Chapter Text
Obi-Wan smiled down at the Initiate in his arms; Lyla had all four arms wrapped around him,making certain that he couldn’t put her down. She was the youngest in the Creche at the moment. Her large eyes gazed up at him with the utmost trust.
It was amazing, he had to admit, how she trusted that he wouldn’t do anything to her when she hardly knew him. The other younglings were crawling around, cooing at each other and battling over toys while Creche Mistress Marsha and her Padawan put out fires and put snacks together.
Obi-Wan really was a help and they had no problems with a rotation of Master’s from the Front coming to them for peace. There was just something about the protectiveness of the Force in the Creche that called to others.
Obi-Wan wished that Anakin could have had this. He knew that Anakin’s past made him who he was and that could never be changed, but he had to wonder where he went wrong in teaching Anakin. Maybe if they had done more Creche visits it wouldn’t be….
And all out battle when they spoke.
Maybe, if they trusted each other they could have spoken about the Hardeen Mission. Maybe, it wouldn’t have been such a cluster fuck in the end. As it stood. The 212th had requested he transfer to another unit.
Anakin was definitely NOT speaking to him and Ahsoka took after her Master; probably not that she wanted too. But she had to show their troops that she was supporting him even if she disagreed.
Obi-Wan knew that would have been the decision he had made had Master Jinn survived. Though, to be honest, Obi-Wan also knew that Master Jinn would have found a way to pin it on him. He’d have been a failure once more.
Lyla cooed up at him and batted at his re-grown beard. Obi-Wan had been given leave, and he had spent it at the Temple. Trying to be useful to the Creche and the Archives.
Funnily enough, a lot of those not close to him didn’t have one thing to say to him about the decision he had made. Most Jedi understood why he had faked his death and went into deep cover.
The Shadows had even brought him in for an interview; it had taken days and days to tell them everything about the mission. They had cringed at some of it. He wasn’t trained for any such missions and a few said that they should have done it. But in the end, he had done the best he could with what he had.
The Shadows also unanimously declared that some relationships wouldn’t be recovered at all, and that maybe a transfer to another unit wasn’t entirely horrible.
And so, he had found himself here. With Lyla clinging to him, eating a banana and babbling baby speak to him.
It was….
It just was.
&*&*&*&
Mace frowned down at the transfer request. The 212th would have a hard time working under Kenobi again with this mission taking such a strong hit to their morale. Skywalker was not helping on that front either with his defiance in even speaking to his Master.
Kenobi really had done the boy a disservice by treating him more as a brother than a son. Alas, that was not in Mace’s purview to criticise. Obi-Wan had gotten enough of that when he had taken Skywalker on.
He had gotten even worse things thrown at him when offered a Council seat. A good portion of the Jedi at the time had thought he’d only gotten it so that the Council could keep an eye on Skywalker. As if they couldn’t do that without Kenobi on it.
Through it all he had smiled gently and offered all the Jedi-ism they all grew up with. Mace had to shake his head. The mission had really blown up in Kenobi’s face in the end.
Though, he wasn’t too saddened that Duchess Kryze had stopped contacting Kenboi. They all knew about their potential affair - one that never happened - and had waited for one misstep from Kenobi, who never made it.
Mace decided that relationship they could do without. The Duchess was far more trouble than she should be and all because of that Year long mission where Jinn practically threw Kenobi and Kryze at one another. Hoping for an attachment to form.
When he knew full well that Kenboi had attachment problems.
Another sigh.
Mace then took a deep breath, no amount of meditation was going to improve the decision to split the best military leader they had from the best Clone troop they had; but it had to be done.
Maybe this would teach a few sentients a lesson. The space isn’t always nebulous on the other side of the meteor field after all.
&*&*&*&
Bacara smirked down at his pad as the message came in and dinged. He knew that his slight disagreement with Mundi would eventually wind its way up the ladder, but he hadn’t thought that this would happen. A complete transfer had been done, Mundi was removed from his station with the marines and would go join Skywalker and the 501st/212ths.
They would get Kenboi.
Bacara had to think about that for a hot parsec; The Galaxy knew a very simple version of the plan about the Separatists kidnapping Palpatine and using him to win the war. They knew that Kenobi had gloriously sacrificed himself to save the Chancelor.
Yeah, practically everyone close to him hated him if the vod grape vine were correct. But, that almost went against everything he had heard about Kenobi. How he had a big heart and liked his men and wanted everyone to live.
He was the perfect Jedi.
He was also the perfect tactician. He did use underhanded tricks on the enemy but no one seemed to care. The Enemy could go fly into a black whole for all Bacara cared.
Still. There was potential. If he could make Kenobi better….
Bacara smirked then nodded to himself. Yes, it was time to train a Jedi in how to command marines.
&*&*&*&*&
Anakin glowered down at the message he received. He had hoped no one else would be assigned to his troops. The 212ths were taken with Ahsoka and did well under her command.
But he guess they couldn’t work with a commander the whole time. Mundi wouldn’t be that bad to work with. He might not get away with as much as he did with Mas - er- Kenobi around.
Still. It was better.
&*&*&*&*&
Obi-Wan had finally returned to his apartment. To find that someone had cleared Anakin’s things out and the room that had belonged to him was bare.
Obi-Wan did his best not to feel hurt by it; Anakin had every right to feel hurt because of the mission parameters that Obi-Wan refused to break for him.
Anakin had this bad habit of thinking that he could break rules. Obi-Wan knew he tried to teach him how to bend them instead. Anakin, simply didn’t care.
He had to admit though, at some point, he too had stopped caring that Anakin cared. He had just let him do anything he wanted. Had covered for him and took censor for him.
There were many times that Anakin didn’t know why they were Temple bound. Obi-Wan had merely waved it off and insisted it was for further training, or brush ups that Masters had to do. Dumb stuff like that.
That time Anakin had blown up an empty building? Obi-Wan had been grounded at the Temple for five months. They hadn’t gone on another mission by themselves for a full year after that.
Anakin had enjoyed it too; and thankfully everyone had honored Obi-Wan’s wishes by not saying anything.
Yes. That was where he had gone wrong. He had shielded Anakin from a lot of things, he hadn’t let his Padawan learn from his mistakes.
Qui-Gon always let Obi-Wan take the brunt end of any punishment he gathered on a mission. Probation for Malida/Daan….
Obi-Wan shook his head. Sitting here in the dark with their faces swirling around his head would make for a bad night if he let it.
Finally, he waved a hand and the lights came on. A slight abuse of the Force but he refused to feel even slightly regretful of it.
He set about making tea and soup for dinner. He would meditate on his mistakes later.
Then, something on his data pad dinged. And he knew that the decision had been made. He ignored it for the moment. Wanting the peace to lat just a tad bit more.