Epilogue

Obi-Wan woke slowly, knowing that he'd managed to get injured again. His body was aching disconsolately, and there was an over-clean, disinfectant smell.

He tried to shift, to get more comfortable, and a sharp stab lanced through his lower abdomen. He stilled with a slight groan. What had happened? He'd been on some distant planet, the fighting complicated by neutral systems wanting to not get involved and necessitating longer time in hyperspace to get around them - no. The Temple. Something to do with the Temple…

Bomb. Trial. The Exception.

The images rushed into his mind, and he struggled to get his eyes open. They'd broken into the Temple. He'd been stabbed - had he bought enough time? No - there had been an explosion - but he hadn't sensed as many people die as an explosion with a power corresponding to the noise the blast had made would normally kill…

Mace looking horrified. Yoda's voice, loud, shouting? They'd known, known the truth. He was still alive.

His eyes cracked open, the lids thick and sticky with gunk. He squinted up at the ceiling, wondering how long he'd been out.

Wait. They'd known about him. Ahsoka? Had they realised Ahsoka was innocent? And Ventress, what had happened to her?

"Obi-Wan?"

The voice sounded about as groggy as he felt, but he still recognised it, and a powerful wave of relief swept through him. Ahsoka. She was all right

Hang on. That smell - this was the healers. What state was she in? Gathering his energy, he turned his head to the side. Ahsoka was scrambling off the other bed in the room.

"Obi-Wan!" she exclaimed as she saw his movement, eyes wide with pure relief. "You woke up!"

Well, yes. He was feeling rather terrible at the moment and wasn't quite sure he wouldn't have preferred to stay unconscious, but he was awake all the same.

She was at his side in a flash, babbling urgently. "Farai - the Padawan of the Healer in charge of you at the moment - said that his Master'd said it was too serious to use just one bacta immersion given how exhausted you were, something about the strain healing takes on the body, I didn't really get that part, but they said that they wouldn't put you in the tank again until you woke up, and you nearly lost a kidney, he said they were talking about taking you into surgery at one point…"

That serious? He thought, startled, then mentally kicked himself. He'd had a lightsaber through the gut. That was slightly more than just a flesh wound.

She trailed off, looking more scared at the prospect of him being operated on than she really should have. Some might have written it off as her not wanting to lose him after he'd helped her escape death, and he was sure that was part of it, but the Force was nudging him to look deeper, sluggish though his perception was with the remnants of drugs in his system.

He rather wanted to ask how long he'd been out, but that could wait. The words were sandpaper in his throat as he rasped, "What's wrong?"

She gave a vaguely frightened look towards one of the walls - two-way, he realised, just what position were they in here? He recognised this room: it was for keeping badly wounded prisoners - and his sense of something being wrong increased exponentially as she poured a cup of water, levered the top half of the bed up a bit, and gave it to him. He sipped it gratefully. "They'll hear."

Whatever it was was clearly causing her a lot of worry…and she didn't want the Jedi to hear it. He gave her a look of concern. "Whisper." He couldn't help if he didn't know what it was.

She did, right by his ear, so quiet that even at that range he had to enhance his hearing with the Force to make out what she was saying, her hands directing the sound and blocking any attempt at lip-reading. "Barriss said that the Jedi had become an army fighting for the Dark side of the Force. I didn't believe her, but then Ventress, just before she left, said…she said that that was the Sith's plan, that the Clone Wars was to corrupt the Jedi Order into the next Sith Brotherhood."

Stunned, Obi-Wan slumped back. Ahsoka gave him an almost desperate look. "Do you think…?"

None of the Jedi had known what the reason the Sith had started the Clone wars was. The general assumption was that they were attempting to take over the Galaxy using the Separatist cause, there was some suspicion of a back-up plan involving a Sith in the Senate prompted by Dooku's words to him on Geonosis, but no one knew what part the Jedi played in those plans, other than being eradicated though the war. He swallowed, remembering. Several Jedi had Fallen throughout the war, his predecessor on the Council, Depa Billiba, among them.

Ventress had been Dooku's apprentice. It was certainly possible that she'd been in on the Sith's plans before their betrayal of her.

But this…

Rules being bent, ethics becoming more malleable, distasteful necessity becoming more important that possible implications of some ways of using the Force…those were the consequences of war, for the Jedi Order.

He felt sick. Because what Ahsoka had said, what Ventress had told her - it was far, far too possible.

Some of his thoughts must have shown on his face, as Ahsoka's lekku paled drastically - as badly as they had when she'd learned about a full third of the council showing up in the underworld to hunt them down. She curled up in the chair by his bed, one hand going to the empty lightsaber clips on her belt. Partially just to move the conversation away from the disturbing information, at least long enough for him to let the shock fade so he could process it, he asked where they went.

Her mouth tightened, bleakly humorous. "We're seeking asylum."

In the Jedi Temple. From the Republic.

A soft, incredulous laugh escaped him. The Republic did recognise the right of the Jedi Order to accept asylum seekers as long as they were turned over to the relevant authority for evaluation, which was generally the Republic courts, although it hadn't been used for centuries. In this case, as he and Ahsoka were both former Jedi, the relevant authority was the Jedi. "I suppose that went over well?"

"Oh, brilliantly." A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth, relief at having at least shared Ventress' information colouring the Force around her. "And Ventress did give your lightsaber back, in case you were wondering."

He'd thought she would, but it was nice to have it confirmed. "She got her own ones back, I take it?"

The hint of a smile vanished. "Yeah. Barriss had them."

Ah.

He looked at her. She looked a lot better for having had the chance to wash up and get clean clothes - but her arm was back in a sling, her eyes were shadowed with lack of sleep, and there was a certain tense alertness about her that should have faded now they were no longer running for their lives, but hadn't. He waited patiently, letting her gather her thoughts, not pushing.

"They've got her in custody," she said eventually, her voice quiet. "Jedi custody. Farai said a mind healer asked to take a look at her for a psychological evaluation, and she'll probably be tried alongside us." She raised her hand, and a datapad flew to it from the small table beside her bed. A few taps, and the holonet feature was active - download only, he noticed – and showing him various pages as she talked through what had happened. "After the alarms were switched off, the Senate and GAR were demanding to know what happened, and whether it was related to the search, etcetera. Once they learned we were here, they were demanding our immediate executions and a manhunt for Ventress, though they dropped the manhunt idea once they and Windu got arguing about trials and `new evidence contradictory to the conclusion previously reached` and `the necessity of re-evaluation` and it seems to have been completely forgotten in the wake of the storm of bantha poodoo that was unleashed by my claiming asylum for the pair of us, and Anakin…" Her eyes hardened. Obi-Wan winced. For the love of the Force, what had happened now?

"Have you heard from him?"

"Not directly." She folded her arms tightly. "He decided to leave the Order in protest."

"…What!?" He tried to force himself upright; collapsed back with an involuntary grunt. Deep breaths. That hurt, so he settled for slower shallow ones. "He's gone and done what?"

"He left." Her shrug was casual, a direct contrast to the stoniness of her voice.

And this wasn't because of what Ventress claimed the Sith were planning for the Jedi Order, since Ahsoka appeared to have been waiting on a second opinion before she made any decision on telling that. "I don't suppose you know whether he's thought this through completely?"

"He thinks he has." Her expression spoke volumes. "He announced to the press this morning that he's thought through all the implications, and stands by his decision." She brought up an interview Anakin had apparently done a few hours ago.

"He's moved into Senator Amidala's apartment," she added. This time, his groan had nothing to do with pain. Anakin…

"I see."

She made a sound somewhere between chocking and coughing. Through the Force, it felt oddly like a pained laugh. "You noticed?"

"Of course not," he countered dryly. "…Though it takes quite a bit of effort on my part to keep it that way, at times."

This time, the brief impression of laughter was less pained.

The conversation receded into a comfortable silence, until Obi-Wan felt himself start to fall asleep again. There were still things they needed to go through. "You mentioned a trial."

"Before the Jedi Council." She rested her chin on her knees. "They've promised it'll be fair. The GAR wasn't happy, but after it hundreds of eyewitness accounts that Barriss was involved they couldn't exactly deny that they'd missed something, and it was only a short step from that, to the conclusion that someone else should hold it this time. They still made a serious attempt at getting hold of it, though."

Fair. Despite everything, he believed that promise. If the Council hadn't been willing to give them a fair trial, they wouldn't have fought to hold one, wouldn't have allowed Ahsoka to claim asylum and become an issue between the Jedi Order and the Republic.

He stifled a yawn. "I'm assuming the senate didn't get there fast enough?"

"I think they were mostly just watching to see what happened." She smirked a little. "Well, that and informing each other what they thought should happen in loud voices near reporters."

That did sound like the Senate.

"Do you think we should tell them?"

He knew what she was talking about instantly, and turned it over in his mind. He knew what his gut instinct was. After all that had happened though, he wouldn't feel comfortable making a decision of this sort without reasoning it out.

"It's not just about the Council," he murmured eventually. "There's thousands of Jedi in the war effort, bending morals and ethics, putting duty over compassion and orders over the Force because we've all been losing the ability to hear the Force. And everyone's paid dearly for the war, whether they had something to do with decisions that led to this or not." He sighed. "At least some of it's my fault. I was on the Council, and we were bombarded by decisions between bad and worse. And we choose the bad."

She shifted uncomfortably. He shrugged. "Our fate is in the Council's hands right now. A bad reaction to the information could hurt us. But if we don't take that chance and warn them, then the Order runs the risk of tipping over the edge because it didn't know it was so close to it in the first place."

Ahsoka was quiet, biting her lip. "Yeah...and it'd be the entire order..." she swallowed. "You know I was assigned to take the kids to Ilum?"

Wondering where she was going with this, he nodded. It had been a great honour, marking her ascension to senior Padawan status: a huge achievement for one so young, even with the earlier promotions that occurred in wartime.

"Well, I don't want - they were great kids. You met them at the end, I told you about the adventure we had, and…great kids. I wouldn't want to see them…" her voice broke, and she trailed off.

"It'll be fine." His voice broke too, just a little. "Somehow." The memory of closing a man's artery with the Force come back to him, and he repressed a shudder as it was followed by the memory of him and Ventress interrogating the terrorist leader. "We'll make it be fine."

It was a ridiculous promise. It made them both feel that bit better anyway.

The situation wasn't perfect. But the truth was out, the Jedi were back on their side, and they had a chance to fix the things that had been broken. There were so many of them…but they had a chance. For now, it was enough.

He drifted off to sleep a little less troubled than he had been upon waking.

Finis

A.N. First, my sincere apologies for the delay. School started, and I caught something that left me ill for several days, (I'm fine now,) so I've alternately been working on school stuff and sleeping/too tired to concentrate on anything.

Second, for all those that have been asking: yes, I am planning on doing a sequel at some point. Not right away, but there will be one.

Regarding Ahsoka being a Senior Padawan – I'm pretty sure that Jedi in peacetime don't get solo missions until they're Senior Padawan's or close to it. In wartime the standard for solo missions would out of necessity be lower, so her mission on Onderon might not be an accurate indicator of whether she held the rank or not, but given she was entrusted with a bunch of children to look after on the way to and from Ilum, I'm inclined to say she did.

Last, but the furthest thing from least, a huge, huge thank you for all the support you've given me in writing this with, as always, a special mention and hugs for everyone who's reviewed. *hugs reviewers* Writing this has been a wonderful experience.

EDIT: It's been a while, so most of you will have already guessed, but I've had to put aside the planned sequel for an unknown amount of time. There are several different first drafts in various stages on my laptop and for various reasons none of them worked, and having another go would involve another complete overhaul of the planning and I'm not at all sure I have the energy for that right now. I love this story. I loved writing it, and I don't want to feel like it's looming over me - and it was starting to, a little. So I'm taking a long break from this, and have promised myself that I'll write something else before I come back to it.

Thank you all again. ^_^