The Edge of the Universe

VII

Obi-wan's POV

I heard a familiar beeping noise and I instantly knew where I was from the noise, I slowly opened my eyes letting them adjust to the bright light in the room. I wasn't in any pain so I slowly sat up once my eyes were fully open, I was back on Coruscant and no one was in my room. Usually, Ahsoka and Anakin would be in here unless they were still on Naboo fighting and Obi-wan had to come here.

A medical droid rolled into the room and looked at something on a clipboard.

"It is good to see you awake Master Kenobi, how are you feeling?" it asked.

"I feel perfectly fine. Where is everyone and what happened with the battle on Naboo?" I asked confused.

"I do not know but you are on Coruscant. You are permitted to leave, your vital signs show that you are perfectly healthy," the droid declared before rolling out of the room.

I got up out of the bed and grabbed my lightsaber which was on the side table and placed it on my belt before quickly leaving the hospital ward. I looked in through some windows and I saw a lot of clones in the rooms but I didn't know where Anakin or Plo Koon were. 

I went to the Jedi Temple and sighed in relief when I saw Plo Koon walking past.

"Master Kenobi, it's good to see you," Plo Koon greeted.

"You too, Master," I replied bowing slightly.

There was some silence and I sighed trying to figure out what happened for me to end up in the hospital ward.

"I sense you're confused, anything I can help with?" the Master asked.

"I can't remember why I was in the medical ward or the end of the battle in Naboo," I replied frowning.

"Ah, I didn't think you would. There was a bomb that landed over the 212th, Skywalker managed to move half your troops and all of his troops out of the way but you weren't as lucky, you were thrown back and the medical droid told me you were in shock so that's why you couldn't feel or move your legs," he explained, "You passed out after Skywalker managed to pull you from the middle of the battle, as for Naboo we quickly finished things off not long after you left, it's been 3 days since we came back,"

"I remember Anakin stopping all those laser bolts and I guess I must've passed out after that," I frowned stroking my beard in confusion.

"You should be proud of your former Padawan, I've never seen someone stop a whole army of bullets," Plo Koon stated.

Before I could reply a Padawan came up to Plo Koon saying that someone else needed him, Plo Koon said he'd be there in a second and then turned back to me.

"Sorry, I must be on my way. If you need anything you know where to find me," 

"Of course, do you by any chance know where Anakin is?" I asked.

"I assume he'd be in the hanger,"

"Alright, thank you Master Plo," I said bowing slightly.

He bowed back and we went our separate ways, what would Anakin be doing in the hanger? My guess was most likely fixing up a random broken ship to get his mind off other things but when I saw a bunch of clones walking in and out of the hanger I knew that wasn't the case. 

I walked into the hanger and I saw Plo Koon's squadron huddle in one part and then my squadron the 212th together in another part. The captain's of both squadrons were standing out the front holding a datapad, Anakin's squadron, the 501st was in the far corner and Anakin was standing at the front with Rex, holding a datapad. The 212th began talking and they began walking towards the door some of them asking if I was okay and others just nodding respectfully. I reached Cody who was still looking down at the datapad and typing something in, he looked up when I stopped in front of him and jumped slightly.

"Sorry General, you startled me a bit," Cody said.

"What's all this about?" I asked looking at Plo Koon's group who had broken up and began talking as they walked towards the door. 

"The council wants to know how many deaths there were so they can send new clones," Cody replied, "I thought you were still in the medical ward so I thought it would be best for me to do it so you didn't have to worry about it," 

I held out my hand and Cody passed me the datapad, we had lost 14 people, 5 of them were from the airstrike team. 

"Rex, Zac and I are going to Kamino in a few weeks to get some new recruits so we won't be available for a week or two," Cody told me.

I nodded and looked over to the 501st, they were quiet as they left but some of them were muttering to the people next to them. They all looked worn out and put out, usually, the 501st were anxious to get back out there and into some action but now they all looked like they'd want to go back to Kamino.  

"The 501st took a hard blow, they lost a lot of people," Cody sighed.

I sighed and looked over to where Anakin was still standing, he had his back to me and he was facing Rex. They talked for a few minutes before Rex walked away, he looked back at Anakin and paused but then continued walking. Cody followed him out of the hanger and they disappeared out the door, one trooper from the 501st stepped up to Anakin and they talked for a little bit before they both left the hanger out of a different door. 

I walked across the hanger and followed them out the door and down a few hallways, I saw them standing in front of the clones mural. All the squadrons had at least five helmets on there, each squadron had there own colour and most of the helmets on the shelves were blackened and had marks on them. My row had 10 helmets on it so far but I knew more helmets were going to come. Mace Windu's only had five white and purple helmets which was expected, Windu rarely went out on missions and his men rarely did anything out of order. 

Anakin used the force to lift up the blue and white helmet and place it on the shelf next to the 14 other ones that were there. He clapped the trooper on the shoulder and they shared a few words before the soldier walked away, Anakin looked back at the mural and I saw his shoulders rise and fall in a sigh. I walked forward and stood next to him looking at the mural, the golden plaques in front of all the helmets glinted in the sunlight.

"You can't blame yourself you know," I told him. 

He took a deep breath again and tried to calm the raging storm inside of him that I could sense through the force even though he was trying to hide it. 

"I can't blame anyone else can I?" he snapped.

"This is war Anakin, we're expected to lose clones in our squadron," I argued.

"Yeah, but you don't lose 26 of them in one battle do you?"

I opened my mouth to argue back but the fact hit me like a tidal wave, at the beginning Anakin only had 50 clones in his squadron and he had lost basically half of them.

"The whole airstrike team is gone too except for one person, 15 injured. That means on 9 left perfectly fine," he continued.

The wind was picking up now and I knew it wasn't the weather. 

"They all knew what they were getting into, they all know the risks," I argued, "It's the reality of war, it's not about who lost the least amount of soldiers. Their deaths had nothing to do with you,"

"As a Master, if your Padawan does something out of line everyone turns to you. So when people find out that 26 people died in the 501st they're all going to look at the General who failed and as good as killed them," Anakin snapped.

"It's not the same, as a Master we have to train our Padawans and basically help them grow up. The clones don't need training, they follow orders, you gave them orders and they tried there best to complete them," I shouted.

"I guess I'm horrible at doing both things then," 

I stood there stunned by his words and Anakin turned around and stormed away, the force within him raging furiously and he wasn't even trying to keep it contained. I sighed and looked back at the wall, when will Anakin understand that bottling things up can lead down to the dark side. It was the one thing he was never good at during training and no matter how much I tried to help him release his emotions into the force it just never happened.