A/N: Mentions of suicidal thoughts in chapter 7, graphic injuries mentioned throughout and reoccurring dark themes concerning regret and guilt. Please take care whilst reading.

/

"So, what's the big rush?" Anakin says to Obi-Wan whilst Ahsoka scans their surroundings wearily. Something doesn't feel right.

It's like the feeling she gets seconds before a bomb is about to go off.

"The Jedi Council has called an emergency meeting." Obi-Wan explains as the trio walk across the landing platform. Their dinner had been suddenly interrupted when Obi-Wan's comm went off, and they had to leave before Ahsoka could even finish her dessert.

Whatever the Council needs, it's apparently more important than sic-six-layer cake.

Anakin sighs, "I can see it now. Another long, boring debate."

Ahsoka shakes off the feeling of someone watching them and looks up at Anakin with a smile, "Would you rather they called you in to train younglings?"

He smirks down at her, nudging her arm, "Are you crazy?"

Watch out, young one!

She senses the shot coming before it's fired, and doesn't hesitate from grabbing Anakin's arm, pulling him away as a red bolt zips between him and Obi-Wan. Immediately, the Jedi spring into action, darting behind a nearby stack of crates.

"Any idea where that shot came from?" Obi-Wan asks, narrowly dodging another bolt that scores the edge of the crate he is hiding behind.

Ahsoka squints- her eyesight being much better than a humans- and spots the dark shadow on the top of the building. She points, says, "A sniper. I see him up there."

Another bolt is fired towards Obi-Wan- he seems to be the target- before he speaks, "Alright, here's the plan. Anakin, you flank him on the right. Ahsoka, you cover the lower streets." She nods in acknowledgement, "I'm going after him."

She ignores the voice in the back of her head that tells her that Obi-Wan shouldn't be the one going after the sniper as they stand, igniting their lightsabers and charging out from their cover.

Ahsoka runs through the streets, hearing blaster bolts ring out above her. Anakin's voice comes through her commlink, "I lost him! Obi-Wan, do you have anything?"

She comes to a stop when her Grandmaster doesn't respond. She sees Obi-Wan above her, his back pressed to a ventilation pipe, but his lightsaber isn't ignited. Does he want to get killed?

A white-hot warning flashes through the Force and Ahsoka doesn't hold back from jumping to the rooftop. Whatever Obi-Wan's reason for not defending himself, she can't allow him to be killed as a result.

Everything happens so fast.

She lands on the edge of the rooftop, halfway between Obi-Wan and the sniper. Before she can pull her lightsabers into a defensive position, a shot splits through the air.

"Ahsoka!" Someone shouts- possibly Obi-Wan; it's too much of a blur to tell for definite.

She feels the impact on her shoulder first, so hard that it sweeps her off her feet. Ahsoka braces herself to feel her back slam against the rooftop as fiery pain spreads through her left shoulder.

Then, she feels herself falling.

No!

"Master!" She screams to neither one in particular as she feels her limbs flailing through the air. It's too late to use the Force to catch herself.

"Ahsoka!" That's Anakin. Maybe he can catch her, or at least slow her down.

The ground is coming closer and closer and she tries to land on her feet until- CRACK!

Her left leg lands flat-footed on the floor and crumbles from the force. There's an audible snap as her knee gives way and she topples over, hitting her lower back hard against the floor. The back of her head smacks into the ground, and only then does the real pain begin.

Suddenly, her shoulder is the least of her worries.

Fire explodes through her body, reaching from the tips of her montals to her toes. Her body tries to locate where it is injured as she looks up into the night sky, her vision is spotty and the stars are spinning, or are those speeders?

Agony surges through her every cell as she manages to call out one more time, much weaker, "Master..."

/

Anakin moves faster than he ever has in his entire life when he sees Ahsoka being sent off the edge of the rooftop.

A fall from a distance like that is usually nothing to a Force-user, but he knows how difficult it is to use the Force when injured. The pain that Ahsoka radiates across their bond is the only thing that reassures him that she survived the descent.

He leaps off the roof and lands in the street, hoping to see Ahsoka sitting up and cradling her shoulder. Hopefully, her training kicked in and the muscle memory made sure she landed on her feet.

He's wrong.

Ahsoka's laying on her back, her face scrunched up in pain. He can feel her agony, and it makes him feel dizzy, powerless, infuriated and concerned. He sprints forwards- feeling like he's running through wet cement- and realises this isn't an injury that can be fixed with a bacta patch.

She must've landed on her left leg badly, judging by the bone protruding through her shin. Blood is already pooling around her and she lets out a pain-filled whimper. If he's completely honest with himself, Anakin has never seen such a horrendous injury in his entire military career.

He drops to his knees beside Ahsoka, taking her clammy hand and squeezing it as tight as he can. "It's alright, Ahsoka, I'm here now. You're going to be fine." He's saying it to reassure himself more than her.

"A-Anakin..." She swivels her head to look at him, wincing. Fear courses through his veins. "My... back..."

/

Obi-Wan feels the breath leave his lungs as if the shot hits him.

One moment, he's prepared to step out from behind the ventilation pipe, putting all of his faith into the bulletproof vest that he wears beneath his tunic. The next moment, his Grandpadawan's in front of him, already getting knocked off her feet by the force of the blow.

Ahsoka screams as she plummets to the street below.

Obi-Wan freezes to the spot, unable to move fast enough to break her fall. This was a mistake. He should've never signed up to this Rako Hardeen mission.

Ahsoka has paid the price, wise one.

Hardeen fires again, barely missing his shoulder. Obi-Wan is half tempted to stay put and wait for the one of the shots to hit him until he hears Anakin shout, "Obi-Wan, call a medic!" Tears are thick in the Knight's voice.

Ahsoka and Anakin need him more than the Chancellor and the Council right now.

Landing effortlessly, he approaches the two younger Jedi, and the sight makes his stomach clench.

Ahsoka is laid out flat, her left leg disturbingly bent and the bone sticking out beneath her knee, the wound oozing blood. Open fractures are bad.

That isn't the worst of her injuries. Anakin is knelt at her head, his arms outstretched and hands supporting her neck. Obi-Wan's blood runs cold as the severity of the accident sinks in- if it can be called an accident.

This was a planned attack, after all.

He stands at Ahsoka's feet, but he can't go any further. The guilt is threatening to swallow him whole, and his chest starts to ache. Is the vital suppressor malfunctioning?

What has he done?

/

"Obi-Wan!" Ahsoka hears Anakin say over the rushing in her montrals, urgency in his voice. She blinks up at her Master, seeing the tendons in his neck straining.

His hands are moulded around her neck and jaw, keeping her in a vice-like grip. Still, she wants to see if Master Kenobi is okay- as the sniper was aiming for him- so she lifts her head, only for Anakin's grip to tighten. "Stay still for me, Ahsoka."

"Master..." She manages to say. The pain is too much for her mind to make sense of, and now she just feels numb. "I'm scared..."

"I've got you." She can hear the reassurance in his voice, but it sounds forced. "Obi-Wan, snap out of it! Ahsoka needs help!"

There's nothing but silence for a few seconds, and she's about to cry out for her Grandmaster, when she feels a hand on her left knee. Gasping, Ahsoka tries to pull the limb towards her body which only sends excruciating pain through her entire leg.

Stay still, young one.

She whimpers, biting her lip to stop herself from screaming. She scrambles for her Master's presence in her mind to ground her, and Anakin responds, wrapping her up in a blanket of warmth and security. It doesn't make the pain go away, but it makes it tolerable- barely.

"Hang in there, Snips." Anakin says quietly, like he's warning her.

Something is pressed against her left shin, and any hope of remaining still for her Master vanishes. Ahsoka screams and arches her back- despite the agony it causes- as Obi-Wan presses on the wound.

Her screams turn into choked cries as the pain steals the breath from her lungs. Anakin floods their Force bond with peace and security, but it does nothing to help her cope with the pain. Tears gather in the corners of her eyes and start streaming down her cheeks.

Never, in her entire life and military career, has she been in this much pain. She's been shot multiple times in the stomach at once, suffered concussions bad enough to make the medics nervous and even had to get a lung drained in the field. Those injuries are nothing compared to what she feels now.

"You need to stay still, Ahsoka." Anakin says, using the same stern tone that he used after her failure on Ryloth. "Stay still for me, and it won't be so painful."

Her chest heaves as she tries to calm herself. There's still a horrible pressure on her shin, but she tries to focus on her Master's voice like she does during a thunderstorm. He hasn't gotten her killed in this war so far, so she trusts that he won't let her die like this.

/

"Deep breaths, there you go." Anakin praises Ahsoka as she struggles for air in her state of panic and pain. "You're going to be fine, I'm right here."

He looks up at Obi-Wan who had removed his outer tunic to apply pressure to the wound on her leg in attempt to slow the bleeding. Hearing Ahsoka cry hurts Anakin to his core, but it's a necessary evil.

With the other hand, Obi-Wan speaks rapidly into his commlink, but his eyes look glazed over. Anakin frowns at him, it isn't like Obi-Wan to lose his head in times like this. In times when he needs him to be strong and rational.

"Anakin..." He looks down at Ahsoka. Her breaths are short and laboured, "My back... it h-hurts..." He takes it as a small victory that she can feel her back.

"I know it does." He doesn't. Anakin's never had a spinal injury but telling her that won't help. "The medics will be here soon. They'll have pain relief, okay?"

She tries to nod, but he doesn't let her. Any more movement to her back or neck may result in permanent paralysis, and whilst Anakin will care for Ahsoka until the day she dies, he'd rather have her fighting by his side than relying on him to take her to the fresher.

"A Coruscant Guard squadron is on its way." Obi-Wan speaks to him for the first time since Ahsoka was shot. Anakin frowns at the hoarseness in his voice. "I've alerted the Temple. Master Che will be waiting for us."

"Good." That's the best news he's heard all day. "Hear that, Snips? You'll be submerged in the empathetic and good-humoured personality of Master Che in no time!"

His attempt at a joke to ease the seriousness of the situation fails. Ahsoka's in too much pain to think straight, and Obi-Wan's completely focused on maintaining the pressure on her leg.

There's a crowd of civilian spectators forming, but those can be ignored. In the distance, Anakin can see police speeders who will want an incident report, but right now, Ahsoka needs all of his attention. He feels something wet on his fingers that are wrapped around the back of her head, and he inwardly curses.

A blaster wound, a badly broken leg, spinal injury and now a head trauma. At least Ahsoka hasn't lost consciousness and is breathing somewhat normally. Still, that sniper is going to pay for doing this to his Padawan.

"Master, what happened?" Anakin demands, "Ahsoka was meant to be on the street level, not on the rooftop."

/

Obi-Wan forces his mouth to form the words, "I... I don't know why she jumped up."

He does though. She must've seen him about to step out from behind the pillar. She tried to save him. The pain in his chest is still present, accompanied with an ache in his jaw and shoulder. It's nothing compared to the amount of pain that Ahsoka's in.

"Are you..." Anakin scans him, "wearing a bulletproof vest?"

Obi-Wan stiffens, not even considering that the vest would be revealed when he removed his tunic to stem Ahsoka's bleeding.

He's too guilty to admit to Anakin that the attack was planned. How can he admit that whilst Ahsoka is laid between them, drowning beneath layers of pain? Should he lie and tell Anakin the truth later? He won't like that either, but maybe Obi-Wan can recruit Senator Amidala to help break the news, or even the Chancellor. Yes, that might work.

Before he can say anything, the Coruscant Guard arrives, and three medics start working on the Padawan. One takes over from Obi-Wan, splinting Ahsoka's leg for ease of transportation. It'll need to be operated on, and he won't be surprised if she's off the field for a long time.

Those types of injuries...

Another flare of pain shoots through his chest.

Anakin doesn't let go of Ahsoka's head and neck until a medic puts a brace on her. The Padawan whimpers, reaching out for her mentor. Anakin takes her hand, obviously trying to hold himself back from interfering as they move her onto a spinal board. Obi-Wan feels his own fists clench when she cries out in pain.

He's never seen her cry before.

"She needs morphine!" Anakin demands in his most authoritative tone. A medic scrambles to inject Ahsoka with the powerful painkiller.

Obi-Wan remembers when Ahsoka had first been shot on the battlefield nearly two years ago. Every medic had worked silently around the aggravated Knight who wanted her to put in a bacta tank for a little scratch on her side.

Right now, Anakin's worry is well justified.

"Try to take deep breaths, Commander Tano." A medic instructs, putting a mask over Ahsoka's face. Her eyes are wide- terrified- as she looks at all the different people around her. "The painkillers will kick in soon."

"General Kenobi." Thorn snaps Obi-Wan out of his thoughts. "Which direction did the sniper escape in?"

"The Council will deal with it." He says, brushing the Commander off as he steps onto the gunship after Anakin. Their plan is to arrest Hardeen, and they'll still do it. Hardeen needs to be dealt with for what he had done to Ahsoka.

Still, surely the Council should also get sentenced for orchestrating this?

Are you really any better than the criminals you are trying to stop, wise one?

Obi-Wan tunes into the conversation that the medics are having around them, none of them paying attention to the fact that their young and petrified patient is conscious and can hear every word.

"Severe blood loss." The senior medic says, pushing a needle into Ahsoka's elbow without an ounce of compassion when she pulls away. He merely grips her arm harder. "Prep a defib in case she flatlines."

Ahsoka starts to wail after this announcement, screaming for Anakin. The Knight takes a knee beside the gurney, stroking her sweaty forehead and murmuring words too quiet for Obi-Wan to hear. She soon quietens but still sobs, saying over and over, "I'm going to die."

A flash of pain jolts through Obi-Wan's chest, and he has to hold onto the side of the gunship to stop his knees from buckling as the shuttle flees the scene, sirens blaring to get them to the Temple as quickly as possible.

"She's tachycardic," one medic says, pressing two fingers between the brace on her neck to take her pulse, "use a tourniquet to stem the bleeding."

Anakin lifts his head and meets Obi-Wan's gaze, both Generals knowing exactly what it means when a tourniquet needs to be used. The medics don't wait for permission- trained to do whatever it takes to save lives- and wrap the tourniquet tightly around Ahsoka's left thigh.

No, no, no…

Ahsoka makes a bleating sound and tries to pull Anakin closer to her. Obi-Wan can tell that Anakin's supporting Ahsoka through the Force, and he wonders why he hasn't done the same.

He's too guilty.