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I was in the lower areas of Coruscant seeing a man about a parrot, when I felt the tug of the Force with a, well, force that I hadn't felt for a long time. 

Parrots, I shall have you know, are a highly endangered species of bird originating from only a singular planet. To clarify, they can only survive on this one planet. Take them off of it and they shall wither away for no discernible reason that anyone can find. I had witnessed such an event early on in this case, when I had, well, 'let' myself in to the backroom of an exotic breeder, only to find one of the poor things about to expire. It had looked at me, trapped as it was in its cage, with its big black eyes. I had found myself transfixed, quite unable to look away from the beautiful thing. I had felt that selfsame tug of the Force, a guiding hand throughout my life, and quite forgot about my mission. I had sat crosslegged on the floor, one finger stretched through the bars of the cage to rest across that little chest, and I had stayed there, keeping the little thing company, until it finally passed on and away from this life.

But I digress.

My name is Obi-Wan Kenobi and I am a Jedi Knight.

When I say I am a Jedi Knight, I do not mean that I am a Jedi Knight from the Temple in Coruscant. I quite left the Order when I was fourteen, due to a disagreement in conduct with a quite disagreeable man. I found myself another Jedi Master whose tenants seemed to align more with what a Jedi should be, and I haven't looked back since. I suppose I am not just a Jedi Knight, either. Five years ago I had felt yet another undeniable tug of the Force and had found myself enrolling in CCU (Coruscant City University) while recovering in a floating medi-centre after taking on an entire slavery ring with my face. 

I won, by the way.

I am a Jedi Knight, but I am also a practising lawyer. Despite what you may think, the two skills are not mutually exclusive. I just wasn't quite sure why I was a practising lawyer, but the Force assured me that this was exactly where I needed to be.

So that was where I was.

I should clarify. I wasn't sure why I was a practising lawyer, as in the past tense. This changed, of course, when I met the Marshal Commander of the Third Systems Army. It became very apparent why I was a lawyer after that.

...

Like I said, I was on the lower levels, seeing a man about a parrot, when I felt a pull, stronger than I had ever felt before, that made it quite clear that I should leave the parrots well enough alone, for now, and enter an innocuous looking bar by the name of 79s.

I am not usually a bar person. Well, actually, for a person who is 'not a bar person' I spend quite a lot of time in bars, usually while being shot at. But as soon as I entered this bar I came to the rapid conclusion that this was not my regular sort of bar, for instead of hosting a hive of scum and villainy, it was hosting what seemed to be the majority of the GAR.

As one, they all turned to look at me.

Never let it be said that Obi-Wan Kenobi suffered under a little bit of male attention. I smiled, waved, and went to go order myself a drink.

The Force was making it very clear that this was where I was supposed to be, so here I was going to say until the Force made my purpose clear to me.

"What can I get you, handsome?" said a man who looked to be in his late fifties, but wearing it well. He leaned across the bar and got a proper look at me. He blanched. "Are you even legal?"

Sometimes I hated my baby face. I still looked the same as I did when I was twenty. Master Fay said I'd get used to it. That, or I could grow a beard.

I didn't have the heart to tell her that I'd already tried. I just looked like my twenty year old self with the addition of a beard. I'd shaved it off in a fit of disgust and wondered if I should draw on a scar, but that was too pathetic even for me.

It would be funny, though.

"Darling", I said, leaning across the bar. "I'm thirty-five".

The man shrugged.

"I mean, I'm just asking", the man said, "This isn't really the place for some posh kid's rebellion against mummy and daddy".

"Oh do believe me when I say that if I were rebelling, I would not be doing so here. There are much better places to go, if the desired outcome is an immediate loss of inheritance and the permanent disappointment of a set of well-to-do parents. But alas, I am thirty-five", I said, "And I would like a Coruscanti sunrise". I put some credits on the counter, and the familiar clink seemed to galvanise the bartender into some form of positive action.

The man shrugged. I turned around and leaned against the bar, taking in my potential audience.

Whilst I had been in the process of being thoroughly underwhelmed by the bartender's skills at customer service, I seemed to have been analysed by every single analytical mind in the building. Considering that the Clones of the GAR were, each of them, highly competent, skilled and dangerous individuals, I was not as miffed as I perhaps could have been at being written off as a threat by nearly two hundred men in various stages of getting drunk and/or fleecing each other at sabbac. I allowed my senses to drift on the waves of the Force, and my gaze, inevitably, focused on one clone in particular.

You get no prizes for guessing who it might have been.

His armour was painted like a sunrise.

...

According to Cody, his first impression of me was not the most flattering thing in the world. This is understandable, when one considers that he was only at that bar under incredible duress from his brothers, and had been sipping from the same drink for the past three hours. Bars were not Cody's thing, and neither was alcohol.

He had yet to have someone introduce him to the idea of fruity drinks.

So it was safe to say that Cody was not enjoying himself, and he had worked himself into quite the murderous rage by the time a little lost natborn walked into the only safe haven on Corsucant for Clones that was not the damn barracks. I should clarify that this murderous rage had nothing to do with me, and everything to do with Qui-Gon Jinn. I am not judging Cody for said rage, as it is quite a common feeling whenever one has to spend any amount of time with the Temple's answer to a manic pixie dream girl, especially when said irritating piece of work keeps comming you on your night off under the influence of whatever he has now grown in his bathtub. 

So Cody's first impression of myself was perhaps not the most flattering thing in the whole world, but it was quite understandable, and I quite like to think we've worked through all that by now. Regardless, he thought I looked like an idiot. But a well-bred one, which in Cody's opinion is arguably worse.

This was all made worse by the fact that said annoying natborn proceeded to then walk up to him, leaving his fluorescent orange drink at the bar, take a seat at a table that had been reserved for command, look him dead in the eye and say, in a perfect High Corsucanti accent,

"Darling, I'm going to sue the Republic. Would you like to help?"

...

Everyone in the bar went quiet.

I did not allow myself to feel nervous, because the words that had just come out of my mouth were not my words at all, but words directly from the Force. At that moment I was suffering from quite a lot of things; a sudden realisation that this, this exact moment, was what my entire life had been leading up to, and that the Commander in front of me had the nicest Force signature of anyone on this Force forsaken planet.

And he was unequivocally sick of me. I felt that was rather unfair, considering I had only just said one thing.

"I'm sorry", said a Clone on the right, dressed in the colours of the Coruscant Guard. This one had a mean look about him, like he had never been sorry about a thing in his life. "But who the fuck are you?"

I smiled.

"Obi-Wan Kenobi", I said, "I'm a lawyer".

"Oh you're a lawyer, are you? Well, Mr Lawyer, you can fuck right off and out of this bar".

I pouted. "But he hasn't bought me a drink yet", I said, nodding my head at the still and silent Clone the Force was near screaming at me to start a conversation with, get him to listen, anything, otherwise it was all going to go to shit, Obi-Wan, do you hear me?

I have never before had quite such clarity communicated at me through the Force, but I was game. Never let it be said that I backed down from a challenge. My reputation would never recover. Worse, Jon Antilles would somehow hear about it, and somehow spawn in the seat next to me to give me a hard time.

The Clone leaned forward menacingly.

"Didn't you get the message?" he said, with all the threat of a man who had to deal with Chancellor Palpatine on a regular basis, "Fuck. Off".

I leaned forward and looked him dead in the eye.

"No".

There seemed to be an air of anticipation. Approximately a million men who knew Commander Fox personally could feel the building rage, no matter what side of the galaxy they were on, and leaned back to give him some room, also no matter what side of the galaxy they were on. The air temperature dropped, and then grew incandescently warm, as Fox reached first boiling point, and then surpassed it.

Still looking him dead in the eye, I said my piece with all the sincerity I possessed within my tired, withered soul, "I am going to take the Republic to court. I am going to do this with or without the support of you and your brothers, but I would infinitely prefer if I did it with it. The Republic has, in the last six months, conscripted an army made for a war ten years in advance, which not only arrived on time but arrived in the perfect political climate for such atrocities to go uncommented on. This army was both cloned, and given no legal rights, in order to fight for a Republic that has made both cloning and slavery illegal. I find it highly suspicious that no legal recourse has been made to you and your brothers. I find it highly suspicious that all attempts to grant your brothers rights have been rejected by the very body who benefits most from your deaths. In short, we have an opportunity. Will you allow me to go to war for you? Will you allow me to go to war for your brothers?"

Silence reigned, and then my lovely silent Clone finally spoke.

"Walk with me".

And I allowed myself room to feel the first of the victories.

...

To this day, I do not know what I said to make Cody believe me. My lovely, lovely man is not the world's most trusting individual. Paranoia runs deep, I do believe, and has carved canyons across his heart. As his brother's first and only defence against total annihilation, both of the physical body as well as the spiritual, this is not only a necessary character trait but a deeply positive one. And yet, he did not throw me out of the bar that night. He did not bar me from further contact. He did not have me arrested for treason and shot on sight for the crime of being a little bit too forward. Instead, he left the bar with me and allowed me to pull him deeper into the night. We walked in total silence, and yet the silence held no threat, only comfort. He allowed me to bring him to Red Sky Noodle Bar, and order for him, and we sat across from each other in a booth that I often used to put client's at ease, and yet was still deeply private, and he took off his helmet and looked me in the eye and he said.

"Convince me, Kenobi".

I can only thank the Force, for this opportunity. I can only thank the Force with all my heart for allowing Cody to open his, if only just for a minute. If only just enough to listen. If only just enough to give me the chance to make this right.

I talked, he listened, and then, when I had run out of words and earnest pleas and had just devolved into staring at him with a hopeful look in my eye, Cody just nodded.

"Well then, Kenobi", he said, "What are you doing tomorrow?"

"Preparing to take on the whole of the Republic, Cody, my dear", I said, "If you'd let me".

And he nodded. And he did.

I can never thank the Force enough.

…

I ran my office in the lower levels of Coruscant, and by 'ran my office' I mean that Viki did. 

I don't know where Viki came from, or who she used to be, or any pertinent information at all really, but one day two years ago she showed up at my door, all four feet of her, took one look at me and told her that she had hired herself. I had never been one to get in the way of people's personal revelations, and in any case I hated paperwork, so I didn't argue too much, bought her a desk, and let her get to work. 

It was, hands down, the best decision I have ever made in my life.

I burst into the office.

"Viki, darling", I said, "We have a case!"

"What happened to the parrots?" Viki asked me without looking up.

"Darling, I am over parrots".

"Well the parrots aren't over you", she said, she handed me a piece of flimsi and with no argument whatsoever, I signed it. She took it away again. "You have a meeting at two with the head of the department of useless livestock, or whatever".

"Is that their official name?" I asked, highly amused.

Her head tilted up to grace me with an eye roll, from all four of her eyes even! Then she got back to work.

"The head of whatever called me 'darling'", she said, "I hate it when people call me darling".

"Darling, I call you darling".

She waved her hand at me.

"Yeah", she said, "But you also sign my pay cheque".

"I'm pretty sure I have never signed a pay cheque in my life", I said, "And now that I think about it, I actually don't know how much I pay you".

She smirked at me. "And where else would I get that level of financial oversight?"

But she had me worried now.

"If you don't like me calling you darling, I can always stop", I said.

"Stop thinking and get in your office and do some work, Obi-Wan", she told me. "I don't want to see you out here until I need you to sign something else".

Knowing marching orders when I heard them, I saluted her and went into my office to stop thinking and get some work done. Then I had a thought and came back out again.

"My darling Viki, I need you to book a meeting with the Marshal Commander of the GAR", I said, "Preferably for twenty minutes time".

"Lovely", said the loveliest boss in the whole galaxy. "I'll clear your schedule then, shall I?"

"I have a schedule?"

"Get in your office, Obi-Wan".

I grinned and got in my office.

...

Planning to steal someone's homegrown army takes planning.

Luckily for me, Cody had notes.

He arrived exactly five minutes early to our appointed meeting time. During the time I had been waiting for him I had begun reviewing the various anti-cloning and slavery legislation, of which I was already highly familiar, and imagining the look on Palpatine's face at the thought of sending someone suitably buff and intimidating to serve him his court summons. And it would be Palpatine receiving a summons in this case, in this little fantasy of mine. Force, I can't stand that man. 

I only wish it could have been me, in any case, but due to years of malnutrition in my childhood I don't exactly make a compelling case for the world's most intimidating individual. Despite the fact that Palpatine seemed to be Naboo's answer to a rugged ballsack, I guarantee that he would not find my undersized self a compelling reason to appear in a court of law.

Regardless of all this, Viki buzzed me to let me know that my appointment had arrived, and Cody walked right in. I stood up to greet him, hand out, and his handshake was delightfully firm. So was the rest of him, if I might add, and I'd add more but apparently I need to keep this recounting PG13.

"Cody", I said, something inside me clenching in relief that he had actually come. "Thank you for coming".

"Thank you for inviting me", Cody said. In the last twelve hours, the man seemed to have warmed significantly to me. I wondered what had changed. Under his arm, he was carrying three separate datapads.

He handed them to me now.

"I have compiled, here, all the various sentient rights violations that my brothers and I have been subjected to since we first decanted on Kamino", he said.

I was in love. There was no other word for it.

"Cody, you wonderful man", I said. I opened the first holopad. "Now, let us make them regret ever decanting you".

"It would be my pleasure", Cody said.

We got to work.

...

Unfortunately, Cody only had three more days of leave after that. This was another thing I was going to use as a weapon of mass destruction against the Republic, because who the kriff only assigns five days of leave in the midst of six months of war, which they had to fight for? Allegedly (and I use the word 'allegedly' here in the deepest of sarcasm) the Clone's had to fight for even that, because the original plan had been to ping them all from battle to battle with no respite. This had only changed, allegedly, because Plo Koon raised his voice at the Chancellor of the Republic in a meeting, which had suitably cowed him. Plo never raises his voice unless it is at Qui-Gon, but since that man is a test of everyone's patience I treat that fact as an outlier and don't let it influence the data. 

What I'm saying is that to effect change, one must change the game. Much as Plo Koon had.

The next three days passed quickly. I fairly sequestered myself in my office with Cody and his various brothers. Our circumstances were extraordinary, our drive even more so. By the will of the Force, we would free the Clones.

And make no mistake, this was the will of the Force.

Failure was not an option.

...

On the last hour of our third day, I awoke to find a strange man in my apartment.

This was, despite my best efforts, a common occurrence, so I wasn't feeling unduly threatened. I flung my arm over my eyes.

"If you're going to stand there and look menacing, could you perchance put the caff on first? I'm too tired to be properly cowed, and need to work my way up to being menaced", I said.

The silence gained a new quality, this one perplexed.

"Kenobi", came the voice of doom. It was a very nice voice.

"Yes hello, mysterious masked man", I said, "I admit I can't see much of you through your veil of mystique and, admittedly, the limited predawn light, but your biceps look quite nice and I do like a good bicep". And his biceps were nice, I wasn't lying. It was just that three days in the company of the exquisite Marshal Commander had ruined me for anyone else, and so automatically Cody's biceps ranked better. I do love a man in uniform and, admittedly, Cody wearing literally anything. 

"Your bravado won't save you now", the mysterious masked man said. "Now is the hour of your doom".

I turned my head slightly to the side to get a better look at him.

"Is this an assassination attempt?" I asked in what I can now admit was, in fact, a fair bit of inappropriate excitement. I hadn't been almost assassinated since my bounty from the Hutt's eclipsed that of Nico Diath for a brief but blissful time, and I was looking forward to keeping my hand in.

To answer the question, yes, this was an assassination attempt.

The man then subsequently lit a red lightsaber.

I was titillated.

...

Incident Report

NAME: Obi-Wan Kenobi

DOB: Unknown

ADDRESS: Oh, all over the place really

INCIDENT: It really wasn't much of an incident. For Forcesake the man barely bruised me!

DESCRIPTION OF AGGRESSOR: He had really nice biceps. Not as nice as yours though, dear.

Fox put the pad down.

"Are you even trying?" he demanded.

I tucked my left leg over my right and gave him a look of such innocent earnestness, I knew without a doubt that he hated my guts and wished me deader than the first guy did.

"Darling, I can hardly help that it was too dark to see the man", I said.

"You fought him in close combat", Fox said, "The fuck do you mean you can't give a description?"

"Oh, I imagine I could give you a description", I said, gearing up for some truly ambitious flirting.

"Stop, I don't want to hear your description", Fox said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I've changed my mind. You're an idiot, and a disgrace to the law profession".

"Oh Fox, what sweet things you say to me. If I wasn't a committed man, I would be blushing".

Fox stared at me. A deeply pained expression came over his face, as if he couldn't believe what was going to come out of his mouth and already regretted it.

"Committed, huh?" he said, "You seeing someone?"

I grinned, "Oh yes, I am quite ardently in love", I said and then, with relish, dropped the punchline, "With the forces of justice".

Fox threw his pad on the table in disgust.

"Sweet Force, you're fine", He said, "Get the fuck out of my office".

I saluted him and ambled my way out of his office. I couldn't help overhearing Fox's last bit of angry muttering, though.

"Out of everyone in the galaxy, and it had to be him?"

I grinned and shut the door.

Oh, what a day to be alive.

Someone had just tried to kill me, and I hadn’t even properly gotten into this case yet.

That usually meant that thing we were onto was bigger and more complicated then I initially thought, and the case was delicious enough already.

I sauntered out of the barracks and straight into Cody.

For your information, he was not very happy with me.

…

Have you ever received a dressing down from the most beautiful man alive? I can safely say that now I have, and it was exquisite. 

I highly recommend the experience. 

Cody came down on me like the wrath of, well, the wrath of any god you could name. He descended upon my form with all the grace of a leaping predator, some kind of graceful animal or something, and his glare was withering. Cody says that it says a lot about me that I find the full force of his anger arousing, but then again I’ve heard him wax lyrical about the slope of my neck to his brother, so who really is the weird one, Cody? Huh?

But I digress.

“Are you deficient?” He asked me, completely stone faced and monotone.

“I generally like to think-“

“I wasn’t done talking”, Cody said.

Wisely, I kept my mouth shut and gave him the respect he deserved.

“Thank you”, Cody said. “We are in agreement, yes, that you are taking on the case of the vode. You may answer that”.

“Yes?”

“Good. Then you acknowledge the fact that if you die, our freedom dies with you-“.

“Cody, I-“, I said, “I genuinely didn’t go looking to get attacked”.

I felt a slight softening in the rage.

“I’ll grant you that”, Cody said, and it felt like a victory. “But you also didn’t cooperate with Fox. We need you to be safe, Obi-Wan, and you’re treating this like a game. This is not a game. This is our lives, and if you can’t respect that-“.

I was devastated.

“Cody- I would never. I know this is not a game”.

“Then go back in there and answer Fox’s questions so that we can find this gundark and keep you safe”.

“But I genuinely can’t do that”, I said, “I have no idea what he looks like. I didn’t stop to look and I certainly didn’t ask”.

“Obi-Wan-“

“I pushed him out the window”.

“What?”

“I pushed him out the window”, I said, “He lit his red lightsaber and I just…reacted”.

“His red what?”

“I saw him get hit by a speeder on the way down”, I said, “He is definitely dead, my dear. I have no idea what he looks like, truly, because I didn’t so much fight him so much as…murder him?” I ended that last bit with a hopeful little lilt at the end, because generally no lawyer likes to admit to a little old fashioned murder.

I watched Cody wilt as the sincerity of my words hit him.

“You pushed him out the window”, he said, and I could feel the force of his relief like a tidal wave. My knees felt weak. “You’re not worried because he’s dead”.

“Oh utterly”, I said, “My bedroom is right next to a sheer drop. Darling, I promise you he’s laying at the centre of Coruscant now. Surviving that is simply just not possible”.

“I thought it was Maul”, Cody confided.

“Who?”

“What do you mean, who? Maul? The Sith Lord?”

“Oh no, my would be assassin was definitely not a Sith Lord”, I said. Not even Sith adjacent, really, regardless of the colour of their lightsaber. I had felt more darkness from Jon Antilles when he hadn’t eaten in a while and had been forced to run, “He was just an idiot. I mean, honestly, who stands directly in front of a window while threatening death? He was asking for it, he truly was. I had a direct shot. I didn’t even have to work for it. He just went straight over and through the night”.

Something in Cody’s armour beeped. He checked his vambrace and swore.

“I’m late”, he said, something disbelieving in his tone.

“Did they leave without you?” I said, with interest.

“They better not have”, Cody said, dark with promise of extended latrine duty for the hapless fools who’d dare unmoor the ship without him. Then he looked at me, and there was something there. Something deep, full of promise and a hot regret. “Obi-Wan, I-“, he stopped, paused, regrouped. I longed to hear what he was going to say, but he didn’t say anything. Simply this. “Goodbye, Obi-Wan Kenobi”.

The gap between us seemed suddenly insurmountable, unbreachable. I longed to reach out and touch, but I didn’t. I stayed exactly where I was.

“Good hunting”, I said, and then he was gone.

…

“This is going to be a disaster”, Fox said, attached to my side and deeply unwilling to be parted. Fox, it seemed, had orders to keep me alive throughout the whole thing. I should have told him not to worry. The courts hardly saw the kind of bloodshed he was used to. 

No, this was a different kind of warfare, and it was one not decided by blood but by words and ruthless cunning.

I looked at the baying hounds of the media, and looked beyond at the evil face of our judge. I knew immediately why Fox was worried. Our enemy had made their move, but I rather thought that, in this, they had rather shown their hand, for our judge was none other Wilhuff Tarkin.

“No Fox”, I said, as I began to feel my blood sing with the thrill of the fight. “This is not a disaster. This is a spectacle”.

And I grinned.

…

It turned out that taking the entire Republic to court was an easy thing. I had expected at least a token resistance. But I simply turned up at the office and had Viki file forms D39-25/A and AR11-34/C and three days later was given a court date. I’d honestly had more trouble with the parrots.

Because I am not an idiot, this made me suspicious. 

I sent a message to Cody.

ObiWobiKenobi: Just a heads up, dear, but we may have trouble incoming.

The reply came almost instantaneously. I entertained the thought that the good Commander had been sitting around his comm, waiting for a message from me, and immediately chastised myself as being the worst sort of idiot. 

THEmarshalcommander: Someone call the press, this is going to be trouble.

ObiWobiKenobi: No need to be sarcastic, dear.

THEmarshalcommander: My lovely Obi-Wan, I’m afraid you’re mistaken. There is every need.

I felt the need to squeal and collapsed back into my office chair. Cody thought I was lovely!

In hindsight, this was not the appropriate reaction in such a time, but it still left a fuzzy feeling in my toes at the thought that someone as wonderful as Cody thought I was lovely. That somehow, maybe, the man returned my affections, just that little bit.

I immediately went and comm’d my Master, although there was every chance that in the last five minutes since I had last spoken with her, Fay had forgotten what her little comm was for. 

I loved my Master, but dear Force she could be old sometimes.

TheBestPadawan: Cody called me lovely!

Fay sent me a string of heart emojis, followed by an extreme close up of her smiling face. Unfortunately, just to the side I could make out the blurry form of Jon Antilles doing something extremely unfortunate with a bowl of soup.

TheBestPadawan: Tell Jon he is a disgusting human being, and uncivilised besides. Also, the Jedi Council thinks he is dead again.

Fay: Yes that may have been because he was blown up for a time.

TheBestPadawan: It doesn’t seem to have affected him any.

Fay: Our Jon is extremely resilient. Give Cody my love.

This was followed by several more heart emojis, and then a notification that the comm unit I was trying to reach was out of range. I had a feeling that Fay had just lost it again, probably somewhere despicable, and it was not the Force but experience that confirmed it. Nonetheless, like an obedient Padawan, I sent Fay’s love to Cody.

THEmarshalcommander: Who’s Fay?

ObiWobiKenobi: My Jedi Master, who else did you think it would be darling?

THEmarshalcommander: They have Jedi Master’s in lawyer school now?

ObiWobiKenobi: Not since I went.

THEmarshalcommander: ???

ObiWobiKenobi: Generally they are a requirement to having a Jedi Apprenticeship, although with Jon I do believe the Dark Lady hardly counted as proper adult supervision.

There was no reply from Cody. I wondered what I had said wrong. 

I bit my lip nervously and went to go ask Viki for advice.

Viki was no help.

“You’re a Jedi?” She said, for once ceasing all busywork and giving me the full force of her attention, which was quite a lot. I am used to so not being a concern of Viki’s that I don’t even make the list, and wasn’t quite sure what to do with suddenly being elevated several status’s in her eyes above my comfortable level as ‘sentient turd’.

“Well, yes, my dear”, I said, wondering what had been lost in translation here.

“From the Temple?”

“Well no, not quite”, I said, “Generally, I wander”.

“You wander?”

“You seem to be repeating me a lot, dear, are you quite alright?”

“Since when were you a Jedi, Obi-Wan Kenobi?” Viki said.

“Since nearly birth, my dear”, I said, “Are you sure you’re quite alright, darling? Can I get you anything?”

“Oh I’m fine”, Viki said, “Just re-evaluating all our interactions in light of this new information”.

“Did I really not tell you?” I said, “I must have, at some point”.

“Some things are making so much sense. Like the money”, Viki muttered. Then she said, “And I’m guessing you didn’t inform your young man of this?”

“Well, no”, I said, “It didn’t really come up in conversation”.

“Generally it doesn’t, Obi-Wan”, Viki said.

“I’m sorry Viki”, I said, “I didn’t think it was all that big of a deal, but evidently I was wrong. I apologise”.

Something in the general air softened slightly.

“Just…give your young man time, Obi-Wan”, Viki said, “He’s probably still processing the fact that his hot new lawyer is a Jedi Knight”.

“Right”, I said. Then I said, “Wait, you think I’m attractive?”

“Go to your office, Obi-Wan, and don’t come out until you’ve finished with the parrots”.

I knew when I was told. I went to my office.

Following this interaction, I spent three hours in my office reviewing my case notes regarding the illegal shipments of parrots by one J’ona Green. I then put on my nice court outfit and went to argue that said J’ona Green should really have his permit revoked, on account of being an idiot who couldn’t discern what is and is not appropriate livestock to be imported to Coruscant.

I won, by the way, and came back to my office to find a note from one of my informants informing me that Wilhuff Tarkin had, apparently, been elected as judge. Just for me.

I smiled at this. I’ve always wanted to have words with Tarkin.

…

And so the spectacle began.

Some moron, most likely Tarkin, had invited half the press of Coruscant to our little soirée, proving once and for all that this wasn’t going to be a democratic process, but rather a totalitarian bloodbath.

And I so did love my bloodbaths.

Sealing his own fate, Tarkin opened his mouth and spoke. What came out was such nonsense that the man rather sealed his fate, and I no longer felt pity for what I was going to do to him. It was evident to anyone with a modicum of intelligence that the whole set up was a farce, designed to both demoralise the Clones and destroy any chance they had at a life beyond the war.

“Order in the court!” Tarkin said, banging his cute little hammer on his piece of wood. Everyone obediently settled. He looked down at me with a mean little smirk. “We are here today for the initial hearing for the case of the Vode vs The Republic”.

I stood to say my piece.

“Sit down, Kenobi”, Tarkin said.

“My dear”, I said, allowing my High Coruscanti accent to really shine. “You do know this is when I speak?”

“Sit down, Kenobi, or I’ll invite you to leave the court room and we can proceed with this ‘case’ without you”.

I sat down.

Tarkin cleared his throat.

“Now”, he said, “This case-“

I raised my hand. 

“This case”, Tarkin said, “Is-“

I waved my hand a little to get his attention. Tarkin sighed and put down the little piece of flimsi he had been reading from.

“Why is your hand raised, Kenobi?” He growled.

I gave him my award winning smile. “Sorry, I was just waiting for my turn to speak”, I said, “You may continue though if you’re not done making up legal proceedings”.

Titters ran through the crowd. There were a few flashes as holos were taken from the more forward of our press members, although no one had yet to do anything truly worthy of the press yet, so I thought they were all rather getting ahead of themselves.

Tarkin smirked his mean little smirk at me.

“I think this little display proves how much of a farce this case is”, he said, “Kenobi, I am dismissing this case as a waste of the Republic’s time”.

There was a calamitous roar. Everyone in the room knew what shit that was. I kept my calm smile on my face, barely able to hold in my victory smirk.

I raised my hand.

“Have something to say, Kenobi?” Tarkin said. Taunted, more like.

“Yes, as it happens I do”, I said, standing up and straightening my lapels. “First of all, I hear congratulations are in order, my dear Wilhuff. I was unaware that you held the necessary qualifications to be a judge, but evidently I was mistaken”.

“Well this all proves that-“

“Fox, dearest”, I said, holding my hands out for the little briefcase that the Commander had been so dutifully holding for me. He handed it over and I opened it to show the little holopad I had stored within. “Excellent, thank you. May I submit item number one to the jury regarding Judge Tarkin’s suitability to be a judge?”

Tarkin steadily reddened.

“I am not the one on trial here-“

“Oh but my dear, I’m afraid you are”, I said, “Considering your being a judge is a part of the trial of the Vode vs The Republic”. While I talked, I attached the holopad to the station in my table, specifically for this reason, and, without so much as a by your leave to anyone, projected my evidence against the wall for everyone to see. “You see, from the documents that I have provided, members of the jury, that there are certain qualifications one must possess to be a judge in the Supreme Court”.

“Someone get him out of here!” Tarkin yelled. Unfortunately for Tarkin, no one moved. All the guards in the room were vode. 

“As you can see”, I said, projecting my voice over the clamour. “Captain Tarkin has none of these qualifications, and therefore has no authority to preside over this case, or indeed dismiss it”.

“Order, order”, Tarkin said, banging his little hammer over the rising outrage of the press. “I am the judge, Kenobi, and your case is dismissed!”

“Yes, you were appointed the judge”, I agreed, and then clicked over to the next side. I had made the font nice and big, here, for easy comprehension. I do so like a good presentation. “By the Chancellor himself”.

Gasps echoed.

“Who, from section 3D-A89/C, section two, does not have this power yet”, I said. “Therefore, Tarkin, I can only presume that your appointment to judge was in deliberate contempt of the process of democracy, the very foundations our good Republic was built on, solely placed here to seed corruption at the very heart of justice, and by our Supreme Chancellor no less!”

That about did it. 

The press went wild.

…

I waited in my little chair in the waiting room of the Supreme Chancellors office, Wilhuff Tarkin seated as far away from me as possible. In the middle were several members of the Senate, one of which was unfortunately Mas Amedda, the slimy little turd, with the other two being Bail Organa and Padme Amidala. I was unclear as to why they were all there, but as no one had talked to me yet I could only presume that they were all there for the entertainment of watching the Chancellor’s ballsack-like face turn as red as a Tatooine sunset.

I understood, if that were the case. That was half of the appeal for me.

The other half was justice.

My comm unit chirped and I fished it out, delighted to see a response from dear Commander Cody himself. It seemed that he had forgiven me for not mentioning the whole Jedi Knight thing.

THEmarshalcommander: That was impressive. Every news station is playing nothing but your speech. 

I beamed.

ObiWobiKenobi: Thank you, my dear. I do so aim to impress. Unfortunately now we’ve all been called into the principles office to answer for our misbehaviour.

THEmarshalcommander: The Chancellor is not happy.

ObiWobiKenobi: I wouldn’t know, my dear, as he has yet to make an appearance.

THEmarshalcommander: the waiting game, huh?

ObiWobiKenobi: I do so love playing these games with powerful men. 

THEmarshalcommander: I think I’m beginning to see that.  

The door opened and Mace Windu appeared.

“Kenobi”, the Master of the Order said, tucking his hands into his robes. “It’s good to see you’re not dead, after those slavers in Jehava”.

“Mace, a pleasure as always”, I said.

“Would it kill you to submit your reports on time?” Mace said, “Would it kill any one of you to submit a report at any time, so we don’t presume you’re dead after years of radio silence?”

Tarkin watched us with his beady little eyes. I grinned at him.

“I submitted a report, Mace”, I said. Then I amended that statement. “I think, anyway. I may have been concussed at the time”.

“You did not”.

“I was definitely concussed then”.

“I see the two of you know each other?” Senator Amidala said.

“Senators”, Mace said, giving a little bow. I wondered if they could tell, from the angle, that it was less then respectful. Mace had a habit of being delightfully sassy just by playing by the rules and knowing them better then everyone else. “Unfortunately, the Jedi Council is well acquainted with Obi-Wan Kenobi. We have had the pleasure of working with him for years on various anti-slavery legislative projects”.

Interesting, I thought.

He made no mention of my being a Knight.

Organa smiled at me. He had a kind smile, but that literally meant nothing.

“You must be a very active member of your profession”, he said.

“Oh very”, I said, “Although-“

“Good grief, will you people shut up?” Tarkin said.

I arched my eyebrows. “Wilhuff, darling”, I said, “When one wants to hear your quality of conversation one will endeavour to speak with the talking monkey at the Coruscant Zoo, as she at least puts on a facade of civility”.

Amidala choked.

“The Chancellor will see you now”, said the little receptionist droid, which was just as well.

…

Despite never having met, I cannot stand Sheev Palpatine. There are multiple reasons for this.

Reason number one is that the man looks, to the last feature, like that actor in the stranger danger ad that they play in schools across Corellia. It is uncanny. Subsequently, whenever he smiles Palpatine never fails to raise my gourd. I keep expecting him to give me a sweet and invite me to look at his special card collection, which just so happens to be kept in his bedroom.

Reason number two is that the man is a politician, and likes to pretend that he isn’t. Politicians can generally be tolerated if they forgo pretending to be decent people, because at least then they’re honest. Palpatine cultivates a grandfatherly persona and people forget that the man tore the previous Chancellor’s throat out with his teeth in a metaphorical, but no less bloody way, and then used his corpse as a step ladder to ascend to the status of Chancellor. I presume that Palpatine exited the womb with his grand ambitions, as his entire career has been, if one looked close enough, leading to this ascension.

Reason number three is that Palpatine is Darth Lord Sidious, but since I didn’t know that at this point, I probably shouldn’t mention it here for narrative purposes.

Oh well, Cody will edit this later.

This all brings me to point number one; this recounting is not a legal drama. It is a love story. An epic romance, if one must specify, between two star crossed lovers spanning the entire galaxy.

It is a heartwarming romance between an old, putrid man who has an unfortunate resemblance to a sock in a trash compactor, and the only thing he loves in the universe more than himself.

Power.

…

“Oh goodness, I see you have an entourage, Mr Kenobi”.

Good grief, the Chancellor, everyone. He looked like he was falling apart. Someone in the makeup department definitely didn’t do their job that morning. I tried not to look at his face, lest it made me nauseous.

“My dear Sheev”, I said warmly, for the sole pleasure of making the Supreme Chancellor twitch. He didn’t, but that was besides the point. He twitched inside. I was sure of it. “What a wonderful office you have. Such a creative use of the colour wheel”.

Sheev clapped his hands as if he were truly delighted by the overwhelming use of red in such a confined space. 

“Thank you, my boy”, he said,  “It is such a delight to meet someone who appreciates the entire field of proper interior design”.

“Quite”, I said, eyeing off a statue that was borderline pornographic, if you were into sado-masochism. I wondered why no one was questioning why the Supreme Chancellor had something like that in his office, but then again there had been a severe lack of critical thinking in the galaxy as of late. “Unfortunately, lovely as it is to see you, I admit I am confused as to the purpose of this meeting”.

Sheev’s face fell, comically, like not only was he devastated by our lack of communication, but as if he saw it as a personal oversight.

I flicked lint off my jacket and awaited whatever nonsense would come out of his mouth next.

He did not disappoint. 

“My boy, I must say I was extremely concerned by the events of this morning”, Sheev said. 

“As am I, Chancellor”, I said, as earnestly as I could manage.

Organa took that moment to speak.

“I must admit Chancellor that there are several members of the Senate who are concerned by the events this morning”, he said, with a regretful twist to his mouth that literally anyone with a modicum of intelligence could tell was hiding sly amusement at the Chancellor’s predicament. “The allegations raised by Mister Kenobi, and now the press, have made us question your motivations for injecting Captain Tarkin into legal proceedings he had no right to preside over”.

Sheev’s face, if possible, fell further. I found myself sharing a look with Mace, two Jedi commiserating ‘get a look at this guy’, as we couldn’t quite believe what a manipulative old turd Sheev was proving himself to be.

“This is, of course, what I simply must speak with you about, my boy”, Sheev said to me, “This case has the potential to tear us apart, when we really must be consolidating ourselves, drawing closer for the long fight ahead of us”. He then walked over to me and put his hand on my shoulder, and stared soulfully into my eyes. I was aghast that the sack of meat had actually laid his filthy hand on me. “My boy, for the good of the Republic, I’m afraid I must order you to drop this case. For the good of us all”.

I made my eyes all big and shiny.

“I apologise, Chancellor”, I said, jutting my lip out a bit. I could feel Mace’s sudden amusement, sharp and violent, before he hid it away. I could feel Organa and Amidala’s dismay, thick and cloying, and hated the way Tarkin and Amedda’s victory tasted in the back of my throat.

“That’s alright, my dear boy”, the Chancellor said, patting my shoulder, all commiserating. He then walked back to my desk. “You are young, yet, you have plenty of years to learn. Now, I must insist that you speak with the press. Perhaps we can appear together, if only to reassure the public”.

“I wasn’t finished”, I said.

“Pardon?”

I allowed my eyes to harden.

“I said I wasn’t finished, Chancellor”, I said, “I wasn’t apologising for taking the Republic to court, only at the gross misapprehension you seem to be operating under”.

“My boy-“.

“Mister Kenobi, if you would, Chancellor”, I said, “I find we are not quite there yet to be greeting each other by our first names”.

“Mister Kenobi, I must insist-“

“No, Chancellor, I’m afraid I must insist”, I said, “Despite how much power you seem to have ‘accidentally’ accumulated, it seems that you have yet to do away with DW993-9-6/3 Section 3, paragraph 12, which, as it seems to escape you, state that-“

“The Chancellor has no powers over the Supreme Court”, Organa said with rising understanding, “Which would have been wiped with the current bill being past around the floor”.

“But unfortunately, prior cases started before such a bill being past will be grandfathered. Something that is quite written into our very constitution”, I finished. “I lodged my intention to take the Republic to court three weeks ago, Chancellor, and the bill had yet to be introduced then. In short, you’ve overreached yourself. You cannot interfere. It is illegal”. I allowed myself to smile, showing teeth. “Subsequently, as the kids say on those lovely little holo dramas, I will see you in court, sir”.

Silence fell. 

“Good day”, I said. “Mace, Organa, Amidala, Amedda, Chancellor”. I allowed my grin to stretch at seeing Tarkin’s outraged face. “Talking monkey”.

I gave a short bow, and saw myself out of the room. 

Mace would handle the fallout. It was the reason he was there, after all. 

The Chancellor had overreached himself indeed.

And now the games would really start.

…

When I was a child, and just into my latest attempt at a Jedi Apprenticeship, Master Fay took me aside and explained the core principles of the Jedi to me. She explained to me exactly what it was the Jedi fought for. You would have thought this was something that Qui-Gon Jinn would have done, but in in the time I had known him he had been busy waging a one man war against common decency, and thus had no time left over for his Padawan. Fay had no such problems, as she is the best thing this universe has ever produced.

Fay took me to Dath-On-High, which now went by another name that Fay admitted she didn’t know. For these purposes, knowing the name of that barren and desolate moor was superfluous to our purpose being there.

It was at Dath-On-High, listening to the howling of the wind, cocooned by the permanently grey sky’s, and staring into the unusually somber face of my Jedi Master, that I learned what it was to be a Jedi.

…

“…shocking allegations against the Supreme Chancellor…”

“…the GAR a slave army? Professor Al-Shaira speaks on what this case means for the Republic”.

“…dismissed from court? How can the Chancellor do that? Senator Amidala is here to speak on the Chancellor’s steadily amassing emergency powers, as we grapple with the question. Democracy or dictatorship?”

“…a nobody lawyer with a no name law firm…”.

“…just who is Obi-Wan Kenobi?”

Tarkin should never have allowed the media into court. The press were always the first to smell blood in the water.

…

I received a holocall in the middle of the night.

“Kenobi”, said the little blue figure of Nahana Gre. “What have you done now?”

I sat up blearily in bed and rubbed at my eyes.

“Not that I am not happy to see you, my dear”, I said. “But to what do I owe this pleasure?”

Nahana smirked.

“Why, can an old teacher not congratulate a student for making what will either be the worst mistake or the best decision of his life?” She said.

“If I recall correctly, my dear, it was you who said that a lawyer practising their profession right will make very few friends in their life”.

“And if I recall correctly, Kenobi, none of what I taught remotely touched on taking the Supreme Chancellor to court over sentient rights violations”.

“My dear, I’m afraid there has been a misunderstanding. I am not taking our esteemed Chancellor to court, merely the Republic he stands for”.

Nahana tutted. “Do not play coy with me, we both know you’re intelligent enough to know who is really holding the reigns of this situation”.

I dipped my head. “I wouldn’t dare speculate”.

“Ah yes, allegations being the first and last defence of any lawyer”, Nahana said, “Sir, this is only an alleged crime. I’m sure the Chancellor did not mean to conscript slaves to fight in a senseless war. What do you mean, it is legal to secede from the Republic? The Chancellor couldn’t have possibly known that, he is old”.

“Nahana, my dear, as ever your words astound me”.

“I’m calling, old pupil of mine, to give you a warning”, Nahana said, ignoring that, which was fair. “Sheev Palpatine hasn’t gotten where he is today by letting young upstarts dethrone his carefully fought for position”.

“A fact of which I am abundantly aware”.

“Yes”, Nahana said, with a little dip of her head, “Stupidity was never one of your failings. Nevertheless, I find myself…touched by the fight you have chosen”. She pulled at her neckline, to reveal the flash of a pendant I would never forget in my life, I had seen it so often bestowed on the necks of many. “I do believe I am not mistaken that you have cause to know what this is?”

I bowed my head, giving her the respect she was due, although it was likely she would not recognise the true significance of that very Jedi gesture, I believed that there was enough overlap in our cultures for her to get the gist.

“Any help you can give me, teacher, would be honoured”, I said.

“Yes, well, despite your victory the previous day, there is no way Palpatine will allow your case back into court. You are too much of a divisive character. By allowing you to speak, he will be sowing discord throughout his own plans”.

“You think he means to delay”.

“I know he means to delay”, Nahana said, “You will not get another date in court until the war is long over, or you die. And we all know which one Palpatine would prefer”.

“Careful, Nahana”, I warned, and not for my own sake.

“Pah”, she said, “I am not afraid of what Sheev Palpatine could do to me. I am old, my time is nearly here, and I have lived a good life”.

“You think this will come to death?”

“I think you are too clever, Obi-Wan, and he knows it”, she said, “I would watch carefully who approaches you”.

“I am no stranger to assassination attempts”.

Nahana smiled. “One day, my very strange student, we will sit down as friends and I will hear the tale of your life”.

“One day”, I said, “I would be honoured to hear the tale of yours”.

“And so I offer you this”, she said, “Tomorrow you shall receive a visit from Bail Organa. Trust him, Obi-Wan Kenobi. He may be your only hope”.

“I thank you for your wisdom, teacher”, I said. “But he is not my only hope. There are more people in this fight then you think”.

“I look forward to reading about this later, student, when this is all said and done”, Nahana said, watching me with her careful dark eyes. “However this ends, I do believe that this will be a fascinating story indeed”.

…

Master Fay took me to Dath-On-High, and under the wailing sky she knelt down and she took my hands in hers and she told me a story, whose rhythms held the cadence of a story worn well over the years. A story that had been past down from Master to Padawan, a long line of Jedi who had stood before me to hear the words that Master Fay would speak, to learn the truth at the heart of the Jedi.

“Listen well, my student, and listen true, to the tale of Bar’on’di of the Dai Bendu. Many years ago, when the planets were one and we all lived under the same sky, and the Light reigned supreme, all the beings in the galaxy lived in harmony. There was no suffering here, for no malice could live in such a place. There was no chaos, for all existed in rapturous harmony. There was no death, for all in this place existed as one with the Force.

And for a long time, there was peace.

But it was not to be forever.

Darkness crept into the corners of this world. In the heart of this darkness existed only malice, and evil. It was not content in its own corruption, to live out its life as a putrid thing before dying. No, this darkness saw the Light of the world and its many happy people and sought to turn their hearts as black as its own. It searched for cracks in the armour, for any gap it could squeeze through to infect its chosen soul. And so it found Maren, a leader of the ruling Council of the time. It saw the discontent in Maren, the continuous search for more. It saw that she longed for freedom from what she perceived as the shackles of this world. It saw that she misunderstood what freedom was, and saw its opportunity. The darkness took the form of a man, who’s beauty was not of this world. It approached Maren with honeyed words and false wisdom, and at the end of it the darkness held out its hand, and Maren took it. 

And so it was that the darkness claimed its first victim. 

There was another woman on the Council, and this woman’s name was Bar’on’di. Bar’on’di was a strange woman who hailed from the mountains in the east. Bar’on’di saw the darkness claim Maren, and warned the Council of what she knew to be true. But the Council did not listen, for the darkness had blinded them.

But Bar’on’di did not give up.

She travelled back to her homeland in the east, and spoke with her people. She told them of the encroaching darkness, and at the evil festering at the heart of their great land. Bar’on’di’s people listened, for they were firmly in the Light, and they saw that the tale of Bar’on’di was good and true. And so it was that the people gathered together to travel back to the heart of the land, to confront the evil that had resided there. They did so fearlessly, for the Light was with them. They were one with the Force and the Force was with them, and they did not fear evil. 

And so it was that Bar’on’di’s people were called the Dai Bendu

But the darkness had grown stronger. Cracks had begun to appear in the land, great yawning chasms that revealed nothing but an endless darkness dotted with stars. People, driven mad by the darkness, dogged their heels, once friends turned enemy. The land that had been once so good and pure now existed only in nightmare, but the Dai Bendu travelled on, for they could do nothing else. Their road was hard, but they did not falter, so strong was their conviction in the Force. And so they reached the heart of the land, and entered the old chambers. And there it was that the Dai Bendu found Maren, enthroned on her chair of darkness. And she was not called Maren anymore, as the darkness had renamed her. 

And so it was that Maren was now called ‘Darth’.

“Darth”, said Bar’on’di of the Dai Bendu. “It is not yet too late for you to return to the Light”.

But Darth laughed, as she had made her choice. And it was a choice that she revelled in. 

“Bar’on’di”, she said, “Your weakness betrays you. Behold! Look upon my glory. Look upon my strength! It is you who should be joining me!”

But the Dai Bendu were steadfast.

“Again, I beseech you”, said Bar’on’di. “Come back to the Light”. For the Light was there, and welcoming. But the one who used to be Maren did not want to return to the Light, and struck at their souls with darkness, trying to turn them.

But the Dai Bendu were steadfast.

Again, Bar’on’di tried, “Maren, please, I beg you”, she said, “For the good of yourself, come back to us”.

But there was no Maren. Where Maren used to be, there was only Darth.

“Bar’on’di, your weakness no longer amuses me”, said Darth. “You cling to the Light that does not serve you”.

“There is no greater reward, then being a servant of the Light”.

“Then I will destroy you”.

“Forgive me, Darth”, said Bar’on’di, “We have failed you”.

And so they battled, there, in the heart of those once great lands. The great darkness against the Light. The dark against the Dai Bendu. For many days and nights, the Dai Bendu fought, to free the hearts and minds of those people corrupted by the dark. They fought against the very heart of evil itself. They fought because they must.

And after thirty days and thirty nights, the darkness lay, destroyed. Bar’on’di knelt by Darth’s side, but she was no longer Darth.

“Forgive me”, Maren said.

“I forgive you”, said Bar’on’di, and thus redeemed, Maren closed her eyes and returned to the Force and the embrace of the Light, once more its child.

But whilst the darkness had been overcome, the land had not escaped unscathed. The great land that had once been whole had been split by deep chasms of darkness. The people who once lived together would forever have to live apart. But the Dai Bendu saw this and swore that they would never leave these people alone, they would never consign these people to darkness. And so it was that the Dai Bendu entered the service of galaxy, as it was and ever shall be. And so no one would ever be left to the darkness alone. For although we walk in darkness, there is light.

And so, there is Light”.

And so Master Fay took my face in her hands and looked me deep in the eyes.

“Often, our path is shrouded by darkness, my dear Obi-Wan”, she said, “But there is light. And so, there is Light”. And then she pressed her lips to my forehead and pulled me close to her chest, next to her heart. It was only then that I realised I had been shaking. “As it was and ever shall be”, she murmured into my hair, rocking me from side to side, “Forever and ever”.

…

Summarily warned by Nahana, I was in my office when Bail Organa came calling. 

“Viki, my dearest”, I said, swanning into the main part of the office, where my dearest assistant and actual boss was residing doing something with paper. “Has Brandon paid for the parrots, yet?”

Viki put her datapad down in disgust.

“They are giving me the runaround”, she said. “Pretentious little shithead doesn’t want to pay”.

“Do you want me to speak with him?” I asked.

“No”, Viki said, “I think I’ve got him in a corner. Give me three days and he’ll be begging to pay us the money”.

“You are a queen among sentients”, I said.

“And don’t you forget it, Kenobi”.

That crossed off my checklist, I went back into my office to ostensibly do some preliminary work on a workplace dispute, but in reality was checking my comm for word from Cody. I had informed him, last night, that Viki and I were being given the runaround for our next court date, now that it had been decided that Tarkin was a useless whatever whatever. Ordinarily, this should have been decided already, but Palpatine had his fingers in everything. The stink of corruption was high.

But, as ever, I had faith. And so I would abide.

The Force would provide.

Cody had not left a message. However, there was a message from Commander Fox, a lovely terse little thing warning that a natborn officer had been sniffing around the barracks, trying to pry information from the clones regarding the case. He’d have better luck prying information from actual corpses. The clones weren’t exactly fainting wallflowers, and already the officer, who’s name immediately escaped me, had run into some difficulties with lifts.

He’d been in the elevator for half an hour already and apparently repairs were slow.

I sent Fox a message wishing him the very best of luck, although I sincerely doubted he needed it.

Fox sent a message back to warn me that I’d be receiving a visitor that day. Then he refused to respond to any requests from me asking about who, exactly, this visitor was going to be, because Fox was lovely like that.

I went to go and inform Viki, who was not happy, exactly, but reasonably compliant as she seemed to view this case of ours as some kind of blood sport. And she did so love blood sports. 

Bail Organa arrived promptly, and with little fanfare. Viki showed him into my office, and I got my first proper look at the Senator.

Nahana was notoriously hard to impress, and her little moment last night had been practically gushing praise for the man who now stood in front of me, and so I reserved my automatic judgement and resolved to give Bail the benefit of the doubt.  I stood to shake his hand, and his grip was nice and strong and firm, although not as nice and strong and firm as Cody’s.

“Senator Organa”, I said. “Thank you for coming to speak with me today”.

“No, thank you, Mister Kenobi”, he said, “For agreeing to see me on such short notice”.

“I do admit I am curious as to the purpose of this meeting, Senator”, I said, taking a seat. With unmatched elegance, Bail did the same. “How can I help you?”

“Do forgive me for being so forward”, Bail said, “But this is more how we can help you”.

“Oh?” I said, raising a noncommittal eyebrow. 

“Tell me, Mr Kenobi, have you been following the recent sessions of the Senate, particularly those pertaining to the war?” he asked.

“As much as I can”, I said, “And insofar as they have been pertaining to the case”.

“And what of the last ten years or so, since Chancellor Palpatine’s ascension?”

“Less assiduously”, I said, “I admit I have spent most of my life in the Outer Rim, and have rarely concerned myself with Core politics”.

Bail raised an eyebrow at that, and I could feel his curiosity in the Force, but he did not comment.

“Then I must commend you, Mister Kenobi, with your adept handling of the situation so far”, he said. “And that you have picked up on something that escapes most sentients attention, especially of late”.

“You speak of the fact that our dear Chancellor is a warmongering, corrupt influence of the worst kind?”

A smile, a small, fleeting thing crossed he Senator’s face.

“As I said, you have been most adept in your understanding of the current political climate”, Bail said. “I shall be blunt, Mister Kenobi. There is no chance of you winning in a court of law, not against Sheev Palpatine”.

“I have been experiencing an awful delay in getting another court date”, I said, rather than letting the Senator know that I had already been aware of such a thing. 

Bail leaned forward. “If I may be so bold, Mister Kenobi. You seem like a reasonable and intelligent young man”, he said, “You will not receive a court date at all”.

I rubbed my chin and kept my council, letting the man continue.

“Your handling of the Chancellor in his office was masterful, I admit”, Bail said, “But it will ultimately prove futile. He will simply not engage, and not allow you to engage, in a battle where he can be usurped. And soon, I do believe, he shall begin his campaign against you. I do so hope, for your sake, Mister Kenobi, that you do not have any unfortunate secrets in your past, for they will surely come to light if you continue to press the situation”.

“You believe he will engage in a little social warfare?”

“I am certain of it”, Bail said. “If he deems it so, you shall be torn to pieces by the press and discarded by society. He will ruin you”.

“Surely he does not have such power yet”.

“If he does not, then he will very soon”.

“What do you then propose, Senator?” I said, “Surely my dear old teacher didn’t bring you here just to relay to me what an un-winnable fight I have ahead of me”.

“In part, I have come to warn you”, Bail acknowledged, “Although I now get the feeling that this warning is hardly needed. But I admit I am fond of an uphill battle, and even better, I know of several people who are fond of destabilising established status quos. I have spoken with them, and we believe that, together, we may be able to destabilise Palpatine if we work together”.

“And who is this nebulous ‘we’?” I asked.

“Predominantly Senator’s who have grown discontent with the policies of our dearest Chancellor”.

I hummed, and consulted the Force. The Force didn’t so much as twitch in the direction it wanted me to take, which was odd. I frowned, about to open my mouth to respond, when there came a knock on the door and Viki entered.

“Obi-Wan”, she said, “You have a guest”.

And there, brilliantly bright and steadfast in the Force, was my lovely Cody. He stood in the doorway, helmet tucked under one arm, regarding us with his lovely dark eyes. Viki left, closing the door behind her.

“Apologies for interrupting”, he said. “Senator”.

“Commander!” Bail said, with genuine happiness at seeing the man. He stood up and clasped Cody’s hand, and I realised that the expression on Cody’s face was the man’s own happiness, muted as it was. “It is so good to see you, my friend!”

“I didn’t realise you knew Mister Kenobi”, said Cody.

“I confess I only know him by reputation”, Bail said, “And then, only very recently”.

“Then you’re here about the lawsuit?”

“I’m here to offer any help I can”.

And there it was, just a tiny glimmer in the Force. I relaxed minutely. 

There was a twitch in Cody’s face. I realised, with delight, that he was smiling.

“Thank you, Bail”, Cody said, clapping him on the arm.

“You know”, I said, “When Fox said I should expect a visitor, I wasn’t expecting you. I thought you were still in space”.

“We received temporary shoreleave”, Cody said, taking a seat. “Indefinite shoreleave, approved by the High Council themselves”.

“Hmm. I do see the small green hand of Master Yoda in this. And also most likely Mace Windu’s entire body”.

“You’re familiar with Master Yoda?” Bail asked, surprise evident in his tone, although it was still carefully hidden.

“I admit to some familiarity with the Council”, I said, “Although not as much as if I had spent any time on Coruscant”.

“Bail can be trusted, Obi-Wan”, Cody said, and in the Force I felt no lie.

“Forgive me, Senator, Commander”, I said, “But this cannot get back to the Chancellor. The repercussions would be…interesting, to say the least”.

“You have my word”, Bail said, immediately and without hesitation, and the Force sang.

I held out my hand and Bail reached over and clasped it.

“Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi”, I said, “At your service”.

Bail raised an eyebrow, but I felt his shock reverberate through the Force.

“Well”, he said, “Excuse me for saying this, but this is going to be very interesting indeed, with the Order involved”.

“Quite”, I said. “Shall we discuss our next steps, gentlemen?”

“I believe I would like nothing more”, Bail said.

…

The next few hours were spent pleasantly. Bail Organa was, I admit, an intelligent, capable, resourceful and ethical politician, who was quite knowledgeable on all Sentients rights laws in no small part due to Alderaan’s continued role in breaking as many slaves as they could out of any place they could find them in. It would have made my time on the Outer Rim a lot easier, if I had known Alderaan was less useless then most other Core planets, and I resolved to inform Nico Diath of it, who would probably commence using them like a cheap whore in a budget brothel.

But I digress.

It was only a matter of time before Sheev Palpatine tried using the media to take me down. It was only fair that I do the same.

I had an interview scheduled in two days, and I had a lot to do before then.

…

This may surprise you, but I did indeed grow up in the Jedi Temple. I did get assigned to a Master. And I did have every intention on becoming a ‘proper’ Jedi Knight. However, intentions aren’t everything, and I am first and foremost a Jedi before necessarily being a Temple Jedi. Above all others, I follow the will of the Force.

And so I walked away and never looked back.

Perhaps you may think that it was not so simple as that. But in the end, it really was.

…

When I asked Cody about his opinions of the events currently portrayed now, he admitted to indulging in a little free spirited pessimism. Despite thinking that my ass looked good in anything I so desired to clad it with, and despite thinking about the slope of my neck during inopportune moments in battle, Cody was used to natborns doing fuck all for he and his brothers, and did not see much hope for my continued case against the Republic. As soon as I opened my mouth in a Court of Law, Cody admitted to reading the writing on the wall and thinking, if chance would have it, that I was soon going to be deader then a door. 

Luckily for us all, Cody does not have the type of personality that indulges in things as weak minded as ‘leaving things to chance’. He was a proactive individual of the highest order, and the first thing he did was secure himself indefinite leave from the GAR by order of Mace Windu, who had a vested interest in the outcome of this case. Mace, because he lived to make the lives of politicians vastly more difficult then they needed to be (which was exactly what most of them deserved) did not inform anyone of the fact that the Marshal Commander of the Third Systems Army was now effectively working from home.

I was not aware of this. And luckily for everyone involved, neither was Skywalker.

Let me tell you about Anakin Skywalker. As I did not have any experience with the young man at this time, let me tell you about Anakin Skywalker through the lens of Cody.

Cody, as we are all no doubt aware by now, is a paragon of virtue, with one of those virtues being an infinite amount of patience. If he did not possess such large quantities of patience (and really, it is a pool of infinite depth) he would have spaced Rex when Rex was five years old and managed to, somehow (and Cody is still not certain, but what he is certain of is that he blames Wolffe) shave every single brother’s head in Tipoca city while they slept in one singular, spectacular night. If he did not possess infinite reserves of patience, he would have divested Qui-Gon Jinn of whatever remained of his dignity and pride by the man’s fourth utterance of ‘it was the will of the Force’. And if he was not such a deeply patient person, Anakin Skywalker would not have survived the first time he pulled rank on Cody. But as Cody is also a deeply creative man, in addition to having the patience of the Force itself, the first time Anakin Skywalker ever pulled rank was also the last time Anakin Skywalker ever pulled rank, having learned his lesson in what we shall call…a very thorough manner. 

Anakin Skywalker, having been knighted at the tender age of nineteen, and summarily given command of his own battalion, possesses a unique set of personality quirks that means that none of those things should ever have occurred. But having been brought up by Qui-Gon Jinn, a man who’s temperament erred on the side of ‘airy fairy’, to believe that he is the Chosen One, Anakin Skywalker simply took his elevation through the ranks as his due, and expected more.

Cody’s opinion of Skywalker could thus be summarised ‘he is an overpowered child’.

We all know, now, that Anakin Skywalker is the person most responsible for all the information leaks experienced by the Jedi Order, due to his having a special relationship with the Chancellor of the Republic (now confirmed to have been a Sith Lord) and a Senator (whom he had married). Anakin Skywalker had, perhaps, failed to learn many things in his life, due to the selfsame personality quirks that made him deeply unsuited for the privileges life had afforded him, but one of those things he had failed to learn was an understanding of the words ‘operational security’.

This is all leading, of course, to the moment when Anakin Skywalker shared the fact that Obi-Wan Kenobi was a Jedi Knight to the Chancellor of the Republic, and I almost lost my life.

…

I was one day away from my Alderaan sanctioned interview that I almost lost my life to the mad whims of a despicable Sith Lord. And the funny thing was that, even though I had already survived one attempt on my life (even though I did not think of it as a real attempt for how quickly it ended) I really wasn’t expecting the second attempt to come so quickly on the heels of the first.

But alas, I am getting ahead of myself.

It was one day away from my interview with some aspiring media personality handpicked by Bail Organa, and Cody and I were busy brainstorming all the truth bobs we could drop in the media against the (Chancellor of) the Republic, whom I was now quite willing to dismantle with my bare hands. It should not be as difficult to argue for sentient rights as it was now proving to be. Something, I suspected, had gone deeply wrong with the government that our only recourse was a deeply calculated smear campaign against what amounted to our galactic leader.

But one can only stay in a small office for so long, and we had spent the better half of what felt like years hunched over different datapads, drinking from the same burnt pot of caf that we had still yet to take off the burner, and devolving into half crazed mutterings of ‘who thought this was a good idea? No, seriously, who?’

I threw my datapad to the side.

“My dear Commander, we need food”, I said, “Or else I’m afraid I shall simply go mad”.

Cody blinked up at me with the sleepy slowness of someone who had been staring at a screen for too long. Then his brain caught up to what I had said, and he snorted at me, and then seemed surprised at such an overt display of emotion from himself. I smiled at him, helplessly endeared by the lovely, lovely man.

“You’ll hardly perish”, Cody said, “We’ve still got about a quarter of c-rations here”.

I pulled a face.

“Darling, I have never been so hurt by a statement in my life”, I said.

“Uhuh”.

“Allow me to take you to dinner”, I said. “My treat, of course”.

I could see the war in Cody’s face. That push and pull between desire and duty. Cody, I could see, followed his duty the same way that I did mine - relentlessly and with persistence. When all had gone wrong and the blood was drying on the walls, and a Jedi Master was giving you the ultimatum between life or staying to die with your friends, often the only thing left, the only recourse left to you, was your own innate sense of duty and the honour to follow it through to the very end.

“Your brothers will not suffer, Cody, if you stop a moment to eat”, I said, gently, and with all the tenderness of knowing the man, no matter how short a time we had actually known each other for. I had never felt so close to another person then I did Cody - I would carry his battles with me to the ends of time, if he would let me, if only I could witness his glory at the end. But perhaps that is too intense, at this moment, and so I said nothing. All I could do in this moment was ensure he rest - if only to continue the fight immediately after, but at the very least refreshed.

Cody sighed and put his datapad away.

“Sure, Kenobi”, he said, “Take me to dinner”. His words were brusque, but there was something soft in his eyes.

I felt very warm.

It was most likely my imagination, but as we walked from the office I felt like the Coruscanti night was warm with promise. Walking close, but not too close, to Cody, felt like standing next to something monumental. His presence humbled me, and I felt as if my very soul was turned towards him, much like a plant always sought the presence of the sun. It felt that my soul had always been turned towards him, and now that he was here, finally, within my gaze, did my soul soothe as if it had gained all that had been missing from it. And Cody burned with warmth - a lovely little hum of a Force presence, strong and unwavering as a stoic mountain range, and yet comforting in its proximity. I felt like I could bask for years in his presence and never grow tired. Simply by being near him I felt rejuvenated, and as if I could take on anything from within the shelter of his lovely being. With Cody, I felt safe, and I admit that this was a novel feeling for me.

With each step we took, the back of his hand brushed against mine. Every accidental touch sent licks off warmth up my arm and straight to my heart, because Cody did not move away. He kept himself right there, in such proximity, and I felt exactly like fourteen year old Obi-Wan Kenobi with a crush on a pretty boy for the first time, rather then the thirty-five year old Jedi Knight I was now. Feeling the first thrum of love stir in my heart was simply lovely, and make no mistake this was love. Being around Cody made the Force sing, and I knew I would never love anyone but him again. That, regardless of how he felt towards me, if he could never stand to look at me again, I loved him, and I would always love him, and I was content with that.

We went to Dex’s.

During my apprenticeship with the most lovely Master in the whole wide universe, we rarely ended up on Coruscant. However, due to the inauspicious ending of my first apprenticeship, where I subsequently told Qui-Gon Jinn to fuck off, fought a war, called him back, only to tell him to fuck off a second time before stealing his ship and leaving that horrid bloodstained ball behind, apparently I was deemed enough of a flight risk to demand welfare checks. I just think Yoda was feeling upset that his plan fell through, especially after Mace Windu yelled at him for it and almost kicked him off the Council, amongst other sanctions that I shall not mention here because, presumably, Yoda is going to read this, and would probably not appreciate the details of his ten year long time out being shared in the form of a memoir.

But I digress. 

Master Fay was required to bring me to Coruscant every so often so that they could check, in person, that I had not died, or otherwise had succumbed to some sort of scurrilous plague or something like that. After the third such visit, Master Fay and I had come across a lovely young gentleman by the name of Dex. 

Dex, you see, had been at a sort of crossroads in his life. Being from a well known, but small, crime syndicate (a mob? A moblette? I admit I am unclear as to the proper terminology here) Dex was well known among a particular brand of citizens (the type who ‘lost’ their ship codes and ran at blockades whilst carrying half a dozen bottles of Antwerpian Rum, which, whilst being a banned substance, tastes exactly as being able to channel the Force feels). I am unsure as to what, exactly, Dex did with his moblette, but it apparent necessitated several crises of conscience that led him directly into the path of Master Fay and myself. After a little misunderstanding involving blasters and a chemical accelerant was cleared up, Master Fay took the both of us out to lunch, and then dessert, followed by a lovely dinner, while Dex spilled his entire life story to us and revealed, in due course, that his life’s ambition was not to (do something undefined but undoubtably unethical and highly illegal) no, not at all.

You see, Dex wanted to make people happy, not achingly miserable. Dex wanted to be the reason why you smiled, why your day had improved. He wanted to be able to fill whatever hole existed in your soul with several pounds of greasy fried stuff.

In short, Dex wanted to be a chef.

And the rest, you could say, is history.

The door chimed as it opened and walked into the warmth of the diner. Rather then opting for the brilliant white lights so favoured by those in the higher levels to light their spaces, Dex had opted for a different sort of lighting. The bulbs were retro, and I have it on good authority that they cost a pretty penny to replace, but the effect over the whole diner was that of a warm, buttery glow, and that, combined with the heavenly scents wafting from the kitchens, were enough to relax even the most paranoid of bastards as they walked through the door.

And so it was with Cody.

As soon as he entered the diner, it seemed like a massive weight had been taken off my dear man’s shoulders. The warmth, the smells, the quality of light - never had there been a more welcoming place on Coruscant then Dex’s Diner. The Force here near sang with Light - it was so strong that even those totally void of the Force, if such a people even existed, would be able to feel the warm embrace of the Light.

FLO turned and saw us, and her voice called out, bright, “Obi-Wan, honey! It’s good to see you!”

There was a crash from the kitchen, and then however many kilos of Besalisk it was of Dex came roaring out of the kitchen.

“Obi-Wan!” Dex cried and I braced myself, and just in time, too. I was picked up by four massive arms and crushed to a food stained chest. My grin was so wide I felt as if it could split my face.

“Dex!” I said, equally exuberant, once the dear man had put me down and I could breathe again. “It’s good to see you!”

“It’s good to see you too, kid”, Dex said fondly, ruffling my hair with one massive hand. “And who is this young gentleman?”

Cody held out his hand. “Marshal Commander Cody of the GAR”, he said.

“Marshal Commander, eh?” Dex said, shaking Cody’s hand with enthusiasm. “Hear that! We’re going up in the world, FLO! Soon we’ll be respectable!” He chortled at his own joke.

“It would take more then a Commander in our diner to make us respectable, Dex”, FLO said dryly.

“Your taste in friends is certainly getting better, huh Obi”, Dex said, digging an elbow into my ribs.

“I’ll have you know that Quinlan Vos is a Jedi Master and therefore perfectly respectable”, I said.

“Hah!” Dex said, “There’s a laugh. Vos! Respectable!”

“He would be ever so offended, Dex”.

Dex just laughed at me. “Take a seat, boys, I’ll bring you something out”. And then he went, back to the kitchen, still laughing at Vos’s supposed respectability. 

“He does know we haven’t ordered yet, right?” Cody said, dark eyes watching Dex go with a thoughtful look on his face.

I gestured to a booth at the back, and Cody and I took a seat opposite each other.

“Dex would never let his friends choose from the menu”, I said, “He takes great pride in knowing just what everyone needs”.

“Hmm”, Cody said, “Force sensitive?”

“Not that you’d know”, I said, “Although to a degree everyone is Force sensitive. The trick to it is having enough sensitivity to manipulate the Force”.

Cody raised an eyebrow. “That wasn’t taught in our briefings”.

“It’s not exactly a well spread belief”, I said, “My apprenticeship was held under a, well, shall we say, more esoteric Master? I was rarely, if ever, at the Temple, even though I did spend my childhood there. Master Fay was actually my second attempt at a Master”.

“What happened to the first one?”

“A difference of opinion”, I said, “Which, ultimately, proved to be irreconcilable. You know him, actually. If I’m following the war correctly, your general is my old Master”.

Cody’s second eyebrow shot up to join the first.

“Your Master was General Jinn?” He said.

The distaste was evident in the lines around his mouth. I burst out laughing.

“Oh yes”, I said, “I do so hope you won’t hold it against me”.

“I’ll try my best”, Cody said, dry as sun packed dirt. “What was the difference of opinion, if you don’t mind me asking?”

I didn’t feel like going into the whole Melida/Daan mess, so I didn’t. Maybe one day I would tell Cody that strange, sad and sorry tale, but it wouldn’t be today. So, I kept to the basics. 

“It was essentially a disagreement on what qualifies as conduct becoming of a Jedi”, I said. “Master Qui-Gon liked to preach on the benefits of no-attachment, but proved that his judgement was clouded during a mission that involved a close friend of his becoming injured. This caused him to act against the will of the Force, and long story short we parted ways because of it. He repudiated me as his Padawan, only to have a change of mind later on. Unfortunately, separation did not make my heart grow fonder, and I left him behind to travel the galaxy in order to serve the Force in the way that I believed truely reflected the ideas of the Jedi. It was the will of the Force, again, that I made the acquaintance of Master Fay, and discovered that I wasn’t the only Jedi alive to leave the Order to enter a different kind of service to the Force”.

“So there are others like you, then? People travelling the wider galaxy making problems for other people?”

I grinned at him, amused by his interpretation of my behaviour.

“Essentially yes”, I said, “We’re a small group, and really only operate in the Outer Rim”.

“Then what brings you to the Core?”

“The Force”, I said, and then met his eyes, “And you. When I saw you in that bar I knew this would be the greatest fight of my life. That everything I had done leading to this had been to prepare me for that moment. It is the will of the Force for you and your brothers to be free, not chained to some ceaseless war that is perverse in its pointlessness”.

“We are loyal to the Republic”.

“But there are more ways to serve the Republic then dying”, I said, “Death is the least of all acts of service. It is your life that I am interested in, Marshal Commander, and I demand that you have the chance to live it”.

Cody didn’t say anything. His face had closed off, his eyes searching mine. I didn’t know what he was looking for, but I tried to keep my face open. Whatever he was looking for, he could have it. I would give him everything.

The door to the diner opened, and I heard FLO’s cheerful greeting. But I didn’t get to hear more then that, because that was when the Force exploded in warning. I ducked on instinct, and felt an incredible heat pass by my face. I heard shouting as I rolled under the table and got my feet under me, facing my attacker. A zabrak, tall and strong, his eyes glowing golden as he wielded his red lightsaber, a mocking grin tight on his lips.

“Kenobi”, he growled.

Sith.

…

When one is faced with a Sith, the last thing one should do is freeze. So I didn't.

Arguably though, I did something worse.

"Hello, darling", I said cheerfully, hands loose and stance ready. I kept my eyes on the Sith's centre mass, because I knew that when he moved he would move fast. "My, that's a lovely red lightstaff. Very big. Do you polish it often?"

Funnily enough, rather than tearing out his own horns at the agony of what had just come out of my mouth, the Sith smirked. It is never a good sign when your enemy has a sense of humour. That means that they're creative. 

"Mister Kenobi", said the Sith, and my name in his mouth sounded like pure sin. “I must say, it is an utmost pleasure to finally meet you”.

“You’ve heard of me? I must say I’m flattered. I do so hope I live up to the reputation”.

“Very much so. My Master is…most displeased by your recent actions”.

“You must pass on my condolences”, I said.

“I think you life will suffice”, the Sith said, and then lunged.

I danced out of the way, allowing the Force to guide my movements as I avoided the spinning blade. Dex’s customers screamed and made for the door, and I focused all my attention in keeping the Sith’s attention, lest he turn on the crowd and take hostages. During all this, I did allow myself the pleasure of a small grin, content in knowing something the Sith did not. In his arrogance, I’m quite afraid the Sith had forgotten about Cody.

It is never a good idea to forget about Cody, because guaranteed he hasn’t forgotten about you.

Cody reared up in all his Sith-fighting glory, hand extended with his standard issue blaster. Except it wasn’t a standard issue blaster, not at all. He fired once, twice, three times, and the retort was sharp, and loud. The Sith jerked, oddly, as he was hit, and twisted awkwardly to avoid the rest of the slugs. He turned to face the Commander, snarling, lightsaber raised as if he were going to kill Cody for the temerity of bringing a slug thrower to a lightsaber fight. Cody stayed facing him, resolute, legs planted and slug thrower extended even as the lightsaber descended, unnaturally fast, towards his unprotected neck.

The hiss of my lightsaber meeting the Sith’s was a pure relief. The shock in his eyes was a gift.

Operating as I did mainly in the Outer Rim, it is more of a liability to be known as a Jedi then anything else. This meant that lightsabers were something that we had to resort to as a last ditch effort, and not as our weapon of choice. I wasn’t going to use mine to face the Sith - that had not been my intention, at least, as I had no wish to give away my status as a Jedi. But there were very few things that could stop a lightsaber save a lightsaber, and with Cody’s life on the line this fight ceased being about me.

You may think that this reasoning stinks of attachment, but that is not the case. You can love without attachment, but possessive love, the kind that eats away at your reason until you see nothing but the other person, and will stop at nothing to get your way, that is the kind that the Jedi Order preaches against. It is a very dangerous thing, to be a trained Force sensitive and be so attached. We have…more avenues to destruction then the usual sort, and so we must guard ourselves in order to make sure we do not become what we guard against. I did not act out of attachment. To save a life is the very fundamental principle at the heart of what it means to be a Jedi; if I did not act to save Cody’s life, I would no longer be a Jedi, even to the detriment of myself. 

And so I pulled my lightsaber together, reforming it from its many hidden places on my person, and I put myself between an enraged Lord of the Sith and their intended victim. I would act as a Jedi should, and guard against the galactic embodiment of evil, and I would hold the line. There was no other option. Either I would win today, or the Sith would kill everyone in this diner, and so I would win. That was the Jedi way.

Red met blue in a shocking array of sparks. The Sith was stronger then me, but I pushed back. I held my ground, I held my ground and I stopped his blade, and I did not move.

The Sith snarled, and then we fought.

Tell me, have you ever tried to fight the wind? Have you ever tried to fight the wind with a blade that weighs nothing, and while a second, but no less important battle rages in your mind? The Sith’s power was all consuming. I could feel his malice, his hatred, his evil as if they were tangible things. They choked the air I breathed, they slowed my limbs and poisoned my mind. I have never so struggled to stay in the Light as I did this fight, and I found myself uncountably in awe of the Dai Bendu in that tale of old, holding against the ultimate evil, fighting for the good of the Galaxy. 

We fought, and the Sith tried to tear into my mind. I had to always be on guard, for his darkness tried its best to tear into me. It tried to consume my Light, turn me putrid from within, remake me in its own image. But I. Held. Firm. I kept my faith in the Light. I did not entertain such evil, and as such, such evil had no hold over me.

“Just die!” The Sith cried, and I saw, with a clarity that only comes from the most religious of fights, how broken he was. How his Master, the evil thing, had twisted and twisted until nothing was left. How the darkness had eaten him from within, quelling all his potential, all that could have made him good and just, and had killed it with a malice that was shocking with its intentionality. The Sith had been murdered, or as good as, mind, body and soul. What was left of his soul was crying out to me, begging for the embrace of the Light, begging for a final mercy so it could rejoin the whole, and once again be a child of the Light.

I understood, finally, what that tale I had been told really meant, all those years ago. 

Faced with the Sith I understood, finally, what it meant to be a Jedi.

As the blade of Maul Oppress descended towards my unguarded stomach, so to did my blade sweep across his neck. The Sith’s soul, finally released, cried out its gratitude.

And then I knew no more.

…

The next thing I became aware of was the beeping of hospital machinery, and of the steady, soothing presence of the Light eternal. 

“You’re awake”, came a voice to my left, and I felt my entire being turn towards that dear, dear beloved voice. “You all gave us quite the scare, my very young apprentice”.

I managed to crack my eyes open, squinting against the glare, and saw a blob that resolved itself, finally, into the form of my Master.

“Master Fay”, I croaked.

“Obi-Wan Kenobi”, she said, “What exactly is the meaning of this?” But, despite her harsh words, her tone was gentle. I found myself smiling. 

“You know me, Master”, I said, squinting against the warm lighting of the halls. Master Fay looked drawn, her usual youthful looks wane, as if she had spent uncountable nights at what very well could have been the deathbed of her apprentice. 

I felt a flush of guilt, and a gratitude for her love so deep that it was rooted eternally in my soul. I loved my Master, dearly and utterly. She was like a mother to me.

“When one is taking the life of an enemy, Obi-Wan, one generally should avoid following after them”, she said.

“How long was I out?”

“Long enough”, Fay said, “Weeks. You had quite a few complications”.

“The case”, I said, sadly. I had been so convinced that we were going to win it, and then I had to get myself stabbed by a Sith.

Fay rested a hand on my arm.

“Shush”, she said, “I can hear you castigating yourself from here. Do not worry about the case, Padawan. You have allies, and they are handling it”.

I raised my eyebrow at that.

“Oh yes”, Fay said, with a mischievous little lilt to her smile. “Master Windu does so love a lost cause. I do believe the Chancellor is regretting ever having been elected to office, now that Master Windu has dusted off some old law textbooks and is doing his best to destabilise his rule”.

“People always think he’s so humourless”, I said.

“I cannot see why”, Fay said, “That man is an utterly hilarious wild card”.

“And Cody?”

“Your young man?” Fay said, eyes twinkling.

I groaned, and then immediately winced in pain. “Master Fay!”

“Peace, Padawan”, she said, “I only jest. Your young man has been making quite the name for himself. I believe the Clones have discovered the joys of civil disobedience”.

“They’re striking?”

“Not quite”, Fay said, “I believe they evicted all naturally born officers off their ships and disabled all communications with the Republic. They are still fighting just…in their own way”.

“It would do the Republic good if the brothers refused to fight”, I said around a yawn. It was getting harder and harder to keep my eyes open, but I persisted.

“It is also doing wonders that, without direct supervision of the Republic, they appear to be winning”, Fay said, “The public is very aware that the brothers would be in their right to stop fighting the war altogether and abandoned their slave masters, and that the Republic could do very little about it, and the fact that they haven’t is doing wonders for their public image. Especially since Master Windu has been pointing this out to all and sundry”.

“They’re winning the war”, I repeated, my eyes feeling heavy, “They’re very honourable, Master Fay”.

“Quite, my young apprentice”, Fay said, resting a hand against my brow. “Now shh, you need to rest”.

“But I’m not-“, I said, and didn’t finish the rest.

…

Recovery is hard.

Luckily, I had the best of daytime holos to keep me company.

During hours of intensive therapy and sniping sessions with the imminently sarcastic Vokara Che, I amused myself by watching every interview Mace Windu did, which was amusing because the man was clearly dusting off his old drama degree and nobody was picking up on it. Less amusingly, I also watched the crap spurting out from the death throes of the Chancellor, soon to be ex-Chancellor if Mace had anything to say about it, and had to lean back to avoid getting all that gunk on me, even if it was contained to a holopad. 

A little known fact about Mace Windu was that he was the Temple’s answer to a theatre nerd. The man loved drama. He craved it. When he got going, truly going, the man’s love of theatre bled into his very being. He was a born storyteller, and the story he spun for the media was epic in its very truthfulness. It was a story that shook the Republic to its very foundations. 

“We must remember, truly remember, the very intentions that founded our Republic”, he said during one of these interviews. “We built this Republic to be a bastion of Light, a herald of truth and justice. We live in a democracy, our ancestors fought to make this Republic a democracy, and now look at us”. He shook his head - his disappointment was a palpable thing, and the interviewer looked mightily uncomfortable at being on the receiving end of it. “The Military Creation Act threatens the very foundations of our Republic. It threatens the very integrity of our souls”.

To which the Chancellor of the Republic replied, on another show, “The actions of the Jedi Order are truly disturbing. I never believed I would see the day when they turned away from the Republic. Not only that, but threaten the safety of all Republic citizens with their actions! Look at them! Their inaction is costing lives! Have the Jedi become so blind, so above it all, that they hold the sanctity of a thousand year code over the lives of those they are supposed to protect? I find it very interesting that the Jedi profess to have the interests of the Republic at heart when their very actions will lead to its destruction”.

But the vitriol of the Chancellor was losing steam. He had been forced to show his hand too quickly, and was steadily losing support. Any day now there was going to be a vote of no confidence, or at least that was what Viki reported during one of her visits, and between castigating me for leaving her to pick up the pieces of my sudden unexplained disappearance from the office.

“Although”, she said, “Your sudden outing as a Jedi is doing wonders for potential clients. I’ve never received so many people calling up and asking if we can take their cases. Pity most of them think you’ll do it for free”, she then patted my arm. “Don’t worry, Obi-Wan, I took care to manage those expectations. The Jedi Order don’t pay me, after all”.

I didn’t have the heart to tell her that technically, the Jedi Order didn’t pay me either, and just let her be.

But by far the best thing that had come from all this was the outpouring of support for both the Jedi Order and the Clones. The Military Creation Act had never been so read. Academics and news reporters and anyone with access to the holonet were pouring over the evil document and tearing it to pieces. Public outrage over the conscription of both the Clones and the Jedi was fierce. Protests flared all over the galaxy in support of the GAR and the Jedi Order, and they all, every one of them, knew who to blame. The writing was on the wall.

Palpatine’s rule was over.

But he did not go quietly. 

…

The end came like this. 

All was quiet, all was still, and then, from the Force, an explosion.

RUN!

And then Jedi started dying.

The events that followed were confused, chaotic. It wasn’t until later, when the bodies were cleared and the fires were put out, that we were able to piece together a semblance of events. To make it clear, the Temple wasn’t breached. The Jedi were not extinguished.

But nobody could doubt that was the intention.

This is what happened. 

Commander Fox had been sitting, quietly, in his barracks, minding his own business. He had been writing a report meant to convince his Senatorial oversight that the supplementing of caf was, in fact, an actual requirement to the successful functioning of the Corrie Guard. All communications at this point between the brothers fighting in the GAR and their natborn counterparts had ceased, but the Corrie Guard was different. While they were no longer answering any comms, they couldn’t exactly stop people from waltzing into their barracks.

And that was exactly what Palpatine did.

At 0200 hours, footage shows Palpatine walking into Commander Fox’s office and issuing a singular order. Footage then shows Fox issuing the order to the rest of the Guard. It was lucky for us all that this order did not reach the rest of the GAR, because then we would truly be karked, but it does go to show that mind control does not make the most effective killing machines. The Guard - a bunch of loyal, smart, competent men to the last - were effectively turned into a pack of mindless zombies.

Here’s what happened next. 

The Coruscant Guard marched on the Temple.

Ordinarily, due to the war, the Temple would have been nearly empty. Nobody but the elderly and the very young would have remained, the rest needed as a fighting force and thus spread thin across the galaxy. But the brothers had evicted the natborns from their ships, and naturally this included their Jedi Generals. With nowhere to go and no active missions vying for their time, these Generals returned to the Temple, Generals no longer. For the first time in a long time, the Temple was at full strength. 

It did not take long for the Jedi to realise that the clones were not acting of their own volition.

Lives were lost that day, tragically, unnecessarily, but regardless, they were lost. Not all the clones could be subdued without lethal force, not all Jedi were capable of defending against a massive armed host. Nevertheless, at the final hour, Coruscant was not awakened to scenes of the Temple, burning, but a Temple standing strong, its inhabitants unbroken.

The line held.

The surviving Guard were transported to the Halls of Healing to uncover the truth of what happened. The chips were found. 

The uproar, as you could say, was particularly magnificent.

Regardless, I missed all of this, being practically bedridden and in no condition to fight. But i was there to observe the aftermath, I was there to witness all these things, and the sheer chaos of it all. And I ask you this. 

In the midst of all this chaos, is it no wonder that Palpatine escaped?

…

And then of course came the end, the true end of it all.

The end of the war.

I think it can be summed up, quite nicely, from the speech’s given by the newly elected Chancellor Organa and our dear Marshal Commander.

“Peace is hard won, and is often taken for granted. But it is in truly desperate times that we see it tested, and we discover the mettle of its defendants”, Bail said. “So it was here. For a brief time, our beloved Republic was plunged into madness. If not for the fortitude of the vode, and of the Jedi Order, and of all those who saw an injustice in action and sought to correct it, we could have lost our way and have doomed the very foundations in which we have so long fought to create. Our way is not the way of war, as we have been reminded today, but of defence. As the Republic we vowed to be a bastion of Light in this galaxy, to defend those who cannot defend themselves, to protect what is right, what is just, and we came so very near to losing that through the manipulations of a madman. If it were not for the very people we have wronged, we would have led ourselves to ruin. If not for the vode and the Jedi, we would undoubtedly have fallen. As so I invite you all to listen to these next words spoken. It is my utmost pleasure to invite Marshal Commander Cody to the podium”.

“We were created for destruction”, Cody said, and I watched as his dear, lovely eyes swept across the enraptured crowd, his being poised and strong, and in the light of the artificially setting sun, he appeared to be crowned in glory. “We were created to ensure your destruction, and in a way that would make you complicit. We had to fight for our every right, our entire being was made to ensure the degradation of the Republic’s values, and in such a way that would ensure the Republic’s end”, he paused, and his voice was stern when he spoke next. “Nobody made you act the way you did. Your leader may have dragged you down, but you came willingly, and we will not forget that. We may have won this pointless war of yours, captured your most hated enemies, but in doing so we have discovered our inherent worth. You demanded our service in our willingness to lay down our lives for your broken ideals, but death is the least of all services. We are going to live, now, and you are going to let us. You have no choice in the matter”. And then he turned and walked off the stage.

It took a hot second for the Republic to realise that they had just watched the birth of a nation, but when they did, it was spectacular. The vode were spectacular. They made it quite clear. There was going to be no more discussion. They would have their rights or they would turn their war machines on us.

And all was as it should be. 

…

I was allowed out of the Halls of Healing an indeterminate amount of time later. I may have spent most of the remainder of the year in there, or at least that was what it felt like, but I had not spent it alone. My visitors were many, and varied, and all were quite welcome. One even came with the request that I write a book. I’m not quite sure this is what they were expecting, but Cody says they should have been clearer with their demands and that this recounting is entirely their fault for not properly defining the terms.

But I digress.

I went back to my office.

In my absence, my darling and much beloved Viki had kept things rolling. I am not quite certain where she got the money to keep the place running, never mind to pay the rent, but I tend to not ask Viki those sorts of questions, lest she actually takes it upon herself to answer. But regardless, I went back to my office, which against all expectations was not empty.

Cody was there. Like an inevitably, Cody was there.

And in the expectant silence, I stared at Cody, lit by the morning light. He looked at me, and I looked at him, and then Cody smiled, and it was like the sun coming from behind the clouds after a long rain, and I realised, then, that I have never quite loved anyone as much as I do him.

And there is probably much more to say, and even more things to do, but in this I think I shall leave you with but one thing.

Often, our path is shrouded in darkness. But still, there is Light.

And so, there is Light.

Forever and ever, until the end of time.

The end.