━━━━━ 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

fate ━━━━━

━━━━━▼━━━━━

. . . GEONOSIS

𝐖𝐘𝐍𝐍 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐁𝐄𝐄𝐍 having strange dreams about unattainable things for months.

So often they were of the World Between Worlds, a haunting display of white lights in a dark, echoing gloom. Those dreams fueled her hunger for the place beyond time. It taunted her mercilessly.

But there were also different dreams. When she was lucky, she saw him instead of that bleak expanse, another thing she wanted but could not have for herself. She had made her choice, her allegiance was to the world running parallel to hers. Still, it didn't stop her from wanting to remain rooted in this one.

Especially now.

It was startling in its reality as he kissed her. Something small and significant in her broke and when he pulled away she had no shame to let the words loose.

"Kiss me again," she begged. The crowd was growing louder outside and the future was muddled. This was a certain thing: Wynn couldn't have dreamed up a kiss this good.

His blue eyes met hers for a second and then he kissed her again, finally letting his hand run through her hair. She tugged on the collar of his tunic and pulled him as close as she could.

The guard broke them apart and shoved them out into the light.

Wynn didn't resist as her hands were cuffed together and drawn up above her head. All around and high above the chattering Geonosian language echoed. Her heart hammered in her throat and she almost wanted to laugh at the adrenaline rush that had replaced her fear. Suddenly, she could do anything. Even chained to a column, possibility thrummed through her.

Obi-Wan was chained to the column on her left. His emotions were loud. Wynn finally turned her head to meet his eyes and she saw his plea. He wanted to explain, possibly to apologize. She wouldn't betray her focus on the situation by looking at him fully. It was so sudden how decades of almost had now become a new reality.

And Wynn found it terrifying.

A thousand questions that might never be answered raged in her mind. Why had he done it? And then foolishly, was he going to do it again?

Wynn turned away again and let her eyes fall closed. She suspected that when this was all over, as it inevitably would be, reality would come crashing in. They would both be sensible. They would forget anything had happened.

Meanwhile, Wynn knew she would relive that moment for the rest of her life. What have we done?

Now of interest to the crowd was the small chariot drawn by a great beast entering on the far side. Though she couldn't quite make them out by sight, she knew them in the Force. Anakin and Padmé.

She could have sworn she saw Anakin's lips quirk up into a smile as they passed Obi-Wan.

"I was beginning to wonder if you'd got my message," Obi-Wan said, vaguely irritated.

"I retransmitted it just as you had requested, Master." Anakin explained as his arms were yanked above his head. "Then we decided to come and rescue you."

Obi-Wan took a long look up at his cuffed hands. "Good job"

Wynn rested her head against the column behind her and let out a sigh. Clarity rushed over her which was a rare feeling to find in the heat of the day.

The Geonosian leader stepped up to the pedestal far above the arena floor with Dooku and the crowd let out a raucous shout. Though Wynn didn't speak the language, she could tell that whatever he had said to the gathered Geonosians would not end in their favor.

A great horned beast lumbered out as the metal grate was raised. It opened its jaw and a terrifying call echoed. Then there was a creature that looked like a giant crab and sounded like a screaming child. The Nexu that stalked out next was so charged for a fight, one prod from the Geonosian guard's electric staff and the feline swiped them right off their mount. The fourth creature was one Wynn knew well. On four legs, the gray-skinned beast looked like a mound of unmovable stone. It was a Steindýr, native to the lowlands of Eshan. How they had managed to drag it off to this desert hell was beyond her.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Anakin said.

Wynn looked past him. Padmé was busy working on her cuffs, using a piece of metal between her teeth to release the lock.

The Geonosian guard approached with the four creatures, one to kill each of them.

"Just relax. Concentrate." Obi-Wan said. It was unclear if he was talking to Anakin or himself.

"What about Padmé?" Anakin asked.

"She seems to be on top of things," Obi-Wan said as Padmé climbed all the way to the top of the column.

Obi-Wan and Anakin made quick work of it, lunging out of the way and using the creature's aggressive strikes to their advantage in breaking their chains.

Wynn still didn't move.

She let the Steindýr continue to barrel towards her. It wasn't panic that overtook her, but exhaustion. How much fighting was left in her today?

A Steindýr will always be loyal to the children of the Eshan, her mother had once told her, a long time ago when Wynn still believed in fairy tales. She had stopped believing in the old gods almost the moment she had set foot on Coruscant, but she had to wonder now if it wasn't just a way of naming the Force. Afterall, was the Force not all things?

This beast did not belong on a desert planet anymore than she did.

"You're a fool, Wynnetka," she whispered to herself. "Gods protect me."

To the behest of the Geonosian holding the cattle prod, the Steindýr stopped with its great gray head inches away from Wynn's. Chaos was erupting all around them. The Nexu lunged for Padmé, Anakin was riding on the back of the Reek, and Obi-Wan was attempting to outrun the Acklay. All of it faded to background noise.

With the will of the Force, there was nothing to lose now. Wynn didn't dare to look away from the deep blue eyes of the beast as its warm, stale breath blew over her cheeks.

"Vinsamlegast." Please. She remembered it from her riding lessons when she was a child. Granted, she was riding a far smaller, trained animal, but her best bet was that the commands were universal.

The Steindýr lunged at her with its horn. Instead of impaling her chest, it pointed its head towards the sky with a roar.

The broken cuffs on her hands fell to the ground.

Now on her side, the animal turned its attention to the Geonosian closest to it and knocked it off of its mount. Wynn ran and grabbed the javelin as it clattered onto the hard packed sand. In half a second's decision, she swung herself up and onto the back of the Steindýr.

Obi-Wan wasn't having the same luck. On the other end of the arena, he was locked in a sword fight with the Acklay and none of his hits were landing.

Wynn put her palm on the smooth skin and urged the beast into a gallop. It lunged forward and Wynn was almost thrown clean off its back.

"How graceful," she grunted under her breath.

They moved jerkily and over the sands in slight starts and stops of sprinting. It would have been faster to run, but this was clearly the more fun alternative. Wynn waited until the Acklay reared up on its crustacean-like legs, and then she threw the javelin. It pierced straight through the soft tissue of its chest, and the Acklay let out a piercing wail of imminent death.

"Come on!" Wynn yelled, holding out a hand for him to grab. Though terribly confused, he still complied.

"Why are you riding this thing?"

"Not a good time for questions!"

The crowd was not happy about the way the execution was progressing. The Geonosian guard lay dead and scattered on the ground, two of the great beasts were dead, and the other two had been reduced to docile mounts for the prisoners.

Relief was short-lived. Droidekas rolled out to surround them. With no lightsabers, they were completely cornered.

"Don't suppose you've got a plan?" Obi-Wan shouted to Anakin. "This doesn't feel very much like a rescue!"

Padmé and Anakin sat on the back of the other surviving creature. "You're never gonna let me forget this, are you?"

She felt Obi-Wan shift behind her to get the perfect angle for his disappointed expression.

Wynn yanked on the broken chain that was functioning as a set of reins for the beast. A bellowing roar echoed from its throat and the closest droideka did skitter back a half step. Suddenly, she could sense a familiar presence. The light of a purple saber flashed in her periphery and before she had time to question it, there were more. All throughout the arena, glimpses of blue and green lightsabers appeared like stars in the night and the Geonosians took flight like a flock of birds

"They came," Wynn said.

"Don't sound so surprised," Obi-Wan said. He was far too close to her and she could feel his breath on the back of her neck.

"Wynn!"

She whipped her head around to see Silvia toss a spare lightsaber up towards her. Catching it in her right hand, she ignited it just in time to deflect a spray of blaster fire. To her dismay, it was a blue.

Wynn slid off the back of the Steindýr. A small sand cloud plumed at her feet. "Blue? I thought we knew each other better than this."

Silvia shrugged and then sliced through the body of a droid. "It was either that or a practice saber."

Wynn ducked to avoid a detached droid arm that sailed through the air. "Was the practice saber green?"

"You're impossible. I'm so glad to see you, we thought you might be dead by the time we got here!"

"You got here just in time," Wynn said, turning her wrist. From the corner of her eye she watched Obi-Wan drive his saber into the chest of the Acklay. When was the last time they were forced to be so ruthless?

All around, Jedi were being cornered and slaughtered like dogs. They were not meant to be warriors like this, but Wynn saw the future without even falling into a vision. This was what they were all to become. Reduced to fighting for the sake of a broken galaxy.

She fought the exhaustion of her limbs as her saber cut through the air. For all of their efforts, the group of Jedi was growing thin. Her heart hammered against her throat with the coppery taste like blood.

Wynn leapt over the fallen form of a droid to catch up to Silvia. "Someone's got to shut down these droids!"

"We tried!" she shouted back. "The system's off but they're still active. They're independent of the control system."

"Wonderful," Wynn grumbled, wiping the sheen of sweat off her brow.

It didn't take long before they were all corned and rounded up by the droids. Their weapons dropped to the sides of their metal bodies and an eerie sort of silence fell over the arena. Wynn lowered her saber and squinted against the heat of the sun. She glanced over to her right and saw Obi-Wan leaning over the body of one of the fallen. A chill rushed over her as she recognized who it was that had been killed; Ritika Jain. She was only a teenager, barely old enough to even be out on a mission such as this.

Dooku's voice echoed from above them and she had never felt so much disdain for a singular person. "Master Windu, you have fought gallantly. Worthy of recognition in the archives of the Jedi order. Now, it is finished. Surrender, and your lives will be spared."

Enraged, Windu shouted back up to the balcony. "We will not be hostages to be bartered, Dooku!"

With honest sympathy, the man said, "Then, I'm sorry, old friend."

All around the arena, an echoic clip of machinery resounded as the battle droids re-engaged their weapons.

"Look!" Padmé exclaimed.

From the bright sky above, ships descended carrying the very clones that Wynn and Obi-Wan had recently left behind on Kamino. Soldiers worthy of the Republic, which could only mean that there was a vote in the Senate to authorize war.

She should have been glad that they were saved. Rescued from death. But the only feeling in her chest was an aching lament for the beginning of the end. This day, she feared, would not be forgotten. It was only the start of a war.

The ships flew down and created a perimeter around them in the sky, drawing the firepower of the machines. With the support of the clones they backed up onto the shuttles and were soon lifted up and into the atmosphere.

In one glance Wynn established that Obi-Wan was nowhere to be found. Silvia was, and her knuckles gripped onto a metal handle bar as she stood safely back from the edge.

"Why are we going back?" Siliva said over the roar of the wind.

Wynn looked out ahead of them as one the Jedi's shuttles shot down a fuel cell. It exploded in a fit of orange flame. "For Dooku."

"Count Dooku? He's the one who's behind all of this?"

"Yes, but we learned the truth too late," Wynn told her, turning to meet her eyes. "What did the Senate vote on?"

"War, I'm assuming. We left before we heard the final vote, but if Master Yoda came with the clones it can only mean one thing."

The desert wind ruffled Wynn's hair as their ship once again lowered in altitude. Down below she could already see the colored streaks of lightsabers leading battalions of the troopers off to battle.

"They set up a command center," Silvia said, pointing off in the distance.

They both stared at each other, realizing at the same time that neither of them had any idea of what they were supposed to be doing. Wynn had been cut off from communication with the council about their plan to storm Geonosis; Silvia was completely ill informed about what she had been walking into. And yet, there they stood on a gunship with a group of clones that also seemed to not know what to do.

"We're awaiting your command, Master Jedi," One of the yellow outfitted clones said to her.

Wynn almost wanted to laugh. She had spent the last ten years of her life on research missions. Any time on Coruscant was spent laboring in the holocron vault or teaching younglings Jar'Kai. All at once it came crashing down and she was left with who she had once been; an Echani warrior built for battle.

"Stay in the air, lend the ground support."

Their gunship skimmed the battlefield, firing down, deflecting and answering fire from the droids.

"Look!" Silvia shouted, pointing again. She looked nearly ill from the jostling of the ship, and Wynn recalled that Silvia had never been one for flying. "They have their own starships."

Starship was a stretch of a term for the spherical machines that were lifting off from the ground at a surprising speed for their size and shape.

"Concentrate all far on the nearest of those starships," Wynn told the commanding clone, who nodded and ran up to the cockpit.

"You're good at this," Silvia remarked. "Battle strategy was never my thing."

"Mine neither," Wynn said. Though, she feared, she may no longer have a choice.

With the combined firepower of the ground forces and the ships above, the Geonosian ship plummeted back to the ground. A dust storm erupted in its wake and the whole world turned orange save for the bursts of ion fire below them.

As the clouds cleared, Wynn could clearly see the small form of a speeder heading out into the distance. One of the Jedi gunships trailed after it, getting smaller by the minute.

She ran forward to the cockpit. "Tail that gunship. I want to see what they're chasing."

"But–"

"The droids are in full retreat, we've done all we can here."

The clone complied without any further questions. Sand rolled beneath them like waves in a forgotten ocean. Wynn let her eyes fall shut as she searched. In her mind's eye she saw a white blur tumble out of the gunship and onto the sand. Padmé.

"Land here," Wynn commanded with all the authority of a woman who wasn't losing her mind.

"What's going on?" Silvia asked, but Wynn ignored her question and jumped off the edge of the ship and ran across the sands.

Sure enough, Padmé lay unmoving on her back at the end of tracks in the sand.

"Are you alright?" Wynn asked as she knelt beside her.

Padmé blinked and grunted once as she came to her senses. "Uh-huh," she nodded, getting to her feet.

"What happened?" Wynn demanded now that she was sure the girl was unhurt.

"We were chasing Dooku, but the ship got jostled in the fight and I rolled out. Anakin and Obi-Wan are headed towards the hangar. We have to gather what troops we can and follow them."

Wynn turned around and gestured over her shoulder at the waiting gunship. "How does a transport and a battalion of clones sound?"

Padmé grinned. "Excellent."

They flew southwards. The landscape beneath them shifted from sand to jagged orange rock and eventually, the shape of the hangar grew to its full size on the horizon. Obi-Wan and Anakin were more than capable of handling Dooku on a good day, but if Padmé had been thrown from the side of the ship, Anakin's focus would be jaded with emotion.

Dooku's transport was already sailing away as they docked at the end of the platform. The clones and Padmé fired a few paltry shots at it as it passed.

Wynn ran forward and into the gloom of the hangar only to find Master Yoda looking impossibly dejected as he leaned forward on his cane.

Her footsteps slowed. "Master Yoda–?" she began, but was cut off by Padmé shouting Anakin's name.

Obi-Wan, entirely exhausted, was holding Anakin up with an arm hooked around his waist. A chill rushed over her. Anakin's right forearm had been cut clean off, cauterized by the heat of a saber.

The clones, who seemed to have somehow been trained for even this, surged forward and ushered Anakin onto the transport with Padmé close behind.

Wynn sucked in a breath as she took in the sight of Obi-Wan. "Your arm."

"And my leg," he coughed out, blue eyes glazed over with exhaustion as he winced. "We set ourselves up for failure. Dooku was always going to win."

Wynn just slung his uninjured arm over her shoulder to help him aboard the gunship. "Then there was nothing you could have done. Does it hurt?"

"Terribly."

"I'm sure the clones have some bacta solution, they seem to be a step ahead of everyone."

He laughed at this. There was a marked relief in his voice as he finally relaxed his weight onto her. "Don't sound so bitter, Wynnie."

Once everyone was on board, they took flight back to central command. Yoda remained silent. Silvia sat in the corner trying desperately not to retch from the motion. Padmé fussed over Anakin with the clone who had a medical pack.

Obi-Wan, for all his injuries, refused to sit down. Instead, he stood next to Wynn and they both stared out over the landscape. Carnage, mechanical and human, lay strewn in the wastes of a desert.

There was a story in Echani myth of a princess who was blessed with Third Sight. As punishment to her parents the gods cursed the daughter's prophecies to never be believed. She foresaw the fall of one of the greatest cities Eshan had ever borne but all of her predictions were disregarded.

How many more times would Wynn see a future and have no ability to change it? Free will, it seemed, was no match for fate.

※ ·❆· ※

. . . JEDI TEMPLE, CORUSCANT

𝐓𝐇𝐄 day after their lackluster return to Coruscant, Obi-Wan's limbs still ached with the aftershocks of his ill-fated duel. He could still see Anakin's face contorted with rage the moment before his arm was gone. It was an undeserved fate.

He stood in the council chambers which were empty save for Mace Windu and Yoda. The rest of the council was off cleaning up various messes that had arisen as a result of the Senate's decision to grant emergency powers to Chancellor Palpatine. The sunset was truly brilliant tonight. Clouds of electric orange and yellow coated the city.

"Do you believe what Dooku said about Sideous controlling the Senate? It doesn't feel right," Obi-Wan said.

Yoda tapped his cane on the floor in front of him. "Joined the dark side, Dooku has. Mmm, lies, deceit. Creating mistrust are his ways now."

"Nevertheless," Windu said, "I feel we should keep a closer eye on the Senate."

"I agree."

Windu rounded on Obi-Wan. "Where is your apprentice?"

The question of the hour. Obi-Wan himself had been reluctant to let Anakin go alone with Padmé, but it was only fitting that the Padawan be allowed to finish his mission. "On his way to Naboo, escorting Senator Amidala home," Obi-Wan dismissed. "I have to say, without the clones, it would not have been a victory."

"Victory?" Yoda's voice echoed loudly in the chamber. "Victory, you say? Master Obi-Wan, not victory. The shroud of the darkside has fallen. Begun, the Clone War has."

On the streets of Coruscant, just below the Senate chambers, an innumerable amount of clones were being loaded onto Republic starships to begin carrying out orders on behalf of the Republic. The rumor held that soon, Jedi rankings would correspond to military responsibilities. Masters of the Order would become Generals assigned to one of the hundreds of trooper units that were awaiting their command.

The Clone Wars.

Suddenly, the doors to the council chambers swung open to reveal Wynn. He hadn't seen her at all since they had returned to Coruscant, though it wasn't for lack of trying. It stung even more when she refused to meet his eyes.

"Master Adairi, you're late," Windu said curtly. Their meeting was supposed to have started ten minutes prior. Windu and Yoda wanted to debrief with the both of them about their mission, but it seemed Windu would rather have done it without Wynn at all.

"I apologize, I was speaking with Master Nallé. There's been a large increase of unrest on Eshan as a result of the Senate's decision."

"Your concern should be with the Jedi, not with one planet."

"Isn't our concern to be with the peace of all planets?" Wynn said, eyes glinting silver. Carefully, she schooled her expression into a smile. "But I digress."

"There is a reason you haven't been invited to join in any discussion of the high council, Master Adairi," Windu told her, unable to let it drop. "Your orientation is too often towards your passions and whims, not the goals of the Jedi."

At this, Wynn let out a sardonic laugh. "The passions and whims that the council has ordered me to chase? Tell me, any of you, when was the last time the council took any of my premonitions seriously?"

Only silence met her allegation.

"I have sacrificed my life for the sake of investigating a better future for all of us. You've relegated Master Nallé to the dust of the holocron vault because you don't want a Seer on the council to tell you what you're doing wrong. You would rather live in ignorance because it's the easier choice. The powerful choice."

Windu seethed with anger. "We called you in here for a report on your findings, not an accusation, Master Adairi."

"That is my report," Wynn told him, voice dangerously cold. "I will not waste my breath only to be treated as a heretic."

"Then you are dismissed," Windu told her with finality.

Finally, finally, Wynn met Obi-Wan's gaze and it was only with frigid reproach. Then she turned and left.

"She's right, you know," Obi-Wan told both of them.

Without waiting for their response, he followed in Wynn's wake. She was moving quickly, so he risked a rebuffing and called out, "Wynn!"

Her white head of hair whipped around as she stopped on the landing of the great staircase. In the golden light of the sunset, she looked like the hero from a story.

"I have worked for far too long to be disrespected and disregarded. I'm not going back into that council chamber," she warned him.

He shook his head. "I didn't come to call you back in there."

"Then what?"

He met her silver eyes. They had both seen each other through so much, an entire lifetime. Somehow, he knew all along that this might be the very thing that would break them.

"Wynn," he told her softly. "I think you know. You've been avoiding me since we returned. Why is that?"

"Do you realize what we've done?" she whispered furtively. "Tell me, did you kiss me because you thought it would become something more, or because you truly thought we were going to die?"

As he opened his mouth to respond, a brief pause hung in the air. It was then that the memory, fragile yet profound, flashed in his mind. He could still feel every facet of his emotion and not one part of his reasoning could reduce it to a kiss before death. He was more devoted to her than he was to any code and yet he could not betray his position, his duty.

So the words that came out of his mouth were a lie. "The latter. I acted on a whim, and I'm sorry."

She set her jaw and stared out beyond him for too long. "You're sorry," she repeated flatly.

I'm more sorry than you'll ever know.

Some part of him had always known that for all the rules Wynn had ever broken, this would not be one of them. It didn't matter what he said to her. She would go back to her search for the future, he would go back to his life dreaming of the past.  

Wynn refused to meet his eyes, which was just as well. "Well, I'm glad we're in agreement."

He nodded slowly in mock acceptance while his mind was screaming out to him to reach for her. To not let her go. To do anything that would make him not regret ever kissing her in the first place because now that there was no going back there was a gulf of distance between them that was suddenly uncrossable.

"I'd better return to the council."

She nodded. "I need to get back to the holocron vault."

They turned and retreated from each other without so much as a glance behind.

━━━━━▲━━━━━

𝐄𝐍𝐃 𝐎𝐅 𝐀𝐂𝐓 𝐓𝐖𝐎

━━━━━▲━━━━━

a/n for everyone that wanted me to update this fic, I sure hope you aren't regretting ever asking because this was a rough one!

that last section is the most 'they're saying everything but what they're thinking' passage I've ever written in my life.  and then there's the happy little metaphor in their last dialogue lines where they're both heading back to the life that they've chosen over each other. owie.  ANYWAY attack of the clones is done! clone wars time!!!

Writing fanfic has become a guilty pleasure for me, but I think I have enough inspo in me to give it a go at updating this fic again if that's something people are interested in?? idk I know I've been gone for a very long time 

- N