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“Snips, the answer is still no,” Anakin sighed and shook his head with his arms crossed over his chest. “No matter how many times you ask, it isn’t going to change.”
“But I can still fight,” Ahsoka pouted as sat in a wheelchair of the healing halls.
“You have a broken leg!” Anakin exclaimed as he pointed at the aforementioned limb.
Ahsoka had the unfortunate luck of breaking her leg in their last mission and from the knee down, it was in a cast. The healing master Jedis had done the most they could for now but it was up to Ahsoka to rest and let the bone mend itself. Even though his padawan was currently out of commission, Anakin and the rest of the 501st were still being called out to help free a planet under its growing separatist rule. Ahsoka was not taking well to the decision that she would stay at the temple in the meantime.
“But I could just stay on the ship,” Ahsoka tried to barter.
“Bantha poo doo,” Anakin scoffed. “I know you too well, Snips. There is no way in sith’s hell that you wouldn’t bribe one of the men to carry you out into a fight on their shoulders.”
“Fives would do it without a bribe,” Ahsoka grumbled under breath and rolled her eyes.
Anakin gestured a hand out towards her. “That is exactly what I’m talking about.” Ahsoka jutted her bottom lip out in a pout and crossed her arms, looking away from her master. Anakin sighed and rubbed a hand down his face. “Look, I have to get going, okay? Me and the boys will be back as soon as possible.”
“Fine,” Ahsoka mumbled. She knew that Anakin was doing the right thing and that she was more of a liability than anything but it still hurt to be left behind. If there was anything Ahsoka hated more than the sith, it was being a hinderance to her men. She wanted to be the strong commander they needed and to be able to protect them on the field.
She had actually broken her leg protecting the clones to begin with. They had been running through an old base when a squad of droids had found them. Ahsoka had used the force to hold the loose pieces of durasteel up to give them some sort of cover. What she didn’t realize was that she had been standing in a doorway and one of the droids had realized, leading them to close the door on her.
Luckily, the door’s power hadn’t been fully restored with how old the base was but it definitely was strong enough to break the bone as it slammed shut on her leg. Half of the clones had rushed when they heard her gasp of pain to use their brute strength to pry the doors open while the other half covered them from the oncoming droids but it had already been too late.
Ahsoka had been a trooper through the whole ordeal. She had forced her screams of pain down and continued to defend her men even when she was trapped. Even Hardcase as carried her on his back to retreat back to their base, she had used her lightsabers to defend the two of them from oncoming blasts. Ahsoka didn’t let her broken leg stop her from fighting as she knew what the alternative could be.
“Ahsoka,” Anakin murmured and kneeled down in front of her wheelchair. “You did a good job protecting yourself and the boys. Take a rest, okay? You deserve it.”
“…okay, master,” Ahsoka grumbled and looked away from her master. “Will you bring me back souvenir?” Ahsoka asked quietly.
An easy smile came onto Anakin’s lips. Reaching out, he rubbed the space between his montals. “Sure thing, ‘Soka,” he answered. “I’ll find you a pretty rock.”
“I’ll only accept the prettiest of them all,” Ahsoka grinned a fang-tipped smile.
Anakin chuckled and stood up from the ground. “You sound like a porg,” he snorted.
“I love porgs!” Ahsoka beamed. “They are so cute and fluffy!”
“So, the exact opposite of you?” Anakin teased. He laughed harder as he had to duck out of the room as Ahsoka threw a roll of plasta at his head for the light-hearted insult. “See you later, snips!” Anakin called from outside the room.
Ahsoka could hear his footsteps getting softer as he got farther away and upon realizing that she was no alone, she slouched in her wheelchair. She poked at the wheel of the chair, all the hoverchairs unavailable so she had to resort to either this or crutches. The air around her was glum as she pouted. She knew that it was childish of her to do and Anakin did have a point to leave her at the temple where she would be safe while she healed. The rational part of Ahsoka knew that but the emotional side was upset at having to stay back while her master and men fought without her.
“Stupid clankers,” Ahsoka mumbled to herself as she looked as her casted up leg. “Stupid broken bone. Stupid broken blast doors.” Ahsoka sighed and looked up at the tall ceiling above her. “Stupid padawan,” she whispered.
There was a shuffle from the other side of the room and Ahsoka jumped in her seat. She cursed herself for zoning out so much to not feel that someone was approaching. Anakin was always getting on her case about not zoning out and listening to the force when it tells her that someone was getting close to her. Grabbing a wheel in each had, Ahsoka spun herself around so that she was facing the other door of the healing hall.
She perked up when she saw Master Yoda slowly shuffle his way into the room. He had his usual sly smile on his face and a hand held behind his back. “Padawan Ahsoka,” Yoda cleared his throat. Ahsoka gave a half bow towards her great-great-great-grand master. “Distraught, you seem.”
“Just upset that I got left behind,” Ahsoka sighed. She knew he probably felt her feelings in the force that she didn’t bother to hide. Her feelings were still too hurt and a part of her felt that she should make her feelings known to Anakin over their master-padawan bond for a bit longer before letting them pass.
“Understandable,” Yoda nodded along. He continued his pace until he was in front of Ahsoka and placed both his hands overtop of his staff, looking up at the padawan. “Wants you safe, your master wants, to be fair.”
“I know,” Ahsoka grumbled and crossed her arms over her chest. “I know Master Skywalker is doing what a responsible master would do but it still hurt my feelings.”
Yoda hummed as he nodded along. Ahsoka waited for whatever lecture he would have for her about a Jedi not letting something like this sway their feelings and to be more mature. Or some cryptic Jedi anecdote that he and Obi-Wan liked to quote that drove Ahsoka and Anakin crazy.
“Okay,” Yoda chirped and turned on his heel to start heading back towards the door. “My young padawan, follow me.”
Ahsoka blinked in shock. She shook her head as she figured that perhaps Master Yoda would lead her to a group meditation session with the younglings that he liked to host. Many Jedi masters felt mediation was the answer to almost everything and Ahsoka thought that it would perhaps it would help her.
“Where are we going, master?” Ahsoka asked.
Yoda paused for a moment to look over his shoulder at her. “Some fun, join me for,” Yoda grinned at the togruta. “Some mischief right now, I feel up to.”
Yoda would chuckle at the way Ahsoka scrambled to wheel the chair after her great-great-great-grand-master.
“Do you think Ahsoka will like this?” Anakin asked as he held up a woven bracelet.
“I’m sure it will be just as fine as the other four bracelets you showed me,” Rex deadpanned.
“Oh, lighten up, brother,” Fives chuckled as he lightly punched his captain in the arm. “The general is just keeping his promise.”
The mission had been easier than they were expecting and it took only an hour to take back the planet without any causalities. The population of locals – that Anakin didn’t catch the name of – were so thankful that they were offering some of their hand-made wares.
Anakin hummed as he looked at bracelet, rubbing at his chin. After a moment, he grinned and reached for the bracelet. “Yeah, this is the one. I have a feeling she’ll love it.”
The local beamed as Anakin made his choice. Depositing it in the inner pocket of his robes, Anakin gave a bow towards the stall owner before turning to leave. Rex followed at his right shoulder, just behind him while Five stayed behind both with his hands interlocked together behind his head.
They chatted about meaningless gossip around the temple and the Resolute for a bit as they made their way back to the ship. The rest of the 501st that had been cleaning up were just coming back into their view when Anakin’s comm beeped at them. Without a second thought, Anakin raised his right wrist and pressed the button on the side of it. “Go for Skywalker.”
“General Skywalker, I am begging you, please come pick up your padawan,” Fox ground out through the comm.
Anakin, Rex, and Fives exchanged a look between each other. “Is Ahsoka okay?” Anakin asked.
“She won’t be if she and Master Yoda keep testing my patience,” Fox said with irritation heavily lining his voice.
“Oh force, not those two,” Anakin groaned. As a padawan, Anakin had pulled his own fair share of mischievous adventures with his great-great-grand master. Which is exactly why he knew it was a bad warning when Yoda’s name and his padawan’s own were mentioned in the same sentence.
Maybe this was karma for all that he had put Obi-Wan through during his apprenticeship.
“What did commander Tano and General Yoda do?” Rex asked as Anakin was too busy pinching his nose bridge and mentally preparing himself for whatever Ahsoka got up to while he was gone.
“What haven’t they done?” Fox scoffed. “First, they stole a speeder from General Windu, then they were joyriding through Coruscant - which reminds, what type of crackpot flying have you been teaching her? They only stopped after crashing it into a fountain. After that, they somehow broke into a underground fighting ring and then somehow took it down by padawan Ahsoka becoming the reigning champion of it.”
“She’s got spunk, I’ll give her that,” Anakin mumbled.
“Only then did they turn over all the criminals to the police before running away after the guards realized they were the ones to crash the speeder. The next time we find them, they are somehow back at the temple and at the current moment are – I am not joking when I say this – using the halls as their personal skatepark.”
“I’ve been gone for three hours,” Anakin sputtered in shock that all Ahsoka and Yoda have gotten up to.
“And they’ve been acting like younglings for the last two and a half,” Fox deadpanned. “They waited until you would be out of comm range before enacting their plan.”
“What plan?” Anakin raised his brow.
“To test my limits,” Fox said between gritted teeth. “You have one hour before I go throw them in the slammer.”
“That’s if they don’t somehow lock you in there first,” Fives teased. He wilted when he could feel the palpable tension that somehow to transmit over the comm. “Uh, disregard that…sir.”
Anakin sighed and rubbed his flesh hand down his face. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“I will look forward to it,” Fox said before cutting off the comm.
Anakin sighed again before running a hand through his hair with the other propped up on his hip. “Tell the boys to pack up on the double,” he said to Rex. “Tell them our devil of a commander is about to be thrown into the slammer if we don’t hurry up.”
“I’m so proud of her,” Fives said as he wiped a fake tear from his eye. “They grow up so fast.”
Anakin didn’t even respond as he tried to figure out how he could have forgotten to leave Ahsoka with someone responsible like Obi-Wan. It would just be his luck that he would forget and Yoda would come along to whisk his padawan into chaos.
Just like when he was younger…
…dank ferric, this was most definitely karma.
Obi-Wan was strolling down the halls of the temple leisurely with his hands clasped together behind his back. He had heard about a disruption in the temple earlier and decided to go find out what it was. As he had turned the corner of one of the many halls in the temple, he nearly bumped right into Anakin.
Both men jumped back but got over the shock quickly. “Anakin,” Obi-Wan greeted his former padawan.
“Master,” Anakin inclined his head to Obi-Wan but moved around the older man to continue on his way.
Obi-Wan tilted his head to the side in confusion. Anakin would usually spare a moment to converse with him after coming back from a mission, so this was out of the ordinary.
“Is something wrong?” he asked. Looking behind Anakin, he was surprised to not see Ahsoka following. The torgruta was usually found attached at the hip to Anakin unless she was studying, in classes, or hanging with the clones so this was another oddity. “And where is Ahsoka?”
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out,” Anakin mumbled under his breath. That confused Obi-Wan further and he opened his mouth to ask whatever his former padawan meant.
“Incoming!”
Anakin watched as multiple Jedi masters ducked out of the way as Ahsoka with Yoda perched on her shoulder came tearing down the hallway in a wheelchair. She was laughing loudly as she used the force to propel her forward and Yoda would help guide them around the corners.
“…why is your padawan treating the halls as her personal roller park?” Obi-Wan asked with a tired voice.
“That’s what I want to know,” Anakin grumbled. Raising his fingers to his lips, he gave a sharp whistle that caught Ahsoka’s attention. Looking over her shoulder, Ahsoka smiled with a gasp of surprise. Grabbing her wheels, she spun them in opposite directions to spin around back towards her master. She pushed down so that she went rolling back to her master at a fast speed with her excitement radiating into the force.
Ahsoka skidded to a stop just inches in front of her master, leaving tire tracks in the floor behind her. She was breathing hard and her cheeks were bright from exhilaration. “Master! You’re back!” Ahsoka chirped in greeting.
“I am,” Anakin said with a raised eyebrow. “And why are you racing down the halls of the temple in a wheelchair?” he asked.
“We were out of hoverchairs,” Ahsoka giggled and a proud smile. "Remember? That's why you got me the wheelchair to begin with."
Anakin face-palmed. “My dear, what your master is trying to ask, is why are you racing down the halls to begin with?” Obi-Wan clarified as he knew Anakin was trying to figure out how he got stuck with a second coming of his padawan self.
“My idea, it was,” Yoda hummed with an equally proud grin on his face.
“Oh force, I should have predicted this,” Anakin mumbled to himself.
“Did you remember to get my souvenir?” Ahsoka asked suddenly as hadn't seemed to catch onto the fact that she was in trouble. Her cheeks were still flushed from the racing and exhilaration.
“Of course, I did,” Anakin rolled his eyes and pulled the bracelet out of his pocket. He handed it over and Ahsoka’s eyes were round as she marveled at it. Gently, she pulled it onto her wrist but struggled to tighten it.
Seeing that, Anakin quietly held out his hand. Ahsoka handed over her hand and waited patiently as Anakin pulled the strings to tighten the bracelet but leaving enough space for it didn’t bother her. Pulling away, Ahsoka held her hand out to examine the bracelet against her skin and beamed with how it complimented it.
“Thank you master,” she beamed.
“Anytime snips,” Anakin shrugged.
Obi-Wan gave a soft smile at his padawan and grand padawan. If they weren’t a part of the jedi order, he wouldn’t have thought of them to be siblings from how close they acted. Force, Obi-Wan thought of Anakin as a brother and that meant Ahsoka was his little sister by extension.
“Anyways, back to the topic at hand,” Anakin cleared his throat. “From now on, I’m not leaving you behind,” Anakin declared.
“Really?!” Ahsoka asked with sparkles in her eyes.
“Yes, because I can’t seem to trust you to actually stay still and not be a menace when I’m not around to keep an eye on you,” Anakin said. "Especially with the patriarch of our lineage being a lover of chaos," he said with a side-eyed look at Yoda. To his credit, Yoda was proud at the statement if his smirk was a sign.
“No take-backs!” Ahsoka cheered with a cackle. Yoda jumped off of Ahsoka's shoulder and onto the ground next to Obi-Wan, his hands folded onto top of each other on his staff. She grabbed her wheels and started to push against them, rolling away a lot faster than Anakin expected. “Let’s go tell the boys I’m back in action!”
“Wait, I never said you were going back into the field already!” Anakin yelled after her. With a short nod of good-bye to his grandmaster and Master Yoda, Anakin went running after Ahsoka. “How are you so fast on that thing?!”
Obi-Wan just smacked his hand on his face, letting it stay there for a moment before dragging it down slowly. “Master Yoda, may I ask you a question?”
“You may, yes,” Master Yoda hummed.
“Why do you purposely rile up the padawans?” Obi-Wan asked.
“What you mean, I have no idea,” Master Yoda giggled with a twinkle in his eyes.
“Don’t think I’ve forgotten about the time you got Anakin to lead a temple wide water blaster fight while he was under your watch,” Obi-Wan said with his eyes narrowed at the little green alien.
Yoda just laughed as he remembered the event. Obi-Wan had been called to a diplomatic mission off-planet and Anakin hadn’t been able to go along due to an important test. Yoda had volunteered to keep an eye on the young chosen one but he never promised that he wouldn’t stir up a little trouble with him.
Obi-Wan had returned after a comm from Master Windu complaining about how his padawan somehow nearly flooded the council’s chamber. No one had been hurt but everything was water-logged for days. Yoda, conveniently, had been called to a different planet that needed jedi intervention and missed out entirely on the clean up efforts.
No matter how many years of live Yoda had under his belt, he knew the best time to be the menace he knew himself to be.
BONUS SCENE 1:
“You know, sir, you really should have seen this coming by giving her a hoverchair,” Rex said.
“Rex, please, don’t remind me,” Anakin said in a muffled groan as he face was buried in his hands.
Ahsoka’s squealing laughter bounced down the hall as Fives pushed her hoverchair around. With the lack of wheels, he didn’t have to worry about drifting too sharply and risking the girl falling out. He had a hand on each handle and was running as fast as he could, whooping in delight.
“I call pushing the commander next!” Jesse exclaimed.
Echo was holding a holocam in his hands as instructed by Fives, his face showing how disappointed in his twin he was but still going along with it. Many of the other men took out their holocameras to add to their group album dubbed ‘The 501st: chaos incarnate’ that mostly featured Ahsoka and Anakin. Amongst the clones, Fives appeared the most (with Echo in the background) and Rex as he facepalmed at his general and commander.
Everyone laughed as Fives tripped and faceplanted right into the durasteel flooring - Echo making sure to get multiple holos of his twin laid out on the floor. Tup jumped into action and grabbed the abandoned handles before Ahsoka could crash into a wall and took up the role as Ahsoka’s pusher. Echo just came over and kicked Fives to get up.
Ahsoka cheered and clapped her hands as a fresh Jesse grabbed the handles from Tup and sprinted down the hall, taking a sharp turn down another hallway.
“You know, sometimes I wonder if it was the will of the force to put the commander with a unit that is as chaotic as her,” Rex chuckled.
“It has to be,” Anakin sighed. “How else would you explain this?” Rubbing the back of his head, he looked at all the fun the men were having. Ahsoka was like the little sister they never had and they loved to spoil her as much as possible. When they had gone on the mission without her, they constantly asked to check in to see how she was doing.
Anakin couldn’t have asked for a better group of men to be put in command of nor a better padawan. Sure, the two of them were too alike in ways and often butted heads but Ahsoka was one of the three people that Anakin trusted his life with the most. She had become his annoying little sister that he hoped would become a legendary jedi knight from his tutelage. Likewise, Ahsoka reminded Anakin about life outside of the war and brought a new perspective to things he overlooked time and time again.
“You gonna go stop them?” Rex asked.
Anakin shook his head with a sly smile. “Nah,” he said and side-eyed Rex. “You know the saying: if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” With that, he took a step away and cupped his hands around his mouth. “I call next turn!” he yelled down the hallway.
“Oh force, no,” Rex groaned half-heartedly as Anakin went jogging down the hallway to find his chair-bound padawan.
BONUS SCENE 2:
Kix was filling out some paperwork with the door open the med bay when he first heard the laughter. With a hum, he looked up in time to see his hoverchair bound commander with her arms held in the air sailing down the hallway with his general standing on the back railing of the chair with one hand holding a handle and the other held out behind him. One could guess that he was using his free hand to use the force to propel the two of them down the hall.
The two jedi were barely in his sight for a second with how fast they soared down the hallway but he had seen all he needed to. Without anything showing on his face besides a twitching of his eyebrow, he turned back to his paperwork.
“Not going to yell at them to be careful?” Coric chuckled from his station.
“Nope,” Kix said and popped the ‘p’ of the word. “Not going to even bother wasting the energy to do so.”
Sometimes, it was easier to let the menaces known as his general and commander just let it out of their system.