Inheritance

Title: Inheritance
Author: Saydria Wolfe
Fandom: Star Wars
Genre: Fix-it
Relationships: Gen
Content Rating: PG
Warnings: N/A
Author Notes: Yes, the possessions Obi inherits include the Clones. Obi immediately flies off to free them.
Word Count:  2,212
Summary: Dooku is murdered by his Sith Master years before the Clone Wars begin. In turn, he fucks Sidious over by leaving everything to his grandpadawan.

 

 

“If you are watching this message, I have died and this is my Last Will and Testament,” the old guy’s head on the holo said. “Master Yoda,” the old man’s head bobbled like he bowed but the recorder didn’t follow it. “I know we have not seen eye to eye for decades and our last words were fractious. The loss of my padawan hurt me more than I expected or could express. I am sorry for that and I love you.

“Thank you for raising me and helping me become the best version of myself that I could be.” The head closed its eyes and tilted forward but didn’t fade. Anakin sighed. The message wasn’t over.

The old guy opened his eyes again. “The rest of this message is for my grandpadawan only. Knight Kenobi, I know we have never met, but I ask for your discretion. For the sake of the man that we both loved, I ask that you listen to the rest of this message alone and distribute the information as you see fit after you have made a full, personal review of all of it.

“The holo player is keyed to you and will only play the rest after receiving a drop of your blood.” The message went dark.

Master Obi-Wan took the player from the droid holding it.

“Arfour!” he called for his favorite mission partner and Anakin scowled. He should be Master Obi-Wan’s favorite mission partner. Not some droid.

“Knight Kenobi,” Master Windu said in a bossy tone of voice. “We need to know what the message says.”

“No, you don’t,” Obi-Wan disagreed and Anakin felt his eyebrows shoot up. “This is private business between me and my grandmaster—”

“He’s dead—”

“—until I say otherwise,” Obi-Wan finished right over whatever Master Windu was trying to say.

Anakin had never heard Obi-Wan argue with any of the High Council. Ever. For any reason. But here he was, standing tall and defiant in front of the Head of the Order himself.

He had no idea what to say.

Master Yoda tapped his stick thing on the ground. Twice.

Master Windu deflated and dismissed Obi-Wan with a wave of his hand.

Obi-Wan ushered Arfour into one of the small rooms off to the side of the hangar. “Arfour, scan the room for listening devices and all other monitoring equipment. Deactivate it all and—” the door closed, cutting off Obi-Wan’s instructions.

“Who’s the old guy?” Anakin had to ask. Because anyone that could make Obi-Wan stand up to Master Windu was worth knowing. Even if he was dead.

Master Yoda tapped his stick down two more times. “My padawan, he was,” the Grandmaster of the Order said. “Master Jinn’s teacher, he was. Master Dooku Aserenno was his name.

“Left the Order he did, when Qui-Gon died.” Master Yoda sighed, seeming to cave in on himself. “Became Count Dooku of House Serenno, he did. Ruled planet Serenno until he died, he did. Last of his Noble House, he was.”

“So, he was—” Anakin hesitated to say it.

“Young Obi-Wan’s grandfather,” Master Plo supplied. “By the Order’s way of thinking.”

“Is Obi— Master Obi-Wan going to have to rule Serenno now?” he asked. He hoped not.

Obi-Wan would do a good job, of course, but what would happen to him? That would be a second master he lost since he joined the Order. He had no idea if he could even get a third. He was only allowed into the Order because of Obi-Wan. Would they—

“Peace, youngling.” Master Plo placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Nothing is certain other than the Force being with us. All will be well.”

Because it was Master Plo and becasue Obi-Wan honestly loved Master Plo, Anakin took a deep breath and tried to settle.

It was For. EV. ER. Before Obi-Wan came back to them.

“Pilot,” his teacher called out.

The droid that had delivered the message box bowed, “Sir.”

“Set a course for Mayla-Rho.”

“Of course, sir,” the droid nodded and walked back into the luxury ship behind them on its creepy-long, skinny legs. Arfour trundled up the ramp after Pilot.

“Obi-Wan?” Anakin asked. Obi-Wan was wearing what Anakin called his War Face. This was not good.

“Masters,” Obi-Wan bowed to the Council members present. “My student and I will be taking a sabbatical to study grief and proper methods of letting go. I request six months of leave from the mission roster.”

“Granted,” Master Yoda said before anyone else could respond. “Pack winter robes, you should. Cold this time of year, Mayla-Rho is.”

“Of course, Master. Thank you.” Obi-Wan bowed again and ushered him out of the hangar.

“Obi-Wan!” Anakin protested. “What is going on?”

“We’ll talk about it in hyperspace,” Obi-Wan promised. “For now, we should pack.”

Anakin grumbled but also pulled Obi-Wan along faster towards their destination. “Winter robes?” He didn’t even know Jedi had winter robes or what that would look like.

Obi-Wan chuckled. “Everything you can think of.

“And the training modules for your classes.”

Anakin grumbled some more even though he didn’t really mean it.

If Obi-Wan was still going to get on him about his classes, everything would be just fine. Nothing was going to change. Right?

Everything was pretty normal until their second day in hyperspace.

“Arfour, program the jump will you?” Obi-Wan asked.

Anakin looked up from his Basic Language module. Why would Arfour need to program a jump for a pilot droid? Pilot could use the navcomp just fine.

Then he saw the coordinates. Tatooine.

“Why do you want to go there?” he blurted.

“Anakin,” Obi-Wan said sharply.

“No!” He wasn’t ready to go back and free everyone yet! He wasn’t big enough! He and the Chancellor hadn’t finished making their plan!

“Anakin,” Obi-Wan said again. This time he ushered him out of the cockpit and away from the droids. “You still have the comm Chancellor Palpatine gave you?”

“Yeah?” Anakin said, sticking his hand in the pouch on his belt.

“It has audio surveillance and tracking features. He told you, right?”

“No!” Anakin pulled out the device. “He wouldn’t do that! Not without asking!”

The Order had trackers on him but he knew about them and understood why the Order did it to their underage padawans. They had told him.  It was a safety feature and he had consented.

Tracking him without permission? And audio surveillance? Without asking? That was slave master behavior.

“Have you checked?” Obi-Wan asked simply.

Anakin looked at the device because he hadn’t. The casing was still factory-perfect, not even damaged. Why hadn’t he opened it? He opened every device that was in his hand for more than three minutes and he had carried the comm for over three years.

He pulled out the multi-tool Obi-Wan had given him for his last Life Day. It was the kid version of the tool he wanted but it would do the job.

The case was a tough one to crack—the Chancellor had made a joke about getting him the most durable one available because boys were hard on their toys—but he got it open. And, sure enough. He found the blinking light of a tracker and both secondary and tertiary microphones.

What the sandy hell!

He ran to the fresher and dumped the stupid comm in! They weren’t in hyperspace yet so he activated the protocol so send the bits into the void and as far from him as possible.

“How did you know?” he demanded when he found Obi-Wan again.

Obi-Wan looked up from his tea preparation in the galley. He calmly pulled a comm. “We’re good to go, Arfour.”

Obi-Wan kept making tea only pausing to brace briefly as the droids threw them into hyperspace. Anakin waited. He had learned this lesson. One did not conduct real conversations over half-brewed tea. One waited until the tea was ready to serve. It was Jedi Etiquette.

Or something.

“I thought you knew,” Obi-Wan said as he carried a full tea service to the fancy dining table in the luxury space yacht they may or may not have hijacked—Anakin still wasn’t clear if the thing belonged to Obi-Wan or not. “Everyone is scanned for devices upon entering and exiting the Temple. You left to see the Chancellor with an Order-issued comm and came back with a non-encrypted commercial comm with tracker and surveillance.

“Your attachment to the device kept you out of a number of secrets I knew would please you but you wanted the comm—you were defensive when I asked you about it so I let you make your choice.

“I had assumed your friend, the Chancellor, had fully informed your choice.”

Anakin felt himself tense at Obi-Wan’s vaguely-sarcastic tone when referring to the Chancellor but he forced himself to relax. Obi-Wan had been right all along. Chancellor Palpatine had not been his friend. Not if he would bug and track him without permission. Friends didn’t do that to each other. Owners did that to slaves.

“Why would…that comm keep me from learning secrets?”

“Anakin,” Obi-Wan said tiredly. “There are things the Order is allowed to do only because no one knows we do them. We cannot allow anyone to have irrefutable evidence—like a recorded confession—that we are, in fact, doing them. Too many people would be hurt or die if we were forced to stop.”

“Like what?” Anakin challenged. He couldn’t imagine what Obi-Wan could be talking about.

“Like the Freedom Trail,” Obi-Wan said sharply and Anakin jerked back.

Obi-Wan ran a hand over his face, took a deep breath, and continued in an even tone. “Before the Ruusan Reformation, Jedi waged war on slavers without restraint. Now, under Senate oversight, there’s no way we can go to war on the Hutts or Zygerrians. The best we can do is fund the Trail, set up stops, train medics to find and remove chips—that kind of stuff.”

“The Freedom Trail.” His world tilted on its axis. Then he got angry. “Why haven’t you Freed my mom?”

Obi-Wan shot him a look that made him want to shrink back and apologize but he didn’t. This was important. His mom was too important.

“You really haven’t been taking her calls, have you?”

His world wobbled the other direction. “What?” he asked weakly.

“Her calls,” Obi-Wan stressed. “You know, holo-calls? After I found out you had been Freed—” Obi-Wan shot him a look.

Anakin smiled sheepishly.

He had been with Obi-Wan six months when they had their first outing to Dex’s Diner. On their way back to the Temple, they had come across a would-be pimp and a Freed Sibling he was trying to bully.

Obi-Wan had contained the bully while Anakin had comforted his Sibling in the Secret Language.

Obi-Wan had somehow recognized the Secret Language and, the moment Judicial took the criminal off his hands, Obi-Wan had taken Anakin directly to the Healing Halls and had his chip removed. It had been both the second best and second worst day of his life—right after winning the Boonta Eve Classic and leaving his mom forever.

“—I called in a favor from Quinlan Vos,” Obi-Wan said. “He was working the Trail, as all Shadows do from time to time, and I got him to offer your mom a place on the Trail.”

Anakin’s heart swelled with hope.

“She refused.”

And his hopes were dashed.

“She wanted to work the Trail on Tatooine. She couldn’t do that if she took the Trail so we had to find another way to Free her.”

“And?” Anakin demanded.

“I got the creds together—Queen Amidala helped—but Quin couldn’t just up and buy her. It would break his cover and endanger the Trail. But there was a moisture farmer that Quin noticed was visiting her a lot. Every time he went to Mos Espa, he came to Watto’s shop, whether he needed something or not.

“It took a while to get the man’s trust—Aalya actually did that part. She found out he loved your mom. He wanted to buy her and free her so they could marry.

“Once your mom confirmed she was interested in the man, Aalya and Quin got him the money and he did exactly what he said he would. Bought her, Freed her, married her. Their farm is on the edge of the Jundland Wastes so they are the final stop the Trail uses to get Freed off of Tatooine.”

“One of the last stops,” Anakin corrected. There was no way all Freed went through his mom’s farm on their way of Tatooine. He wouldn’t believe it.

“That may be true,” Obi-Wan agreed but he didn’t say any more.

He loved Obi-Wan a little more for that. For keep the Secret. Even for keeping the secret from him when he was so close with the Chancellor someone that couldn’t be trusted with the Secret.

“Can we visit Mom?” he asked. “While we’re there?”

“Your mom is the reason we’re going,” Obi-Wan admitted. “I think I’m going to need her help.”

Anakin nodded. That made sense. He had no idea what Obi-Wan needed from Mom but he had no doubt she could provide it.

Mom was The Best.

 

Back to Birthday 2024.