here it is :) hehehe

slight spoilers for squid game i guess????? also ik we call them blasters in sw but i'm calling them guns in this chapter for... no good reason really, i just wanted to

"I want to keep you close to me," Anakin reasoned when Ahsoka asked him why he had asked her to be his partner for whatever game they would be forced to compete in next.

She wrinkled her nose.

"But I can take care of—"

"I know, I know," he sighed, holding her by the shoulders, giving them a light squeeze. "But this place, these games are... they're different from anything that we've ever been through. We don't have any control over ourselves here. I just want to keep you safe."

She looked around the room, at the rest of the participants. She wasn't complaining that he had wanted her as his teammate; he was the ideal choice out of everyone in there—tall, strong, powerful... deadly, even, when he wanted to be.

Her master could have picked anyone else. The room was full of Jedi who were much more experienced and capable than herself, Jedi who would give him a much better chance of winning if he'd chosen them.

But, no.

He'd picked her. His padawan of two and a half years, all because he wanted to keep her safe. Perhaps she could try and keep him safe as well.

She held her arm out, bent slightly at the elbow.

"Let's do this."

Anakin placed his palm against hers before gripping her hand and shaking hard to signify to the others that they were partners; that they were stuck together for whatever came at them next in this hell of a place.

They were guided through the door by one of the masked employees, along with the rest of the teams. Padmé and Obi-Wan had picked one another, Anakin noticed, as had Echo and Fives. He wasn't able to catch sight of anymore pairs in the crowd.

Ahsoka linked her arm through his, keeping herself flush against her master's side as they awaited further instruction—as they awaited the reveal of the game that would inevitably kill so many. Anakin's hand found hers and he squeezed it.

"Don't worry. It's going to be okay."

She nodded.

"Attention players," boomed the too-cheery voice through the speakers, "please follow the staff to your designated positions for the game."

One of the red-robed staff members stood before Anakin and Ahsoka, waving them along behind himself. The thick mask over his face hid the way that his eyes flicked down to their tightly joined hands. They truly had no idea what was about to happen.

They were lead to a rock wall, blocked by the rows of houses that lined the streets. Dusty clouds of dirt spiraled around each of their feet with every step they took.

"Players, please take one bag each from the staff member before you."

Anakin looked to his right, tilting his head down to meet Ahsoka's eyes, the confidence in her locked jaw and hard stare merely a facade for her fear. They faced the staff member.

Without letting go of one another, they reached forward to each take a small, beige bag from the employee. He mumbled something beneath his mask, too quiet for Anakin to catch with his ears, but loud enough for Ahsoka's montrals.

"He said to let go," she whispered, letting the arm holding the bag swing down beside her waist. "He said..." she looked down nervously, "he said it'll be easier if we let go."

Anakin furrowed his eyebrows before reluctantly dropping her clammy hand from his own.

"There should be a set of ten marbles in each bag. Please check to confirm the number."

Anakin held the bag at eye level, listening to the way that its contents clattered against one another, rattling when he shook it. He untied the loose string and poured the marbles into his large palm, beginning to count.

Once he was certain that there were, indeed, ten, he looked down to see that Ahsoka was on the ground, her hand seemingly too small to hold them all.

"Here, let me hel—"

A gloved hand pushed him away as he crouched down to help Ahsoka pick her marbles up.

"Not yet," the staff member hissed. Anakin lifted his hands in surrender, rolling his eyes.

"In this game, using your set of ten marbles, you will play the game of your choice with your partner. The player who manages to take all ten marbles from their partner wins."

Anakin felt his stomach drop. Certainly, they didn't mean—

"Let me repeat the instructions."

"Anakin?" Ahsoka asked quietly.

"Using your set of ten marbles, play the game of your choice with your partner. The player who manages to take all ten marbles from their partner wins."

Anakin wasn't sure when Ahsoka's hand had slid back into his, but he was certain that her knuckles were white with the grip she had on him. He could feel her shaking.

"Anakin?" she repeated.

He cleared his throat.

"Snips."

"Anakin, I—"

"Snips," he said softly, "I won't let them... I won't let you... you can't," he looked down, letting out a frustrated huff, voice wet with his tearful anger. "You're winning this one. Let me lose."

She was already shaking her head as the cold dread settled in the pit of her stomach, icy fear traveling through her body, numbing her legs as she fell forward, collapsing against him.

"You will have thirty minutes for this game."

"Shut up!" she screamed, clamping her hands over her montrals.

"Sir," Anakin said breathily, looking toward the staff member with pleading eyes while Ahsoka's nails pierced holes in the fabric of his robe, fists curling impossibly tighter into the garment.

The man stepped back.

"Please," he begged. "She's like my daughter, Sir, you can't—" his voice broke as he choked out a sob.

"The rules of the game are clear. You have twenty nine minutes left."

"You can't do this to us." Anakin shook his head, lower lip trembling. "You can't... you just can't... you can't do this to us!" he shouted, stabbing a finger against the man's chest.

Ahsoka screamed again as the man pressed his gun to Anakin's forehead.

"Don't touch him!" She pulled him backward, crashing hard into the rock wall, the rough stones scratching shallow cuts into her arm as she slid down to the ground, burying her face in her hands as she shook her head.

"No," she muttered as Anakin arrived on the ground beside her. "I... I won't play against you. I won't let you die."

"No, that's my job, Ahsoka, don't say things like that," he whispered back, meeting her glistening eyes with his own matching ones when she finally looked up at him. The warm hands that had encased her cheeks just moments before we're replaced with a familiar scarred palm and cool metal. "Force, don't you say things like that," he repeated, shaking his head back and forth, eyes falling shut. He leaned his forehead on hers.

"Anakin, we're running out of time," she cried softly, eyes closed as well while he nodded against her.

Just give me one last minute, she knew he was thinking. Just give us one last minute.

"We need to play a game," she said hoarsely, dipping her head down until his lips were pressed to the space between the diamond markings on her forehead. She wrapped her arms loosely around his neck.

"I know," he mumbled. "It isn't fair."

"No," she agreed, shaking her head, "it isn't."

He bent one of his knees, sole of one boot flat against the dirt, the other leg beneath himself as he pulled the child he'd raised into his lap, pretending that this was just another nightmare that he could hug and kiss away, pretending that this one wasn't going to come true. She hid her face in his neck, like she had done for as long as he could remember.

"You're going to be okay," he swallowed, "without me."

She pulled back, tear streaks crisscrossing over her face as she wiped her nose on her arm.

"I don't want to be."

He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment before untangling his arms from around her, and opening his fist to catch a glimpse of the tiny, glass balls, the fake sunlight reflecting off of them in blinding white light, making dark spots dance in his vision.

He frantically rubbed at his eyes, trying to make them go away; he wanted to see her for as long as he possibly could in the little time that they had left.

17:23, the clock read.

"Here," he said, holding out his arm, palm open to reveal his ten marbles. "Take them."

She'd had a feeling he was going to do that.

"I can't, Master."

"Ahsoka, please," he urged, wrapping his free hand around her own and opening it. He dumped the marbles into her palm, listening to the sickening sound of them clattering against one another as his ten joined hers, her other hand reaching forward to catch them. "They're yours, little one. You need to get out of here."

She looked down at the pile, watching as two of the marbles tumbled into the dirt, her hands too tiny to hold them all. She made to reach down and grab them, which backfired when the rest followed, rolling in all different directions on the ground.

"Sorry," she sniffed, two more tears sliding down her cheeks as she squeezed her eyes shut.

"It's okay," Anakin said, wrapping her in a side hug. "We've still got," he looked up at the clock, "just under fifteen minutes left to get them all."

She nodded, waiting for him to pull away first before grabbing fistfuls of the colorful objects around herself, dirt crawling beneath her nails as they scraped against the ground.

Anakin crawled off to the side, chasing the marbles that had rolled too far away for the two of them to reach.

His mind wandered dangerously to Obi-Wan and Padmé, to his wife's gentle smile, his brother's trademark eye roll. He supposed that it didn't matter much, which one of them beat the other. It wasn't like he'd be around to find out. He hoped that whoever it was would take good care of Ahsoka for him. He trusted them both with her life.

He thought of Fives and Echo, their teasing smirks and nudges in the barracks as they joked around with one another, thought of their confidence as they'd entered this room together. His men loved Ahsoka like their own little sister. He wasn't able to be sure of much at the moment, but he knew for certain that no matter which one of them it would be that lived, they would protect her.

Knowing that she would be in good hands put his exhausted mind at ease.

She's going to be okay.

He counted the marbles in his hand.

"Eight."

"I have eleven," Ahsoka told him, holding out both of her hands to show him, as he made his way back over to her. "We're still missing one."

"Maybe it's blending in with the rocks."

"Maybe," she repeated, sitting up on her knees and narrowing her eyes at the large wall to her left. "Could you hold these for me while I look?" she asked.

"Of course," he replied, making a bowl with his hands. She dumped the marbles into them.

"Thanks." 

She climbed up onto her feet and made her way over to the wall, her heart pounding as she caught sight of the bright, red 6:13 on the clock.

"Hey, Anakin?" she called over her shoulder, swallowing the lump in her throat.

"What is it?" he asked tenderly, curls falling forward into his eyes as he tilted his head to the side.

She inhaled sharply, lungs suddenly too tight to let out the heavy sigh that she could feel herself holding in.

"I love you so much."

His face tensed, forehead and chin wrinkling as his somewhat-calm exterior was destroyed. He took a shaky breath before bobbing his head in a firm nod, eyes staring adoringly into her own, pouring as much of the mutual feeling as he could into his next words.

"I love you too."

4:37

Ahsoka climbed up and over the wall, peeking through the cracks in the rocks.

Anakin watched impatiently as his padawan disappeared behind the stones, looking for the last marble on the other side.

3:58

She had to hurry.

"Ahsoka—"

"I'm looking!" she called frantically, voice broken and heavy. "I... I think I see it."

"Where?" he asked, squinting down at the ground, "I don't see anything."

"Um," she began, "it's uh... it's closer to your side, I think." She let a cry fall raggedly from her lips as she reached into her pocket, pulling out the last marble from where she'd hidden it, knowing that this would be the only way to keep him from dying.

2:12

"Hurry, there isn't much time le—I see it!" he shouted.

Ahsoka stuffed her hand into her mouth to keep her sobbing silent as she rolled the marble through a gap in the rocks, just a few inches from Anakin. She trembled violently, trying to will her legs to move, to carry her back over to him so that she could say one, last goodbye.

Anakin scooped the shiny, glass sphere up into his hands, staring down at all twenty of them while he waited for Ahsoka's montrals to peek over the edge of the rock wall, waiting for her to hurry back over to him so that he could save her life, and so that he tell her his final goodbye.

1:04

"Ahsoka!" he called again, letting out a sigh of relief when the familiar blue of her montrals appeared, followed by the orange of her tearful face. She was shaking so hard that he could see it clearly, even from nearly twenty feet away from her. "Come over here."

"Sir," he heard her whisper, voice quivering. She tapped the staff member on his shoulder and Anakin's heart plummeted in realization.

"Yes?" the man asked.

"No, Ahsoka, don't!" Anakin screamed, rushing to his feet.

"He..." a sob tore from her chest, "he has all of the marbles."

The man lifted his blaster and Anakin was sure that he was running in slow motion because all that he knew was that he couldn't get to her quickly enough.

Her unsteady voice whispered one last I love you, and then there was nothing but the haunting echo of a gunshot, and the dead weight of twenty marbles, laying as still as his padawan's corpse, in Anakin Skywalker's hands.

0:00

well this took me forever to write hahaha but it was a lot of fun 🙃 i hope you enjoyed! leave requests if ya have any and haaaaave a great night!