Wartorn

Chapter 19 - The Festival of Light

Author's Note: Enjooooy! :D

~ Amina Gila

Ahsoka could promise not to leave her men again. She could promise anything, anything at all, but that wouldn't change anything. It wouldn't bring anyone back. It wouldn't change that she still left them to a death trap, and no one was the wiser. She didn't know. She had no way to know, and Cody assured her of it the moment she came back to Umbara and found out what happened, but that does very little to calm her.

"They were my men," she continues, desperation and rage and despair gnawing at her, "And I left them there."

"Krell was a Jedi Master," Anakin reminds, and the reminder is soothing, but it still changes nothing. "No one could have seen it coming."

"You wouldn't be saying that if you left Rex there," Ahsoka accuses.

"No," Anakin concedes reluctantly, "But the fact remains, Ahsoka. Even if Krell hadn't hurt your men, he would've done it to someone."

"He set them up against each other," she replies harshly, hissing out a frustrated sigh. Ahsoka had been leading the attack on Umbara. She was called back to the space battle, to take care of some other complications elsewhere, and then... Krell was supposed to take her place in her absence. Instead, he set the 212th up to fight their own brothers who they were fighting with on the other side of the planet.

He nearly killed Cody, and all of them. He was trying to. The Force protected them, and they are so, so lucky. Ahsoka isn't... exactly close on a personal level with Cody, per se, but he's still a friend, and she cares about him deeply. He's always right beside her, and they look out for each other. They trust each other.

She should've taken care of him. Them. All of them. Being a General is hard, especially when she's so much older than all her men. At least if they were closer in age maybe she wouldn't feel so responsible for them.

"I can't believe a Jedi would ever do something like that," Luke asserts flatly.

"You and me both," Ahsoka agrees, sighing. Krell was a Jedi, and she doesn't understand how he could've fallen so far so fast. And yes, Jedi can fall, but like that?! These were her men. Her boys. "I'm never letting anyone else take control of them again."

"Considering that this happened once, I agree," Luke adds, "I'm not letting anyone do that to the 501st, either."

"Your motherly instincts are kicking in, Snips," Anakin tells her teasingly, patting her shoulder.

Ahsoka is seriously tempted to stick her tongue out at him. Except, well, she has a padawan now, and that wouldn't be the most mature thing to do. "Maybe," she concedes grudgingly, "But they do need someone to care for them."

"What will happen after the war?" Luke inquires, looking up at Anakin, "To the clones?"

He sighs. "I don't know, Luke. No one does. I can only hope they'll get a chance to settle down and live, but realistically..."

"Could you adopt them?" he asks, looking far too excited at the prospect of getting millions of brothers in one day.

Anakin laughs. "Maybe. I don't know. Most of them are probably considered too old for that, but some of them, maybe."

Ahsoka doesn't think that's a bad idea. Anakin's managing to raise two children even as a Jedi, so probably, he can keep doing it. Maybe.

***

The Senate is boring. Luke feels like he's learned a new definition of that word in the time he's been trapped here, even if he knows what he's doing is important. He's just... getting antsy because nothing's happening, not that he wants anything to happen, obviously.