Chapter 12.

                                    

                                          
Obi-Wan's POV
                          
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"It's alright, Ahsoka, it's just ... ow!" I jerked away from her gentle but firm hands. "It's okay," I tried again, squirming from her insistence to care. "It's just –"
                          
"– just a saber wound," she finished for me, then succeeded in pinning my leg to the grass. Hastily attacking it with bacta, she bound it up before I could escape, then jumped backwards as though she expected me to run away the moment I was free.
                          
I sat watching her and couldn't resist a soft chuckle at her antics. Stiffly tucking my leg up, I checked Ahsoka's handiwork, then sighed. Swells of the past surged up, rearing their ugly heads and coming to sweep me away with their powerful tides, but I fought against them, struggling to keep myself grounded. Glancing up at the Togrutan teen who stood over me, arms folded pensively, I forced myself to turn my attention to the task at hand. "Are you sure Shili will be safe? Will we be found here?"
                          
She sat next to me, picking at the soft grass and tossing it away wearily. For a while, she didn't answer, her sad eyes taking in the forested terrain and colourful landscape of her birth planet. A small, shaded clearing housed the nine of us – including the twins – and our transport, and I constantly wondered how the most vulnerable of our group would fare camping outside for a night or few. Ahsoka and I had immediately discounted Shili's civilization as a secure hiding place, only letting one or two of our group make the hour-long journey into town to get food and supplies. I knew we had a tricky job of balancing out everyone's safety and providing the necessities for a young mother with children, and quite frankly, I wasn't sure how we would do it. But for the meantime, the coolness of twilight and the rustling of emerald leaves would have to do for a campsite.
                          
"I don't know if Vader will find us," Ahsoka finally broke the stillness, her voice tired. "While I was fighting Asajj, Lux called, asking where he should set course for. The first planet I could think of was Shili, and I can only hope Asajj didn't pick up on my code. I didn't think she would understand it, but if she heard me and relayed the message to Vader, we might be in trouble. Suffice to say, let's not get too comfortable here."
                          
I nodded absently, this time unable to fight the waves of the past that dragged me under. That look of complete despising in his eyes had etched itself into the tender surface of my memory, and nothing I could do would erase, or even soften, it. Something told me I wouldn't be sleeping well tonight.
                          
Despite my efforts to stay focused, the world around me blurred into a buzz of activity. People moved about, setting up emergency mattresses, cracking open food parcels, and lighting a campfire. Babies cried and were tended, conversations turned into arguments and were just as quickly resolved, and questions were raised and then settled with dubious answers. But through it all, I could do nothing more than what I was told. I was more grateful than I could express to Ahsoka for taking charge of the situation, thankful that she insisted I rest and heal from my injuries. But I knew those wounds would heal much faster than my heart. For Anakin, my brother and my best friend, was gone. And he was gone because he thought I had betrayed him. I could not remove from my mind his expression and his voice.
                          
"You nearly killed me!" he yelled, fury choking any residue of anything else. "You betrayed me!"
                          
Anakin had turned to the Dark Side, and he had been pushed that way because of me. Perhaps that burn on my leg was my due punishment. But I could not reconcile the fact that he had harmed me. Anakin would never have done that; Vader would have. And fears in my heart whispered that he would not stop short of killing me either.
                          
Food was put in my hands and voices encouraged me to eat, so I obeyed silently. Finishing my meal, I managed to help others with getting ready for the night, consoling the miserable Barriss who felt the weight of the world for having lost her lightsaber.