Chapter Text
Obi follows Anakin into the war, leading the 501st Battalion. They take operational security very seriously and mitigate leaks as best they can, saving as many lives as they can in a war. The Chancellor’s emergency powers are flaunted shamelessly from the start, and Anakin gets a crash-course in shielding his supernova signature, so as not to tip off the Chancellor that they know this entire nightmare is his doing. Obi turns the visits into a kind of dark game, trying to off-balance Palpatine as much as possible. It keeps Anakin from attempting murder, so it’s mostly successful. It has the added benefit of driving up Palpatine’s desperation to manipulate Anakin, which catches the attention of Master Windu.
Someone, in their infinite knowledge, sends a padawan to Anakin while he’s under siege on Christophsis. He can’t help his initial panic, and the impulse to send her right back to the Temple where she’d be safe— but Obi reminds him of who is on Coruscant, and Anakin has to accept that nowhere is safe right now. The least he can do is try to train her to survive this war. Ahsoka can’t see Obi but befriends him nonetheless, adopting Ferus’s methods to acknowledge his presence. It’s a balm on Anakin’s battered heart, so fresh from the loss of his Amu and the constant death and violence of the battlefield; he still has his friends, and now a padawan. He has a family. It drives a wedge between Ahsoka and her grandmaster, but as Master Jinn has somehow managed to refuse to accept a battlefield commission and not be charged with treason, their interactions are rare. Anakin prefers it that way.
Most, though not all of the vode can see Obi. Most don’t pay any attention to the blood-stained kute, which raises all kinds of questions about the upbringing of the clones, but Anakin can’t dwell on that topic without droid parts floating in his officers’ quarters. Obi makes friends with those who can see him, spending time that Anakin can’t spare getting the vode up to speed on Jedi, their philosophies and practices, and most importantly their limitations. Anakin’s got more war strategy knowledge than most because Obi insisted on it; somehow he’s become the Soresu master, which is more of a testament to Obi and his teachers’ patience than Anakin’s own. But the vode have prepared for this for their entire short lives and Obi plays a critical role in knitting together the clones and the Jedi to bring this war to an end as fast as possible.
Obi spends a lot of time with Commander Cody, Ferus’s right-hand man in the 212th, with whom they are frequently deployed. Anakin catches them conferring over battle plans from time to time, and if they’re leaning in towards each other just a little further than absolutely necessary, Anakin’s not going to say anything. He simply breathes away the grief, and refocuses on ending this war quickly. He can’t give Cody and Obi what they want, but he can get the vode to freedom.
The war goes on, longer than Anakin wants. It’s been a long year. Jedi and vode die, and replacements step in to resume the fight. On both sides, souls linger.
“I’m sorry,” Master Tachi’s blaster-riddled body stands beside him as they watch Ferus, Cody, and Obi lean over battle plans, their faces illuminated by the ghostly blue of the holo-map. “I should have believed.”
“No need,” Anakin tries to smile but it’s a grimace. “It’s not like I want the dead to linger. I hope you find peace soon.”
“Not until the war is over,” her transparent, glitchy face is harder than kyber.
Darth Maul— just Maul, now— resurfaces, with brothers in tow. He’s not interested in Master Jinn, who refuses to believe he’s back until a body bag containing a fellow Jedi and a holo message arrive at the Temple. Maul’s message is for Obi-Wan; the Sith has lost his mind in seeking revenge against the ghost who cost him his place as Sidious’ apprentice, which confounds the Council and earns Anakin strange looks when he volunteers to go after the crazed Zabrak. Ferus is sent along with him, and Anakin’s not angry— he has a feeling he’s going to need his friends.
He’s not wrong.
He almost Falls— again— when Maul uses Nightsister magic to trap and torture Obi’s spirit. Maul’s manic soliloquizing, and the sight of Obi’s writhing bloody form, pushes him right up to the edge. This time it’s Ferus who drags Anakin’s sorry ass back to the Light. Anakin knows that Obi would not want this, he just wants to keep his old friend from suffering any more. But it’s not nearly good enough a reason, and his friends’ compassion and forgiveness humble him once more.
As he did with Jango Fett, Obi disappears to talk to Maul once the three Opress brothers are defeated and contained. He reappears, and Anakin does not like the look on his nearly corporeal face.
“Absolutely not.”
“What is it?” Ferus turns from his conversation with Cody, who is also now watching carefully.
“I need you to let them escape,” Obi says patiently, and no one’s quite prepared for Cody’s sudden, “no, Obi.” Anakin waves away the mortified Commander’s apologies at the outburst and repeats for Ferus’s benefit the plan Obi outlines.
Ferus is so very sorry to have failed in bringing the Zabrak brothers to justice in Coruscant, they have no idea how they must have escaped, maybe it was Nightsister magic and they would try to go get them again but the war has ramped up in the Outer Rim again so it’ll have to wait.
The Chancellor’s expression is worth it all.
Anakin and the 501st are sent to Umbara. Somewhere on the other side of the planet, the 212th are also trying and failing to make inroads as a horrific firestorm rages above the planet. No one’s winning, no one’s losing, everyone is just dying. In the midst of this, the Chancellor demands that Anakin return to Coruscant for some urgent task, and the Order sends a replacement.
Pong Krell arrives. He is surrounded by dead troopers. Ghastly injuries, many of which do not look like blaster shots from droids. Missing limbs, a half-crushed skull, saber chars. Obi flits amongst them, horrified, trying to console these men who deserved so much better.
“I am here to relieve you, young Skywalker.” Krell smirks, he enjoys the sight of carnage and resentment, despondence.
“Like fuck you are, murderer.”
Krell’s not exactly surprised, he’s heard the rumors of Anakin’s ability to see ghosts, but he’s unprepared for the fight that follows.
“Ani, you killed a general,” Obi comments nervously, his silvery form shifting and glitching uncomfortably. It’s a fair concern, until Anakin finds another lightsaber in the Fallen Jedi’s robes, bled red. The crystals scream in pain, and he sends soothing reassurance to them in the Force.
“Well. There’s our proof. All right, this planet’s a lost cause, we’re pulling out now. Rex, pack ‘em up.” He looks to Rex, but Rex is watching the ghosts who disappear with a breathy sigh of relief. A few linger, and Anakin can’t blame them. He’d find it hard to let go of what Krell did to them, too.
“What about the 212th?”
“I’ll call Ferus, let him know the plan’s changed. We’re leaving this hellhole.”
No one argues with that. The Chancellor and Senate try, but with Obi’s excellent bullshitting skills in their ears— well, Anakin’s, at least— Anakin and Ferus weave a good story and they leave the nightmare behind, a few more shadowy troopers aboard who trail behind Obi through the halls of the destroyer as they make for Coruscant.
It’s a short visit, barely long enough to check in with the Shadows and the clones assisting them, before the 212th and the 501st are re-deployed to Ringo Vinda, to bolster the efforts of Generals Tiplar and Tiplee against Admiral Trench’s Separatist forces. A relatively shiny trooper Tup loses his mind, and it’s only the timely intervention of Obi, who can’t fight and therefore watches the troops to relay issues to Anakin, and fellow trooper Dogma who tackled his batch mate when he pulled a blaster on the Generals, that saves the life of a Jedi and begins the unraveling of a devastating mystery.
The Chancellor demands that Anakin return to Coruscant immediately again; some urgent nonsense, all vague. He trades uneasy looks with Ferus and Obi.
“I don’t like the timing of this,” he admits.
“It’s incredibly suspicious,” Obi concedes. “To separate you from the trooper who suffered some sort of breakdown, and send him back to Kamino alone? How do we know they won’t disappear him? And he keeps trying to separate you from your troops, right when something bad is about to happen.”
Anakin relays this to Ferus, who nods. “Obi’s right.” He glances in the blank space next to him; he once asked Anakin how tall Obi was and where he usually stands, so that he could approximate looking the dead Jedi in the eyes, and Anakin never loved his living friend more than that moment. “The question is what do we do next. We’ve got orders to return.”
Obi strokes a bare chin in contemplation, then his young eyes grow devious. And Anakin remembers again that he’s now older than Obi ever was, and he fights to not look at the stains on the younger Jedi’s kute. He can’t keep losing people, not to avoidable demises; whatever reckless idea Obi’s got, he’s probably going to agree, as long as it involves the fewest possible casualties. He knows Ferus knows too, hence the groan.
“I’m going to hate this idea, aren’t I.”
“Probably,” Anakin grins.
“Do I get to help?” Ahsoka pipes up from Anakin’s shoulder.
“You, my dear, have the best part,” Obi smiles at her.
Ahsoka’s distraction skills are probably going to give Anakin heart attacks in the future, but she nails her part, drawing the attention of the Kaminoans, the onsite Jedi, and the vode to the far side of the facility as Obi, Anakin, and Fives rush Tup into surgery, with Cody and Ferus on lookout. Tup lives; the chip conspiracy is unveiled.
“How do we ensure that Tup’s not targeted, and that the vode get the chip out, without the Sith or the Separatists or the other Jedi finding out?”
“You ask nicely for help.” And Fives nearly puts a hole in Master Shaak Ti as she appears suddenly in the room. Yes, the Jedi Shadow network and the vode’s secret communications channel will work nicely.
In the meantime, they need to buy time for the surgeries, and hide Tup. A quick faked death and an emergency on Felucia give them an excuse to get the hell out of there quickly.
On the way, Master Ti reports that she found a way to deactivate the chips from Kamino, so they turn around and make directly for Coruscant. Master Ti deactivates the chips just as they arrive, so there is little time to spare before the Sith Lord might notice.
Anakin and Ferus ask on-planet members of the Council, minus Master Jinn, to meet them in the Lower Levels. It probably says something about Anakin and Ferus that the Council agrees, six members making the trek with minimal grumbling. It takes a little more grumbling to get them to accept the reinforcements Anakin’s called in, until Ferus explains how close Anakin came to Falling in their last encounter with Maul, and the strength of character it’s taken to include them in this fight. This is a Sith Lord they’re talking about, who has orchestrated the suffering of an entire galaxy. It will take both the Light and the Dark to destroy this threat. Anakin doesn’t care for the considering looks that the Council members pass over him and Ferus; he's irritated that they still ignore the presence of Obi-Wan, who is busy chatting with Maul’s brothers Savage and Feral.
In the end, it’s a long, messy fight with the Chancellor, who absolutely loses it at the sight of Obi-Wan, convinced that this is all his fault. And, from a certain point of view, that might be true. But it was Sidious’s actions, and the Line of Bane, that led to this moment, and the sight of Maul battling his old master with the hate of vengeance and the love of his brothers warring inside him keeps Anakin balanced enough to avoid the poisonous words and offers that Palpatine throws his way. Master Windu loses an eye, Kolar loses an arm, and Tiin and Feral lose their lives. It is Obi-Wan and Anakin together who finally end Palpatine’s machinations forever, Obi-Wan distracting him long enough for Anakin to strike the final blow. Perhaps not the cleanest victory, but Palpatine’s been playing dirty his entire life, and the important thing is that he’s dead.
Of course, that’s not the end of the war. There’s still Dooku, and Ferus and Anakin are immediately sent out to deal with him. But they do so as Jedi Masters and members of the Council, so at least there’s that. Anakin continues to avoid responding to Master Jinn’s messages; the older Jedi is livid that Anakin had left him out of the chip conspiracy, the planning to move against Palpatine, the fact that he included the Oppress brothers after Maul had tried to kill him, his insistence on Obi-Wan’s existence; after a while, Anakin doesn’t bother to even listen, letting them collect on his data pad. He’s not sure why Jinn even cares; they’ve been estranged for years now.
Ferus, ever the Negotiator, tries diplomacy first with Dooku, and Obi-Wan watches, smiling proudly as Ferus tries again and again to bring Dooku round. But the Fallen Jedi’s too far gone, and also enraged at Obi-Wan, which irritates Anakin. Obi’s dead. He needs to be left alone. Anakin, Ferus and Obi tag-team against Dooku, who is cut down.
Only Grievous left to go.
Cody gets the kill-shot for that, and it seems fair that the Jedi shouldn’t have all the fun. Grievous had turned killing clones into a sport, so there’s catharsis in Cody’s achievement.
And now the war is done.
But Obi-Wan remains. And Anakin knows what must come next.
After the war, the clone army is kicking its heels; Cody, Rex, Ponds, Bacara, Fox and the rest of the commanders have a hell of a time keeping a tight leash on the vode who have all the time now and none of the freedom. The Senate’s now worried about a resurgent Mandalore, and lingering resistance in former Separatist worlds. In reality, depur will always be depur, and even Chancellor Organa can only do so much to sway a selfish Senate to do the right thing.
Now, the Force urges.
Anakin talks to Ferus, to the clone commanders, quietly circulating an offer. It’s a dangerous gamble, but right now it’s the only way to guarantee their freedom. It’s the only way for Anakin to make good on an old promise. And he bets it’s the only way his old friend will finally move on.
Now, the Force urges.
Anakin turns to Cody and Rex in the vestibule outside the Council chambers in the Jedi Temple. Fox is there too. They had met with the Coruscant Guard Marshal Commander as often as they could when planet-side, sharing information and supplies with the criminally under-resourced Guard. Anakin had connected Fox with Quinlan, and had helped with the investigation, had stood as evidence of Sith tampering. Anakin’s eyes fall briefly on the branching scars that creep up the trooper’s neck and lick his jaw, then return to the steady gaze of the three men.
“Ready?”
Three crisp nods. There is no need for words now; they are committed to this. With Obi’s warm smile shimmering beside him, they turn and march into the Council chambers, startling the assembled beings.
“Master Skywalker, this—”
“Let him speak,” Master Windu cuts Master Mundi off, already clutching his head. “I want this over with.”
Anakin’s not offended, and merely bows before straightening his back and lifting his chin. “I quit.”
The silence is deafening.
“And I’m taking the troopers with me. Oh, and Ahsoka. She quit too.”
Uncomfortable shifting commences, with the exception of Ferus who’s grinning, and Master Koon asks, “All of the troopers?”
Anakin shrugs. “As many as want to come. But yes, probably all of them.”
“Where will you go?”
Unease leaks from the impressive shields of the troopers behind him, but Anakin does not fear the consequences of divulging this information. It’s imperative. And it’s not like the Order will be able to follow, unless they quit too.
“Tatooine. The vode are free from the chips now, but the Senate moves slowly to right this wrong. The vode will make it right, and free others, and the Force agrees. It is past time that the tyranny of the Hutts and all slavers ends. We can’t do this if we remain part of the Order and the Republic. So I quit. And we’re leaving.”
“Anakin…” Obi sighs fondly in exasperation.
“What? They asked!” Anakin smiles at Obi, knowing the Masters grow uncomfortable as he speaks to thin air. The discomfort of the troopers eases to amusement at their antics.
As expected, Master Jinn objects, anger and fear rippling in the air at the prospect that the Chosen One will not remain to bring balance to the Force, that his attachment to a nonexistent ghost and his people on Tatooine will cause him to Fall. Anakin laughs in his face.
“Attachment to ghosts, that you say don’t exist? Which is it, Master?” He shakes his head, sparing a rueful smile for his old friend. “Obi-Wan Kenobi was the best of us all. He stood for what was right, and sacrificed his own goals for the greater good, repeatedly, as a child. He's been rejected, denied, demeaned, and still shines like a beacon in the Force, for his faith in it can overcome any horror or injustice. And I know, Masters. I have read the reports, and all they did not say. I have strived to be worthy of following in Obi-Wan Kenobi’s footsteps, and am grateful for his friendship. If I brought balance to the Force, it is only because he showed me how to be the best Jedi I could.
“Attachment? I wish for nothing more than to see him feel at peace that he has done enough for this galaxy, and pass into the Force. I will miss him, will mourn him, but it would be a stain on his memory to be so selfish as to want him to linger any longer.”
He turns to the rest of the Council, taking in their shock, grief, awe, and Ferus’s quiet support. “I still love the Order, but I see clearly its weaknesses. It is too bound to the Senate, that helping those without prominent senators is forbidden. That neutral systems are abandoned. That tackling the scourge of the Outer Rim is off limits. Blinded by dogma, so that you could not embrace the best of us while he lived, or acknowledge that he lingers still. I will follow the Force, which calls me and the troopers to the Outer Rim. I hope you will think on my words after we are gone.”
Obi beams at him, silver tears tracing down his thin, ageless cheeks. “I am so very proud of you,” he whispers.
“You can’t leave!” thunders Master Jinn, in a tone that was meant to be a command and came out in a panicked breath. Anakin raises a brow.
“Am I a slave here too, then?” he asks, watching the Council flinch.
“Of course you can leave,” Master Windu interrupts, gripping his head more tightly. Anakin feels a pang of sympathy for that, knowing he is likely covered in exploding Shatterpoints. He reaches into the Force to siphon the pain away, and Master Windu blinks in shock, then nods in gratitude. “You are free to leave whenever you wish. I cannot say that the Senate will agree, but you have our blessing.” The others nod, stricken.
“Much you have given us to ponder, Knight Skywalker,” Master Yoda murmurs, his eyes on Master Jinn. The others watch him too, growing uneasy as the man’s agitation ratchets higher and higher both physically and in the Force.
“This is ridiculous, such a loss over a child who wouldn’t move on?” He gestures at Obi, who has moved to stand in front of Master Yoda, smiling sadly at his old great-grandmaster.
And Anakin realizes something, that he should have noticed long ago:
Jinn has seen Obi since the beginning.
But this is Obi’s moment, and Anakin will not let Jinn steal one more thing from his friend. Anakin ignores him in favor of turning to Obi, who has returned to stand beside the clones. Now, the Force urges again.
“My old friend, I will miss our daily talks, and your guidance and compassion. But you have done enough, shouldered more than you ever should have. It’s time to let go, and rest in the Force. We have the watch.”
Obi nods and bows, the action jostling the fluttering stained holes in his tunic. “It has been an honor, brother,” Obi smiles amidst the tears. “May the Force be with you.”
“With you in it, the Force is always with me,” Anakin smiles as he bows. Cody, Rex and Fox salute, and Obi returns the gesture before an expression of pure joy and peace Anakin has never seen before, consumes the padawan’s face. It is finally time. Anakin acknowledges the loss, and gives it to the Force.
As the padawan’s form slowly dissipates, an intense cold sweeps the room. Gasps of horror from the Council pull Anakin’s attention away from the vision of his closest friend disappearing, to the view of his old master, brown eyes growing yellow in wrath as they take in the sight of the fading padawan, so long denied.
Anakin shakes his head in disgust, and signals for the troopers to follow him out, leaving behind a Fallen master, a horrified council launching out of their seats to contain him, and a broken order tied to a rotting system. He hopes Ferus can force the needed changes; he prepares for his best friend to join him eventually.
Ahsoka joins him on the bridge of the Liberator, staring down at Tatooine, a drab hazy globe hanging in the black that surrounds them. The Force insists that they make their start here, while Mand’alor Fett targets Nal Hutta, per their agreement. The long-lost Mand’alor has broken the ten-year-long hold of the Sith on his mind, ended the cultural genocide and rallied his people on Mandalore, and joins the vode on this venture, to begin to make amends. Obi’s influence knows no bounds.
“Obi is really gone now,” Ahsoka says mournfully, picking at her vambraces. Behind her, Fox, Rex and Cody remain impassive, but Anakin detects a there-and-gone stab of grief from Cody. Unsurprising, given all of those late nights the two spent debating campaign strategy. At least he has his brothers to help him move on from something that could never have been.
Anakin places a bracing grip on Ahsoka’s shoulder, sending a gentle wave of comfort to the young Jedi. “You’re imagining things, padawan,” and she wrinkles her nose at the familiar phrase. “He is in the Force, and the Force is with us always, as are our memories. Now we have the watch. Let’s bring rain to the desert.”