would would recognize her and the alarm would go up. If she was found, they would scour the compound looking for others, a warning would go all the way up to Vader and it was unlikely they would make it away before they were annihilated.
He also found the entire situation mournful. Not only were these kids being turned into soldiers and sent to die, but the way his brothers seen it. The clones were supposed to have been bred for this, for war, but did that mean any of the horror these young ones felt was any different from what they'd felt? Not knowing any different, they went about their daily lives and did what they were told. The cadets hadn't thought about it, and neither would these kids. Yet, they were both horrible.
He pressed on. The General would be waiting for them.
Kanan froze when he saw the bedrooms. Child bedrooms.
"Keep moving." Kano whispered.
Hardcase clapped him on the shoulder, nudging him forward. "No different than a clone bunk. Keep going."
"But- but they're for kids! For children!" His voice was raw from horror.
"Shiny, did you think clones burst from the tube fully formed?" Kano muttered, disapproval heavy on his voice. "I know what a kriffing cadet's room looks like. We've got to keep moving. The patrol will be back in three and a half minutes and stalling loses us ground."
Hardcase nudged him again and his body responded, even if his mind was still in limbo. The bedrooms of children, in a training facility that was falling apart.
Government sanctioned child slavery. His mind whispered. Stars, what has been happening while I've not been looking? Then the most terrible thought occurred. Ezra was in a place like this.
The further in they got, the older the bedrooms became, until they were passing the rooms of near-adults, barren and sparse. It broke his heart. He could have been here, he could have been saving these children. He could have.
But he was too weak, and now, he couldn't do anything.
"Did you hear that?" Cody froze, head cocked.
"No?" Fives ventured.
"Something is following us." The Commander murmured. "Rex, you're the new pointman. Finish recon and meet Kenobi at the platform. I'll follow shortly."
"I don't think this is a good idea." Rex said lowly, concern lacing his voice.
"I know what I'm doing, Captain." Cody said, then ushered them ahead of him. "Go. I won't be long."
She looked down to the ping on her comm with a frown. "Kenobi here."
"Cody went to check out a noise." Rex said gently, lowly. "Half an hour ago."
Her heart stuttered in her chest. "Which way?"
"Toward the command structure in the back of the base."
"Carry on. I'll get him."
Rex tried to stifle it, but she heard his sigh of relief. "Affirmative, General."
She crept out of the room where the data was stored - shipment manifests, troop graduations, first deployments, visitation logs. Access passwords, old but still useful.
"What the hell kind of place is this?" Kanan hissed as he fell out of a vent onto a maintenance platform of some kind. Kano had taken to ignoring him, but Hardcase shook his head with the kind of exasperation one reserves for particularly dense children who walk into walls.
"A fortress." Hardcase replied. "They're not supposed to be easy to sneak into."
"Be easier with less bitching." Kano muttered to himself, scanning the area with binoculars. It was a frankly irresponsibly big space, housing what used to be a cooling tower and still-functional vent blades. It seemed to have been converted into an audience chamber, judging by the multiple walkways that protruded from the walls at different heights and widths. Perhaps it was where their graduations would take place.
"I've got movement." Kano reported suddenly. "Stormtroopers, on the west-most balcony."
"It's impressive," A not-quite familiar voice came from nowhere, "that you not only managed to infiltrate this place, but that you managed to find old clone armour."
"Kriff." Kano hissed. "B Company has been compromised."
"Do you think it has to do with them calling out to the General?" Kanan asked softly, desperately not wanting to echo.
"Most likely." Hardcase confirmed sadly, peeking out over the edge to see for himself.
"Not talkative, I see. That's fine. The gentlemen behind you will get your story soon enough."
Kanan wrestled for a bit of space to see.
On the topmost of the 'audience' catwalks were Rex, Fives and Echo at gunpoint and all staunchly silent. They could obviously see who was talking to them from the opposite balcony and seemed aware that whoever it was would be able to recognize a clone dialect. The men holding them looked to be Stormtrooper interrogators, draped in black capes over the white plastoid.
This was not going to end well.
Of all the outcomes to this mission, this was the one she wished to avoid most.
She crept up the hallway, wings tucked close and body low. Her best odds were if the men couldn't hear her approach. She could stick herself to the ceiling then for just long enough for them to pass under her, then follow them to an interrogation room, where she could dispose of them. She was still keeping a feeler out for Cody, but the darkness she had sensed was only getting deeper the further into the compound she moved. The last thing she wanted to do while her men were in danger was alert a Sith Lord she hadn't yet met she was there. That they were there.
But then, thing never went that smoothly where she was involved. Especially when that meant she crossed paths with Anakin.
Her spirit shattered inside her chest seeing him there, dressed in black with eyes aflame, lording over the men who used to be his, mind, heart and body. Speaking down to them like insects, vermin to be used and discarded. She didn't have time to waste.
She stood when she was close enough, her walk confident and easy in a way she certainly didn't feel. Into the open lighting of the chamber, she projected an air of calm, her lightsaber igniting in her hand and her slice swift. Two of the Stormtroopers fell dead with no heads before they could turn to notice her entrance, the other two not a few moments later. She continued until she was firmly between the two parties, her head tilted up but body still lose, as if she wasn't threatened.
Out of the darkness of the main parapet walked Anakin, eyes wide and a smile beginning to stretch across his lips. The silence was ringing, the clones behind her more than a little scared by the sudden turn of events. With her reveal, there were only two ways this could go - surprisingly well, or spectacularly bad.
"Obi-Wan." Anakin stopped right at the railing, his smile turning more manic.
"What did I tell you, boy?" The ragged, but still recognizable voice of Chancellor Palpatine murmured from a darkened platform to the left of Anakin.
"You were right. You did it." Anakin looked relieved and crazed altogether.
"And what, praytell, did he do?" Obi-Wan asked.
"He brought you back. Master, he brought you back to me."
"Anakin," Her voice was deep, melancholy, "he did no such thing."
"Yes, he did. You're here. You're here, right now."
"I'm here because the wormhole I got lost in opened again."
"No. I tried to open it. There was no way. He did it. Just like he promised." Anakin insisted.
"He's a Sith Lord, Anakin. He would tell you whatever it took, whatever would get you to do what he wanted you to."
"No, no. Sheev brought you back."
"What would you have done had I never returned?" She returned. "Would you have died of age, believing that he'd come through for you eventually? I was gone for seventeen years, Anakin. If he could have done this, why now? Why not when you were breaking apart in grief?"
"How do you know that?" His mood snapped. "You've seen her. She's gotten to you first."
"I have spoken with Senator Amidala, yes."
"It's not too late, Obi-Wan. I'll forgive you, let you keep whoever these people are. You can come with me."
Her shoulders stiffened. "You know I can't do that."
"You can't." He deadpanned.
"No, I can't. If you loved me, you would know that."
He reared back, as if slapped. He turned and gestured to a trooper, who brought forth Cody. He held the Commander at the edge of the parapet, hand braced against his back to push him off when he so chose.
"Join me, and they live." He threatened. "I'll throw him from the wall."
"By the looks of what you've already done, I don't doubt that." The disappointment in her voice made his face twist in agony. "But you're asking me for an answer you already know."
"I forgot how much I hate it when you talk cryptic." He muttered.
"If you so deign to push Cody from the platform, you know I will jump off after him." She clarified, reproachful. "You know I will save him instead of giving you chase. And you know the reason why."
Anakin's mouth twisted.
"Enlighten the audience, Master Kenobi." Palpatine chided, as if speaking to a child.
She didn't turn her attention away from Anakin. "Of the two of you, you are the only one with a choice. Not just in the sparing of a man's life, but in the path you have chosen. I am sorry, truly sorry that I left you, Anakin. Had it of been my choice, I would remain at your side to the end of days. The last thing I ever wanted was to lose you, to see you fall so far. But you're not beyond hope, beyond help. I cannot walk with you in this darkness, but I openly invite you back to my side. There will always be a place for you with me. But just as now, it is not my choice to make. I cannot force you, compel you in any fashion. You can deliver Cody to me and we can all leave, or you can push him and run, knowing exactly who I will save."
Indecision overtook his face and for a long moment, he looked genuinely lost.
"I owe him. For bringing you back."
"I was your teacher from the time you were a boy and you don't owe me anything. You don't owe anyone anything, Anakin." Her breath stuttered in her chest. "You're not a slave."
His gaze snapped up to hers and for the first time in a long time, his eyes were blue.
"Let's put your loyalties to the test, hmm?" Palpatine cackled. He flicked his wrist, and Cody fell.
Without hesitation, the men behind her ran and she jumped off after him, catching him mere meters above the fans and landing safely on the lowest platform. Above them, Anakin gazed down at her, eyes orange but still conflicted. He turned and followed Sheev out.
"Obi-Wan, you should have gone after him." Cody reprimanded harshly when he could breathe again.
"I can still save him. But I have made promises to you both, to love you both unconditionally. I cannot compromise one for the sake of the other." She gently traced over where the aliik was. "That means not even for Anakin."
"You should have gone after him." Cody pouted, but took her hand and began to run down the hallways toward the evac point as the lights went up and the alarms came on.
"What kind of wife would I be to let my husband die. Do you know how embarrassing it would be to admit my husband died after he was pushed into a rotor by an old man?"
His laugh was genuine startled humour. "You'd have to change the old man to Rex to give it any traction."
"Now that's what I like to hear."
Anakin, from the top of the mountain's spire, watched Obi-Wan's little trooper shuttle evacuate her team. His guns and ships were in hot pursuit, but he knew they wouldn't get her. She would make a dash out of the atmosphere and his defensive fighters wouldn't be able to follow.
Obi-Wan was out of his reach, gone. Again.
All thanks to Palpatine.