morally_cryptic | [for fulcra, an AU]

[for fulcra, an AU]

Padme had tried to dissuade him from this and of course she'd made plenty of good points.

You saw the report too, she was reported dead on Mandalore.

Which was true but then...he's seen the report that went out reporting his death in the Jedi Temple so really, how much stock can he really put into that?

They're hunting Jedi still, Anakin and you know Palpatine is hunting you specifically.

Maybe, but Anakin was determined not to live his life in fear of the old man. Not after all of the lies. Not after what he had done and what Anakin had done for him. Let them catch him, he thought a little recklessly, and when they brought him before Palpatine he'd do what he should have done that night in Palpatine's office.

There'd been other arguments given as she tried to convince him not to go on this hunt for someone who was likely dead with no other evidence that Ahsoka was alive save Anakin's conviction that if she weren't, he would know it...feel it in the Force somehow. The only thing Padme hadn't tried was what might be termed the nuclear option: using their children as motivation for him to not leave them.

She might have won the argument with that, at least for the time being, but he would have been hard pressed to forgive her for it.

And so she let him go after extracting from him a promise to send her frequent updates as to his progress...which was really just a way of saying she wanted to not have to worry whether he was lying dead somewhere or captured and being taken to the Emperor.

Privately, Padme wondered if Anakin's determination to track down Ahsoka had as much to do with attempting to assuage his guilt for what had happened in the Jedi Temple as to assuring himself that she was safe.

For Anakin it took a few weeks of chasing vague feelings from the Force and rumors of a Togruta female seen carrying lightsabers (one of those rumors had led him on completely the wrong track and he'd wasted days only to find a Twi'lek trader with stolen lightsabers...suffice to say that trader was no longer in possession of them). Eventually, his path took him to Takodana and Maz Kanata's castle. This tip was supposedly actually good. It had come from Padme, of all people, and though she hadn't said as much in her message he was pretty certain she'd actually gotten it from Organa.

It feels right, too, he thinks as he lands even if he's not getting any more specific feelings about it. For now he'll take it.

When he enters the castle and finds his way to a table, no one gives him much of a second glance...which is just fine by him. The average person who might have known what Anakin Skywalker looked like would be expecting someone with longer hair, Jedi robes, and a prosthetic arm covered with a heavy glove. This Anakin Skywalker has cut his hair, taken up dressing in well-worn spacer gear, and he'd finally gone the route of having his arm covered in synthflesh so to look at him one would never know he'd lost it in the first place. Also, it appears he's got a blaster on his hip instead of a lightsaber.

Sighing, Anakin orders a drink and settles in to wait. The tip hadn't said when she'd be there, just that it was likely to be "soon".

He really hates waiting.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Takodana made her uneasy. It wasn't just the eclectic crowd that frequented the planet that made her wary, the high potential for criminals sitting beside the sympathizers she was trying to meet, but it felt alive in strange ways, and there was far too much forest. It reminded her of Felucia, of Wasskah, of battles she'd been at a disadvantage in. She tried not to fall back on the stereotypes of her people when it came to reading how she was feeling, but it was hard not to wish the trees were all replaced with grasslands here. Plains, she could handle no problem.

And today when she lands, she senses something she hasn't in a long time. That makes her uneasy, too.

But she secures her ship and puts on a travelling cloak that falls to her thighs, mostly covers the blaster there but also the unconventionally shaped lightsaber hilts that she's finally almost happy with. She's early for her scheduled meeting, but that feeling tugging her into the castle means she can't just sit in her ship in wait. She has to investigate and hope that it doesn't get her into trouble. Her hood is down when she heads into the main hall, sacrificing anonymity for feeling like she'll be able to accurately predict trouble coming her way, when she always has a better sense of her surroundings with her montrals uncovered. She does quite believe the part of her that sings that her master is close, not when she first senses it, not even when she sees him across the room and just stops to stare.

He'll be able to sense her, she's sure of that, but Ahsoka's stuck where she is for the moment, rooted to her spot in disbelief.

By this point, he's been sitting here for several hours, nursed his way through several drinks, and ordered a plate of...something. It tasted okay and he didn't ask any questions. He's had worse.

Probably around the time her ship broke atmosphere, Anakin started getting that sense in the Force that something important was coming. By the time she lands and is heading for the hall, he's nigh-certain it is her and it's all he can do to keep from shoving out of his chair and heading for the door.

He doesn't stop himself from staring at the door, though, so when she's looking at him he's looking right back at her. For a bare moment he thinks that maybe this was actually not the best idea for a multitude of reasons. Starting with the worry that somehow she'll know what he did and hate him for it and ending somewhere around the not-entirely-unreasonable concern that two ~~former~~ Jedi in the same space might draw too much attention...whether they're waving lightsabers around or not.

Too late now, though. He's here. She's seen him. And it's not like he's going to walk away.

So he stands up slowly and starts winding his way through the tables as casually as he can manage, heading for a side hall and gesturing with his head that she should follow him.

It is a pretty foregone conclusion that once they get some modicum of privacy, he's going to be tugging her into his arms because she's alive and he was so. kriffing. worried.

She follows without hesitation or question, still hardly believing her eyes and the way her connection to him in the Force, so long stretched beyond recognition, practically glows with his proximity. Anakin has always been so bright to be around, almost blinding.

As soon as they're out of sight and alone, she's just as quick to go for a hug as he is, throwing her arms around his neck and squeezing him tight. All those emotions she's been steadfastly ignoring since Mandalore bubble to the surface again and it only makes her hold him tighter.

"Anakin," she breathes out, relieved and happy and confused, all at once. "You're here."

He bows his head and holds her close and it's funny, he thinks distantly, that he doesn't have to lean so far anymore.

"I've been looking for you," he murmurs. "They said you died on Mandalore and I just couldn't believe it." Or he'd just stubbornly refused to consider the idea, whichever.

"It was a necessary lie." She squeezes him one more time and then lets go, rocking back on her heels to look at him, her expression showing just how conflicted she is. Someone who didn't know her might dumb it down to just being concerned, but Anakin knows her, probably as best as anyone can, and he'll be able to sense her joy at seeing him and her worry for what sort of danger he might be in to be in a place like this and her confusion at him not being nearly as dead as she thought he was, when she last said goodbye to him.

"I couldn't let my men get in trouble for something out of their control," she adds softly.

"Your men," he echoes, tone a little desolate. They'd been his men too and he'd failed them as much as anyone else. "They turned against you too?"

He shakes his head, and looks her over as if to see how she's changed since he last saw her but mostly it's just so he doesn't have to look her in the eyes. "I shouldn't have left you. I'm sorry."

Would it have made a difference in the long run? He knows now that Palpatine had never been in true danger on board the Invisible Hand. Would everything else have transpired in the same way or had he been waiting for Anakin to turn against the Jedi first?

He might not be looking her straight in the eye but Ahsoka can likely tell there's deeper guilt there than what can be explained by leaving her on Mandalore.

"It's okay," Ahsoka says quickly, reaching back to Anakin to rest her hand on his shoulder. It's an interesting reversal, she realizes, to be the one with the sturdy hand and the supportive voice. Sometimes she notices when she subconsciously takes her cues from Obi-Wan or Anakin, doing what they would without really thinking about it first. This is one of those times.

"We had to try to take Mandalore back," she adds, shaking her head. "We didn't know how quickly things would go so wrong."

He snorts softly and offers up a crooked smile, "you can say that again."

Reaching up, he covers her hand with his and gives it a light squeeze, "what are you doing here, anyway?" Of course he's glad to find her, but it's not really the place one wanders into for the ambiance.

Even knowing the question was coming, Ahsoka's answer sounds out of place and awkward as she gives it: "Business."

If there's anyone in the galaxy she can safely tell about everything that's happened to her since Mandalore, about everything she's been doing to help people since she first found herself under Imperial attention, it's him. But she doesn't know where to start and there's every chance someone could overhear part of the conversation, so she leaves it vague for now.

"I have someone I need to meet. But I could ask you the same thing."

Business.

He can't really fault her for not going into more detail. Not here, anyway, where it's not that private even if there's no one apparent in the immediate vicinity.

So he doesn't push, taking it for granted that they'll talk more in depth when they've got some real privacy.

"I already found the person I needed to meet," he says simply. "I told you I was looking for you."

She pulls her hand from Anakin's shoulder then, only to gently punch him there, her expression breaking into a wry smile. While she's known all right along that she misses him and the familiar comforts of his friendship, it hits her hard now and being a bit of a brat seems like a better reaction than getting weepy over a reunion.

"Don't be so sappy," she teases. "Although I have to admit, I'm curious as to how you knew to look for me here."

She punches him and he just smirks. "Guess you'll have to go finish your meeting, Snips. My story can wait."

His story, he thinks. A story that includes Padme and now he can finally tell someone. He and Obi-Wan had never actually discussed it since it was rather self-evident by that point and they'd had other things to worry about. And he'd been living a different sort of secrecy ever since the Republic fell.

The thought of being able to share that, at least, with someone he cares about seems to brighten the space around them. "Go one, do your thing. I'll go lurk in a corner with another drink."

Snips. It was funny how much a nickname can turn her mood around. It feels, all of a sudden, that things might actually be okay. It's not a notion she's entertained since Mandalore, but now it almost feels like a given.

"Don't get into trouble without me," Ahsoka says, flashing Anakin a grin as she heads back the way they come in, back to the main room so she can put on her Fulcrum face and see if she can identify just who it is she needs to be meeting. It doesn't take her long to find the woman, a spacer-looking type she disappears into a corner with for nearly half an hour before emerging, giving her contact a nod of farewell as they go their separate ways.

And then she's back to Anakin, heading over to where he's sitting and leaning casually on the table to talk to him.

"Well, that's my work done for the day."

Anakin raises his still mostly full cup in her direction by way of greeting.

"Doesn't look like too difficult of a job. Must give you a lot of free time," he quips as he stands, leaving the cup on the tabletop. "Want to see my new ship?"

It makes the Twilight look new by comparison. At least from the outside.

"Of course," she says easily, already imagining what sort of flying scrap heap he might be flying around in. Sure, her ship isn't the prettiest, but it probably looks more reliable than his, whatever it is.

"As for work... Well, some days are easier than others. And I do have to travel a lot."

When she agrees, he starts leading the way out to where he'd left his ship. It definitely looks like a flying scrap heap but that just means nobody pays him very close attention and nobody wants to steal the thing from him. If they can't see how much tinkering he's done to its insides to make it faster, more maneuverable, and far more defensible than it has any right to be well...that's their problem.

Artoo, also, will be thrilled to see her again.

"I bet you're seeing all kinds of exotic places."

"Dirty spaceports and dark cantinas, mostly."

She gives a little shrug, but her attention is around them as they walk, her head up and eyes darting around. Her species has always led her to be inclined to be aware of her surroundings, but she's hyper-vigilant about it now, when her enemies are worse than they were. But when they get to the ship, well, it has her full attention- "Yeah, alright. This looks like yours."

"And you haven't even seen what it can do yet," he retorts as he lowers the ramp and gestures for her to enter.

Which is accompanied by a series of excited trills and beeps.

"Artoo's glad to see you, too."

The ship is forgotten as Ahsoka rushes past Anakin to meet the droid rolling out to meet her. She drops to her knees and, without thinking about how ridiculous or sentimental it is, wraps her arms around the astromech.

"Oh, Artoo, I missed you," she says, earning an excited, heartfelt binary response as she pulls away to beam at the mechanical friend she's missed just as much as she's missed Anakin. "I know, but we're all back together. Everything's gonna be okay."

Anakin would be the last person to judge if she wants to get sentimental about a droid....particularly when the droid is Artoo. So he just leans against a bulkhead with his arms crossed and watches, a fond expression appearing on his face.

Letting out a dubious tone, the droid sounds momentarily doubtful that 'everything' was going to be okay but he follows it up with a few happy chirps because hey, the team's back together again and that makes things automatically better than before.

"Huh," Anakin says teasingly, "he might be more excited to see you than I was."

"What can I say? Artooy and I have a bond that can never be broken."

Much like the one she has with Anakin, in her opinion. Strained, stretched, and shrouded, but not broken. She's missed them both dearly. Another pat for the droid and she gets back to her feet, now taking a moment to properly peer into his ship, getting her quips all ready.

"I guess you missed the Twilight, huh?"

"What can I say? She always came through in a pinch." He smiles, "and in this case, I spent most of my time," and credits, "on modifications you can't see."

Hence why the bulkheads look in need of a good scrub and the cockpit chairs might be older than both their ages put together.

"Figure if I ever get bored, there's always the Kessel Run."

Ahsoka laughs softly, amused and feeling lighter than she has in ages. Since before the Republic fell, probably since before Barriss's betrayal. The galaxy is a better place now, she can handle it so much easier.

"You wouldn't be you if your ship was actually as useless as it looked," she teases. "But you would make a pretty good smuggler."

Especially for the Rebellion. Once she's sure they're safely alone, she'll work up to that.

"Depends on what's being smuggled," he says dryly, "and for who." And whether Padme agreed, but now really isn't the time to bring that up probably.

Instead he just waves Ahsoka further into the ship and moves to close the ramp behind them so they can go sit down somewhere.

"Though it would be useful for keeping on the move," and they both know how important that's become for their kind.

Edited (icon) 2016-12-04 23:19 (UTC)

She lets Artoo lead her in, sensing that the droid is about as eager to leave her side now as she is his. Now that she's with them both again, Ahsoka's already mentally putting off all the things she'll need to do once they part again. For now, she has this and she's cherishing it.

"Which comes in handy these days," Ahsoka agrees, finding the table space to sit down at and idly petting Artoo's dome as she relaxes there. "You know, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious about what you've been doing since we last saw one another."

[for fulcra, an AU]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject